Interval Progression (2026)
Ciarán Ó Dochartaigh's floor-based sculptural works include a ceramic render of a human stomach and intestinal tract, referencing the removal and remodelling of the stomach of the artist's late father (a prominent Irish language activist and Irish traditional musician in Derry), during the late stages of cancer treatment. This work is accompanied by diary notes of the process, combining medical details with environmental observances and political anecdotes. The intestine often recurs in Ó Dochartaigh's work, functioning not merely as a memorial or as a mediation of personal loss, but also as a kind of methodological agent within the practice as a whole. Corresponding to Russian neurologist Ivan Pavlov's description of the digestive system as a tube passing through the entire organism and communicating with the external world, it is through the intestine that Ó Dochartaigh connects a wide range of intersecting references: from the autopsies of Derry's Bloody Sunday victims conducted by Dr. Raymond MacLean — their stomachs containing the same class-conditioned dinner of roast beef, potatoes and peas — through to the intestinal contents of cannibalistic Ferox trout in the lakes of Donegal.
Other sculptural works presented as part of Interval Progression allude to accessibility devices such as handrails or comfort cushions designed to ameliorate hostile environments for the sick, disabled or afflicted. [MP]
Ciarán Ó Dochartaigh is an artist, researcher and Gaeilgeoir from Derry, living and working with chronic illness. His mixed media practice explores complexities inherent within the embodiment of personal loss with the legacy of political violence and lived experience. He is interested in the materialities of artisanal craft objects combined with industrial manufacturing processes to create a specific language of sculptural works.
State of us, 2026
State of us is a project that comprises an exhibition at de Appel and a parallel series of screenings and performances, focusing on the inherited traumas of colonial violence and control that continue to shape social, mental and physical bodies across generations.
The project is a collaboration between EVA International — Ireland's Biennial of Contemporary Art — and de Appel. It features a new commission by Dina Mimi and presentations by artists and projects commissioned by EVA International between 2021 and 2025, including Ciarán Ó Dochartaigh, Family Connection, Sara Greavu & Ciara Phillips with Derry Film and Video Workshop archive and former workshop member Anne Crilly, Naeem Mohaiemen, Eoghan Ryan, Clíodhna Timoney and Eimear Walshe.
Thematically departing from Ireland — widely regarded as the first historical subject of the British colonial enterprise — state of us brings together artists who address Ireland or the Irish experience, alongside ongoing and historical struggles in places such as Palestine, Bangladesh and Curaçao. The research-based artworks trace how the everyday and insidious effects of colonialism and its legacies recur in aspects of memory, sexual relations, social behaviours and health dysfunctions, among other examples.
Taking its title from an Irish colloquialism used to describe a disordered appearance or situation, state of us plays on the word "state" to span both the personal (the social and self-reflective) and the political (the national, territorial and sovereign). These two states — one internal, one structural — are the defining dynamics of the project, with many of the participating artists exploring the historical relations that connect them.
The exhibition at de Appel includes works by Ciarán Ó Dochartaigh; We realised the power of it — Derry Film and Video Workshop, a project by Sara Greavu and Ciara Phillips; Dina Mimi; Clíodhna Timoney and Eimear Walshe. Event partnerships include Filmtheater Kriterion, Eye Filmmuseum and the international workshop LIBERATIONS: Questions for Art and Theory, hosted by the University of Amsterdam. state of us is curated by Ailbhe W. Drohan, Matt Packer, Eszter Szakács.
