CORK.- Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh, County Cork, Ireland, presents an exhibition by artist Shirani Bolle, this has nothing to do with me, marking her first solo show and most comprehensive presentation to date. Bolle is based in Limerick City, Ireland, and has Sri Lankan, Dutch-German, and British heritage. Her practice is shaped by both lived and inherited experiences of displacement and survival. As she puts it, “Once I found a gun concealed in a book in my granny’s knitting cupboard and that pretty much sums up this exhibition.”
Bolle is self-taught, having developed a practice beyond the dominant, canonical art historical framework. Her practice spans performance, text, sculpture, and sound, with textiles functioning as a central medium that integrates these disciplines. She employs storytelling as a primary method and draws on a broad range of references, from Central and South Asian material culture, such as Sri Lankan traditional masks and clothing, to Western popular culture, including music and advertising.
Bolle examines the intersection of personal and cultural narratives, focusing on her existence as a woman and a racialized and neurodivergent individual. She explores notions of monstrosity to challenge idealized perspectives of womanhood shaped by patriarchal conceptions of the female condition, particularly within domestic and media contexts. In addition, she considers how language and behavior construct identity, specifically paying attention to the strategies and mechanisms of othering in the Western world.
Intergenerational trauma serves as the basis for Leo (2026), created specifically for this exhibition. The work comprises a photograph depicting a masked man seated in an old chair in a garden, wearing old-fashined clogs. These shoes are also displayed on the floor next to a suitcase, one side of which is painted in the colors of the Netherlandish national flag. The work is inspired by the artist’s father, Leo, whose family perished in a Nazi concentration camp and who was raised in the Netherlands. All the objects belonged to him and evoke anti-Jewish imagery from Nazi propaganda.
Multiple amorphous, freestanding figures are shown throughout the exhibition. They represent “monsters,” the artist’s name for a way of embracing the nonnormative body. They are composed of textiles, and she makes them spontaneously using various techniques, reclaiming the medium from its minor position within art history. They are visually compelling and sensuous, conveying energy and exuberance. They include various costumes and props through which Bolle points to biographical details—for example a gas mask. Sometimes they are wearable, and she uses them in performances, both live and recorded.
Treaty, Thank You Very Much, and Treaty (Baby) (all 2025) exemplify this type of work. Their arrangement comments on the conventional family structure, with the “father” upright, overseeing the subordinate “mother” and “child.” The “mother” holds a dishcloth and a wooden spoon, symbolizing the conventional role of women in society, and wears a cape, which alludes both to Elvis Presley, revered by her mother in her youth, and to Superwoman, honoring her mother’s resilience during her marriage.
Elsewhere in the exhibition is The Show (2025), a film in which the artist sings, cabaret style, in a bar, wearing a handcrafted dress, before an attentive audience that includes her mother. The song parodies the fear of death, a universal human quality, as a means to scrutinize the artist’s and her family’s past ordeals. The film is displayed on a screen set within a colorful, stage-like environment constructed from yet more textiles.
The exhibition showcases a further variety of works that utilize motifs of abjection, satire, fantasy, and transgression. Several banners feature slogans that carry ideological, sexual, and psychological significance—for example one states “It’s a Girl,” while another reads “I Wish You Were Never Born,” and yet another proclaims “Belonging Is Violence” (all 2025). The installation Comfort Fruit (2025) stems from a performance of the same name that scrutinizes activism in the digital age, highlighting the tension between effecting change and the ineffectiveness of “virtual” expressions of solidarity.
Overall, the works provide critical reflections on motherhood, gender-based violence, and care, blending politics with raw emotion. Bolle comments: “I focus on everyday domestic settings, places that seem ordinary but can feel strange, familiar, and tense all at once. I look for the stories hidden in daily life to understand how these places shape people and communities, both emotionally and spiritually.”
