Delighted to be getting on the boat home to Ireland for Speech Sounds at @visual_carlow , opening Thursday June 9th, marking the launch of @carlow_arts_festival . Titled after a short story by sci-fi writer Octavia Butler, Speech Sounds is an exhibition that considers communication, language and the body. Working in the legacy of the world-building of Octavia Butler, the artworks in the exhibition reckon with narratives of disability and access, the relationship between humans and ecology, the languages of love and loss, with a world beyond, of living and imagined languages, connecting with ancestors, the material of words and a dialogue with history. Excited to show the work by selected artists Emanuel Almborg, Jenny Brady, Once We Were Islands, Paul Hallahan (@paulhallahan), Dita Hashi (@antiwage), Austin Hearne (@austinhearne), Vishal Kumaraswamy (@vishalkswamy), Bridget O’Gorman (@beaogorman), Eoin O’Malley, Kinnari Saraiya (@kinnarisaraiya), Matt Smith, Brian Teeling (@brianteeling), Frank Wasser (@frankwasserstudio) and Francis Whorrall-Campbell (@francis_w_c). Speech Sounds also includes invited artists and new commissions by Mary Duffy, Maia Nunes (@a_sun_child), Jonah King (@kingjonahking) and Sue Huang (@studiosuehuang), Ebun Sodipo (@epastry), Marielle MacLeman, Kumbirai Makumbe (@kumbira.i) and Jennifer Mehigan (@jennifermehigan), and a loan of Eleanor Duffin from the Arts Council Collection. This has been a slow burn, developed over my time as Curator-In-Residence at VISUAL 2021, which I’m heartened to finally share. Boundless gratitude to VISUAL Arts Curator
Ben Stafford for making this possible. Work selected via ARTWORKS open call with selectors; Benjamin Perchet, Director Carlow Arts Festival; Benjamin Stafford, Curator, VISUAL and Amrita Dhallu (@amritadhallu) Keep on eye out for a @montezpressradio special in July. Image: Emanuel Almborg, still from Talking Hands/Говорящие руки, 2016, 48mins. ID in alt text