LEER Exhibition: Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Ireland

LEER Exhibition: Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Ireland
June 12, 2024 | Exhibitions & Events

HAKOTO / portach / bog: a sense of otherness through creative practice.

This exhibition marks the culmination of a year-long residency at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Ireland, where artists Tim Collins and Reiko Goto Collins explored the unseen and unheard world of Ireland’s peat bogs1. Using HAKOTO, a sensory instrument they adapted from its original design for sensing trees, they captured the subtle life signs of sphagnum moss, translating the bog’s photosynthesis and transpiration into sound12.

The exhibition features a large-format video projection showcasing HAKOTO in action at various bog sites. This immersive experience reveals the “breath” of the bog, bridging human perception with these vital ecosystems13.

Collins and Goto Collins’ work builds on their ongoing project, Deep Mapping: Lough Boora Sculpture Park. Commissioned in 2019 by Offaly County Council and Bord na Móna, Deep Mapping examines the histories, technologies, and ecologies that are shaping the future of the Lough Boora Sculpture Park4. The project involved a community workshop with artists, council members, Bord na Móna ecologists, curators, and writers5. In this latest iteration, HAKOTO acts as a tool to explore questions of perception, meaning, and understanding as they relate to the boglands of Northwest Ireland13.

The adapted HAKOTO instrument required a complete redesign, with the technical team focusing on developing a dome-shaped leaf chamber that measures carbon flux over a 10cm diameter area of the bog1. Working with this adapted instrument, Collins and Goto Collins were able to conduct fieldwork at various locations across Ireland, including Conwal South and the slopes of Truskmore, capturing the often-overlooked beauty and complexity of these fragile environments

Our Contributions to the Exhibition Include:

• Large-format video projection of HAKOTO: This immersive video reveals the “life signs” of the bog, translating photosynthesis and transpiration of sphagnum moss into sound. HAKOTO—meaning “leaf words” or “leaf memories”—focuses attention on the often unheard “sounds” of the bog, bridging human perception with the hidden world of peatlands

Below, you can watch a sphagnum-performance featuring HAKOTO, set in the wild, untamed bogs of southwest County Sligo.

• A four-screen text and image display titled Bog Lyric 2024: Bog Lyric 2024 was created in collaboration with the “Bog Whisperer,” an AI engaged in dialogue with the artists about the changing relationship between the Irish people and their boglands. This dynamic cross-cultural and interdisciplinary partnership explored perceptions and meanings of these unique ecosystems through haiku-renga bog poetry and illustrative images
  
  
  
• Physical elements: Additional objects and structures create an immersive, sensory-rich experience that invites visitors to engage deeply with the bog environment.

Exhibition Details:

• Curator: Sean O’Reilly
• Collaborators: Chris Malcom (animation), Noel Hefele (AI program and imagery)
• Technical Team: Jim Watt and Blair Thompson

Bog Lyric 2024

Ancient Irish bogs
Trapping carbon silently
Earth breathes in and out

Water enables the bog form
A spongy walk, reluctance Beneath soft sphagnum
The water preserves the past

A carbon green conflation
The bog grows toward the sun
A nurturing living thing*

For a deeper look into our LEER residency journey, we invite you to explore our complete portfolio. This document chronicles our research process, artistic decisions, and the development of the final exhibition, providing a comprehensive view of our engagement with the bogs of Northwest Ireland.

Download the Complete LEER Portfolio (PDF)

The Collins + Goto Studio is known for their long-term projects focusing on socially engaged environmental research, with a particular interest in empathic connections with non-human entities. Their methods include a blend of reading, writing, sculpture, and the use of diverse media and technologies. Recent projects include Deep Mapping | Lough Boora Sculpture Park (2020), Future Forest: The Blackwood, Rannoch Scotland (2017), and Plein Air, a sculptural instrument exploring plant consciousness, presented in multiple international locations.