Pallas Projects/Studios are pleased to present Kathryn Maguire—Material Acts, the sixth exhibition of our 2025 Artist-Initiated Projects programme.

A sculptural re-mapping of sacred and ritual geologies.

Maguire’s work examines the ritual and magical possibilities of minerals as deeply embedded alternatives to the comparatively recent regard for minerals as purely extractable commodity.

Red stain oozes out of the cave walls and dries. This substance, Ochre, a ferrous rock, when ground into a powder and mixed with water, saliva, or urine, creates an impressive substance for use on the body or other surfaces. The relationship with minerals began possibly 300,000 years ago. Some of the ochres shimmered as mica or pyrite may have been present. People travelled far and wide, trading the potent minerals for ritual, magic, and storytelling purposes. The material had meaning and was valued. ‘Ochre altered our relationship with the earth. The dead rock underfoot yielded something miraculous, something striking and powerful, something that with conscious intervention could be transformed, and then used itself for transformative effect.’

‘Material Acts’ condenses some of Maguire’s research into minerals, mapping and mining and the relationship to rocks over the centuries. In 1824, Ireland was the first country in the world to be mapped by the British Ordnance Survey; the mapping of Ireland was developed to facilitate taxation and evaluate the ‘Underground Potential' of geological and material reserves. Mapping was done by triangulation, by creating a series of primary triangles. Sightings were taken between stations using theodolites and light (often moonlight) on specific Mountains. Maguire has used real artefacts from the field, such as surveyors’ tripods, Gunter's Chains and geological drill core boxes that once housed drill cores of riverine deep strata.