The Gothic Interior
Core festival October/November with additional events throughout the year
Irish Architectural Archive, additional venues
The Gothic Interior. Interior darkness. Darkness exterior. The 2023 festival entitled, The Gothic Interior will be held in partnership with Irish Architectural Archive, built in the 1790's in Merrion Square, Dublin. The Gothic Interior programme upholds work that encompasses architectural structural elements or is based within the home, the everyday Gothic - whatever that may be - of the twin self, the shadow and the inner lurking's of the soul. The everyday Gothic is a much understated viewpoint in the wider understanding of the Gothic/ Alternative / Underground canon in that it is less visible but more understood to those who open their minds to it. Dust settling in the evening light, the half shadow of your lovers face, the black slate tiles of your grandmothers kitchen with the black beams of her ceiling overhead. A place to live in, within yourself.
Please find a link to the 2023 catalogue here
Documentation by photographer Chad Alexander. Thank you to everyone who came to the festival and to the artists themselves.
Soul Noir would like to sincerely thank Dublin City Council Arts Office for their support and RTÉ Supporting the Arts for their support also.
Our award winners were:
Audience Favourite - Patrick Loughran
Best Emerging Artist - Lanna Ariel
Dark Heart Award - AMALGAMATED WONDERS OF THE WORLD
Best in Show - Aidan Harte
More additional events for 2023 can be found under the NEWS section which includes;
The Secret Life of Crows talk by Ricky Whelan with Marsh’s Library for World Goth Day
The Magic Making sculptural workshop with 23 young artists from ChildVision
and
Moonworks: A Converstaion with artist Dolorosa de la Cruz at The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Irelan.
The 2023 programme artists are listed below:
Aidan Harte
Minotaur (2018)Neither man nor beast, the Minotaur is the product of unnatural lust to be found in the Circle of the Violent in Dante’s Inferno. Anthropologist debate whether humans are innately aggressive, but there’s no debate about war’s glamour. From Achilles to Napoleon, warriors are charismatic and while generals led from the front, wars remained short. In the Nuclear era, war is a potentially-suicidal economic pushing match. This sculpture conveys war’s terrible beauty and fatal allure.
Cain and Able (2018)
Ireland’s Civil War ended in 1923 and remains taboo. The Bible describes the very first fraternal conflict. Cain’s sacrifice did not please God. Abel’s did. Cain was jealous. His weapon, some say, was a jawbone. This depiction reflects a rabbinical tradition that Cain a metal smith and Abel was a shepherd. The model was the artist’s brother.
Artist bio:
Aidan Harte (b.1979) is a sculptor, best known for his controversial public statue of the Púca in County Clare. Before studing sculpture in Florence, he directed Cartoon Saloon’s first television series, the IFTA winning Skunk Fu. Irenicon, the first of his three novels was published by Hachette in 2012 and subsequently republished in the US. He writes on culture for Quillette, The Critic, The Lamp, The American Mind, and Law & Liberty.
Follow the artist at his website and Instagram.
Aideen Barry
Visual Fistions- Hair Hand series 1 to 3 (2022)
Aideen Barry visual artist based in Ireland but with an international profile. Her work encompasses a vast range of disciplines and subjects, including domestic labour, environmental changes, classism,intersectionality and human vulnerability. Her means of expression are interchangeable, incorporating performance, sculpture, film, text and experimental lens based media. She is a member of Aosdána and. the Royal Hibernian Academy. Her work is in prestigious private ownership and public museum collections globally. She is currently showing at the Salzburg Kunstverein in Austria and in LagosPhoto at the Fondation Zinsou in Cotonou Benin and in Lagos. She has exhibited widely at venues including: New Art Dealers; New York, Centre Cultural Irlandais, Paris; IMMA; Ireland, CAC Malaga; Spain, The Headlands Center for the Arts;US, Centre for the Less Good Idea; South Africa, Art OMI: New York, Skaftfell: Iceland, Banff Centre; Canada, Salzburg Kunstverein; Austria, Matucana 100; Chile,The Katzen Center at the American Museum;US, Wexner Centre; US, Elephant Gallery;UK, The Whitaker Museum;UK, Moderna Musett; Sweden, Musée des Beaux Arts; Lyon, Louise T. Blouin Gallery, UK, Artscene Shanghai;China and Project 304 Gallery; Bangkok, BAC;Geneva, Liste Art Fair;Basel,Catharine Clark Gallery; US. She has been award prestigious fellowships and prizes including; The Myron Marty Lectureship at Drake University;US, The Anderson Lectureship atPenn State University;US, Project Awards from the Arts Council of Ireland, Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks 2015, The Golden Fleece Award in 2021, Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award and the Temple Bar Gallery & Studio ISCP residency award 2022.
Aideen will show three works from her Visual Fistions- Hair Hand series 1 to 3 (2022).
Follow the artist at her website and Instagam.
Alan Power
The Crack in the Wall (2020)
A boy is locked in the attic by his father where the line between life and otherworldliness blurs, revealing a dark family secret in this tale of whispered horrors.
