Shia Conlon & Iona Roisin

As a part of the specific program of the Small Exhibition Room in Pori Art Museum’s Wing dedicated in presenting displays digging into the recent history of contemporary art as well as topical exhibitions that are related to specific discourses, theories or contexts artists Shia Conlon and Iona Roisin present their artistic practice and a selection of books from Trans Library Helsinki that they together maintain and are the founders of.

Shia Conlon (b. 1990) is an Irish writer and artist based in Helsinki. His work has been centered around marginalized voices and growing up in the landscape of working-class Catholic Ireland. Conlon’s current research is focused on non-linear time and how to use the power of archives, language, and memory as tools for queer representation.

Iona Carmine Roisin (b. 1989) is a British artist and poet based in Helsinki. Working across moving image and text, their practice is interested in ways of making, difficulty, intimacy, failure and the insufficiency of language.

Trans Library Helsinki is a DIY library founded by Conlon and Roisin dedicated to trans and queer writers and literature.

Image Credit: Iona Roisin, detail from A Kind of Continuance -series, 2022.