The Visual Artists’ News Sheet ISSUE 2 2009 March – April Published by Visual Artists Ireland Ealaíontóirí Radharcacha Éire
Takahiro Suzuki IKIRO. Installation for ArtTrail 08/ Cork 2008.
Nordic Performance art FAF Showcase New Sites – New Fields Contemporary Art and Animal / Human Studies cow house studios Fergus Byrne open spaces Cork City PROFILE Fergus Martin Fiona Whelan & Rialto Youth Project Tulca Art in the Rural Context
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
2
Introduction
March – April 2009
Contents
Introduction
Contents
Welcome to the March / April edition of the Visual Artists News Sheet. First up, this issue features details of three VAI initiatives for artists – the Exercises in Folkatronica Media Production Award (see page 35); the Picture This / VAI Moving Image Residency (see page 35) and this year's programme of Professional Development Training (see page 33). Furthermore, a call out and information on our ongoing project, The Living Artists Archive, can be found on page 32. Our guest columnist for this issue is Paul Domela – the director of the Liverpool Biennale, who was recently in Dublin as a speaker at Dublin City Council’s arts office’s ‘Open Spaces’ programme. Domela writes about showing, placing and making art in the particular contexts of city neighbourhoods and communities. The Open Spaces project is profiled in this issue; as is another Dublin based project, Fiona Whelan’s ongoing work with the Rialto Youth Project Art and rural contexts are also discussed – in Exploding the Margins Andrew Dodds reflects on the work he created for the Leitrim Sculpture Centre project ‘New Sites - New Fields’ Eleanor Phillip's article Co-Existing, Overlapping & Competing reports on the conference ‘Where Art Grows Greener? – Art in a Rural Context’ held at PS2, Belfast. This issues residency profile – Rural Engagement offers a profile of the Cow House artist’s residency facility in County Wexford. In this issue we welcome a new regular columnist – Maeve Connolly, a writer and lecturer at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. Connolly’s column will appear every other issue – in our next edition we’ll introduce another new columnist, Chris Fite-Wassilak. The VAI’s regional representatives tackle a range of issues. Our Northern Ireland representative Daniel Jewesbury considers consultations on arts strategies; an audit of unpaid art-labour; and the subject of artists' mobility. Aideen Barry, our West of Ireland representative highlights the opportunities for artists to engage with community forums. Cork City is the focus for this edition's regional profile of visual arts resources and activity. For our regular ‘Career Development’ feature, Fergus Martin sets out some of the key events and decisions that have shaped his art career. Performance artist Fergus Byrne is the subject of ‘How is it Made’ – Mary-Ruth Walsh talks to him about the conceptual underpinnings and processes involved in his current practice. Other features include a report on the FAF showcase ‘Doyourownthing’ – a meeting of artists discussing their practice and issues of autonomy; Nordic Guide an article by Brian Connolly that profiles performance organisations in the Nordic countries; a profile of Tulca 2008; a report by Fiona Woods on the London Metropolitan University conference on ‘The Animal Gaze: Contemporary Art and Animal / Human Studies’. All this and more – the latest opportunities, news and roundups of recent projects, events and exhibitions.
3. Column. Paul Domela. Art without art history. 3. Roundup. Recent exhibitions and projects of note. 4. Column. Maeve Connolly. Writing after the exhibition. 5. Column. Michael Burke. Faith. 6. Column. Vanessa O'Reilly. React. 7. News. The latest developments in the arts sector. 9. International Contacts. Nordic Guide. Brian Connolly introduces some key performance art
contacts and organisations in the Nordic countries.
10. FAF Showcase. It's Your Thing. Rayne Booth reports on ‘DoUrOwnThing’ The 6th FAF showcase
evening, held at the Lab, Dublin 16 Oct 2008.
11. Project Profile. Exploding the Margins. Andrew Dodds discusses his recent commission Arcadia
Amongst the Ruins created for the Leitrim Sculpture Centre project ‘New Sites - New Fields’.
12. Conference Report. Rethinking the Animal. Fiona Woods considers some of the issues arising from
‘The Animal Gaze: Contemporary Art and Animal/Human Studies’ (20 – 21 Nov 2008), a Symposium
and exhibition held at London Metropolitan University.
13. Residency Profile. Rural Engagement. Rosie O’Gorman introduces cow house studios a new artist-led
residency studio space – and artists Peter Allen Hoffmann and Haden Nicholl describe their
residency experiences.
14. How is it Made? Sensibilities of the Body. Mary-Ruth Walsh talks to Fergus Byrne about the conceptual
underpinnings and processes involved in his current practice.
15. Conference Report. Interchangeable Points of Orientation. Niall de Buitlear reports on Open Spaces
– a series of talks, and critical responses initiated by Dublin City Council in relation to facilitating
artists’ engagements with various sites and spaces throughout Dublin City.
16. VAI Northern Ireland Representative. Consultations. VAI Northern Ireland representative Daniel
Jewesbury arts strategy consultations; an audit of unpaid art-labour; and artists mobility.
16. Artists Books. Listings of recent monographs and self-published artists' books and editions. 18. Regional Profile. Visual arts resources and activity in Cork City. 23. Career Development. There are other times. Fergus Martin sets out some of the key co-ordinates,
events and decisions that have shaped his art career
25. Art in the Public Realm: Roundup. Recently completed public art commission, socially-engaged
projects and other forms of art outside of the gallery.
26. Art in the Public Realm: Focus. What's the Story? Niall de Buitlear reports on A talk by Fiona Whelan
& Rialto Youth Project participants, at The Lab, Dublin (14 Jan).
26. Visual Artists Ireland Western Representative. Anti-Complency League. VAI Rep Aideen Barry focuses
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27. Opportunities. All the latest residency calls, commissions, exhibitions etc.
34. Project Profile. Experiment, Evaluate & then Move On. Artist Ceara Conway from the Tulca management
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team talks about Tulca 2008 to Deirdre O’Mahony, artist and lecturer in fine art Galway – Mayo
36. Conference Report. Co-Existing, Overlapping & Competing. Eleanor Phillips reports on ‘Where Art Grows
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Greener? – Art in a Rural Context’ held at PS2, Belfast 17 December 2008.
Production Editor / Layout: Jason Oakley; News: Sabina McMahon; Roundup: Niall de Buitlear; Opportunities: Sabina McMahon; Proofing: Anne Henrichson; Invoicing: Bernadette Beecher. Contributors Paul Domela, Maeve Connolly, Michael Burke, Vanessa O'Reilly, Brian Connolly, Rayne Booth, Andrew Dodds, Fiona Woods, Rosie O’Gorman, Mary-Ruth Walsh, Fergus Byrne, Niall de Buitlear, Daniel Jewesbury, Irene Murphy, Chris Clarke, Matt Packer, Liz Maeny, Kathleen Hurley, Kevin Tuohy, David 'Dobz' O'Brien, Not Abel, Fergus Martin, Aideen Barry, Ceara Conway, Deirdre o’Mahony, Eleanor Phillips. Contact
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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
3
March – April 2009
COLUMN
Roundup
Paul Domela
Roundup
Art Without Art History
Colin Martin, Brian McGuire, Bea McMahon, Joe Nagle, Margaret O’Brien, Sarah O’Brien, Beth O’Halloran, Eamon O’Kane, Ann Quinn, Linda Quinlan, Sheila Rennick, Sonia Shiel, Sanja Todorovic, and Kate Warner.
I’VE BECOME A MAGPIE
www.pallasprojects.org
McNulty, featured work by Karl Burke, Angela Detanico & Rafael Lain, Kathy Slade, and Image-Text-Sound (a group made up of David Donohoe, Peter Maybury, and Marie-Pierre Richard). The show also featured a concert of improvised music by Lucio Capece, David Lacey, and Paul Vogel (24 Jan).
