Visual Artists' News Sheet - 2014 September October

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet issue 5 September – October 2014 Published byVisual Artists Ireland Ealaíontóirí Radharcacha Éire

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The Visual Artists’News Sheet

September – October 2014

Editorial

Contents

Welcome to the September / October edition of the Visual Artists’ News Sheet.

Our columnists air a variety of prescient issues – Cliodhna Shaffrey sees glimmers of hope flourishing in mainstream and alternative institutions despite economic pressures; Jonathan Carroll ponders thematic curation; Chris Clarke considers design and scenography in exhibition making. VAI’s Northern Ireland Manager Rob Hilken details the recent flowering of sound art in Belfast. Issues around the themes of ‘Art In A Time Of Transition’ And ‘Artists and Ethics’ are covered in reports on the talks co-devised with AICA Ireland presented at the VAI Get Together.

The regional focus in this issue concentrates on visual arts resources and activities across Kilkenny.

Aideen Barry introduces a new aspect to her role as VAI’s West Of Ireland Representative, focusing on the development of the local area groups initiative.

The critique section reviews: Eva Rothschild (Hugh Lane); Graham Gingles (the MAC); Caoimhe Kilfeather (TBG+S); Fabienne Audeoud (Black Mariah); Marilyn Lerner (Butler Gallery); and ‘The Starry Messenger’, a group show of film works (VOID).

The supports that enable artists to work is a strong theme in this issue. Ben Crothers profiles longstanding and fledging studio organisations in Belfast. Margaret O’Brien describes her experience of the TBG+S / HIAP residency in Helsinki. Hugh Mulholland, Director of the MAC Belfast, is interviewed about the institutions new £20,000 international art prize. Ruth Lyons discusses the developments taking place at The Good Hatchery, Offaly. The VAI Help Desk article Tax Made Easy outlines the essential facts about taxation that every artist should know.

A diversity of artists’ experiences and ambitions are explored: Isabel Nolan discusses the development of her career in light of her major show at IMMA; Liam Crichton discusses the rigorous processes behind an installation made for Catalyst Arts; and James Merrigan reports on ‘Catch The He(Art)’, a travelling residency project focusing on older visual artists VAI’s interest in the quality of public art commissioning is set out in an article by Noel Kelly, VAI’s CEO / Director. The innovative international public art project ‘Changing Tracks’ – which features a team of artists from Ireland, The UK and Catalonia – is also profiled.

The ‘social’ role of art is considered in an interview with Monica Flynn about her project ‘The Café Society’ and in Jennette Donnelly’s report on ‘A Moment In Time’, a project devised for Tallaght Hospital.

Joanne Laws reports on ‘The Workers Symposium’, which took place at Roscommon Arts Centre.

Irish and international visual art infrastructures are also addressed. Matt Packer talks about his plans as the new director of CCA, Derry in an interview. Helen Carey provides insights about a curatorial intensive she undertook in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, about the diversity of African art. Olivier Cornet introduces his Dublin gallery and details two upcoming shows.

Listings of VAI’s professional development, information and networking initiatives in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland can be found on page 34. All this and more, including: exhibition and public art roundups, the latest news from the sector and current opportunities.

1. Cover Image. Eva Rothschild, installation view, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, 2014. All works ©

Eva Rothschild. Courtesy of Stuart Shave/Modern Art, London, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, The

Modern Institute, Glasgow, and 303 Gallery, New York.

5. Roundup. Recent exhibitions and projects of note.

5. Column. Cliodhna Shaffrey. Alternative Scenarios.

6. Column. Jonathan Carroll. Theme Or No Theme?

7. Column. Chris Clarke. Site Unseen.

8. News. The latest developments in the visual arts sector.

8. VAI News. Research, projects and campaigns.

9. Regional Focus. Visual arts resources and activity in Kilkenny.

12. Career Development. Tacit Presence. Isabel Nolan discusses the development of her art career.

13. Public Art Profile. On The Right Track. Joanna Hopkins profiles ‘Changing Tracks’.

14. Studio Profile. Encouraging & Enabling. Ben Crothers profiles Queen Street Studios, Flax Art Studios Pollen Studios and Platform Arts.

15. Residency Report. Complete Engagement. Margaret O’Brien describes her experience of the TBG&S / HIAP residency in Helsinki.

16. How Is It Made? Unsettling Essences. Liam Crichton discusses his installation ‘Untitled’.

17. Curation. Perception & Representation. Helen Carey reports on the Addis Ababa Curatorial Intensive.

18. Project Profile. Critical Congregation. Monica Flynn discusses her project ‘The Café Society’.

19. Critique. Eva Rothschild, The Hugh Lane; Graham Gingles, The MAC, Caoimhe Kilfeather TBG&S, Fabienne Audeoud, Triskel; Marilyn Lerner, Butler Gallery; ‘The Starry Messenger’, Void.

23. Studio / Residency Profile. Stronghold. Ruth Lyons discusses new developments at The Good Hatchery.

24. Symposium Report. Civic Works. Joanne Laws reports on ‘The Workers Symposium’.

25. Project Profile. A Moment In Time. Jennette Donnelly reports on an exhibition and discussion event at Tallaght Hospital, which focused on the impacts of art in functional healthcare environments.

26. Project Profile. Swansong For The Lifeworld. James Merrigan reports on ‘Catch The He(Art)’.

27. VAI Northern Ireland Manager. Tone & Noise. Rob Hilken details the rise of sound art in Belfast.

27. VAI West Of Ireland Representative. Western Lags. Aideen Barry on a new aspect of her role with VAI. 28. VAI Event. Ethical Transitions. Jason Oakley reports on ‘Art in a Time of Transition’ And ‘Artists and Ethics’, discussions held at the VAI Get Together in association with AICA Ireland.

29. Gallery Focus. Materiality & Home. Olivier Cornet introduces his Dublin gallery.

29. VAI Help Desk. Tax Made Easy. Niamh Looney highlights information that every artist should know.

30. Institition Profile. Getting Familiar. Matt Packer outlines his plans as the new director of CCA, Derry.

30. Award Profile. The MAC International. Hugh Mullholland talks about the new £20,000 international art prize devised by The MAC, Belfast.

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31. Public Art Roundup. Public art commissions, site-specific works, socially engaged practice and various other forms of art outside the gallery.

32. VAI Advocacy. Public Art In Crisis? VAI CEO / Director Noel Kelly outlines some current issues concerning public art commissions 33. Opportunities. All the latest grants, awards, exhibition calls and commissions.

34. VAI Professional Development. Current and upcoming workshops, peer reviews and seminars.

Production: Editor: Jason Oakley. Assistant Editor: Lily Power. News & Opportunities: Niamh Looney.

Invoicing: Bernadette Beecher.

Visual Artists Ireland provides practical support, services, information & resources for professional visual artists throughout their careers.

Contributors: Cliodhan Shaffrey, Jonathan Carroll, Chris Clarke, Alan Counihan, Gypsy Ray, Josephine Kelliher, Anna O’Sullivan, Mary Butler, Bairbre-Ann Harkin, Hollie Kearns, Isabel Nolan, Jason Oakley, Joanna Hopkins, Ben Crothers, Margaret O’Brien, Liam Crichton, Helen Carey, Monica Flynn, John Graham, Andy McGarry, Kirstie North, Kathryn Nelson, Carissa Farrell, Mary Catherine Nolan, Ruth Lyons, Joanne Laws, Jennette Donnelly, James Merrigan, Rob Hilken, Aideen Barry, Olivier Cornet, Niamh Looney, Matt Packer, Hugh Mulholland, Noel Kelly.

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The Visual Artists’News Sheet

September – October 2014

Column

Cliodhna Shaffrey

5

Roundup

multimedia work explores the environ-

Overture

mental and human impact of this pro-

Alternative Scenarios

Sam Walsh

cess, looking at contemporary and historical modes of production. Bauxite

Reflecting on the current position of the art institution is difficult. How can we grasp the complexities of these transitional times? Or know how we really feel and where things are going?1 I’m prone to pessimism, as the welfare state diminishes and everywhere there is greater precariousness. Real power now resides in global markets, outside the control of politics, and contemporary art is a form of ‘currency’.

Artists and art institutions now vie for attention in a fiercely competitive market, awash with surplus labour (ie. other artists and institutions). Reduced public funding, a volatile art market and a reputational economy predicated on novelty and innovation, exacerbates the situation. Since the 1990s the global proliferation of new museums, galleries, biennials and art fairs dedicated to contemporary art has engendered greater links to big business. Massive architectural statements, destination buildings like Frank Gehry’s Guggenhiem in Bilbao, have linked contemporary art to profit-driven urban regeneration.

The nineteenth-century museum came into being as a place of enlightenment and learning, established by the ruling elite of the day to both embody and legitimise their values. But nowadays art museums are increasingly configured as spaces for entertainment. They’re compelled to demonstrate their ‘market share’ via crude metrics based on audience numbers, rather than meaningful inquiry into the transformative qualities of art.

But a brighter picture can be forecast. It comes into view precisely because we are now in such turbulent times, forcing us to ask where we can and should be heading.

Alternative scenarios – leaner, self-organising and self-determining – are shaking things up and pioneering new ways of operating: peer-to-peer exchange groups; smallscale collectives; self-run spaces; micro institutions; networks; local and grassroots arts enterprise; progressive public art projects that seek participation and involvement. These quasi-institutions start small and expand their activities based on the needs of artists and the audience.

However, there’s always a sense of uncertainty around these DIY, quasi-institutional initiatives. These are often fragile models relying on voluntary labour and temporary access to low-rent vacant spaces. So what of the mainstream?

In her book Radical Museology Claire Bishop provides three case studies of radical progressive publicly funded institutions: the Van Abbemuseum, the Reina Sofia, in Madrid and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Ljublana.2 While Nina Möntmann, in her essay The Enterprise of the Art Institution in Late Capitalism, advocates for a “new institutionalism”, citing publicly-funded institutions such as Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona and the Rooseum in Malmö Sweden as particularly progressive.3 All these institutions share an interest in mobilising their permanent collection, engaging in radical education programmes and producing audiences, rather than just luring them in the door. They have each set up a relationship between art and the socio-political world they are navigating.

Needless to say, such approaches require sympathetic cultural policies and some public funding.

In Ireland our art institutions are now expected to diversify and grow other sources of sponsorship to sustain their programme. But without an established philanthropic culture they remain dependent on the public purse for the foreseeable future. There are excellent possible models for philanthropic support that can encourage and support experimentation, but regrettably these are not yet substantially in place in Ireland.

In the meantime we must fight, argue and advocate for a better-resourced Arts Council to ensure both a continuity of knowledge, experience and understanding of our institutions. My particular hope is to see, besides more multi-annual funding, supports arise for partnerships between institutions of different scales, ie. between alternative scenarios and the mainstream.

A promising development along these lines is the Arts Council’s curator-in-residence programme, which is currently supporting Megs Morley’s tenure in Galway.4 Galway is one of the few cities or county towns that has yet to build a major visual arts institution.

Morley is proposing a framework for a ‘para institution’ that will find a way for artists and various artists’ groups and institutions – including GMIT – to cluster together and form strong networks for exchange and conviviality. This endeavour may or may not lead to a new building, but the ambition is that at the very least it would lay the foundations for a new ‘relational institution’ to be built from the ground up.

We might look to Glasgow as an inspiration for the latter. Three of this year’s Turner Prize nominees – Duncan Campbell, Ciara Phillips and Tris Vonna-Michell – are graduates of Glasgow School of Art. Moira Jeffrey’s Guardian article Don’t Call Glasgow Arts Scene A Miracle (9 May 2014) asks how a post-industrial city with practically no art collector base, only a few historical collections and skeletal contemporary institutions, has become so culturally dominant in the UK and, indeed, in Europe.5 The answers are down to combination of factors including Glasgow School of Art’s innovative and influential teachers. But overall it’s a result of a convivial, egalitarian and supportive arts community with a DIY ethos, along with some judicious public support.

Cliodhna Shaffrey, Director, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios.

Notes 1. This text is based on a paper delivered as part of the VAI / AICA panel discussion ‘Art in a Time of Transition’ 2. Claire Bishop,Radical Museology Or, What’s Contemporary In Museums Of Contemporary Art?, Koenig Books, 2013 3. Nina Möntmann,The Enterprise of the Art Institution in Late Capitalism, 2006 www.eipcp.net 4. www.facebook.com/parainstitution

serves as a “surreal motif”, the artist noted, to examine our relationship to global manufacturing. www.occupyspace.com

Fiona Woods,Mammal Identification Widescreen, 2014

Stone Soup Sam Walsh,Hiems V, 2012

Damer House Gallery, Roscrea presented ‘Homeland’ (4 Jun – 4 Jul) in collabora-

‘New Paintings and Some Drawings’ by

tion with the Loop Festival, Barcelona.

Sam Walsh ran at the Courthouse,

The exhibtion featured film works by:

Ennistimon (9 Aug – 4 Sept). Though

Patricia McKenna, Alan Phelan, Fiona

some paintings are not new, the title

Woods, Michele Connor Connelly,

refers to the artist’s newly discovered

Margaret Tuffy, Patricia Pietro, Deborah

consistency of style. In the press release

McDonagh, Lesley Yendell, Johanna Hopkins, Angie Duignan, Gana Roberts, Wendy Miles, Sinead Mc Donald, Patrick

for this exhibition Walsh described how Lucy Andrews, installation from ‘Stone Soup’

he had “found a formula in which to lay down structure, line and colour in

Murphy and Justy Phillips. Loop Festival

Group exhibition ‘Stone Soup’ ran at

arrangements that reflect [his] observa-

artists featured were: Matilde Obrados,

Ormston House, Limerick from 23 – 31

tion of the world”.

Jhon Agusaco, Mireia C Saladrigues, Pep

Jul and featured work by artists from

Agut, Núria Güell, Ignasi Aballí, Alba

Basic Space, Dublin, who undertook a

Satorra and Isa Campo, Adrian Melis,

month-long residency at the historic

Alba Sotorra Clua, Nuria Manso,

Sailors’ Home. The title of the show was

Ihosvanny and Juan López.

taken from the famous folktale of the

This was followed by an exhibition

same name to reflect ideas of “provisional

of work by selected graduates from

communities and co-operation”, the press

selected colleges: the Centre for Creative

release noted. The artists contributed to

Arts at GMIT, Galway; Limerick School of

an evolving exhibition, making work

Art and Design; and Crawford College of

with, on and around stones sourced from

Art, Cork. The show, titled ‘Overture’, ran

a local quarry. Featured artists were: Lucy

from 19 Jul – 16 Aug.

Andrews, Clare Breen, Alan-James Burns,

www.damerhaousegallery.wordpress.com

www.thecourthousegallery.com

Resort

Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty, Simon Cummins, Jason Dunne, Liliane Puthod,

Keyframe

Marie Farrington, Hannah Fitz, Stéphane

Keyframe, a multi-screen installation by

Hanly, Tracy Hanna, Greg Howie,

Colin Martin, was shown at Platform

Caoímhe Kilfeather, Paul Maguire, Katie

Arts, Belfast (7 – 28 Aug) . The work refer-

Mooney-Sheppard, Rob Murphy and Lily

Group show ‘Resort: a Popular Destination’

ences Michael Snow’s Structuralist film

Cahill, Oisín O’Brien, James Ó hAodha,

– featuring works by Roisin Beirne, Clare

Wavelength, from 1967, and investigates

Eoghan Ryan, Daniel Tuomey, Suzanne

Breen, David Lunney, Andreas Kindler

the phenomenon of ‘tweening’ (an ani-

Walsh and Lee Welch.

Von Knobloch, Blaine O’Donnell, Liliane

mation term that describes the perceptu-

www.ormstonhouse.com

al leap that exists between two static film frames). Each sequence of film begins

Image from ‘Resort: a Popular Destination’

Puthod, Daniel Toumey, John Ryan and Tom Watt – ran at Pallas Projects, Dublin

Installations & Provocations

6 – 16 Aug. The exhibition followed a trip

with a wide frame and moves towards a

taken last year by the nine artists to a

close-up of a photograph taped to the

bothy in Peanmeanach in the Scottish

opposite wall. The sequences move from

Highlands, described in the press release

these two key positions in different cine-

as “an experiment in communal living

matic movements, gradually revealing

with the potential for artistic practice

more information about the space. www.platformbelfast.com

within a limited time period in a geoEwa Partum, image from ‘Installations and Provocations’

graphically isolated area”. At Pallas, the work was “recontextualised for a wider

Stigma Damages

‘Installations and Provocations’ was the

audience in an urban setting”.

first exhibition of Ewa Partum’s work

www.apopulardestination.com

held in Ireland and ran at the Limerick Gallery of Art from 17 Jul – 26 Sept.

doppelganger

Partum showed conceptual works as early as 1965 and is a highly influential figure of the international mail art movement as the founder of the Adres Gallery Michelle Horrigan, from ‘Stigma Damages’, 2014

in Łódź (1971–1977). Her oeuvre shows a broad range of media, including visual

Michelle Horrigan’s solo exhibition

poetry, performance art, and the analysis

‘Stigma Damages’ was shown at Occupy

of media such as film, photography or

Space, Limerick (25 Jul – 23 Aug) and

TV. Partum is a strong voice in Polish

marked the culmination of her investiga-

feminist art, in particular, for the female

tion into the mineral ore bauxite, which

voice in the public space.

is manufactured into aluminium in Horrigan’s hometown of Askeaton. Her

www.limerick.gallery.ie

Peter Liversidge, from ‘Doppelganger’,2014

6

The Visual Artists’News Sheet

Column

ROUNDUP

Jonathan Carroll

The MAC, Belfast held a solo exhibition

Theme or No Theme?

(8 Aug – 19 Oct), famous for posting

Terra Firma

September – October 2014

A Painful Excess of Pleasure

by London-based artist Peter Liversidge myriad typed exhibition proposals to gal-

I knew I was in trouble as soon as I looked into my welcome pack. A miniature complementary bottle of Caorunn, the Scottish gin sponsoring this year’s Glasgow International (4 – 21 April 2014). Naively I popped the bottle in my coat pocket, doubting that such a flahulach gesture would be continued at the various staggered openings. I need not have worried: the gin and wine flowed throughout the opening events. This generosity was what most stood out for me at the Glasgow International Festival. The gesture reflected the effervescent character of the festival director Sarah McCrory. However, the gin sedative was necessary to cover what was a rather disappointing and unengaging mix of solo presentations, intentionally unconnected by any overarching theme.

This year seems to mark a turn against themes in many international exhibitions, which was much discussed by those visiting Glasgow International’s opening weekend.

I met the artistic director of the Liverpool Biennale, Sally Tallant, who praised the lack of an overarching theme for Glasgow. However, when the Biennial opened in Liverpool (5 July – 26 October), it was in the form of the thematic show ‘A needle walks into a haystack’, curated jointly by Mai Abu ElDahab and Anthony Huberman (both previously guest curators at Project Arts Centre).

Meanwhile at the 8th Berlin Biennale (29 May – 3 August 2014) Juan A Gaitán, this year’s curator, makes a strong case for an anti-thematic exhibition that “treats the city of Berlin as an example, but doesn’t essentialise it, and which allows for the various artistic positions to be presented on their own terms … the overall exhibition is focused on the individual artistic positions … we are convinced that in the framework of a contemporary art exhibition, the relationship between the different works should remain tentative, so that the role of the exhibition is to enable the development of the viewer’s autonomy in their encounter with art”.1 So essentially we get no catchy title; instead we can pick up hints of various themes sneaking in, despite the curator’s overall intentions. By placing the majority of the artists in the Dahlem Museum complex – which houses an Ethnological Museum and a Museum of Asian Art as well as a Museum of European Cultures – post-colonial issues, globalisation and various notions of collecting and display are present in the majority of the works exhibited.

I was struck by how similar the approach to display in Dahlem was to a work recently shown in EVA International at the Hunt Museum in Limerick. Playing House (Bayt Byoot) by Bisan Abu-Eisheh (born Palestine 1985), an installation comprising a collection of pieces gathered from demolished houses in the Palestinian district of Beit Hanina, Jerusalem, was shown in the vitrines normally housing the Hunt Museum’s jewellery collections.

Comparative Studies, Herbarium of artificial plants (2002 – ongoing) by Dahlem Alberto Baraya (born Bogota 1968) was presented in a similar way. Clever as Baraya’s work is, it does not have the resonance that Abu-Eisheh’s work continues to have – especially with the recent events in Gaza.

I found Bassam El Baroni’s curatorial approach for Eva 2014 far more worthy and brave for having a theme. Perhaps the previous edition of the Berlin Biennale put the frighteners on any future curator attempting a political and topical subject matter as an overarching umbrella for the exhibition as a whole? The 2012 Berlin Biennale, ‘Forget Fear’, curated

by Arthur Zmijewski, was universally panned by the critics and worse still was largely ignored by unimpressed Berliners. The knock on affect was a rather safe and unambitious Biennale this year, which seemed quite amnesiac about the long history of exhibitions that have juxtaposed historical museum objects with the contemporary.

To be fair Gaitán does not so much juxtapose work as offer the audience a chance to relate to forms of display and slip from contemporary to historical modes of display.

Gaitán has also made it clear where he thinks the relationship of art and politics lie: “Political expediency is not art’s purpose; art aims to generate a counter-image that is able to distinguish truth from power.” 2 Gaitán’s Biennale also finally moves away from the use of derelict and other nonart spaces. He explained: “We think that continuing to seek out seemingly abandoned or derelict spaces for exhibitions no longer reflects the reality of Berlin.” 3 While this is also a pragmatic way of saving money – not having to make derelict buildings safe and fit for purpose – it is also a welcome respite for the visitor like me, now jaded from tramping around unsuitable art spaces. Yes, Eva’s main exhibition in the old Golden Vale milk plant was exciting, but it was also a rather uncomfortable and cold place to expect an audience to endure for the entire duration of long video works.

One thing overlooked during all this discussion about location and themes is of course the quality of the artwork on display and whether one should make the effort to see these exhibitions. I was amazed at the amount of people I met who had heard that the Berlin Biennale this year was not worth visiting. I disagree totally. Any show featuring the likes of Berlin-based artists Rosa Barba, Tacita Dean, Anri Sala and Wolfgang Tillmans, to name a few, is always worth visiting. And you can often learn more from ‘failed’ endeavours than triumphs – or am I a bit perverse? Answers on the usual postcard.

Jonathan Carroll is an independent curator based in Dublin.

Notes 1. Juan A. Gaitán press pack for 8th Berlin Biennale) 2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

leries worldwide. In ‘doppelganger’, Liversidge examines a sequence of etchings by German Symbolist Max Klinger, titled Ein Handschuh / The Glove, which recounts the bizarre psycho-sexual adventures of a lady’s elbow length glove.

Racael Campbell-Palmer, ‘Terra Firma’, 2014

In Liversidge’s work, the press release

Rachael Campbell-Palmer’s exhibition

describes, “the emphasis shifts and the

‘Terra Firma’ ran at PS2, Belfast (28 Jul –

story becomes a much wider one asking

16 Aug). The work comprises a minimal-

questions on the obsession of creativity

ist structure made from had cast concrete

and the workings of artistic imagina-

objects assembled in a neatly ordered

tion”.

hexagonal pattern on the floor. The

Roscommon Arts Centre presented an

objects form a stone carpet, covering the

installation by Spanish artist Vanessa

space but appears light and fragile. ‘Terra

Donoso López titled ‘A Painful Excess of

Firma’ interprets, the press release stated,

Pleasure’ as their inaugural offsite exhibi-

“the relationship between physical loca-

tion in the Long Gallery of King House,

tion and psychological space. It uses ele-

Boyle. Vanessa’s intricately executed

ments of location-specific architecture

installation transformed the Long Gallery

and explores notions of nostalgia and

space using curious type objects and

domicile”.

organic forms created from paper. A large

www.themaclive.com

Second Sight

www.pssquared.org

Vanessa DonosoLopez, ‘A Painful Excess of Pleasure’, image courtesy of Kevin Kavanagh Gallery

greenhouse structure served as a container and a laboratory filled with plants.

Wound with a Tear

The aim of the space, the press release stated, was to “invite the audience to walk in and around the objects within,

Doug Dubois,My last day at seventeen, Kieran, Dylan and Cian at Cuskinny Bay Cobh 2011

traversing elements of the artist’s ‘inner psychic reality’, ‘external reality’ and her

IMMA, Dublin presented ‘Second Sight’

past and present”.

(2 Aug – 9 Nov), an exhibition drawn from the exceptional collection of photography amassed by Dr. David Kronn,

The Young Ones

which is a promised gift to the gallery.

Sample Studios, Cork held a one-day per-

The David Kronn Collection comprises more than 550 photographs including

formance, video and sound event on 17 Ruth Clinton & NiamhMoriarty, ‘Wound with a Tear’, 2014

nineteenth century Daguerreotypes,

Jul, featuring emerging Cork-based artists. The work centred on the experience

works by icons of modern photography

‘Wound with a Tear’ was an off-site proj-

of surreal humour and the title alludes to

Edward Weston and August Sander and

ect that took place for one week only

the age of the participating artists in ref-

works by contemporary photographers

around the Trinity College Dublin cam-

erence to the YBA (Young British Artists)

such as Trine Sondergaard and Simon

pus. Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty

movement while also referencing the

Norfolk.

devised a route around the grounds using

absurdist 1990s comedy television show

photographs, texts and installations to

of the same name. The artists featured

guide visitors through a strange narra-

were: The Project Twins, Rachel Barton,

tive. The works playfully tease out ques-

Kieran Healy, Jamie Stack, Michael Foy,

tions about the gradual and more imme-

Róisín Bohan with Róisín Murphy.

www.imma.ie

Bob & Roberta Smith

diate deterioration of the archives and

www.tactic-art.ie

buildings, which give Trinity College its reputation of permanence and history.

Restless

www.cargocollective/ruthandniamh

Rhythms of a port Bob and Roberta Smith,Lights ‘ Out’, 2014

Moira Sweeney’s audiovisual work ‘Rhythms of a Port’ took place at Red

Bob and Roberta Smith created an instal-

Brick Shed, Sir Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin

lation on the East Lawn of the Belfast

(1 – 15 Jul). The work intertwines the

City Hall grounds on 4 Aug. The work

stories and memories of dockworkers,

was based around a quote taken from

boatmen and port managers with per-

‘Letter to an Unknown Soldier’: “What

sonal reflections and insights on dock life

unites human beings, ears, eyes, loves,

from the artist. Multiple screens hang

hopes and toes is huge and wonderful.

from the rafters, bringing a former dry

What divides human beings is small and

cargo store to life and reminding the

mean”. This statement forms part of Bob

viewer that the vibrant hub of Dublin’s

126 Gallery, Galway held its annual

and Roberta Smith’s new work for ‘Lights

working docks was once close to the

members’ exhibition from 14 – 29 Jul.

Out’. It featured letters designed and con-

heart of the city.

Curated by Paul McAree, the featured art-

Ruby Wallis,Exiles, part of ‘Restless’, 2014

structed together with local artists and

ists were: Amanda Rice, Aneta Nowicka,

community groups of various ages, from

Breda Lynch, Emer Ní Chíobháin, Gianna

a range of backgrounds. Participants

Tasha Tomasso, Kerry Guinan, Inguna

responded to the statement and to the

Gremzde, Jane Quaelly, Michael Holly,

commemoration of WWI.

Noelle Gallagher, Nora Duggan, Robin

The Visual Artists’News Sheet

September – October 2014

7

Column

ROUNDUP

Chris Clarke

Jones and Ruby Wallis. In the callout to members, McAree set no theme but

presented an exhibition of applied art

Site Unseen

included some of his background inter-

works from the Arts Council of Northern

ests, in order to engender a variety of

Ireland Collection as part of Craft Month

responses. The result, the press release

2014. The show ran from 14 Aug – 6 Sept

noted, “was a distinct sense of question-

and focused on work created in Northern

ing through a very diverse series of art-

Ireland over the last few years, including

works – who we are, what are things

pieces from local artists including

made of, the meaning of things, of objects,

Brendan Jamison, Janet Ledsham, Zoe

When it comes to curating, nobody ever seems to talk about design. While exhibitions are often discussed in terms of thematic coherence, site-specificity or relevance to a broader cultural context, little mention is made of the particular layout of the gallery space itself. Any reference of the space tends to take the form of vague and inarticulate descriptions of what looks ‘right’ or how the show ‘hangs’.

Might this be down to the fact that design is more generally associated with the artistic practice itself? Is the artist is granted a sort of ownership over how his or her piece will be experienced – the curator conceding this ground as outside of their particular remit? Or is the notion too redolent of interior design, of an aesthetic sensibility that is generally seen as inconsonant with the supposed critical rigor of contemporary art curating? Perhaps this reticence is simply inherent to the medium; as Jared Spool points out: “Good design, when it’s done well, becomes invisible. It’s only when it’s done poorly that we notice it.” 1 However, this doesn’t preclude a vast amount of literature and debate around how to achieve this invisibility. Recently, having been asked to give a presentation on curatorial strategies at The Rooms Gallery in St John’s, Newfoundland, I found myself retrospectively uncovering a few distinct strands in how I approach exhibition design: reconfiguring the interior architecture in line with specific themes or artists; complicating and ‘slowing’ the visitor’s trajectory with the deliberate placement of time-based work or explanatory texts; even shrinking down large walls or spaces with the judicious use of painted backgrounds. In some ways, these are simply tricks of the trade to induce a particular aesthetic response yet, at the same time, they also allow for opportunities to work counter-intuitively, to provoke the spectator into an experience that unsettles the invisibility of ‘good design’.

This subliminal tendency appears to counter ideas of institutional self-critique, where the inner workings of the gallery are rendered transparent. Interestingly, Annie Fletcher’s keynote lecture at the Visual Arts Workers Forum event, at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin demonstrated why this might not necessarily be the case.2 While the Van Abbemuseum has a strong curatorial commitment to exposing the gallery’s institutional structures, what really came across in her presentation was how smart it all looked. In one example, the use of pull-out hanging systems – such as one might see in the storage facilities of numerous large art holding institutions – to highlight individual works from their collection wasn’t just an attempt at interactivity but cleverly inverted the ways in which such museums manage their collections. The backroom is made visible and, while this is part of the very ethos of self-conscious critique, the elegance of the display – functional yet crisply minimal – complicated any presumptions of institutional critique as drily academic or un-aesthetic in tone.

Strangely enough, the comparison that comes to mind isn’t a curatorial one but an artwork: Jörg Sasse’s Speicher, a sculptural ‘block’ that acts as a filing cabinet for a selection of both the artist’s own photographs and a number of found images.

Classified according to specific categories such as ‘abstract’ or ‘demarcation’, the 512 images contained within can be accessed and withdrawn (under the supervision of gallery staff) through a system of cross-referenced cards.

