Ailbhe Ní Bhriain: Inscriptions (One Here Now)

14 July – 16 August 2020

Inscriptions (One Here Now) (2018) by Ailbhe Ní Bhriain draws us down into the dark vertiginous depths of a quarry interior. The camera traces geological deep-time, the scars left by machinery on the rock surfaces, and the sprayed industrial notations that codify the commodification and disappearance of landscape. Embedded within the film are references to the ancient Irish language of Ogham, a script which took the form of linear strokes cut into vertical standing stones. In these inscriptions the film finds a metaphor for the Anthropocene – the current geological era in which human behaviour is the dominant force shaping environment and climate.

Inscriptions (One Here Now) was originally commissioned by Miranda Driscoll as part of One Here Now, The Brian O’Doherty/ Patrick Ireland Project, supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.

Ailbhe Ní Bhriain (b. 1978, Ireland) is known for her use of film, computer generated imagery and photography. Her work has shown widely, with exhibitions and screenings at RHA, Dublin; Broad Museum, Michigan; Domobaal, London; Paris Photo; Reina Sofia Museum Museum, Madrid; Caixa Forum, Barcelona; Centre of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki; and Centrale, Brussels among others. She is represented by domobaal gallery, London

Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, Ireland, is a national cultural institution, dedicated to contemporary and historical Irish and international visual art. Home to a collection of national importance, it offers a vibrant and dynamic programme of temporary exhibitions.

The Artists Film International 2020 programme responds to the theme of language. Local sounds, rituals and political realities feature, from the rhythms and images of a Bahamian Junkanoo to the contested ancestral lands on the desert border between Mexico and the USA.