WOMEN UNREMEMBERED Exhibition at Cork County Council’s Library HQ

While Oonagh’s previous works investigated memory, her current work addresses how things are forgotten. WOMEN UNREMEMBERED explores women whose significant achievements, from the heroic to the spectacular, have largely been overlooked and hidden in the writing and rewriting of history, contributing to a collective amnesia. The artist uses photographic archives and written accounts to create contemporary portraits, with the aim that they will be viewed with the curiosity of fresh eyes and prove inspirational to both men and women today.

Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr. Gillian Coughlan said of ‘Women Unremembered’, “In this decade of centenaries, we have been continually invited to re-examine and reinterpret our ideas of the past. Oonagh’s exhibition, focusing on historical women and bringing their stories to light is very welcome to the Library HQ Gallery, where it very appropriately invites us all to learn from the past and relearn how to interpret it.”

Oonagh says of her interest in memory and hidden histories, “It is often the most mundane, incidental moments that can stir the most visceral emotions in us. We conceal, expose, select, and colour memories, intertwining reality and fiction, creating open-ended stories. We add and remove our own layers to memory as though it were as malleable and as fluid as the paint on the canvas. My paintings are made in much the same way.”

WOMEN UNREMEMBERED runs until Friday 13th May 2022. LHQ Gallery is open Monday to Friday, from 9.00am to 5.30pm. Contact arts@corkcoco.ie for further information