I am an Irish-artist from the Connemara Gaeltacht, who creates visual art works and live vocal performances for galleries, site-specific locations, music venues, and theatres. My practice is self reflexive and is rooted in my own experience as a queer woman who speaks a minority language; living in rural Ireland, in a time when fundamental human values and needs are threatened by crises in housing, climate, capitalism, and continued patriarchal systems. I am interested in how these forces impact our sense of belonging and our relationships—with one another and with the natural world.

 

What does it mean to lose a language, and with it, the unique ways of seeing and knowing the world that language offers? What happens to us when a species disappears forever? When a bird’s seasonal call—once a marker of time and place—falls silent? And, as we move away from repressive religious traditions, what new spiritual, or meaning making paradigms do we create for ourselves and our communities’ in our continued need for ritual and connection? These are some of the questions I explore in my work, with audiences, community members and collaborating artists.

 

The methods and mediums, I use include a huge amount of research, I have a passion for literature—drawing from an array of sources, including historical texts, academic writing, poetry, and both fiction and non-fiction. I also use photography & video and song, traditional songs * (multilingual) and my own original vocal compositions in English and Irish. Over the past fourteen years, a central focus of my practice has been the exploration of lament, drawing inspiration from the traditional Irish role of the bean caoineadh—the keening woman—who voiced grief, named loss, and spoke on behalf of her community. The performance tactics of this tradition with its distinctive use of song, recitation, and ritualised witnessing, continue to be a powerful thread in my work.

 

Over the years I have found there to be a powerful efficacy in the collective act of gathering together, and the act of feeling together, in response, to difficult and emotive subject matters. I have discovered a potency at the intersection of visual and vocal arts—a synergy deeply shaped by my contemporary practice and my upbringing within a tradition of song, recitation, and the Irish language.

 

Select notable exhibitions and performance works include the Museum Of Fine Art, Florida, Stable Gallery, Washington, Katzen Arts Centre, Washington, the Barbican, UK, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum, Galway Arts Centre and the National Gallery of Ireland.

 

Select commissioned works include Weathering with Mary Wycherley and composer Jurgen Simpson (2023), CAOIN (2022), Bealtaine Festival ‘Of Scent and Song (2021), Viriditas, Galway ECOC & Saolta Arts (2020), Dóchas/Hope, Oireachtas na Gaeilge & Waterways Ireland (2019). The Feminist Supermarket, Ormston House, (2021), Pocahontas Opera House Residency with Anna Roberts Gevalt, West Virginia, USA (2022 & 23).

 

2025 Projects

Greywood Arts, Cork - Artists Residency, May 25

Galway International Arts Festival & Interface, Curated by Valeria Ceregini - July 2025

CREATE- Artists in the Community Scheme: I Sing Myself - Research Project Award 2025

Arts Council Music Bursary Award recipient: 2024

 

For commission/performance inquiries email: conwayceara@gmail.com