The Souvenir Shop will examine the shifting meanings and commoditization of gestures and symbols associated with the revolution, examining how the images, objects and themes of the 1916 Easter Rising and conflict more generally become ‘souvenirs’. The work also explores how ordinary people and everyday heroes cope with conflict and resolution. Referencing the city centre shops once owned by Proclamation signatory Tom Clarke, Duffy will create a shop in Dublin city centre filled with foodstuffs, goods, medicines, with images of the rising and its heroes, woven into everyday things. The artist will transform the historical and everyday into the magical, and will fundamentally question public attitudes towards violence, commemoration and national identity.
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All works by Rita Duffy
All photographs by Stanislav Nikolov
Rita Duffy
Rita Duffy was born and grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Duffy works in the figurative/narrative tradition, and her enquiries into questions of Irish identity, history and politics often stem from autobiographical experience. Her work involves an exquisite crafting of materials and generally takes the form of painting, drawing and mixed media installation. Duffy’s work is often humorous, drawing on absurdist traditions in art, and referencing Surrealism and Magic Realism. Her work is held in national and international collections, and Duffy exhibits widely. She has undertaken many public commissions and has worked with local and community groups in her projects.
Helen Carey
Helen Carey is a Dublin-based independent curator, whose practice is focused on memory, history and cultural identity. Carey curated a series of exhibitions for the Lockout 1913/2013 centenary and has worked most recently with Ewa Partum, Michael Warren, and Mark Curran on the ongoing project THE MARKET. She is currently Director of Fire Station Artists’ Studios, and was previously Director/Curator, Limerick City Gallery of Art and inaugural Director, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris.
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