LCGA Exhibitions 2022

Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA) is delighted to present Aideen Barry’s solo exhibition By Slight Ligaments, her most ambitious exhibition to date and the culmination of several years’ work.  It includes film, sound, drawing, digital animation and several specially commissioned collaborations with artists, designers and craft workers. The Show is curated by Sarah Searson, one of Irelands leading independent curators. Barry’s approach has been to think about the various spaces in LCGA as a body of nervous systems. The title of the exhibition By Slight Ligaments comes from Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, emphasising the exhibition as a body of parts, stitched together through the collective talents of Barry and her many extraordinary collaborators. Included are writer Sinéad Gleeson; harpist, Aisling Lyons; composers and musicians, Fiona Sheil, Stephen Shannon and Cathal Murphy; and Canadian Inuit performer RIIT ᕇᑦ. Barry has also commissioned work from leading designers, Margaret O’ Connor, Tropical Popical and master carpenter, Charles Perpoil.

The works take over the various spaces in the Gallery, alluding to our intense human vulnerability and disconnection as a society grappling with post-pandemic realities and environmental changes. Throughout the exhibition sound and imagery overwhelm us; play with our senses, marking out connection, dislocation and our bodies in a changing world. Working across multiple sites of research, such as the Bunting Harp Collection archives, and with the Irish Traditional Music Archive and Music Network the exhibition refers to a collective state of denial, questioning a public’s aversion to acknowledging crisis, its impact and role in changing socio-political cultures and widening global inequality

At the heart of the exhibition is Oblivion/Seachmalltacht/ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᐅᔪᓐᓃᖅᑐᑦ, which receives its premier in LCGA, a Irish Traditional Music Archive & Music Network, Bunting Commission. This is a spectacular performance, moving image and sound installation created by Barry in collaboration with internationally renowned Inuit Canadian singer and song writer RIIT ᕇᑦ, Irish harpist Aisling Lyons with costume design by Margaret O’ Connor.

Punctuated through the gallery are QR codes which will lead to pop up videos that can be viewed on a smart phone and will give the viewer a background or context to some of the works created in the exhibition. By Slight Ligaments tours to the project partners Source Arts Centre, in Thurles in Tipperary in March 2022 and then onwards to Paris to the Centre Culturel Irlandais in September 2022 with further international partners bringing it to North America in 2023.  A live performance of the OBLIVION / SEACHMALLTACHT/ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᐅᔪᓐᓃᖅᑐᑦ work will take place on the 21.12.21 with the support of The Irish World Academy of Music & Dance, University of Limerick and will be live streamed across several platforms including the ITMA, Music Network and Barry’s social media platforms. A Catalogue in the form of a vinyl record will be produced to celebrate the show and will feature an essay in the form of a sound work by Sinéad Gleeson and Stephen Shannon. This exhibition catalogue will be available in Spring 2022 designed by Oonagh Young & HQ Design and produced by Limerick City Gallery of Art, Source Arts Centre and Centre Culturel Irlandais. Works in this exhibition have been supported through the generous support of the Arts Council of Ireland Project Awards 2021.

Limerick City Gallery of Art presents BY SLIGHT LIGAMENTS, Aideen Barry curated by Sarah Searson (wix.com)

For further information please contact artgallery@limerick.ie