The National College of Art and Design (NCAD) will host ‘In Public, In Particular’, an exhibition of interactive and location specific artworks on Thomas Street, Dublin 8. The exhibition, which opens at 6pm on Thursday, 30th November and runs until 5pm on Friday, 1st December, is part of a European programme that aims to develop and promote participatory art methods and situation specific art among European audiences in the cities of Dublin, Antwerp, Turku and Zagreb.

Over the past three years, students and recent graduates of NCAD have engaged with street vendors, local builders, shop owners and local historians to create a range of interventions, performances, audio tours and photographic installations that look at the historical, social and political aspects of Thomas Street and its inhabitants. Artists and exhibits include:

Eoin Haide will present a photographic series of posters entitled ‘Urban Cowboys’, made with the horsemen of the Thomas Street area. To celebrate the culture of horse husbandry in the area, the images will be presented as posters on hoardings on Thomas Street and in the window of the NCAD Gallery.

Clara Scullion will offer audio tours of the Thomas Street area, sharing the local knowledge of those who live and work here, looking beyond the official tourist narrative that has recently been made more visible on the street.

Andrew Weilens has worked with the Bridgefoot Street Men’s Shed and the Bridge Street Project on Francis Street to develop a special performance through the streets of the Thomas Street area. The performance will focus on the history of distilling whiskey in The Liberties and the group will wheel a whiskey barrel through the area while singing ballads and folk songs.

Yuirka Higashikawa will present a performative tour that will look at the development of new luxury student accommodation in the area, questioning the changing character of the street and its unaffordability to the average student.

Dawid Radziwill has created a portable monument to the infamous character Bang Bang, from The Liberities area. The public are invited to take the moment home for one night in a collective act of remembering this special character who gave life to Thomas Street and its environs.

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