“I like to think that pain has the potential to transform in some way, and it all depends on how you look at it.”

Samir Mahmood reflects on his move from a background in medicine, particularly health promotion, to his practice as a visual artist, in which he explores the connection between the material and the transcendental, often using his own body as a starting point.

From early collages, Samir, whose origins are in Pakistan, has moved to miniature painting, adopting some of the skills and norms of the tradition from the Indian subcontinent, but also subverting it by introducing themes relating to the experiences experienced of queer people.

“The thing that we can do as artists is to create public space so that the complex reality that farmers are dealing with can be heard and seen.”

Deirdre O’Mahony’s intensively researched collaborative projects, which can encompass film, installation, performance, feasts, pedagogical platforms and more, engage with the politics of land and landscape, often through the lens of food and farming. Now, she thinks she’s found a way to make the EU’s policymakers listen to what farmers are saying about their experience of climate change.

“My work is about people. It’s being a companion to the artist and a companion to the public. To develop something together, in dialogue, across a long period of time, that enables our personal development, but also enables us to engage in the social discussion of the moment.”

From volunteering at a festival in Coimbra, Portugal, as a politicised 18-year-old, to being the first ever Portuguese person to attend an MA in curatorship at the Royal College of Art in London, to his vision for a further five years at Sirius Arts Centre, Miguel Amado reflects on his directorship over the past five years and the Irish art scene more broadly.