PROGRAMME Mná Na hÉireann | Michelle Browne
Mná Na hÉireann Sound Installation: 27 February—12 March 2024, 11AM—6PM, NCAD Gallery / Foyer, HCH Building.
In Conversation Event: Artist Michelle Browne introduces Ivana Bacik TD, Labour Party leader, and chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Gender Equality on Tuesday 27 February 2024, 4PM—5PM. All are welcome to attend.
Artist Talk with Michelle Browne Friday 8 March 2024, 1:15PM, NCAD Gallery / Foyer, HCH Building. All are welcome to attend.
As part of the Staff Open Call 2024, the NCAD Gallery presents Mná Na hÉireann, a sound installation by artist Michelle Browne programmed in advance of the upcoming Irish constitutional referendums, the Family Amendment and the Care Amendment for public vote on Friday 8 March 2024.
Mná na hÉireann speaks to women’s engagement with public political life in Ireland and the continued existence of article 41.2 in the constitution which designates a special place of women in the home. The work considers the home as a site of political activity by highlighting campaigning or activism undertaken from the home by women. On Tuesday 27 March at 4pm, Browne will introduce Ivana Bacik TD, Labour Party leader, and chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Gender Equality, to discuss her work on gender equality in her role as Chair of the Joint committee and the evolution of the current wording of the referendum being put to the vote in March.
Mná Na hÉireann was made in 2016, the year gender quotas were introduced for selection of political candidates in Ireland. Browne interviewed a variety of women who are or have been candidates or public representatives in Ireland to gain insight into their motivations for getting involved in politics. Drawn from across the political sphere from the local to national, presidential and European levels of representation, Browne focuses on the politicising moment for women that drew them into public life and their mentors or supporters on the way.
The installation consists of a 50 minute sound piece that is a composite of many voices of women to give a portraits of what women’s engagement in politics looks like. This in turn gives us a portrait of a nation over the 40 years of public life that is covered by the interviewees and in particular women’s position and role within Irish society in that time. Mná na hÉireann is a non-partisan look at women's engagement in politics, to celebrate the many women who have contributed to the political life of this nation.
Find information on Families and Care referendums here: https://www.electoralcommission.ie/referendums/
Image creidt: Mná na hÉireann, sound installation with carved solid wood table (total running time 50 minutes), artist Michelle Browne. Photography: Kasia Kaminska.
Mná na hÉireann was commissioned Catherine Marshall for Kathleen Lynn: Insider on the Outside at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Ballycastle, Co. Mayo in 2016. Collection of the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon
