Join Ami Clarke for a reading group exploring themes opened up by her exhibition, Meeting the Lough On Its Own Terms, currently being exhibited at PS³ gallery, Belfast, and coming to Banner Repeater, London in October.
The reading group will meet every two weeks on a monday evening, starting 1st September 7-9pm, either in person at Banner Repeater (pls email if you intend to join us) and also online via zoom to be able to join in conversation with folks in Belfast. We will read 3 chapters for every session, and come together to discuss. We will also be reading two books on Neo-liberalism, in order to be able to bring together the microbial with the neoliberal apparatus, more fully.
Monday 1st September 7-9pm
Monday 15th September 7-9pm
Monday 29th September 7-9pm
Meeting The Lough On Its Own Terms
Ami Clarke
7th August - 27th September
Exhibition and workshops, PS³ gallery, Belfast
A partnership with Friends of the Earth, Digital Art Studios, Sonic Arts Research Centre and PS² (Belfast),
and Banner Repeater (London)
In the long hot summer of 2023, Lough Neagh, the largest body of water in Ireland and the UK, became overwhelmed with algae blooms to such an extent that the vibrant green images of the blue green algae went viral, making international headlines. Once a site of great abundance, supplying (as it still does) 40% of all drinking water to NI, and eel fishing famously being passed down through generations over centuries. The complexity of how the Lough became eutrophic presents a textbook case in converging dynamics of power, influence, and conflicts of interest, that have also developed over decades, if not centuries, around Lough Neagh and the watershed. Algae blooms offer a symptom of the climate crisis that emphasises the interconnectedness of vulnerable ecosystems with human-made systems.
about:
Artist Ami Clarke has been in conversation with Friends of the Earth NI and associates for two years working on a multi disciplinary art project: 'Meeting The Lough On Its Own Terms' that emphasises a multi-species approach from a microbial scale. Partnering with: Friends of the Earth, PS2 gallery, Digital Arts Studios Belfast, and Sonic Arts Research Unit QUB, the project includes a multimedia exhibition informed by collective writing workshops with FotE and sonic ritual with DAS XR Group and John D'Arcy HIVE choir SARC.
The exhibition at PS2 gallery opens over the summer months on the 7th August to coincide with when the algae blooms will reappear, as a site for further contributions and conversations to develop. The work brings together something of the multiple scales and temporalities of the lough, combining 4K drone footage, cinematography and underwater filming, with microscopic video at a microbial scale, and research and development with scientists working on the Lough for several decades.
Clarkes work fosters a multi-species approach, de-centring the human, whilst broadening the definition of ‘intelligence’ – a much needed corrective in conversations about AI - opening up questions regarding ‘meaning making’, that includes cellular cognition, and other forms of sensing, touched upon in N. Katherine Hayles' new book: Bacteria to AI. Clarkes work seeks to shift perspectives to the microbial scale, drawing upon the evolutionary biologists Lynn Margulis’ work, in a similar vein to Hayles, whilst seeking to collapse any sense of distance between vulnerable eco-systems such as Lough Neagh and the neoliberal apparatus of financialisaton.
Please see here for more details, and full press release.