Dublin’s Olivier Cornet Gallery is hosting a Bloomsday 2022 group art exhibition titled “Outrageous, Obscene and Offensive” until 31 July, 2022. It is open to visitors from Tuesday to Sunday as well as online: Here
This forms part of the official Bloomsday Festival organised by the James Joyce Centre in Dublin.
As is now almost tradition for us, the Olivier Cornet Gallery has curated a thematic group exhibition for the festival. This year, as we mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of “Ulysses” in Paris, we have invited some of our artists to respond to the theme of censorship.
Contrary to popular belief, the novel was never “officially” banned in Ireland. However, it was never actually put on sale as copies of the book seemingly didn’t make it through Customs. Yet, it was indeed banned in the USA – lest it might cause American readers to harbour “impure and lustful thoughts”. It was also banned in the UK in 1929.
“Outrageous, Obscene and Offensive” will include work by our represented artists Yanny Petters, Claire Halpin, Miriam McConnon, Kelly Ratchford, and Susanne Wawra as well as the members of our AGA group: Mary A. Fitzgerald, Aisling Conroy, David Fox, Nickie Hayden, Vicky Smith, and Sheila Naughton. The artists have been invited to explore censorship in a wider context too, not just in literature but in other disciplines and fields such as visual art and films.