The difference here is that the latter example is very much an artistic gesture, integral to the concept of the work itself, while the former represents a deliberate curatorial decision, a mode of representation that need not have any relation to the content of an artwork. Yet the affinities between both approaches might also offer another way of making good design invisible. The blurring of distinctions, whereby the exhibition layout offers room for both a sensitive representation of an artist’s intent and the curatorial appropriation of their aesthetic language, suggests a way of collapsing the typical responsibilities of the curator (clarity of display, formal and conceptual coherence, mediation, etc.) into a more collaborative exchange. And while one would be wary of overstepping the mark, there are certainly aspects of an exhibiting artist’s sensibility that might be useful in a purely design-oriented sense.

Artists are generally encouraged to respond to the specifics of site in their work; there is equal potential in the curatorial response, where the visitor’s experience of the artwork can be supplemented and shaped through the exhibition design. While this isn’t a call for galleries to over-emphasise the spectacular or the formal to the detriment of a concept or thematic, nor does one wish to see shows that only offer arguments, propositions, without regard to any visual appeal. The exhibition is a site of experience, and it is the curator’s responsibility to both artists and the public to use whatever tools they have, including design, to achieve this.

Chris Clarke is a critic and Senior Curator at Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork.

Notes 1 Jared Spool is the founder ofUser Interface Engineering (www.uie.com) 2. VAWF, Project Arts Centre, Dublin 9 May 2014 (www.vawf.ie)

The Higher Bridges Gallery, Enniskillen

Susan Hiller

of reality, of the personal and the social”. www.126.ie

Murdoch, and many more.

Susan Hiller,Belshazzar’s Feast, courtesy of the artist

DIC TAT Being Without Finish

The Model, Sligo held the first solo show by internationally renowned artist Susan Hiller. In describing her work, the press release stated: “Often inspired by postcards, place-names, automatic writing and newspaper articles, Hiller probes questions of memory, loss, the sub-conscious, and the uncanny in a practice she describes as ‘paraconceptual’”. This exhibition featured a range of works from 1983 – present.

Image from ‘DIC TAT’ at Draiocht, 2014 www.themodel.ie

‘DIC TAT’, an exhibition by artist Marie

Anne Hendrick,The Beaver Moon, 2012

Brett and composer Rhona Clarke, ran at

These Immovable Walls Anne Hendrick’s exhibition ‘Being with-

Draiocht, Blanchardstown (18 Jul – 16

out Finish’ ran at 21 Jul – 30 Aug and

Sept). The show combined sound and

comprised a range of new work using

visual elements and the title ‘DIC TAT’,

paint, textiles and video installation.

the press release explained, refers to a

Hendrick’s technique, the press release

specific work in which a set of drawings

described, “is one that is produced slowly

are made to the mechanical pulse of a

and meditatively, seducing with silky

metronome. “The metronome ‘dictates’

and textured surfaces in an attempt to

the pace, beating out precise measures

produce images that almost transcend

for the drawing hand to follow. Given

their object hood … Hendrick explores

such restrictions, the markings are nota-

feelings of optimism counter-balanced

bly varied, expressive and irregular”.

by disenchantment through flattened perspectives and unconventional dimen-

www.draiocht.ie.ie Phillip Napier,Soon, 2014, photo by Joseph Carr

sions, with the moon acting as the omnipresent muse”.

Here Now ‘These Immovable Walls: Performing

www.wexfordartscentre.ie

Power’ took place of 11 and 12 Jul at Dublin Castle and comprised a series of live performances by Carey Young,

The Pinking

Kateřina Šedá, Sandra Johnston, Maurice O’Connell,

Philip

Napier,

Pauline

Cummins and Dominic Thorpe, curated

by Michelle Browne. The show focused on the relationship between performance and power. In partnering with Office of Public Works, this exhibition of newly commissioned performances “interro-

‘Here Now’ installation shot courtesy of Angie Duignan

gated Dublin Castle as a public space”,

Roscommon Visual Artists’ Forum pre-

the press release noted. The work consid-

sented a group show curated by Linda

ered the “aesthetics and architecture of

Shevlin and Angie Duignan at Unit 1,

power as well as notions of legitimacy,

Patrick St., Boyle. The featured artists

force, coercion and voicelessness”.

were: Adam Burthom, Naomi Draper,

www.michellebrowne.net

Ruth Lyons, ‘The Pinking’, 2014

Marie Hannon, Margo McNulty, Noel Molloy, Nollaig Molloy, Leonora Neary,

‘The Pinking’, an exhibition of water-

ACNI Acquisitions

Gavin Porter and Vida Pain. The aim of

colour paintings by Ruth E. Lyons, curat-

the exhibition, the press release stated,

ed by Aoife Tunney, ran at Kevin

was to showcase work created by artists

Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin (7 – 30 Aug).

working rurally, “demonstrating how, as

Lyons’s work for this show “touches on

a collective, artists within the rural

the liminal interlude between the pink-

dynamic can work together to define the

ing of the sky, the constellations of stars

ethics and aesthetics of contemporary art

above, the breath and richness of land-

practice against the background of social

scapes underfoot and the depths of the

and cultural change, while looking

earth and underwater below us,” the

beyond geographical boundaries and

press release stated.

fixed identities”. www.kevinkavanagh.ie Image from ACNI applied art works at Higher Bridges

8

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

News New Minister for the Arts Heather Humphreys was declared the new Minister for Arts on 11 July 2014.

Humphreys was elected to the Dáil in February 2011 for the constituency of Cavan Monaghan. Outgoing Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan T.D. released a Statement outlining his department’s achievements during the last three years of office: “Over this period, I have been proud to progress a number of very important initiatives in the arts. The arts help to foster creativity, they challenge us, and they teach us about ourselves, which is the principal reason why I, and the Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn, drove the Arts in Education Charter. I was delighted to set in train the drawing up of a National Culture Policy, which will lay down the aims of the Government in the area of culture, for the period up until 2025”.

NEW Culture Ireland CHAIR Jimmy Deenihan, T.D., outgoing Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, announced the appointment of Mary McCarthy as the new Chair of the Culture Ireland Expert Advisory Committee (EAC). Two new members – John Given and Josephine Kelliher – have also been appointed to the Committee. Mary McCarthy is already a member of the EAC and she will replace outgoing Chair, Professor Micheál Ó Súilleabháin. Mary McCarthy is Director of the National Sculpture Factory in Cork; Josephine Kelliher is the owner and director of Rubicon Gallery; John Given is a founding shareholder and director of Brandon Point Industries Limited, a newly established Dublin and New Haven, Connecticut based life sciences company. www.ahg.gov.ie

Arts Council Strategic Review The Arts Council has published the report of an independent strategic review group chaired by Mr. Terence O’Rourke.

The Strategic Review Report was commissioned by the Arts Council and provides a compelling and challenging series of proposals that will be used by the Arts Council to inform strategy in the years ahead. The Arts Council will now begin to examine the detail and the implications of the report. A key part of this process will be to continue the conversation commenced during the consultation process with a broad range of stakeholders.

Galway Artists’ Supports GMIT (CCAM) and 126 have announced a series of exciting new initiatives supporting artists and filmmakers in Galway City and the surrounding region.

A new internship partnership for recent GMIT graduates with 126. 126 and CCAM have developed an internship programme for recent CCAM graduates

who have formed a new venture, the Itsa Collective. As part of their residency internship the artists will gain experience in all aspects of running the gallery and take part in the annual 126 Graduate Show 2014. In addition, six artists from Ireland, the US, Scotland and Brazil were selected for the inaugural GMIT (CCAM) residency programme. The residencies provide opportunities for the artists to research and develop their practice in the privacy of their own studio while having access to GMIT’s library and editing facilities. www.gmit.ie, www.126.ie

The Joinery Graduate Residency The Joinery has announced that visual artist Nicola Whelan is the recipient of the Joinery Graduate Residency 2014.

The residency operates as a support structure to encourage and assist the artist’s practice after graduation, help develop ideas and give technical support. The selected artist will then use the Joinery space for a one month period in whatever way he or she feels is appropriate to his or her practice. This residency will be concluded with a solo presentation by Nicola Whelan this coming October, curated by Deborah Madden and Jennie Taylor. www.thejoinery.org

RDS Student Award University of Ulster graduate Ruth Moore was announced as the 2014 winner of the RDS Taylor Art Award, presented at the recent RDS Student Art Awards held on Wednesday 30 July, in the RDS Concert Hall, Dublin. Belfast-based Moore, who changed careers to pursue her passion for photography, won the award worth €5,000 for her photograph Untitled 2 (from the series Ordinances & Angels), a portrait of a ‘woman believer’. The Taylor Art award has been presented by the RDS since 1860 with previous winners including Sir William Orpen, Walter Osbourne, Louis Le Brocquy, Dorothy Cross and James Hanly. www.rds.ie

Fingal Arts Office Residencies Fingal Arts Office has launched a series of new artists’ residencies. A selection of artists, academics and curators will reside in the area for week-long periods from August – September 2014. The participants have been invited to use the time to explore the area, its unique geography, community and history. It is hoped that the information gathered during the period will evolve into a more developed project or event while opening up some interesting conversations with local residents. Participants include: Sean Taylor, Rhona Byrne, Andrew Carson, Gareth Kennedy, Mick Holly, Kate Strain, Vagabond Reviews and Dr. Maeve Connolly. www.fingalarts.ie

The MAC Prize The MAC has launched its new international art prize, offering professional artists worldwide the opportunity to exhibit at the MAC with a substantial prize of £20,000 awarded to the winner – one of the biggest contemporary art prizes in Ireland and one of the few major prizes in the UK. An international judging panel, which includes a senior Tate expert announced the shortlist of 24 projects which have successfully made it through the open submission for ‘MAC International’, which attracted over 1,000 submissions from more than 30 countries across the world. The artists from Ireland and Northern Ireland named on the shortlist are: Darek Fortas, Maria McKinney, Dougal McKenzie, Cian Donnelly and Colin Darke. The exhibition, which will run across all three MAC galleries from 31st October 2014 until 18 January 2015, aims to offer visitors the very best in contemporary visual art including sculpture, painting, photography, film, installation and performance. The winner of the £20,000 prize will be announced at the opening ceremony on 30 October, 2014. www.thmaclive.com

NEW Model Director The Model, home of the Niland Collection and one of Ireland’s leading contemporary art spaces, has announced the appointment of Megan Johnston as the new Director. Johnston is a curator, educator, and writer who utilises socially engaged curatorial practice centering on fundamental questions about art, its display, and mediation. She is interested in where sociopolitical / historical issues and creativity converge with visual culture and civil engagement. Johnston comes to The Model from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she was Lecturer at Minneapolis College of Art & Design (MCAD) and an independent curator. www.themodel.ie

Kieran Meagher Legacy Award Limerick National City of Culture 2014 announced artist Steve Maher as the recipient of the Kieran Meagher Legacy Award. The Kieran Meagher Legacy Award presents a visual artist from, trained or based in Limerick the opportunity to investigate and develop a new body of work and support their practice throughout 2014 and beyond. This bursary awards one artist €10,000 and is part of the Visual Art Legacy project during Limerick City of Culture.

The Kieran Meagher Legacy Award is a Visual Arts Legacy Project. The spirit of the Limerick City of Culture Legacy projects is to ensure that capacity within the various art forms in Limerick is built in 2014. The Visual Arts Legacy Project offers many opportunities for arts practitioners based in Limerick including the ambitious Professional Development, Travel & Training Award launched this week.

VAI News Local Area Groups The objective of VAI’s Local Area Groups initiative is to: assist in the removal of the sense of isolation, increase awareness of fellow artists and supports in local areas, provide knowledge on national and international supports and information provision, and the delivery of Help Desk services onsite.

We have already seen great progress and indeed we now have more and more calls to the office about artist-led initiatives assisting us in the delivery of our work around the country. This is balanced by arts offices in some counties and also the Professional Development Programme. This is then brought together on an all Ireland scale at our annual Get Together – Ireland’s National Day for Visual Artists. To facilitate this we have developed ‘The Visual Artists’ Café’. This event is a flexible format designed to provide artists with a space to learn, share information, and meet with fellow artists and those working in the sector in an open and convivial atmosphere.

Options for the structure of a Visual Artists’ Café are: professional development: A half day seminar or key note address from artists or specialists on career development, current trends in specific areas of practice, or visual artists rights and advocacy; Show & Tell: a fast paced presentation by up to 10 artists on their current work or areas of interest; film screening: a screening of a film that is either being worked on in the specific area /organisation, or one that can engage with an informal discussion around relevant topics or a specific area of thinking; key note speaker: a presentation by an artist on their career development; help desk: a forum to explore current issues arising in the sector combined with more formal private one to one sessions about specific legal, financial, or other topics; informal networking.

Each event is accompanied by the provision of up to date information about what is happening in their locality, opportunities that may be in the pipeline, and access to sources of information. Visual Artists’ Cafés take place throughout the year across the country.

Keep up to date on these and the many other opportunities available to visual artists by subscribing through our website to our eBulletin, or check the current edition of the VAN. If you are part of an artists’ group or artist-led initiative, why not consider hosting a Visual Artists Café in your local area. Email noel@ visualartists.ie for further details.

Artists’ Café Tipperary Visual Artists Ireland, in partnership with Damer House Gallery and Tipperary Arts Office, are delighted to announce the first Visual Artists’ Café for Tipperary Visual Artists. Join us on Tuesday, 9 September for an afternoon of information and the opportunity to meet

September – October 2014

fellow artists working in Tipperary and discover the supports that are available to you. Format for the afternoon: Introduction to Damer House Gallery – the history, the mission, the practicalities (2pm); Supports & Arts Structures for Artists in Tipperary – Tipp Arts Office (2:30pm); Introduction to VAI Support Services including: Payment Guidelines for Visual Artists (3:15pm); Themed Presentation – Unsticking your practice … how to keep going and maintain a practice (Therry Rudin and Patricia Hurl) (4pm); 5pm break for tea; Show & Tell: 10 Tipperary artists speak about their work in quick fire presentation… also open to a general audience (5:30pm).

Register on our website. (Free for members; €3 for non-members.) The Visual Artists’ Café at Damer House Gallery is a Visual Artists Ireland Local Area Groups initiative supported by Tipperary County Council and OPW.

Barry & CHANGING TRACKS VAI’s West of Ireland representative Aideen Barry, launched her work ‘Strange Terrain’, the final of the trilogy of EU public art commissions by the arts for the international Changing Tracks project on 15 August, at Rushden Good’s Shed in Northamptonshire, UK. This completes the three public art works commissioned by this tri country and EU Cultural Programme initiative across Ireland, the UK and Catalonia, Spain. The installation Strange Terrain will run from the 14 August – 28 November 2014. Further information about the project can be gathered from gcallister@northamptonshire.gov.uk.

VAI artists’ books AREA Following on from our successful stand at Get Together 2014, VAI now has an even larger selection of artists’ books and publications available at our Dublin office. Come in and have a browse!

These will also be available to buy online in the coming weeks. If you would like to submit books / publications to be included in our selection or have any queries about books in our collection, please email lily@visualartists.ie with some basic information (title, author, price, size of book etc.).

NEW VAI Show & TellS A new series of VAI Show & Tell events will take place around the country in the coming months, following on from a successful event at MART, Dublin on 25 August. If you are interested in presenting your work or in attending as an audience member please contact adrian@ visualartists.ie. Details of upcoming events will be released shortly via the VAI website and ebulletin.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

September – October 2014

9

Kilkenny: Resources & Activities Alan Counihan

Kilkenny Arts Festival into a key player in the contemporary art scene in Germany. A roster of international artists including Christian Boltanski, Jenny Holzer, Martin Creed, Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman and Thomas Bayrle have all made work that conducts a dialogue between religion, art and current affairs within the space of the church. Significantly, art is not seen as an illustration of religion here, but as a free and autonomous means of expression, inviting us to explore our experiences of both faith and doubt through challenging works juxtaposed in a traditional context.

Josephine Kelliher

Max Streicher, Cloud Tyvek, vinyl, electric fans

Kilkenny Arts Festival was founded 41 years ago and has grown to feature an annual programme of theatre, dance, visual arts, music, literature, street events and craft. This year the festival ran from 8 –17 August and featured two major visual arts events.

Max Stericher, St Mary’s Hall Max Streicher is a sculptor and installation artist based in Toronto, who has exhibited extensively internationally. For his installation – entitled ‘Outside In’ – at Kilkenny Arts Festival 2014, he filled the interior of St. Mary’s Hall with several large-scale cloud forms suspended from the transept and the nave.

There is a consensus that looking at nature, for even a few moments during the day, can relieve stress: a tree outside your office window or a handkerchief of mowed lawn will do. A beautiful sky certainly distracts from the nagging now-nownow-ness of daily life and opens a space for daydreams, but many of us don’t believe we have time for such things. In his recent publication, Art as Therapy, Alain de Botton suggests that art can help. Art, he says, distils certain experiences to their most essential, and this may allow people to access, absorb and enjoy them more. John Constable’s cloud studies, de Botton suggests, draw attention to the sky and invite us to concentrate, much more than we normally would, on the distinctive textures and shapes of individual clouds.

Streicher’s large clouds are a facsimile of the experience of looking up at the sky, and their installation in St. Mary’s church is an evocation of that natural image in a traditionally scared place.

Historically, this was a place for communal meditation at a remove from the everyday. Streicher turns things ‘outside-in’; his quivering cloud forms envelope us and ground us in the present. The newly revealed volume of St. Mary’s church opens up to the artist’s intervention, breaching the boundaries between the built structure and the outside.

In parallel with Streicher’s installation Dr. Guido Schlimbach discussed the exhibitions at Kunst-Station Sankt Peter in Cologne, which functions both as a Catholic church and an exhibition venue. In the late 1980s Jesuit priest Pater Friedhelm Mennekes initiated a bold exhibition programme that has turned Sankt Peter’s

Marilyn Lerner, Butler Gallery ‘Circle In The Square’, on show at teh Butler Gallery (9 Aug – 5 Oct) is the first Irish exhibition of work by the New York based painter Marilyn Lerner.

Lerner believes that the language of geometry is infinite and embedded in every culture, and that both colour and nuance of surface are integral parts of the dialogue. Her dynamic abstract geometric paintings draw on the power of colour and a vocabulary of elementary shapes and symbols. The use of circles, ovals, squares, rectangles and triangles result in works that range from the spare to the intensely complicated.

While Lerner’s paintings appear to strive towards perfection, that is not the artist’s aim. Up close, one clearly sees her hand at work in the brush strokes on these slowly realised paintings.

For a number of years Lerner built a wide variety of geometric shaped formats for her paintings but eventually settled on the traditional square and rectangle. She now works on wooden panels fabricated to her specification with bevelled edges so that the paintings seem to almost float off the wall.

Geometric abstraction is present among many cultures throughout history both as decorative motifs and as spiritual signifiers themselves. Lerner has always been interested in non-western cultures.

She made numerous trips to Morocco and Tunisia in the 1970s, and to Asia in the 1980s, trips that greatly influenced and encouraged the geometry in her practice.

Marilyn Lerner is an extraordinary artist who has been committed to making inventive abstract geometric paintings for over 40 years. The paintings and works on paper in this exhibition are highly skillful compositions that radiate colour and articulate Lerner’s experiences, both interior and exterior, through form, composition and colour.

They have a freshness and a modern aesthetic that is truly satisfying.

Marilyn Lerner was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but has lived and worked in New York City for many years. She received her MFA at Pratt University in New York and had her first oneperson exhibition in 1969. She has been exhibiting widely over the last 40 years, most recently at Terrazzo Art Projects in New York. Lerner has been the recipient of numerous awards including a Fulbright Indo-American Grant to India where she researched gouache paintings from the Jain Cosmologies. Her work features in many public and private collections. Lerner is on the faculty at the renowned School of Visual Arts in New York, where she teaches painting and drawing. (www. marilynlerner-artist) Anna O’Sullivan

Alan Counihan, image from ‘Personal Effects’, 2012

Kilkenny is the county in which my wife and I settled in the year 2000 on her emigration and my return to Ireland after 20 years abroad. We built our new home and studios on the southern slopes of the Sliabh Margy hills close to the limestone quarrries and within easy reach of the Camphill Community of Ballytobin, where we had established warm connections as artists-in-residence during the late 1990s. The proximity of Kilkenny ‘city’, its spires clearly visible to us on the plain below, also heightened the lure of the place, as did its reputation as a hive of cultural activity, the rich historical fabric of its architecture and its location midway between Dublin and Cork.

Despite the inevitable cultural and material challenges raised by emigration or return, life in county Kilkenny has proved rich and fulfilling.

There is a vibrant and resilient arts office, which has struggled gamely to provide a context for the development of the arts within the community, despite severe cuts to its budget. The town and county are home to many artists, poets, writers, filmmakers and musicians, some of whom I have collaborated with across many varied disciplines, including theatre, film and radio productions.

Living in the rural landscape of North Kilkenny has had a profound effect on my practice. For years this practice was primarily itinerant and reactive to opportunities such as sculpture commissions or symposia in distant landscapes or urban communities. In 2009, in response to the island’s economic and cultural crisis, I decided not to pursue any opportunity to make large-scale sculptural works but to place daily life here on the hill at the centre of my creative engagement with the world.

So began the Townlands Project, which has developed into an ongoing collaborative exploration of this local landscape and community and has resulted in three exhibitions to date, a theatre production in the local school (in association with Barnstorn Theatre Company), a short film, a seminar and a major publication, Townlands: a habitation, featuring essays by travel writer Dervla Murphy and historical geographer Patrick J. Duffy, along with poems and prose pieces about their own local landscapes by poets Kerry Hardie and Carmel Cummins. The book also includes essays and images of my own along with photographs and drawings

by Gypsy Ray. There will be a fourth exhibition of ongoing work from this process in early 2015.

A core strand of the Townlands Project was the recording of oral histories and field names within the parish. Under the aegis of the Heritage Office of Kilkenny County Council this work has now expanded countywide. It is fascinating work that enriches the experience of place. I also work as a part-time (tor)mentor at the Kilkenny Collective for Arts Talent, a collective of artists with various levels of ability or disability and a great educational resource for the country at large. KCAT recently experienced a great loss in the person of a wonderfully gifted colleague, Jean Conroy.

Financial uncertainty remains central to the lives of most artists. Self-generated projects are extremely difficult to realise when funding for the arts is in jeopardy. The pursuit of funding for a longterm project can be tiresome and requires great perseverance, grant writing skills and lots of time.

Slow progress and financial insecurity can occasionally tempt one to re-imagine the possible rewards of public art. In 2011 I was invited to take part in a competitive process to design and realise a sculpture for Kilkenny City. My design proposal proved the unanimous choice of the selection panel but within a week I was advised that Kilkenny County Council were no longer proceeding with the commission. 12 months ago the local authority sought submissions for a city monument to local sporting heroes. It will soon be installed.

I have not shown work in Kilkenny since a solo show at the Butler Gallery in 2011. For the past two years most of my work has been in Dublin conducting research for my latest long-term engagement ‘Personal Effects: a history of possession’, based on the belongings of dead or discharged patients from Grangegorman Mental Hospital. This year it has proven a challenge to mount three installations in the capital from this distance (at the Long Stores, Grangegorman; Culture Box, Temple Bar; and Axis, Ballymun). Work on a radio documentary for RTE’s Doc on One exploring the project and its implications has also involved much time on the road. Apart from the travel to and from Dublin there are many other challenges inherent in this latest work and it is a great relief to return home to these hills where some ease and rest, along with the company of good neighbours and friends, can be found.

Alan Counihan www.alancounihan.net, www.townlands.net, www.personaleffects.alancounihan.net

10

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

Gypsy Ray I write this sitting here in my studio, near Johnswell village in County Kilkenny. From its windows I look out at the orchard and a couple of hives of bees. From the back of the studio I can look down at Kilkenny City and have a view that reaches almost 50 miles – the wide sweep of hills and the mountains beyond it. The studio is separate from the house, self-contained, no phone and very quiet.

It is a good place to be.

I moved to Kilkenny from the United States 14 years ago. I was then in my early 50s, having left behind a 25 year long career of teaching photography at third level in art departments throughout Central California. I had also established a national reputation for my photographic work especially in the field of social-documentary and had exhibited widely in galleries such as Camerawork in San Francisco and the Pfeiffer Gallery in New York.

My photographs were also regularly published and included in several collections such as that of the United States Library of Congress and of the Wellcome Trust at the British Museum.

The move to live here was a difficult one, not least in terms of my artwork. Ireland is a small and insular arts community. It soon became clear that as a foreigner in late middle age I could not be considered an ‘emerging’ Irish artist likely to receive financial or institutional support. I am not an effective hustler or networker but soon realised that I could just get down to work in this new place.

Now that I had my first proper studio and darkroom I decided to retreat there and to explore new work and techniques through photographic media and drawing. In recent years I have worked on various projects, which have been most often self-generated and are rooted in my experience of this place and this country.

Kilkenny has been open and generous to me in many ways. Having a sense of community is important to my life and in the early days I did seek out opportunities for creative social engagement.

Fortunately, it was not long before I was offered opportunities to use my teaching and facilitating skills with organisations like the Kilkenny Collective for Arts Talent (KCAT), Ormonde College, the Butler Gallery and Women’s 5-6 Art Project. In 2009 I completed a series of drawings and photographs that grew from my immediate surroundings and the farming community where my house and studio are situated. This process has evolved and expanded over the last five years and the resulting work is diverse in media and varied in

Gypsy Ray, Swimming Hole, traditional photographic print, 2014

September – October 2014

Kilkenny Arts Office subject. Some of the graphite work produced in that time depicts the map-like patterns on the pelts of cows or abstract magnifications of farm machinery, while many of the photographic images are of wet wintry landscapes, empty roads, the pier at the local reservoir, light filling and fading in this place.

I have been fortunate in receiving recognition from Kilkenny’s various funding agencies. I received and Arts Act Grant from the Arts Office to publish a book of photographs, The Poetry of Place (2008), was Artist-in-Residence at the Arts’ Office’s exhibition space and was granted a Tyrone Guthrie Bursary Award. (Sadly the Arts Office of County Kilkenny is presently without a dedicated office.) The bursaries and residencies have allowed me to develop my practice through undisturbed time at work in the studio. In 2009 I became a participant in the Townlands Project based on the local landscapes of County Kilkenny. This engagement has resulted in three two-person exhibitions with another to follow in 2015, a residency with the local National School and works reproduced in the project publication.

Independent of this engagement I developed a solo exhibition, which featured in the Connections strand of the Kilkenny Arts Festival in 2013.

I feel fortunate for all the opportunities and financial support I have received. The Arts Office of Kilkenny County Council must, like most or all of the arts offices throughout Ireland, fight an ongoing battle within the local authority and central government to retain the funding streams necessary to support the development of its community schemes, of professional skills and of artistic expression. Local authorities often see support for the arts as a luxury in times of crisis.

However, this city and county brands itself as a centre of cultural excellence and I hope that will not become a hollow boast.

Kilkenny is a haven for cultural institutions that host or foster events and educational opportunities over the entire spectrum of the arts.

Living here close to the stimuli of galleries, plays, readings or concerts makes the county a desirable place to live. I feel fortunate to live here when I feel in need of stimulation, inspiration or just plain enjoyment. At home on the hill there is always the studio, the garden, the wonderful light. I’ll cherish what I value and fight to maintain it. www.gypsyray.wordpress.com

Born to Knit project, Kilkenny

Creativity is evident in every aspect of Kilkenny life from the ancient stonework and architecture of its heritage sites to the contemporary and traditional art, craft and design to be found in galleries and design studios the length and breadth of the county.

The variety of festivals and events throughout the year also bear testimony to the strength of this creative tradition.

The Kilkenny Arts Office works to develop, co-ordinate, motivate, inspire and empower artistic activity throughout the city and county. We promote the arts as a worthwhile activity for all, providing advice and support for groups and for individuals. We work to further strengthen Kilkenny’s position as a centre of excellence for the arts and ensure a successful and prosperous arts environment within the region. We focus on the development of the practitioner and their work.

We offer professional and practice development initiatives across all art forms, work to extend audiences and offer community and educational activities building capacity and increasing civic participation. Collaboration is also central to many of our initiatives. Our partners over the years have included the Butler Gallery, Kilkenny / Carlow ETB, the National Craft Gallery, the Library Service, Blackstack Fine Art Print Studio and other local authority departments.

With the practitioner at the core of our work, one of our key professional development programmes working across all disciplines is ArtLinks. This is a partnership programme with Carlow, Wexford and Waterford Councils, also supported by the Arts Council. The three main ArtLinks strands are bursaries, mentoring and courses. These are invaluable resources that assist artists living and working in the region to develop their practices. Some other key initiatives include advocacy, supports and partnerships for practitioner-led initiatives. One such leading initiative is Blackstack Fine Art Print Studio.

This studio was established in 2011 and was developed in partnership with Kilkenny County Council Arts Office. It is a vital part of the arts infrastructure in the county and indeed the southeast, providing intaglio and screen print facilities. It is a not-for-profit organisation run by the members on a voluntary basis. The studio provides both emerging and established artists with the opportunity to become members. This includes access to professional facilities, exhibition opportunities and the chance to be part of a network of artists where skills and information can be exchanged. Blackstack Studio is situated in the heart of Kilkenny City and is part of a growing network of green studios worldwide, raising the awareness of print as an art form and promoting the use of environmentally sustainable printmaking methods.

The studio provides outreach and education programmes, offering printmaking classes for the wider community. They also facilitate workshops,

masterclasses and skills exchange sessions for members, introducing artists to the most up-todate non-toxic printmaking. World-renowned expert Professor Friedhard Kiekeben, of Columbia College, Chicago, assisted the studio in 2011. Liz Nilsson, textile artist and co-founder of Print Block studio in Dublin and Derek O’Sullivan, former technician of LSAD’s print department, have also provided specialist training and workshops for members. The studio currently has 14 fulltime members and 3 associate members. Applications for membership are welcomed from qualified professional printmakers practicing in any print discipline. Applications from artists practicing in other disciplines who have demonstrated printmaking experience will also be considered.

Check out www.blackstackstudio.com for further information on courses, members’ exhibitions, collaborations etc.

The Kilkenny Arts Office residency programme has afforded numerous artists with time and space for research and development, and the opportunity to produce new work and collaborate with other artists and organisations. Exposing artists’ practices to the public, audience development and the consolidation of our current audience base was also a significant part of this programme, which is currently under review.

Our work also includes engaging with members of the community of all ages. Our most recent community project spanned three years and was an Interreg-funded programme and a partnership between the Arts Office and Community and Culture Department. Artists and other creative practitioners took three groups on a holistic creative journey, ensuring social interaction and the learning of new skills along the way. It promoted community participation and social wellbeing; it also endeavoured to create a sense of collectiveness, where people felt like an active part of the social fabric of society, through the creation of opportunities that connected communities.

