Irish Art in Practice

The Irish American Heritage Center, in partnership with the Consulate General of Ireland, Midwest, presents Irish Art in Practice. Join Jennifer Keating, Ph.D. as she brings us through the world of Irish arts and artists, and the living applications and impressions it makes on the world around us. Jennifer Keating  is a Senior Lecturer and the Writing in the Disciplines Specialist in the William S. Dietrich II Institute for Writing Excellence. Most recently, she served as Assistant Dean for Educational Initiatives in the Dietrich College for Humanities and Social Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. She brings an educator’s perspective to this fascinating series.

Legacies of Justice, March 3rd, 7:00pm CST

In 2014 filmmaker Mairéad McClean was awarded the MAC International prize for her film No More.  This meditation on the implications of Internment Without Trial in 1971 resonated the world over as evidence of torture and prisoner abuse emerged from Guantanamo Bay to Abu Ghraib.  In Legacies of Justice we will screen the short film and discuss its explorations and symbolism.  McClean, daughter of civil-rights activist Paddy-Joe McClean, interrogates concepts of security and the political contortions of conflict in this work.  Together we will discuss its poetic meditation on these infringements on human rights in the name of security, as we also bring examples like Rita Duffy’s painting, Guantanamo amas amat, and Paula McFetridge’s staging of Convictions in the Crumlin Road Courthouse, to bear on the conversation.

Register for the Zoom presentation, Legacies of Justice here: Legacies of Justice

Demands of Hope, March 31st, 7:00pm CST

In spring 2020, in the throes of the Covid-19 lockdown, Rita Duffy completed a residency at Trinity College confined like much of the world.  She began sketching flowers akin to those she saw emerging in Dublin, as well as highly detailed anatomic drawings of human organs, exploring the strength and fragility of our systems in the face of a threatening pathogen.  In Demands of Hope we will screen Duffy’s original animation, Anatomy of Hope.  We will also view key works by Ursula Burke like The Politicians, as we explore the duality of hope:  its yearning for something bright, the preservation of what we treasure or the introduction of something new and our deep fears that such optimism may not manifest.

Register for the Zoom presentation, Demands of Hope here: Demands of Hope

Women’s Work? – Presented in-person, and via Zoom, April 21st, 7:00pm CST

Irish Art in Practice: Ursula Burke, Rita Duffy, Mairéad McClean and Paula McFetridge, the forthcoming book by Jennifer Keating, explores contemporary artistic practice in Ireland.  In Women’s Work we will view key examples of each artists’ work as we consider their individual concerns and contributions to contemporary art in Irish and international contexts.  In addition, we will mine the influence of embodiment:  what features of gender emerge in each artist’s work?  What concerns pertaining to women in Ireland come forward in their practice?  What features of masculinity or gender fluidity are explored or interrogated?

Register below for the in-person presentation of Women’s Work? in the Library at the Irish American Heritage Center.

Register here for the Women’s Work Zoom presentation: Women’s Work