Exhibition Opening 3pm Saturday, November 15th
All are welcome, open daily 11.30AM – 5.30PM from November 16th – November 29th
At: The Tea Houses, Kilkenny
The Tea Houses presents the upcoming exhibition, River(s) of no Return by Bernadette Kiely, guest curated by Shannon Carroll.
The river flows through Bernadette Kiely’s work as it does through her life. Living on the banks of the River Nore, for over two decades she has borne witness to the shifting balance between water, land and those on its edges. From her studio on the quayside, she paints, draws and documents the river’s changing surface. Attentive to flooding, her work documents the impact of water on daily life to the ways in which communities respond to it. Her practice is grounded in slow observation: walking the river, listening to it, tracing its presence and noticing how it connects to wider cycles of change, from local floods to wildfires and environmental crises across the world.
More than seventy percent of the planet is covered with water. There is no doubt that water is a force that binds us all, with every community dependent on it. From the vastness of our oceans to the intimacy of local waterways, our relationship with water shapes how we live and how we imagine our future. Kiely’s work reminds us that to know a river is not only to recognise its shape and flow, but to sense its power, fragility and interconnection with all life. Her paintings and drawings in this exhibition carry a deep reverence, inviting us to reimagine our relationship with the waters that hold and sustain us.
The work in this exhibition explores what it means to know a river. Following the recent mass fish kill on the River Blackwater, poisoned in a pollution incident, the importance of this work could not be clearer. At a time when rivers across Ireland face mounting ecological threats, her work is not only a reminder, but an important call to action: to reconnect, to protect and to let the river flow through us all.
This exhibition is presented as part of [K]nore Your River, a community-powered season of events, art, science and storytelling along the River Nore, inviting everyone to explore how the river shapes our identity and how we can care for it together. This community project was organised and led by SEA School Studios & Labs, a mobile learning centre dedicated to exploring Science, Ecology and the Arts in the field, whose mission is to reconnect communities to the many layers of diversity and knowledge in their local landscapes.
The Tea Houses are situated by the River Nore in Kilkenny city centre and have been acquired by Kilkenny Arts Office to host an art programme that encourages a sense of community and active citizenship.
Kindly supported by Kilkenny Arts Office and Kilkenny County Council.
Co-presented as part of Science Week in Kilkenny, a creative meeting of art and ecology that celebrates the shared curiosity at the heart of both disciplines.
Artist Biography
Bernadette Kiely is a visual artist based on the quayside of the river Nore in Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny. Known for her powerful portrayals of the fragility of the natural and physical world, Bernadette draws particularly on her experiences as a child growing up on the quayside in Carrick on Suir, Co. Tipperary, where she witnessed many flood events which have continued throughout her life as an adult living on the river Nore in Co. Kilkenny. The effects of flooding and decay on land and human lives have been an enduring theme in her practice for over 25 years expanding in scale and intensity along with the urgency of the present climate emergency. Bernadette is represented by Taylor Galleries, Dublin and is a member of Aosdana, the governmental body of artists who are deemed by their peers to make a continuing significant contribution to the arts in Ireland.
Curator Biography
Shannon Carroll is a visual arts curator whose work explores environmentally and ecologically engaged artistic practices through research and collaboration. She works closely with artists usually across a range of projects, from curating exhibitions and commissioning new works to organising events and writing. A central theme running through her practice is humanity’s fractured relationship with the natural and more-than-human world. With a practice based on values of care, collaboration and critical inquiry, she is committed to creating spaces where artists and audiences can engage in reflection, dialogue and collective imagining together. In 2023 Shannon was the Emerging Curator with Kilkenny Arts Office. She was the 2021 recipient of the Lab Gallery Curatorial Scholarship. She holds a distinction in IADT’s MA in Art & Research Collaboration, an MA from UCD in Art History, Collections & Curation and a BA from Trinity in History of Art & Architecture and Philosophy.