Cian McConn – work shown at G126
St. George's Hall, Liverpool. Photo: Paul Domela
What to think of art without art history? For a city such as Liverpool art is a conversation piece. You can have a chat about it. It has to be good to compete with football or the weather, and it has to be your art, like your club and today’s rain. So it needs drama – melodrama if need be, but better comedy or tragedy -– Greek or Roman, like St Georges Hall bigged up by someone chiselling S.P.Q.L. in the frieze “Senatus Populusque Liverpudliensis”. A place moved by emotions. So if we consider art in the context of regeneration, it does not start from scratch. Today, when practically every child receives education, the problem is
New York-based Irish artist Cian McConn’s exhibition ‘I’ve Become a Magpie’ was recently shown at 126, Galway (27 Nov – 13 Dec). The show featured works made in a range of media including collaborations with New York based, Irish artist Vivienne Griffin and with musician and performer Kay Merryweather. McConn who had spent two years living and working in New York City described the works as a commentary on his” experiences of America in uncertain times” . According to the press release, McConn’s practice embraces “a low-tech approach and creates simple, poetic pieces in an attempt to communicate how vulnerable we are to the ploys of a fickle world”. www.126.ie llery.fsnet.co.uk
not that there is no knowledge of art, but that it is rarely made to matter in relation to the bread and butter issues of everyday life. If social, economic or cultural urgencies are left out of the picture it is easy to understand how art
Concussion
may come to represent a culture that is ‘not for the likes of us’. Certainly when artists engage communities and neighbourhoods that are hardly plugged in to the habitus that enable some to say “This is art”, art will have to re-negotiate its place and meaning. The main work of engagement is establishing bottom-up a new framework in
www.templebargallery.com
MARIE HANLON
Marie Hanlon Box No 2. Acrylic on Wood. 12 x 12 x 12 cm.
‘New Works’ a solo exhibition by abstract painter Marie Hanlon was recently on show at the Rubicon Gallery, Dublin (30 Jan – 1 Mar). This new body of work by the artist was described in terms of “... rhythms, patterns and forms of everyday experiences ... painted areas collide with the more graphic elements of line – painted or drawn – these have the effect of unsettling the scene or of setting things in motion.”
O’KANE IN BRISTOL
Eamon O'Kane – work shown at Plan 9 Bristol.
Plan 9, Bristol recently presented an exhibition and an off-site project by Irish artist Eamon O’Kane (9 Jan – 15 Feb). The exhibition was based on the tale that a meal for King James II was held in 1689 under a sycamore tree located on the grounds of O’Kane’s parents’ house. This sycamore tree, which was hit by lightning in 1999, was used to construct chairs and table in the gallery over the course of the show. A large-scale wall drawing of the tree, and text works relating to the history of the house were also exhibited. The offsite project comprised ‘The Container Studio’, a shipping container, sited in Bristol city centre, was converted into a studio space where O’Kane investigated the architecture and urban planning of Bristol with reference to Le Corbusier’s plans for Paris. www.eamonokane.com / www.plan9.org.uk
UGLY LOVELY
www.rubicongallery.ie
which art can be performed as art. The material object that satisfies the need to see a work of art is the decoy without which we would not have a
Antoin O'Heocha Concussion. Installation view.
SITUATION AT PCP
conversation piece, but it is in the conversation that meaning and community are produced. For an art system geared towards the exhibition and circulation of things to see, an art process that pulls itself up by its own bootstraps and exists in and of conversation, is often a bridge too far. Between public sector visitor numbers and private sector market values, there is little patience for anecdote and banter. We need a leap of faith to bridge the gap. Late November I was invited to Dublin to speak in a series of lectures called Open Spaces. Open Spaces is a new programme by Dublin City Council that aims to rethink the notion of public art, taking account of recent developments in art practice outside galleries and museums. At a time when public space in Europe is refurbished with shopping mall trappings and the pizzazz of gated communities, remember that the public sphere has also been a zone of exclusion and for many, anything but accessible. Open space is what we need; if it can be conceived as corrective, imperative or invitation, I’ll take all three - not as designated areas, but as meeting place for the imagination. From across the Irish Sea, Open Spaces is an exciting development where artistic, curatorial, political and academic work intersects. It resonates with the collaborative work we have been doing in Liverpool over the last 10 years with Liverpool Biennial, particularly in public art and regeneration. Producing such meeting places requires collaboration between different
Antoin O’Heocha’s installation Concussion was shown in December '08 at the Intrude 366 space at the Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai. O’Heocha’s work was selected by the curator Biljana Ciric, as part of a project comprising the showing of different art projects for every day of 2008 in and around over the museum and over six off-site venues. Concussion took the form of three video works and light boxes – the video pieces comprised a multi layered piece using undecoded television signals accompanied by an electronic sequenced soundtrack by Berlin based Irish musician Keith O’Brien; a live monitor view of the viewers of the installation; interviews with random people conducted on the Nanjing Lu, Shanghai’s busiest. www.intrude366.com www.zendaimuseumofmodernart.com www.antoinoheocha.com
stakeholders. Tentative and temporary collaboration, for meeting is also leaving behind. For an art organisation, the curatorial work shifts from the provision of a framework to the shaping of a conversation and the slow building of confidence. Not as enclave, but precisely as open space, unprotected, and which introduces – in mild abuse of Stephen Wright’s distinction – art as competence to a world of other urgencies. What appears to the world of art as art, is the aspect of art. From another aspect, without art history, it may also have done that work which is not of art. To change something.
I THINK I REMEMBER ‘I Think I Remember’ was the fifth instalment of Volume – a series of exhibitions held at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin which explored sound as both a medium and subject in contemporary art (16 Jan – 21 Feb). The exhibition, which was curated by Dennis
Nevan Lahart – 'Ugly Loverly' exhibition view.
Peter O'Kennedy Situation – video still.
Pallas Contemporary Projects, Dublin opened their 2009 exhibition programme with Situation, a new site-specific video installation by Irish artist Peter O’Kennedy. (30 Jan – 1 Mar). The video features a generic sit-com set, but bereft of actors – “leaving only the set, the theatre seats and a disembodied laugh track”. The previous exhibition at PCP was ‘Timbuktu’, an exhibition of Irish and international artists (28 Nov – 20 Dec 08). The exhibiting artists were Robert Armstrong, Gayle Anderson, Grainne Brady, Peter Cabocky, Aoife Cassidy, Gordon Cheung, Cora Cummins, Hugh Delap, Blaise Drummond, Clodagh Emoe, Brendan Flaherty, Mark Garry, Andy Harper, Des Kenny, Gillian Lawler, Stephen Loughman, Maggie Madden,
The Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin recently presented ‘Ugly Lovely’ – Nevan Lahart's first solo exhibition with the gallery (8 – 31 Jan). For the show, Lahart filled the space with paintings on various found supports, as well as freestanding and wall mounted sculptures assembled with intentional crudeness from found materials. The tongue in cheek press release consisted of intentional gibberish (literally “Gobble-d-gook” and “Blah Blah Blah”) with a sprinkling of buzz words, ending with one sentence of clarity – “put simply, Nevan won’t stray too far from flowers.” www.nevanlahart.com / www.kevinkavanaghgallery.ie
RE-IMAGINING IMAGES Queen Street Studios Gallery recently presented ‘Re-imagining Images’ an exhibition by two painters – Genevieve Figgis and Iain Andrews – who rework existing images. (16 Jan – 21 Feb). Figgis photographic works referenced high society photography, magazine advertising, and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. Andrews’ paintings engaged with classical art historical imagery. www.queenstreetstudios.net
4
Column
Maeve Connolly
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
Roundup ELEGIES
CIARAN MURPHY
Eoin Mac Lochlainn – work from 'Caoineadh / Elegies'
Ciaran Murphy White tailed deer Oil on stretched paper over linen 50 x 60 cm 2009
Writing After the Exhibition
Gabriel Sierra, Biblioteca (under construction), Encuentro Internacional Medellin 2007. Photo: Dennis McNulty
