Iseult Ní Lubhaing

This body of work explores the relationship I have with my arms—limbs that feel both mine and estranged. Throughout this series, I make my arms the protagonists in a narrative about female rage, self-image, and bodily autonomy. My inspiration draws from personal memories, a collection of 2000s preteen and fashion magazines, and broader cultural imagery.

Surrealism and Dadaism influence the dreamlike distortions of my limbs. By isolating them- casting them in plaster, collaging them into strange arrangements, and animating their gestures on my childhood analogue TV, I interrogate how the female body is expected to remain soft, composed, slim, and decorative, even when seething with frustration.

This project is an attempt to materialise my emotional state—'frust-rage-tion': a cyclical, internalised anger at the shape of my own body, and the societal norms that demand female bodies never show their rage, no matter how loudly it hums beneath the surface.