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State of the Art: Visual Art, Photography and Poetry Exhibition – dlr Mill Theatre Gallery, Dundrum
State of the Art: Visual Art, Photography and Poetry Exhibition – dlr Mill Theatre Gallery, Dundrum
October 14, 2022 @ 11:00 am – October 28, 2022 @ 4:00 pm IST
Visual art, photography and poetry exhibition featuring the work of writer and artist Mary Moynihan and visual artist Amna Walayat responding creatively to themes of freedom, change, transformation, power and control. Open Tues – Sat weekly only.
Book Your Place
No booking required. All welcome weekly Tuesday – Saturday 11am-4pm, until Friday 28 October 2022. For information: info@smashingtimes.ie
Artists
Mary Moynihan is a writer, poet, theatre and film-maker, and Artistic Director, Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality, Ireland. Mary’s work explores stories linked to historical memory in war and conflict and focuses on the role of the arts to promote equality, diversity, human rights, gender equality and peace. Mary is Artistic Curator of the annual Dublin International Arts and Human Rights Festival (DAHRF) and is co-curator with Amna Walayat on the State of the Art: Transformative Memories in Political Violence multi-media exhibition.
Amna Walayat, visual artist and curator, Pakistan and Ireland
Full Event Details
The State of the Art: Transformative Memories in Political Violence exhibition is hosted at The Chocolate Factory, Dublin 1, and Gallery Space, dlr Mill Theatre Dundrum for the 2022 Arts and Human Rights Festival presented by Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality and Front Line Defenders with a range of partners.
The chapter of the exhibition hosted at the dlr Mill Theatre gallery features the work of writer and artist Mary Moynihan and visual artist Aman Walayat responding creatively to themes of freedom, change, transformation, power and control.
In a series of visual art poetic visions consisting of photography and poetry created under the title of The Feeling Soul: Paradise Lost and Found, artist Mary Moynihan explores the internal journey of a person experiencing loss and crisis and the possibility of finding a way through. Reflecting on ‘A Broken Heart, Imperfections, Finding My Way, Dreamscape and Freedom’ the artist explores ways to hold on to the courage to carry on and let ourselves shine.
The work of visual artist Amna Walayat is informed by Michel Foucault’s[1] ideas on power and Edward Said’s[2] work on Orientalism. Using the medium of traditional and neo-Indo-Persian miniature painting and the language of symbolism, Amna’s work expresses her hybrid cultural experiences with artworks on display created under the titles of Migration and In the Name of Shame. The artist says ‘being female, Asian, and Muslim, and a migrant, mother and artist, these are all the strands that are personal but also provide me with the opportunity to connect with global issues in general. My paintings are silent protests or performances against violence experienced by women and children, particularly in various cultural contexts’.
[1] Michel Foucault (1926-1984) was a French philosopher and historian.
[2] Edward Said (1935-2003) was a Palestinian American academic, political activist and literary critic.
Speaker Biographies:
Mary Moynihan, (she/her), MA, is an award-winning writer, director, theatre and film-maker, an interdisciplinary artist and one of Ireland’s most innovative arts and human rights artists creating work to promote the arts, human rights, climate justice, gender equality, diversity and peace.
Mary is Artistic Director of Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality and works collaboratively with artists and over 50 organisations across Ireland, Northern Ireland, Europe and internationally, using the arts to promote rights and values for all. Company patrons of Smashing Times are Sabina Coyne Higgins, Senator Joan Freeman, founder of Pieta House, Ger Ryan, actor and Tim Pat Coogan, writer and historian. Founding patrons were writers Maeve Binchy and Brian Friel.
Mary’s work has won a number of awards including the Allianz Business to Arts Awards, a GSK Ireland Impact Award, a Dublin Bus Community Spirit Award, a National Lottery Good Cause Award, the international #ArtsAgainstCovid award, an Arts Council Project Award and an Arts Council Agility Award.
Mary is Artistic Curator for the annual Dublin Arts and Human Rights festival implemented by Smashing Times and Front Line Defenders in partnership with Amnesty International, Fighting Words, ICCL, NWCI, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Trócaire and Poetry Ireland, funded by The Arts Council. The aim of the festival is to showcase and highlight the extraordinary work of human rights defenders in Ireland and around the world, past and present, and the role of the arts and artists in promoting human rights today.
Mary’s artistic practice encompasses theatre, film, literature, poetry, and curatorship. Mary’s work focuses on primal, visceral and intuitive responses to vulnerability and conflict and an exploration of self and the other. Her work explores an interconnectedness of the body, voice and imagination, revealing the inner life through physical and spiritual energies and intuitive engagements. Mary has a focus on using historical memory in her artistic practice as inspiration for the creation of original artworks across a range of mediums, remembering stories of ordinary yet powerful women and men from history and today who stood up for the rights of others.
As a playwright, Mary’s work includes the highly acclaimed The Woman is Present: Women’s Stories of WWII co-written with Paul Kennedy, Fiona Thompson and Féilim James; A Beauty that will Pass; Constance and Her Friends – selected by President Michael D. Higgins for performance at Áras an Uachtaráin for Culture Night 2016; In One Breath from the award-winning Testimonies(co-written with Paul Kennedy); and Shadow of My Soul, May Our Faces Haunt You and Silent Screams.
Mary’s film work includes the hour-long documentary Stories from the Shadows, the short film Tell Them Our Names, inspired by women’s stories of WWII and selected for the London Eye International Film Festival and Kerry Film Festival, the creative documentary Women in an Equal Europe and the short film Courageous Women inspired by powerful women’s stories from the 1916 to 1923 decade of commemorations period in Irish history.
Amna Walayat is a Cork-based Pakistani-born emerging mixed media visual artist. Her current practice is based on traditional and neo-Indo-Persian Miniature painting, expressing her hybrid cultural experiences and her position as migrant artist. Recently, she mounted her first solo exhibition as a part of the Cork mid-summer festival under Pluck Project (2022). Her work was exhibited in the yearlong exhibition The Narrow Gate of Here and Now at IMMA (2021-2022), 191 RHA (2021), Dublin Arts and Human Rights Festival in Chester Beatty and Mill Theatre (15-24 October 2021) and with a two-person show at LHQ (March 2021).
She is interested in the promotion of South Asian Art and Culture in Ireland and Europe. She has worked as Creative Producer in Residence with Cork County Council for her community-based project ‘South Asia Community Museum in Ireland’.
Amna has an MA in Modern and Contemporary Art History Theory and Criticism from UCC, and an MA in Fine Arts from Punjab University, Lahore. She has worked as Programme Organiser with the Pakistan National Council of Arts and as a Curator with Alhambra Arts Council (2001-07). She has worked with Cultural Action Europe as a MENA Cultural Agent for advising on policies (2021). She is a member of Sample-Studios, Backwater Artists, Art Nomads, Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality and Visual Artists Ireland, and is a recent recipient of The Arts Council Ireland’s Next Generation Award and Project Arts Centre Bursary Award.
Organisations Involved / Partner Organisation(s):