Art exhibitions are ephemeral, often existing only for a matter of weeks or even days. It is always possible that a particularly influential show might be restaged or recreated at some point in the future, but the context will have shifted. This lends a certain urgency to the viewing and reviewing of exhibitions. In theory at least, ‘re-viewing’ involves looking again, and so occurs after an initial viewing. So even when a review appears alongside an exhibition, in the form of a press clipping pinned up near the entrance or slotted into a folder with the price list, its temporal status in relation to the show seems straightforward. For the writer, however, the situation can be more ambiguous. This is because many writers think about their reviews before, and certainly during, their visit to the show. Often, the need to articulate a coherent and decisive response in the form of a review will shape the actual experience of the exhibition. This is particularly true in the case of a large and unwieldy biennial, where reviewers depend for factual details upon press releases generated in the days before the show is complete, and frequently structure their responses through reference to previous iterations or advance claims made by curators. The process of writing a review often generates new avenues of thought and research, despite the pressure of a deadline, but sometimes it is the exhibitions not reviewed that prove the most productive. On several occasions, I have passed through a show quite casually, only to find my memory of the experience becoming more and more vivid over time, perhaps precisely because I did not organise or frame my thoughts into a 500 or 750 word written response. At other points, I have visited an exhibition in advance of an opening or event, granted a kind of ‘backstage pass’ as the friend or partner of an artist in the show. For a reviewer this seems like the wrong time to visit, because one cannot easily ‘look again’ at something that has not yet fully come into view. Some of the most interesting exhibitions I have attended (as tourist or as reviewer) were devised to unfold over time so that collaborative and discursive processes would acquire greater visibility. This was my experience of ‘Encuentro Internacional Medellín 2007’ in Colombia, a project involving seven guest curators, extending over several months across various venues in the city of Medellín. (1) I spent 10 days in the city during 2007, much of it in La Casa del Encuentro, a social and administrative hub that also housed a rotating programme of exhibitions, performances, publications and debates. Observing the events unfolding around me, I was relieved not to have to establish the kind of (illusory) detachment necessary to write an overview. In retrospect, this dislocation from the usual patterns of viewing and reviewing marks Encuentro out as a particularly significant exhibition, for me at least. The works that have persisted in my memory of Encuentro include a series of functional structures devised and built by Gabriel Sierra around La Casa, in dialogue with the curator Ana Paula Cohen and other artists. Sierra and his assistant produced an apparently endless series of functional structures and objects, including shelves, lockers, ladders and tables, many of which were used to display books, newspapers, or artworks. They objects appeared unexpectedly around the building during my visit, gradually delineating the temporary function of each space, as foyer, gallery, archive etc. On one occasion, I watched Gabriel adjusting a small cardboard model of a library issue desk, small enough to hold in one hand, only to encounter two days later a life size version that filled an entire room. Sierra’s constructions at La Casa were designed to remain as part of the building, to be used as a resource for the local arts scene, and hopefully they continue to operate in this way. But they also serve another purpose, as visible traces of the temporal processes of curating, making and viewing that are integral to exhibitions, but not always fully articulated in reviews. Maeve Connolly is a writer and lecturer at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. For details of research and publications see www. maeveconnolly.net Notes (1) For a review of this show, which details the organisational and historical context, see Oliver Debroise, Encuentro Internacional Medellín, Frieze 108 (October 2008), http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/encuentro_ internacional_medellin
March – April 2009
‘Caoineadh / Elegies’ a solo exhibition of new paintings by Eoin Mac Lochlainn was shown the Courthouse Arts Centre in Tinahely, Co Wicklow (18 Jan – 6 Feb). The paintings were based on images taken from the media – with a particular focus on images of the victims of conflict. As the press release noted “it is easy to become inured to the personal stories that lie behind each image, but by taking an image and using it as the subject of a painting, it emphasises the importance of that image, that personal story. On a formal level, the work explores how photography and painting differ and compete as modes of representation.”
Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin recently hosted ‘March’ the second solo exhibition at the gallery of work by the figurative painter Ciarán Murphy (15 Jan – 21 Feb). The press release suggests that Murphy’s paintings “all allude to nature – often a violent and inexorably cruel one; packs of animals savage their prey (dinner), storms leave desolate nightscapes and many of Murphy’s iconic depictions of lone animals appear destined to an inevitable fate of taxidermy”.
Ronan McCrea – work from 'New Town Centre Project (Extract 1)'
www.green onredgallery.com
UPLANDS ‘Uplands’ at the Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise (during January) featured works by Andy Mason, Tom Joyce, and Maírín Kelly – artists whose work is rooted in the landscape of the Slieve Bloom and Slieve Aughty Mountains in East Clare. As the press release noted “the shape of the land, the interaction of man with nature .... and the physical environment of the mountains and hills of the midlands and the west” were explored by the artists through the mediums of photographs, oils and mixed media. www.dunamaise.ie
NEW TRADITIONS
Joan Saló, Untitled, pen on canvas, 120 x 120 cm, 2008
AT DRAIOCHT
THE NEWTONIANS
‘The Newtonians’ Mark Joyce’s showing of new work in drawing, painting, and sound at the Green on Red Gallery, Dublin (9 Jan – 14 Feb) explored “critical issues of colour in optics and music”. According to the press release “Joyce has used his knowledge of lenses, spectroscopes and other instruments, creating ink drawings and paintings that illuminate fundamental aspects of light. The paintings refer to our experience and memory of colour and light in the world, creating a chroma-chord experience.” The sound piece in the exhibition related to Isaac Newton’s colour wheel in which the scientist linked seven colours with the notes of a musical octave.
www.redspace.cc
www.motherstankstation.com
www.tinahely-courthouse.ie
Mark Joyce – Installation at The Albers Foundation, Connecticut (2007).
the intention being that the exhibition will continually evolve over the course of the year. The Joy Gallery is a not-for-profit artist-run space focusing on experimental art, music, cross-collaborations and new media work. The exhibition is accompanied by a concession store called Bread & Butter selling magazines, records, zines, artists’ prints and other merchandise and crafts from associated artists and musicians.
‘New Town Centre Project (Extract #1)’ is an exhibition developed by Ronan McCrea for Draíocht, Blanchardstown comprising an installation of photographic slide projections and audio soundtracks that explores the Blanchardstown Town Centre (30 Jan – 4 Apr). Running at the same time is ‘The New Brilliant’ an exhibition of new paintings by Ross McDonnell. The previous exhibition at Draíocht was ‘Inhabit’ an exhibition of work by members of the Blackchurch Print Studio (28 Nov 08 – 17 Jan 09). The exhibition featured work by Caroline Byrne, Janine Davidson, Aoife Dwyer, Mary A. Fitzgerald, Mary Frazer, Jane Garland, Catriona Leahy, Colin Martin, David McGinn, Piia Rossi, and Daryl Slein. www.draiocht.ie www.ronanmccrea.com
HUAN In December the Red Stables Studios, In St. Anne’s Park, Clontarf, hosted a solo exhibition by Martina Galvin (20 – 21 Dec 08). The show comprised 15 small paintings from the artists ‘Huan’ series of works inspired by visits to Lough Boora Bog, Co. Offaly. The press release described the works as “sculptural paintings that you look into, much as you do a hedgerow when you notice a bright head of some type of common flower of fauna in the bog undergrowth”. DOING TIME AT THE JOY Currently on view at the Joy Gallery, Dubin is ‘Life at The Joy Gallery’ –a long term showing of the work of eight artists (Laura de Burca, Oisín Byrne, Fiona Hallinan, Ruth Lyons, Rachel Ni Chuinn, Kate Strain, Alex Synge, and Amy Walsh),
The Stone Gallery, Dublin began their 2009 programme with ‘New Traditions’ (15 Jan – 14 Feb) a group exhibition of drawing, painting and sculpture by Mark Beatty, Susan Connolly, Niall De Buitléar, Anthony Kelly, Beth O’Halloran, Joan Saló, and Louise Ward. According to the press release “these artists produce considered work that has a kind of positive, obsessive energy. This work is often subtle in appearance and process, and reveals its meanings to the viewer slowly. This somewhat understated and contemplative collection of work could be described as being simply complicated.” www.stonegallery.ie
Isolated Curated by Peter Richards ‘Isolated’ at the Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast (30 Jan – 5 March) featured the work of eight artists – Anna Konik, Brian Maguire, Cecily Brennan, Ciara Finnegan, Gemma Anderson, Guy Ben-Ner, Lisa Byrne and Phil Hession. As the press release notes, the subject of isolation is addressed in works that consider “the construction of narratives, the relationships that are formed between artists and their subjects, the realities of representation, mediation and recollection. ‘Isolated’ reminds us of our fears”. COME & GONE Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda presented ‘Come and Gone’ a solo exhibition featuring video, sound, and performance work by Aileen Lambert (14 Jan – 14 Feb). As the press release outlined “Lambert’s practice is concerned with the relationship which the body has with its environment, and represents a claiming of space ... much of the work is concerned with a futile attempt to preserve something which is intangible, and uses metaphors such as the voice, breath and shadow to explore archetypal notions of life and death, and the passing of time.” Lambert also recently presented the performance Another Chance Encounter as
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
March – April 2009
5
Roundup
ColumN
part of ‘Excursions Performance Arts Festival’, Limerick (24 Jan) and the performance One Mouthful of Water at the ‘National Review of Live Art’ in Glasgow (12 Feb).
