Dublin Gallery Weekend | Artist Talk: Frank Sweeney, 'Go Ye Afar'

Join exhibiting artist Frank Sweeney as he reflects on his new film installation Go Ye Afar, with curator and art writer Diana Bamimeke. Following the talk, the Gallery will open late and attendees will have the opportunity to watch the film in full (approx. 30 mins).

Go Ye Afar follows as Irish-Nigerian taxi driver on a miraculous voyage through the streets of Dublin and Calabar. The film uses rear-projection, reenacted interviews, archival material, and Nollywood-style special effects, to connect the use of media by missionaries in shaping the Irish understanding of the Nigerian–Biafran War, to the foundation of major Irish NGOs in response to this conflict and the legacies of colonialism in contemporary free trade and immigration systems.

Frank Sweeney brings attention to the ways broadcast media has been instrumentalised to impose or restrict certain viewpoints, often in relation to state ideologies such as religion and cultural identity. Celebrating the slippages in authenticity inherent in analogue recording and transmission, he reveals the potential for a broader range of narrative truths and histories. Recent exhibitions and screenings include Anthology Film Archives, New York (2024); FILMADRID, Madrid (Special Mention) (2024); International Film Festival Rotterdam (Winner Tiger Short Award) (2024); EVA International, Limerick (2023); Sirius Art Centre, Cobh (2023); CCA-Derry (2022); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2021); Green on Red Gallery, Dublin (2019). Frank Sweeney holds a Three Year Membership Studio at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios.

Diana Bamimeke is an independent curator, art writer and transdisciplinary artist based in Dublin, Ireland. Their socially engaged practice spans text, exhibition-making, performance, pedagogy and other artistic interventions. Guided by critical and political frameworks—including Black feminist & queer thought, anti-colonialism, and anti-imperialism—Bamimeke strives to understand themselves and their world. Bamimeke's work questions relations of power, negotiations of belonging, how people become political subjects and processes of abjectification. Their writing has been published by VISUAL Carlow, Visual Artists Ireland News Sheet, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Paper Visual Art and frieze.

Dublin Gallery Weekend runs from November 6 -9, and is hosted by Contemporary Art Gallery Association (CAGA). In its third year, Dublin Gallery Weekend brings together Ireland’s most exciting artists, galleries, cultural institutions and creative spaces in a citywide takeover.

Event location information: This event will be held in a first floor accessible by lift and stairs. Lighting may be low to accommodate a projector. Seating will be theatre style. There is a small step from the street into the gallery. For further accessibility information please contact Learning + Public Engagement Curator Órla Goodwin.