inicio Extracción manual de turba en Irlanda.

After spending a year in Dublin I returned home to Galicia where I met the Gaelic poet Gráinne Ní Fhoighil. She told me about her native home, the bog which is the predominant landscape of Conamara and the primeval beauty of its vast, wet and windswept spaces. When I had the opportunity to visit the west of Ireland I wrapped myself in this magical and ever changing light, the quiet solitude of the bog, and the ancient patience of a soil which grows very slowly millimeter by millimeter, over years and years. I felt totally in awe and almost instantly decided to discover this unknown reality for myself. I am not merely talking about the landscape although very beautiful. Landscape alone is not a sufficient source of inspiration for me. I refer to the human being interacting within landscape, a lifestyle shaped by the rigorous environment which adds to a character forged through the generations reflected in all the facets of daily life. The Conamara air is distinctive, contrasting cold sea spray with warm home burning peat, like its weather of serene calmness and turbulent storms. I have been visiting Ireland intermittently for the last couple of years, seeing different counties and photographing the realities of this land. Each time I visit I discover new aspects and feel myself getting closer to what it is that I am seeking. My initial fascination about the traditions and the ancient lifestyle, in communion with the soil, with common sense and the fashionable statements of sustainability slowly changed to a sharper critical vision. Sarcastically at times denouncing new changes caused by modern machinery used in turf extraction. The times in which the turf was “cut by hand” to the times of current “turf extraction” equates to the difference between past home usage mostly and recent times of greedy exploitation. This marked difference is highly significant and worrying. An ancient tradition with such a big affect on shaping local communities is in serious danger of extinction. My interest therefore is to best record, photograph and capture the soul of this land by way of reference to the bog as the epicenter, such as the sun which stimulates life and brings warmth to the people who live there. The reason I find myself attracted to work on the Isle of Skye is because it will be a perfect location to develop my current work as I would find myself immersed in a very similar landscape and atmosphere. This would help me focus more intensely. I would appreciate the space and the time to process the information I have already captured and to have a further opportunity to add to it as I would find myself in very similar territory. The time spent on Skye would allow me to find the best way forward in converting my findings into a complete body of work. I would greatly appreciate the chance to explore and investigate new materials and different media whilst preparing this project.