Video 2010 – 2015
Installation 2010 – 2015
Print 2010 – 2015
Unspeakable (draft version)
Etching and pastel on paper, 46 x 38cm
In this hybrid etching and pastel drawing the figure is situated behind the eyes at a remove from the audience to suggest an interior condition and position. There is a link to body armouring of trauma – the body keeping the score being a familiar term in psychology. It seems that the condition was linked to embodied trauma and these women did not have a voice either in their treatment or in society – they were only able to express this in a non-verbal communication – in the guise of illness.
Video
Installation
In a Dream in a Happy House
‘In a Dream in a Happy House’ is S/TAC’s third show to date and also their first show which focuses solely on the collective itself rather than through the lens of a historical collection or role as artistic shelter. Once again S/TAC zones in on the emotional and psychological theme of shelter but this time sets it in contrast with a more ominous expression; one of confinement, duty, expectation and the delusions of domestic bliss.
Taking inspiration in the title from the 1980s Siouxie and the Banshees track ‘Happy House’, S/TAC questions the many versions of shelter which can be interpreted as sanctuary or cell. The sense of ambiguity is important, on one hand there are suggestions of safety, protection and detachment, whilst there are also issues surrounding claustrophobia, containment and captivity. As ever, the expression of this concept is closely linked to the body, through identity, our many selves, the collective and the collective experience.
Highlighting the role of an artist collective as a form of support, encouraging experimentation and the many hybrids that can develop alongside the individual practices which include painting, photography, print, installation and film, in this exhibition the ‘happy house’ is revealed through (in)dependence, the role of the matriarch, the responsibility of family, the reemergence of the individual and the multiplicity of the self.
Shelter at the National Gallery of Ireland
Shelter highlights new artworks created by the five members of the Shell/Ter Artist Collective (S/TAC). Diana Copperwhite, Allyson Keehan, Niamh McGuinne, Sharon Murphy and Geraldine O’Neill work in a variety of formats: painting, sculpture, expanded print and photography. Their work is complemented by a selection of objects from the Gallery’s collection, and pieces by international artists whose work and practice resonates with the Collective. Using the Print Gallery imaginatively to show works that explore the idea of shelter, traditional methods of display are expanded and disrupted to create a vibrant, thought-provoking exhibition.