The Paradise [mother unmothered]
Pauline Keena
17 October – 14 November 2025
Opening Reception 16 October, 6pm
Backwater Artists Group is delighted to present The Paradise. [mother unmothered], a solo exhibition by Backwater Artists Network member, Pauline Keena.
This important body of work illuminates’ women’s stories in recent Irish history around the subject of motherhood, separation and loss, in relation to forced adoption for unmarried women and girls who were pregnant outside of marriage. The exhibition comprises of a large-scale tapestry, a short film and new art writing.
The impetus for this work is Keena’s lived experience as a young midwife in a large maternity hospital in Dublin, in the nineteen seventies, where she worked with these young women and girls during their pregnancy, labour and delivery. She witnessed the subsequent discharge of these young mothers without their infants, who were taken away by social workers to foster homes, in different parts of the city and country. Many of them were eventually adopted in America. These young mothers were regarded as fallen women because they represented a big threat to the image of purity/chastity, projected by the church and state. They were forced into institutional care in the Magdalene Laundries because of the shame they brought to themselves and their families.
The exhibition will be accompanied by an exhibition viewing and talk by Dr Loic Bourdeau at Studio 12, Backwater Artists Group and MTU Crawford College of Art & Design Lecture Theatre on Friday 17 October at 12 noon. Tickets are available on Eventbrite. The event will begin with an exhibition viewing at Studio 12 at 12 noon and continue to the MTU Crawford College of Art & Design Lecture Theatre. The talk, ‘This is how it all begins’, explores the ways Pauline Keena’s practice transforms remains, fragments, and instruments into art that speaks of memory, grief, and care. Drawing connections between Keena’s textiles and contemporary debates in the medical humanities, the talk reflects on how art can hold what words cannot, offering forms of remembrance, attention, and repair. The lecture will be followed by a conversation with Pauline Keena and an open Q&A.
This exhibition is in collaboration with NUI Maynooth as part of The Motherhood Project.
Pauline Keena is a visual artist with a background in Nursing and Midwifery Science. She uses the body to create stories of our human existence. Her practice includes sculpture/textiles, drawing, performance and more recently film. Her current work includes textiles, film and works on paper. Her process engages simple utilitarian activities of making i.e. cutting, stitching, binding and wrapping cloth. Implicit in the work are bodily themes of motherhood, loss, chaos and physicality. Her work has been shown in The West Cork Arts Centre, 2023, The Luan Gallery, Athlone, 2021, The Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon, 2022, The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Canada, 2019, Science Gallery, Dublin, 2016, The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, 2012.
She is an Associate member, MUAHI Critical Medical Humanities Research Cluster at Maynooth University. She is currently creating an arts based collaborative work with Dr. Loic Bourdeau, at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin as part of the Motherhood project at Maynooth University.
Dr. Loïc Bourdeau is Associate Dean for Research and Engagement in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Maynooth University. A scholar of French and Medical Humanities, his work explores narrative medicine, care studies, and cultural representations of health, illness, and motherhood.
Studio 12, Backwater Artists Group, Wandesford Quay, Cork, T12E26D