Artist bio:
Alan is a visual artist self-taught in digital media working primarily in 3D animation and film, with a BA (Hons) in Film + Television, from the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dublin, Ireland, with a major in sound design. His creative pursuits extend beyond the moving image as he engages in film photography and pole dancing. He is based between Kilkenny and Dublin, Ireland.Driven by a passion for creation, Alan's work explores characters who defy conventions and who do not fit in with their surroundings, experimenting with colour, fashion and cinematography. Never confined to do the same thing, Alan consistently explores diverse approaches and methodologies to his work.With his keen interests, and works in different artforms and crafts, Alan brings a multidimensional perspective to his art, finding inspiration through his travels around the world exploring locations unique energies, visiting dance and theatre shows, and listening to the experiences and stories of people he encounters from all walks of life.Passionate about giving back to the community, Alan has volunteered as an Assistant Facilitator for the Young Irish Film Makers in Kilkenny. Currently, he volunteers as an HIV Rapid Testing Volunteer for MPower in Dublin.
Above all, Alan seeks to embrace each moment with enthusiasm, to have fun, and to live life to the fullest. With an adventurous spirit, he continues to explore new possibilities and experiences while always remaining true to his creative soul.
Follow the artist at his website and Vimeo.
AMALGAMATED WONDERS OF THE WORLD
Acoustic Shadow (2023)
AMALGAMATED WONDERS OF THE WORLD are celebrating making bent out of shape sounds for twenty three years with a new multitrack tape for The Gothic Interior exhibition. The tape has eight channels of sound capturing the energy of a house and a home since 1790, and before, to the very ground and soil it was built on. The tape will be played with additional live processing.
Artist bio:
MALGAMATED WONDERS OF THE WORLD are celebrating making bent out of shape sounds for twenty three years.
AMALGAMATED WONDERS OF THE WORLD endeavor to create something new every time, to never repeat once done.
"Our minds exploded witnessing COIL live in Dublin City Hall, that was our ground zero."
AMALGAMATED WONDERS OF THE WORLD's experiments occasionally yield a result worthy of celebration with others, more often than not AWW are simply satisfying their own curiosity.
"Hope is in there somewhere, we do not do bleak, healthier for us now to explore the light in the dark."
AMALGAMATED WONDERS OF THE WORLD record sound from TV & movies, synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, turntables, tapes, effect pedals, etc, to create a mellow ever evolving tapestry of sound.
"It is how the music sounds on drugs really, but without the music, and without the drugs."
AMALGAMATED WONDERS OF THE WORLD last multitrack tape show was at Steven Stapleton's 'Formless Irregular' exhibition at Gallery X D2.
"We played a twenty three year old cassette and simply massaged it gently, most enjoyable gig to date."
"Noise fills the room. A grumble rises like a car starting, expanding until it becomes as big as an airplane taking off in a high pitched whirr, and slowly, a hesitant beat kicks in... he lifts the microphone to his mouth. His voice comes out autotuned and wavy." Claudia Dalby, Dublin Inquirer after seeing AMALGAMATED WONDERS OF THE WORLD live 2021.
AMALGAMATED WONDERS OF THE WORLD recently opened UNIT.TWOZERO in Dublin 3, a creative music studio for all to inspire and create with their plethora of weird and interesting machines and gadgets.
AMALGAMATED WONDERS OF THE WORLD new releases will appear on line after experiments produce interesting results. Watch this space.
AMALGAMATED WONDERS OF THE WORLD produce a regular Top 40 show broadcast live from Milliways featuring unsung gems from the musical universe.
AMALGAMATED WONDERS OF THE WORLD pix and studio outtakes.
All of the above plus nothing in particular.
Ann Ensor
Heart Folds in Rock (2023)
This work Heart Folds in Rock, 2023, is an imagined resting shelter for the shadowy interior volatile forces we carry. This work is inspired by the rock folds at Loughshinny. The sculpture measuring Height 2metres, width 1metre, depth 66cm is made with steam bent Oak, woven Kelp seaweed, Kombucha leather, soft fabrics.
Artist bio:
Ann Ensor is a visual artist living in Dublin 15. Her practice is based in sculpture. Ensor’s practice explores the entangled milieus in plant, microscopic and human worlds and asks questions on our anthropomorphic relationship with nonhuman organisms. Our entangled milieus are where we live and coexist in the layers and folds of life. Her present work explores the theme of layers and folds which we find not only in physical structures but also in our emotional being. This has brought about the making of imagined refuges. Here a person could remember and contemplate our present and past lives along with our shared relationships with fellow creatures and the earth. We could then dream different approaches to sharing the future. The work has come about due to the emotional stress caused by global warming and our fracture with natural processes. The work is inspired by the Eco philosopher Glenn Albrecht.
The agency within the materials used in Ensor’s sculptures are very important to the outcome of the sculpture and the sustainability of the materials are central to the work.
Ensor exhibited in Rising -Earth Festival at IMMA 2022 and will be exhibiting in The Earth Rising Festival in 2023, Loughshinny Boathouse Residency 2022, Soul Noir Festival 2023, Complexdublin Gallery, Duo shows Lost Green, 2021 and Ceremony ,2020, curated by Mark O’Gorman and Paul McGrane, Rua Red Winter Open 2021, Solo Show Holdfast, Draiocht 2020 curated by Sharon Murphy. Ensor holds an MFA Degree in painting (2017) from NCAD where she graduated in 2015 with a BA (1st Hons) in Fine Art /Sculpture. Ensor has been funded by Fingal Arts Office 2018-2023.
‘Heart Folds in Rock’, 2023 has been kindly funded by Fingal Arts Council.
