Endangered Species List 481
Endangered Species List 481 is a Land Art installation dedicated to the 481 species on the red list for Northern Ireland.
The list includes over 60 species of moths, 85 local loved birds, otters, the Irish hare, and old romantic creatures like the corncrake. The work pays tribute to each species with a mark, a drawing or a colour, but they are all included.
The linen was then placed in a range of locations including:
The site of the old Hillmount Bleach Green, Frazer & Haughtons, Cullybackey, closed after more than 250 years of bleaching, beetling and dyeing cloth.
At its peak in the mid 19th century it employed 600 people and was one of the largest bleaching mills in Ulster.
The County Antrim countryside & roads leading to the Mill, running alongside 100 year old trees and fields where both the linen workers & animals on the list used to inhabit.
Parliament Buildings at Stormont, where departments decide who goes on the list and what should be done to halt the numbers.
Old woods in County Antrim, where many of the species on the list would once have thrived.
The artists studio, once a woollen mill, where different processes used in the linen mills were followed to create this work, through a series of archival photographs and stories.
About the Work
The work is made on linen, another part of our heritage and landscape that has disappeared. Linen damask weaving is on the red list of endangered crafts along with coracle making, glove making and many other old crafts such as whitework and goldwork.
The artist had an old aunt who worked in the Fine Needlework Section of the Old Bleach Linen Mill in Randalstown. She recalls visiting the factory as a child and growing up in a house full of linen.
Endangered Species List 481 is made as a constructed textile installation, hand painted and drawn on linen which has been dyed in tea, Thompson’s Tea of Belfast.
The work has been created through the support of a SIAP Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the full story of the project is detailed on the artists Instagram site @rosalindlowry and website www.rosalindlowryartist.com
The Artist
Rosalind Lowry is a Land Artist and Sculptor based in her studio in County Antrim who also works internationally. In 2021 she was elected as a Member of the Royal Society of Sculptors. She has also been awarded a Carnegie Award for Design and Placemaking, and the Social Art Award from the Institute for Art & Innovation in Berlin.
