Archive / Vis Art / 01 January - 30 June 2021

QUEER-IN-PROGRESS.TIMELINE: ONLINE ARCHIVE

Active Archive – Slow Institution 2017-2020 was a long-term research project initiated by Curator of Visual Arts Lívia Páldi. Delving into Project Arts Centre’s 50+year history, it looked at what future proposals for transformation are inscribed within the manifold history of one of the oldest multipurpose art centres in Ireland. Active Archive temporarily transformed the gallery into a space for productive withdrawal, a slow-down from its serial exhibition production, becoming a work and meeting space. Documents relating to the Centre’s archives and privately collected materials were studied and shared, workshops and talks organised, provoking new conversations and connections to emerge.

Organised into a series of interconnected exhibitions/displays and events, the first presentation of Active Archive – Slow Institution was framed by the exhibition The Long Goodbye (2019). This installation of documents, moving image, sound, and photographic works included new commissions by artists who revisited their own archives with a particular focus on the late 1990s, a period seminal in the Centre’s history.

The Long Goodbye also signalled the launch of ‘Public Viewing’, a conversation series in which the wider public were invited for a close reading/viewing session of documents and archives introduced by artists.

The second chapter of the research was introduced in March 2020 via the displayQUEER-IN-PROGRESS. TIMELINE, mapping LGBTQ histories and, more specifically, lesbian, female-identified, transgender, and feminist activism and practices.

With a special focus on the 1980s, 1990s, and the HIV campaigns, QUEER-IN-PROGRESS. TIMELINE began with an exploration of Project’s LGBTQ theatre history. This ongoing body of research was collated by artist Hannah Tiernan (MFA, NCAD), and was presented alongside her current investigation into the GCN (Gay Community News), IQA (The Irish Queer Archive/National Library of Ireland) and the Out Magazine archives.

The impulse to share parts of this research online resulted in a page dedicated to sharing documents that support a cross-reading of political, social, and gender histories through lesbian, female-identified, transgender, and feminist activism and practices. The entries refer variously to zines, newspaper clips, objects, memorabilia, moving image, and photographic documents and/or artworks.

QUEER-IN-PROGRESS. TIMELINE put forward the importance of temporal, open, and inclusive archives that accommodate changing needs, and that foster a dialogue about queer archiving within institutional practices. It highlighted events that point to social, political, economic, and medical complexities, but also to the absences and silences that result from censorship, limitations to document preservation, and the lack of space for sexual and gender difference.
Exploring narrative(s) of emerging and changing experience that might manifest through personalised collections of records and community-based archives, the project looks into questions of historicising and memorialising. It explores how queering archival practices can help us transform conventional approaches to archiving, critically engaging with many of the issues present including misogyny, homo/transphobia, HIV, racism, and the various forms of discrimination and marginalisation.

The timeline is identified as a tool for pooling, revisiting, and bringing into conversation various points of view, with individuals, groups and communities unpacking the less visible and often suppressed, overlooked, or neglected aspects of complex historical events, challenging often simplified media representation.

The selection was begun by Lívia Páldi and Hannah Tiernan, and will be taken over by Tiernan who will become the custodian of the project from March 2021.

All the materials shared on the timeline are carefully considered and published with the consent of the donor/author and/or with the permission of the relevant institution.

QUEER-IN-PROGRESS. TIMELINE was launched as a collective participatory project with artists, researchers, activists, and the wider public. Our focus has been on the 1980s and 1990s but we welcome suggestions and items from preceding and subsequent years.
Please don’t hesitate to contact Hannah Tiernan if you were interested in participating and had further questions at hannah@projectartscentre.ie

Lívia Páldi

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Find the QUEER-IN-PROGRESS. TIMELINE: Online Archive Launch event for 7pm, Wed 31 March here or watch below.

Sexual Liberation Movement (SLM), 1973

First SLM demonstration for Homosexual…
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Friends of Eon, 1978

The Friends of Eon were…
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Woman's Show, 1978

On the 15th May 1978,…
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Gay Health Action (GHA), 1985

Gay Health Action was founded…
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Lesbian Nuns on the Late Late Show, 1985

Friday 13th September 1985 witnessed…
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ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), 1987

“Do we want to start…
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The Normal Heart, 1987

The Normal Heart by Larry…
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Irish Names Quilt, 1990

AIDSMemorialQuilt_MaryShannon from projectartscentre on Vimeo.…
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LOT (Lesbians Organising Together), 1991

LOT – Many Years of…
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Monument to the Unknown Woman Worker, 1992

Sited on Great Victoria Street,…
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Dykes Forum, 1992

The first Dykes Forum article…
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Acts and Reacts Festival and I Know My Own Heart, 1993

Glasshouse Productions was a theatre…
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Lesbian Lives, 1994

Lesbian Lives – a 25-year…
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GCN Lesbian Pages, 1994

A poem titled Bad Lesbian…
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Benetton's True Colours, 1994

Taken from GCN magazine, issue…
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The Gay Detective, 1996

In 1996, The Gay Detective…
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The Lesbian Avengers and the Turk’s Head ‘Kiss In’, 1996

The Lesbian Avengers were a…
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Ladies and Gentlemen, 1996

Ladies and Gentlemen was the…
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Outhouse door sign, 1997

Original Sign for Outhouse in…
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The Second International Dyke March, 1998

On 26th June 1998, the…
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LINC, 1999

LINC – Advocating for Lesbian…
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The Future of Feminism, 2008

The Future of Feminism, 2008…
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Outitude: The Irish Lesbian Community, 2018

 OUTITUDE documentary TRAILER from…
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Credits

Special thanks to GCN for supporting Hannah Tiernan’s archival research and the publishing of materials.

Biographies

Lívia Páldi is the Curator of Visual Arts at Project Arts Centre, Dublin. She worked as director of BAC – Baltic Art Center, Visby, Sweden between 2012 and 2015 and chief curator of the Műcsarnok / Kunsthalle Budapest between 2007 and 2011. She has organised talks, discussions, workshops and numerous exhibitions and has also edited several books and exhibition catalogues. She was one of the curatorial agents of dOCUMENTA (13) and member of the OFF-Biennale Budapest curatorial board in 2016.

Hannah Tiernan is a researcher, writer and visual artist. She holds a BA in Photographic Media and an MFA in Art in the Contemporary World from NCAD. Her key area of interest is contemporary Irish LGBT history. She has been a researcher on the ACTIVE ARCHIVE – SLOW INSTITUTION initiative since June 2018. In 2019 she authored ‘Foul, Filthy, Stinking Muck’: the LGBT theatre of Project Arts Centre, 1966 – 2000, and curated and hosted the ‘Foul, Filthy, Stinking Muck’ symposium. She is the creator of the Ranelagh/Rathmines Queer Walking Tour. In 2016, Hannah was the recipient of the Inspirational Arts Award for her photographic project, EQUAL.

Funding

Project Arts Centre is proud to be supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Dublin City Council.

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