Follow the artist at her website and Instagram.
Anthony Freeman O’Brien
The Gickna (2023)
Anthony grew up in Oliver Bond House in The Liberties and spent a lot of time looking out his bedroom window at the dereliction that surrounded the flats. His work attempts to bring attention to the unnoticed and unloved parts of everyday life, whether that is people or urban plant life The dublinease for a scruffy pigeon that has no worth is 'gickna'. This saying is also often applied to people as well .
Artist bio:
Anthony grew up in Oliver Bond House in The Liberties and spent a lot of time looking out his bedroom window at the dereliction that surrounded the flats. What fascinated him most was the flowers that would grow from the decay. No matter how forgotten and unloved a space is, it can still produce something beautiful. All nature needs is opportunity and it can flourish all on its own. People inspire him in the same way. If an individual is put in the right environment, they can flourish. Like a flower growing from concrete, a person who has grown out of hardship is often the strongest and most beautiful of characters. Living in Oliver bond and working as a community worker in projects centered on beekeeping of number of hives on the rooftops of Dublin 8 and providing social tours of his community, Anthony has seen how all types of life can thrive if given the right opportunities to do so. His work attempts to bring attention to the unnoticed and unloved parts of everyday life, whether that is people or urban plant life. In his practice he explores various ways of making the power of nature help with mental health and personal growth, even within an inner city setting. As a father he can see every day the positive effect of the natural environment upon his children.
Follow the artist at his Instagram.
Breda Lynch
Chandelier 1 & 2 (2022) from the series Fragments of a Lost Civilisation, 2015- present
A visual artist working in a variety of media, including drawing, photography, print and digital media, video and installation. She engages with dialogues and discourses on - queer feminisms, the western mystery tradition and occulture, appropriation and the economy of the image. The artworks presented in SOUL NOIR are from a larger body of work titled Fragments of a Lost Civilisation, which is ongoing in its production since 2015. Always intrigued by the ideas explored in Edgar Allen Poe's 'Fall of the House of Usher’. The key protagonists, the twins Roderick and Madeline, malady is reflected in the architectural cracks and physical weaknesses of the house. Thereby capturing or reflecting back the psychological disintegration of the main characters resident in the house. This is one of many themes explored in the short story that captures tropes on the double, madness, familial and metaphysical identities. I see these print works titled Chandeliers as tracing aspects of the metaphysical themes captured in the story.
Artist bio:
Breda Lynch has exhibited extensively in Ireland and abroad. International exhibitions include curated group exhibitions in Scotland, England, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Thailand, China, USA and Australia.
Solo exhibitions in Ireland and Northern Ireland include:’Witch and Lezzie’, Ashford Gallery RHA (2017), ‘Fragments of a Lost Civilisation’, Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar (2016), ’The Pit and Other Stories’ , at Siamsa Tire Gallery, Tralee (2014), ’Thursday’s Clinic’ , 126 Gallery, Galway (2013), ‘Strangelove’, Black Mariah, Triskel, Cork (2010),’Song to the Siren’, Galway Arts Centre (2009), ‘Place of the Crows’ and ‘Fleurs Fatales’, Context Gallery Derry (2007) and ‘Dark Brides and Silent Twins’ Limerick City Gallery of Art (2006). She is represented in a number of national collections including IMMA, The Arts Council, OPW – Office of Public Works, NUIG Collection – Galway, Luciano Benetton Italy, Trinity College Art Collection, Limerick City Gallery Collection, University of Limerick Collection, Hunt Museum Limerick and other private collections. This year Lynch finished a commission for Meta Open Arts, this print installation titled Blue Dyke Redux is on display in their Dublin offices. In 2024 she will present her latest sole exhibition titled: ‘If Your Not Scared The Atomic Bomb Is Not Interesting’, at The Source Gallery, Thurles, Co Tipperary.
Follow the artist at her website and twitter.
Conor Connolly
Dark Entries (2021)
We all have a dark gothic interior, the shadow self that needs to be explored and mapped out, but care must be taken in this exploration, for if we delve too deep too quickly we might lose ourselves. Whatever our personal Hell - seemingly inescapable negative thought patterns self-destructive behaviour, or something else, our demons are always waiting for us down in the basement...
Easy is the descent to hell; all night long, all day, the doors of
dark Hades stand open; but to retrace the path; to come out again to
the sweet air of Heaven - there is the task, there is the burden.
- Virgil, Aeneid, 6:126.
Artist bio:
I'm a self-taught artist, based in Dublin, with professiona experience in Graphic Design and Publishing. My academic background includes Literature, Classics, and Psychology. I have also been active in the Dublin dark alternative music scene, as DJ and club promoter/organiser, since the 90s. If it's dark, twisted, gothic,
weird, or just creepy, preferably with a dash of whimsical, I'l probably like it. I draw inspiration from many diverse sources including mythology, music, movies, and literature (especially horror, fantasy, and sci-fi), as well as some of the more unusual aspects of the natura world, such as strange underwater creatures, unusual insects, or bizarre plant life.
Follow the artist at his Instagram.
Dead Craftsman
Temptations (2020)
The work refers to mythical Garden of Eden and medieval representation of original sin as hurtful desire, which weakens freedom of will and inclines to evil. The work brings theological speculation about the original sin and its significance in modern, consumer driven society. The work incorporates fashion mannequin as Eve tempted by evil...Are the high street shop windows new promise of paradise lost?
