Hy-Brasil

This self initiated large scale experimental drawing project was carried out over a 2 month residency at the Uilinn: West Cork arts centre. Being interested in history, myth and nature I wanted to focus on creating the island of Hy-Brasil by examining its story that encapsulates each of these themes and put my make on a place that has captivated the minds of Irish Creatives before me.

During the residency funded by the Arts Council of Ireland I used the space to develop a more unconstrained drawing process using ink and a paintbrush that leant on the ideas of imagination and reality merging. Using a bank of visual imagery gathered through observational drawing along the the West Cork coastline and imaginative drawing inspired by the islands story in the months prior to the residency to influence the drawing I created.

The island of Hy-Brasil has a strong presence in Irish folklore and could be described as a place of intense natural beauty where imagination and reality merge. The island was said to be located along the west and south west coast of Ireland, obscured or floating on a fog bank, appearing once every seven years, disappearing when people approached it too closely. Curiously, the island has also been represented on a number of maps starting in the 12th right up to the 1870’s. While there were very few accounts of people actually reaching the island, the question of it’s existence was accepted, until advances in technology deemed it unreal, or as others theorise, before it sank beneath the waves.