Deirdre Mulrooney

Deirdre Mulrooney

PERFORMANCE
Occulture 20

Where ye from?

Where ye from, is an alchemical theatrical 60 minute performance piece.

Through storytelling, song and filthy jokes, Growler takes us on a journey to the shadowlands, the darkest places and right back up again.

You will laugh, cry, gasp on this theatrical rollercoaster.

Growler leaves no stone unturned and no one behind on her healing journey, for her, art is the highest form of medicine.

Like the millions who left before her, Growler took to the migrant’s path, leaving Ireland with her trolley and a heavy heart. Uprooting was a nerve shattering, painful process but not as painful as losing her home in Dublin and the prospect of constant eviction, being at the mercy of a cruel and greedy system.

In the middle of her crone years Growler expected to grow even deeper roots, deepening her “ensoilment”* to place and providing nourishment for the younger generations with her stories and unique medicine. Instead, she has ended up becoming tumbleweed, a desert rose of sorts moving from place to place and blooming wherever she goes. But she has had enough and it is time for her to return to her ancestral lands, she is being called through the ethers to reclaim her sovereignty of place.

Growler´s story is my own personal story as an artist, mother, teacher and yet it is not unique, hers is the universal tale of displacement, exile and abandonment.

The story of the worlds diaspora, the millions of us scattered around the globe. A tale of longing and belonging and the complex relationship all migrants have with home.

Few of us return to live in our homeland but many feel an awkward yearning to go back. “Will you ever come home?” is a painful question for many of us who left. Leaving is never easy, coming back near impossible.

There is a tug of war within, a fantasy of what it “could” be like and the reality of where we are at.

Growler identifies with those on the margins of society, she is old enough to not care what people think, she has nothing to lose, therefore she is a powerful voice for those who are silenced, particularly the female voice. The small gains in equality that have been made in the past century in so called “developed” countries is quickly being eroded, we cannot and Growler will not take these gains for granted.

Bio

Growler is Dee Mulrooney’s alter-ego and performance piece. She is an 82-year-old shamanic
Vulva exiled in Berlin.

Driven out of Dublin by rising rents and a poor quality of life, Growler
has appointed herself the voice of the forgotten woman. Through Growler, Dee’s performances
explore femininity, classism, displacement, religion, the female experience.

Since the rise of the Me-Too movement, the female voice has been gathering momentum and
power. Despite the universality of the female experience as a theme in art, it has been largely
underexplored. Until now.

Using the vehicle of Growler, artist Dee Mulrooney delves into the depths of woman.

The anonymity of the costume allows Growler to speak her mind on taboo topics like sexuality,
religion, class and sexual violence.

Dee’s performance art is provocative and has a political point to make

deirdre-mulrooney.com

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