Artist Talk: Vivienne Dick | ATU Galway City

TULCA is pleased to present the Artist Talks Series as part of the 2026 programme, Veruca Salt, curated by Sinéad Keogh. Continuing its ongoing partnership with the ATU School of Design and Creative Arts, TULCA will present four talks throughout October and November 2026.

The series invites audiences to engage directly with participating artists and the curator, offering insights into their practices and the ideas shaping this year’s festival. All talks take place at ATU Galway City – Wellpark Road. Admission is free and booking is required.

Vivienne Dick discusses her practice as part of the TULCA 2026 Artist Talks Series. The talk accompanies Vivienne Dick’s presentation at TULCA Gallery for Veruca Salt.

Vivienne Dick
Vivienne Dick works with film, video and photography. Her films are concerned with gender politics, social issues, ecology and possible futures. She makes single and multiscreen work which combine elements of documentary, performance and fiction. Dick began making films in late seventies New York during a period referred to as ‘No Wave’. Later work was made in London, and in recent years, in Ireland. Her work has been shown widely with retrospectives in Queer Porto, Jeu de Paume, Paris, IMMA, Seville, Tate Modern, and Crawford Art Gallery. Recent group shows include Palais de Tokyo, Paris, RCC Letterkenny, Hawaii Contemporary, The Complex Arts Centre, Tate Britain, and IMMA, Dublin. Dick's films have been shown at festivals at the BFI, London, New York Film Festival, Cork, Dublin, FilmX, LA , Berlin, Edinburgh, Oberhausen, CPH:DOX, Copenhagen and others. New York Our Time, a Reel Art feature documentary, received the Dublin Film Critics Award at DIFF in 2020 and Best Documentary Award at Irish Film Festival, London. A member of Aosdána since 2000, her work is distributed by Lux UK and The Film Makers Coop NYC. Dick is grateful to An Chomhairle Ealaíon for its support.

Artist Statement
I make multi-layered, open-ended work framed from a female perspective and with an interest in gender politics, ecology, music, philosophy and possible futures. My early work is associated with the ‘No Wave’ music and film movement of late seventies New York. I work with film, video and sometimes photography. I make single and multiscreen work which combine elements of documentary, performance and fiction. Later work was made in London, and in recent years, in Ireland. My works shows in cinemas, museums, and galleries. I am a member of Aosdána. The film features punk playing pinball, Beate Nilsen, Ikue Mori, Lydia Lunch, Pat Place, Adele Bertei, and Anya Phillips. In Guérillère Talks the filmmaker’s presence is felt through the expressive camera movements which contribute an energy and intensity to this exploration into notions of identity, as performers perform themselves.

Free, advance booking required

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Official Launch of TULCA Festival of Visual Arts 2026

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts invites you to the official launch of Veruca Salt, curated by Sinéad Keogh. Join artists, contributors and guests for an evening reception at An Post Gallery, marking the opening of the 24th edition of TULCA.

The evening will also see the launch of TULCA’s latest publication, Veruca Salt, followed by a live reading by Sara R Phillips from Incident in Another Time. Opening speeches by Lucy Elvis, Ross Curran and Kathy O’Donoghue will begin at 7.30pm.

Marking fifty years since punk emerged as a disruptive cultural force, TULCA 2026: Veruca Salt considers what it means to know who you are and know what you want. The festival approaches punk not as a fixed historical style, but as a living method rooted in DIY culture, collective action and self-determination. Across five galleries and a wider series of events in Galway, Veruca Salt brings together exhibitions, film, performance, sound, writing, talks and workshops.

TULCA acknowledges the support of the Arts Council, Galway City Council and Galway County Council, together with all our festival, exhibition and education partners and supporters.

Official Festival Launch | 7–9pm
An Post Gallery, 18 William Street

Publication Launch | 7–9pm
An Post Gallery, 18 William Street

Sara R Phillips Live Reading | 7.45–8pm
An Post Gallery, 18 William Street

TULCA Launch Party | 9pm–late
Phil RetroSpector and Core Minimal
Electric Galway, 36 Abbeygate Street Upper

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Edit: Jonathan Sammon

Free, no booking required

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Image: Portrait of Sara R Phillips, courtesy of the artist.

Following the Official Launch of TULCA Festival of Visual Arts 2026 at An Post Gallery, TULCA continues its opening night at Electric Galway with tailored DJ sets by Phil RetroSpector and Core Minimal.

Phil RetroSpector
Core Minimal

Phil RetroSpector is an audio-visual artist. This reclusive figure mixes emotion rather than beats, stretching the very fabric of popular music (from Hi-Brow to Lo-Fi), to new and exciting contextual arenas. Phil RetroSpector will perform from 9–11pm.

