Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich, Belfast
Opening Reception: Thursday 22nd January, 7pm
Exhibition Runs: 23rd January – 5th March 2026
An Accompanying Essay
A Bridge Between Times is not merely an exhibition; it is a living archive, a whispered conversation between the past, present, and future of Fort Dunree. Begun in 2023, this body of work emerges from a deep, collaborative engagement with a site poised on the cusp of permanent transformation. As artists rooted in Inishowen, we felt an urgent need to document not just the physicality of the fort, but the intangible layers of memory, identity, and quiet resilience that resonate within its fabric, before they are reshaped by significant investment and a new public narrative.
Our practice is founded on authentic collaboration; with each other, with the landscape, and with the histories embedded there. This collaboration questions traditional notions of authorship and ownership; it is an act of letting go of the desire for singular recognition in favour of a shared, communal voice. The titles of the works themselves were born from a Renku-style poetic dialogue between the artists arising from the performances and photographic acts on site.
The choice to translate these ephemeral performances and digital photographs into physical, utilitarian objects – blankets, tea towels, sarongs, scarves, tablecloths, mouse mats – is central to our ethos. We ask: What is an art object? For us, it is something that exists beyond the white cube of the gallery, woven into the fabric of daily life. It is art you can wash dishes with, rest under while watching TV, or use at your desk. This decision speaks to themes of accessibility, dissemination, and the democratisation of art, considerations deeply felt by artists from working-class backgrounds. The final, commercially produced outcomes after two years of work represent a form of mass personalisation—art as both a unique artistic statement and an accessible, functional companion.
Fort Dunree itself is a character in this work, possessing a dual and layered identity. It is a headland of breathtaking natural beauty, a former military site that never saw conflict, a domestic village, a museum, and a living community. It is a ‘third space’ – simultaneously military, artistic, domestic, and historical. This open-endedness is its magic, though it is a quality often restricted by formal development plans. Our project seeks to honour that indeterminacy.
Throughout the project, specific characters emerged from the site and its stories: the ‘make do and mend’ woman embodying drudgery and flirtation; a misty herbalist in cycles of death and rebirth; an army guard who controls access only to later tear down barriers and pick daisies; a high priestess presiding over the funeral of a collapsed building. These archetypes, including a cleaner who uncovers deep time and a bureaucrat who leaps into the sea, represent the multifaceted human experiences layered upon this place.
Each piece in the exhibition, from Pull Back Military Green on a polar fleece blanket to A Haunting Begins on a modal silk sarong, is a fragment of this larger story. They are tactile portals. The monoprints and found object prints, such as the Discover and Know by Touch series, further root the work in material trace and impression, bridging the digital and the tactile.
Presenting this project at Cultúrlaann in West Belfast is profoundly meaningful. It builds a bridge between rural and urban Irish narratives, connecting the specific heritage of Donegal with wider themes of cultural memory, resilience, and identity celebrated in Irish language and arts. We hope A Bridge Between Times fosters a dialogue about our shared connections to place, encouraging viewers to feel, use, and contemplate the enduring echoes of history in the objects that surround our everyday lives. This work is our record, our offering, and an invitation to gaze – and to fold away – as you please.
— Birch Besom
The name Birch Besom is a tapestry of meanings, weaving together nature, language, and ritual. Its roots are richly layered. In colloquial Scottish, a ‘besom’ is a cheeky girl or a woman with attitude. In old English, it was a ‘bundle of rods or twigs’ – often birch – used as an instrument of punishment. More poetically, it signifies a tool for cleansing and purification. This connects to the birch tree itself, long seen as a symbol of renewal. Intriguingly, the Irish word ‘beirt’ (pronounced ‘birch’) means ‘two people,’ a fitting root for a collaborative duo.
These threads converge in folklore and ritual. A broom made from birch twigs was traditionally used to sweep out the old year, symbolically clearing away evil spirits to invite goodness. The broom also carries a subversive edge through its association with witches and the mystical.
Emerging from a period of personal and collective grief and loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, the intergenerational artist duo Birch Besom channels this history. Their work is a form of ritualistic performance, rooted in nature and focused on themes of transformation. With a strong conceptual foundation, they use the act of creation as a documented symbolic process, producing art that is both beautiful and unsettling – a means to sweep away the past and conjure new beginnings from the shadows.
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