Speaking of Silence, Speaking of Art, Abortion and Ireland
- Submitting institution
-
University of Ulster
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 76432765
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
-
10.1080/09670882.2018.1560892
- Title of journal
- Irish Studies Review
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 73
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 0967-0882
- Open access status
- Compliant
- Month of publication
- December
- Year of publication
- 2018
- URL
-
https://ulster.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/REF2021/Ebv5B-ecwwZPif-xriN0hygBoTgqZYGFuBUStHGGSuVP9A?e=vqKLIg
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
D - Art, Conflict & Society
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Sounding the Depths a collaborative installation by Pauline Cummins and Louise Walsh, 1992 reclaimed the female body appropriated by the Eight Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland and symbolically opened it up to speak and even laugh in defiance of patriarchal and heteronormative definitions of “woman”. First exhibited in 1992, the artwork was addressed to the silencing of women about abortion and other denigrated bodily experiences in a deeply repressive social and political climate. More recent artworks which challenge how women’s reproductive bodies are controlled by the state evidence the continued relevance of these themes as related to the Irish contexts, North and South. This essay considers how art and contemporary pro-choice arts activism explores ways of “saying the unsayable” when abortion is criminalised, stigmatised and largely experienced secretly and silently, to transform its symbols and discourse.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -