A Performative Conversation: This Saturday at The Gallery

Image: Ceramic Flute, glazed stoneware ceramic, Kian Benson Bailes, 2025, courtesy of the artist.

Glandwr at The Complex presents ‘Our Lives are Dependent on The Actions of Others’,

a performative conversation with artists Kian Benson Bailes, Rachel Fallon and curator Debi Paul.

Location: The Gallery, The Complex, 21 Arran Street East, Dublin 7, D07YY97

Date: Sat, July 12

Time: 3pm - 4.20pm

Tickets: Free entry, no booking required

A studio,

An artwork,

The relationship between artist + artwork …

Morphing/changing being seen and re-seen. Revealed from divergent viewpoints, angles.

In this performative conversation, a mythical worm meets a sounding bug. In an elusive illuminating unfurling that is packed and re-packed in a dusty warehouse space, home to art. A place previously used for storage and stacking. Through the intensity of visual language, artists Kian Benson Bailes and Rachel Fallon will be weaving and forming existing, new and joint conversational artworks. Death and transformation seep through both practice and subject matter, subverting, playing and being with; curator Debi Paul will enter the mix, nudging along, questioning, not knowing, reminding, asking what’s this, why this, tell us a bit more.

Taking Rachel’s piece ‘Our Lives are Dependent on The Actions of Others’ as a starting point for a generative conversation exploring visibility, inspiration, collectivity, actions and outcomes. Open to an organic, inclusive conversation with audience members. Exploring what roles art can play and how it can continue to exist in times of war and climate change.

This public research/experimental event seeks to widen conversations prior to the exhibition, houseWORKhomeWORK . The project houseWORKhomeWORK curated by Debi Paul, is an ongoing project centred around the domestic space, Glandwr. This is the home of Debi Paul and where she curates site-responsive projects through art residencies, conversations, events and performances and exhibitions. This project seeks to explore the ‘unseen’ in areas such as domestic labour, maintenance, the body and eco-feminism. The project will culminate in a site-responsive group exhibition at Glandwr with artists Ella De Búrca, Rachel Fallon and Eva Vēvere (2025/26 ).

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Debi Paul (Ireland) is a visual artist and curator; her practice is rooted in both performance and place, with a focus on the body. She often draws on / learns from site-specific communities of interest. Her work observes the connection between practice and philosophy and ideas that relate to the material world. Current practice research focuses on ‘the sensate’ ritual and elements of magic realism. Recent projects include: Stains, Ella De Burca, Glandwr 2023; Only Two Hands, FionaReilly, Glandwr, 2024; you could feel the tension leaving their body, Eva Vēvere, Temple Bar Gallery + Studio’s Freespace Programme, 2024.

Rachel Fallon uses sculpture, drawing, photography and performance techniques to deal with themes of protection and defence in domestic realms, and address women’s relationships to society. Recent works include Jelen Vagyok / I Am Present, a collaborative performance-based piecerelating to queer and female representation in public spaces,

commissioned by Budapest Galeria and Kiscelli Múzeum, Hungary which has been performed in Budapest and Manhattan and The Map with Alice Maher as part of ‘The Magdalene Series’ at Rua Red, most recently shown at OFF Biennial, Budapest, IAC, New York and The Dock, Leitrim. She lives and works in Dublin.

Kian Benson Bailes is an Irish artist from the northwest of Ireland and is currently based in Dublin. His multifaceted practice explores rural Ireland, visual language and identity. Recent exhibitions include ‘Culchie boy, I love you / Grá mo chroí thú, mo chábóigín féin (21 Angels and Then Some...)’at Mermaid Arts Centre (2025)  and ‘Staying with The Trouble’ at IMMA (2025) Other activities include recipient of Fire Station Artists Residency Award (2024) and ‘Kīpuka Ireland’, a visiting and exchange initiative with three artists from Ireland organized as part of Hawai‘i Triennial 2025: ALOHA NŌ in collaboration with IMMA.

Kindly funded by The Arts Council of Ireland and supported by The Complex.