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Artist Jesse Jones in conversation with transfeminisms co-curator Maura Reilly followed by a performance by Jesse Jones and Stephanie Lamprea. During the performance Jones’ new sculpture Thurible will be activated by burning frankincense, sage, Palo Santo, human hair, and nard, also known as spikenard - an aromatic plant associated with Mary Magdalene.
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Jesse Jones, based in Dublin, explores the intersections of film, performance, and installation, often through collaborative efforts, to examine how historical communal culture informs contemporary social and political landscapes. Her multi-platform practice reimagines the relationship between the Law and the body, employing speculative feminism and expanded cinema to evoke magical counter-narratives to the State.
Notable projects include "In the Shadow of the State" (2016) and representing Ireland at the Venice Biennale 2017 with "Tremble Tremble." Currently the inaugural artist in residency for the King's Inn society of Ireland, Jones investigates the connections between Law, Testimony, and performance. Recent solo exhibitions span Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh; Project Arts Centre, Dublin; and ICA Singapore, with upcoming presentations at Guggenheim Bilbao and projects at Kunsthalle Gent and Rua Red's The Magdalen Project. Jones also teaches at TU Dublin School of Creative Arts, based on Sherkin Island, Cork.
Maura Reilly PhD is Director of the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University. She is the Founding Curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, where she developed and launched the first exhibition and public programming space in the USA devoted entirely to feminist art. While there, she organized several landmark exhibitions, including the permanent installation of Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, the blockbuster Global Feminisms (co-curated with Linda Nochlin), among many others.
Reilly has curated over two dozen exhibitions internationally with a focus on under-represented artists and social justice concerns, including the critically acclaimed Wandamba yalungka/Winds change direction which she organized for PERFORMA in 2021 and, most recently, Judy Watson: shadow bone in 2023.
Reilly has authored several books on global contemporary artists and has also written extensively on curatorial practice, Curatorial Activism: Towards an Ethics of Curating (Thames & Hudson, 2018), which has received many accolades, including a listing as one of the “Top 10 Best Art Books” of 2018 from the New York Times. She is next book titled “Museums & Social Justice,” is forthcoming from Thames & Hudson in 2025, followed by a textbook on contemporary feminist art, co-authored with Jacqueline Millner. Reilly received her M.A. and PhD in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, under the supervision of esteemed feminist art historian, Linda Nochlin. For more information, about her curatorial practice and to download PDFs of her writing, visit: www.maurareilly.com
Colombian-American soprano Stephanie Lamprea is an architect of new sounds and expressions as a performer, recitalist, curator, and improviser, specializing in contemporary classical repertoire. Trained as an operatic coloratura, she uses her voice as a mechanism of avant-garde performance art, creating “maniacal shifts of vocal production and character… like an icepick through the skull” (Jason Eckardt). She has performed at Roulette Intermedium, Sound Scotland, Southbank Centre, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, CCA Glasgow, and Casa da Música. She has collaborated with Riot Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, the City of London Sinfonia, Hebrides Ensemble, So Percussion, and Post Coal Prom Queen.