Dr. Niki Collier’s triptych “The Guts to be Acountable” was curated for the Be Craft Biannual exhibition, this year entitled À la belle vue de l’abattoir.
About the Exhibition
Bringing together around sixty artists from twelve European countries, the exhibition explores the theme “Abattoirs” through contemporary applied arts and crafts practices.
Whether through denunciation, memory, poetry, or critical analysis, the works invite visitors to adopt a sensitive and informed perspective on these transitional places — sites of passage, abandonment, production, transformation, and today, heritage. The exhibition opens a space for reflection on what slaughterhouses reveal about our societies: our relationship to living beings, to production gestures, to trace and disappearance.
The dialogue between artworks, archival documents, and life stories creates a fully immersive experience around a theme rarely explored within the field of applied arts. The exhibition pays tribute to the power of craftsmanship as a way of thinking about the world.
Opening reception: Saturday, 07 March 2026, 19:00
Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday: 12:00 – 18:00
Duration: 08.03.2026 → 24.05.202
About My Work: The guts to be accountable
This is a three part handmade felt sculpture emoted from the texture and form of– the stomach,– the guts and– the tongue The sculpture is informed by a cows digestive system which is a complicated multitude of organs. They can be a source of learning and growth; simultaneously as an organ and as a symptom of how we interact with food. Food industry today has developed such a disconnect between the food that we eat and its origin that we are conditioned to believe that only certain parts of the animal are nutritious or have a purpose. Rather than looking into changing ourselves: our relationship to food and what and how we eat, we demand the humane killing of farmed animals. The work is also a comment on greed and how greed dictates smokescreens such as ‘’humane killing of animals’’ rather than addressing our behaviour in how and what we eat; which would have an actual impact on the sustainability of our environment. The stomach is now discarded as rubbish by the contemporary food industry while it used to be a source of healing, a treat reserved for special occasions and a membrane used to create tools for music and craft. The sculptures aim to start a conversation about our eating habits – what we should not discard – and focus on our own accountability rather than on methods of slaughter
About Dr. Niki Collier
Dublin-based multidisciplinary visual artist working in fibre art and performance. She uses scale to spark empathy & empowerment. She deploys science, art & performance to inspire people to the protagonist in her work. Her practice blends contrasting strands. Set as an academic makes her relentlessly curious. Living as a disabled person instils resilience as her message. Her practice is nurtured by meaningful connections with people with various abilities & from diverse backgrounds. All is done by telling stories in wool.
