Dry Facts And the Judgement of Imagination

“My dry facts have too little poetry in them to reach judgement through the medium of the imagination”

On the Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, George Petrie, 1854.

November 2025 - January 2026

Dry Facts And the Judgement of Imagination is a project curated by Cóilín O’Connell that explores the tensions between systemic observation and artistic portrayal. Artist Aisling-Ór Ní Aodha will expand on an existing artwork. Writer Seán Ward will make a text that departs from that artwork during a short period of engagement with the artist and curator. In January 2026, these works will form an online exhibition in the form of a national database for built heritage.

Aisling-Ór Ní Aodha is an Irish multidisciplinary artist from Co. Wicklow. Through the mediums of painting, sound, text, sculpture and radio broadcast her practice interrogates the enactment of colonial ideologies and state institutions upon the body. Her research pursuits over the last four years have specifically explored creative expression in Ireland and its relationship to imperialism. Covering topics such as the practice of keening, the connection between 19th century landscape painting and imperial policing, Ballinasloe Asylum and folk cures, and the Irish language as somatic knowledge. Recent works include collaborating with Alice Rekab as part of Liverpool Biennial, 2025, ‘bless every foot that walks its portals through’ at Galway Arts Centre for TULCA 2023, and the performance ‘Echo’s Disarticulation’ at Project Arts Centre, 2022.

Seán Ward is a curator and writer from the north of Ireland whose practice moves between writing and collaborative programming, often focusing on how neocolonialism and contested histories continue to inform cultural production. He studied Curating at Goldsmiths, University of London, and his work is shaped by critical theory and artist-led research methods. From 2023 to 2025 he was Co-Director of Catalyst Arts in Belfast, where he produced exhibitions, public programmes, and archival projects. During this period he produced ‘Notice to Uranians’, a project exploring queer feminist publishing and sonic resistance, co-broadcast internationally on Radio alHara. Seán has worked with organisations including CCA Derry~Londonderry, National Museums NI, Whitechapel Gallery and Ireland at Venice. He is currently part of the Kunstverein Aughrim Creative Producer Programme. His writing has appeared in Art Monthly and various independent publications.

Photo by Rich Gilligan. Image courtesy of Kunstverein Projects. 

Cóilín O’Connell is a multimedia artist from Dublin. As Brass Neck Press he publishes artists zines. Through a process of collecting and editing found and original image, object and text his work considers antagonisms between the methodical and the poetic for proposing pasts, presents and futures.

Telegram Channel/art blog of Cóilín O’Connell:
https://t.me/+K4cpoS8O0QkyNTI0

Website:
www.coilinoconnell.net

Curated by Cóilín O’Connell and produced by Screen Service.

Funded by Rethink Ireland.