Belfast International Festival of Performance Art 2025
Fine Art Lecture with Sally O’Dowd
Location: Conor Lecture Theatre, Belfast School of Art
Date: Thursday 13 February 2025
Time: 3.15 pm - 4:30pm
Please arrive between 3:00pm and 3:15pm and a member of the team will guide you to the lecture theatre. The Conor Lecture Theatre is an accessible venue with lifts and accessible toilets.
There is limited street parking around the University that requires meter payment.
Bbeyond and BIFPA committee are delighted to share the first event of BIFPA 25 supported by Belfast School of Art as part of their Fine Art Lecture Series.
Artist statement - Sally O’Dowd
‘I studied in London and Cyprus. My practice has had a strong performance leaning since Middlesex University London, when my tutors, primarily Jean Fischer and Teresita Deniz , encouraged me to consider recording the movement, pace and action I was exploring through drawing, in film and performance instead. We were also encouraged to self initiate projects and events. Later, while working for Damien Hirst, I was surrounded by artists and makers and we started creating events together. When I returned to Ireland in 2009 an incredibly active arts organiser friend, invited me and my cousin to curate a festival tent together and that was the start of trans-art.cavan. We have been curating exhibitions since 2011 and I have been actively participating as an artist also. We established the Townhall in Cavan as a permanent space for arts.
I moved to Belfast in September 2016 and have had a family here since. At the same time, I was a founding member of Vault Artist Studios where I continue to work and programme the gallery. Last year I received the Artist Career Enhancement Scheme from Arts Council of Northern Ireland and my drawings are currently on display in the Ulster Museum, Belfast.’
Sally O’Dowd
Sally O'Dowd (b.1980) is a visual artist and artist-led curator with a socially engaged practice exploring the enormity of time through psychogeography and feminism. She draws armpit hair and hedgerows, and events encouraging positive social change. She creates absurd, socially awkward performances about womanhood, motherhood, and falling out of oneself. She delivers participatory drawing sessions.
She is a recent recipient of the prestigious Arts Council of Northern Ireland Artist Career Enhancement Scheme.
Her drawings are held in the Historic Royal Palaces, Northern Ireland Civil Service and Arts Council of Northern Ireland Collections.
Sally co-founded Townhall Cavan Arts Space, and is a founding member, gallery team member, and studio holder at Vault Artist Studios, Belfast.