DD | chloeaustinart

LIVING BUT A DAY: ENCOUNTERS, THE LAB GALLERY, DUBLIN

At the heart of Darling Diaphanous lies a practice of radical care. Each piece is a meditation on touch and visibility, on how we reach for one another across pages, stitches and time. The exhibition premieres a new video work titled Love Through Letters, developed in collaboration with ten participants scattered across the globe: Rachel Jardine, Eve Jeffreys, Claude Lajous, Sophie Mak-Schram, Derbhla McDermott, Keely McLavin, Dayna McLeod, Jo Reid, Eleanor Saunders, and Carolyn Wilson. This collaborative video invites voices that have lived in the archive to enter into an active conversation with voices of the present. It traces the thought process behind the creation of an artwork of the same title, fragmenting and scattering words across transparent pages. Soft documentation of the process is interwoven with raw re-readings of texts chosen from the archive by each participant. This collaborative journey is documented in a hand-made zine which accompanies the video.

DARLING DIAPHANOUS

Can a person fall in love through letters?

Darling Diaphanous presents a body of work that reflects on the intimacy, desire and longing that pervades queer feminist history. Drawing on materials from the Lesbian Archive at Glasgow Women’s Library, this exhibition was created through processes that value slowness and care, such as embroidery, printmaking, and collaboration. Through these methods, writing becomes a form of touch where language shape-shifts into a bodily, tactile presence.

The word ‘diaphanous’ translates as something delicate and transparent. It speaks to the nature of memory and history, which is fragile yet persistent, fragmentary yet enduring. Maintaining a DIY zine-like aesthetic of rough threads and ink-stained words, the works explore how queer and feminist narratives resist linear structures and neat endings. They break apart and linger, carrying with them both yearning and resilience.

This exhibition originated from my three-year PhD project titled 'Living but a Day,' which focused on facilitating performative encounters with queer-feminist typographic expressions within archival collections across the island of Ireland. Following the PhD, there was still a big itch that hadn’t been scratched. There was a need to expand these ideas into different conversations, locations and collaborations. Developed initially during a residency with Cove Park in February 2025, with support from the Arts Council of Ireland, the project was shaped through ongoing dialogue with Glasgow Women’s Library.

The opening of Darling Diaphanous also consisted of a drop-in DIY zine workshop, where visitors could explore materials in the Lesbian Archive and create their own responses and artwork.

Overall, this body of work is, quite literally, full of blood, sweat and tears. To be surrounded by the raw and tender words of others who have tirelessly expressed their desire and longing has been an emotional and beautiful experience.

Darling Diaphanous is a love letter to Glasgow Women’s Library, to queer-feminist histories, to the act of making, and to the radical possibilities of remaining tender.

This project is supported by The Eaton Fund, Crazy Peach Foundation, and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.