Array Collective

Array Collective are known for projects that support "gay rights, marriage equality, feminism, reproductive rights and anti-austerity activism". The Turner Prize judges commended the group for their work to "inspire social change through art" and "working collaboratively with local communities".{{Cite web|last=Tate|title=Array Collective Win Turner Prize 2021 – Press Release|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/press/press-releases/array-collective-win-turner-prize-2021|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211201212057/https://www.tate.org.uk/press/press-releases/array-collective-win-turner-prize-2021 |archive-date=2021-12-01 |access-date=3 January 2022|website=Tate|language=en-GB}}

Array Collective's activities have included placard-making workshops and participating in activist events and demonstrations with elaborate costumes and props.{{Cite web|title=Culture Night at The Black Box - Full Programme|url=https://www.blackboxbelfast.com/event/culture-night-at-the-black-box-full-programme/|access-date=2022-01-03|website=The Black Box|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|date=2 December 2021|title=The 11-strong Array collective on winning the Turner prize: 'We'll have to have a meeting about this!'|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/dec/02/array-collective-winning-turner-prize-belfast-bar-drinking-den|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105211213/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/dec/02/array-collective-winning-turner-prize-belfast-bar-drinking-den|archive-date=5 January 2022|access-date=3 January 2021|website=The Guardian|language=en}}{{Cite web|date=2021-12-01|title=Northern Ireland art group Array Collective wins 2021 Turner prize|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/dec/01/northern-ireland-art-group-array-collective-wins-2021-turner-prize|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211222034537/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/dec/01/northern-ireland-art-group-array-collective-wins-2021-turner-prize|archive-date=22 December 2021|access-date=3 January 2022|website=The Guardian|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Array Collective win the 2021 Turner Prize|url=https://artreview.com/array-collective-win-the-2021-turner-prize/|access-date=2022-01-03|website=artreview.com|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=Magazine|first=Wallpaper*|date=2021-12-01|title=Array Collective wins the Turner Prize 2021|url=https://www.wallpaper.com/art/turner-prize-2021-winner-array-collective|access-date=2022-01-03|website=Wallpaper*}}

The Druithaib’s Ball - for which they were nominated for the Turner Prize{{Cite web |last=Laws |first=Joanne |date=2021-07-21 |title=The North is Now {{!}} The Visual Artists' News Sheet Online |url=https://visualartistsireland.com/the-north-is-now |access-date=2022-07-29 |language=en-GB}} - has had two forms to date. The first was an event held at the Black Box venue in Belfast in 2021. The event was conceived as "a wake for the centenary of Ireland’s partition",{{Cite web|title=Good luck to Array Collective who are finalists in #TURNERPRIZE2021 {{!}} Arts Council of Northern Ireland|url=http://artscouncil-ni.org/news/good-luck-to-array-collective-who-are-finalists-in-turnerprize2021|access-date=2022-01-03|website=artscouncil-ni.org|language=en}} "which involved a phantasmagoria of performances, stories and wild costumes bringing a carnivalesque lightness to an often dark, difficult and divided political backdrop". A second iteration of the work was installed at the 2021-22 Turner exhibition held in Coventry during its year as UK City of Culture. The installation took the form of an immersive síbín space [anglicised spelling shebeen] or a “pub without permission”,{{Cite web|title=Winner Array Collective brings political charge to Turner Prize conversation|url=https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/array-collective-turner-prize-art-081221|access-date=2022-01-03|website=www.itsnicethat.com|language=en}} filled with banners, photographs, ashtrays, and snacks.{{Cite web|date=2021-12-09|title=Array Collective Shine at this Year's Edition of the Turner Prize {{!}}|url=https://flash---art.com/2021/12/array-collective/|access-date=2022-01-03|website=Flash Art|language=en-US}} A film of the Black Box event was shown in the síbín installation. The group imagined the space as “a place to gather outside the sectarian divides”, in reference to the historic conflict between Irish Catholics and Protestants.

The performers of "The Druithaib's Ball" event and subsequent installation are Vasiliki Stasinaki, Richard O’Leary, Cleamairí Feirste, Phillip Hession, Méabh Meir and Rosa Tralee.{{Cite web|title=Array Studios/Collective on Instagram: "Array Collective have been so grateful to be given an opportunity to shine a light on the ecology of art and activism in the North of…"|url=https://www.instagram.com/p/CXBQaUVInyb/}}

Array's nomination and their Turner installation had a mixed critical reception. The White Pube review notes that "The whole room takes a jumble of things: queer aesthetics, performance, drag and activist aesthetics (and all the loaded meaning and weighty content that comes with them) as its main vocabulary, all in its true and messiest sense [...] The resulting work is palpable and urgent; it made me want to scream, but in a good way".{{Cite web|title=The White Pube {{!}} Turner Prize 2021, Bumper Pack|url=https://www.thewhitepube.co.uk/turnerprize2021|access-date=2022-01-03|website=the-white-pube|language=en}} The Guardian's art critic Jonathan Jones questioned the "aesthetic achievement" of the installation while noting how it represented the "work of people who deploy their gifts in useful ways far from London galleries".{{Cite web|date=1 December 2021|title='If only it actually served pints': our critic on the pub that took the Turner prize|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/dec/01/our-critic-pub-turner-prize-served-pints-array-northern-ireland|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220104201722/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/dec/01/our-critic-pub-turner-prize-served-pints-array-northern-ireland|archive-date=4 January 2022|access-date=3 January 2022|website=The Guardian|language=en}} [https://artreview.com/array-collective-win-the-2021-turner-prize/ Alt URL]

