BUTTERCUP
Sarah Browne
Buttercup
13 April – 8 June, 2024
Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh, County Cork
Buttercup is the title of a 28 minute film at the centre of an exhibition by Sarah Browne at Sirius Arts Centre.
Combining memoir with formal experiment, the film revolves around a single photograph depicting a child wearing a Communion dress, standing beside a man and a cow in a field. Returning to the farm where it was made, the photograph is described and referred to repeatedly throughout the film. These descriptions of still and barely-moving images prompt thoughts on human and bovine domestication, and the entanglements of gender, disability, and wildness.
Buttercup is made in close collaboration with audio describer Elaine Lillian Joseph and composer David Donohoe. Captioned and audio-described versions of the film alternate in the exhibition, accessible for all visitors.
A text in response by Sarah Hayden is published to accompany the exhibition. as if […] wearing anklesocks is a long-form experimental poem, written to be heard in the air or read on the page, and was performed by Sarah Hayden on 27 April 2024 at Sirius Arts Centre. It will soon be available online here as an audio recording and an accessible pdf.
as if […] wearing anklesocks was written and performed by Sarah Hayden in response to Buttercup by Sarah Browne. The publication and accessible pdf are designed by Rose Nordin and produced by Kunstverein Aughrim.
Audio Recording (coming soon)
Accessible PDF (coming soon)
Exhibition Production Credits
Buttercup is written, directed and edited by Sarah Browne
Music: David Donohoe
Voice: Elaine Lillian Joseph
Camera: Helena Monteiro Gouveia, Sarah Browne
Field recording and sound design: David Donohoe
Colour grade: Michael Higgins
Audio description: Elaine Lillian Joseph
Captioning: Daniel Hughes
Programming for exhibition: Billy Kemp
Consultants: Martin Kelly, Laura Tansey, Gillian Stafford, Noreen McInerney, Ciaran Stewart
Phytogram technique shared by Karel Doing
Paraphrased quotations:
Steven Rings, ‘Mystères limpides: Time and Transformation in Debussy’s Des pas sur la neige’, 2008; Hollis Frampton, (nostalgia), 1971; Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson, Animals in Translation, 2005.
The artist thanks Miguel Amado, Nikolaas Nieuwstraten, Billy Kemp, Megan O’Driscoll, Carys D. Coburn, Kate Strain, Sarah Hayden, Michael Birchall, Iarlaith Ní Fheorais, Miriam O’ Connor, Róisín Power Hackett, Ciaran Taylor, Sightless Cinema, aemi, Dean Kavanagh, Dennis McNulty, Crystal Media, PJ Kane, Liam and Mary Browne
Buttercup is commissioned by Sirius Arts Centre and realised with funding from Arts & Disability Ireland through the Arts and Disability Connect scheme. The presentation of Buttercup is organised by Sirius Arts Centre and curated by Miguel Amado, director.
About the artist
Sarah Browne is an artist based in Cork, Ireland. Recent commissions, solo shows, and publications include Echo’s Bones and Echo’s Bones: a parallel play, Fingal County Council, Ireland (2022, 2023); Public feeling, South Dublin County Council (2019); and Report to an Academy, Marabouparken, Sundbyberg, Sweden (2017). Browne curated The Law is a White Dog, the 2020 edition of TULCA, Galway, Ireland.
About Sirius Arts Centre
Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh, County Cork, Ireland, approaches art through the lens of society. It organises focused, artist-driven projects and collaborative, community-oriented projects. It facilitates the production and presentation of, and public engagement with, art and knowledge, and offers professional development opportunities to artists through commissions and residencies. It operates across all art forms—visual, performing, live, film, sound, vocal, written, and born-digital—programming a mix of exhibitions, performances, events, activities, and publications both on-site and online.
Kunstverein Aughrim’s ongoing collaboration with Sarah Browne is made possible with the support of The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon.