Visual Artists' News Sheet - 2017 January February

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet ISSUE 1 January – February 2017 Published by Visual Artists Ireland Ealaíontóirí Radharcacha Éire

Jane Rainey, Lost Beneath the Pastel Sky (detail), 2016; oil on canvas; 90 x 120cm; photo by Jonathan Sammon; exhibited at 126 Artist-Run Gallery as part of TULCA Festival 2016

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

Editorial

January – February 2017

Contents

WELCOME to the January – February 2017 issue of the Visual Artists’ News Sheet.

Cover. Jane Rainey, Lost Beneath the Pastel Sky, 2016.

5. Column. Joanne Laws. Responding to Urgencies.

Writer and researcher Joanne Laws is the guest editor and her column features on page 5. Several inter6. Column. Noel Kelly. Brexit & the Arts. views are included in this issue: Joanne Laws spoke to Alistair Hudson about the Arte Útil movement; 7. Column. Áine Phillips. Is it Even Worse in Europe?

Conor McFeely interviewed Andres Serrano during his recent exhibition ‘Torture’ at Void, Derry; while 8. News. The latest developments in the visual arts sector.

Rayne Booth spoke to Benjamin De Búrca and Bárbara Wagner at the 32nd São Paulo Biennial.

9. Regional Profile. Resources and activities in County Leitrim are profiled by the Leitrim Arts In the Irish context, Gianna Tasha Tomasso reviews TULCA Festival of Visual Art and Kevin Gaffney outlines the making of his new film work, supported by Sky Arts Academy, which is currently showing at Millennium Court Arts Centre, Portadown. Internationally, Pádraic E. Moore discusses his event ‘Ectoplasm’ at 1646, The Hague, and Áine Phillips reviews the Guerrilla Girls exhibition at Whitechapel, London, which surveys levels of inequality across European art institutions.

Office, Creative Frame, StArt Studios, Leitrim Sculpture Centre, The Dock and artist Daniel

Chester.

12. Biennial. You Are Seeing Things. Rayne Booth interviews Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin De Búrca

about their participation in the 2016 São Paulo Biennial.

13. Residency. Just Keep Sweeping. Jessica Foley reflects on ‘The Centre for Dying on Stage #3’.

14. How is it Made? Black Sites. Conor McFeely interviews Andres Serrano about his exhibition On the subject of art writing , publishing and readerships, Marysia Wiezkiewicz-Carroll reports on the ‘Torture’, currently on show at Void, Derry.

‘Art & Writing’ programme organised by Paper Visual Art and Gorse journals. In a similar vein, Nathan 16. Residency. Painters’ Retreat. Colin Martin profiles the RHA Tony O’Malley painting residency in O’Donnell offers insights into the panel discussion ‘Art, Writing, Narrative and its Territories’, which Callan, County Kilkenny. coincided with Katrina Palmer’s solo exhibition ‘The Three Stories are Flattened’ at Void, Derry.

17. Seminar. Text & Territory. Nathan O’Donnell reports on the panel event held in conjunction with A number of Irish residencies also feature: Suzanne Walsh reports on the ‘Resort Revelations’ residency programme in Portrane, Colin Martin provides an overview of the ongoing Tony O’Malley Residency for painters and Jessica Foley reflects on her participation in ‘The Centre for Dying on Stage #3’, an intensive six-week residency at Cow House Studios, County Wexford.

VAI Northern Ireland Manager Rob Hilken discusses the Belfast Open Studios event, while VAI Director Noel Kelly describes how the uncertainties of Brexit are already impacting on VAI and other cultural organisations across Ireland. The Regional Roundup for this issue comes from County Leitrim, outlining recent activities of The Dock, Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Creative Frame, Leitrim Arts Office, StArt Studios and artist Daniel Chester. Reviewed in the Critique section are: Mary Patterson at Ballina Arts Centre; Benedict Drew and Miguel Martin at CCA Derry-Londonderry; Fiona Lowe Brunell at ArtisAnn Gallery, Belfast; Rayleen Clancy at Signal Arts Centre, Bray; and the Hennessy Portrait Prize 2016 at the National Gallery of Ireland.

Katrina Palmer’s exhibition at Void, Derry.

18. Seminar. Under-Excavated Terrain. Marysia Wieckiewicz-Carroll reports on the ‘Art &

Writing’ series developed by Paper Visual Art and Gorse.

19. Critique. ‘The Saw Tooth Wave’/Put to the Sword, CCA Derry; ‘The Secret Garden of Harmonia’, Signal Arts Centre, Bray; ‘Paper Trails’, Ballina Arts Centre, Mayo; ‘The Life & Lines of C.S. Lewis & Literary Legends’, ArtisAnn Gallery, Belfast; Hennessy Portrait Prize 2016, National Gallery,

Dublin.

23. How is it Made? A Numbness in the Mouth. Kevin Gaffney discusses his new film work.

24. Residency. Resort Revelations. Suzanne Walsh reports on the ‘Resort Revelations’ residency at

Portrane, County Dublin.

26. Organisation. 1:1 Scale. Joanne Laws interviews Alistair Hudson, director or Museum of Modern

Art, Middlesborough (mima) and Co-Director of Arte Útil.

28. VAI Event. Belfast Open Studios. Rob Hilken details this year’s Belfast Open Studios.

As ever, we have details of upcoming VAI Professional Development Programme, exhibition and public 30. Festival. Materiality as Relic. Gianna Tomasso reports on TULCA 2016.

32. How is it Made? Beyond Matter: Phantasmagoric Fluid. Padraic E. Moore discusses his one-off event art roundups, news from the sector and current opportunities.

‘Ectoplasm’, which took place at 1646 Project Space, The Hague.

34. Public Art Roundup. Public art commissions, site-specific works, socially engaged practice and

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35. Opportunities. All the latest grants, awards, exhibition calls and commissions.

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

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Production: Guest Editor: Joanne Laws. Production Editor: Lily Power. News/Opportunities: Siobhan Mooney, Shelly McDonnell. Invoicing: Bernadette Beecher. Contributors: Joanne Laws, Noel Kelly, Aine Phillips, Daniel Chester, Sarah Searson, Phillip Delamere, Barra Dinan, Leslie Ryan, Sean O’Reilly, Padraic E. Moore, Jessica Foley, Conor McFeely, Andres Serrano, Colin Martin, Marysia WieckiewiczCarroll, Kevin Burns, Dorothy Hunter, Mary Catherine Nolan, John Graham, Andy Parsons, Kevin Gaffney, Suzanne Walsh, Rob Hilken, Nathan O’Donnell, Gianna Tomasso, Alistair Hudson, Rayne Booth, Benjamin De Búrca, Bárbara Wagner. A: Visual Artists Ireland, Windmill View House, 4 Oliver Bond Street, Dublin 8 T: 353(0)1 672 9488 E: info@visualartists.ie W: visualartists.ie A: Visual Artists Ireland, Northern Ireland Office, 109 –113 Royal Avenue, Belfast, BT1 1FF W: visualartists-ni.org Board of Directors: Mary Kelly (Chair), Naomi Sex, Michael Corrigan, David Mahon, Niamh McCann, Donall Curtin, Richard Forrest, Clíodhna Ni Anluain. Staff: CEO / Director: Noel Kelly. Office Manager: Bernadette Beecher. Publications: Lily Power. IVARO: Alex Davis. Communications Officer:/Listings Editor: Shelly McDonnell. Professional Development Officer: Monica Flynn. Book-keeping: Dina Mulchrone. Membership Services Officer/Listings Editor: Siobhan Mooney. Northern Ireland Manager: Rob Hilken (rob@visualartists-ni.org).

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

COLUMN

Joanne Laws Responding to Urgencies IN an ominous start to 2017, the 45th American President will formally take office on 20 January. Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Theresa May looks set to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty by March 2017, activating the country’s departure from the European Union within two years. It has been well-documented that significant surges in support for rightwing political movements have followed every economic crash since the mid 1800s. Less than 12 months ago, few were predicting such a significant rightward shift in global politics. However, over the last year, the populist right has gained momentum across numerous European countries. Among the complex socio-political factors underpinning this shift is a palpable rise in nationalism, promoted as a reaction against globalisation and the new world order since the end of the Cold War. Shameless political deception on a mass scale has used the illusion of national sovereignty to capitalise on people’s need for a sense of autonomy. It holds hostility towards minorities and outsiders at the heart of its endeavours.

The regional, national and global implications of these actions are as yet completely unknown. It is tempting to take the view that geopolitics and the visual arts operate in separate realms; however, art does not happen in a vacuum. This un-themed January/February 2017 issue broadly considers how art navigates uncertain terrain. In his column, VAI Director Noel Kelly offers important insights into how the uncertainties of Brexit are already impacting on VAI and other cultural organisations across Ireland. The strategy of collectivity – as a means to develop support networks in preparation for the unknown – is already being adopted by arts communities nationwide. This issue profiles Belfast Open Studios and Leitrim’s Creative Frame – initiatives that seek to consolidate art audiences and make visible regional clusters of arts practitioners. In the Irish context, unwavering support for visual artists continues to be offered through numerous residency programmes, several of which feature in this issue, across counties Dublin, Kilkenny and Wexford.

Also in this VAN, Director of the Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art (mima) Alistair Hudson outlines the gathering momentum behind ‘useful art’, which he believes builds on the “long story of art” and expands our “inherited ideas of what art is”. Responding to the urgencies of our time, Arte Útil posits an art form established though ‘usership’ rather than spectatorship. The role of critical language in tracking and mediating the evolving trajectories of art is also probed in this issue. On the subject of art writing, publishing and readerships, Marysia Wiezkiewicz-Carroll reports on the ‘Art & Writing’ programme organised by Paper Visual Art and Gorse journals. This collaboration aimed to examine “previously under-excavated terrain” at the intersection of literature and the visual arts.

In a similar vein, Nathan O’Donnell offers insights into the panel discussion ‘Art, Writing, Narrative and their Territories’, which coincided with Katrina Palmer’s solo exhibition ‘The Three Stories are Flattened’ at Void, Derry.

Gianna Tasha Tomasso reviews TULCA Festival of Visual Arts 2016, which invited audiences to consider a future for our cities. ‘The Headless City’, curated by Daniel Jewesbury, was underpinned by Georges Bataille’s philosophical conceptualisations of the city as being founded on dirt, death, blood, pain and loss – undesirable elements that are increasingly repressed through the homogenising forces of the neoliberal city. Viewed through this subversive lens, other projects profiled in this issue offer insights into the messiness of the human condition. Kevin Gaffney’s new film work A Numbness in the Mouth mined micro-histories of food production and consumption, presenting tantilising scenes that border on fetishism. Pádraic E. Moore’s nocturnal event ‘Ectoplasm’ at 1646, The Hague, considered the links between bodily fluids and late-nineteenth-century occultism, while Andres Serrano’s recent exhibition ‘Torture’ confronted audiences with the disturbing yet prevalent tactics of modern warfare. Like ‘The Headless City’, which championed diversity and ‘reflection in common’, these projects neutralise idealised versions of the world. They are important because they offer alternative insights into contemporary life, beyond burgeoning festivalisation and cultural branding.

After years of relegation, the arts are back on the agenda in Ireland with a new government initiative, the Creative Ireland Programme 2017 – 2223, which aims to “place the arts at the heart of Irish life”. Though the plan has been tentatively wellreceived within the sector, some commentators have cautioned against potential commodification of the arts as a touristic imperative or branding exercise. Others have suggested that rather than one definitive representation of Ireland, artists should be supported in developing multiple authentic accounts that intersect with, contradict or challenge the status quo. Returning to the political uncertainties outlined in the opening paragraph, it is more important than ever that the sites of diversity, collectivity and critique generated through art are preserved at all costs. Ultimately it is through the work of artists that the present is documented, the past is brought into view and the ‘other’ is more comprehensively understood.

Joanne Laws is a writer and researcher based in Roscommon.

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Roundup IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE

Fiona O’Dwyer, Hurts, 2016; 40 x 60 cm, digital print

Michelle Boyle, ‘In My father’s House....’

Townhall Cavan held a solo exhibition

by Michelle Boyle titled ‘In My Father’s House There Are Many Rooms’ (16 Nov – 3 Dec). Boyle’s paintings examine ideas around love and loss and feature re-imagined items from her childhood.

A doll’s house formed the backdrop to the images, “opening out as a stage bringing the artist’s private narrative to the public”. townhallcavan.ie

I’LL BE YOUR MIRROR The Ashford Gallery at the RHA held an exhibition of works by Brian Hegarty titled ‘I’ll be Your Mirror’ (8 Sept – 2 Oct). The installation comprised a grid of 120 re-appropriated vinyl record sleeves – a response, the artist stated, to our “cut and paste culture”. The “visual juxtapositions and chance connections” mirror our information-heavy culture, through which we are overloaded by visual stimuli. rhagallery.ie

LEVELING

Lisa Butterly, ‘Leveling’

The Copper House Gallery, Dublin, held an exhibition of drawings and prints by Lisa Butterly titled ‘Leveling’ (17 Nov – 9 Dec). Butterly’s works came under two headings: Theodore Adorno and Danse Macabre Revisited. The collections were linked by the concept of ‘levelling’ proposed by Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, described in his work The Present Age as “the process of rendering individuality void and non-existent”.

exhibition looked at the idea of movement and migration, taking as a starting point her own family connection to displacement in 1950s Ireland. The exhibition comprised sculpture, video installation, drawing and photo works.

“The subject matter and imagery,” the artist stated, “are very much rooted in a visual and sound language of an Irish landscape, and the work possesses a musicality and an experiential poetic nature”. fionaodwyer.com

A DIFFERENT REPUBLIC

platformartsbelfast.com

ON THE WAY/ONDERWEG Els Borghart and Declan Kelly’s exhibition ‘On The Way/Onderweg’ ran at An Táin Arts Centre (16 Nov – 17 Dec). After 10 years of collaborating and travelling the world together, both artists find inspiration in their journeys and the “in-between spaces and changing identities” they have encountered. The work explored Borghart and Kelly’s own search for a home and the current conversation on identity in Ireland, with its history of emigration. antain.ie

MEDIATING ENVIRONMENTS

Amanda Coogan, Can you see it can you feel it its all in the air, 2016; video still

The LAB, Dublin presents a group exhibition featuring work by Aideen Barry, Amanda Coogan, Corban Walker and Suzanne Walsh titled ‘A Different Republic’ (17 Nov – 5 Feb) in partnership with Arts and Disability Ireland and Fire Station Artists’ Studios. ‘A Different Republic’ explores the idea of universal human rights in a year of commemorations: both the centenary of 1916 and the 20-year anniversary of the Irish government’s landmark report of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities titled A Strategy for Equality.

‘Mediating Environments’ poster image

Catalyst Arts, Belfast, held an exhibition by John Wild, Paula Deji and Matthew Bourree titled ‘Mediating Environments’ (3 Nov – 23 Nov). Their work explored the ways in which “the world beyond the confines of our body is intimately connected to our actions”. catalystarts.co.uk

THE PATH TO FREEDOM

WALKTHROUGH

‘The Path to Freedom’ poster image

thecopperhousegallery.com

I WENT UP THE MOUNTAIN WITH SOMEONE ELSE’S STORY AND CAME DOWN WITH MY OWN Fiona O’Dwyer’s solo exhibition ‘I Went Up the Mountain With Someone Else’s Story and Came Down With My Own’ was held at Galleria Huuto, Helsinki, Finland (10 – 25 Sept). O’Dwyer’s

and interpreted, looking at experiences of nature both real and imagined. Griffin’s Reveries of a Solitary Walker appears as a collection of landscape photographs but is in fact a series of captured screenshots from a video game, portraying Griffin’s interest in “the act of expressing truth”. Clark explores “non-representational acts of map/ mark making that register the fluidity of movement through a landscape, connecting the variables of time and space in the drawings”.

Iain Griffin, Walkthrough Platform, 2016

‘Walkthrough’, an exhibition of work

by Iain Griffin and Alice Clarke, ran at Platform Arts, Belfast (4 Nov – 19 Nov).

Griffin and Clarke examined the ways in which the landscape is represented

Photojournalist Artur Widak’s solo exhibition ‘The Path To Freedom’ was held at Rathmines Library, Dublin (17 Nov – 7 Dec). Widak’s images depict the journeys taken by refugees from war-torn countries such as Syria to Europe and have been featured in The Guardian, Le Monde and The Independent (UK). rdgallery.ie

6 COLUMN

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

ROUNDUP

Noel Kelly

BOUNDED BY OCEAN THE CENTRE FOR DYING ON STAGE Tina Brooks’s exhibition ‘Bounded By Brexit & the Arts Ocean’ was held at Higher Bridges Gallery, Fermanagh (19 Nov – 10 Dec), and VAI is an all Ireland body, which means that Brexit will have a clear impact on us comprised a range of small-scale works and on all arts organisations across the island who operate either across the border featuring the Strandhill Peninsula or in collaboration with UK organisations, festivals and events. and its Atlantic weather. Brooks paints The unfortunate truth is that the fallout from the vote has already happened. en plein air and “a gesture, a colour or The fall in Sterling has had a direct impact on organisations such as ours that mark made in response to the condireceive funding from Northern Ireland. Around 19% of our funding comes from tions are later transferred onto larger the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and through our membership in Northern ‘The Centre for Dying on Stage’ poster image canvases”.

Ireland. With the collapse of the Sterling against the Euro this has now been fermanaghomagh.com reduced to around 13%.

On 12 Nov Wexford Arts Centre held Although we have always operated our NI work programme in a very lean a one-off performance by a group of DIARY manner so as to take full advantage of our funding, we now face the reality that the international artists with diverse backpercentage of work covered by our administrative staff in the Republic to support grounds and practices, who came toour work in the North is in real danger. We are faced with the serious choice of gether to exchange ideas “underpinned whether to split the organisation and reduce our level of administration, therein by a shared interest in matters of life reducing the services that we can offer to our members, or to find ways to ensure and death, performance and disappearthat these costs are covered in order to fully support Northern Ireland’s visual artance”. Working under the aegis of The ists. This is happening against a background of potential in-year cuts and serious Centre For Dying On Stage, and based pressure on the arts in Northern Ireland. Both jobs and key services are in danger. between Cow House Studios, RathWe also have serious concerns about the mobility of artists and of artworks Still from Diary nure, and the Irish Museum of Modern post Brexit. If we go back to having border controls with Northern Ireland then we VISUAL, Carlow, present Diary, a film Art, Dublin, the five participating artface increased costs and bureaucracy in moving art across the border. The introducby Tim Hetherington in collaboration ists took part in a residency together tion of costly administrative processes may prevent organisations from touring with Magali Charrier, from 31 Oct to for five weeks prior to the performance. and sharing artworks and arts initiatives. The same applies to cultural exchange 5 Feb 2017. Hetherington, a photojour- The project was curated by Kate Strain with the rest of the UK. A case has to be made for free movement of culture. nalist, filmmaker, human rights advo- and the participating artists were JesAccording to a report by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, Ireland cate and artist who covered conflicts sica Foley, Marjorie Potiron and Lisa is the UK’s third largest market for culture after the US and Switzerland, with a in Liberia, Afghanistan and Libya, was Hoffmann, Steven Randall and Alex value of £631,000,000. In the short term a weakened Pound may seem appealing killed in a mortar attack in April 2011. Mirutziu (TAH29). but in the long term our cultural relationship will be diminished as it becomes less wexfordartscentre.ie Diary is an experimental non-narviable for arts organisations in the UK to work in the Eurozone. rative film that “powerfully communiDue to its open border with the UK, Ireland is not a member of the Schengen cates his subjective experience and the A SECOND WORLD – ANY GIVEN DAY Travel Area. This means that we already work in a complex system and that future duality of his existence between life EU cross border collaborations may require up to three visas. None of these visas in the West and life in conflict zones”. are guaranteed and failure to comply with all three jurisdictions has seen indiThe film is accompanied by images viduals deported. In a recent case, a leading Turkish academic was required to from Afghanistan. “Delving beneath provide so much information for both his Irish and UK visas that he decided to the ‘hardware’ of war to capture the avoid coming to the Republic and Northern Ireland to speak at a conference. This humanity and vulnerability of the is clear evidence of what the future will look like for more and more people. If the soldiers”, this work received the World UK moves towards even more stringent controls on freedom of movement and Press Photo of the Year in 2007 and led closes its borders to yet more countries, collaborations between the North, the to the making of the documentary film Republic and the rest of the UK will be curtailed.

Restrepo, which was nominated for an If the UK broadens its visa limitations then organisations in Ireland may have Academy Award in 2010. to rethink who they work with – which is a form of censorship – or reconsider their visualcarlow.ie relationship with UK organisations and audiences. Comments on the BBC Radio 4 Bernadette Kiely, ‘A SECOND WORLD – any given day’ Front Row special: ‘Brexit: The Cultural Response’ (Tuesday 26 July 2016), which FLOATING WORLD BOOKS ‘A SECOND WORLD – any given day’, a outlined that the benefit of Brexit is that ‘English’ audiences could now enjoy new body of work by Bernadette Kiely, ‘English’ culture, were particularly unhelpful. This attitude would damage ongoran at Solstice, Navan (3 Nov – 8 Jan). ing projects that have previously been funded by public money to bring culture The exhibition was curated by Belinda across the border and into communities where it has had a transformative effect.

Quirke and Sabina Mac Mahon. It feaWe should also take into consideration that London is a transit point for cultured large-scale painting and drawture coming from around the world into Ireland. Organisations ship their work ing on canvas alongside moving imthrough London and artists from further afield transit through London. It becomes age works. ‘A SECOND WORLD – any more costly and less attractive to travel here if it means shipping through a non-EU given day’ explored themes such as country. Already arts organisations are looking to change their transit point to the passage of time and the “transient, places within the EU such as Paris. This will have cost implications and will again Floating World Books display; photo by Sita O’Driscoll fragile nature of the physical world […] increase administrative burdens on arts organisations across Ireland. Increased shifting landscapes cloaked in fog and financial pressure is something that we in the arts are hardly able to consider as we Floating World Books, founded in 2003 mist, the burning of fields, flooding on try to maintain ourselves after so many years of cuts.

by Andy Parsons and Glenn Holman, the river Nore, plant life and the sea”.

Lastly, we shouldn’t forget that London is also one of the great art centres of held an exhibition at Galway City Gal- Kiely references her own photography the world. Many Irish artists have moved there to pursue their education and to lery (20 Nov – 10 Dec) featuring books and drawings as well as lending from find work. They depend on various EU supports for education as well as being able

by Andy Parsons, Elizabeth Kinsella, the imagery of ancient and historical to fall back on social welfare and the National Health Service during times of need.

Diane Henshaw, Glenn Holman, Gly- architecture, archaeological drawings, In this respect the future is very unclear, as we don’t yet know exactly how Brexit nis Candler, Sarah Carne, Edwin Ait- plant life and the landscape. will be implemented. Will we see a trail of artists returning or will they travel even ken, Simon Burton and Hidehiko Ishisolsticeartscentre.ie further away as they look to expand their careers and gain experience? bashi. Floating World Books artists are There are many more areas that need to be considered when discussing ‘culunited by their use of the artist’s book THE MUSEUM OF AUGUST DESTINY tural Brexit’ and unfortunately the concerns of the arts community are very far as a medium. A major preoccupation of Curated by Emily Mark Fitzgerald, down the list of priorities. But, as stated, Brexit is already impacting us. It would be the collective has been to present these ‘The Museum of August Destiny’ was a reassuring to know that our voice is being heard and that there is active engagebooks in a gallery context in order to group exhibition that ran at the Pearse ment with arts organisations so that we can navigate through this growing morass encourage critical discourse on the Museum, Dublin (3 Nov – 8 Jan), and of uncertainty. medium. featured work by Aideen Barry, Mark Noel Kelly, Director/CEO, Visual Artists Ireland. floatingworldbooks.com Clare, Amanda Coogan, Anthony

Dragana Jurisic, Jessie, 2016

Haughey, Dragana Jurisic, and Sarah Pierce. These six contemporary artists were invited to respond to six visions of Ireland’s ‘august destiny’ as set out in the Proclamation. “In re-scaling and re-configuring the vision of 1916 in a capsule museum, ‘The Museum of August Destiny’ invites reflection on the act of commemoration itself and its industries, and declares its own vision of a past aimed at future publics.” The exhibition was supported by the UCD Decade of Centenaries programme and first exhibited by Lismore Castle Arts. rdgallery.ie

HEED FM

Hossin Moazemi, Life Risk for Unknown Life; mixed media on paper

HEED FM was a 28-day anonymous sound broadcast by Garrett Phelan (22 Oct – 18 Nov). The work was created through conversations between the artist and people of diverse backgrounds aged 18 – 25 across Dublin.

The FM radio and web broadcast was a constant stream of conversation without music, advertisements, news, presenters, weather, time announcements or jingles. The recordings gave a platform to “a generation whose opinions and beliefs are rarely heard in the public sphere and who lack institutional advocacy on their behalf”. Participants were also invited to contribute creative work as part of the branding of the project and the resulting artworks can be viewed at heedfm.com.

FLOATING POINT

Anthony Kelly, detail from Fade, 2016

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

7

COLUMN

ROUNDUP

Áine Phillips

FUTURE MEMORIES Anthony Kelly’s exhibition ‘Floating Point – Future Memories’ ran at Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh (6 – 26 Nov). Kelly’s work involves sonic and visual approaches to art-making. This includes painting, drawing, field recording, sculpture, sound installation, film/video and improvised sound performance.

The work is diverse in construction, but chiefly concentrates on the “shifting and fragmentary nature of sensory experience”. To explore this he uses the discarded or overlooked aspects of the world around him, which he enlarges and amplifies. ‘Floating Point – Future Memories’ explores some of the ongoing themes inherent in his work while opening them out into new and varied directions.

Is it Even Worse in Europe?

and boundaries – from the physical to psychological and the imaginary. The exhibition marked the culmination of Leen’s residency at the centre, during which time she worked with new communities through the Tralee International Resource Centre, looking at “social integration and connection to place through cartography”. siamsatire.com

ET SI ON S’ÉTAIT TROMPÉ? WHAT IF WE GOT IT WRONG?

siriusartscentre.ie Guerrilla Girls, ‘Is it even worse in Europe?’; photo by Dan Weill

FOR over 30 years, the Guerrilla Girls have revised the history of art as a story of money and power. Through institutional critique, they have exposed monumental gender and racial inequalities in the acquisition, collection and dealership of artworks. In their current show ‘Is it even worse in Europe?’ at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, the collective cast their disenchanted, fur-rimmed eyes over the contemporary European art world to expose sexism, racism and all manner of exclusion, political incorrectness and ‘othering’ within Europe’s visual art institutions.

The exhibition is a survey report of 400 organisations across 29 European countries including pre-Brexit UK and Ireland, which did not emerge with glowing colours. The survey questionnaire sought organisational statistics on the representation of female artists, gender non-conforming artists and artists of colour. The findings are predictably chilling, unless you are male and white. They are summarised in one image which states “It’s Even Worse in Europe”. This declaration is widely supported in the presented surveys, which indicate that levels of inequality are higher in Europe than in the US. A banner at the front of the Whitechapel building announces that “only one quarter” of those contacted returned a response. Within the gallery, completed questionnaires paper the walls, while a list of non-compliant institutions is printed on the floor for audiences to trample on, if so inclined. Visually, the installation resembles a Barbara Kruger agitprop spectacle, but it lacks representation of the Guerrilla Girls’ signature activities. More direct manifestations of their satirical, overripe machismo, monkey-masked identities and brilliant oration would have helped connect the statistics with their real world activism and performance.

The best survey responses are displayed as large graphic posters organised under tongue-in-cheek headings such as “Genderosity”, “Complaints department” and the tantalising “What keeps museum directors up at night?” The most prescient response to this question is “increasing privatisation of the public realm”, given by Modern Art Oxford, while the most terrifying response is “political oppression”, offered by the Muzeum Współczesne, Wrocław. It is fascinating to decipher the hastily scribbled handwriting of Europe’s busy gallery directors. A definitive and understandable survey response was offered by Casco in Utrecht: “Although we love to contribute to your survey we have urgent commitments”.

The research findings show the average representation of women artists across European art institutions is a pitiful 22 per cent. An exception was Poland, where (despite the political pressure cited above) that figure is 28 per cent and all but one of the responding galleries has a female director. Only 14 museums have more than 20 artists from outside Europe in their collections, which points to a worrying heterogeneity. The situation for gender non-conforming artists

IMMA COLLECTION: FREUD PROJECT also seems grim: 30 institutions did not specify whether their programme reflected diversity in this area.

It is common knowledge that, as a result of centuries of patriarchy, commercial interests privilege white male artists.

In one poster, the Guerrilla Girls proclaim that museums and kunsthalles reflect a system where “art is reduced to a small number of artists who have won a popularity contest among big time dealers, curators and collectors”. However, our art institutions simultaneously claim to reflect the diverse cultures they represent. The Guerrilla Girls are successful in unmasking this type of hypocrisy in the art world, but attempting to bring about reform is the real challenge. The Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, articulated this problem succinctly: “The questionnaire […] doesn’t mean much in a system that is deeply dysfunctional and profoundly opposed to equality being sought.” This exhibition explicitly articulates how art market forces strongly influence the ideologies, missions and values of our cultural worlds.

The process of contributing to the research obviously meant that organisations had to examine their own data through these suggested lenses – a process they might never have undertaken before, revealing statistics that even they themselves may have been startled or embarrassed by. In circulating this survey, the Guerrilla Girls are adding a new layer to their established methodology of institutional critique: they are instigating a process of critical self-reflection by institutions themselves, making them more self-aware of their own trajectories and practices. Undoubtedly this is one route to instigating change, as organisations begin to acknowledge their own short-fallings.

There is an urgent need for Irish arts organisations to engage in Guerrilla Girls-style acts of self-reflection, whether publicly or behind closed doors. The visual arts community could assimilate the lessons learned by the Abbey Theatre and its fraternity after Waking the Feminists, which called for gender equality across the theatre sector in 2015. Following much soul-searching, a new consciousness began to emerge in Irish cultural circles with a renewed commitment to reversing the exclusion of women and minorities from institutional programming and funding. The Irish institutions that responded to the Guerrilla Girls’ survey were IMMA, the Independent Museum of Contemporary Art and Project Arts Centre, Dublin, along with the Glucksman Gallery in Cork.

Regrettably, the MAC and other organisations in Northern Ireland were not approached. A notable number of Irish museums and galleries failed to respond or engage with this worthwhile project. The message to them is: Beware. The Guerrilla Girls – conscience of the art world – are everywhere and they know who you are! Áine Phillips is a visual artist, writer, curator and academic living in County Clare. guerillagirls.com, ainephillips.com

Lucien Freud, Reflection (Self-portrait),1985; private collection, Ireland, the Lucian Freud Archive

IMMA’s Lucien Freud exhibition, a significant five-year loan of 50 works by one of the greatest realist painters of the twentieth century, runs from 21 Oct to late 2017. “Renowned for his portrayal of the human form, Freud is best known for his intimate, honest, often visceral portraits. Working only from life Freud’s studio was intensely private and he mainly worked with those he was close to, often asking subjects to sit for hundreds of hours over multiple sittings to better capture the essence of their personality.” ‘IMMA Collection: Freud Project’ features a selection of 30 of the artist’s finest paintings, and 20 works on paper. The works date mainly from 1970 onwards and comprise portraits, self portraits, still-life works and depictions of animals/nature. imma.ie

LINES THAT MEET

Susan Leen, ‘Lines That Meet...’

Susan Leen’s ‘Lines That Meet: Social Geography and Connection to Place’ was held at Siamsa Tire, Kerry (29 Oct – 2 Dec) and examined place making

Brigitta Varadi, In Conversation, 2014; Ox Mountain sheep wool, bark, marino wool plywood

In association with Centre Culturel Irlandais, West Cork Arts Centre: Uilinn presented a group exhibition (20 Oct – 13 Dec) of artists engaged in issues of climate change: Emily Robyn Archer, George Bolster, Mark Clare, Blaise Drummond, Seamus Dunbar, John Gerrard, Andrew Kearney, Susan Leen, Ruth Le Gear, Selma Makela, Anna Macleod, Christine Mackey, Seamus Nolan, Softday (Seán Taylor and Mikael Fernstrom) and Brigitta Varadi.

‘Et si on s’était trompé? What if we got it wrong?’ is a quote from performance poet Lemn Sissay and explores industrialisation, expansion and accumulation, the Arctic, and the link between geopolitics and questions of energy and biodiversity. The exhibition comprised video and multi-media installations, photography, as well as works on paper and canvas. westcorkartscentre.com

MONUMENTS TO DEGRADATION

Camilla Hanney, ‘Monuments to Degradation’, 2016

Camilla Hanney’s exhibition ‘Resurrecting Monuments to Degradation’ runs at A4 Sounds, Dublin (12 – 22 Jan) and marked the culmination of a residency at the studios.

Hanney’s work comprises a series of sculptures based around the women’s penitentiary located nearby on Dorset Street in the 1800s, which housed women released from the Westmoreland Lock Hospital for venereal disease.

Hanney examined the ways in which the Contagious Diseases Act of the period affected women – mainly those working as prostitutes – that were resident in the area.

8

News

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

gramme. VAI encourages artists to contact our Help Desk so we can pass on your feedback to the Department.

NATIONAL GALLERY APPOINTMENTS The Minister for Arts, Heritage, CREATIVE IRELAND Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, On Thursday 8 December An Taoiseach Heather Humphreys TD, announced Enda Kenny TD was joined by Minister the appointment of seven new ordinary for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and 38TH EVA INTERNATIONAL members to the board of the National Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather Humphreys The 38th edition of EVA International, Gallery of Ireland in November 2016.

TD, and Minister for Public Expendi- Ireland’s biennial, will be curated by The selections are: Lynda Carroll, ture and Reform, Paschal Donohoe TD, Inti Guerrero and take place between Michael Cush, Jacqueline Hall, Gary for the launch of the Creative Ireland April and July 2018. Inti Guerrero (born Jermyn, Ann Prendergast, Lesley Tully Programme/Clár Éire Ildánach.

1983, Bogotá, Colombia) is a young and and Barney Whelan. All of the appoinCreative Ireland is the Govern- highly acclaimed curator based in Hong tees applied for the positions through ment’s Legacy Programme for Ireland Kong. Guerrero is currently Estrellita B. stateboards.ie and were recommended 2016. It is a five-year, all-of-government Brodsky Adjunct Curator of Latin through the Public Appointments initiative, from 2017 to 2022, which American Art in Tate, London and was Service as having the requisite skills aims to improve access to cultural and previously Associate Artistic Director requirements for the board of the creative activity in every county across and Curator at TEOR/éTica, an inde- National Gallery of Ireland. the country. pendent not-for-profit art space in San The skills requirements identified As described by the Department José, Costa Rica. After studying History included: accountancy, business experiof Arts: “Creative Ireland will prioritise and Theory of Art and Architecture at ence, corporate governance, strategic children’s access to art, music, drama the University of Los Andes in Colombia development, fundraising/PR and marand coding; enhance the provision of and the University of São Paulo in keting, and professional or academic. culture and creativity in every com- Brazil, he completed the Curatorial The appointments are for a term of five munity; further develop Ireland as a Programme at De Appel arts centre in years. The board will vote to elect a new global hub for film and TV production; Amsterdam. chairperson. empower and support our artists; drive Commenting on Guerrero’s The new appointees will join the investment in our cultural institu- appointment, Woodrow Kernohan, existing members of the board: Stephen tions; and further enhance our global Director/CEO of EVA International said: McKenna (RHA nominee), Vivienne reputation abroad. From 2018, an an- “We are delighted that Inti has accepted Roche (RHA nominee), Mick O’Dea nual County of Culture will also be our invitation to be Curator of the 38th (President of the RHA), Bernie Brennan held each year. “ edition of EVA in 2018 and very much (Ex officio, RDS), Matthew Dempsey Key initiatives to be delivered in look forward to working with him to (Ex officio, RDS), Mary Daly (Prof) (Ex 2017 include: The publication of a five- develop his programme for Ireland’s officio, President RIA), Margaret Glynn, year ‘Creative Children’ plan which biennial”.

Mary Keane and Suzanne Macdougald. will enable every child to access tuGuerrero commented: “I am deepition in music, drama, art and coding; ly honoured to have been invited to be each local authority to appoint a Cul- Curator of the 2018 edition of EVA ACNI ACES AWARD ture Team to drive local needs and will International: a groundbreaking exhibi- 17 artists from Northern Ireland were publish a Culture Plan for their own tion that has contributed to reimagin- announced as the 2016 recipients of the county; a new annual cultural day, ing internationalisms. I look forward to Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s ‘Cruinniú na Cásca’, will be held na- working with artists and the EVA team Artists’ Career Enhancement Scheme tionwide on Easter Monday each year, to develop the biennial programme for (ACES) awards. This funding grant is replicating the very successful Reflect- the city, its audiences, and continuing bestowed upon Northern Ireland’s most ing the Rising event, which was held the dialogue with previous appointed talented emerging artists to allow them in Dublin this year; the Departments curators whom I hold in great regard.” to develop their professional artistic of Arts and Social Protection to devise For details of how to submit applica- careers. a mechanism to assist self-employed tions for the 2018 biennial, please see Awards under the ACES are made artists who have applied for Jobseek- the opportunities section in this issue annually to professional artists workers’ Allowance; a planned investment of the VAN. ing in music, visual arts, drama, dance, programme for Ireland’s cultural and literature and participatory arts, and heritage infrastructure, including our are among the most prestigious awards national cultural institutions; an in- ARTS COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS bestowed by the Arts Council annually. dustry wide, long term plan to develop The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Region- The artists include five visual artists, Ireland as a global hub for film, TV dra- al, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather two poets, three writers and seven ma and animation.

Humphreys TD, has announced that musicians. In addition to receiving a The National Campaign for the she has appointed six new ordinary bursary of up to £5,000 each, several of Arts says Creative Ireland’s “stated members to the Board of the Arts the 17 artists have been partnered with ambition of putting arts, culture and Council. The following appointments a professional organisation to help each creativity at the heart of Government will come into effect immediately: of them to deliver a major new creative decision-making for the first time has Damien Downes, Loughlin Deegan, work. Those organisations include: the potential – if delivered – to realise Paddy Glackin, Martina Moloney, Pád- Moving On Music, Millennium Court a sea change for the cultural sector but raig Ó Duinnín and Helen Shaw.

Arts Centre, Centre for Contemporary also for the well-being of Irish society All of the appointees applied for Art in Derry and Paper Studio in as a whole”. the positions through stateboards.ie Northumbria.

According to the plan, the Depart- and were recommended through the The visual artists presented with ments of Arts and Social Protection Public Appointments Service as hav- the award were: Alice Burns, Frederic will devise a pilot scheme to assist ing the requisite skills requirement for Huska, Joanne Proctor, Jacqueline Holt self-employed artists who have applied the Board of the Arts Council. The ap- and Philip McCrilly. for Jobseekers’ Allowance. Visual Art- pointments are for a term of five years.

The Artists’ Career Enhancement ists Ireland welcome the changes to The new appointees will join the exist- Programme forms part of the wider social protection and have committed ing board: Miriam Dunne, Brian Magu- Support for the Individual Artist to liaise with the Department of Arts ire, John Mc Auliffe, Emer O’Connor, Programme (SIAP) administered by the on the experiences of individual art- Sheila Pratschke (chair), Monica Spen- Arts Council of Northern Ireland annuists seeking Jobseekers’ Allowance in cer and Joan Sheehy. ally. As part of its continuing committhe role out of this aspect of the proment to supporting the development of

January – February 2017

individual artists, the Council made 277 SIAP awards to artists in 2016/17 totalling £592,000. Since its establishment in 2010, 117 artists have been supported through ACES.

es such as Antarctica, the ocean and outer space. The project was developed by multidisciplinary artist, philosopher and nautical engineer Alexander Ponomarev.

RDS AWARDS National College of Art and Design graduate Elaine Hoey has won the €10,000 RDS Taylor Art Award for her creation The Weight of Water, an immersive work which fuses virtual reality with gaming technology to tackle the ongoing global refugee crisis. Her award was announced on Tuesday 25 October at the launch of the inaugural RDS Visual Art Awards Exhibition in Dublin (25 – 31 Oct). The awards recognise the work of graduating visual artists in Ireland.

Other winners announced were Sven Sandberg and Michelle Hall, who shared the €6000 prize money of the R.C. Lewis-Crosby award and Aoife Dunne, who won the RDS Monster Truck Studio Award.

The RDS Visual Art Awards provides a platform for graduating artists as they transition from student into early professional career. In order to ensure that the awards remain relevant in an evolving cultural environment, this year a long list of graduates were selected by a team of independent curators who viewed the end of year degree shows in selected colleges around the country. The long listed artists were invited to apply online for the 2016 RDS Visual Art Awards. A panel of five judges then selected artists from these applications for inclusion in this curated exhibition to be shown in the RDS Concert Hall. The exhibition was curated by Alice Maher.

DUBLIN GALLERY WEEKEND The second Dublin Gallery Weekend took place on 25, 26 and 27 November.

Over one weekend, 36 art galleries across the city opened their doors. A series of special events, including exhibition openings, artist and curator talks, walking tours, late openings and workshops took place over the weekend.

Highlights included the exhibition opening of a new film work by Irish born artist and Turner Prize 2014 winner Duncan Campbell at IMMA, Family Club at The Lab with artists Bethan Parkes and Natalie Anderson, and a talk featuring Mary Cremin in conversation with Barbara Knezevic in Temple Bar Gallery and Studios.

MÉADHBH O’CONNOR: ANTARCTIC PAVILLION Dublin artist Méadhbh O’Connor has been selected as one of 15 international artists to represent Antarctica in the supranational Antarctic Pavilion at the forthcoming 57th International Venice Biennale of Art 2017. The 15 finalists were chosen among 500 applicants from 59 countries by an independent jury comprising the Commissioner of the Antarctic Biennale, Alexander Ponomarev, and members of the Artistic Advisory Board: Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Hani Rashid, Sheikha Hoor alQasimi and Nadim Samman.

O’Connor is the sole Irish representative at this supranational pavilion, exhibiting work alongside artists from Japan, Germany, the United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia and Brazil.

The exhibition is part of the ongoing Antarctic Biennale, an international socio-cultural phenomenon that uses artistic, scientific and philosophic methodologies to address shared spac-

CULTURE IRELAND Minister Humphreys has announced €1.76m in funding for Irish arts globally through Culture Ireland. The Minister for Arts, Heritage Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather Humphreys TD, has announced approval for the award of over €1.76 million in funding for the promotion of Irish arts worldwide during 2017 through Culture Ireland.

A total of 135 projects are being funded, which will allow Irish artists to stage events in 35 countries internationally. It follows an open call for applications from Irish artists, art organisations and international presenters.

The funding includes a total of €860,000 for bodies who partner Culture Ireland in creating opportunities for Irish artists abroad. One of the main recipients of funding in 2017 is the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, which will receive €180,000 to enable this key cultural landmark celebrate its 15th anniversary next year with a series of very special events.

VAI OPEN DAY On Friday 16 December 2016 we held the first Visual Artists Ireland Open Day. This marked our move to new offices and the development of facilities now available for rent by artists and cultural organisations.

The offices were open from 10am until 4pm, during which time staff talked to visitors about our work as well as introducing our new professional development, seminar and rehearsal space. Staff members also highlighted the new equipment on offer to members. Our new offices are located at Windmill View House, directly beside the car entrance to Thomas Street Car Park, which is on Oliver Bond Street.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

9

Leitrim: Resources & Activities Space & Perception

Marielle MacLeman, ‘Landscape Machine’; photo by Keith Nolan

StArting Strong START Studios is a new artists’ facility in the rural but accessible town of Mohill in County Leitrim.

There is a vibrant arts community in the surrounding area. We also have fibre optic broadband and there are regular buses to Carrick-on-Shannon.

StArt provides rent-free spaces to ambitious artists. Artists at StArt pay their share of utility bills, at a cost of €34 per week, and that’s it! Residential artists contribute a few hours housekeeping per week towards the extra space they get. There’s no casual public access to the facility apart from during events such as Culture Night or Mohill’s Summer Festival. It’s primarily a private and independent space for the resident artists.

I set up StArt Studios in 2015 after purchasing lery and institutional contexts. Currently, we do a large derelict property, a listed building which not directly commission new work on a regular was left empty and unmaintained for over a decbasis, but this would be a longer-term ambition. ade. I spent a year visiting many properties around We programme five to six exhibitions a year, com- Ireland before deciding on this place. Now renoprising a mix of solo and group shows across the vated, the property is extremely versatile and perthree galleries. There is no particular bias towards fectly adapted as residential workspaces for a wide locally-based artists unless their work fits within range of arts practices. It’s a tranquil sanctuary the broader thematic concept of our visual arts with mature gardens and a spring well – reputed to have healing properties – that will be connected to programme.

In the last two years we have been fortunate the building.

The local area offers many opportunities for to receive Arts Council support to commission new work by several artists, including a commis- site-specific projects. Artists can apply at any time sion by the artist/composer Jonathan Nangle for residencies lasting one week to three years. whose work is based in sound and installation Spaces are usually provided on a monthly basis, practices. We have toured Ireland with a new com- offering flexibility to both parties, with longermission that brings live painting and projections term leases available to artist groups. All the worktogether with traditional uilleann piping. These spaces have large windows with shutters and high live performances were directed by D.J. Donal ceilings. Most are of a similar size, with several Dineen. Both projects were produced by Siobhan additional large spaces for group use.

I’m also a founding member of Mohill’s new O’Malley.

Gary Coyle’s recent installation made for an Sustainable Energy Community, which we hope exciting and immersive environment, which to grow with the support of the Sustainable Energy altered our perceptions of space. Marielle Awards Ireland (SEAI). The aim is to develop green MacLeman’s stunning exhibition ‘Landscape energy for StArt and be part of the growing comMachine’ initiated a narrative of design, re-crea- munity in Ireland tackling climate change.

As a visual artist I have lived in several stution and place-making that spread across the galleries. This year we also developed a very success- dios over the years and dealt with the difficulties ful group exhibition in partnership with Temple many artists face in pursuing an arts practice. I Bar Gallery and Studios. However, not all the visu- work full time in my studio at StArt, keeping my al elements of the programme are about exhibition work flowing in the right direction, and hold a making. We have been working with artist Naomi part-time, voluntary role as StArt Studios director.

Draper, who has developed unique and extraordi- My practice is a personal odyssey. I’m concerned nary workshop experiences for young people with social and environmental issues: ‘artivism’ under five. These experiences help to develop involving research and site explorations. I comyoung imaginations and build awareness of touch, press my conclusions into visual expressions as photos, paintings or moving image. After years of sound and colour for parents and guardians.

In 2017 and 2018 we hope to deepen our rela- moving around, I’m enjoying being settled and tionship with the Fine Art department at Sligo completing many projects I have started over the Institute of Technology. In the longer term we years, while also creating new oil paintings that I want to develop a number of initiatives that will sell in galleries.

StArt Studios offers great value for any ambisupport emerging artists and create opportunities for international artists to spend time in the region. As 2016 draws to a close we are looking forward to installing our first exhibition of 2017, ‘A Bounce Borrowed’, in late January, with artists Felicity Clear, Richard Forrest, Helen Hughes, Jane Rainey and John O’Kane, which will be followed

by Ailbhe Ni Bhriain’s solo exhibition in the Spring. We are currently archiving The Dock’s visual arts programme, which can be found at thedock.ie.

IT’S been a busy, exciting and challenging two years at The Dock since I started as Director. In this role (among other responsibilities) I am revisiting exhibition making and enjoying the nuance of programming in house or with artists and curators to build interesting shows of international quality. When I arrived here the organisation was preparing to celebrate its 10-year anniversary, and, with the support of the strong team, I have had the opportunity to build on its reputation while slowly making changes to the artistic direction.

One of the perennial concerns of artistic directors in multi-disciplinary arts centres is how to create a climate that supports exchange between art forms. Another is to consider how best to utilise the space while being rigorous rather than prescriptive in deciding how the building should work to host and support artists. Developing a supportive energy is only possible with the active engagement of artists, producers and arts audiences. The Dock plays an important part in the social, cultural and economic fabric of Carrick-onShannon, the county of Leitrim and the region.

These relationships are of primary importance to the board and the staff.

The Dock has three lovely gallery spaces, a theatre, two education resource rooms and two artist studios. The two main galleries benefit from stunning natural light which reflects off the water from the nearby River Shannon. They can accommodate larger installations while still feeling intimate and inviting to audiences. Having the opportunity to develop and design new configurations within the galleries has been an additional facet of exhibition-making here. For example, blacking out areas of the larger gallery and including nighttime tours of exhibitions have changed our audience’s experience of the spaces and their perception of visual arts within the building. We have been programming a smaller third gallery on a more ad hoc basis, when it is not in use for solo shows. Recently Orla Kenny from Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership in Sligo exhibited new work in the space, as did artist-in-residence Hugh McGettigan, whose sculptural practice plays with balance and equilibrium.

Our interest is in supporting artists to realise bodies of work that are already in the early stages of development. We aim to assist artists of different generations working in a variety of mediums to best develop and show their work in the building as part of our programme. We are interested in Sarah Searson, Director, The Dock, Carrick-onworking with artists who are exhibition ready or Shannon. who have an active track record of working in gal-

Culture Night 2016 at StArt Studios

tious artist who has work to do and enjoys communal living. We don’t aim to please all artists, but the environment suits our residents well. In time StArt Studios will find its community. In year one, we successfully hosted 15 residential artists, normally 10 artists at a time, and even more spaces will be made available in 2017. Members have mostly been visual artists but in the future I hope to house more musicians and performance artists.

The studios venture is stripped down, lowcost and functional. It’s DIY and not for divas.

StArt asks for no compromise from artists. We don’t brand artists working here as ‘StArtists’ but do provide additional benefits and guidance. StArt Studios is a niche place and not for everyone, but we invite enquiries, proposals and communication, and always value honesty. Already, most artists have benefited from working at StArt Studios, forged new friendships and found the space they needed. Not everything has gone smoothly and we are always learning. Nothing is glossed over at StArt and artists visiting are realistically informed about the facility and assessed for suitability.

Artists at StArt are kept motivated by each other, and feedback is encouraged, so that we can support each artist’s aims. This is important for achieving personal ambitions and maintaining a good atmosphere. StArt is about new things happening, about challenging ourselves and jostling forward with others. We have already received acknowledgment from the Arts Council, winning a competitive Workspaces Scheme grant for 2017.

This funding will improve the spaces offered to artists choosing to work at StArt. Leitrim’s Arts Office and Enterprise Office have provided further support. Artists here are finding a dynamic regional arts community, rivaling urban studios by slashing living costs and offering space to think.

We have many plans for further development at StArt Studios. The old chapel will be restored as a versatile rehearsal space for music, aerial performance, theatre and dance. We are also creating production space for filmmakers and areas suitable for building film sets, with offices and residential options for crew. A separate wing of the large property, comprising nine first-floor units, is available for rent, and ideally suited to a theatre, film or TV production company. Several new artists’ studios will be added in 2017, plus valuable in-house facilities for visual and performance artists. So watch this space! We are independent and ambitious at StArt Studios, and we hope to be part of a new vision for the artist-led sector in Ireland.

Barra Dinan, artist and founder/director of StArt Studios, Leitrim.

Startstudios.ie

A studio space at StArt Studios

10

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

REGIONAL PROFILE

Remote Beauty

Creative Frame

WITH its high population of artists, Leitrim is renowned for being an attractive place to live and work, but making a living as an artist in rural Ireland is not without its challenges. Education and training opportunities are often centred in urban hubs like Dublin and Galway, while developing artistic careers can be difficult. In attempting to address these issues, the Leitrim County Council Arts Office and the Local Enterprise Office set up Creative Frame in early 2016. The network aims to support the professional development needs of Leitrim’s artists and to ensure that Leitrim continues to remain an attractive place to live and create new artistic work.

In my first week as project manager with Creative Frame I was given a tall stack of documents to review. These included over 100 survey responses from artists and creative practitioners from Leitrim and the surrounding region outlining their professional development needs. As I made my way through the surveys two things became quite clear: firstly, that many of our arts professionals faced similar challenges sustaining their practice in our lovely but rural location and, secondly, that there was an extraordinary range of practice-based skills, specialist expertise, experiDaniel Chester, Twisted Bog Sapling (detail) Daniel Chester, Approaching Snow Storm (detail) ence, knowledge and networks within that same “I must surrender myself to what surrounds me, unite and group critiques. Though the group is no more, artistic community.

The Creative Frame membership currently myself with its clouds and rocks, in order to be what I am. its influence on me was significant. The support and development of strong peer relationships exceeds 140 and is growing daily, comprising visuI need solitude in order to communicate with nature.” helped me to continue my practice. al artists, designers, musicians, illustrators, filmCaspar David Friedrich, 1821 So where am I today? Two years ago I began a makers and theatre practitioners at different stagFriedrich’s statement touches on the very essence return to painting, driven by a simple desire for the es of their careers. Developing audiences for their of what it means to be an artist and in particular an medium. I missed the smell of oil paint and I even work, generating income, finding places to create artist living rurally. Often the ridicule of the coun- missed cleaning the brushes. I knew through a and seeing more opportunities for learning are all try, Leitrim is what it is: rural, isolated and beauti- number of experiments that I didn’t want to return key challenges that they face. However, there is ful. My current body of work has been inspired by to canvas and it was during this time of experi- also a wealth of knowledge and experience within the wilderness and remote beauty of north Leitrim, mentation that I began to use aluminium sheets. our membership.

Over the past 6 months, based on requests where I live and work. I primarily paint in oils, Aluminium is a cold, damp material, not somewhich I returned to a few years ago after spending thing traditionally used with oil paint, but I found from members, Creative Frame has organised semtime focusing on improving my drawing tech- it perfect for the wet, bleak landscapes I wanted to inars, training events, workshops and courses nique in order to benefit my practice and further convey. The aluminium is both durable and soft. which have seen 185 artists take part in profesThe colours I mix on my palette go directly on to sional development programmes and workshops. my understanding as a painter.

In 2009 I completed a MA in Visual Arts the aluminium, and, unlike with canvas, they These have included: Pitching Your Work, Writing Practice through the Institute of Art, Design and remain as they are. The ever-changing weather, Creative Proposals, How to Photograph and Technology, Dún Laoghaire (IADT). The course boglands, mountains, November skies and plants Document Your Artistic Work, Building Your provided fantastic insights into contemporary art that had survived gorse fires all turned up in my Own Wordpress Website, and Developing a Social Media Strategy for Artists, as well as seminars on practice and enhanced my understanding of the first body of work.

My first solo exhibition of the new work was Making a Living as an Artist in Rural Ireland and different roles of artists, curators and writers. The course sparked several areas of interest that still held in the Luan Gallery, Athlone in 2015 and the Words Ireland Writers’ Series.

Consultation on training needs is ongoing to reside in my work today: the landscape, rural envi- opened the door to a huge number of possibilities. ronments, the commons, abandonment and immi- Over the last few years I have been fortunate ensure that the membership have a direct input gration, as well as ideas around the role of drawing enough to make some sort of living from the sales into the development programme. If their training of my work. In June 2016 I was awarded the Cairde in contemporary art.

After completing the MA, the reality of living Visual Award, which came with a solo exhibition as an artist in a rural community began to dawn at the Hyde Bridge Gallery, Sligo. That year I also on me. In 2010 I took up a teaching post three days received The Model Art Award and will have a solo a week and, alongside raising two children, find- show in the Process Room at The Model in 2017. ing studio time became more difficult. In particu- Other highlights of the past few years have includlar I lacked the time and space for research and for ed a solo show at Chimera Gallery, Mullingar, understanding where my practice was going. It exhibiting at the Royal Ulster Academy Awards was a real struggle to keep painting but being in and at King House Boyle, as well as showing at close proximity to the Leitrim Arts Office, The international art fairs through Sol Art Gallery.

It is safe to say that working as an artist in Model, Leitrim Sculpture Centre and The Dock helped me to continue and to focus on developing Leitrim has its pros and cons. Living in a rural environment can have its drawbacks, but for me a new body of work.

After the MA, a number of artists based in the it’s the main inspiration for my work and it’s what North West who had also completed the course set truly drives my practice. up the artists’ group ALTER/Native. Aimed at artDaniel Chester ists living in rurally, its main role was to facillitate danielchesterartist.com artists supporting each other through exhibitions Creative Frame project launch

needs are not being met then they are encouraged to get in touch with new proposals. These ideas are circulated to the wider membership and if there is an interest the training is supported and organised by the network.

Partnerships with other national support agencies for artists has been very important in researching and developing collaborative training opportunities for the members. In 2016 Creative Frame worked with Visual Artists Ireland, Words Ireland, First Music Contact, the Irish Writers Centre, Leitrim Local Enterprise Office and a number of local arts organisations. In 2017 we will continue to expand our partnerships to ensure that national supports are more accessible regionally to the Creative Frame membership. We will start off the year with our second cross-disciplinary panel discussion on sustaining your practice in rural Ireland, ‘Making a Living in the Arts 2’, with Create, the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland and Theatre Forum on 26 January.

While training and professional development is a central part of Creative Frame, it is hoped that the network will also become a platform for collaboration and project development between its members. Our website features the portfolios of member artists as well as information on upcoming training opportunities and events. Registered members can post news and opportunities, upcoming exhibitions or events, and initiate discussion on the forum or get feedback on work in progress and support from other members.

If 2016 saw Creative Frame in phase one – building membership, establishing a web platform, a forum for artists and the provision of training – 2017 will see it move into another phase: connecting members within the network. We will look at how we can create opportunities for our members to learn from each other, establish peerto-peer mentoring and also to create more opportunities for highly skilled and experienced regional artists to generate additional income through workshop facilitation and training provision.

With continued input from and consultation with its members, Creative Frame has the potential to become a sustainable model for professional development for artists everywhere. It encourages us all to think collectively about our professional development and the benefits of learning from and supporting each other as an arts community.

Leslie Ryan, Creative Frame Project Manager. creativeframe.eu

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

11

REGIONAL PROFILE

Leitrim Landscapes

Practice & Knowledge

BASED in Manorhamilton in North Leitrim, and stunningly located at the hub of five glacial valleys, the Leitrim Sculpture Centre (LSC) is a national resource for advancing the practice and knowledge of visual art making. LSC supports research and residency opportunities for Irish and international artists alike, while facilitating the technical advancement of new work through practical workshops and professional development. Functioning as a laboratory for creativity and innovation, LSC encourages experimentation linked to the material production, fabrication and display of challenging new work.

Kate Wilson, Under the Surface, Drumshanbo Outdoor Swimming Pool Ailie Blunnie at the Creative Frame Pecha Kucha Session LSC’s artistic programme is guided by two core COUNTY Leitrim is regarded for its unspoilt beauty, that demonstrates the ways in which artists can principles which underpin our wider programme. rich character, cultural vibrancy and remarkable have a positive impact on businesses. Spark artists These are ‘creative development of the artist or art levels of activity across a wide range of art forms. are invited to spend two days per week in a compa- form’, which encourages the advancement of mateWhile much of this vibrancy goes back generations, ny for six months developing a programme of work rial skills and knowledge in traditional and contemother factors are more recent and have different to benefit both the company and the artist. Since its porary arts forms, and ‘collaborative engagement origins. In the late 1970s and 1980s, following many inception the programme has featured: Jo with the rural environment’ and its diverse cultures, decades of decline in relative property value cou- Holmwood at the Bush Hotel; Linda Shevlin at communities, practices and material worlds. pled with the impressive landscape of the region, Leitrim Organic Centre; Monica Flynn at Cafe Critical engagement with the ecologies of place and there was a rise in the migration of artists from Lounge; Niamh O’Connor at the Leitrim Association the rural landscape is central to our activities. The other parts of Ireland, the UK and continental for People with Disabilities; Padraig Cunningham at centre fosters public participation by working with the Hive Technology Centre; Monica Corish at the artists to develop a range of community-engaged Europe to Leitrim.

In the 1990s a group of artists in Manorhamilton Leitrim Observer; Leo Scarff at Mohill Enterprise arts projects. These two principles drive a range of sought to develop better facilities in which they Centre; and, currently, Tinka Bechert at Prior PLM interconnected strands at LSC including our artistsin-residence and exhibition programmes, workcould make work. They established the Leitrim Medical.

The function of the programme is to encour- shops, master classes, professional development Sculpture Centre, which today stands as one of the most comprehensive resource centres for artists, age people to experiment with new ideas. Spark training, community arts projects as well as our offering highly regarded workshop and residency recognises that artists have unique skills of inven- education and schools programme. Dissemination programmes. The centre recently acquired an addi- tion and provides a space where creative thinking of our activities takes the form of festivals, events, tional building which will soon provide much can happen without restrictions, preconditions or publications, practice-led symposia and a project barriers. While this may lead directly to new archive. needed studio and living accommodation.

A unique strength of the LSC is the wide range In 2005 Leitrim County Council redeveloped approaches to products or services, in most cases the the old courthouse in Carrick-on-Shannon to positive impacts are principally related to the of material and technical resources available across become The Dock. The centre continues to be a flag- increased value and emphasis on creative thinking traditional and contemporary media. Two buildings in the town centre provide a dynamic range of ship for Leitrim and one of the cornerstones of the that collaboration with artists generates.

Most Leitrim County Council programmes are spaces for multiple uses. These are structured region’s arts infrastructure. Since its development, The Dock has earned a substantial reputation not specifically for visual artists but are such that around 12 open-source technical areas dedicated to: nationally and internationally for developing a artists from any arts discipline may apply. The mould-making, metalwork, foundry, hot glass, Artists in Communities Scheme, which was devel- ceramics, stone, wood, digital media, printmaking, high quality innovative programme.

More recently Leitrim County Council devel- oped in 2014, mirrors the format of the Artists in painting, drawing and design, as well as an archive oped artists’ studios at Drumshanbo Library, where Schools Scheme and has replaced the small arts and library. In addition LSC houses 18 individual residents engage in projects with different commu- grants that were discontinued a couple of years private studios, additional residency studios, gallery previously. The format and structure of these and project spaces, and a garden area for communinities in lieu of rent.

Last year artist Barra Dinan purchased and schemes has been refined year on year to maximise ty exchange.

The 2016 programme has expanded in scope started to renovate a large convent building in the quality of experience for young people and comMohill in south Leitrim into artists’ studios and munities to engage with the arts. Collaboration is and ambition, particularly in relation to our artists accommodation. Now operating on a not-for-profit key and the process of project development is in residence, many of whom are attracted by the basis as StArt Studios, the facility continues to phased to ensure that artists, communities and prospect of having production and dissemination resources available within the same venue. undergo renovations but already provides studio young people all contribute to the programme.

As the Leitrim Arts Office approaches the final Residencies are one of the most effective ways for and living accommodation to a range of artists and year of its current strategy, 2016 has already seen the organisations to assist the creative and professional musicians.

Because of these developments, and a range of development of new approaches and ideas. This has development of artists. It is through residencies that other factors, the quantity of artists, the level of arts evolved across a range of arts development spheres artists gain the time, space, financial support and activity and arts infrastructure, as well as opportuni- from ongoing evaluation and reflection on current material resources to develop their practices.

Residencies develop new engagements with comties for artists in the county, has achieved a critical programmes.

In 2017 we will be drawing out the priorities, munities and environments, increasing audience mass. While relative property prices are no longer the attraction they once were, artists, writers, actors, strategic objectives and operational plans for the development through education, research and colfilmmakers, dancers and musicians continue to next five years. We will be working on the next stages for each of our core programme areas and relocate to the county.

Leitrim County Council recognises the value developing approaches that can increase learning and importance of the arts and their role in the and capacity across a number of themes, from prodevelopment of the wider social, cultural and eco- fessional development and participation to public nomic landscape. Consequently, the council makes engagement. We will also look at the function of the a significant investment in the arts, supporting art- arts service and orient it towards meeting the chalists and developing programmes and projects inde- lenges of the next five years to ensure that Leitrim County Council can continue to serve its citizens pendently and in partnership with other agencies.

The Local Enterprise Office (LEO) is a key part- and its arts community to the best of its ability. ner of the Leitrim Arts Office and a core partner of Phillip Delamere, Leitrim Arts Officer.

Creative Frame and Spark, a residency programme leitrimarts.ie Noah Rose, ‘What Matter’ (in process), 2016

laborative endeavour. At LSC our resident artists contribute to various other strands of our programme including exhibitions and artists’ talks, workshops and master classes, community outreach and engagement, as well as archival research and publications.

The residency programme has recently expanded to address a range of artistic needs and now encompasses three separate residency strands.

We offer five Exhibition Residencies per year to support the development of new work leading directly to public dissemination via exhibitions or gallery displays. Direct support to the artist is €2400 covering a residency period of up to eight weeks. We also offer four to five Professional Development Research Residencies (PDRs) per year, which provide ‘time out’ for research and development work, with no specific outcome or exhibition required. Artists, curators and writers develop at their own pace in either practical or conceptual based work with direct support of €1000 offered for one month residencies. Each year one or two Site-Specific Residencies are offered with the aim of activating specific modes of collaboration, co-operation and participatory activity with local communities, materials, environments, economies, histories or landscapes. Direct support to the artist is €2000 for residencies of between six and eight weeks. All of the residencies offer a private studio, living accommodation and free use of all of the centre’s facilities and logistical supports, all of which are made possible through the financial support of the Arts Council and Leitrim County Council Arts Office.

LSC recently purchased a third building in the centre of Manorhamilton and is currently seeking support to develop residency studios and living accommodation for artists on the upper floors and a creative social area on the ground floor. This project will increase the capacity of LSC to better service local, national and international creative practitioners who come to the centre to research and develop new work.

It is envisaged that this new social space will also foster further cooperation, networking and collaborative opportunities. It has the potential to increase local community involvement in the ongoing activities of LSC, enhancing the creative environment of the town and region. With this new development LSC hopes to expand on its core mission of supporting creative practice for all.

Experimentation is at the heart of the creative act.

Leitrim Sculpture Centre prides itself on providing space for artists to develop experimental approaches. This steady support provides the creative conditions and acts as a catalyst for the genesis of new ideas, artworks and collaborative experiences that may evolve further over time.

Sean O’Reilly, Director, LSC. Leitrimsculpturecentre.ie

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

BIENNIAL eries started going to the beach at weekends and every Sunday for two years I documented what was going on there. In the end, I didn’t even photograph the new buildings or the avenue itself; I was interested in the people and how they were assuming a form of civility: living, participating, existing.

At the time, mobile phones were expensive, so people didn’t have access to cameras and were not used to digital images. I had just bought a digital camera and every picture I took could be previewed by the performers. Often they would perform again in order to look better in my photograph. My first work, Brasil Teimosa/Stubborn Brazil, became emblematic of that era of photography. This series is not too distant from the work of photographers like Rene Djikstra and Martin Parr, and touched a lot of people because they had so far been completely underrepresented. However, with the government at the time I was sensing a powerful shift. Obviously there’s kind of a regression with the current government – it’s not a bright future – but Lula managed to lift a whole section of the population to a slightly higher level of existence.

Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin De Búrca, still from Estás Vendo Coisas/You Are Seeing Things (featuring MC Porck); 4K, HD

You Are Seeing Things RAYNE BOOTH INTERVIEWS ARTISTS BÁRBARA WAGNER AND BENJAMIN DE BÚRCA ABOUT THEIR PARTICIPATION IN THE 2016 SÃO PAULO BIENNIAL (7 SEPTEMBER – 11 DECEMBER 2016).

THE 32nd São Paulo Biennial took place in Parque Ibirapuera, a rare green space in the centre of the vast and expansive city of São Paulo.

The collaborative practice of Irish artist Benjamin De Búrca and Brazilian artist Bárbara Wagner featured among the biennial’s 81 participating artists. The title of the biennial, ‘Incerteza Viva’ or ‘Live Uncertainty’, echoed recent remarks by Brazil’s new president Michel Temer, who stated recently that the years of uncertainty experienced under a Socialist Party government had come to an end. The biennial strongly emphasised ecological and social issues, while a huge educational programme of school visits, tours and events attempted to bridge the distance between the concerns of the art world and of those who inhabit the city’s boundless favelas and low income suburbs.

Under Brazil’s socialist government, led by the much-loved President ‘Lula’ (Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva), millions of people were lifted out of extreme poverty and into the middle classes. The recent political coup – which saw Lula’s successor, the socialist president Dilma Rousseff, impeached from her position and her former vice president Michel Temer take her place – has been compared to the plot of the popular TV show House of Cards because of the intrigue and political corruption involved. Brazilians are concerned at the prospect of a return to the old days of military dictatorship where employment, education and other basic needs were beyond the reach of many families. Equally, a large proportion of the population supports the conservative Temer and believes that he can lift the country out of its current economic slump. In this context, the São Paulo Biennial set out its stall. The opening event was marked by protesters wearing “Fora Temer” (Temer Out) t-shirts, with the biennial as a whole seeming to offer an ideal forum for Brazilians to reflect on the social, political and ecological uncertainties of the current era.

Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin De Búrca’s work Estás Vendo Coisas/You Are Seeing Things is an ebullient, noisy, colourful and poignant work – part video documentation, part sci-fi fantasy – which focuses on the ‘Brega’ scene. Brega is a style of Brazilian music, popular in the north-eastern city of Recife where the artists are based. In Brega culture, the participants are preoccupied with their own image and maintaining their appearance is paramount. I spoke with the artists just after the biennial opening in São Paulo.

Rayne Booth: Can you give me some background to ‘Estás Vendo Coisas’? When did you come across the Brega scene and how did the project come about?

Benjamin De Búrca: In 2012 Bárbara undertook funded photographic research with the aim of documenting the social and economic shifts that were taking place under President Lula’s governance. His leftwing Workers Party (PT) had introduced a series of reform programmes to better the lives of the poorest in Brazil. These measures were largely successful and Brazil witnessed a moment of unprecedented prosperity. The middle classes ballooned and for the first time many people had access to basics such as running water, employment, technology, the internet, television, cars and further education.

Bárbara’s background in journalism and her ongoing practice in social documentary photography led us to the places where this new sense of possibility and hope was most palpable – in city centres and high streets where people shopped and ate, and in the late-night bars of downtown Recife. During the day we developed the work Edifice Recife (which was shown during EVA International 2014) and at night we were in the nightclubs. Bárbara entitled this photographic series Jogo de Classe/Class Games, but during this period we realised that photographs alone would not suffice. The need to make a film, and the potential of the burgeoning Brega music scene, seemed to offer points of convergence in addressing these enormous social shifts.

RB: Bárbara, you have worked in the Recife area for 10 years. Can you tell me more about your earlier work there and how things have changed?

Bárbara Wagner: All my life I have been observing people in the northeast, exploring the idea of progress there and looking at how they are adapting their traditions into this new form of work as spectacle. As artists, our research is around the body: we perceive this generation as having knowledge in their bodies. It is also about managing an economy of material images.

Lula’s first programme in Recife in 2005 was to vacate Boa Viagem, an area of slum housing on the beach. He replaced the beach dwellings with a kilometre-long strip of asphalt – a gesture that changed the whole dynamic of the city. People from the city’s periph-

RB: How did your collaboration emerge and how has it evolved?

BDB: Our work comes from different backgrounds. I studied painting in Glasgow but my practice encompassed many disciplines including video, photography, painting and collage. I was doing a lot of collage when I met Barbara and the principles of collage permeate my work, including the films that we now make together. In 2015 we made a work called Faz Que Vai (Set to Go), which is very much a film collage.

With my background in fine art and Bárbara’s in journalism and documentary photography, we essentially see the world in very different ways and create collaborative work that neither of us would produce on our own. There is some arguing of course, as we each endeavour to have our visions understood by the other; however, it is this tension that ensures mutually agreeable end results. Another influencing factor is that Bárbara is dealing with subject matter that is familiar to her, whereas I am coming from a different background and often experiencing things for the first time, which can bring a degree of objectiveness to her subjectiveness and vice versa.

RB: How does your work sit within the wider themes of the biennial?

BW: I didn’t think that my practice as a documentarist would fit with this biennial, but the assistant curator Julia Rebouças (whom I had worked with in the past) invited me, based on the recent film myself and Benjamin had developed. Julia told us that they were visiting indigenous communities in Amazonia and Africa to learn about their understanding of death and how their rituals are connected to nature, which made me realise that the themes of the biennial are quite relevant to our work. We address other forms of nature, that of image, as well as the younger generation’s constant negotiation of who you were, who you are and what you want to be.

BDB: When we were invited to take part in the biennial, we were not really given a brief or told what the biennial was ‘about’ in curatorial terms. When installation began, both Bárbara and I felt a little alienated, especially considering the prominence of ecologically-themed works across the show. However, the more I learned about the other artworks, the more I realised that our film was well-placed among works by artists such as Cecilia Bengolea and Jeremy Deller, Luiz Roque and Vivian Caccuri. Collectively the works in the biennial convey anthropological concerns linked to how we as a species choose to organise our environment, deal with the natural world and maintain spiritual harmony amidst the ‘live uncertainty’ of global climactic realities.

Rayne Booth is a curator, arts manager and Director of Dublin Gallery Weekend. She is currently on a one year career break from her role as Programme Curator at Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, and is living and working in São Paulo, Brazil.

Bárbara Wagner is a Brazilian photographer and Benjamin De Búrca is a visual artist who works across several disciplines including painting, collage, video and installation. Their collaborative practice uses photographic and filmmaking processes to examine class relations in contemporary Brazil.

Note This is an edited version of a conversation that took place between Rayne Booth, Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin De Búrca in September 2016.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

13

RESIDENCY

Blackstairs Mountains, County Wexford; photo by Frank Abruzzese

Just Keep Sweeping

Performance of First Glue/Stage Business at Wexford Arts Centre, featuring Marjorie Potiron as Caretaker and Kate Strain as Presenter; produced by Jessica Foley, Lisa Hoffmann, Marjorie Potiron and Steven Randall; photo by Frank Abruzzese

described, sincerely and without malice, as a distraction. Quite directly, you have been named an ‘interruptor’, so called after an algorithm that interrupts electrical circuits when a fault occurs in the system. In that context the negative connotations of these words had become affirmatory, constituting a local vocabulary to describe healthy relaJESSICA FOLEY REFLECTS ON ‘THE CENTRE FOR DYING ON STAGE #3’ RESIDENCY AT COW HOUSE tions of difference. Now, on the final day of your residency, you see that STUDIOS, COUNTY WEXFORD, WHICH SHE UNDERTOOK FROM 10 OCTOBER TO 20 NOVEMBER 2016. all along you have been wondering what it means for you to describe the experience of ‘The Centre for Dying on Stage #3’ as distracting?

AT night the whole of Wexford seems to settle like an ocean in the From the edge of your empty square white table, set at a diagonal dark beneath the mountain, dancing with the lights of fishers and to the white walls of your studio in the Cow House, you intuit this anchored seafarers. The cattle breathe and stomp into the warm dark question. In every aspect of your experience on the residency, you air of the corrugated sheds. In the grey-green light of a sleepless moonintuit this question. You walk the loop walk daily and intuit this quesful night the rooster woke you twice. You came here to wake up after tion. You go shopping, make and eat meals with the others, converse all. Here belongs to the side of the Blackstairs Mountains in County and share gestures and ideas with the others, and intuit this question.

Wexford, home to the O’Gorman family farm for over 200 years and You pet Dolly the farm cat and intuit this question. You observe the Cow House Studios since 2007.1 Today is your final day on the George the farm peacock and intuit this question. You sleep and dream residency called ‘The Centre for Dying on Stage #3’.2 You are looking and intuit this question. back through your notebooks where you have been making observaYou think, then, as the final day of your residency draws to a close tions, like: It is sunny. The leaves are autumnal. The wind wintery. under the orange light of a navy night, that ‘The Centre for Dying on Terracotta cows move over the green grasses in a complimentary Stage #3’ intends to distract. It institutes forms of distraction that seek trance […] to draw the minds of artists and audiences alike away into the tingly It is challenging to work together. It can be beautiful to agree not bodily presence of a mysteriously shared agency, with the will to fail Cow House Studios, Rathnure, County Wexford; photo by Frank Abruzzese to do so. I am here in my studio, listening at a distance to these other and death acting as a decoy for a keener will to love and live. For that voices finding the notes of an idea they can play together. It is all stois what it means to distract: to draw the mind away… away from the rytelling. And before storytelling it is experience and sleep and slogans that emerged during the residency was ‘just keep sweeping’. obsessions, envy and fears mirrored endlessly in the narcissistic infradreams.

You recall the challenges of the previous five weeks, working to structures of our time. So, after more than five weeks, wouldn’t you say You came here to wake yourself from a tyranny of analysis and create rhythm within this community of strangers in order to bring that the interruptions there were rarely too intimate, that the jokes critique. You came here to remember your intuition, to regain a crea- something to the stage at Wexford Arts Centre.3 Sudden rituals were were cast in earnest, and that any distractions performed or provoked tive process. Your notes say that the purpose of staging contemporary established in the group, playfully yet with conviction. Three of five became, in the end, a rather ‘beautiful mess’?5 art must be to energise each other to think creatively and critically, to artists began to train together, going running every morning around Jessica Foley is an artist, post-doctoral researcher and writer-inbecome more lively and to seek inter-inspiration with others, to tell the 4k loop, down and back along the hillside from the farm. At first, residence at CONNECT, Trinity College Dublin. stories and share experiences through words, objects, movements and you didn’t quite relate. You were amused, yet somewhat anxious, at the Notes stillness. fanaticism. You followed from a safe distance considering what was 1. Cow House Studios is an artist-run school and residency set in 180 acres of farmland in County The late afternoon sun is shining and all the surfaces of the farm- going on. Slowly, you began to get the levity of it. All this training was Wexford.

2. ‘The Centre for Dying on Stage’ was initiated by Krist Gruijthuijsen (Director, KW Institute for yard are awash with golden light. The inner spaces of the Cow House something wildly serious: a commitment to the process of art making Contemporary Art, Berlin) and developed by Irish curator Kate Strain as a research project that generStudios playfully counterpoint those of the farmyard with a bursty as intuitive, spontaneous and systematic. Something quite trustable ates new artistic undertakings, anchored to notions around death and the stage. The website collates instances of unexpected deaths that have occurred during moments of performance in the public kind of order. You have become fond of one of many boxes tucked high yet unpredictable. Training for the stage was training for life. domain (centrefordyingonstage.com). ‘The Centre for Dying on Stage #1’ was presented at Project Arts into the shelves of the main art room labeled “sentimental clothing”.

Ordinarily, you work in a context where engineering researchers Centre, Dublin, 18 July – 13 September 2014. #2 took the form of a promenade lecture at ‘Performance as Process’ at Delfina Foundation, London, on 27 January 2015. ‘The Centre for Dying on Stage #3’ was This is the tidiest farm you have ever seen. Strangely, the place devise telecommunications “networks for the future” between the an intensive six-week residency at Cow House Studios. #4 took place as part of ‘The Plough and other reminds you of the context of your own growing-up, though you were worlds of industry, business and academia. The research centre where stars’ at IMMA (15 September – January 2017), using the museum as a rehearsal space and touchstone for the development of a new theatrical production. never a farming daughter. It’s a place where the agency of matter is you work is called CONNECT.4 When a colleague emailed to ask how 3. One of the stipulations in the open call for ‘The Centre for Dying on Stage #3’ was that the selected would present some aspect of work developed during the residency through the public forum perceived for what it is. An instance of this is the sloping field by the you were getting on at ‘The Centre for Dying on Stage #3’, you replied artists of Wexford Arts Centre, specifically by using the infrastructure and resources of its theatre. The invitation forest near the hay-shed, the one that kept flooding and was gradually that it was ‘distracting’. This blunt assessment was not a complaint. It to engage with the discipline of theatre and to explore modes of performance and performativity was one of the things that made this particular iteration of ‘The Centre for Dying on Stage’ so compelling. acknowledged as a pond, duly excavated and kitted out with a small was the most relevant word you could think of, in that moment of On 12 of November at 3pm, two performances took place on the stage at Wexford Arts Centre. The first, jetty, life-buoy, a kayak and some carp. Since your arrival on the farm correspondence, to describe the diffractive effect of different creative How Soon Gone is Gone, was by Alex Mirutziu, and the second, First Glue/Stage Business, was by Jessica Foley, Lisa Hoffmann, Marjorie Potiron and Steven Randall. you’ve watched their shadowed bodies rippling the surface tension processes coming into relation and tension with each other, an effect 4. For further information on CONNECT’s research visit connectcentre.ie.

5. This is how Marjorie Potiron and Lisa Hoffmann describe the purpose of their artistic process: to many times, thinking how the tranquility here betrays a human pre- troubled and intensified by flashes of cruelty and fear. systematically generate a beautiful mess. occupation with prediction and control. One of the conversational In CONNECT your creative and collaborative process has been

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

HOW IS IT MADE?

Andres Serrano, Piss Christ; photo by Paola Bernardelli

Andres Serrano, Untitled X-1 and Untitled XXVI-2; photo by Paola Bernardelli

Andres Serrano, Untitled XII; photo courtesy of A/political

Black Sites CONOR MCFEELY INTERVIEWS ANDRES SERRANO ABOUT HIS RECENT EXHIBITION ‘TORTURE’, HELD AT VOID, DERRY, 8 OCTOBER – 17 DECEMBER 2016.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

15

HOW IS IT MADE?

Andres Serrano, The Hooded Men; left to right: Kevin Hannaway, Patrick McNally, Brian Turley, Francie McGuigan; photo by Paola Bernardelli

Then I went to Belfast, where I met and photographed the ‘hooded men’: Patrick McNally, Kevin Hannaway, Brian Turley and Francie McGuigan.1 It was important for me to meet the men and I am forever grateful to them for complying with my unusual request: I asked them to put on hoods. If I were a photographer, I’d be interested in capturing their faces, but I’m not. I was interested in them as the ‘hooded men’.

After England and Ireland, I went to The Foundry, an artists’ residency in southern France established by the artist Andrei Molodkin.

The Foundry is a former metalwork and armaments manufacturing plant that ceased operations long ago and is now being used as a place CM: Torture has been used as a form of entertainment in main- for artists to create. I was the first artist invited to The Foundry and it stream cinema for some time, from Kubrick’s ‘A Clockwork made sense to use it as a ‘black site’.2 At The Foundry, I staged recreaOrange’ to the ‘Saw’ series. What relationship, if any, does the tions of torture scenarios loosely based on the Abu Ghraib images that surfaced 10 years ago.3 Lastly, I completed the work by traveling to ‘Torture’ project have with this legacy?

AS: I see ‘Torture’ as torture, entertainment, voyeurism and a tourist several concentration camp memorials: Dachau, Mauthausen, attraction. I also see it as art. Our fascination with torture goes back to Buchenwald and Stasi. Stasi was known as an interrogation camp the beginning of torture. When we see it, it makes us feel good that it’s where its victims languished indefinitely not knowing what crimes they had committed. not us.

Conor McFeely: Your early photographic work indicates an interest in minimalism and conceptualism. The current work in your ‘Torture’ series points to an earlier period in art. What artists or art forms do you identify with?

Andres Serrano: I identify with many artists: Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, Luis Buñuel, Federico Fellini, Caravaggio, Francisco Goya and Francis Bacon, to name a few. As an artist, I’ve always navigated between abstraction and representation. Sometimes I photograph what I see and sometimes I photograph what I see in my head.

CM: You continue to work with film rather than digital. Are there significant advantages to this for you?

AS: I stick with what I know and what I’m comfortable with. There’s a difference in the quality when using film: it looks and feels like film. It has character, life and soul. Film is a dying art and some of us have to keep it alive. I have a problem doing what everyone else is doing and most people are doing digital. I don’t even own an iPhone.

CM: In terms of the process, how did you envisage the ‘Torture’ project initially and how does the final presentation reflect your expectations?

AS: I started the work in England. It was thanks to A/Political – a London-based organisation committed to supporting socially engaging projects – that I was able to do this work and it made sense to start there. One of the first things I photographed in England was the Hever Collection, a collection of medieval torture instruments housed in Hever Castle, Kent. What is special about the Hever Collection is that the torture instruments on display are real. Most torture museums around the world have reproductions of torture devices, some better than others. It was nice to photograph the real thing: authentic, well made and with the patina of age and great craftsmanship. They are like works of art. This is the irony of these instruments, that they are both beautiful and terrifying. Actually, not so terrifying now that they are no longer being used; however, other instruments of torture are still in use around the world.

spirit and the will, and ultimately robbing a person of their dignity.

The goal of torture is to get people to do anything you want them to do.

CM: How were boundaries established with your volunteers?

AS: Nothing was discussed in advance, not even what I wanted them to do. People showed up and then I told them what I wanted. Of course, they didn’t just show up, we put out an open call. I’d tell Andrei Molodkin: “I need three people today, one at 3pm, another one at 6pm and the last one at 9pm,” and they’d come. I usually had an idea, but occasionally I had to improvise on the spot. After a while, the townspeople heard about what I was doing and were eager to pose. I paid my models but I think they also enjoyed being asked to be part of an art project.

The only time someone said no was when I asked one guy to take his shirt off for a picture. He explained he didn’t want to do that because he was skinny and didn’t want to show his torso. “Okay” I said, “I got another idea for a picture with a man’s head in a cage and a rat inside the cage. Can you do that?” “No problem” he said. “I can do that!”

CM: How important was it to show the ‘hooded men’ photo- I put everyone to work, even Andrei Molodkin’s workers. Working for graphs in an Irish context?

Andrei Molodkin means they already know what these ‘crazy artists’ AS: It was important to show the ‘hooded men’ because they are real are like! and they are a part of Northern Irish history, a part that some may not know or choose to remember. What happened to these men should CM: How do subsequent displays of your work change your readnot be forgotten. It’s the story of Northern Ireland and its embattled ing of your own work? history with England. It was also important for me to show the ‘hood- AS: Exhibitions don’t really change my reading of my work, but they ed men’ as hooded men, with their faces concealed. My portraits often confirm that I was on the right track. Certain works stand out for me depict individuals and symbols at the same time. This has never been and they become signature works. They become the best-known truer than with the ‘hooded men’. If I’m able to shine more light on works of a particular series. I always have my favorites and they them, then my job is done. become favorites with the audience as well, because they get the most attention. It’s like anything else that withstands the test of time, and CM: In your role as fictional torturer at The Foundry, did you often they stand out quite quickly. have to identify more with the mindset of actual torturers, as Conor McFeely is an artist based in Derry and a lecturer at the opposed to their victims?

North West Regional College. Andres Serrano is an American artAS: I had to assume the role of torturer, showman and entertainer ist renowned for his dramatic and provocative photographs. because, in the end, it’s a show. You have to entertain the audience, Notes engage them and keep them amused. I was not trying to be shocking, 1. The ‘hooded men’ are a group of 14 men who were taken by the British army to a secret location in rural Derry in 1971 and subjected to interrogation, extreme physical brutality and torture. It is now because that would ring false for me and the audience. It’s not real known that the secret compound in Ballykelly housed a purpose-built torture centre, and that Special torture and the audience knows that. I make art, not political state- Branch officers of the R.U.C. were trained by British intelligence officials to carry out the interrogations.

The ‘hooded men’ are currently seeking justice from the European Court of Human Rights and have ments, and in my work I don’t judge. It’s not for me to say whether it’s lodged an appeal to the High Court in Belfast which aims to force the P.S.N.I., the Secretary of State for right or wrong to torture people. One thing I realised early on is that Northern Ireland and the Department of Justice, to reinvestigate their case.

2. A ‘black site’ is a location, secret prison or detention centre where unacknowledged, highly classified it’s easy to torture people when you have power over them. What are military or defense projects take place. they going to say? “Please don’t”? The other thing about torture is that 3. The human rights violations committed against detainees at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison came to widespread public attention in April 2004 when CBS News published photographs of the abuse, which was it’s not just about physical abuse but also about breaking down the committed by personnel of the United States Army and the CIA during the Iraq War (2003 – 2011).

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

RESIDENCY

Painters’ Retreat COLIN MARTIN PROFILES THE RHA TONY O’MALLEY RESIDENCY IN CALLAN, COUNTY KILKENNY.

Eithne Jordan, Museum IV, oil on linen. 50 x 65 cm

IN addition to the four studios onsite at the RHA, Ely Place, the RHA School has also administered an offsite studio residency in Callan, County Kilkenny, since 2010. This was a generous donation from Jane O’Malley established to honour the memory of her husband, the late painter Tony O’Malley, and to support some of the ideals and values that the artist’s life and career epitomised.

During the 1960s O’Malley worked for a number of years in the arts community of St. Ives, Cornwall. He spent time living in Seal Cottage, a dwelling that was one of two gifted to the British Arts Council and subsequently offered for use to artists. This period in O’Malley’s career was both productive and formative. He benefited greatly from subsidised studio residencies and the vital support they provided during his career. This was the impetus for the establishment of the studio by his wife Jane O’Malley. The O’Malleys appreciated the assistance they had received and wished to extend their generosity to other artists.

The house in Callan town was Tony O’Malley’s birthplace and family home. The house had been passed between family members and was acquired and developed in the 2000s by the O’Malleys. It was renovated and a studio added in a manner that is sympathetic with the original building. The residency is a major award for artists working primarily in the medium of paint and offers living accommodation, a private garden and a studio to the rear. The 320-square-foot studio space has plenty of natural light, while a mezzanine offers extra storage or work space.

The premises are located on the main street in Callan, with Kilkenny city a short drive away. Over recent years the residency has played host to a number of committed painters, including Ciaran Murphy, Ramon Kassam, Mollie Douthit, Magnhild Opdøl, David Quinn, Paraic Leahy and Kevin Miller. It is a testament to Callan’s unique location and community that a number of artists have chosen to stay and settle there after completing a residency.

Eithne Jordan is the current yearlong resident in Callan, where she has a busy schedule working towards upcoming solo exhibitions in both the Butler Gallery and the Hugh Lane Gallery in 2017. Jordan is known for her flâneur-like depictions of unpopulated cities, suburbs and landscapes, while more recently, the figure has re-emerged as a subject, depicted within institutional interiors. Jordan’s judicious and economical handling of paint, art historical references and subdued tonality have positioned her as a leading representational painter in Ireland. For Jordan, who has worked in many places including Berlin and southern France, the residency offers the peace and solitude to concentrate and develop her practice in a thoughtfully designed workspace. The opportunity to work for a year in a subsidised space where

Ramon Kassam, Painting of a proposed studio on the outskirts of the city, 2014; acrylic and tape on linen, 99 x 66 cm

Callan studio during Mollie Douthit’s 2014 residency

Ramon Kassam began a residency in 2013 with the intention of evaluating and developing his practice. At the time, he had solo exhibitions on the horizon, including ‘Gallery’ at Limerick City Gallery in 2015 and ‘Works’ at the Green on Red Gallery in 2016. Kassam’s practice makes reference to the physicality and context of its making; painting is both the act and the end result. Although his practice is self-referential, his paintings also look outwards towards ideas about process, imagination and reformation. He feels that the trajectory of his current work was developed while on residency, citing the secure and affordable tenancy of both studio and living space as a unique supporting factor. In addition, the sensitive design of the house and studio enabled him to think and work in a more expansive manner.

For Kassam, painting is a particularly interior practice, both in its making and delivery. More specifically, painting is tethered to physical studio space, so having the support and access to a large purpose-built studio allowed him to accelerate the ambitions he had for his work.

Mollie Douthit completed a one year residency from 2014 onward during which time she worked towards an exhibition in the RHA Ashford Gallery. Douthit’s paintings are deceptively simple explorations of the unremarkable and overlooked, which probe the thought provoking qualities of the still life genre. In this sense, she shares a sensibility with artists such as American painter Charlie Brady and the eighteenth-century French painter Jean Batiste Simeon Chardin. Douthit describes how the residency embedded her in the community. She felt at home with the local arts scene, which she found to be welcoming, supportive and engaged. As a legacy of her residency, she extended her stay in Callan, where she now keeps a studio at home. The Callan residency allowed Douthit to have a continual engagement with her subject matter, often working from the day into the evening, weaving her domestic life with her studio practice.

Over the years the Tony O’Malley Residency has played host to a number of committed artists who have a deep engagement with current painting practice. In keeping with O’Malley’s legacy of generosity and creative engagement, the residency has established a strong track record of supporting painters to extend their artistic ambitions and research activities. The RHA School will take submissions for the 2017/2018 Tony O’Malley Residency in March 2017. This is an opportunity for a painter to develop their practice in a dedicated studio and artist living space in Callan for a one year period.

you live and work is a major advantage. As she points out, Callan offers the isolation and retreat that are conducive to an artist’s practice, yet the town plays host to a number of quality visual arts initiatives and groups such as KCAT, Culturestruction, Workhouse Assembly, Camphill Community and Fennelly’s Breakfast Residency, which offer innovative ways to build engagement and community in the rural environment. Painters can find inspiration in local walks and the observation of vernacular dwellings, or they may choose to simply immerse themselves in their work.

Ciaran Murphy was a resident for one year in 2011. Murphy’s paintings are often muted or modest in scale and make allusions to the natural world with an oblique, ambiguous sensibility. Like Jordan, Murphy’s working process involves photographic sources and a deep engagement with the history and tropes of painting. During his residency he worked towards two high profile exhibitions in 2013 – ‘In the Line of Beauty’ at IMMA and ‘Paradise [40]’ at the Douglas Hyde Gallery – but he also used the time to experiment and conduct research. In hindsight, Murphy states, he sees the value of having this period to extend his working practice and recognises that research carried out during that period is currently coming to fruition. For Murphy, the high quality facilities in the house and studio were of great benefit to his practice. He also emphasises that the Callan residency is not a rural retreat in the strictest sense, as the studio is based in a town that is home to a strong community of artists. After taking part in the Tony O’Malley residency Murphy settled in Callan with his family, continuing the tradition of past residency artists who have Colin Martin is an artist and current Principal of the RHA School. moved to the region, creating a vibrant and dynamic community of rhagallery.ie painters.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

17

SEMINAR

Katrina Palmer, Now Landscape, ‘The three stories are flattened’,Void Gallery, Derry; photo by Paola Bernardelli

Katrina Palmer, Now Landscape, ‘The three stories are flattened’,Void Gallery, Derry; photo by Paola Bernardelli

Text & Territory

tions of territory. They also suggested the lines of a ruled page, and in fact, under Palmer’s treatment, the gallery felt like an abstracted page, a template upon which the trajectories of her fiction could be mapped.

This effect was heightened by her use of text on the gallery wall. On the far left-hand side of the longest of the walls, a single passage about one of the characters from End Matter was inscribed, in a page-like rectangle, with typographic precision. (The passage is quoted below.)

Next to it, the same passage was repeated, but compressed, bringing each line closer together. This pattern continued: the text becoming increasingly compressed and illegible until it became, in the last instance on the far right-hand side of the wall, a condensed block.

Our consideration of this work led to a discussion around other ways we might conceive of the ‘territory’ of fiction and narrative: in particular, through their physical existence as text. This is a central concern for Palmer, who worked in book production for several years at Penguin Books, where she was involved in typesetting, printing, and binding. It was during this time that she became intimately acquainted with the physicality of the page, which she now thinks of as a sculptural object. This experience evidently enhanced her keen sensitivity towards the material aspects of text and the strictures of typography. In Now Landscape, she seemed to extend this sensibility into the expanded dimensions of the gallery, effectively mapping out abstract visual coordinates in three dimensions, almost like a process of inverse-cartography, translating the imaginative and conceptual landscapes of End Matter into a legible physical form.

Coincidentally, several members of the small assembled audience had worked at one point or another in publishing. The conversation turned to the ‘slush pile’ – a somewhat misleading term, given that, in the case of larger publishers, the quantity of unsolicited submissions can be vast, imagined as whole roomfuls of unread novels, colossal stores of paper, stories and texts – the sad effluent of a gargantuan industry. Palmer’s approach constitutes a kind of resistance to this waste. She described her work as a deceleration and an invitation to slow down, bringing to mind the work of writer T.J. Clark, whose great ‘experiment in art writing,’ The Sight of Death, called for equally decelerated engagements with art. In a similar vein, Irish critic Rebecca O’Dwyer’s current online publication, Response to a Request follows a strictly regimented format, publishing one single long text – in response to a single image – at a time. These disparate approaches have in common an implicit reiteration of the value of writing, at a historical moment when such value is under pressure. Palmer’s sculptural training allows her to approach this problem from a particularly rich perspective, treating writing as a material to be worked over, reexamined and re-imagined.

NATHAN O’DONNELL RESPONDS TO ‘ART, WRITING, NARRATIVE AND THEIR TERRITORIES’,A PANEL EVENT IN CONJUNCTION WITH KATRINA PALMER’S SOLO EXHIBTION AT VOID GALLERY DERRY. ON 8 September 2016, a panel event, ‘Art, Writing, Narrative and their Territories’, took place at Void Gallery, Derry, forming one of a series of events programmed around the first exhibition in Ireland by sculptor Katrina Palmer. Curated by Maolíosa Boyle and Jonathan Cummins, ‘The three stories are flattened’ ran at Void from 16 July – 10 September 2016. The panel event, which took place towards the end of the exhibition’s run, was designed to draw out some of the ideas and preoccupations in the show and in Palmer’s work more broadly. Her experimental practice occupies a fruitful intersection between fields. She works with a range of often dematerialised forms, moving fluidly between published writing, audio, performance and installation.

The three stories are flattened consisted of three installations.

Two had previously been exhibited elsewhere, while the third was newly commissioned by Void and constructed on-site in the main gallery. Palmer is a sculptor who works with writing as her material, and all three installations were connected to her published fictions. She has, to date, produced three books, The Dark Object (2010), The Fabricator’s Tale (2014) and most recently, based on an Artangel-funded project, End Matter (2015). All three are published by UK art publisher Book Works. These fictional writings are playful, accomplished, inventive and deeply pleasurable to read. However, what distinguishes her sculptural approach (and what sets her aside from most other writers) is her interrogation of how writing might serve as a sculptural form, either within a gallery or in more public settings. Her pursuit of this inquiry has garnered much-deserved, serious acclaim in recent years.

