The Tea Houses, Bateman Quay, Kilkenny
Wednesday 10 December
Performance: 6pm – 6:30pm
Q&A: 6:30pm – 6:45pm
Book via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/intersection-performance-by-artist-arlene-caffrey-tickets-1972757515835?aff=oddtdtcreator
Intersection is a live performance by visual artist Arlene Caffrey. It explores how pole dancing can become a movement methodology for investigating embodied experience and expressing the self within a performance art context.
Merging her Fine Art practice with her award-winning pole dancing skills, this work navigates the space between past and present, personal and cultural, academic and physical. It asks whether such crossings can create a site of transformation and becoming.
Pole dancing is an increasingly popular mode of self-expression; here it becomes a medium for performance art within Irish cultural discourse. Physically demanding and emotionally charged, Intersection offers audiences an intense experience of embodiment and transformation.
Intersection is part of a larger body of ongoing practice-based research that Arlene is conducting at Limerick School of Art & Design with support from Research Ireland and ArtLinks.
It is possible to drop-in to the performance, there is no pressure to stay for its entirety. It will be followed by a short Q&A with performance artist Emma Brennan.
Unfortunately this building is not wheelchair accessible, there are eight steps to the entrance. If anyone has any further access needs for this event please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Rachel Botha at bothar.work@gmail.com.
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Born and raised in rural Co. Louth, Arlene Caffrey (she/her) is a visual artist, dance artist and adult educator now based in Kilkenny city. Working across performance, sculpture and the written word, her practice is informed by feminine subjectivity with elements of humour.
Arlene’s practice-based research reflects the shifting cultural and socio-political landscape of contemporary Ireland, shaped by feminist and gender identity theory. Through performance and sculpture, she examines her position as a rural Irish woman within these contexts, seeking to provoke thought around constructs of femininity and embodiment.
She is a member of Bbeyond, Belfast and Live Art Ireland, Tipperary. Her practice is supported by ArtLinks, Kilkenny Arts Office and Research Ireland.
Emma Brennan (She/Her) is an interdisciplinary artist working predominantly in performative practices including multi-media installation, moving image and collaborative processes. Based between Belfast and Dublin, her practice finds public outcomes in exhibitions and festivals locally, nationally and internationally. Brennan is a current board member of Bbeyond, Belfast and Live Art Ireland, Tipperary. She is also the founder of QRIT Belfast, a queer crit group.
Recent works include her solo exhibition It Is & I Am (2024) at Belfast Exposed Gallery, performing at Becoming Tallaght live art festival (2025) and as invited by the Ulster Museum in a new work, ‘Girls Who Like Beuys’ (2025), as part of their Beuys 50 Years Later exhibition and coinciding programme of events. Brennan was the sole recipient of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Visual Arts Bursary for 2024/25.
