16mph
March 2025
Centre for Contemporary Art, Derry
The bench, made with my dad, is modelled on an open source design by Todd Dermody, with mutual learning and exchange embedded within its making. Built using multiple slats of timber, the bench is expandable, designed to make room for a friend. For each, making the bench marked the first time deviating from hand saws, providing an opportunity to learn a new skill together, whilst teaching one another tricks learnt from rural living, creating make-shift tools and time spent working in artist-led spaces.
Alongside the bench, a bookshelf houses a selection of texts that think through tools for collaboration and possible economies built on collective support. The building of the bookshelf with Davy Mahon and Lou McCarten similarily considers the potential of collective learning, re-framing knowledge situated outside of formal, hierarchical learning environments. Rather than creating something slick and perfected, the shelf and bench make visible the shared actions of each person involved in the making.
Guided by open source design sharing platforms, 16mph is accompanied by two texts detailing the process of making the bench and shelf, the new skills learnt and the collaborations that are integral to the making. The texts are inspired by platforms such as farmhack.org whose online Tool Library details concepts for new tools and mechanisms shared by those working on small farms, and the book The Anarchists Workbench by Christopher Schwarz.
Images: Install shots of 16mph in Take Hold at CCA Derry. Featuring work by Husk Bennett and Marielle MacLeman.