In Private Land, Rosalind Lowry draws attention to one of the most charged thresholds in rural Ireland today: the shifting boundary between public access and private ownership. Her work uses temporary, site‑responsive interventions to highlight how land across the island is increasingly commodified, enclosed, and altered — often without community input or regard for ecological loss.
For Art in the Park, Private Land will be installed inside The Jug, a historic holding space once used to detain drunk or disorderly sailors. This location adds a powerful new layer to the work. The Jug is itself a place shaped by control — a structure built to contain people, restrict movement, and enforce authority. By placing Private Land within these walls, Art in the Park draws a direct parallel between the historical policing of bodies and the contemporary policing of land. The installation turns The Jug into a metaphorical threshold: a site where restriction, vulnerability, and the politics of access converge.
Lowry’s practice often involves installing ephemeral porcelain works on public or private land — sometimes with consent, sometimes without — before photographing them and removing them again. The documentation becomes a memorial to landscapes that are on the verge of development, degradation, or disappearance. In this way, the work is both an act of witness and a lament: a record of what is being lost as rural land is reshaped by commercial, industrial, and speculative interests.
Inside The Jug, the fragility of the porcelain is heightened. It sits in stark contrast to the building’s heavy stone walls and its history of confinement. The delicate materials speak to the vulnerability of the land itself — the ecosystems, histories, and communities that cannot withstand the forces acting upon them. At the same time, the installation raises questions about who controls access, who is excluded, and what it means to cross the threshold from common use to private claim.
Lowry’s work asks viewers to see land not only as territory, but as a cultural and collective foundation. It prompts reflection on memory, belonging, and the urgent need to act as stewards for the landscapes we depend on. Installed within this historically space, Private Land becomes both a warning and a call to care — a reminder that thresholds of ownership, control, and loss are not abstract concepts, but lived realities shaping Ireland’s future.
