Aisling Is A Dream by Sarah Long

The exhibition ‘Aisling Is a Dream’ features a selection of new and reimagined works. The title refers to an existing group of seven paintings that respond to different aislings. Aisling is the Irish term for ‘dream’ or ‘vision’. It is also the name of a poetic genre where the Irish nation appears to the poet as a woman, often employed to reflect on the political and social concerns of any given times.

The fern plant appears throughout those seven paintings and continues her interest in reflecting on its potential allegorical qualities. The fern’s ability to reproduce asexually and sexually through the production of spores, along side its primeval origins, has generated a rich mythology, in particular that of the imaginary ‘fern flower’.