After a long hiatus, Core Minimal returns to the decks, making his debut in Electric Galway for the TULCA Festival of Visual Arts after party. He plans on providing a stomping two hour techno set incorporating some of the best techno out there along with some of his own releases and maybe even some unreleased material as well. Core Minimal will perform from 11pm–late.

Free, advance booking recommended
18+ only

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Paula Fitzsimons: Holding Water | An Post Gallery

TULCA presents Holding Water, a durational live performance by Paula Fitzsimons, as part of the 2026 festival programme.

Holding Water is a live performance action by Paula Fitzsimons first performed in May 2025. The performance took place at Malin Head, the northernmost point of Ireland, overlooking the North Atlantic Ocean. In this singular action the artist challenges humanity’s relationship to the sustainability of living natural resources, particularly resonant with island life and contemporary culture. It questions human behaviours that unsettle the Earth’s ecological balance, including the melting of Arctic ice caps and ocean depletion caused by the mining of rare-earth minerals for advanced technologies. In the performance, Fitzsimons references art-historical imagery, particularly evoking the Pietà as a sorrowful reflection imbued in the image of cultural traditions of an Earth Mother.

Paula Fitzsimons
Paula Fitzsimons is an Irish artist whose practice includes photography, video, text, spoken word, drawing and live performance, addressing the politics of sexual identity, the body in the landscape, the poetics of loss and the role of action as a carrier of meaning. Fitzsimons’ interventions respond directly to cultural heritage with particular focus on women’s experiences, investigating identity, society and political histories from poetics to philosophy. Fitzsimons’ exhibitions include performances and photography in Ireland, Britain, France, Poland, Austria, Sweden and Italy, with moving-image installations in Japan, South Korea and Dubai. She is interested in bringing the audience close on a shared journey of ‘making’ to realise works that are transient and experiential. From 2014 to 2023, Fitzsimons was part of the Royal College of Art School of Arts and Humanities community, completing an MA in Painting with distinction in 2016. Fitzsimons was awarded a practice-based PhD in 2023 for her project titled 'Up Against the Wall: From Resistant to Dynamic, A Journey in Culture, Encountering the Limit in the Process', a research that encompassed Irish outdoor handball alleys, women’s voices in Irish culture and the writings of James Joyce. This body of work was articulated through performance, photography and poetic text to reflect on how future generations may inhabit the world. Most recently in 2025 Fitzsimons made a series of live performance works in the city of Vienna as part of ‘Parole of an Apparition’ performance art festival. She was part of ‘IMMERSION X’ a living sculpture exhibition of cutting edge volumetric video (VR) presented in 2025 in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden curated by Jonas Stampa and Xiao Ge. Her video titled ‘Holding Water’, a live to camera performance recorded early in 2025 at Malin Head, was shown at the Saatchi Gallery, London as part of ArtEvol2025. In September 2026 she will make a series of live performance works at Gothenburg Live Action Festival. From 2023 (ongoing), Fitzsimons has been working with the Irish Museum of Modern Art on ‘Nigel Rolfe: The Living Archive’, funded by IMMA and the Paul Mellon Centre.

Free, no booking required

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Image: Performance still of Holding Water, image courtesy of the artist.

A DIY punk clothing workshop led by Eimear Greaney of UPSEW

A big part of the aesthetics of the punk movement was individual style and rebellion against the norm and what was expected. Members of the alt/punk community would often alter clothing they could get access to second hand and make it their own. This can be seen in common aspects of the style, tears, rips, writing on clothing, patchworks, spray- painting etc. This workshop  not only brings environmental thinking of re-use but teaches skill and encourages the themes of Veruca Salt. 

Eimear Greaney / UPSEW
Eimear Greaney began UpSew after seeing so much unwanted, good-quality clothing on discount racks in charity shops in 2014. Dusting off her 1980s Singer machine, she started re-sewing. Eimear trained as a pattern maker and cutter after leaving school and now collects a ridiculous amount of vintage dress patterns and old sewing machines. She teaches sewing and repair classes in Galway, and loves helping people mend, upcycle, and keeping clothes worn again and again and again.

Please bring an item of clothing you would like to work on. All tools and equipment will be provided.

If you can no longer attend, please cancel your ticket so someone else can book your place.

Special thanks to Jasmin Finn, the team at The Market H91 and Electric Galway for their support.

Free, advance booking required
Spaces are limited to 12 people
18+

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Image: Original post and image credits via Flashbak

Russell Hart: Vivienne | An Post Gallery

TULCA presents a live electronic sound performance by Russell Hart as part of the 2026 festival programme.

This new work presents samples taken from the jukebox in Vivienne Westwood’s SEX shop boutique which opened on the Kings Road in London in 1974. Sounds, grooves and words contained within this collection of 7” records will be sampled, reworked and represented as a live electronic sound performance - duration twenty minutes (approx) This starting point for this work is the idea that scientifically sound fades into nothingness but metaphorically, it never really stops - it just becomes part of everything.

Russell Hart
Russell Hart studied drawing and painting at Edinburgh College of Art before moving to Belfast to complete an MFA in Fine Art. He holds an MA in Visual Arts from IADT in Dublin. His work includes curating a 7” record label, live audio performances and presentations, instrument design and manufacture, artworks, exhibitions, a series of audio pressings on both vinyl and Compact Disc and poster design. His work has been shown both nationally and internationally including The Irish Museum of Modern Art, the pages of WIRE magazine and WFMU (America’s longest running freeform radio station).

Free, no booking required

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Image: Russell Hart, Vivienne (2026), live electronic sound performance. Image courtesy of the artist

Artist Talk: Rachel Garfield | ATU Galway City

TULCA is pleased to present the Artist Talks Series as part of the 2026 programme, Veruca Salt, curated by Sinéad Keogh. Continuing its ongoing partnership with the ATU School of Design and Creative Arts, TULCA will present four talks throughout October and November 2026.

The series invites audiences to engage directly with participating artists and the curator, offering insights into their practices and the ideas shaping this year’s festival. All talks take place at ATU Galway City – Wellpark Road. Admission is free and booking is required.

Rachel Garfield discusses her practice as part of the TULCA 2026 Artist Talks Series. The talk accompanies Rachel Garfield’s presentation at Galway Arts Centre for Veruca Salt.

Rachel Garfield
Garfield is Professor of Fine Art at the Royal College of Art London. She is an award winning artist filmmaker who exhibits regularly at film festivals and galleries. Recently including The Whitechapel Art Gallery London, Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, London Short Film Festival, ICA, London, Cal Arts, LA, USA, Ekso Space, Cyprus. She also publishes extensively on art, identity politics, feminism and film and is commissioning editor of peer review journal MIRAJ, (Moving Image Review and Art Journal). Her publications include Dwoskino: The Gaze of Stephen Dwoskin, LUX, (2022) shortlisted for the Kraszna- Krausz award and Experimental Film making and Punk: Feminist Audio-Visual Culture of the 1970s and 1980s, Bloomsbury (2022) and has curated screenings in New York, Frankfurt, London, Bristol, Dublin, LA and Denver. She is co-editor (with Dr Jenny Chamarette) of the first anthology on Stephen Dwoskin, ‘Stephen Dwoskin Is….A Reappraisal’ (February 2027).

Artist Statement
My work is a personal cinema arising out of the traditions of experimental film, focusing on the lived relationships between people and structures. My experimental mode explores the form and visual textures of video (through different generations of the camera, from lo fi to high-end cameras). Adopting DIY approaches and disjunctive and collage-like aesthetics from punk and post-punk, I aim to transform the impoverished image into a rich, multi-layered enjoyment of the visual. Through the fractured rhythms of editing, juxtapositions of textures (hand-held, fixed shots, blurred and distinct images), and a plasticisation of the image through emphasis on colour and slowed-down film, my work combines found footage and montaging techniques with first person testimony. My use of these elements, my debt to twentieth century montage and the cut-up makes my work visually bold but not slick. I juxtapose this punk approach to production with a feminist-humanist documentary ethos: namely, to discreetly and sensitively bring the viewers’ attention to the difficulties, pressures, schisms and, ultimately, the potential for healing that comes out of negotiating different communities and identities. I am particularly interested in the relationships between insider and outsider perspectives, and how class, race and gender, as well as geography, politics and institutional memory shape and unshape personal identity. My work derives its authority from the chorus of voices it simultaneously assembles and disassembles. As such, my work is a felt archaeology of place and the body, which lays bare the natural awkwardnesses and contradictions of the marginalised, everyday voices of people that I invite to tell their stories with deadpan humour, irreverence and poignancy. In this, these suites of practice, evolving over lengthy time periods, affirm the right to self-inconsistency that is a constitutive part of our lived experience.

Garfield will also discuss her book, Experimental Filmmaking and Feminist Punk Audio Visual Culture in the 1970's and 1980's.

Free, advance booking required

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Women-Led Punk Night

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts presents a Women-Led Punk Night at Róisín Dubh with 50 Foot Woman, Ria Rua and Molly Vulpyne.

A live evening bringing together three women-led punk and alternative acts, presented as part of TULCA 2026: Veruca Salt.

