WE ARE HERE: SONGS FROM A FORGOTTEN PAST is a new artists' moving image programme developed through a collaborative partnership with British Council, LUX, Highlanes Gallery Drogheda and Golden Thread Gallery Belfast.
Exploring themes of marginality and its representation, community, storytelling, world-building and critically reframing histories, two linked exhibitions in Drogheda and Belfast present films from WE ARE HERE: SONGS FROM A FORGOTTEN PAST, one of five artists’ film programmes curated by Tendai John Mutambu for the British Council and LUX, an international arts agency that supports and promotes artists’ moving image practices. The two exhibitions and programme of events at Highlanes Gallery and Golden Thread Gallery are separate but in conversation with each other; different interpretations from different places, with visits from each side of the border of the island of Ireland, to the other gallery, offering a chance to see the films and broader exhibition from each other’s ‘here’.
For the exhibition at Highlanes Gallery, a diverse group of individuals, artists, and artist-teachers from across the country, and lecturers in Art and Design Teacher Education from Limerick School of Art & Design, have been invited to reflect on the work of the artists in SONGS FROM A FORGETTEN PAST and together curate an exhibition that reflects on the themes around the selection, as well as select work from the Arts Council of Ireland’s Collection (celebrating 70 years in 2022), and the Drogheda Municipal Art Collection at Highlanes Gallery.
The exhibition presents a range of media from moving image and sculpture to painting and photography and artists featured include Ayo Akingbade, Ursula Burke, Duncan Campbell, Tom Fitzgerald, Luke Fowler, Cliona Harmey, Anthony Haughey, Susan Hiller, Samson Kambalu, Brian Maguire, Colin Martin, Mairead O'hEocha, and Daphne Wright.
WE ARE HERE opened at Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda on Saturday 5th March and will run until Saturday 16th April.
Alongside the main exhibition, Highlanes will present an exciting public programme including a project to engage teachers and students at Primary School Level with ideas and materiality in the exhibition, guided tours for students at Second Level, gallery talks, children’s workshops and both in-person and online talks with the curatorial group, exhibiting artists, Tendai John Mutambu and the Golden Thread Gallery Belfast.
