Irish Workhouse Centre, Portumna,

Co. Galway, Ireland

The presentations at the Irish Workhouse Centre in Portumna, Co. Galway are in what was once used as both a Dining Hall and a Chapel, and in the Women’s Dormitories.

In the Dining Hall, the ghostly glass potatoes are scattered across the surface of a long, stark banquet table in undulating piles. Upstairs in the Women’s Dormitories, it is strewn across the ground, like a fragile shroud.  Both installations are powerful visual representations of hunger, death, and the absence of food. 

An original musical soundscape composed by Kieran Kennedy, with vocals by Maria Doyle Kennedy and The Voice Squad, accompanies the installation in the Dining Hall. This exhibition is also part of the 2022 Shorelines Arts Festival, September 15th- 18th.

The exhibition runs August 27th- October 28th, 2022.

Image credit: Barry Cronin

1845: Memento Mori by Paula Stokes - Irish Workhouse (irishworkhousecentre.ie)