Click to open notebook
Beth Toner
Mags Brennan
Will you walk with us? An eco-feminist approach to sustainable land practice. See. Appreciate. Change.
An exploration of our relationship with the land we inhabit as women, legacy and inheritance were the heart of our response to the Change Lab.
“Every new day we question each system we have known since birth, and are obliged to consider their possible demise”
– Li Edelkoort
Globally, only 13.8% of landholders are female. In Ireland, only 12% are female. As a group we imagined what the world would look like if women had a more active role in land practices, if traditional ecological knowledge was recognised by dominant culture as holding equal value as empirical knowledge.
Ecofeminism highlights the parallels between the exploitation of women and the exploitation of land, by addressing the Sustainable Development Goals; Goal 15, Life on Land and Goal 5, Gender Equality. Through various creative and sustainable interventions, we re-established ourselves in our landscapes and sought a different dialogue. Using the land as our medium, our resource and ecofeminism, the lens through which we engendered our work.
Through this unpredictable time, we moved away from the traditional gallery setting and into the digital realm. We used social media (instagram) as an evolving space, a way of co-curating with the audience and creating a platform dedicated to research and discussion.
As artist researchers we are committed to steering our creativity towards the advancement of a just and sustainable world.
See, appreciate, change.
Katie Kenny is a visual artist based in Wexford. She graduated from the National College of Art and Design with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art, Sculpture and Expanded Practice in 2019. She is in her final year of the Professional Masters of Education in Art and Design in NCAD. Kenny’s work investigates gender and farming, by questioning the lack of recognition females receive in the agriculture sector in Ireland. She questions the patriarchal authority and marginalisation of women in the male-dominated environment. Kenny’s teaching practice focuses on inclusivity. She is currently researching Development Education focusing on the United Nations, Sustainable Development Goals.
Beth Toner graduated from TU Dublin in 2017 as a graphic designer with strong interests in editorial and typographic design. She worked in branding and coordinated book making workshops in schools. She is currently in her final year of the Professional Masters in Education (Art & Design) in NCAD. Beth draws on her sense of place from her rural home in the Cooley Peninsula as a creative source throughout her work, both in the fields of design and education. She uses her role as an artist and educator to encourage positive wellbeing practices through expressive and holistic means.
Mags originally graduated from NCAD in 2002 with a degree in Fine Art, Painting.
I am interested in the outside as a space of healing and learning. Living in these times further confirms to me the importance of the natural environment and how necessary it is to advocate for a sustainable, greener and just world.