ARTWORKS 2022

Titled after a short story by sci-fi writer Octavia Butler, Speech Sounds is an exhibition that considers communication, language and the body.

The artworks in the exhibition explore narratives of disability and access, the relationship between humans and ecology, the languages of love and loss, the world beyond, living and imagined languages, convening with ancestors, the material of words, and dialogues with history.

The exhibition holds these stories through interactive star maps, sound installations, temporary tattoos, virtual reality worlds, text, sculpture, film and paint that ask us to reflect on the ways we relate to ourselves, each other and the world.

Speech Sounds, curated by Iarlaith Ni Fheorais and VISUAL as part of Carlow Arts Festival, runs from 9th June – 4th September with moments to sit more closely with the exhibition through workshops, talks and published texts.

The exhibition includes artists commissioned through Ni Fheorais’s residency at VISUAL along with Irish and international artists selected through VISUAL and Carlow Arts Festival’s annual ARTWORKS Open Call.

The ARTWORKS Prize of €3000 for an outstanding piece of work and a second-placed prize of €1000 will be presented at the exhibition launch at VISUAL on 09 June at 6pm. All welcome.

Selected Artists

Emanuel Almborg, Jenny Brady, Chris Gylee, Paul Hallahan, Dita Hashi, Austin Hearne, Vishal Kumaraswamy, Bridget O’Gorman,  Eoin O’Malley, Kinnari Saraiya, Matt Smith, Brian Teeling, Frank Wasser, Frances Whorrall-Campbell

Invited Artists