Michael Burke
www.droicheadartscentre.com www.aileenlambert.com www.newmoves.co.uk/na
NO GRANTS GALLERY Leonie Tang’s exhibition ‘Findings’ at the No Grants Gallery, Temple Bar, Dublin (18 Dec 08 – 5 Jan 09) comprised photographs taken during the artist travels in China in 2007. The artist grew up in Ireland but has inherited from her parents both an Irish and a Chinese nationality. Also recently shown at NGG was an exhibition of work by printmaker Niamh Dunphy. www.templebar.ie
RECENT SHOWS AT GAC
08). During this time the artist adopted the role of the fictional character Daniel Cullen who following the death of his wife and child has retreated to this room and made artwork in remembrance of the family he has lost. The two-week residency culminated in a closing event, involving a theatrical song performance from The Order of the Golden Ghost, a group of artists, singers and musicians. www.catalystarts.org.uk
Sounding Space For her contribution to the series of projects ‘Sounding Out Space’ at PS2, Belfast (8 – 24 Jan 08) Kathy Graham spent four weeks in the gallery creating ‘portraits’ of the space through a process of model building, photography, and digital reworking. Commenting on the work, the artist noted “substituting the true gallery space for its objectified portrait allows the observer to take possession of a quantity of imagined space, which is accessed through the gallery space. The result of this remaking of the space means the absence in the gallery becomes the presence in the image”. www.pssquared.org
Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh – work shown at Galway Arts Centre.
Miller, Tom Molloy, Isabel Nolan, Eamon O’Kane, Niamh O’Malley, Kathy Prendergast, Jim Savage, Gerda Teljeur, and Martin Wedge. ‘Into Irish Drawing’ tours to Akkuh, Hengelo, The Netherlands; Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris; and the Millennium Court Arts Centre, Portadown. EXCURSIONS 09 ‘Excursions’ is an annual interdisciplinary performance festival which takes place in various locations in Limerick City. ‘Excursions 2009’ (22 – 24 Jan) was curated by Sheila Deegan (Limerick City Arts Officer), Pippa Little (Curator Audience Access LCGA), Susan Holland (Curatorial Fellow LCGA), and Joanne O’Beirne (Artistic Director Belltable Arts Centre). The 2009 festival featured performances by William Hunt, Aine O’Dwyer, Patrick Keaveney, Ania Bas, Rachel Gomme, Lucy Suggate, Eva Weaverance, Aileen Lambert, John Dummett, and Kenny McBride. Also performing were Elena Bezborodova, Niamh O’Beirne with Elva Carri, Karen Buckley, and Steve Maher – who are all students at either LSAD or IADT. SEBASTIAN GUINNESS
ICE ABOVE, FIRE BELOW
Claire Langan – work shown at LCAG Gavin Turk The Mechanical Turk. Video still.
To finish up their inaugural year the Sebastian Guinness gallery, Dublin held a group exhibition of works chosen from the international contemporary artists that exhibited in the gallery during 2008 (10 Dec – 28 Feb). The exhibition featured Gavin Turk’s video The Mechanical Turk which had its first screening at the gallery. The other exhibiting artists included The Hilton Brothers, Mike Bouchet, Helen Chadwick, James Nares, Herbert Hamak, and Kenny Scharf.
Michelle Horrigan – work shown at Galway Arts Centre.
The Galway Arts Centre recently presented two concurrent solo shows by Irish artists Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh and Michele Horrigan (22 Jan – 28 Feb). Horrigan’s show of video and photographic works were described as interrogating “a kind of theatrical relationship to her subjects – that probes and locates specific circumstances and values of representation.” The exhibition included the work Nature Obscured by Factory / Factory Obscured by Fog which investigates the social and environmental impacts of the Aughinish Alumina Factory on the Shannon Estuary. The paintings in Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh’s exhibition were described as exploring the “performative aspect of painting – but also alluding to the idea of a contemplative place, between where a journey begins or ends.” The Galway Arts Centre’s previous exhibition was their biannual print making show, ‘Impressions’. At the same time GAC also presented work by the London based printmaker Norman Ackroyd at Galway City Museum (11 Dec 08 – 17 Jan 09). www.galway
VAMPIRE ON HIS HANDS AND KNEES For the exhibition ‘Vampire on His Hands and Knees’ Cian Donnelly spent two weeks working and performing in an enclosed room constructed within the gallery at Catalyst Arts, Belfast (8 – 20 Dec
www.sebastianguinnessgallery.com
Limerick City Gallery of Art recently showed ‘The Ice Above, The Fire Below and Other Works’ – a comprehensive exhibition of Claire Langan’s work (15 Jan – 27 Feb 09), which included her most recent films and a premier of her latest work. The press release noted that “Langan’s films are a contemporary meditation on the notion of the 'romantic landscape', in its entire beautiful, haunting and melancholic splendour ... Langan takes us on a journey through multiple geographical locations both real and constructed, allowing us access to dreamlike visions of the potential chaos that exists in nature and in our cinematic memories.” Also recently shown at Limerick City Gallery was ‘Into Irish Drawing’ (15 Jan – 22 Feb) curated by Arno Kramer. The show featured works by Stephen Brandes, Claire Carpenter, Gary Coyle, Timothy Emlyn Jones, Brian Fay, Mark Francis, David Godgold, Anita Groener, Katie Holten, Alice Maher, Niamh Mc Cann, Eoin Mc Hugh, Bea Mc Mahon, Nick
SIGNALS IN THE DARK Ongoing at the Model Art and Niland Gallery’s temporary satellite space at Castle House, Sligo is ‘Signals in the Dark: Art in the Shadow of War’ (21 Feb – 3 May). It is the first of two off-site group shows
taking
place
during
the
redevelopment of the gallery and is described as an inter-disciplinary project exploring contemporary art’s relationship to war and its representations. As the press release explains “investigating the interstices between perpetual war, dominant politics, and military aesthetics, this project confronts issues of global warfare, how it is imaged, and how it is imagined. While a number of artists produce analyses or outraged expressions arising from their own or others’ experiences of war, other artists challenge the spectacle of contemporary war, its veracity
and,
ultimately,
its
intertwinement with a New World Order.”
