Deep Mapping Lough Boora Sculpture Park

Book excerpt: Lough Boora Sculpture Park has been developed on cutaway bogs. The work reveals how art can help to rebuild a relationship between people, place and non-human others. There is one more creative impulse, an agency that is at the heart of this matter, sphagnum – peat moss. We have collections of moss in glass jars filled with water next to our studio window. Sphagnum grows noticeably taller and denser in this artificial environment. I cannot believe the strength of such a flimsy thing, it can rise above the water as it moves towards the light. On any sunny day numerous small bubbles come out from the translucent leaves. Tiny insects are swimming in and around the plants. Bog lands are not wastelands. Raised bogs are as monumental and significant as redwood forests. Sphagnum is an extraordinary living thing. It is small, fragile but at the same time resilient, never harmful. Always close to water it is absorbent, spongy to walk on. Softness is the essence of the plant. Art can be a response to small things. Use your sensibility to listen to the breath of the bog. Imagine the sight and sound as the spore capsules explode. Feel the energy as the air is filled with an infinity of spores, another cycle begins. Reiko Goto Collins