Our Open Circle women’s programme works to inspire interest and maximum participation in the arts both locally and nationally for Kilkenny women. As ever we are committed to offering programmes that are characterised by quality arts learning experiences and participation. Our children’s programme, Siamsa, currently focuses on art and science activities and we have also presented numerous exhibitions over the years by artists such as the Guerrilla Girls, and Patrick O’Conner and members of KCAT, a Kilkenny-based inclusive arts centre. Essentially, we will continue to invest significantly in the arts, to co-create, co curate and to collaborate long into the future.

Mary Butler, Arts Officer, Niamh Brophy, Administrator. www.kilkennycoco.ie/eng/Services/Arts www.facebook.com/KilkennyArtsOffice

The Visual Artists’News Sheet

September – October 2014

Butler Gallery

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Callan Workhouse

Felicity Clear,Here’s the thing, 2014

Liam O’Callaghan, fromOrdinary Man Series (the rise and fall of a man kinda), courtesy of artist and Rubicon Gallery

Butler Gallery has made significant contributions to the contemporary visual arts since it’s establishment in 1943. Located in Kilkenny Castle since 1976, we actively promote the value of the arts through programming and education initiatives. Our brief is wide and we have always accomplished more than one might expect from a small organisation. We realise our goals by being creative in our partnerships and pooling resources.

We are privileged to have an important permanent collection of Irish and international art dating from the 1800s, which we are committed to safeguarding for the future. The gallery is free of charge and open seven days a week, offering extensive exposure to the visual arts. In 2008, the Heritage Council of Ireland awarded us museum accreditation, a status we have maintained, highlighting our commitment to best practice in this sector.

Butler Gallery produces solo exhibitions for emerging and mid-career artists and highlights major international artists when possible. We present six exhibitions annually, which reflect the constantly changing nature of visual art practice.

We see our organisation as a healthy springboard in an artist’s career towards a major museum show and a platform for international exposure. As this is a non-commercial venue, an exhibition here provides the artist with a special opportunity to see through a particular proposal or thematic objective.

Facilitating access to exhibitions and the collection for all age groups is at the heart of our mission. Our education programme, curated by Bairbre-Ann Harkin, is ever evolving and delivers a diverse range of events, long-term projects and interventions.

For over 13 years, the SOLAS programme has invited children aged 5 – 12 years to interact with our exhibitions, encouraging them to share their opinions about the work and make their own art in response. This extremely popular programme continues to flourish, involving families throughout Kilkenny in the life of the gallery.

In 2010, then Education Curator Jean Tormey set up the Red Square group for teenagers. Red Square has since given young people a platform to explore contemporary visual art and theatre, facilitated in collaboration with Barnstorm Theatre.

Red Square has curated exhibitions in the gallery, planned Culture Night performances and, in 2013 and 2014, worked with renowned Irish street artists Maser and Jor on collaborative works. Most recently, Red Square was commissioned by Kilkenny County Library to paint a mural at their city branch. Thanks to support from the Arts Council’s Young Ensemble Scheme, participation is completely free of charge.

It became clear in 2012 that there was a demand among adults in the community for a similar experience, and so Culture Club was founded. Red Square and Culture Club come together during the Kilkenny Arts Festival, attending exhibitions and theatre productions,

discussing their experiences and opinions. This intergenerational initiative is well liked by participants both young and old, and has helped break down prejudices and age-based stereotypes on both sides.

Another recent area of focus has been the development of access for visitors with disabilities.

In 2013, we worked with Arts & Disability Ireland to pilot ‘Discovery Pens’. This technology enabled visitors who are blind or visually impaired to selfguide through Bob and Roberta Smith’s exhibition, Art Makes Children Powerful, using hand-held devices containing audio descriptions of all exhibited works. The pens also proved popular with many sighted visitors, who enjoyed interacting with the work in this new way. This year, Butler Gallery will once again provide audio description during Amy Walsh’s exhibition, which opens on 18 October.

Azure at Butler Gallery is an innovative programme developed in collaboration with Age & Opportunity, the Alzheimer Society of Ireland and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Based on the Meet Me programme at the Museum of Modern Art New York (MoMA), Azure offers tailored exhibition visits to people living with dementia and their families. Alongside ongoing Azure visits at the gallery, Azure partners continue to work together to explore how access to the arts can be increased for this audience. This year, Bairbre-Ann was invited to participate in the MoMA Outreach Refinery, a small gathering of museum professionals brought together by MoMA to explore best practice in the training of arts educators to facilitate such experiences.

For many years, Butler Gallery has been involved in a Capital Development Programme to re-locate to the Evan’s Home, a former Alms House in the centre of Kilkenny. This new home will finally offer us a space to house our important collection, a wing dedicated to the works of Tony O’Malley, a more flexible space for temporary exhibitions and an education wing. An exciting design for the restoration of Evan’s Home and the inclusion of a new addition by McCullough Mulvin Architects was completed and planning was approved by the Kilkenny Borough Council in 2011. The future development will be funded by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Failte Ireland as part of their committent to the Medieval Mile Project. Issues around funding drawdown have delayed us proceeding, but we are hopeful that the develpment will advance soon.

Kilkenny has a population rich with artists and makers, creating a thriving cultural base. Butler Gallery plays an important role in this creative community to keep the arts alive, current and valuable to the public at large.

Callan Workhouse was built in 1841 under the Poor Law Union Act of that year. It was one of 133 buildings of this type built over three years, as an early attempt by the state to deal with the most vulnerable and marginalised people in society. This history is ever present and the implications of what can be described as a Victorian social engineering project continue to give the site a critical urgency.

However, the grounds of Callan Workhouse now comprise myriad community and civic facilities: social housing, a fire station, gardens and the Camphill Community residence. These are evidence of a conscious and pragmatic attempt over the last number of years to ‘demonumentalise’ the site into a place of social and civic use.

Since 2008, Endangered Artists Studios had been housed in a semi-derelict wing of the original H-block complex. It was established through the Kilkenny Arts Office, by invitation from Patrick Lydon of Camphill Communities. In 2012, Endangered Studios began to ebb and Rosie Lynch, Etaoin Holahan and myself, all curators who have worked in Callan for a number of years, conceived a plan for renewal. We envisaged a new complex hub of artistic, community, design and research facilities.

Conscious of the many stakeholders in this building we slowed down the development process, allowing many people to get involved and to contribute to the plans. In particular we feel that engaging artists, designers and researchers at crucial points in the development process (rather than asking them to respond to the finished development) would contribute to a considered and imaginative new public life for what was once a very formidable building.

In August 2013, to coincide with the Abhainn Ri Festival, we initiated this plan through ‘Workhouse Assembly’, a 12-day research workshop made up of several strands. Artist Gareth Kennedy led an investigation into the building’s material history; LiD Architecture hosted a site exploration; and we developed a more traditional research strand, which featured documentary research, oral history recordings and provocative questions posed to our neighbours during public events. 35 participants came from across Ireland, as well as

Callan Workhouse, Kilkenny

Russia and the UK, and included the Camphill Community.

The lime workshop, led by Gareth Kennedy in collaboration with lime expert Edward Byrne, explored the use of limestone and lime wash in the building, as the uniform architectural plans for the workhouses were adapted to include local materials during construction in the 1840s. This workshop led us to consider enacting aspects of the building’s heritage in order to bring about a deeper understanding that diverges from the ‘reenactment’ aspect of many contemporary heritage projects.

Through the mapping workshop, led by LiD Architecture in collaboration with textile artist Dee Harte, workshop participants created a sewn ‘Mapestry’, an image sewn on canvas with three layers of site maps: the original workhouse layout; the current site, including biodynamic gardens and natural overgrowth; and a proposed future site with interventions that would allow further public access.

Camphill, who own and operate the former ‘H-block’ as a residence supporting adults with intellectual disabilities to live, work and pursue education in a shared environment, blur the line between private and public ownership. The notion of common custodianship, explored through active research into common spaces in Callan through the work of Commonage since 2010, will continue to inform the complex of relationships at the Workhouse as it develops in the future.

Workhouse Assembly acted as a scoping project for what has been almost a year of testing ideas, building partnerships, laying bare plans and activating overlooked spaces. It was provided us with the chance to really understand the context – historic, political and artistic – for our shared work as curators. Interestingly for us, the first concrete project to emerge from Workhouse Assembly was a community intiative. Peter Lawlor, an independent member of the Camphill Community, has established a bike repair service and operates his public workshop on a weekly basis in a disused outbuilding.

In 2014, we’ll begin the development of studios spaces (‘pods’) and a research library space on the ground floor, funded through a Kilkenny County Council grant. The ‘pods’, designed by LiD Architecture, will be built in the old boys’ dormitory – which remains much as it was during the workhouse era – with minimal impact on the integrity of the room. The studios, along with the library space, will facillitate residencies in partnership with Fennelly’s, operated separately by Etaoin Holahan. The residencies will provide opportunities for artists, designers and researchers to study and make new work in this rich historic and contemporary context.

Through Kilkenny Leader Partnership we intend to produce a publication later this year that elaborates on Workhouse Assembly and our ongoing research into the development of this building. It lays bare some of the conceptual underpinnings of how we are currently undertaking this durational and collaborative development. We look forward to sharing the details of how this supportive and challenging space for both contemporary art and public discourse will unfold over the coming years.

Hollie Kearns is a curator / producer.

Anna O’Sullivan, Director and Chief Curator; Bairbre-Ann Harkin, Education Curator .

Callan Workhouse, Kilkenny

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The Visual Artists’News Sheet

September – October 2014

Career Development denigration of vision in 20th Century French Philosophy. It explores the suspicion of visuality, which is still really live in the art world and beyond. People are very sophisticated and very wary in the way they approach visual culture, but are still fundamentally seduced by beauty and driven by aesthetic compulsions.

JO: When did things really start to come together in terms of the your art practice?

IN: In 2003 I got a studio at TBG+S and in 2004 I think I got my first full Arts Council bursary. So I cut back massively on doing tech / installation work to focus full-time on the studio. This was the first time I’d done so since I’d left college. There have been various significant moments since then of course, but that period was kind of packed. I had a solo show in the Project Arts Centre in 2005, ‘Everything I said, Let Me Explain’, and I was part of Ireland’s representation at Venice in 2005. That same year I made a particular sculpture whilst on the IADT MA Visual Art Practices (MAVIS) and that marked a key shift in my work. I also made my first publication What it does to you, edited by Vaari Claffey. She and Atelier co-published it for a TBG+S project.

Isabel Nolan,Nothing new under the sun (nine ceramic bowls),“The sky is not bounded by a fixed edge!” illuminated rug arranged to accommodate a medieval mind (hand tufted wool), 2014

Tacit Presence ISABEL NOLAN DISCUSSES THE DEVELOPMENT OF HER ART CAREER IN LIGHT OF HER MAJOR SOLO SHOW,‘THE WEAKENED EYE OF DAY’,at THE IRISH MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (7 JUNE – 21 SEPT 2014).

Jason Oakley: Would you subscribe to the idea that an art practice / career is about pursuing and sharing an ongoing curiosity about the world?

Isabel Nolan: Sure. I’m interested in the ways that people are interested in the world – the ways that scientists, poets, philosophers, artists etc find ways to interact with and activate the world. It’s both astonishing, unsettling even troubling when you look closely at how insights occur or how information is gathered, produced and disseminated.

I’m generally looking at the big picture – the history as well as the current conditions of a discipline. I’m an erratic researcher so a lot of my reading is brain fuel or acts as a prompt. Mostly it is tacitly present in the work; it is only overt in titles or in my writing.

JO: Was this a motivation for the talks and events that accompany the IMMA show?

IN: It was Sarah Glennie’s idea (the Director of IMMA) that I curate some talks, primarily I think as a way of making public some of the reading / research I do in order to inflect peoples’ reading of the show.

It’s been an excellent opportunity to get some very smart people talking at the museum about something other than art.

The programme includes people whose work I’ve really engaged with, like the astronomy / fiction / science writer Stuart Clark, and IMMA suggested additional contributors based on my interests. Paul Ennis and lecturers from the NCAD Art in the Contemporary World MA are organising a seminar on 20 September. We had a couple of conversations, but it was left to them to identify and invite people. My main request was that they work in areas I’d probably like hearing about.

One thing I find interesting and funny about the current moment – theologically, philosophically and scientifically – is a general acceptance that the universe is going to end. As a result everything needs to be rethought; the stories and narratives that we can project about our future have to take our annihilation into account.

JO: What resources do you draw on for research?

IN: None that are esoteric or particularly difficult. I’m not going into obscure libraries and blowing dust off tomes or going deep behind the scenes of some institution. It’s all in the domain of stuff that is readily available to the public. I’ve a core range of interests and usually I’ll just follow up on something I see in footnotes, or someone will recommend a text, or I’ll pick up on an idea or individual mentioned in article or

JO: With this and your current IMMA show, would you say that you’ve now achieved a level of ‘success’?

IN: I get to be an artist every day, so that’s something. The IMMA show has been great in many ways: to have those rooms to work in; for the timing of the invitation to be right in terms of your own practice so you can make the most of it; to get great intellectual / curatorial input, support and a budget to make a show – all of this is good. Many institutions are doing shows with artists but aren’t in a position to furnish them with the support or budgets commensurate with the shows that the artists want to make. The IMMA show will travel to Toronto and Vancouver next year. I’m looking forward to working with other curators and different spaces on the same project.

JO: Being represented by the Kerlin Gallery must help in a huge range of ways?

IN: Yes. I can put my energy into the things I’m most interested in. If I want to do something really ambitious or even something small, there are people I can go to and say: would you be interested in helping me make this? If I want to make a decision – practical, aesthetic or career-based – I have people whose opinion I trust to discuss it with.

Isabel Nolan,The view from nowhere (digital print on paper),The weakening eye of day (mild steel, wadding, wood, thread), 2014

radio show that will lead to other things. There are some podcasts I listen to a lot, like Little Atoms on Resonance FM – it’s great, if uneven, but I’ve bought books on subjects I would never have given any thought to before listening.

JO: What were your key educational experiences, especially during your college years and immediately after?

IN: With the disadvantage / benefit of hindsight the important stuff at NCAD (1991 – 1995) was the library, the joint course and certain friendships. I wasn’t particularly happy there so I didn’t exactly make the most of all that was available; I was influenced a lot by the literature I was reading at that time. After NCAD I worked on the tech crew at IMMA for a few years – that was really formative and led to freelance tech work. It was fascinating to see how different institutions, organisations and curators worked. I learnt practical skills, watched artists interact with curators and saw how decisions are made during an install. I came to appreciate and understand the level of care you need to put into a show. Tiny things are crucial. Something minor I remember was Catherine Yass insisting that the electrical cables on her light boxes were cleaned with lighter fluid to make them pristine so you didn’t notice them against the wall. It’s so obvious.

Around this time I also found that I wanted to read more and I needed some structure to make that happen. I went to UCD to do an MLitt (1998 – 2001). My reading included Norman Bryson, WJT Mitchell and some Kate Soper. One text I read then, which still heavily informs the way I think, was Martin Jay’s Downcast Eyes – the

JO: Do your gallery sales enable you to make a living solely from your practice – to both ‘get by’ and to be creative?

IN: Yes. And you’re right: sales don’t just mean the good stuff like eating, Netflix and living; sales mean the opportunity to make more work – to buy materials, books, assistance, etc. The real boon is having money to pay for the studio and to fund new work.

JO: How do you source fabricators for your larger-scale works?

IN: I rely on people I trust to make recommendations. The metal guys came through an engineer I know and I worked with them on the Dublin Airport Terminal 2 commission. John and John are at another company now but they still make my work. A brilliant 3D digital designer came recommended by another artist. The Kerlin identified some fabricators. NCAD and DIT staff have also recommended graduates to do work at the studio. Recommendations are the best way – I can’t work with people who aren’t attentive to detail or if I’m not comfortable with them.

JO: What’s a typical day in your studio?

IN: My routine? I walk in with the dog most days. I often listen to podcasts and have a think about what I am going to do. Mornings involve hours of staring at nothing, at a work in progress or at the computer. I like writing in the morning. If I haven’t been writing or staring productively there is usually some mild panic and an adrenaline rush some time after noon and I get more hands-on. A mix of what I feel like doing and what needs to be done ASAP determines any given day. I need deadlines. I work on the things that have to be worked on. www.isabelnolan.com

The Visual Artists’News Sheet

September – October 2014

13

Public art PROFILE

Noah Rose,Museum of Interconnected Events, Achill, photo byMarc Planagumà

Aideen Barry, installation view, courtesy of the artist

Xevi Bayona,Smoke Train, courtesy of the artist

On the Right Track JOANNA HOPKINS PROFILES THE INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC ART project CHANGING TRACKS. According to Gaynor Seville (Public Art Manager at Mayo County Council) Changing Tracks has “really pushed the boundaries of what is possible working across three countries, with three different artists, whilst maintaining curatorial control”. Changing Tracks (www.changingtracks. eu) is an international visual and digital art project comprising a series of nine temporary outdoor artworks by three artists.

Each work responds to the heritage of and local environment surrounding former railway lines in three regions – Mayo, Northamptonshire and Catalonia – which are now utilised as scenic walking and cycling tracks. The project partners for this initiative are Northamptonshire County Council, Mayo County Council and Consortium Transversal, Cultural Activities Network, Catalonia. Changing Tracks was a recipient of funding from the EU Culture Programme 2007 – 2013.

The primary aim of Changing Tracks is to engage new audiences for contemporary art by placing the artworks in non-traditional exhibition / display environments. As a co-deviser of the project Gaynor Seville described how the three partners’ main motivation was to “create a project that gave fantastic opportunities to artists and audiences in each country – as well as to generate a larger budget by joining together and accessing EU funding”. The project was advertised in late summer / autumn 2013 and the artists were selected in December 2013. The artists made initial site visits from February – April 2014, and the first residencies in Catalonia began in May. Following a series of site visits to each participating region, the artists developed their proposals through engagement and workshop activities with local communities and arts organisations. The Irish leg of the project is installed along the 42km route of Mayo’s Great Western Greenway and launched on 12 July. The Great Western Greenway is a traffic free walking and cycling facility that connects two of Ireland’s most established tourism destinations, Westport and Achill Island.

In Catalonia, the temporary installations are situated in the towns of Tortosa, Girona and Olot, along two separate Greenways: the 57km La Ruta del Carrilet, which links Olot and Girona, and Tortosa, where the 49km Terres de l’Ebre Greenway begins. Catalonian artist Xevi Bayona’s (www.xevibayona.com) artworks were launched on 30 of May in Tortosa.

Aideen Barry (www.aideenbarry.com) and Noah Rose’s (www.noahrose. co.uk) artworks were launched on 14 June in Olot and Girona.

The Northhamptonshire iteration was launched on 15 July, along the route of the former Northampton-Peterborough railway line. UK artist Noah Rose’s Museum of Interconnected Events are situated at Summer Leys Nature Reserve, Irchester Country Park, the site of the former Irthlingborough railway station and Rushden Station Transport Museum.

Aideen Barry’s work is installed at Rushden station goods shed, while Xevi Bayona’s installation is sited at Stanwick Lakes Country Park.

Designed to suggest the essence of steam trains, Bayona’s Smoke Train

is installed on the 120-year-old viaduct at Newport, County Mayo.

Comprising spirals of red tubing that hover and sway for over 300 meters, the work emits swirls and tufts of water vapour. These tumbling water clouds are accentuated by the late afternoon sun and reveal patterns and designs into the late evening.

In reference to his process Bayona noted: “It was important to first understand the physical site itself and also people’s associations. I then came up with a concept or idea for the site, and explained it to the local people. I like to see how installations can revitalise a space. I was surprised at the capacity the artwork had to change the architectural constructions of the viaduct … For me, each site is an opportunity to create a new project, a new prototype, and to push myself and learn something new in each of my creations. I enjoyed working alongside the other artists, and also all the volunteers and people that helped out in the local areas with each project.”

Aideen Barry’s work transforms two sites along the Great Western Greenway cycle path – a disused water tower behind the Mulranny Park Hotel and a small folly building behind the old convent in Westport – into an oasis of cinematic delights. Installed within these spaces, Barry created unusual viewing conditions; the audiences is invited to pop their heads through holes in a low ceiling in order to experience elaborate dioramas featuring tiny screens. Each screen shows an intricate stop-motion film that transports audiences to a magical realm.

Barry was especially interested in making a work that “could inhabit all three sites simultaneously and yet manifest in unique artistic outcomes specific to the country and location”. Over 30 stop motion video works were created and shot by the artist in Mayo, Northamptonshire and Catalonia, in order to create site-specific installations for each locale.

To accompany the project Barry created her first publication, entitled Strange Terrain, designed by Oonagh Young, which takes the form of a multi-lingual “performative handbook”. Barry’s installations and book reference a travel guide written in 1889 by Lillias Campbell-Davidson entitled Hints to Lady Travellers: At Home and Abroad.

Working with the local community was integral to Barry’s process: “I engaged with a number of different groups,” she stated, “but I specifically targeted young women, given the content and context of my source material. I worked with a group of secondary school girls in the Sacred Heart Secondary School in Westport. Some of these girls were direct descendants of the community that used the railway line before it was closed, aged between 15 – 17, and are about to embark on a life of travel and worldly adventure, so they were a perfect group of people to engage with in the project. The girls were taught the whole video creation process, thus gaining specific skills in animation, object making and image manipulation as well as actively directing the outcome of this piece”.

UK-based artist Noah Rose created a series of four sculptural cabinets that function as mini-museums; each one is filled to capacity with personal stories, images and objects, and clad in local natural materials.

The works are located beside the viaduct in Westport and Newport, along the Mulranny to Achill stretch of the Greenway (a 15-minute walk from the Water Tower) and at Achill Sound.

Rose explained that the works – collectively entitled The Museum of Interconnected Events – draw on visits to museums such as the Museu Memorial de l’Exili in La Jonquera, the Jackie Clarke Collection in Ballina and the Northampton Musuem. “The creation of the cabinets in each country, with their shells of materials, involved identifying and sourcing materials which were connected to their terrain and also possessed a cultural resonance.”

Rose also acknowledged the tremendous support he was given by the Mayo County Council Arts Office as well volunteers from the local community who assisted in cladding the works in súgán rope, seaweed, turf and wool. Speaking about his approach, the artist stressed the personalising of history: “The process of first person interviews and testimonials was a historically significant contribution to the work. From the people I met who shared their memories of exile from Catalonia to France, to the Achill Island man who shared the little-known history of his uncle who left Achill to fight with the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War, this interconnectedness revealed itself in a very powerful and personal manner.”

Gaynor Seville stated: “Changing Tracks has brought a real energy to the county, and the links and contacts made during the artists’ journeys will develop into the future. It has been great to see a public art project in County Mayo reach the national television news and many articles in national, local and international press. This has helped the discussion about use of public space, how the arts can be incorporated into our physical surroundings and what temporary work can do in terms of high quality contemporary arts experience.”

Seville also drew attention to the fact that for this project, “managing the timescale, the artists’ requirements and the budget etc. required an enormous amount of clear communication between project managers, ourselves and the artists”. The level of support and communication needed is clear in the sheer span of the installations.

As part of the social engagement and outreach element of Changing Tracks an exciting series of seminars aimed at artists and cultural professionals will take place at GMIT, Mayo from 25 – 26 September. The seminars will focus on the implementation and success of the project from the artists’ and project managers’ perspectives, with invited guest speakers, and will be free to attend. Further seminars will take place in Catalonia from 17 –18 October and in Northampton on 19 November.

Please contact gseville@mayococo.ie to book a place and for further enquiries.

Joanna Hopkins is a film and installation artist based in Mayo.

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The Visual Artists’News Sheet

September – October 2014

STUDIO PROFILE

Queen Street Studios exterior

Edenderry Studios,1989, image byPhillip Napier

Encouraging &Enabling

BEN CROTHERS PROFILES long standing belfast studios Queen Street and Flax Art Studios, and fledgling organisations Pollen Studios and Platform Arts Belfast has an undeniably vibrant and varied art scene, well known for organisations such as Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast Exposed and Catalyst Arts. For as long as there have been artists exhibiting in Belfast, there has been a need for spaces in which they can produce work. Glossy new gallery spaces such as the MAC are instrumental in the showcasing of contemporary art, but Belfast’s gallery infrastructure is undeniably supported by the city’s dynamic studio groups, where artists have sufficient time, space, resources and support to develop their individual practices out of the public eye.

Whilst Belfast is now home to a range of artists’ studios, which vary in style, scale and success, the purpose of this article is to examine two of its longest standing organisations Queen Street Studios and Flax Art Studios, alongside fledgling studio groups Pollen Studios and Platform Arts, which formed in recent years, but have quickly developed a strong reputation within the city.

Queen Street Studios has been operating as a studio provider since 1984. It was based in Queen Street until May 2013, when they relocated to new premises on Bedford Street, just a short walk from the original site. ACNI, ULSTER Garden Villages, Adapt NI and the Foyle Foundation funded the move. Queen Street Studios now comprises 23 studios (artist members include Majella Clancy, Dorothy Hunter, Dougal McKenzie and Zoe Murdoch) and an enviable ground floor gallery space with a high footfall. This prime location has arguably made it Belfast’s most visible and best-known studio, whilst providing improved studio facilities for artists. From its inception, Queen Street Studios has been home to a significant number of painters; this remains the case, although the studio holders have become more diverse as the organisation has evolved.

In the late 1980s a group of graduates from the University of Ulster – including Philip Napier, Michael Minnis, Áine Nic Giolla Coda, Sharon Kelly, Paddy McCann, Ruth Graham, Angela Ginn, Mike Hogg and Peter Mutschler – came together out of frustration after failing to find large studio spaces suitable for experimentation and creating large sculptural works and installations. For these artists, the confined studios of Queen Street were simply not an option for the kind of work they wanted to make. In 1989 they formed Flax Art Studios, taking up residence in a former linen mill situated on the Crumlin Road in North Belfast. Rent was inexpensive for the kind of large spaces that these artists needed to truly develop their practices and make new work.

As Flax Art Studios gained momentum, the studios began to receive funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council. This allowed the organisation to welcome new studio members and continue to grow by enabling artists to develop their practices and exhibit work, particularly at Golden Thread Gallery, which opened in the same area in 1998. In June 2003, however, a fire devastated the building, completely destroying its contents, including all facilities, archives and artwork.

In 2004, Flax moved into new premises on Corporation Street in Belfast city centre (where it was soon to be neighbours with Golden Thread again after the gallery’s move). Many of the original Flax artists took studios in the new space, along with a number of new members. Still operating from its Corporation Street premises today, an area of 1,320 square metres provides ample room to house an industrial scale workshop, seven large studio spaces, eleven smaller studio spaces, an international residency space, a communal fabrication area and a large mezzanine area which accommodates the office and IT facilities.

Flax is home to an impressive range of Belfast’s most established and emerging visual artists, including Alastair MacLennan, Deirdre McKenna, Shiro Masuyama, Helena Hamilton, Lisa Malone and Brian J. Morrison, who work across a wide range of mediums and exhibited both locally and internationally. The permanent studio holders are joined by a recent MFA graduate from the University of Ulster each year, who is provided with a free studio space and mentoring for a period of 12 months, in addition to successful applicants to the studio’s International Residency Programme, which has been running since 1990. Participants have includde internationally renowned artists and curators such as Marjetica Potrc, Delcy Morelos, Inbal Abergil and Manuela Pacella.

Flax Art Studios is currently in the midst of its 25th anniversary celebrations. Upcoming events include: an exhibition at Golden Thread Gallery; a programme of talks by studio holders; a symposium on artists’ studios; the launch of a publication and online archive; and a rare opportunity for the public to tour the studios (full details will be launched on the Flax Art Studios website as dates are confirmed).

This is an exciting time for the organisation and staff are currently exploring the potential for another relocation in order to accommodate more artists and further strengthen studio provisions within the city.

Queen Street Studios and Flax Art Studios are two of Belfast’s longest standing arts organisations, predating galleries such as Catalyst Arts, for which the city is perhaps better known. In an environment where existing galleries and studios struggle to sustain themselves, there seems little scope for the development of new organisations, with funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council already stretched. Nonetheless, Platform Arts and Pollen Studios have both emerged in the last five years, demonstrating creative thinking and new approaches to development and sustainability.

Platform Arts, located at the corner of Queen Street and Castle Street in the city centre and currently in its fifth year, has seen rapid growth since it was founded by a group of contemporary artists in 2009. With an impressive roster of 12 studio holders (including Liam Crichton, Michael Hanna, Miguel Martin and Sara Morrison), Platform has also taken on an expansive gallery space, which measures approximately 3000 square feet and, more recently, Unit, a project

space devised for smaller interventions, exhibitions and installations.

In a similar vein to Flax Art Studios, Platform has developed annual residency opportunities for graduates from the University of Ulster, in addition to forging relationships with other studio groups, such as their recent artist exchange with Market Studios, Dublin.

Notably, Platform prides itself on being self-sufficient and not reliant on external funding. The organisation does not receive any funding from statutory bodies, instead relying on rent paid by studio members to cover running costs and to fund their exhibition programme. With no paid staff (unlike more established studios such as Queen Street and Flax), Platform relies entirely on the dedication of studio members, board members and volunteers to ensure its continuation and development. A rolling board of directors selected from studio members and external candidates manages the organisation. Each director serves on the board for two years, taking responsibility for governance, administration, finance, programming and the general management of the studios and galleries.

Similarly, Pollen Studios is also currently self-funded. Located a stone’s throw away from Platform (and in the same building originally occupied by Queen Street Studios), Pollen is one of Belfast’s newest studio groups, founded in 2011 by Amy Brooks, Stuart Calvin and Jayne Cherry. With rent and utilities split between studio members, occasional fees from space hire are invested back into maintenance and programming. The organisation recently made a successful application for charitable status and intends to pursue applications for funding from bodies such as ACNI, which supported the ‘Mediations’ project as part of FIX13.

Pollen currently provides studios for seven individuals pursuing a range of interests as artists, researchers and writers. As a young organisation Pollen is, by its own admission, still fairly undefined in terms of organisational structure and remit, but this fluid approach has allowed the organisation to develop organically. Opening its doors on the first Thursday of every month as part of Belfast’s Late Night Art initiative, Pollen showcases the work of its members and guests in a small yet functional exhibition space. The organisation’s current infrastructure does not allow the time or resources to facilitate daily public opening hours, nor does Pollen have a fixed curatorial agenda for its gallery, but these openings, which usually consist of some kind of live element, are instrumental in providing public access, increasing awareness and challenging artists to consider the presentation of their work in a gallery context.

It is important to note that out of the four studios being discussed, three of them have developed exhibition spaces in which to showcase the work of their studio holders and others. This blurring of the lines between closed studio and public gallery is a growing trend, with both positive and negative aspects. Whilst exhibitions, talks and events undeniably increase visitor numbers, public awareness and exposure for artists, there is arguably something lost as the artists’ private space is encroached upon. This shift is perhaps indicative of pressures from various funding bodies for such organisations to be multi-faceted in approach, where audience development is a key factor in receiving higher funding allocations.