Faith
Brendan Fox Good Friday
Faith – now there’s a word you don’t see too often in the Visual Artists News Sheet. It has cropped up a bit of late though; a few events leading to the one place perhaps? About 18 months back, Bríd Ní Rinn placed an item in the VAN and the e-bulletin asking artists – for whom their faith was an important aspect of their work – to contact her. Quite a number did. What resulted was ‘Scáil na Glóire’ a very fine exhibition of some 50 artworks by 23 artists, held at Curry Hill House, Prosperous, Co. Kildare. Feedback from the artists and those who saw the exhibition was positive; and sales of the work were very high. ’Scáil na Glóire’ ran during February 2008. In August 2008, the VAI e-bulletin carried notice of another event, ‘Faith in Form’ – a conference and exhibition (1). The event, which explored the threshold between contemporary art forms and the modern Church – took place in Carmelite Friary, Kinsale during October. ‘Faith in Form’ was organised by a group of artists for whom their faith is an important aspect of their artwork and their lives. They felt a need to come together to discuss issues pertaining to their work, their faith and church. A juried exhibition, ‘Faith in Form’ presented a mixture of overtly religious and more subtlety faith oriented works. About 40 people, many of them artists, attended the conference, addressed by a variety of speakers from Ireland and the UK. One conclusion, resulting from the conference, was the need for an organisation for artists for whom faith is an important element of their work More recently, I received an invitation to an exhibition to be held in the County Hall, Tullamore. The exhibition by artist Brendan Fox, set out to “… examine evolving relationships with ‘faith’ and to question both personal and collective beliefs”. I hadn’t decided if I would go to the opening, I would have to bring my two boys with me and it was a school night? The invitation was on the table beside me where by six-year-old saw it. “That’s Jesus”, he said quite definitely. Turning to another image on the invitation he asked, “Why’s that man shooting Mary?” I showed the invitation to his older brother and asked him about it, “three bottles of wine – so what?” I decided to go the opening and to bring the pair with me. The younger one got straight into the exhibition picking up on the ‘meaning’ of most of the works, the older one got the idea after a few minutes and they started competing as to who would get it right. My own work is split in two – public work and work for liturgical spaces. The balance is determined by the commissions I receive. I am happy doing either. I am a member of VAI; and I have been since the inaugural meeting of the Sculptors’ Society of Ireland in the Spa Hotel in Lucan in the early 1980s. A few years ago I joined SIAC – an international organisation of Christian artists. Recently I have been helping them to organise a major conference, ‘The Image of God’, to be held in Glenstal Abbey during July this year. Artists of many disciplines, painters, sculptors, architects, authors, poets and composers will be invited to take part. Some speakers have already agreed to present papers, others have yet to confirm their availability. Throughout Europe a number of nationally bases organisations of Christian artists exist. There are two in the Netherlands, two or three in the UK and one each in Hungary and Romania that I know of. It is hoped by those organising the Glenstal conference and by those involved in establishing ‘Scáil na Glóire’ and ‘Faith in Form’, that the conference will facilitate the establishment of an interdisciplinary organisation of Christian artists – but that will be up to those who attend. If you are interested, if it is relevant to you, please pencil a few dates into your diary. I hope to see you there. Friday 16 July – Forum to discuss the formation of Christian Artists Ireland; Saturday 17 & Sunday 18 of July: ‘The Image of God’ conference; Monday 20th of July – SIAC General Assembly. (1) http://www.carmeliteskinsale.com/html/faith_in_form_08.html
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
6
March – April 2009
ColumN
Roundup
Vanessa O'Reilly
The featured artists include Maja Bajević (Bosnia), Omer Fast (Israel/USA), Kendell Geers (South Africa), Anri Sala (Albania), Bureau d’etudes (France), Johan Grimonprez (Belgium), Sonja Savić (Serbia), Paul Chan (USA), Jamelie Hassan (Canada), Sean Snyder (USA/Germany), Köken Ergun (Turkey), Kristan Horton (Canada), Ron Terada (Canada), Harun Farocki (Germany), Abdel-Karim Khalil (Iraq). The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Sonja Savić (1961 – 2008).
REACT
Curated by Bettina Knaup and Beatrice E Stammer ‘re.act.feminism performance art of the 1960s & 1970s today’ at the Akademie der Künste, Berlin (13 Dec 2008 – 8 Feb 2009) provided an exemplary overview of gender-critical performance art – and investigated its resonances in current artistic productions in the form of re-enactments, re-appropriations, new formulations and documentary and archival projects. It was a vast exhibition, with hours of video content, photographic works and installations. The show included work by Ulrike Rosenbach, Babette Mangolte, Leslie Labowitz, Oreet Ashery and Martha Wilson. In conjunction with the exhibition, a conference and series of live performances and re-enactments were held (22 – 25 January) – bringing together feminist performance practitioners, theorists and art historians; among them Faith Wilding, Suzanne Lacy, Lorraine O’Grady, Sanja Ivekovic, Rebecca Schneider, Bojana Pejic, Fabienne Dumont and Angelika Richter. The four days of the conference took the format of theoretical and discursive presentations in the day and performances and re-enactments presented throughout the evening. Screenings included Seven Easy Pieces by Marina Abramovic – a film by Babette Mangolte, that featured seven re-enacted performances at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City in November 9 – 15, 2005 by Abramovic. Two originated by Abramovic: Lips of Thomas (1975) and Entering the Otherside (2005) – and five were by other artists: Body Pressure by Bruce Nauman (1974); Seedbed by Vito Acconci (1972); Action Pants: Genital Panic by Valie Export (1969); The Conditioning, first action of Self Portrait(s) by Gina Pane (1973); and How to explain a Picture to a Dead Hare by Joseph Beuys (1965). The discussion of the film highlighted the necessity to define the fundamental differences between re-enactments and recreations, whereby is was agreed that a re-enactment is ‘a creative act’ Bojana Pejic presented a paper entitled When Private was not Political: Making Sex in State-Socialism. Pejic saw the act of recuperation of early feminist performance artists –who were dismissed in the 1960s and 1970s as ‘essentialist’ – as an important political and theoretical undertaking. This was reiterated by Angelika Richter’s paper, Body Action: Performative Tendencies in East Germany – which focused on the specific political and cultural situation of the GDR. Richter’s paper was of particular interest, as it followed the question as to why there has neither been a feminist tradition in the fine arts nor the emergence of a performance art in East Germany in the 1960s and early 1970s – where the political establishment placed both men and women as equal. Richter put forward the case to rethink the idea and notion of ‘performance’, to include facial and body paint actions; action experiments with costumes and masks; the Dadaistic theatre plays and well as super 8 films and later the rituals of the late 1970s and 1980s by ‘Autoperforationsartisten’ such as Cornelia Schleime and Else Gabriel. Fabienne Dumont, a French art historian, positioned women artist working in France, the ’68-ers’, at the centre of radical movements in France at the time eg. The Women’s Liberation Movement which prompted women to break with their past practices and seek to fit their feminist awareness with the meaning of their art – examples would include artists like Orlan, Gina Pane and Lygia Clark. Rebecca Schneider’s talk – Active Repetition or Re-enactment as Subversive explored the relationship between the troubled temporality of mimesis and the feminist and queer politics of contemporary re-enactment art. Schneider is the author of The Explicit Body in Performance (Routledge 1997) and she is currently working on a second book titled Re-enactment: Essays on Performance Remains in Visual Culture that engages historical re-enactment in popular culture, theatre, and visual art. Schneider discussed arguments gathering about the authenticity of the performance as a one-off documented event, proposing instead, that difference is the modus for authenticity with regard to performance. The articulation of performance as something in repetition and through this repetition/re-enactment it gains it authenticity as performance. She further questioned how the temporality (and theatricality) of the pose deployed in current artworks is invested in critical inquiry – that the feminine has long been articulated through the pose, the posed, the imposed, and the impersonated. Her paper being part of a larger project that explores the inter-medial leaks and gaps between performance, theatre, and photography, made a succinct counterpoint to the work of Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz, both among the younger generation of German artist involved in the conference. They presented their recent collaborative film work. N.O. Body. The film took as its point of origin a photograph of Annie Jones (1865-1902) the bearded lady who was paraded in the Barnum Circus as a ‘wonder’ while at the same time included, by way of the photograph, in the medical book Geschlechtskunde, Bilderteil by Magnus Hirschfeld. What the film accomplishes in its production of normality and deviance is what Judith Butler has written as “gender is in no way a stable identity or locus of agency from which various acts proceed; rather, it is an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts”. (Judith Butler, Performative Acts and Gender Constitutions, The Twentieth Century Performance Reader) It is through the performance and re-enactment that Butler sees the potential for another sort of repeating, a subversive one. Repetition creates difference – which should be considered the modus for the authenticity of performance. Performance re-enactments and their position in the recuperation of feminist history have created a repetition that is a revision.
www.modelart.ie
DANA IN CONTEXT
Sean Lynch – research image.
