Artists in Co Clare are exploring the new cultural landscape of the countryside. It's a rethink of the notion of public art, they tell Maolíosa Ní Chléirigh

Art is often seen as an urban activity, a commodity confined to art galleries in cities and a sophisticated elite who have been educated to appreciate it. "Ground Up", described as an artist-led experimental project instigated by the Arts Office of the Clare County Council, is an attempt to challenge all of these preconceptions and to bring art out of the urban cube and into the countryside engaging an audience that may feel very alienated from the world of "Art".

Following a period of funded research, artists were invited to develop proposals for artworks which would be located in a rural setting and engage the local community on some level. Participating artists were aware of the fact that there was a rural aesthetic that could be tapped into, a quiet tradition of rural creativity often overlooked and unacknowledged.

Among the artworks commissioned was Pink Sheds by Fiona Woods, where ordinary farmyard sheds in the artist's own townland in Finavara, north Clare, were lit up with pink light during the month of February 2005. "It's about making the familiar and ordinary beautiful and extraordinary, just for a moment," says Woods, who is also the North Clare Arts Co-ordinator, and one of the instigators of the project.

The sheds, so long a part of the rural aesthetic that they are taken for granted, are given a moment to shine and show themselves as the sculptural forms that they are.

The audience was the local community driving home one evening wondering why on earth Curtins' shed was ablaze in - of all things - pink light! "One evening I was at one of the sheds, and the family whose shed it was arrived," says Fiona. 'Oh it's lit,' one of them said. 'Yes, but is that art?' another asked. Nobody answered. That's what the project is about, getting people thinking and starting a dialogue."

In Artflight, artist Seán Taylor inscribed a hot air balloon with the text "the blushing hills". The balloon then travelled across the county. Shelter by Áine Phillips took the form of wooden shelters, built at three "Cillins" - unbaptised babies' cemeteries - in the Famine Memorial Park in Tuamgraney, Tobar Bhríde, Crusheen, and on Aughinish Island, off New Quay (technically in Galway). The structures offer refuge to visitors to these hidden places and people are invited to leave tokens, as was done at shrines and holy wells. Unlike the other two, which were temporary artworks, there is a permanency to this work, and a year on, the shelters are developing a character of their own.

Fiona stresses that the project is not about putting sculptures in public places as the "per cent for Art" scheme did or creating monuments that are imposed on the community. It is a whole rethink of the meaning of public art.

"When permanent sculptures are placed in areas, after a while you don't see them any more. They become part of the furniture, the great unnoticed. A temporary public artwork stands out because it is something out of the ordinary. It offers a moment for people to step out of their day-to-day existence, a moment of reflection, which is what art is all about. You can have that moment standing in front of a painting in an art gallery, or in a theatre, or in a field."

And this "moment in a field" was exactly what Maria Kerin's installation provided as part of strand two of the project with what was, from a numerical point of view, the most successful work to date. Of course, you can't judge a piece by how many people turn up to see it, but for those who are impressed by numbers, up to 2,000 people saw Maria Kerin's Sweet Bellharbour over the space of two weeks in July 2005 - not bad for a piece of art placed in a field in north Clare.

Herself a native of Bellharbour, Kerin visited every house in the parish and asked people if they would like the name of a loved one who had passed away to be embroidered on a sheet as part of the artwork. The sheets were then hung on lines in a triangular field in the parish, accompanied by the taped voices of people talking about their deceased. Everybody in the parish visited the field, along with their friends, neighbours, relations and passing tourists who accidentally came upon the spectacle. It was a hugely emotional experience, still talked about in the parish.

In June of this year Aileen Lambert's sound installation Clog an Chláir was heard on Scattery island, off the coast of Kilrush in west Clare. Lambert recorded hand rung bells all around the county, discovering the hidden world of an ancient tradition. Like the other pieces, the community is part of the artwork and part of the audience, not just passing passive consumers but active participants.

Deirdre O'Mahony's Crosslands in Carron in the Burren uses the very landscape as a canvas for a dramatic artwork. The traditional technique of hazel coppicing is used to incise a big X into a field of hazel scrub. Finally Ennistymon artist Vincent Wall is working on a series of comic strips featuring local characters and issues, and which will be published and distributed in north Clare.

Strand three of the project involved inviting international artists to come and work in Clare over the summer months. Vladimir Arkhipov from Russia has been photographing people around Clare who create functional objects, while Patricia Hurl and Therry Rudin worked with a local community in Bauntlieve, Inagh. Along with those of Hungarian artist Tamas Kaszas and Amanda Dunsmore, their works will be exhibited as part of the "Shifting Ground" Conference in Ennis.

In keeping with the ethos of the project, the artworks will be displayed in rural settings around the county rather than brought to town, and a bus will bring the public from the conference to the different locations to view them. The conference will have speakers from international organisations that promote art in a rural context, such as Adam Sutherland from Grizedale Arts, England and Fernando Garcia Dory from Plataforma Rural, Spain.

Other speakers include public art theorist Suzanne Lacy, art curator Simon Sheikh and Fidelma Mullane, whose book on the vernacular architecture of Clare is to be published shortly. Organised by the Arts Office of the Clare County Council and the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, and supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, it will be a chance to further explore the changing cultural, economic and social landscape of the countryside and the role of the arts in this new environment. A publication documenting the project will be made available later in the year.

The Shifting Ground conference will take place from Thurs Oct 19 to Sat Oct 21 in Glór Irish Music Centre, Ennis, Co Clare. More information at www.shiftingground.net