Land of Some Other Order

LAND OF SOME OTHER ORDER Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Angela Gilmour, Angie Shanahan, Ben Reilly, Bernadette Tuite, Carol-Anne Connolly, Darn Thorn, Deirdre O'Brien, Elaine Coakley, Fiona Kelly, Helen O'Shea, Luke Hickey and Sarah Long

Curated by Paul McAree

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the organisation, Backwater Artists Group are proud to present a group exhibition of Backwater studio members to be held in the Lavit Gallery, Wandesford Quay, Cork.

The exhibition focuses on the way the artists respond to changing definitions of landscape, climate, borders, and our human intervention in the world. The exhibition considers the various ways artists are concerned and engaging with some of the most pressing issues of our times, and suggests artists have always forged a deeper relationship with the shifting sense of the land around us.

With a diverse selection of artworks, Land of Some Other Order presents work ranging from contemporary pastoral landscapes, landscapes which are always in a state of flux, landscapes seeking to redefine our interpretation of what is truly ‘natural’ or native planting, and images which deal with the complexity of image making itself, leading to an exhibition which re-evaluates our relationship with nature and our attempts to redefine our sense of what it is.

The exhibition will feature artwork by Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Angela Gilmour, Angie Shanahan, Ben Reilly, Bernadette Tuite, Carol-Anne Connolly, Darn Thorn, Deirdre O'Brien, Elaine Coakley, Fiona Kelly, Helen O'Shea, Luke Hickey and Sarah Long.

Paul McAree is Curator at Lismore Castle Arts in Co Waterford, which has hosted solo exhibitions by artists including Gerard Byrne, Dorothy Cross, Camille Henrot, Rashid Johnson and Wilhelm Sasnal. Previously McAree worked at Breaking Ground, Tate Modern and Ikon Gallery Birmingham, and also ran an independent commissioning project, FLOOD, from 20132014. He co-founded and directed Colony Gallery in Birmingham from 2007 – 2010. He has curated freelance projects, co-curating Traces at Kasteel Wijlre, The Netherlands in 2018, was curator in residence at Rua Red from 2014-2016, and curator in residence at Temple Bar Gallery, 2012-2013.

Ailbhe Ní Bhriain

Inscriptions #1, Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, pigment baryta print, 125 x 100cm, 2017 €3550 +VAT

Ailbhe Ní Bhriain is an Irish artist known for her use of film, computer generated imagery and photography. Her work has been exhibited widely both nationally and internationally. Current and upcoming exhibitions include Inscriptions of an Immense Theatre, John Michael Kohler Arts Centre, Wisconsin, US (solo); Inscriptions IV, Domobaal Gallery, London (solo); and Artists’ Film International, touring to 22 locations in 2020 including the Whitechapel Gallery, London; Crawford Art Gallery, Cork; The Whitworth, Manchester; Para/Site, Hong Kong; Istanbul Modern, Turkey; and Hammer Museum, LA. The photographic series Inscriptions combines imagery from a number of different sources, referencing museum artifacts, expansive landscapes and studio debris. Simple collage techniques are used to collapse the binaries and conventions of the source imagery in order to imagine a series of new and permeable connections. The work takes its starting point from a text by Samuel Quiccheberg entitled ‘Inscriptions of the Immense Theatre’. This is thought to be the earliest published text on museology and outlines the methods for the collection and categorization of objects, images and artifacts from across the world. The collection or ‘theatre’ is defined as ‘a repository of artificial and marvelous things’ and is intended to operate as a stand in for ‘the globe in its entirety’. In contrast to the presumptions and aspirations of the original text (which clearly speak of a western imperialist agenda), this photographic series imagines a theatre of aftermath - one in which the representational categories and certainties espoused by Quiccheberg have broken down and where new possibilities emerge from fragments.

Angela Gilmour

Angela Gilmour, At 80° North, cracks are forming, 73x 93cm framed, Oil on canvas, 2020, €1400

Angela Gilmour, Dansoy, the end of ice, Oil on wood panel, 23x30cm, 2020, €280

Angela Gilmour's practice concentrates on the study and survey of shorelines and the way we interact with these natural borders. This theme is urgent in the context of ongoing and increasing discussions around climate change and the commons, with topics ranging from global warming to extractivism, from land possession and use, to sustainable consumption.

Recent work presents a response to her experience on The Arctic Circle residency program, having spent three weeks on an expedition during the Summer Solstice (midnight sun) in 2019.

International artists, scientists and innovators live and work aboard a Barquentine Tall Ship while sailing the waters of the international territory of Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago just 10 degrees latitude from the North Pole.

Originally from Scotland and formally a Physicist, Angela Gilmour now lives in Cork, Ireland.

After graduating with an honours degree in Fine Art from CIT Crawford College of Art and Design in 2015 she was subsequently awarded 'Student of the Year' by The Lavit Gallery and Cork Art Society and her first-class honours research thesis was Highly Commended at the international Undergraduate Awards. In 2016 she was awarded residencies in Sample Studios and the National Sculpture Factory, and in 2017 she was shortlisted for the Emerging Irish Artist Award by Burren College of Art. In 2019 she was awarded a residency with The Arctic Circle Summer Solstice Expedition. . Recent solo exhibitions include; Arctica: the last fragments, at Studio 12, Backwaters Artist Group, Cork (2019); The Sum of All Parts, a touring show funded

by Science Foundation Ireland as part of an artist residency with Tyndall National Institute and Irish Photonics Integrated Circuits (2016-2018). Recent group shows include; The New State, curated by Anne Hodge, Curator at the National Gallery of Ireland, Angela Griffith, Assistant Professor at Trinity College Dublin and Peter Brennan, Director of Graphic Studio Gallery (2019) and Mouth of a Shark, Edinburgh Printmakers (2019-2020). Current exhibitions include 'Weather the Weather' a Sciart Initiative, New York Hall of Science (2019-2020), Land of Some Other Oder curated by Paul McAree at the Lavit Gallery Cork (2020). and Environmental Crisis, Gerald Moore Gallery, London (2020). Her work is held in public and private collections, including University College Cork, The Office of Public Works, Tyndall National Institute, Cork and Manly Art Gallery and Museum, Australia. Gilmour has exhibited both nationally and internationally with shows in the United States of America, Australia, the United Kingdom and Spain. Currently, Gilmour is a member of Backwater Artists Group, Cork Printmakers and the National Sculpture Factory.

Angie Shanahan

Borderlines, Acrylic on canvas,120 x 90cm (dyptch), 2020, €2350

Angie Shanahan

Shell 1, Acrylic on Canvas, 20.32x25.4cm (8x10) 2020, €675

Shell 2, Acrylic on Canvas, 20.32 x 25.4cm, €675

Angie Shanahan

The Broken Forest is in Our Children's Tears, , Acrylic on Canvas, €1875

Angie Shanahan “One of my first instincts is to distil the sense and soul of the places that capture my attention, the relationship between the physical reality we see and the invisible conceptual reality harboured in the spirit of the place. The landscapes often contain man made structures, forgotten, some in semidereliction subsumed back into nature temporarily or for good�

Angie Shanahan graduated from the Crawford College of Art & Design in the 1980s. Since then, Angie has held numerous solo shows and has been selected for group exhibitions in Ireland and abroad. Most recent shows include Case 13, Lavitt Gallery, Noli Mi Tangere, Wandesford Quay Gallery.

Place Space, Wandesford Quay Gallery; Hard Times at Cill Rialaig Project Gallery, Kerry and Urban Retreat Gallery, Dublin; the RHA Annual Exhibition 2011 and Ciall 2011 where she received an award for painting.

Her work is featured in a recent Gallery Press publication, Huts and Sheds

by Derek Mahon; Representing Art in Ireland, Fenton Gallery publication, and. Art in State Buildings, 1995-2005. OPW cat. Angie also won a commission from the Office of Public Works to paint a portrait of Michael Collins for the Gallery of Taosaigh. This now hangs in Dail Eireann.

