Christine Mackey;
Seeking to walk beautifully on the earth

Tue. 4 Feb. – Sat. 22 Mar. 2025

Opening – 5pm, Sat. 1 Feb.

Earth's skin is not one soil but many soils. Each has its own story. Soils are active. They are born. They age. They breathe. Soils are in a state of constant change in cycles with no beginning and no end. We are the custodians of this living organism, earth's green mantle.

This opening statement by the artist Christine Mackey sets the stage for her solo exhibition, Seeking to walk beautifully on the earth, which opens at The Model on Sat. 1 February.

Mackey’s artistic practice is one of profound stewardship, observation and care for the environment, and is deeply rooted in site-specific land and marine-based work. Seasonal processes range from collecting seeds, to weaving floating islands, to nourishing native tree saplings, to the cultivation of waste ground.

Seeking to walk beautifully on the earth is accompanied by a unique series of mini residencies undertaken by invited multi-disciplinary artists whose work resonates with Mackey’s practice. Each artist-in-residence will present free workshops over six weeks throughout February and March, offering members of the public and invited groups the opportunity to explore a range of concepts and techniques from mycology, world-building, weaving, making dyes and pigments, to story-telling and illustration.

Mackey’s exhibition is particularly relevant today, as it resonates with urgent issues of biodiversity loss, species extinction, energy crises, and habitat destruction, while at the same time highlighting positive themes of renewal, awareness, and change.

The works are assembled as a series of chapters rooted in key locations. Huddle began as a public seed planting exercise in Wexford to explore the habitat of native bees. It looks at the way in which wild pollinators are under threat from pollution and adverse changes to the climate. Auction is an experimental docu-style video that documents Mackey’s residency at a kelp farm in South Korea. This work visualizes the implications of industrial-scale seaweed farming on the local marine environment and on migratory communities. This experience prompted Mackey to develop several large-scale hybrid drawings of aquatic plants that are sewn in sections utilizing a Korean technique to make wrapping cloth from waste material.

Boils, Bitters, and Scores is a unique artist’s book that reflects Mackey’s long-term engagement with biological narratives, where the distinct voice of each plant is conveyed through their words and realized in their pigments.

The variable materials and processes used in this exhibition activate new ideas related to site, agency and ecology which opens a myriad of conversation on the fragility of earths systems.

Workshops with the invited artists can be booked here. The exhibition continues until 22 March.