‘Killing Time’ – Rua Red welcomes new art project
By Tara McCoy
No strangers to thought provoking art, Cathy Coughlan and Vukašin Nedeljković are bringing their newest project to the Rua Red Gallery this week.
The duo are friends, neighbours, both artists and both parents; their daughters are best friends and, on the surface, they lead quite similar lives.
Their dance-theatre installation, ‘Killing Time’ will look past the surface details to explore the deeply rooted psychological effects of institutionalism in Ireland.
Drawing from Nedeljković’s experience of Direct Provision, the installation examines the cultural context and historical structures that have led to and continue to enable this system of indefinite incarceration.
Together the artists use a variety of art forms to inquire about “what happens to the mind and body when waiting becomes an instrument of torture?” and look at the elements of bureaucracy that project themselves within the prison system.
Coughlan is currently involved in her third dance residency at Rua Red Arts Centre, she is a multidisciplinary artist who works across a broad span of visual arts, film and dance-theatre contexts, creating unique an innovative works for galleries and theatres.
In previous projects supported by Arts Council Ireland and the South Dublin County Council, Coughlan has used a wide variety of dance styles, digital space and interactive art forms to challenge people’s thoughts on topics including men, movement and mental health along with intimacy, isolation, addiction and recovery.
Vukasin Nedeljković is a visual artist and a PhD student at the Centre for Transcultural Research and Media Practice at Dublin Institute of Technology.
Drawing from his own experience being an asylum seeker and living in his direct provision centres in Ireland from 2007-2009 Nedeljkovic initiated a multidisciplinary project known as Asylum Archive.
Collaborating with asylum seekers, artists, academics, civil society activists and immigration lawyers he uses his artistic talents to address and examine trauma and memories in regards to exile and displacement that may follow asylum seekers.
Continuing and combining themes of their previous works while complimenting each-others cross disciplinary artistic skills, the talented duo’s dance-theatre installation Killing Time will be at Rua Red Gallery Friday, April 5 at 7.30pm and Saturday, April 6 at 3.30pm and 7.30pm. Tickets are €15 and are available at www.ruared.ie
