We are thrilled to welcome IMMA Collection artist Amanda Coogan this May to perform her work ‘Yellow’, now on show as part of Chapter One, Queer Embodiment, of The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now, on Saturday, 7 May. The live performance will commence at 12noon and will run throughout the day.

A woman dressed in a large yellow dress, continuously washing her enormous skirt in a bucket of soap water over 8 hours, to the intermittent strains of a piano composition by Franz Schubert, examining the frail and yet indomitable nature of human spirit; survival and rebirth.  An exploration of a repeated action over a long period of time, Yellow alludes to many things, the Magdalene laundries, bathing infants, female sexuality, contemporary performance practice, endurance and trance. It is a physically challenging performance. Over the duration it throws the performer into an endurance related vertigo. Through this physical challenge the audience collude with the performer. The performance reflects back at the audience, offering a plethora of personal references that complete the reading of the piece.

Amanda Coogan’s practice is durational live performance – these powerful live events are fundamental to her videos and photographs. Her expertise lies in her ability to condense an idea to its very essence and communicate it through her body. Speaking about this work joining the IMMA Collection, Coogan said, ‘The female body as a site of art-making is the centrality of my practice and as such the collection of this embodied and ephemeral contemporary artwork for consideration for future generations is deeply humbling.