Tom Flanagan (b. 1981, Ireland) and Megs Morley (b. 1981, Ireland), currently based in Galway, both received a BA Fine Art Sculpture at the Limerick School of Art and Design, before completing Masters in Visual Arts Practices in Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology in 2008. Their collaborative work is shown in both film and gallery contexts. Most recently, they have been commissioned by TG4 – the Irish language television channel – and the Arts Council of Ireland to create the short film Allagóirí Chumhachta (Allegories of Power) for national broadcast in 2016. They have recently participated in exhibitions, including: Still the Barbarians (2016) EVA International; Irish Art Does Not Exist (2014), Station Independent Projects, New York; Agitationism (2014), EVA International, Ireland; B Lucca Experimental Film Festival (2013), Tuscany, Italy; Labour and Lockout (2013), Limerick City Gallery of Art; Momentous Times (2013), CCA Derry~Londonderry; Building on Ruins (2013), Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles; Guth Gafa International Documentary Film Festival (2013) Ireland, Brest International Festival de l'Image Alternative Film (2013) France ; Peaks of Present, Sheets of Past (2013), Mermaid Arts Centre; Rencontres Internationales (2011), Centre du Pompidou, Paris, and Berlin (2012); A Series of Navigations (2012), The Model, Sligo; Post-Fordlândia (2012), The Good Children Gallery, New Orleans; Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival (2012), Hawick, Scotland; Post-Fordlândia (2011), Galway Arts Centre. Public commissions include Aughty (2012), a feature-length film commissioned by Aughty Public ArtProjects and Galway County Council.
Statement
Tom Flanagan and Megs Morley’s collaborative work is an ongoing exploration of the language of cinema and its relationship to political power and collective memory. Often working from fragmentary and peripheral political histories and contexts, their work explores the space between images, memory, knowledge, and power. They are interested in interrogating received knowledge and understanding, exploring alternative narratives generated by social history, archives, testimonies, and myth. They take a multidisciplinary approach to developing their work, and in the past have collaborated with activists, playwrights, and actors – most recently with composers Fergal Lawler and Jürgen Simpson, and choreographer Fearghus Ó Conchúir, to provoke the relationship between the language of politics, performance, and cinema.
