Dirty Laundry Collective Presents “Venous Returns”

How do we remain clean? When so much is dirty and unseen?

As a multi disciplinary collective, glass artist Alison Lowry, Director Laura Sheeran, aerialist Kate Finegan and singer/songwriter Jessica Kavanagh would like to present ‘Venous Returns’, a haunting excavation of Irish Institutionalism, exposing the perpetuation of our collective Irish shame against women.

Here is information on how this piece came about:

As a Next Generation award recipient, Kate first began her research for this piece by collaborating with glass artist Alison Lowry in early 2019. Using (A)Dressing our Hidden Truths, Alison Lowry’s solo show at the National Museum of Ireland as a starting point, a conversation was started about how the issues of control and regulation of women’s bodies in Ireland can still affect women’s autonomy today and how this could be expressed through the mediums of visual art, aerial performance, and spoken word.

Together, they carried out in depth research by site visits to Donnybrook Magdalene Laundry and toured The Monto District with a local guide (where Sean Mc Dermott Street Magdalene Laundry is located). We saw the ‘rapid collecting’ archive by curator Brenda Malone (where the NMI have been collecting items of interest from significant institutional sites in Ireland) and visited galleries to view contemporary art, especially from artists whose practice has performative elements crossing several genres- for example Amanda Coogan’s live performance of They come Then, the Birds, or Persona by Threadstories at the Molesworth in Dublin.

Kate then furthered her research and began collaboration with singer/songwriter Jess Kavanagh in 2020 while interviewing Caelainn Hogan and Melatu Uche Okorie on the subject of Irish Institutionalism. An insight into this process can be viewed here.

In late 2021, Alison, Jessica and Kate came together for one week of research where they developed a new work-in-progress ‘Dirty Laundry’. This piece is an artistic response to the trauma we still carry as women from centuries of Irish Institutionalism. This piece was created on a shoestring budget but yet gives an idea to the huge potential it has as a powerful and immersive performance piece. The work in progress can be viewed here.  

In March 2023 our new work, a short film called “Venous Returns” was filmed with the support of The National Museum. “Venous Returns” incorporate the themes that we have been researching since 2019. The entanglement and subjection of women’s bodies through religious and state control, the impact of intergenerational trauma on an individual’s mental health and in particular, its impact on girls and women. The outcome uses elements of dance, aerial performance, sculpture and sound.

We partnered with artist threadstories for our masks and designer Lia Cowen for our intricate and dream-like costumes. Lia’s delicate sleeves juxtaposed with the glass dress created by Alison Lowry using the unique and incredible technique “Pate De Verre”. The delicacy of glass through Alison Lowry’s installation on performer Kate Finegan eludes to the loss of control, the instability and precarious nature of our lives. Glass, is also the perfect medium to encapsulate memory.

Glass can offer endless sculptural possibilities and as a material itself is full of contradictions - it can be both fragile and strong, molten when hot and solid when cold, it is an everyday material, but can also be extraordinary- a mirror of life itself. Glass-like objects, for example ice, will also be used to describe the passage of time and the instability of the everyday.

Red, the colour of blood, can be associated either with its life-giving properties or with violence. Red is paradoxically affiliated with notions of violence, danger, and anger. Red also has positive connotations: we think of vitality, the life-giving power of blood, and helping people in need. Red calls us to action, gets us motivated, and wearing red lets people know we feel confident and ready to take on the world. Red also has strong connections to the blood of Christ and the Church.

A soundscape created in collaboration with Sonic Arts Research Centre in Queens, Belfast submerges the viewer into an alternate space, exploring concepts of the changing and progressive Irish voices, juxtaposed with the constant haunting of intergenerational trauma.

Jess and Laura composed and explored concepts around an immersive sonic experience that highlights the multiplicities of shame and the legacy of trauma we are tasked with unravelling as women today.

Aerial dance and the red silks will denote the themes mentioned above and the choreography will highlight power, strength and resilience against the subjugation of women. 

The spoken word and music sound-scaping will bring a voice to the shared suffering and a  response to the still very present persisting links to our past.