Book Launch: Staci Bu Shea and the Department of Ultimology

“Attention to death brings acute appreciation of life” —Staci Bu Shea

Join Fiona Hallinan and Kate Strain from the Department of Ultimology for a presentation and book launch by Staci Bu Shea, at Studio 6, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, on Friday 30 May. This public event celebrates the last day of Fire Station Artists’ Studios Summer Studio 2025, a three-day programme of workshops and activities devised by the Department of Ultimology to consider how practices proximate to death and other endings, shape or alter our approaches to artistic knowledge production.

Staci Bu Shea is an independent curator, writer and death doula based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. They will present on their work in the field of death, social reproduction, and care work, as well as its manifestations in artistic forms, interpersonal relationships, daily life, community organising, and institutional practice. Bu Shea will read an excerpt from their latest publication Solution 305: Dying Livingly, copies of which will be available to purchase, with thanks to The Library Project. Bu Shea will be introduced by artist and researcher Fiona Hallinan, who will speak about the ways in which practices of attending to death have informed her doctoral research on the coming-into-being of Ultimology.

Event Location Information: The event takes place in Studio 6, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, on the first floor, accessible via lift and stairs. Enter through the Gallery and staff will direct you to the space. There will be theatre style seating and live captions are provided by 121 Captions. For further accessibility information please contact Learning + Public Engagement Curator Órla Goodwin.

Staci Bu Shea (b. Miami, 1988) is a curator, writer and death doula based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Broadly, they focus on aesthetic and poetic practices of social reproduction and care work, as well as its manifestations in interpersonal relationships and daily life, community organizing and institutional practice. Bu Shea’s latest publication Solution 305: Dying Livingly (Sternberg Press, 2025) is a collection of short essays written in the first few years of the author’s holistic deathcare research and practice. With a focus on the truth of impermanence and the material cultures of death and dying, the writing reaches toward a future of compassionate, community-centered deathcare.

Fiona Hallinan is an artist, researcher, filmmaker and, alongside curator Kate Strain, co-founder of the Department of Ultimology, based between Brussels, Belgium and Cork, Ireland. Her doctoral research at LUCA School of Arts, KU Leuven explores the coming-into-being of Ultimology as a tool for transformative discourse. This project involves instigating gatherings around “ruptures” as case studies; the closure of a canteen, the demolition of a church, the extinction of a plant. She has presented work in a number of international contexts, including at IMMA, Kerlin Gallery, Brown University and Grazer Kunstverein. Her film and installation work, We Turn Towards an Ending and Pay Attention, is currently on exhibition at Kunsthal Ghent, Belgium, until June 2025.

Kate Strain is a curator of contemporary art and the founding director of Kunstverein Aughrim. From 2016–2021 she was Artistic Director of Grazer Kunstverein, Austria, where she commissioned a rolling programme of seasonal solo exhibitions and collaborative projects by major international artists. In close collaboration with artist Fiona Hallinan, Strain is co-founder of the Department of Ultimology, a research body dedicated to the study of endings. Working alongside Rachael Gilbourne, Strain makes up one half of the paired curatorial practice RGKSKSRG, commissioning, presenting and contextualising contemporary art.

This event is supported by Free Space at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios. Free Space creates opportunities for artists to access space in the city for peer learning, artist exchanges, project development and presentations.