I was invited to participate in the panel event alongside Palmer and artist/writer Siún Hanrahan. To set out some parameters for our discussion, Palmer began with a few thoughts on her work and wider practice. She talked about the ‘territory’ of narrative as an imaginative space, something which she seeks to visualise and extend into the gallery setting. The discussion was taking place in the smallest of the three galleries in Void, where Palmer’s Reality Flickers (2013) was installed, and Palmer used this work to illustrate her point. A large metal box was situated in the corner of the room, containing seating and a set of headphones transmitting an extract from The Fabricator’s Tale, a gruesome gothic story about misogyny and vengeance, reminiscent of English novelist Angela Carter’s lurid fairy-tales. This structure represented a physical space in which the viewer could be individually singled out and addressed directly. The audio extract itself was read by Palmer in her customarily stylised reading voice, heightened for emphasis and to underscore a certain unreality. The contents of a

note, mentioned in the audio, were scrawled on the wall behind us. As Palmer put it, she is interested in how fiction demands a “suspension of disbelief in the reader”. This paradox – an investment in what is openly a fabrication – is something that she aims to approximate in her work through the use of stylised voice-overs and audio effects. She wants to foreground the very artifice of what she is doing.

She also talked about what she sees as the limits of this imaginative terrain. In the process, she addressed another kind of ‘territory,’ the territory of reading itself, with its singular blurring of public and private. Installed in one of the other small rooms adjacent to the main gallery, The Fabricator’s Tale (Blood-Bespattered Table) (2014), played with precisely this blurring of boundaries. Here, Palmer established the clearly demarcated, fictional territory of a walled-off room in which a violent crime had been committed. The viewer, again sitting with headphones, was given only a partial glimpse of this room through one of a series of long slits in the wall. The audio recording, meanwhile, fed almost-whispered nouns like a series of disconnected clues, into their ear. The viewer was cast as an investigator and the installation became an immersive piece of detective fiction.

Palmer’s interest in demarcating lines was also evident in the newly-commissioned installation in the main gallery, Now Landscape (2016). This work was connected to her latest book, End Matter, a dark, rich fictional meditation on sculpture and the nature of the monument, written in response to the stark, geological terrain of Portland Island, off the coast of Dorset in South West England, famous for its stone. Palmer’s book – and the broader project of which it forms one part – explores the ravaged landscape of Portland as a philosophical riposte to the monumental cityscapes founded upon its exploitation.

Palmer has credited Russian writer Gogol as an influence, and certainly there are shades in this book of his blackly comic, proto-surrealist, despairing bureaucratic satire.

Now Landscape was a restrained extension of this conceptual comparison, with a sparse, barely-material arrangement of sealed packages, chalk markings and wall text. As an artwork about Portland stone, it was pointedly lacking in monumentality. Patently, this work – and the project overall – is as much about absence as presence. The chalk markings lined and demarcated the gallery floor and walls: the viewer could cross these lines but they were aware of doing so, of negotiating this terrain between public and private, authority and transgression. During the panel discussion, Palmer stressed the impermanence of these markings, describing them as ‘gestures’ or sugges-

Nathan O’Donnell is a writer of criticism and fiction, co-editor of Paper Visual Art Journal, and author of a forthcoming book on Wyndham Lewis, to be published by Liverpool University Press.

Katrina Palmer’s installation ‘Now Landscape’ was commissioned by Void.

18

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

SEMINAR

‘Art & Writing #2 Desire’; writer Joanna Walsh, Nathan O’Donnell and artist Emma Haugh

‘Art & Writing #1Imprint’; Dennis McNulty reading an extract of his Arts Council application with the algorithmically-generated images in the background

‘Art & Writing #3 Structure’; reading by Selina Guinness

Under-Excavated Terrain MARYSIA WIECKIEWICZ-CARROLL REPORTS ON ‘ART & WRITING’, A SERIES OF TALKS DEVELOPED BY PAPER VISUAL ART JOURNAL IN COLLABORATION WITH LITERARY PUBLICATION GORSE. IN May 2015, one of my fellow editors at Paper Visual Art Journal (PVA), Nathan O’Donnell, and I co-authored an article for the Visual Artists’ News Sheet which summarised our experiences of running workshops across Ireland as part of our Regional Art Writing Programme.1 Through our engagements with groups in Derry, Carlow and Galway earlier that year, and in our quest for new writing talent, we realised there was a multitude of writers out there keen to produce and publish critical texts about contemporary art who were simply not aware of the many platforms available to them.

We originally initiated the workshops with a view to encouraging new writers; however, it transpired that the problem we faced as editors generating new content for our publication was actually a shortage of readers. Irish art criticism suffers not from a dearth of writers or interest in writing, but rather from the lack of active readership.

In the VAN article we acknowledged this as one of the most pressing challenges for a contemporary art magazine. How do we build readership? How do we reach audiences? How do we amplify them? In the interim, it has become more and more apparent that this ambitious task cannot be tackled by one magazine alone. A wider infrastructure would be necessary. The recent series of ‘Art & Writing’ talks, delivered

by PVA in partnership with Gorse (gorse.ie), between September and November 2016, was a first modest gesture in this direction.

This series represented the first collaboration between two journals with a shared interest in the ‘art of words’. Founded by Niamh Dunphy in 2009, PVA is mainly an online journal of contemporary art criticism, while Gorse, founded by Susan Tomaselli in 2014, operates in the realm of literary publishing. Of course, many events, panels and discussions have taken place on the subject of art and writing in recent years, particularly in contemporary art contexts. Typically, however, these discussions have been firmly categorised under the umbrella of art criticism or art writing. O’Donnell and Tomaselli’s idea was to examine a previously under-excavated terrain at the intersection between art and writing, exploring and encouraging cross-pollination between the fields. By shifting the focus onto the overlaps between contemporary art and literature, between art and writing, they stepped outside the conventional discourse and managed to generate surprisingly new content as well as bringing together two distinct audiences who, in my experience, rarely mix.

IMPRINT & DESIRE The inaugural panel discussion in the series, entitled ‘Imprint’, brought together the artist Dennis McNulty, poet Christodoulos Makris and artist/writer Nick Thurston, all of whom share a fascination with modern digital publishing technologies. This field of interest – an implied common denominator for the event – manifests in very different ways across each of the contributors’ respective practices.

This divergence was clear from the outset, in the different ways each chose to present their work: McNulty projected a number of algorithmically-generated images, while reading an unabashedly bureaucratic text composed of an Arts Council application and an email exchange; Makris read a set of poems, composed from Twitter extracts and other online incidental writings; while Thurston gave a PowerPoint presentation about his practice as an artist and editor. Each was interested in the possibilities embedded in the language of programming, but also in the languages produced by programming, the new common languages of the twenty-first century, and the role of the editor in administering these languages. Ultimately the discussion extended to considerations of the role of language in the fabrication of reality in the contemporary world. In particular, Thurston’s position on the abilities of computational linguistics to emulate intention triggered a heated discussion about what makes us human, probably one of the best question and answer sessions I have witnessed in a long time, masterfully chaired by artist Jessica Foley.

The second event, featuring writer Joanna Walsh and artist Emma Haugh, couldn’t have been more different. These two practitioners, so unalike in many ways, were surprisingly united by their shared preoccupation with pleasure and desire, and the acts of imagining them into existence. Walsh, who refuses a clear division between fiction and non-fiction, writes what might be roughly labelled as ‘confessional’ prose, though she was explicit in resisting this term, arguing that she does not write about ‘herself’, at least not as a unitary personality who recounts her own experience. Instead, the thing that interests Walsh is the condition of the self more broadly, and how this self is constructed in a constantly shifting, increasingly dematerialised, public domain. Conversely, Haugh’s practice involves extensive research, and the construction of physical spaces that reflect and respond to queer female desire. Both Haugh and Walsh share an inter-

est in female desire, how it is constructed by our surroundings, but also how it might construct our surroundings in turn, and what the architecture of female desire might look like.

ART & STRUCTURE ‘Structure’, the last in the series of ‘Art & Writing’ talks, was by far the most literary of all three events, fittingly programmed as part of Dublin Art Book Fair. Featuring artist/writer Adrian Duncan (who is also co-editor of PVA) and writer Selina Guinness, it effectively captured the mutual influences that exist between the literary and art worlds, where words and images propel each other into existence.

Guinness read a short story published in a recent collection, All Over Ireland, edited by Deirdre Madden, which looked at abortion and Olafur Eliasson’s seminal Tate Modern commission The Weather Project. Duncan read a short story published in The Dublin Review and projected a short video work. The subsequent discussion was wideranging, though the two writers are unified by their interest in architectural structures: Duncan has previously researched the ‘Bungalow Bliss’ phenomenon while Guinness’s memoir, The Crocodile at the Door, recounted her troubled inheritance of a farmhouse in the Dublin mountains. We could not have asked for a more satisfying finale to the 2016 series.

The premise of these events was simple: to hear from artists and writers who operate at the intersections of writing and the visual arts and whose practices share some commonalities. Interestingly, the unifying theme of ‘Art & Writing’ itself was not a determining factor for these conversations, rather it allowed for a great deal of positive uncertainty as to how each event would unfold. Given the wealth of perspectives and diversity of practices on display, we had little prior sense of how any similarities might manifest during the events. In retrospect, it is even harder to draw parallels, as each iteration was as unique as the voices it brought together.

Marysia Wieckiewicz-Carroll is an independent curator and writer, currently based in Dublin, and co-editor of Paper Visual Art Journal.

Note 1. Nathan O’Donnell and Marysia Wieckiewicz-Carroll, ‘Activating Art Writing’, Visual Artists’ News Sheet, May/June 2015.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

Critique Supplement Edition 29: January – February 2017 Benedict Drew, ‘The Saw Tooth Wave’ Miguel Martin, ‘Put to the Sword’ CCA Derry-Londonderry, 15 October – 11 December

Benedict Drew, ‘The Saw Tooth Wave’ installation view, 2016; photo courtesy of the artist and CCA Derry-Londonderry

Miguel Martin, Put to the Sword, 2016; image courtesy of the artist and CCA Derry-Londonderry

Benedict Drew, ‘The Saw Tooth Wave’ installation view, 2016; photo courtesy of the artist and CCA Derry-Londonderry

I recently took a ‘How Millennial Are You?’ personality quiz while I should have been searching for a job, if you can digest the irony. “You are asleep.

Where’s your phone?” was one memorable question. There could only be one answer: “On the pillow next to me”.

Benedict Drew and Miguel Martin dig into this field where the human-machine hybrid grows.

Miguel Martin’s sculpture Put to the Sword is a bronze-cast of a head mask sourced from the internet. It is set alone on the floor of a bare space partitioned off by a copper lattice curtain and lit by a light bulb suspended at waist height just above the sculpture. The suggestion is that this has some relation to the archaeological phenomenon of beheaded ‘bog bodies’, and it’s true that the sculpture evokes a sensation of burial. The coppery partition and warmth of the light bulb match the hue of the sculpture, subtly implicating the space in the destruction and preservation of this person.

In ‘The Saw Tooth Wave’, Benedict Drew presents dioramas of images and objects observing each other. Four hanging paintings of faces are arranged in a circle, watching an abstract film of shifting colours and patterns; in another space, a video projection displays an un-interpretable film, with a large tree-like structure situated at the other side of the room where we imagine an audience would sit. Its branches hold tambourines that rattle in response to the audio track of the film.

‘Saw Tooth Wave’ refers to a waveform of the same name characterised by repetitive peaks and troughs, climbing to a sharp peak of frequency then abruptly dropping back down to a base line and so on, illustrating a jagged line of teeth that gives the wave its name. It is most commonly encountered in digitally produced music, but the sawtooth wave is also the type of signal used to produce visual images on CRT-based televisions and computer monitors.

On CRT screens, the ‘refresh rate’ may be understood as the frequency with which the signals are repeated, and the more frequent the repetition, the more stable the image. In effect, the sawtooth wave is the DNA of the contemporary digital image, even if it is no longer dominant with the development of LCD screens. Drew digs symbolically into this foundational metaphor of digital media: it is literally produced through reproduction; there is no original.

This vacillation between originality and reproduction is also the most salient quality of Martin’s ‘ Put to the Sword’. As a viewer, I don’t trust the provenance of this object. Ostensibly it is a casting made

from an archaeological artefact, but how many times removed? Did the artist cast the actual mask or a reproduction of it? Did he buy it from a dodgy eBay seller with suspiciously favourable ratings generated by click farms? There is a scarcity of information that would make this sculpture opaque and unapproachable, yet from this knowledgeless chasm emerges the idea of the bog bodies. Whether this is part of the object’s origin – once belonging to a beheaded bog body – or simply aimed at setting the work in context, is besides the point: this is an object of layered, multifoliate versions.

In her film Is The Museum A Battlefield?, Hito Steyerl uses an iPhone as a symbolic device to transport an image through its versions on screen, from the sight of a battlefield in Turkey through to a Berlin museum, the Art Institute Of Chicago, then herself. “I tried to follow the bullet backwards, to its origin ... and I found a picture of myself actually shooting video on an iPhone with a caption ‘This Is A Shot’”. Steyerl takes a starting point similar to Miguel Martin by critically mining the history of a single incident – the death of her friend Andrea Wolf – as Martin does with the ambiguous provenance of this mask and whomever it represents. Put to the Sword approaches the archaeological with a scarcity of information, rather than a glut, preferring the speculative voice to the authorial.

Drew’s ‘The Saw Tooth Wave’ is not given to any voice at all: rather it obfuscates the authorial, not through speculation, but through an indulgence in the logic of the subject. A screen can only conduct an image by constantly refreshing it in sequence, and it is impossible to pick one millisecond and say “This – this is it!” Thus, we are complicit in constructing the things we view. The meaning – if that is the correct term – of ‘The Saw Tooth Wave’ is not delivered; it is absorbed as an ambient sensation.

The CCA presents two differently textured exhibitions that fluctuate between sparsity and density. They observe and circulate through each other, jointly imagining futures where creation gives way to experience. A future where this thing presently sleeping next to me, quietly producing images, telemetry and ad profiles, may one day work for me – as me – while I sleep. I don’t know how I feel about that, but at least I could stop job hunting.

Kevin Burns is a Derry-based artist and critical writer .

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet CRITIQUE SUPPLEMENT

January – February 2017

Rayleen Clancy ‘The Secret Garden of Harmonia’ 7 – 20 November 2016, Signal Arts Centre, Bray

Mary Patterson ‘Paper Trails’ Ballina Arts Centre, Mayo, 10 November – 31 December 2016

PLACING a painting on a wall is an invitation to a conversation – but not all conversations are the same. While there will be a minimum of two participants, the tone and tenor will be determined by the speaker rather than the listener. The initiator may want to inform, persuade, explore, exchange.

But just as with spoken conversations, the intent of the creator of an artwork may not always be apparent to the viewer straight away.

Rayleen Clancy’s exhibition, ‘The Secret Garden of Harmonia’, is one such challenging conversation. Its initial impact is visual; Clancy’s palette is vivid, a combination of rainbow hues that shout out to the viewer. The subject matter of the individual pieces is identifiable: a woman on a horse; apes; a child; an older woman; a space station; a hippie; but to call these representational paintings would be misleading. The canvas in many of the paintings is awash with other elements, such as flowers, fish, foliage and animals, both aggressive and benign.

This contextualisation, along with the chosen palette, suggests a visionary, other-worldly interpretation. The youth’s head in Hypnotic Meditation is encased in a bubble or space helmet; the background against which the apes are presented in Parallel Ancestry includes a futuristic construction.

Add to these details the spaceships in Supreme Being and the laser eyes in Radar, and the impact is of a science fiction narrative. However, this reading does not fully account for the hippie, for example, or the woman on a horse. How do they fit into the overall story? A story, or a collection of stories, is what this exhibition appears to offer. Nine of the fifteen images in the catalogue, produced by Clancy, are accompanied by texts, several of which are quite detailed. The first impression is that the paintings are the illustrations of a narrative; however reading the text seems to undermine this view, with the lack of an overarching connection between the pieces proving somewhat disconcerting. In Hadid’s Submerged Favela, “a futuristic solution to high density housing”, there are two figures “embracing [who] allude to love”, which leaves the viewer wondering which is the main story in this piece.

The catalogue presents the reader with an extensive level of detail. There are references to “Darwinian evolution”, Greek mythology, “Dr Evermor’s ‘Forevertron”, Christian symbolism, Japanese culture and Zaha Hadid. Such a wideranging selection serves to confuse rather than clarify, and creates an impression of randomness rather than coherence.

A more important question, however, is why the text is necessary in the first place. To take River Sage as an example, is it necessary to explain that this is “an homage to old age and knowledge”? The title itself suggests this, and by explicating Clancy has deprived her viewer of the pleasure of deciphering, of reassuring themselves that they ‘understand the language’ or, better still, of finding their own interpretation. Yes, the fact that the Japanese call the passion flower the ‘clockface’ flower explains something the viewer might not be aware of, but surely symbolism is a form of communication in its own right, and to paraphrase it is to diminish its power and purpose.

The face of the old woman in River Sage is one of Clancy’s more successful renderings. The child in Finder and the young man in Pilgrim also show technical ability. But there are infelicities elsewhere – the proportions of the woman on the horse (whose feet suggest a workhorse rather than the trusty steed

ARRIVING at Ballina Arts Centre on a wild November morning and seeing the River Moy in flood, the logic of Mary Patterson’s exhibition seems very clear: to try to find responses to nature through art. The appropriately named ‘Paper Trails’ features a series of works on paper created through a formidable range of drawing and printmaking processes.

Patterson’s use of diverse techniques forms part of her quest to identify a medium and a language that can convey the beauty and complexity of nature.

The artworks that feature in the exhibition are displayed in the open-plan landing space that curves out towards the adjacent River Moy. This light, airy space provides an ideal setting for the works in close proximity to nature.

‘Paper Trails’ encompasses a range of methodologies evident in collographs, charcoal drawings, drypoint intaglios, monoprints and a series of finely-detailed pen and ink works. Patterson depicts a broad selection of imagery, from small natural forms like lichen and stones to sweeping landscapes. There are animals too – hares, goats, frogs and fish – depicted in various contexts.

The collograph High Summer is a visually rich work that features intense yet naturalistic colours, with an unconventional ‘all overness’ to its composition. A sense of imposed order on the chaos of nature is also prevalent in two groupings of highlydetailed pen and ink drawings that form the most persuasive and eloquent subsets within the broader collection of artworks. The drawings are small in scale and use circular compositions to move away from the conventional pictorial structure of landscapes.

The drawings are presented in two sets, and centre around the artist’s locale of Foxford, County Mayo. The first group of four images contains two distinct representational approaches. Two images, entitled Game of Thrones 1 and 2, depict the earth from above and show mysterious earth works and boundaries barely visible at ground level but clear and graphically fascinating when seen from above.

By contrast, the two images displayed alongside are of things seen in extreme close up. Ripples on the Shore and Lichenform are akin to magnified studies of nature or laboratory samples seen under a microscope. They share the patterns and rhythms of the macro images and the same fine detailed pen and ink work.

In the second set of images, Contornare, Lough Cullin, Patterson combines two distinct types of drawing. The central motif is a mineral-like structure composed of parallel lines reminiscent of those indicating terrain on a map. Countless minuscule circles bound this island or rock-like form. The formal simplicity of black and white enables Patterson to play with layers of associations in the imagery while still retaining a sense of continuity. Rivas: the Windings of the Moy seems to channel art historical references: a river snaking off into the distance recalls the idealised landscape of da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

In the statement accompanying the exhibition, Patterson quotes French painter and printmaker Pierre Bonnard: “Art will never do without nature”. The choice of Bonnard is an interesting one.

He was an artist whose work was predicated on a restless search for visual responses to the complexity of the natural world and on overcoming the difficulty of transcribing his observations into a form that could communicate eloquently to the viewer.

Making precise patterns and rhythms from the complex forms of nature is a way of communicating their poetry, layers of history and meaning.

Bonnard also made art about what he saw around him. His work is characterised by the use of flurries of small marks, which come together to form dense and nuanced surfaces. He used the small rooms of his house and the rhythms of everyday life as his subject matter, as though the whole universe could be viewed through the lens of his immediate surroundings. In a similar vein, Patterson has used the land, its outward appearance and the layers of history just below the surface, to make a series of works that have, for her, the same immediacy and seriousness. In her exhibition notes, the artist outlines her interest in the traditional ways of harnessing the land as well as man’s impact on the natural world. Patterson’s mark making reflects multiplicity of ways in which the land can be represented, as terrain, as a series of boundaries, as mineral and botanical forms and as geological phenomena. Using the marks made on the landscape by man’s interventions over centuries, Patterson charts the effects of colonialism, changing societal structures and the tensions in our relationship with nature.

Mary Patterson, Ripples on the Shore

Mary Patterson, High Summer

Rayleen Clancy, Hypnotic Meditation

Rayleen Clancy, Pilgrim

of a warrior woman) jar in Past Life Princess. The impression given is that technique is less Clancy’s focus than theme, and returns the viewer to their initial enquiry: what is the creator’s intention with this body of work?

The title of the exhibition is often a clue, but while ‘The Secret Garden of Harmonia’ encompasses some of the pieces, it doesn’t account for American Hero, for example. This wide range of subject matter is an iteration of the eclectic nature of the references: it is difficult for the viewer to discern the thread that connects the works, other than the artist herself.

And that may be the answer. In the accompanying text to Past Life Princess, Clancy states that, “While meditating about my past lives, this girl appeared”. From this we can postulate that the pieces are reflections of Clancy’s inner worldview.

To return to the conversation analogy, this exhibition calls to mind a series of dream descriptions, random images of disparate elements gathered according to some ineffable, internal, individual logic. The challenge with such a discourse is how to make that inner world interesting to the listener or viewer. Clancy’s choice of palette and heavily detailed descriptions suggest that she is anxious to do so, but by choosing these strategies, she risks creating noise rather than communication. Less could be more, perhaps?

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

Andy Parsons is an artist based in Sligo. He is the founder of Floating World Artist Books.

January – February 2017

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet CRITIQUE SUPPLEMENT

Fiona Lowe Brunell ‘The Life & Lines of C.S. Lewis & Literary Legends’ ArtisAnn Gallery, Belfast, 3 – 26 November 2016 IN Fiona Lowe Brunell’s collection of watercolour paintings and digital prints inspired by the work and lives of Irish writers, there is naturally a basis of reading – both text-based and in less standardised forms. This process begins conventionally with two digital prints, Oscar Wilde Quotes and C. S. Lewis Quotes. Extracted and collated quips like “To love all is to be vulnerable” and “Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast” are arranged in succession across the paper, mostly light-coloured text against strips of a darker tone. Combined with sans serif capital letters, these text-images resemble a broken stream of insight put through a label maker or a stamped-out manifesto.

The quotes are disparate and give a sense of each writer’s persona as it has been boiled down through history: Wilde as facetious, Lewis as fanciful and paternal. The distillation process behind a historical personality comes to mind and, concurrently, the less emblematic things said by these writers: the phrases that don’t contribute to a collective ‘feeling’ of them, and the trickle-down of their use in contemporary settings. It’s a tangential thing to consider, but these text portraits of carefully balanced, light-hearted, inspiring and ironic words don’t offer much beyond the sum of their parts. The colour coding is explained in the exhibition text, itself a very classical, linear approach – red connoting passion, for example – but still, this visual translation doesn’t alter or build upon the ‘found’ words beyond veneration. Oscar Wilde Bar Quote runs into similar issues. Stylising the quote “Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing” as a colourful bar code echoes the writer’s sentiment around value, aligning it to a visual art context, but little else can otherwise occur.

It’s here that the issue lies with long-revered work and persons being used as direct source material in visual art, in effect translating from one art form into another. All creative suggestion and space is occupied by the work of the writer, leaving little room for an artist to do anything other than reiterate the long established. To avoid insipidity, emphasis needs to be placed on the artist’s own position in this relationship; points of tension that crop up in the act of moving across creative fields need to be found, and a step back taken from the process of canonisation to explore how literature operates.

Lowe Brunell’s work touches upon these conflicts in incidental ways. C. S. Lewis Quotes has a copyright notice on the bottom, marking the permission from his estate and drawing an interesting line between inspiration and joint authorship, with the writer and contemporary

Fiona Lowe Brunell, Oscar Wilde, 2016

stakeholders as passive collaborators in an artwork.

Similarly, the artist’s Essence works – abstract watercolour paintings made from a palette colours representative of each writer – are flanked by quotes on brass plaques along the frame, such as “Shut your eyes and see” by James Joyce. It’s of course a poetic statement, but is drained of character when presented in isolation. This quote in particular is suggestive of the disparity between the process of experiencing visual art and text – a grey area that could be explored more thoroughly.

The Essence paintings are the most visually appealing works in the exhibition; each resembles something between landscape and an astronomical scene in layered, lightly brushed colours with small splashes. These almost synesthetic transcriptions of literary figures have visceral appeal. They are suggestive of half-formed states between an evoked and an already-existing world. Despite being clearly grounded in hefty abstract-expressionistic references, the subject matter benefits from the lightness and fragility of the medium and its permission to be a little more open-ended.

Ambiguity is boxed up again, however, in the coding of the Bio-Cycle series. The selected colour palettes for each writer are again applied, this time in concentric circles, with the number of segments in each corresponding to author’s birth and death dates. Each block represents a century, decade or year, filled with bands of mostly tertiary layers and flecks of earthy red, muted purples or steely blues, thereby forming the biographical lifecycles of Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, C. S. Lewis and Seamus Heaney.

The numerical framework is a strangely academic alignment with these nonfigurative pieces. It’s certainly very aesthetic and didactic – as the exhibition literature suggests – but doesn’t suggest much beyond these mathematically treated reference points. The circular form and delicate painting technique softens but can’t prevent the algebraic method from feeling overly conclusive.

Whilst it is a more unusual take on representation than the ubiquitous photos and portraits of these writers, having a definitive key-code to pick apart the work feels rote.

Visual art is often used as a way of making hefty cultural touchstones more accessible, like the C.S. Lewis Festival that runs concurrently to the exhibition across east Belfast. If artists using this basis can fully launch from this starting point, acknowledge their own place within their work, and not be held to the sacrosanct treatment of cultural giants, arresting and autonomous work has room to emerge.

Dorothy Hunter is a writer based in Belfast.

Fiona Lowe Brunell , C.S. Lewis Quotes, 2016

Hennessy Portrait Prize 2016 National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin 26 November – 26 March

Gerry Davis, Seán; photos courtesy of Hennessy Portrait Prize

Vera Ryklova, Untitled #5001, 2016

THERE are 14 portraits in this exhibition of shortlisted works. Surrounding the viewer on all sides, in each one a lone figure is presented (why no couples or groups?) and this singular focus contributes to the sense we’re in the company of deities. There are also a lot of big heads, their presence dominating the small room at the top of the Millennium Wing’s forbidding stairs. Of course the figure of the artist is also present, directly in the self-portraits, or otherwise implicated. Open to artists in all disciplines, the shortlist consists mostly of paintings, nine in total, along with two photographs, a graphite drawing, a digital drawing and a video projection onto a terracotta bust.

Those eligible include artists from or living in Ireland. With a first prize of €15,000 and a €5000 commission to boot, the relative absence of betterknown names is surprising. Is portraiture innately conservative, and so less appealing to the cutting edge? There is certainly a well-meaning moralism to some of these works (back stories are available in the exhibition catalogue) and the resulting lack of ambiguity can have a flattening effect. Perhaps because she has only herself to consider, Vera Ryklova’s photographic self-portrait Untitled #5001 operates at a remove from such niceties. The artist exposes herself, literally in the open gesture of her body, and more affectingly in how she combines sexual assertiveness and vulnerability in the same self-image.

Looking closely at the exhibition’s only other photograph, Kim Haughton’s picture of the actor Gabriel Byrne (the sole celebrity here), a couple began discussing the work over my shoulder. “It’s a photograph?” – “No, it’s a painting” – “Really, wow, look at the book shelf, imagine having to paint all of those titles”. Verisimilitude creates the wow factor, even when the wow in question is not quite what they think it is. Capturing the famous actor in a reflective mood, Gabriel Byrne is a good photograph.

We have the voyeuristic pleasure of seeing inside his New York apartment, while access to his inner world is hinted at (at the time he was playing James Tyrone in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night) but denied.

Returning to the giant heads. Jennifer is an oil painting on canvas by Stephen Johnston. A bravura act of painstaking detail, you sense the artist has worried away at his task, careful lest his idol-like subject smite him for any hair out of place. Part of an ongoing community project, the ‘ordinary’ subject

of the painting is rendered extraordinary by the artist’s monumental treatment. Similarly oversized and finely detailed, the male sitter in Catherine Creaney’s This Too Will Pass is more pensive. The large head is expertly rendered, but it’s a sort of high-fidelity gone hyper, the surfeit of detail leaving little room for the imagination. The artist mentions the “almost brutal honesty” of Lucien Freud as an influence, many of whose portraits, coincidentally, are on show across town at IMMA. While both of these paintings are closely observed, they lack Freud’s domineering ruthlessness; it is the subject here who is king.

Freud’s intensity had a lot to do with time.

Over hundreds of hours, the painter and the sitter were locked together in an equal mortification. For many artists and their subjects the camera has done away with such intimacy. Used to capture likeness, photographs often stand in for the model, an image substituting for the presence of flesh and blood. An exception to this could be the large oil on canvas Imran by Gavan McCullough. Another outsized head, we’re told the painting is one of a series of portraits of asylum seekers. ‘Imran’ is rendered in muted tones of brown and grey, his expression relaxed but vaguely troubled, in a kind of jigsaw of painted facets. I was reminded of the English painter Euan Uglow, whose precisely articulated figure studies bear the marks of their measured construction. On the other hand, the distinctive structure of the painting might have its origins in a Photoshop filter, bringing us back to photography, so it’s hard to say.

I have a soft spot for Harold, an egg tempera painting on true gesso panel by Fergus A. Ryan.

While every thread of ‘Harold’s’ tweed and corduroy ensemble appears individually executed, we never lose sight of it as a painting, a handmade response to the subject’s living presence. Harold himself conveys a self-assured jouissance, his calm gaze contemplating you, contemplating him. And speaking of jouissance, making some notes in the gallery café, I wrote that Seán, a small oil painting by Gerry Davis, had the most ‘juice of life’. Swift seeming and faintly bruised, the vividly painted head has an ideal scale, the proportions of the work coinciding with the human subject. For its modesty and liveliness, I was glad to hear it named the eventual winner.

John Graham is an artist based in Dublin.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

23

HOW IS IT MADE?

A Numbness in the Mouth KEVIN GAFFNEY DISCUSSES HIS NEW FILM WORK, WHICH FORMS PART OF HIS CURRENT EXHIBTION AT MILLENIUM COURT ARTS CENTRE AND WAS SUPPORTED BY SKY ACADEMY. Kevin Gaffney, still from A Numbness in the Mouth, 2016

LAST June I was awarded a Sky Academy Arts Scholarship to create a new film and a book, both entitled A Numbness in the Mouth. The film is presented as part of a solo exhibition, ‘Unseen by my Open Eyes’, which runs at Millennium Court Arts Centre, Portadown, until 25 January. This exhibition also features three other recent films that I made in South Korea, Iran and Taiwan. The Sky scholarship offers high-level mentoring from an arts professional. My mentor is Kathleen Soriano, who is curating an exhibition of my work at Block 336, Brixton, London, in May 2017.

A Numbness in the Mouth was made on location at Shackleton’s Mill, Strawberry Beds, on the River Liffey. Flour was produced there for nearly 200 years until it ceased operation in 1998, although milling is thought to have existed on the site since the twelfth century. Workers in the mill were mostly men, with women working in the laboratory where the freshly produced flour would be tested and baked. The mill continued to operate during the Famine and bread was rationed during The Emergency (WWII).

I wanted the film to envision an Ireland of the near future, imagining a more militarised and self-contained island where climate change has benefited the production of wheat so much that the market is flooded with flour. To retain economic balance every citizen is instructed to consume more than five pounds of flour per day. The film is enacted by Sinéad Ní Uallacháin, a broadcaster with RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, and Jenny Swingler, a performer, writer and theatre director based in London. Ní Uallacháin translated the script into Irish and during rehearsals together we created the dialogue-heavy performance of her character, a newsreader or governmentspokesperson presenting the latest ration guidelines on daytime TV. While visiting Sky Academy for meetings, presentations and workshops in London, I would schedule meetings with Jenny to rehearse in a replica Japanese Noh theatre in the nearby Royal Holloway University. Her character in the film is a mute cipher who embodies various ideas in the script. In each scene, Jenny is depicted interacting with various foodstuffs: an egg emerges from her mouth, flour lands on her body, she is submerged in 75 gallons of orange jelly, emerges from a giant fake cake and presents an array of bleak, flourbased recipes on a TV cooking show.

It snowed on the last day of filming, which made the mill even more inhospitably cold. A documentary TV crew from Sky arrived to film the production and to conduct interviews with myself and the cast. Wired with a microphone and followed by film cameras, I tried to keep my focus on the performers. This documentary footage was broadcast on Sky Arts as part of an interview with Melvyn Bragg.

Earlier in the week, I had the mill recommissioned for filming.

The footage of the machines was to be accompanied by a voiceover about consuming sexual pleasures as greedily as food, conveying the

Kevin Gaffney, still from A Numbness in the Mouth, 2016

impact of food and sex on one’s temperament. As the mill began to operate again, with the water-powered turbine spinning and grain moving through the chutes, we worked methodically through each floor, filming the machines with a ‘pornographic eye’.

Fingal Arts Office facilitated my access to Shackleton’s Mill, which is owned by Fingal County Council. They advised me on the insurance and risk assessments I would need to put in place in order to ensure that my plans for the project could go ahead. They also put me in touch with the archivist Colm McQuinn at Fingal’s archives in Swords, who had an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of Shackleton’s Mill. As well as showing me the documents preserved from the mill, he also suggested readings that outline the mill’s interesting place in Irish history. During the rebellion of 1916, the mill broke the Belfast trade boycott – a ban on northern goods coming into the south – to acquire white flour sacks from across the border. As a result, the mill was held up by the Irish Citizen Army – armed with bombs and guns – and the flour sacks were set on fire in the front yard of the mill. It was also the first business to lock out its workers during Ireland’s 1913 workers’ revolt.

Colm also showed me a 35mm Technicolor film reel that was found in the mill upon its closure and we worked on getting it digitised. It turned out to be an infomercial of a mother baking bread for her children accompanied by an animation on the process of wheat germination and the properties of white bread. We traced its production to the 1950s in the UK, and after attempting to find its owners, we registered it with the EU Orphan Works database (euipo. europa.eu). Excerpts from the Technicolor infomercial feature in my film.

Having explored the mill from all angles in the year before filming, I became fixated with filming an aerial sequence with a 4K

cinema camera. I envisaged flying over the Liffey to reveal the mill, in bright Autumn colours, nestled in the Strawberry Beds. In October last year, during a short spell of sun with low wind ahead of the rain, we received a window of clearance from the nearby Weston Airport and the drone set off. In the film, this aerial sequence is accompanied by the soundtrack of the 1950s infomercial, creating a ridiculously optimistic Disneyesque score.

Three other recent films feature in my exhibition at Millennium Court. In The Mirror is Dark and Inky, daily life in Iran is interrupted by a whale living in a bathtub. Our Stranded Friends in Distant Lands reflects on geographic, political and emotional separation in South Korea. Everything Disappears explores selfhood, relationships and military conscription in Taiwan. Each film is shot in the prevalent or native tongue of the respective country, with participants from Iran, Taiwan and South Korea performing the roles.

I had the pleasure of working with Black Dog Publishing on the design of a new book, also titled Unseen by my Open Eyes, which features images and scripts from these four films, each exploring the construction, projection and manipulation of identity. An essay by Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith contextualises and reflects on the work, and an appendix compiles the scripts in Persian, Korean, Mandarin and Irish. Unseen by my Open Eyes is available from Black Dog Publishing online, while the exhibition at Millennium Court Arts Centre runs until 25 January 2017. I will give a talk about my work at 2pm on Wednesday 18 January and all are welcome.

Kevin Gaffney is a visual artist based in Dublin who works in film and photography. kevin-gaffney.com skyacademy.com blackdogonline.com

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

RESIDENCY

Resort Revelations SUZANNE WALSH REPORTS ON ‘RESORT REVELATIONS’, A VISUAL ARTISTS’ RESIDENCY PROGRAMME IN PORTRANE, COUNTY DUBLIN.

Alan James Burns, Entirely Hollow Aside from the Dark; multi-channel acoustic performance at Smugglers Cave, Tower Bay, Portrane, Resort Revelations 2016; photo by Brian Cregan

Hannah Black, My Bodies, 2014; video installation; Caroline Madden, Spirit, 2008; hot sculpted/ cast glass; part of ‘Tables and chairs and other people’; photo by Brian Cregan

January – February 2017

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

25

RESIDENCY

Launch of ‘Resort Revelations’ programme at Lynders Mobile Home Park, 2016; photo by Brian Cregan

‘Three nights of falling stars ahead, or so they say...’

IN August this year I was invited to write a creative text to accompany the ‘Resort Revelations’ residency, so I took a trip to Portrane to stay for a week by the sea. This artist’s residency programme is situated on the Donabate/Portrane peninsula in north County Dublin. The residency is offered in two parts: an initial exploratory stay and a subsequent, more intensive, production period. Artists stay in a speciallydesignated mobile home in Lynders Mobile Home Park, which looks out on the sea and Lambay Island beyond. Each year, the resulting works are presented during the annual weeklong Bleeding Pig Festival in September. Artists often collaborate with the community as well as drawing on the history and landscape of the area, with support from local residents including park owner Gerry Lynders.

Resort Revelations was initiated by Caroline Cowley, Public Arts Coordinator at Fingal County Council, after several visits to Portrane in 2011 with artist Christine Mackey, who was working on a project in the area. In October 2012, Cowley presented ‘Commissions +’, an international symposium on public art and commissioning which reflected on a number of public art commissions that had recently been developed for the region. The symposium took place in a local hotel, which offered a suitable base from which to carry out a number of artist tours. During these repeat visits to Portrane, Cowley was struck by the number of mobile home parks situated in the seaside town. Lynders Mobile Home Park was of particular interest, given its proximity to St. Ita’s Psychiatric Hospital and the views it offers of Lambay Island. She persuaded park owner Gerry Lynders to host the residency project, and to act as artist support and guide, a role which he excelled in. Gerry was given a Business to Arts award in 2016 for his involvement in the project.

‘Resort Revelations’ has hosted close to 20 Irish artists since its inception in 2014. Previous residents have included Rhona Byrne, Andrew Carson, Mick Holly and Vagabond Reviews. In 2015 Sean Taylor developed an Acouscenic Sound Walk from the mobile home park to the coast, and Kate Strain and Fiona Hallinan presented a performance cookery demonstration and public meal which was based on stories and experiences of their time on residency. Dr Maeve Connolly produced an A to Z of Resort Life as part of her research on the use of ‘escape vehicles’ in art, drawing on the work of American artist Andrea Zittel, whose practice reflects on periods spent in holiday trailers. Gareth Kennedy’s 2015 work The Origins and Uses of Round Towers saw the construction of a temporary 12-metre-tall straw bale tower, echoing Portrane’s water tower, which has dominated the skyline since the mid 1800s. The straw bale structure was built through meitheal (collective work) and was activated through a series of events and workshops.

This year the residency was undertaken by Caroline Doolin,

Marcus Gambril, Masc.ing, 2016; wood, cardboard, paper; part of ‘Tables and chairs and other people’

Emer Lynch, Alan James Burns and Fiona Marron, who developed their own individual projects in response to the area. Across the projects, fiction, geology and communication emerged as common themes.

Additional works were developed for the ‘Resort Revelations’ event, which took place from 6 – 11 September 2016, including Michael McClouglin and Mike Finn’s radio play The Ocean Wonder, Ella De Burca’s seminar ‘The Fools The Fools The Fools’, and my own text, Who Will Silence Them at Last, which was published in the event poster/ brochure.

The impetus for Emer Lynch’s curatorial inquiry ‘Tables and Chairs and Other People’ emerged during expeditions with the other artists in 2015. On a trip to explore local caves, Lynch was inspired by the act of crawling through the caves’ constricted entrances. Using this as a starting point for an exhibition, she installed artworks in tents in the mobile home park, as well as in bathrooms, laundry and shower rooms. This provided intimate encounters in less predictable settings, with the selected works including sculpture, video and audio narratives, as well as a publication that was placed in the camp-site shop. Invited artists and works included Hannah Black (The Fall of Communism and My Bodies), Richard Forrest (Rockness), Marcus Gambrill (Masc.ing), Lorna Hayden (To Count and Dwell; Likewise), Mitchell Kehe (Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, Rheny and Whatever Comes Next), Caroline Madden (Spirit), James Moran (James Moran Explores Television) and Camilla Wills (Dictated from the Bed).

Alan James Burns’s ‘psycho-acoustic’ event Entirely Hollow Aside from the Dark took place on two consecutive nights in a cave at low tide. Visitors were guided to the site by stewards with torches, where they were then immersed in an intensive 40-minute surround-sound experience. The soundscape consisted both of abstract and familiar sounds, while a female voice (Caitríona Ní Mhurchú) delivered a fractured poetic narrative on the lunar, tidal and mental forces that can disturb us. The project was realised in collaboration with writer Sue Rainsford and audio designer Ian Dunphy.

A missing subsea cable, once connected to the mysterious Lambay Island, was the starting point of Fiona Marron’s project. The resulting work was shown as the installation Landing Station, a wooden cabin containing cable-stained stones, cable section, photographs of charts and a video work entitled To Write at a Distance.

In the video, Mary Linders recalls the cable’s appearances and disappearances over the years, and its absence on any map, which adds to its elusive nature. Marron gave a presentation, Communication Evolution, in the marquee which had been erected near the residency mobile for the weeklong programme of events. She was joined by Derek Cassidy of Irish Communications Research Group who discussed the history of communication cables in Ireland.

Caroline Doolin’s research began on a walk with Gerry Lynders and local resident Joe English, when conversations turned to the

‘energetic qualities of rocks’. This led Doolin to investigate the volcanic history of the area and perceived links between geothermal energy and motivational therapy, which, it is claimed, generates an emotional kind of energy. In synthesising this research, Doolin created A Motivational Manifestation, a video work presenting fictitious accounts of Lambay’s former volcano, alongside footage of present-day Lambay. Animated motivational quotes appear in the smoke, while depictions of local geology are interspersed with archival footage of a rave in nearby Donabate.

Michael McClouglin and Mike Finn’s radio play, The Ocean Wonder, was broadcast from nearby St. Ita’s psychiatric hospital radio station, with a suggestion that listeners tune in from their car radios at nearby Tower Beach car park. The play was very much a community collaboration, with local singers and amateur actors playing characters, and non-linear narratives centring around the ‘Ocean Wonder’, a child who survived the shipwreck of the Tayleur in 1854 off Lambay Island.

Through the songs and semi-fictional testimonials spanning 100 years, a kind of folk history was invoked.

Ella De Burca’s seminar ‘The Fools The Fools The Fools’, held in St. Ita’s Hospital church, was the closing event of the week. The seminar examined the crossover between politics and art, and the ethical implications of representing and reconstructing social histories. The invited speakers were artists Sarah Pierce, Gary Farrelly and Brian Maguire, curators Helen Carey and Aneta Szylak, and art writer John Welchman. The resulting presentations and discussions on the day examined the role of the artist who treads a fine line between ‘illustration and subjectivity’.

During my own residency, I walked the land and talked to a local historian as well as the other artists. I wrote a short piece of prose which drew on fragments from Beckett’s story Fingal, set in the locality, as well as on the tensions between nature and human constructions. The text featured in the event’s poster/brochure was designed by Rossi McCauley of Distinctive Repetitions graphic design studio. Photographer Brian Cregan provided medium format images of blood-coloured algaed rocks in a nearby cave, suggesting an even more mysterious world.

Caroline Cowley’s vision for ‘Resort Revelations’ is that Gerry Lynders and the Bleeding Pig Festival will begin to manage the residency themselves, so that it will become a self-sustaining project with overview support from Fingal County Council. ‘Resort Revelations’ continues into 2017 with UK artist Selina Thompson as part of the Collaborative Arts Partnership Programme funded by Creative Europe.

Suzanne Walsh is an artist, writer and musician currently based in Dublin. fingalarts.ie

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

ORGANISATION

Arte Útil Summit 2016; photo by Michelle Maddison

1:1 Scale JOANNE LAWS INTERVIEWS ALISTAIR HUSDON, DIRECTOR OF MIMA AND CO-DIRECTOR OF ARTE ÚTIL.

‘New Linthorpe’ coffee house project

‘New Linthorpe’ coffee house project (detail)

January – February 2017

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

27

ORGANISATION sive platform which sought to address the impact of the recent EU referendum and the ongoing issues of migration specific to the context of Middlesbrough. Bringing all this energy from elsewhere – from museums, academic institutions, local charities and so on – we held a series of workshops around the town with the aim of developing solutions that would have currency going forward. We set an agenda and we’re already seeing an impact on the ground, with the initiation of a housing project and one of our local artists Emily Hesse deciding to run for mayor!

The Arte Útil Summit 2017 will be held in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, and will take the form of the first Arte Útil Summer School. We are currently developing a curriculum that will offer a transferable model of how to work in this way. I think the future is really in promoting this way of working and offering resources to initiate further projects around the world.

Arte Útil Summit 2016; photo by Michelle Maddison

IN 2014, Alistair Hudson was appointed Director of Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima), part of Teesside University. From 2004 to 2014, he was Deputy Director of Grizedale Arts – a contemporary arts residency and commissioning agency in the central Lake District in rural Northern England. In keeping with the principles of Arte Útil, mima describes itself as a ‘useful’ museum, established through ‘usership’ rather than spectatorship.

Joanne Laws: Can you give some details on your background at Grizedale Arts?

Alistair Hudson: The impetus behind Grizedale Arts was to evolve an anti-romantic version of art outside metropolitan centres. The ‘long story of art’ is one of art being useful and operating as part of ordinary life. From the Arts and Crafts movement to the Bauhaus, the history of modernism is laced with people’s ambitions to escape autonomy, and for art to have social or political agency in the world. The art market emerged alongside the rise of the affluent bourgeoisie during the Industrial Revolution and arguably came to its logical conclusion with the economic crash of 2007. At Grizedale Arts we wanted to reconnect with the longer history of art as social tool, in a similar way to what social reformer John Ruskin (also a native of Coniston village) attempted to do in the nineteenth century.

JL: Perhaps you could provide a working definition of the term ‘Arte Útil’. What does it mean and where did it come from?

AH: Arte Útil roughly translates from Spanish as ‘Useful Art’. Cuban artist and activist Tania Bruguera created the Arte Útil Association in January 2011 as a discursive, knowledge-sharing platform focusing on art as a device for social change across the world. The Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven began working with Bruguera on a strand of research, while collaborating with other like minded artists and institutions, including Grizedale Arts, who were interested in similar ideas. All of these voices started to converge around the idea of useful art and in 2012 Tania came to Grizedale where together we wrote the ‘criteria’ for Arte Útil. In 2013 we collaborated on the Museum of Arte Útil exhibition at the Van Abbemuseum. From there we began to build partnerships with other institutions and artists to develop the Association, a website and the Arte Útil Archive which showcases practical examples from around the world that work in this way, outside the performative frame of art. The archive is intended as a toolbox to help other artists and communities initiate projects elsewhere.

JL: Can you give an example of a project you’ve been involved in (at mima or elsewhere) that, for you, best embodies or celebrates the principles of useful art?

AH: A good example is one we did at Grizedale, in the village of Coniston, called ‘The Honest Shop’. It is a community shop with a cash desk but no staff that sells a range of products made by locals, such as food, cakes, vegetables and crafts. The project evolved into a sustainable shop for the community which still runs, but it also has a kind of political agency. It raises money for the community hall (the Coniston Institute) and offers people a human connection in a place where relationships are often strained by the day-to-day practicalities of tour-

JL: As Director of mima, can you share any details of the upcoming programme or future aspirations you may have for the institution?

AH: We describe mima as a ‘useful’ museum established through ‘usership’ rather than spectatorship. A lot of our work operates outside the institution. We considered what might happen if we actually made ism. In a way, the shop is the true face of the village because local this our central focus, and we effectively programmed mima accordpeople come together to make and contribute things that represent ing to this agenda. Infiltrating the museum from the ‘outside in’ offers them. For me, the shop highlights a really fundamental idea of user- an awareness of urgency, community and context. Conventionally, ship. Rather than the work of art being authored by a single person, it arts intuitions like this show exhibitions in pristine galleries and they has what I call a ‘redistributed authorship’. The shop manifests a dou- run a public programme comprising education and outreach strands. ble ontological status: it is both a work of art and the thing itself. It’s Even bookshops and cafés revolve around the agenda of promoting not a picture or a representation of an idea of a shop – it is a shop. It has and supporting the ‘great art’. But what we are beginning to do at artistic currency in a very broad and connected way, and demonstrates mima is reverse that polarity, so that our principle activity is our pubthe important role that art-thinking has in economics and politics, lic programme – education, community outreach, socially-driven projects etc. These in turn are supported by the exhibitions and colleceven in a small village. tions which are thought through as a tool in support of this wider JL: Can you say something about the range of projects included in agenda of social change.

