state of us is a project that comprises an exhibition at de Appel and a parallel series of screenings and performances, focusing on the inherited traumas of colonial violence and control that continue to shape social, mental and physical bodies across generations.

Thematically departing from Ireland – widely regarded as the first historical subject of the British colonial enterprise – state of us brings together artists who address Ireland or the Irish experience, alongside ongoing and historical struggles in places such as Palestine, Bangladesh and Curaçao. The research-based artworks trace how the everyday and insidious effects of colonialism and its legacies recur in aspects of memory, sexual relations, social behaviours and health dysfunctions, among other examples.

Taking its title from an Irish colloquialism used to describe a disordered appearance or situation, state of us plays on the word ‘state’ to span both the personal (the social and ) and the political (the national, territorial and sovereign). These two states – one internal, one structural – are the defining dynamics of the project, with many of the participating artists exploring the historical relations that connect them.