The Future has an Ancient Heart 

The Future has an Ancient Heart is a short ecological film, a meditation on our creaturehood and belonging to the web of life. A slow pace lures us into a sensory world with oak, hawthorn, river, sky, bee, lake, fern, snail, moss, rock, sheep and others. Rooted in ideas of indigenous worldview, reciprocity and ritual are encompassed. The film offers a remembering of deep time and childlike play when we were most porous. Asking how attuning through our bodies brings us into kinship and care for our more than human world.

The film is a collaboration with film artist Alan Lambert and sound artist Anthony Kelly. It will be made and launched in Co. Wicklow, with curated post-screening engagement events to create inclusive and active spaces for reflection and dialogue about today’s urgent issues. Screenings and events will take place at the Mermaid Arts Centre and Courthouse Arts Centre in 2026.

Funded by Wicklow County Arts Office Strategic Project Award 2026 and supported by the Arts Council. 

Artist Biography

Joanna Kidney’s studio and facilitation practice explores what it means to belong to the web of life in these times. Emerging from an animist worldview, it explores deep ecology, indigenous knowledge, wonder and care. Throughout an expansion of drawing into paint, space and moving image, the act of making and process are central. In addition to exhibitions in the USA, UK, France and Germany, Joanna has had Solo Exhibitions in the RHA, Dublin; The LAB, Dublin; Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast; Uillinn and Galway Arts Centre. She is the recipient of a Cooper Foundation Grant (USA); Arts Council of Ireland funding and an RHA Studio Award. Her practice encompasses collaborations with visual artists, dance artists and artist collectives. She is co-curator of Wicklow Artists Salon with writer Philip St John. Her work is held in Irish and International Public and Private Collections. 

Find out more here.