Curator's Talk: Beulah Ezeugo

TULCA is pleased to present the Artist Talks Series as part of the 2025 programme, Strange lands still bear common ground, curated by Beulah Ezeugo. Continuing its ongoing partnership with the ATU School of Design and Creative Arts, TULCA will host four talks throughout October and November 2025.

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

The opening talk of the series features Beulah Ezeugo, curator of Strange lands still bear common ground. Beulah will discuss the curatorial framework behind this year’s exhibition, exploring how the selected artists respond to questions of belonging, shared histories, and the role of collective imagination in fractured times.

Beulah Ezeugo
Beulah Ezeugo is a curator and writer who works between Ireland and the UK. Her practice engages with postcolonial geographies and memory, and expands outward through critical writing, exhibition-making, and public programming. Beulah programmes the lecture series, Race, Rights, and Sovereignty at Glasgow School of Art, and is a cofounder (with Joselle Ntumba) of Éireann and I – a community archive and memory project. 

Recent residencies and awards include Platform Commissions, 41st EVA International (2025), SIRIUS Critic-in-Residence (2024), and 11:11 x Iniva Residency, Stuart Hall Library, London (2024). She was a Research Associate at CCA Derry~Londonderry (2022-24) and recipient of Glasgow International’s Black Curators Collective Bursary (2021). Her writing has appeared in The Irish Times, as well as in publications by Douglas Hyde Gallery, Durty Books, and Bloomers Magazine.

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Strange lands still bear common ground
Curated by Beulah Ezeugo
7-23 November 2025
Galway, Ireland

Artist Talk: Sean Lynch

TULCA is pleased to announce the return of its Artist Talks Series as part of the 2024 programme, The Salvage Agency, curated by Michele Horrigan. Building on its longstanding collaboration with the ATU School of Design and Creative Arts, TULCA will host four artist talks throughout November 2024. The series will be held at ATU Wellpark Road and the Galway City Museum.

Sean Lynch
Sean Lynch lives and works in Askeaton, County Limerick. He represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 2015. Prominent solo exhibitions include City Hall, Melbourne (2023), Edinburgh Art Festival (2021); Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (2019); Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2017); Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver (2016); Rose Art Museum, Boston (2016), Modern Art Oxford (2014) and Hugh Lane Gallery (2013). He has held fellowships and been a visiting professor at universities and colleges in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada, and is a graduate of the Stadelschule, Frankfurt. In Dublin, he regularly exhibits at the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery and in early 2024 presented a two-person collaborative exhibition at The Complex with Laura Ní Fhlaibhín. Alongside Michele Horrigan, he works at Askeaton Contemporary Arts, an artist-led residency, commissioning and publication initiative situated in the west of Ireland and nomadically since 2006.

Editing: Jonathan Sammon

TULCA Education Coordinator, Aoife Natsumi Frehan, is pleased to invite you to a workshop taking place in the Printworks Gallery for TULCA 2024. Aoife designed this workshop taking inspiration from the installations by artists Niamh Schmidtke and David Beattie. Participants will create a memory map of their own, followed by a guided discussion.

This workshop will explore and examine the similarities and the differences in the way a person associates an object to another through their individual means of organisation.

You will need to bring something you can take some notes with. Ideally a notebook and a pen/pencil or a tablet so you can draw if you feel this is the best way to represent a connection you made between objects.

Capacity: 30
Age: 18+

Join Michele Horrigan for a walk around the Printworks Gallery to hear about the development of the TULCA 2024 programme.

Michele Horrigan

Michele Horrigan is an artist and independent curator. Since 2006 she is founder and curator of Askeaton Contemporary Arts, facilitating artist experimentation and residencies, exhibitions and publication production in rural County Limerick. Over one hundred projects have been realised with a particular interest in contemporary art engaged in site-specific, ecological and social practice. Many artworks made in this context have subsequently been presented throughout the world in exhibitions, art biennials and film festivals.

Since 2014, she is editor and publisher of A.C.A. PUBLIC, a publication venture with over twenty titles exploring the many meanings and relationships between art and the public realm. Michele has curated exhibitions and public programmes at VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow; EVA International - Ireland’s Biennale of Contemporary Art, Limerick; Kunstvlaai Biennial for Experimental Art, Amsterdam; Catalyst Arts, Belfast; Lismore Castle Arts; Irish Architectural Archive, Dublin and The National Women’s Council of Ireland, amongst others. Exhibitions of her artwork have been presented at Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Frankfurter Kunstverein and Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin. In addition, her writing, essays and articles have been commissioned for, among others, Mousse Publishing, Winter Papers, Paper Visual Art Journal, Dundee Contemporary Arts and Bomb Magazine.

Michele studied art at the University of Ulster, Belfast and the Städelschule, Frankfurt. She is a member of IKT, the international association of curators of contemporary art, and an active collaborator with New York’s Independent Curators International. In 2022 she was presented a Civic Award by Limerick City & County Council in recognition of her ongoing curatorial work in Askeaton. In 2024 she will present the activities of Askeaton Contemporary Arts at the Curatorial Forum held at EXPO CHICAGO on the theme of Curating and the Commons. She continues to develop artistic and curatorial projects for PUBLICS, Helsinki, Flat Time House in London, Schloss Britz in Berlin, and The Model, Sligo.

The talks are free and open to everyone, but advance booking is necessary.

TULCA 2024 | Pálás Cinema

Join us for a programme of short films at Pálás Cinema, presented as part of the TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and curated by Michele Horrigan. This specially curated selection showcases the works of renowned artists, Joan Jonas, Patrick Hough, John Carson, Coilin O’Connell and Michelle Doyle.

Explore a diverse selection of visual narratives that reflect the intersection of contemporary art and film. This programme offers an engaging opportunity for both experienced cinephiles and newcomers to short films to discover various forms of artistic expression.

Film Programme

Joan Jonas | Volcano Saga (1989) | 28:30 min
Patrick Hough | Whale Fall (2023) | 16:17 min
John Carson | American Medley (1985) | 11:00 min
Coilin O’Connell & Michelle Doyle | Super Gairdín (2022) | 24:29 min

Joan Jonas is a pioneering American performance artist and video artist, born on July 13, 1936, in New York City. In 1985, Jonas began developing Volcano Saga after a trip to Iceland with video artist Steina Vasulka. This performance interprets the Laxdaela Saga, a thirteenth-century Icelandic folktale centred on a woman and her four dreams. In 1989, Jonas adapted the story into a video featuring actors Tilda Swinton and Ron Vawter, who appear superimposed over the Icelandic landscape, which functions as a character in its own right. Later transformed into an installation, Volcano Saga represents a pivotal moment for Jonas, marking the integration of female character development, narrative reflection, and the volcanic landscapes as symbolic elements.

Patrick Hough was born 1989, Offaly, Ireland. Hough currently lives and works in London. Whale Fall is a film set in the middle of an Irish peat bog where the inexplicable remains of a humpback whale are discovered by two rural women. Drawn into the mystery of how and why it has appeared, they soon realise the whale is exerting its own magnetic force; summoning the ghosts of lifeforms and ecosystems obliterated in the name of 'progress'. As the women explore its origins, they confront old divisions and differing views on the worlds gone before, and the worlds yet to come. Part ecological horror, part existentialist drama, Whale Fall is a striking meditation on the consequences of the so-called Anthropocene - our current era of human-induced planetary change. 

John Carson is a Belfast born artist who has worked in various media to provocatively explore the interface between high and low culture. He has exhibited and performed internationally and has made works for television and radio. He taught at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London UK from 1991 to 2006 and in the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh USA from 2006 to 2022.

Super Gairdín is a new video work by artists Cóilín O’Connell and Michelle Doyle about divine spirits, landscape, language and nature. Taking cues from the folk horror tradition, the film is set in a desolate garden centre, a space where landscape is held indefinitely. A figure wanders the aisles of saplings, chancing upon a long forgotten rock deity; the Cailleach. The Cailleach is capable of great forces, summoning nature at will and throwing rocks from her apron. She contemplates the various narratives that surround her existence in lore and the difficulty of translating her powers into Béarla. She views mankind with hatred and will soon enact her revenge.

Editing: Jonathan Sammon

Gallery Talk: Peter Fend in conversation with Sean Lynch

Peter Fend and Ocean Earth have over five decades of proposed speculative and visionary ecological projects that rethink the relationships between art, power and the planet. A global figure in contemporary art, Fend sees its potential for radical change with the use of biomass, seaweed, wind and wave power, and his ideas have often led him into friction with the representatives of government agencies, Big Oil and energy suppression. In conversation with artist Sean Lynch, he outlines what role Ireland has to play in these dialogues.

