Visualizing the Spirit of Freedom: Performing Irish Women’s Citizenship and Autonomy in Amanda Coogan’s Floats in the Aether

Abstract

This article examines Amanda Coogan’s Floats in the Aether (2018-19) in relation to ‘home rule’, broadly interpreted to encompass the agitation for Irish women’s citizenship and autonomy. Between November 2018 and January 2019 Irish performance artist Amanda Coogan staged performances with 100 women and girls responding to the exhibition Markievicz: Portraits and Propaganda. This was the first performance artwork commissioned by the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI). The exhibition and Coogan’s commission marked the centenary of women’s suffrage (1918), the election of Constance Markievicz (1868-1927) to British House of Parliament (1918), and the formation of the first Dáil (1919). A revolutionary feminist, socialist and republican, Markievicz was an enigmatic figure who, as an artist, carefully crafted images of herself using performative photography to construct a public persona. Floats in the Aether included secondary school students, the Dublin Theatre of the Deaf, a choir and sitting female parliamentarians including two former Tánaistí, Cabinet Ministers and TDs. This essay argues that Coogan’s performances, situated at the intersection of historical and institutional critiques, offer new perspectives on ‘home rule’ with regards to Irish women’s history, gendered spaces and the struggle for gender equality.