Free Space: Glandwr presents… Ella de Búrca, Hard Mouth Show & Tell

This is a free adult event. Booking is essential. The event will run at 12pm, 2.30pm and 4pm.

Join art critic Hugh Hick for an introduction to recent works by Ella de Búrca, curated by Debi Paul.

The tour will be approx. 45 minutes long and it's a hard mouth that says nothing.

Hugh Hick: And so Ella, can you tell me what is HARD MOUTH SHOW & TELL?

Ella de Búrca: HARDMOUTH SHOW & TELL is a presentation of works I have been making over the last two years, all quite connected in content.

H: Are they paintings?

E: Yes, paintings but also sculptures and sound pieces.

H: And in what way are they connected?

E: Well, I suppose you could say they are all about the voice–

H: –The voice?

E: Yes, the female voice.

H: Isn’t that a bit vague?

E: Well there is more than could be said but….

H: … but you prefer to leave that open to interpretation?

E: Well, the viewer is free to see what they want to see, but the work also needs to speak for itself.

H: There’s nothing you can really do if they see something else, is there?

E: Em… No, there’s no wrong way to look at a work of art.

H: So if I was to see something completely unrelated to your intention, you’d be okay with that?

E: The act of looking at a work of art and having the time to think about it is not a pleasure gifted to everyone. If you looked at my work and really thought about it, I’d be okay with that.

H: There’s a school of thought that says you only see what you want to see.

E: Let’s see.

This is a free adult event. Booking is essential. The event will run at 12pm, 2.30pm and 4pm.

A rendition of Port na bPucaí an element of an ongoing collaboration by Ella de Búrca and Siobhán Kavanagh will waft through the air as visitors arrive.

This is one of a series of public research events as part of the project houseWORKhomeWORK, curated by Debi Paul, an ongoing project centred around the domestic space, Glandwr.

This event is funded by The Arts Council of Ireland and is kindly supported by Free Space at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios. Free Space creates the opportunity for artists to access space in the city for peer learning, artists exchanges, project development and presentations.

Ella de Búrca works through mixed media and performance and is especially interested in how we perform as 'viewer,' and discourse surrounding active versus passive experiences. Her work is in the collection of the Arts Council and Fingal County Council. She received the Arts Council’s Next Generation Award (2016) and has received artist bursaries from the Arts Council, Fingal County Council, and Culture Ireland. In 2021, she received the Platform 31 Award from Laois County Council. This project is supported by the Arts Council's Agility Award.

Hugh Hick is an award-winning producer, playwright and director. Playwright works include The Crossroads co-produced by the Corps Ensemble and Axis Theatre, S.A.F.E (Scene & Heard) and Suicide Tuesday (Little Shadow Theatre Company). Monologue collection The Many Deaths of Zefram Gray was performed at Electric Picnic, Carlow Arts Festival and Shakefest. Audio drama work includes Shard (BBC Radio 4), Anansi’s Web (RTE Jr), Crossing The Red Line (RTE Radio 1 Extra), and Two Thieves (Newstalk). His script for the short film The Colour Saturn was nominated for Best Screenplay in the Waterford Film Festival… But in his heart he knows all of the above is just window dressing for his true passion – as an art critic.

Siobhán Kavanagh is vocal artist, singer and composer working collaboratively with visual artists, filmmakers, composers, musicians and performance artists. Siobhán has studied opera, jazz, middle eastern singing, extended vocal techniques and interdisciplinary performance. Fronting several original bands including Doom Opera, Lotus-Eater, and experimental cabaret with Sisters Hyde and the Pesky Magpies and The Underworld Orchestra. As a composer, Siobhán writes songs, arranges sonic soundscapes using experimental recording techniques and instrumentation. Siobhán develops performance installations that combine music and visuals storytelling through film and sound.

Debi Paul is a visual artist and curator; her practice emanating from performance and place, with a focus on the body. She often draws on/learns from site-specific communities of interest. Her projects aim to disrupt and challenge routine interaction with the familiar. Recent and upcoming exhibitions include Living Balance with Caoimhe Dalton, Hazel Egan, Kate Fahey and Suzanne Walsh, The Library Project / Black Church Print Studio (2022). Projects based at Glandwr include: Where is George Bulfin?, Tanad Aaron, Jamie Cross, and Florian Weichsberger (2022); Starting Point, a performative walk with Phil Smith, in collaboration with Burren College of Art, for the village of Chapelizod (2023); Only Two Hands a performative event, Fiona Reilly (2024); houseWORKhomeWORK, Ella De Burca, Rachel Fallon and Eva Vēvere (2024/25).

Image description: A black painting with an abstracted image of a figure holding their hands to their eyes in yellow and blue paint. And the hand of another body gesturing towards the figure.