A portrait of Irish trans activist Dr Lydia Foy by artist Amanda Dunsmore won the prestigious AIB Portrait Prize in the competition held at the National Gallery of Ireland. The portrait celebrates the incredible achievements of Dr Lydia Foy in her fight to become the first trans person in Ireland to have her gender recognised on official documents.
Open to artists from across the island of Ireland as well as Irish artists living abroad, the annual competition showcases creators working across a variety of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, video and photography.
The winning portrait is the work of Amanda Dunsmore, whose art explores representations of societal transformation through contextual portraiture and social historic projects. She works on contextual portraits that require long periods of research and are presented as a series of extensive socio-political and historical projects, through video, photography, drawing, and more.
Entitled ‘Lydia’, the award-winning work is a video portrait celebrating the trailblazing work of Dr Lydia Foy and the impact her court case had on bringing about legal gender recognition for trans people in Ireland and the EU.
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Speaking about the portrait, the artist explained: “In 1993, Dr Lydia Foy applied to Ireland’s Office of the Registrar General for a new birth certificate to reflect her gender. She was refused.
“Dr Foy undertook an arduous 22-year legal battle with the Irish State. Ireland’s Gender Recognition Act was passed on July 15th, 2015 and Lydia became the first person to be legally recognised by this Act.”
Dunsmore also added, “Lydia is also in the Guinness World Records for growing the tallest foxglove, 3.29 metres, and her portrait was filmed in her garden.”
Amanda Dunsmore was among 26 other shortlisted artists and she won a cash prize of €15,000. Moreover, she will be commissioned to create more work for the National Portrait Collection, for which she will be awarded a further €5,000. Two other awards of €1,500 went to Arann McCormack and Emily Mc Gardle.
For more information on the portrait and winning artist, visit this website.
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