Event
International artist Nicola Anthony has worked with individuals in Wexford who feel isolated, displaced, or lonely to create A Desire for Closeness, an immersive installation informed by the stories they told her about their lives. Presented as part of the First Fortnight Festival, the exhibition will run from 11 – 24 January 2020 at The Presentation Arts Centre in Enniscorthy, County Wexford.
Nicola Anthony’s work provides insight into others alongside glimpses into the hidden parts of ourselves, and has been called ‘a journal of a thousand souls’. Based in Dublin, Nicola has travelled the world to work with disenfranchised communities and find the essence of what connects us all as human beings. Her life’s work is to collect human testimonies, empowering and transforming them into contemporary art. Over the last two years, her work featuring the stories of Irish emigrants to the USA and Holocaust survivors who escaped Europe have become public sculptures in Los Angeles, Colorado, and Singapore.
A Desire for Closeness delves deeper into how we experience being alone. This exhibition will include interwoven text sculptures, video work and ink drawings. The opening event will take place on Friday 10 January at 6pm.
Nicola Anthony will share insights from the exhibition and her research platform, the Human Archive Project, in Around The World In 800 Stories on Saturday 11 January from 4-6pm. Registration required.
Nicola will lead an art workshop (€15 per person), The Secret Life of Colour, on Saturday 18 January from 1.30-3.30pm. Participants will learn about the properties of colours and inks, how to find calm and happiness through creativity, as well as how to express themselves through art. No art experience needed, all experience levels welcome.
About First Fortnight
First Fortnight is an arts-based mental health charity that organises a festival in the first two weeks of the year aimed at challenging stigma. An awareness campaign in the First Fortnight of the year works because we are all a little raw that time of year and more likely to be open to an empathic response. First Fortnight has become a fixture in the cultural calendar and synonymous with mental health awareness, challenging prejudice and ending stigma. First Fortnight also runs a Centre for Creative Therapies, which provides an art psychotherapy and music therapy service to adults with experience of homelessness or at risk of homelessness. www.firstfortnight.ie
