How To Peel an Onion Without Crying
Exhibition by The Art Shelter | Words by Aoife Nolan
Introduction
The Art Shelter is a Dublin-based artist-curator collective founded by Feride Gormez, Lana Zubović, and Svenja Michelle Behle. Working under the umbrella of various art forms, including visual, video, installation, performance, sound, and writing, the collective aims to foster a mutually beneficial exchange through public events, creating unforeseen dialogues and connections that lead towards a deeper understanding of aesthetic and sensory experiences.
The collective's second exhibition, titled ‘how to peel an onion without crying,’ will take place in Flux Studios' exhibition space from Friday, the 11th of July, to Wednesday, the 16th of July 2025 (11 am - 6 pm). Additionally, the opening event will take place on Thursday, the 10th of July, from 6 pm to 11 pm in Flux Studios' gallery space, featuring two DJ sets by Wiseguy and ACKERMAN, as well as live music performances by Lucy McWilliams and Onion Boys. The exhibition will continue with a performance (performance art name) by Aoife Nolan on Saturday the 12th of July, at 2 pm in Flux Studios’ Gallery space.
This exhibition explores the nature of self and consciousness by expanding the perception of human identity through various art forms.
‘Skin to Skin' was written by Aoife Nolan as part of this exhibition.
Program
THURSDAY, 10th of July
6 - 7:30 pm / Wiseguy
7:30 - 9 pm / ACKERMAN
9 - 9:30 pm / Lucy McWilliams
9:30 - 11 pm / Onion Boys
SATURDAY, 12th of July
2 pm / Performance by Aoife Nolan
The exhibition is open to the public and will run from Friday, July 11th, to Wednesday, July 16th. The gallery will be closed on Monday, the 14th of July.
Skin to Skin | by Aoife Nolan
Listen to the piece performed by Nolan, or absorb the text below.
No rational. No to-do list.
No inhibition.
Nothing beyond consciousness and awakening senses.
Suspended, in a space, in a place, devoid of the self, perceived as individual, as separate from, as other.
No preconstructed systems.
The self will inhabit a limiting perception of reality in a subsequent matrix of distractions - deafening distractions – blocking out cellular memory, intuitive learning and inherited information - laid down deep over time. Distractions inhibiting the arrival of subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, signs and codes, conduits and portals to expanded modes of being. The body, a source of intelligence with understanding and a language of its own, remembers. When the need is immediate, the body will speak out until it is heard.
What language is available to describe the unknown? How may there be a sense of belonging in place without language to connect? The power of earth was summoned - and responded. The mind was silenced. I let the mountain guid me, she reconfigured every layer of subjective stability of the self I had been imprisoned by. She gave me new eyes, so that my body, a bundle of perceptions, may feel a new path. From the starting point, where my bare foot made contact with her skin, a contract was struck with the first step. Do we all originate from the same code, share the same mother tongue? Will we all return to the same place, all pathways arriving at the same destination?
Even the most solid granite, laid down over millennia, is comprised of atoms in constant vibrational motion, nothing truly solid or impenetrable. Beyond the skin, lie infinite layers for quantifiable ways of becoming.
Between the body and the surface gravity holds it to, space exists. The more you focus, the more you can expand this space. Soon these spaces will be all you care about. As you realise their significance, the expanding mass of them, you can trust their intention, their connection through all time. Where everything is seen and understood and nothing exists as we know it.
The lone wolf sat on the couch and contemplated. Wondering how it all came about, how such a happy and sociable wolf ran without a pack. He closed his eyes stepped into a body without organs, it was then he realised it had all been a big joke, told to foster a false intuition. He was not a lone wolf after all, persisting from moment to moment, he understood the universal mother tongue and spoke with the mountain. No sense of self perceived as an immutable entity, as individual, as separate from, as other. An assemblage of ebbing and flowing multitudes of potentiality, with open access to an active memory bank.
Nothing will ever be the same.
Absorb more of the cosmos on www.nothingseriouswebsite.com
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