Miriam McConnon:

In this series of work, McConnon recalls the strict censorship of her childhood in Ireland in the 1980’s, when popular imagery with sexual connotations was often prohibited by church and State. This censorship of literature, music, film and art seemed disproportionate considering the often violent and disturbing religious imagery of the time that was normalized by the catholic church.

In these four small paintings, McConnon presents typical religious imagery from her childhood censored in some way. In one painting Holy Mary turns her back on the viewer, an image of the crucifixion is obscured by the pattern of baby shoes, the cross on the rosary beads is replaced by a safety pin and a crown of thorns is draped in lace lingerie. 

These paintings are a reminder of the power that the catholic church had over censorship in Ireland in the past. They examine the effect that violent religious imagery had on previous generations and the hypocrisy of censorship in the past. This is a discussion which still carries a certain taboo even in today’s more open Irish society. 

 Vicky Smith: 

‘Dropped’ is composed of nine aircraft bomb images from the Soviet Union period that I cut out of The Sunday Times magazine, 2013. I saved them for a while. The name of one image is labelled Soviet SAB 250-200, 250 KG, Parachute Flare, Aircraft Bomb. I was drawn initially to the phallic shapes of the aircraft bombs, the colours and the old world vintage quality they embodied. I stitched them, binding them together with canvas and pins and I obliterated the background with white titanium acrylic paint. 

Censorship is like a bomb going off in people’s worlds as it rips through society at great speed and with great destruction, causing a blockage of our free will and psyche while creating fear. A controversial work, an explosive book, an offensive poem as banned artefacts are intriguing items that people crave for or seek out. Why are they so offensive, outrageous or obscene ? We are drawn to them like moths to the flame. To have them removed from our vision, bookshelves and mainstream popular culture can be catastrophic for society as well as the lives of the artists and writers. They were ostracised, in contemporary times maybe not so much, in fact it can often be a bonus and the lives of James Joyce and Edna O’Brien were turned upside down. They were vilified, exiled from their country of birth yet somehow they thrived but it must have cost them personally. They were brave and adamant. When art and writing occupy this place of strength despite all the odds a social rebirth can begin and the new generation can turn the page to a new world turning them into a key cornerstone of our identity. I believe that art or a piece of writing if it is any good, is often dropped like a bomb into society to turn everything upside down. This is sheer brilliance.

Yanny Petters: 

When in 399 BC the Greek philosopher Socrates was ordered to publicly deny his ideas, his refusal led to his being sentenced to death for his speeches and for his belief in humanistic and democratic principles. As a respected gentleman, the court gave him the right to pick the manner in which he wished to have his death sentence carried out. He chose a hemlock drink as his preferred means of death. Hemlock tea was his first choice.

 Susanne Wawra: 

Claire Halpin: 

With the live feed of information, images, videos coming from the war in Ukraine on social media, news media and official state media. How can we know the real news?

It is censored, accessed, amended, edited, re-edited, tweaked, twittered, tethered, tagged, traced, consented, conspired, dissented, believed, disbelieved, stated, restated, debased, bombarded, corrected, conflicted, exaggerated, dismissed, redacted, released, messaged, verified, falsified, withdrawn, redrawn, corrected, faked, lied, layered, truthed, untruthed, aligned, allied, cooked, crooked, set up, staged, staggered, vested, invested, made up and manufactured, propped, propagated, produced, perpetuated, perpetual and profitable.

'Libricide' is based on a newsreel released early in March showing Ukrainian military burning books outside the Intelligence Headquarters in Kiev, books, documents and records they did not want the invading Russians to read. Reworking the composition of Fra Angelico’s predella The Martyrdom of Cosmas and Damian with shadowy authoritarian figures behind the curtains this painting questions the use of censorship, conspiracy and propaganda in constructing the narrative in this conflict.

'Verified Falsehood' is based on a still from a video released on TikTok showing a tank driving down a residential street in Ukraine with the tagline “Ukraine is ready for war”. It was actually from the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014. It was watched four million times before this was corrected.

'Racist Black Square Redacted (After Malevich)' is based on Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square – a painting that was banned by Stalin as being bourgeois and not expressing social reality. In 2015 “researchers examining the deteriorating painting with a microscope found a handwritten inscription which they believe reads “Battle of Negroes in a Dark Cave”. A reference to an 1897 work by French writer and humourist Alphonse Allais called Combat de Nègres dans une cave pendant la nuit (Negroes Fighting in a Cellar at Night) – which was considered a joke by contemporary European audiences, even if it is clearly a racist one.” 

The racist joke is just below the surface of the painting. Should it be censored?

Nickie Hayden: 

I have created two pieces for this show inspired by ‘Clairvoyant: The Imagined Life of Lucia Joyce’, a book written by Alison Leslie Gold. The first piece titled ‘Now You See Me’ is a portrait of Lucia Joyce made with acrylic crystal gems placed by hand on a clear polycarbonate sheet. The second piece titled ‘Now You Don’t’ is a billboard style creation consisting of an edition of two embossed prints connected by a piano hinge. Both pieces show Lucia Joyce in one of her most iconic poses. 

Since the theme of this show is ‘censorship’ it seemed appropriate to focus on the life of Lucia Joyce, the daughter of James Joyce. Due to her lifelong struggle with mental illness, much of Lucia’s life was erased from the public eye. She was censored, suppressed, and locked away. She spent much of her life in a psychiatric facility where she was subject to experimental treatments and trial medications. She was a gifted dancer, illustrator, and writer, but much of her work was destroyed - even written correspondence with her father was burned. Lucia’s life story, or at least what we can imagine her life may have been like, can be made visible through discourse and creativity. Her story was truly censored, but it may still be brought to the forefront.

‘Now You See Me’ with its bright acrylic crystals aims to illustrate the vibrant and creative person that Lucia was. ‘Now You Don’t’, a stark white sheet embossed with a portrait of Lucia, represents how throughout her life Lucia was progressively pushed to the background and suppressed due to her mental illness. Carl Jung, one of the psychiatrists who had treated Lucia, described Lucia and her father as being ‘like two people going to the bottom of a river, one falling and the other diving.’

Kelly Ratchford: 

Attempts by a frightened minority to protect emboldened people from creative evils are futile.

The people will remain impure and full of lust

Sheila Naughton: 

Purple Prose Paintings

James Joyce's Ulysses suffered censorship as soon as it was published in 1922 as it was deemed immoral. It was instantly banned in the US and UK. Ironically, it wasn't banned in Ireland - for the mere reason that it wasn't available here! It most certainly would have been banned, both by church and state which were inextricably linked. Now, in 2022, and again ironically, it is the "immoral" bits that have become famous and celebrated. 

"Purple Prose" is the term used for the flowery or embellished language which Joyce was considered to use in his novels. Therefore I chose the colour purple to represent the flowing streams of prose associated with Joyce's writing. The heavy black impasto brushstrokes which overlay the purple represent the heavy-handed obliteration that was associated with the censorship of artistic works. The textured black-out paint is made from acrylic mixed with coal dust - this references the fact that books such as Ulysses, were frequently burned.

David Fox: 

My work explores a relationship between painting and photography. I explore how social media is used as a platform for photography and as a means of documentation of daily life and various other global events whether social or political. 

I'm interested in how censorship plays a role in controlling what is posted online.