'The Brutish Empire'

Overview

The Showroom presents An Ciúnas / The Silence, a solo exhibition by artist Marianne Keating. As an immersive, three-channel film installation, the exhibition brings together complex intersecting narratives addressing overlooked aspects of Irish migration during Ireland’s colonial rule by Britain, and their enduring legacies in the present. An Ciúnas / The Silence brings together archival and personal accounts, counterpoising official state histories whilst challenging the hierarchies generated by the archive, asking which stories are told and who has access to tell them. In the film Keating reconstructs these narratives by excavating official government documents at the Irish, English and Jamaican National Archives, alongside open-source footage; whilst gathering new oral histories and on-site investigations of visual and material traces.