Threads of Continuity: Weaving Together Loss and Renewal
Neva Elliott, Ciara O’Connor
Opens 28th of November and runs until the 25th of January
Reflections on thematic and material use of textiles as a metaphor for the intricate tapestry of human emotions and experiences, emphasising themes of continuity and change.
This exhibition presents a poignant exploration of human experience, weaving together the themes of loss, identity, trauma, and recovery as explored through the distinct yet interconnected artistic practices of Neva Elliott, Ciara O’Connor, and the contributions of a third artist. Elliott's deeply personal work navigates the terrain of grief and healing, using her life's narratives and psychological states as the medium for her art. O'Connor delves into themes of trauma and the journey towards emotional repair, employing textiles to tell stories of consent theft and personal transformation. Together, their work initiates a dialogue on the universality of human emotions, the resilience of the spirit, and the transformative power of art.
This exhibition aligns with strategic priorities of inclusivity, environmental consciousness, and community engagement by presenting works that touch on universal themes of human experience. It leverages the power of art to foster discussions on topics that, while deeply personal, resonate widely, such as mental health, grief, and personal growth, thus contributing to a more inclusive conversation within the community. The engagement with materials in both artists' work also prompts reflection on our interaction with the environment, emphasising a sustainable and mindful approach to artistic practice.
The exhibition will feature engagement strategies designed to expand its reach and inclusivity. This includes artist-led workshops on grief through creative expression, panel discussions on art as a tool for healing, and interactive installations that invite audience participation. Accessibility features will be incorporated, ensuring that the exhibition space and all related events are accessible to a diverse audience, including those with physical or sensory impairments.
Neva Elliott Biography
Neva Elliott is a Dublin-based artist and writer with an MA from Central Saint Martin’s, London. She has exhibited throughout Ireland and internationally, including the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow, The National Gallery of Ireland, and The South African National Gallery. After a decade as CEO of Crash Ensemble, Ireland’s leading contemporary music group, Elliott returned to her art practice full-time in 2021.
Highlights from 2023 include her solo exhibition, How to create a fallstreak, at Linenhall Arts Centre, being an invited artist at the 193rd RHA Annual Exhibition and showing at ARTWORKS 2023 Remembering The Future at VISUAL Carlow, where she secured an award for ‘outstanding work’.
VISUAL Carlow also commissioned an excerpt from her memoir writing, which can be read at visualcarlow.ie/art-ideas. Other writing has been featured in literary journals, art and photography publications, and as exhibition texts, including Banshee, Unapologetic Magazine, Visual Artists New sheet and Source Photographic Review, where it earned runner-up in Source's New Writing Prize for 2023.
Elliott is an Irish Hospice Foundation signature artist.
Looking ahead, her solo exhibition, Notes on Being Human: A Year of Making, is scheduled for September 2024 at PALLAS Projects and Studios, Dublin.
Neva Elliott creates work based on and in her life, not just narratively or anecdotally, but through extrapolating action from the awareness of the fragile and contingent nature of being human.
Projects come from a place of transparent vulnerability, saying the hard, uncomfortable things fundamental to being human. Individual works are formed through living as material, processing recollections and psychological states into action and tangible manifestation. Utilising herself as content and medium, a non-fictional performer in a lyrical conceptualism that blurs art and life. Resulting in by-products of generative activity and autonomous works across photography, text, object, video, sound, and performative gesture.
Elliott’s recent body of work and a solo show at the Linenhall Arts Centre in 2023 focused on grief centring on the artist’s loss of her husband, Colin, to cancer. Her forthcoming 2024 solo show at PALLAS will focus on post-traumatic healing and how the body manifests emotional distress, drawing on her experience post-loss, related diagnosis of Complex PTSD and the ‘work’ everyone must do around difficult human emotions.
While rooted in her personal experience, she aims to expand beyond individual memoirs to speak to audiences honestly about aspects of our shared humanity that still hold some taboos – death, grief, and mental health.
“I use my practice to traverse the world, my relationships and the difficulties of being human. For me, it’s a means to work through grief, somewhere to place love for those who have gone, a way back to myself. It is a survival strategy baked into the act of making; an offering to my anguish and anxiety, a petition to ease it, a prayer in reverse.”
info@nevaelliott.com Website : https://www.nevaelliott.com
Ciara O’Connor Biography
Ciara O’Connor is an Irish visual artist based in County Kerry. She primarily works in a combination of free-motion embroidery, hand stitching and raw-edged appliqué. Her work is figurative and deals with themes of identity, feminism, trauma and recovery.
Since returning to her practice in 2019 she has been selected for seven group shows, including Following Threads in Crawford Art Gallery. She has also had a solo show in Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford, completed a residency in The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, and had articles featured in FAIRE Magazine, Image Magazine, several National newspapers and VAN Jan/Feb 2024.
O’Connor’s solo show, Brazen, was a collection of stories about the theft of consent and the subsequent process of emotional repair. The response to the show was the catalyst that has pointed her practice in the direction of trauma research.
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