Photograph by Kate-Bowe O’ Brien.
With Everything We’ve Got! [self-description as self-determination] (2023)
Vinyl, lightbox
Dimensions variable
With Everything We've Got! [self-description as self-determination] (2023) moves against common understandings of sporting bodies and situates itself as a warm-up for an expansive project that realises an active state of losing/falling as an embodied response to systemic injustice. Situating their practice in an active state of falling, Herlihy wilfully seeks out that synchronised plummet both downwards and inwards, through the gaps in the System which has historically denied their presence. In persevering towards the unknown, Herlihy ultimately accepts the ways in which they become lost in order to be found and not found. Chasing System failures, they flirt with the reality of gaining nothing and through that methodology, open up the possibility of finding more than simply what was given. Flattening out the systemic gaps, a horizon emerges; an open plane of subjectivity to index their own perceptions acquired from personal experience into the domain of authorship. After each submergence, they come back up for air. And with this resurfacing, comes the more important task of utilising their findings to advocate for structural and revolutionary change.
Taking stylistic reference from alt- text, Herlihy pairs this image with a large image description vinyl at the front window of the gallery building. Actively embedding alt-text as an essential part of accessibility in their own artistic practice, Herlihy has experienced the sweet dopamine hit from merely stating how they intend to be read. That is, how they wish the viewer to socially perceive me, and, as a trans* person, they cannot emphasise the indispensable tool of self-determination; the giving of oneself in language to another as a way to emerge into a different subjectivity.
With Everything We’ve Got! [self-description as self-determination] (2023) is part of Herlihy’s larger transdisciplinary project With Everything We’ve Got! (2022 - ?) and was commissioned by Temple Bar Gallery + Studios as part of the group exhibition Reflex Blue (2023). This iteration was kindly supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.
Vinyl, lightbox
Dimensions variable
With Everything We've Got! [self-description as self-determination] (2023) moves against common understandings of sporting bodies and situates itself as a warm-up for an expansive project that realises an active state of losing/falling as an embodied response to systemic injustice. Situating their practice in an active state of falling, Herlihy wilfully seeks out that synchronised plummet both downwards and inwards, through the gaps in the System which has historically denied their presence. In persevering towards the unknown, Herlihy ultimately accepts the ways in which they become lost in order to be found and not found. Chasing System failures, they flirt with the reality of gaining nothing and through that methodology, open up the possibility of finding more than simply what was given. Flattening out the systemic gaps, a horizon emerges; an open plane of subjectivity to index their own perceptions acquired from personal experience into the domain of authorship. After each submergence, they come back up for air. And with this resurfacing, comes the more important task of utilising their findings to advocate for structural and revolutionary change.
Taking stylistic reference from alt- text, Herlihy pairs this image with a large image description vinyl at the front window of the gallery building. Actively embedding alt-text as an essential part of accessibility in their own artistic practice, Herlihy has experienced the sweet dopamine hit from merely stating how they intend to be read. That is, how they wish the viewer to socially perceive me, and, as a trans* person, they cannot emphasise the indispensable tool of self-determination; the giving of oneself in language to another as a way to emerge into a different subjectivity.
With Everything We’ve Got! [self-description as self-determination] (2023) is part of Herlihy’s larger transdisciplinary project With Everything We’ve Got! (2022 - ?) and was commissioned by Temple Bar Gallery + Studios as part of the group exhibition Reflex Blue (2023). This iteration was kindly supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.
Photograph by Kate-Bowe O’ Brien.