Domestic Bodies
Domestic Bodies a solo exhibition of collaborations
at |126 Artist-Run Gallery, Galway 126gallery.com/exhibitions/domestic-bod…
August 7 - 25 2024
Curated by Emily Lohan
Domestic Bodies is an exhibition of performative installations by Áine Phillips and collaborators exploring themes of home, shelter and sustenance in the context of domestic space. These works aim to push the limits and potentials of domestic things to create metaphors for female subjectivity and experience. The exhibition as a whole confronts the pleasures, discontents and struggles of habitation: finding, keeping, and the meaning of home.
The exhibition is in three parts:
Embedded a is a collaborative performance with Ella Bertilsson. The scenography consists of 10 pigmented double duvets and sheets creating a topography under which the artists perform autonomy, security and safe resting place. Allusions to the mysteries and transformations of sleep and rest performed in public highlight the universal need for sanctuary, especially in relation to the mass homelessness of our times.
Red Couch / Archeology is a performance installation from the Red Couch series. In the first two episodes the artist was subsumed into the underbelly of domesticity and was born again unscathed (Buttered Up 2016 and Escapology 2021). In this third scene she voluntarily dives back in again to uncover and excavate her-story.
Tender Morsels a collaboration with Helena Walsh, is a performance film exploring female subjectivity, experience and defiance in relation to food and domestic space, serving as a metaphor for the female persona. The premiere live performance of Tender Morsels took place at the close of the exhibition on August 23.
Collaborators:
Cinematography by Kevin Biderman and Vanessa Jordan
Editing by Connie Farrell
Sewing by Lizzy Dargie
Red Couch performed by Dagda Semler
Ella Bertilsson is a multi-award winning visual artist based between Dublin and Callan. She is a recipient of a Project Studio Award at TBG+S 24/25 and is an Associate Artist with Museum of Everyone 23/24. Recently awarded The Art Council of Ireland's Next Generation Award 23/24. Solo exhibitions; Forthcoming at The Horse '25, LIFE POND, Ballina Art Centre '24, A PEANUT WORM'S DREAM, The Dock 23/24, and CUT THE CAKE WITH CLAWS, The Complex '22. Selected group exhibitions; Tides of Monumental Gestures, Luan Gallery with MOE '24, Endlessnessnessness, The Lab Gallery ’24 and Periodical Review 11, Pallas Projects/Studios '22.She has 1st class honours Fine Art Print (BA) and MFA; Art in The Digital World, both awarded from the National College of Art and Design IRE '09, '15 and Comparative Literature Studies and Creative Writing from Södertörn University SWE ’12.www.ellabertilsson.net/
Helena Walsh is an Irish Live Artist. Her practice explores the relations between gender, national identity and cultural histories. Helena works with time, liveness and the materiality of the body. Over the past 20 years Helena has performed widely in galleries, museums, theatres and non-traditional art spaces, including public sites. In 2013 she completed her PhD in the Department of Drama, Queen Mary University of London focussed on Live Art and femininity in post-conflict Ireland. Helena regularly presents and writes on feminist performance practice. She has published in collections focussed on live art, the performing arts and reproductive justice in an Irish context. She is a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Arts, London. www.helenawalsh.com