QUEER UTOPIA | MARIETTE FEENEY
13th – 30th May | A4 Sounds Gallery
Queer-Utopia.com | Digital Experience
Our world is in upheaval, we face an existential threat both in terms of radical and rapid environmental change, in terms of ever-increasing violent political extremism on the far right, and a government that seems to work against our interests at every turn. As we live in the world today, asking ourselves and our community what we want to be free of, QUEER UTOPIA engages with queer pleasure, love, joy, and friendship, encouragingly asking; what will we keep?
QUEER UTOPIA is a collaborative sculptural and digital vision of a queer future: a pink, joyful, playful space created in response to a series of discussions between the artist and other queer people. For some, queer utopia was a physical place, a home, a building, or a forest filled with the people they love, and for others, it was a political statement. Our queer utopia is a place of freedom, of righteous anger, a place full to the very brim with loving and radical care for our comrades. The world we live in right now is often scared of us, and in turn, we are often scared of it; this exhibition serves as a fleeting glimpse into that peaceful, beautiful, queer future we are hoping for.
www.QUEER-UTOPIA.com
Mariette Feeney
Mariette Feeney is an artist and designer currently living and working in Dublin. They moved from the UK to Ireland in 2013 to live and study and graduated from TUD with a degree in Furniture Design, which informs much of their work.
Mariette’s work explores and challenges the concept of Utopia and uses sculpture to ask questions and provoke conversations about the world we want to live in: what do we take pleasure in, what are we proud of, and what is important to us? They aim to centre the personal, small, and often overlooked pleasures of everyday life in answer to these larger questions, and through sculpture, they try to give physical form to the idea that in order to do good work in the world, we must all have a place of retreat and peace.
Mariette is the recipient of We Only Want the Earth 2021, Residency Award 1 in partnership with Create: national development agency for collaborative arts, Transgender Equality Network Irelands (TENI), and consulting artists gender.rip.
A4 Profile Page: a4sounds.org/mariette-feeney
Instagram:@6thcentury
Instagram:@QueerUtopiaProject
Twitter: @6thcentury
Email: marieoliviafeeney@gmail.com
QUEER UTOPIA is kindly supported by The Arts Council of Ireland’s Art Grant Funding 2021.
Exhibition Information
Exhibition Gallery Visit
Booking Required
Dates & Times:
Thur 13th May | 2pm – 6pm
Fri 14th May | 2pm – 6pm
General Hours:
Tue – Fri | 12pm – 7pm
Sat | 12pm – 6pm
Sun | 12pm – 5pm
Mon | Closed
Social distancing measures and your safety:
To ensure the health and safety of visitors to the gallery, our viewing will limit visitors to 1 booking at a time, with a maximum of 3 persons from one group to view the installation. Further information can be read on our booking form and will be emailed to you prior to your visit. We encourage folks who are able, to walk or cycle to the gallery.
Accessibility
Our accessibility information is below.
Booking
If you would like to attend this event please book via the button below.
Exhibition Kit
€20
Our exhibition kit is designed to accompany your in person or online exhibition visit consists of:
QUEER UTOPIA Zine
This zine documents the collaborative process of QUEER UTOPIA and the stories behind each object that make up the installation. It contains snippets of conversations between the artist and 10 collaborators, the objects which the collaborators are keeping for this new future, note book sketches and the design process for the each object made in response to these conversations.
QUEER UTOPIA Tools
While visiting QUEER UTOPIA online or in person, use these tools to imagine and sketch your own utopian future and the objects you might bring with you. The pack contains a QUEER UTOPIA notebook, pencil, badge and sticker.
Digital Exhibition Visit
Gallery Kit Available to accompany your online experience.
As well as a physical experience we are delighted to launch the digital experience of QUEER UTOPIA. In the digital realm the utopian world building takes the form of an animated sketchbook documenting Mariette’s collaborations and creative process. Over the residency period Mariette met with ten collaborators and asked them to pick and object to bring to QUEER UTOPIA. These objects served as a point of departure for a series of one on one conversations to share stories and imagine different utopian futures together. QUEER UTOPIA online will give you an insight into these conversations, objects chosen by collaborators, and Mariettes artistic responses to them.
Thursday 13th | 2pm: Website launch
Thursday 20th | 2pm: 3 objects added to website
Thursday 27th | 2pm: 3 objects added to website
Gallery Kit
If you would to purchase a gallery kit to accompany your online experience of QUEER UTOPIA, please click the link above.
Exhibition Credits
Artist
Mariette Feeney
Collaborators
Deirbhile, Jess, Jilly,
Jude, Laurynn, Rana
Madi, Rosie, Tadgh
A4 Curatorial Team
Evelyn Broderick
Lisa Crowne
Andrew Edgar
Dónal Holland
Lucia Pola
Residency Team
Create: national development agency for collaborative arts
Áine Crowley
Ailbhe Murphy
Keelin Murray
Transgender Equality Network Ireland
Keeva-Lilith Ferreyra-Carroll
Consulting Artists
gender.RIP
Production Team
Aideen Farrell | Exhibition Installation
Sarah Devereux | Installation & Social Media
Gavin Gogarty | CNC Fabrication
Kate-Bowe O’Brien | Photo Documentation
Patrick Feeney | Graphic Design
Lucia Pola | Graphic design & Website design and build
Further Information
Accessibility
You can access our full accessibility information via this link: https://cutt.ly/mbYu5qP.
General Accessibility Information:
This event will take place in our gallery which is wheelchair accessible.
The gallery is approx a 5m walk from the front door.
There is a garden with benches and stool adjacent to the gallery for breaks if needed.
There is bright RGB lighting throughout the space. There is no sound or loud noise.
This exhibition is standing, there is space to move throughout the gallery for folks who use wheelchairs or have mobility aids.
If you require a comfortable chair for your visit, please let us know when making your booking and we will ensure to have one ready for you. At any point in your visit you may request a chair if needed from our staff at the front door.
Bathrooms:
Our bathrooms are gender-neutral
Our bathrooms are not wheelchair accessible. They are located on the first floor via a flight of stairs (approx 22 steps) so may also be inaccessible for people with movement impairments.
If you have specific needs that are not included in this information please get in touch via and we will work with you to ensure you are comfortable on your visit. You can email us via evelyn@a4sounds.org.
Facebook Event Page:
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Twitter: @a4sounds
Instagram: @a4soundsstudios
#WeOnlyWantTheEarth
We Only Want the Earth is intended as a broad conversation about the goals and strategies of social change: what kind of society do we want and how should we get there? You can find out more information about our programme here.
Support Us:
If you support what we do please consider donating 1 hour of your monthly wage to We Only Want the Earth.
Your support will enable is to realise our programme to its fullest potential by enabling us to pay fair wages, facilitate more engaging and accessible art experiences and help us develop our programme for many years to come.