Áine Ryan, ‘all she could do was moo’

Exhibition by Waterford artist, Áine Ryan, featuring glass cast sculpture, found objects, film, installation and audio which examines the parallels between the treatment of women and farm animals in rural Ireland - bringing the worlds of women and farming into uncomfortable proximity. Agricultural tools, animal remains and rural materials sit alongside intimate objects associated with the female body. Fertility, labour, sexuality, voice and value run through the work, while the story of Io (a woman transformed into a cow and stripped of her voice) provides a mythological thread. Rural language and familiar objects are shifted and reassembled, asking us to look again at the ways bodies are assessed, handled and valued. Ryan studied Contemporary Applied Art at Crawford College of Art and Design, has won multiple awards and residencies, exhibited extensively in both Ireland and internationally, and her artwork can be found in private collections as well as the permanent Waterford Art Collection.