Swallowing Geography was a dual-venue exhibition curated by early career curator-in-residence Rachel Botha that ran over autumn - winter 2022. It took place in the Regional Cultural Centre Letterkenny and Glebe House and Gallery, Donegal, from October - December 2022. It featured a wide range of works from the collection of the Arts Council of Ireland, along with the work of four contemporary Donegal artists - myself, Eoghan McIntyre, Laura McCafferty and Jill Quigley. I was commissioned to make work for this exhibition upon my return from Spain in summer 2022.

The intent of this exhibition was to observe the dynamics between belonging and exclusion in response to the Donegal context. It presented the lived and imagined experiences of inhabiting space, while exploring our engagement with geographical, domestic and digital worlds.

The title Swallowing Geography is borrowed from Deborah Levy’s novella which questions the idea of home – “Is home a good place? Or just somewhere to return to?”– and expands on our perception of belonging. The exhibition attempted to share the complex narratives about securing a place in the world where belonging is measured alongside exclusion, and broadly shares experiences of migration, displacement and marginalisation.