The challenges facing our food systems will be the subject of a new art exhibition in Co. Kerry, due to open next weekend.
Lisa Fingleton, who is an artist, filmmaker, writer and grower, told Agriland that the free show at Siamsa Tíre, Tralee brings together a “highly eclectic and dynamic” range of drawings, films and installations.
She added that the “timely, humorous and thought provoking” pieces “expose the challenges of our food systems in terms of biodiversity, climate change and health”.
Food
Through her role as an embedded artist with two large scale creative climate action projects, Lisa supports communities to explore how we can grow food, protect nature and be creative at the same time.
The exhibition features work created with these projects: “Brilliant Ballybunion” and “A Creative Imagining”, which included farmers in west Kerry.
As the visual artist in residence with Kerry County Council, Lisa works with people across the county looking at climate change and how creativity plays a role.
The installation also includes work from the Barna Way farm in north Kerry, which Lisa runs with her wife, Rena Blake.
“I would have grown up on a farm in the midlands, in Laois. I was really lucky because my parents grew pretty much all of our own food. My father still grows a lot of food.
“I would have grown up with that and kind of assumed that everyone had access to the same good food.
“The longer I live I realise that’s becoming more of a rarity and I think that is a real shame. It’s also potentially a crisis for Ireland because ultimately we’re an island on the edge of Europe. I feel we need to be more sovereign and resilient in our food systems,” Lisa said.
Lisa described the current food system as “very challenging” for growers, adding that “a lot of people are totally disconnected from the soil and from farms”.
“There are so few growers left in Ireland. I would very much feel that we are in a climate crisis, a biodiversity crisis and that we really need to take urgent stock of our food production in Ireland if we’re to move forward into the future with a degree of safety and certainty.
“I do think we are quite precarious at the minute, a very small percentage of our land is in organics and a very small percentage of our growers are still growing food,” she said.
However, Lisa believes that in the face of all of the challenges, there could be “an amazing opportunity”.
“We’ve had Brexit, we’ve had all these global shocks, now is the time to really invest in food systems in Ireland.
“Maybe work with local schools and farmers to start growing food for the schools, so the children are really eating nutritious food.
“We’re looking at lots of health crises in the country and lots of different health things happening to people.
“If we’re talking about being healthy, resilient citizens of the future, I really feel we have to invest in our food to invest in our health,” she said.
Lisa and Rena recently spent time in India with the writer and global food activist, Dr Vandana Shiva, which provided a major inspiration for the upcoming art exhibition.
Along with working with governments on food systems, Dr Shiva also runs a 60ac farm in the north of India, growing 650 varieties of seed which is placed into a “living seed bank” to distribute to farmers around the country.
“She’s looking at the big problems, but looking at local solutions. What can we do and how can we do it. I think that’s very empowering for people because sometimes we can feel overwhelmed by the state of the system,” Lisa said.
Exhibition
It was during her time in India that Lisa heard a story which provided the title of her exhibition: “The Square Tomato”.
She was told a man had suggested during a conference that tomatoes could be made square to fit into crates and save on packaging.
The man claimed that in one generation people would forget that tomatoes were round.
“For me, it was the epitome of all the things that are wrong. We forget that growing up my generation grew food and had gardens.
“When I talk to children in schools now, they don’t remember that because their grandparents may have done it, but their parents may not have had the privilege of having the space or time to grow food.
“We need to be careful. It’s like collective amnesia, or collective anesthesia as they call it in India, that we forget and we need to make sure that people don’t forget where our food comes from,” Lisa said.
The exhibition, which will run from February 1 until March 22, is supported by Siamsa Tíre, Creative Ireland, the Arts Council and Kerry County Council’s Arts Office.