Cork Caryatids, 2021. Flags commissioned by Pluck Projects for Cork Midsummer Festival, June 2021. Location: Port of Cork.

This artwork was inspired by the Shawlies, well-known female traders in Cork whose heavy, black, weatherproof shawls gave them their name. The Shawlies would congregate at the city’s Dunscombe fountain, a civic structure that mysteriously disappeared and remains lost.

Made during the debate around public space, Black Lives Matter and monuments, I drew a line to Ancient Greece and the Parthenon caryatids. These pillars carved into the female form carrying baskets on their heads are based on the myth of a group of women being subjected to the hard labour of holding up a heavy temple, and rituals where women would dance with baskets of fruit on their heads. Images of Irish women carrying baskets on their heads persist into the 20th century; a universal mode of transporting resources for poor women across global history. 

My flags are vibrant portraits of the physical and mental weight of work that many women experience. The stamina required for juggling numerous jobs, caring responsibilities and unpaid labour. The physical relationship of the body to its environment and communities changes as do working patterns, cityscapes and populations. The figures are both individuals and work together to hold up structures. These bodies are non-idealised, strong women doing all the work of holding up a community in their workwear / work out gear; leisure wear being the worker’s go-to pandemic attire. 

The plants shown include a variegated spider plant, apparently good for alleviating the office environment from toxins. The patterns were made in Microsoft Excel, reflecting my alter-ego as an arts administrator, and the evolution of many working lives in late capitalism from blue to white collar.

The other plants are Acanthus and Maidenhair Fern, two of the plants said to have arrived in Ireland through the Port of Cork in ballast on ships. I’m interested in this colonial link between botany and architecture – between the Parthenon marbles, trade and botanical migration, and how these are reflected in the particularities of local customs and environments. The flags were sited in the Port of Cork, an industrial area of the city synonymous with marine trade, which was scheduled for redevelopment.