One of our current projects is ‘New Linthorpe’ by artist Emily the Arte Útil Archive?

AH: The Arte Útil Archive contains a broad range of over 500 projects, Hesse and curator James Beighton. The duo are investigating ways to both historical and contemporary, that have taken place across the reflect the character of modern day Middlesbrough whilst also capturworld. Overtly political projects include Judi Werthein’s Brinco (2005): ing the spirit of the nineteenth century Linthorpe Art Pottery – an specially-designed trainers for immigrants crossing the US/Mexican innovative form of Victorian pottery made from the red brick clay border, with a survival kit built into the heel. Also featuring in the underlying Middlesbrough. Emily took over the Office of Arte Útil archive is Ahmet Ögüt’s ongoing project The Silent University which here in the museum for the past few months, to talk about politics and offers a platform for immigrants to share their skills and knowledge, the post-Brexit situation. It was then that she decided to run for mayor. because their ‘illegal’ status prevents them from partaking in formal So the key issue is for the museum to act, with its constituents, as a education. Tania Bruguera recently crowd-sourced over $100,000 to civic agency that applies art processes and thinking to ordinary life establish her Instituto de Artivismo Hannah Arendt in Cuba, which across the region. has allowed her to develop an educational curriculum based on the principles of arts activism. Bruguera’s long-term project Immigrant JL: I’m wondering if you have any thoughts on the role of critical Movement International (2011) examined growing concerns about the language in tracking and mediating these developments. Can you see any evidence of new platforms or forms of language that political representation, status and conditions facing immigrants. might be evolving to try to engage with these practices?

JL: Do you think that the concept of ‘useful art’ is beginning to AH: We’ve had lots of discussions around the importance of language filter into the realm of contemporary art, given that Assemble because it so directly influences the ways in which people understand the concept. Theorist and independent researcher Stephen Wright won the 2015 Turner Prize?

AH: This was a fairly controversial decision within the art word. Many developed a publication for Arte Útil called Toward a Lexicon of people within the conventions of contemporary art perceived it as an Usership. The book represents the beginnings of a terminology, categoassault on the canon of the individual artist and on the art market as rised into three strands namely: Emerging Concepts (including ‘narwell. It stretched the tolerance of inherited ideas of what art is. Some ratorship’ and ‘1:1 scale’); Modes of Usership (such as ‘use it together’); argued that projects like ‘Granby Four Streets’ are enabling the neolib- Concepts to be Retired (terms perceived as outmoded or superfluous eral agenda by filling the holes left by inadequate state services, which such as ‘spectatorship’ and ‘authorship’).

In keeping with the concept itself, lexicons, glossaries and useris quite a misreading of the Granby project. This conservative response is rooted in the belief that art really shouldn’t be political – it’s ok to be guides are very functional. Language is also important when presentpolitical, but within the confines of the art world. Once art starts to be ing outcomes to audiences. When the archive becomes an exhibition, genuinely political, or become politics, social change, economics or it has failed, because you are exhibiting the terminology rather than the thing itself, somehow it is no longer seen as art. It has escaped the the thing itself. The Community Land Trust (who manage Granby control of who decides what art is or isn’t. Once something is solving a Four Streets in Liverpool) recently opened their own Office of Useful problem, it isn’t allowed to be called art anymore, and I find this enor- Art. They realised that this type of activity isn’t something that should mously restricting on the potential of what art can do when working be exhibited in a traditional sense, so they found ways to offer insights within a spectrum of activities. This is one of the fundamental argu- into similar projects from communities around the world that can be learned from. All this material and these emerging networks of conments that we are trying to dismantle. nectivity demonstrate an understanding of what art can do, rather JL: You hosted the Arte Útil Summit 2016 at mima last July. Can than what it is. Shaping the world outside your front door in this way has a lot of currency. you give us insights into any updated thinking in the field?

AH: When a summit travels to somewhere it doesn’t necessarily have a meta-discourse. In the spirit of Arte Útil, which examines the spe- Alistair Hudson was appointed Director of mima in 2014 and was cific urgencies of place, the summit at mima was conceived as a discur- Deputy Director of Grizedale Arts (2004 – 2014).

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

VAI EVENT

Flax Art Studios (left to right) Barbara Freeman, Tony Hill, Takafumi Sakanaka, Johanna Leech, Una Walker, Gail Prentice; photo by Malachy McCrudden

Belfast Open Studios 2016; photo by Malachy McCrudden

Colin Darke, Orchid Studios; photo by Malachy McCrudden

Belfast Open Studios VAI NORTHERN IRELAND MANAGER ROB HILKEN REPORTS ON THE THIRD ANNUAL BELFAST OPEN STUDIOS, WHICH TOOK PLACE FROM 6 OCTOBER TO 5 NOVEMBER 2016.

MFA Studios; photo by Malachy McCrudden

January – February 2017

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

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VAI EVENT

‘Speed Curating’ event, Belfast Exposed; photo by Monique Kelly and Nick Smith (annandasa.com)

Trina Hobson, Lombard Studios; photo by Malachy McCrudden

BELFAST Open Studios began in 2014 as a single three-day event inviting the public and curators to meet artists and see inside their places of work. Belfast Open Studios aimed to consolidate events that individual studios were already hosting in order to maximise their impact and inspire more studios to participate. Following the success of this venture, we met several times with artists and studio groups to develop the 2015 programme. We wanted to refine and expand the event to include more activities over a longer period of time. The public open day element was reduced to two days while curator talks and speed curating were added to the programme.

This year our programme included six main strands over a fourmonth period. After meeting with many of the artists and studios involved, we focused our efforts on developing opportunities for artists. While recognising that the public open day would still play a central role in developing audiences and increasing the profile of local artists, we focused it into one day and moved the international curator visits to a separate element of the programme. This year we have also attempted to include more artists who work outside of Belfast city centre and those who are not affiliated with formal studio groups, offering an approach that we feel is more collective and collaborative.

The Black Box theatre buzzed as we kicked off the programme with a new meet and greet ‘Studio Fair’. 15 organisations, groups and collectives, including three from outside of Belfast, introduced themselves to audiences attending from across Northern Ireland.

Array Studios informed visitors about the opportunity to make use of their research space for up to three months at a time with no cost.

Belfast Print Workshop gave screen printing demonstrations and encouraged artists to take part in classes and to become members to make use of their facilities. Boom Studios and Seacourt Print Workshop represented Bangor at the event and together with the North Armagh Artists’ Collective gave a flavour of what is happening outside Belfast, which includes the provision of residencies, workshops and exhibition opportunities.

The overwhelming response from visiting artists was that this was a very welcome addition to the programme, which this year has been broadened to include events such as ‘Speed Curating’ and professional development talks. Visits by international curators are planned for January 2017.

When putting together this year’s programme, we began by looking at what impact we hoped to have. Through discussions with curators and gallerists, as well as artists and studio groups, we realised that a one-size-fits-all model doesn’t work. Curators each have their own way of developing and building relationships with individual

artists and often the most successful relationships are driven by the artists themselves.

Susan MacWilliam, Riann Coulter and Feargal O’Malley joined us for an afternoon of talks, discussing their own approaches to studio visits. Susan MacWilliam is in the midst of a national touring exhibition, ‘Modern Experiments’, that presents a survey of 18 years of her work. The exhibition was curated by Riann Coulter and began its tour at the F.E. McWilliam Gallery in Banbridge. In 2017 it will travel to Drogheda, Skibbereen and Kilkenny. We heard both Coulter and MacWilliam state that such a major collaboration was only possible through years of maintaining contact and building trust. Neither would have imagined at the time that Coulter’s 2008 review of MacWilliam’s work in Circa magazine would lead to their collaboration on ‘Modern Experiments’.

Coulter is also a frequent collaborator with Ulster University Gallery curator Feargal O’Malley. During the discussion they shared knowledge about approaching curators, maintaining relationships over a long period and how to take advantage of events such as Belfast Open Studios to make new connections and build on existing ones.

Unusually Coulter and O’Malley sometimes do studio visits together, but more frequently they will share information about the artists they meet. They suggested that every studio visit has some value, even if this is not immediately apparent.

Belfast Exposed Photography Gallery hosted November’s ‘Speed Curating’ event in the midst of their vibrant Martin Parr exhibition ‘Welcome to Belfast’. 12 curators from across the UK and Ireland took part in over a hundred individual meetings with visual artists. Adam Smythe travelled from the Bluecoat in Liverpool, Kate Self from Radar in Loughborough and independent Essex-based curator and researcher Warren Harper joined curators from the RHA (Dublin), Ormston House (Limerick), Talbot Gallery (Dublin), Void Gallery (Derry), Catalyst Arts (Belfast), Platform Arts (Belfast), Millennium Court (Portadown) and ArtisAnn (Belfast).

This format of fast-paced introductions has been proven to work.

Many exhibitions have arisen out of previous meetings and events at VAI’s annual Get Together and last year’s Belfast Open Studios programme. After the event, each of the curators reported that they had met artists they would like to continue conversations with, while they also found the event useful for catching up with artists they already knew. Similarly, artists overwhelmingly found the event beneficial, even if it was simply to get feedback on work currently being developed.

Although the Belfast Open Studios programme now encompasses

a range of events, at its core is still the open day itself. Over 700 people visited 14 studios throughout the city, experiencing a unique behindthe-scenes look at the creative processes artists use to develop their work. Visitors ranged from A-level students getting a glimpse of what they might be able to expect from a career in the arts to art lovers taking the opportunity to enjoy a more personal side of the Belfast International Arts Festival, of which the event was a part.

Founded in 2016 by recent graduates of the Belfast School of Art, Lombard Studios joined the programme for the first time this year, and became the second studio group (along with Cathedral Studios) to be composed entirely of painters. Both these city centre studios operate without public funding and are filled with ambitious artists looking to raise the profile of painting in the city.

Two studios put participation at the heart of their offerings on the day. Artist and musician Richard Davis held a popular workshop in reactive lighting using DMX LED lights and Ableton Live at the Digital Arts Studios. Meanwhile Belfast Print Workshop engaged people throughout the day with screen printing demonstrations.

The last element of the ongoing Belfast Open Studios programme will take place in January 2017. Building on our international curator visitor programmes in 2013 for the Turner Prize in Derry, and Belfast Open Studios programmes in 2014 and 2015, this year we have focused our efforts on building connections with Paris. Amongst the visitors coming in January will be Pascale Cassagnau (CNAP Centre National d’Arts Plastiques), Raphaël Brunel (independent curator, writer and member of the editorial and curatorial collective What You See Is What You Hear), Mathilde Villeneuve (Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers) and Marta Ponsa (Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume).

The programme will begin with an event at our Belfast offices on Tuesday 17 January where we will hear from the curators themselves, who will discuss their organisations and research interests. This will be followed later that evening by an official reception at the Belfast Harbour Offices, which will also act as a thank you to all the artists that took part in this year’s event. We then have a programme of studio visits and ‘Show & Tells’ planned that will give our visitors a flavour of what is happening in Belfast and Derry.

Artists from across Northern Ireland and all VAI members are encouraged join us for the international curator visiting programme which we hope will kick-start many opportunities long into the future.

Book events online at visualartsists-ni.org/booking or email rob@visualartists-ni.org.

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

FESTIVAL

Tony White performing with New Pope; photo by Jonathan Sammon

Rachael Campbell-Palmer, Curbed Comfort, 2016; concrete, casting plaster, polyester resin; photo by Jonathan Sammon

Doireann Ní Ghrioghair, Deflated Capital III, 2016, plaster, pigment, MDF; Helena Hamilton, Untitled (With), 2016, fluorescent lights, motion sensors, programmable circuit boards, audio; photo by Jonathan Sammon

Sorsha Galvin, Desire Paths, 2016

Materiality as Relic GIANNA TASHA TOMASSO REPORTS ON TULCA 2016, ‘THE HEADLESS CITY’, WHICH RAN IN VENUES AROUND GALWAY, 5 – 20 NOVEMBER 2016.

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January – February 2017

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FESTIVAL

Two Ruins, BLIND SPOT, performed 5 November 2016, various locations, Galway city; photo (detail) by Jonathan Sammon

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts 2016 was posited as a ‘container of ideas’. Based on a concept derived from the work of French writer and Acéphale cult founder Georges Bataille (1897 – 1962), the curatorial theme of the festival provided a theoretical framework with which to approach a diverse array of artworks and events. First produced in Berlin in 2014, curator Daniel Jewesbury asserted his concept of ‘The Headless City’ as an “attempt to devise a method for describing and understanding the contemporary city”.1 Jewesbury provided an extensive explanatory text to accompany the three-week programme of exhibitions and events in Galway.2 Articulations of urban theory, animalism, irrationality and machinic dystopia inspired a topography of discoveries far beyond the remit of visual art. One could be forgiven for questioning the adequacy of one’s own reading of Bataille against the curator’s extensive research interests. In posing the questions ‘What has gone wrong in our cities?’ and ‘What are we going to do about it?’ Jewesbury allowed for varying levels of commitment to the theme and provided age appropriate avenues of engagement through TULCA’s education programme T.Ed. An unused commercial unit provided a temporary home for the main festival gallery. Extensive and noisy construction works adjacent to the Fairgreen unit provided perhaps fortuitous manifestations of the curatorial theme. The gallery was a large concrete box with sevenmetre-high ceilings, possesing a distinctly minimalist feel. Hidden behind a printed curtain near the entrance, Sol Archer’s beautifully shot film Dispatches from Futureland featured a vast cargo port in Rotterdam. Unmanned vehicles and automated giants seamlessly distribute thousands of import and export containers, exposing the flow of consumer goods at an incomprehensible scale. This theme was revisited during ‘Capital’, a public talk by Professor Aengus Cameron which formed one of the many para-curatorial events, reaffirming the idea that our globalised, virtual financial systems are dependent on non-human programmes and algorithms.

Rachael Campbell-Palmer’s Curbed Comfort, Liam Crichton’s Sleeper and Doireann Ní Ghrioghair’s Shaft II each presented architectural materiality as relic. With a mix of concrete, plaster, sunken pillars and large-scale, rigid, site-specific drapery evoking a mausoleum or museum, each artwork spoke of distorted neoclassical architecture. In perfect contradiction, surreal post-human habitation occupied the periphery of the gallery with Helen Hughes’s two delicate jellyfish-like sculptures appearing to tease the ancient relics.

Look Out and Curator Aquorum were strange and surreal paintings by Jane Rainey, both acting as a preview to one of the highlights of the festival: a duo of her larger landscapes presented at 126 Artist-Run

Gallery. Rainey’s bright, abstract and elusive landscapes provided visual fluency between venues, a curatorial strategy that Jewesbury utilised repeatedly with success. Julie Merriman’s large-scale architectural drawings at 126 and in Galway Arts Centre echoed the tropes of human development and the built environment while Anna Homburg’s C-type prints Berlin, Between The Walls provided ethereal views of urban ‘in-between’ spaces.

Méadhbh O’Connor and Dave Madigan’s installation Gridlock dominated the space at the recently relocated 126 Gallery. The towering structure, built with shelving struts and computer component casings, housed various materials including seeds, moss, peat and clay. Gridlock presented a megacity in progress – an expansive, skeletal construction driven by our new global economies – that articulated a 10,000-year cultural evolution towards ‘urbanomics’, whereby the propensity to generate economic wealth is suspended between virtual and architectural realms.

The risk of the curatorial theme overshadowing the artistic responses was decidedly thwarted by a pensive and skillful installation of artworks at Galway Arts Centre. Patrick Jolley’s film Corridor and an exquisitely illuminated installation of his Kola prints were a reminder of an Irish artist who has left an impressive legacy. Ian Hamilton Finlay’s concrete poem Urn Column reiterated Bataille’s concept that architecture serves as a literal manifestation of social structures, cementing authority and accepted norms. The Sun Swallowed in Holes

by Adrian Duncan implicitly referenced Galway city. Using refracted moving images of a local streetlamp alongside a projection of text from novel The Ikon Maker, the work evoked eerie sentimentality and offered a gateway to experience Irish writer Desmond Hogan’s beautifully written prose for viewers who wished to engage further.3 Aisling O’Beirn’s creation of a new astrology in Light Years From Here was made in conjunction with Galway residents who provided dates of personal and cultural significance which were then matched with stars. The durational, otherworldly vocal performance OUTOFTHEBLU by Glasgow-based Michelle Hannah would have benefitted from its own space. Sharing a space with O’Beirn’s informational posters did not allow for the necessary immersive experience. However, with 15 artists showing in the Galway Arts Centre during ‘The Headless City’, such overlapping of works was probably unavoidable.

Nun’s Island Theatre was sparse in comparison. Helena Hamilton’s interactive fluorescent light and sound installation Untitled(with) generated soundscapes in response to the physical inhabitation of the space. Helen Horgan’s two-screen video installation

Doireann Ní Ghrioghair, Shaft II, 2016; plaster, pigment, MDF; Liam Crichton, SLEEPER, 2016; calico, plaster, wood; photo by Jonathan Sammon

Rue de Flandres, 59240 Dunkirk and Doirean Ní Ghrioghair’s second architectural relic Deflated Capital III were engulfed by these sonic drones.

Off-site works offered a wealth of discovery. Miranda Blennerhassett’s corridor mural GUH left a permanent legacy at the city’s University Hospital. Viewers who travelled to the outskirts to see Mhairi Sutherland’s film Pronto at the usually restricted buildings of Dún Uí Mhaoilíosa barracks were rewarded with a private tour of the fascinating army museum. The para-curatorial events refreshingly omitted any form of symposia or panel events, opting instead for comedic performances and collaborative happenings including a reading by author Tony White accompanied by local musicians New Pope and a screening of Alan Phelan’s film Include Me Out of the partisans manifesto. A screening of Steve Oram’s disturbing film Aaaaaaaah!, coupled with a live performance by Two Ruins – who seemed to pleasure themselves in an illuminated vintage Citroën CX at various locations around the city – provided more than enough animalism for one evening.

‘The Headless City’ did not follow the trend for staged, pseudopolitical discourse, or make meritocratic demands for art to be ‘useful’.

Art/Not Art, a collaboration by Dobz O’Brien and Dr Fergal Gaynor, offered a ‘take it or leave it’ display of academic and theoretical texts with a free photocopying service. Sorsha Galvin used pigment to highlight the unofficial shortcuts and pathways formed by pedestrians, making visible the “deviant ethnography” of the city. Galvin’s citywide Desire Paths generated an effective proposition: that art can disturb simply by presenting us with evidence of our own rituals, in this case, our non-prescriptive usage of public space. Arguably, this intervention most effectively embodied the festival’s ‘headless’ inquiry, and most closely echoed the philosophies of Bataille, who stated that, at a certain point, there is a “need for sensibility to call up disturbance” because “no one is really touched emotionally unless there is some disturbance involved”.4 Gianna Tasha Tomasso is Scottish-born visual artist and writer based in County Galway. tulcafestival.com Notes 1. The TULCA 2016 programme is available at tulcafestival.com.

2. ‘The Headless City’ project began at ZK/U, The Centre for Art and Urbanism in Berlin (danieljewesbury.org).

3. Desmond Hogan, The Ikon Maker, Braziller, New York, 1979.

4. This Bataille quote features at the start of the documentary Georges Bataille – À Perte de Vue (As Far as the Eye Can See), directed by André S. Labarthe and narrated by Jean-Claude Dauphin.

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

HOW IS IT MADE?

Beyond Matter: Phantasmagoric Fluid PÁDRAIC E. MOORE DISCUSSES ‘ECTOPLASM’, AN EVENT HE INITIATED AT 1646 PROJECT SPACE LOCATED IN THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS.

Peter Hujar, Paul Thek Masturbating (I), 1967; 1987 The Peter Hujar Archive LLC; courtesy of Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York and Fraenkel

Lucy Andrews, Proximity, 2016

Adham Faramawy, SXCN00DZ, 2015; photo (detail) by Marian Cramer

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

Bert Jacobs, Many and One (before), 2016

‘ECTOPLASM’ was a one-off, nocturnal event hosted by 1646, a project space in the centre of The Hague. The event, which comprised performances, screenings, participatory actions, readings and physical objects, was the culmination of a curatorial residency I undertook at 1646 in 2015. In addition to a programme of exhibitions, 1646 hosts artists talks, screenings, lectures and events, providing a platform for experimental art practices as well as short-term residencies for foreign artists and curators. The residency provides participants with both a working studio and living space. I was delighted to spend time in The Hague, the administrative capital of the Netherlands. As well as the appeal of the city’s ever-expanding arts scene, the Gemeentemuseum also houses several key works by one of my favourite artists, Piet Mondrian. While one isn’t obliged to present a public project at 1646, I was eager to share some of my recent research with new audiences.

‘Ectoplasm’ brought to fruition the dialogues I had developed with practitioners from the Netherlands and further afield.

The term ‘ectoplasm’ was first used in late-nineteenth-century occult circles to describe the supernatural substance that allegedly emerged from the bodies of psychic mediums. Descriptions of the substance vary widely, from “vaporous” to a “plastic paste; bundle of fine threads; membrane with swellings or fringes” or a “fine fabric-like tissue”.2 Some claimed that ectoplasm possessed electrical properties, emanated a luminous glow and was capable of forming into hands, faces and other body parts. Many spiritualists, scientists and artists viewed ectoplasm as a phantasmagoric fluid that could bridge material and immaterial worlds and provide a means of communicating with other dimensions. Some parapsychologists believed ectoplasm might even hold the key to revealing the deeper underlying structures of the universe, beneath and beyond matter.

A key document in the history of ectoplasm is Phenomena of Materialisation by German physician and psychic researcher Baron von Schrenck-Notzing (1862 – 1929), which was first published in English in 1923. The book, which features extensive photo documentation of ectoplasm emerging from the orifices of mediums in a state of trance, is a fascinating testament to the eroticised dynamics of séance rooms in the early twentieth century. Moreover, these images underscore the fundamental duality of the concept of ectoplasm, which is on one hand portrayed as ethereal, even divine, and on the other as an all too tangible matter and abject bodily emission.

In the early twentieth century, investigations led by the Society for Psychical Research exposed cases in which materialisations of

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Bert Jacobs, Many and One (after), 2016

ectoplasm had been fraudulently staged. Combined with a growing mistrust in the reliability of photography as scientific evidence and the ongoing advancement of the rational scientific viewpoint at the expense of the spiritual, this led to a general scepticism towards physical mediumship in the popular imagination. Since then, the notion of ectoplasm has been revived episodically in the realms of popular culture and film, most notably in Ivan Reitman’s 1984 film Ghostbusters, in which the substance is depicted for comic effect as viscous goo, denoting the residue of a haunting. However, the original notion of ‘psychic matter’ (as a material of infinite possibility, capable of connecting dimensions) has come to be viewed as an aberration and the result of a temporary loss of reason during a less-enlightened age.

The artworks presented in ‘Ectoplasm’ were distinguished by their volatility, liquidity, malleability and temporality. These physical works were activated, destroyed, conversed with and worn as clothing over the duration of the happening. While diverse in character, collectively they resisted a finished or static state in favour of an explosive materialisation of energy – something that was set in motion by the artists but existed beyond them. Made from plaster, metal, wood and various resins, Bert Jacobs’s nine-metre-long sculpture Many and One (2016) closely resembled an ectoplasmic protrusion which obstructed movement within the exhibition space. Half way through the event, audience members were requested to smash this structure, a process which revealed seven smaller sculptures that they were invited to take with them. Lucy Andrews’s work Proximity (2016) comprised an automated hand-soap dispenser – the sort designed to reduce contamination through contact – which ‘sensed’ the presence of a humanoid rubber finger that was periodically activated via a rotating clock hand. This delicate assemblage gradually produced a viscous substance strongly redolent of bodily fluids, which oozed from a glass shelf onto the floor, forming a pool that expanded as the night wore on.

These two sculptural pieces were accompanied by Adham Faramawy’s video SXC N00DZ (2015) which depicts a nude male in a psychedelic shower scene involving neon-coloured slime. Faramawy’s distinctive visuals are at once seductive and repugnant, combining the fluidity of the digital age aesthetic with something primal and gestational. Female Sensibility, a video produced by Lynda Benglis in 1973, depicts, in explicit close-up, a sexual encounter between the artist and her colleague Marilyn Lenkowsky. Female Sensibility interrogates the boundaries between erotic visual material and

prurient sexual commodification. This threshold was also interrogated in the photograph by Peter Hujar entitled Paul Thek Masturbating (1967) which became an important touchstone in my research and was widely circulated in the event’s promotional material. Ultimately, Female Sensibility engages feminist sexual politics through methods of self representation. In the context of ‘Ectoplasm’ the screening of this significant work confronts the highly sexualised nature of much spirit photography in which animated substances issue from (somewhat passive) female bodies (2).