Belfast’s studio groups also aim to achieve a balance between offering artists affordable spaces whilst providing them with a central location from which to work. The Pollen Studios team commented that “having a city centre base has been an invaluable means of establishing a tangible presence”, and Queen Street Studios’ relocation to a larger, more visible location is also noteworthy in this regard.

Queen Street Studios, Flax Art Studios, Platform Arts and Pollen Studios all play important roles in encouraging and enabling local artists to continue to work and live in the city, which is vital to Belfast’s arts infrastructure. There are continual pressures for more studio spaces, however – of which the formation of Platform and Pollen are indicative – striving to sustain themselves without public funding. Waiting lists continue to grow whilst studios are pushed to capacity, with spaces often spliced, shared or sublet. Whilst their approaches to resolving these issues may vary, all of these studios (and others of note including Orchid Studios and Array Studios) are united in their commitment to developing and strengthening the visual arts sector in Belfast, providing artists with a productive environment in which to make work and develop their individual practices.

Ben Crothers is a Belfast-based curator and writer. www.atticusandalgernon.com

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

September – October 2014

15

residency REPORT

Margaret O’ Brien presenting an artist’s talk at Kaapelitehdas, photo byTuomas Laasanen / HIAP

Suomenlinna at sunset, photo by Juha Huuskonen / HIAP

Complete Engagement MARGARET O’BRIEN DESCRIBES HER EXPERIENCE OF THE TBG+S / HIAP RESIDENCY IN HELSINKI. Why is it so difficult to start anything new? It has taken me three days to write that sentence and I’ve sat looking at it for the last two hours, unsure how to proceed. I’ve spent most of 20 years starting something new, but it never gets any easier. I’m wondering why this is, and if, actually, it becomes harder. I think the beginning of the beginning feels increasingly difficult to negotiate, or perhaps it is simply a knowing familiarity with that stage of unknowingness. It’s not that I don’t have things I want to say or question or critique; I think it’s our job as artists to think critically and to apply this facility. Rather, it’s how to beat a track into the newness, to start to learn it and to learn from it – to get through the noisy, static outer layers and into the core.

This is the stage I was at starting the Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP) residency in May: both excited and daunted.1 I was thrilled to have been given the opportunity to go, after being selected as part of the Temple Bar Gallery + Studios / HIAP partnership residency award, but I was also anxious about how to use the time in the best way.2 The first stages of creating new work can often involve meandering around on the periphery, looking for a way in that makes sense. Whilst I understand that this is a very necessary part of my working process, it can be frustrating and seem never-ending at times.

I can’t make for the sake of making and I don’t believe in doing that.

There is enough clutter in the world, so the making has to be some kind of enquiry, even if that is sometimes not very clear.

Because the work is always lurking in my head, I stay connected to its evolving conceptual nature. Its material form, however, changes drastically from piece to piece, usually prompted by an experimental approach to materials that involves a considerable learning curve with each new piece. Before I left for Helsinki, I intentionally started testing a new material and set myself two main objectives for the residency: to resolve the technical challenges of working with the material in the way I intended and to establish a sense of possibility relating to the physical form it might take.

HIAP have two residential premises, with the larger number of studios on the island of Suomenlinna and three studios in Kaapelitehdas (the Cable Factory), where I was staying. The Cable Factory is a huge cultural warehouse in a former Nokia cable factory on the industrial outskirts of Helsinki. It is a small city, so travelling to the centre is a five-minute metro ride or ten-minute cycle. I preferred to cycle when it

wasn’t raining (which it was – a lot!) Though slightly larger, the studios at the Cable Factory reminded me of my studio at Fire Station in Dublin: open plan with a large working area, lots of big windows and a mezzanine sleeping area. I immediately felt at home.

I was glad to be located in the Cable Factory because of its urban surroundings and vibe. Suomenlinna is a beautiful fortress island, with well preserved heritage and listed military architecture, but so far in my life as an artist I have struggled to make work in places that don’t have the edgy restlessness of the urban. Towards the end of my residency I did site some test works on the island of Suomenlinna and on another island called Lammassaari, home to a vast and isolated nature reserve. Both sites are protected environments: serene, and far from the industrial context of my studio surroundings.

Kaapelitehdas is described as five hectares of culture and it is, with every kind of creative practice housed there, including dance, theatre, music and art. The space is alive from morning to late night with various events and gigs, bands, parties, collections, deliveries and, occasionally, a line of food vans. The only period during my stay that the space was quiet was at Midsummer, a big holiday in Finland on the Summer Solstice when most people leave the city.

It can be quite noisy in the Cable Factory because of all this activity, but this didn’t disturb me particularly. My usual bodily rhythm was completely upturned by the long daylight hours. Helsinki has very few hours of darkness during the summer months and it never gets truly dark, even at night. It reaches a beautiful blue twilight about half an hour after midnight, and remains at this light level until approximately 3am when the sun starts rising again. Very quickly I fell into a pattern of sleeping anytime from 4am onwards. Some mornings it was 6am or 7am. Years ago this was a very natural rhythm for me, but it’s a difficult one to sustain with work the following morning, and I generally struggle now when I have to operate within another timeframe. In Helsinki, however, it was a luxury to work into the small hours when everything is quiet and everyone else was asleep – like being alone in the world for a short time. It created a space for me to engage with the work in a complete way that is often difficult to achieve in everyday life, with so many other demands pushing in. This is the value of residencies: the space and time to connect so fully with research, practice, writing or ideas.

The relationship between Helsinki, the Baltic Sea and its archipelago is remarkable. Hundreds of islands are scattered around the coast, some of which are inhabited and some not, some accessible by foot and some not. The sea connects the people of these territories and it is very much a part of everyday life there. The water is travelled on as frequently as the tram or metro and ferries are crowded during peak times. Growing up on the west coast of Ireland not far from the Atlantic I have always felt a deep connection with the sea and its overwhelming, moving immensity. I was acutely aware of its presence in Helsinki not least by its frequent visibility, rendering it almost a part of the city’s architecture. Working with installation and often sitespecifically, the material conditions of a particular space are always highly informative in directing aspects of my work. In Helsinki it was impossible not to consider the space of the sea, its shifting bodily mass, its intangibility: a psychological entity as much as a physical one. In many ways these circumstances resonate with concerns about the immateriality of space that have permeated my practice for a number of years.

The artists also on residency there were from all over the world – Australia, Canada, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, Norway, the UK and the US – and their practices are as diverse as their nationalities, including everything from abstract painting to documentary photography, glassmaking and sustainable practice. As a group we connected very well, which doesn’t always happen, but it makes for a much richer experience. I developed a genuine fondness for people and place, and for the staff at HIAP, who are incredibly warm and generous.

They made being a stranger in a new city very easy to negotiate, and provided an information document detailing every aspect of the Helsinki and the surrounding areas: transport, supermarkets, bars, clubs, restaurants, festivals, as well as a comprehensive list of galleries and museums including websites, admission fees and contact details.

For a city the size of Helsinki, which is similar to Dublin in that respect, there are a large number of art galleries. Some are commercial and independently programmed, whilst many are programmed democratically by an artists’ union, rather than curatorially led. One might argue that this is a fairer system for artists, making opportunities available to all and removing the subjective role of the curator. But, as a counter argument, elements of exhibition practice that occur in collaboration with the curator are lost.

Four days before my residency finished I had achieved my goals, and a little more, and I felt very happy with the progression of the research and work. The material, though precarious by nature, was performing, and several exciting avenues had opened up relating to site conditions and the direction of form. My experience of the HIAP residency was enormously positive (despite having an eye swollen closed from mosquito bites inflicted during the previous day’s work in the Lammassaari nature reserve). So, with the guidance of my good eye, I cycled to the port, took a gloriously tacky cruise ship to Russia, got very lost in St Petersburg, and helped a drunk Russian man who fell overboard! www.margaretobrien.co.uk Note 1. www.hiap.fi 2. Temple Bar Gallery + Studios and HIAP (Helsinki International Artist Programme) are now entering their eighth year of partnership. During this time, seven Irish artists have travelled to Helsinki and spent time there developing their artistic practices. Since the partnership began in 2007, TBG+S and HIAP have supported a total of 12 artists and curators from Ireland and Finland to undertake new creative work in the cities of Dublin and Helsinki through an exchange programme. The TBG+S and HIAP International Studio Programme is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, the Finnish Institute, London, the Embassy of Finland, Dublin and FRAME – The Finnish Fund for Art Exchange.

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

September – October 2014

how is it made?

Unsettling Essences LIAM CRICHTON DISCUSSES ‘UNTITLED’, MADE FOR THE GROUP SHOW ‘A FALSE SENSE’ SHOWN AT CATALYST ARTS, BELFAST

Liam Crichton, Untitled, installation view from ‘A False Sense’, Catalyst Arts, July 2014

Jason Oakley: Describe ‘Untitled’, the work you made for the Catalyst Arts group show ‘A False Sense’.1 Liam Crichton: Untitled is an installation that utilises raw mild steel, weathered native spruce pine, unfinished plasterboard, cast concrete and fluorescent strip lights. The work uses the entire ‘traditional’ exhibition space of Catalyst – the main gallery and project space – encompassing the architectural fabric of the building and affecting its physical accessibility.

There are two main structures. The first is a spotlit mild steel framework (approximately 7 x 2 x 2m), constructed parallel to the front exterior gallery wall on College Court. The framework is intersected with a repetition of free standing 2.4m vertical wooden posts. The second is a plasterboard wall (approximately 7.5 x 2.4 x 0.6m) that traces the angle created by the passageway from the outside courtyard through the project space and into the main gallery.

Mounted in what were previously windows bays on the rear gallery wall are two square four-tube fluorescent strip lights.

Together these aspects produce a sense of perimeter or threshold around the exhibition space, creating a void that plays between the physical and the imaginary. All the lighting – spot and fluorescent – is positioned around the exterior. The lighting faces inward, highlighting this sense of boundary and manufactured void, as well as the figure of the viewer, as they reach the internal area. What was seemingly open and empty becomes more claustrophobic. The assemblages of industrial materials in human scale in the larger gallery context help extend this thought.

JO: What kind of research / influences fed into this work? How did this relate to the exhibition as a whole?

LC: For me the invitation to show felt fluid: “this is an area that we are all interested in, let’s see where and how we can individually and collectively push it”. The work was made in response to the space.

I have a continuing and developing interest in the subject of physical space, having started an interior architecture degree and then graduating from a sculpture-based course. My practice is predominately site specific but working both off-site and in galleries I try to consider even ‘white cube’ spaces as holding their own significance.

Untitled ‘translates’ the gallery space in terms of the building’s architectural design and the wider context of Belfast. The main gallery’s internal pillars form a grid pattern; the outside line of these allowed a natural composition in establishing the sense of boundary; the same can be said with the plasterboard work. Echoing the fence that runs along College Court, facing the front of the gallery, I installed the vertical wooden posts the same distance from the exterior wall as the outside fence (approximately 4.5m).

I think the power of the familiar can play an important role in

enticing the viewer into the work. A question of balance comes in as to how this is then constructed and exhibited. I’m interested in abstraction and minimalism as a systematic reductive process that can break down the impression of familiarity to its bare essence.

The architect Simone Pizzagalli’s project Space, Poetics, and Void was an important influence on Untitled. Pizzagalli has stated that “... void contains in itself all the potential of the space, all the relations not written and experienced … Void is the place of tension of something that will be, a space in power, but also the only place where the recollection of reality, the composition of the parts, fragments, of life can happen”.2 JO: Could you talk through the making process for this work?

LC: The core idea for Untitled arose from discussions with curator Jane Butler. We talked about the idea of having nothing at all in the gallery space, so the installation was a development from there.

Generally both multiple site visits and working with detailed floor plans are crucial to how I formulate installations. In the studio I test out concepts by making maquettes, or scale models, in the same way an architect might.

Due to the industrial nature of the materials I work with, elements of my installations are most often made in the space. In Untitled, which has structures directly encompassing the fabric of the building, it was only possible to construct the work in the space.

Installation time is always a major factor; with ‘A False Sense’ we were lucky enough to have around 11 days, which provided the opportunity to experiment with the materials in relation to the space. I find that the work always develops in the construction stage, as that’s the time when you get to see the space and materials in the same light.

JO: Do you make all the work yourself or use specialist technicians, fabricators or hire services?

LC: I feel it is important to be as self-sufficient as possible, so the potential of the work isn’t restricted. I try to own as much of my own equipment as I can. In doing site-specific projects off site and in galleries, where the pieces have to be constructed within the space, equipment has to be mobile and readily available. I’ve had to rent equipment and workshop facilities in the past, but I try to keep this to a minimum. The materials are mainly sourced from builders’ yards or suppliers to the construction industry. I try and reclaim certain materials where possible.

JO: Do you see a separation between making and thinking processes?

LC: To quote Richard Serra: “I think if you want to make art, at some point you have to suspend judgment, and you have to involve yourself with play and not worry about the outcome.”3

I see an artist’s practice as a complex, non-linear process. Input and output are not separate – one is constantly informing the other. I also believe an artist’s practice is a lived experience where the work is reflective of the artist. I do all my own welding, woodwork, casting, photographic and electrical work, which adds to this idea of a relationship between artwork and individual; it also has to do with an idea of authenticity. For me, projects always lead to further investigation, either in reaction against or in acknowledgement of the experience gained; thoughts of right and wrong are equally productive.

JO: Are there any specific social or political viewpoints you want the work to express?

LC: One thing that drew me to sculpture and installation-based art is the belief that objects embody their own physicality, a physical energy that resonates in space,with other objects and with people. As well as the metaphysical, I am interested in, and enjoy playing with, the symbolic importance placed on objects and spaces by humans through appropriation and re-contextualisation.

What interests me about multi-sensory installations is the visceral experience, where it becomes a consuming, physical experience for the viewer. Amidst this experience – one of duality, dichotomy, paradox – I’m concerned with its ability to unsettle, creating questions and seeking to undermine or re-structure preconceived ideas and feelings. My viewpoint is influenced by ideas around social entropy and the discord in the urban environment, with influences from socio-cultural anthropology – but I have never felt my aim was to express definite beliefs or political messages. I think it lies somewhere in the middle: disintegrated, dislocated or even dispossessed.

In appropriating the familiar, the viewer is induced or lulled into the work by a tangible or secure relationship to either material or form. It is this relationship that is then played with, distorted, tilted slightly off axis and removed from its original context. I like to think of it as an unattainable memory or unrealised daydream.

I think the purpose of contemporary art, in whatever form, is to comment on the idea of contemporary culture, which it does by default. www.crichton-ross.com Notes 1. Catalyst Arts, ‘A False Sense’, Liam Crichton, Hannah McBride, Mark Orang PRIME Collective, Tom Watt (4 – 25 July 2014). Catalyst Arts commissioned the invited artists to create five new works for the show.

The artists engaged “with ideas surrounding architecture, navigation, and boundaries in a variety of media including sound, installation, sculpture and critiques” 2. Simone Pizzagalli, Nicolo Privileggio, Marc Schoonderbeek, Space, Poetics and Voids, Architectura & Natura, 2013 3. From a YouTube video of Richard Serra talking to Charlie Rose at the Gagosian Gallery in 2001

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

September – October 2014

17

Curation

Ramon Kassam, Rainy drive in downtown Addis, 2014

Ramon Kassam, Road crossing on the way into Addis Ababa, 2014

Ramon Kassam, Eucalyptus scaffolding on building, Addis Ababa 2014

Perception & Representation HELEN CAREY reports ON THE ADDIS ABABA CURATORIAL INTENSIVE. Africa is a continent of 54 countries with different cultural frameworks and heritages, yet our Western gaze is still filtered through a totalising post-colonial lens. Asking about ‘African art’ really makes as little sense as asking about ‘European Art’ (should there ever be a ‘European pavilion’ at the Dak’Art Biennale in Dakar, Senegal!).1 So in convening the Independent Curatorial Intensive in Addis Ababa (13 – 19 May), the New York based Independent Curators International (ICI) focused on questions about how Africa is perceived, represented and curated in the context of the globalised art world.2 Other discussions centred on issues such as collections, display and funding.

The host venue for the event was an extraordinary house designed by the artist Elias Sime, which operates as part of the Zoma Centre for Contemporary Art (Zoma CCA).3 Myself and the other participants were supplied with a rigorous and substantial reading list, so our discussions began at an informed level. The venue was a traditionally built structure – cool in a hot climate. Carvings enhance its structure and artefacts of Ethiopian culture are installed throughout, lending a unique intensity to our deliberations. Working from the base of ZOMA CCA helped us get to know Addis Ababa from the inside.

The majority of participants and speakers for the ‘intensive’ came from the African continent, including the host country Ethiopia as well as Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya. Other participants hailed from the USA, Spain and Poland. The subjects discussed included: funding and sustainability; the realities of being an artist; the challenges of sustaining new initiatives; and how artists in African countries contend with the post-colonial gaze from outside as well as within the continent.

Our thoughtful and provoking exchanges also touched on many other issues, such as how the continent’s galleries and museums operate and perceive themselves. We looked at the particular challenges and advantages of each country’s art system, comparing and contrasting. For example, the South African approach – evident in its post-apartheid national gallery and museum system – is significantly different to the Zimbabwean art scene model. Other interesting topics addressed included African American heritage within the USA and European heritage within Africa, including Polish settlers in Uganda.

The western gaze / perspective was a strong theme in our discussions.

Even exhibitions attempting more nuanced reflections on art and artists of the African continent shown in the west have been problematic. Some of the specific exhibitions and projects considered included: the Africa Pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale, curated by Robert Storr; Okwui Enwezor’s selections of artists for Documenta 11 in 2002; initiatives such as the Triangle Workshops and London’s Africa 95; as well as Senegal’s

Dak’Art Biennale. During this conversation it occurred to me that perspectives within the Irish art world – despite our colonial history – undeniably conform to the Western / Euro-centric view.

Another key issue touched upon was the socio-economic realities of rapidly changing countries – of which Ethiopia is a dramatic example – and the shift wrought by global travel and communication technologies.

The global art world remains a Western / European one: biennales, art fairs and major survey shows work from a Euro-centric viewpoint, emphasising European history and discourse, and appealing to the Western art market. It was also noted that large institutions such as the Tate operate as global reference point, encouraging the ideological and material conformity that typifies the global art world.

I found it impossible to ignore the extraordinary construction boom that’s underway in Addis Ababa. NGO structures, UN compounds and various embassies dominate Addis’s physical landscape. Chinese foremen direct teams of local construction workers creating new railway infrastructure and skyward-reaching buildings that seem to shoot up everywhere from nowhere. The roads are busy with workmen and builders in pick-up trucks being ferried to construction sites, cheek by jowl with the herds of cows and goats en route to the abattoir or market.

Within the context of globalisation, Addis Ababa is where commercial interests meet political will, housing the headquarters of the African Union and the base for the IMF in Africa. The emerging roadways are making Addis more navigable, but changing forever the outline of the Ethiopian soil and dust throughways. Such changes to the landscape seemed to me a possible point of dialogue between Ethiopia and Ireland – although the environmental scarring we have experienced is on a much smaller and tidier scale, especially in post-boom times. The appearance of a financial services district in Addis is on the cards and even Starbucks, in its Caldie Coffee form, is already present.

Before my trip I’d been impressed by the Irish Embassy in Addis Ababa in terms of its interest in facilitating serious cultural exchanges between Ireland and Ethiopia. In my capacity as Director of the Limerick City Gallery of Art (prior to participating in the intensive) I’d worked with Ambassador Aidan O’Hara, who directs the embassy, to enable Ramon Kassam’s highly successful residency in Addis (also in May this year).

During the intensive we were introduced to a number of artists’ groups and studios. The artists based at Netsa Village are engaged in local social practices such as coffee ceremonies and performance.4 The group seemed embedded both in local and global art discourse, with a focus on loss relating to the changes taking place in the city. I also visited the studio of Elias Sime with the curator Meskerem Assegued. Assegued has

been an important figure in bringing attention to Sime’s extraordinary work and in bringing ZOMA CCA to fruition.

Sime’s studio is in the hills above Addis Ababa. Driving up is a heady and literally breath-taking experience – not in the least due to the high altitude. The studio and its setting is spectacular; it sits amongst lush vegetation: coffee plants and flowers. Sime’s work comprises dense carpets of colour rendered in recycled materials, fusing traditional patterns with abstract forms that reference improvised adaptations to the realties of contemporary globalisation. He has set a series of highly organised storage areas for the raw materials used in his work, which include stacks of computer motherboards, circuit boards, wiring and other elements.

Another strong figure in the city’s art scene is Konjit Seyoum, a leading gallerist in Addis. Seyroum’s Asni Gallery is a leading light for showing Ethiopian and international art, as well as showcasing socially engaged practice.5 Seyroum also has a café attached to the gallery, renowned for its excellent Ethiopian food. Ideas around art, food and hospitality are Seyroum’s current area of interest, and she funds the gallery solely through her own ingenuity and hard work.

Although there are national museums of art across Ethopia, there is no system of public funding; galleries are dependent on private fundraising by extraordinary and energetic individuals, who sustain cultural and artistic development. Additional support does come from organisations such as the Goethe Institute, the British Council and the Alliance Francaise, among others, who work in Ethiopia and throughout Africa to enable various initiatives.

In terms of a lasting general impression of Addis Ababa, I found that so much of what was there one day was gone the next, as building crews scythed through the city. Though I expected to encounter a city undergoing rapid growth, nothing really prepared me for exactly the way in which Addis Ababa is set to change and become a commercial and political powerhouse within Africa.

Helen Carey is currently Director of Limerick City Gallery of Art. In her curatorial practice, Carey is interested in projects that concern memory, industrial landscapes and politics. She was previously inaugural Director of the CCI Paris, Executive Director at Galway Arts Centre and Public Art Project Manager of the landmark millennium project in Bristol, UK. Carey is soon to take up the position of Director at Fire Station Artists’ Studios in Dublin.

Notes 1. www.biennaledakar.org 2. The Independent Curatorial Intensive is an initiative of Independent Curators International (ICI), which produces exhibitions, events, training opportunities, research initiatives, and publications for curators and audiences around the world (www.curatorsintl.org) 3. Zoma Contemporary Art Center (ZCAC) is an eco-sensitive and educational artist-in-residence village (www.zcac.net) 4. www.netsaartvillage.org 5. www.facebook.com/AsniGallery

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

September – October 2014

Project profile

Politicks Coffee and News at ‘The Café Society’ 14 May 2014

Mari-Aymone Djeribi speaking at Politicks Coffee and News at ‘The Café Society’ 14 May 2014

Critical Congregation MONICA FLYNN DISCUSSES HER PROJECT ‘THE CAFÉ SOCIETY’.

As part of Leitrim County Council’s SPARK residency (funded by Leitrim County Council, Leitrim Local Enterprise Office and the Arts Council), artist Monica Flynn devised the Café Society, a programme of public encounters and events running from May – July 2014 at the Café Lounge in Carrick-on-Shannon.1 Discussing her residency experience with Joanne Laws, Monica Flynn describes the history of coffee houses as places of culture and commerce, modern-day coffee politics and the café as an enduring discursive public space.

Joanne Laws: Can you describe some of your initial ideas for the SPARK residency, particularly with regard to the setting, and how you tackled the idea of a ‘dual proposal’, ie. with benefits to both artist and company?

Monica Flynn: The history of cafés sparked a lot of my initial ideas, particularly Parisian cafés, as public spaces where artists, writers and philosophers gathered. I had previously been involved in a project called ‘Food for Thought’, which focused on food sovereignty, so looking at the politics and economics of coffee production and public space was of initial interest.2 Café Lounge owner Georgia Visnyei is quite passionate about coffee, the particulars of its production and its history, so I also imagined capturing that in some way, through research, a publication or other ephemera. I was keen to find a way of combining both business and creative outcomes.

JL: How did your initial research into the politics of coffee evolve or begin to take shape?

MF: I hung out a lot in the café, enjoying the coffee, reading about coffee production and learning about the process of growing, roasting etc. and the nuances of how coffee is served in different countries.

I initially wanted to address the conditions of coffee production in some way and created some Christmas decorations to sell, with the proceeds going to a coffee workers advocacy charity, but that didn’t seem to register with patrons of the café. It took time to figure out how to engage the regular but transitory audience in the café. Following this phase of research, I set aside coffee politics and focused on the café as public sphere.

JL: You curated a series of discursive events to take place in the coffee shop. How did public engagement emerge as an important element?

MF: I was interested in the growing number of cafés around Ireland and how people are using them. Georgia herself talked about how she and her partner Gabor had spent a lot time in cafés between jobs. The café struck me as a sort of in between space – neither work nor home – where commerce, publicness and cultural debate intersect. I wanted to harness notions of the public sphere and economics in a way that would appeal to the café audience. The primary aim was to test the appetite for public debate, inviting speakers from the media, academia and the arts.

JL: How did you organise the thematic content of the three events?

MF: As artist-in-residence in a business setting I was conscious of the rhetoric around ‘creativity’, which renders cultural production as economic commodity rather than something generated by the collective efforts of citizens. Pragmatically, I was concerned with ideas around active citizenship and the diminishing number of spaces for public debate. Philosophical reading material influenced my examination of cafés as discursive spaces, ‘heterotopic spaces’ and ‘spaces of potential’. I set up a small library in the café, which included political and economic texts and other reading material that reflected my interests.

I wanted to use the first event to ‘set the scene’, while creating a sense of conviviality and a context for future events. I invited local artist-publisher Mari-Aymone Djeribi, publishing historian Dr Maire Kennedy and storyteller Fiona Dowling to contribute. Collectively they introduced cafés as part of an early public sphere, with an examination of their history in Europe and connections with publishing, commerce and literature. Maire discussed the history of cafés in Dublin, their role in commercial affairs and the early newspaper and publishing trade in Ireland. Fiona told a number of stories relating to the folklore of coffee in countries where coffee houses first became popular.

Focusing specifically on the public sphere, the second event Café Philosophie was pivotal in the series. Dr Maeve Cooke discussed Jürgen Habermas’s theory of communicative action, while Niall Crowley, a convener of the Claiming our Future initiative, reflected on ways to counter modern-day Ireland’s “low-energy democracy” and reach consensus on what kind of society we want.3 The event was chaired by Carole Coleman, who made interesting observations about her own profession, remarking on the media’s tendency to cover provocative political stories rather than asking critical questions. The audience got involved and there was genuine interest in the need for change, more robust debate in public life and a different kind of citizenship.

JL: Discursivity seems to have emerged as an important aspect of this project, both in terms of your subject matter and your chosen modes of dissemination. On the idea of the public sphere, do you think (heterotopic) spaces to ‘congregate’ in are important for a democratic society?

MF: Yes I do think spaces for open discussion – to air and share ideas and social concerns, or act out alternatives – are very important. We create or find these kinds of spaces, but it’s difficult to think of many spaces that function in this heterotopic sense. On the idea of congregating, there are many instances where we congregate in Ireland, including the pub, sports events, festivals and religious ceremonies. However, heterotopias function beyond that, as sites for action and speech that step outside of institutional or social norms, or where different relational norms can co-exist and overlap. The café is a space where people come to take time out, to work, to meet others. It can be a place to strike up conversations with strangers. It is a privately owned yet public space. Café Society tapped into this existing

Politicks Coffee and News at ‘The Café Society’ 14 May 2014

atmosphere and allowed discussions that would generally happen in institutional spaces to happen in this more relaxed setting. Over the last couple of years my work has employed different means to involve an audience. Creating a discursive space seemed like a natural progression.

JL: With different degrees of ‘publicness’ emerging out of the artistin-residence model (from invisible processes like expanded discussion, to highly visible processes such as blogs and social media), how has this residency enhanced your professional development?

MF: This opportunity really allowed me to push my practice and myself, as I was able to devote an extended amount of time to one idea.

It took time to devise appropriate responses to the setting and its transient audience, and the usual creative arc was slower, which was challenging but also really beneficial, as it allowed me to do a lot more research and reading. It was hugely beneficial to engage with other artists and professionals from a variety of fields including history, publishing, media, philosophy, social activism and financial theory. In practical terms, managing a publicly funded project involving a number of contributors demanded that I consider not just my role as artist-in-residence but the vested interests of all parties in the events and outcomes. In some ways, the open-ended nature of the discussions was a leap of faith, with the experience and response of the audience underpinning the effectiveness of the project. I come away from this residency with greater trust in my process and confidence in my ability to enthuse others and to turn theoretical concerns into a tangible and engaging form.

JL: As the residency draws to a close, how are you reflecting on your chosen modes of dissemination and your experience overall?

MF: Each discussion was documented, so now I hope to edit this footage with a professional editor for further dissemination via my own website and on the Café Lounge website, hopefully extending the audience for the work and the life of the project beyond the original business and artistic outcomes. I would like to create a newspaper-type publication, echoing the original publishing or dissemination function that coffee houses had, but this will require more thought and funding.

For future projects and residencies it might be worthwhile building on this self-reflective approach, gathering and disseminating ideas as the work progresses, while trying to be more confident or strategic with my decisions. A number of people have asked whether events will be ongoing, and it is my hope that, as I step away from the project, some of the audience members might take the idea forward.

This would be a great bonus and a sense of achievement for Café Society. www.facebook.com/cafesocietyleitrim Notes 1. Leitrim County Council Arts Office’s Spark Creative Residencies offer artists the opportunity to perform the dual roles of artist and creative collaborator, spending an average of two days per week with a company over the course of six months. During this time the artist develops a programme of work which contains distinct benefits for both the artist and the company (www.leitrimcoco.ie) 2. Food For Thought is a Development Education Initiative that originally started in Cork by members of EDA and then seeded in Dublin (www.facebook.com/foodforthought2. FFT) organises events that highlight different issues around the topic of food sovereignty using art (performance or visual art) and food sharing to create shared experiences that promote solidarity, inclusion and participation 3. Claiming Our Future is a national, broad-based, non-party-political network. It comprises individuals and organisations from a range of civil society sectors. It aims to promote and make real the values of equality, environmental sustainability, participation, accountability and solidarity (www. claimingourfuture.ie)

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

Critique Supplement Edition 15 September – October 2014

Eva Rothschild 23 May 2014 – 21 September 2014 Dublin City Gallery, the Hugh Lane Eva Rothschild’s sculptural practice is positioned

pieces inside its oval boundary. One can’t help

within the aesthetic of an earlier generation of

thinking of religious and new age practices of

artists whose oeuvre was determined by intrinsic

circling, holding hands, taking Communion,

material properties and an obstinate respect for

singing and worship. Rothschild’s stated interest in

classical modernity. Artists like Richard Deacon,

the romantic, spiritual and esoteric qualities that

Alison Wilding, Richard Wentworth and, in Ireland,

can be attached to inanimate objects runs

Eilís O’Connell and Maud Cotter, established a

throughout this exhibition.

tradition in which their innovation was moulded

She points to Greek architecture as a reference,

through the inherent characteristics of metal,

citing Klassix in particular. Made from corrugated

plastic, leather, paper, wood, plaster, glass, ceramic

cardboard and polystyrene it’s title and form could

and so on. The principles of their work seem to be

either be read as a votive homage or humorous play

in opposition to current tendencies towards a

on the legacy of classical architecture. Overlapping hanging circles in other works evoke the modern Olympic symbol into which she intervenes with esoteric and mystical appendages.

