Maynooth University Department of English

The first in our series takes place on Monday 11th November at 4pm in AHI seminar room, with Dr Gavan Titley (Maynooth University Department of Media Studies) in conversation with Dr Catherine Gander about his new book, Racism and Media (London: Sage, 2019). The seminar will be followed by a reception. All staff, students and colleagues welcome.

Illuminations is delighted to host

Eternity by the Stars  
Clodagh Emoe

Eternity by the Stars is an exhibition by artist Clodagh Emoe comprising of five film works; We Are and We Are Not, (2015), Mystical Anarchism (2009) and three new works, Wolf (2019), Eternity by the Stars, (2019) and Artist’s Talk (2019).
 
The exhibition takes its title from Auguste Blanqui’s work, Eternity by the Stars, (1872). This text offers more than an astrological hypothesis, in reflecting on the eternal Blanqui presents the possibility of freedom within an infinite universe. Eternity by the Stars develops the artist’s interest in our state of interconnectedness, further exploring the notion of losing oneself for the purpose of finding oneself. Three new video works, Wolf, documenting the movements of a baby in utero on a pregnant woman, Eternity by the Stars, reflecting on ‘things’ around us and Artist’s Talk, documenting a public artist’s talk will be screened to complement existing video works, We Are and Are Not and Mystical Anarchism.

Artist’s Biography
 
Realising the interdependance of life where everything is interconnected and in process Clodagh initiates collaborative projects and creates works that explore our place in the world. Her ‘exercises’, a term she uses to describe her event based participatory works foreground experience and perception creating instances where ideas might be played out and ‘felt’ rather than imposed. Sculptural objects operate like theatre props or a ritualistic talisman; a banner marks a threshold into another temporality, a seeing device functions to initiate situations where we might lose ourselves and a handmade mat demarcates a space to explore the possibility of equality and interconnectedness.
 
Collaborative projects: Crocosmia ×, commissioned by Grangegorman Public Art, supported by Dublin City Council, (2017-2018), The Plurality of Existence…, funded by the Arts Council Project Fund, (2015 -2017), Everything is in Everything for Waves, Super Projects/Fingal County Council, (2015), Mystical Anarchism, (2009- 2012) and Metaphysical Longings (2008-2014).
 
Exhibitions and event-based works: The David and Yuko Juda Foundation Award, London (2019), Seeing the Unseen for A Mysterical Day, The Cockpit Theatre/Serpentine Gallery, London, (2016), We Are and Are Not, The Model, Sligo, (2015) Sometimes We See Better With Our Eyes Closed for Summer Rising, IMMA, (2015) An Exercise in Seeing, ESA/DIT, (2014), The Things That We See, TNUA (Taiwan National University of Art), Taipei, (2014) and Proposition 7, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, (2013).
Clodagh was nominated for The David and Yuko Juda Foundation Award 2019.
 
Eternity by the Stars was commissioned by Illuminations Gallery, Maynooth University and supported by IADT
 

Women and the Decade of Commemorations: An All Island Perspective
Maynooth University
https://allislandcommemorationnetworkireland.wordpress.com
 
Three notable aspects of the ‘Decade of Commemorations’ thus far have been the lack of an all-island commemorative strategy; the underrepresentation or outright exclusion of women scholars/ artists/ writers/ activists / stakeholders from major events (the RIA’s ‘Global Perspectives on the Rising’ series and the Abbey Theatre’s ‘Waking the Rising’ programme are two high profile examples); and its domination by historical discourse and by historians. These public talks and roundtable events, taking place at Maynooth University, aim to diversify approaches to the ‘decade of commemoration’. They focus intentionally on ‘women and the decade of commemorations’ as a corrective to the current national conversation, seeking to showcase the scholarly and creative work of women working in an Irish cultural context, as well as to initiate discussion about women of the period of a century ago. Finally, they aim to consider the ways in which the ‘decade of commemoration’ has in fact limited discussion and debate about commemorations perceived to lie outside of its remit (such as the 20th anniversary of the closing of the last Magdalene laundry). 
 
Tuesday January 19th
Roundtable discussions with talks by:
Dr Mary McCauliffe, Women’s Studies, University College Dublin;
Dr Roísin Higgins, Department of History, Teeside University;
Dr Sinéad Kennedy, Department of English, Maynooth University;
Dr Emilie Pine, School of English and Drama, University College Dublin.

Listen to podcasts of this event by clicking on these links:

 
 
Friday February 19th
Dr Diane Urquhart, Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool,
‘Unity of unionism? Gender, covenant and commemoration'.
11am, An Foras Feasa Seminar Room, Iontas Building
Tea and coffee from 10.30
All welcome
 
Wednesday April 6th
Roundtable discussions with talks by:
Catriona Crowe, National Archives (TBC);
Martina Devlin, Writer, Journalist and Broadcaster;
Professor Gerardine Meaney, Director of Global Irish Studies, University College Dublin;
Professor Margaret Ward, Department of History, Queen’s University Belfast.
 
This event is open to the public and free of charge. Registration is required as places are limited. Please contact Dr Oona Frawley (oona.frawley@nuim.ie) for further information and to register to attend.
 
May Keynote (date to be confirmed)
Liz Gillis, Women of the Irish Revolution
 
September 8/ 9
After the Rising, After the Somme: Reflections on Commemoration in 2016
Invited Keynotes:Dr Marie Coleman, School of History, QUB
Professor Senia Paseta, Faculty of History, University of Oxford
Roundtables with contributions by (among others):Dr Dominic Bryan, Director, Institute of Irish Studies, QUB
Dr Lindsey Earner Byrne, Department of History, UCD
Dr Emily Mark-Fitzgerald, Department of Art History, UCD
 
This event is open to the public and free of charge. Registration is required as places are limited. Please contact Dr Oona Frawley (oona.frawley@nuim.ie) for further information and to register to attend.
 
October keynotes (dates to be confirmed):
Professor Lucy McDiarmid, Department of English, Montclair State University 
Professor Marianne Hirsch, Department of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University

↵The Great Famine of 1840s Ireland left a profound impact on Irish culture, as recent groundbreaking historical and literary research has revealed. Less well documented and explored, however, is the relationship of the Famine and its related experiences (migration, eviction, poverty, institutionalization and urbanization) to the visual and material cultures of Ireland. This conference, which was hosted by Maynooth University and organised as part of the NWO-funded International Network of Irish Famine Studies, aimed to consider broadly how the material and visual cultures of Ireland and its diaspora (including painting, sculpture, photography, drama, architecture, film, dance, ritual, musealisation, heritage, archaeology) intersect with the multiple impacts and experiences of the Famine.

Taking a broad approach to the impact of the Famine on visual and material cultures, the conference bought together scholars from various fields to promote new, cross-disciplinary dialogues to deepen our understanding of the Famine’s cultural history.

Plenary speakers:

Professor Fintan Cullen, University of Nottingham

Dr Jason King, NUI Galway
Dr Emily Mark-FitzGerald, University College Dublin
Professor Chris Morash, Trinity College Dublin
Professor Niamh O’Sullivan, Curator, Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum, Quinnipiac University

https://visualmaterialfamine.wordpress.com