The Context Gallery, Derry hosted Seán Lynch’s first solo exhibition in Northern Ireland (5 Dec 08 – 2 Jan 09) which featured work realised by the artist over the last three years. The works deal with subjects such as folklorist Eddie Lenihan’s 1999 campaign to save a whitethorn bush believed to be a fairy meeting place, the last street Walter Benjamin walked on, and Dana’s arrival at Dublin Airport in 1970 after winning the Eurovision Song Contest. Lynch refers to “Walter Benjamin’s subtle notion of ‘revolutionary nostalgia’, an approach that considers the resonance of history and site in critical relation to contemporary discourse.”
including photography, film, sound, poetry, installation, and digital media work. The exhibition aimed to highlight “the range of creativity and innovation which emerged during the two year In Context 3 programme and the connections made between the artists, places and communities of South Dublin.” www.incontext.southdublin.ie www.ruared.ie
Lonnie van Brummelen & Siebren de Haan, Revolt of the Giants 35mm film still, 2008
were refused permission due to their intention to criticise the sculpture’s presence in the city. As a result they appropriated existing image from academic books to reconstruct the entire sculptural battlefield on film. For the second element in the exhibition the artists collaborated with participants of an integration class at the Goethe-Institut in Istanbul. The purpose of these classes is to teach would-be immigrants about German culture before they move to the country. These participants spoke only rudimentary German and were asked to read out loud a German art historical description of the sculpture. The press release explains that “in an age of globalisation, the relationships we have to language and to national artistic and academic heritage have becoming increasingly nuanced and conflicted, creating open spaces for artistic reading and interpretation. The artworks of van Brummelen and de Haan actively inhabit these disputed grounds.” www.projectartscentre.ie
Derry?London?London?Derry? The final exhibition the ‘Derry?London?London?Derry?’ series commissioned by the Context Gallery, Derry was curated by James Kerr and featured the work of Mairead Dunne and Mary O’Kane (16 Jan – 14 Feb) – both of whom are Belfast based emerging artists. The artists were invited to create shows in response to the context of London Street in Derry. Dunne’s approach involved abandoned TV sets with which she created “self-contained worlds containing subject matter which hangs between reality and illusion. These sculpturally defined environments are inhabited by scenes of the imaginary in an attempt to recapture the spirit of the street.” Similarly O’Kane created “a series of surreal environments as representation of the unconscious memories the physical place evokes.” www.contextgalleries.blogspot.com
LAST BREATH
REPLICATIONS
www.contextgalleries.blogspot.com
THE SKETCHBOOK Hilary Williams Last Breath – video still/
Neil Hamon, Invasion, still from film. Courtesy of the artist and Galeria Leme.
Bartosz Kolata – work shown at Signal Arts Centre, Bray.
The Signal Arts Centre, Bray recently presented ‘The Sketchbook’ an exhibition by Bartosz Kolata (3 – 15 Feb). According to the press release Kolata “finds inspiration in people around him, their relationships, and their feelings. His paintings are like snapshots of private, unpremeditated moments which make the viewer almost voyeuristic”. www.signalartscentre.ie
‘Replications’ was a two person exhibition at Belfast Exposed (5 Dec 08 – 31 Jan 09) that featured work by London-based artist Neil Hamon and Dutch artist Edwin Zwakman. Hamon presented a series of portraits of members of military re-enactment societies. Zwakman constructed sprawling models of imagined places on the floor of his studio. These models are then lit, photographed and printed in large format. The press release explained that the reason for pairing these artists was to look at the processes of “replication, imitation and reproduction inherent in photography – drawing parallels with other ways of ‘mocking up’ reality, including model making, historical re-enactment and taxidermy”. www.belfastexposed.org
FATHERLAND ‘Monument to Another Man’s Fatherland’ at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin (12 Dec 08 – 31 Jan) was an installation of two newly commissioned films by Dutch artists Lonnie van Brummelen and Siebren de Haan. For the project, the artists originally planned to film a sculptural battle scene in the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin, but
ALIGHT – RUA RED The exhibition ‘Alight’ at RUA Red, Tallaght – South Dublin’s new arts centre – was a presentation of work by artists from the In Context 3, public art programme (25 Nov – 19 Dec). Dermot Bolger, Connolly & Cleary, Jackie Sumell, Jennifer Walshe, and Bik van der Pol presented work in a variety of media
In December Irish artist Hilary Williams’ performance video Last Breath was screened at Gallery Arts-Claims-Impulse, Berlin (20 Dec 08). The gallery specialises in performance video, live art and experimental film. The work imagines the scenario of what one might say with one’s last breath. The artist explains: “this work deals with the possibility of the end game. Imagine if one is confronted with having only one last exhalation of breath out; and what might one say with this last breath? Would you say something profound or would you waste it struggling for air?” www.art-claims-impulse.com
HORIZONS One Gallery, Dublin hosted ‘Horizons’ the first exhibition of photography by actor, director, and photographer, Hugh O’Conor (4 Dec – 30 Jan). The title of the exhibition refers to a Russian panoramic camera that shoots on 35mm film. Photographs from a Horizon camera are mixed in the exhibition with shots from other cameras including a medium format Yashica 124G and various digital cameras. It is O’Conor’s belief that “even a camera phone can make a beautiful photograph and tell a story.” www.myspace.com/onegallery
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
7
March – April 2009
NEWS
NEWS FACADE
Peak, Kevin Mooney 2008
The Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray began its 2009 programme with ‘Façade’, a solo exhibition of paintings by Kevin Mooney (9 – 31 Jan). The paintings drew on various sources – including the artist’s own photographs, architectural plans, media images, and romantic landscape painting. According to the press release “while continuing to investigate ideas of landscape and the deception of representational painting” Mooney’s works in the show demonstrated that “he has expanded this practice to explore the relationship of landscape with romanticism and with the notion of the sublime”. www.kevinmooney.org www.mermaidartscentre.ie
EX-VOTO
revisits the works of early modernist abstract painters such as Kandinski, Agnes Martin and Sonia Delaunay. The installation is intended to initiate inquest and ideally provides a point of departure for the viewers’ imagination.” The previous show in the space was ‘Dem Vidjoes’ an exhibition of video art by Niamh Murphy and Meabh Redmond (4 – 12 Dec 08) that aimed to “rethink the common assumptions” made about the medium.
‘Ex-Voto’, curated by Hugh Mulholland, is the first project in a new exhibition series in which external curators are invited to develop an exhibition at Belfast Exposed (6 Feb – 20 Mar). The title of the show refers to votive offerings to a saint or divinity often made in the form of a painting. The exhibition features a series of these ‘ex-voto’ paintings along with the work of three contemporary artists: Lilibeth Cuenca, Tommaso Bonaventura and John Angerson. As the press release explains “the works in the exhibition offer insights into the emotional and spiritual power of the mass Christian fundamentalist movement and sects such as the ‘Jesus Army’, as well as the individual acts of faith of those on personal pilgrimages and the simple offerings given in thanksgiving for a prayer answered.” www.belfastexposed.org
RIVER OF STARS AND SHADOWS Joe Covney’s solo exhibition ‘River of Stars and Shadows’ at Space2 and Unit H in The Market Studios, Dublin featured new drawings that take The Sunrise Ruby by the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi as a starting point (19 – 21 Dec 2008). According to the press release Covney’s “work develops in series, establishing a visual language that initiates conversations. It grows from traditional formal concerns and
www.fourdublin.com
LEMONSTREET GALLERY CLOSES
FIFTY PERCENT SOLITUDE
Lemonstreet Gallery, previously of Lemon Street and City Quay, Dublin 2, closed its doors for the final time at 4pm on Saturday 28 February 2009. The gallery was established in 2000 by Michael O’Reilly, former Chairman of the Board of the National Gallery of Ireland, with the remit of facilitating
www.themarketstudios.wordpress.com
the growing demand for affordable, THIRTY ‘30’ was a group exhibition celebrating 30 years of contemporary photography at the Gallery of Photography, Dublin (21 Nov – 22 Dec 08). The exhibition featured 50 photographers ranging from world famous to emerging artists. The participating artists included Eve Arnold, Martin Cregg, Mark Curran, John Duncan, Michael Durand, David Farrell, Martine Franck, Bruce Gilden, Karl Grimes, Anthony Haughey, Seán Hillen, Chris Killip, Clare Langan, Suzanne Mooney, Trish Morrissey, Mick O’Kelly, Mandy O’Neill, Martin Parr, Paul Seawright, Victor Sloan, Pete Smyth, and Harry Thuillier Jnr. www.galleryofphotograp
Lilibeth Cuenca, Holy Wood (2005). Still from film.
News
gestures and recited quotes from bystanders at political demonstrations in the US between 1968 – 2008.”