Half Sun acts as an anchor to the exhibition as a whole, hanging as a centrepiece on an end wall and the final point in the gallery spaces. It is a large circle made of rich soft leather. The top half is dark and warm and begins to shimmer at the horizontal diametre point where long thongs of brighter coloured leather are knotted into the work. They spill downwards and outwards in a cascade of light flooding from the depths of the circle. Like a cathedral rose window this work resonates spirituality.

Restless I, a wall based work that sits into a corner just below ‘normal’ viewing height, is sublimely beautiful. It is made up of two equilateral triangles with sides that meet along the line of the corner. It is faultlessly fabricated and covered in a deeply reflective black gloss coating. From its interior a series of elegant square bars jut out in triangular spikes. An internal energy is created emanating from the fathomless black colour, the multiple reflections and the diamond shaped vertical plinth that supports it. Its dynamic propulsion and seductive power is irresistible.

The exhibition also includes a small selection of photographs – People with Snakes – and a video work. The video work is an experiment that lives out a curator’s nightmare in which a group of 6 – 12

Installation view – Eva Rothschild Do-nut (Wakefield) 2011 ceramic tiles, jesmonite, polystyrene, adhesive, grout height 58cm, overall diameter in configuration as photographed approx. 365cm. Klassix 2013 Jesmonite, fibreglass, wood.

4-parts 280 x 147 x 125 cm / 110 1/4 x 57 7/8 x 49 1/4 inches courtesy of the artist, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich and The Modern Institute, Glasgow People with Snakes 2014 10 digital prints. Courtesy the artist, Modern Art, London and The Modern Institute, Glasgow.

Eva Rothschild Black Atom 2013 steel concrete, paint 65 x 92 x 60 cm / 25 5/8 x 36 1/4 x 23 5/8 inches courtesy of the artist, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich and The Modern Institute, Glasgow

work in a pristine gallery – unsupervised, except for the camera filming them. In a frighteningly

fragile, unravelling and explosive approach evident

short period they descend into destructive mayhem,

in the work of Jessica Stockholder, Sarah Sze and, in

flatten everything in sight and playing football

Ireland, Tadhg McSweeney and Aleana Egan. In a

with Rothschild’s ovoid forms.

tentative way Rothschild’s work could be viewed as

Titled Boys with Sculptures it is enigmatic and

a bridge across to this fragmented approach, whilst

puzzling, made even more so by an accompanying

retaining a fundamental rational order.

confessional documentary of the boys trying to

Rothschild’s exhibition at the Dublin City

deconstruct, interpret and contextualise their

Gallery, the Hugh Lane exemplifies the kind of

behaviour. As the mother of a seven year old boy it

gravitas that underpinned classical approaches to

seems unfair, and aside from clichéd notions of

sculpture. Recurring characteristics of weight,

boyish instincts and cynical poke at the dominance

density and sturdiness are explored through robust

of men in the art world it is hard to decipher a more

materials such as industrial grade metal cabling,

specific motivation for the work. However, the

steel, concrete, jesmonite, leather and a simple

photographs counterpoint the video and comprise

palette of mostly black, punctuated with green, red

a series of delightful portraits of happy individuals

and purple. Motifs and forms that appear

and families handling snakes. It seems a

throughout the exhibition like circles, rings, hooks,

straightforward way of illustrating tolerance and

links, triangles, knots, tangles and hollowed out

acceptance .

ovoid forms suggest that meaning teeters between

Overall this is a formidable exhibition by an

a ritualised adoration of modernism and an

artist who has persuasive and cogent vision. But

otherworldly metaphysical philosophy.

perhaps most of all it is her fascination for the

In the most expansive work in the exhibition, Eva Rothschild Snowman, 2013 eebar, polyurethane resin, plaster, paint, 262 x 63 x 66 cm unique copyright Eva Rothschild. Courtesy of Stuart Shave / Modern Art, London, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, The Modern Institute, Glasgow and 303 Gallery, New York

year old boys were invited to experience Rothschild’s

Lantern, three elongated rhombus armatures

mysteries of human instincts and desires that drives her work.

descend from the ceiling to the floor in the form of a chain of metal rods, links and hooks that eventually meet the ground to encircle three other

Carissa Farrell is a curator based in Dublin.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet Critique Supplement

September – October 2014

Graham Gingles ‘At times like these men were wishing they were all kinds of insects’ The MAC, Belfast 3 July – 17 August 2014

Graham Gingles, ‘At times like these men were wishing they were all kinds of insects’, The Mac, Belfast, 2014

‘At times like these men were wishing they were all kinds of insects’, Graham Gingles’s installation at the MAC, comprises a maze-like structure of architectural elements – doors, window frames, bannisters, architraves – painted a ghostly white, which vault above the viewer. The edifice is softly lit, with the scent of white lilies filling the small gallery. The work leads viewers into a visual maze: ladders lead up, drawers open out and windows both hide and frame elements of the work. Drawers and cupboards hold various objects: a wooden train, a collection of transparent crosses, toy battleships and a group of toy soldiers.

The only colour comes from antique wardrobe doors that screen and obscure, and from a small stained glass window high up, which visually balances the two wooden crosses. Dead lilies are crushed carefully between windowpanes, with mould surrounding their silhouettes. The title of the piece is referenced in the dead insects that march along a broken window. Small white butterflies lead the assault, with bumblebees, flies and wasps in the vanguard. There are two other large objects in the room: a telegraph pole with its wires disconnected and a large vase of living lilies, reminiscent of flowers left by a grave.

The work was co-commissioned by the MAC and 14 –18 NOW, as part of a cultural commemoration of the First World War. A starting point for the work was an embossed brass box – given to the artist by the curator of the MAC, Hugh Mulholland – of the kind that would have contained gifts for WWI soldiers in the trenches, ranging from cigarettes to chocolates.

These boxes were given to every service man and woman by Princess Mary during WWI and were “symbols of compassion in times of danger and hardship”.1 The title of the piece is taken from a book written by a WWI soldier, Robert McGookin, who hailed from Gingles’s hometown of Larne in Northern Ireland. McGookin fought in the trenches and described the horror: “At times like these men were wishing themselves to be all sorts of insects, and when there was shelling, it was common to hear a man say, I wish I was a worm now”.2 Gingles is well known for his box-like constructions, with their inner compartments acting as memory banks. “His boxes are like theatre sets that play in light and shade with conundrums and secrets

– revealing here, and obscuring there.” 3 The work at The MAC work is a departure in scale; the audience can now walk into Gingles’s world of fragmented memories and be part of an intricate and complex paradox. Layers of suggested recollections and half forgotten dreams obscure easy interpretation of the piece. In reference to this piece Jamshid Mirfenderesky asked: “Is it because to transcend these meticulously made objects and images requires a huge imaginative leap? Is it because they maintain a paradoxical position between inside and outside, presence and absence, visibility and the invisible?”4 It is because the work is so difficult to interpret that it is so compelling.

Gingles’s appropriation of apparently random objects causes the pictorial equivalence of free association; the art therefore defies logical analysis. Yet Gingles says of his work and the audience reaction to it: “I hope they ... find something”.5 I found memories of my own grandfather, who had fought in WWI, and of his home. The house had a large Victorian dining room that held a painting of four grinning cherubs and a stuffed monkey forever staring out from a glass cabinet. My sister and I would sit under the grand mahogany table and look fearfully out at the watching eyes. We all bring our own social, economic and cultural world to play when we study art. To interpret Gingles’s work look into the layers of imagery and the secret hidden truths that confound and submerge logic. Delve deeper into a level of reality of your own. Smell the white lilies and bring your own thoughts to inhabit a space that is both confusing yet strangely familiar.

Caoimhe Kilfeather ‘This Attentive Place’ Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin 20 June – 20 August 2014 Caoimhe Kilfeather seems interested in the space around objects as much as the objects themselves. In her recent exhibition a diaphanous blue screen (made from overlapping sheets of oiled and pigmented paper) reshaped the gallery’s coordinates and provided an atmospheric setting for a number of seemingly related though rather mysterious artifacts.

Varying between dark and lighter shades, the wall of suspended sheets, titled The Rigid Thing, The Moving Act, led the viewer towards an opening at its farthest end and continued inside to form a right angled enclosure. The translucent drapes made a softly glowing perimeter, filtering the exterior brightness, and casting the exhibition’s contents with a square of melancholy light.

Bound at its centre by thin bands of shiny brass, a foursome of dyed and cast concrete uprights faced each other in secret conference. These tall slabs seemed vaguely megalithic, broodily dominating the inner sanctum, like a dark tomb or hearth, a shelter for transformations of one kind or another.

The title of the work, A Shade, suggested another reading: that the forms were solidified shadows, negative matter cast from an absense of light (and what better material than concrete to describe this metamorphosis).

The Kind Thought That Sent Them There was positioned towards the opposite corner of the reconfigured room. Four bronze forms rested on a pale wooden table. The low table was drop-leafed, one up and one down. The irregular surfaces of the round forms had been cast from something wrapped or woven, and there was a single small opening in each. They looked like the nests of weaverbirds. Or perhaps they were maceheads, waiting for the armourer to fix their wooden shafts.

A sculpture doesn’t have to look like something, but it’s difficult to escape comparisons, especially when we’re led towards them. An accompanying text empasised Kilfeather’s interest in the place of the exhibition and her attempts to redefine it, from an “ostensibly public, to a more private and subjective setting”.1 We’re also told that her works reference “domesticity and habitation”.2 If that’s correct then my preceding comments about birds’ nests and the transformative hearth seem apt. On the other hand my observations about shadows and medieval weaponry are probably way off the mark. It’s difficult to pin Kilfeather’s work down to a specific reading, but that is part of its strength. The artist seems to promote ambiguity, exploring contradictions between her materials and her forms, and inviting

subjective responses to a complex grammar of making and allusion.

The use of cryptic titles is another oblique strategy. Two framed black and white photographs, At The End of His Nature 1 and 2 depict the same subject – a paved and enclosed courtyard – from the same point of view: a room leading out to the open area. If the gallery space is a reconfigured domicile (as the exhibition text suggests) then perhaps it extends to the images of exterior space framed on the wall. The image of the courtyard garden is a kind of joke, a self-consciously unconvincing trompel’oeil. Or does the title At The End of His Nature imply something else? Are the closed doors in the second photograph a reference to death? Kilfeather’s titles sound bookish (Emily Dickinson comes to mind), but also teasing and suggestive. Perhaps I was led up the wrong garden path?

Adjusting to the blue-stained gloom I noticed that cladding had been removed from the room’s structural columns and that the concrete ceiling was painted a dark grey. The space felt raw but honest, as though undressed of anything superfluous. Here and there the stripped back austerity was relieved by warmer lights directed toward the walls. As well as the two photographs, two untitled works were picked out in this way. A column of uniformly pale slip cast ceramic tiles was slotted together by way of opposing lips at the top and bottom. Viewed from the side the flat shapes had a simple interlocked elegance. From the front they became an ironed-out Brancusi, a potentially endless column of starched rhomboids.

Five rectangles of woven wire were placed just beyond the blue confines. Their metallic lustre seemed internal, as though charged with the current running through all of Kilfeather’s work, a poetic energy of reticence and release.

“Inhabited space transcends geometrical space”, Gaston Bachelard wrote, reminding us that the true coordinates of a space are found in subjective experience.3 While ‘This Attentive Place’ felt uniquely intimate, the title seemed to refer to the common experience of all those who have visited or worked in the gallery. Carried in memory – habitations occur there as much as anywhere else – this exhibition’s ‘legacy of attention’ will be extended in many memories, no doubt, over time.

Caoimhe Kilfeather, ‘This Attentive Place’, TBG+S, 2014

Caoimhe Kilfeather, ‘This Attentive Place’, TBG+S, 2014

John Graham is an artist based in Dublin.

Notes 1. TBG+S exhibition statement 2. Ibid.

3. Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, 1958

Kathryn Nelson is a visual artist based in County Tyrone. She is currently artist in residence with Artscare working in the Northern Health and Social Services Trust.

Notes 1. 14–18 NOW WW1 Centenary Art Commissions, Catalogue, 18 2. Jamshid Mirfenderesky, The Presence of Absence is Everywhere to be Seen: Graham Gingles’s Boxes, The MAC Exhibition Guide, 2014 3. Liam Kelly, Thinking Long, Contemporary Art in the North of Ireland, Gandon Editions, Cork, 1996, 127 4. Jamshid Mirfenderesky, The Presence of Absence is Everywhere to be Seen: Graham Gingles’s Boxes’ ,The MAC Exhibition Guide, 2014 5. ‘At times like these men were wishing they were all kinds of insects’ accompanying video, the MAC, Belfast

September – October 2014

The Visual Artists’ News SheetCritique Supplement

Fabienne Audeoud ‘Praying for North Korea’ The BlackMariah, Cork. 9 June – 10 August

Fabienne AudeoudDISPUTE(one of 100 bottles comprising the installa tion / collection Perfumes for the Poorshown in the exhibition Praying ‘ for North Korea’, The BlackMariah, Cork

Fabienne Audeoud,GLORY (one of 100 bottles comprising the installation / collection Perfumes for the Poorshown in the exhibition Praying ‘ for North Korea’, The BlackMariah, Cork

French artist Fabienne Audeoud’s intimate exhibition at the hermetic Black Mariah in Cork featured a series of paintings that reflected on the political regime of North Korea. Untitled Paintings comprised a series of rashly executed works employing a painterly technique that the artist decribes as “quick, rough, shameless, abrupt and at the same time soft and tender, somewhere in the area of the worst but fashionable and cool”. United by the words “Praying for North Korea”, which is scrawled across their surfaces, these ‘badly’ executed works were also carelessly hung: un-stretched canvases roughly taped to the wall. According to Audeoud this shabby aesthetic was supposed to reflect “the worst of political regimes” considered alongside “(maybe) the worst of political actions: praying”. However, the wild and unrestrained application of paint, with its liberally applied series of cheerful colours, seemed to jar with the oppressive, analytical and orderly aesthetic of the regime to which the text refers. The link between these works and North Korea seemed a little dubious at first, or at best ambiguous and distanced.

The text on the canvases was painted over backdrops of wavy shapes and circles in bright colours. These marks, although much less refined, evoked the Compositions of Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky. Acknowledged as being the first purely abstract painter, Kandinsky was also fascinated by the emotional power of music. This fusion of painting with music is a key feature of Audeoud’s oeuvre as her painterly practice runs alongside her musical compositions and performances. Audeoud studied composition under the tutorage of British composer Simon Bainbridge and fuses visual art with music in disconcerting acapella voice performances and ongoing musical projects, which are shown in gallery settings. These include Making a Hit as an Art Piece (2009) and Playing the Piano (2012).

For her exhibition at the Black Mariah, Audeoud sourced a 1930s art deco piano, which was advertised in an Irish local paper. Praying for North Korea in Cork w/Classic Dave (2014) was sited parallel to the far end wall of the space. The lid of the piano was closed but a piece of music Audeoud composed on the instrument played on a loop emanating from a speaker behind it. This soundtrack – slightly ominous yet also calm and meditative – was punctuated by long gaps, catching the viewer off guard when the minimal sound of a few keys again started to ring out in the sparse room. This melancholy composition was dramatised by the inclusion of a vase of flowers, which sat on top of the piano. The flowers had wilted, drooped and turned brown, testifying to the passing of time within the

windowless space.

These new works, a lament on the totalitarian regime of North Korea, were juxtaposed with Perfumes for the Poor (2012). The humorous tone of this work seemed at odds with the rest of the exhibition. This collection of unusual perfumes, which had amusing and undesirable names such as “Full Release”, “Tender Stalking”, “Spit off” and “Nob”, were exhibited on three black shelves. The shelves divided the collection by colour. The liquid in the bottles on the shelf to the right were clear, those on the middle shelf contained liquids of a more yellowy hue, while those on the left were mostly made up of blue and green liquids. This colour coding echoed the watery marks made by thinned down oil in the paintings on the opposite wall.

The inclusion of Perfumes for the Poor was, however, justified by the addition of two new bottles found in Cork. These were exhibited separately from the rest of the collection and individually titled, Home Alone and Statuesque (2014). The new additions were mounted atop a plinth in amongst the paintings, suggesting a relationship with the series.

The object labelled Home Alone was a nondescript soap dispenser. This sat next to the fragrance Statuesque, a bottle in the shape of a tacky black cat.

Although it was presented as another chance find, the motif of the black cat has powerful superstitious and symbolic resonances. Regarded as unlucky in the West, it is a symbol of luck in the East. Thus, the motif referenced the distance between the artist and her subject regarding issues of representation.

This motif was also the symbol of the Black Cat Squadron, part of the Republic of China Air Force. North Korea’s immediate neighbours have a bilateral, yet increasingly strained, relationship with the country. Furthermore, the word ‘statuesque’ is somewhat ironic in this context, as North Koreans are on average approximately three inches shorter than South Koreans due to poverty and malnutrition. Through these reverberations Audeoud’s exhibition made subtle and earnest observations on the tensions and predicaments unique to North Korea. Paradoxically, the sincerity of these gestures resided in their vagueness, as the artist exploited her position as a distanced outsider with as much understanding of this insular nation as most of her audience.

Marilyn Lerner ‘Circle in the Square’ Butler Kilkenny. 9 August – 5 October For artist Marilyn Lerner New York is a frenetic city from which her practice provides a haven of peace.

This exhibition, ‘Circle in the Square’, Lerner’s first in Ireland, comprises 21 examples of her work, the main body of which is oil on wood, with just four pieces on paper. Lerner started out as a sculptor, working with wood for three years before moving to painting. This experience is reflected in her wood supports, which are made specifically for Lerner, and feature distinctive bevelling that allows the work to stand away from the wall in a very understated way.

The deep grey walls and well-placed lighting (the exhibition has been carefully curated by Gallery Director Anna O’Sullivan) further enhance the work.

Lerner’s colour palette is broad, but she manages nonetheless to achieve a harmony that is easy on the eye. She describes how she starts with the geometric form, then fills in one colour, which she says is ‘easy to find in terms of the form’, then sits at a distance from the work and takes her time determining which colour she will bring in next.

Effectively, then, adding each new colour requires a period of consideration, a weighing-up of the balance between the colours already there and those yet to come; though, as she paints in oil, she can work on several pieces at one time.

Her process is nevertheless lengthy, each step requiring careful thought and contemplation, which allows her to switch off from that buzzing New York exterior and reach into herself. As she describes it, this results in a deeply personal piece of work.

But on first glance the paintings in ‘Circle in the Square’ strike the viewer as extremely impersonal.

They are all based on geometric figures – circles, squares, ovals, triangles and rectangles – rendered in a wide range of colours. This abstraction par excellence makes any pursuit of representational or referential elements seem impossible.

As viewers, often we look to the titles of works for clues. Lerner’s titles are terse – Quartet, Door – and in many cases are descriptive rather than revealing.

Squaring is a series of squares arranged in a circle; Center Point is a series of circles within rectangular blocks of colour. Other titles such as Dawn Dervish or Morning Raga are slightly more suggestive of personal experience – the accompanying notes clarify that Lerner travelled to Asia in the 1980s –

but of 21 titles, only Hand in Hand fully intrigues.

This is not the only contradiction inherent in this body of work. The choice of geometry as her vocabulary implies that Lerner is concerned with exactitude, yet in certain pieces there is noticeable imprecision. In Diagram for Circles, for example, the central image isn’t quite centred, the margin on the left being slightly greater than that on the right. In Devi, some of the lines in the upper section of the painting do not meet exactly. These ‘imperfections’ can be interpreted as signs of a human hand, and a creative process where no two renderings, no matter how hard the artist tries, are exactly the same – a quality which distinguishes painting, for example, from digital reproduction.

Lerner cites Kazimir Malevich and Wassily Kandinsky as influences, two artists who produced abstract works based on the language of geometry, but who were theoretically quite different. There are strong Klimtian elements in her works on paper, another artist much appreciated by Lerner, who also refers to Mondrian, Forrest Bess, Alfred Jensen and Stephen Mueller. The impression is that she looked to these sources for form, colour and vocabulary, rather than to position herself in a particular genre.

But then, that is the point that Lerner makes: her works are a way to “find a place to position [her] self” in her world, rather than in relation to the world of art.

There is no doubt that this exhibition is challenging. Somewhat paradoxically, the very fact that the process by which the works are realised is so personal can make the end result feel quite distancing for the viewer. There is a sense that the experience Lerner is embodying in her work is entirely interior; there is no ‘message’ or point of reference for the viewer, because this is not about the world outside the artist, but her own internal being. The question this poses is whether it is possible to be absorbed by or into the work. The answer appears to be that this depends entirely on the individual viewer, making it – that paradox again – a very personal matter.

Mary Catherine Nolan is a Dublin-based artist, with a background is in linguistics.

Marilyn Lerner,Devi, work on paper

Kirstie North is a PhD candidate at University College Cork, working on a thesis entitled ‘Turning Back: The Analogue and the Archive’.

Marilyn Lerner,Center Point, 2011, oil on wood

The Visual Artists’ News SheetCritique Supplement

September – October 2014

The Starry Messenger VOID, Derry 05 August – 26 September 2014

Live projection as part of ‘StarryMessenger’ at VOID, Derry, image byPaola Bernadelli

‘Starry Messenger’ presents the work of seven contemporary artist filmmakers in a kind of cry from the heart for the medium of film. It brings together 16mm, 8mm and Super8 films in a way that puts the beauty of the medium centre stage.

The first room of the exhibition, Process Room, is a beginning and an end. It comprises video, audio and written documentation about analogue film, looking at processing methods and at how it has becoming increasingly difficult for artists and filmmakers to use film as digital takes over. There are also a series of small framed works, where segments of films by each artist are displayed like delicate miniatures. This room simultaneously asserts the physicality of the medium and the precariousness of its future.

Next I encountered Liahona (2013) by Talena Sanders, a study of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Shot on 16mm, the film has intensely saturated colour, and presents the viewer with a sequence of memorable images. The format encourages a sense of looking back in time, yet some of the footage is contemporary, highlighting the relationship between the past and the present on this particular subject. The film has a gently melancholic tone, and brings together personal insights with a broader historical sweep.

Moving into the next room a projectionist is working at a desk, lit with a single angle poise lamp, operating a beautiful old 16mm projector.

On closer inspection the projector is the kind that folds out of its own 1960s-style mini suitcase.

Nearer the screen is an 8mm projector, which the projectionist alternates with the 16mm. The screen itself is an old fashioned one with a tripod base and pull down fabric screen. The way the projectors and screen are set up and the quiet attentiveness of the projectionist form a work in themselves.

The room is set up to emphasise the act of looking as well as the physicality of the medium.

The relationship between the artist, the viewer and the medium are explored in each of the films shown. Samantha Rebello’s the object which thinks us - OBJECT 1 (2007) uses close ups of a toothbrush, a plug hole, running water and blood. Images from the film are at once everyday and disconcerting – a surrealist strategy – but re-framed by the formal qualities inherent to16mm.

In Marika Borgeson’s The Starry Messenger (2013) a red light flashes and is followed by darkness: a particular sort of darkness, deliberate and heavy.

Borgeson achieved this by leaving film stock in the sun; the paradox of the sun creating darkness is one of many notions that might occur to the viewer of this medidative film.

Murmurations (2013), by Rebecca Meyers, is a celebration of seething, pulsating nature. It uses the organic qualities of the film to play on light, colour and texture.

Two Fountains (2014) by Janine Davidson was created using the features of the 8mm filming process to create a double image of two fountains, one in Belfast and one in Glasgow. The film, made by splitting 16mm into two 8mm streams played concurrently, alludes to the past through its construction and imagery. The film itself has an architectural solidity which is echoed in the solid yet anachronistic structures it depicts. Watching the film I became aware of the ubiquity of the split screen in video, and there is a sense that the technical challenges Davidson has created for herself within the medium are a way of asserting the the value of a slower more measured approach.

Michaela Nettell’s Garden (2012), in the last room of the show, is a meditation on nature in the city. 35mm slides are overlapped to create layered images which flow into one another. The 35mm slide – once the staple of art schools everywhere – is another endangered species. The format shares some of the features of 8mm and 16mm in that it possesses an intangible quality that distinguishes it from digital photography.

Ana Vaz’s Sacris Pulso (2007) uses found 8mm film intercut with parts of a re-created 1980s film. The elision of found elements from the past with contemporary footage is a theme running through many of the works in the show and here as elsewhere it used to explore the convergence of cultural and personal history.

The press release asks: “Can we describe the art and technology of celluloid filmmaking as a redundant technology or an extinct artform?” After seeing this show I would answer with a resounding “no!” One could ask the same question of etching, lithography, silk screen printing etc. These processes were revolutionary when they started, only to be superseded by other technologies. Each of these mediums have their own art historical associations, but they are constantly being reinvented by artists coming to them afresh.

As the show’s curator Declan Sheehan asserts, its is important that the infrastructure needed for artists to discover film is preserved now before it is too late.

Andy Parsons is an artist based in Sligo.

His practice includes drawing, painting, printmaking and making artists’ books. He is the co-founder of Floating World Artists Books. www.savefilm.org

The Visual Artists’News Sheet

September – October 2014

23

studio / residency profile

Stronghold RUTH LYONS DISCUSSES THE NEW DEVELOPMENTS TAKING PLACE AT THE GOOD HATCHERY STUDIO AND ART SPACE, COUNTY OFFALY.

‘Arrow Arrow’ event at The Good Hatchery (28 – 29 June 2014)

The Good Hatchery (TGH) is a studio and art space in the boglands of County Offaly run by myself and Carl Giffney in collaboration with member artists. In June The Good Hatchery celebrated its seventh anniversary with a special open weekend event entitled ‘ARROW ARROW’ (28 – 29 June 2014). The event featured live music, spoken word, performance, food and artworks from artists that have been involved with TGH throughout the years. We also used the event to launch a new phase of TGH’s development, which follows 12 months of extensive renovations to the studio and workshop spaces.

The Good Hatchery began in 2007 when Carl and I, who were students in NCAD at the time, put an advert on FreeCycle for a free building to live in and renovate. This almost farcical proposition led to a fortuitous encounter with Eileen Hanlon, who suggested that an eighteenth-century former hayloft on her land might be suitable for the purpose.

From its meagre beginnings The Good Hatchery has grown into a stronghold for contemporary art practice in the Midlands, setting out to promote the development of ambitious site specific artworks while also developing a sustainable way for artists to live and work in Ireland. Today The Good Hatchery is a large open-plan, live-in studio, which includes kitchen facilities, a library and sleeping areas. Downstairs there is an open workshop space for largescale construction and a bathroom. In the courtyard sits a timber sauna.

The Good Hatchery’s development has been set against the peaks and troughs of the Irish economic situation. Seven years ago the country was caught up in the mirage of the Celtic Tiger economy. The Good Hatchery emerged out of a resourcefulness that we had developed in the sculpture department of NCAD, relying on salvaging networks and recycling as a means of obtaining materials for art works. At the time there was also talk in NCAD about the fact that only 2% of fine art graduates went on to pursue anything related to art after four years of college. From its inception The Good Hatchery set out to develop a sustainable way for artists to live, so that as emerging artists we did not need to resort to part-time employment to sustain an art career. Seven years on and the economic situation is vastly different; although there is talk of things improving it will be a long time before we as artists feel any of the benefits of this controversial ‘upturn’.

Although we initially saw the project as a stopgap between college and professional practice, The Good Hatchery has become a

backbone for many of the artists involved. Given the economic situation there is a continued necessity for affordable studio space, but The Good Hatchery also offers something beyond this: an engagement with a specific landscape and the possibility of collectively exploring new ways of inhabiting and understanding rural Ireland. Last year we came to realise the continued importance of this collective project and decided to consolidate TGH by carrying out a determined renovation of the building and formalisation of the space.

Maintaining TGH has meant that we’ve all learned basic plumbing, carpentry and wiring skills, and gained an understanding of heating and sewage systems – generally taking on a ‘you can do anything yourself’ attitude. Over the last year, through a communal effort, the building was gutted, insulated and redesigned, with a new bathroom and heating system installed. The crux of the year’s work involved making good the 200-year-old stone walls of the building: repointing, limewashing and rebuilding lintels.

As with all the developments in TGH, learning to understand the material – in this case limestone – and work with it became an important learning process that not only served to reinforce the building but also to inform our respective art practices and understanding of different systems and materials within the built environment. Engaging with a building on its most basic level was a learning curve for all the artists involved. I found that working on this micro scale increased my awareness to the way in which landscape is structured on a broader scale, highlighting the importance of utilities such as energy, water and communication systems.

With these recent structural developments we are now at a point where we can begin to have a more outward focus, looking to the landscape in which we are situated in, drawing more people towards it but also extending our connections abroad. With this in mind we have put out an open call for a new body of members to use The Good Hatchery for a year, running from September 2014 – 2015.

Membership will include full use of all TGH facilities, artist public liability insurance and access to opportunities and support through our network. Member artists have access to an online calendar in order to book studio and workshop time, and post events. We also recognise that not all artists need a traditional studio that they work in daily and so offer an alternative studio experience. I have found that over the years weeks may go by when, for various reasons, I am not in the stu-

dio, but knowing that the space is available has allowed me to think big. We are interested in offering this resource to other artists, coupled with the opportunity to become part of a community of artists that will support each other, work together and occasionally live together.

In 2013 member artists included Andreas Von Knobloch, Gareth Kennedy, Emma Houlihan, Mary-Jo Gilligan, Chris Timms, Elaine Reynolds, Kate Strain and Gearoid Muldowney. The work of the member artists steers the direction of The Good Hatchery. Along with continued involvement from previous members we are looking forward to the new member artists making use of the building as a hub from which to create ambitious new works and experiment with their practices, while also responding to the particular environment that surrounds us.

TGH offers a base from which to explore and gain a greater understanding of the Midlands. From the industrial flats of the vast boglands with its seemingly endless network of bograil lines to the fascinating and dark histories of Daingean town, the Grand Canal and the current issue of wind farm development, the area holds unexplored depths that have been over looked in the Irish psyche.

