Louise takes on new role at Mayo Dark Sky Park

Mayo Dark Sky Park at Wild Nephin National Park, in partnership with UCD College of Science and Parity Studios, has announced artist Louise Beer as the inaugural SATELLITE artist-in-residence.

Originally from Aotearoa in New Zealand, Louise explores humanity’s evolving relationship with Earth and the cosmos through installation, sound, photography, writing, and participatory practice. Her approach, which she calls ‘Celestial Immersion’, involves spending time beneath the stars, listening to the night’s soundscape and reflecting on our place within the vast rhythms of the universe.

During her residency, Louise will immerse herself in the dark skies, boglands, and mountains of Mayo Dark Sky Park at Wild Nephin National Park - one of the last places in Europe where it is still possible to experience the night as it truly is: vast, ancient, and alive. Through night-time fieldwork, sound recording, and photography, she will create new work that interlaces astronomical, geological, and ecological timescales, tracing the delicate connections that link Earth’s deep-time past with its uncertain future.

Louise’s residency will also include a participatory project inviting local communities, UCD researchers, scientists, the Dark Sky team and park rangers to reflect on the night sky through writing, conversation, and shared observation - deepening the connection between people, place, research and the rhythms of the natural world.

"Mayo offers a uniquely dark, minimally light-polluted environment where we can still see Earth as a planetary landscape - without the common traces of modern humanity," she said. "Its geology, flora, fauna and expansive night sky provide an exceptional setting to study long-term geological, ecological and astronomical processes. The residency will allow me to reflect on the improbable sequence of events that made life possible, from the first moments of the universe, and how we can reframe how we understand the significance of the climate crisis."

Denis Strong, Divisional Manager of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, commented:

“We are delighted to welcome Louise to Mayo Dark Sky Park at Wild Nephin National Park. Her residency will help us see this landscape - and its nightscape - through fresh eyes. We hope this collaboration will deepen the connection between our surrounding communities and the value of our dark skies as a source of conservation and culture.”