Ben Reillys

Ben Reilly, Knobbier, Wax, wire, pigment and wood, dimensions variableen

Ben Reilly

“Ben Reilly has a way with material that confounds initial impressions. A self-described Magpie, he collects, casts and recombines objects that are ‘shiny’ to him and are drawn from various historical moments, ranging from dusty Victorian to 1950’s kitsch. These objects are often symbolically potent; blimps, skulls and guns, but although they appear at first glance to be weighty and metallic, they are in fact made from densely pigmented wax. Undercutting the darkness of his work – literal darkness, as much of the pieces are rendered in dense, light absorbing black – is an irreverent, subversive humour.” From the catalogue for the exhibition sin Corner, Sarah Kelleher 2013.

“The world stepped into when we explore Ben’s work is made up of things, materials, objects, stuff. Is it a door handle? A leather boot, A bag of materials that looks like but isn’t quite coal?

Does it matter? These are old things. But the sense of the old is that of time as something pure.

Unlike the reworking of the past we find in so much popular culture, this is a sensuous oldness; we want to touch and explore. We want to feel the object of time itself.” Art Encounters | Art In The Age Of Virtual Reproduction, Dara Waldron 2017.

Bernadette Tuite

Bernadette Tuite, Sands Cove, commercial and artists own stoneware, 38cm x 40 cm, 2019, â‚Ź750.00

Mizen Head, Black stoneware & porcelain, 40 cm x 25cm, 2020, â‚Ź275

Bernadette Tuite Through my explorations by sea into places accessible only by kayak into hidden, undervalued and undeniably beautiful places I question our role in responsible stewardship of our coastal environs.

I propose to challenge the general apathy towards plastic pollution by presenting to the gallery going public, in the relatable form of the ceramic vessel, a reminder, a highlight, of our essential connection to the landscape.

The sculptural ceramic vessels are constructed emulating the dynamic forces of nature within the marine environment. By tearing and marbling clay bodies, erosion and attrition are depicted in the vessels form. Careful manipulation of found coastal materials incorporated into the individual pieces offers a sense of place conceptually and physically.

Although the coastline appears rugged, an impervious bulwark against the Atlantic and the elements, it is vulnerable to human impact. This precariousness is expressed in the balancing of the vessels on a small base. Each piece is named for the place that inspired it After many years in California where I worked as a boat captain I returned to Ireland and reinvented myself through an Art education. In pursuing my ambition to obtain an art degree I began my journey by setting up a ceramic studio in my native Co. Meath in 2011.

In 2012 I obtained a place with the Pottery Skills and Design Course offered by the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland in Co. Kilkenny. I then attended Crawford College of Art and Design Cork and Shanghai University, Fine Art Glass department.

In June 2018, I completed the Applied Art degree in Crawford obtaining multiple awards, including the graduate resident award in the ceramics department of Crawford 2018/19.

In 2019 I received D.C.C.O.I. Future Makers Award, and Meath County Arts Office Going Solo Award. I am based in Cork city and gratefully work from Backwater Artists Studios.

Carol Anne Connolly

Carol Anne Connolly Arbor Fallax I Giclée print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag €450

Carol Anne Connolly Arbor Fallax II GiclĂŠe print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag â‚Ź450

Carol Anne Connolly's work examines the development of cultural, civic and social ideas relating to place. She employs a variety of mediums, strategies, and techniques to produce work that reimagines or represents ideas pertaining to contemporary landscapes and environments.

Darn Thorn

Dale, Sunnfjord. From the series Fjordism, Silver Gelatin Print, 16 x 20 inch, Darn Thorn, 2010-19, â‚Ź650

Ferry to Askvoll, Sunnfjord.

From the series Fjordism, Silver Gelatin Print, 16 x 20 inch, Darn Thorn, 2010-19, â‚Ź650

Darn Thorn

Leirvik, Overlooking Sognefjord. From the series Fjordism, Silver Gelatine Print, 16 x 20 inch, Darn Thorn, 2010-19, â‚Ź650

Shopping Centre, Førde.

