Harvest Queen (1986)

Harvest Queen (1986) in situ at the Douglas Hyde Gallery in 1987. Photo by John Kelliot

Harvest Queen (1986) Wood, found objects, mixed media, 4ft x 7ft. The work was part of a series of sculpture and drawings forming a visceral response to the repressive regime in Ireland that focused on controlling women’s bodies, fertility and sexualities. This work was made as part of Walsh’s degree exhibition in the Masters in Fine Art Sculpture, at the University of Ulster in Belfast.

In the 1980s, the women’s liberation movement actively rebelled against the social, religious and legal outlawing of contraception, abortion and divorce. A hypocritical Irish state was where unmarried pregnant women were vilified, rejected and criminalised. These artworks articulated images of the female body as a hybrid of the horse, as a beast of burden- toiling in oppression, struggle and rebellion.