Living but a Day: Dear Readers showcases the work of Cork native Chloe Austin (she/her), an interdisciplinary artist specialising in text and video installation. Currently a PhD Researcher at Ulster University, Austin’s practice involves performative approaches to queer-feminist archival material and typographic history.

 

The exhibition presents a diverse collection of responses and reflections on queer and feminist expression, celebrating the diverse and dynamic voices that have shaped these communities across Ireland. The works, produced through various workshops, performances, and interventions over the past year, include contributions from a workshop with MTU Crawford students and a participatory exhibition at PS2 Gallery, Belfast.

 

Austin employs collaborative, performance-led interventions to spotlight the raw, messy, and poetic textual encounters of queer-feminist printed ephemera. The exhibition draws from archival collections at HERe NI, LGBTQIA+ NI Heritage Project in Belfast, and the Cork LGBT Archive. It highlights keystone sources, specifically Women’s News Magazine (Belfast) and Women’s Space Newsletter (Cork), deeply inspired by the historic cross-border initiative. In 1987, the Women’s News Collective in Belfast and the Women’s Place at Quay Co-op in Cork participated in an exchange approved by ‘Co-operation North’, sharing resources and skills. As noted in the inaugural issue of Women’s Space Newsletter (1988), the Belfast collective taught Cork women to create a newsletter, while the Cork collective guided Belfast in establishing their own library (Scotlyn, 1988). These materials shed light on archival bodies that document activism, resistance, and the language used across Ireland to bridge divisions and foster collaboration (McDonagh, 2019).​

 

Cllr. Joe Carroll, mayor of County Cork commented, “We are delighted to welcome Chloe Austin’s Living but a Day exhibition to Cork. It coincides with Cork LGBT+ Pride Festival and deals with archives of marginalized communities both in the republic and Northern Ireland. Cork County Council prides itself on inclusivity for all our communities and people of Cork.”