SHEILAGH O’LEARY’S

TWINNING LINES

Portraits from Newfoundland & Ireland

by LISA MOORE

THE NEWFOUNDLAND ACTOR, BRIAN HENNESSEY, HAS A DISTINCTIVE NOSE, VERY SIMILAR IN SHAPE AND SIZE TO THE NOSE OF THE IRISH THEATRE DIRECTOR BEN HENNESSEY. BOTH MEN HAVE SIMILARLY SHAPED FOREHEADS. THEY BOTH HAVE A GAZE THAT IS RECEPTIVE AND ENGAGING, COMMANDING AND INCLUSIVE. MOST TELLING, PERHAPS, BOTH MEN HAVE HANDSOME, ENIGMATIC HALF-SMILES, SEEMINGLY FULL OF WIT. AND THEY ALSO SHARE, OF COURSE, THE SURNAME HENNESSEY. CAN ANY OTHER CULTURAL, HISTORICAL OR GENEALOGICAL CONCLUSIONS BE DRAWN FROM PUTTING THE PORTRAITS OF THESE TWO MEN SIDE BY SIDE?

Mary Power (NL)	Emmet Power (Ireland)

Portraiture is a compelling art form because it creates, in the viewer, a craving for narrative. It is impossible to look at a good portrait – one that captures an ineffable presence – and not want to know more. Who are these men and women? Are they married? Do they have children? What is important to them? What do they have in common? Can such characteristics as kindness, intelligence, wit, and honesty really be read in a person’s face?

It could be argued that a portrait is always a work involving three creators: the subject, the photographer and the viewer. Perhaps it is because Sheilagh O’Leary is charismatic and bristling with curiosity herself that these subjects, to a person, appear generous, forthright and emboldened. O’Leary’s exhibition draws from the viewer a similar curiosity, and raises important questions concerning our assumptions about race, history and culture.

Alex Brennan (NL)	Tina Brennan (Ireland)

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of O’Leary’s exhibition of Newfoundland and Irish subjects paired by the simple virtue of sharing a last name is the compelling desire she stirs in the viewer to discover physical similarities between both subjects. We find ourselves looking for these similarities despite the subjects’ obvious differences in gender, age and the lack of any hard evidence, other than a shared surname, concerning a genetic link.

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of O’Leary’s exhibition of Newfoundland and Irish subjects paired by the simple virtue of sharing a last name is the compelling desire she stirs in the viewer to discover physical similarities between both subjects. We find ourselves looking for these similarities despite the subjects’ obvious differences in gender, age and the lack of any hard evidence, other than a shared surname, concerning a genetic link.

Ed Coady (NL)	Ed Cody (Ireland)

Nevertheless, it’s hard to look at the portraits of Tina Brennan and Alex Brennan and not notice their shared dimples, fair complexions, and their strangely similar, ultra-luminous grins. What traces of our Irish heritage are still visible in the Newfoundland face? And most importantly, what does this link mean politically and culturally in the age of globalization?

In many ways, Sheilagh O’Leary is being parodic with the notion of a quest for Newfoundland’s Irish ancestry. Reliable genealogical records concerning Newfoundland ancestry are scant and much specific information of this sort has been lost. The idea of creating a sense of kinship, belonging and strengthening notions of nationalism by virtue of shared genealogical roots has, historically speaking, been full of political nettles, sometimes causing an atmosphere of exclusivity, even tragedy. In the age of globalization, with mass immigration and racial intermarriage, it becomes impossible to identify an Irish face. Old stereotypes of the Irish – red hair, fair skin, green eyes – can no longer encompass the rich variety of Irish faces, if they ever did.

Joel Hynes (NL)	David Hynes (Ireland)

And yet many Newfoundland authors, performers and visual artists have recently been Alex Brennan (NL) Tina Brennan (Ireland) Ed Coady (NL) Ed Cody (Ireland) 8 VOLUME 98 NUMBER 1 2005 seeking to re-establish cultural ties with Ireland. There is a renewed curiosity about our shared heritage.

This probably has much to do with Ireland’s recent economic boom, coupled with the arrival of a generation of Newfoundland artists too young to have experienced Newfoundland as a soveriegn nation. Unlike our parents, many working Newfoundland artists were born Canadian. We have inherited Newfoundland’s undisputedly uncomfortable position within Canada. Though we entered Confederation in 1949, a province rich in natural and human resources, we have not fully benefitted from them because of unfair transfer payments with Ottawa and a general attitude held by the rest of the country that Newfoundland is a have-not province in search of charity. In the face of this disparity it is not surprising that Newfoundlanders are returning to our European roots to strengthen our notion of cultural identity.

Mack Furlong (NL)	Nicky Furlong (Ireland)

Why, then, examine these important and complex questions of cultural identity with portraiture?

Because each portrait engages the viewer’s imagination in a rich and compelling narrative, similar to the narrative posed by the list of passengers coming to the new world – the details in both cases are few and superficial – a list of names and dates in a ship’s log, or in the case of portraiture, a whole personality suggested by a glint in the eye. But these details are enough to make us crave more of the story.