Vanessa Brennan
Ní Troime don Chaora Olann is informed by Vanessa Brennan’s research into rural decline during and after the Celtic Tiger era (1995-2011). This project explores patterns making a resurgence from that era, such as the shift from traditional and ecologically balanced practices toward instant reward and convenience. Based around discarded ways of doing and making, Brennan utilises natural land resources and farming by-products, regenerating their value. The artwork shows care for the material, a connection to its raw state, a willingness to work with it and sometimes a deliberate romanticising of traditional materials and processes.
This thesis will analyse the Celtic Tiger’s impact on Ireland as a country, on its economy, its social impact on the population and its effect on the arts. The thesis explores the boom & bust of the Celtic Tiger through the lens of contemporary art, at the time and presently. It closely examines contemporary artists whose work has been influenced by this period of rapid rise and fall in wealth and its effects on the landscape of the country and its people. Artists discussed include Graham Knuttel, Anthony Haughey, Eimear Walshe, Brian Maguire, Alice Lyons, Orla McHardy and more.
Further, this thesis will examine the intricacies of the economic rise and fall, homing in on the development, and consequential bursting, of the property bubble. Throughout the thesis, the underlying theme of sustainability and circular economy brings the narrative back to the impact of the Celtic Tiger on the landscape and the people in the country and how it was portrayed through time by artists.
Vanessa Brennan is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Kilkenny. Working primarily with installation, their current practice concerns rural decline in Ireland. Brennan investigates the effects of a rise in consumerism on traditional Irish ways of doing and making through found material. The work features resources no longer highly valued, which are being discarded for faster, easier processes and materials. Brennan invites the viewer to question the value of profit and capital, as opposed to authenticity and connection to the land. Brennan has exhibited in The Place Project, IMMA Studios (2022), How We See, DIVA (2023), Fractal, Powerscourt Townhouse (2024), and Mud Between the Toes, Pallas Projects/Studios (2025).
