Conor O' Grady Fine Art: Contested Territories. Solo Exhibition 2019

Contested Territories consists of a body of work which was initiated during a group residency at the former psychiatric hospital that now houses the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Castlebar in 2015.

This work was further developed in studios and residencies at:

Custom House Studios, Westport.
Kunsthalle, Krems, Lower Austria.
Siamsa Tíre, the National Folk Theatre, Tralee
The Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig, County Monaghan.

Within this body of work there is an emphasis on the representation of specific sites related to Statutory or Clerical abuses:

The works relate to Ireland’s well-documented history of maltreatment towards its vulnerable people. Exploring in minute detail. The institutions which were used to contain these groups.

Industrial schools
Reformatories
Magdalene Laundries
Psychiatric institutions
Direct Provision centres
Care Homes
Prisons and more contemporary examples are represented.

Using interviews, dialogue and first-hand visual & material research to describe and document the frequently hidden or freshly exposed realities of these institutions. Examining each of these spaces in relation to the following formula.

(IN+DE=RE)

An equation for describing the reality that; In Ireland once, an institution is deinstitutionalised it always becomes re-institutionalised as another institution. Usually a centre of Education. With very little attempt, if any, to reconcile the negative histories of that particular institution.

Contested Territories features Sound, Moving Imagery & Sculpture. Accompanied by Architectural Drawings and Water Colour studies.

A selection of works from Contested Territoires has been exhibited in the group exhibition Words of Mayo at the National Museum of Country Life, Turlough this summer.

You can read more about Contested Territories by following the link Here and to find out more about Conor O Grady's work follow this Link