Live performances were provided by Sam Keogh, Daniel Vorthuys, Jessica Worden and Big Hare. Keogh began by holding a oneway conversation with one of his artworks: a mixed media sculpture with the appearance of bleached, dead coral. His performance, which drew on the fields of marine biology and haute couture, among other things, was punctuated by impromptu forays into the assembled audience, creating temporary catwalks for his eclectic costumes. The slide show and spoken word performance from Vorthuys drew on classical literature, 1990s cinema and rock music to produce a narrative delivered in a raucous, grandiose style reminiscent of 1960s beat poetry. Jessica Worden’s equally dynamic Echo/plasm (2016) was ectoplasmic in both content and form. She performed her text (a compilation of medical examinations, pseudo-scientific studies and accounts of material phenomena) with great variations in her vocal expression, alluding to the corporeality of language.

The night climaxed with a live musical performance of experimental electronica and theatrical special effects provided by Utrecht-based band Big Hare. This transformed the performance space into a dance floor upon which participants and audience were unified.

Ultimately, this experimental event acknowledged the dynamic that an audience brings to an artwork while also emphasising the subjectivity of an individual’s physical encounter, underscoring the fact that there is no substitute for experiencing smell, sound and sensoria for oneself.

Pádraic E. Moore is a writer, curator and art historian currently based in Brussels and Dublin (padraicmoore.com).

Notes 1. Gustave Geley quoted in Guy Christian Barnard, The Supernormal; A Critical Introduction to Psychic Science, 1933, Rider & Co., London.

2. American artist Mike Kelly addressed the subject of ectoplasm in his 1994 book Photographs/ Sculptures when he stated that the development of the ‘money shot’ in pornography arose from the reading of earlier spiritualist photography, specifically the genre that depicts the medium exuding ectoplasm.

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

PUBLIC ART ROUNDUP

Public Art PUBLIC ART COMMISSIONS, SITE-SPECIFIC WORKS, SOCIALLY-ENGAGED PRACTICE AND OTHER FORMS OF ART OUTSIDE THE GALLERY. A SPINE AMONG THE STACKS

Commission type: Arts and Health Ireland commission Project partners: Cork University Hospital, CUH Renal Dialysis Ward Orlagh O’Brien and artist Tess Leak, who work collaboratively as Haiku Island Press, facilitated a poetry and book-making project in the Department of Renal Medicine, Cork University Hospital, in 2016.

They worked with a group of patients during their dialysis treatment to create a collection of haiku poems, which led to the on-site production of a limited edition book. The group was made up of 24 patients undergoing renal dialysis treatment sessions lasting for three hours at a time.

A one-day open workshop, held in the hospital atrium and in view of the Renal Unit, was designed to share as much of the bookmaking process as possible. O’Brien and Leak set up a printer, tools and materials, and people turned up to watch the process unfold throughout the day. Staff, patients and visitors to the hospital were invited to contribute to a drawing that would become the endpapers of the book. The limited-edition handcrafted book (150 copies), was entitled Tiny, Kind Gestures and contained the collection of haiku poems written by the participants. Staff, patients and visitors produced the books in the atrium of the hospital during a daylong workshop.

The title of the collection was taken from one of the poems and reflects a reoccurring topic of conversation: the deep appreciation by the patients for the ongoing kindness shown to them by the staff during their dialysis sessions. An exhibition of the poems as well as a book launch and reading took place in the atrium of the hospital.

Artist’s name: Sara French Title of work: A Spine Among the Stacks THE GIFT OF TOMORROW, WITHIN YESTERDAY AND TODAY Date advertised: 24 August 2016 Date sited/carried out: 31 August 2016 Project partners: Dublin City Council and Dolphin’s Barn Library ‘A Spine Among the Stacks’ was a series of works by Sara French exhibited in Dolphin’s Barn Library. French presented several sculptures made from newspapers and a series of “furtive works shelved for borrowers”. Through these sculptures the artist unearthed histories of the local area including a brickyard that was located in the neighbourhood over 60 years ago. As part of the event, French collaborated with Joan Somers Donnelly for a performance titled One for the Record Books.

reference time, reflection residue and light.

Gabrielle Bishop’s work utilised materials found locally, which were reworked and rearranged. During the residency Bishop tracked the sun and her paintings register changing light conditions at locations around GMIT and other institutional buildings in the area, evoking a sense that the buildings themselves are under surveillance.

Katie Delaney’s work portrayed the people who have moved through the building over the years, from those incarcerated in the asylum that once stood on the site to today’s college staff and students. Delaney looked at how time has stood still in certain areas of the campus.

Lindsay McConnell’s pieces represented things left behind in life, whether willingly or unwillingly, and sometimes, that artist stated, a “combination of the two”. While Lorna Roberts’s work focused on the mature sycamore trees on the GMIT Mayo campus, seeing them as symbolic of new life and new gifts. She explored themes of shadow and light, moving from the despair of the old psychiatric hospital to the hope of a third level institution providing opportunities to a new generation.

THE HISTORY OF KILNALAHAN

TINY, KIND GESTURES

Artists’ names: Tess Leak and Orlagh O’Brien (Haiku Island Press) Title of work: Tiny, Kind Gestures Commissioning body: Cork Arts Office and HSE Arts and Health Date sited/carried out: Summer 2016 Budget: €7000

Artist’s name: Therese Murphy Title of work: The History of Kilnalahan Artist’s name: Sara Cunningham-Bell Commissioning body: Abbey Heritage Group Title of work: The Gift of Tomorrow, Within Yesterday and Today Date Advertised: May 2016 Commissioning body: Camlin Technologies Ltd. Dated Sited: August 2016 Date sited: November 2016 Budget: €500 Commission type: Private commission The History of Kilnalahan was a public art project commissioned by Project partners: PF Copeland and Bell Architects, Ballymoney Abbey and District Heritage Group in conjunction with the Abbey Artist Sara Cunningham-Bell produced a large sculpture made from Tidy Towns Group. Artist Therese Murphy was invited to create a polished stainless steel and Mourne granite for Camlin Technologies mural that depicted the hidden history of the area. The aim was to Ltd. The work is located at the entrance to the company’s head office create something visually beautiful but also informed by Abbey’s in Lisburn, County Antrim and can be seen from the main road. The layered past of prayer and monasticism. sculpture features a large figure lifting up a smaller figure holding a Murphy worked closely with the heritage group and envisioned globe in its hands. This symbolises the international market within a picturebook history of the sacred space that also reflected the which Camlin engage, and the innovative engineering that they collective identity of the contemporary community. She spent two undertake in a global arena. months researching the area and talking to local people. In The History of Kilahalan, Murphy explored themes similar to those addressed in her 2015 body of work ‘A New Pair of Glasses’, such as the idea that in AURA appreciating our past we begin to understand our present more fully.

Artists’ names: Gabrielle Bishop, Katie J. Delaney, Lindsay McConnell, The mural tells the story of the Carthusian Monastery founded in Lorna Roberts Abbey 800 years ago, illustrating its various transitions in ownership Title of work: Aura and in practices. It begins with an abstract depiction of the dense Commissioning body: Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) woodland that once existed in the area and moves through time to Date advertised: 2 December 2015 include the existing gate, a hooded Carthusian Monk in silent prayer, Date sited/carried out: July – August 2016 the Knights Hospitaller and the Franciscan Friars who owned the ‘Aura’ comprised a selection of new works placed around the GMIT monastery until its closure in 1371. campus following a six-week residency undertaken by four Mayo artists. The works engaged with the building and its environs, and

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2017

35

OPPORTUNITIES

Opportunities COMMISSIONS ST. FINTINA’S PER CENT FOR ART St. Fintina’s Post Primary Public Art Working Group will commission a permanent artwork(s) with the engagement of students as part of the Per Cent for Art Scheme. The new school will be ready in February 2017 and plans are available on the school website (stfintinas.ie). The selection process will take the form of a two-stage open competition. It is open to all interested professional artists at any stage of their career. Selection will be based on the information supplied, establishing the competence of the artists to carry out this commission. No designs or detailed proposals are required in stage 1. Total budget: €43,000.

At stage 1, artists are invited to express their interest by completing the application form found on the VAI website and submission of a CV and images/ details of recent relevant works/projects. Stage 2 shortlisted artists, selected by panel jury, will be paid a concept development fee of €200 to work on a detailed proposal for final selection. A stage 2 brief will be available to shortlisted artists and a site visit is expected at this stage. Applicants can make enquiries regarding the commission via the details below.

Deadline (stage 1) 12 noon, 3 February Contact Rina Whyte Email rinawhyte@yahoo.com Telephone 0872389591 RATOATH COLLEGE PER CENT FOR ART Ratoath College Public Art Working Group will commission a permanent artwork with the engagement of art students as part of the Per Cent for Art Scheme. It is envisioned that this overall artwork will be sited outside the building of the older part of the school. The selection process will take the form of a two-stage open competition. It is open to all interested professional artists at any stage of their career. Selection will be based on the information supplied, establishing the competence of the artists to carry out this commission. No designs or detailed proposals are required in stage 1. Total budget: €65,000.

At stage 1, artists are invited to express their interest by completing the application form found on the VAI website and submission of a CV and images/ details of recent relevant works/projects. Stage 2 shortlisted artists, selected by panel jury, will be paid a concept development fee of €350 to work on a detailed proposal and maquette for final selection. A stage 2 brief will be avail-

able to shortlisted artists and a site visit is expected at this stage. The selection panel will consist of two/three members of the Public Art Working Group and two professional artists. It will be chaired by the curator/project manager.

Deadline (stage 1) 12 noon, 12 January Contact Rina Whyte Email rinawhyte@yahoo.com Telephone 0872389591

JOBS EVA DIRECTOR EVA International announced on 13 December 2016 that Director/CEO Woodrow Kernohan will be stepping down and the recruitment process for a new director has been launched. After five years, Woodrow Kernohan is stepping down to become the new Director of the John Hansard Gallery in Southampton, UK from March 2017. Since joining EVA International in 2011, Kernohan has overseen the relaunching and development of the organisation.

EVA International is now seeking a new director who, building on the success achieved by Kernohan, will lead and significantly grow the scale and ambition of Ireland’s biennial.

The organisation is currently working towards the 2018 and 2020 editions of the biennial, aiming to strengthen EVA’s resources, build existing audiences and double its overall audiences figures, making EVA a vital event on the national and international calendar.

The 2018 edition of EVA International will be curated by Inti Guerrero (Bogotá/ Hong Kong) and will take place from 14 April to 18 July 2018.

The new director will have overall responsibility for all aspects of EVA International’s work, including biennial programmes, finances, operations, communications, fundraising, and representing the organisation in diverse local, national and international contexts. The board of directors is seeking to appoint an engaging leader with a deep understanding of contemporary art practice whose capabilities include: effectively building and leading the team towards the achievement of EVA’s priorities; managing the finances and resources of the organisation; developing a world-class sponsorship programme; developing the awareness of EVA as an important cultural element of the national and local tourism strategy, and significantly increasing its appeal to the general public; maintaining and increasing EVA’s success in attracting support from international patrons and foundations. To request an application

pack please contact EVA via the email address below.

Contact Emma Dwyer Email jobs@eva.ie HELIUM ARTS Helium Arts is seeking an experienced project manager (maternity cover leave) to lead the Fireflies project from the end of January 2017 to mid June 2017. Fireflies is a three-year artist in residence project in hospitals for teenagers living with illness and preparing to transition to adult services. The project manager will oversee the smooth running of the project in Temple Street Hospital and facilitate establishment of the project in two other hospitals, working closely with the Helium Arts artistic director, the artist and the key contacts in the hospitals. The role is estimated at approximately 20 days between January 2017 and June 2017, generally one day a week. Helium Arts is the national children’s arts and health organisation connecting children and teens living with chronic illness to their creative powers through the arts, so that they can live life to the full.

Deadline Thursday 17 January Web helium.ie Contact hr@helium.ie

budgets as appropriate.

Deadline 12pm, Tuesday 31 January Web eva.ie

BELFAST PHOTO FESTIVAL Belfast Photo Festival is offering artists/photographers the opportunity to exhibit their work in the main festival gallery alongside some of the biggest names in the field of photography.

A number of the selected artists will also be featured in the arts magazine Abridged. The winners will be eligible for a number of awards, including a cash prize of £1000.

The theme has been left open.

Submissions must be photographic or lens-based but can incorporate other art forms (performance, painting, sculpture, music, literature etc.). Individuals and collectives are welcome to apply.

Individuals should select and enter between two and six photographs from a particular series or body of work and/or submit their photobook for exhibition by uploading a single PDF (no image limit). Collectives can submit up to 10 photographs (a £19 submission fee will apply for every 10 images submitted).

The Belfast Photo Festival has invited a panel of influential international experts in the field of photography to assist in the shortlisting and selection of artists alongside the festival team.

All submissions must be made via hiive. co.uk.

OPEN CALLS Deadline 5pm, 6 March EVA INTERNATIONAL Web EVA International, Ireland’s Biennial, is belfastphotofestival.com pleased to announce the open call for hiive.co.uk artists’ proposals for the 38th edition in 2018, curated by Inti Guerrero (Bo- SONY WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY gotá/Hong Kong). Since its inception AWARDS in 1977, EVA has maintained, expanded Marking its 10th anniversary, Sony and reformulated its open call as a tool World Photography Awards, the world’s for curatorial research, democratising largest photography competition, has the biennial spectrum for art practices opened for entries. Hosted by the World across media, generations and locations. Photography Organisation, the awards For EVA 2018, the revision and se- are open for work in four main comlection process of the open call is a call petition categories: Professional, Open, to respond to ‘the current state’. This Youth and Student Focus. The 2017 could be a reflection on the current edition sees new categories introduced state of your work, the current state of across the all competitions challenging government, the current state of your photographers to push their creative family, the current state of art history, boundaries. There is no submission fee. the current state of ideology, the current The Photographer of the Year prize state of your illness, the current state of comprises $25,000, Sony digital imagreligion, or a reflection on how the state ing equipment and inclusion in an exof today reminds you of the state of yes- hibition at Somerset House, London. terday.

Category winners are awarded flights Rather than a monolithic thematic and accommodation to an awards cerexhibition, EVA 2018 wishes to estab- emony in London, Sony digital imaging lish a cosmology of exhibitions – a kalei- equipment, publication in the winners’ doscopic ecology of intertwining group book, and inclusion in the exhibition. shows with essayistic, retinal and bodily Shortlisted artists will be included in a narratives. The 38th edition of EVA In- digital exhibition. ternational will be open to the public Deadline from 14 April to 8 July 2018 across vari- 10 January ous locations, institutions and public Web spaces in Limerick City. Selected artists worldphoto.org/sony-world-photograwill receive artist fees and production phy-awards

RESIDENCIES ARTISTIC STRATEGIES IN PSYCHIATRY, THE NETHERLANDS The Van Abbemuseum and the Mental Health Care Institute Eindhoven (GGzE) invite national and international artists or artist groups working in the fields of socially-engaged art, community art, participatory art, art and science, social design or other related fields to apply for the artist in residence programme ‘Artistic Strategies in Psychiatry’.

During the two-month residency on site at the GGzE, the artists are asked to develop and realize site-specific projects of high artistic quality and innovative approaches that have a concrete, positive and lasting impact which relate to one or more of the stated objectives (found on the website listed below).

The invited artists will be provided with a studio to work on site at GGzE in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the Mental Health Care Institution Eindhoven, its clients and staff.

The selected artist (or artists group) will get a stipend of €7000 for participation in the whole programme (research, residency, presentation) to cover all living expenses. An operational budget of up to €5000 will be provided for the realisation of the project, its documentation, communication and presentation.

Travel expenses will be covered up to an amount of €2000.

Deadline 15 January Web artandeducation.net

FUNDING/AWARDS/ BURSARIES OFFALY ARTS ACTS GRANTS SCHEME Offaly County Council has opened its application process for the Arts Acts Grants Scheme 2017. Artists, arts organisations, schools, drama and musical groups, town bands, voluntary community groups (not festivals) are all eligible to apply.

The funding scheme is competitive and applicants are encouraged to ensure that proposed projects are innovative and ambitious, and provide maximum impact in the community with it objectives. With this in mind the Arts Act Grants 2017 are open to creative and cultural projects in the community.

In 2016, the scheme’s focus was the development of arts within the theme of the 1916 Centenary year. This included an exhibition entitled ‘100 Years, 100 Faces’ by Arts in Health organisation Anam Beo and ‘Military Manoeuvres’ by Patricia Hurl.

Deadline 4pm, Friday 27 January Web offaly.ie Telephone 0579357400

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.

Spring 2017

ROI PARTNERSHIPS VAI looks forward to working with our valued partners and welcomes new partnership requests from organisations and groups interested working together on the delivery of training for Visual Artists in 2017. We particularly welcome opportunities to meet the continuing professional development needs of artists at regional level.

Our current partners are: Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council, Clare County Council, Tipperary County Council, Damer House Gallery, Roscrea, Bealtaine Festival, Royal Hibernian Academy, Institute of Art, Design & Technology Dun Laoghaire, Dunamaise Arts Centre, Creative Frame Leitrim, Roscommon, Visual Artists Forum, Townhall Arts Centre and Cavan County Council.

HEALTH & SAFETY FOR VISUAL ARTISTS WITH VINCENT KIELY – NEW DATE! In partnership with IADT Dun Laoghaire Fri 20 Jan (10.30 – 15.30) @IADT Dun Laoghaire Places: 3 remaining NYCI CHILD PROTECTION AWARENESS PROGRAMME FOR ARTISTS 11 Mar (10.30 – 14.30) @Visual Artists Ireland Places: 15 – 18; Cost: €60/30 (VAI members) PEER CRITIQUE PAINTING WITH MARCUS COPE In partnership with RHA 11 Mar (10.30 – 14.30) @Royal Hibernian Academy Places: 6; Cost: €80/40 (VAI members) See VAI e-bulletin, website and facebook pages for dates for the following topics: DEVELOPING CREATIVE PROPOSALS In partnership with RHA Date TBC (10.30 – 14.30) @Royal Hibernian Academy Places: 10 – 12; Cost: €80/40 (VAI members) BEALTAINE FESTIVAL PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE EVENT Building on our work over the last three years, we will collaborate again on an event supporting artists over 50 years of age. This year’s Bealtaine addresses ideas of collectivity.

May 2017; Places: 30+ RDS VISUAL ARTS AWARDS In partnership with the RDS Visual Arts Awards Building on the success of this year’s collaborative event we aim to run a another event in 2017 to support recent graduates.

Oct 2017 @RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin; Places: 30+

February Creative Proposals Dublin; Costing, Pricing & Budgeting for Your Work March Visual Artists’ Cafe (including professional practice talk); Cataloguing & Archiving Your Work; Writing About Your Work April Marketing & Social Media for Visual Artists; Creative Proposals: Regional; Visual Artists’ Cafe May Writing About Your Work: Regional Developing Opportunities for Your Work; Bealtaine Seminar for Artists 50 Years+ June Working with Digital Images; Towards Sustainability September Child Protection Awareness Training; Creative Proposals: Dublin; Visual Artists’ Cafe October Handling, Packaging & Storing Your Work; Creating Opportunities for your Work; Peer Critique: Mixed Media November Visual Artists’ Cafe (including professional practice talk); Creative Proposals: Regional; Documenting Your Work December Health & Safety for Visual Artists; Health & Safety for Visual Artists: Regional; Peer Critique: Sculpture/Installation VAI Artists’ Cafés & Show & Tells VAI will schedule 4 – 6 Show & Tell events during 2016 and invite interested artists groups, venues or partners to get in touch if interested in hosting a ‘Show & Tell’. Email: monica@visualartists.ie Fees VAI members receive preferential discount of 50% on fees for all VAI, Training and Professional Development events. Fees range from €5 – €40 for VAI members.

Tell us about your training needs!

If you are interested in training please do get in touch with us directly or forward an expression of interest in a topic/s through the Professional Development Training web page. We often repeat workshops when there is a strong demand for a topic.

Artist & Tutors Panel Visual Artists Ireland has an ongoing open submission process for artists and arts professionals interested in being part of an available panel of tutors contributing to the VAI Professional Development Training Programme. For details go to our training registration page and click on Register for the PDT Artists’ Panel.

BOOKINGS/INFORMATION Monica Flynn, Professional Development Officer, Visual Artists Ireland 01 672 9488, monica@visualartists.ie visualartists.ie/events VAI members receive preferential discount of 50% on fees for VAI, Training and Professional Development . Fees range from €5 – 40 for VAI members.

Visual Artist Ireland works in partnership with local authorities, visual arts venues and others, combining resources to support the professional development of visual artists at regional level.

NI

Cost: FREE Start the new year as you mean to go on at this fun, lively social event with a twist. Belfast-based artist Charlotte Bosanquet has something unusual up BELFAST OPEN STUDIOS: her sleeve to get your creative juices flowing, kick INTERNATIONAL CURATOR TALKS out the old and get inspired to make things hap17 Jan (15.00 – 17.00) pen in 2017. @Visual Artists Ireland, Belfast Office VISUAL ARTISTS’ CAFE: INTRODUCING ARDS Cost: FREE 18 Feb (13.00 – 17.00) An introduction to curators visiting from Paris, @Haptic, Newtownards including Raphael Brunel (independent/ Cost: FREE WYSIWYH), Pascale Cassagnau (Centre national Find out more about the visual arts exhibition des arts plastiques), Mathilde Villeneuve (Les spaces, studios, resources and collectives in Ards Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers), Marta Ponsa (Jeu de and the surrounding area. This networking and Paume). information event will be an excellent opportuniBELFAST OPEN STUDIOS: ty to meet other artists and arts organisations in an WELCOME RECEPTION informal setting.

17 Jan (18.30 – 20.30) MASTERCLASS: REFLECTIVE WRITING WITH @Belfast Harbour Offices FREDERIC HUSKA Cost: FREE 25 Feb (13.00 – 16.00), Sat 11 Mar (13.00 – 16.00), A welcome reception to meet and greet visiting Sat 25 Mar (13.00 – 16.00 curators and a chance for us to thank you for tak- @Bangor ing part in the 2016 Belfast Open Studios pro- Cost (for all three workshops): £60/£30 gramme.

(VAI members) VISUAL ARTISTS’ CAFE: As artists are more and more required to articulate THE ARTIST’S MEDIA TOOLKIT the underpinning of their work, writing has February 2017 become an essential aspect. This workshop will @TBC (Belfast) consider writing as a way of exploration, beyond This practical workshop looks at what informa- explaining one’s work. tion you have available online about you and your VISUAL ARTISTS’ CAFE: FACILITATION SKILLS work that can be used by curators and galleries for FOR ARTISTS WORKING WITH GROUPS research or exhibitions.

1 Apr (10.00 – 16.00) MASTERCLASS: SETTING YOUR OWN AGENDA @TBC March 2017 £10/£5(VAI members) @TBC (Belfast) This event will explore the theory and practice of Cost: £60/£30 (VAI members) facilitation skills, which can be applied to both Shift your mindset, find your focus and sharpen group and individual activities as well as collaboyour creative mind. A two-day exploration of best rations in community contexts. practices for making ideas happen. Pragmatic action-oriented insights and skills are shared to empower you to make good the ideas you have in waiting. When it comes to creative work, every VISUAL ARTISTS CAFE: decision, every day matters.

THE ARTIST’S MEDIA TOOLKIT VISUAL ARTISTS’ CAFE: March 2017 PLANNING A TOURING EXHIBITION @TBC (Derry) March 2017 This practical workshop looks at what informa@TBC (Belfast) tion you have available online about you and your This event is designed for artists and curators at work that can be used by curators and galleries for the beginning stages of thinking about creating a research or exhibitions. touring exhibition. Long before funding applications are written, a carefully thought out project BOOKING INFORMATION will make every subsequent step fall into place.

Rob Hilken (Northern Ireland Manager) rob@visualartists-ni.org 028 9587 0361 visualartists.org.uk/booking VISUAL ARTISTS’ CAFE: LET’S MAKE IT HAPPEN! 19 Jan (19.00 – 21.00) @Boom! Studios, Bangor

Belfast

Derry

Bangor & Ards

JOIN VAI! Visual Artists Ireland provides practical support, services, information and resources for professional artists throughout their careers.

Visit visualartists.ie for more details.

SPACE FOR RENT AT VAI’S NEW OFFICE! The spacious upper floor at our new Dublin 8 office is now available to rent. The large, light-filled room is suitable for rehearsals, auditions and presentations as well as meetings, talks and conferences.

Please call 01 672 9488 or email info@visualartists.ie to discuss options.