Ann Maria Healy— When Dealers Are Shamans

About

Pallas Projects/Studios are pleased to present Ann Maria Healy—When Dealers Are Shamans the twelfth exhibition of our Artist-Initiated Projects programme.

When Dealers Are Shamans is a video installation which arose out of collecting discarded medication trays whilst walking around Dublin city. The majority of these trays are the remnants of a drug called Zopiclone, a prescribed hypnotic agent or sleeping pill which is often sold illegally. When Dealers Are Shamans contemplates our desire to occupy a dream state through modalities such as medication. Amidst the North Inner City, the dealers of Zopiclone are shamans giving access points to places where unconscious thought may have become forbidden or repressed. Creating this work Healy partakes in a shamanic journey, to find her own spirit animal, but instead finds a partly lost soul in George the peacock.

Healy examines the vibrations of George’s feathers, which quiver to the speed of 25 'rattles’ per second. The same frequency of moving image. George is not rattling to attract a mate. There are no other Peacocks within his vicinity. It is possible to suggest that he is vibrating in order to increase his own conscious desire to be. Healy sees parallels between George’s hypnotic movements and those akin to the dream states induced by Zopiclone.

When Dealers Are Shamans was created with the support of Cow House Studios, Wexford and Fire Station Artists’ Studios, Dublin. Pallas Projects/Studios Artist-Initiated Projects is supported by The Arts Council.

Kris Dittel is an independent editor and curator based in Rotterdam, as well as associate curator at the Onomatopee project space and publishing house in Eindhoven. Her work is informed by her background in economics, social sciences, and by her interest in forms of communication and the relation between textual and visual language. She is the editor of several publications, exploring the format of the book as an artistic medium.

Ann Maria Healy is a visual artist based in Dublin. Her practice is concerned with reoccurrence, the power of history and narratives embedded within the human psyche. Her work expresses itself through sculptural, video and textual form. Healy is currently on residency at Fire Station Artists’ Studios 2017-20.
 Selected exhibitions include ‘Futures: Series 3 Episode 1’, Royal Hibernian Academy (2017). ‘I like to eat with my hands’, Wexford Arts Centre (2016). ‘Your ass protrudes toward the malaise’, Eight Gallery, Dublin (2015). Previous residencies include Cow House Studios, Wexford (2015) and The Banff Centre, Canada (2014). Healy is an MFA graduate of The Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam (2014) and a recipient of the Irish Arts Council, Visual Artist Bursary Award (2016). www.annmariahealy.net