SON OF HONEY-BAG
SON OF HONEY-BAG
Kunstverein Aughrim
12 March – 20 May 2026
SON OF HONEY-BAG is the title of a new body of work in development by West Cork based artist Sibyl Montague. Through sculpture, drawing and material manipulation, the artist engages with complex themes around inter-species relationships, agricultural products and by-products, and human connections to land and resources in the Irish landscape.
Active research for this project stems from continued observational encounters with a dairy herd local to the artist, as well as close collaboration and knowledge exchange with diviners, farmers, butchers, poets and animators.
The title is drawn from the tale of Aislinge Meic Con Glinne, an 11th-century Cork legend, that centres on Cathal mac Finguine, historical King of Munster, who was possessed by a demon of gluttony in his throat. The phrase ‘son of honey-bag’ formed part of a long incantation to coax the demon out. Other meanings for the term ‘honey bag’ range from the apian (relating to bees) to the anatomical (in slang).
Another source text is François Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel, wherein body fluids are a big part of the novel's grotesque realism, representing a world of abundance, consumption, and the breakdown of boundaries between the body and the material world. The depiction of these fluids is characterised by caricature and scatological humor, serving to mock authority and emphasize the power of the abject as a site of regeneration and rebellion.
Sibyl’s work too reaches from the deep innards of our contemporary capitalist world of consumption and gluttony, through the material clarity of substances like milk and animal hides, into ancient and native knowledge systems, that deprioritise the human-centric experience, making space for a deeper and more esoteric engagement with life.
SON OF HONEY-BAG is presented as an evolving exhibition at Kunstverein Aughrim (12 March – 20 May 2026), an intervention at The Cartoon Inn, Rathdrum (23 May 2026) and a studio event at Ó Dheas, Skibbereen (1 August 2026).
