Rioter, porcelain by Ursula Burke. Courtesy of Solas Nua and Hillyer Art Space..
Opening Reception: Friday, June 3 from 6pm to 9pm
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Solas Nua, in collaboration with Hillyer Art Space, is proud to relaunch its visual arts programming with the exhibition Repression ⋅ Resurgence ⋅ Reemergence One hundred years of re-possessing and re-appropriating Irish identity. This year marks the centennial anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland, a pivotal point in Irish history that served as a catalyst for the beginning of the end of the British occupation of Ireland. To celebrate and commemorate this seminal moment, Solas Nua curator Jackie Hoysted invited a number of visual artists to create works that investigate Irish cultural identity. The Irish nationalist Thomas Davis is quoted as stating that “it is not blood that makes you Irish but a willingness to be part of the Irish Nation.” To that end, the exhibition includes a sampling of artists for whom Ireland is their own or their forefathers’ birthplace, or their adopted home.
The artists were invited to ponder what it means to be Irish and what is meant by the term “Irishness.” Is it a line of heritage, or a Celtic cultural bond? Is it a shared heritage of stories, or a shared way of life? Perhaps it is a certain look or a collection of sounds, a common sense of thinking? Today the cultural landscape in Ireland is rich and diverse and quite different than what it may have been in 1916. Who are the Irish today, how has the past shaped them and how are they shaping the Irish of the future?
Artists Include:
- Ursula Burke
- Conall Cary
- Erin Devine
- Jennie Guy
- Dragana Jurisic
- Vanessa Donoso Lopez
- Colette Murphy
- Eva O’Leary
- Helen O’Leary
- Bart O’Reilly
- Maryanne Pollock
- The Project Twins (Michael & James Fitzgerald)
Hillyer Art Space is located at 9 Hillyer Ct. NW. For more information visit www.solasnua.org.
