Go Ye Afar – new film by multidisciplinary artist Frank Sweeney at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios
Go Ye Afar – new film by multidisciplinary artist Frank Sweeney at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios
October 3 @ 11:00 am – November 23 @ 6:00 pm IST
Go Ye Afar is a new film on display at Temple Bar Galleries + Studios presented by multidisciplinary artist Frank Sweeney. The film brings attention to the ways broadcast media has been instrumentalised to impose or restrict certain viewpoints, often in relation to state ideologies such as religion and cultural identity.
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Artists
Frank Sweeney, multidisciplinary artist
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Frank Sweeney brings attention to the ways broadcast media has been instrumentalised to impose or restrict certain viewpoints, often in relation to state ideologies such as religion and cultural identity. Celebrating the slippages in authenticity inherent in analogue recording and transmission, he reveals the potential for a broader range of narrative truths and histories.
Sweeney’s new film, Go Ye Afar, records the journeys of an Irish-Nigerian taxi driver as his miraculous car moves through the streets of Dublin and Calabar. The film uses rear-projection, re-enacted interviews, archival material, and Nollywood-style special effects, to connect the use of media by missionaries in shaping the Irish understanding of the Nigerian–Biafran War, to the foundation of major Irish NGOs in response to this conflict and the legacies of colonialism in contemporary free trade and immigration systems.
The taxi brings several characters through locations in Ireland and Nigeria, exploring the memories and legacies of colonialism, Christianity and charity connecting both regions. The script for the film is written by Beulah Ezeugo of the Éireann and I archive and Frank Sweeney, originating in a series of oral history interviews with Irish-Nigerian taxi drivers and missionaries who worked in both regions.
The production of Go Ye Afar is supported by an Arts Council Film Project Award.
Temple Bar Gallery + Studios
Temple Bar Gallery + Studios is a leading artists’ studio complex and contemporary art gallery in Dublin City Centre. It is a centre for creativity in the capital, and provides a place for artists to thrive and ways for audiences to experience contemporary art. For free. For everybody. Temple Bar Gallery + Studio was founded in 1983 by artists, for artists. Exhibitions identify Irish artists of talent at pivotal points in their practice, and introduces international artists to Irish audiences. The gallery programme presents five exhibitions per year, with a strong emphasis on solo exhibitions. The gallery is home to Dublin Art Book Fair – Ireland’s only art book fair. There are thirty high-quality and affordable studios at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios. The studios provide professional artists, at all stages of their careers, from recent graduates to internationally recognised artists with a vital place to work in Dublin City Centre. The work made in the studios goes on to be exhibited in Ireland and throughout the world.
Speaker Biographies:
Frank Sweeney is an artist with a research based practice, using found material to approach questions of collective memory, experience and identity through film and sound. Frank Sweeney’s recent exhibitions and screenings include Anthology Film Archives, New York (2024); FILMADRID, Madrid (Special Mention) (2024); International Film Festival Rotterdam (Winner Tiger Short Award) (2024); EVA International, Limerick (2023); Sirius Art Centre, Cobh (2023); CCA-Derry (2022); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2021); Green on Red Gallery, Dublin (2019).
Organisations Involved / Partner Organisation(s):