A SENSE OF PLACE ‘A Sense of Place’ was a solo exhibition of new paintings by Rebecca Bradley held at the Batavia Gallery, Fermoy, Co. Cork. As the artist explained “some places, whether experienced over time or fleetingly leave lasting impressions – which I work through in my paintings, with the intent of encapsulating an essential energy or atmosphere that is not always immediately visible, but is explored through memory – and the sheer physicality of the process of painting and materials”.
quality artwork. Initially Lemonstreet Sonia Shiel – work from 'The Brief Tremendous'
Isabel Nolan, Disorder is always increasing, 2008.
‘Fifty Percent Solitude’ was an exhibition of painting, sculpture, and photography by nine artists held at the Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (28 Nov 08 – 11 Feb 09). According to the press release “although the range of the artists’ concerns, practice and approach is diverse the individual works have been particularly selected for what they share. Common to each work is a sophisticated use of geometry, an architechtonic harmony and a clarity of articulation”. ‘Fifty Percent Solitude’ featured work by Willie Doherty, Maureen Gallace, Liam Gillick, Siobhán Hapaska, Stephen McKenna, Isabel Nolan, Sean Scully, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Paul Winstanley.
release noted that Shiel’s work “stages faux assessments and crude manifestations of natural and manmade phenomena. Each of the works for the Butler Gallery appears to ‘calculate’ wonder, applying notions of aptitude, enquiry or scrutiny to the ‘unquantifiable,’ from the ephemeral to the infinite.” This exhibition was followed by the venues annual show ‘Gems from the Collection’ (24 Jan – 8 Mar) – which as the title suggests featured work from the gallery’s permanent collection, including newly restored works by Susan Butler, Robert Ballagh and Anne Madden. www.butlergallery.com
specialised in graphic work and held a large portfolio of prints by both Irish and international artists. Then, in 2004 the gallery moved to City Quay near the Sean O’Casey Bridge, where the gallery’s scope was expanded to include monthly exhibitions of work by contemporary painters. Sadly, despite Lemonstreet Gallery’s many successes the recent economic downturn made it impossible to keep the gallery open. Commissioned Lemonstreet Press prints by Lemonstreet Press artists Liam Belton, Cora Cummins, Barrie Cooke, Felim Egan, Taffina Flood, Richard Gorman, Anne Madden, Patrick Scott, Michael Timmins and Charles Tyrrell will remain available online despite the closure of the gallery space. www.lemonstreet.com
ARTS & BUSINESS NI The winners of this year’s Allianz Arts
www.kerlin.ie
& Business Northern Ireland Awards were announced at the A & B Awards DERELICT: SILENT & STILL
Get into The Roundup ■■ To have your exhibition or
www.rebeccabradleyartist.com
Ceremony which took place on Thursday 15 January 2009 at The Reform Club, Royal Avenue, Belfast. Arts & Business NI aims to promote
event considered for inclusion
mutually
in the round-up section, simply
between business, the arts and the
e-mail text and images to the
public sector in Northern Ireland in
editor (jason@visualartists.ie).
order to increase private sector
beneficial
relationships
investment in the arts. 2009 winners SARAH PIERCE
Sarah Pierce A Thing of Beauty, Colour and Love. Video still.
Four gallery, Dublin hosted Sarah Pierce’s show 'A Thing of Beauty, Colour and Love’ by (11 Dec 08 – 31 Jan 09). The exhibition originated in Pierces researches at the archives of the ICA, London – specifically in relation to the exhibition 'When Attitudes Become Form' (1971) and the conference 'The State of British Art, A Debate' (1978). In press release Richard Birkett, assistant curator at the ICA, London wrote “Pierce presents both the practical remnants of institutional organisation, including redundant pedestals and archival documents; and the broader concerns of political organisation and protest through interviews and documentation, including video of a workshop where participants acted out
Niall Kerrigan – work from 'Derelict: Silent and Still'
In December the Ballina Arts Centre held ‘Derelict: Silent and Still’, the first solo show by Niall Kerrigan (5 – 23 Dec). Kerrigan’s photographs of abandoned houses were taken in rural Mayo throughout the Celtic Tiger era. The artist explained “during urban renewal, many houses are left derelict, waiting for the land-price to be right. They have been stripped of all but the barest evidence that they were once inhabited by humans: a broken plate, a discarded shoe. They exude a sense of abandonment and loss. I found each of them rotting in silence and endeavoured to give them a voice using only framing and natural light.” www.ballinaartscentre.com
■■ Your text details / press release
included
should include: venue name,
Museums Northern Ireland, Patton
location, dates and a brief
Group & Ulster Orchestra, Jill O’Neill &
description of the work / event.
Belfast Print Workshop, Ulster Bank
Note that ‘hard-copy’ cannot be
Group & Ulster Orchestra, Creggan
accepted due to the volume of
Enterprises Limited & Guildhall Press,
material that needs to be
InBev Ireland & Feile an Phobail, West
collated for this section of the
Belfast, KPMG & Royal Ulster Academy
publication. Inclusion is not
of Arts and Alley Arts Centre.
guaranteed, but we aim to give
everyone a fair chance.
Stratagem
&
National
www.aandb.org.uk/northernireland/
GEORGE MORRISON HONOURED ■■ Our criteria is primarily to
The Irish Film and Television Academy
ensure that the roundup
(IFTA) has honoured Irish documentary
section has a good regional
filmmaker
spread and represents a
Morrison with an Industry Lifetime
diversity of forms of practice,
Contribution Award. The award was
from a range of artists at all
presented to Morrison by President
stages in their careers.
Mary McAleese at the 6th Irish Film
and
archivist
George
and Television Awards ceremony which THE BRIEF TREMENDOUS The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny presented ‘The Brief Tremendous’, an exhibition of new works by Dublin based artist Sonia Shiel (29 Nov 08 – 18 Jan 09). Shiel presented works in a range of media including painting, video and sculptural constructions. The press
■■ Priority is given to events taking
took place on Saturday 14 February
place within Ireland, but do let
2009 at the Burlington Hotel in
us know if you are taking part
Dublin.
in a significant international
event.
George Morrison initially became interested in photography in the mid1930s and is best known for his films Mise …ire (1959), Saoirse? (1961) and
8
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
March – April 2009
NEWS Rebellion (1963), which chart Ireland’s
effective interventions for change
and outgoing members by thanking
ARTS COUNCIL AWARDS 2009
ARTS COUNCIL BURSARYs
struggle for independence from the late
which are necessary to accord artists
them for their five years of hard work
As the Irish Government's development
The results of the Arts Council’s second
19th century to 1922. Morrisonís
the conditions and status they deserve
and commitment to both the Arts
agency for the arts, the Arts Council is
round of Bursary Awards in 2008 were
painstaking salvage of the Irish and
as workers and contributors to society.
Council as an organisation and to the
the major funder of the arts in Ireland
announced in early January. A total of
British newsreels that make up these
Research undertaken as part of the
arts in Ireland.
and in 2009 the Irish Exchequer’s grant
€885,397 was offered to 67 individuals
films has ensured the survival of a
project will strengthen the evidence
to the Arts Council was announced as
in this round, bringing the total amount
moving-image record of the period that
base, inform future funding, policy
€75.7 million. Early in the year the Arts
awarded to the 143 bursary recipients
continues to be a primary source of
making and responsive support, and
LAUNCH OF RUA RED
Council stated that there would be a
in
research for historians, archivists and
provide the arts councils with reliable
On Thursday 5 February 2009 the
number of changes to the way in which
individuals were awarded multi-annual
filmmakers alike.
data
Mayor of South Dublin County Council,
Arts Council Awards would be offered
bursaries in Round 2 of the 2008 Bursary
Cllr. Marie Corr, alongside Martin
to
support
their
case
to
government.
www.artscouncil.ie
2008
to
€1,800,607.
Twelve
in 2009. This year not all awards will be
Awards. The purpose of an Arts Council
Industry Lifetime Achievement Award,
www.artscouncil.ie
Cullen TD, Minister of Arts, Sports and
open to applicants in all artforms or
bursary is to support professional artists
the Academy also announced that the
www.artscouncil-ni.org
Tourism, officially opened Tallaght’s
arts practices, and for some awards only
at all stages in their careers and in the
new arts centre, RUA RED. The launch
one deadline has been scheduled for
development of their arts practice. A
to be named the George Morrison
NEW ARTS COUNCIL
was marked by the launch of RUA
2009. This is different to how the Arts
list of the individuals in receipt of
Feature Documentary Award in his
Mary Cloake, Director of the Arts
RED’s visual arts programme with the
Council has offered awards previously.
funding in Round 2 of the Bursary
honour.
