Ladles, spoons, stirrers, spreaders, spades, forks and shovels.

Youghal based artist Martha Cashman sculptural works are on show in the Castlemartyr Resort Hotel, Castlemartyr, Co. Cork. The exhibition opens Fri Oct 23rd until Dec in conjunction with the Jazz fringe fest being held at the hotel for the weekend.
Photo: Michael Hussey www.youghalonline.com  E Mail: news@youghalonline.com

The domestic table settings and garden tools that help to put food on our tables continues to be a focal point and inspiration for my work, the evolution of the spoon-like implements that aid eating and serving, as sets, pairs and place settings we use on a daily basis cease to fascinate me.

We use these tools at least three times a day, yet we rarely think of how they came into being in terms of shape size and materials they are made of, we were eating with our hands up to the Middle Ages, the development of the eating utensil is an interesting story. Coastal peoples had access to an abundance of shells; a stick fastened to the shell allowed for a multipurpose tool, farmers used the hollow horns of sheep and goats as a vessel for liquid thus began the development of the spoon.

The pieces I create serve as forms of personal narrative, from memories of a rural upbringing, a collection of non functional, sculptural tools using mixed media, porcelain with bright lustres, with wire and wood.

Works are on show in Castlemartyr Resort Hotel, Castlemartyr, Co. Cork, opens Fri Oct 23rd until Dec in conjunction with the Jazz fringe fest being held at the hotel for the weekend.