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
James Mitchell Geology Museum
Quadrangle, University of Galway
Galway, H91 FN8X
Access
Not wheelchair accessible
Access via steps/stairs
Accessible toilet
Seating available
Accessible parking (Quadrangle)
Event Time
20 November 2026
7–8pm
Getting There
Bus 402, 404, 405, 410, 411, 412 (stop 523031 University Road)
Paid parking available
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.