What is Commoning
Commoning is defined as “the processes of experimentation that Commons communities undergo as they build the necessary organisational, social, economic, political, and legal structures to enable the sharing of the Commons. These processes often give rise to new forms of inclusive, autonomous, and collective governance.”
As an artist, from 2022 – Ongoing, I have been exploring whether hospitality can act as an introduction to the concept of commoning. This exploration began with the project Porto Aperta, which used food as a political tool to bring diverse groups together to discuss the production and ethics of consumption.
Following Porto Aperta, I shifted my focus to the project Fulacht, which examines the reclamation and reinterpretation of Irish cuisine. Fulacht aims to build communities through the commoning of hospitality, food practices, history, and contemporary cultural contexts. It also seeks to act as a tool for unlearning, challenging nativist concepts that often arise in Irish cultural revival. By doing so, the project ensures that the diverse communities who call Ireland home are included in its contemporary history.
PROJECTS
Debut event
Porto Aperta: My NCAD degree show project was the subversion of how we view hospitality, using food as a political device while exploring whether commoning can be enacted through a dining experience. The exhibition took place between June the 8th and June the 11th, 2022. The event resulted in a pop-up cafe that presented the research surrounding the dark reality of why it's always summer in the supermarket. The purpose of the pop restaurant was to communicate the tomato's history, trade and contemporary production.
VISUAL Carlow
Following the success of the grad show work and research. Artist David Beattie invited me to collaborate on his " Distant Light from Future Stars" project. In this adaptation of the work, I cooked the produce, which was grown by David Beattie and locals in a solar-powered greenhouse. The debut event of Porto aperta explored the concept of the dark reality of our produce in the fruit and veg aisle. This event highlighted the importance of commoning and hospitality within our communities.
The Lab
Commissioned by Dublin City Arts Council and Curator Sheena Barret, I was invited to revise my initial project, Porto aperta, for an audience of curators. The initiative set out was to re-enact the exhibition of the first event and follow up with a discussion of how we should view contemporary art as a broader spectrum through the lens of commoning, unlearning and care. Porto aperta laid the foundation for a debate on how art centred around hospitality and commoning can exist in the contemporary art world and its importance for both the artist and the audience.
Body & Soul
Fulacht: After a year of research and development, I rebranded Porto Aperta to focus on the cultural context of Ireland. Fulacht debuted in Body and Soul, where I discussed with the audience the question of what is Irish food, what is the importance of our food culture, why I chose to reinterpret the concept of Irish cuisine and how commoning, unlearning and practices of care inspired by "terroir" can allow us to dismantle nativist idea which can shadow our notion of what Irishness means.
Electric Picnic
Conscious Cuisine: Having built up a body of research on commoning and ethical food chain research, Ireland invited me to host a panel discussion on the circular economy in Ireland. The panel was hosted in the human lab during Electric Picnic 2024 alongside Jess Murphy from Green Michelin star restaurant Kai, Cloud Picker Coffee and Aoife Courtney from Protein-I.
Science Week Westport
Science Week: Commissioned by Trinity College Dublin to host an event for Science Week based on my research for the project Fulacht in collaboration with "Levers" and Research Ireland. The event focused on capturing the research I had developed, accumulating a tasting menu of food from around Ireland produced by independent artisanal suppliers. Through creative intervention, we brought strangers together and ran interactive workshops and discussions around what Circular Economy looks like in communities and how we can reinforce it to work sustainably and ethically.
