Love, Rage & Solidarity, a new solo exhibition by Galway-based artist and filmmaker Treasa O’Brien will open at the city’s Galway Arts Centre this Saturday, May 24, and will run until June 29 in the Dominick Street venue.

The show features sculptures, photos, drawings, installations and films on themes of ecology, community, (de)colonisation, migration, identity, belonging, feminism, folk ritual and the inter-connectedness of people.

Treasa, who is internationally renowned for her work, uses documentary, narrative forms, essay film, sci-fi and DIY tactics to scrutinise the potential of video- and filmmaking in her art and activism. This involves exploring how she creates her work, and it challenges ideas of authorship and collaboration.

Treasa creates across many forms, including sculpture, drawing, photography, participative work, sound, video and film. That multi-disciplinary approach can be seen in her educational background. She has a degree in Fine Art from Limerick School of Art & Design, a Masters in Fiction Directing and a Ph D in Filmmaking by Practice – and she also took part in the Rogue Film School, founded by groundbreaking German filmmaker Werner Herzog in 2009, where much of her formal training “was undone”.

Treasa has taught film and art at institutes including University College London, Goldsmiths, the University of Westminster, the University of Galway and ATU Galway.

In her own practice, she has made three feature films, including 2021’s Town of Strangers, a unique work exploring Gort and its new residents, including herself. It received four-star reviews in The Guardian and Irish Times, with The Guardian naming it one of its films of the year. Her current film project is about The Wild Geeze, a queer-feminist cabaret duo, focused on themes of body positivity, sexuality, eco-feminism, grief and mental health.

Several of Treasa’s videos that are being shown in the Arts Centre have previously been screened in festivals, cinemas and social centres at home and abroad, but have never been seen together in this way.

New works include The Wild Geeze, an immersive installation with a soundscape by electronic keener and musician Róis, featuring Breda Larkin, Laura Lavelle, Growler and other Irish taboo-breaking performance artists.

Understory, meanwhile, is a surreal exploration of a post-human world, shot in Conamara. Featuring a live score in collaboration with Amelian Donegan and Philip Fogarty, it will premiere this Friday, May 23, at 6pm as part of the exhibition opening.

The exhibition also features The Room of Encounters, an invitation to people to participate in events and discussions in the gallery. They can also bring offerings to her May Altar Plus – a shrine to feminine and non-binary folk icons.

Several free events and screenings will run alongside the exhibition. Taking place at the Arts Centre’s Nuns’ Island Theatre space, these include screenings of Treasa’s documentaries Eat Your Children this Saturday at 7pm, and Town of Strangers next Tuesday, May 28, at 7pm.

More information on the show and all events from www.galwayartscentre.ie.

Pictured: Treasa’s exhibition at the Galway Arts Centre brings her work together in a unique way.