The River
(2023-2026)

The River is a large-scale visual mapping of the processual features of my collaborative practice which engages with systemic power relations and inequalities through long term collaborations.

In 2023 in a studio at Rua Red, I began developing maps of my working methodology as an artist over two decades – a methodology born of a long term collaboration with Rialto Youth Project. Working with socially engaged artist and researcher Dr Ciaran Smyth in a process of recursive mapping and conceptual refinement, we explored new cartographic strategies for visualising this collaborative and socially engaged practice. In 2024, visual artist Orla Whelan joined the process, further refining the visual metaphors and exploring materials with which to render the information through a combination of visual and verbal means.

In late 2024, a draft of The River was shared and workshopped with other artists on the invitation of Create – the national development agency for collaborative arts. The River was then developed as a large scale drawing in acrylic on linen (6m x 2m), and presented publicly for the first time at Rua Red gallery as part of a group exhibition called ‘Together in Commune’, curated by Marysia Wieckiewicz in Summer 2025. The work was brought to life over the course of the exhibition through a series of engagements, including half-day workshops with other practitioners, exploring and visualising the methodological and processual features of their work, generating critical conversation on the labour and processes – both visible and invisible – that underpin artistic practice.

In September 2025, Rua Red hosted an ‘In Conversation’ between myself and Ciaran Smyth, moderated by Carolann Courtney, Create, where we reflected on the content and process of making The River, and our cartographic strategies for visualising this collaborative and socially engaged practice. This conversation and mapping forms the basis of a new 2026 publication titled ‘The River – A Conversation on Creative Cartography in Social Practice’ to be launched later this year. The River forms part of a long-term commitment to explore, understand and articulate the complex relationality, labour and ethical challenges of collaborative arts practice.

The River received financial support through an Individual Artist Bursary Award from South Dublin County Council, Rua Red and an Arts Participation Bursary Award from the Arts Council.

Methodology mapping work, Rua Red Studio, 2024. Photo by Fiona Whelan.
The River (detail), Fiona Whelan, Ciaran Smyth, Orla Whelan, 2025. Photo by Ala Buisir.
The River (detail), Fiona Whelan, Ciaran Smyth, Orla Whelan, 2025. Photo by Ste Murray.
The River, Fiona Whelan, Ciaran Smyth, Orla Whelan, Rua Red Gallery, 2025. Photo by Ste Murray.
The River, at opening of 'Together in Commune', Rua Red gallery, 2025. Photo by Kevin Collins.
Visualising your Practice as Process and Method', workshop, Rua Red Gallery, 2025. Photo by Fiona Whelan.
In Conversation - Fiona Whelan and Ciaran Smyth, moderated by Carolann Courtney (Create), Rua Red, 2025. Photo by Dannielle McKenna.