Irene's work explores the often contradictory "impressions" arising from the material and metaphysical engagement with place. This phenomenon is examined through process creativity incorporating physical interactions and interventions within a specific locality over time. These works often engage an audience in a collaborative performance; as space is made place through the agency of human interaction; a shared experience in which relationships with the locality are subject to individual and collective re-evaluation.
Recent arts and environment projects have demonstrated a growing commitment to environmentalism and green politics. In order to achieve this objective, Irene's ever more multi-disciplinary practice has necessarily evolved to incorporate a more curatorial component. Partners and collaborators from diverse practical and theoretical backgrounds are brought together to generate a dynamic dialogue out of which new possibilities emerge. Recent projects have included contributions from within such disciplines as river geomorphology, salt marsh ecology, theoretical biology, astronomy, natural history, sound recording, videography, photography, music, creative writing, performance and the visual arts.
Irene's current work is focussed on the coastal communities of South West Cumbria. This new work has been made possible by establishing a national and international reputation through residencies, travel research awards, and exhibitions. Some key projects are listed below:
Flaming Fleeces and Restoration, ReDrift, Cumbria 2020| Between Silence and Light, Between Silence and Light Gallery and Water\Stone \Light four slate stone sculptures, South West Coast, Cumbria 2019| Matter Matters and Ten Farmers, The Making of a Cultural Landscape, Cumbria 2018| Arcane Tender, international art research and residency Havana, Cuba 2017| Finding Cuba, University of Nottingham 2017| Precious, Residency with the Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory, Panacea, Florida 2016| Morphogenesis, RaumArs International Artist Residency, Rauma, Finland 2015| River Don AIR, Aberdeen City Council and SURF (Sustainable Urban Fringes), Aberdeen 2013|
WORKS
An odyssey: encountering fear and hope
A site performance and art-based research incorporating the sea
Irene’s site performance, ‘An odyssey: encountering fear and hope,’ took place on the incoming tide of the Duddon estuary and became visible to train passengers approaching and passing over Foxfield Viaduct and the nearby embankment at a remote location in coastal Cumbria. The waters of the Duddon estuary provided a dramatic stage upon which the artist was carried inland on a raft (constructed with a local organisation), drifting under the viaduct. This process, the timeless act of journeying, the artist’s embodied experience of the sea’s elemental forces, its moods and rhythms were, presented as the performance in a collaborative work by film maker Laurence Campbell and his film Raft.
The raft was tethered and transformed into a temporary site for experimental work (visible also from the embankment). The impermanence of the work, when set against a backdrop of nature’s transcendent beauty and the un- predictable force of tide and autumnal weather, emphasised the fragility of human intervention. The work evolved into ongoing arts-based research with Duddon estuary an open-site studio’ for the duration of the project. This intense engagement over several weeks on the edge of the estuary; strenuous physical activity of ‘rescuing’ the raft from quicksand, or channels where the sea had deposited it and observations through microscopy, contributed to establishing an indivisible relationship between the work and the sea. It also provided time to experience place and space, invisible territories (agricultural, residential), boundaries (maritime and civic), accessing the hidden and inaccessible, Duddon estuary.
Holding the Line
Environmental artwork. Willow, wood posts, fleece.
‘Holding the Line’ (pictured above) was inspired by a substantial, environmental maintenance work in a channel of the Duddon estuary comprised of woven Willow known as Willow Spilling, built to protect and prevent land from erosion by the sea and flood defence, whilst replenishing growth of marsh plants. Holding the Line, environmental installation, also created from willow, imitates this ‘rescue’ of the land and employs it as symbolic gesture of hope, facing mountains and estuarine sea.
Research for Unpublished Tour
Haverigg Inshore Watchtower (Image by Irene Rogan)
A first meeting with Haverigg Inshore Rescue took place during August 2020 to discuss accessing the Duddon estuary by boat. I was given a tour of their facilities and watch tower by Stewart, a volunteer from the rescue team. A few weeks later the team agreed to take me on a research trip with a view toward developing an environmental art project involving collaborations with artist and writers I would invite to work with me on Unpublished Tour. I was advised to Contact Duddon Inshore Rescue at Askam-in-Furness for further support in my quest for research trips on the Duddon (Haverigg Inshore were unable to offer the trips due to illness). The boat trips were offered to all participating artists, writers and scientists.