From the series Fjordism, Silver Gelatin Print, 16 x 20 inch, Darn Thorn, 2010-19

“A central focus of my practice is a consideration of how utopian ideology can impact cultural identity. My work commonly references dystopian science fiction tropes from both the cinema and popular culture. A particular focus of recent work has been the link between architectural modernism and new age mysticism. A reoccurring theme is how utopian ideologies are doomed to fail and how these failures resonate within the public consciousness.�

Darn Thorn (1975) was born in Sligo, Ireland and holds a MA in Fine Art from Monash University, Australia. He has exhibited in Australia, China, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, UK & USA. A studio holder at Spike Island, UK (2010-13), he recently exhibited in EVA International (Limerick, 2018), the touring exhibition 2116 (Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork & Broad Art Museum MI, USA, 2016-17), FORMAT International Photography Festival, (Derby, UK, 2013) and Bristol Biennial (2012). Recent solo exhibitions include Omega Point (Studio 12, Backwater Artists Group, Cork, 2018) & Arcadia in Grey (Sirius Art Center, Cobh, 2015). He has lectured in Photography at numerous institutions in Melbourne, Australia including the University of Melbourne and Swinburne University. Since returning to Ireland he has worked with CIT Crawford College of Art and Design (Cork), Limerick School of Art and Design (Limerick) and The Darkroom (Dublin). Recent residencies include Struts Gallery (NB, Canada, 2016) and Fire Station Artists Studios (Dublin, 2014). Since 2013 he has lived in Cork where he holds a studio at Backwater Artists Group.

Deirdre O’Brien

Deirdre O’Brien, Coastal Rain, Winter, Charcoal on paper, 64 x 79cm, 2020, €850

Deirdre O’Brien, Shadows of Winter, Charcoal on paper, 64 x 79cm, 2020, €850

Deirdre O’ Brien

Deirdre O’Brien, Storm Clearing, Charcoal on paper, 64 x 79cm, 2020, €850

“My paintings while belonging very definitely to the genre of landscape, are not focused on the pictorial recording of a scene or place. Instead they concentrate on atmosphere, the elements, transient light and weather conditions and their effects on the landscape. The excitement first experienced by being these conditions, is brought back to the studio, where I try not only to recreate but to build on the mood. The drama of the elements is echoed by heightened colour, paint texture and markmaking.”

Deirdre O’ Brien has been a member of the Backwater Artist’s Group since graduating from the Crawford College of Art and Design in 1994. She has had solo exhibitions in the Paul Kane Gallery, Dublin and the Fenton Gallery, Cork. She has been selected for numerous group exhibitions in Ireland and abroad. My work is in the collections of UCC, The Office of Public Works, AIB and Microsoft Ireland.

Elaine Coakley

Deluge, Oil on aluminium_wood, 23x18cm, 2020, €320

Landscape, Oil on birch ply, 24x17cm, 2020, €350

Elaine Coakley

Silver Heart, Oil on aluminium_wood, 18x16cm, 2020, €280

The Sea, Oil on aluminium_wood, 23x18cm, 2020, €320

Elaine Coakley

Veil, Oil on aluminium_wood, 18x16cm, 2017, â‚Ź280

Artists Statement The Landscape is ever-present in my work, both real and imagined. I work in a variety of media to explore this subject including watercolour, oil and mixed media drawing. Within this, the dualities in nature, the interplay of light & dark and experimenting with different surfaces concern me. I work outside from life and also produce work in the studio, from memory, from photographs and from the imagination. The differences between these two working processes interests me further. My work is usually small in scale.

Fiona Kelly

Fiona Kelly

Fiona Kelly’s work explores the architectural potential of reappropriated materials in a state of rejection; waste concrete from demolition sites, recycled glass, cardboard, plywood, bitumen and limestone dust. Kelly alters these foraged remnants, the by-products of the urban landscape, to visually narrate what she considers to be modern fables for the Anthropocene.

Fiona Kelly, 1985, holds a MA from the Crawford College of Art and was awarded a 1:1 for her research thesis and accompanying exhibition The Distillation of Dust (2015).

Her work has been widely exhibited, most recently in ‘Overburden’ Triskel Arts Centre, Cork; The Mouth of a Shark, Edinburgh Printmakers Gallery, Scotland. UK; ‘The Dirt that Measures All Our Time’, Mermaid Arts Centre, Wicklow, Sustainable Futures, Sirius Arts Centre, IRE; The Great Heap, Leitrim Sculpture Centre, IRE; The Dispersed Gallery, MAW,U.K; Geological Cake, 126, IRE; I Went to the Woods, the artist as wanderer, GLUCKSMAN, Cork, IRE & There are Thousands of Taps Dripping, Ratamo Galleria, Jyväskylä, Finland.

