Reviewed: Technologies of Peace at the Irish Museum of Modern Art
Technologies of Peace opens in the historic Royal Hospital Kilmainham, a former military barracks now home to the Irish Museum of Modern Art. The setting itself frames the show’s interrogation of peace, placing artworks that examine conflict and repair within walls that once symbolised authority and war.
The opening pair—Ursula Burke’s Peach Caryatid (2021) and Christodoulos Panayiotou’s Untitled (5,10,20,50,100,200,500) (2016)—sets a tone of material critique. Burke re‑imagines the classical caryatid as a symbol of women’s hidden labor in wartime, while Panayiotou shreds euro banknotes to reveal the silvery substrate of Europe’s economy, turning currency into a shimmering commentary on value and power.
Further sections expand the conversation. Glenn Loughran’s Invisible Sun (2026) uses classroom‑like installations to probe how educational technologies shape democratic participation. Mladen Stilinović’s 1992 banner An Artist Who Cannot Speak English Is No Artist still resonates as a sharp rebuke of linguistic hegemony in the art world. Mairéad McClean’s intimate photographs of childhood drawings and letters expose how personal trauma lingers long after political violence ends. Anne Tallentire’s Setting Out 2 (2020) maps her pandemic‑era home with string and screws, questioning isolation and belonging. Locky Morris’s Comm (1992) recalls covert communication during the Troubles through interlocking papier‑mâché tongues, while Barbara Knezević’s Vir / Whirlpool (2025) ties the Iron Gates dam to ancient Mesolithic sculpture, reminding us that infrastructure can become a contested memory.
Sandra Johnston’s 22‑minute video Short Strand (2000) and Rita Duffy’s Watchtower 2 (2005–2006) anchor the exhibition in the lived realities of Northern Ireland’s peace process, foregrounding uncertainty, humor, and the slow reclamation of contested spaces. Together the works push the curatorial claim that peace must accommodate contradiction, discomfort, and the possibility of change. The breadth of the show rewards repeated visits, inviting viewers to linger on each artist’s nuanced mediation of history, language, and the fragile technologies that sustain coexistence.