Performance

Collaboration with Ailbhe McDonagh at Soul Noir Festival of the Dark Arts, Halloween 2021. Photographs by Chad Alexander.

My film ‘Pendant’ featuring Marion Cronin and myself was also shown at this event. It is currently not available online

Coming Out for Air – Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival 2021, Belfast.

This performance was commissioned by  Bbeyond as part of their participation in  Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. The location for the work was the Francis Anderson Calder Memorial Fountain which drew my attention when looking for a site in the area. Calder (1787 – 1855) founded the  Belfast Society for prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1836 and was responsible for  water troughs being installed in the streets for animals whose services were required en route to the busy port.  The inscription, from Proverbs 12:10, caught my attention – “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast”. The word ‘beast’ immediately made me think of ‘body’ and so the performance combined aspects of maintenance, cleaning and healing of both fountain and self.

Thanks to Rainer Pagel for the photos.

Somatic Distortion – Leitrim Sculpture Centre Oct 2019. Curated by Sandra Corrigan Breathnach

A performance titled, The subject being seated… .This work for body and voice involved the self induction of convulsions as per a text by F.X Dercum, ‘Artificial induction of Convulsive Seizures’ (1884), describing the process behind the images  taken by  Eadweard  Muybridge in the same year.  These images appear in Muybridge’s book ‘Animal Locomotion’.  Essentially it was a conflation of subject and object in which I recited the medical text while undergoing the convulsions. The text was repeated throughout the performance thus allowing the voice to be influenced by the convulsion within the body. Duration 1 hour 40 minutes.

Past Present Performed in Cavan town for ‘Lovely Weather (this time of year) festival. Curated by Trans Art. Photography by Noelle Farrelly.

A return to a dojo, derelict, part reclaimed by nature’s relentless advance. This site two hours cycle from Cavan town, transposed to the town in spirit, in a similarly unkempt yard.

Milton’s Sympathy 4 Galileo: Performed at Soul Noir: Festival of the Dark Arts, 2020 curated by  Sinead Keogh. This marked a return to my interest in Galileo. In 1638 John Milton met Galileo while he was under house arrest. Years later in writing Paradise  Lost Milton makes reference to Galileo and in a lengthy monologue from the angel Raphael  to Adam expounds on the philosophical/astronomical propositions of the time. During the performance I recite this monologue pertaining to the debate between church and science. Photography is by Jordan Hutchings and www.alexartweddings.com.

AutopneumA at The Autonomy Project, Limerick, 2018

AutopneumA was performed in the Autonomy Project. Autopneuma is a twist on the word ‘autonomy and refers to the control of one’s own breath, the elimination of medicines and alien inhalers that still give an emotional kick when I see or hear them.  Auto – to oneself. Pneuma – Breath or Spirit. The  jacket was embroidered specifically for the performance, The logo and backpatch plays on the visuals of metal band logos that I embroidered years ago in my teens. Backpatch embroidery was originally part of the canvas bag used in Souvenirs of the Overworld.

Review by Brian O’Connell on The Autonomy Project, in DRAFF. Net, May 2018

“The movement in AutoPneuma starts within the body, a highly controlled hyperventilation which took charge of the entire space. Hyperventilation is an obvious symptom of the desperation many of us have felt in moments where we lack control or autonomy, and I find Byrne’s deliberate self-control a defiant and highly optimistic gesture. From the first position, crouched in a denim jacket on a dusty floor, he rises and moves forward towards his audience, connected to the wall behind him by a mechanism of strings which will eventually divest him of his jacket. When this is taken off, he leaves it to rest in mid air, suspended by the mechanism and a precarious length of timber. As he moves, the room seems to reveal itself as if his gaze illuminates it bit by bit past where we normally look. His performance ends with another static moment, balanced mid-way up a casement window. An unsentimental performance, and yet highly charged in its resonances and its optimism.”

Breath, at Skerries Artwaves Festival, 2017.

Performance ran from 07.45 (low tide) to 14.30 (high tide). The activities refer to aspects of Skerries discovered during several research trips. My choice to use embroidery in this work was a reference to the town’s 19th century industry. It is medium I had used previously and so the coincidence seemed the way to follow.  The action of the performance was the repetitious embroidering of the word ‘inhale’ on canvas as the tide rose. The limpet shell balaclava was crafted from shells collected from the ‘dorn’ and embroidery thread. The ‘dorn’ is the land bank that can be walked to Shenick Island at low Spring tides.

