Materials Matter / Ábhar Ábhar is a collaborative project devised by three artists and educators, Clare Breen, Mary Conroy and Laura Ní Fhlaibhín. Their individual practices share the common denominator of sustainability and environmental awareness within the process of art production.
Materials Matter, Ábhar Ábhar is a container, a holder, a way of thinking and a movement, that explores the production of sustainable art materials. The aim is to bring together practices and forgotten ways of working that are passed along, embellished, reworked, indigenous or partially remembered.
We live in a time where we need to change our approach to production and consumption. We have all become disconnected from the mass produced products we use in our daily lives - artists and their materials are no exception. These three art workers share the desire to develop and disseminate a way of working that not only reflects their own personal commitment to material sustainability within their practices, but a desire to assist others to make art sustainably.
Materials Matter extends this sustainable thinking by considering the digital and communication requirements of these current times. This means acknowledging that computation and the internet can have a direct, negative, impact on the climate. Materials Matter chooses to self-host this site on a recycled server, and chooses to use non-proprietary digital tools for collaboration. Those considerations are supported by a fourth member of the collective, Colm O'Neill, who researches the sustainability of modern computing.
This website documents research, testing, developing and collating a series of methods and recipes for the production of natural and DIY art materials and tools. This resource aims to revive craft knowledge and the use of natural materials while working with low cost, locally sourced raw ingredients.
Contact us at :
- instagram: @materialsmatter.ie
- info@materialsmatter.ie
- 00353 87 648 0500
