Rua Red

In The Collie, The Cheviot and The Crouched Skeleton, Barry uses the farm walk as both a method of research and a form of encounter. For many years, she was part of a sheep discussion group in Wexford that organised farm walks. Within farming communities, the farm walk is a collaborative practice in which a farmer opens their land to others for peer learning, shared experience and practical exchange. It is a context in which agricultural methods can be seen, touched, questioned and analysed in real time, and where successes and mistakes are discussed openly. These walks create a space for learning that is honest, situated and rooted in lived knowledge.

Reflecting on the process, Barry says:

“En route through the Dublin Mountains, I had no set agenda. One farmer introduced me to the next. I found myself taken to unexpected places, both physically and mentally, and became torn between my roles as artist, farmer, reporter and broadcaster. I wanted to understand, introspect and experience the story of the area through time spent walking and talking with other farmers, and to create work in a way that was humorous, and engaging.

With the brand-new works Donie’s Language and Chaddy and the Leylandii Gods, I try to create a personal map, touching on the poetics of place and farm life. I’m using fable-telling as a form of retrieval, in which each evocation of memory alters its perception of the past. I touch on breeding and bloodlines, friendship, heritage, and the destructive nature of tourism in rural areas, as well as how the necessity to survive pushes farmers into other forms of work and also into the transformation of the landscape in which they live and work. Discovering the Dublin Mountains in this way felt a bit like Sir Walter Raleigh discovering potatoes in his own parish.”

With humour, respect and close attention to rural knowledge, The Collie, The Cheviot and The Crouched Skeleton considers the farm walk as a means of entering into relation with land, labour, memory and community. The commission reflects on the complexities of rural life at the edge of the city, exploring how landscape is shaped by inheritance, lineage, survival, friendship, economic pressure and the stories that pass between people.

The Collie, The Cheviot and The Crouched Skeleton launches at Rua Red on Friday 10 July at 6pm and continues until Saturday 26 September.

All welcome. Admission free.

Orla Barry (Ireland, 1969) is both an artist and a shepherd. After living in Brussels for 16 years, she decided to move to her father’s farm in rural Wexford where, alongside her artistic activity, she keeps a flock of pedigree Lleyn and Galway sheep. Her work spans performance, video, sound installation, and writing, exploring language’s materiality and the disconnection between rural life and contemporary culture. Barry addresses themes of farming, gender, and the natural world through an embodied approach research. She is inspired by methodologies akin to auto-ethnography and she aims for a physical understanding of language as a visual and sonic form.

Her work has recently been shown in international solo exhibitions including Beton Salon, Paris (2025), MAC’s, Grand Hornu (2024), Mu.Zee, Ostend (2019), Crawford Art Gallery, Cork (2017) Quetzal Art Centre, Vidigueira (2017), Wexford Arts Centre (2017), Temple Bar Gallery + Studios (2016), Mothers Tankstation (2014), Museu Bernardo in Lisbon (2011), Irish Museum of Modern Art (2006), Camden Arts Centre in London (2005), W139 in Amsterdam (2005), S.M.A.K Ghent (2005), Argos (2002). Her live performances have been presented as part of Dublin Theatre Festival (2023/2016), Cork Midsummer Festival (2023/2017), WoWmen Festival KAAI (2020), Playground & M-Museum, Leuven (2008, 2012, 2019) Performatik 17: The Brussels Biennial of Performance Art (2017), The South London Gallery (2013), Bozar, Brussels (2013), de Appel, Amsterdam (2009) and UBS Openings: Saturday Live, Tate Modern (2008). Recent group shows include Memory of a free festival, Ormston House, Limerick, 10th Biennial of Painting, Roger Ravel Museum, Machelen-aan-deLeie (BE) and 39th & 40th EVA international

Admission to the gallery is free. Rua Red is proud to be supported by the Arts Council, South Dublin County Council, Creative Ireland, and the Government of Ireland; Project Ireland 2040.

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