Uncomfortable State
An exhibition by Laura O’Connor
This solo exhibition by artist Laura O’Connor addresses the realities and fantasies around Irish women’s bodies. Ireland has long been represented as female or ‘Mother Ireland’ where depictions of the country as a woman are seen through images of Kathleen Ni Houlihan or Róisín Dubh or in 19th century caricatures as Lady Hibernia. In the last century Irish women have been punished for their reproductive abilities and right now the country is at a point of change. This timely exhibition challenges notions of national identity that are tied to Irish women’s bodies. O’Connor combines sculpture, video and performance to expose the body as a site of resistance and discomfort. The exhibition centres around the video work Uncomfortable State. This two-channel video projection displays the artist lying on an Ireland-shaped sculpture made from grass where she uses the grass to cover her body. Using green screen technology O’Connor keys out her body that is then replaced in the adjacent video by footage of the Irish Sea. This erasure of the artist’s body and replacement by the body of water travelled daily by Irish women to access abortions is a visual metaphor for how pregnant women are treated by the state. Inspired by the Tanaiste’s 2017 comments on his “feeling uncomfortable” towards the Citizen’s Assembly decision to repeal the Eight Amendment, O’Connor puts herself in an uncomfortable position as a challenge to these remarks.
The show consists of a print, a sculpture made from wood, turf and perspex and a two-channel video projection.
An exhibition by Laura O’Connor
This solo exhibition by artist Laura O’Connor addresses the realities and fantasies around Irish women’s bodies. Ireland has long been represented as female or ‘Mother Ireland’ where depictions of the country as a woman are seen through images of Kathleen Ni Houlihan or Róisín Dubh or in 19th century caricatures as Lady Hibernia. In the last century Irish women have been punished for their reproductive abilities and right now the country is at a point of change. This timely exhibition challenges notions of national identity that are tied to Irish women’s bodies. O’Connor combines sculpture, video and performance to expose the body as a site of resistance and discomfort. The exhibition centres around the video work Uncomfortable State. This two-channel video projection displays the artist lying on an Ireland-shaped sculpture made from grass where she uses the grass to cover her body. Using green screen technology O’Connor keys out her body that is then replaced in the adjacent video by footage of the Irish Sea. This erasure of the artist’s body and replacement by the body of water travelled daily by Irish women to access abortions is a visual metaphor for how pregnant women are treated by the state. Inspired by the Tanaiste’s 2017 comments on his “feeling uncomfortable” towards the Citizen’s Assembly decision to repeal the Eight Amendment, O’Connor puts herself in an uncomfortable position as a challenge to these remarks.
The show consists of a print, a sculpture made from wood, turf and perspex and a two-channel video projection.
UNCOMFORTABLE STATE.
Installation view
Still image printed on Foamex
Price: €108.10 (The price of a return flight to Liverpool)
Edition of 38 (Reported abortions accessed by women from Mayo in 2016)
Body of the State
Sculpture
Grass turf, perspex, mdf, fabric & hydroponic light
Installation view
Still image printed on Foamex
Price: €108.10 (The price of a return flight to Liverpool)
Edition of 38 (Reported abortions accessed by women from Mayo in 2016)
Body of the State
Sculpture
Grass turf, perspex, mdf, fabric & hydroponic light
VIDEO INSTALLATION
