BUTTERCUP
Sarah Browne
Buttercup
13 April – 29 June, 2024
SIRIUS, Cobh, County Cork
Buttercup is the title of a 28 minute film at the centre of an exhibition by Sarah Browne at SIRIUS.
Buttercup combines 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 as a 2 channel installation, differing sensory translations accessible for all visitors.
A text-in-response to the film by Sarah Hayden titled as if […] wearing anklesocks is published to accompany the exhibition of Buttercup at SIRIUS, 13 April – 29 June 2024. This publication is designed by Rose Nordin and produced by Kunstverein Aughrim. A long-form experimental poem, as if […] wearing anklesocks was performed live by Sarah Hayden on 27 April 2024 at SIRIUS.
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 SIRUIS 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
SIRIUS 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.