Sara-Jayne Fee

The pub is a microcosm of Dublin life, filled with the city's great wits and talkers who preserve a cultural legacy through storytelling, derived from our rich bardic tradition. These buildings act as metaphors, revealing both literal and abstract relationships between past and present lives. A lighthouse of cultural authenticity, the allure of the pub has always been contagious to creative minds. Their familiarity becomes a comfortable refuge against the unpredictability of the modern city. You can’t always choose your village, but you can choose your local.

My work is a cathartic exploration into the Dublin sense of place, rooted in the connection between people and their environment. As a creative in the city, we often fill the role of witness/interpreter of culture. Illuminating special aspects of its geography and history, we showcase a landscape of complicated heritage and identity. My practice aims to sketch a portrait of the city by treating it like a visit to the pub. Embracing the behaviours and rituals of its patrons, it challenges dominant cultural ideas and engages in great wandering chat about class, politics, religion, creativity, and most importantly, place.

“Digging through the walls of the past, finding what dwells in the familiar, and seemingly always landing in a pub.”