Mary’s ceramic practice explores the intersection of materiality, history, and identity, often appropriating historic decorative forms and re-contextualizing them through contemporary socio-political narratives. During her month long residency at Artlink, she developed new work responding to the architecture and landscape of Fort Dunree, focusing on bricks as enduring symbols of colonialism and human intervention in nature.
Her project investigated the layered colonial histories of Inishowen, connecting Fort Dunree’s British military origins with broader narratives of Irish migration and settlement in the American South. O’Malley draws parallels between Irish immigrants’ roles in U.S. power structures and the transatlantic legacy of British and Irish colonialism, including connections to the plantation economy and cultural markers like the song Amazing Grace.
