Songs of Love and Inheritance is a work-in-development at Annes Grove in County Cork, Ireland investigating the unheard voices of the archives held there, charting a sonic (her)story of the house and its famed “exotic gardens” from 1776 to the present day.

The history of the house and estate, previously known as Ballyhimmock (townland of the colts), can be traced back earlier to the acquisition of the property by William Grove in 1628. However, for the purposes of this artwork, I am taking the marriage settlement document of Mary Grove and Viscount Glerawly, later Earl of Annesley, as a foundational text to investigate the role of how powerful women have shaped the story of Annes Grove and how our understanding of this place as a site of heritage can be heard and understood in the 21st century.

Annes Grove was for centuries the home of the Grove-Annesley family, from which it takes its name, and was gifted to the Irish state in 2015, it is managed by the Office of Public Works (OPW). My thanks to Patrick Annesley, for his ongoing assistance in helping me navigate the archives.

The centrepiece of this new work is a geo-located Song Cycle, created in response to the spectral presence of a small number of women whose stories are contained there (and those who are only marginally present but are significant nevertheless). The songs will be co-created in collaboration with Irish artist and singer, Tara Baoth Mooney through improvisation at the site, and recorded to capture the ambient surroundings as well as the central voice with a Soundman binaural dummy head. These initial recordings will then be manipulated and processed back in the studio to create the final artworks.

In addition, a Super 8 black and white film will be shot of a Sonic Baton performance in the house, featuring the ambient sounds of the building and the surrounding landscape. The Sonic Baton is my custom-made performance instrument which I use to conduct noise.

Accompanying these new works will be a temporary exhibition of archival objects related to the new works, to provide a context for their understanding and as a means for the contemporary responses to enter into dialogue with the archive and the site. The exhibition is scheduled to open in Spring 2027.

The project is supported by the OPW and SMARTlab University College Dublin and funded by an award from Research Ireland.