Some Irish Mothers
1916
Conor O' Grady
You have accessed this link by following the web address on the posters which accompany a series of four public installations by visual artist Conor O' Grady. You can also access the page through scanning one of the QR codes on each poster.
The work is included in the Mayo Collaborative Group Exhibition
Kathleen Lynn: Insider on the Outside.
Please click here for more information on the Kathleen Lynn project.
For more information on the research for this project click here
One hundred years after 1916 and the universal equality which was proposed within our proclamation, what has actually changed in terms of the lives, and personal freedoms Irish women are granted? If that equality promised is Equality-Feminism, then what has equity with their male counterparts actually yielded for Irish women in 2016? And after all, isn't equivalence far too conservative an aim?
Some Irish Mothers: A Quiet Revolution
The footage represented in A Quiet Revolution is re-appropriated from an ESB documentary, which has been taken from a YouTube clip entitled Rural Electrification . The imagery has been appropriated to represent male, industrial processes and reflect social structures within Ireland which promoted strictly defined gender roles. The original footage can be found here.
The focus of female gender roles, linking womanhood to motherhood and the mother to the home, has been echoed in countless other media and in can be seen very clearly, in another advertisment for the ESB network which has become known, simply as "Coming Home".
To access footage of Coming Home while viewing the installation please click here.
Some Irish Mothers: The Birth of A Nation
The Birth of a Nation features A Quiet Revolution layered over footage which has been re-appropriated from a Hidden Lives documentary for RTE relating to the lives of Women living in Dublin city centre in the early 1980's, like the previous footage it echoes the subservient gender roles women play in society and shows how little has changed since the footage of rural electrification was first filmed. The original footage of the Hidden Lives episode can be found here.
The work in The Birth of a Nation references the monotony of domestic tasks and also features 100 wooden Clothes pegs. Each clothes-peg has printed on them, the names women who played significant roles within the Cumman na mBan movement and in particular the 1916 Easter Rising. 100 names, a name for each year since the Rising.
A more comprehensive list of the women in Cumman na mBan can be found here.
Some Irish Mothers: Take that Red Cross Off Her (Ode to Elizabeth O' Farrell)
Take That Red Cross off Her (Ode to Elizabeth O' Farrell) is a series of public interventions installed around Castlebar, County Mayo. Each instervention features women's shoes suspended from simulated electricity wires. The interventions are complimented by a gallery installation.
The site for each intervention has been chosen due to their relationship between particular moments in the history of Castlebar.
The First Installation is suspended between the Linehall Arts Centre and an adjacent Building. This site was chosen due to its relation to the History of the town, especially in regards to the town' linen industry (a major employer of female workers), General Humbert, 1798 and the subsequent Rebellion.
The Second Installation features two installations suspended between three trees at the Mall, Castlebar, directly across from the site that used to be the Imperial Hotel. This area has been chosen due to its relation to the formation of the Land League by James Daly and Michael Davitt and for its proximity to the Lucan estate, this area is also known as the site where Father Conroy, and Robert George Fitzgerald are purported to have been executed.
The Third Installation is suspended between the birth place of Margaret Burke Sheridan (the celebrated Irish operatic singer), and adjacent buildings. This site was chosen due to its proximity to her birthplace and its relation to the other installation sites. All of which hold particular significance in terms of cultural and political history of the town.
To hear a recording of Margaret singing The Lover's Curse while you view the work, please follow this link.
To access the interactive walking tour map of Take That Red Cross off Her (Ode to Elizabeth O' Farrell) click here.
The work in Some Irish Mothers: TakeThat Red Cross off Her (Ode to Elizabeth O' Farrell) focuses particularly on the lack of attention given to the involvement of women during certain periods of our history.
Referencing, in particular the removal of women such as Elizabeth O’ Farrell from historical and visual reference, leaving behind only her shoes. Elizabeth played a significant role in 1916, along with countless other women and have not been remembered in the same way their male counterparts have.
This removal of Elizabeth and other women from our historical consciousness reveals something about the way in which Irish society still views the femal gender role, within societal, political and cultural narratives.
An article relating to Elizabeth O' Farrell can be found here.
Click on the links below for more information