Acid Reflux

Aoife Ward | Sorcha McNamara

Platform Arts, Belfast

13th-28th October 2023

curated by Freida Wao & Aaron C. Rammasch

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‘Where everything aligns so perfectly’

- Shaina Hurley, Love is Blind, Season 2

Acid Reflux began as a collective exasperation over artistic burnout. A reaction, or reckoning, against the constant juggling and multi-tasking that’s expected - heck, even admired and encouraged - among young artists attempting to forge their own paths in their creative pursuits. But, perhaps ironically - due to Aoife and Sorcha’s various other work commitments over the past 18 months - representing this joint exasperation in exhibition form never fully took on its own shape. Sure, its ideas were there: how to make work that exuded a self-aware sense of laziness, slouchiness, or aversion to effort; a sly middle finger in the face of hyperproductivity. Yet the actual creation of this work proved a little trickier to bear fruit.

Instead, what has emerged is the story of an unlikely friendship; a curious, intriguing duet, crossing over the four provinces of this island (Aoife lives and works in Dublin, Sorcha is based in Mayo, while much of the ‘work’ for the exhibition was developed on residency in Kerry) culminating in a co-mingling of material, an interweaving of contrasting energies, and a collection of shared experiences, finally taking place in the Belfast gallery space.