Artist bio:
Dead Craftsman is wondering between the boundaries of slumber land and land of living, collecting the waste elements of pop culture and incorporating them with cut and shattered bits of photographs taken by his own camera. Firmly refusing to be called an artist, Dead Craftsman is using modern technology to pay homage to anonymous masters of medieval visual arts. As he claims, constant battle between sacrum and profanum became main inspiration of all collage works produced in recent years.
Contact Soul Noir at soulnoirfestival@gmail.com to learn more about the artist.
Dee Barragry
Alone in a Woods in the Rain (2022)from the series Threshold, 2022 - present
By attuning to the frequencies around her, Dee Barragry seeks dialogue through the poetry of place. Here, she considers the alchemical relationship between our inner and outer landscapes. Whether we are drawn to or driven towards a place, a process is initiated in the vulnerability of seeking a footing there.
Artist bio:
Dee Barragry is an emerging fine art photographer, writer, and artist. A childhood spent between Ireland, Saudi Arabia and Mexico ignited an innate curiosity about origins, identity, and legacy. Much of her work is generated within a state of empathic wandering. In 2021 and 2022 Barragry was awarded an Artist Support Bursary by Fingal Arts Office to undertake “Signals from the Heartland” and to research for “Threshold”, the third of her long-term site-specific fine art photography projects exploring the uniqueness of the Irish Northwest. Her work has been shown in Ireland and the UK. Recent shows include “Made X NW” (2022) at the Dock, Carrick on Shannon, curated by Ruth Carroll, and “Alchemical Vessels” (2023) at 126 Artist-run Gallery & Studios, Galway, curated by Conor Burke. She is a member of Richmond Road Studios and Visual Artists Ireland.
Follow the artist at her Instagram and twitter.
Diana Chambers
The Dancer (2023)
In this painting of the dancer, the figure is wearing an ornate costume for a an event or Traditional custom or ritual and playing a musical instrument. The gestured brush strokes illustrate the rhythm of the dancer as they celebrate.
Artist bio:
Diana Chambers joined the KCAT studio in 2015 where she continues to dedicate herself to the practice of painting. She has shown her work internationally, including at Gallery C8 Überlingen Germany, Galleria Art Kaarisilta Helsinki Finland, and at the Beyond Festival Leeds U.K. She has also shown in numerous exhibitions in Ireland, including at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Farmleigh House Galleries Dublin, F.E. McWilliam Gallery Banbridge, Riverbank Arts Centre Newbridge, Link Hall Gallery Kilkenny, and Crawford Art Gallery Cork. Diana’s work has been featured in publications such as The Engagement Project KCAT (2014-2020) and Perceptions: The Art of Citizenship (2016). Diana is prolific, often working with speed and producing several works a day. It can seem as if she is trying to keep up with the pace of her thoughts and feelings as she paints, as though the process of painting is constantly trying to catch up with her. It can also seem that Diana feels there is so much in the world to be explored and painted that there is little time to procrastinate. The result is an ever-evolving body of deeply expressive and beautiful works.
Follow the artist here
Dolorosa de la Cruz
Dazzle of the dancing goat (2022)
Remember who you are,behold your forms of glory,and arise! (2023)
Dolorosa de la Cruz's art presents a multifaceted view of the sacred and the sublime, in which forms weave and delineate threads which run core throughout a variety of occult traditions. Bathed in moonlight are offerings to vibrant and vital visions of the divine feminine, in one glimpse a dark and terrible goddess is beheld in awful beauty; at another glance, an expanse of emptiness may bear witness to the very queen of heaven herself. The medium of art yields the result of ritual, an illustration of initiation. Inspiration as divination, intuition as strength, experience as alchemy, and abstraction as a great ocean into which all words are dissolved: Dolorosa’s work is above all a devotional practice, a visceral communion with living spirits underscored by its own logic. As the words of Austin Osman Spare have stated, “the Law of sorcery is its own Law, using sympathetic symbols.”
"To me, who have known
The senses' doubtful lore,
Thy soul is evermore
Mysterious as mine own.
...
But in delectable
Dark ways, and wordless speech,
Our hearts throb each to each
The tale we cannot tell." - Clark Ashton Smith
Work featured at top; Dazzle of the dancing goat (2022) and Remember who you are,behold your forms of glory,and arise! (2023) Follow the artist at her Instagram.
Dr. Danielle O'Donovan
Special lecture commission, Life in the Margins ... a Spotter's Guide to the Joys of Irish Gothic Architecture,
6 – 7pm, November 1st
Irish Gothic architecture is characterised by a delight in creativity, asymmetry and a love of marginal detail. This lecture will explore the introduction of the Gothic style into Ireland and trace how that style took on an Irish aesthetic - most clearly seen in the architecture of the later medieval period. The lecture will act as a field spotter's guide to the delights of Irish Gothic that are waiting to be discovered.
Artist bio:
Dr. Danielle O'Donovan is an architectural historian and heritage professional. She has taught architectural history at Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork and Cork Centre for Architectural Education. Danielle has spent her career advocating the joys of learning in the built heritage environment. She has worked for Trinity Irish Art Research Centre, The Irish Heritage Trust, The Irish Museum of Modern Art and Nano Nagle Place, Cork City.
Follow the artist at her twitter.
