Portraits of Irish Art in Practice

This book mines the space where aesthetic expression meets lived experience for Irish artists Rita Duffy, Mairad McClean, Paula McFetridge and Ursula Burke. Portrait essays woven with photographs, document each artists coming of age in Ireland and Northern Ireland, in the context of her emerging practice. As individuals, their work considers infringements on human rights, systemic violence, gender roles and the negotiation of figurative and literal borders and boundaries. Together, they interrogate past and present conflict and emergence from conflict, locally and globally. Their critical work is threaded with hope in the context of past and present political fragmentation. Works considered include Rita Duffys paintings, drawings and animation like Siege, The Emperor Has No Clothes and Anatomy of Hope; Mairad McCleans films No More, Broadcast and Making Her Mark; Paula McFetridges productions like convictions, staged at the Crumlin Road Courthouse, This is What We Sang, performed at the Belfast Synagogue and Belfast Quartered, A Love Story, a promenade through Belfasts LGBTQ+ underground; and Ursula Burkes sculptures like Bonfire, Blue Sphinx and Peach Caryatid, and embroidery like The Politicians Frieze.