In addition to the new members selected from the open call we have also selected one member through our annual graduate award, the Alloy Prize. This year the prize was awarded to Ciaran Kavanagh from the Crawford College of Art and Design. We are excited about extending our network to Cork and drawing artists in from other parts of the country. In the year ahead we have plans to work with Merzbarn in Cumbria, and will undertake a landscape exchange project with Pavilion in Leeds. In a more long term project we are developing links with Sydney, focusing on the shared history between our nearest town Daingean and Cockatoo Island, a heritage-listed island in the middle of Sydney Harbour.

Ruth Lyons is a visual artist and co-director of The Good Hatchery.

Recent works include: ‘The Pinking on Sea’, Kinsale Arts Festival (2014); ‘The Pinking’, solo show, Kevin Kavanagh Gallery (2014); ‘Pilot Light’, a collaborative project with Pavilion, Leeds (2014); and ‘The Forgotten Works’, Project Arts Centre (2012). www.thegoodhatchery.com

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The Visual Artists’News Sheet

September – October 2014

Symposium report

Civic Works JOANNE LAWS REPORTS ON ‘THE WORKERS SYMPOSIUM’, WHICH TOOK PLACE AT ROSCOMMON ARTS CENTRE ON 18 JULY 2014.

The Workers Symposium was presented as the closing event of ‘The Workers’, an exhibition which ran at Roscommon Arts Centre from 24 May – 18 July. It featured work by three artist participants in Roscommon Arts Office’s pioneering residency programme Art@ Work: Michelle Browne, Gareth Kennedy and Elaine Reynolds.

Interestingly, all three were recent graduates of NCAD’s Sculpture Department when they undertook their residencies. Gareth Kennedy remarked during the discussion that a “strong socially-engaged orthodoxy” was emerging out of art colleges at that time.

The symposium and exhibition were part of a programme devised by Linda Shevlin, curator-in-residence at Roscommon County Council Arts Office. The symposium, chaired by Katherine Atkinson, Project Support and Professional Development Officer at Create, aimed to explore how each artist’s practice has developed since their residency, and to mark the “contribution that collaborative practices have made to the individual artists”. The event was supplemented by a comprehensive reading area.

Residency Models The Workers Symposium provided an insight into best practice artistin-residence models, highlighting collaboration as an important feature of rural arts programming. The morning session commenced with an overview of the residency programmes Phillip Delamere has devised in his capacity as Arts Officer for Roscommon, and subsequently Leitrim county councils. The five different programmes he discussed fell broadly into two categories: those that promote methods of engagement with a ‘non-art audience’, and those which forefront artistic practice through mentorship and / or networking.

These various programmes have been subject to change over the years, evolving to embrace shifting priorities and artistic outcomes.

Devised in 2001 in response to a perceived gap in local audience engagement, Art@work aimed to bring artists and their processes closer to the public through residencies in businesses across the county. Art@work (which is no longer running) connected almost 40 businesses and 63 individual artists (extending to include dancers and musicians), allowing them to act as ‘quasi-ambassadors’ for the arts, while making visible their working processes. The three artists exhibiting in ‘The Workers’ took part in a panel discussion during the seminar, chaired by current artist-in-residence Niamh O’Connor.

Occurring in the middle of Ireland’s property boom, Gareth Kennedy used his 2006 residency at FTK Engineering (fabricators of stainless steel street furniture) as a way of registering the massive and unprecedented socio-economic change in Ireland, while forging links between ‘social agency’ and the making process, which still constitute the main threads of his artistic practice.

Similarly, Elaine Reynolds (Molloy’s Bakery, Roscommon, 2009) recounted the bakery’s multicultural labour force, reflective of the inward migration occurring in Ireland at the time, as a result of globalised labour processes. Michelle Browne (Molly’s Bakery, Roscommon, 2008) stated that, as an artist undertaking a residency in a business setting, it is necessary to “insert yourself into [a] place that’s already running”, while observing ‘the everyday’ in a new way – a sentiment which was echoed by Declan Molloy, owner of Molloy’s family-run bakery, who described the benefit of an outside pair of eyes to see beyond the “day-in-day-out”.

Molloy’s motivation to host residencies for young artists came from his desire to “put back into the local community”, admitting that

his “definition of art” had changed as a result. Art@work subsequently morphed into another residency programme entitled SPARK, which aimed to engage not just staff but whole organisations, during a sixmonth-long residency programme. Initiated in 2012, this new format necessitates a ‘dual proposal’ outlining the benefits to both artist and company, with artistic collaboration as a central concern across the two residencies offered each year.

Focusing on the artist as primary stakeholder, the Artist as Traveller project emerged in 2004 to address the challenges of maintaining a vibrant arts practice in rural areas, encompassing a small travelling exhibition and one day seminar. This activity in turn led to the development of TRADE, a two year residential programme, whereby international practitioners were invited to mentor local artists. Drawing on the success of these previous initiatives, LOCIS was developed in 2012 as a two-year residency programme hosted in Ireland, Poland and Sweden. Aimed at forging cultural exchange partnerships within Europe, LOCIS champions sustainable, contextspecific practice and aims to provide knowledge, resources and opportunities for artists to engage internationally.

Art on the Rural Frontier Colorado-based artist Richard Saxton was in Ireland over the summer as part of the ongoing collaboration with artist Fiona Woods titled ‘Collection of Minds #5’. The duo made a joint presentation outlining their approaches to art-making in rural contexts. Richard is co-founder of the M12 Collective, an interdisciplinary group that develops sitespecific artworks in rural communities.

Saxton recently co-edited the book A Decade of Country Hits: Art on the Rural Frontier, which documents 10 years of his collaborative projects across the world, including M12’s annual project with a Fort Morgan family who have strong generational ties to dirt-track racing. During the project, a racing car is designed and built. The car, while functioning as an artwork, also becomes an object of social engagement, and the racetrack becomes a site of social production.

This recalls Beuysian notions of ‘social sculpture’, highlighting art’s potential to shape ‘new ways of being’ through human activity.

Correspondingly, Fiona Woods described a paradigm shift in rural economics in Ireland. Arising out of her many collaborative projects – including ‘The Ground Up’, a programme of temporary public artworks she established in Co Clare in 2003, and her global poster campaign ‘Common?’ with Rhyzom research network – Fiona has observed an “ad hoc architecture”, a kind of “aesthetics of makedo”, characterised by salvaging and “cobbling together” local materials in the production of “vernacular rural structures”.

Often these objects are re-appropriated, conjuring a ‘post-art condition’, with examples including Folly (2009), a sculpture which later became a chicken coop. Woods probes collaborative practice in order to counter the heavy individualisation of society. For Woods failure is as important as success, and she’s ambivalant about urbancentric art world practices and agendas. Despite being “totally fucked off with art”, the artist concedes that art is still one of the few remaining places to be critical.

Framed by her wider practice, which investigates politics, activism, ecology and the “post-natural world”, Deidre O’Mahony described her project ‘X-PO’, initiated in Kilnaboy, Clare in 2007 as part of the Ground Up programme. Based in a former post office ‘X-PO’ examined the history of the space and its significance to the

local community. Exploring cultural, agricultural, sociological and anthropological knowledge and practices, Deirdre reactivated the post office as a place of social exchange, which continues to be a self-sustaining resource and community hub. She spoke of the complexities of rural life, isolation as a paralysing factor and the role of socially engaged artistic practice in facilitating utility, relevance and a durational responsibility to place. This is summed up by her phrase “In it for the long haul: living slowly in the infinite present”.

Strength in Community Located in the Lake District, UK the curatorial project Grizedale Arts promotes the importance of working locally to “make art useful”. Citing John Ruskin’s ideas about the social function of art, Grizedale’s director Adam Sutherland described a shift in the residency programme, moving away from “helping artists make art”, towards “helping art make a contribution to the community”.

This has encompassed farming, ecology, ‘Monday lunch’, the ‘Honest Shop’, youth clubs, school plays and revival of the village library. Such activity has reaffirmed a civic role for art, reminding artists that they can enjoy contributing to the rural community while also retaining a relationship with the contemporary art world centred in urban locations. Notably, an array of high profile artists have previously been involved in Grizedale’s programme, including previous Turner Prize winners Laure Prouvost, Mark Wallinger and Jeremy Deller.

Workhouse Assembly is a research initiative based in Callan, Kilkenny, which explores the history and development potential of a semi-derelict wing of a former workhouse situated in the town.

The project emerged out of Commonage Callan, a five-year art and architecture research platform which utilised the expertise of locals to assist in developing temporary interventions in the public realm.

Workhouse Assembly’s co-founders Hollie Kearns and Rosie Lynch spoke reflexively about the ‘workhouse’ as a loaded term in Ireland’s colonial history, and the gradual transformation of Callan’s building into a modern-day hub for civic amenities. Rosie described the pride she felt working as a curator and citizen in the town she grew up in – a sentiment which characterises many of the projects discussed during the seminar, while offering a suitable concluding thought.

The concept of artists living rurally and contributing to their community has the potential to highlight an important civic role for art, increasingly characterised by intervention in non-art realms including horticulture, food production, local history, architecture and enterprise. This ‘aesthetics of the everyday’, underpinned by emancipatory forms of Marxist theory, is arguably a favourable biproduct of an increasingly theory-dense art college education.

Such revived emphasis on praxis through reflection and social action is pitched in opposition to other seemingly insufficient models, including Romanticism’s artist as ‘creative genius’, and the contempory festivalisation of culture, which permits short-lived exchanges and reductive notions of what art can do. Critically, it seems, richer engagement, brought about by artists navigating multi-faceted careers and durational relationships with place, has the potential to create genuine long-term economies across the rural / urban divide.

Joanne Laws is an arts writer based in Leitrim. She has previously written for Art Monthly (UK), Art Papers (USA), Cabinet (USA) and Variant (UK).

The Visual Artists’News Sheet

September – October 2014

25

Project profile

Myra Jago, ‘This SomewhereElse’ ,installation view, A MNCH Tallaght, photo by Alison Baker Kerrigan

Myra Jago,Blot, oil on paper, 36x15cm

A Moment in Time

loneliness are often cited as the aims of arts programming in health related contexts. Hilary Moss has recently completed a PhD entitled Aesthetic Deprivation: the role of the arts for older people in hospital and

JENNETTE DONNELLY REPORTS ON AN EXHIBITION AND DISCUSSION EVENT AT TALLAGHT HOSPITAL, WHICH FOCUSED ON THE IMPACT OF ART IN FUNCTIONAL HEALTHCARE ENVIRONMENTS.

has been a keen activist in the arts and health debate. Having written extensively on the subject of arts and health, her input on papers such as A Cure for the Soul: The benefit of live music in the general hospital and

Myra Jago’s series of paintings and sculptural works entitled ‘This,

buyer. For the remainder of 2013 Jago and Moss were in regular email

the aesthetic and cultural interests of patients attending an acute hospital:

Somewhere Else’ were recently installed (2 February – 4 July 2014)

contact and on a number of occasions met to discuss images and dates

a phenomenological study have been published in the Irish Medical

in an exhibition at the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Incorporating

for installing the show.

Journal and the Journal of Advanced Nursing, respectively.3, 4 One of

the National Children’s Hospital (AMNCH) in Tallaght, Dublin. The

At the beginning of this year Moss, Jago and I met up with

her findings in the latter study, although primarily focused on music

works presented haunting images of ghost estates, wafting reflections

the Alison Baker Kerrigan, the curator in residence at AMNCH.

rather than visual art, is of particular relevance here: “Those who did

and cloudbanks that punctuated the walls of the main circulation

Kerrigan is an honours photography graduate from IADT. She

experience arts as part of their inpatient or outpatient experience had

corridor of the hospital, vying for attention with notice and

developed an interest in curating exhibitions through her work with

many positive experiences, most particularly in feeling cared for, in

information boards in a space holding the history of many footsteps

PhotoIreland.

the increased socialisation that came from this activity and in the

1

and gurney rides.

2

We all met again in April and discussed ways to promote the

discovery of new interests and achievements at a time of great loss.”5

The origins of this project go back to 2010 when I was busy

exhibition within the hospital. An artist’s talk was suggested to the

Feedback from the staff during the run of ‘This, Somewhere Else’

working at Ormond Studios, a multi-disciplinary studio space and

staff but, unfortunately, as the hospital staff explained, they wouldn’t

was mostly positive. Several staff members found the addition to be

gallery that I had co-founded the previous year, after graduating from

realistically have the free time to attend such an event. Instead we

beneficial to them. Some comments were more about individual tastes

IADT (BA Hons Visual Arts Practice). I spotted an advertisement in

devised a training session for artists working in the hospital with

and we received a few landscape requests, which was to be expected.

the VAI ebulletin for volunteer art teachers in AMNCH, Tallaght.

myself, Myra Jago, Sarah Ruttle, Olivia Hassett, Hilary Moss and

One comment read: “As a staff member I am so grateful to have art

During my third year of college I had garnered some experience in

Alison Baker Kerrigan attending. Sarah Ruttle was carrying out a

in the workplace, as it is such a valuable medium through which we

this field working with CREATE, the artist Kevin Kirwan and the

project funded by the Arts Council entitled Identifying the tensions that

can make sense of our environment. Often we delegate the place of art

Irish Wheelchair Association. I found this to be a very rewarding

arise in confidentiality, decision making and consent within art and health’s

to ‘outside work hours’ or in our ‘free time’, and it is a gift to receive

experience, which opened my eyes to discussions around arts and

participatory art through peer sharing and healthcare professionals dialogue.

the stimulation within the environment I spend a large amount of my

health, and I was keen to gain more experience. I applied for the

Olivia Hassett, an artist based at Rua Red Arts Centre, discussed her

time in.”

opportunity at AMNCH and was successful in my application. I began

work and its links to medical and arts and health fields.

Similarly, for Jago, the value of the endeavour was in the

Jago, Moss and Kerrigan each described the experience of

experience. Creating a relationship between individual works and

Hilary Moss, Director of the National Centre for Arts and Health

presenting an exhibition in a hospital as ‘challenging’. Moss with

the space they inhabit can be extremely challenging for the artist, but

at AMNCH, was spearheading this particular project. Her model –

regards to the audience, Jago and Kerrigan in reference to the

can also be quite liberating. Sometimes, all it takes is for the viewer to

providing weekly art sessions for patients, facilitated by volunteer

technical difficulties of installing the work and its public reception.

consciously step away from any burdens they are carrying and give

artists – reached the finals of the Health Service Innovation Awards

Funding was another major issue for the project. Jago had to cover all

their thoughts over to connecting with a piece of art. A moment for

in 2005 and is still running successfully running today.

of her own expenses including parking.

the individual, time free from pressures to allow us to just be. That, in

teaching in the Age Related Day Care Unit later that year.

The impetus for Myra Jago’s exhibition came when Hilary

Kerrigan organised the provision of white paint to cover the

my opinion, is the benefit of having art in hospitals. It creates time and

Moss saw her work in an evite I had sent around to advertise a show

exhibition boards, fliers for internal advertising and photographic

provides a brief interlude rich with the potential necessary to recharge

at Avenue Road Gallery, Dublin (a space for emerging artists I co-

documentation. There were also some unforeseen problems. During

and soothe.

founded in 2012). Myself and Jago were delighted and intrigued by

the course of the exhibition the corridor space was repainted. Jago

this invitation, which arrived in early 2013. The project presented a

was notified that the walls on which her work was displayed had

particular set of challenges: Moss emphasised that the work had to be

been painted with the work still installed and uncovered, but luckily

wall based and generally uplifting, explaining in her correspondence

the work escaped unscathed. Speaking of her overall experience of

with us that “artists need to remember, when exhibiting in hospitals

the project, Jago stated: “I was curious about how my work would be

that people are vulnerable and dealing with major life issues”.

received in the practical setting of a hospital, as opposed to being the

Moss’s brief also stipulated that the work must be on show for a

main attraction in a gallery”.

minimum of five months, and that all the images would be vetted by

The functionality of art in hospitals has long been a topic of

a committee. Sales could be conducted privately between artist and

discussion and research. Decreases in stress, anxiety, depression and

Jennette Donnelly is a multi-disciplinary artist and curator.

Notes 1. Upcoming exhibitions by the artist incude :Áras Inis Gluaire, Belmulllet, CoMayo from 9 – 24 October 2014 and Eight Gallery, 8 Dawson St, Dublin 2 from 30 October – 5 November 2014 (www.myrajag com) 2. www.abkphotography.com 3. H Moss, E Nolan, D O’Neill,A Cure for the Soul? The Benefit of live music in the general hospital, Irish Medical Journal, November / December 2007 4. H Moss and D O’Neill,The aesthetic and cultural interests of patients attending an acute hospital – a phenomenological study, Journal of Advanced Nursing, April 27 2013 5. Ibid.

26

The Visual Artists’News Sheet

September – October 2014

project profile

Swansong for theLifeworld JAMES MERRIGAN REPORTS ON CATCH THE HE(ART)’ A TRAVELLING RESIDENCY PRESENTED AS PART OF BEALTAINE FESTIVAL 2014, WHICH SHOWCASED THE TALENTS AND CREATIVITY OF OLDER ARTISTS.

Therry Rudin and Patricia Hurl, still from ‘Stone Series’, photo by Therry Rudin

Therry Rudin and Patricia Hurl, still from ‘Stone Series’, photo by Therry Rudin

James Galway, live performance

Being young and restless are the defining quiddities of the marketable contemporary artist. ‘Mid-career’ retrospectives at the age of 40 and surveys of artists younger than Jesus come to mind, as do jet-setter superstar artists who produce work on plane rides or between stops en route to London, Berlin or New York.1 The Catch the He(art) travelling residency, curated by artist Michelle Browne, offered a moment’s pause from the g-forces of contemporaneity. The project was devised as part of Bealtaine festival 2014, showcasing the talents and creativity of both first-time and professional older artists.2 Unlike the majority of current art projects, the young and emergent, the now and the new, the fast and the ahistorical were nowhere to be found in Browne’s proposal. Rather, Catch the He(art) focused on four Irish artists that have continued to make work in later life.

Patricia Hurl, Mary Kelly, James King and Therry Rudin were bravely named and ‘shamed’ by Browne as ‘retirement age’ artists.

‘Catch the He(art)’ was composed of three stopover public dialogues throughout May: at the Parade Tower, Kilkenny, Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, and a last stop exhibition and discussion at Galway Art Centre.

The residency’s intended function was to give the group of artists the time and space to reflect, debate and present on their attitudes to, and ways of making art in older age.

Hurl and Rudin’s 30-odd-year collaboration combines mutual dependency and wishful self-reliance. At Mermaid Arts Centre Hurl admonished Rudin for taking the role of ‘artist’ while she is invariably relegated to ‘model’. The reality is, however, that Hurl is foregrounded time and again as the visible performer, whereas Rudin is the invisible artist behind the camera shutter.

Hurl and Rudin disclosed to the audience in Kilkenny that their recent work was certainly a personal confrontation with age, and that the mirror played its part in the face-off. During a residency in Iceland Rudin composed photographs of Hurl in front of a mirror. Hurl stands naked before the bust of her reflection, decorated with a necklace composed of “impossible to ignore” black rocks that she collected in the area. Hurl shared with the audience that her sister had recently died before undertaking the residency, and added that her mother loved necklaces. Spoken aloud, these autobiographical nuggets were redolent with self-realisation in the face of her loved one’s mortality and brought to mind Simon Critchely’s observation that “we only come to truly know death through our love of others”.3 The resulting photographs are as far from youthful vanity that you can get. The necklace – a black yoke of shapeless geology – hangs heavy upon Hurl’s boney sternum. The image feels physically and emotionally uncomfortable. Rock touching skin that has lost its spring. Eyes scanning for flaws. Hurl recogising her sister and mother in her own features. Rudin points and clicks.

Deceived into deceiving himself, Narcissus wasn’t all masturbatory ego, but was cursed by the torture of self-awareness. Hurl was quick to amend a comment which implied that artists are ‘egotistical’ in their

compulsion to make work, be the subject of their work, and to live forever through the legacy of their work. In one of the most natural observations that took place over the course of the three Catch the He(art) dialogues Hurl said: “Every work we make we leave a piece of ourselves behind.” Leave could easily be substituted for lose, giving credence to the idea that art making is a double-bind process of filling and creating lacunae in the psyche of the artist.

In an intimate first screening of a collaborative film work by Hurl and Rudin during the Parade Tower discussion – a piece they made while on residency at Saint Finbarr’s Hospital, Cork – Hurl was unveiled once again as the muse for Rudin’s camera. Responding specifically to the laundry in the hospital and their shared observations of the gradual de-individuation of geriatric patients during the residency, the resulting artwork is a swansong that injects realism into metaphorical expression. Hurl, 70 years old, straddles floorboards while wrapped in white sheets that she tears into strips towards her crotch. The ugly, repetitive tearing is dampened when the ethereal voice of Hurl’s sister singing The Lark in the Clear Air, softens the rough textures of the film. The Lark, a love song by nineteenth century Irish poet Samuel Ferguson, is turned into a lament, then a eulogy, after we learn that Hurl’s sister and Rudin’s very close friend passed away a year later.

James King was the only male artist invited by Browne, and his jocular performances are bound within the rules of Action Theatre, which can be oxymoronically defined as precise improvisation.

King has performed in the urban lifeworld of Northern Ireland for over 35 years. He is a street performer, a poet and a teacher, whose expansive activity during those years exhibits a way of life that counters careerism. In the final discussion in Galway he spoke of how performance was a weekly activity, suggesting that all you needed was yourself, a prop, a tag along friend and a casual audience.

During the first discussion in Kilkenny King introduced himself by way of a vocal response to his street performance moments earlier in and around the grounds of Kilkenny castle. Verging on Klingon, King’s gibberish account of his experiences was lyrically communicated through intonation rather than relying on semantic comprehension.

In one instance the vocalisations became animalistic as King described an episode when he was confronted by aggressive officialdom on his performative route via the castle grounds. Dressed in a green garden sack and his mother’s green chiffon scarf like some eco-nihilist, King harmlessly scored the pavements with chalk and played the pan-pipes. His garb not only disguised his age but created suspicion in the eyes of ‘don’t step on the grass’ officialdom, who called the guards. The guards’ unenlightened response to King’s shenanigans was communicated viscerally by a flurry of rabid snarls, intermingled with guttural, staccato verse.

The physical argy-bargy at Kilkenny Castle ended up reifying King’s potentially evanescent performance. At Mermaid Arts Centre, the artist gave a critical nod to the powers that be by becoming officialdom itself, taking on the role of a court magistrate before Dave

Madigan and Méadhbh O’Connor’s scaffolded artwork in the gallery.

Dressed in the black and white of Justice, a wig, gown and prominent nose gave King the appearance of a vulture, circling, posturing, and poking with his sharp, unrelenting tongue.

Mary Kelly, the youngest of the ‘Catch the He(art)’ troop (a former student of Rudin’s), is primarily concerned with ‘attachment’ in the lifeworld. Kelly’s particular lifeworld is made up of psychological landmarks that investigate our attachment to death and birth in equal measure. I Believe – Help My Unbelief (2010), for example, is a compelling meditation on the decorative rituals in a children’s graveyard.

Kelly’s photographic and filmic series ‘Father and Child’ convey what the artist repeated in the discussions as the “enormity of human experience” – something that she seemed inspired by but also suspicious of expressing in her art. A father is filmed in a skinto-skin embrace with his child. A series of photographs portray fathers tattooed with their child’s name on their bodies as a bonding or birth-marking exercise. Kelly’s male protagonists are riddled with the psychological lacunae caused by the experiential detachment from the child’s birth. They still are trying to catch up to the mother’s prophetic and fulfilling bump. Each artwork title takes the name of a different father featured in the works, suggesting that Kelly has an intimate relationship with her subjects. Visually, however, the closely cropped, tattooed body parts feel like those of a cadaver taken by the cold eye of a pathologist: postmortems. In Kelly’s art birth and death walk hand-in-hand.

From death to birth and back again, the Catch the He(art) residency proved for me that being an artist liberates you from society’s temporal constructs: we’re born, we work, we retire, we die.

As the wheel of time turns for the artist, those wants and ambitions never fade. In the presence of artists who have stayed the creative course into older age you cannot but question the source of their sustained creativity. Is this marriage by proxy a case of “I am in blood / Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er” (William Shakespeare, Macbeth)? Are Hurl, Kelly, King and Rudin the lucky few to have realised enough amateur dreams and professional ambitions to keep them bobbing above cynicism and defeat? Or is hope the creative buoy? What became clear in the four artists’ espousals of the artistic life is that careers are short-lived, while being an artist lasts as long as the life given. The persistent creativity of these artists – with over 100 years of art-making between them – testifies to that.

James Merrigan is an artist and art critic at billionjounal.com.

Notes 1. Massimiliano Gioni,Laura Hoptman,Lauren Cornel,Younger than Jesus: Artist Directory, Phaidon Press, 2009 2. www.bealtaine.com 3. For an insightful and entertaining analysis on the subject of philosophy and death read Sim Critchley’s Very Little ... Almost Nothing: Death, Philosophy and Literature (2004) and The Book of Dead Philosophers (2009); also his lecturePhilosophy ‘ and the Art of Dying’, given at the EMPAC Arts Center, New York, 2013, is a must see (www.vimeo.com/63258718)

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

September – October 2014

27

VAI Northern Ireland manager

VAI West of ireland representative

Tone & Noise

Western LAGs

ROB HILKEN DETAILS THE RISE OF SOUND ART IN BELFAST.

AIDEEN BARRY INTRODUCES A NEW ASPECT TO HER ROLE AS VAI’S WEST OF IRELAND REPRESENTATIVE, FOCUSING ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOCAL AREA GROUPS INITIATIVE.

Barry Cullen, Noise Box V1 PS2, Belfast

Without any great fanfare, sound art has emerged as one of the most exciting contemporary art disciplines being practiced in Belfast at the moment.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that knows about the high quality work being produced by students at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) at Queen’s University, but there is a quiet revolution happening that has moved sound art from the experimental musical sandbox firmly into the public eye in Belfast’s art galleries and public spaces.

Since the term first came into being, the boundaries between contemporary art and experimental music have become increasingly blurred. This is apparent not only in the number of sound art works being shown in Belfast galleries but also within SARC itself. In 2013 the Electronic Arts Research Society (EARS), a student society based at SARC, worked with Catalyst Arts on a series of workshops and a live performance. It featured visual artists with no musical training, in order to create an improvised collaboration that was performed at the Sonorities Festival that year.

Recent SARC graduate John D’Arcy showcased his impressive immersive poetry installation on 12 networked iMacs at R-Space Gallery, Lisburn in March this year. Current postgraduate student Helena Hamilton is the first to enter the programme from a visual arts background (BA Fine Art, University of Ulster, 2009) rather than through a music degree.

Dr Simon Waters (Director of Sonorities Festival and Lecturer at SARC) talked recently about how he sees the experimental atmosphere of the modern art school becoming increasingly important for the research culture at SARC, highlighting Helena Hamilton’s recent PS2 performance as a measure of the success that working with visual artists can bring.

In 2010 University of Ulster MFA graduate Susan Philipsz won the Turner Prize with her sound installation Lowlands, helping bring sound art to the wider public consciousness. Four years on, Belfast has not only developed a lively sound art scene, but Belfast-based artists continue to gain international recognition for their work.

In November 2013, Belfast-based artists Phil Hession and Christian Cherene (BSc in Music Technology, SARC, 2010) collaborated with Ivana Ivovic and Ivan Marusic Klif in Zagreb, Croatia, as part of CORNERS, an international programme offered by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, to produce Atlas of Tremors, which merged live sung folk song with contemporary digital sound processing.

Another prominent Belfast-based visual artist, Nicky Keogh (Venice Biennale, 2005), has received

international recognition for his film and sound projects Bin Disco 5 (built for Manifesta 5, DonostiaSan Sebastian in 2004) and Dustbin Disco (built for the streets of New York in 2007). Both were featured in his 2013 / 14 Golden Thread Gallery solo show.

Keogh is currently working with Barry Cullen to create a soundtrack for his latest video work.

Barry Cullen, together with Min Kim, recently curated a five-day sound art festival, which demonstrated the incredible depth of the Belfast scene. Cullen had just exhibited ‘Noise Box V1’ at PS2 with collaborators Phil Hession, Seamus Harahan, Saul Rayson and Chris Allen and a last minute gap in programming gave PS2 co-director and curator Peter Mutschler the opportunity to invite Barry and Min to put together the five-day festival.

The event ‘Round Buttons, Square Tones’ featured 19 Belfast-based sound artists. The festival drew large crowds each day and featured music piped onto the street to an appreciative, and sometimes bemused, passing audience. The event highlighted just how varied the scene is, and included harmonised vocal performances and experimental sound collages using junk, improvised electronic devices and the increasingly popular Patchblocks synthesisers.

Patchblocks is another project that has grown out of research from SARC and recently rose to fame after a highly successful Kickstarter campaign.

Patchblocks offers artists a low cost and versatile route into generating sounds and has grown out of the open-source movement and technologies such as the Arduino platform. It is useful to mention Patchblocks as another recent Belfast success story, as it highlights the relationship between the rise of sound art in the city and the availability of low cost and accessible technology for artists.

The last project I want to mention is a new community garden with a permanent sound installation. Situated in Bridge Street Community Garden in East Belfast, Soundscape Park was the brainchild of SARC technician Craig Jackson and was organised by Business in the Community NI to give something to the local community and rejuvenate local businesses. Two motion detection cameras trigger sounds on 12 hidden speakers around the park. The sounds are currently designed by artists to create an immersive and interactive experience, but in future SARC will work with local young people to create new works for the park to ensure that the next generation continues to push the boundaries of this exciting medium.

Rob Hilken, VAI Northern Ireland Manager.

As I embark on a new role within the structure of Visual Artists Ireland, I’m hoping to build on my successes in the past in raising the profile of visual art activity in the West of Ireland. My new role focuses on the development of the VAI’s Local Area Groups initiative in the West.

The aim of the project is to: increase awareness of artists and supports in local areas; assist in removal of a sense of isolation; provide knowledge on national and international supports and information provision; and offer onsite delivery of VAI Help Desk services.

My first port of call under the auspices of this new role was the picturesque harbour village of Kinvara in County Galway, to see the members’ exhibition by KAVA (Kinvara Area Visual Artists), in their pop-up gallery and to meet members of the collective. Meeting groups like KAVA is very important for Visual Artists Ireland. At a time when funding towards artist-led groups has been quite severely slashed, it is important to remember that artist-led collectives and organisations are constantly springing up around the country and still require support.

Visual Artists Ireland can support groups like KAVA through professional development programmes and through our membership benefits.

Later this year we will be running a VAI Show & Tell event as part of a Visual Artists’ Café with the KAVA collective and looking at their ambitions for development, programming and sustainability.1 One of my new key projects, working with VAI CEO Noel Kelly, is to survey the current artistrun centres and collectives both in the West and nationally. VAI is currently updating its artist-led initiatives directory and working with smaller and developing groups as well as bringing artists together in local areas.

