Vis Art / 09-09 November 2022

to be nowhere

Tickets: Free, Ticketed

 

This performance will feature live tattooing by a professional tattoo artist. Due to this, the work will contain a low buzzing sound with short intervals. Earplugs will be offered to audience members on entry.

Show Time: 18:30 - 20:00

to be nowhere is a live performance by Léann Herlihy, Matt Kennedy and German Ferreiroa. Stemming from a t-shirt which Herlihy wore whilst culminating the majority of research for their larger body of work, the middle of nowhere, Kennedy will respond to this with a series of three verses focusing in part on process of becoming and resonating with Eva Hayward’s axiom: ‘I am of my body’ while also looking to Henry David Thoreau, Queerness, Transcendentalism, theories of the Wild, abolition and transitional spaces.

Although this will be the closing event of the middle of nowhere, Herlihy will attempt to personify nowhere as a continuous sense of embodiment which will remain active long beyond any formal understanding of a closing event.

to be nowhere is part of the larger project, the middle of nowhere (2022); a series of (non)site specific events by Léann Herlihy which unfolded throughout February and March in collaboration with Project Arts Centre, Dublin.

Accessibility

This performance will feature live tattooing by a professional tattoo artist. Due to this, the work will contain a low buzzing sound with short intervals. Earplugs will be offered to audience members on entry.

If you require assistance for your visit, please do not hesitate to contact us at access@projectartscentre.ie or call 01 8819 613 . You can find the latest information about Project’s accessibility here.

Credits

Performance: Léann Herlihy, Matt Kennedy and German Ferreiroa

Photo credits: Léann Herlihy, the middle of nowhere (t-shirt) (2022), 120mm film
Photographer: Niamh Barry
Assistant: Aoife McGrath

Biographies

Léann Herlihy (they/them) is an artist and researcher based in Dublin. The methodological fulcrum of their practice pivots around academic studies in queer theory and feminist epistemologies which they utilise in tandem with live action, performance, video, sculpture and text. Pairing gestural action with in-depth research, their practice employs an emancipatory paradigm that actively destabilises gendered and sexualised dichotomies in an overtly heteronormative society.

Originally from Waterford, Léann Herlihy holds a MA in Gender Studies from University College Dublin and a BA in Sculpture, Performance and Spatial Awareness from the University of Arts Poznań, Poland. Solo exhibitions include Beyond Survival School Bus [2022] Dublin Fringe Festival; the middle of nowhere [2022] Project Arts Centre, Dublin; STUNTMAN [2020] ]performance s p a c e[, London; Trojan Horse [2019] STROBOSKOP Art Space, Warsaw. Select group exhibitions and festivals include TRANSFAG: a Celebration and a Manifesto [2022] Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest, London; TIDING [2022] ]performance s p a c e[, London; Slow Sunday [2020] Artsadmin, Toynbee Studios, London; Foreign Bodies [2019] Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; Biennale Warszawa [2019] Mokotowska, Warsaw; ZABIH Performance Festival [2019] Lviv, Ukraine. They were also an artist-in-residence at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios [Project Studio 2021-2022], Museum of Everyone [2022], Steak House Live Residency Programme, London [2020] and Assembly #2, Simiane-La-Rotonde, France [2019].

Léann Herlihy is the recipient of the Arts Council of Ireland’s Next Generation Artist Award [2022], Visual Arts Bursary [2021] & Agility Award [2021 – 2022].

Matt Kennedy (he/him) is an Irish Research Council Scholar and doctoral candidate in the area of trans studies in the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice at University College Dublin, a writer and a boxer. He is currently employed in Belong To, Ireland’s National LGBTQ+ youth organisation as the policy and research officer as well as completing his PhD on transnormativity. His research areas and interests include trans studies, queer studies, autoethnography, disciplinarity, abolition, feminist theory, gender studies, archival studies, youth studies, sport and masculinities. His writing can be found in The Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies, Irish University Review and Fruit Journal.

Funding

Supported by The Arts Council of Ireland, Project Arts Centre & Carlow Arts Festival

Project Arts Centre is proudly supported by The Arts Council and Dublin City Council.

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