—Love, says Bloom looks at the deep love between Irish writer James Joyce, his wife Nora Barnacle, and their children Giorgio and Lucia, using music as a steadfast element in their lives. Giorgio trained as a singer, Lucia was an accomplished dancer, and all four Joyces often sang at the piano, with friends, for both celebration and succour.
The Joyces lived in a war-ruptured early twentieth-century Europe – in Pola, Trieste, Zürich, and Paris – and their native Ireland was also up-ended by division. In this exhibition, curator Nuala O’Connor celebrates the Joyce’s mutual devotion, alongside some of the music that bound them, while their world was in flux.
This exhibition ran at MoLI across 2022 as part of the museum's celebration of 100 years since the publication of Ulysses. In this immersive exhibition, two films were projected in parallel on the exhibition walls (as a seamless continuous loop), combining visuals, text, sound and lighting.
Curator Nuala O’Connor was born in Dublin in 1970 and lives in County Galway. Her fifth novel NORA (Harper Perennial/New Island, 2021), about Nora Barnacle, wife and muse to James Joyce, was named as a Top Ten historical novel by the New York Times in 2021. Nuala is editor at flash fiction e-journal Splonk. nualaoconnor.com
Curator Nuala O’Connor
IRC Curatorial Assistant and Postdoctoral Researcher Dr. Katie Mishler
Creative Direction Simon O’Connor & Benedict Schlepper-Connolly
Filmmaker Néstor Romero Clemente
Music
‘Tu se’ morta’ from L’Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi, performed by Scherzi Musicali & Nicholas Achten; ‘The Sensual World’ by Kate Bush, performed by Julia Spanu; ‘The Brown and the Yellow Ale’ performed by Ian Lynch; ‘Low Speed’ by Otto Leuning, performed by the composer; ‘Lazy Daddy’ performed by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band ‘Athmest du nicht mit mir die sussen Dufte?’ from Lohengrin by Richard Wagner, sung by Charles Dalmorès; ‘Bid Adieu to Girlish Days’ by Edmund Pendleton on an air by James Joyce, performed by Giorgio Joyce, pianist unknown; ‘The Lass of Aughrim’ performed by Lisa O’Neill
Dancer & Choreographer Aoife McAtamney
Reader Barry McGovern
Typesetter Sean Sills
Photograph Development Mella Travers & John Gunn
Sound Recordist Ian Dunphy
Digital Producers Laura Harvey-Graham & Ian Dunphy
Sound Design Ian Dunphy & Benedict Schlepper-Connolly
Mastering Engineer Seán Mac Erlaine
Translator Clare Rowland
Images courtesy of Dr Harley K. Croessmann Collection of James Joyce, Special Collections Research Centre, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Getty Images; Jamie Delano; National Library of Ireland; Nuala O’Connor; RMN photographic agency; The Library of Congress; The Poetry Collection, University at Buffalo
Additional Audio The Library of Congress
Additional Footage The Library of Congress, Pond5
Exhibition Printing David Murphy, Sign Installations & Applications
With thanks to Aaron Lisec, Alison Fraser, Carla Marrinan Funder, Christ Church, Rathgar, Claire Leadbitter, Derick Mulvey, Emma Gibbs, Finbar McLoughlin, Garrett Collins, Gráinne Fox, John Gunn, Katherine McSharry, Kevin Connolly, Margaret Kelleher, Mella Travers & The Darkroom, Sam Slote, The Four Provinces (Kimmage), The National Print Museum, The Space Between
