Lake Burst is an exhibition of a single body of artistic works made in response to a pair of glacial lakes, Lough Bré, at the top of the Glencree Valley. Made over the course of 5 years, the exhibition showcases Nunes’ expansive and transdisciplinary approach to artistic practice, embracing film, live performance, textile, installation, stone sculpture, music and sound.
A lake-burst is a phenomenon referred to in Irish mythology in which a previously non-existent lake comes into being, often when a grave is being dug. In this exhibition, the artist excavates the theme of rebirth through various media, drawing on Irish folklore, her multicultural background, and her direct relationship with landscape to conjure a contemporary vision of an ancient body of Irish water, with its many local and global significations and resonances.
As part of this exhibition, Nunes’ will launch her highly anticipated 8-track vinyl concept album, titled Lake Burst.
I offer this response, then, as a libation to the fluidity and waters of Maïa Nunes’s imagination! For she enchants by means of watersongs, waterspells and warnings, a sweep of sound soon to be graven in vinyl. Her powerful, uncompromising album channels the very voice of water singular, and of waters in chorus, sacred and profane. Water in the service of healing the heart, soul, mind. Thus the wounded artist works for us all, by mending herself. – Paula Meehan
The album is a journey of descent and transformation, from lake-shore, into the depths, and back out again. Featuring lush guitar, double bass, woodwind and drums that, together with Maïa’s distinctive vocals, create an intimate and mysterious sound-world, the Lake Burst album is a musical exploration of deep geological time and ancestral healing. This album, published by Farpoint Recordings, illustrates the breadth of Nunes’ practice which bridges and interweaves visual art, music and live performance.
Artist Maïa Nunes’ installation will become a stage as she performs her Lake Burst album live with a full band of stellar musicians at RHA – further information to follow.
Artist Bio
Maïa Nunes is an Irish-Trinidadian interdisciplinary artist whose artwork weaves with voice, cloth, movement, sound and the land to create multi-textural audio, music, sculptural installations, videos and live performances. Hers is a liberation practice; a live and ongoing process of re-membering the self in dialogue with the ancestral past. It unravels and re-imagines, using an integrative approach to usher in transformation and healing.
Image: 01. Maïa Nunes, Lake Burst, 2026, Double Vinyl Album, 12 x 12”, Photography by Aoife Long, Image courtesy of the artist.
02. Maïa Nunes, Lake Burst, 2023, 16mm Film, Performance-Film, BTS photography by Eimear Lynch, Image courtesy of the artist.
03. Maïa Nunes, Ferryman, 2026, Music Video, Still by Oisín MacFarland Smith, Image courtesy of the artist.
Instragram: @maia.nu.nes
#lakeburst
Visual Art Exhibition programmed by Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts, produced with funds from Wicklow Arts Office, Dublin City Council and The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, with thanks to field:arts, field:arts and Live Collision International Festival.
Vinyl Album Published by Farpoint Recordings with funds from The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, RHA, Wicklow County Arts Office, with thanks to field:arts, The Shaking Bog, and Live Collision International Festival.
