Etaoin Melville & Linda Cullen 2026
Womb Bones

Etaoin Melville & Linda Cullen

Womb Bones

15 to 18 September 2026

Book here for Culture Night 2026 public performance: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/womb-bones-tickets-1995911913261

This residency aims to consolidate and complete Womb Bones, a multidisciplinary performance by circus artist Linda Cullen and visual artist Etaoin Melville. The focus of the residency is to weave together aerial choreography, spoken word, visual projection and direction into a coherent final work, shaping material developed over several years of research and work-in-progress showings. Working on refining the dramaturgy and visual language of the piece, ensuring each rite of passage—birth, adolescence and death—lands with clarity and emotional resonance.

This residency fits naturally within Linda Cullen’s ongoing practice of combining circus, comedy, movement and text to explore femininity, motherhood and lived experience, and Etaoin Melville’s visual practice of translating emotional states into abstract imagery. Womb Bones sits at the heart of both artists’ work, personal yet collective, grounded in public testimony and shaped through interdisciplinary collaboration.

On Culture Night, a significant national celebration of arts and culture in Ireland, we will share a 20-minute public performance of Womb Bones. Presenting the work on this night allows it to meet audiences who are actively seeking cultural experiences. The performance will bring together our research and collaboration, integrating aerial choreography, spoken word and visual elements. This public sharing creates a meaningful point of connection between the artists and audience, offering space for reflection, resonance and dialogue.

Linda Cullen is a contemporary circus artist specialising in movement theatre and aerial dance. Her performance work explores body image, femininity, motherhood and ceremony, creating original movement languages through the use of objects and apparatus central to each theme. She has toured extensively throughout Ireland and Europe, co-producing and performing in street shows and walkabout performances. Linda trained in social circus at Circus Elleboog (Holland) and in contemporary dance and swinging trapeze at Carampa Circus School, Madrid, and also works as a youth teacher at Circus Factory Cork.

Etaoin Melville is a Cork-born visual artist and member of Sample Studios, working across film, animation, printmaking, sculpture and painting, often culminating in installation. I hold a first-class honours degree in Visual Art from DIT Sherkin Island, specialising in video and installation, and further trained in Film and TV Production at St John’s Central College, Cork. My work has been shown nationally and internationally, including solo exhibitions at the Lavit Gallery and Working Artist Studios, and screenings at LOOP Barcelona. My practice explores inner landscapes, using art as a means of emotional processing and connection.

https://www.instagram.com/etaoins_art

https://www.instagram.com/flylindacullen

https://www.etaoinmelville.com

Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre acknowledges the financial support of The Arts Council  / An Chomhairle Ealaíon in making these residencies possible.