Live Performance: Friday, November 25th (6-7pm), as part of Dublin Gallery Weekend. This installation will also be on display Saturday 26th, and Sunday 27th.
Booking is recommended: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/pet-boy-and-the-birds-dream-tickets-29403321125
Pet Boy and The Bird’s Dream, has been developed as part of Avocado – a UCD Parity Studios’ Artist-in-Residence production, by the 2016-17 Arts and Humanities’ Artist-in-Residence Sonia Shiel. It involves the materialisation of dove-tailing short-stories into a new play and will see its adaptation to film, sculpture and installation with a series of events throughout 2016 and 2017, and this first performance of it in ArtBox on the 25th of November. Pet Boy and the Bird’s Dream is written and directed by Sonia Shiel. It acts as a prologue to her project at UCD, which will culminate in a major performance and installation in autumn 2017. UCD Parity Studios is a university wide programme connecting the rich ecology of art practice in Ireland with research and education at University College Dublin. The performance will take the shape of a staged read through, akin to free reader theatre, or chamber theatre. The installation will feature intrinsic props and set pieces, around which the action is performed, gestured and narrated, conjuring surreal encounters between fictional characters and the illusory world around them.
Sonia Shiel has had recent exhibitions at The Crawford Gallery, Cork; The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; The Lewis Glucksman Gallery, UCC, Cork; Rua Red, Dublin; ISCP, New York; The Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin; and The Oonagh Young Gallery, Dublin, among others. In 2014, Sonia Shiel received the Arts Council’s Project Award, with which she completed the Art & Law Fellowship Program, at Fordham Law School, while participating on the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York. In 2015, she was Artist-inResidence at the Irish Museum of Modern Art and received Arts Council Visual Artists Bursary 2015. She has been the recipient of many competitive awards including the (HIAP) Helsinki International Artist-in-residence; Culture Ireland and Arts Council funding; the Centre Culturel Irlandais Award; the TBG+S Frankfurt Exchange Program; Banff Centre for the Arts, Leighton Residency Award, Canada; the Hennessy Craig Award (RHA); The Tony O’Malley Award; and TBG&S Membership Residency, among others. Her works are in public and private collections including the Arts Council of Ireland and the Office of Public Works. She is represented by the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin. UCD
PARITY STUDIOS ARTIST IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM Through the UCD Artist in Residence Programme, Elective modules and Public Engagement Programme, UCD Parity Studios Residencies support critical thinking and creative approaches to cross- disciplinary research, pedagogy and communication. It offers year long residencies to professional artists who are interested in developing collaborative projects in a university environment. Artist studios, based in converted laboratories in UCD School of Physics, provide a bright working hub and supportive environment for this unique community of artists at University College Dublin. Supported by UCD Colleges of Science, Social Sciences and Law, Arts and Humanities and College of Business, the Residency Program creates a dynamic network of professional artists, academics, researchers and students, working at the intersections of their disciplines. Pet Boy and the Bird’s Dream has been kindly supported by the UCD School of Arts and Humanities and The UCD Drama Society, with special thanks to Eamonn Jordan and Seán Mac Dhonnagáin.