Pallas Projects/Studios are pleased to present Camilla Hanney—Lament the third exhibition of our 2022 Artist-Initiated Projects programme.

Lament explores the tradition of Irish ‘keening’ and its deep-rooted relationship with catharsis, loss and care.

Keening was a mourning ritual performed at wakes by three or more women who would use a combination of chanting, rocking, clapping, singing and crying as a cathartic expression of grief. The keeners were said to have cared for the souls of the departed to ensure they were guided safely away from the bodies of the deceased.

We are at a moment in time where society is caught in a cycle of collective loss. Loss speaks most directly of lost lives but when looked at under a broader spectrum loss can extend itself further to acknowledge a loss of jobs, a loss of education, a loss of economy, and a loss of time. The effects of the pandemic have seen us arrive in a societal wake. We have reached a stage where a healing process can begin. Care and repair present themselves as important themes in this body of work and recognize that keening was an act of care, encouraging the emotional process of repair.