‘Dinnseanchas’ by Christina McBride

‘Dinnseanchas’ is a new series of photographic works which form part of a larger body of research developed during a residency in the west coast of Ireland.

The research is centred on the specifics of the landscape, and its interweaving with the Irish language and family lineage. Methodologies include expanding more sustainable materials and processes within the production of work and testing the produce from both the land and the sea as plant-based developers.

The term ‘Dinnseanchas’ is an ancient practice which began as a process of naming places, informed by a combination of their natural and physical forms, or a reference to some of the historical layers and legends specific to that place. As it developed it became a form of mapping of the entire country and is now recognised as a rich and important branch of knowledge in the Gaelic world. ‘Dinnseanchas’ is also associated with perceptions of ‘place wisdom’ – and ways of understanding the landscape and ‘reading the manuscript of the land.’

The exhibition includes a text work by Sara O’Brien, a writer/researcher based between Glasgow and Dublin.

Christina McBride is an artist based in Glasgow who has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally with solo exhibitions in New York and Mexico City. Much of her research is located within lens-based enquiry with a committed focus on analogue practices/processes, and expanding the discourse around its medium specificity – particularly in relation to time and place.