Doireann O’Malley: Prototypes

The Hugh Lane is pleased to present Prototypes, a multi-screen film installation by Berlin-based Irish artist Doireann O’Malley. Through her work on real and imaginary social forces constructing human interaction, O’Malley is emerging as a new voice in the current generation of artists and this is her first solo museum exhibition. O’Malley’s work proposes to generate new forms of knowledge, drawing on a wide range of feminist perspectives including queer theory, psycho-analysis, quantum physics, genetics, and cybernetics. The artist ties her research to the phantoms of modernist utopias, epitomized by the post-war architecture of Berlin and merges science fiction, bio politics and psychoanalysis, through a dreamlike backdrop for her ghostly protagonists.

Prototypes is a combination of film, CGI (computergenerated imagery) and atmospheric soundscapes which the artist has developed in relation to the construction of trans bodies and subjectivities by the layering of complex identities and contemporary forms present in our digital age. Produced in three parts, Prototypes I focuses on female to male gender transition and the intra-actions of bodies, objects and drives. It is set in The Interbau Project, a modernist architectural housing development built in Berlin at the height of the cold war. Prototypes II & III follow a further exploration of trans embodiments with trans female protagonists, delving deeper into CGI dream landscapes.