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Temporary public commission for Visualise Carlow, 2007
curated by Ciaran Walsh
Since sugar seems to satisfy a particular desire (and in doing so it seems, awakens that desire anew), so does the acquisition of property. What makes this demand work? One cannot simply assume that everyone has an infinite desire for sweetness, any more than one can assume the same about a desire for comfort or wealth or power. Sugar (a substance) and sweetness (a desire) link the individual and the locality to a global sense of history and political geography.
Sweet Futures is a project which uses the format of a glossy brochure (a pseudo-property publication) to intersect several ideas - land-use, consumption, happiness, and locality - around the axis of the sugar industry both in Carlow and internationally. The publication is the end-point of a year's research and draws on a range of contributors to consider elusive notions of happiness and stability, and to illustrate the economic, social and historical forces that continue to blur the boundaries between the local and the global.
Addressing the convoluted workings of the international sugar industry (as seen from Carlow) generated a wealth of fascinating conversations and anecdotes, and a number of surprising discoveries. The project aims not to memorialise or glorify the sugar industry, though its memory is inevitably tinged with nostalgia in places, but rather to address the changing functions of land use more generally at a local, national and international level. Sweet Futures brings together a diverse group of voices to create a marker in time and a point of reflection.
The 36-page colour publication was launched and distributed free on the 16th and 17th of June in Fairgreen Shopping Centre, Carlow. It remains available to download free as a PDF from the project website.
Texts & Presentations:
Presented at Sugar, Sugar, curated by Tessa Giblin for the GRADCAM ‘State of Play’ conference, Project Arts Centre, May 2008
Charlotte Bonham-Carter, review, CIRCA 121 , autumn 2007
Jessica Foley, ‘Dabbling in Discourse’, the Visual Artist’s Newsheet, September – October 2007
Ciaran Walsh, ‘Sweet Futures’, catalogue essay, Visualise Carlow 2007-8, published by Carlow Town and County Councils
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