Eileen Mulrooney
Still Life (2021)
Eileen spent some time working on still life as her subject matter to explore in more detail shape, form and color and using the background to allow her inherent abstraction elements collide with solid form. Eileen’s use of color adds a sinister atmosphere and make the viewer more aware of the unseen human present.
Artist bio:
Eileen Mulrooney’s love of art was fostered at the Presentation College in Carrick-on-Suir before she went on to study at KCAT, where she has been a member of KCAT studio since 2005. Eileen has shown widely in Ireland and internationally, including at the Kilkenny Design Centre; the Freight Gallery Fremantle; the Butler Gallery Kilkenny, Gallery Prabelli Wiltz; the Crawford Gallery Cork; the West Cork Arts Centre; and the Linenhall Arts Centre Castlebar. Her work has been featured alongside the work of her KCAT colleagues in the feature documentary Living Colour by Wild Fire Productions. Her work has also been featured in several publications, including The Engagement Project KCAT 2014-2020; Perceptions 2016 , The Art of Citizenship; Art & Inclusion, The Story of KCAT 2009. Eileen works primarily in water-based oils and sometimes in pencil. She explores how the built environment and the natural world intersect through work that frequently features locations and contexts that she feels a personal connection with, such as places that she has lived, worked and visited. With care and sensitivity, Eileen gives a great deal of time to features such as the contrasting colors of leaves, the shape of tree trunks on either side of a road, the bounce of light and water around boats.
Follow the artist here.
Esther Raquel Minsky
Special artist commission, The House on Merrion Square by Esther Raquel Minsky.
7. 20 – 8.00pm October 31st.
Photo by by Paul Reardon
After years of drifting along the north coast of Dublin, Esther turned up in the city square one dark evening in late autumn. Those who saw her said she looked ghostly and ragged. Those who witnessed what she said heard her repeat one man’s name again and again - Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu...
Artist bio:
Esther Raquel Minsky, known to many simply as Esther, has worked in a variety of professions throughout her life, from shopgirl to writer, from dressmaker to male impersonator. Her existence has been played out in river cities and port towns around the world, from Warsaw to Balbriggan, from Wexford to Montevideo.
Contact Soul Noir for more information about the artist at soulnoirfestival@gmail.com.
The Hardliners
Special group commission of written works
1 - 2 pm, November 1st
Soul Noir is very pleased to present a special presentation by The Hardliners writing collective. The collective had been commissioned to write works in response to the 2023 festival theme, The Gothic Interior.
About the collective:
A haunting, special invited reading from The Hardliners writing group. The Hardliners are a writing group of VisionImpaired People or more colloquially known as VIP'S. All of whom have a dark but very expressive imagination. The members have been commissioned (or possessed?) to make a selection of pieces for us to enjoy. The group members are: Anne O' Brien, Denis Fahey, Eugene Hancock, John O' Brien, Martin Kelly and Michael Hayes. Recent accolades include John O'Brien's commission to write a poem for Ballina Arts Centre in 2021 and Anne O'Brien winning the Best Emerging Artist Award at Soul Noir in 2022.
Contact Soul Noir for more information about The Hardliners at soulnoirfestival@gmail.com.
James Wellwood
Seeking Higher Things (2023)
Seeking Higher Things (2023)was created as part of a linocut series focusing on Irish history, in this case a ceiling within what was once known as the Good Shepherd Convent and Magdalene Laundry, but today is the Limerick School of Art and Design.
Artist bio:
James Wellwood is a Kilkenny based artist that specializes in painting, printmaking, photography, and sculpture. His works reflect his keen interest in the colours, shapes, and patterns of the Irish landscape and Irish culture as a whole. Beginning his Art education at Ormonde College in Kilkenny, James completed his level five and six certificates in Fine Art before going on to study painting in Limerick School of Art and Design where he is currently continuing a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Painting.
Follow the artist at his Instagram.
Lanna Ariel
The Guardian of Freedom (2023)
Lanna Ariel is an oil painter based in Galway. Her paintings are usually composed of figurative elements emerging from a dark unknown while the exploration of symbolism allows her to connect art history, spirituality & intuition. Lanna’s works are meant to be containers of elements that tell of transformation, wrapped in scenarios rich in symbolism to be deciphered.
Artist bio:
Lanna Ariel was born in Brazil, where she worked as a Gallerist Manager and Curator at Caixa Cultural Brasilia; Graduated in Visual Arts at the University of Brasilia – UNB in 2018 just before moving to Ireland, where she began to devote herself to her art. This change continues to have a great impact on her work. Lanna’s artistic research explores the symbolism behind subjects, objects and figures, as well as its meanings and beliefs in different cultures. Her narratives are carefully gathered merging witchcraft, science, astrology & mythology while also inspired by different eras in art history including symbolism, victorian, surrealism and contemporary. Lanna exhibits her work in Ireland and also internationally.
Follow the artist at her website and Instagram.
Lee Shanahan
Blue Portrait Hangs in the Narrow Room (2022)
In Blue Portrait Hangs in the Narrow Room Shanahan explores the idea of the painter contemplating one’s own work and questioning the idea of what makes a conventual self-portrait. The ‘Blue Portrait’ (Girl with Animal Bone - 2022) can only be glimpsed at. The artists shadow is cast on the wall in the act of peering through the open doorway to where the recently finished painting hangs in the next room.
