Presented in partnership with Cairde Sligo Arts Festival as part of the Hereditas Project
Participating artists: Chloe McDonagh, Dave McDonagh, Francesca Hutchinson, Leanne McDonagh, Phien O’Phien and Tommy Rhattigan.
Bafushia is a word from the Traveller Cant language that conveys a physically-bound term of forward movement. The exhibition title arose while exploring Jack Butler Yeats images of Travellers with Oein DeBhairduin and participants from the Sligo Traveller Support Group.
Through collective interpretation the word was translated from the Yeats drawing ‘Telling the Cards’ (1898), where it was written down. In this context Bafushia could also be used as a word for divining the future, ‘telling forward’, and for seeking out and imagining what lies ahead.
The exhibition consists of contemporary artists who share heritage within the Travelling community. What is important about this selection of artists however is the relevance and criticality of the work that they make. A criticality that is simultaneously rooted in personal experience, but also advocates for the sharing of diverse knowledge, experience and reflection.
This exhibition is part of the Hereditas Project funded by The Arts Council of Ireland’s Art: 2023 Centenary Programme.
Image credits: Leanne McDonagh; Rest, 2011, Pigment on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag. Image courtesy of the artist.
