Cabbage and Hole in the Stone

Description:

Western Front presented a screening by artist-in-residence Holly Márie Parnell at The Cinematheque, including her film Cabbage (2023) and a preview of Hole in the Stone (2025).

Both films share a contemplative tone that explores themes of defiance and resistance within personal and communal contexts. Through static shots and recorded observations, Parnell crafts portraits of time and place, offering glimpses into lives affected by systemic inequalities to deliver a potent critique of the structures that have failed these individuals and communities.

The screening began with an introduction by curator Susan Gibb and concluded with a conversation between Holly Márie Parnell and artist Christine D’Onofrio.

Program:

Holly Márie Parnell
Cabbage (2023)
digital video, 22 min.

Cabbage is an intimate film created by Parnell in collaboration with her family. It reframes language and explores personal agency within an ableist paradigm, centralizing the digital and rhythmic writing of her brother David through eye tracking technology. The film also incorporates the reflections of her mother on a life spent having to prove her son’s humanity. Moving between the contrasts of lived experience and bureaucratic violence, Cabbage subtly examines how a human life is measured and valued. The film documents the months leading up to the family’s move from Canada back to Ireland—a country they had to leave a decade earlier due to austerity-driven cuts to disability funding.

Holly Márie Parnell
Hole in the Stone (2025) [Preview]
digital video, 22 min.

Moving through various farms in the southeast of Ireland, Hole in the Stone captures the collective voice of a community in flux. Suspended between the rhythms of the past and an uncertain future, the film delves into the psychological landscape of independent farmers as they navigate a path that grows increasingly difficult to sustain.