Laois exhibition celebrates 'Unlegendary Heroes'

The Dunamaise Arts Centre is proud to present Unlegendary Heroes, an exhibition of work by Geraldine O’Reilly and Mary O’Donnell, now in its gallery until Saturday 5 March which will be complimented by a free tour and illustrated conversational event with the artists on Tuesday 9 February at 11am.

For the last two years the visual artist/printmaker Geraldine O’Reilly and poet Mary O’Donnell have collaborated on Unlegendary Heroes; a project where Geraldine selected ten of Mary’s poems and responded in a series of ten visual images in watercolour, which were then printed using silk screen.

The 10 poems deal with aspects of female life and experience, including one of O’Donnell’s most essential and defining poems Unlegendary Heroes, often cited and quoted from.

This poem is included on The Poetry Foundation’s website and also appears in Windharp: Poems of Ireland since 1916, (Penguin Ireland, 2015) and was developed as a performance piece for the Irish Consulate in Boston’s Women’s Voices in Modern Irish Poetry in November 2020.

Other poems deal with the upbeat modern woman who sashays through a celebrating crowd (At the Wedding, A Stranger), an iconic crone figure who intercuts two other generations with her need for nourishment (Feeding the Crone), and on to the contemporary bitter poetic enactment of hair-cutting for economic survival in a subsistence culture (Twenty Inches of Hair). As well, one of Dublin’s great cafes is evoked as four generations of women are recalled (Meeting outside Bewleys) and in contrast to this, a group of walkers bear witness to a heron’s flight (Heron and the Women).

The artwork responding to the poems displays Geraldine O’Reilly’s acclaimed creative achievement in the manner in which her public has come to value: sensitive, powerful response to the experiences and moments which define the everyday, both in Ireland and globally.

The poems are taken from Mary O’Donnell’s highly-praised work in such collections as Unlegendary Heroes, Those April Fevers and her most recent volume, Massacre of the Birds.

The pages are presented in a limited edition (of 12) solander-boxed set of screen prints and poems, set by Mary Plunkett of Belgrave Press, in hand-made boxes created by award-winning book-binder Eilis Murphy of Folded Leaf, and printed at Graphic Studio Workshop, Dublin (Ireland’s oldest Fine Art print workshop). All the poems and illustrations are printed on 285gsm Fabriano Rosapina Bianca printing paper.

Geraldine O’Reilly and Mary O’Donnell will be in conversation with Muireann Ní Chonaill, for an illustrated talk and poetry reading, at an event which will be held at Dunamaise Arts Centre on Wednesday 9 February at 11am.

Visits to the gallery (in smaller groups) on the day, will be followed by a relaxed and wide ranging conversation in the theatre, about the collaboration to create this body of work, their artistic practice and careers to date.

Bookings for the event and now welcome via the website and through the box office. For further details see, www.dunamaise.ie or Tel: 057 8663355.  The Dunamaise Gallery is open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm.

All welcome to visit this exhibition and enjoy the delicious menu on offer at Caffe Latte on the ground floor.