I am an artist who works in a variety of mediums through community / educational contexts, commissions and collaborations.
I hold professional qualifications in both Art / Design / Multi Media and Fibre Art and have developed my practice over the past decade through a distinct set of initiatives, including:
Film Work
- Sound Holds the Distance Travelled (2018), a three minute animated short film exploring themes of identity, dynamics of space and self care through creativity.
- The Blocks (2019), produced in collaboration with the Rialto Community Drug Team, this short film explores the memories of a small group of women from Dublin 8. Exploring both the good and the bad within their childhood from the solidarity they share to the challenge of generational trauma as a consequence of parental alcohol misuse.
- Turning Down the Volume (2021), a short film building on a research paper commissioned by the Canal Communities and Dublin 12 Drugs and Alcohol Task Forces looking at the rise in availability of alcohol in their areas. Turning Down the Volume illustrates this growth alongside communicating the impact felt by the individuals, families and workers affected by it.
Community art
- Fun Palace interactive art event at the National Gallery of Ireland, a collaborative community art project between the MAGS group and Rialto Youth Project (2018)
- Alight, Awaken, Arise, a visual art piece created as part of the MAGS group, an offshoot of leaders from the Knitted Together project with a performance art piece held in The Wisdom Centre, Sophia Housing (2017)
- commissioned artist and performer in The Natural History of Hope in collaboration with Rialto Youth Project, Fiona Whelan and Broken Talkers (2016)
- The Knitted Together Initiative with FGU in Fatima Mansions (2014-2015)
- Mainstream Quilt project with Rialto Youth Project (2015-2016)
- participant in The 77 Women Quilt project with artist Marja Almqvist (2015-2016)
- the Medal of Honour Project a community partnership with NCAD (2013-2014)
- Big Sparkle Arts Event in The Helix (2014-2017)
- Ballet Ireland Summer School in Civic Theatre, Tallaght (2010)
exhibitions
I produce a unique range of affordable arts pieces that have found outlet through engaging in a wide range of art / craft markets and fairs including the Georges Street Arcade; the Blackrock Market; Christmas Craft Fairs in Irish Life and the Point Village; The Dublin Flea Market and the The Fusion Market.
The Splitting Borders web comic and related publications have been featured in the Dublin Zine Fair; MCM Comic – Con; Temple Bar Gallery Artists Book Fair; Visual Artists Ireland Get Together; Independents Day; the Mountains to Sea Dun Laoghaire Book Festival and the Alliance Francaise/Comics Lab Festival de la Bandes Dessinee.
My community based / collaborative practices have found outlet in recent times through;
- the Contemporary Self Portrait Exhibition in the NCAD Gallery (2014);
- the Its in the Making Exhibition in the F2 Arts Studio (2014);
- Knitted Together Phase One and Two Exhibitions in the F2 Centre (2014);
- Contemporary Self Portrait Exhibition in the EU House, Dawson Street (2015);
- Dublin Calling Exhibition and two day residency in Dublin’s Mansion House (2015);
- Where the HeArt Is Exhibition with The Irish Housing Network in 12 Henrietta Street (2016);
- The Natural History of Hope, three performances in the Project Arts Centre (2016);
- Alight, Awaken, Arise, art performance at Sophia Housing (2017)
web comic
I began the web-comic called Splitting Borders in early 2013 with creative partner Gary Gowran, where a new comic strip was produced on-line everyday Monday through Friday. The first fifty of the strips have been published into two volumes, then a Splitting Borders Alphabet Book and Splitting Borders: Curated Lines, a themed selection. They have to date produced 363 separate strips. They then began a series of short stories, The Melancholic Wife and her Perpetrating Husband, under the Splitting Borders banner. There have been seven episodes so far examining themes of assigning labels and identity. The work continued into the production of a short animation film entitled Sound Holds the Distance Travelled, an adaptation of one of their comic short stories.
Sadhbh Lawlor 