50 Foot Woman
Ria Rua
Molly Vulpyne

Running Order:
50 Foot Woman | 8.15–8.45pm
Ria Rua | 9–9.30pm
Molly Vulpyne | 9.45–10.15pm

Over 18s

50 Foot Woman

Ria Rua

Molly Vulpyne Band

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Image: Molly Vulpyne Band. Photo by Wayne McManamon

Del LaGrace Volcano: Arts in Action Talk | O’Donoghue Centre

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and Arts in Action present an artist talk by Del LaGrace Volcano. The talk accompanies Volcano’s presentation at Galway Arts Centre as part of Veruca Salt, TULCA’s 2026 programme curated by Sinéad Keogh.

Del LaGrace Volcano
Del LaGrace Volcano is an internationally renowned artist, photographer, writer, and cultural producer whose work has been part of creating queer visual culture for over five decades. Born in California in 1957 and now based in Sweden, Volcano lived in London, on and off, from 1982 to 2006, and made the majority of their work in the UK. Their images do more than document LGBTQI+ lives: they have helped shape the visual languages through which queer, lesbian, trans, intersex, and gender-nonconforming communities have seen themselves, recognised one another, and imagined new ways of living.

Working across portraiture, self-portraiture, performance, archives, and publication, Volcano has consistently challenged normative ideas of gender, sexuality, embodiment, and desire. From Love Bites (1991), a landmark intervention into lesbian erotic culture, to The Drag King Book (1999) with Jack Halberstam, Sublime Mutations (2000) with Jay Prosser, Sex Works (2005) with Paul Preciado, Femmes of Power (2008) with Professor Ulrika Dahl, and QUEER DYKE CRUISING (2024), Volcano’s work has expanded the cultural space in which queer lives can appear with complexity, agency, humour, beauty, and defiance.

Volcano’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at Tate Britain, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tampere Art Museum, and Künstlerhaus Bethanien. In 2025, Volcano was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from UWE Bristol. In summer 2026, two solo exhibitions bring this ongoing body of work into renewed focus: Sensual & Mutual at Auto Italia, London, opening 15 July 2026, and Love Bites Back at the Edinburgh Arts Festival, 16–30 August 2026.

At the same time, Volcano remains deeply engaged in making new work. Recent projects include QUEERLY HETEROSEXUAL, which turns toward a previously neglected demographic: heterosexuals willing to interrogate their own sexual identities. Alongside exhibiting work from The Queer Archive of Resistance, Volcano continues to produce new images, give talks, and perform spoken word across Europe, extending a practice that is as alive, curious, and disruptive now as it has ever been.

Free, advanced booking required

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Image: MOMMY QUEEREST Jeannine Della-Grace, San Luis Obispo, California (1979). Archival print. Courtesy of the artist.

Gallery Lates Workshop: On Materials and Humanity

Presented as part of TULCA 2026 and Galway Arts Centre’s Gallery Lates programme, TULCA Education Coordinator Aoife Natsumi Frehan will lead a workshop exploring works by Ciara Rodgers and Saidhbhín Gibson.

Through our Mothertongue +/ English

TULCA Education Coordinator Aoife Natsumi Frehan will guide a discussion around the works of two artists, Ciara Rodgers and Saidhbhín Gibson.

Taking time to consider the materials used, methods of display, and what these communicate to us as viewers, the workshop will explore the conversations these works can open up. Aoife Natsumi will guide the group through this discussion.

Participants will be invited to respond to the works in their preferred language and share their responses with the group. The workshop will explore how language and cultural context can shape the way we understand and interpret a work, and how those interpretations may shift when they are shared or translated.

All levels of interest in the arts are welcome to this workshop. You do not need to speak multiple languages to take part in this workshop.

Free, no booking required
18+

If you have any questions, please contact Aoife Natsumi Frehan, Education Coordinator, at education@tulca.ie

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6-22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Image: Ciara Rodgers, I try to cram her back in my mouth, 2024. Paper, wax, graphite, paper cast bricks, Polaroid, 95 x 80 x 45 cm. Photo: Kate Bowe O’Brien.

AkiDwA / SAFE: Talk with Euphomia Edward – Beyond the Silence: FGM, Voice and Belonging in Ireland

This talk with Euphomia Edward, presented with AkiDwA and SAFE, considers FGM, voice and belonging in Ireland.

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is often discussed in terms of statistics, law and health, but behind these conversations are women, families and communities navigating complex experiences of identity, culture, migration and belonging. This session will create space for an open and thoughtful conversation about FGM in the Irish context, exploring what FGM is, how it affects women and girls, and some of the challenges survivors and communities may face when seeking support. It will also consider the importance of listening to women’s voices, challenging stigma and silence, and working with communities in ways that promote dignity, understanding and change. Drawing on AkiDwA’s work with migrant women and communities in Ireland, the session will invite participants to reflect on how we can build greater awareness and collective responsibility in preventing FGM and supporting those affected.

