03 September 15

Ireland. Collecting ideas.

Beginning of Residency in MART Gallery, Dublin

Having had a day of getting lost and pretty drenched in Dublin, I found myself speaking to a local and a few Canadians about laws, rights and racism for several hours. A few campaigns I had cottoned onto along the way left me with several quesitons for the unexpected man that happened to be exactly the sort of person I was looking for.

A few statistics got my mind reeling, with fire coming out my ears, for instance the fact that 51% of women are not too fussed about having the right to choose abortion and that a third didn’t even know they didn’t have the right, and that up until 1991, it was illegal to leave the country to do so. As a woman currently living here for the next month, despite my passport saying I am from across the water, that doesn’t actually matter.

As far as I am concerned, as long as I am in control of my body, I have the right to choose what I do with it, if this body is obstructed in an unlawful way, then I have should have the right to claim that the law does something about it, it seems simple, but the right to protect women is completely violated in order to make this a problem in the first place.

My body is my own, just as any other woman has the right to claim that there body is there own, this is not an statement of selfishness, but one of morality for women and for a child that should be brought into the world that is not economically ready for them.

This got me thinking of what obstruction really is, an alternation, or change in ones favour. Is this not how our society works? Being in Ireland during a recession and coming from Scotland, seeing our education and welfare systems being torn apart, does the word obstruction not fit into theses categories? The rights of balance and welfare have been obstructed and so the rich, become richer.

This perception makes other terminologies within politics transparent, and holds us witness to the puppetry of media, the tactics of war and most evidently the misuse of the word terrorism (a personal aggravation of mine and also interestingly predicted by Walter Benjamin in 1933), as a means overshadowing realities and subsequently creating revolutions of extremism.

Alot to be thinking about for just two days.

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22 September 15

Coming to the end of my residency

I can’t believe how fast these last three weeks have gone.

I feel sad to be leaving the studio, there is always something going on around here, despite spending a lot of time by alone, I have to say I have learnt a lot about myself and how I work.

Researching into the history of women in Ireland has led to my realisation of the place of women in society, the place of the conscious human being in the contemporary make-up of the capitalist structure that has been played out over the last century. The conditions we live in today are a state of being that merely being repeated.

My research over the last few weeks has brought about ascertion within myself and sparked a light of somewhat controlled fury in my eyes, as a graduate and as an active contributor to society – as an artist and as an activist.

The works I have created, or rather am finishing off in the next few days, are reflective of this research. We are caught up in the struggle to make ends meet, whilst similtaneously being bombarded with information of the travesty that is the contemporary world, we forget about the right of  humanity for ourselves with the need for envelopment of consumerist culture, we become what we our wants.

Within the city, even if we think we have a relaxed attitude, the pace is firmyl set at one hundred miles an hour: going to work, getting shopping, going home, watching absolute shite on TV. There is no time to stop and realise, no moment of reflection.

Despite those outside of the city claiming to have a life that is far removed from it, the only element of truth in this is the amount of traffic, its exactly the same. The government and media are exactly the same.

While all of this isolated form of living is becoming ingrained into our cultre Where is the question this question?

(Excuse the angry Scots way of this being asked)

‘Here, wait a minute, I’ve NEVER been allowed to choose what happens to my body should someone violate me and force me to have sex with them?
I don’t have the choice, should a condom break or other form of contraception fails me and I can’t afford to bring a child into the world. I’m not in a stable relationship, or have a decent job because of zero hour contracts and above all, I will loose my job if I am pregnant and require maternity leave as its not in my contract, the system has put me in a posititon where pheasibly bringing a child into the world is impossible.
But, I do not have the choice.

All the other factors lead you to forget that you actually should be campaigning to be granted basic human rights, all the other problems fall into the same category, no wonder we forget what being human really is.

My exhibition ‘Silent Weapons’ opens on the 25th September 6-8pm

26th-29th September 1-6pm

excluding Monday 28th

The Coach House, behind the fire station, MART.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1498338233818252/

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