Detail of the interior of Haverigg Inshore Watchtower (Image by Irene Rogan)
A detailed map in Haverigg Inshore Rescue Watch Tower of the Duddon estuary with shore-lines and Foxfield viaduct (Photo of map by Irene Rogan).
Boat trip (Image by Irene Rogan). Rescue craft icon courtesy of Duddon Inshore Rescue.
Boat trip (Images by Irene Rogan, except bottom left by John Scanlan).
Following meetings with both Haverigg and Duddon Inshore Rescue teams (located at Askam-in-Furness), the boat trips provided the basis for the research toward a project incorporating and explorations on the Duddon estuary and included Haverigg dunes restoration by the Wildlife Trusts.
Duddon Inshore HQ (Image by Irene Rogan)
The Raft
The Odyssey begins: the building of the hand made raft took place at Millom Network Centre, a local community hub (Image by Irene Rogan).
Once having travelled by boat with the Duddon Inshore Rescue team as afar as the Foxfield viaduct on the south side, I began to think of ways to access the other side of the viaduct where boats couldn't go due to dangerous, shifting sands. It was then that the idea of a handmade raft began to formulate in my mind as a means to travel further and to create a floating platform for site specific artworks. This was quickly followed by the desire to ride it.
Further research revealed a wealth of references where the use of rafts in art and literature references: Bill Viola, Raft of the Medusa, Paul Thek, Maria Kulikovska, Huckleberry Fin, Althoff and Elfgen and Theodoros Zafeiropoulos to name a few. In addition to these there was the writings on the performative art by the sea artist, Bill Psarras.
Millom Network Centre agreed to work on the creation of a two square metre raft made from wood and rope, using wood dowling rather than nails to join the parts.
A conversation with the Environment Agency (interrogation from a very long list of questions) to ask about floating a raft and tethering it on the Duddon as a temporary work received a positive response.
Millom network centre - woodwork unit with partially made raft (Image by Irene Rogan).
The test run with Millom Network staff and volunteers carry the raft to nearby mouth of the estuary (Image by Irene Rogan).
The test proved simple the raft could float and carry me. I would wear a safety vest and the raft would have long rope held by someone on land to keep me from being carried away up or down the estuary.
20.20.21 the day for An Odyssey; encountering fear and hope
Images by Irene Rogan.
Laurence Campbell (above), filmmaker and creator of the film The Raft, which follows Irene Rogan from the creation of the raft to the final journey on the water. He is seen here sitting on a trailer as the raft is brought to the Duddon by volunteer Andy (below).
Image by Irene Rogan.
An Odyssey; encountering fear and hope - is one of four stages to the project. This part became a collaboration between Irene Rogan and filmmaker Laurence Campbell in the production of his short film The Raft, based on the making of the raft to the artist journeying upon it to the Foxfield viaduct on the Duddon estuary. The publicity for An Odyssey included a request to Northern Rail for announcements to be made informing passengers as they passed over the viaduct of the the event taking place on the water below them.
Images by Irene Rogan. Click to enlarge.
sea, words, gestures and bodies have all coordinates, currents and flows.
Bill Psarras, 2021
Image by Irene Rogan.
An Odyssey: encountering fear and hope, after the raft journey, returning to the site in the evening later in the day on the north side of Foxfield viaduct, Lady Hall, the raft resting on the embankment ready for the next stage of the quest.
Image by Irene Rogan.
The image of the sea flooding the marshes, and high tide rising up the flood defence of the embankment, was in stark contrast to the arrival of the raft. These sudden climatic changes in weather characterised the whole of my experience working here: nature tide and time, the elemental sea and extreme weather changes were active agents in the work. It became clear that the work, through this interaction with the sea, the sinking sands and weather, I became part of the work, a sometimes hidden performer to public life. Grappling with natural forces in this wilderness was not a linear progression, a simple ‘to/from’ story unfolding - but translating it into something then resolved that others can see, and not by any means a completed work. It is reaching back and forth; ongoing-evolving.