Lots of work has already been done by the VAI and by curators, artists and instigators to catalogue the activity of the artist-run sector. Megs Morley’s fantastic project, initiated in 2007 – The Artist Led Archive – is an ongoing catalogue and an excellent record of artist-led activity and contributions to the visual art infrastructure and cultural landscape of Ireland and beyond.2 VAI’s own ArtConnect app, which is available for iPhone and Android phones, also offers a helping hand in finding out about

organisations, centres and artist-led resources in your local area and beyond.

Such resources have a number of different functions. Firstly they provide a very useful distinguishing account of the unique services, resources and supports that various organisations provide. Directories are also a resource for artists’ collectives in thinking strategically about their organisation, ie. how they position themselves locally, nationally and internationally in terms of the unique resources or programmes they offer in order to improve their chances of securing funding.

The idea of a comprehensive centralised directory of artist-led / run spaces and project is not a new one.3 AA Bronson’s The Humiliation of the Bureaucrat: Artist-Run Centres as Museums by Artists gives a fantastic insight into how artists have spotted gaps in provision and taken it upon themselves to instigate infrastructural development; it is a very worthy read. Countries such as Canada and Sweden print regular directories of their artist-led initiatives on a continual basis. Some excellent resources on the sector are available on Amazon and directly from the Canadian Council.4 VAI aim to collate equally comprehensive information based on direct contact with organisations, with regular visits to new or emerging artist-led initiatives and facilitating Visual Artists Cafés and other forms of direct contact with these organisations over the next 12 months or so.

If you are part of an artists’ group or artist-led initiative in the West of Ireland, why not consider hosting a Visual Artists Café in your local area?

Email noel@visualartists.ie for further details.

Aideen Barry, West of Ireland Representative.

Notes 1. Options for the structure of a Visual Artists’ Café include: professional development events; Show & Tell; film Screenings; keynote speakers; Help Desk; informal networking. Each event is accompanied by the provision of up to date information about what is happening in the locality, opportunities that may be in the pipeline and access to sources of information.

2. www.theartistledarchive.com 3. A.A. Bronson and Peggy Gale (eds.), The Humiliation of the Bureaucrat: Artist-Run Centres as Museums by Artists Art Metropole, Toronto 1983 4. Lalonde, Lucie Bureau, Patrick Vézina, Directory of Artist-Run Centres Réseau Art Actuel Publication

28

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

September – October 2014

VAI EVENT

Ethical Transitions

JASON OAKLEY REPORTS ON ‘ART IN A TIME OF TRANSITION’ and ‘ARTISTS & ETHICS’, DISCUSSIONS HELD AT THE VAI GET TOGETHER IN ASSOCIATION WITH AICA IRELAND, HOSTED BY IMMA (23 MAY 2014).

Those who prescribe moral and political agendas for art have a way of ending up looking silly or repressive, or both.

There was a degree of overlap between ‘Art in a Time of Transition’ and ‘Artists and Ethics’, the VAI / AICA panel discussions presented as part of VAI’s Get Together 2014.1 The transitions in question were those wrought by globalisation – the rise of the market and decline of the political sphere – and geo-political shifts from West to East. Simply put, the ethics at stake were those arising from the visual art sector’s navigation of these circumstances.

‘Art in a Time of Transition’ brought together UK art historian / theorist Paul Wood, critic / artist James Merrigan and curator / arts manager Cliodnha Shaffrey to consider the following questions: Is the present typified by socio-political, economic and environmental crises?

How is current art practice, mediation, curating, criticism and collecting reflecting upon this geo-cultural turmoil? What are the alternatives to neo-liberal blandishments that posit consumerism and capitalism as the eternal order? Critic and academic Declan Long chaired the discussion.

Ethical prescriptions seemed to be on Paul Wood’s mind, as he declared in his opening remarks that the remit of the discussion had left him reluctant to “pontificate about what contemporary artists should or shouldn’t be doing, as those who prescribe moral and political agendas for art have a way of ending up looking silly, or repressive, or both”.

Concentrating on his own field, Wood drew on ideas explored in his recent book Western Art and The Wider World, which asserts complex historical inter-relationships between culture in the West, the Orient, Africa and the Middle East.2 The book’s closing chapters criticise those who present the globalised present as historically unprecedented and therefore resistant to ‘outmoded’ forms of analysis such as class struggle, equality, human rights, ownership of the means of production, distribution etc.

“We inhabit a new phase of capitalism,” Wood asserted, “a term which is strikingly absent from much of the rhetoric of the contemporary”. In the course of the discussion Wood also pointed to the ‘culturalisation’ of politics and the politicisation of culture, ie. using the arts as a poor substitute for a viable public sphere. Wood called for new forms of realism in art scholarship and practice, noting that “... in earlier dark times, Brecht wrote that a properly realist art had to discover the causal complexes of society – not its superficial self-representations – and to unmask the prevailing view of things as the view of those who are in power”.

James Merrigan saw the precarious present as spurring innovation, commenting: “I like the idea of re-cycling: new artists, new institutions every five years or so. Things seem to get stale otherwise. The idea of making a career is very bad for artists and art institutions.”

Merrigan felt that a buoyant commercial art market could provide a healthy alternative to a reliance on public funding and be broadly beneficial for the complexion of the Irish art scene. He was keen to assert that art was in competition with capitalism and the prevailing order: “I think artists exist beside politics, ethics and social norms.”

An ethics of self-sufficiency ran as a thread through Merrigan’s presentation. He stressed that a sense of forward movement exists in the Irish art scene: “In this transitional moment, the institutional and amateur elements that compose the local art scene are being forced to rethink their objectives and ambitions”. In conclusion Merrigan wondered if “the question we should be asking is: how can we support this ‘existing alternative’ by making it more pronounced as educators, commentators and institutions?”

Cliodhna Shaffrey opened her presentation with a clear-eyed analysis. “Real power,” she claimed “now resides in the politically uncontrollable global arena of markets and circulation of capital”.

Nonetheless, Shaffrey refused to be pessimistic. She saw a bright future heralded by alternative models emerging both outside and within mainstream art institutions.

Considering the Irish context, Shaffrey drew attention to the recent flourishing of peer-to-peer exchange groups, small-scale collectives, artist-run spaces, micro institutions and networks, alongside enterprising

L–R: Declan Long, James Merrigan, Cliodna Shaffrey and Paul Wood at ‘Art in a Time of Transition’

and progressive public art projects. Shaffrey was under no illusions, however, about the fragility of such endeavours, reliant as they are on volunteerism and low-rent vacant spaces. Shaffrey maintains a belief in the ethical good of public funding – in her view it is an essential – and that a better resourced Arts Council has to be fought for.

I like the idea of re-cycling: new artists, new institutions every five years or so. The idea of making a career is very bad for artists and art institutions.

Citing Glasgow as an inspiration, Shaffrey remarked upon the city’s convivial, supportive and connected art community, the role of Glasgow School of Art and judicious public funding, which allowed it to punch above its weight. In closing Shaffrey stated that the fostering of such “para-institutional” habitats was a worthy goal to pursue, citing Megs Morley’s current efforts along these lines as the Arts Council curator-inresidence for Galway City.3 The panellists for ‘Artists and Ethics’ were: Elaine A. King (Carnegie Mellon University, USA), a specialist in the field of art and ethics; socially engaged Irish artist Brian Maguire and the writers Gemma Tipton (Irish Times, RTE, Artforum) and Fionola Meredith (Irish Times, Belfast Telegraph, Guardian, BBC NI). Artist Alan Phelan chaired the discussion.

The event focused on: the ethics of art production; the relationships between artists, subjects and audiences; and how art world superstructures – professional individuals, institutions and the market – influence the financial and reputational value of art and artists.

Emphasising American contexts, Elaine A. King observed that, unlike other professional sectors, the art world’s ethical terrain, especially in the interaction between the art market and public institutions, is not subject to any compulsory formal codes or centralised regulatory body.

While King asserted that art practice should be free of ethical regulation, she was adamant that collectors and public museums must be held to account for any questionable dealings.

King cited the New Museum controversy, when it announced the 2010 show ‘Skin Fruit’ would be drawn exclusively from the collection of Dakis Joannou, a trustee and patron of the institution. Critics claimed that an ethical line separating curatorial selections from commercial interests had been crossed. As King pointed out, super-rich collectors can donate works to public museums in return for considerable tax breaks – basically getting their money back – and in turn increase future profits when further works by the same, now ‘museum accredited’, artist are sold.

King also considered the ethics of institutional commemorations of trauma and tragedy, focusing on the 9/11 Museum in New York. She noted that controversy was currently raging around the fact that this

national place of mourning charged admission and was being formulated along the lines of a ‘visitor attraction’ or entertainment experience – including the breath taking insensitivity of locating a gift shop over a site of unexcavated remains.

For Fionola Meredith art and art world ethics were ultimately an irresolvable matter. She underlined the argument in provocative terms, noting that in 2013 the Tate Gallery removed Graham Ovenden’s works – creepily sexualised of images of young girls – from its collection, when he was convicted of paedophile sex offences. Yet the same institution seemed apparently nonchalant about holding on to Eric Gill’s sculpture Ecstasy, a depiction of the artist’s younger sister Gladys in an erotic tryst, with whom the artist had a life-long incestuous relationship.

Meredith juxtaposed the two cases, posing a mischievous non sequitur: What constitutes an acceptable subject for art – incest or paedophilia?

The question was left unanswered to nag disturbingly at the back of everyone’s minds.

While not explicitly addressing Meredith’s troubling Overden / Gill juxtaposition, Gemma Tipton seemed marginally more optimistic about the possibilities of teasing out an ethics of art. Tipton’s presentation We Need to Talk honed in on the ways in which the commoditisation of the art world has closed down discussion of the ethical implication of individual works.

Tipton observed that wealthy collectors are happy to acquire works that are critiques of the rich and powerful, provided that the conversation around the works concentrates only on the ‘radicalness’ of the theory or concept. Tipton wryly observed that this state of affairs is compounded by the reluctance of those within the contemporary art world to talk about anything as crass or obvious as current affairs or actual human suffering.

For Tipton, Santiago Sierra’s comments about his contrivance of ethically unpalatable scenarios – such lining up semi-naked prostitutes in a gallery space and paying them to have a line tattooed across their backs – were a perfect provocation for what the art world should really be talking about: “I do the work of an interior decorator or an organiser of exclusive events for the cultural elite … I give high society and high culture the mechanisms to unload their morality and their guilt.”4 Brian Maguire talked about his long-standing socially engaged practice, working in ‘closed places’: prisons, mental health institutions, and within marginalised social groups and places. In doing so, he outlined his personal ethical code based on a strong sense of common decency.

Maguire’s recent series, which deals with the rape and murder of young women in Mexico, comprises paintings that the artist gives to the bereaved families and works he makes for himself. While admitting that his paintings were part of the commercial art market, Maguire argued that ‘fixing’ such images as unique paintings prevents their message becoming lost and devalued in our information-overloaded present.

Maguire’s presentation emphasised the complexity of all ethically motivated actions. He noted wryly that he could only vouch for his collector’s taste in art, not his business practices. Referring to current controversies around Manifesta 10 in St Petersburg, Maguire spoke about his anti-boycott stance, maintaining that ‘closed places’ were the ones most in need of visitors.

The value of the ‘Artists and Ethics’ discussion was in disentangling questions around the ethics of art making from the more institutional and structural matters of circulation and display, which includes questions around censorship. King made it clear that we must be aware of the web of relationships that exist between museum directors, boards, curators, dealers and collectors, and the impact this has on the ethical integrity of the art world. Furthermore, she insisted that guidelines and regulations must to applied to address this. Likewise (although the point is hardly revelatory), the entire panel concurred that artists and the art world should clearly be free to create, support and circulate art that provokes and examines ethical questions. In doing so we strive to create a democratic space for debate, proposition and provocation.

Similarly fundamental conclusions were arrived at the close of ‘Art in a Time of Transition’. Paul Wood was asked to cast aside his reservations and hazard some ‘prescriptions’ in relation to the discussion’s three key questions. Wood graciously obliged with five words: “Yes. Search me.

International socialism”.

Jason Oakley, Publications Manager, Visual Artists Ireland.

Notes Quotes from the speakers are derived from their papers, supplied to the author or transcribed from an audio recording of the discussion. The author was one of the organisers of this event. More detailed accounts of each discussion can be read at www.aica.ie.

1. AICA Ireland is the Irish section of the International Association of Art Critics 2. Paul Wood, Western Art and the Wider World, 2013, Wiley-Blackwell 3. www.facebook.com/parainstitution/info 4. Santiago Sierra, BOMB Magazine, Winter 2004

29

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

September – October 2014

Gallery focus

VAI Help desk

Materiality & Home

Tax Made Easy

OLIVIER CORNET INTRODUCES HIS DUBLIN GALLERY AND DETAILS TWO UPCOMING SHOWS.

NIAMH LOONEY HIGHLIGHTS ESSENTIAL INFORMATION ABOUT TAXATION, INCLUDING VAT, THAT EVERY ARTIST SHOULD NOW.

Annika Berglund, work featured in ‘Materiality’

The Olivier Cornet Gallery opened its doors at 1 The Wooden Building, Temple Bar in January 2012. Working as an artist’s agent, I had organised and curated shows in various locations under the name Olliart since 2004 and decided to go for a more permanent space. Since then, we have moved from Temple Bar and are now based at JF Studios, 5 Cavendish Row, Parnell Square, Dublin 1.

From the gallery’s inception my aim has been to represent and work with Irish-based artists, while reflecting the rich diversity of practice in Ireland. To tackle the spatial constraints often faced by smaller galleries we use larger venues as needed, a policy which has also allowed the gallery to bring works to a wider audience. The Olivier Cornet Gallery is proud to announce its schedule of exhibitions for the autumn and the remainder of the year: Annika Berglund ‘Materiality’, 7 – 30 September, 5 Cavendish Row, Dublin 1 Born in Sweden, Annika Berglund moved to Ireland in 1991. She has been working in the sculptural medium and exhibiting since 1999. Berglund has participated in numerous exhibitions organised by Ceramics Ireland since 2002, exhibited in Sculpture in Context for several years and participated in numerous other exhibitions such as the RDS Craft Competition. She had her first solo exhibition in 2006 and won prizes for Best Sculpture in the Garden at Bloom in 2008, the National University of Ireland Art and Design Prize 2010 and the Hungry Hill Gallery Award 2011.

Berglund’s work can found in the collections of the National University of Ireland, the Craft Council of Ireland and Microsoft Ireland. In 2013 she finished a degree in Craft Design at NCAD with First Class Honours.

Berglund described her processes for this exhibition: “Clay, bronze and glass – materials that form an intimate part of human history and development – come together in this exhibition based on texture, materials and earth colours. The mark of a potter’s thumb in a 5000-year-old bowl started a process of exploration based on the malleability and amazing sensuality of wet clay. Taking advantage of the expressiveness of clay, the traditional method of wedging (kneading) clay, became a starting point and inspiration. The meditative, rhythmic kneading of clay creates a spiral pattern adding elements of immediacy and spontaneity, while also making a connection with generations of past potters.”

John Fitzsimons, work featured in ‘Home’

John Fitzsimons ‘Home’, 1 – 13 October, The Octagonal Room, City Assembly House, Dublin 2 ‘Home’, John Fitzsimons’s new body of work, will be shown in the beautiful Octagonal Room at City Assembly House, South William Street, Dublin 2 from 1 – 13 October 2014.

John Fitzsimons graduated from the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Design, Art and Technology (IADT) with an Honours degree in Fine Art in 2000.

He showed work in various galleries around Ireland and exhibited regularly at the Graphic Studio Dublin, where he was a member from 1995 – 2008.

Since 2006, Fitzsimons has been working for Stoney Road Press editioning art. Amongst the artists that he has had the privilege to work with and learn from at Stoney Road Press, he has been particularly influenced by Patrick Scott and Brian O’Doherty.

Fitzsimons also teaches a painting course with the VEC in Lucan.

John Fitzsimons has been showing his work with the Olivier Cornet Gallery since 2011. His first solo exhibition with the gallery, ‘Conversion’, took place in 2011. It was followed by ‘Pyramid’ in 2012, and numerous group shows since then.

These two shows will be followed by a solo show

by Michelle Byrne in November, and a solo show by Jordi Forniés in December. The Gallery will also take part in Culture Night on 19 September and in Vue, Ireland’s National Contemporary Art Fair at the RHA from 30 October – 2 November 2014. Please contact us at info@oliviercornetgallery.com (0872887261) for any enquiries.

Olivier Cornet www.oliviercornetgallery.com

Don’t skip this article! Taxes and administrating the business of art might often be low on your list of concerns as a visual artist, but it is essential that you develop a basic understanding of the tax system and how it works, as you are personally responsible for ensuring that your tax affairs are kept up to date.

Legally, your art business must comply with the tax rules and regulations of this country but, in addition to that, developing a good knowledge of the system means that you can work it to your advantage.

For example, you can learn how to write off expenses incurred in your business against your tax bill and thus pay less tax. Having some knowledge will also help ensure that you avoid exposing yourself to bad or erroneous advice.

In our recently updated online article Tax and Self Employment we outline the various tax planning opportunities available to the self-employed, as well as some tips on how to manage a basic accounting and tax complying system for your business.

Offsetting expenses Did you know that many of the expenses incurred in your business can be off set against your tax bill?

These include such items as: art materials, training, telephone / internet, bills, office / computer supplies, studio rent, professional fees, research materials, visits to museums / galleries, motor expenses, travel and subsistence. Keeping receipts of all items purchased for your business as well as copies of bills and rent paid, and adopting a systematic approach to keeping records, will go a long way towards helping to reduce your tax bill at the end of each year

You are self-employed The majority of visual artists are considered ‘selfemployed’ in regards to filing their taxes. In a legal / taxpaying sense this means that your business as an artist and you as an individual taxpayer are one and the same.

To register or not?

Many artists won’t be required to register for VAT due to low incomes. In Ireland you are subject to VAT if you are self employed or work on a freelance basis and have sales in excess of €37,500 for the supply of services (facilitating workshops, giving a performance or talks and presentations) and €75,000 for the supply of goods (paintings, catalogues, prints).

Unemployment benefits Given the sporadic nature of an artist’s income, we realise that artists often need to avail of support from the Department of Social Protection. But how does seeking unemployment benefit affect your selfemployment status? We examine this position, which can be complex, and offer advice for balancing the two positions.

You have to pay PRSI & USC One of the most important tax schemes for artists is the Artist’s Tax Exemption Scheme, which allows earnings made by artists from the sale of original and creative works to be exempt from income tax.

However, did you know that even if you qualify for this exemption you are still required to pay PRSI and the Universal Social Charge (USC) on all your income, including your artist exempt profits?

We also look at contributions and suggest that even if your income is low and you are not obliged to pay PRSI, you might want to consider making voluntary contributions. Voluntary contributions allow you to remain insured through times when you are not earning, and maintain entitlement to some social welfare benefits. Voluntary contributions cover long-term benefits such as a state pension.

Funding, awards & tax With funding, including money received from the Arts Council, it is important to know that grants and awards are considered taxable income, although there are some exceptions.

If you have the Artist’s Tax Exemption then Arts Council Bursary Awards and Aosdána Cnuas payments will be exempt from income tax. However, project grants are taxable. Tax and Self Employment advises on how you can offset most of the grant received against the cost of undertaking the project so that no profit will arise on which you would be taxed. However, regardless of whether a grant or award is tax exempt the artist is required to record the receipt of all awards, grants, scholarships and bursaries in their tax returns.

VAT and artists In VAI’s recently published online guide VAT and Artists, we‘ve attempted to simplify what can be quite a complex system. Where large sums of money are involved we would advise the artist to seek specialist advice, but here we run through the general VAT rules and administration requirements.

New UK VAT rate for art sales Outside of Ireland different VAT rules apply and one of the biggest changes in recent years which affects Irish artists whether they are registered for VAT or not is a change to UK VAT rules. Since 1 December 2012 if you sell any amount of goods within the UK you must register for and charge UK VAT at 20% on all UK sales.

This means that if you are selling your artwork from a UK location (including Northern Ireland), you must register for and account for UK VAT on all such sales.

Obviously this has consequences for many Irish artists who sell in the UK and we cover this in more detail on the website.

VAT & gallery sales VAT and Artists also analyses the Margin Scheme, a scheme for calculating VAT that is optional for galleries. The scheme considers how gallery practices can vary in regard to how they calculate their VAT liabilities, ie they can either charge VAT on the entire sale (including the artist’s percentage) or on the sale minus the artist’s commission.

We detail the workings of the Margin Scheme and advise artists on the importance of having a formal agreement with the gallery detailing how the VAT will be calculated before agreeing to sell work through the gallery. You need to know in advance exactly what the gallery is going to do with regards to VAT and ensure that you are happy to trade on those terms.

Find out more You’ll find the VAI guides Tax and Self Employment and VAT and Artists on our website (www.visualartists.ie) in the section titled The Manual: A Survival Guide for Visual Artists.

Niamh Looney, Communications Officer, Visual Artists Ireland.

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

September – October 2014

INstitution profile

Award profile

Getting Familiar

The MAC International

MATT PACKER OUTLINES HIS PLANS AS THE NEW DIRECTOR OF CCA, DERRY. 1

HUGH MULLHOLLAND TALKS ABOUT THE NEW £20,000 INTERNATIONAL ART PRIZE DEVISED BY THE MAC, BELFAST.

‘Magic Touch’ installation view CCA Derry

‘Magic Touch’ installation view CCA Derry

Jason Oakley: You were appointed Director in March; what have you been up to since? And what are your current priorities?

Matt Packer: Since March it’s been an intense process of getting familiar with the art and artistic infrastructures of Northern Ireland. Derry is still feeling the flux of 2013 (its tenure as UK City of Culture) and it’s both an exciting and anxious time in terms of arts provision in the city. Derry is a place with so much history and back-story that it will be another few months before I’ve absorbed even half of it.

I’ve also been busy preparing the future programme, the first exhibition of which opens in August. It’s an exhibition called ‘Magic Touch’ featuring artists Kate Davis (NZ / UK), Jessie FloodPaddock (UK), Katja Novitskova (EE / NL), Padraig Spillane (IE) and Artie Vierkant (US). The works in the show respond to the ways in which objects and technologies carry the imprint of the human body.

There are other things that I’ve been busy with of course: funding applications, planning and some infrastructural changes.

My major current priorities include setting the exhibition programme for the next three years and the development of the residency and publishing activities.

Northern Norway, within the Arctic Circle. Bassam El Baroni (curator of Eva International 2014) was one of the curators for the 2013 edition of LIAF, so it’s interesting that there are already some links between LIAF and Ireland.

Derry can sometimes feel remote from the centres of Dublin and Belfast, but the Lofoten Islands are remote on another level. One of things that I’ve been discussing in relation to LIAF are the different ways of activating that remoteness, both thematically and as a practical condition of the place.

Rather than exclusively dealing with remoteness in terms of marketing or transport solutions, is it possible to commission artists to work within that space? These are ideas and enquiries that will certainly feed back into the CCA. There are also more concrete plans for more collaborations and co-productions between LIAF and CCA, but these are still in development stages.

JO: How much are your plans and programming influenced by CCA’s legacy in terms of its previous incarnation as the Context Gallery?

MP: I want to move CCA forward rather than drawing it back to ‘founding principles’ and I’m also very proud to be the director of an organisation with ‘contemporary art’ written above the door.

However, I do see CCA as a development from Context Gallery rather than a clear split. The name change, the new building, the development of international connections: these are some of the ways that CCA has marked its changes, but it’s too often forgotten that Context Gallery also had international motivations in aspects of its programme. The history of CCA and Context Gallery has been shaped quite distinctively by each successive director, so in that sense it has been always been a very flexible and responsive organisation.

JO: It was recently announced that you will be co-curating Lofoten International Art Festival (LIAF) in Norway. Is this a case of ‘bringing CCA abroad? Do you have any further plans in this regard?

MP: I’m very fortunate to have been invited to curate LIAF 2015 with Arne Skaug Olsen. It’s an opportunity that predated my appointment as director, but I think that these two roles and these two organisations can support each other in productive ways.

LIAF 2015 is a biennial that takes place in the Lofoten Islands, an archipelago of small islands in

JO: The CCA Production Award is relatively new. Have there been lessons learnt? Are there new directions that you want to move it in?

MP: There have already been slight changes of emphasis made to Production CCA in its short life.

In 2014 we focused our attention on emerging artists (it has previously been open to emerging curators as well), and also added the opportunity for artists to utilise the façade of the Caldwell & Robinson building where CCA is housed. Production CCA has a very important place within our programme.

Every year it bursts us open and provides a unique opportunity for artists that we might not have been aware of. There might be a few minor tweaks in future, and of course there is the adjustment of responding to future funding provision, but I think the best thing we can do over the next few years is keep it going and hopefully enlarge the opportunity for artists.

JO: What highlights can we look forward to at CCA? MP: Lots. In terms of exhibitions, after ‘Magic Touch’, which finishes in late September, we’ve got a solo presentation by Ryan Gander, Production CCA and a group exhibition titled ‘Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain’, which looks at ideas around manipulating natural systems. In terms of public programmes, we’ll shortly be announcing news of a residency project led by Sarah Browne, as well as a series of library-based programmes called Open Book.

Note 1. Matt Packer (born 1978, Carmarthen (UK) lives and works in Derry, Northern Ireland) as a curator and writer. He was Curator of Exhibitions and Projects at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork 2008 – 2013 and has been Associate Director of Treignac Projet (FR) since 2012. He has curated numerous exhibitions in independent and institutional contexts, both in Ireland and internationally. He has taught on postgraduate programmes at IADT Dun Laoghaire, OTIS College of Art and Design Los Angeles and CCAD Cork, and has published over 100 texts in magazines and journals, as well as artist publications. He is a graduate of the curating programme at Goldsmiths College London and a member of IKT: The International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art.

Kara Walker, ‘We are Exceedingly Proud to Present an Exhibition of Capable Artworks by the Notable Hand of the Celebrated American, Kara Elizabeth Walker, Negress’, installation view, The MAC, Belfast, 2014 – 27 Apr 2014

The MAC International offers professional artists worldwide the opportunity to exhibit at the MAC, Belfast, with a substantial prize of £20,000 awarded to the winner. The judging panel comprises: Francesco Bonami, an Italian art curator and writer who is currently the Artistic Director of Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin; Judith Nesbitt, Head of National and International Partnerships at Tate, London; and Hugh Mullholland, Curator at the MAC. A shortlist of 24 projects has been announced, drawn from over 1000 submissions from more than 30 countries across the world.1 An exhibition of work by the shortlisted artists will be on show at the MAC galleries from 31 October 2014 – 18 January 2015. The winner of the MAC International 2014 will be announced at the opening ceremony on 30 October 2014.

and artists share the same concerns – reflecting prevailing trends in contemporary practice – we understand the limitations of this type of selection process and it isn’t our intention to present a ‘survey’ of international contemporary art.

Jason Oakley: What are the aims of the MAC International prize?

Hugh Mulholland: I guess it goes without saying that our intention is to present the very best of contemporary visual art practice. However, there are of course strategic reasons for launching the MAC International. The MAC is just over two years old and we are still building awareness of where we are, what we do and where our ambitions lie. We have already made a significant contribution both in terms of building new audiences for visual arts and in supporting and prompting artists both from here and from outside Ireland.

MAC International has enabled us to get information about what we do out to a much larger audience and specifically to those whose attention we are most keen to attract: local, national and international artists. We can justifiably claim some success in this respect given the geographical spread of the submissions: over 1000 from 30 countries.

We are working hard to position the MAC as an important contributor to the discourse around contemporary visual art practice and to provide a model of good practice in the presentation, promotion and interruption of the work of the artist; only by doing so can we meaningfully support the ambitions of artists here.

JO: Will the international jurors be involved in aspects of the exhibition other than the selection process?

HM: The jurors will be back in Belfast for the opening and prize giving, but it is unlikely given their schedules that they will be able to have any further involvement. We will, however, in keeping with all our exhibitions, programme a series of talks, tours and workshops to run alongside MAC International.

During MAC International we will be hosting a four / five day curatorial intensive funded by the John Ellerman Foundation directed towards those interested in a career in curation.

JO: What dictated the choice to have such a relatively large shortlist and exhibition?

HM: It wasn’t a conscious decision to have this many artists on the shortlist; we could have reduced the number further, but we felt that we could accommodate that number across all three galleries without compromising the work, so decided to stick with this number. While some of the work

JO: Where do you see MAC International winners going next?

I really couldn’t say, but my experience is that these types of exhibitions can sometimes identify artists who go on to have significant international careers. While I was at Ormeau Baths Gallery we ran Perspective (1998 – 2005) an annual open submission exhibition. Winners from that open went on to be Turner Prize nominees and one artist a Turner Prize winner; other participating artists continue to have high profile international careers.

JO: What about the future of the prize, and the ongoing support from Ulster Bank, ACNI and the NI Tourist Board?

HM: It would not be possible to run a project as ambitious as MAC International without the ongoing support of our current funding partners, including the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, but, having said that, I think for this type of venture to have any impact it needs to evolve over a number of years, so it is our intention to run it every two years. www.themaclive.com Note 1. The shortlisted artists are: Rolando Vargas (Santa Cruz, USA), Lenz Geerk (Germany), Andrew Cranston (Scotland), Zimoun (Switzerland), Jordan Baseman (Scotland), Derek Fortas (Republic of Ireland), Harri Palviranta (Finland), Roxy Walsh and Sally Underwood (England), Salla Tykka (Finland), Hanibal Srouji (Lebanon), Maria McKinney (Republic of Ireland), Mike Harvey (Northern Ireland), Grace Ndiritu (England), Tim Ellis (England), Shelly Nadashi (Belgium), Euyoung Hong (South Korea), Tsahi Hacmon (Israel), Dougal McKenzie (Northern Ireland), Cian Donnelly (Italy), Steven Baelen (Belgium), Ulf Lundin (Sweden), Mairead McClean (England)Charbel Samuel Aoun (Lebanon), Colin Darke (Northern Ireland).

The Visual Artists’News Sheet

September – October 2014

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Public Art ROUNDUP

Art in Public public art commissions, site-specific works, socially engaged practice and various other forms of art outside the gallery.

Borderline Project

artwork was immersive and explored ideas of security, vulnerability and shelter. It provoked the senses of touch and smell as well, as sight and sound, using large quantities of glass alongside audio and video works. Many islanders, from Bere and Denmark, participated in developing and producing the work as part of a socially engaged project titled ‘Vacant Space’, which spans two years and is based on Bere Island.

