hay boy, gay boy

Cork Printmakers present hay boy, gay boy, a solo exhibition by interdisciplinary artist Maitiú Mac Cárthaigh at Cork Printmakers Studio Gallery from 10 September – 12 November.

Mac Cárthaigh’s work explores the rural sexual imaginary. Within this, Mac Cárthaigh’s practice focuses on rural gentrification, homonormativity, greenwashing, and the material economies of space and place. They approach work through a Country Boy’s Make-Do methodology, drawing on a Co-Op materiality. Mac Cárthaigh’s practice examines how we construct different kinds of rural space with a materiality not rooted in rurality but with things that come in off the back of a lorry to be bought off the shelf.

hay boy, gay boy builds from Mac Cárthaigh’s writing practice set in Ballybent, a semi-fictional slice of gentrified countryside heaven made for urban consumption. This work follows a throuple who recently relocated from the City to Ballybent. Life is great, slow and healing with nature all around. That is, except for delivery delays from Dublin and Berlin. Desperate to make their long weekend bacchanal with the boys from the city a success, the throuple rush to the Co-Op to see what gear they might fashion from bullrings and builder’s twine.

This exhibition coincides with Mac Cárthaigh’s exhibition, thirty 6-inch top-down all-purpose at the LHQ Gallery in Cork County Hall. thirty 6-inch top-down all-purpose explores the interconnectivity of oat flat whites, artificial insemination and rustic sodomy amidst a rapidly yassifying rural Ireland. This exhibition is supported through Cork County Council’s Emerging Visual Artist Award 2025.

Mac Cárthaigh will present an in-conversation on Friday 18th September 1-2 pm in Cork Printmaker’s Studio Gallery.