Maitiú Mac Cárthaigh 2025
Cork County Council/Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre Artist in Residence 2025

Maitiú Mac Cárthaigh
Cork County Council/Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre Artist in Residence 2025
14 March to 26 April 2025

Studio open to the public on Tuesday and Friday

You are welcome to join Maitiú in Studio 1 on 17 to 19 April for a studio exhibition showcasing the textile, print, sound and written work undertaken during their time in Uillinn.

On the 19th of April at 2:00pm, Maitiú will give an artist talk to expand on their practise and how it questions Queer-ness, rurality, post-productivist agriculture and how fiction plays a key role in all of this.

No booking required, all welcome.

My current research practice looks at animal husbandry as an act of agricultural perversity and questions how we can sustain a façade of connection to the Land during a time of agri-policy driven mass extinction. With a focus on waste management and the bi-products of breeding, I look at the membrane as a metaphor of Irish Communitarianism and re-examine more-than human closeness during that membrane’s violation and break-down. Ultimately asking, how can we sustain ideas of the “Good Farmer” with a bag of AI in one hand and shoulder length gloves on the other?

As a continuation of my existing practice, I aim to use this opportunity as a moment to focus on production during my ongoing material research, allowing me time to work on producing a new body of work. This research examines how Agri-fluids like pig afterbirth and bovine colostrum are used as “blood and soil” materials in perpetuating Irish patrilinear domination over the Land. The materiality of the topic brings up of questions of (queer) perversity while interrogating ideas of traditional versus productive within agricultural processes, a defining element of our connection to the Land.

In 2023, Maitiú graduated from the MA in Artistic Research (KABK, Den Haag) after receiving a first-class honours in BA (Hons) Fine Art (Crawford College of Art and Design MTU). Throughout their MA, they exhibited in Ireland, as well as in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Poland. Following their graduation show, Maitiú was shortlisted for the RDS Visual Art Awards 2023. Their BA degree work was purchased by the O.P.W. and  included in Person / Presence / Perception, an all island of Ireland travelling exhibition with the Office of Public Works and Northern Ireland Department of Finance.

@maitiumaccarthaigh

WCAC acknowledges the financial support of Cork County Council and The Arts Council in making these residencies possible.