Maternal Care by Olivier Cornet Gallery artist Hugh Cummins
Hugh Cummins
'Maternal Care'
OPW State Art Collection, Ireland
This beautiful wall piece was acquired by the Office of Public Work (OPW) in November 2015 at VUE Art Fair (RHA Dublin) where it was presented as part of our group show 'HOPSCOTCH'. The Olivier Cornet Gallery always presents a themed art exhibition at VUE, Ireland's National Contemporary Art Fair, and that year we chose 'childhood memories and children's games' as the theme.
In this exhibition, each work of art was accompanied by a text written by a young writer in a collaboration between curator of the show Olivier Cornet and Fighting Words: each writer was asked to respond to the work of their choice. Here was 14-year-old Aoife O’Dwyer's response to the artist's work:
“Water Fight”
We filled our bottles to the brim with water, changing into old clothes. Carrying our bottles we walked onto the green. After separating ourselves we ran, bottles held high and squirting out water. We soaked each other’s backs, poured buckets over our heads. We charged inside, refilling our bottles; water dripped off us. We were shoved back outside with the sun warming us up.
We split into pairs and began soaking ourselves again. The last two with water left stood face to face, throwing water. The winner then dunked their remaining water over the person’s head. With full bottles we ran barefoot, cheering and laughing at each other. No one was left un-soaked and no sympathy given if you ran out.
We tired ourselves out and lay on the tarmac, the sun heating us again. We wrote our names on the ground with water. After one last round, the smallest of us was shivering, so we retreated inside. We were covered with towels and whisked off to shower.
We sat in pajamas, laughing and talking about the day’s event. We curled up in blankets surrounding our friend who still shivered.
In 2016, 'Maternal Care' was chosen by a group of young curators
for inclusion in the annual OPW touring exhibition. The title of the show was IAWATST (Interesting And Weird At The Same Time): The 4th class children from the Central Model Senior School selected 20 artworks for the exhibition and the title reflected their response to the selection. The exhibition was a joint project between the Office of Public Works (OPW), the Department of Finance (DoF, Stormont Executive), Dublin City Council
the LAB Gallery
and the Central Model Senior School, Dublin 1.
The exhibition was inaugurated at The Printworks, Dublin Castle in November 2016. It was then shown at The Alley Theatre and Gallery, Strabane (Co. Tyrone), at The Lab Gallery in Dublin and, last but not least, at Cultúrlann Mcadam Ó Fiaich in Belfast.
A catalogue accompanied the exhibition. Click here
to view it. 'Maternal Care' features on page 15 and 16.
We love the curators' comments there, especially this one:
“It looks like pottery but it’s made from wood.”
“It looks like pottery but it’s made from wood.”
A comment the artist was very happy to read too!
Epilogue or a new beginning:
In December 2021, the artist and his gallery were delighted to hear that Maternal Care was "used in verbal description engagement for visually impaired audiences and Azure activities for audiences living with dementia". Our thanks to the OPW, Heritage Ireland, Arts & Disability Ireland and Mind's Eye.
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