Sites of Dreaming, Shia Conlon
New Irish Works series 2023-24
Running 4 April-5 May
At The Library Project
PhotoIreland presents work by Shia Conlon. This is the tenth and final exhibition in the New Irish Works series 2023-24.
Sites of Dreaming is a project documenting the lives of trans people in Finland. The project uses photography as a tool for both archiving and building a community. Within the work, Shia tries to create moments of care and safety as a contrast to the transphobic bureaucracy of Finnish healthcare.
In a world where dialogues surrounding transness are usually centred on our fighting moments, our protests, our trauma and pain, Sites of Dreaming brings a quieter reality to the forefront. One where power is found in everyday domestic moments. – Shia Conlon
About the Artist
Shia Conlon is a writer and artist whose work has been centred around marginalised voices and growing up in the landscape of working-class Catholic Ireland. His current research is focused on non-linear time and how to use the power of archives, language, and memory as tools for queer representation. His work is rooted in collaboration and would not exist without the vulnerability of his queer and trans community. He is 1/3 of Almanac Press, a trans-ran and centered mutual aid initiative and co-founder of Trans Library Helsinki.
About New Irish Works
The New Irish Works series brings contemporary photographic practices to The Library Project throughout 2023-24 with the support of Inspirational Arts and the Arts Council of Ireland. Alongside Shia Conlon, the artists selected for New Irish Works include Audrey Blue, Cian Byrne, Mark Duffy, Bryony Dunne, Jialin Long, Pauline Rowan, Martin Seeds, Martin Cregg, and Róisín White.
New Irish Works is a triennial project run by PhotoIreland to represent and promote the growing diversity of contemporary photographic practices in Ireland. It enriches the Irish ecosystem with much needed new voices, new curatorial approaches, facilitate much deserved new opportunities, and invigorate the Irish photography scene.
This unique artist support programme is run since 2013 by PhotoIreland in 3-year cycles, generating a growing set of professional development opportunities for selected lens-based practitioners throughout the duration of each cycle. The call is open every three years to Irish and Ireland-based artists at any stage of their career.
Throughout its history, New Irish Works has exhibited and showcased nationally across Dublin, Cork, and Limerick, and internationally from Paris, Amsterdam to Madrid, Ukraine, and beyond; it published and distributed a book featuring 25 artists in 2013, and a collection of 20 solo publications in 2016. The publications have sold worldwide and are now part of many private and public collections, including key cultural organisations such as the Hasselblad Foundation Library and the Centre Culturel Irlandais.
