The Irish Face by Frank Wasser

The Irish Face is a performance developed over the last year as the culmination of Frank Wasser’s artist residency at Tate Library and Archive.

Wasser’s research initially asks how national identity, and his own Irishness, has and continues to be mediated through systems of classification and categorisation, and what kinds of alternative evocations can still emerge. Drawing from narratives and subjects such as Derry’s famed Orchard Gallery, Tate Britain’s location on the former site of Millbank Prison – one of the world’s first panopticons – or representations of Ireland as seen in Dublin’s National Gallery, Wasser creates a counter taxonomy of knowledge, speculating where potential blind spots might lie.

The publication presents a series of photographs taken by Wasser over the last year, each key encounters in the making of The Irish Face.

The Irish Face is made possible through funding from the Arts Council of Ireland and is curated by Michele Horrigan, alongside Gina Moxley.

297×210 mm, 4pp cover on 250gsm recycled offset board, 32pp extent on 130gsm gloss coated art paper, printed full colour, saddle stitched. Edition of 250 copies.

Publication designed by Daly & Lyon using Facility by Malte Bentzen, released by Optimo.