Video footage and still images above by John Allen and Darrah Kane. The above a compendium of all three registers of work. Performance and promenade stills below by John Allen.. Bottom photos of Bell’s Field by Darragh Kane.
Hear the Queer Appear: Three Registers of Participatory Artworks
About the Project
Hear the Queer Appear is a participatory art project by and for the LGBTQI+ community of Cork City and explores new ways to represent and celebrate the diversity of LGBTQI+ identities in Cork.
The project offered multiple ways to take part, allowing individuals to choose how they are represented in public space. Hear the Queer Appear invited audiences to encounter queer presence in the city as vibrant, poetic, and essential to civic life.
The project unfolded across Spring and Summer of 2026, across three interconnected art registers, A, B & C.
Explore the Project
An outdoor, public artwork, made up of 857 flashing beacon lights, each one representing a member of the LGBTQI+ community in Cork City and the surrounding area.
A series of pop-up promenade walks through Cork City. Participants carry illuminated orb lights that play the voices of 16 Cork-based LGBTQI+ people
A powerful live performance, celebrating the voices and experiences of 6 members of Cork City's LGBTQI+ community who identify as trans+, gender non-conforming or gender creative.
Photography by Darragh Kane and John Allen
Artistic director, funders and team.
The Artistic Director of this project is Yvon Bonenfant (he/him). You can learn more about his work at his personal site. The core funders and supporters of the project have been the Arts Council Participatory Arts Project Award 2026, Circus Factory Cork,Gay Project, and UCC School of Film, Music and Theatre to whom we are very grateful; their logos are below. For the full artistic, administrative and production teams, see the credits in each section.