Curated by Julia Moustacchi

Endlessnessnessness presents fictional worlds and landscapes drawn from mythological and urban stories. The multidisciplinary artworks presented explore enduring tales and legends, thus interrogating the concepts of eternality and ephemerality. The title hints at this line of inquiry, borrowing its neologism from Joyce in his own revisited mythical narrative, Ulysses.

Here, the three artists evoke ‘legendary tales which orchestrate beings symbolising energies, powers, aspects of the human condition.’ [1] Feminine energies in particular are being examined – their latent power, at times serene, at times fiery, symbolised by natural elements or embodied and activated by performative moments. Protagonists, in their different forms, are stuck; their struggle is at the centre of the cyclical and ritualistic representations that span through the exhibition. They aim to find a place of healing, of metamorphosis. Alongside the sacred and the holy, grotesque, humorous and playful tones emerge, inviting the audience to question the perception of these collective memories.

[1] In Le Robert, dictionary about ‘myth’ (French, translated).

Ella Bertilsson (b. Umeå, Sweden) is a multi-award winning visual artist based in Dublin. She currently has a studio residency at Rua Red (2019-2024) and is a recipient of the Next Generation Award from the Art Council of Ireland (2023) and South County Council’s Individual Bursary Award (2023). She has 1st class honours in Fine Art Print (BA) and MFA both awarded from the National College of Art and Design IRE (2009, 2015) and Comparative Literature Studies and Creative Writing from Södertörn University SWE (2011-2012).

Forthcoming exhibitions at; The Lab Gallery (2024), Ballina Art Centre (2024) and The Dock (2023-2024). Forthcoming residencies: SIM Residency Reykjavik, Iceland (2024), Crawford Gallery, with Museum of Everyone (2024), Luan Gallery, with with Museum of Everyone (2024). Recent solo show; CUT THE CAKE WITH CLAWS, The Complex (2022). Selected group exhibitions include; Love you my Sweaty, The Library Project (2023) and Return to Disintegration, Periodical Review 11, Pallas Projects/Studios (2022).

Hannah Ní Mhaonaigh is an Irish artist based in Dublin. In her practice, she creates work using oil, acrylic, and water-based paint on various surfaces, including; linen, chipboard-found mahogany door frames, and shaped wooden panels. The titling of her work is an essential part of Ní Mhaonaigh’s process, considered an attempt to grab hold of these abstracted elements by the tufts of their tails. The physical process of her work involves repeatedly removing, sanding back, and building up layers of paint to create abstract artworks that sit somewhere between painting and sculpture. Ní Mhaonaigh’s playful use of materials enables colour, shape, and texture to be the primary driving force within her work. The repetitive practice of overpainting and paring back leads to an experimental yet determined ‘fuinneamh’ (energy) in her finished pieces, the ones that managed to make it. These abstract forms become almost an excavation of fictional artefacts or remains. Natural shapes become abstract symbols unearthed as parts, sections, and unknowingly pieces of Ní Mhaonaigh. Harking back to something more primitive, something from the earth, the roots of things. She is digging.

Some recent exhibitions for Ní Mhaonaigh include; ‘Small is Beautiful’ 41st Edition, Cork Street, Flowers Gallery, London, (2023) ‘Island’ collaboration with Ceadogán & Peter McVerry Trust, Hang Tough Dublin (2023) ‘Rally,’ Glove Box Gallery, Dublin,(2022) ‘Hidden Uk, Hidden Ireland’, Curated by Sean Scully, Flowers Gallery London, (2022) ‘Comme un lèger contretemps Cernay-Lès-Reims France, (2022) ‘A stab in the dark’, Garter Lane Arts Centre, Solo, Waterford, (2021).

Cecilia Bullo is a bicultural visual artist based between Dublin and Rome who makes sculptures and multimedia installations. Her practice is research-based and informed by historical, mythological, psychoanalytic and ecofeminist theories, creating a vital conceptual framework for her physical work. In particular, she is interested in material cultures relating to rituals of healing and transformation, including iconography and artefacts linked to cultural traditions, urban shamanism, and ecofeminism. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Art in sculpture from the Institute of Art, Design & Technology, (IADT) Dublin, Ireland, a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Brera Fine Art Academy, Milan, Italy and a Masters in Fine Art from the National College of Art & Design (NCAD), Dublin, Ireland. Cecilia was an awarded resident at Fire Station Artists’ Studios 2020–2023 and is a recipient of numerous awards from the Arts Council, Dublin City Council, Art & Disability Ireland, Culture Ireland, Creative Ireland & Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. She is in collections belonging to the Arts Council, the Office of Public Works (OPW) and numerous private collections nationally and internationally.

Recent solo shows include – “Being haunted by the breezes, now how will you exist?”, RHA, (2023), “LEIGHEAS- LIMINALIS: antidotes for melancholic gestures”, The Dock (2023). Selected recent group exhibitions and performances include: “Vox Magicae – an invocatory evening of voice, language, sound, improvisation, rhythm and beyond”, curated by Suzanne Walsh, Unit 44 Kirkos Ensemble, (2023), “Periodical Review 12—Practical Magic”, curated by Julia Mustacchi, Pallas Projects/Studios, Dublin (2022/23), “I know why the caged bird sings,” WARP, Sint-Niklaas, BE, (2022); “Material Stories”, Galerie Michaela Stock, Vienna, AUT, (2022); “Biomedia: Illness, Art and Medicine”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Querétaro, MX (2020) and “Transgender, Gender & Psychoanalysis”, Freud Museum/Draper Hall, London, UK (2017).