Alanna O'Kelly (, also spelt Alannah; born 1955) is an Irish artist, active in

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

and

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific art, site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior intervent ...

, as well as

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

, song,

land art Land art, variously known as Earth art, environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, largely associated with Great Britain and the United StatesArt in the modern era: A guide to styles, schools, & mo ...

and film. She is a member of

Aosdána Aosdána ( , ; from , 'people of the arts') is an Irish association or academy of artists, each of whom must have produced a distinguished body of work of genuine originality. It was created in 1981 by the country's Arts Council on the initiati ...

, an elite association of Irish artists.

Biography

O'Kelly was born in

Gorey Gorey () is a market town in north County Wexford, Ireland. It is bypassed by the main N11 road (Ireland), M11 Dublin to Wexford road. The town is also connected to the Gorey railway station, railway network along the same route. Local newspape ...

in 1955. She studied at the Regional Technical College Galway,

National College of Art and Design The National College of Art and Design (NCAD) is Ireland's oldest art institution, offering the largest range of art and design degrees at undergraduate and postgraduate level in the country. Originating as a drawing school in 1746, many of t ...

(NCAD, Dublin) and the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

(London). Her 1990 work ''The Country Bloom, A Garden and a Grave'' was described by Stephanie McBride as " econfiguring

Achill Achill Island (; ) is an island off the west coast of Republic of Ireland, Ireland in the barony (Ireland), historical barony of Burrishoole, County Mayo. It is the largest of the Irish isles and has an area of approximately . Achill had a popu ...

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

through image and text to present a narrative of local loss, mourning and

Famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...

memories." It was selected by ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

'' as part of "Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks." She represented Ireland at the 1996

São Paulo Art Biennial The São Paulo Art Biennial ( Portuguese: ''Bienal de São Paulo'') was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennale (in existence since 1895), which serves as ...

and was elected to

that same year. She performed a traditional

keen Keen, Keen's, or Keens may refer to: People * Keen (surname) * Thomas Keens (1870-1953), British politician Music and song * "Keen" (song), a single by That Petrol Emotion * Keen Records, American record label * Keening, traditional Irish la ...

at the "funeral" of Patrick Ireland in 2008. This performance was highly praised, ''The Recorder: A Journal of the American Irish Historical Society'' saying "The keening by Alannah (O'Kelly) was wordless and tore right down to your root. It was one of the most extraordinary things, perhaps the most extraordinary, I've ever heard. It's still in my ears. It remains present to me." Aosdána says that her work "explores ideas of the psychic conflicts of our shared history and the continuity of tradition." Her work is held at the

Irish Museum of Modern Art The Irish Museum of Modern Art (), also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. It is located in Kilmainham, Dublin. History Irish art collector Gordon Lam ...

and

Ireland's Great Hunger Museum Ireland's Great Hunger Museum () was founded in 2012 in Hamden, Connecticut as part of Quinnipiac University to document and educate the public on the Irish Great Famine of 1845–1852, as well as its causes and consequences. In addition to lite ...

(Connecticut).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Okelly, Alannah 1955 births Living people Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art 20th-century Irish women artists 21st-century Irish women artists Alumni of the National College of Art and Design Aosdána members Irish performance artists Irish installation artists Land artists Alumni of Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology People from Gorey