It now sits as the first artwork in a university collection to openly acknowledge the LGBTQ+ community. Proceeding this, the idea of creating an in-process series of paintings in the public space was suggested. Starting in late April, two boards were installed in the city centre. This body of work was again inspired by the LGBTQ+ community in Cork, specifically members of the Gay Project and LINC. The paintings feature individuals from both groups engaging with one another in built safe spaces. Recent events in Ireland have reminded us how far we still have to go as a society and how important these spaces are to the queer community. We require these spaces to share our experiences, bond, heal and find our families. By developing this body of work in a public space such as this, it mirrors the level of vulnerability we feel existing as ourselves walking the streets. Yet we will continue to strive, we will continue to push forward unapologetically and establish our identities and broaden our safe spaces until they encompass the streets we once feared to walk. Speaking to the artist about the last number of weeks they had this to say ‘During the duration of the project on Sullivans Quay, there has been a mix of response. The majority of those passing have been very encouraging making statements about how it is wonderful to see a painting develop. The public have been inquisitive, wanting to find out more about the project or myself. However there were a number of negative responses that in all honesty I wasn’t surprised by.
On the first day of set up I had to paint over the gay project’s youth mural. For those of you who might of missed it, it was a lovely community project that allowed young LGBTQ+ people the opportunity to say what pride meant to them in speech bubbles all enveloped by a rainbow flag. As I was going over my second coat someone stopped on their bike to thank me for “covering up the rainbow and putting a stop to the solidarity of it”. After a brief moment of clarifying what he had said, my response was “Im putting up something even queerer” and he was stunned’, muttering ‘that’s not good” as he rode off. Other occasions involved someone throwing food at me, calling me a fag and ripping down the artist statement I had next to the work explaining the project. In my eyes an attempt to silence the work or mindless vandalism. Either way a disregard for the project. As of June 23rd the artwork was stolen from the site. Any attempt to remove the work would have meant a level of planning. The culprit would need to arrive with a drill or screwdriver to remove it from its hinges and because of their weight, would have needed a place nearby to store them. It’s deeply disappointing that someone would go to this much effort to rob the community of an artwork. Thanks to the efforts of the detective inspectors department at the Anglesea Street Garda Station, they were tracked down safely two weeks later. We are satisfied that the intent of the theft wouldn’t be categorised as a hate crime and the culprit has been apprehended. The process of completing the artwork can now resume. #CorkPrideAIR
This was the first year of the Cork Pride Artist in Residence and the honour went to Stephen Doyle, who is a visual artist exploring issues of queer identity through the relationship between figuration and the politics of representation. They have received a number of international and national awards for their figurative and portraiture work. They have also been included in a number of public and private collections, notably the National Collection with the first work to openly discuss trans/queer identity. Further to this granted the Visual Art Bursary Award (2020) by the Arts Council of Ireland, included in the Art History syllabus for the Leaving Cert and added to the peer panel for the Arts Council of Ireland to name a few. Under the residency, two different opportunities emerged. The first was a commission from the Glucksman Gallery in UCC. During Summer 2021, the Glucksman invited members of LINC, The Gay Project, UCC Staff LGBT+ Network and Cork’s wider LGBT+ community to participate in a series of create workshops at the museum with artist, Ciara Rodgers helping to facilitate. The group openly discussed the barriers and adversity they faced, the community’s strength and resilience, and their life in Cork. These experiences, memories and ideas were creatively interpreted and presented as a series of photographs, prints and collages in an exhibition in Gallery 2 that launched at the Glucksman on 29 July 2021, Titled; Intersections.
The workshops which included collage, photography and cyanotype, helped provide the inspiration for the aesthetic of the commissioned artwork. The content of the piece references the experience of existing as an outsider in a system that was built to neglect and punish those who don’t fit in, a unifying sensation felt by the group whether it was due to homosexuality, gender dysphoria, bi-erasure, HIV status, etc. The monotone blue became a tool to express the binary, the restrictive nature of man-made systems and the constructed ideologies we use to police issues around sexuality and gender. Furthermore, the significance of the blue tone is solidified in the association it has to Ireland. ’St. Patricks Blue’ is the official colour of Ireland in heraldic terms. Doyle uses it to construct the foundations of the piece as a way of connecting the viewer to what we consider ’traditional’. The collaged space includes places from Cork city and county. Grand Parade taking up the majority of the composition. It has a special significance to the LGBTQIA+ community in Cork as it is annually transformed to celebrate Pride. A protest, party and a safe space for the community to come together and promote the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and to increase visibility of queer people. The inflection of colour acts independently of the monotone structures, defiantly creating a space for the minority. The spectrum of colour appears to be establishing itself in this space as it juts in from the foreground blending into itself and reforming in areas it has been erased from. It challenges the painting’s aesthetics, and in doing so it asks, ‘how useful are blue landscapes for a multicolour society?’
A VISUAL ARTIST EXPLORING ISSUES OF QUEER IDENTITY THROUGH THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FIGURATION AND THE POLITICS OF REPRESENTATION. “
www.corkpride.com
#CorkPride2022
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