The Potting Shed Artist’s name: Shiro Masuyama Title of work: Borderline Project Commissioning body: Derry~Londonderry City of Culture 2013 Date advertised: 2013 Date sited: Throughout 2013 Budget: £8,000 Commission type: Individual Artists’ Award Project partner: Derry~Londonderry City of Culture 2013 Brief description: Japanese artist Shiro Masuyama, who is based in Northern Ireland, converted the interior of a caravan into two parts: one half with a British theme and the other an Irish theme. Many objects that have either a British or Irish character were also displayed symmetrically. The caravan was diplayed in Ebrington Square, Derry, near the Turner Prize 2013 exhibition and at border points between Derry-Londonderry and Donegal. Masuyama developed the project to try and better understand the complex society of Northern Ireland and to present cultural differences from an outsider’s perspective. The caravan serves as a small museum and visitors / participants are encouraged to discuss ideas about Northern Irish culture and society or to share personal histories.

Nest

Artist’s name: Christine Mackay Title of work: The Potting Shed Location: Artlink, Fort Dunree, Donegal Commissioning body: Artlink Project partners: Arts Council of Ireland Commission type: Site-specific artist residency Date advertised: Summer 2013 Date sited: 2014 Budget: €5,000 Brief description: In the summer of 2013, Christine Mackey undertook a residency at ArtLink Fort Dunree. This project, ‘Fortifying Beds’, explored the botanical diversification of plants found in this man-made environment that encompassed a new kind of rooted occupation. This led to the re-development of an existing building using materials sourced on site. The Potting Shed is based on the idea of a ‘living herbarium’, a stimulating environment for artists and activists to develop further projects onsite premised on the creative governance of the shed and its relationship to the environment and the ecology of local resources and communities.

Archival material generated during the research phase is on permanent loan to Artlink and can be used as a pedagogical resource for visiting artist and local communities of interest.

In the Current Artists’ names: Marie Brett and Michael Ray Title of work: Nest Date sited: March and June 2014 Budget: Under €10,000 Project Partners: Bere Island Project Group, Cork County Arts Office, HSE South Brief description: Marie Brett and Michael Ray collaboratively produced multimedia installation work Nest underground at Lonehort Military Fort on Bere Island, County Cork. This large-scale work was presented in darkness, using a series of interconnecting spaces below the gun emplacements at the fort for three days during the summer of 2014.

The site had never been publicly open before. The

Artist’s Name: Yvonne Cullivan Title of Work: In the Current Commissioning Body: Cavan County Council Arts Office Date Advertised: March 2013 Date sited: June 2013 – September 2014 Budget: €63,000 Commission type: Per Cent for Art Project partners: Cavan County Council Arts Office, National Roads Authority Brief description: In the Current consists of eight short films produced by the artist following a period of intense research and sustained engagement with residents and specialists from the Belturbet area of Cavan. Drawing on aspects of local historical and contemporary culture, and grounded in the physical fabric of the landscape, these sensory films blur the lines of fact and fiction, reality and the imagined, carrying information from peripheral locations via the airwaves, through the water, in the ground and across layers of time. A bespoke mobile app, designed in collaboration with Mobanode, will house the project permanently. The app contains the eight films, contextual information and research, information on the artist’s process, essays, community links and Field Notes, a long narrative poem written by Cavan poet Tom Conaty in response to the artist’s process and resulting films.

In the Current will be launched on Culture Night, Friday 19 September 19, from 7.30 – 9.30pm, at the recently opened Civic Centre, Belturbet and the films will be screened there from Thursday – Sunday over the following two weekends. The launch will include a reading by Tom Conaty.

The Prairie Picture Show

Artist’s name: Conor McGarrigle Title of work: The Prairie Picture Show Commissioning body: Self initiated project Date sited: May 31 2014 Budget: $5000 Project partners: The University of Denver (through the Creative Arts Material Fund), Counterpath Gallery Denver, Space Farmers Productions Brief description: A film documenting Conor McGarrigle’s durational performance Walking West was screened outdoors on public prairie lands to the east of Denver, Colorado. For Walking West McGarrigle walked the length of Denver’s Colfax Avenue – the longest continuous street in the United States – and captured the walk with a commissioned satellite photograph. The screening was one of a series of public events that took place as part of the project. The audience comprised local arts organisations and community groups involved with Colfax Avenue, as well as members of the general.

Walking / Drawing The Sculpture Trail

Artist’s name: Wendy Miles Title of work: The Sculpture Trail Location: An Sanctoir, Ballydehob, Co Cork Date sited: 2 August 2014 – 2 August 2015 Budget: None Project partners: An Sanctoir charity, TUS Brief description: For 12 months a sculpture trail will run through the protected nature reserve of An Sanctoir, Ballydehob, Counnty Cork. The trail weaves through woodland, lakeside, meadow, river and mountain landscapes and features sculpture and installation work by local artist Wendy Miles.

The exhibition takes the viewer right out into the West Cork landscape, acknowledging an old style way of marking the land: through many footsteps creating a footpath. The artist uses both natural and found materials in her work to explore the idea of sanctuary. One of the works, Memorial to the Unknown Civilian, honours those to whom sanctuary was denied. Viewers are invited to bring flowers and wreaths to place on the memorial.

Artists’ names: Kathy Herbert and Dorothy Smith Title of work: Walking / Drawing Commissioning body: Draiocht Arts Centre, Blanchardstown Date sited: 8 – 12 July 2014 Budget: €1500 Commission type: Public engagement Project Partners: None Brief description: Kathy Herbert and Dorothy Smith created an 8-metre-long collaborative drawing, which was shown in the Draiocht gallery. The drawing was based on alternative explorations of Blanchardstown Town Centre, a ‘planned’ space.

The artists conducted research by walking around the centre, avoiding the paths intended by its design. Source material in the form of drawings, written notes and photographs was collected and informed the collaborative drawing. Herbert and Smith then encouraged members of the public to engage and collaborate with them as they drew, as well as leading drawing workshops. The artists led the participants on a short walk in the area and encouraged them to take time, stop and look, make notes, sketches and photographs of familiar yet overlooked aspects of this space. This material was then used to create drawings back in the gallery.

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

September – October 2014

VAI ADVOCACY

Public Art in Crisis?

VAI CEO / DIRECTOR NOEL KELLY RAISES SOME CURRENT ISSUES CONCERNING PUBLIC ART COMMISSIONing.

A growing number of projects are experiencing problems – from the commissioning stage right through to final delivery.

The perception of budget cuts versus investing in art is seen as a media time bomb that some departments are not prepared to address.

‘Public Art: Is it in Crisis?’ was the provocative title of a panel discussion, led by Visual Artists Ireland, that took place during Get Together 2014. The panel of experts comprised: Gaynor Seville, Public Arts Officer of Mayo County Council; Emma Price of EMP Ltd. in Cardiff; and Ruairi O Cuiv, Public Arts Officer for Dublin City Council.

The good news is that our provocative title was probably too strong, but there were certainly a number concerns raised at the event.

At VAI we always hear about projects that go well; and these are still in the majority. But unfortunately we have heard that a growing number of projects are experiencing problems from the commissioning stage right through to final delivery. In response, we have started a discussion, in order to see what is needed to improve the situation. This article gives a small insight into current issues concerning public art in Ireland.

Issue one: Low take up It is not news that the Per cent for Art scheme is one of the leading sources of public art commissioning. However, many state and semistate bodies are ignoring the directive issued by government and money is not being released. The perception of budget cuts versus investing in art is seen as a media time bomb that some departments are not prepared to address.

Issue two: Scale & Range The scale and range of projects has changed since the economic downturn. As the projects become scarcer, the budgets have become smaller. Commissioners and their agents have become more conscious of getting a ‘bigger bang for their buck’. The Per cent for Art Guidelines are acknowledged as the standard, but the practical delivery of these guidelines can be troublesome. Simply put, they are often ‘set-aside’ in some areas.

Issue three: Art vs Utility Large construction and motorway projects have dwindled. The bread and butter work now comes from schools and these projects continuously present difficulties. Most recently, we have seen several calls for proposals that focus on specific architectural features that were not delivered as part of the main development. Open-air classrooms are being couched in what is supposed to be a call for artistic intervention. It is clear that both artists and architects can apply under these schemes, but when the call clearly emphasises practicality artists are unlikely to be successful with any proposal put forward. As an aside, we would also question whether such works should be included in the Tax Exemption Scheme on Creative Works, as they have a very practical application.

Issue four: Architects & Public Art Commissions Outside of the schools programmes, we have seen projects where the architect working on the development that funded the public art is also

awarded the public art side of the project. In one particular instance, following letters of concern and use of the Freedom of Information Act, VAI was threatened with legal proceedings if we questioned the veracity of a specific project in a local government area. Although it’s very rare to incur such a strong reaction from local officials, it is clear that for some, as long as only local government procurement policies are followed, anything outside of this is seen as an unwanted annoyance.

Issue Five: Lack of Analysis We have also seen evidence that the detailed analysis, which should take place before a project begins, is frequently neglected. The internationally recognised headings that guide early stage brief preparation include investigation into local expectations in areas of social, environmental, economic and artistic value. These have clearly been useful in demonstrating the expectations of each stakeholder and providing a clear evaluation of the project. Due either to a lack of understanding or a lack of resources (ie. time and money) these guidelines are set aside, which clearly undermines the end value placed on works, as well as failing to educate stakeholders in the process. It is not sufficient to say that a project didn’t warrant them, when it is clear that they can be scaled to the size and scope of each project.

Not enough time is being given for artists to develop concepts for applications.

The lack of transparency (... ) sets a very dangerous precedent that undermines any formalised approach ...

Issue six: Short Deadlines Not enough time is being given for artists to develop concepts for applications. Opportunities sent in for us to advertise are constantly returned with a request to include deadline extensions. The excuse regularly given is that early stage delays in the project have reduced the time available for artists to prepare applications. We always explain to organisations that providing enough time will ensure a higher quality of proposals, and often our advice is heeded. However, sometimes the process of eProcurement may have started and changing it causes the commissioners too many headaches. It is worth noting that other advertisers are content to allow such projects through, demonstrating the absence of any screening procedures in the commissioning of public art.

Issue seven: Application numbers Not enough artists are applying for projects. It would appear that the same names apply for everything. There is a blockage and a fear, which means that artists who may have interesting ideas feel that they cannot apply. The idea that public art projects are difficult, time consuming and offer small income for artists is key.

VAI offers workshops on the entire process on a regular basis around the country and also offers mentoring for both artists and commissioners, to make the idea of applying and delivering a project accessible to more people. As part of the Get Together panel presentations it was suggested that single stage projects should be attractive to artists with less experience in public art, as they are based more on concept than on the depth of experience in a CV.

Issue eight: Artists ignoring briefs?

The same specialists have often sat on several selection panels, so see the same work being proposed different locations. In the instances, the individual brief is ignored and the panel is made to feel that there is little or no consideration being made for the specific location.

Issue nine: Lack of Transparency Due to smaller budgets, commissioners or their agents are offering opportunities without the usual call for proposals or the transparent creation of a panel of suitable artists. It understandable that consideration must be given to making the largest possible amount of money available to the creation of work, but the lack of transparency in this process is not only outside the spirit of the guidelines, but also sets a very dangerous precedent that undermines any formalised approach, especially when dealing with public funds.

The above are just a few of the concerns that VAI addresses as part of our guardianship of public art commissioning in Ireland. The good projects are in the majority, but we feel that now is the time for us to look at the commissioning, design and delivery of these projects.

Instead of reflecting at length, we need to act now and say no, when basic principles are not being followed. To achieve this, we have spoken with experts who have delivered successful projects – commissioners who follow clear and transparent policies – with a view to compiling a toolkit for organisations, commissioners and artists.

Visual Artists Ireland’s work in assisting the creation of the guidelines, our monitoring and guardianship of calls for proposals and our professional development in this area are recognized widely. We are now seeking to build on all of these and add a series of worksheets and procedures, which will be freely available through our website later this year. We have undertaken several public art projects in the past 12 months so that we can apply our ideas and stress test them before we finally publish. When these are ready we are planning a sector meeting to present our process, and will then seek to publicise it broadly.

The good projects are in the majority, but we feel that now is the time for us to look at the commissioning, design and delivery of these projects.

Instead of reflecting at length, we need to act now and say when basic principles are not being followed.

The VAI Help Desk is freely available to all who wish to find out more about best practices, or for those in the middle of a project who may need assistance. This is a free service and one that we will continue to offer to all who need it.

Noel Kelly, CEO Director, Visual Artists Ireland Note Any time that we publish an opinion column like this there are some people who feel either empathy or anger. We know that the issues in this article are by no means comprehensive. There are also many projects that are working well. But, if you have any specific constructive comments, or need help, then call or email us and we will be more than happy to listen and offer the benefit of our experience.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

September – October 2014

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opportunities

Opportunities courses / workshops / training Introduction to Arts & Health The Waterford Healing Arts Trust will host an introductory workshop on arts and health on Fri 7 November 2014 from 10am – 5pm in the WHAT Centre for Arts and Health, University Hospital Waterford. This workshop is Category 1 approved by Bord Altranis agus Cnáimseachais na hÉireann. Continuing Education Units: 4.5. This introductory workshop is designed for anyone interested in learning more about this field. The workshop will introduce participants to some of the nuts and bolts of arts and health work and present best practice principles via a range of examples and open up a discussion on some of the complexities relating to this field. The cost of attendance is €20 and includes lunch and resources.

Deadline Friday 24 September Email what@hse.ie Web www.waterfordhealingarts.com Telephone 051842664 Digital Illustration Fumbally Exchange, Dublin 2 host an intensive Digital Illustration three-day course (on three Saturdays: 13, 20 and 27 Sept) which aims to give students the fundamentals of Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop for adapting and enhancing hand-drawn images as well as learning how draw from scratch digitally. Along with drawing, participants will learn how to add and manipulate text, select parts of a photo for collage and save images for print and web formats.

You will be provided with detailed notes to ensure you fully understand the exercises and get the most from the class.

The workshop is unique in that you get to practice and explore both practical and creative applications of the techniques you learn and the small class size (max five) means everyone gets lots of attention. This class is suitable for people with an interest in design who have some computer experience.

Web www.goradiate.ie/training/digital-illustration Studio+ Studio+ is a new initiative for artists based in The Room project space at the Model. It will run September – December 2014. The programme will include interventions, discussions, seminars, screenings and practical workshops.

Outland Arts at The Model will present ‘Be Wild: That Is How To Clear The River’, a clearing for ongoing works, gather-

ing and exchange. Floating World Artists’ Books will create a ‘Making Room’, where artists can develop bookmaking techniques and make books for free using materials provided. Tim Durham will be running a workshop specially designed to help artists photograph their work on Saturday 4 October, and there will be a series of events exploring life drawing by the Graphite and Easel life drawing group based at The Model.

On 27 and 28 September Dave Lordan will present ‘New Planet Cabaret’. This weekend workshop is recommended for emerging writers, artists and other creative practitioners.

Web www.themodel.ie Contact Andy Parsons Email andyparsons@themodel.ie Introduction to Art Therapy Art Therapy Hub will run a workshop titled Introduction to Art Therapy at the Centre for Creative Practice, Dublin on Tuesday 9 September, 7 – 9pm. This workshop is designed for anyone who has an interest in art therapy and the use of creative art for emotional expression.

The aim of the workshop is to inspire creativity, personal development and community inclusion. It will consist of a short information segment, an experiential art making session and some informal group reflection. The session is not art therapy training or a therapy session rather intends to give participants an idea of what art therapy is and how the process works. Qualified art therapists Laura Coffey and Karen Peakin, who have recently worked together in Nepal, India and Ireland as Art Therapy Hub, will facilitate the course. No prior art experience is required and all materials will be provided. Maximum of 12 participants. Cost: €15.

Web www.cfcp.ie/events www.arttherapyhub.com Address Centre for Creative Practice, 15 Pembroke St Lower, Dublin 2

conferences Ceramics Conference The International Academy of Ceramics (IAC) General Assembly will be hosted at Dublin Castle this autumn and will include a three-day international conference 9 – 11 September 2014. Entitled ‘Moving Objects – from Geographic Pasts to Virtual Presence’, the conference will explore contemporary ceramic practices within four key themes: ‘past’, ‘hybrid practice’, ‘identity and influence’, and ‘future’. The Design & Crafts Council of Ireland (DCCoI) has negotiated conces-

sion rates for their registered clients and member organisations. To avail of these special concession rates when completing the online registration form please contact IAC 2014@mci-group.com. To coincide with the General Assembly, DCCoI is coordinating an exhibition trail through Dublin city including several key international exhibitions as well as a number of presentations of work by Irish practitioners.

Web www.iac2014.com

open submissions Watermark Sound Installation As part of the events celebrating 20 years of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick, students, staff and all those who engage with or enjoy the UL campus or the river Shannon are invited to participate in a sound installation created by artist Fiona Hallinan. This invitation is to create a score for the Living Bridge, the pedestrian path that leads across the Shannon to the entrance of the Academy. If you choose to participate, you will be invited to watch a video of the bridge walk and then score it as if creating a piece of music for a film. The walk is 3:40 minutes long. Your score should be as close to that length as possible.

Web www.irishworldacademy.ie

studio space RHA Studio The RHA School is offering the studios to rent in six-month slots in 2015. The three studios are available in two sixmonth slots in 2015, January – June and July to December (six studio slots in total are being offered). Artists wishing to be considered should apply by completing the application form from the RHA’s website including: a current CV (two pages maximum); a covering letter detailing candidate’s intentions for the allocated period in the studio including an artist statement and work plan, giving details of what materials and processes they use and any other requirements they have; up to six images of their work; a list of images submitted clearly marked with the title of the piece, the medium and the dimensions.

For video artists you can include on this list the web addresses (e.g. Youtube or Vimeo) to access your work. The subsidised cost of each studio to the awarded artists is €200 per month; all heat and utility costs are included in this.

Deadline 26 September Email fernando@rhagallery.ie Web www.rhagallery.ie Telephone 016612558

commissions Wicklow County Council Wicklow County Arts Office is seeking applications from interested parties for funding to collaboratively develop and deliver new projects of high quality and impact during 2015, which will enhance and complement the Arts Office’s strategic development of the arts in the county. This is the second year that this scheme has been offered. The Arts Office is particularly interested to hear from national resource organisations, individual curators and artists’ collectives who have the potential to propose projects that will nurture practice, create connectivity, generate new perspectives and voices within the cultural life of the county, and support a diversity of approach. The total amount of the fund available is subject to finalisation of the Council’s own funding for 2015 but is likely to be a maximum of €60,000 over the two years of the programme. The Arts Office may fund up to four individual projects to a maximum of €15,000 as a result of this call.

Deadline 24 September Contact Annette Clancy Email wicklow@inter-actions.biz

job vacancies Young at Art Young at Art, creator of Belfast Children’s Festival, is currently seeking to update and expand its database of freelance facilitators to meet the growing demands of its Education and Events Programme.

Young at Art are particularly interested in receiving CVs from creative practitioners with experience in education and / or events. All applicants must display high level of attention to detail and an understanding of administrative processes involved in workshop design and delivery. If you are interested in working with Young at Art and meet the requirements please apply by sending the following in one single PDF document: CV (max 2 x A4 pages); name, address, telephone and email addresses of two professional referees (they must not be relatives); short biography outlining your experience (max 1 x A4 page); five images of previous work (if applicable).

Applicants are welcome to include web links in place of images. Clearly highlight on your application which opportunity you are applying for. All successful applicants will be required to complete criminal convictions, declaration forms and other documents in compliance with Child Protection and Safeguarding policies.

Deadline 5pm Friday 12 September Email

recruitment@youngatart.co.uk Website www.youngatart.co.uk

residencies The Cill Rialaig Project The Cill Rialaig Project invites applications for residency awards at their artist retreat on Bolus Head near Ballinskelligs, County Kerry.

Deadline 15 September Contact Mary O’Connor Email cillrialaigarts@gmail.com Telephone 0669479297

volunteering / internships Open House Dublin Open House Dublin (OHD), a city-wide celebration of buildings, places and neighbourhoods, are looking for volunteers for the 2014 event. OHD is the biggest architectural event in Ireland, running from 17 – 19 October, and a successful platform that encourages architectural interest and awareness among the general public. In recognition of your role, you’ll gain priority access to first-come first-served buildings during the weekend and by attending our Volunteer Training Session, get a chance to meet other great people who share an interest in culture and the vitality of our city, and attend a party on the Sunday evening.

Contact Rachel Email volunteers@architecturefoundation.ie Web www.architecturefoundation.ie Gallery Assistants Sample-Studios, Cork is currently recruiting volunteers for the Gallery Assistant programme as well as ongoing Administrative Support positions. Positions can be designed around a specific set of practices or duties for a specified duration, or attached to a specific project. These are unpaid volunteer positions and are open to both graduates and professionals in the arts sector as well as people looking to up-skill in these areas.

Positions are available for three to six month duration with a minimum commitment of one day a week. Volunteers will fully inducted into the team as well as being offered training opportunities.

To apply, simply send a CV and a cover letter explaining why you are interested in the position, and what areas you are specifically interested in.

Deadline 30 September Email info@sample-studios.com Web www.sample-studios.com

34

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

September – October 2014

Visual Artists Ireland operates a wide range of professional development training events throughout the year. The delivery of this programme is greatly supported by our relationship with local and international visual art professionals and partner organisations throughout the island of Ireland. VAI works in partnership with local authorities, visual arts venues and others, combining resources to support the professional development of visual artists at regional level.

Republic of Ireland

Northern Ireland

Galway

meath

In partnership with Galway City & County Councils Child Protection Awareness for Artists Working with Young People, with Olive Ring Wed 3 Sept (12.30 – 17.00) @ Menlo Park Hotel, Galway City Places: 12 – 20 Free to Galway based artists

In partnership with Meath County Council Arts Office

Visual Artists’ Helpdesk: Arts Career Advice with

Visiting curator – BEA DE SOUZA Bea de Souza from The Agency Gallery London, will meet with artists connected with our regional partners in Galway in November.

portlaoise In partnership with Dunamaise Arts Centre Web and Social Media Strategies for Visual Artists with Mary Carty Fri 5 Sept @ Dunamaise Arts Centre Places: 20 €60 / 30 (VAI members)

roscommon In partnership with Roscommon Visual Artists Forum Presenting Yourself (half day) with Kerry McCall Tues 10 Sept (11.30 – 15.30) @ Roscommon Arts Centre Places: 10 FREE to Roscommon based artists.

Creating Opportunities for your Work with Geraldine

Presenting yourself & Your Work with Patricia ClyneKelly Tues 4 Nov (10.30 – 16.30) Places: 10 - 12 €80 / 40 (VAI members) developing Opportunities for your Work with Elaine Grainger and Elaine Leader Tues 11 Nov (10.30 – 16.30) Places: 15 - 20 €50 / 25 (VAI Members) Documenting your Work with Tim Durham Date and Venue to be confirmed Places: 10 - 12 €80 / 40 (VAI members)

limerick Developing Creative Proposals with Annette Moloney Tues 21 Oct (10.30 – 16.30) @ Limerick City Gallery of Art Places: 12 – 16 €10 / 5 (VAI members)

dublin Towards Sustainability – Mapping your Career with Patricia Clyne-Kelly, John Daly and Brian Kennedy Thur 9 Oct (10.30 – 16.30) Venue to be confirmed Places: 25 - 30 €60 / 30

Protecting and Caring for Your Work (half day) with

Developing Creative Proposals with Annette Moloney Wed 19 Nov (10.30 – 16.30) @ Visual Artists Ireland Places: 12 – 16 €80 / 40

dundalk In partnership with Creative Spark Louth Socially Engaged Visual Art Practices with Niamh O’Connor Wed 10 Sept (10.30 – 16.30) @ Louth Creative Community Hub Places: 10 - 12 €80 / 40 (VAI Members) Presenting Yourself and Your Work with Kerry McCall Wed 17 Sept and Wed 24 Sept (2 half-day sessions) @ Louth Creative Community Hub Places: 10 - 12 €80 / 40 (VAI Members) Developing Opportunities for Your Work Date to be confirmed @ Louth Creative Community Hub

Visual Artists’ Cafe: Alternative Curatorial Practice Sat 4 Oct, (10.00 – 17.00) @ Belfast Exposed Curating socially engaged practice Curating alternative spaces Curator Show & Tells Visual Artists’ Helpdesk: Artist statements with Jason Oakley Wed 8 Oct (13.00 – 17.00) @ DAS, Belfast Send in your artist statement in advance for a one-to-one critique and advice session with Jason Oakley, editor of the Visual Artists’ News Sheet.

In partnership with LCGA, Limerick, Clare and Tipperary County Councils

O’Reilly and Elaine Grainger Thurs 2 Oct (11.30 – 17.00) @ Roscommon Arts Centre Places: 12 - 16 FREE to Roscommon based artists.

Alan Ragget Wed. 22 Oct. (11.30 – 17.00) @ King House, Boyle Places: 15 - 20 FREE to Roscommon based artists.

Niamh Looney Wed 10 Sept (13.00 – 15.00) @ DAS, Belfast Working with galleries Why do artists need public liability insurance?

Artists’ fees

Visiting curator – JONAS Stampe Jonas Stampe will be working in conjunction with the Dublin Live Art Festival in September.

For information and to register for upcoming training events see: visualartists.ie/professional-development Bookings / Information Monica Flynn, Professional Development Officer Visual Artists Ireland, Central Hotel Chambers, 7 – 9 Dame Court, Dublin 2 E: monica@visualartists.ie T: 01 672 9488 www.visualartists.ie

Belfast Open Studios – hosted by VAI Wed 22 Oct – Sun 26 Oct 15 city centre artist studios open to the public Programme of visits for schools, colleges and special interest groups Three days of artist Show & Tells for Northern Irish artists without studios or outside Belfast (this will take place on Wed – Fri afternoons at the Black Box) Please email rob@visualartists-ni.org if you wish to get involved as volunteers, artists or if you wish to arrange a studio visit for your group. We also welcome curators and can provide a structured studio visiting programme.

Bookings / Information Rob Hilken, Northern Ireland Manager Visual Artists Ireland, Digital Arts Studios, 38-42 Hill Street, Belfast, BT1 2LB E: rob@visualartists-ni.org www.visualartists-ni.org

BelfAst open studios Hosted by Visual Artists Ireland

A five dAy festivAl of visuAl Arts Wednesday 22nd October – Sunday 26th October 2014

Belfast’s flourishing artist community is opening its studios for the public to get an intimate look at the creative processes that are often hidden behind closed doors.

We welcome artists, curators, studios, schools, colleges and other groups to take part. Please contact Rob Hilken (rob@visualartists-ni.org) for bookings and information.

show & tell As part of Belfast Open Studios, Visual Artists Ireland will host three days of presentations from artists without studios in Belfast. There are many artists working outside of the city, or outside of a studio group, and this is a unique opportunity to hear those artists talk about their practices in five minute slots.

Arts Council of Northern Ireland Developing the arts in Northern Ireland

Arts Council of Northern Ireland, MacNeice House, 77 Malone Road, Belfast BT9 6AQ. T: +44 (28) 9038 5200. W: www.artscouncil-ni.org. E: info@artscouncil-ni.org

Image: Brendan Jamison, Green JCB bucket with holes. Arts Council Collection

schools, colleges & groups Belfast Open Studios invites schools and colleges to bring pupils and students to see how artists work in their studios. Artists will be present to talk about their work and offer a unique glimpse into their processes. This opportunity will allow each group to visit two studios in one hour and will highlight the wide variety of artistic practice taking place across the city.

THE MARKET PLACE THEATRE & ARTS CENTRE, ARMAGH Submissions are invited from artists for exhibitions for the venue’s Gallery and its Foyer Walls with dates available from March 2015 onwards Submissions should consist of: artist’s CV, exhibition proposal [max 200 words], samples of work on CD / DVD [max 10 high resolution images], details regarding medium, size and technical requirements, current contact details (including email address), SAE for return of materials. Submissions are welcomed for all disciplines including fine art, photography, printmaking, multi-media, craft, sculpture and installation work. Solo and groups exhibitions are also welcomed. All submissions will be assessed by a selection panel.

Details of the Market Place Gallery (including floor plan and hanging system) can be downloaded from www.marketplacearmagh.com/visual-arts A virtual tour of the gallery and Foyer exhibition spaces can be viewed from www. digital-door.com/marketplacetour Closing Date: Monday 22 September 2014.

Late submissions cannot be accepted.

For further enquiries and to receive an information pack contact Christine Donnelly The Market Place Gallery Market Street, Armagh BT61 7BW T: 44(0)2837521804/02837521820 E: christine.donnelly@marketplacearmagh.com

irish bronze Dedicated to the faithful reproduction of the sculptor’s vision

T: 01 454 2032 e: irishbronze@eircom.net W: www.irishbronze.ie

Willie Malone: Casting Sculpture for over two decades

Kilmainham Art Foundry Ltd t/a Irish Bronze, Kilmainham Rd and Griffith College, Dublin 8

help desk

FAQ / information / advice

E: info@visualartists.ie T: +353 (0)1 6729488

Irish Museum of Modern Art

Hélio Oiticica Propositions 19 Jul - 5 Oct 2014 Admission Free

www.imma.ie T 01-612 9900 E info@imma.ie

Hélio Oiticica, Parangolé P4 Cape 1, 1964.

Photo Sergio Zalis

Official Hotel Partner www.dylan.ie

The Dock presents:

Language,Like curated by Alice Lyons

moving Lyrics poetry films Padraig Cunningham (on a poem by Peter Fallon) Helen Horgan (on a poem by Pat Boran) Stephen Brandes (on a poem by Louis de Paor) John Halpin (on a poem by Sinéad Morrissey)

the grammar tabLes garden a new installation commission by Helen Horgan

dark white collages by poet Linda Norton

(Open Monday – Friday 10am – 5.30pm, Saturday 10am – 5.00pm)

The Dock A: St Georges Terrace, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim T: 071 965 0828 W: www.thedock.ie

Culturefox.ie is the definitive online guide to Irish cultural events, giving you complete information about cultural activities both here and abroad.

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Weekly trips from Dublin to Liverpool, Birmingham, London, Bath and Bristol; Monthly trips from Dublin to Paris, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Brussels and Amsterdam.

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Dublin to Paris, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Brussels, Amsterdam Monthly Dublin to Liverpool, Birmingham, London, Bath, Bristol weekly Edit at will Lily, Regards, Joe

The lab, brought to you by Dublin City Council, is pleased to present

quaTernaTion quesT Aisling O’Beirn Preview: Thursday 11 September 2014, 6pm – 8pm Exhibition runs until: Wednesday 15 November 2014

For full programme of events, including Culture Night, see: www.thelab.ie; artist’s website: www.aislingbeirn.com

The lab a: Foley Street, Dublin 1 T: 01 222 5455 e: artsoffice@dublincity.ie W: www.thelab.ie F: facebook.com/TheLABGalleryDublin T: @LabDCC