{"id":21703,"date":"2019-03-08T10:53:05","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T10:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/?p=21703"},"modified":"2019-03-08T11:13:22","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T11:13:22","slug":"regard-exhibition-celebrates-contributions-made-by-women-to-national-self-portrait-collection-of-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/regard-exhibition-celebrates-contributions-made-by-women-to-national-self-portrait-collection-of-ireland\/","title":{"rendered":"REGARD Exhibition celebrates contributions made by women to National Self-Portrait Collection of Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY: Enya McIntyre and Lisa Diviney<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a boys club\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a gesture towards International Women’s Day, the University of Limerick hosted a gallery
\nshow exhibiting a selection of female portraitures from The National Self- Portrait Collection of
\nIreland.<\/p>\n

The exhibition, held in UL\u2019s very own, Bourn Vincent Gallery, was opened by none other than
\nAbigail O\u2019Brien; mixed media artist and first female president of The Royal Hibernian Academy
\nof Arts.<\/p>\n

In her opening speech, she addressed the age-old issue of gender imbalance in the artistic world.
\nShe revealed in a shocking statistic that only 5% of the works in the Irish National Gallery are by
\nwomen.<\/p>\n

‘I think in art, because the world has been represented in a way from the male perspective for so
\nlong it\u2019s important to show the women are stronger,’ said \u2018Breaking the Mold\u2019 artist, Mary Kelly.<\/p>\n

‘Times they are changing\u2019, added Ms. O’Brien. The Royal Hibernian Academy is leading the way
\nin gender balance with 43% female workers to 57% male workers.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien, in her speech, pondered the question: \u201cAre we equipping our younger women with the
\nskills needed to be heard?\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mary Kelly echoed this notion as she challenges the concept of vulnerability in women to be a
\nstrength rather than a weakness- a message she brings to light in her depiction of a broken jelly
\nbowl symbolizing that \u2018jelly-like\u2019 feeling associated with vulnerability.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Mary Kelly standing next to her self-portrait.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although, Kelly admits breaking the bowl was unintentional she explains how it added to her
\npiece:\u00a0\u201cAt first I thought that was a disaster but then I thought, that\u2019s life like there\u2019s times when you
\nbreak like literally and then the shell or exterior cracks open and then you have this very
\nvulnerable part inside and that\u2019s really what it was about\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mary O\u2019Dea explored a similar idea that a self-portrait is not always what you see on the outside,
\nher piece represents an internal self-portrait, and takes a look at what makes a person them.
\n\u2018Who are you? You are genetically but you are also all the people who influence you. That is
\nwhere this piece came from.\u2019<\/p>\n

The contemporary installation consists of a number of threads stemming from the central body to\u00a0scattered fragments of rocks symbolising the outer influences contributing to a person\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is fearlessness here\u201d O’Brien added. Fearlessness is the main message being spread by
\nthe women whose works are being shown in this collection. To not be afraid to show
\nvulnerabilities as a woman, no matter how much they are criticised.<\/p>\n

Past UL student, Alice Maher, has since gone on to become a renowned Irish artist and
\ncontributed her 2003 self portrait<\/p>\n

\u201cI get up in the morning to be an artist, but I live my life as a feminist\u201d, says past UL student and
\nrenowned artist, Alice Maher.<\/p>\n

-And that she does! The Repeal the 8th artist is not afraid to break away from norms set by men as
\nshe proves in her fresh take on Renaissance art.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the artist, the model and the creator of the work which is kind of the opposite of\u00a0what you\u00a0may have seen for instance in portraits of women in the past, such as the Renaissance.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Alice Maher ‘Helmet’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The collection boasted the works of 50 highly diverse, inspirational women, from many walks of
\nlife.<\/p>\n

The collection will be on the display in the Bourn Vincent Gallery, from March 8th to June\u00a018th and is open weekdays to the general public for viewing.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien finished with the mantra: \u201cThink equal, build smart and innovate change\u201d – a concept\u00a0we encourage you, both men and women, to think about today on International Women\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a gesture towards International Women’s Day, the University of Limerick hosted a gallery
\nshow exhibiting a selection of female portraitures from The National Self- Portrait Collection of
\nIreland.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10971,"featured_media":21723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101838,101965,102005],"tags":[100074,102020,102021],"class_list":["post-21703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture-fuinneamh","category-features","category-fuinneamh","tag-art","tag-international-womens-day","tag-iwd"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":77,"today_views":0},"views":2176,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/feature.png","wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10971"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21703"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21732,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21703\/revisions\/21732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}