Austin Hearne’s solo show at Garter Lane, Raymo’s Spawn, features a large scale wallpaper mural, performance to video camera, an interior of a baby’s nursery and the makings of a christening celebration. “In an imaginary world, where I, Austin Hearne, a gay man, has had a bad lapse of judgement and lost all reasoning, became besotted by the arch homophobe, transphobe and misogynistic hater Cardinal Burke. An act of self-loathing and extreme confusion caused this grown adult to fantasise about turning this despotic being from ogre to saviour. Finding love and lust within him, to live a life together in sexy, healthy and pure love. Our love story was never to be as he went and fucking died”. Raymo’s Spawn takes on a fictional scenario with factual characters. Hearnes ongoing Raymo series uses personal experiences such as grief, sexual desire, family relationships, homosexuality and childlessness. In this concluding chapter of Hearnes speculative series, he has managed to convince the Cardinal to father a child for him, “At the end our angel child will be delivered to my bosom, to be nurtured, nursed and loved. The Child will be the living embodiment of you my love”. Hearne uses epistolary methods, satire and the stuff of the painting and decorating industry as devices to build narrative led installations that side swipe against a rotten religious institution. The politics of the Roman Catholic Church are at odds, Hearne utilises this presentation to comment on their abominable historical treatment of children, parents, families, queers and bodily autonomy.

Austin Hearne is an artist from Dublin, living in Co. Wexford. He holds a MFA from NCAD (2016).  Hearne is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice is rooted in Photography, he comes from a family of Painters and Decorators and uses the stuff of this industry to make works and installations. His film work Whispers won Best Irish Short at the Gaze film festival (2022). Recent solos shows include Love Letters to Cardinal Raymo at Gorey School of Art (2021), Slabs at The Complex (2021), Requiem For Raymo at The Royal Hibernian Gallery (RHA)(2022-2023), Slabs II and Whispers at The Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray (2023) Confessions at Lismore Castle Arts (2023) and group shows Mysterious Ways at The Glucksman (UCC) (2024) with WEARTFETISHISTS (2022), PhotoIreland Festival (2022) and Speech Sounds at Visual Carlow(2022). Austin is a founding member and one half of the experimental queer goth music act Satin Shadow, they have released 3 albums to date. Austin’s work is held in private collections in USA, Europe and the OPW collection.