Heteratopic Glitch is a performance work by artists Anne Ffrench and Aideen Barry originally commissioned for Kinsale Arts Week 2008. The brief was to create a performance work that would be publicly viewable, taking into account the historical coastal town of Kinsale in its presentation.

The artists visited a number of sites and a couple of possibilities were taken into account. In the end the most obvious choice, and most accessible location for everyone was the harbour itself. The challenge then was to make something that was coming from both of their practices. The artist Aideen Barry comented:

"I am preoccupied with notions of the uncanny, experiments in weightlessness and Anne too was interested in Endurance Performance which we both have a history of working in."

Together they played with the idea of creating something that would defy gravity, and be accessible on a number of different levels to the community including residents, commercial groups and visitors to this coastal town. Aideen Barry, having grown up in Cork and a frequent visitor to Kinsale, was especially interested in making something quite unique, while Anne Ffrench had just moved to the area and was interested in including other members of the community into the creation of this work.

"We received generous support from our volunteers (our elegant ladies) and the Kinsale Outdoor adventure centre who were outstanding in their support and health and safety concerns." Aideen Barry.

Aideen Barry (Born in Cork 1979) is a visual artist working in the mediums of performance, film, musical composition, drawings and animation. She recently was awarded funding from the Arts Council of Ireland's Projects New Work Projects Award  2008-2009.

Head of Exhibitions, Sean Kissane of the Irish Museum of Modern Art recently selected Barry to represent Ireland at FRA GIL in Barcelona, Spain in May 2008. In November 2008 Barry showed in Elevator Gallery, and the Louise T. Bloudin Institute in London. In 2009 she showed in Wexner Center for the Arts in Ohio (USA), The Crawford Municipal Gallery (Ireland),The Redhouse Arts Center(USA)and Bonnat Museum,(France). 

Barry has received countless awards for her practice including: The New Work Award from the Arts Council of Ireland, Tyrone Guthrie Award for 2007, the Travel and Mobility Award from the Arts Council of Ireland and she received the Experimental Film Award at the Silent Light Super 8 film Festival in Cork in October 2006. Her work has since been shown in Paris, Lorient (France), The United Kingdom, Thailand, Canada and China.

In 2004 she received the top prize at The Claremorris Open. In 2005 Barry represented Irish Contemporary Performance as she was invited to partake in Cork 2005, The European Capital of Culture.  Barry was Artist in Residence at the Banff Centre in Canada in 2007.  She also undertook a residency for Convoy, in Seydisfjourder, Iceland, which was funded by The Skaftfell Centre, Iceland and Culture Ireland.

In 2007 Barry co-curated TULCA: City of Strangers (Galway) and Terms & Conditions in the Mermaid Arts Centre Bray. She also curated Subversion and the Domestic: House Projects, which has recently been published into a book on the 7-curated projects in Ireland, New York and London, a project that was supported under the Arts Council of Ireland. In December 2008 Barry completed a residency at Kennedy Space Centre, NASA where she underwent astronaut training through parabolic flights to create her new zero gravity film works, animations and performative objects. Barry is currently working with David Smith of Atelier on her new project publication which will be launched at her solo show at The Butler Gallery in November 2009. Barry lives and works in Galway in the West of Ireland.

Anne Ffrench graduated with first class honours from NCAD and has shown work at the Dublin Fringe Festival and Temple Bar Galleries, Dublin

The artists aimed to capture the entire population of Kinsale by using the natural amphitheatre of the harbour. They successfully engaged with the populous of the festival, the local fishing community, the Lifeboat Association of Ireland, the harbour community, and even stopped the traffic.

Kinsale Adventure Centre
PJT Insurance
Royal Lifeboat Association
Kinsale Harbour Commissioners
Aideen Barry & Anne Ffrench
Kinsale Arts Week