The talks are free and open to everyone, but advance booking is necessary.

Tour guide Brendan Hynes presents a walking tour of Galway’s industrial heritage, with a focus on its canals and maritime history. Join us for a walking tour exploring Galway's Industrial Heritage. The tour begins at the Galway Tourist Information Centre within the Galway City Museum and winds through the city's streets and canals.

The tour is free and open to everyone, but advance booking is necessary.

Artist Talk: Michael Holly

TULCA is pleased to announce the return of its Artist Talks Series as part of the 2024 programme, The Salvage Agency, curated by Michele Horrigan. Building on its longstanding collaboration with the ATU School of Design and Creative Arts, TULCA will host four artist talks throughout November 2024. The series will be held at ATU Wellpark Road and the Galway City Museum.

Michael Holly
Bridging the divide between documentary film and the artworld, Michael Holly’s moving image productions appear regularly on Only in Askeaton, an online platform initially developed by Askeaton Contemporary Arts during COVID-19 lockdowns. Exploratory in nature and intensively curious about how art is discussed, made and disseminated in Irish society, his subjects and topics have ranged from curator Lucy Lippard’s 1985 exhibition of Irish art, ‘Divisions, Crossroads, Turns of Mind’, to a profile of writer and artist Adrian Duncan’s decade-long investigation of Bungalow Bliss – a collection of affordable house designs that resulted in thousands of new dwellings appearing in Irish towns and countryside since the 1970s.

Holly’s presence at TULCA weaves in and out of fellow artists in the exhibition, offering insights into their creative paths and intrinsic relationships to landscape and nature. Holly follows Seanie Barron collecting timber in the Limerick countryside, to be transformed into walking sticks. In one scene, Barron turns to the camera with a piece of knotted wood and proclaims its likeliness to a faraway galaxy. Lily of the Valley, realised in collaboration with Mieke Vanmechelen, digs deep into the memories, documents and artworks that today remain of Lily Van Oost’s legacy, including the archival unearthing of her Brian Boru’s Coat, a gift she made to the National Museum of Ireland after receiving Irish citizenship in 1986.

Editing: Jonathan Sammon

TULCA Education Coordinator, Aoife Natsumi Frehan, is pleased to invite you to a workshop taking place across two museums at the University of Galway. The workshop has been designed by Aoife, drawing inspiration from her discussions with Stuart Whipps and his artistic practice. Participants will engage in creating a personal memory map in the Zoology and Marine Biology Museum, followed by a guided discussion in the Geology Museum, where Stuart’s works are exhibited.

The workshop aims to explore and analyse the similarities and differences in how individuals associate objects, focusing on their unique methods of organisation.

Participants are advised to bring a means for taking notes—ideally a notebook and pen/pencil, or a tablet - to facilitate drawing or note-taking as they identify connections between objects.

Capacity: 15
Age: 18+

The TULCA Education team is excited to offer a child friendly tour outside of academic and group bookings. We use the model of Visual Thinking Strategies to facilitate an inclusive, audience-centred discussion. These would take a conversational format that invites participants to share their interpretation of the work, focusing on hosting a space of discussion. Together, we will celebrate the breadth of conversation that can flourish through the shared experience of looking together. There will be worksheets that can be taken home afterwards, catered to different levels of interest in the arts which include a reflective exercise and a practical element. 

This workshop is suitable for any learners in between 5th class all the way up to Leaving Certificate or equivalent. However, the group will be split if the age difference in the participants is too great.

TULCA Assembly brings together critical voices from Ireland, Europe and the United States, sharing artistic research and asking crucial questions about the role of artmaking, activism and environmental discourse today. Scheduled on Saturday afternoon, 9th November at Market Street’s PorterShed, TULCA Assembly is part of a wider public programme presented as part of TULCA 2024: The Salvage Agency.

