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Cáit McClay and Éiméar McClay are Irish-born, collaborative artists currently based in London. Their recent work has analysed both the British Imperial project in Ireland and the period following the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922 to examine the cultural, political and economic effects of colonisation. This has involved a focus on the network of social institutions – Magdalene Laundries, mother and baby homes, etc. – run by the Catholic church and the state in Ireland across the 20th century.
Their work has been selected for many esteemed exhibitions and awards, including Circa Class of 2020; Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2020; TH4Y, GENERATORprojects; the 17th & 18th Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival New Cinema Award; the Hospitalfield Graduate Programme; the Market Gallery Studio Projects residency; the CCA Derry residency; Arts Council of Ireland Agility Award 2021 & 2022; RSA New Contemporaries 2022; the RSA Stuart Prize 2022; the 56th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival; Queer Lisboa; aemi@GAZE 2022; Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival; Festival du Nouveau Ciné; Intersección, MAV Award; the Beijing International Short Film Festival; the CCA Glasgow Creative Lab residency; Docs Ireland; Memoryhouse, Glebe House; the Creative Scotland Open Fund Award; SQIFF 2023; Other Worlds, Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny; zoombiblestudy, Galerie FaVU; the Visual Arts Bursary Award 2024; aemi @ Docs Ireland: Back Translation; A Mother’s Love, Prayer Room; SQIFF 2024; and Intersección 2024.
just above the tear duct on each side (2024), a border of flat stones (2023), A mother’s love for her baby (2022), a body is a body is a body (2021), I guess I need you baby (2021), Queer Use (2020)
A critical look at the evolution of Irish psychiatric institutions across the 20th century, examining the confluence of carceral, therapeutic and socioeconomic incentives that determined their influence.
Three concentrated doses of cinematic pleasure. Artists in this programme meditate on storytelling and agency, synthesising practices of filmmaking and living to suggest new forms of intergenerational care. The ways we interpret our collective selves are explored through tender engagements with technologies of record and remembrance.
This screening will be accompanied with in person conversations with Éiméar McClay & Cat McClay (a body is a body is a body) and Rehana Zaman (Alternative Economies).
Language folds and falls in on itself in this new video work by artist duo Cat and Éiméar McClay. Animated 3D tableaus of Catholic paraphernalia and strikes of elemental weather accompany the words. Together, they enact the historically fraught relationship between queerness and the Catholic church.
