126, Artist-run Gallery, are pleased to announce the first of a series of performances in connection with Ceara Conway’s ‘Making Visible’.

6th January 2014 | 6pm
St. Nicholas’s Church, Galway City

For this first performance ‘Able Women’ member Veronika Ncube has chosen one of Ireland’s oldest laments to sing and will perform it with Ceara Conway and Noirin Ni Rian. The performance will be followed by a reception.

This is a free event, open to all.

***

”Making Visible”

In 2014 126 Artist-Run Gallery will be working with artist and singer Ceara Conway to support her current project “Making Visible”.

Making Visible is a socially engaged art project by Connemara Gaeltacht artist and singer Ceara Conway. Drawing upon the old Irish tradition of ”Caoineadh” a vocal lament associated with mourning, Ceara has created a series of ritual performances that have been informed by her time engaging with ”Able Women”, a group of women who are currently seeking asylum in Ireland, with the first performance taking place on the 6th of January 2014,  at 6 pm in St Nicholas’s Church, Galway City.

In the series of performances each woman has chosen a lament from their own country and a location in Galway City, that they wish to have it performed. The location and lament they have chosen is pertinent to a personal aspect of their experiences living within the direct provision service in Galway.

In Ireland it was traditional for the ”bean caoineadh” to lament and ask for things on behalf of the grieving family and community. These performances aspire to create a connection between both audience and performer, communicating  emotive, personal and political aspects of these women’s experiences through voice and song. For the first performance, ‘Able Women’ member Veronika Ncube has chosen one of Ireland’s oldest laments to sing and will perform it with Ceara Conway and Noirin Ni Rian. This Performance will take place on the 6th of January 2014, ‘Nollaig na mBan’ - 6 pm - St Nicholas’s Church, Market Street, Galway, followed by a reception.  

Everyone is welcome to attend!

For further info : www.cearaconway.com - 087 6934038
This project is commissioned by CREATE/Arts Council and supported by 126 Artist-run Gallery, Galway.

Ceara Conway is an artist and singer from the Connemara Gaeltacht in the west of Ireland. Her artistic practice has taken her all over the world, from glass blowing in Italy to silent meditation retreats in India and working with homeless women in Downtown Los Angeles where she assisted the artist Suzanne Lacy on her reproduction of ”Three Weeks in January, End Rape in LA”.

Since 2001 Ceara has been commissioned to create an extensive number of large scale public art commissions nationally and Internationally. Her work is site and issue specific and she uses a wide range of materials and approaches including sculpture, design, photography,performance and song to express her ideas. She is currently exploring themes of ritual, tradition in the realm of public art. Spirituality, anthropology, psychology and philosophy inform and inspire her ideas.

She has received several Awards and Bursaries from the Arts Council, Ealain na Gaeltachta and County/City Arts Offices. In 2012, she received a Paul Brady Scholarship from the World Academy of Music University of Limerick for tutorials in singing.

In 2013 she was commissioned by the Galway County Public Arts Office and TULCA Visual Arts Festival to create and produce‘’Iascealaíocht’’ a large scale storytelling performance that took place in 10 curraghs on the sea in Connemara. She was also commissioned to create three new works ‘’ Vicissitudes, Exile Ritual and Lament’’ and ‘’A Vessel for Souls’’ by Difference Exchange, Derry City of Culture and Kings College London.
Ongoing and  upcoming  Commissions and Performances include:

Artist in Residence - Taibh Chearsabhagh Museum, North Uist, Outer Hebrides
National Gallery of Ireland - Solo Performance, 30th of January, 2014
Public Art Commission for St Brendan’s Hospital, Loughrea, County Galway
 
www.126.ie
126 gallery archive
www.cearaconway.com
www.create-ireland.ie