"Channelling Joseph Beuys" is a performative artwork by Rónán Ó Raghallaigh. Taking on the persona of the druid, Ó Raghallaigh has developed a practice which incorporates the idea of the artist as someone who channels ideas or images from the unconscious or the spirit world, in this case from the Celtic Otherworld. This acknowledges the ancient Gaelic tradition of artists or poets regarding art-making as something which requires divine inspiration, as well as the Western Modern tradition of artists seeking alternative methods for working in movements such as Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. In "Channelling Joseph Beuys", Ó Raghallaigh will attempt to enter a druidic trance with the aid of a stag’s skull and a staff, and to channel the spirit of Joseph Beuys. He will then draw the visions or ideas he receives immediately afterwards.
(c) Rónán Ó Raghallaigh
Irish artist Rónán Ó Raghallaigh’s work makes use of the surreal, the symbolic, and the ritual. It is an act of decolonisation and is its own form of Celtic revivalism in the 21st century informed by postcolonial theory. On Bealtaine 2021, Rónán Ó Raghallaigh held a family ceremony where he was re-baptised as a druid.
In 2021 he completed his MFA in "Art in the Contemporary World" at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin during which he wrote a thesis entitled “Postcolonial Druidry and Joseph Beuys”.
Admission free, but booking required via
Eventbrite
Presented by the Goethe-Institut Irland and the Hugh Lane Gallery as part of the programme accompanying the Hugh Lane’s exhibition "
Joseph Beuys - From the Secret Block to Rosc" (17 July - 9 January 2022)
Please note: Masks are required indoors in the Goethe-Institut Irland. Please bring one of the following documents required for admittance: proof of vaccination or proof of immunity or proof of a negative COVID-test performed no earlier than 48 hours prior to event.
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