Entangled Life – Exhibition

Entangled Life – Exhibition curated by Cristina Nicotra, marks the culmination of a year of gathering in a space for thought, conversation, and practice on environmental interdependencies. It weaves together traces of voices, ideas, and materials collected from across the entire programme.

Featuring artists Rosie O'Reilly, Mark Clare, and a large-scale collaborative work by The Liberties Weavers, the exhibition unfolds as an interactive space that brings into focus the interconnectedness of human and more-than-human worlds. Guided by Joanna Macy’s principles of Active Hope -knowledge, compassion, and action- the project embraces this complexity in a shared space of responsibility and care.

The gallery is conceived as a space for dialogue, memory, and open-ended possibilities, where the audience is agent and author. A living archive of the programme is presented as a constellation of documents and audio recordings, suspended and accessible both onsite and online, inviting re-listening, re-reading, and reflection. The artworks in the show are intertwined with artists' invitations to explore and reengage with the history and storytelling of the land and water, holding space for reflection and softness.

Rosie O'Reilly's embedded research project Abhainn rediscovers the city's waterways, their history, stories, and new and old folklore. Echoing Entangled Life’s call, the artwork reaches outside the gallery wall and invites direct action and care.

Mark Clare’s artwork eidolons brings low-impact technology and AI to show how the loss of Irish biodiversity can be depicted with heartbreaking beauty, inspiring outdoors discovery and action to protect that which allows life on Earth.

The Liberties Weavers' collaborative artwork Salvage and Fray offers us radical rest, a gesture of care from community to community. It is a sensory experience, an embrace of unique pieces where visitors can pause, sit, read, and exchange ideas in a safe space during an overwhelming complex time.

The exhibition remains porous throughout its duration, hosting further workshops and a final discussion. This continued function as a gathering space is a key achievement of the project. Like mycelium in the soil, the conversations, questions, outrage, sadness, discovery, and the sense of resilience and resistance instigated throughout the year have created a network of new ideas and connections that will spread way beyond Entangled Life’s time and space.

We extend our sincere thanks to all the guests whose generous sharing of knowledge and inspiration has shaped the initiative and this exhibition, and to all the participants who accepted our invitation and whose curiosity and engagement have helped bring the programme alive.

Biographies

Mark Clare is a contemporary visual artist employing a variety of media including sculpture, video, animation, sound, performance, and photography to produce projects that examine to what extent human activities have had a significant impact on the Earth’s ecosystems. He has exhibited widely and participated in numerous Artist Residency Programs both nationally and internationally. He has over 30 years of experience as a Fine Art Lecturer and is currently a Part-time Lecturer at NCAD teaching on the Art & Ecology PostGraduate Diploma (Creative Futures Academy), Part-time higher diploma, level 8 (CEAD), and Media Area Experience (1st Yr). He holds a BA in Fine Art (Sculpture) from Central St.Martins, London and a MFA from the University of Ulster.

Rosie O'Reilly is a multimedia artist living in Dublin; She is artist in residence with UCD Parity Studios, artist researcher with Irish Energy Narratives UCD and with VOICE Europe. Recent exhibited work include Abhainn (2025) as DCC’s first Biodiversity artist in residence, an mór rhíogan (2024) IMMA, BBC Radio 3; The Year of the Corvids (2023) in collaboration with Cambridge University, staying with the trouble 2022, Leitrim Sculpture Centre. Ongoing projects include 'the mesh, hydro-methods in practice' and Coill Na Mara, long-term reforestation and embedded art research project in Co. Waterford. She has exhibited in Ireland and internationally and is part of research collective ‘Roots for the Future’ and ‘The Feminist Counter-Topographies collective’.

The Liberties Weavers. A project honouring a thousand years of textile and weaving heritage in The Liberties Dublin and breathing life into weaving in its historic centre. The Liberties Weavers™ aims to revive the rich textile heritage of The Liberties, Dublin, by offering traditional weaving workshops, educational walking tours, and authentic, locally made woven products. To create a sustainable social enterprise that preserves cultural heritage within the local community through skill development and creative expression.

May Bale, Teri Byrne, Aisliin Cotton, Deirdre Crofts, Mallory Frye, Oonagh Kirwan, Mags Maxwell, Dolores McLague, Cristina Nicotra, Kalpana Shankar, and Yvonne Shields