Bridget O’Gorman’s video installation of a once dilapidated Evans’ Home leads the viewer through the Butler Gallery’s past state of disrepair. The accompanying soundscape denotes a human presence, still hanging in the air – along with the suggestion that something is about to happen. Originally an almshouse for ‘decayed servants’, the transitional spaces – thresholds, hallways and stairwells – of this 19^th century building, itself in a state of transition, are revealed, allowing the audience a glimpse of the remnants of its recent history as a domestic asylum and a library store. Capturing strong traces of its former use as an institution, the installation prompts a recognition of the significance of this past for the present, including the role of the gallery as a potential catalyst for communicating alternative perspectives; for making the ‘private’ public.

Bridget O’Gorman is a visual artist based in the UK. Working across sculpture, text, video and event, her practice highlights a destabilised and haptic evolution within the lives of objects and bodies. Her methods focus upon connecting the animate and the inanimate, informing a dialogue around potential and expanded corporeal experiences.

Recent exhibitions include Health Club, Hyde Park Art Centre (US) 2019, Lucian’s Neighbours, IMMA, (IE) 2018, In the Flesh, The Lab Gallery, (IE), 2016. Projects include The Legacy of Gesture, 2018 (in collaboration with Aerodrums and DaDa Fest, Liverpool, UK), and Anaesthesia of a Knowing Body, 2018 (in collaboration with Sue Rainsford) at IMMA. She had a solo show at Butler Gallery in 2013, called We Are Suddenly Somewhere Else. Her work has been supported through various awards, including the Irish Museum of Modern Art Residency, The Future World of Work residency with FACT Liverpool, (UK) the Wheatley Fine Art Fellowship (UK), the Arts Council of Ireland Visual Arts Bursary Award & the Fire Station Artists Studio Residency, Dublin.