Aideen Barry: 'I’m from Mayfield, so I have that Roy Keane thing'
Aideen Barry in a video still from Not To Be Known, recently acquired by the Crawford in Cork.
Aideen Barry could hardly be more industrious. The Cork-born artist’s solo exhibition By Slight Ligaments is currently running at Limerick City Gallery of Art, and will then tour to the Source Arts Centre in Thurles, the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, and a number of venues in North America; her concert film Oblivion/Seachmalltacht is showing on a public screen in Dublin; and there is the first screening of her debut feature film, commissioned by Kaunos 2022 Capital of Culture, to look forward to later this month. Last but not least, she has also designed a postage stamp.
Barry’s career has maintained a similarly hectic pace since she graduated from Galway Mayo Institute of Technology with a BA in Fine Art, Sculpture in 2002. “I’m from Mayfield, so I have that Roy Keane thing, I’m quite mouthy,” she says. “When I was still an undergrad, I invited the director of Galway Arts Centre, Helen Carey, to come in and see my work. I asked how I could get a show in Paris, and she said, ‘ask me’.”
