Oilithreacht Ollan: Wool Pilgrimage - Installation #3
Scíth Timthriallta - Cycles Rest. Artistic Collaboration of Maria Tanner Cohen and Cynthia O'Hern.
Felted Wool Installation at Baurnadomeeny Wedge Tomb, Co. Tipperary, Ireland, 2023.
From deep inside the cave at Crúchan to the top of Sliabh na Caillaigh on the ritual landscape of Lougcrew Co Meath, we travelled onward to our final point of alignment at Barnadomeeney Wedge Tomb in Co Tipperary.
Located on south-western spur of Mauherslieve, 'Mauhershliabh' or Mother Mountain,Barnadomeeney wedge tomb is one of twenty early Bronze Age Tombs nestled in this particular landscape.
On this ancestral ground of rest we installed our felted work in the final stage of its becoming.
The pod from Crúchan cave, that became the ear of an Bó Finn in Loughcrew was now refigured into a soft burial shroud.
The shroud cast the hollow of a slight human form, tapering off into a bovine tail.Wo-man and animal spirit intimately sewn together in acknowledgement of the everpresent (cruthanna) shapeshifter that prowls on the borders of Irish ancestral dreamtime.
The white hawthorn blossom that sweetened land in the month of May as we undertook our Oilithreacht Ollan,in this final iteration, we honorarily placed it on the illuminated heart space of the burial shroud. Symbolising light and life enlaced in infinity.
Just before the day's ardent sun slipped below the Mother Mountain, in a final burst of radiance we were gifted two flares of light that formed a fiery triangle over our shroud.
An augury of light to remind us that nature and consciousness are deeply interpenetrating. In making our memoriam, evocations and incantations, the Beandía was always listening.
This final work brought to a close our Oilireacht Ollan across Éire in honour of the Goddess, the fertile ground of being.
