It Is & I Am, 2024
Belfast Exposed Gallery, Belfast
It Is & I Am was a solo exhibition of new work by visual artist Emma Brennan. Incorporating a range of disciplines, the site-responsive installation explores the origins of myth making on the Island of Ireland through a Queer feminist lens.
The statement is an assertion and personal manifesto, arrived at through lived experience, reflection and conversation with the artist’s community of Queer people and Queer artists. In its certainty, this affirmation points to questions of self-identification and the politics of representation. It is one answer to the questions of what is Queer art? Who is a Queer artist?
Taking these questions as a starting point, the artist moves through material exploration to reflect on Queerness in creation and art-making. Seeking expansion and fluidity, this process and body of work resist discretion, expanding to include messy multitudes of meanings rather than offering limiting definitive answers.
This exhibition was curated by Siobhan Kelly, a recipient of the Belfast Exposed Futures Curator Award 2023, a programme supporting emerging talent in the visual arts.
Acknowledgements
This exhibition is funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, and Fingal County Council. With special thanks to Niamh McCann whose dedication and commitment to collaborating on this project made it all possible. Thanks also to Lyric Theatre Belfast, Longford County Council, Portview Trade Center, PS² Belfast, Peter Glasgow, Shaun Doogan, Annette Brennan, Emer McGuckian, Gregor Andzelm, Robbie Maguire, Rachel Botha, and Jonathan Mayhew.
Photography by Niamh McCann and Ellen Blair.
