Under the curation of Ric Kidini Kashour, New Orleans,(Curatorial Fellowship 2021 Andy Warhol Institute for the Arts) and with the support of the Birr Historical Society, 16 collage artists from across the world will research, discuss, investigate and respond to the Cumberland Pillar in Emmet Square Birr, its history, and contemporary issues relating to place, context and colonial past. The selection is diverse in terms of geography, nationality, gender and race. Each artist is using the photograph, The Square, Parsonstown by Robert French (1841-1917) from the Lawrence Photograph Collection to imagine a monument that speaks to a world where all people enjoy safety, security, well-being, and dignity on their own terms.

The works will form an outdoor trail, printed on A1 boards, with audio guide taken from an online artists talk. The exhibition will be accompanied by a book of essays and images of the work in-situ. As an extension of the project, there will be a Call to Artists that invites collage artists from around the world to make their own Empty Column Collage and to post it to social media with the hashtags #emptycolumns and #birrvintageweek.

The artists will respond to the architecture of the column from their perspective from outside of Birr and how it resonates with their lives, while the second strand will ask the community from Birr who are so familiar with this column in their landscape to respond.

Please note that the details of events listed above are provided by the relevant Local Authorities.