Michelle Hickey Legge and Christina Bennett are set to present exhibitions exploring heritage, memory, identity and lived experience at People’s Museum of Limerick.
The artists from Shannon will present two distinct exhibitions that explore the complexities of cultural identity, memory and lived experience.
Michelle Hickey Legge’s solo exhibition, What Tomorrow Inherits, opens at 7pm in the Coach House on Thursday, 26 November, with Clare TD Donna McGettigan officially opening the exhibition. Blátnaid Gallagher, Secretary of Galway Wool Co-op, will also address the gathering.
Developed through Hickey Legge’s MA Fine Art research at TUS Limerick School of Art & Design and her Artistin-Residence programme with Galway Wool Co-op, What Tomorrow Inherits examines cultural heritage, material knowledge and the legacy we leave for future generations. Working through sculpture and textiles, Hickey Legge explores the potential of Irish wool within contemporary art, challenging perceptions of locally produced materials and questioning the disconnect between the marketing of Irish Aran knitwear and the use of imported wool. The exhibition also features three new collaborative works with artists Annie Gambrill, Anne O’Toole and Jean Long.
On the same evening Tiocfaidh Na Mná will open at 8pm, upstairs in the Blue Room of The People’s Museum of Limerick. Tiocfaidh Na Mná is a solo exhibition by Christina Bennett, expressing the stories of conflict-displacement in our country, through the voices and perspectives of women.
Underestimated, overlooked, ignored, suppressed, and oppressed, women held families and communities together, throughout the conflict, working often in the background and without acknowledgment. These stories are collected and expressed throughout this exhibition through the mediums of Film, Stitch, Crochet and Knit.
Donna McGettigan, Clare TD, who like Christina Bennett, is a woman born in Belfast, will open the Tiocfaidh Na Mná exhibition and speak about the issues and stories expressed among the work.
While distinct in their artistic approaches, both exhibitions invite audiences to reflect on the stories, histories and experiences that shape our understanding of the past and influence the future.
The exhibitions will be open to the public at the People’s Museum of Limerick until 10th December.