How Owning Crap Land Can Have A Negative Impact On Your Sex Life

Bachelors Walk is the nickname given to a small area to the north of Doolin, at the the junction between Cahermaccrusheen and Lurraga. Up until fifteen years ago it was inhabited mostly by unmarried farmers. Nearly all of them have died in the last decade and the area has changed as young families have moved in.

The exhibition will focus on this tiny portion of North Clare - just a few fields - as a way of highlighting wider demographic changes in the countryside. I wanted to explore the lost world that these people inhabited, a world that existed not much more than ten years ago but which now seems to have vanished forever. I’m also interested in exploring how that past resurfaces in (and influences) the lives of the current inhabitants.

The exhibition will consist of paintings of the old people who used to live in the area and some of the modern day bachelors, as well as sketches and paintings of the people who now live and work there. There will also be digital illustrations of maps and geological diagrams, plus some images of text and drawings of local stories and songs.

An Exhibitionist Writes

My proposal for an exhibition has been accepted. It’s great news and I should be jumping around the house playing a trombone or something. However, like last May, I’m suffering from wind headaches, which only come when the south westerlies hit gale force. It means that some parts of my brain don’t function properly and I can only concentrate on one thing at once. The pains usually come whenever the lid blows off the compost bin. I haven’t yet worked out the connection here, though possibly the compost bin and I have merged on some sort of sub-atomic level (kind of like in the Third Policeman).

Anyway, the exhibition is called Bachelors Walk and is an art/social/personal investigation of Lurraga, the small townland where we live. Opening night is to be June 22nd. That means I’ve got six weeks to get it all together.