The Dichotomy of Change | Betty Gannon and Tony Gunning at Aras Inis Gluaire

Event Details

The Dichotomy of Change
The Dichotomy of Change brings together the work of Betty Gannon and Tony Gunning to explore the layered and evolving nature of our environments, both natural and man-made. Though their subject matter diverge, Gannon focusing on threatened sea and land forests, and Gunning on abandoned rural buildings, both artists present spaces deeply rooted in history, memory, and transformation.

Gannon’s mixed media works offer a contemplative response to the vulnerable ecosystems of Irish oak woodlands and oceanic seaweed forests. Her work highlights the quiet beauty of these habitats while underscoring their fragility in the face of human impact and climate change. In parallel, Gunning’s paintings of derelict structures evoke the echoes of lives once lived, shaped by waves of emigration, economic hardship, and rural decline. His work captures not only the starkness of abandonment but also the enduring beauty and significance of these spaces.

Together, their practices underscore a shared concern for the erosion of place, whether ecological or cultural, and reflect on how such environments, though worn and weathered, continue to act as living repositories of memory, identity, and resilience.

“One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, ‘What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?’” Rachel Carson

Andrew Pelham-Burn, writer and poet

Betty Gannon lives and works in Westport, Co Mayo, mainly working in drawing, painting and mixed media work. She was selected for many solo exhibitions throughout Ireland and Northern Ireland and also selected for numerous group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Gannon was an award winner at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre Summer Exhibition in 2018, she was awarded an Agility Award in 2021 from the Arts Council of Ireland and was selected for a residency in Krems, Austria in 2022. She is currently researching and creating work supported by a Sustainable Arts Bursary Award from Wilderland a public art & community ecology project in Co Mayo.

Tony Gunning has been a professional artist since 2000. Following his sell-out debut at the Davis Gallery, Dublin, in 2002 he has had fifteen solo shows and has exhibited at numerous group shows including RA, RHA and RUA annual exhibitions. In 2007 he won the Curator’s Award and the Bank of Ireland Emerging Artist Award at EV+A (Ireland’s pre-eminent contemporary arts showcase). Internationally he has exhibited solo at the European Parliament, Brussels and was part of the Irish representation at the Florence Biennale 2005. His work is in many public and private collections including the National Collection (O.P.W.), the Northern Ireland Collection (Stormont) and the Bank of Ireland Collection.