Archive

Dominic Thorpe

Aftermath: Perpetrator Trauma and the Irish Civil War

28th April 2023 - 3rd June 2023

An exhibition of drawing, video and installation work developed through the Bolay residency at Linenhall Arts Centre Castlebar 2022.

Perpetrator trauma can be experienced by individuals and groups who struggle to comprehend or process violence they have been directly or indirectly involved in perpetrating, whether sanctioned or otherwise and intentional or otherwise. However, perpetrator trauma is often overlooked within trauma narratives that emerge in the prolonged aftermath of violence.

In Aftermath: Perpetrator Trauma and the Irish Civil War Thorpe explores the embodied nature of perpetrator trauma that individuals can suffer. In doing so, the intention is to also explore Irish Civil War related perpetrator trauma as a collective experience. Creating artworks that sensitively bear witness to the possible traumatic experiences of those responsible for violence can contribute to holistic conflict narratives by exposing a wound that can routinely be left to fester in silence beneath the surface of shared memory.

Bio:

Dominic Thorpe is an Irish visual artist who works in performance art, drawing, video, photography, and installation, as well as employing contextual and collaborative based processes. He has shown and performed extensively, including at the Bangkok Cultural Centre, Performance Space London, Galway Arts Centre, the Golden Thread Gallery Belfast, and SASA Gallery Adelaide. Thorpe has completed several residencies, including at Nordic Arts Centre, Fire Station Artist Studios Dublin, and was the first artist in resident in humanities at University College Dublin. He frequently engages with inclusion and education based initiatives and has work in several public collections in Ireland, including the collection of the Arts Council of Ireland. Thorpe completed a PhD at Ulster University exploring how perpetrator trauma is addressed within performance art from Ireland.

This exhibition, created in honour of the frontline workers during the recent Covid pandemic is an ongoing work in progress. Everyone photographed, those from the health, transport, postal, security, retail, and hospitality sectors, provided a service to those who couldn’t work, or travel from home for more than 2-5 kilometres. Who was the person behind the mask? What encouraged them to help others in a world that became dramatically more uncertain day-by-day? Come and see this moving and contemplative exhibition from photographer Orla Sloyan.

Recipient of the Arts Council’s Agility Award for her work in documenting the faces of the essential workers during this time, Orla’s exhibition will be opened by guest speaker, Dr. Irene White

The official opening is on Friday 2 June 2023 at 5.30pm. All welcome.

In September, Mayo-born artist Niamh O’Malley will return to her home county for a unique exhibition featuring recent examples of her work in five different venues around the Mayo region.

Creating a cultural trail through some of Ireland’s most stunning landscapes, visitors are encouraged to engage with Niamh’s work in exhibition spaces in Belmullet, Ballycastle, Ballina, Castlebar and Westport.

The project breaks ground as it is the first time all five publicly funded visual arts spaces in Mayo have collaborated to show a single artist’s work simultaneously.

"There are two reasons this project excites me. One the collaborative aspect, venues pooling resources to achieve ambitious projects is a leading principle to establish in these lean times. Secondly, Niamh O’Malley’s work of the last five years has a distinct strength of vision and execution and embraces the complexity of perception, and this is an extraordinary way to encounter it." - Patrick T Murphy, curator of project and Director of RHA.

Niamh’s work combines video installation with sculptural objects and drawings many of which draw on landscape as a subject. Her recent film works have portrayed diverse sites: from Britain’s longest bridge, the pilgrimage island of Lough Derg and an immense working quarry to the intimate space of an inner city garden.

Niamh has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally. She has recently had a solo exhibition at Project Art Centre, Dublin. Her work is currently on show in Island: New Art from Ireland at Galleria Civica Modena, Italy and is in the collections of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Hugh Lane Gallery & the Arts Council of Ireland among others.

There will be a comprehensive education and events programme running alongside the project. This will include guided bus trips that will take visitors to all five venues in one day. Prior booking through participating venues is essential for the bus trips.

All five venues will devise specific access programmes for the exhibition during Culture Night.

A catalogue documenting Niamh’s practice with essays by Luke Gibbons & Matt Packer as well as a curator’s statement by Patrick T. Murphy of the RHA, will be published to accompany the exhibitions.

Aras Inis Gluaire website
Ballina Arts Centre website
Ballinglen Arts Foundation website
Custom House Studios website

This project is supported by Mayo County Council and The Arts Council

An exhibition of paintings by artist Deirdre Walsh and photographs by Lynda Huxley, presented in conjunction with Chris and Lynda Huxley’s Lough Carra Booklaunch, Art & Illustrated Talks at the Linenhall.

