This book mines the space where aesthetic expression meets lived experience for Irish artists Rita Duffy, Mairéad McClean, Paula McFetridge and Ursula Burke. Portrait essays woven with photographs, document each artist’s coming of age in Ireland and Northern Ireland, in the context of her emerging practice. As individuals, their work considers infringements on human rights, systemic violence, gender roles and the negotiation of figurative and literal borders and boundaries. Together, they interrogate past and present conflict and emergence from conflict, locally and globally. Their critical work is threaded with hope in the context of past and present political fragmentation. Works considered include Rita Duffy’s paintings, drawings and animation like
Siege
,
The Emperor Has No Clothes
and
Anatomy of Hope
; Mairéad McClean’s films
No More, Broadcast
Making Her Mark;
Paula McFetridge’s productions like
convictions
, staged at the Crumlin Road Courthouse,
This is What We Sang
, performed at the Belfast Synagogue and
Belfast Quartered, A Love Story,
a promenade through Belfast’s LGBTQ+ underground; and Ursula Burke’s sculptures like
Bonfire
Blue Sphinx
Peach Caryatid
, and embroidery like
The Politicians Frieze.