15 - 24 October - Sinners & Citizens
Venue: Online & DLR Mill Theatre, Dundrum, Dublin
Tickets: Free (No Registration Required)
Full Event Details:
Smashing Times are delighted to launch the Sinners and Citizens online exhibition, hosted on the Smashing Times Virtual Gallery.
‘Sinners and Citizens’ is taken from a quote from Seamus Heaney:
“As writers and readers, as sinners and citizens, our realism and our aesthetic sense make us wary of crediting the positive note. The very gunfire braces us and the atrocious confers a worth upon the effort which it calls forth to confront it.”
This virtual exhibition includes artwork created as part of the State of the Art: Nation State as both Violator and Protector of Human Rights project, which brought together fourteen diverse artists to engage in research on national and international best practice examples of arts and human rights from across Europe linked to sociological and anthropological standpoints and a study of ‘art as activism’ from the personal to the political. Artists have met online throughout the year to take part in Artist Exchange Meetings, where they engaged in a variety of tasks and exercises, as well as giving presentations on their own work, work that inspires them, and meeting with representatives of a variety of human rights organisations and government officials, including Front Line Defenders, ICCL, INAR, former Lord Mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu and Cllr Carly Bailey.
State of the Art: Nation State as both Violator and Protector of Human Rights
Events at Dublin Arts and Human Rights Festival
15 – 24 October 2021
State of the Art: The Nation State as both Violator and Protector of Human Rights is a year-long project curated by Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality with a range of artists and partners, funded by The Arts Council of Ireland.
The State of the Art project brings together fourteen diverse artists through six collaborative artist exchanges and ongoing artistic engagement. Artists come together over one year, January to December 2021, to explore, share and engage in creative arts practice for human rights and to create a showcase of new work to be presented to a public audience. The artists include visual artists, theatre and film makers, dance artists, poets, writers, multi-disciplinary artists, musicians and singer-songwriters. Artists share, support and inspire each other in creative arts practice for human rights, equality and diversity –promoting experiential professional development and creativity.
The artists have engaged in research on national and international best practice examples of arts and human rights from across Europe linked to sociological and anthropological standpoints and a study of ‘art as activism’ from the personal to the political. Through the collaborative exchanges, artists have
engaged in a variety of activities as well as giving presentations on their own work, on work that inspires them, and meeting with representatives of a variety of human rights organisations and government officials, including Front Line Defenders, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), the Irish Network Against Racism (INAR), former Lord Mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu and Cllr Carly Bailey.
The artists are:
Mary Moynihan, writer, director, theatre and film maker, Artistic Director of Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality
Pamela McQueen, dramaturg
Carla Ryan, actor, singer-songwriter
Noelle McAlinden, Visual Artist, Creative Advisor, Mental Health Campaigner, Curator and Cultural Broker
Áine O’Hara, visual artist, theatre maker
Geraldine McAlinden, writer, actor, director
Hina Khan, visual artist
Michael McCabe, actor, director, drama facilitator
Féilim James, writer
Amna Walayat, visual artist
Michelle Costello, actor, visual artist
Sinead McCann, visual artist
John Scott, dancer, choreographer, Artistic Director of Irish Modern Dance Theatre
Ellen O’Mahony, singer-songwriter
Read the artists biogs here.
Artistic Creation
As part of State of the Art, the artists have created a series of showcase artworks to be presented for the 2021 Dublin Arts and Human Rights festival both live – at the Chester Beatty and dlr Mill Theatre Dundrum – and virtually as part of a visual art exhibition and film installation screened via the new Smashing Times Virtual Art gallery. The artworks are inspired by the theme State of the Art: The Nation State as both Violator and Protector of Human Rights and by the UN Declaration of Human Rights, intersecting with equality, human rights and diversity and created under the framework of ‘Art as a Place of Performative Remembrance’ and ‘Art as Activism and Transformation’.
The State of the Art: Nation State as both Violator and Protector of Human Rights project is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland.