Established in 2001, Akina Dada wa Africa-AkiDwA (Swahili for sisterhood) is a national network of migrant women living in Ireland. The organisation promotes the equality of migrant women in Irish society, free of gender and racial stereotyping and applies a holistic approach to integration, promoting a migrant and gender-specific approach to public services, as well as encouraging migrant women’s access to mainstream services and initiatives. AkiDwA employs several strategies to achieve its objectives, outreach, networking, research, policy work and capacity building.

Free, no booking required

Tea, coffee and light refreshments served.

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Image: AkiDwA

Ruth Griffin: Feminist Rebellion Through Dress | Galway City Museum

TULCA presents Feminist Rebellion Through Dress, a lecture by fashion historian, writer and broadcaster Ruth Griffin, as part of the 2026 festival programme.

Ruth Griffin explores how women have long used dress as a language of rebellion, from Countess Markievicz swapping silk for breeches and a revolver to lead the Irish Citizen Army, to Vivienne Westwood turning punk provocation into a defining force in mainstream fashion. Her work traces how what we wear has always carried what we weren't permitted to say aloud.

Ruth Griffin
Ruth Griffin is a fashion historian, writer, and broadcaster specialising in Irish fashion history. She holds an MA in the History and Culture of Fashion from the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, and a BA in Fashion Design from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. Over more than fifteen years, her research has focused on fashion's relationship to Dublin and wider Irish cultural history, exploring how dress has shaped, and been shaped by, the city's social and political life.

Free, advance booking required

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Image: Portrait of Ruth Griffin at one of her Fashion History Tours. Photo by Trà My Nguyễn Hoàng.

DVR Galway: Knowledge Is a Weapon Zine Workshop | 126 Artist-run Gallery

A DIY zine-making workshop with Domestic Violence Response Galway and Tina Collective, presented as part of TULCA 2026.

KNOWLEDGE IS A WEAPON is a DIY zine-making workshop that creates space for curiosity, anger, learning and connection. Participants are invited to share experiences, explore issues that matter to them, and create new narratives rooted in knowledge, creativity and collective strength.

Domestic Violence Response Galway / Tina Collective

Domestic Violence Response (DVR) is a Galway City and County based service that provides information services, telephone and counselling support, advocacy support and accompaniment and educational programmes to women impacted by domestic abuse. DVR also provides a range of educational training and awareness programmes to organisations, third level colleges, community groups, secondary schools.

Tina Collective are Emma Allen, Treasa O’Brien and other artists, survivors and punk feminists based in Galway. This project has been co-ordinated for TULCA by Domestic Violence Response with Evelyn Glynn.

Free, no booking required

Limited capacity. 18+

Please be aware that sensitive subjects may be discussed during the workshop.

All materials will be provided. Participants are also welcome to bring materials they would like to work with.

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Image: Domestic Violence Response Galway / Tina Collective, KNOWLEDGE IS A WEAPON

Punk Community Vinyl Hear and Tell | An Post Gallery

TULCA presents Punk Community Vinyl Hear and Tell, a communal listening and storytelling event for members of Galway’s punk and alternative communities.

Punk Community Vinyl Hear and Tell

Members of the punk and alternative communities are invited to bring a punk record to be played during the event and share what the music means to them. The event brings together personal memories and stories through a shared listening session.

Participation: Bring a 7-inch or 12-inch punk record that you would like to play and discuss. You are also welcome to attend as a listener without bringing a record.

Free, no booking required

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Pratibha Parmar: A Place of Rage Screening and Q&A | EYE Cinema

TULCA presents a screening of Pratibha Parmar’s award-winning documentary A Place of Rage (1991), followed by a discussion and Q&A hosted by Gavin Murphy.

A Place of Rage is an exuberant, award-winning documentary film by Pratibha Parmar which made its debut in 1991, yet its content is still one of the richest and most cherished and includes rare interviews with Angela Davis, June Jordan and Alice Walker. A celebration of the contributions and achievements of prominent African American women. Within the context of civil rights, Black Power, lesbian and gay rights and the feminist movement, the trio reassesses how women like Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hamer revolutionized American society and the world generally.

The discussion and Q&A will be hosted by Gavin Murphy, lecturer in Art History and Critical Theory at the Atlantic Technological University and Programme Chair of its MA in Creative Practice.