Of particular stimulus for this  work was the book, ‘the Kybe’ by Hugh Fitzgerald Ryan. This historical novel set in Skerries at the time the Napoleonic wars of the 1810s gave me a great insight into the  town’s history. The local names for places also featured and set me int he location for the story of the  novel. Shenick Island and the ‘dorn” were key features of the story. While the work was not in any way representative of the story the reading brought added layers to my investment in the place.

Thanks to Ruby Staunton for invitation to perform and documentation.

Performance in Lloyd Town Park, Tullamore: One of four performed with Marion Cronin and Alba Lorca on 2nd and 3rd November 2016. In association with Foundation 16.

Future Histories at Kilmainham Gaol curated by Aine Phillips and Niamh Murphy,  2016

The performance ‘Small instruments that make revolutions’ was a commemoration of  Francis Sheehy Skeffington, Thomas Dickson and Patrick McIntyre, all of whom were executed without trial at Portobello Barracks in 1916. All photos are by Joseph Carr.

Performance at Moving Bodies Butoh and Live Art Festival. June 2015

Oisin: Action II. Performance at ‘Performing Pleasure’ a Livestock event  in Dublin Live Art Festival 2015

Performance and Workshop at Moving Bodies Butoh and Live Art Festival, Torino, Italy. June 2015. Curated by Ambra Bergamasco.

Performance at Belfast International Festival of Performance Art, March 2015. Curated by Brian Connolly. Photos: Jordan Hutchings

Video and editing: Max Surin.

Performance at Spatio Temporal °5, Cologne, part of Bel-Esse exchange with Bbeyond and PAErsche aktionslabor. September 2014.

It would be perfect if you did not breathe. Performance in Unit 1 event Self Made at  Crawford Art Gallery, 2014. Photos Ciara McKeon

Collapsible, Performance for the show The Infinite Line [a search for the unknown] curated by Sophie Behal and Maeve Lynch, Tactic Gallery, Cork. Photos; Sophie Behal

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May I draw your eyes? Performance in ‘Between you, me and the four walls’ curated by  Michelle Browne at IETM, Project, 2013. In this work, repeated in different venues since 2012, I invite the audience/participant to sit with me as i draw at close quarters their eye. While doing so a voiceover narrates via earphones the tale of obsession with drawing other people’s eyes. For each individual it lasts five minutes. The eyes are scratched onto an alluminium plate repeatedly over the course of the event, the duration of which has varied from 2 -6 hours. See eye drawings.

Punishment for Galileo, first performed at Market Studios, 2012. I apply gold leaf to my midriff. I prepare  a hula hoop with pins inserted. I then hula hoop for 2 hours. The title refers  to Galileo who was punished for promoting his belief that the earth revolved around the sun.

Photos; Ciara McKeon.

Suntitled. Performance at Queen’s University, Belfast, as part of ‘Present’, a week  celebrating twenty five years of Black Market international presented by BBeyond.

First hoop performance; prompted by the statue of Galileo in the foyer of Queens.

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Loop. This performance was presented at Market Studios, Dublin and 126 Galway in 2011.

19 LOOP

Public House. A four day residency in Allen, Co. Kildare curated by Maeve Mulrennan. It  culminated in an evening of performances and installation by me, Dominic Thorpe, Aine Phillips and Victoria McCormack. Photos: Jonathan Sammon

To see Jonathan Sammon’s documentation of this project see Public House (I’m not a ghost, you’re not a ghost, the camera is not a ghost) (2011) from Galway Arts Centre on Vimeo.

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Right Here Right Now, performance event at Kilmainham Gaol curated by P.A Live (Dominic Thorpe, Niamh Murphy and Amanda Coogan) 2010. Photos: Sebastian Dooris.

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Singer, performed with Jeni Roddy at the joinery in 2010 as part of the show ‘Singer’

Souvenirs of the Overworld, performance in Galway Arts Centre, Tulca Live. Curated by Aine Phillips. 2005

Oblit. Performance at Aspidistra Arthouse in 1998. With my head covered in gold leaf I  repeatedly drew self-portraits. Each portrait would be sanded away while simultaneously  sanding the gold leaf from my head. Concerns in this work around portraiture and drawing  are still present today in works such as ‘May I draw your eyes?’

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