General News / July 17, 2017

This new installation tells the story of Irish women travelling for abortion

General News / July 17, 2017

This new installation tells the story of Irish women travelling for abortion

“NOT AT HOME is grounded in the artistic intention to attempt to collect, represent and make visible every story and every experience of those 163,514 women, regardless of circumstance.”

 

Created by Grace Dyas of THEATREclub and Emma Fraser of Nine Crows, ‘NOT AT HOME’ is an immersive installation that will run for four days, September 14-17, at the National College of Art and Design.

“As the conversation around abortion access gets closer to a referendum next year, the divide between those on both sides continues to deepen and become more entrenched,” says Grace Dyas after the launch of the Dublin Fringe Festival recently. “As that gap widens, the space for calm and thoughtful articulation of women’s lived experiences gets smaller and smaller. We are developing NOT AT HOME as a calm, inclusive way to reclaim some of that space for the thousands of women who have travelled and will travel before the current regime is changed.”

Grace continues, “Therefore, the piece will be accessible to those who are still undecided and feel unequipped to make an informed choice. We don’t want to preach to the converted. We don’t want to shame people into taking a liberal position. We acknowledge that the issue is complicated and complex. We hope the piece will allow people to witness the reality of the consequences of our current abortion laws.”

“We don’t want to preach to the converted. We don’t want to shame people into taking a liberal position. We acknowledge that the issue is complicated and complex.”

 

The project invites Irish women to tell their stories, which can be submitted on their website here, however the pair have been collecting anonymous stories since April 2016.

The project itself will feature live performances as well as video and sound installation based on the testimonies. The immersive nature of the installation means the space will be designed like a waiting room, there will be a black cab outside where they can listen to Scouse taxi drivers talk about the Irish women they drive to-and-from boat, train and air terminals.

“The experience will be immersive, but calm and reflective, allowing the audience to contend with the space as they see fit.”

Grace Dyas concludes, “We believe there is a diversity of experience at the heart of this issues that is currently being stifled by the division of the broader debate. NOT AT HOME is grounded in the artistic intention to attempt to collect, represent and make visible every story and every experience of those 163,514 women, regardless of circumstance.”