Peasant Woman with Winnowing Basket Artist Unknown French Date late 1870s
The Winnowing Basket: Art Loot and the Commons, continued Artlink’s annual Art in the Park project. The 2025 edition took place across three scenic locations – Swan Park in Buncrana, Barrack Hill Park in Carndonagh, and The Bath Green in Moville – inviting locals and visitors to engage with art in the open air.
Curated by Declan Sheehan, the exhibition explored the theme The Winnowing Basket, Art, Loot and The Commons, uncovering hidden histories, reimagining public spaces, and art as a tool for reflection. Seven artists were selected through an international open call: Bbeyond, Denis Buckley, Marianna Bruno, Lisa Collomb, Sue Morris, Elaine Garde, and Kathleen O’Hara Farren.
A winnowing basket is a traditional farming tool used to separate grain from husks or chaff after harvest. Symbolically, it represents the process of sorting, sifting, and reclaiming – letting go of what’s unnecessary to keep what nourishes. Think of it as shaking the archives of history to see what truths remain.
The word “loot” entered English from Hindustani during British colonial rule, tied to the British East India Company’s colonial extraction of resources and wealth from India. Traces of such histories of empire, loot and commerce can be reclaimed and declaimed within these three Inishowen parks and commons.
Harry Swan’s Legacy: A Park & A Collection
Buncrana businessman Harry Swan (1879–1970) bequeathed Swan Park to the town and amassed an eclectic antiquities collection, now held by Ireland’s National Museum.
Moville’s Bath Green: A Colonial Gift
This scenic commons was a bequest from the Montgomery family, whose wealth and position stemmed in part from colonial exploits within the British East India Company. Sir Robert Montgomery, a key figure in suppressing India’s 1857 rebellion against colonial rule, later governed Punjab – his family’s legacy embedded in Moville’s landscape.
Inishowen’s Global Entanglements
Frederick Young (1786–1874), an Inishowen native, founded Mussoorie, a Himalayan hill station, and introduced potatoes to the region.
Charles O’Donnell, a Carndonagh MP, fiercely criticised British rule in India, linking Irish and Indian struggles against empire.
Reimagining the Commons
The Winnowing Basket interrogates these layered histories—colonial loot, contested ownership, and communal memory—through site-responsive works across Inishowen’s parks.
Performance art collective Bbeyond presented an open collective live art Performance at Swan Park on 24th May at 1pm in response to the project.
Denis Buckley’s performance and film work Loss Movement in 3 Parts gave voice to the legacy of exile and estrangement from land within the disadvantaged emigrant labourers ‘building up and tearing down’ the great colonial metropolises. The performance and film, shot here in Inishowen, was premiered on Saturday 31st May at Barrack Hill Park.
Marianna Bruno’s Walking by the Ancestors is a series of illustrations born from the artist’s enchantment with objects from the Harry Percival Swan Collection of antiquities, archaeological artefacts and items of historical interest and their relation to folklore, mythology, religion and folk traditions of Irish cultural heritage, and were on display in Swan Park throughout the month of May.
Lisa Collomb’s Bounded Strands transformed the hexagonal pavilion on the Bath Green Moville into a large scale weaving loom using recycled Indian sari silk representing the complex colonial history of Moville.
Sue Morris’s Commons, installed in all three locations, reference British Imperial history in the Indian subcontinent and Ireland, and the Gaelic social structure of communal landholding, while simultaneously speaking directly to the artist’s immediate family and its links to the Punjab.
Elaine Garde’s The Elephant in the Room: ‘Creach/Loot’ is a treasure chest of loot, proffering to people passing by in Swan Park a hoard of special coins. These embossed coins will be the infamous ‘Creach’ currency, a specially minted sovereign bond from Tir na Nog.
Kathleen O’Hara Farren’s Flax to Thatch & Linen event on 5th May at Moville Bath Green included Brian Lafferty from Craigmór Thatching Services. Together they demonstrated thatching and weaving fibres from flax into linen cloth, engaging in ancient crafts that evoke self reliance and sovereignty.
