Join us on Thursday the 9th of April for a trip to Pallas to catch the opening of Finn Nichol’s solo show ‘Operation Transformation’. We’ll meet there for 6pm. If you fancy joining, please RSVP below so I know who to keep an eye out for.

“Pallas Projects are pleased to present Finn Nichol—Operation Transformation, the third exhibition of our 2026 Artist-Initiated Projects programme.

Recent work has seen Nichol embody spirits of neoliberal Ireland- enacting strange, solitary rituals that connect mythological transformation to Ireland’s evolving relationship with capitalism and colonial anxiety.

The work is autobiographical, grounding personal histories of chronic illnesses within a broader Irish historical framework and offering arthritis as an extended metaphor for capitalism’s extractive growth model. Corporeal immobility mirrors economic stagnation, as a generation reaches adulthood in a nation shaped by austerity politics while bodily instability and flare-ups reflect wider economic instability.

The title, Operation Transformation, refers both to the structural changes wrought by axial spondyloarthritis inflaming the body and fusing the spine, as well as those imposed by neoliberal policies. It’s drawn from the post-Celtic Tiger health show aired on RTÉ One, positioning reality makeover television as an expression of colonial self-loathing. Operation Transformation reality show framed the 2008 crash and subsequent austerity in distinctly Catholic terms, with ritual confessions and the shaming of participants for perceived sloth and gluttony. Fasting and exercise became a form of economic transubstantiation as the language surrounding austerity became corporeal. Terms like “lean government” and “bloated public sector” synonymize bodily health with economic discipline.

Economic recession is framed as resulting from individual greed rather than the failure of post colonial systems and bodies are fascistically valued in terms of economic productivity.”