New Work

Portrait: Jessie Keenan

Jessie Keenan is an Irish choreographer whose work intersects science, visual art, architecture and archives. Interdisciplinary connections are at the heart of her work. Keenan creates nuanced, intricate choreographies with a strong visual and architectural aesthetic.

Selected choreographic projects: Fragments, Dublin Fringe Festival 2018 (nominated for Best Design), British Neuroscience Association Festival 2019; Low Lying, Dublin Fringe Festival 2016; Her Supreme Hour, Embodied 2016, commissioned by Dublin Dance Festival/GPO Witness History Public Art Commission. Keenan is the recipient of an Arts Council of Ireland Next Generation Award. 

In 2019 she began collaborating with academic researcher Dr. Zosia Kuczyńska and composer Robbie Blake on Don’t Anticipate The Ending, resulting in a digital exhibition and two short films co-produced with the Museum of Literature, Ireland (2021).

In 2020 / 21 Keenan created a number of short films: Submerged (commissioned by Cavan Arts for Culture Night 2020), Fragments (film) (commissioned by Cavan Arts), So What Is Surfacing (solo) (Dancer from the Dance Festival 2021)

Portraits

These portraits capture a specific moment in time for eight individuals. The unwavering single-shot focus of the camera offers a poignant and intimate closeness to each subject. They were filmed in April 2021 in locations specially chosen by each subject: a place of sanctuary within the five-kilometre radius of their home. The films are inspired by Andy Warhol’s Screen Test from the 1960s and Jane McCormick’s This Moment capturing the significant people behind the TownHall Cavan Arts Space. The films pay homage to the dedication and talent which sustained the Don’t anticipate the ending project.

Directed by Robbie Blake
Filmed and Edited by Steve O’Connor

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Don't anticipate the ending Creative encounters with the Brian Friel Papers

This exhibition is an archive of an archive; and like all good archives, there is no right way to navigate it. Keep clicking on the things that interest you, and don’t worry if you get a little lost a long the way. If you do want to find your way back, check out the index in the menu.

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Presented in partnership with the National Library of Ireland