Shanahan's work is an exploration of the human being and the environment in which one is set. The artist’s work focuses on interaction and relationship. Drawn to communication and narrative in their most basic forms, it is imagery without embellishment or unwanted distraction. Shanahan takes inspiration from writers such as Cormac McCarthy and Raymond Carver, admiring their minimal, heavily charged approach to the written word. This is something he tries to replicate in visual terms. Lee has been awarded the Kilkenny Emerging Artist Award 2022 by Kilkenny Arts Office and has been previously published twice in ROPES Literary Journal 2021 & 2022, his artwork has also been published on the cover of SONDER Magazine 2022. Lee Is currently studying at Limerick School of Art and Design.
Follow the artist at his Instagram.
Lindsay LeBlanc
Phantom Bouquet (2023)
Lindsay LeBlanc’s Phantom Bouquet takes its title from an 1860’s book instructing women how to skeletonize plants and seeds. Skeletonizing foliage, or maceration is when plant tissue is chemically removed to reveal the internal cellular structure. At a time when botanical science was gender exclusive, this book offered a domestic opportunity to participate, while encouraging ways to maintain a tasteful home. The following text entangles a description of the presented work with an excerpt from The Phantom Bouquet: a popular treatise on the art of skeletonizing leaves and seed vessels and adapting them to embellish the home of taste:
Our preference is for a loose, airy-looking arrangement of borosilicate glass leaves, rising at the summit almost to contact the antique c.1864 glass dome under which they are contained. This borosilicate glass shade is abundantly large and of about the same height as its diameter.
The cushion that underlies the white skeletons, to our taste, may be best of shiny black velvet. The image of an ornamental and endarkened environment for illuminated glass, which shines in contrast with The Phantom Bouquet’s shadows cast on the wall.
One of the most appropriate surmountings is the tallest fern form. Its top curves gracefully mimicking the curves of the dome and is arranged amongst a collection of handcrafted glass leaves, seed pods, and branches.
It will then form a fitting ornament to the Soul Noir Festival, illustrating how the material nature of glass can freeze a strange organic moment in time.
Artist bio:
Lindsay LeBlanc is a visual artist based in The Burren, West Ireland. Her artistic research engages with EcoGothic studies; investigating Gothic literature and current biodiversity data to find historical tensions between human and botanical nature. Using this framework currently in her work, Lindsay explores the importance surrounding an inclusive coexistence between the human and more-than-human world using traditional glass craft, immersive installation, and cinematic techniques to stage eco-horror narratives. The eco-horror genre within her practice filters reimagined future ecologies and bridges these disciplines, proposing ways in which botanical nature can be better understood as a site of articulation for environmental empathy.
Follow the artist at her Instagram.
Madeleine Doherty
Live Harp performance
October 31st 6 – 7pm
An hour of atmospheric harp on Oíche Shamhna. Madeleine is a classically trained harpist with over twenty years experience as a professional musician. She has qualifications in counselling and celebrancy, in addition to her energy healing training.
Artist bio:
Harp therapy is playing the harp with the conscious intention of providing soothing music to facilitate relaxation, calm and a sense of wellbeing. A Bedside Harp trained therapeutic harpist knows what kind of sound and music to provide in any given healthcare setting, to achieve the best patient outcomes in partnership with clinical staff.
As part of her training, Madeleine Doherty played over 100 hours by the bedside in all areas of a general hospital working alongside doctors and nurses, playing therapeutic music in the Emergency, Critical Care, Dialysis, Cardio Recovery, Physical/Occupational Therapy, Surgical and Medical Departments. Her work was supervised by a Master Harp Therapist and the founding director of Bedside Harp, Edie Elkan. Data was collected for all encounters with patients, visitors and staff, which can be referenced if required. There are no training facilities for this therapeutic playing by the bedside in Ireland. Neither are there suitable harps available. Madeleine completed her training in the summer of 2017, and purchased a therapy harp for her work in Ireland.
Madeleine is a classically trained harpist with over twenty years experience as a professional musician. She has qualifications in counselling and celebrancy, in addition to her energy healing training. Trained as a Celtic harpist in Ireland, Madeleine won a scholarship to study classical music in the US where she studied classical harp. As a solo artist she has toured Europe, the US and the Caribbean and has recorded for radio and television both in Europe and America. Madeleine plays both Celtic and pedal harp. Her Little Big Blue concert harp was made by Camac, the French harp manufacturers.
Follow the artist at her website.
Magdolna Toth
The Black Orb (2020)
Magdolna Toth artist delves into the mesmerizing world of intersections, and translucency, through her paper porcelain sculptures. The Black Orb embodies the delicate balance between overlapping grids, resilient bearing structures, and interconnected networks. Each sculpture celebrates our shared existence, inviting viewers to contemplate life's intricate tapestry.
Artist bio:
Magdolna Toth completed her studies at the Hungarian Applied Art Institute (MOME) in 1990, specializing in Porcelain-Ceramic Industrial Design. From 1993 to 2000, she contributed to Budapest's construction sector, focusing on architectural ceramics and restoration projects. Her designs attracted commissions from IKEA, alongside hotels in Budapest, Vienna, and Berlin.Relocating to Ireland in 2008, Magdolna engaged in community art initiatives, achieving a Socially Engaged Postgraduate Diploma in 2013 from NCAD. Collaborating with Wicklow town's community, she crafted an installation from recycled materials. In Dublin, she was working on creating a cultural hub for Hungarians. Beginning her independent art journey in 2019, Magdolna exhibited her creations at notable events. Her work graced Ceramics Ireland's 2019 exhibition and gained recognition at Cluj-Napoca International Ceramic Biennale. London Craft Week featured her in the Cluster Crafts London exhibition in 2020, presented through an interactive 2021 publication due to the pandemic.
