Iolar Print

Hunting for sport is not traditional to Ireland Like so many other colonial introductions around the world, it is a hangover, a visceral example of the generational trauma and post-colonial policy structures we are still living with. From the Murdúch to the story of Oisín and the Hare, a large percentage of our mythology brings with it an instruction to cherish biodiversity and the sovereignty of our sibling fauna and cousin flora. Native mammals in particular have a deep symbolic and spiritual connection to the other realms and the things we cannot see. This ancient knowledge of the intelligence of the natural world is being confirmed by modern science too. With this collection, panels made of alternative photographic processes, collage, ink and copper, I am deliberately subverting the paradigm. Dressing animals in colonial hunting attire, their louche demeanour and self-confident faces challenging the viewer with a simple question: how would you like it?