The Cardinal
Eleno Leouchev
National College of Art and Design Dublin
My most recent project is titled ‘The Cardinal’, and was exhibited as part of NCAD Works 2026. When murderers become celebrities and politicians, their victims are forgotten. I was interested in how we can show empathy towards these victims in a time of true crime media and desensitisation. Informed by criminologist Dr. Callie Rennison’s writings on victimology and extensive research into true crime as a genre of entertainment since the 16th century, I focused on the figure of Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch. He is best known for being a leader of an organised crime group and killing a man named David Byrne in the Kinahan-Hutch feuds in 2016. He was almost elected as a TD and ran in the Dublin Central bye-election this year. His Trump-like charm has given him celebrity status, allowing criminality and politics to become scarily interwoven on a local scale. The research project aims to reach true crime fanatics and encourage self-reflection when consuming this genre of content, and to be able to take both an empathetic and objective view of a victim's experience. Through my adaptable approach, I was able to create an installation containing a newspaper, a painting with a book nestled within, and a soundpiece. In the newspapers, 'The Cardinal' - the fictional antagonist - is ‘alleged’ and ‘accused’ to be a criminal, while he sits comfortably above law and justice. What I noticed through reading and interacting with newspapers, is that articles are sometimes written and often approached as complete fact, where a lot of bias can be injected on a supposedly neutral and factual account of events - here, the human bias is illuminated through inked hand-painted headings and illustrations. A small book titled 'Personal Effects' presented inside an imposing portrait of the mafia leader demands care and attention. The publication follows five key people in the Cardinal’s life: his mother, wife, two daughters and the journalist Victoria Girard. Illustrated with collected artefacts of archived ephemera from his family home, it explores victim-led narratives in an environment of abuse. A recording plays: our journalist, based on Veronica Guerin, laments, questioning if her investigative work is futile, when media illumination only adds to his influence. Combining research and practise through iterative methodology, I balanced the main message of the project, while also taking care in every detail.