Portrait of the Artist 2020

WHO CAN SPEAK?
“CAN THE SUBALTERN SPEAK?”

Gayarri C. Spivak (1995) poses the question, 'Can the subaltern speak?' To which she replies, 'No!' It is impossible for the subaltern to speak or to recover her/his voice, for even if she or he tried with all her/his strength and violence, her/his voice would still not be listened to or understood by those in power. In this sense, the subaltern cannot really speak; she/he is always confined to the position of marginality and silence that postcolonialism prescribes.

Kilomba, Plantation Memories, 2010

Reference: Decolonising The Arts Curriculum : Perspectives on Higher Education 2020, Rahul Pattel.

The decapitated head of the victim of mob rule is recreated life size in a simplistic black jersey stuffed object, painted shiny black and covered with white feathers. Gold eyelets stare, as the head lies discarded in a ritual of personal cleansing, protection and transformation.

The tarred and feathered outlaw serves as a metaphor for severe public criticism, torture and humiliation to enforce unofficial justice or revenge. “We reserve that Method for bringing Villains of greater Consequence to a Sense of Guilt and Infamy.” said Joyce, Jun’r, Chairman of the Committee for Tarring and Featherin, in the Boston newspapers of 1774. “Im a Drug Dealing Scumbag’ read the sign around the man’s neck, tied to a lamp post and dealt this punishment in Belfast in 2007.

By materialising the vengeful act, this work gives the victim agency over the unjust, externalising the abuse, to observe and relinquish, to heal the wounded psyche and renew.

Áine Muire Bríd Ní Dhúinnsléibhe

Work created in response to Decolonising Narratives Reading Group UAL 2020 led by Rahul Patel with regard to post colonial institutionalised discrimination and abuse.

"The native must realise that colonialism never gives anything away for nothing.'
The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon, 1961.

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