Cork artist Noël O’Callaghan: ‘In my work, I’m always trying to get raw energy’

Describing herself as a bit of a maverick, who left the Crawford College of Art and Design without graduating as she found the art school system too restrictive, artist and activist Noël O’Callaghan has always ploughed her own furrow.

The Cork-born painter, who is having a solo exhibition at the Lavit Gallery curated by its director, Brian MacDomhnaill, embarked on a course of “self-study through constant life-drawing and plein-air painting”.

Later, after graduating from UCC with a degree in English and history, Noël worked as an actor, singer, and percussionist, both in Ireland and Berlin.

She moved to Berlin in 1986 and lived there for 38 years.

It was the perfect city for an artist when she settled there with her musician partner and some-time collaborator, Douglas Henderson.

“Back then, there was loads of studio space in Berlin because there were a lot of empty and derelict buildings,” says Noël.

“There was no property speculation. I was in West Berlin and would have visited East Berlin, going to parties there.”

Berlin is a very different place now, says Noël.

Now based in Drimoleague with Douglas, Noël still has a studio in the German capital. But she bemoans the country’s move to right-wing politics, saying that the CDU (Christian Democratic Union), which used to be centrist, is now “very right-wing”.

She adds: “The German arms industry is considered very important so they’ve slashed the arts budget, with Germany being remilitarised. That budget would have funded grants for projects of which I was a recipient. My studio in Berlin has escaped this awful jeopardy. Artists there are campaigning for the funding to be restored.

“I don’t have much sympathy for them to be quite honest, because much of the art that is being made there is what I call staatkunst (official or State art).”

She believes it is the same in Ireland.

“Last year, we did a tribute to Rosa Luxemburg (the Polish-German revolutionary) which premiered at The New Theatre in Dublin and included painting, performance, music and film.

“We didn’t get any official funding for that. It was too political; it’s anti-militarist.”

When asked about her artwork, Noël says it’s about freedom, truth and beauty.

“My pictorial plane is the only area of my life where I have absolute freedom. Everywhere else in life, we are constricted either by justifiable societal considerations or, increasingly often, by outright repression.

“When painting, I can do as I please all the time. I want to create a painting which is organised like my ideal of the perfect society; free and open, transparent. The constructions show, there’s no secrets.”

Noël says the truth in a painting is a relative one.

“I don’t believe in absolute truth. The elements and forms must have a truth and constancy that’s relative to each other. By beauty, I mean a work that satisfies my own personal aesthetic of sparse lyricism and unsentimental romanticism.”

Citing her main influences as Jane Austen and punk rock, Noël says she is a huge fan of the English novelist.

“I love her lightness and the amount of information you get on a page from her is amazing. People have the mistaken idea that she’s all about romance. But she’s about appearances and so am I. You won’t get an in-depth psychological analysis of Jane Austen. You only get surface and you interpret the actions. I’m very interested in the interpretation of surfaces.”

As for punk rock, Noël says that before it emerged, “we were all listening to ’60s and early ’70s stuff and virtuoso guitar players, whereas with punk, people had something to say. The content was more important than those hideous guitar solos, thrashing around a couple of chords. So punk directed us.

“In my work, I’m always trying to get raw direct energy.”

Noël and Douglas have a band, the Vangardi, and play at demonstrations and festivals, with Noël on vocals and percussion.

Noël is also influenced by and flies the flag for her late father, the artist Diarmuid Ó Ceallacháin, who taught at the Crawford.

Always dressed in vintage clothes, Noël stands out from the crowd and stands up to be heard.

She has demonstrated against the Israeli war on Gaza in both Berlin and Ireland. She and Douglas are part of West Cork for Palestine. They march, speak and sing every Saturday in Skibbereen at 12.30pm.

Noël says the right to protest is very important.

Her exhibition at the Lavit Gallery is called ‘Reasons to be Cheerful’.

“I’ve taken it from the Ian Dury song of that name. I mean it in an ironic way really.

“There aren’t reasons to be cheerful with genocide happening and fascism. But I suppose painting and art are my own reasons to be cheerful.”