Rosalind Lowry

The Blue Plaque Scheme

Ceramic blue plaque

Project taking place in Ireland & the UK

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I’ve been involved in What’s Next for Earth with The Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere and Stanford University since 2021.

This new work is based on the Common Law in Ireland for Trees & Hedges. The law states it’s illegal to cut hedges and trees between March 1 and August 31 each year. The ban is designed to protect wildlife during nesting and breeding season.

I created a series of ceramic blue plaques to leave where hedges and trees have been cut in my local area. Too many!

The Blue Plaque Scheme in Ireland & the UK honours the relationship between buildings and significant people who once lived there.

The work is based on the “laws that can help or hinder resilience building efforts” - Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute.
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2024
  • Rosalind Lowry

Wasteland

Materials: Hand-thrown ceramics
Dimensions: 5ft x 5ft
Location: temporary installation in Portglenone Forest, County Antrim, Ireland

The work is about the importance of community resilience regarding food, water, and energy. It's a series of hot pink cans discarded in a local beauty spot.

The installation is based on reducing food miles and long food supply chains and exporting all the associated waste materials. Government trade data shows the top 3 export countries for UK plastic waste are Turkey, Malaysia, and Poland, with tonnes of rubbish exported annually.
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2023
  • Rosalind Lowry

Remembering The Irish Woodlands

Installation
Forest Service Northern Ireland
2018

For the last 2 years, I've been involved in @whatsnextforearth programme with The Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere, a Stanford University initiative. This image is for the Community Resilience and Education program.

Ash Dieback disease is changing the landscape and habitat for wildlife across Ireland, and the governments in the North and South have collaborated on an education program for people across the island to report any infected Ash trees they see. A new app has been developed to stop the spread of the disease.

This image is of a work based on the disappearing landscape of Ireland and the app. It is easily downloaded and easy to use.
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2023
  • Rosalind Lowry

Predator Fence

Materials: Porcelain
2ft x 10ft
Location: Private Land, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

A new installation on private land, specifically for the @whatsnextforearth Social Justice artcall for Stanford University & The Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere, a programme I've been involved in for over a year now. Generations ago, common land in Ireland was gradually enclosed with fences and claimed as private property by organisations and people wealthy enough to get away with it. People who lived off this land had to rent it back or work for the 'landowners'. Social Justice highlights that no human being made the land or the rivers or the sea, so why then should a person or a corporation be entitled to extract wealth from it?
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2023
  • Rosalind Lowry

Earth Day 2023 – The Road Back Home100

Drawing made with wire

16 meter long

Location: Ireland

I've been part of a Stanford University initiative called What's Next for Earth for a year now, and this is my contribution to their Relocalization art call. It's about getting back to using the local economy and supporting local community economics to build resilience against giant corporations. It's the road back home.
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2023
  • Rosalind Lowry

Broken Circle

Porcelain
2022

Installed on an old unused road in County Antrim, my contribution to What's Next for Earth for How Globalisation Undermines Resilience. Based on the idea of the circular economy and the concept of designing out waste, and how globalization may be the relentless pursuit of economic efficiency, and the creation of a perfect circle, at the cost of the planet.
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2023
  • Rosalind Lowry

The Heartbeat of Trees —El Latido del Corazon de los Arboles

installation
Epecuen, Argentina

I’ve spent the last few weeks in Argentina on a residency at Epecuen, thanks to Arts Council Northern Ireland. In the 1970's following long term rain in the surrounding hills an earthen dam broke and the town of Epecuen where 5,000 people lived, was consumed by the lake, under 10 metres of water.

People in the town had a few days to evacuate before their homes disappeared. Now, 50 year's on, the water is receding and the town is being revealed again.

I had the privilege of being Artist in Residence in the ruins. This includes a forest, now a series of dead salt soaked trees. The people relocated and began their lives and built their new homes on higher land.

Throughout 2022 I have submitted and presented to the Stanford University initiative What's Next for Earth and this post is for the latest art call for Community Resilience.

In Epecuen I saw the results of sustained weather on a small community who had to work together to rebuild their lives and to develop a unique support system to survive.

This work is called The Heartbeat of Trees or El latido del corazon de los arboles.
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2022
  • Rosalind Lowry

Mending Wall

Porcelain clay
90cms x 60cms
2022

Inspired by the Robert Frost poem Mending Wall, where social customs and traditions are difficult to change when they are embedded in communities. The poem is about destruction and creation going hand in hand.
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2022
  • Rosalind Lowry

Two Bandaged Planets

Porcelain clay. Ultra fragile!
2022
20cm diameter

Two bandaged planets, still functioning and trying to adapt to long-term changes.
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2022
  • Rosalind Lowry

Blue Eyed Grass On The Peatlands Of Ireland

Installation on the peatlands of County Tyrone
20ft x 40ft

This was an installation created as a response to the folk practices and traditions in Ireland on peatlands, and their commodification. It relates to the theme of Culture Change and Neuroscience in relation to the treatment of these special areas, and family ownership of 'plots' through generations There is a current very slow shift of thinking about the use of these endangered places. For 2 year's I was Artist in Residence on the peatlands for the UK Heritage Lottery, creating work in response to the community connection to the land.
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2022
  • Rosalind Lowry

Valuing relationships, not things
Conserving not consuming

Seed bank Installation, County Tyrone,
acrylic globe's filled with plant and Sphagnum Moss samples from across an endangered bogland.

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I created this installation as a type of cultural and historical bank, preserving the plant species of Irish boglands, where I spent the last 2 years, as an Artist in Residence for the UK Heritage Lottery Fund. More than 1,000 formal seedbanks exist around the world and it is estimated that 40% of plant species are vulnerable to extinction. This installation is an expression of insurance for the future. Each globe contains cuttings from various Sphagnum Mosses, Bog plants, Bog grasses, and some invasive species. The seed bank is about saving the important things for the future, conserving not consuming and I think this is closely aligned with Shifting Cultural Stories.
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2021
  • Rosalind Lowry

Reindeer Lichen installation

Installation

2021, Derrytresk Bog, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
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2021
  • Rosalind Lowry
A Letter from an Irish Bog
Ecoartspace: What’s Next for Earth + Think Resilience

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