Biography – Solo Shows
BIO: CECILY BRENNAN
- 1955 Born Co. Galway, Ireland.
- 1974 – 78 National College of Art and Design, Dublin.
- 1983 – 86 Director, Project Arts Centre, Dublin.
- 1991 Elected member of Aosdána.
- 2015 Appointed as V.A.I nominee to Arts & Cultural Advisory Cttee, Dublin City Council.
- Lives and works in Dublin and Berlin.
- 2021 Forthcoming solo show: Taylor Galleries Dublin.
2020: ‘THE DEVIL’S POOL’ SCREENING AS PART OF ‘IFI@HOME’ & REEL ART AWARD
The Irish Film Institute will launch a new digital platform IFI@Home in June 2020. This is a new transactional platform which will allow the IFI to host feature film work under the respected banner of IFI.Our plan is to present material online in advance of IFI’s re-opening later in the summer – but also to provide a platform that will operate post-pandemic to supplement and complement the IFI offer – providing an extended window on work that would be otherwise unavailable to cultural cinema enthusiasts.
IFI @ Home will be hosted by the company Shift 72.
2019: BURNING THE BUSH : CENTRE CULTUREL IRLANDAIS PARIS
Burning the Bush was a three-day residency for invited contributors from the arts and academia interested in ideas of activism within the arts. I was invited to make a presentation about the Artists’ Campaign to Repeal the Eighth Amendment, our strategy and aims. Organised by Nora Hickey M’Sichili, Director of the CCI Paris and Aria Ungerer.
2018: WITNESS
WITNESS is 4 compilations of readings of women’s stories describing their experiences as a result of the 8th Amendment to the Irish Constitution. The compilations were screened throughout the country.
2017: DAY OF TESTIMONIES : PROJECT ARTS CENTRE DUBLIN
In a further development from ‘VOICES’ a commission for Ballymun Regeneration Project (2009) I curated a major art event at the Project Arts Centre on the 26th August 2017 dedicated to recording and filming women’s abortion stories. Many of Ireland’s leading actors, film-makers director such as Lynne Parker and Louise Lowe worked on the event. Producers Jen Coppinger and Caroline Williams and all the other participants gave their time on a pro-bono basis. It was truly cross disciplinary event featuring writers such as Marian Keyes and Kevin Barry, musicians Sean Mc Erlaine, Lisa O’ Neill and Sinead Dineen. Poet Paula Meehan and actors Tara Flynn, Danielle Galligan, Lauren Larkin, Karen McCartney, Eleanor Methven, Janet Moran, Neil Murray, Arthur Riordan and Cathy Belton. The event was film by Kate Mc Cullough and Gozia Zur.
In addition I curated a visual arts exhibition and a film programme at the Project Arts Centre of film-maker’s work spanning 34 years on the issue of the fight for reproductive rights in Ireland
2014: SNAG
SNAG a 52 second video work. The dancer in this work is the American dancer Cindy Cummings who is based in Ireland.
2014: MELANCHOLIA INTERDISCIPLINARY SEMINAR
‘Melancholia’ was a two day international, multi-disciplinary seminar presented by the UCD Humanities Institute on the topic of melancholia from clinical, theoretical, film studies, visual arts practice and curatorial perspectives.
The seminar featured a screening of the video work ‘Melancholia’ by Cecily Brennan.
With Caroline Bainbridge, Bice Benvenuto, Cecily Brennan, Judy Gammelgaard, Isabel Nolan,Tina Kinsella, Lisa Moran, Anne Murphy, Emma Radley, Medb Ruane, Noreen Giffney, Marie Walshe and others.
Held at the National Museum of Decorative Arts and History. Collins Barracks, Dublin.
2014: ‘THE DEVIL’S POOL’
‘The Devil’s Pool. Madness, melancholia and the artist’,a short documentary, premiered in 2014 examines the long held public belief of a connection between creativity and madness.
It combines a dramatised section with interviews with artists, researchers and academics. Over the course of the documentary Brennan compares the intellectual and measured observations of the experts, their words controlled and thought through, with a description of the descent into chaos and madness of a young artist, played by Irish actor Marty Rea, ending in overwhelming depression and stasis. The interviewees include Dr Simon Kyaga from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Professor Patricia Waugh of Durham University, the playwright Frank McGuiness and the poet Paul Muldoon.
Running time: 30 minutes
Premiered at the IFI in JDIFF 2014.
Running time: 15 minutes
Funded by the Arts Council of Ireland.
2013: ‘NAZNACZENIE/MARKED’
Gdańska Galeria Miejska / Gdansk City Gallery, Poland.
Curated by Iwona Bigos.
Three video works. Each one to be shown for two weeks.
‘Unstrung’ (09.03 – 24.03.) ‘Black Tears’ (26.03 – 07.04) and ‘Melancholia’ (09.04 – 19.04).
2011: UNSTRUNG – OUTDOOR PROJECTION
Dublin City Hall
2011: HERO’S ENGINE FILM SCREENING
St. Carthage Chapel Project space, Lismore Castle, Co. Waterford.
Robert Boyle Science Festival 2011
2011: BLACK TEARS
Video Screening
Crawford Gallery, Cork
2011: LOVE VIDEO
Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Wales
2011: AT THE EDGE OF THE SKIN
Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray.
2010: BLACK TEARS
Taylor Galleries Dublin 15th April to 8th May 2010.
Black Tears included large charcoal drawings on paper 1.5 x 5.5 metres.
Small watercolours and a new video work of the Irish actress Britta Smith, as she weeps the black tears of the show’s title.
The video work was shot by Seamus Deasy.
2009: VOICES
Commissioned by Breaking Ground, the Ballymun Regeneration Ltd per cent for art program.
A commissioned project focusing on people living in Ballymun, a small village on the outskirts of Dublin city.
The show consisted of interviews with five residents.
A photograph of the person interviewed or an image suggested by what they said in their interview was specially made for the project.
2008: VIDEO SCREENING
Ard Bia, Berlin.
2007: UNSTRUNG
Taylor Galleries, Dublin.
2007: CADERE
West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Co. Cork.
2005: HERO’S ENGINE
Taylor Galleries, Dublin May 2005.
Hero’s Engine consisted of the video work ‘Hero’s Engine’, large-scale watercolours and a suite of black and white drawings.
2005: BALANCING
Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast. June 2005
A major show of work made between 2001 and 2005.
The show consisted of new video work and sound work, egg tempera paintings and cast stainless steel sculptures.
2003: HEAT
Nuova Icona, Venice.
2003: HEAT (WITH ADDITIONAL WORK)
Taylor Galleries, Dublin.
Heat consisted of video work, egg tempera paintings and a sound work.
2001: BANDAGED HEART
Taylor Galleries, Dublin.
The show Bandaged Heart included cast stainless steel sculptures and 12 paintings in egg tempera on gesso 25 cms x 30 cms.
1996: TO CONTAIN
Taylor Galleries , Dublin.
1992: CECILY BRENNAN
Limerick City Gallery.
1992: CECILY BRENNAN
Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork.
1992: CECILY BRENNAN
Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin.
1988: THE ICELAND WORK
Taylor Galleries, Dublin.
1994: PAINTINGS FROM A RHODODENDRON GARDEN
Taylor Galleries, Dublin.
1982: PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS
Project Arts Centre, Dublin.