Joe Hogan
Irish Basketmaker
“THE NESTS CELEBRATE THE LIVES OF BIRDS AND ALSO EXPLORE WHAT IT MEANS TO BE “AT HOME IN THE WORLD”. WE HAVE LOST THE FEELING THAT WE TOO ARE PART OF NATURE. I WANTED TO MAKE OBJECTS THAT MIGHT, IN SOME VAGUE WAY, REKINDLE OUR CONNECTION WITH THE WORLD OF TWIGS AND STONES AND REMIND US OF THE JOYFUL SURPRISE WE MIGHT FEEL WHEN WE ENCOUNTER NATURE’S ABUNDANCE.”
Since 1978, Joe Hogan has been working from Loch na Fooey with locally sourced natural materials to make indigenous Irish baskets. The nests he began creating over a decade ago add another dimension to his practice, allowing him to contemplate more deeply mankind’s relationship to the natural world. Using his experience with materials such as heather, birch, larch and lichen, “the aim has not been to copy the nests of various bird species, but rather to make nest-like objects which prompt the feeling that we are looking at a bird’s nest, and thus evoke some of the feelings of joy and wonder which might accompany the finding of nests in the wild,” he writes.
Read Joe Hogan’s ‘On Making Nests’ - essay meditations on his practice that Joe wrote for his 2024 solo exhibition Nesting at Flow Gallery.
"Long before the word ecology was ever heard of, Chief Seattle spoke about the “great web” and how important it was that we understand that “we did not make the great web, we are merely a strand in it”.
– Joe Hogan
