Garth Gratrix In Collaboration with... Fearghus Ó Conchúir

To mark the final week of Dip In the Pool,  Garth Gratrix's debut solo exhibition in Ireland, the artist invites acclaimed dancer and choreographer Fearghus Ó Conchúir to join them for a live collaboration beginning on Bray beachfront and travelling inward to Mermaid Arts Centre. 

Convening at Bray Bandstand, the pair will activate looking, viewing, being voyeurs of a kind - before a processionary return on foot to Mermaid's Gallery and Gratrix's installation. A new phase of movement and gesture will take place, with the artists simultaneously casting the roles of spectator, voyeur, observer, and participant, before an informal conversation and reflection mediated by Curator Anne Mullee.

Ó Conchúir works from and with the body directly; Gratrix works with what the body leaves behind. Remnants, traces, abstractions. Connecting the beach and the gallery, the two artists create something that meets somewhere in the middle. Taking artworks from Gratrix's exhibition outside the gallery and back again. 

You are invited to follow the artists, and become the first to witness this new artwork in person. 

** Please note that this event may include moments of undress and nudity

Meeting Point: Bray Bandstand, Bray Beach (Opposite the Martello Hotel, Eircode A98 P7X4).

Fearghus Ó Conchúir is a choreographer, dance artist and artistic director. Brought up in the Ring Gaeltacht in Ireland, he completed degrees in English and European Literature at Magdalen College Oxford, before training at London Contemporary Dance School.

Frequently collaborating with artists and experts from other disciplines, he is a champion for what dance can help us understand about how we live in the world. His film and live performances, presented around the world, create frameworks for audiences and artists to build communities together. His multi-platform work, The Casement Project, was one of the Arts Council’s National Projects for Ireland 2016 and was also part of the Ireland 2016 International Programme and of the 14-18now programme of WWI Centenary Art Commissions.

From 2018-2020 Fearghus was Artistic Director of National Dance Company Wales where focused the Company on making brilliant work with and for all kinds of people in all kinds of places. This included premiering his work, Annwyl i mi at the Eisteddfod and bringing it to Japan as part of Wales’ cultural programme around the Rugby World Cup; as well as making a dance film with the participants of the Company’s Dance for Parkinsons group and curating KIN with new work by Alexandra Waierstall and a revival of Nigel Charnock’s iconic Lunatic in a programme designed to reflect on what it takes to build resilient, inclusive communities of support, challenge and care.