DABF24 Book Launch | Seeking Solace

This event will be seated. Masks are provided and we request that they are worn.

Tara and this group of wonderful women invite you to a Chat Cafe in Studio 6 in celebration of the launch of Seeking Solace. Attendees will sit and gather around a set of vibrant large-scale table map drawings for lovely chats telling their stories and speaking about themes of healing, folklore, offerings, rituals, Kildare’s heritage, and what it means to come together. Expect a good laugh and some joy!

Seeking Solace is a publication marking two years of collaboration between visual artist Tara Carroll and the older women's group supported by Older Voices Kildare.

The artist and group engage in weekly ‘Chat Cafes’ in a local parish centre in Newbridge, nurturing friendships and telling stories. They identify sacred places and heritage sites and make pilgrimages to exchange oral histories and learn of each other’s personal rituals, lineage and devotion. Exploring the collective consciousness and the shared experience a pilgrimage creates, they look at the role a pilgrimage can play in contemporary society through the lens of Kildare’s rich heritage and folk histories. Over a series of workshops, the group creatively mapped these journeys through collective hand-drawn, large-scale maps of walking routes, sites, stories, and access information. These vibrant maps were transformed by artist and designer Áine O’Hara into the art publication Seeking Solace.

The profits of the publication will support the group to continue their Chat Cafes. They will be lovingly donating part of the profits to Newbridge’s local charity Share Food Newbridge, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). This is to honour St. Brigid, Kildare’s Patron Saint, who dedicated her life to social justice and caring for vulnerable people.

Tara Carroll is multidisciplinary artist whose social practice rests upon the perception of the body, impacted by socio-political narratives; and its placement in individualistic society. During difficult times of embodied conflictions, their community supports them in creating new pathways of care. Projects include Art as Pilgrimage, a durational socially engaged art project exploring histories of pilgrimage and its current role in society with older women; and (Dis)Comfort, a participatory workshop series exploring the embodiment of discomfort/comfort in marginalised bodies.

This event is part of Dublin Art Book Fair, a centre for contemporary artist books offering unique artist publications and titles from creative, small and independent publishers, both Irish and international.

Seeking Solace is supported by Arts Council, Creative Ireland, Kildare County Council and Create. DABF24 is proudly sponsored by Henry J Lyons and supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and RTÉ Supporting The Arts.

Image description: A procession of older women and artist Tara Carroll walking down the canal through Umreas, Kildare. Picture taken from behind them with the sun shining. Trees and shrubbery surrounds them with the canal flowing on their right.