Arts Thread

My most recent project is titled ‘The Cardinal’, and was exhibited as part of NCAD Works 2026. When murderers become celebrities and politicians, their victims are forgotten. I was interested in how we can show empathy towards these victims in a time of true crime media and desensitisation. Informed by criminologist Dr. Callie Rennison’s writings on victimology and extensive research into true crime as a genre of entertainment since the 16th century, I focused on the figure of Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch. He is best known for being a leader of an organised crime group and killing a man named David Byrne in the Kinahan-Hutch feuds in 2016. He was almost elected as a TD and ran in the Dublin Central bye-election this year. His Trump-like charm has given him celebrity status, allowing criminality and politics to become scarily interwoven on a local scale. The research project aims to reach true crime fanatics and encourage self-reflection when consuming this genre of content, and to be able to take both an empathetic and objective view of a victim's experience. Through my adaptable approach, I was able to create an installation containing a newspaper, a painting with a book nestled within, and a soundpiece. In the newspapers, 'The Cardinal' - the fictional antagonist - is ‘alleged’ and ‘accused’ to be a criminal, while he sits comfortably above law and justice. What I noticed through reading and interacting with newspapers, is that articles are sometimes written and often approached as complete fact, where a lot of bias can be injected on a supposedly neutral and factual account of events - here, the human bias is illuminated through inked hand-painted headings and illustrations. A small book titled 'Personal Effects' presented inside an imposing portrait of the mafia leader demands care and attention. The publication follows five key people in the Cardinal’s life: his mother, wife, two daughters and the journalist Victoria Girard. Illustrated with collected artefacts of archived ephemera from his family home, it explores victim-led narratives in an environment of abuse. A recording plays: our journalist, based on Veronica Guerin, laments, questioning if her investigative work is futile, when media illumination only adds to his influence. Combining research and practise through iterative methodology, I balanced the main message of the project, while also taking care in every detail.