In 2021, Magdolna's 'Sunrise' sculpture earned a place in the Hungarian Ceramic Biennale, and her 'Black Sphere' piece adorned Dublin's Royal Hibernian Art Gallery Annual Exhibition. Continuing her stride in 2022, Magdolna exhibited at the 192nd RHA Annual Exhibition and made the preliminary selection for the Blanc de China Ceramic Award. The momentum persists in 2023, as she showcases her art at Spain's Museums Espulgues International Ceramic Biennal, Dublin's Sculpture in Context Botanical Gardens, the RUA Belfast Annual Exhibition, and China's Blanc de Chine exhibition in Hangzhou.
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Marie Phelan
They Came to Earth as Rain (2022)
Marie Phelan is a multidisciplinary artist whose focus lies in the realms of transformation, magic, ritual, and belief. Her work on paper, They Came to Earth as Rain, is informed by the happenings of the Otherworld and features a hybrid being that dwells in a non-linear mythological time.
Artist bio:
Marie Phelan is a multidisciplinary artist who expresses her work through audio, drawing, moving image, site-specific exploration, and installation. The persistence of the Otherworld in the landscape, interwoven with questions of identity and culture, informs her artistic investigations. Currently her research is centred on cultural histories, mythologies, archaeologies, and the teaching of Magical Societies. Most recently she was resident at Fire Station Artist Studios, Dublin through a Digital Practice Award (2023); exhibited at the Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, Co. Louth (2023) and engaged in a Live Drawing Collaboration through PS2, Belfast (2023). She has also exhibited at 126 Gallery & Studios, Galway (2023); Castletown House, Kildare (2021); The Lab Gallery, Dublin (2020), The Complex, Dublin (2017); and Sculpture in Context, Dublin (2016). She has previously held residencies at Cill Rialaig Arts Centre, Kerry (2023) and at Paragon Studios, Belfast (2022).
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Mark Kent
The Reconstruction-Jones's Lane 1910 (2022)The film wanders the lain of a sleeping town, a place that disappeared a hundred years ago. As we wander, we slip in time between ages. We slip into a building and up laneway trying to discover where we are. We are not invited to look at monuments but old walls and holes instead of the parts that were destroyed in the war and the parts that have slowly disappeared over time. I was interested in the way a building becomes a projection of their owner's self-image and aspirations. There is a strange relationship with the past in the stories we chose to tell, there is a way of talking about the history of our town that I found unconvincing as if there was some agreement to keep some secrets. accounts of the war are sworn to silence and collective trauma is denied.
Artist bio:
Mark kent is an artist based in co cork Over 25 years my work has been a response to places in the landscape, particularly sites of temporary structures and abandoned buildings. An important project was the recording
of houses in Norway, photographs taken over a number of years during something that can only be described as an endurance piece, where at each visit I was cycling for three months at a time and sleeping rough.
My process involves gathering information about places to create an archive which allows me to develop art works as data-visualisations. Lately I have been working in the area of experimental documentary films using 3D modelling and animation software. I have also found recordings of oral histories. In the films I recreate lost places, and my focus the last few years has been my hometown’s destruction and repair following the war of independence. There has been an erasure of history, a sort of amnesia which I think this is a huge loss.
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Mark Walsh
Phosphorus River III (2023) part of the series Requiem for a River
Mark is currently working on a project titled “Requiem for a River”.
It is a photographic response to pollution due to the leaching of phosphorus and nitrogen into Ireland's rivers, lakes and estuaries. This directly results from the dramatic increase of the beef and dairy herd in Ireland since 2010. Images from “Requiem” have been exhibited in "71% - The State of Water" as part of the Trieste Photo Days Festival and will be published in the photobook of the same title.
Artist bio:
Mark Walsh is a lens-based artist living in Ireland. He has had work exhibited and printed in Exhibitions and Art publications internationally.
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Patrick Loughran
Golden Throned Dawn (2020)
In this painting, a still life layout was created using castings of wax figures, interpretating a scene from Homers’ “Odyssey” where Odysseus and Penelope are re-united. In this work themes such as The Grotesque, Metempsychosis, and The Surreal are explored.
Artist bio:
Patrick Loughran works as a painter, sculptor and printmaker and as had work included in public and private collections along with several group shows. In my new work I have been developing an interest in the grotesque as an aesthetic. I see it as a vehicle which carries ideas on metempsychosis, evolution, the surreal and the gothic. Influences come from classic literature, symbolism in art, science fiction and mythology.
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Patricia Hennessy
Shifting Tides (2023)
Shifting Tides is part of Hennessy’s MFA project (2023) Between Land and Sea which proposes a hybrid identity, drawing on mythologies of the mermaid. The painting was inspired by explorations of sea caves in North County Dublin. The cave posits the viewer in a passageway between inside and outside realms.