Based in Partry, Co. Mayo, Deirdre Walsh is an established artist of many years standing, specialising in working en plein air. The nearby Lough Carra has provided an ongoing inspiration for her work. “Light is my inspiration... I chase the fleeting west of Ireland light. I am left in awe with every attempt to catch it.” Deirdre has exhibited widely in Ireland, and also in the US and N. Ireland, and has works in many collections including Leinster House and the OPW. She is represented by the Barbara Stanley Gallery, London.

Lynda Huxley has been photographing County Mayo’s unique marl lake, Lough Carra over the past 15 years.

Adm. Free

Visit a weird and wonderful collection of animal sculptures curated by The Ark especially for children. Amongst these quirky, loveable animals, you will find a flying horse, a tortoise with a secret story and a toucan in disguise! Created by leading Irish and international artists from materials ranging from bronze, woods, ceramics and steel, you can learn about the techniques used to create the artworks and feel samples of the materials used.

The Beautiful Beasts exhibition is made up of some of The Ark’s favourite pieces from its collection which spans its 21 years of commissioning professional artists to create work for children.

Featured Artists:Owen Crawford, Conor Fallon, Luxon Gutsa, Orla Kaminska, Olivia Musgrave, Anthony Scott, Imogen Stuart.

Exhibition recommended for ages 4 years+

Adm. Free  (Note: Exhibition closed Saturday 29th October)

An exhibition from The Ark on a Short Works Network Tour. The Beautiful Beasts is touring to three venues this autumn/winter season, including Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge and Draíocht Arts Centre, Blanchardstown.

Internationally renowned author, illustrator & Laureate na nÓg, PJ Lynch, is working with the 5th and 6th class students from Newport National School as part of his Big Picture project, to create a large scale visual narrative on the Linenhall Arts Centre’s foyer wall. They’ll be illustrating a very special story: The Young Prince and [the] Giant. The story was collected in incomplete form by the children at Skerdagh National School in the late 1930s as part of the Irish Folklore Commission’s Schools Collection initiative. The young artists from Newport are working with Fighting Words Mayo to creatively engage with this old story from their local area. With their contemporary young voices they’ll complete the story, before illustrating it under the guidance of PJ Lynch.

The Big Picture is an element of the Linenhall’s exhibition Draw curated especially for children (see p22), and is presented with the support of Laureate na nÓg, Fighting Words Mayo and the National Folklore Collection.

Adm. Free

Official opening on Friday 27th October @ 6.00pm. All welcome

An exhibition exploring paper folding. The art of paper folding, generally known as origami, allows us to form a bridge between our 2D and our 3D understanding of the world, with all sorts of applications from space travel to medicine. One fold and we move from the flat surface to the world of objects. Folding can be free form or structured, and the results can be both aesthetically pleasing and intellectually intriguing. This is the Linenhall’s 20th annual visual art exhibition curated with young audiences in mind.

Vanya Lambrecht Ward has worked in the arts over the last two decades, from theatre and television, to visual art and architecture. She has worked with KidsOwn Publishing Partnership for the last 10 years, lectures in theatre design at IT Sligo and is currently Creative Engagement Resident Artist in The Dock. Her practice is centred around our built environment and combines photography, sculpture, painting and all things spatial. Folding is an essential tool in her practice and explorations.

Adm. Free

Official Opening on Friday 18 October at 3.00pm. All welcome.

Paper Folding Day on Saturday 2 November 11.00am-4.30pm see website for details

Fold / Unfold is co-commissioned by Linenhall Arts Centre and Riverbank Arts Centre.

Together Now is an exhibition of painting, drawing, installation and sculpture by artists from the Kilkenny Collective for Arts Talent (KCAT), in Callan, Co. Kilkenny and artists from very different practice contexts from all over Ireland, who have been working together in residencies and other forms of engagement since 2014.

The work on show has been made as a result of their collaborations and conversations, involving performance, installation and a variety of media from film and video to very un-traditional interpretations of traditional media such as painting and sculpture. The exhibition is curated by Catherine Marshall.

Adm. Free

The exhibition runs simultaneously across three Mayo galleries: Linenhall Arts Centre; Ballina Arts Centre; and Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Ballycastle. An opening tour of the exhibition will take place across all three venues on Saturday 22 February. Free bus transport will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis. Booking ESSENTIAL.

