‘Museums are central to nation-building and the formation of cultural identities’

Anthony Haughey’s multi-media exhibition, curated by Maolíosa Boyle and Jonathan Cummins, is available to view at the National Museum of Ireland, Decorative Arts & History, Collins Barracks in Dublin until June 30.

It is hugely significant in that it is the first time there has been an exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland, by a contemporary artist responding to its collections in this way.

“A central proposition during my residency was to consider the National Museum of Ireland as a site of social transformation,” Anthony tells The Belfast Telegraph.

“Museums are central to nation-building and the formation of cultural identities, in other words, how we view ourselves. In the 1970s German artist Joseph Beuys coined the phrase ‘social sculpture’, an idea that creativity can encompass every aspect of life whereby everyone has the potential to be an artist.

“During my residency, I considered the collaborative process as a social sculpture where a wide demographic of people from across the island of Ireland participated or collaborated in the production of artworks.”

One of Anthony’s ambitions for the residency was to produce new artworks for the collection.

“The starting point for this was exploring the national museum’s multiple locations, exhibitions and vast historical collections to consider how the objects on display and in archives could inspire and inform the production of contemporary artworks and generate a conversation about an inclusive multi-ethnic society,” he explains.

“Collectively, all the artworks in the exhibition raise interesting questions about a future republic, hence the importance of collaborating with as many people as possible from across the social spectrum.

“It is too early for me to say which exhibit is of particular importance, I am too close to it all. However, the National Museum curators have selected at least three of the artworks for the permanent collection.”

Highlights of the exhibition include A Dress for Akunma (2021) and A Dress for Ramlah (2023). Akunma is a young African Irish woman and member of the Nwanne Diuto African Women’s group who worked with Anthony to design and make a stunning garment which fuses Irish Ogham script and Nsibidi, a 2000 BCE ideographic script indigenous to the Ejagham peoples of south-eastern Nigeria.

A Dress for Ramlah was a collaboration between Leina Ibnouf, Rita Petlane, artist Bláthnaid McClean and Anthony. The hand-drawn fabric design is the outcome of a series of workshops and transnational research, fusing Irish, South African and Sudanese cultures.

Another highlight is A Flat for Ireland, wherein more than 300 participants were invited by Anthony in a series of artist-led workshops to reimagine a flag for Ireland, one hundred years on from the foundation of the Republic, which might represent people from all cultures and traditions.

“A Flag For Ireland was one of the first ideas I proposed to the museum at the beginning of my residency in 2021,” he says.

“From my initial research, I realised there is a hugely important flags and banners collection in the museum, for example, the flag proclaiming a republic that flew above the GPO during the Easter Rising signalling revolution and the journey towards independence.

“Flags are highly contested in Ireland and I wanted to start a conversation about national symbols and how this relates to a sense of belonging and nationhood; would we be willing to consider a new flag that is representative of a changing Ireland? There are more than 300 flag designs, some are provocative, others humorous, all the designs are included in the exhibition.”

History is fundamental to our present and future — what was Anthony hoping to produce through the exhibition?

“The museum’s collections reveal Ireland’s past as a colonised country entangled within the British Empire and its revolutionary struggle for independence reflecting cultural identities and nationhood.

“The residency was an exciting opportunity to generate culturally diverse conversations resulting in artworks positioned within a historical-contemporary nexus, an intersection of colonial and postcolonial histories.

“For example, the exhibition title we make our own histories was derived from a neon artwork of the same name produced by sampling the handwriting of 120 young people. The resulting collective statement insists that we are central to shaping historical narratives in our daily lives; we generate the raw material for unwritten histories.

“I am not sure if there is a greater reception to art now than at any other time,” he says when asked if the public is more receptive to art now.

“Contemporary art is a huge disciplinary field, from painting and sculpture, to moving image and photography, as well as new technologies such as AI.

“However, the form of an artwork is not the most important element for me, socially engaged art immerses participants into an artwork not as passive viewers or bystanders but people who express their agency by actively engaging in a collaborative process.”

Anthony’s co-authored and solo artworks have been exhibited and collected by museums and galleries nationally and internationally.

As part of this exhibition, he also worked with young people from five post-primary schools from Sligo, Limerick, Belfast, Clare and Dublin to draft their own Manifestos for a Future Ireland.

His installation features the table at which the Assemblies took place and five bespoke, mobile sculptural monitors showing looped footage of the Assemblies, an exercise in deliberative democracy discussing urgent issues facing their generation.

“My interest in working with schools came from a question I had raised in October 2022. I was aware that the Decade of Centenaries was coming to an end with the centenary of the War of Independence in 2023,” he says.

“Instead of looking back at the first century of the Irish state I wanted to look towards the future and ask young people in Ireland what they considered to be the most urgent issues for their generation. I invited them to write a Manifesto for a future Ireland.

“I created a Young People’s Assembly where five schools and more than 100 students across the island engaged in a process of deliberative democracy.

“I designed a huge circular UN-style assembly table and the proceedings were filmed live in front of an audience and later installed in the exhibition. The outcome of the assemblies was extraordinary, so many articulate voices and opinions – young people performing democracy.”

The ‘we make our own histories’ exhibition is on display until June 30. Admission is free