In this has nothing to do with me, her fascinating new show at Cork's Sirius Arts Centre, self-taught, multi-heritage artist Shirani Bolle investigates the role and status of women in both domestic and media contexts, subverting established tropes to consider (and challenge) patriarchal conceptions of femininity.
Utilizing a practice that spans textiles, performance and sculpture, Bolle engages with representations of the female body, focusing particularly on marginalised groups, including racialised and neurodivergent individuals such as herself, exploring notions of monstrosity to skew idealised views of womanhood in favour of a disruptive feminist perspective.
We asked Shirani for her choice cultural picks...
FILM
I'm really looking forward to seeing Once Upon A Time In A Cinema which is premiering at the Dublin Film Festival. It’s a film made in Limerick (where I live) by a Limerick film maker David Gleeson. The film is set in the Theatre Royal which is an old building that until recently was going unused. I was fortunate enough to be in a play there recently (Connie, by Joanne Ryan and Ann Blake) and it was just incredible to be performing in this historical place that had spent such a long time all but forgotten. It just made the whole experience really magical so I cannot wait to see how this magic transfers to the big screen! It really goes to show how we have so many incredible spaces here in Ireland that are just going to waste when so much could be done with them.
MUSIC
Limerick has a great music scene, so quite a few of my favourite musicians are locally based. There's a hip-hop artist called Citrus Fresh who is amazing. He's got some great songs out but also highly worth checking out live as his stage performances are always hilarious. He has that kind of talent when someone is funny but also brutally honest which are always my favourite kinds of artists. I always love listening to Denise Chaila, another Limerick artist. Denise is another incredibly talented truth teller and if you get the chance to see a live performance I highly recommend you take it!
BOOK
I often have a few books on the go at once and currently I’m rereading Disobedient Bodies by the incredible Emma Dabiri. Emma is such a talent and I always find her books to be so spot on. She articulates herself so well and I think the first time I read Disobedient Bodies I read it in one sitting! It focuses on beauty and how we are constantly trying to live up to societies beauty ideals but what I love about it is it isn’t the surface kind of "love yourself" type of idea we normally get in these kinds of books. She goes deeper and explains how our ideas of beauty are entangled with oppressive systems. I’ve also just started reading a book called Mixed Up by Leon Diop. Mixed Up is a memoir about growing up multi-heritage in Ireland. I’m a big fan of Leon and all the amazing work he does with Black & Irish so `i’m really looking forward to getting stuck into this memoir.
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THEATRE
The Abbey Theatre are premiering a new play from Una McKevitt called Fair Deal which looks amazing. I’ve been a fan of Una's since seeing the livestream of her play One Good Turn a few years ago so I’m looking forward to this new play. I’m interested in family life and domestic situations in my own art, so I love seeing these things explored within other art forms.
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TV
Can I say Love Island?! I don’t actually watch much TV but I do love watching documentaries and creators online. I especially love watching Bobby Fingers on YouTube, who is this amazing artist who makes dioramas of moments in pop culture that we may have heard about but never seen like Mel Gibson getting arrested or Micheal Jackson's hair catching on fire. Beyond the incredible artistry of the diorama making he also hilariously narrates the whole thing and most episodes end up with a musical performance. Honestly, you have to see it to believe it. It’s one the most original forms of art out there at the moment and I’m not just saying that because he’s my husband!
GIG
The last gig I attended was the brilliant festival Sounds From A Safe Harbour in Cork. The festival is directed by Mary Hickson and had so many artists playing that I love, like Lisa Hannigan, Theodora Burn and Gwilym Gold. It’s such a great festival, not just for music but art, film, theatre. It was like there was something around every corner in Cork that weekend. I also went to see Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh play recently and I’m looking forward to seeing her again at the Project Arts Centre soon!
ART
I’m really looking forward to catching the exhibition Key Learnings from Cross Market Synergetic Alignment at The RHA. It takes a look at commodity culture, which is something that I like to explore within my own practice so I’m keen to see what’s on display. From what I’ve seen so far there is a lot of humour within the exhibition which I’m looking forward to. There's also an exhibition on at Platform Arts in Belfast that looks really interesting. It’s by an artist called Lorcan Cassidy who I haven’t come across before but their work looks really interesting, lots of colour and cartoony imagery so I’m hoping to get there to see that!
PODCAST
Someone recommended the Telepathy Tapes to me and my first thought was that I wasn’t going to enjoy it but i was absolutely hooked! It explores telepathy in non-speaking autistic people but I don’t want to say too much about it because if like me you can be a bit skeptical it could put you off but honestly its fascinating. I’m AUDHD and at the time of listening I was going through the diagnosis process and it really made me have a deeper insight into neurodivergnce. Not that I’m telepathic! But it does make you think about our minds and life itself in a whole new way.
TECH
I’m obsessed with Vinted! My art practice is heavily rooted in textiles and I use a lot of second hand materials, like fabrics and yarn or old jewellery so Vinted is like heaven for me. I recently got a huge box of ribbons from Vinted and at least half of that has ended up in my current exhibition in Sirius Arts Centre. I’ve always loved rooting around in charity shops but because Vinted is so big it has practically everything you would need!
THE NEXT BIG THING...
I think the next big across most culture and entertainment will be a human touch. Mistakes, messiness anything that makes the art or entertainment feel as human as possible. With the rise of A.I I think we can already see a shift towards things that seem less slick and I think that’s just going to get even more desirable. Things that are handmade, one-offs and things that can’t be recreated easily with A.I will become more and more valuable and I also thing live entertainment will grow enormously. We’ll find new ways of entertaining ourselves with in person events, things that we can’t experience through a computer screen.
this has nothing to do with me is at Cork's Sirius Arts Centre until April 4th, 2026 - find out more here
