SIDHE + GEIS
Selected for New Contemporaries 2024
MIRROR GALLERY, PLYMOUTH, 2024
ICA, LONDON, 2025
‘Sidhe’ + ‘Geis’
‘Sidhe’ translated is an underground palace from Irish folklore where the supernatural race the Tuatha De Danann live, and ‘Geis’ is a binding vow or curse.
The compositions are inspired by the illuminated Celtic manuscript ‘The Book of Kells’ which I have reimagined into retrofuturistic architecture. They depict my interpretation of portals and mechanisms that open gateways to the Otherworld in Irish Mythology, which is typically associated with the colour red.
Retrofuturism as an aesthetic tool helps me approach the weight of history and modernity on defining contemporary Irish identity, exploring specifically the influence of colonialism and modern consumerism on my memory and cultural identity. To confront these tensions between past and future I decided to transform these biblical Celtic designs into something new, depicting a decolonized and deconsecrated futuristic architecture.
