Reflections: A Commemoration to the Irish Women of 1923 was a series of talks, artist residencies and performative events remembering the lives and contributions of Irish women during a significant period in Irish history, the revolutionary 1910 - 1920s. Commissioned by Galway City Council, Galway Public Libraries, and Galway City Museum as part of the Decade of Centenaries 2012 - 2023 initiative, supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports, and Media.
The project took place from September - December 2023 and culminated in a final live public performance event in Saint Nicholas Church Galway on December 7. The event included a series of banners made by Áine phillips and the Dún Emer Eastside Collective, writer Emily Cullen and Comhrá na mBan Westside Writers Group presented spoken word and musician Tracy Bruen led the Guth na mBan city centre women's choir.
Áine Phillips founded the The Dún Emer Eastside Collective to work on the project. The group’s name references the influential crafts studio Dún Emer Guild founded in 1902 by Evelyn Gleeson and the Yeats sisters. Their innovative designs and diverse hand sewn artefacts inspired the contemporary banners created for this project. Core collective members are Áine Phillips, Helen Flynn, Helen Monaghan, Petra Breathnach, Rowena Carr, Anita Dillon, Clare Smyth, Demelza Lynn, Lizzy Dargle, Marielle MacLeman and Sona Smedkova.
Watch Reflections here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=31npybzSkDE
“Remarkable for the intensity of feeling she brings to her practice, Phillips has in particular explored the iconography of femininity as it relates the realities of experience within inherited structures that determine political, religious and gender identities.”
Aidan Dunne - The Irish Times, August 2012
ARTIST'S BIO
Áine Phillips is a performance artist based in Galway, exhibiting and performing in Ireland and internationally since the late 80’s. She creates work for multiple contexts; public art commissions, the street, club events, galleries, theatres and museums. Her work is powered by feminist philosophy, ethics and politics: using art to comment and make propositions on subjectivity, gender and social change.
She is also a writer and teacher, promoting and advocating for performance and live art as a creative force for cultural and personal transformation. She has worked extensively as a curator and organiser of performance events in Ireland and the UK. She is Head of Sculpture at Burren College of Art since 1999. In 2015, she authored and edited 'Performance Art in Ireland: A History’ (Live Art Development Agency/ Intellect Books UK) and publishes regularly in visual art journals, books and online platforms.
Performance Art in Ireland:A History:
www.intellectbooks.com/performance-art-…
Her performative video works and art films have been screened internationally at festivals and exhibitions. Her work has been supported and collected by the Arts Council of Ireland and the National Museum of Ireland.