Jackie McKenna

Jackie’s commission for The Dock is a redevelopment and deepening of an exhibition she had at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre in 2018 where she created a large-scale sculptural work, a film installation and a series of workshops about Fasayil, a Palestinian village in Jericho in the West Bank. This village is largely Bedouin, and it is now disappearing to the point where it will cease to exist. The exhibition was about marking the erosion of a place, its culture, its people and their memories and identity. It also acknowledged the impact of forced migration on the lives of people in a particular woman. Her work on her commission is scheduled for a future exhibition at The Dock.

The Dock team was looking forward to working with a number of visual artists this year. As a result of the Covid 19 restrictions, there was a break in our gallery programme. This meant that the visual artists we were to work with were now without the opportunity to exhibit. The team here think long and hard about what and who we programme in the galleries, so decided to invite the artists who are part of the 2020 programme to submit an idea and approach to developing their work during this Covid-19 lockdown. The Dock framed this as a small commission, to offer the artists encouragement to keep making work and to continue their connection with us and with you the audience. The commissioned work was mediated via our social media platforms and here on our website.