girls girls girls

Curated by Simone Rocha.

With artists Sophie Barber, Louise Bourgeois, Elene Chantladze, Petra Collins, Sian Costello, Dorothy Cross, Genieve Figgis, Iris Haeussler, Eimear Lynch & Domino Whisker, Roni Horn, Cassi Namoda, Sharna Osborne, Josiane M.H. Pozi, Cindy Sherman, Alina Szapocznikow, Harley Weir, Francesca Woodman, Luo Yang.

On April 2 2022, Lismore Castle Arts will present girls girls girls, a group show curated by the celebrated Irish fashion designer, Simone Rocha. Simone Rocha is a designer with deep connections to artists and their practice and this exhibition will look at the female gaze from multiple viewpoints, celebrating a diverse range of approaches in an exhibition centering on female practices. The exhibition draws a thread from celebrated artists such as Cindy Sherman and Roni Horn to a younger generation of artists including Sophie Barber, Luo Yang and Genieve Figgis. As Lismore Castle Arts’ main presentation for 2022, girls girls girls will be a launchpad for the rest of the organisation’s 2022 exhibitions, events and learning programme, working to celebrate new and important voices.

In Simone Rocha’s words:

“I wanted to invite a group of artists who inspire, challenge and engage with femininity and its subversive characteristics, reflecting a female viewpoint today. There is a contrast of forms and media—art, sculpture and photography—and I am interested in exploring how the works engage with each other. This engagement could be read in multiple ways: as a thread of the natural world running through the works, uncanny self-portraiture or the sense of a haunting reality lingering just below the surface.

I want the exhibition to be an exploration of femininity in an honest way by having the presence of each artist in the room together, with their multiple viewpoints, and bringing their works into conversation with each other. As a designer, artists and image-makers have been a long-standing source of inspiration to me. I am drawn to explorations of worlds not seen and the act of looking from another’s point of view; to having one foot in reality but to also be exploring the internal narrative of the artist. I respond to work that documents but also transports the viewer to another place.

The female spirit and experience has been a strong focus of my work from the beginning. My engagement with femininity must also always have a balance—traditional craft techniques versus masculine tailoring, natural forms vs man-made. I am always pushing to make something traditionally feminine in a modern, off-kilter world.”

A catalogue will be published in summer 2022 to accompany the exhibition.