Pratibha Parmar
Pratibha Parmar is a filmmaker whose ground breaking films centre marginal stories in bold creative ways. She has dedicated her career to illuminate stories erased from dominant cinematic narratives. Her oeuvre spans experimental shorts, activist documentaries and feature-length works. Her cinematic language operates as an act of visual justice, a queer diasporic strategy for generating networks of solidarity, art, and pleasure.

One of her early videos, Sari Red, lives in the permanent collection at MoMA in NYC and the Pompidou Centre in Paris. A globally recognised filmmaker and human rights activist, Pratibha's films Warrior Marks (1993) and Khush (1991) helped gain much needed rights for women and girls and contributed to the visibility of marginalized LGBT communities. Awards include the ICON Award for Outstanding Contribution to Indian and World Cinema, the Frameline Award for a significant and outstanding contribution to lesbian and gay media, and the 2022 Mind the Gap award for helping to close the gender gap in film (other recipients include Viola DavisDavies, Andrea Riseborough & Emerald Fennell).

In 2024/2025, Pratibha’s two films, Sari Red and Reframing AIDS, were included in the ground breaking Women in Revolt exhibition at Tate Britain, currently touring the U.K. In 2025, artist Lubaina Himid invited Pratibha Parmar to present a season of her films at ICA London in conjunction with Connecting Thin Black Lines 1885–2025. This film season celebrated her groundbreaking films which have shaped the politics of feminist, queer, and diasporic visual cultures for over four decades and was accompanied by the publication Our Eyes as Commonly Tender: Visual Justice in the Filmmaking of Pratibha Parmar, a collection of essays jointly published by ICA London and in the U.S. Sming Sming Books. The book features contributions from Rebecca Close, Lynnée Denise, Gayatri Gopinath, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Lubaina Himid, Alina Khakoo, Shamira Meghani, Lola Olufemi, Lucy Reynolds, and Nydia A. Swaby.

In January 2026, The Otolith Collective curated The Video Poetics of Pratibha Parmar at IBRAAZ, London. Pratibha is author, co-author and editor of several books and essays, has been a Visiting Artist at Stanford University and taught film in her capacity as an Associate Professor in the Film Program at California College of the Arts, San Francisco. Pratibha is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.

Advance booking required
Film duration: 52 minutes
Captioning: not available

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6-22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Image: Still from A Place of Rage (1991), courtesy of the artist.

Artist Talk: Breda Lynch | ATU Galway City

TULCA is pleased to present the Artist Talks Series as part of the 2026 programme, Veruca Salt, curated by Sinéad Keogh. Continuing its ongoing partnership with the ATU School of Design and Creative Arts, TULCA will present four talks throughout October and November 2026.

The series invites audiences to engage directly with participating artists and the curator, offering insights into their practices and the ideas shaping this year’s festival. All talks take place at ATU Galway City – Wellpark Road. Admission is free and booking is required.

Breda Lynch discusses her practice as part of the TULCA 2026 Artist Talks Series. The talk accompanies Breda Lynch’s presentation at Galway Arts Centre for Veruca Salt.

Breda Lynch
Breda Lynch - A Irish visual artist working in a variety of media, including drawing, photography, print and digital media, video and installation. She engages with dialogues and discourses on - queer feminisms, Occulture, appropriation and the economy of the image. Lynch has exhibited extensively in Ireland and abroad. International exhibitions include curated group exhibitions in Scotland, England, Iceland, Italy, Poland, Spain, Turkey, Thailand, China, USA and Australia. Solo exhibitions in Ireland include: ‘If Your Not Scared The Atomic Bomb Is Not Interesting’, at The Source Gallery, Thurles Co Tipperary (2024).’Witch and Lezzie’, Ashford Gallery RHA Dublin (2017), ‘Fragments of a Lost Civilisation’- Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar (2016), ’The Pit and Other Stories’, at Siamsa Tire Gallery, Tralee (2014), ’Thursday’s Clinic’,126 Gallery, Galway (2013), ‘Strangelove’, Black Mariah, Triskel, Cork (2010),’Song to the Siren’, Galway Arts Centre (2009), ‘Place of the Crows’ and ‘Fleurs Fatales’, Context Gallery Derry (2007) and ‘Dark Brides and Silent Twins’ Limerick City Gallery of Art (2006). She is represented in a number of national collections including IMMA Dublin, The Arts Council of Ireland, OPW – Office of Public Works Ireland, NUIG Collection – Galway, Luciano Benetton Italy, Trinity College Art Collection Dublin, Limerick City Gallery Collection, University of Limerick Collection, Hunt Museum Limerick and other private collections. In 2024, Lynch presented their work ‘Cake Bomb’, at the 24th Sydney Biennale Australia, titled ‘Ten Thousand Suns’ curated by Cosmin Costinas and Inti Gerrano. This was in partnership with IMMA, Irish Museum of Modern Art and Culture Ireland’s INVITE programme. In April 2026 she presented work in ‘Neither Water Nor Land’ at Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland, curated by Anna Czaban and Krzysztof Gutfrańsk.

