The Inextinguishable might be a sign of hope – the will to live, the light that never goes out, the fire that burns on. Brigit, the female Patron Saint of Ireland, whose pantry never emptied, so she might hand out the everlasting milk and butter, also kept a fire alight for 500 years in Kildare. It produced no ashes and it could not be approached by men. What powers lie within elements turned mythical – in fire, and in the products of dairy. The Inextinguishable explores the inexhaustible resonances of milk and butter, seen through the prism of Irish history and the calamities of the present.
Taking reference from the “Golden Vein”, a 19th century descriptor for the agricultural bounty of the Limerick region, the 39th EVA International programme seeks to question ideas of land and its’ contested values in the context of Ireland today. Through the work of the participating artists, these questions extend to broader considerations of how we relate to the land in terms of ideology, identity, and resource. Jackson and Leslie’s collaborative publication is an ongoing exploration of milk, long associated with the golden vein. Milk is a primal fluid, identified with care – yet its sensational qualities are captured by science in bio-political skeins of big data analysis in Ireland and internationally to make it one of the most technologized fluids on the planet.
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