At TULCA Assembly, Risteard Ó Domhnaill, one of Ireland’s most renowned documentary filmmakers, speaks about his current research and long term approach to communities and places in conflict with governmental and corporate policies. Irish curator, artist, writer and educator Paul O’Neill is a global voice on the possibilities and energies that exhibition-making and contemporary art practice can achieve - he shares his recent findings. Kate O’Shea’s activist work and publishing activities have constantly found new perspectives for an egalitarian Ireland. Becky Nahom, in her role as Director of Exhibitions at New York’s Independent Curators International, has developed numerous experimental exhibitions that challenge art historical narratives across the globe. Stephanie Smith’s curatorial work in Chicago and elsewhere is acknowledged for commitments to groundbreaking ecological thinking through art. Artist JD Whitman’s involvement in digital preservation of Ireland’s nineteenth century Blaschka glass models of marine invertebrates has a special resonance, considering the important collection on exhibit at the University of Galway’s Zoology and Marine Biology Museum. Micol Curatolo highlights her work around borders, cultural work, belonging and identity in Finland, and launches her new edited publication Here, Not. Dialogues on art and the making of here.

TULCA Assembly was produced in association with Askeaton Contemporary Arts. Supported by the Arts Council, Galway City Council and Askeaton Contemporary Arts.

Kate O’Shea

Micol Curatolo

Becky Nahom

Stephanie Smith

Risteard O’Domhnaill

JD Whitman

Paul O’Neill

TULCA Assembly Schedule

12.00 - Welcome teas and coffees
12.30 - Introduction by Michele Horrigan to TULCA Assembly
12.40 - Kate O’Shea
13.00 - Micol Curatolo
13.20 - Becky Nahom
13.40 - 30 min lunch break
14.20 - Stephanie Smith
14.40 - Risteard O’Domhnall
15.00 - Coffee break
15.10 - J.D. Whitman
15.30 - Paul O’Neill
15:50 - Closing remarks and panel discussion with time for Q+A
16:30 - Wrap up and Post-Assembly informal/casual conversations

Video documentation: Jonathan Sammon

Disappearing Acts is a story-telling circle led by poet Julie Morrissy, drawing on collective cultures of myth, storytelling, and faith healing in Ireland. Participants will be invited to share their own stories and experiences and/or intergenerational stories passed down to them. Following from the engagement with law in her practice, Morrissy will link these ideas to Article 45 of Bunreacht na hÉireann/The Irish Constitution, the only article that is non-enforceable and therefore has no legal teeth. Article 45 sets out the principles of social policy, carrying remnants of pre-independence values around care, agency, collective responsibility and protection, which perhaps vanished into the legal frameworks of the Irish State. Morrissy will lead the circle, bringing together participants’ stories and inputs to explore how the legal text of Article 45 engages with the legacies of myth and healing, while considering how those ideas manifest (or not) in Ireland’s contemporary laws and culture.

The storytelling circle will accommodate 12 participants. Places must be booked in advance.

The artist will record the audio from the discussions solely for internal archival purposes.

Join us for a tour of the Hall of the Red Earl with local historian William Henry. William Henry is a storyteller, historian, and writer with over 25 books to his name. He brings a wealth of knowledge about the history and archaeology of Galway city.

The Hall of the Red Earl is a captivating medieval archaeological site located in the heart of Galway. Managed by Dúchas na Gaillimhe - Galway Civic Trust, this site dates back to the 13th century and is tied to the founding of Galway by the Anglo-Norman De Burgo family. It served as the city’s first municipal building, functioning as a tax office, courthouse, and banquet hall all in one. The hall is named after Richard de Burgo, the Earl of Ulster, who was the grandson of the town's founder.

In the late 15th century, the influential ‘Tribe’ families took control from the De Burgos, leading to the hall’s abandonment and subsequent decline. Over the centuries, it was covered and built over until its remains were rediscovered by Office of Public Works (OPW) archaeologists in 1997 during plans for an office extension next door. The site was recognizable from a renowned c. 1651 Pictorial Map of Galway.

A significant excavation revealed over 11,000 artefacts. The discovery of the Red Earl’s Hall prompted a redesign of the proposed extension to preserve the archaeological site. Today, the hall is enclosed in glass panelling, featuring a viewing gangway with flood-lighting. Interpretive panels explain the site’s significance, and replicas of the artefacts are prominently displayed for visitors.

Galway Civic Trust is a not-for-profit charity. Please consider making a donation here

Artist Talk: Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty

TULCA is pleased to announce the return of its Artist Talks Series as part of the 2024 programme, The Salvage Agency, curated by Michele Horrigan. Building on its longstanding collaboration with the ATU School of Design and Creative Arts, TULCA will host four artist talks throughout November 2024. The series will be held at ATU Wellpark Road and the Galway City Museum.

Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty
Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty are collaborative artists living and working in the North-West of Ireland. They use performance, video, sound installation and storytelling, along with a detailed research process, to convey visions of transience and resistance. Their recent work tests the possibility of creating a new narrative identity for Ireland that will acknowledge our struggles, admit our complicities and build our capacity for solidarity.

A Collection of Disarticulated Bones is a new body of video work, photographs and objects made and combined for TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, curated by Michele Horrigan. This long-term project traverses centres of knowledge in the US, UK and Europe in order to unpick different foundation myths of the Global North: institutional, pop cultural and embodied. A Collection of Disarticulated Bones examines how decisions relating to preservation and presentation of histories can shape national and individual identities, in the context of imperialism, late capitalism, rising ethnonationalism and polarised public debate on both sides of the Atlantic.

This research is supported by Askeaton Contemporary Arts, the Centre for Creative Technologies at University of Galway, Galway Culture Company, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Creative Heartlands, Galway City Museum and the Arts Council of Ireland. In 2024, A Collection of Disarticulated Bones toured to Solas Nua, Washington D.C. and The New Music + Technology Festival at the Moss Arts Centre (Virginia Technical University).

Editing: Jonathan Sammon

Gallery Talk: Seanie Barron

Join us for an informal talk in the Printworks Gallery with exhibiting artist Seanie Barron and TULCA 2024 curator Michele Horrigan.

For decades, Seanie Barron has carved and shaped wood in a workshop at the rear of his house on Plunkett Road in Askeaton town. His creations, made with simple hand tools and an intuitive approach, are borne out of his understanding of nature and often-humorous interpretations of the environment around him. He roams around Askeaton, looking for the right branch in a field or underneath a bush to then shape into a walking stick. These often take on surreal forms referencing seahorses, weasels, dancers, extraterrestrials, dolphins, foxes or swimmers. Many double as whistles, or incorporate found objects such as coins, bullets or animal bones. Driftwood often found by the Shannon Estuary morphs into film characters, shipwrecks or talismanic sculptures that accompany him inside his studio.

Barron’s art has had a private trajectory, fermenting secretly for many years before being revealed in a flourish. After featuring in his first exhibition a decade ago in the tourist office in Askeaton, his work has been seen in galleries and museums in London, Dublin and Helsinki. Irish daytime radio has proclaimed his art as ‘the next big thing for Irish hipsters once they finish growing their beards.’ Fashion photographers today arrive on his doorstep, making portfolios of images, printed far away in Paris and Barcelona. He often tours around Ireland, enthralling audiences with stories related to his art and life. At a packed village hall on Inishbofin island, he once explained his philosophy on keeping active, claiming that ‘there are two things that can kill you in this life: the electric chair and the armchair!’ Famously, his An Poc Ar Buile performances in annual harvest parades and Saint Patrick’s Day events in the 1970s and 1980s are still remembered, featured here in a press image from the time.

Barron literally takes it all in his stride, choosing a new walking stick from his collection each day to go on his evening walk. He shares his vast knowledge of the west Limerick terrain with visiting artists, acquired after a lifetime of roaming around Askeaton, into and through hedges and bushes. Half close your eyes, take a journey with him, walk through arboreal countryside, feel the grain of the timber in your hand, and hold the handle of the stick to the ground that reconnects it back again to its earthiness... it’s the spark that created the universe!

Join Michele Horrigan for a walk around the Printworks Gallery to hear about the development of the TULCA 2024 programme.

Michele Horrigan

Michele Horrigan is an artist and independent curator. Since 2006 she is founder and curator of Askeaton Contemporary Arts, facilitating artist experimentation and residencies, exhibitions and publication production in rural County Limerick. Over one hundred projects have been realised with a particular interest in contemporary art engaged in site-specific, ecological and social practice. Many artworks made in this context have subsequently been presented throughout the world in exhibitions, art biennials and film festivals.

Since 2014, she is editor and publisher of A.C.A. PUBLIC, a publication venture with over twenty titles exploring the many meanings and relationships between art and the public realm. Michele has curated exhibitions and public programmes at VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow; EVA International - Ireland’s Biennale of Contemporary Art, Limerick; Kunstvlaai Biennial for Experimental Art, Amsterdam; Catalyst Arts, Belfast; Lismore Castle Arts; Irish Architectural Archive, Dublin and The National Women’s Council of Ireland, amongst others. Exhibitions of her artwork have been presented at Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Frankfurter Kunstverein and Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin. In addition, her writing, essays and articles have been commissioned for, among others, Mousse Publishing, Winter Papers, Paper Visual Art Journal, Dundee Contemporary Arts and Bomb Magazine.

