Roaming Exhibition 2019-2021 | Residency 2018
Why Can't A Woman Be More Like A Man, 2018
Through the 2018 Wom@rt residency in Angouleme France, Irish artist Fionnuala Doran created two new pieces of work which will be displayed across Europe between 2019 and 2021. The work is inspired by the life of the artist's great Grandmother, who tried to combine motherhood, manual labouring and writing; and by the public testimony of sexual assault survivors.
Both of the works produced during the Wom@rts residency are inspired by my great Grandmother, Alice Molloy, who was a playwright and writer of short stories. She was also a mother of nine and a working-class Catholic woman who lived in one of the most turbulent towns in Ireland during the War for Independence, the Irish Civil War and the establishment of the gerrymandered, sectarian statelet of Northern Ireland. Her identity as a creator was and has been subsumed by her identity as a mother, a wife, a member of the non-landed classes and a woman. Alice was never able to move from her small town to the literary cities of Dublin or Belfast, unlike male writers like Patrick Kavanagh, who came from similar backgrounds. Her work has not been archived or collected beyond a few fragments.
Exhibition view, Maribor, 2019
While making this work in Angouleme, an allegation of sexual assault was made against a nominee to the American Supreme Court. Watching the treatment of Dr Christine Blassey Ford by the American Senate, streamed live online, served as a reminder that as a woman, no matter how accomplished, professionally respected and pleasing in manners she tries to be, her testimony will matter nothing against a man of greater sociopolitical power. More than 60 years since my great grandmother died, a female professor of psychology can be told by male dominated political institutions that she does not truly know her own lived experience as well as they do. "Why can't a woman be more like a man", Rex Harrison sang in My Fair Lady. No matter how a woman endeavours to operate in the masculine model of respectability set out for them, she still will not have the authority, respect or privilege of a man.
Exhibition View, Maribor, 2018
About the Residency | Angouleme, Sept-Oct 2018
The participating artists were:
Fionnuala Doran (Ireland/ LIT Limerick School of Art & Design)
Nanu González (Spain / Factoría Cultural Avilés)
Merieme Mesfioui (France / Grand Angouleme)
Raquel Lagartos (Spain / Factoría Cultural Avilés)
Xulia Vicente (Spain / Compostela Cultura)
Scotty Hervouet (France / Grand Angouleme)
Korina Hunjak (Croatia / Akademija primijenjenih umjetnosti Sveučilišta u Rijeci)
Samira Kentrić (Slovenia / UGM l Umetnostna galerija Maribor)
Akvile Magicdust (Lithuania / Vilniaus rotušė)
Maura McHugh (Ireland / LIT Limerick School of Art & Design).
Maison des Auteurs, Angouleme: Residents toured Angouleme’s Maison des Auteurs, a unique residency space for comic creators from across the world.
Maison des Auteurs, Angouleme: Residents toured Angouleme’s Maison des Auteurs, a unique residency space for comic creators from across the world.
Wom@rts Residency Public Talk & Mayoral Visit On 02 October 2018, resident artists gave a talk about their experience to students from l’École Européenne Supérieure de l’Image / European School of Visual Arts. The residency concluded with a visit from the Mayor of Angouleme.
The Museum of Comics | le Musée de la Bande Dessinée Resident artists received a private tour of Angouleme’s Museum of Comics/Musée de la Bande Dessinée, led by its curator.
Touring Exhibition and Events:
See more images from the residency and exhibitions on
