Decade Of Centenaries exhibition in the city

An artist with collections housed in galleries across Ireland and the UK is bringing an exhibition to Cork.

Niamh McCann’s exhibition called ‘someone decides, hawk or dove’ will be open to public viewing in St Peter’s Church on North Main Street in Cork city from 23-37 March.

‘someone decides, hawk or dove’ is a commissioned work by artist Niamh McCann as part of the programme for ART:2023, a Decade Of Centenaries supported by The Arts Council of Ireland/An Chomhairle Ealaíon, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and in association with The National Sculpture Factory, Cork.

The iteration of ‘someone decides, hawk or dove’ at St Peter’s is the final site of a series of engagements and exhibitions in 2023/24 that began within the Octagonal Gardens in the Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre, Oldbridge, Co. Meath, followed by exhibitions at STABLE Arts hosted by Solus Nua, Washington DC, and The Mac, Belfast.

The collaborative project features commissioned songs and soundscapes by Iarla Ó Lionáird, collaboration with architect Peter Carroll concerning site/sculpture ‘Turn Again’ and a live and recorded performance by Ceara Conway, Iarla Ó Lionáird and Tonnta Ensemble.

This live performance will take place on 22 March.

Niamh McCann said in this exhibition she responds to the 1922 institutionalisation of the northern and southern borders of Ireland and the ongoing consequences and reverberations of this partition.

Combining sculpture, collage and video, she said she mines “deep seams of colonialist atrocities and legacies of ‘The Troubles’ to present, subvert and reinvent assumed perspectives of social, political and geographical landscapes, allowing viewers access to a nuanced world of layered and co-mingled realities.”

A recipient of the 2022 Norman Houston Award from Solas Nua, Niamh McCann lives and works in Dublin.

She is also a recipient of the 2021 Stephen McKenna Fellowship from the Royal Hibernian Academy and is represented by Green On Red Gallery, Dublin.

Her work is housed in the collections of The Irish Museum of Modern Art; The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon; Limerick City Gallery, Swansea City Council; The London Institute; Hiscox, London and Dublin City Gallery and The Hugh Lane.