The Complex presents an exhibition of newly commissioned work

by Naomi Sex

The Gallery, 21 Arran Street East, Dublin 7, D07YY97

Preview: 04 October 6pm - 8pm

Exhibition Run: 05 - 18 October

Gallery Opening Hours: Monday - Friday 10am - 5pm, Saturday 12pm - 5pm

Naomi Sex will present a solo exhibition in The Complex Gallery entitled SPEAK BACK, a multi-screen video installation that features scenographic backdrops, actors, scripted performance, and prop-objects. My communications with Naomi began when she invited me to visit an installation of a work in progress at the Fire Station Artists' Studios project space in 2021. The work emphasised the use of prop objects and their perceived value in relation to art objects. Andrew Sofer, in his publication The Stage Life of Props, purports that theatre props can often be undervalued and stored carelessly - whereas the art object is given a different status and treatment.(1) The art object is stored meticulously, catalogued and assigned a higher status within the curated exhibition. I was initially drawn to Naomi’s practice because it operates in “the grey zone”, defined by theorist Claire Bishop as the space between the black box theatre and the white cube gallery.(2) The Gallery at The Complex operates in a similar way, existing somewhere between an industrial warehouse and a white cube gallery.

I visited Naomi at her home during April 2023. She had temporarily turned her sitting room and home studio into a project space to present new developments in the work since 2021. Her home studio contained a flat screen TV presenting one of three actors featuring in this show; Sean McDonagh appeared, a middle-aged man wearing bargain basement, taupe, chinos and a blue jumper. He enters the frame confused, reluctantly holding foam packing material, the confusion continually progressing to agitation when he is unexpectedly tasked with tidying away unidentified objects with no instructions. In a curious way it felt somewhat familiar, not that I had felt this way before, but I am familiar with this person. I have been around him before. We moved downstairs to the sitting room, a sort of locum Gallery 2, where another screen was set up and some props placed in proximity. In this video Susan Sex and Venus Patel performed a two-hander that centred on the problematics of being bequeathed a tortoise, and all the future problems it could pose for whoever cares for it. In this piece, Susan plays devil’s advocate and poses a series of “what if scenarios”, a set of twin Venuses nonchalantly batting off any unforeseen problems with a round of not-entirely-convincing solutions. Pleasantly reminiscent of a generation gap that consistently incites familial conflicts, the stereotypical naive aloofness of young adulthood in opposition with a steady cynicism that allegedly comes with age.

Note from the artist: Speak Back is informed by “performative speech act” theory, examples of speech acts are classified as follows; a proposal, a dare, a bequest etc(3) Contemporary theorist, Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick complicates these classifications using her key term “peri-performative”, which she argues can produce an alternate, open space of potential in ‘the neighbourhood’ of speech acts as they are exemplified above. Sedgewick asks what is at stake if a marriage proposal is declined? Or a dare is not accepted? Or a bequest cannot be bequeathed? This topsy-turvy, cross-section of thinking and questioning framed the script-writing process for this body of work.(4) The actors do not have defined characters, and the scripts do not follow a conventional narrative. Costume choices, installation devices and scenography attempt to operate idiosyncratically and imbue the work with personality, and ideas of ownership. More broadly, SPEAK BACK employs off-beat linguistic structures to connect with themes of power and asymmetries of value.

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Naomi Sex is an Irish Visual Artist, her practice operates in the space where theatre and the gallery space intersect. In this regard, she writes scripts and works with actors employing props in event-based exhibitions. In 2013 she was awarded The Arts Council of Ireland’s Visual Art Project Award, 2013 and The Dublin City Council’s Incubation Space Award for The Synchronised Lecture Series, a performative event that featured in nine key Irish educational institutions simultaneously. In 2014 she was selected for The Artist in Residency Program at The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) where she presented performance work at The Project Space and curated the 6iX Degrees event. In 2016, she produced a touring performance entitled Cheek By Jowl which was awarded The Arts Council Visual Arts Touring and Dissemination Award and The Fingal County Council Artist’s Work Scheme. The performance toured to Limerick City Gallery (LCG), Crawford Art Gallery, (CAG) and completed the tour at IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art).

In 2017, Naomi presented a solo exhibition entitled Surface and Silence at The Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), Dublin, Ireland.  She served as a Board of Director at The Blackchurch Print Studio (as Chair and Secretary), she was a Director on the Board of Visual Artists Ireland (VAI) between 2014 2015. In 2012, she completed a practice-based PhD. Naomi was funded The Arts Council Visual Arts Bursary Award, 2020, The Artist’s Covid Fund, 2021 and The Agility Award, 2023. She is working towards a major new solo exhibition entitled SPEAK BACK at The Complex, October 2024. Recent commissions include Small Night Projects Zine (curated by Laura Fitzgerald, Alan Phelan and James Merrigan), in response to The Andy Warhol Exhibition at The Hugh Lane Gallery and “A Matter of Time”, curated by Dawn Williams at Crawford Art Gallery, 2024. Naomi has a forthcoming solo exhibition at VISUAL, September 2025.

Proudly supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin City Council.

Production still, It’s A Potato, featuring Susan Sex, Venus Patel and Sean McDonagh, 2024. Credit: Jenny Brady