Christopher Steenson’s solo exhibition at mother’s tankstation, Dublin, titled They haven’t gone away you know, is comprised of a series of artworks that explore power struggles between the individual and the state, from both human and more-than-human perspectives. This body of work, collectively titled The Long Grass (2022-24), was bourne through an extensive period of research surrounding the corncrake – a bird that has taken on symbolic meaning in relation to Irish independence. Once prosperous and widespread across Ireland and Britain, the corncrake was known as the sound of the Irish summer, with its distinctive call permeating the countryside’s soundscape. The corncrake is now almost extinct, due to the rapid development in mechanised farming over the last fifty years, with the bird’s call now only heard in remote sections