someone decides, hawk or dove - St. Peter's Cork

Niamh McCann

Sat 23 March – Wed 27 March (excl. Sunday) 
10am – 5pm 

St. Peter's, North Main Street, Cork | Free admission, no booking required 

someone decides, hawk or dove is a commissioned work by artist Niamh McCann as part of the programme for ART:2023, a Decade Of Centenaries supported by The Arts Council of Ireland/An Chomhairle Ealaíon, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Curated by Belinda Quirke, someone decides, hawk or dove is a Solstice Arts Centre project commission.

The iteration of someone decides, hawk or dove at St. Peter’s, Cork is the final site of a series of engagements and exhibitions in 2023/24, that began within the Octagonal Gardens in the Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre, Oldbridge, Co. Meath, followed by exhibitions at STABLE Arts hosted by Solus Nua, Washington DC, and The MAC, Belfast.

The project features collaborations with composer and singer Iarla Ó Lionáird and architect Peter Carroll on songs and soundscape and sculpture/site Turn Again. St Peter's, Cork is the venue for a live recorded performance with Iarla Ó Lionáird, Ceara Conway and members of the Tonnta Ensemble.

someone decides, hawk or dove responds to the 1922 institutionalization of the Northern and Southern borders of Ireland and the ongoing consequences and reverberations of this partition. Combining sculpture, collage and video, McCann mines deep seams of colonialist atrocities and legacies of ‘The Troubles’ to present, subvert and reinvent assumed perspectives of social, political and geographical landscapes, allowing viewers access to a nuanced world of layered and co-mingled realities.

A recipient of the 2022 Norman Houston Award from Solas Nua, McCann lives and works in Dublin. She is a recipient of the 2021 Stephen McKenna Fellowship from the Royal Hibernian Academy and is represented by Green On Red Gallery, Dublin. McCann’s work is housed in the collections of The Irish Museum of Modern Art; The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon; Limerick City Gallery, Swansea City Council; The London Institute; Hiscox, London and Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane. 

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