Sculpture & Combined Media

Ailbhe McGowran

Ailbhe Mc Gowran’s work explores mundane chores and activities, stereotypes and gendered actions using wearable sculptures created for performance.

She has created her own imagined workforce of antihero personas challenging the preconceived notions the audience sees of the monotonous by creating unusual protective gear enabling them to enact the specific task at hand.

The wearable art is activated by durational performance creating a sense of timelessness, the repetitive actions allowing the action to seem eternal while also allowing for the chaotic unforeseen.

These pieces reflect the banality of everyday life, casting the limelight onto domestic work, chores, items and accessories to highlight their importance in their own rights, while injecting humour into those mundane activities and automatic processes embracing stereotypes and flipping them by sometimes adding pseudosexual connotations.

Intending to give power to the wearer through costume, the piece allows the performer to have a protective layer between themselves and the outside world, allowing for a sense of invincibility during the performed action.

The symbolism of the number of these essential survival kits (6) reflects the anxieties in our daily lives, warning that something needs to be done at home.

PREV | NEXT | ALL