
On the occasion of NEST, Draíocht's major multidisciplinary festival of new works in performance and visual art, You, Me, Us investigates identity and self-representation through photography and collage, created and facilitated by photographer Liadh Connolly.
Artistic Director of NEST Veronica Coburn facilitated hundreds of workshops with children during 2023, collating a large collection of drawings and thoughts about life in Dublin 15 as she travelled from school to school. During January and February, photographer Liadh Connolly revisited some of these classrooms to explore concepts of identity and self-representation through photography. Working alongside Liadh, students experienced a professional photoshoot setting and were supported by her to express their own individuality through poses and movements.
The resulting exhibition of colour photographs, directed and captured both by the students themselves, and their classmates are nested on a black and white collaged wallpapering, created from the original preparatory words, thoughts and ideas from Veronica's workshops, sessions that were part of the process that led to the Spréacha Soar Festival for Children & Young People in March.
On Saturday 17th February, two complementary NEST exhibitions opened to the public:
In the Ground Floor Gallery, a newly commissioned series of portraits and still life's from leading visual artists Zsolt Basti, Sahoko Blake, Una Sealy RHA & Dorothy Smith RHA, featuring the children and young people participating in NEST, Curated by Sharon Murphy.
In the First Floor Gallery, a photographic and text exhibition featuring portraiture and testimonials made by children and young people from Dublin 15 schools participating in NEST. Created and led by artist Liadh Connolly.
"It has been such a joy to work on the NEST project with Draíocht, Blanchardstown. I really enjoyed collaborating with the beautiful individuals of Dublin 15, working together to create a visual representation of young people in this area through portraiture. Working on this project over the last 8 weeks reminded me of some of the most important things in life - happiness, security, self-expression and to have fun. It was a very fun project and I hope it has been an experience that these individuals can carry through life with them." - Liadh Connolly, Artist
---
NEST is based on HOME THEATRE, an original idea by Marcus Vinicius Faustini (Brazil) and Kerry Kyriacos Michael (UK). Draíocht’s iteration, HOME THEATRE (Ireland), took place in 2018.
NEST is funded by ART: 2023, a Decade of Centenaries Collaboration between The Arts Council and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
#DecadeOfCentenaries #Art2023 #NEST #SpreachaSoarFestival