Statement

“Fifteen years ago, I made a dozen or so clear glass potatoes in my friends’ glassblowing studio.  At the time I did not have a fully formed concept or specific intention for the work. But in creating these simple keepsakes I knew I was paying homage to my home country, and a seed was planted.

Many years later, in 2018, I saw the exhibition Coming Home: Art and the Great Hunger, the world’s largest collection of Famine related art, at Dublin Castle. I was deeply moved by this exhibition and together with a confluence of other influences, I decided to embark on the ambitious journey of creating 1845: Memento Mori, a commemorative artwork, dedicated to the Great Famine.

I knew that to do justice to the work and its inspiration, it needed to be large scale. I had never worked with large scale installations in my own practice but did work for the American artist Dale Chihuly in the 1990s building his large-scale installations, which are made from literally thousands of elements. I credit that experience as an influence.

I have collaborated with Irish artists Róisín de Buitléar, Kevin O’Dwyer and Caroline Madden on many projects, building bridges between the Seattle and Ireland glass communities.  In 2018, Caution! Fragile, an exhibition organized by Róisín de Buitléar opened at the National Museum of Ireland, four years after its premier at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. This exhibition celebrates Irish culture, tradition and heritage. My involvement with its production evoked in me a great sense of national pride. It inspired my work to celebrate and honor my Irish culture.

In the execution of this work, I chose a representation of the potato form, a classic and iconic symbol associated with Ireland, using molten glass. It lends itself well to creating the organic form of a potato. The material also lends itself well as a metaphor for fragility and strength. But I was also drawn to the physical act of literally breathing life, through glassblowing, into a form, that in Irish history has a connotation of sustenance but also death. The potatoes are clear and sandblasted. The result is a recognizable form of the potato, that in its stark whiteness, looks like a ghost of the living form. To me it is a memento mori, that serves as reminder of mortality.

As part of this project, I was awarded a residency at Cill Rialaig in Ireland. I spent a week living in a restored pre-Famine stone cottage on Bolus Head, Co. Kerry, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.  I used this time to further read and study about the history of the Irish Famine but also the meaning of psychogeography, the effect of geographical location on emotions and behavior. It got me thinking about influences in my work, specifically where I grew up. Growing up in the Boyne Valley of County Meath, the physical evidence of the past coexists in a modern world. There are spectacular examples of Megalithic archaeology at Newgrange, Knowth, Dowth and Lough Crew. Newgrange is of course the best-known passage tomb and a spectacular monument to death.  I credit the influence of the Irish landscape on my decision to build the installation into the form of a cairn. The form makes sense to me culturally, aesthetically and symbolically. 

My dream has always been to bring the work home to Ireland. I am profoundly grateful for the support given to me to date, specifically the Irish Heritage Trust, where in 2021, 1845: Memento Mori was first shown at Strokestown Park House and Johnstown Castle, but also by the Ulster American Folk Park, and the National Museum of Ireland-Country Life. In the summer/autumn of 2022, I presented the installation in Saint Patrick’s Hall, Dublin Castle, and at the Irish Workhouse Centre in Portumna, Co. Galway.

1845: Memento Mori has been acquired into the collection of the National Museum of Ireland where it will be displayed at the Museum of Decorative Arts & History at Collins Barracks, Dublin.

The installation will be featured as part of a future renovation within the full suite of the History of Ireland galleries, in a permanent gallery space taking a social, cultural and political approach to exploring Ireland’s history in the last 420 years.

At the end of the day, through this work, I want to throw light on historical events that have shaped the present and open a dialogue on how we can learn from the past.  I hope to create a bridge between the old and new, the past and the present. And in doing so I hope to elicit compassionate reflection that transcends the polarizing politics of our current time.”

Paula Stokes