Grace Conroy

Grace Conroy’s practice explores her relationship with agriculture, with attention to land, memory, and independence. 'Comfort of Cut Ground', reflects on generations who depended on the bog for fuel and survival. As turf-cutting practices have largely disappeared, the work imagines an alternative narrative, what if the bog had never been defined by labour? What remains when the work, the stories, and the act of cutting turf disappear?

In this speculative space, the bog is reimagined as a site of rest rather than labour, where those who once depended on it are no longer bound to its use, and its former function has fallen away.

The work takes the form of a freestanding sculpture in which a bedroom appears to rise from the bog landscape, shifting its identity from a site of labour to one of comfort and stillness. Accompanying the sculpture is a sound piece featuring the voice of Grace's granny, Enta Conroy. Through this reimagined narrative, the work reflects on loss, memory, and the changing relationship between people and land.