Exhibition: Ode to Hy Brasil Caoimhe Pendred. 16 Aug 2019

On Friday 16th August, we opened the doors of the all-new Working Artist Studios in Ballydehob with an exhibition of new work by Caoimhe Pendred, called Ode to Hy Brasil, to a huge crowd of well-wishers and art lovers. The subject matter of the exhibition, the mythical island of Hy Brasil, found “off to the West, over the ninth wave” by following the Stairway of the Sun as it sinks, (once so well-known that when the South American continent was first found, the name given to it was Brazil) was an apposite exhibition with which to open, given our own long journey towards our Hy Brasil, Tír na nÓg, Shangri La in our new long-term base in Ballydehob.

Caoimhe, a graduate of CIT Sherkin is an accomplished painter and ceramicist and has a passion for Irish language and culture.

She is a multimedia Visual Artist living and working in West Cork. Her work is concerned with how we use stories myth to make sense of the world and how imagination informs our reality.

   Whilst on a residency in the Aran islands last year, hearing of Hy Brasil captured her imagination and inspired this body of work. It calls us to venture beyond our everyday lived experience through the veils to a deeper almost forgotten and almost remembered wisdom.

Almost 200 people turned up to support the opening, conversation and wine flowed freely, helped  by the beautiful music of Ikarumba (Simon & Neisha) to whom much thinks are owed.

 The exhibition will run throughout September.