The Druithaib's Ball came to viral prominence in early 2022 when TikTok content creator @[https://www.tiktok.com/@itsreefa itsreefa] uploaded an 8-second long video entitled, "[https://www.tiktok.com/@itsreefa/video/7052366362907266310?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7051323024716842502 Welcome to Coventry] " on 12 January. The video's verbal exchange between the user and an artist in the street became a widely used TikTok sound for its wholesome and absurd delivery: "What's this?"/ "It's an art project."/"OK, I like it. Picasso. That way."{{Cite web |date=2022-02-07 |title=The "OK I Like It, Picasso" TikTok Trend, Explained |url=https://www.hercampus.com/culture/ok-i-like-it-picasso-tiktok-trend-explained/ |access-date=2022-04-05 |website=www.hercampus.com |language=en-US}} As of 5 April 2022, the video has been viewed 46.7M times, and its original audio has been used by over 200K users,{{Cite web |last=ReefaTV |title=Whats this I like it Picasso Yeah datway created by ReefaTV {{!}} Popular songs on TikTok |url=https://www.tiktok.com/music/Whats-this-I-like-it-Picasso-Yeah-datway-7052366336474778373 |access-date=2022-04-05 |website=TikTok |language=en}} amassing around 989M views in total.{{Cite web |last=Yedroudj |first=Latifa |date=2022-02-22 |title=Coventry student goes viral on TikTok for "I like it Picasso" trend |url=https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventry-student-goes-viral-tiktok-23149788 |access-date=2022-04-05 |website=CoventryLive |language=en}} Some days after the video's viral visibility, the artist in the video was confirmed to be Druithaib's Ball performer Rosa Tralee, carrying out a re-staging of their performance on the final day of the Herbert Gallery's Turner Prize exhibition.{{Cite web |title=Login • Instagram |url=https://www.instagram.com/accounts/login/?next=/tv/CY61Yk9lZpO/ |access-date=2022-04-05 |website=www.instagram.com}}

Array Collective are Sighle Bhreathnach-Cashell, Sinead Bhreathnach-Cashell, Jane Butler, Emma Campbell, Alessia Cargnelli, Mitch Conlon, Clodagh Lavelle, Grace McMurray, Stephen Millar, Laura O'Connor, Thomas Wells. Campbell, Cargnelli and O'Connor all gained Doctorates from Ulster University, and Bhreathnach-Cashell, Butler, Lavelle and Millar are all Ulster alumni.{{Cite web|title=Ulster University PhD Researchers and Alumni in Array Collective win Turner Prize|url=https://www.ulster.ac.uk/news/2021/december/ulster-university-students-and-alumni-in-array-collective-win-turner-prize|access-date=2022-01-03|website=www.ulster.ac.uk|language=en-GB}}

2021: Winners of the Turner Prize, with runners-up: Black Obsidian Sound System, Cooking Sections, Gentle/Radical and Project Art Works. The Selecter frontwoman Pauline Black presented Array Collective with the award at Coventry Cathedral. They collected the award with three of the members’ children in attendance.

2021-2022: The Turner Prize exhibition at The Herbert, Coventry, 29 September 2021 – 12 January 2022.{{Cite web|title=ARRAY COLLECTIVE WIN TURNER PRIZE 2021 - The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum|url=https://www.theherbert.org/news/232/array_collective_win_turner_prize_2021|access-date=2022-01-03|website=www.theherbert.org}} Array Collective also added an etching of The Druithaib's Ball into the Gallery 2 displays at The Herbert.

October - December 2019: an installation 'As Others See Us' and a symposium 'If You Don't Play the Game, Don't Make the Rules' at Jerwood Collaborate! London.{{Cite web|title=Symposium: Array Collective presents 'If you don't play the game, don't make the rules'|url=https://jerwoodarts.org/exhibitionsandevents/events/symposium-array-presents-if-you-dont-play-the-game-dont-make-the-rules/|access-date=2022-01-03|website=Jerwood Arts|language=en-GB}}{{Cite web|title=Jerwood Collaborate!|url=https://jerwoodarts.org/exhibitionsandevents/projects/jerwood-collaborate/|access-date=2022-01-03|website=Jerwood Arts|language=en-GB}}{{Cite web|title=Array Collective win the Turner Prize 2021 – Jerwood Arts|date=2 December 2021 |url=https://jerwoodarts.org/2021/12/02/array-collective-win-the-turner-prize-2021/|access-date=2022-01-03|language=en-GB}}

{{Reflist}}

• Array Collective's website http://www.arraystudiosbelfast.com/array-collective.html

Category:Irish artists

Category:Artists from Belfast

Category:Living people

Category:Culture in Belfast

Category:Art in Northern Ireland

Category:Arts organisations based in Northern Ireland

Category:British artist groups and collectives

Category:Turner Prize winners

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)