Click here for details about BENCHMARK – A Writing, Visual Arts and HeritageProject 2019/2020 

un-migrant-ing is an exhibition of painting, drawing, installation, sculpture and film by artist Rajinder Singh.

Rajinder writes: Un-migrant-ing is based on a text I found recently on the 19th century unverified sighting of the Purple Martin in Dublin from the Museum of Science and Art ( National Museum of Ireland). The show is developed around the following 'unverified report' on the said bird:

“In May of 2019, according to the Irish Birding records, there was a rare sighting of a migrant bird from North America called the Purple Martin in the stone circle at Termon Hill, near the south end of the Mullet Peninsula in County Mayo.The Purple Martin, which matures to a dirty black plumage, is the largest of the aggressive North American swallows. It has taken over large parts of North America. After a season of unfettered breeding it migrates to parts of South America where it aggressively competes for food in the Amazon basin. It is rarely seen in Ireland. The only other sighting claim was in 1840 in Kingstown, Dublin, now at the  Museum of Science and Art, Dublin.

The Purple Martin, a juvenile, was first sighted Sunday the 16th of May by a group of birding enthusiasts who had traveled to Belmullet for the summer birding season. They alerted the Irish Birding authorities immediately. It is rare for a bird to make the arduous journey across the Atlantic, and it was unlikely to return. One of the birders explained that it probably had little chance of survival and that he was praying it would not reappear again. The authorities are on the alert. The entire area has been searched and there was no sign of it.

The population of purple martins in North America usually take over artificial houses of wood or aluminum and fake plastic gourds. The martins compete aggressively with other cavity-nesters, and will fight over nest sites. They  have even been known to kill starlings and house sparrows, often evicting them from their nests. Irish Birding has long concluded that, unmonitored, Irish birds will be overtaken by this more aggressive, non-native species.” 

Rajinder Singh (b Ipoh, Malaysia) lives in Dublin, Ireland. Rajinder’s photography, video and performance work explore ideas around the vulnerable body and its pain, interrogating the economies of power that deny it space and shape. Often focused on the power of ritual action in the construction of the social body, his practice uses choreography and performative objects to explore the ways the human body unfolds around various topographic and symbolic borders.

Adm. Free

Official Opening: Friday 24 July at 1.00pm 
Due to COVID-19 guidelines the number of attendees at the opening event will be limited. Attendance is on a first-come-first-served basis.
There  will be two short introductions by the artist at 1.30pm and 2.30pm on the day to facilitate as many people as possible. 

We kindly ask that you please adhere to social distancing guidelines within our gallery space. We will provide face masks for those who wish to wear them on the day and have hand sanitising stations upon entering and exiting the building and in the gallery space itself. Our office phone lines will be open from 10am on Tues 21 July for any queries in advance of the launch and we would be delighted to hear from you. You can contact us on 094 90 23733 or by email on info@thelinenhall.com.

Exhibition continues until Saturday 26 Sept 2020

Irish Travellers or Mincéirí are an indigenous ethnic minority group who have been part of Irish society for centuries. 

Hair is a powerful symbol of individuality. It is intrinsically linked to identity, ethnicity, culture and gender. Traveller/Mincéir girl’s hair symbolises a unique form of creative expression and identity.

Hairstyles and rituals surrounding hair care can convey powerful messages about a person’s beliefs and lifestyle.

For this exhibition artist Breda Mayock and photographer Orla Sloyan worked with Traveller/Mincéir girls to create these personal portraits.

This is a celebration of Traveller/Mincéir girls, their aesthetic expression and their unique culture. Crown lakeen is the Linenhall Arts Centre's 21st annual exhibition curated with young audiences in mind.

Crown lakeen: ONLINE GALLERY

Adm: Free 

ALL WELCOME

Crown lakeen is presented in tandem with its sister exhibition Crown beoir which takes place at the National Museum of Ireland Country Life, Turlough Parke. Find out more about Crown beoir

These exhibitions are part of a larger project entitled Crown - Hair and Identity which focuses on Traveller/Mincéiri women and girls and the subject of how hair is intrinsically linked to identity, ethnicity, culture and gender.

The exhibition names draw from the Traveller language Cant, with beoir meaning woman and lakeen meaning girl. ‘Crown lakeen’ explores hair and identity from the perspective of teenage girls, and the ‘Crown beoir’ features the women project participants and considers the same themes but brings more life experience to the subject matter.

Exhibition continues until Saturday 30 January 2021