Female/Mystic - Exhibition - The Source, Thurles.
Female/Mystic: Olivia Furey and Keith Blake are holding an exhibition entitled Female/Mystic, running from December 8th to Jan 21st, 10am - 5 pm in The Source Arts Centre, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
DEC 08 - JAN 21 2017 (dates closed for Christmas TBA)
TIME 10AM - 5PM (later on performance evenings)
EVENT NIGHT - JAN 13 2017 (more details TBA)
Olivia Furey
Olivia Furey (b.1990) is a visual artist from Co. Sligo, currently living and working in Limerick city. Olivia graduated from Limerick School of Art & Design in 2015 with a BA in Fine Art (Painting).
Olivia is interested in DIY punk aesthetics. Punk is a subculture which began in the mid seventies and is heavily based on punk music; other branches of the subculture include visual art, fashion, film and literature. Punk ideologies are mostly centred on individual freedom and opposition to the conventional social and political principles of a society. Left wing political opinions, non commercial music/art, open forms of sexuality and gender equality would be typical punk beliefs. Punk would generally be expressed in an aggressive and anarchistic manner. Punk bands playing shows, dressing in a non-conventional fashion, political activism e.g. protests, fanzines and DIY ethics such as publishing one’s own art/music/literature would be common punk aesthetics and forms of expression.
Olivia has produced an installation of feminist punk zines that are on display in The Source Arts Centre. The zines are inspired by Olivia’s interest in music, contemporary culture and her own opinions as a feminist. The zines consist of a variety of album cover parodies, as well as writings about several different issues in the contemporary music industry such as commercialisation and creativity control issues which relates to the non-commercial ideology of punk. Olivia aims for these zines to encourage DIY ethics and independent thinking for contemporary musicians/artists.
The lack of visibility of women in music and the way women are portrayed in the media is another issue Olivia tackles in her zines. Women are expected to behave in a certain manner or maintain a certain physical appearance in a lot of cases by the media. Olivia objectifies these standards that women should not have to abide by. Olivia also makes zines that address the oppression women face on a daily basis such as street harassment and body shaming.
Olivia aims for her work to advocate alternative ways of thinking to the viewer. Olivia wants these zines to encourage female empowerment and for women not to feel that they have to abide any stereotypical social behaviour to earn respect from others. Olivia wants to make art that gives voice to bigger problems that affect women’s rights and to tackle these issues using DIY ethics.
Keith Blake
Keith Blake (b. 1992) is a recent graduate of the Limerick School of Art and Design with a BA in Fine Art (Painting). He lives and works in Co. Tipperary, Ireland.
Blake’s work in Female/Mystic is a reflection on the word ‘rumination’. In an article titled Rethinking Rumination by Susan Nolen-Hoeksema et al that was featured in Perspectives on Psychological Science it is defined as ‘a mode of responding to distress that involves repetitively and passively focusing on symptoms of distress and on the possible causes and consequences of these symptoms.’ Blake is fascinated by the etymology of this word. It originates in the Latin ‘ruminatus’, past particle of the word ‘ruminare’. This means to ‘chew the cud’ and refers to the act whereby a cow regurgitates the food it has swallowed as a means to masticate it once more. What interests Blake is how the history of the word suggests a correlation between this method of digestion and a cognitive process and how the former is used to elucidate the latter. Blake’s work is concerned with how the corporeal can be adapted and used metaphorically as a means to describe something that is non-concrete. The tripartite process of consuming, regurgitation and re-consuming becomes a metaphor for the cyclical nature of the mental activity of rumination. This reminded the artist of a visceral scene from the metaphysical horror classic City of the Living Dead (1980) which was directed by Lucio Fulci. He decided to create three paintings in response so as to identify what exactly held his fascination beyond the luridness of it all. Blake concluded that the scene invoked questions about bodily autonomy that remain at the core of his practice even as he explores a multitude of subjects.
Hilary Mantel, author of the acclaimed Wolf Hall, alluded to the significance that autonomy had to female saints such as St. Catherine of Siena in an article about anorexia mirabilus for the Guardian titled Holy Disorders. Anorexia mirabilis translates from Latin as ‘miraculous lack of appetite’ and was practiced by ascetic women during the Middle Ages such as St. Margaret of Cortona who wanted to die of starvation to ‘satiate the poor.’ These women would refuse all food except for the Eucharist so as to coalesce with God. Mantel pinpoints why Blake has become so engaged with these austere women:
‘Survivors are reluctant to admit that anorexia, which in the end leads to invalidity and death, is along the way a path of pleasure and power: it is the power that confers pleasure, however freakish and fragile the gratification may seem. When you are isolated, your back to the social wall, control over your own ingestion and excretion is all you have left; this is why professional torturers make sure to remove it.’
Mantel is correct when she goes on to say that anorexia mirabilis was a form of self-assertion for women in a patriarchal society that demeaned and discouraged them.
To Book click Here or see Facebook event.
