Kira O'Reilly is a

performance artist 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 ...

based in the UK. She graduated from

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

School of Art in 1998, and has participated in a number of performance art festivals throughout the UK and Europe, including at the Bonington Gallery, Nottingham Trent University 1998, the National Review of Live Art, in Glasgow (1998, 2001, 2003), at Arnolfini in Bristol, at Home in London and at several European festivals including Break 21 Festival, Ljubljana,

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

, 2002 and ANTI - Contemporary Art Festival 2003,

Kuopio Kuopio ( , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Savo. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Kuopio is approximately , while the Kuopio sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mos ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. She performed in China at the Dadao performance art festival, Beijing, organised by

Shu Yang Shu Yang (; born 1969) is a Chinese Painting, painter, performance artist, photographer and curator who was born in Xi'an, China. He studied at the Xi’an Academy of Fine Art, where he received his BA in art in 1993 and his master's degree in 19 ...

2006. Between 2003 and 2004, O'Reilly undertook a residency with

SymbioticA SymbioticA is an artistic research lab at the University of Western Australia's School of Anatomy and Human Biology."Culture: Art That Touches a Nerve." Anthony King. Nature 470, 334 (17 February 2011) doi:10.1038/470334a The lab looks at bio ...

, a bio-art project based in the department of Human Anatomy,

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

. She has received several major commissions and in 2001 was invited to produce work for Span2 international performance art residency in London. Her work often involves the cutting of her skin, and recent pieces have also involved animals, including leeches and pigs. She was the focus of a major controversy in the British press, angering British animal rights activists by performing a durational piece with a dead pig, at the

Newlyn Art Gallery Newlyn Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located in Newlyn, Cornwall, UK. Opened in 1895, designed by James Hicks of Redruth and financed by John Passmore Edwards the gallery was conceived as a home and exhibition venue for the Newlyn ...

in Penzance, southwest England. As a response, O'Reilly then undertook a durational performance, "Falling Asleep With a Pig" (2009), in which the artist lived with a live pig called Delia for some days in a specially constructed sty. The work was commissioned for the show 'Interspecies' by The Arts Catalyst, and was shown at

Cornerhouse Cornerhouse was a cinema and contemporary visual arts centre next to Oxford Road Station on Oxford Street, Manchester, England, from 1985 to 2015. It had three floors of art galleries, three cinemas, a bookshop, bar and café. Cornerhouse was ...

Manchester and the A Foundation, London. Between 2016–18 Kira O’Reilly was a Lecturer, Ecology and Contemporary Performance at Theatre Academy of the

University of the Arts Helsinki The University of the Arts Helsinki (, ), also known as Uniarts Helsinki, is a Finnish arts university that was launched in the beginning of 2013. Apart from a few exceptions, it is the only university in Finland that provides education in the f ...

, where she led a new MA pilot in Ecology and Contemporary Performance. In 2017 the

Live Art Development Agency Live Art Development Agency, known by its acronym LADA, is an arts organisation and registered charity founded in London in 1999 by Lois Keidan and Catherine Ugwu. LADA provides professional advice for artists as well as producing events and p ...

published the first major survey publication of O'Reilly titled
Kira O'Reilly Untitled (Bodies)
'. The publication includes interviews, archive material and O'Reilly's own writings. In 2020 O'Reilly became International Randall Chair in sculpture at

Alfred University Alfred University is a private university in Alfred, New York, United States. It has a total undergraduate population of approximately 1,600 students. The university hosts the statutory New York State College of Ceramics, which includes The In ...

, New York.

Selected works

* inthewrongplaceness (2005–2009)
Falling Asleep with a Pig
(2009) * Unitled (for you beloved) (2008) * Untitled (Syncope) (2007) *Stair Falling (2009) In this performance O'Reilly stages a 'fall' down a flight of stairs in the nude.

References

External links

Falling Asleep with a Pig for Interspecies
The

Arts Catalyst Arts Catalyst is a visual arts organisation and charity based in Sheffield, UK. They commission artists and use art to explore social and environmental issues, provoke debate, and test out alternative ways of learning, frequently working in no ...

FALLING ASLEEP WITH A PIG - O'reilly Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oreilly, Kira British contemporary artists Living people Alumni of Cardiff School of Art and Design British performance artists Year of birth missing (living people)

Selected works

References

Further reading

External links