Archived Exhibition

Na Cailleacha with reference to Paula Rego

Helen Comerford, Barbara Freeman, Patricia Hurl, Catherine Marshall, Carole Nelson, Rachel Parry, Therry Rudin, Gerda Teljeur

29 April — 1 July 2023

About the Artist(s)

The members of Na Cailleacha are;

Helen Comerford, a painter and educator, based in Co. Kilkenny. Barbara Freeman, a new media artist, based in Belfast. Patricia Hurl, a painter and performance artist, based in County Tipperary. Catherine Marshall, a curator and art-writer, based in Dublin and County Kilkenny. Carole Nelson, a musician, composer and performer, based in County Carlow. Rachel Parry a sculptor based in Béara peninsula in Co. Cork. Therry Rudin a painter and film-maker, based in County Tipperary. Gerda Teljeur, whose work explores the linear potential of ink on paper, based in Co. Wexford.

The Dock is pleased to present a group show with artists Helen Comerford, Barbara Freeman, Patricia Hurl, Rachel Parry, Therry Rudin, and Gerda Teljeur, art historian/curator Catherine Marshall, and composer Carole Nelson who came together in 2020 to form the artists’ collective, known as Na Cailleacha from the Irish word ‘cailleach’ meaning a witch or a divine hag. The Collective explores what it means to be women who are getting older and arguably becoming invisible and what strategies we devise to overcome the challenges of sustaining creativity and art practice as we age.

This exhibition features Na Cailleacha, Child’s Play 2 (2021), seven photographs on loan from the collection of the Hugh Lane Gallery.

The exhibition Na Cailleacha with reference to Paula Rego curated by Catherine Marshall and Sarah Searson presents work made during the past two years and a body of new work referencing the artist Paula Rego, who died during this period and whose long career embodied many of the experiences and practices explored by Na Cailleacha. In making work related to her the Cailleachs want to honour a ground-breaking feminist artist and to think afresh about the many issues relating to life and art practice that women of our generation feel we share with her. Na Cailleacha, too, were exposed to some of the same fairy tales and myths or had reason to think about war, childhood vulnerability, constricting and abusive religious and social institutions as well as the healing powers of music, dance and drawing. Like her, Na Cailleacha sees the studio as the place where fears are faced, activism is centred, fun can be found, and a new order can be discovered.

All, bar one of the group are over 70 years of age. Since 2020 they have held four exhibitions around Ireland, participated in the Bones in the Attic exhibition at the Hugh Lane Gallery and conducted symposia all of which explore issues around creativity, visibility, isolation, health and collective practice from an older feminist perspective. Na Cailleacha are committed to raising awareness and promoting public discussion about these issues, in keeping with Gloria Steinem’s assertion that ‘Women may be the one group that grows more radical with age’.