to be nowhere
billboard
to be nowhere (2023-ongoing)
Vinyl image
Dimensions variable
Photograph by Jed Niezgoda
Image courtesy of EVA International and the artist
to be nowhere (2023-ongoing) is a large-scale window vinyl that
draws from an undocumented live performance of Herlihy being tattooed across their torso.
This is accompanied with an
image description written by the artist, describing the fleshy pecs of their chest, which is situated on an adjacent
window.
The original performance, of the same title, stemmed from a t-shirt which Herlihy wore whilst culminating the majority of research for their larger transdisciplinary project the middle of nowhere (2022). Responding to this banal action, Herlihy got the words ‘the middle of nowhere’ tattooed onto their torso whilst Matt Kennedy recited a written response that made reference to American transcendental writer Henry David Thoreau, through ideas of Queerness, theories of the Wild, histories of abolition, and transitional space.
The documentation of to be nowhere has been exhibited as a large vinyl window at 40th EVA International (2023) accompanied by a large vinyl image description; released in a printed postcard edition with SMUT Press (2023); erected as a billboard in a rural area at the peripheries of London during Camp Trans (2024) with future iterations to be announced.
to be nowhere (2022) is part of Herlihy’s larger transdisciplinary project the middle of nowhere (2022) at Project Arts Centre, Dublin.
the middle of nowhere was commissioned by Project Arts Centre and kindly supported by the Arts Council of Ireland’s Visual Arts Bursary and Carlow Arts Festival’s Wedge Fund. to be nowhere (2023) was commissioned by EVA International.
The original performance, of the same title, stemmed from a t-shirt which Herlihy wore whilst culminating the majority of research for their larger transdisciplinary project the middle of nowhere (2022). Responding to this banal action, Herlihy got the words ‘the middle of nowhere’ tattooed onto their torso whilst Matt Kennedy recited a written response that made reference to American transcendental writer Henry David Thoreau, through ideas of Queerness, theories of the Wild, histories of abolition, and transitional space.
The documentation of to be nowhere has been exhibited as a large vinyl window at 40th EVA International (2023) accompanied by a large vinyl image description; released in a printed postcard edition with SMUT Press (2023); erected as a billboard in a rural area at the peripheries of London during Camp Trans (2024) with future iterations to be announced.
to be nowhere (2022) is part of Herlihy’s larger transdisciplinary project the middle of nowhere (2022) at Project Arts Centre, Dublin.
the middle of nowhere was commissioned by Project Arts Centre and kindly supported by the Arts Council of Ireland’s Visual Arts Bursary and Carlow Arts Festival’s Wedge Fund. to be nowhere (2023) was commissioned by EVA International.