Sited in an 'out-of-bounds' ex-military island fort, Vacant Space is an immersive, underground installation combining glass sculpture, recorded spoken word, flame and video projection, conceptually exploring ideas of an island life relation to the water, shelter, migration and vulnerability. The piece was created by collaborating artists Marie Brett and Michael Ray as part of an artist residency working in close consultation with artist Gana Roberts, Bere Island residents and fifty two Danish visitors from Anholt island. A floor of crushed glass that audience members walked over was created from donated glass partly from Anholt island, and recorded poems of English/Danish combinations were included in the work.

The piece was temporarily located in the shell and cartridge rooms beneath the gun emplacements of Bere Island’s Lonehort Fort in County Cork. Over two hundred people visited when the fort was opened to the public for the first ever time for two days. Vacant Space was hosted and presented by Bere Island Project Group and the Irish Military Forces, funded by the HSE and Cork County Council Arts Office.