HOUSE ON THE BEACH – CONTAINER
Featuring work by artist Nina McGowan, in collaboration with Trinity College Dublin, a recipient of the Creative Climate Action Fund, an initiative from the Creative Ireland Programme.
Supported by Wexford County Council’s Climate Action and Culture Teams.
Friday 15th August - Friday 12th September
Wexford County Council, Carricklawn, Wexford, Y35 WY93
Opening Launch: Thursday 14th August at 6pm
All welcome to attend. Wine and refreshments served.
Container, an exhibition by visual artist Nina McGowan opens in County Hall on Thursday 14th August at 6pm. This exhibition, which explores our relationship to climate change, uses familiar, domestic objects transformed into a large-scale sculpture installation.
Over the past two years, Nina worked with Trinity College Dublin as part of “House on the Beach”, a Creative Ireland funded Creative Climate Action project. The exhibition is accompanied by a series of curated round-table talks at beaches throughout Wexford, on topics such as the circular economy, materials, nature-based solutions, and water quality; all very pertinent themes for the times that we live in.
The exhibition, Container, strives to make comprehensible the urgency to act in the face of the threat of the climate crisis. It comprises three sculptural pieces constructed from household objects on a monumental scale. The scale is intended to reflect the magnitude of the challenge we face. The medium conveys the weight of materialism and its contribution to climate change. While the treatment—each piece is charred to reveal a beautiful but dissonant charcoal surface—evokes a sense of what we stand to lose.
The thought-provoking sculptures lead us to question what we have accumulated in our own homes. What is inside our own wardrobes and our houses that we perhaps don’t use or need? All of these accumulations can be a burden and put pressure on the earth's finite resources. In Ireland, we discard around 110,000 tonnes of textiles as waste every year, of which around 64,000 tonnes are discarded as household waste via kerbside collection, the majority being clothing.
A “House on the Beach” represents an aspiration and an ideal: someone might say they ultimately want to retire to ‘a house by the beach’. But the issue of global warming and the impact of coastal erosion is questioning our value system and whether the way of life we have become accustomed to is sustainable. How do we live, and what might we need to change and leave behind?
This is a work about loss and the prospect of losing not only the natural world but also cultural artefacts and practices. The range of furniture used within the exhibition reflects the architecture and evokes the aspirations of past generations. Yet these old items are not valued in today’s world.
Nina McGowan is a visual artist who has been working in the area of immersive sculptural installation for over 20 years. She is a climate activist and a world champion and world record holder in the growing sport of freediving. She is Ireland’s ambassador for the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, whose mission is to end the destruction of habitats and illegal killing of marine wildlife in our seas.
For further information on CONTAINER, please visit House on the Beach, Friday, 15 August 2025, 9am - 5pm - Event - Trinity Sustainability | Trinity College Dublin
Wexford County Council’s opening hours are Monday to Friday from 9am-5pm.
Exhibition runs from Friday 15th August – Friday 12th September, 2025.
