Steacy O’Donohoe
she/her
A Cultural Dislocation
A Cultural Dislocation examines the tensions shaping contemporary rural Irish identity, particularly for younger generations navigating inherited farming life alongside contemporary art education. Through an immersive stage-set installation, the work divides space between the farm and the studio — two interconnected environments that reflect the experience of existing between tradition and change.
Organic materials, living plants, and cultivation-based textures are transformed into constructed forms, highlighting the shift from natural processes to human intervention. Traditional printmaking processes, including repetition, layering, and mark-making, act as metaphors for generational imprint, labour, and memory. Script and video elements introduce performance and rehearsal as recurring motifs, suggesting identity as something continually practised rather than fixed.
By combining material, narrative, and moving image, the installation explores cultural dislocation as an ongoing negotiation between inheritance and transformation. The work reflects the emotional and cultural complexity of belonging within a changing rural landscape.
A Cultural Dislocation, a staged rural interior exploring distance, performance, and belonging within contemporary farming culture.
We Three Queens, a playful reimagining of companionship, loyalty, and domestic mythology, 60 x 84 cm.
Fungus Head, a female figure in traditional farming clothing has her head replaced by fungus found growing on spoiled bales, reflecting fears of becoming “useless” by leaving the farm and choosing another path, 114 x 80 cm.
The Weight of a Step, wooden slats interrupt the space, carrying traces of movement through etched boot imprints, 155 x 155 cm.
A Step in Between, worn work boots rest upon handmade stones and growing chia, balancing labour, weight, and fragile renewal.
Objects gathered and made by hand to exist as props in the spacing of the stage set.
Research
A studio portrait of the artist in process, reading and revisiting the script as part of an ongoing development of the work.
A copy of the script used in the recorded production. Lines of the protagonist Cúisle highlighted.
A busy studio space examining the farming culture, interviews with various professionals in the film, stage and art world.
A maquette created to visualise the intended stage set installation.
Teaching Placements
St Michaels College, Ailesbury Rd, Dublin 4
Rockford Manor Secondary School, Blackrock, County Dublin
Drimnagh Castle Secondary School, Walkinstown, Dublin 12
St Brigids Catholic Primary School, The Liberties, Dublin 8