ADUANTAS: Exhibition with work by Tara Kearns

Free  · Sheriff Youth Club

Tara Kearns is an artist from Dublin’s North Wall who studied Fine Art in IADT (Institute of Art and Design Dun Laoghaire) where she graduated with First Class Honours, also she was awarded a bursary from the NEIC to create her portraits of local heroes.

Tara has collaborated with a local writer and friend Michelle Byrne, whose poems focus on similar themes as her paintings. Her work has a refreshing honesty, about the trials and the virtues of growing up in this inner-city community, inspired by her own upbringing.” This series of work is titled “ADUANTAS”.

“ADUANTAS” was born after some research that Tara did into the Sheriff Street area, exploring the sociological and economic problems facing this area while discovering how these problems have a unique impact on identity. A social osmosis is highly present within these areas, meaning people often don’t realise they are immersed in a culture, or way of life until they are taken out of the environment itself. Tara is aware of this phenomenon, through first-hand experience. After spending four years of college, immersing herself in an environment where she was considered unusual, due to her accent, address, and social class, she realised the importance of positive promotion and honest conversation, when talking about these areas: “In the North Wall community, we possess a great sense of community, friendship, and fierce loyalty to one another. These qualities are often undermined by the media, due to the high levels of crime they choose to place an emphasis on. With the stigmas and negative preconceptions of this community being published and broadcast daily we are trying to change the narrative”.

That is the reason why she is keen to celebrate this community and encourage others to be proud of who they are and where they are from.