aiteann

research, drawing, film, installation

2025

Fire, Heritage and Art

The uplands in Ireland can look spongy from a distance, like stones with thick moss that have been magically enlarged into mountains. Look closer, and you can see that mossy surface is scrubland, mostly heather and one other plant. That plant has many names: gorse, furze, whin or aiteann in Ireland, depending on where in the country you come from. And it is known for its traditions with fire.

Until very recently, large fires were a regular sight on hillsides particularly in the south-east and south-west. The tradition of burning aiteann goes back to the 16th Century at least. The folklorist and archivist AT Lucas wrote about how it was once a cash crop, valued for its high burn point and sold for use in communal ovens and home hearths. Today, another cash crop, sitka spruce, is also highly flammable, and has been at the centre of several wildfires in Ireland in recent years.

From January to March 2025, I was artist-in-residence on FIRECULT, an international research project with partners in Ireland, the UK, Italy, Turkey and the USA. The project is investigating how wildfires affect cultural heritage. I was partnered in Ireland with UCD and the Irish Uplands Forum. The artist residency is run by The Maltings Berwick and Newcastle University, with three artists resident in three countries: Ireland, Italy and Turkey, developing artistic research related to wildfires.

In Irish folk traditions, fire is often both creator and destroyer. Drawing from this idea, I used fire as a creative medium. I cut branches from these plants, aiteann and sitka spruce, and created drawing charcoal from them. I then used this charcoal to draw the plants themselves, creating a cycle of destruction and creation, and highlighting the often overlooked flora in the process.

The burning of aiteann became less common around the mid-19th Century, when coal became cheaper and more widely available. Gradually, aiteann became less and less used, and diminished at a rate similar to the use of the Irish language, until by the 20th Century it was barely used at all. Today, places where aiteann grows are considered low value scrubland.

In 2026, I was commissioned by Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Co. Wicklow, to build a pavilion dedicated to aiteann (furze locally), and also to create some of the objects related to the folk history of the plant. I built this with a team, launched in July 2026 at Knockree Hostel. Wicklow. The pavilion will remain on site at the hostel throughout 2026. Other parts of this artwork include a performance and talk at the launch, a calendar of workshops and social events, and large-scale prints of the works from FIRECULT.