Artist Statement
My art practice examines the aesthetics of visual images from the public domain, with a particular interest in the rhetoric of "queer" identities, practices, and types of social regulation and protest. This interest is rooted in the emergence and evolution of popular culture and the historic assertions of socio-political movements across the circuits of social media, then as now. My practice is at once an archive of the oppositional and conservative, the radical and the phobic, and an opportunity to consider how any public claim achieves performative force through the manipulations of the visual. While I use irony, humour, and a sense of the ridiculous as a means of subversion, I am also interested in collapsing past and present. Here, my appropriations of "found" imagery and collage techniques suggest that many of the problems of the past - around identity, gender, sexuality etc. - haunt our allegedly liberal present. My work aims to be a chilling reminder of how many of us can be persuaded by the pernicious, though ultimately hopes to explode such.

Free, advance booking required

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Guggi Screening | TULCA Gallery

As part of the TULCA 2026 programme, TULCA presents a screening of Guggi (2026), directed by Ian Thuillier. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Guggi and film producer Gabriella Janni.

An intimate portrait of Irish artist Guggi from his anarchic days in 1980s Dublin with post-punk, boundary-pushing legends Virgin Prunes to his quiet life as a contemporary painter dedicated to the pursuit of beauty and the creation of paintings and forms that radiate calm. 

Director: Ian Thuillier
Producer: Gabriella Janni
Distributor: Wildcard

Guggi
An artist working with drawing, painting and sculpture, Guggi digs deep into a personal yet universal subject matter: the quotidian beauty of household objects. He committedly revisits his signature motifs of bowls, jugs and vessels, using repetition and abstraction to conjure an almost meditative state. In his paintings and works on paper, their forms appear tentative: broken outlines against resonant washes of abstract colour. And yet when Guggi continues his investigations as sculpture, these humble instruments are bestowed with a renewed majesty and power: polished bronze or fibreglass forms that seem to harness and heighten energy, with the simplicity and timelessness of prehistoric artefacts. Connecting both approaches is a sense of openness and fluidity, an attentiveness to prosaic details. “By salvaging beauty from distress, soulfulness from fragmentation, “writes historian and art critic Kelly Grovier, “Guggi creates objects from another world … Fragile yet enduring, they echo an esoteric tradition of shattered urns, jars, and cups that date back centuries – perennial metaphors for the breaking of forms necessary for the release of creativity.”

Guggi’s work can be found in the collections of Château La Coste, France; Akureyi Art Museum, Iceland; the National Gallery of Ireland; the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Buyuk Efes Izmir Sculpture Park, Izmir, Turkey and Embassy Gardens, London, UK. Guggi has exhibited widely since the 1990’s. In recent years, he has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Château La Coste and Pucci Gallery, NY (2026), Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (2024), Château La Coste, Le-Puy-Sainte-Réparade (2023) the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2022), Galerie 75 Faubourg/Galerie Enrico Navarra (2021), Kerlin Gallery (2019), Galerie Yoshii Tokyo (2019), Arcane Space LA (2019) Château la Coste, Le Puy-Sainte-Reparade‎ (2018), the Yoshii Gallery, Paris (2017) and New York (2016); Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (2013, 2009, 1993, 1990).

Free, advance booking required
Film duration: 1 hour 17 minutes, followed by a Q&A
Captioning not available

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Image: Official poster for Guggi (2026), courtesy of Wildcard.

Collection of Contemplations | An Post Gallery

Collection of Contemplations is a facilitated discussion led by TULCA Education Coordinator Aoife Natsumi Frehan, presented as part of TULCA 2026.

With two days remaining in the festival, participants are invited to share their responses to the themes, artists and works presented across TULCA 2026.

Beginning with Seiko Hayase’s Collection of Emotions at An Post Gallery, the discussion will consider Veruca Salt, curated by Sinéad Keogh, and how participants’ impressions may have developed over the course of the festival.

The work’s giant purple egg offers a starting point for reflection: what did it recall or evoke on first encounter? Did that response change through repeated encounters? How did the work relate to the other works around it? The session offers an informal space in which to share these observations and responses.

The discussion will begin at An Post Gallery, with the option of moving to another nearby festival venue during the one-hour session. If you would like to take part in this wider discussion, please contact Aoife Natsumi in advance at education@tulca.ie so that this can be coordinated.

