ACREA Banners & Procession 2017-2019
Repeal! Procession, 38th EVA Biennale Limerick 2018
photograph by Deirdre Power
I worked with The Artists Campaign to Repeal the Eighth Amendment (ACREA) in 2017/18 to create a series of banners to advocate for change in Ireland's abortion laws. We used the banners in a collaborative Repeal! Procession on the streets of Limerick as part of the 38th EVA International Biennale curated by Inti Guerrero. I co-ordinated the Procession and worked with a small team of ACREA artists (Alice Maher, Cecily Brennan, Rachel Fallon, Breda Mayock and Sarah Cullen) to create the installation of banners, video works and ephemera associated with our political and artistic campaign. The entire project, all its outcomes - objects, images, photographs, video works - was exhibited as the Repeal Hub for the duration of EVA.
The Artists’ Campaign to Repeal the Eighth Amendment was set up in 2015 by Cecily Brennan, Alice Maher, Eithne Jordan, and Paula Meehan. It began as an online campaign appealing to fellow artists, writers, musicians, and actors to put their names to a statement calling for a repeal of Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (Article 40.3.3) that equates the life of a pregnant woman with that of the foetus. The aim of the campaign group is to promote national and international awareness of the restrictive reproductive laws of Ireland and to encourage and inspire other groups and activists to use cultural means to promote social change.