September 21 – December 1
to be nowhere (2022) is part of Léann’s larger transdisciplinary project the middle of nowhere, an ongoing series of (non)site-specific public interventions and actions in Dublin in 2022. This vinyl installation takes stylistic references from alt-text. Alt-text is a written description of an image posted online and is an essential part of web accessibility. Alt-text allows visual content to be accessible to people who are blind, have low vision, or have certain cognitive disabilities. For Léann, self-description is a form of self-determination and the numerous ways a trans* body is perceived.
Léann’s practice centres queer and trans experiences, addressing how these communities actively transform and occupy space. Through performance, installation, sculpture, video, and text-based interventions, the artist explores the leaky boundaries of queer and trans desire against the backdrop of a heteronormative, transphobic society. In a constant dialogue with theory and activism, Léann returns to their own body to offer speculative diagrams of belonging and radical resistance.
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Herlihy uses trans* to emphasise the unfixed category of transgender and to refuse the conventional work of easy classification that such terminology usually performs.
Made possible with the generous support of Culture Ireland | Cultúr Éireann.
Bio
Léann Herlihy [1994; they/them] is an artist, researcher and educator based in Dublin.
Their practice is informed by trans*, queer ecological, feminist and abolitionist theoretical frameworks which deploys alternative modalities of expression through an array of mediums including live performance, video, billboards, sculpture, text, workshops and radical pedagogies.
Rigorously and creatively critiquing the positioning of Otherness in a heteronormative society, Léann actively transgresses beyond ‘Other’ as another tick-box option to choose from and moves to explore the generative capacity of collective engagement and resistance when we abolish colonial and capitalist prescriptions of personhood, the body and gender.
Employing a methodology of interdisciplinary collaboration, their practice actively de-centres the author and strives for multiplicity over a single narrative. Through this methodology, time and space become shared communal resources between an array of individuals as the parameters of individualism are resisted through a process of imagining how a collective might begin to live Otherwise.
Originally from Waterford, Léann Herlihy holds an MA in Gender Studies from University College Dublin and a BA in Sculpture, Performance and Spatial Awareness from the University of Arts Poznań, Poland. Recent solo exhibitions include the middle of nowhere, Project Arts Centre, Dublin [2022]; Beyond Survival School Bus, Dublin Fringe Festival, Dublin [2022]; STUNTMAN, ]performance space[, London [2020]; Trojan Horse, STROBOSKOP Art Space, Warsaw [2019]. Select group exhibitions include The Gleaners Society, 40th EVA International, Limerick [2023]; Reflex Blue, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin [2023]; Slow Sunday, Artsadmin, Toynbee Studios, London [2020];
Léann Herlihy is a lecturer at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. They are the recipient of the Arts Council of Ireland’s Next Generation Artist Award [2022], Visual Arts Bursary [2021; 2023] & Agility Award [2021; 2022] as well as being awarded a Three Year Residency [2024-27] at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios.
Location
- Accessibility
32 Lisgar St and Park
Accessible entrance
Washrooms
Elevator
AODA compliant building
Parking: Limited Street, Underground Parking (Paid)
There is ample paid parking nearby, including a Green P lot in the building, a lot accessible from the alley between Dovercourt and Lisgar off Sudbury, and street parking on both Lisgar Street and Abell Street.
- Getting There
32 Lisgar St and Park
By subway: Line 1 – From St. Andrew Station, take the 504 King streetcar west to Abell Street, walk 2 minutes. Line 2 – From Dufferin Station: take the 29 Bus south to Queen Street West, walk 7 minutes
By streetcar: Take the 501 Queen streetcar and get off at Abell Street, just east of Gladstone. Or, take the 504 King streetcar. Get off at Sudbury Street, and walk north/west along Sudbury to Lisgar Street.