Free, no booking required

Access and group enquiries: education@tulca.ie

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Image: Seiko Hayase, Egg - Collection Of Emotions (2021), Purple fur fabric, toy filling, safety pins, wood structure, heavy-duty wire, hook, 400 x 250 cm. Photograph by Jed Niezgoda

Pauline Cummins: Looking for Frances Cox – A Performance Lecture | James Mitchell Geology Museum

TULCA presents a performance lecture by Pauline Cummins exploring the relationship between materials, ancestry and the gaps through which personal and public histories are constructed. Drawing on Cummins’ family history, the work traces the life of Frances Cox and her connection to the Irish Neoclassical sculptor John Hogan.

Sometimes, when beginning new work, a group of materials insist on being used. These can seem like very unsuitable and vulnerable materials, that are difficult to work with, but yet may have some special ability to speak to your chosen subject matter. The transparency of tracing paper, the delicacy of tissue paper and the instability of charcoal, insist that they are the ones that will lead the way, that they are the solution needed, to communicate with other people without dictating their reaction. Cummins work is often, but not always, to do with vulnerability. In this case, it is about the lacework like aspect of our grasp of history. Lace can make a readable picture but there are always, inevitably, a lot of gaps. This performance lecture, examining materials and their importance in beginning performance research, is based on Cummins ancestry. It is a study of Frances Cox and her son the Irish Neo-classical sculptor John Hogan. Cummins wants to bring Frances Cox back into the light, because without her, there is no link forward to John Hogan or his peer Daniel O' Connell with whom Hogan collaborated in the fight for Catholic Emancipation, or backwards to Frances Cox's great grandfather Sir Richard Cox, or forward to me and you, temporally, here and now, together.

Special thanks to John Murray.

Pauline Cummins
Pauline Cummins’ performance and video work examines the human condition from a feminist perspective. Research driven themes of the political body, activism, human rights and gender are often explored in the artist’s practice. Cummins likes to collaborate with artists and communities in public sites and situations; including within prisons as a visiting artist and was the founding chairperson of the Women Artists Action Group, (WAAG). Cummins lectured at the National College of Art and Design from 1994 – 2014. Her work is in both National and International collections including The Irish Museum of Modern Art and the National Maternity Hospital. Commissions include the Newgrange Interpretive Centre, New St. Park (Dublin) and the National Maternity Hospital.

Free, advance booking rcommended

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Image: Looking for Frances Cox (2025), graphite and paint, 76 × 30 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.

Japanese Community Tour | An Post Gallery

A gallery discussion in Japanese and English led by TULCA Education Coordinator Aoife Natsumi Frehan with artist Seiko Hayase, presented as part of TULCA 2026.

Beginning with Hayase’s large-scale installation Egg – Collection of Emotions, the discussion will explore how the artist gives physical form to emotions that can be difficult to express in words. From this starting point, participants will be invited to share their responses to other works at An Post Gallery and consider some of the wider ideas running through Veruca Salt.

The event is intended primarily for members of Galway’s Japanese community and will take place in Japanese and English. All are welcome.

Free, advance booking recommended

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Image: Seiko Hayase portrait by Jed Niezgoda.

Tactile Tour | An Post Gallery

TULCA presents a tactile tour of selected works at An Post Gallery as part of the 2026 festival programme.

Designed for people who are blind or vision impaired, this facilitated tour offers a tactile approach to selected works in the exhibition. Participants will be invited to experience the works through touch and learn more about the artists, their practices and the ideas behind the works.

The tour will be led by TULCA Education Coordinator Aoife Natsumi Frehan, with assistance from TULCA 2026 curator Sinéad Keogh.

Seating will be available, with tea, coffee and light refreshments served. Companions and guide dogs are welcome.

Meeting Point: An Post Gallery at 2pm

Free, no booking required

Access and group enquiries: education@tulca.ie

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Image: Tactile tour of The Dance of Life (2023), featuring work by Sinéad Fahey. Image courtesy of Sinéad Keogh.

Anne O’Brien: I Thought Piercings Are for Earrings | An Post Gallery

TULCA presents a live reading by Anne O’Brien as the closing event of the 2026 festival.

O’Brien has been commissioned to write a response text to Veruca Salt on living life by your own rules. The text will be presented at TULCA’s closing event.

Anne O’Brien
Anne O’Brien is a writer based in Dublin and a founding member of The Hardliners, a collective of writers who are blind and visually impaired. A strong sense of feminism runs through her practice, coupled with a sense of mystery and intrigue. She often favours a modified ‘stream of consciousness’ narrative. She writes both semi-autobiographically and fictionally. Recent awards include 'Best Emerging Artist' at the Soul Noir Festival 2022.

Free, no booking required

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland

Image: Punk collage in Irish colours. Concept by Anne O’Brien, courtesy of the artist.