This exhibition alters the space of Gallery 2 into a family living room with spaces to read, to listen, to watch and view materials gathered. The diverse material has been gathered through workshops with Black people and people of African heritage held in April 2022.

This exhibition is a key part of an ambitious multi-platform the FAMILY LINES Project developed by artist Alice Rekab which examines the present-day legacies of migration within Black and mixed-race culture in Ireland. It questions how one comes to belong, to one’s own body, to one’s family or nation-state, and crucially how one is excluded, exploring both trauma and strategies for survival. Rekab has worked closely with Éireann and I group, an archive of Black life for Black migrants in Ireland, alongside artists Salma Ahmed Caller, Holly Graham and Larry Achiampong, amongst others.

The FAMILY LINES Project is an unprecedented and ambitious programme over 12 months which mobilizes: 1) Public billboards sites focusing on what Black-Irish space looks like in Cork, Dublin and London; 2) Monthly online screening programme that platforms the voices of other artists of colour bringing work from the African diaspora not previously seen by audiences in Ireland, in person screenings and artists’ talks including the work of Martina Attile, Black Audio Film Collective, Ufuomo Essi, Salma Ahmed Caller, Holly Graham and Larry Achiampong; 3) participatory workshops led by Éireann & I on Race, Place, and Belonging for Black and mixed-race audiences; alongside 4) Rekab’s first major institutional solo exhibition in Gallery 1 and Éireann & I’s exhibition in Gallery 2 at the Douglas Hyde. Each stage of the project considers the importance of both platforming voices of colour and making specific spaces for self-representation and gathering, and each stage informs the next stage of the project.

Éireann and I: An archive of black life for Black migrants in Ireland. Éireann and I is a community archive consisting of found and donated stories chronicling the lives of Black migrants in Ireland. It is part of a growing movement of grassroots efforts from marginalized communities to collect and make accessible our own experiences outside of traditional archival institutions. We collaboratively curate spaces where we can make collective decisions about what is valuable for preservation, shape collective memory of our experiences, and control how our past and present stories are constructed. https://eireannandiarchive.com/