Allowing, disallowing, work, shifting sand and rushing waters, serenity or profound misty stillness.
Throughout the project there were numerous times where I needed to ‘rescue’ the raft from being carried away by powerful rapid currents, or when it had been caught on one of the shifting sand banks too far for me to reach, sometimes wedged in quicksand or hidden beneath layers of vegetation following floods. Some images here capture these moments. Scattered amongst the site specific artworks, these occasions were the spontaneous performances, creating a sense of heroic endeavours where I truly felt the sea ‘functioning as a “stage” and/or a central “character” that embodies the temporality and/or spatiality of the work’.
Encounters with sea, quick sand and weather
Sarah Cameron Sunde's project 'Works on Water' describes how to frame emerging practices for a wider public. The scope of her project was developed through mapping (both geographically and relationally) projects that fit these criteria:
The work self-defines, first and foremost, as art.
A body (or bodies) of water is central to the work’s concept.
Additionally, the work recognizes that water is alive and dynamic, and therefore experiential rather than representational. It must meet at least ONE of the following conditions:
If object-based, a body of water (and/or its shorelines) is used as MATERIAL in the physical production of the work.
If time-based, a body of water and/or its shorelines is the SITE for the work, functioning as a ‘stage’ and/or a central ‘character’ that embodies the temporality and/or spatiality of the work.*
*Edited excerpt from Sarah Cameron Sunde, introductory essay in the ‘Works on Water’ 2017 Triennial Catalogue, Environmental Art for the 21st Century.
Left: Rescue #1. Irene Rogan rescues the raft for the first time from the Duddon (Video by Irene Rogan).
Image by Irene Rogan.
The Duddon estuary at Lady Hall (above and below) became a source of inspiration, an open site-studio and laboratory for the duration of the project, which comprises video, photography, microscopy, social sculptures and environmental installations.
Images by Irene Rogan.
Hold the Line - environmental maintenance work close to Foxfield Viaduct
Image by Irene Rogan.
Hold the Line is a term used in the coastal strategy for environmental maintenance to manage flood risk and enhance defences.
Images by Irene Rogan.
Hold the Line maintenance uses the technique, Willow Spilling, created from woven willow that is used to prevent soil erosion and in this instance it did precisely that, creating a surface for renewed plant growth .
Kipling's poem The Land mentions it: ‘They spilled along the water-course with trunks of willow-trees, And planks of elms behind 'em and immortal oaken knees.’
Holding the Line - an environmental artwork on the Duddon sands
Above and Right Collecting willow from Causey Lane, Lady Hall, Millom Without, Cumbria. (Images by Irene Rogan)
Holding the Line imitates the environmental maintenance work of a nearby Willow Spilling (Spyling), erected to mitigate against soil erosion. Below are the posts I installed to hold the willow for the artwork.
In placing Holding the Line in the estuary edge, the work was not functioning in a practical way - but as a symbolic gesture; of renewal, of recognition of fragility of being on this earth, of temporal reality and spiritual experience. Where sea meets land mountains overlook the scene, providing a stage on a grand scale stage, where humble materials of willow were woven into a makeshift barrier.
Erosion (Image by Irene Rogan)
The location for Holding the Line, with the Viaduct in the distance (Images above and below by Irene Rogan).
Translate the invisible wind by the water it sculpts in passing.
Robert Bresson
Film director
Holding the Line. Willow branches, wood posts and fleece fragments (Images by Irene Rogan).
Rescue #2 (Image by Irene Rogan)
Rescue #3 (Image by Irene Rogan)
Exploring the Duddon, testing the water
The Necessity (Image by Irene Rogan)
Life Line: the sea and 10 metres of blue rope, raft
A rope slides into the sea, the foreground darkens
(Video by Irene Rogan)
An Edenic Proposition. Apple, Raft (Image by Irene Rogan).
Flaming Fleeces III - A Social Sculpture, sheep farming in the 21st Century in the UK.
Serenity, sea, raft and fleeces (Image by Irene Rogan).
The Art:
Flaming Fleeces III - A social sculpture, agriculture in 21st Century
Flaming Fleeces III. Raft, fleeces on fire on the Duddon estuary (Image by Irene Rogan).