Artist bio:
I have an expanded painting practice where wall hung works on traditional surfaces share space with three-dimensional prop like pieces. The paintings and props stage a fragmented narrative depicting sublime or supernatural settings with figures representing Romantic figures such as the mystic, the adventurer, the artist. The paintings of figures and environments, assembled from dissimilar histories and narratives, consider states of mental and physical reverie. While the work is informed by images captured through photography or film, abstract paint marks point to associations between real and imaginary worlds. My painting moves between the illusionistic possibilities of paint and immersion in paint’s material quality.
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Sarah Keenan
Poppy (2021)
Through my eyes I imagine people as various different animals based off their similar personality traits. This piece titled ‘’Poppy’’ depicts a restrained human-rabbit girl. She is angry and vulnerable and glares at the viewer.
Artist bio:
Sarah Keenan is an Irish oil painter who holds a BA level 8 in fine art from ATU in Galway. My work takes the natural world and its interplay with the social and political world as primary subject matter, using fantasy, reality to highlight the relationship between the forces of nature and society. I am interested in the kinship between human and non-human beings. Anthropomorphic creatures appear in my paintings, blurring the line between animal and human, emphasising their similarities; their facial structures and appearances. Blurring these lines is important to me as I break away from any disconnect between species. This disconnect has its roots in histories of colonisation/extraction and can be seen in current environmental destruction of natural resources and habitats. My imagery is spiritual, as my creatures hold their own unique power, but also draws on urgent social issues, including gender-based violence. I use contrasting colours to show the difference between vibrant creatures and the darkness that haunts and surrounds them.
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Serena Caulfield
Ghosts in the Garden (2022)
Serena Caulfield is an artist based in Wexford, beside the sea. Ghosts in the Garden depicts a mythological white hare that often appeared in the artist’s four hundred year old garden. It was said to have been started by hunters in the grove, rounded the house by way of Blind Lane and the gardens to leap up on the front windowsill and disappear.
Artist bio:
Serena Caulfield is an artist who makes paintings. Memories morph into tall tales. Invented imagery invites novel narratives. Transforming old to new, past to present, absence to presence, here to there, she likes to paint quickly and think slowly.
Serena has exhibited regionally and nationally. Solo exhibitions include converge at Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford, (2023) Not somewhere else but here at Wexford Arts Centre, (2023) Convergences at Ballina Arts Centre (2023) and Flexions at Luan Gallery, Athlone (2021). She is currently working towards a major solo exhibition at Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny, and a solo gallery exhibition at Solomon Fine art, Dublin, in spring 2024
Recent group shows includeWIDE OPEN SPACE, at Wexford Co. Council Buildings, BEEP Painting Biennial, Wales, GENERATION2022: New Irish Painting, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, Zurich Portrait Prize, at the National Gallery of Ireland and Crawford Art Gallery, 140th Annual Royal Ulster Academy Exhibition, Belfast, Crossings at King House, Boyle Arts Festival (2021), and MEET at Periphery Space, Gorey School of Art, (2021).
Previous awards include The Arts Council of Ireland Visual Arts Bursary, Platform 31 Artist Award, Artlinks Visual Arts Bursary and the Arts Council Agility Award. Serena has an MA in Fine Art from NUA, Norwich, UK (2009) and a BA from Gorey School of Art and Wexford Campus School of Art and Design, IT Carlow.
Her work is held in Wexford Co. Council collection, and in private and corporate collections nationally and internationally.
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Shane Hynan
Untitled Self Portrait, No. 04-02, 2019. (2019)
‘Untitled Self Portrait, No. 04-02’ was taken while experimenting with portraiture using analogue medium format photography, and was shot in an old house with high sash windows. The image draws upon themes of duality and isolation.
Artist bio:
Shane Hynan is a full-time visual artist and photographer based in Kildare. He works primarily in the medium of photography but experiments with sound, video, collage, text and sculpture. His practice draws upon conceptual and documentary photographic approaches and focuses on rural Ireland, bogs and the built environment. Duality as ‘the condition of being dual’ is an integral part to his photographic process and output. The use of photography as a tool of expression, drawing on an emotional and intuitive connection with topography, is a core concern within his work. The metaphorical exploration of place and space underpins his visual enquiry and acts as a significant subtext throughout his practice. Hynan has exhibited extensively in Ireland and abroad including China, the UK and Germany. He was shortlisted for the Royal Photographic Society International Photography Exhibition 162 and 163, and received a Visual Arts Bursary Award from the Arts Council in 2020 and 2022.
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The Seventh Shroud
Musical performance 8.25 – 8.55pm, October 31st
Performers of original 80s goth rock music, The Seventh Shroud, tell of places of shelter.
We find shelter within, where we go to hide or escape The Other – or places in the dark where we may be safe – even in what for others may be a final resting places (cemeteries or graveyards) which serve as shelter from the light of day, before we go out again into the night in vampiric form.
Ava Vox bio:
Singer and Radio DJ, Ava Vox has already performed and produced several albums. Her latest single, Crash (from the album Immortalised) has had excellent reception on local and international radio stations as well as clubs. Ava’s original band, The Seventh Veil was formed in the 80s and won Battle of the Bands.
Apart from a few remaining live recordings and demos, the old songs have been lost in time, but with the help of Seth (bass) and Michael (guitar) these are being recreated under the new name The Seventh Shroud.
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The Seventh Shroud on Instagram
Ava on Instagram and her website
Seth on Instagram
Michael on Instagram