Her work is the public collections of The National Gallery of Ireland, the Office of Public Works, University College Cork, Cork Institute of Technology, Jyväskylä Museum of Art, Finland, and Eli Lilly & Company.

Helen O’Shea

Land Marks III , reused plastic shopping bags and threads, €380 Misted Elaboration, reused plastic shopping bags and threads, €400 Land Marks IV, reused plastic shopping bags and threads, €420

Helen O’ Shea

“Our future reality is building deep in the oceans, amongst the discarded plastics of our generation. My imagination has been fuelled by the revelation of colonies of microorganisms growing on the plastic floating in the sea gyres. Bacteria cling to the discarded plastics in this inhospitable setting, as inorganic plastics support organic life. What is brewing in this changing environment? What narratives will spring from our contaminated sea? What will this extreme situation produce? These questions offer me the framework to explore ideas of transformation and the complexity of creation with entities born of plastic matter and incubated by the sea.” Helen O’Shea 2019 Currently undertaking a Masters by Research in CCAD, Helen’s research focus explores the transformation of used plastic in the making process; to look at the agency of art to effect change, and to open dialogue for already existing plastics. Plastic is a valuable material to society; waste plastic has unexplored potential and this potential will be viewed in the context of contemporary art practice. The prevailing discourse around used plastic is negative, restricting progress towards positive usage. Creating artwork with used plastics will open eyes and start discussion to offer new narratives for this material.

Luke Hickey

Luke Hickey, Of hope, bereft, Oil on board

, 60.3 x 59.7cm, €470

Luke Hickey, Lone wandering the line, Oil on board, 58.42 x 40.64cm , â‚Ź350

The artist’s work depicts scenes from ordinary, everyday life, paying attention to the daily routine and everyday objects. These subjects are explored through emotions that relate to depression.

The objects and places featured in the work are often overlooked due to their mundanity. The work is an emotional response to these overlooked, insignificant subjects that can evoke feelings of melancholy within us as we enter and leave these spaces. This body of work brings attention to these forlorn subjects, shifting our focus away from what we consider to be visually pleasing. The work exists within the psychological space rather than reality. Like in the paintings of Edvard Munch, a primary influence, atmosphere and mood take precedence over accurate, logical depiction.

Luke Hickey is a recent graduate of the CIT Crawford College of Art and Design, completing his degree in BA (Hons) Fine Art. Recent exhibitions include Dismantle, the 2019 CCAD Degree Show, and Dark Pop, a solo weeklong pop up exhibition in 2018. The artist has work in the collections of the Office of Public Works and Cork Institute of Technology, as well as private buyers in Ireland, the United Kingdom and Canada.

Sarah Long

'Kingdom', Sarah Long, 100cmx150cm oil and mixed-media on canvas. 2019 â‚Ź1300

Artist Statement In all art forms the landscape is emblematic of human activity. In Ireland, especially, the idea of a national identity is rooted in the land and landscape. This piece, Kingdom, explores the idea of the Irish landscape as a place of cultural identity and cultural memory. Hedges and stone walls are reimagined as a network that both creates and shapes the land. Time passes across this web of lines, corridors and enclosed spaces. Every physical boundary bears witness to the country’s history thus becoming a source of cultural memory. Working in the mediums of painting and drawing the artist attempts to visualise the layers of memory, as well as plants commonly found in Irish hedgerows. The landscape is simultaneously depicted as a natural phenomenon and a cultural creation.

This exhibition has been programmed in partnership with Backwater Artists Group’s 30th Year Anniversary Programme.

If you would like to inquire about any of these works, contact us on info@lavitgallery.com

Payment can be made by card over the phone or by bank transfer – contact in via info@lavitgallery.com and we’ll advise you on the process.

For more information see www.lavitgallery.com Images: Artists own, Gallery images, and Roland Paschhoff

This exhibition is supported by