Isabel Nolan's 'Dreamshook' at the Irish Pavilion, Venice Biennale

Isabel Nolan represents Ireland at the 61st Venice Biennale with her installation 'Dreamshook' in the Irish Pavilion. The exhibition explores the late Middle Ages, a period of upheaval she parallels with today's crises. Through tapestries, drawings, and metal sculptures, Nolan addresses liminal states, dream worlds, and narrative structures. A central tapestry, 'Aldus Dreams of a Plentiful Supply of Good Books,' depicts the 15th-century Venetian printer Aldus Manutius, whom Nolan admires for his humanist values and invention of the portable book. Another tapestry, 'The Dream of Reason Produces Monsters,' references Goya's etching. Nolan, who has aphantasia (inability to visualize mentally), works intuitively with color and form. She discusses the political dimension of dreaming and the influence of medieval culture on modern secular society. The exhibition is curated by Georgina Jackson, director of the Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin.