Artist’s Acknowledgements I am very grateful to Fiona O’Reilly at On the Dot Design for her sensitive design of this Every project has to have a good leader and in this regard I would like to thank Aoife
Home baking is a wonderful skill and gift to those of us around you. Thank you to
Ruane, Curator and Director of Highlanes Gallery, for her vision, constant commitment
my mother Iris O’Brien for teaching me how, and to Elaine and Vincent Hartigan for
and untiring encouragement.
continuing the lessons.
To all the staff of Highlanes Gallery for your enthusiasm, especially Siobhan Burke,
A very warm embrace to Medb Ruane and Theo Dorgan for the great essays which
Siobhan Murphy, Patrick Casey and Hilary Kelly, and a special thank you to the
are insightful, thoughtful and most importantly very readable.
book. Also, many thanks to Lar Thompson for tweaking some of the sculpture images. Thank you to Don Hawthorn and the team at the specialist printers Nicholson & Bass for the care and time they have given this project.
technical team for your careful installation of the work, led by Ian Hart. Thank you to the Board of Highlanes Gallery especially Kevin McAllister and Alison Lyons for their stellar support. Warm thanks to Helen Carey at Limerick City Gallery of Art, and Siobhan O’Malley at The Dock. I am thrilled to be working with you both. Thank you to the bakers I went to visit in order to make my photographs. I had no idea what to expect and had great fun in the process. Barron’s is the oldest bakery in Ireland and Esther Barron and Joe Prendergast were hugely hospitable and dare I say it, warm as toast. I spent many engrossing evenings in the artisan bakery of Owen and Valentina Doorley at Grand Canal Quay, Dublin. Another landmark bakery is the Breztel in Portobello, Dublin and a special thank you to William Despard and all the bakers there for your time and support. Last but not least, I would like to thank Patrick McCloskey at McCloskey’s Traditional Artisan Bakery, Drogheda for not alone giving me access to his beautiful bakery but for his very generous sponsorship of the show.
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The questions that arise during the making of the work are very important and sometimes more interesting than my answers. In this regard I would like to mention
A project like this has had the support and assistance of many people in order to be
Mary A. Kelly, David Galloway and Noel Kelly for your participation and for asking
realised. I am very grateful to everyone who took part in this process.
the questions.
A big thank you to Mark Paisley in Fire for the carefully produced prints, and to Ciara
Thanks to Richard Moore for connecting me to Fr Joe of St. Mary’s Parish Church,
Gallagher for extra assistance during the silly season.
who, together with Sacristan Frankie Taaffe facilitated access to the church bells, and
Mathew Peck at BLOC sourced the frames, and with Stephen Healy did a beautiful job, many thanks. Thank you also to Rico Slabozcs Horwath for your help moving the bread sculptures up and down to Dundalk. Not forgetting Sean Magennis for all his help with the props. In terms of the sculptures, thank you to Leo Higgins at CAST and to his super craftspeople, Emer Byrne and Ray Delaney. Michael Scott did the silver plating and I would like to thank him for his commitment and tireless efforts on my behalf. Thank you to Barry Lynch for your patient and careful edit of the Grande Dame video.
to Liam Denning for spraying the tables at short notice. Thank you to the PR team of Sinead Doherty and Gerry Lundberg for putting the word out. I am also very grateful to the Arts Council of Ireland for the additional financial support of the With Bread exhibition and national tour. A special thanks also to my family for making me laugh and reducing the stress. Larry gets a big mention here! My biggest thanks goes to Hugh Bradley, my Darling Man, for his unerring generosity and huge support throughout this process. His belief in my work is soul food. With Bread is for you.
Abigail O’Brien
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