Since 2021, Spike Island has partnered with Sample-Studios and, more recently, Sirius Arts Centre to support a series of thoughtful, site-responsive exhibitions. These collaborations have brought contemporary artists into dialogue with the island’s charged history and unique landscape, with the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion in Cork city serving as a key presenting venue.
Barbara Diener is the ninth artist to participate in this ongoing programme. During her residency, she will immerse herself in the layered histories of Spike Island. Her work will bring together archival artefacts, sculpture and both still and moving images created on and around the island.
Diener’s approach is deeply responsive to place. On Spike Island, she has been especially drawn to its complex architecture and the traces left behind by those who once lived or were held there. One story in particular, the covert 1916 voyage of The Aud, a German ship sent to aid the Easter Rising, resonated strongly, bridging her ongoing interest in German history and hidden military operations. This thread connects with her earlier project The Rocket’s Red Glare, which examined the life and legacy of Wernher von Braun, revealing the moral ambiguities in how history is told and remembered.
A recurring theme throughout Diener’s practice is the quiet persistence of nature in the face of abandonment. On Spike Island, overgrown barracks, crumbling walls, and plant life forcing its way through cracks become metaphors for endurance and transformation. These confined yet living spaces feel simultaneously claustrophobic and resilient suggesting that even in places built for control, something wild and quietly hopeful, endures.
This partnership is supported by the Arts Council, Cork County Council and Cork City Council.
