Wexford Arts Centre is pleased to present Cut-Flow, a solo exhibition by Lar O’Toole. The exhibition will run in D’lush Cafe from Wednesday, 7th October, to Wednesday, 18th November, 2026.
Through photography and video, Cut-Flow explores the intersecting histories, rituals and environmental realities of Our Lady’s Island. The exhibition considers how cultural memory, belief and ecological change become embedded within a landscape shaped by both natural processes and human intervention.
O’Toole’s practice has long focused on south Wexford, exploring cycles of environmental change and the relationship between human and geological timescales. Following the severe winter storms of 2013–14, he began creating site-specific works from marine debris collected along the coast between Carnsore Point and Rostoonstown. His subsequent postgraduate research continued to examine cycles, place and human experience, including a video study of the tides and lunar influence on the local landscape.
Cut-Flow returns to these concerns through a photographic study of Our Lady’s Island, a site of Marian pilgrimage for centuries and one with evidence of much older ritual traditions. At the centre of the exhibition is ‘the cut’, the annual cutting of the dunes that partially drains Lady’s Island Lake and opens pathways for pilgrimage processions. Once carried out by teams of men and horses, the process is now undertaken mechanically.
The ‘cut’ becomes an environmental and cultural lens through which O’Toole considers the changing relationship between ritual and ecology. While the practice remains an important local tradition, the lake has also become increasingly associated with ecological decline and the pressures facing fragile coastal environments.
Quietly observed and rooted in place, Cut-Flow reflects on cycles of water, belief, labour and change, revealing how contemporary environmental concerns intersect with landscapes shaped by centuries of cultural memory.
Lar O’Toole O’Toole is a Dublin born sculptor and photographer based in Wexford.
Cut-Flow will run in D’Lush Cafe in Wexford Arts Centre from Wednesday, 7th October to Wednesday, 14th November, 2026.
For further information on the exhibition or artist Lar O’Toole contact Catherine Bowe – Curator, Wexford Arts Centre, Cornmarket, Wexford on +353 (0)53 91 23764 or catherine@wexfordartscentre.ie.
Opening hours are Tuesday to Friday from 10am to 5pm and Saturday from 10am to 4pm. During the Wexford Festival Opera (15th–31st October), D’lush Cafe will open Sunday 18th and Sunday 25th October from 11am to 4pm, and Monday 19th and Monday 26th October from 10am to 5pm.
The exhibition appears on the Wex-Art Festival trail, running from Friday, 9th October to Sunday, 1st November, which is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Wexford County Council.
Images:
Standing Wave I , 2024, Giclée print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 40cm x 50cm
From The East I, 2018, Giclée print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 40cm x 50cm
