Backwater studio member Ciara Rodgers is preparing to launch Soft City Circuits, a new site-responsive installation and participatory walking project that will unfold across Cork City from 13–19 June 2026 as part of Cork Midsummer Festival.

Developed through the support of the Jane Anne Rothwell Award, Soft City Circuits introduces playful, soft sculptural interventions into the urban landscape, inviting audiences to encounter familiar streets in unexpected ways. Through guided walks and temporary installations, the project creates moments of pause, reflection and discovery, encouraging a renewed engagement with the city and its everyday spaces.

Ciara’s multidisciplinary practice spans drawing, installation, performance and photography, exploring the relationship between body, architecture and our physical and psychological experience of place. The project draws directly from years of walking-based research carried out around Cork City, including her daily journeys to and from her studio at Backwater Artists Group.

Speaking about the project, Ciara notes:

“For a number of years my research for artmaking has involved gathering documentation and inspiration from the city streets on my walks to and from my studio at Backwater Artists Group. It is a pleasure to now have the opportunity to bring elements of the studio out onto the same streets, developed with the support of the Jane Anne Rothwell Award.”

Alongside Soft City Circuits, Ciara opend her newest solo exhibition Paper Facades make Tender Follies at Pallas Projects on 4 June. The exhibition continues her research into the relationship between body and building, bringing together sculpture, photography and installation to explore care, shelter and the rhythms of urban life.

Congratulations to Ciara on these recent achievements!