Interview With Ger Leslie: 

By Robin Quinn, Taylor O’ Connell, and Sophie Barling. 

“Tell us about your time at college”

Ger began by telling us how he started first year at GMIT, before there was a separate art campus. He was inspired by his lecturers but as there was no sculpture course, only fine art, he decided to apply to NCAD to do a four-year course as sculpture is what he wanted to do.  

‘’Was art always the main interest for you, or did you have other aspirations?’’

which Ger responded that he found growing up in the country and coming from a farming background was a great ‘conditioner.’ He learnt many skills through farming, such as construction and making things from scratch. Apart from art he had many interests such as music, agricultural science, and sports. He had a very large interest in hurling, rugby, and football. But what he loved most was the freedom he found in art, ‘’freedom and liberty’’ he said. Ger mentioned that apart from art his other options were teaching P.E in school, or agricultural science. Infact, he got accepted to study all three options but knew art was what he wanted to study and only realised this when he was mid interview for another college course.  

‘’Were you always interested in sculpture, or did you experiment in other mediums or medias?’’

Ger told us he has always been drawn to materials. Growing up he lived next to a river, and as a young child would go out and build damns on the river, this seems to be a core memory for Ger, experimenting with varied materials as a child. He loves the idea that he can create something out of nothing. Ger told us ‘’materials can say something that others might not see’’, this really shows his connection to sculpture and how he sees materials as something completely different.  

‘’Did you find the community in NCAD close, and did you find the students supported each other throughout college?’’

He told us it was a very cultural time for Dublin city when he began college, the music and art community was growing at this time. He also found that he made great connections with his teachers. Ger described his group at college as a ‘’core group’’. There was around 20-25 of them, they would meet at 8am when the college opened and were all getting kicked out together at 10pm when it shut. He said that ‘’community was everything’’. They had a huge work ethic but there was also a much larger pressure to produce work. While Ger was studying in college if you failed a class you were put on a 2-week probation and if you didn't pass, you were out of the college. This is of course vastly different to our college experience with the repeat procedure in modules.  

Similar to Katherine’s experience in college, this was a very political time. Ger was at the same protests that happened at the time, for the loss of student medical cards and he was a part of the student union for three years at NCAD. He told us about a protest the students union organised at the time, where he and a group of others staged a sleep out at the headquarters of a political party. He was and still is very passionate about standing up for your rights and fighting for them as students. This was a perfect opening for our last question,

‘’How has the societal influence on certain topics such as feminism, the LGBTQ+ community, etc, changed within your practice and life experience, compared to when you were in college?’’

which Ger responded by saying that there was always a large LGBTQ+ community while he was at college, people were very open about their sexuality at the time at NCAD. He told us about drag events he attended in Dublin at the time and said that him and his friends would all dress up extravagantly. He stated that ‘’there has never been a time I haven’t been aware’’ (of the community) despite the fact he grew up in a very small rural village. The area Ger grew up in he admitted that there was a very large pressure on people to conform to the ‘status quo’, so in these smaller communities' people had to ‘’stay quiet’’ about their identity. Despite this, he never found it an issue to stick to his own beliefs, ‘’People are people, if you have a brain and an idea to talk about, I don’t care what you look like or how you identify’’.