Tipperary artist and Ukrainian weaver collaborate on new artwork

Shared histories of oppression between Ireland and Ukraine are woven together in Ursula Burke’s These Fragile Monuments at Crawford Art Gallery in Cork city, in which the Tipperary-born artist collaborates with Ukrainian weaver Zhanna Petrenko.

Ursula Burke, who grew up in Clonmel before attending art college in Belfast, has created a tapestry frieze which investigates Irish historical, art historical and contemporary representations of guerrilla warfare as part of the Cork gallery’s Decade of Centenaries programme, Building as Witness. 

She has invited Kyiv-based Petrenko to weave the tapestry, creating a thread between two countries and periods of time – Ireland and Ukraine, both historically oppressed by more powerful neighbours, and both having experienced the devastating effects of famine.

The tapestry is inspired by the work of Norwegian artist Hannah Ryggen (1894-1970) who made a series of powerful tapestries representing images of resistance and highlighting the brutality of Nazi occupied Norway during the Second World War. 

Burke, whose practice incorporates porcelain sculpture, soft sculpture, embroidery sculpture and drawing, has also created a battle-bruised dog modelled on The Jennings Dog – a Greek bronze from the 2nd century CE – which is covered in hand-embroidered flames, emblematic of all the Irish houses and commercial premises burnt out by the infamous Black and Tans.

Ursula Burke’s These Fragile Monuments is one of six Building as Witness artist projects commissioned by Crawford Art Gallery and supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012 - 2023.

“In conversation” event 

Ursula Burke will appear in conversation with Dr Edwin Coomasaru, a historian of modern and contemporary British, Irish and Sri Lankan art, at 6pm on Friday 24 May in the Lecture Theatre of Crawford Art Gallery. 

The exhibition of URSULA BURKE: These Fragile Monuments runs from Saturday 25 May until Sunday 21 July in the Sculpture Galleries at Crawford Art Gallery.