The Crone
STARLING is inspired by The Crone as a state of wisdom and maturity through which to weave and transcend waves of multigenerational feminist and transfeminist thought. The Crone is the one with the most experience in the world. She is free of societal and reproductive expectations, no longer defined by what she must produce or perform. She encompasses the human condition, because she’s endured it and rebirthed herself —arriving at a third, most powerful stage of life.
In celebration of International Women’s Day 2026, we partnered with our friends Ormston House in curating a programme of film, workshop, and live performance.
The programme brings together rarely seen works by Irish surrealist filmmaker Flora Kerrigan (active throughout the 1950s and 1960s) alongside films from No-Wave legend Vivienne Dick. We’re delighted to be joined by our friends Synthesize_Her and to welcome live performances from artists Shirani Bolle, Bea McMahon and Síoda.
Synthesize_Her [S_H] is a feminist sound technology organisation that promotes education and experimentation for FLINTA* (female, lesbian, intersex, trans, agender) people in backend music production. They do this through workshops in sound engineering, electronics, instrument fabrication, deep listening, within the historical and sociological context of women using technology creatively.
Flora Kerrigan, born in Cork in 1940, attended Crawford Art College before becoming an active member of the Cork Cine Club in the late 1950s and 1960s. Over eight years, she crafted remarkable animation and live-action shorts on 8mm film, earning international accolades and an airing on RTÉ. The surreal playfulness of her animations belies the painstaking meticulousness of their production, while her live-action films, featuring friends and family, are absurd, comedic, haunting and, most strikingly, explore female sexuality and desire.
Shirani Bolle is an artist based in Limerick with Sri Lankan, Dutch-German, and British heritage. Her practice encompasses performance, text, sculpture, and sound. Bolle investigates the role and status of women in both domestic and media contexts, utilising established tropes to consider patriarchal conceptions of femininity. Bolle’s first solo exhibition this has nothing to do with me is currently on display at Sirius Arts Centre, Cork.
Vivienne Dick makes multilayered, open-ended films which combine elements of documentary, performance and fiction. Her work is concerned with gender politics, ecology, and possible futures. Her early films are associated with the Super 8 No Wave film movement of late seventies New York. Recent retrospectives include Queer Porto (2023), Jeu de Paume, Paris (2021), IMMA (2017). Group shows include Echo Delay Reverb at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, (2026), Women in Revolt, Tate Britain (2023-4) and ‘Who are you staring at, Pompidou (2023). Her feature documentary New York Our Time, was awarded the Dublin Film Critics Award at DIFF in 2020. Her work is distributed by Lux UK and The Film Makers Coop NYC.
Bea McMahon is a visual artist living in Amsterdam. She uses many different media including sculpture, performance, song, dance, moving image and installation, often working in collaboration with others. She completed a degree in Mathematics at Trinity College, Dublin and a Masters in Mathematical Physics before going to the Rijksakademie Residency in Amsterdam. She has recently shown new works at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Complex, EVA International, and the Hugh Lane Gallery in Ireland; and at the Paper Biennale at Museum Rijkswijk, den Haag, and at Shimmer, Rotterdam 2023 in The Netherlands.
SÍODA is a digital multimedia artist from the west of Ireland. Her work focuses on creating interactions between music and video, and exploring how our perception responds to them. With a background in loud, vibrant electronic music and a propensity for picking up new skills and techniques, she strives for authenticity by any means (and any medium) possible. Her work is unabashedly queer and unapologetically maximalist. <3
Photos by Julie McLoughlin