Aftermath: Perpetrator Trauma and the Irish Civil War Dominic Thorpe

Aftermath: Perpetrator Trauma and the Irish Civil War

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.

Artist biography

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.