THE PERSISTENT RETURN, 2018 Moving image two-screen projection, HD video with stereo sound 12.28 minutes, Edition 1/3. Produced by Workhouse Union for Workhouse Guild with support from a Project Award from the Arts Council, and production support
from VISUAL Carlow
The United Nations has designated 2021 the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables (IYFV), to raise awareness of the important of fruit and vegetables for everyone. To mark IYFV 2021, we have brought together a selection of artworks from the Arts
Council Collection that feature fruit and/or vegetables. Artworks in this showcase span the history of the collection, with earliest being dated 1964 and the most recent being dated 2018.
Here, Deirdre O’Mahony, whose work is featured online showcase, tells us more about the featured artwork ‘The Persistent Return and what it means to have this artwork as part of the Arts Council collection. Explore this and more from the Arts Council
collection at instagram.com/artscouncilireland/
The Persistent Return traces the history of the potato and the role it played in consolidating and concentrating power in Europe in the 17th and 18th century. Historically the potato brought the possibility of freedom from cycles of famine but
also a precarious dependency on monoculture. The film points to the human cost of privileging scientific rationalism at the expense of tacit knowledge, a reminder that the skills of both head and hand are needed to actively respond to the challenges
presented by climate change today.
The moving image installation is the culmination of a durational project, SPUD. The script merged themes from SPUD’s various iterations: the Spanish conquistadors, perfect potato ridges, the workhouse. With an assemblage of collaborators,
the SPUD project found its synthesis as The Persistent Return.
The chosen title was provoked by rereading Voltaire’s Candide, a novel published at the height of the Enlightenment that deeply resonates with the present moment as gardens, once more, become a focus of care and attention in Covid times.
The film was a way for me to capture conversations about food, sustainability and food culture. It has given me a way of reflecting on the social through the moving image and has been central to thinking about representing threads of research through
the moving image. Its inclusion in the Arts Council’s collection is personally important as a validation of a new way of working and will make it accessible to new audiences and contexts.
—Deirdre O’Mahony
Since 1962, the Arts Council has been buying art from working artists. The Collection that evolved tells the story of modern and contemporary Irish visual art in a unique and fascinating way. Today the Collection continues to grow and is comprised of
more than 1,200 artworks including sculpture, painting, performance, print, video, installation, and photography and other works, many of which are on display in public spaces all over Ireland for people to experience and enjoy first hand.
You can find out more at: www.artscouncil.emuseum.com.