Curated by Anne Mullee
Wexford-born artist Laura Ní Fhlaibhín presents a new body of work at Tinahely Courthouse Arts Centre.
Drawing on research undertaken during two residencies at the community studio houses in Tinahely’s Market House – site of the village gaol from circa 1804 until the building of the new courthouse in 1843 - in the marl-walled court of the fairyqueen exists both as a text and as suite of votive objects, from clay ‘spirit creatures’ to wall drawings, tiny bronzes, commemorative plate and an embroidered flag bearing the emblem of a hare.
Ní Fhlaibhín’s discovery of the use of marl clay as a primary material for building rudimentary houses prior to the Famine provides a starting point for her explorations into aspects of the colonial judiciary, the fate of Famine-era ‘criminals’, and the historic exploitation of the area’s natural assets.
Archival research into court records points to the transportation of convicts to the New World during the nineteenth century, in addition to the harvesting and transportation of timber from Wicklow’s ancient oak forest to England’s shipyards, and, reputedly, to build the Old Palace of Westminster. These histories form a reimagined narrative of a justice dispensed not by colonial powers, but by the herbal wisdom of Biddy Early, barrister-witch, in a tribunal informed by poet Brian Merriman’s comic masterpiece, The Midnight Court.
Through transformative process including casting metal, firing and glazing, marl clay, bronze and steel become carriers of social history, architectural oddness and impenetrability. Invading small spaces, ledges, nooks and crannies around Tinahely’s Market Square and the Courhtouse Arts Centre, Ní Fhlaibhín’s almost insignificant works subtly repopulate the town while the Gallery plays host to the eponymous text.
The project will be accompanied by a short pamphlet available from the gallery/
Laura Ní Fhlaibhín completed her MFA at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2019 and her BA at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 2013. Recent exhibitions have included ‘Róisín, silver, rockie’ solo show at Palfrey Space,London 2020, ‘Caol Áit1/2’, 126 Galway 2020, Burren College of Art, Ireland, 2019; Deptford X, London, 2018; Tulca Festival of Visual Arts, Galway, 2018; ‘Water jets were used on the four corners of the building’, Newington Art Space, London, 2018; ‘a speech that showed the chair in the middle’, Enclave, London, 2018; ‘Dodecagon’, Space Union, Seoul, 2017; ‘Lamellae’, The Lab, Dublin, 2016. She is the current recipient of Goldsmiths MFA Graduate Almacantar Studio Bursary Award, and Burren College of Art Emerging Irish Artist Residency award. She was awarded Firestation Dublin Studio Bursary 2020 and Tyrone Guthrie Residency 2020.
http://www.lauranifhlaibhin.com/
Anne Mullee is an independent curator, researcher and art writer based in Dublin.
Projects include Folk Radio, a public art project with Tom Flanagan commissioned by Clare County Council for the Gaining Ground programme (2020), and All Bread is Made of Wood, a public art project commissioned by Fingal Public Art programme with artists Fiona Hallinan and Sabina MacMahon (2016).
She holds an MA (Hons) in Cultural Policy and Arts Management from UCD, a HND in Fashion Journalism from the University of the Arts (London), and a Certificate in Art & Design Certificate from TUD. Mullee was curator of The Courthouse Gallery & Studios, Ennistymon, Co. Clare from 2016-19, and is the recipient of multiple awards from the Arts Council, European Connections in Digital Arts (EUCIDA), Clare County Council and Dublin City Council. She has participated in residencies in Ireland and Iran. Her writing has appeared in Paper Visual Art, the Visual Artists News Sheet and Partnership & Participation: Community Archaeology in Ireland. www.annemullee.com