Michele studied art at the University of Ulster, Belfast and the Städelschule, Frankfurt. She is a member of IKT, the international association of curators of contemporary art, and an active collaborator with New York’s Independent Curators International. In 2022 she was presented a Civic Award by Limerick City & County Council in recognition of her ongoing curatorial work in Askeaton. In 2024 she will present the activities of Askeaton Contemporary Arts at the Curatorial Forum held at EXPO CHICAGO on the theme of Curating and the Commons. She continues to develop artistic and curatorial projects for PUBLICS, Helsinki, Flat Time House in London, Schloss Britz in Berlin, and The Model, Sligo.

The talks are free and open to everyone, but advance booking is necessary.

Video documentation: Jonathan Sammon
Photographic documentation: Ros Kavanagh

Stuart Whipps

Birmingham-based artist Stuart Whipps’ new performance and installation, The Leviathan of Parsonstown, shares its title with the name given to the historic telescope that sits in the ornate grounds of Birr Castle in Offaly. Built in 1845, it remained the largest telescope in the world for seventy-two years, drawing visitors to see the previously unknown spirals of faraway galaxies. Its creation was driven by intense curiosity and the tremendous personal wealth of the wife of its patron, William Parsons. Whipps points out the materials that made one of Ireland’s greatest scientific wonders possible: ‘Parsons saw the potential in using speculum metal, an alloy made from copper and tin, as the material for the reflective mirror – in order to learn about the stars above our heads, we must first extract metals from the rocks and mud that sit beneath our feet.’

Continued research for Whipps has led to the James Mitchell Geology Museum, founded in 1852 at the University of Galway with thousands of rock, mineral, and fossil specimens, along with the remains of a larger natural history museum once on campus. Still appearing as a nineteenth- century room with few modern updates, it is referred to by many as a ‘museum of a museum’. Given full access to the collection throughout 2024, Whipps has worked closely with the site, artefacts and the generosity, endless knowledge and enthusiasm of curator John Murray, teasing out a new performance artwork and a subtle rearrangement of objects and labelling in the museum.

Video documentation: Jonathan Sammon
Image: Installation view of The Leviathan of Parsonstown exhibition, James Mitchell Geology Museum, University of Galway, 2024. Photo: Stuart Whipps

Léann Herlihy

Beyond Survival School Bus (2024) is a free 90-minute bus tour with a pedagogical discourse that spans from eighteenth-century hedge schools to twenty-first-century school tours.

Departing from the urban sphere and commencing its voyage deep into the mountains, the school’s curriculum explores the polemic effects of ‘self-perseverance’ through the social practice of survivalism; moving through examples such as an assimilated ‘outdoor’ swimming pool situated in a 15-story underground survival bunker designed for those who hoard economic wealth, to skimming the surface of open resources available from online prepping communities. Delving into the lack of depth within these social movements, Ranger Herlihy forewarns of the damaging effect of implicated de-prioritisation of collective scale action—that is, the point at which preparing for the potential risks brought about by environmental, economic and/or societal damage supersedes the more important task of advocating for structural and revolutionary change. Utilising the scripted nature of reality survival shows, Ranger Herlihy provides a participatory script to each scout and invites them to take up a single role spanning from Doomsday Prepper alumni, ‘Warrior’ Martin to ‘eco crusader,’ Al Gore.

Continuing in their journey beyond survival, the collective narrative moves towards building a future where both humans and nonhumans, deemed unproductive by utilitarian standards, are valued for their own nature. Yet, creating space to stray away from the ‘natural,’ as these un-natural positions, offer alternative views for imagining new, just, and sustainable ways of living beyond survival.

Beyond Survival School Bus was originally commissioned by Dublin Fringe Festival’s Make Space for Art Award in 2022 and adapted for TULCA Festival of Visual Arts. Beyond Survival School Bus (2024) was supported by the Arts Council and Galway County Council Community Support Scheme 2024.

Available to order:
Beyond Survival School Bus: AUDIO TOUR (2024)
Audio Cassette
52’ 51’’, 10.2 x 6.35 x 1.27 cm
€15.00

Documentation: Jonathan Sammon
Image: Léann Herlihy, Beyond Survival School Bus (2022). Photo: Niamh Barry