This social artwork ‘Flaming Fleeces’ concerns the sheep farming community, rearing sheep, and the apparently common practice of burning or burying fleeces because there is no longer a profitable wool market in the UK. It is sold for a few pence to global buyers, which made me question why it is desired in other countries but not in the UK where it is produced. It is then sold back to us through international markets.
This is an alert to everyone, a call for support to be offered to UK wool producers; specifically in respect of promoting this raw material to UK industry. The material has myriad uses beyond the traditionally accepted role in clothing and carpet manufacture; specifically in felted underlay and in insulation products. In view of current concerns with the environment and agriculture, reinvigorating the domestic wool market - promoting a wool renaissance - will help contribute to the UK 'green agenda' as the material is both organic and sustainable.
Flaming Fleeces III. Raft, fleeces on fire on the Duddon estuary (Image by Irene Rogan).
In addition, wool production has formed a central feature of Cumbrian landscape/environmental management, social life and community cohesion for generations, and in the present day contributes to local heritage and character. Being surrounded by sheep as I worked on the Duddon estuary, this social installation was created to float on the sea beneath the viaduct, visible to all passengers travelling on the train on the line that crosses the water at this place.
In 2020, Irene was made aware of the fact that the majority of fleeces produced in the UK were being exported to China. The explanation for this is that the market for wool produced here in Cumbria is now so poor that many sheep farmers are forced to dispose of the fleeces through burial or burning. Irene subsequently created a video installation—Flaming Fleeces— burning of fleeces which ’felt like a dreadful act of vandalism’, in order draw attention to the issue, accompanied by a recorded interview with Adam Day, Director of the Cumbria Farmer Network setting out the myriad properties and uses of this sustainable, organic fibre. Irene also wrote to her MP Trudy Harrison and also to Lord Clark of Windermere, proposing that greater support should be offered to sheep farmers, asking them to promote the use of this versatile natural fibre in UK industries. A further communication was sent the Rt Hon George Eustace, Secretary of State for Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, DEFRA. Responses have been received.
A typical payment was £40 for 600 fleeces, an amount that has since dropped from that price in 2020.
Flaming Fleeces on the Duddon (Video by Irene Rogan).
Raft of burnt fleeces on the Duddon estuary (Image by Irene Rogan).
Above: Beauty for Ashes. Willow branches, burnt fleeces, raft (Images by Irene Rogan). Willow symbolising loss, along with the hope of future retrieval.
Beauty for Ashes is a work that incorporates the same device / natural material of willow that formed Holding the Line. Here, placed on the raft, it represents a symbolic gesture that equates to the first journey of my work, An Odyssey; encountering fear and hope. The plant is vulnerable yet resilient embodying the way that nature endures.
The Science - Microscopy
These images from my researches of Phytoplankton, also called microalgae, produce half of the oxygen in the air we breathe and are responsible for fifty percent of the Earth’s photosynthesis. Whales, jellyfish, shrimp and other marine life feast on it, making it fundamental part of the marine food chain.
For a number of years I have been drawn to the word of microscopy and make water collection to observe the fascinating world micro-organisms in particular of diatoms; single cell microorganism which are of great interest to ecologists and nanotechnology scientists.
Of great interest and delight to me was discovering that nanotech scientists spent a lot of time trying to work out how diatoms propelled themselves through ‘diatom motility’ by looking at ‘Bacillera Paradoxica,’ a wonderfully suitable name, as they simply couldn’t work it out, despite all their specialist equipment and powerful microscopes.
Images by Irene Rogan,
These images and videos were obtained using a handheld microscope that attaches to a mobile phone to capture images here of surface of water in pools around the edges of the Duddon. (Video by Irene Rogan)
Water collection Duddon estuary and river using a 40x optic hunting for phytoplankton; left: Marine Algae, right: a pair of Freshwater Diatoms (Images by Irene Rogan).
Phytoplankton, also called microalgae, produce half of the oxygen in the air we breathe and are responsible for fifty percent of the Earth’s photosynthesis. Whales, jellyfish, shrimp and other marine life feast on it, making it fundamental part of the marine food chain.
Videos by Irene Rogan.
Algal sunlight (Image by Irene Rogan).