Council, welcomed Pat Moylan, the
opening of the inaugural exhibition
A full listing of Arts Council
Awards 2008 can be viewed on the
newly-appointed chairperson, as well
‘House Warming’, curated by Ruairi
Awards 2009 including information on
decisions database of the Arts Council
as Louise Donlon, Paul Johnson, Fiona
O’Cuiv and Cliodhna Shaffrey.
eligibility and available funding is
website. To view, log on and select
In addition to the tribute of the
IFTA’s Feature Documentary category is
www.iftn.ie
ARTS COUNCIL & ACNI
Kearney, Sheila O’Neill, Orlaith McBride
The exhibition featured work by
available on the Arts Council of Ireland
'Bursary Award’ from the ‘Fund’ menu,
In late January the Arts Council and the
and Caroline Senior, the six new Arts
Jesse Jones, Vera Klute, Clare Langan,
website under ‘Available Funding’. If
then the year ‘2008’, and click on
Arts Council of Northern Ireland
Council members to their positions at
Sean Lynch, John Jones, Bea McMahon,
you are considering making an
‘Search’.
announced their intentionion to
the end of January. The new chairperson
Liam O’Callaghan and Beth O’Halloran
application in 2009 it is also important
commission a major collaborative
and members were announced in
and it runs until 22 March 2009. The
that you read the guidance notes
study to identify and describe the socio-
December 2008 by Martin Cullen TD,
opening weekend also featured a
available on the ‘Financial Support’
economic conditions and regulatory
Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism,
screening of films from ‘InContext 3’ as
section of their website.
context of professional artists working
and they joined the six existing
part of South Dublin County Council’s
on the island of Ireland. Researchers
members of the Council - Maurice
public art programme.
and research teams with proven socio-
Foley,
John
The centre will provide exhibition
economic research expertise were
Crumlish,
Aibhlin
and performance space, as well as
invited to tender for the study.
McCrann, Alan Stanford and Colm
artists’ studios, rehearsal spaces and
Toibin.
multimedia facilities to the South
As part of the commission the two
deputy
chairperson,
Philip
King,
Arts Councils intend on retaining a
Ms Cloake also paid tribute to
research consultant to inform the
outgoing chairperson, Olive Braiden,
County Dublin region. www.ruared.ie
www.artscouncil.ie
www.artscouncil.ie
MORE NEWS Further news on the latest developments in the arts sector can found on the Visual Artists Irelands website – www.visualartists.ie/sfr_ news.html and the E-Bulletin – the VAI's free information email information service (to register go to – www.visualartists.ie/sfr_ ebulletin.html)
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
9
March – April 2009
international contacts
Nordic Guide
Brian Connolly introduces some key NORDIC Performance art contacts and organisations.
Edwige Mandrou, France. Multi Media Performance. Main Gallery, Kunsthalle, Gothenburg. Live Action Gothenburg October 2008. Photo: Evelyne Goupy.
Willem Wilhelmus, Helsinki, Finland. Performance in the Main Gallery, Kunsthalle, Gothenburg. Live Action Gothenburg October 2008. Photo: Evelyne Goupy.
Pekka Kainilainen, Finalnd. Street performance. Live Action Gothenburg October 2008. Photo: Evelyne Goupy.
I was invited to participate in ‘Live Action Gothenburg’ an international performance art festival, which occurred in Gothenburg in mid-October 2008. Prior to this event a number of Nordic performance art organisers came together to discuss the potential for future collaborations between performance art bodies within Finland, Norway, and Sweden. This meeting occurred in INT Mediagymnasiet, Södra Hamngatan, Gothenburg, Sweden on the 7 – 8 October 2008. As I was already in Gothenburg, I was asked to attend this meeting. Those in attendance and speaking about their organisations on the first day were: Jonas Stampe, Live Action Göteborg; Johanna Tuukkanen, Anti Festival, Kuopio (Finland); Sewilius Berg, Club Art, Göteborg (Sweden); Willem Wilhelmus, Art Contact, Helsinki (Finland); Helen Karlsson, Friction, Uppsala (Sweden); SU EN, Friction, Uppsala (Sweden); Ingrid Blekastad, Kunstbanken, Hamar (Norway); Peter Rosvik, Movement to Performance, Vasa, (Finland); Jussi Mitalainen, TEHDY, Tampere & Pori (Finland); Jouni Partanen, Poor Artists in Residence, Lahti (Finland); Maurice Blok, Poor Artists in Residence, Lahti (Finland); Denis Romanovski, Navinki Weld, Stockholm (Sweden) (1) At the start of the meeting, each individual introduced themselves and their related organisation’s activities and methodologies. I found this to be a rare insight into the performance art culture of the Nordic countries. I was surprised to find that the majority of the contributors had come to organising or initiating performance art events, for more or less for similar reasons as I myself. These being – that they were interested in something ’happening’ as a variation or extension to static art – this more often than not taking the form of performance art. Many of the speakers noted that they were intrigued by, or wished to see performance art – and wanted to make it available to others – but as there was none available to them; and no one making it happen; they found that they had to make it happen themselves. A familiar scenario I have to say! The majority of the organisations represented at the meeting spoke of how they were working with limited funding – and for the most part organising small regular events or larger annual events – much as is the case in the UK and Ireland. Many of them have developed their own networks and made links with other organisations in relation to funding rationales or other perceived commonalities. After the opening presentations a discussion took place which focused on two key themes – whether the creation of a federation is necessary and if some form of co-operation was possible? The various representatives expressed their opinion on why and how the creation of a federation of performance art organisers could be realised. Different viewpoints and positions were discussed and aired on the structure of the cooperation; as well as on the question if it was necessary to create a formal structure, that united all organisers in a federation – in opposition to a more informal structure. After a long discussion on these basic points, everybody agreed upon the common benefits of constituting a formal structure along the lines of a federation of performance art organisers. The discussion then moved on to devise and suggest key areas of interest for this federation – cooperation on logistics and invitations of artists; communication through a common website; coordination of events; lobbying towards national and Nordic funding bodies; educational issues; information towards media on performance art; information
on performance art towards art institutions; funding strategies and education in fundraising. Following further discussion several objectives were defined by the organisation. It was decided that the Federation should: promote performance art in the different Nordic countries; create common performance art events in relation to the federations annual board meeting; create a website structured as a magazine with texts on performance art; facilitate cooperation between member organisations; create educational projects; lobby towards Nordic funding; lobby towards national funding bodies.
the art museum. All artists’ expenses and fees are paid. She is trying to make links with broader aspects of the City institutions and the broader Uppsala region. Plans are afoot for the festival to be incorporated into Uppsala’s annual cultural programme in order to secure regular funding.
Nordic Contacts The following is a brief summary of some of the key live art organisations and initiatives represented at the meeting: Maurice Blok ‘Poor Artists in Residence’ Lahti, Finland. ‘Poor Artists in Residence’ run various projects from performance art clubs, festivals, and an artist in residence programme – in order to support broad-based time-based art practices. They also run an annual twoday festival, which features around thirty artists. They cover travel and materials – as yet but cannot cover artists’ fees. http://poorartistsinresidence.org
Joakim Stampe, Live Action Göteborg (Gothenburg), Sweden. Live Action Gothenburg, now in its third year is an annual international performance art festival, curated by Joakim & Jonas Stampe. Each year approximately 20 International artists are invited to participate. The main element of the event takes place in the Kunsthalle in Gothenburg. The festival runs for approximately three days and nights and is well supported by volunteer helpers from a local College. Some artists’ costs are covered but currently no fees are possible due to limited funding. The event is free and very well supported with large audiences.
http://www.uppsala.se/pages/67388/Friction_II_2008_webb.pdf
Johanna Tuukkanen, Anti Festival, Kuopio, Finland. Anti is an international contemporary arts festival, established in 2002. The festival presents site-specific works made for public space. Over the past six years Anti has presented live, sonic, visual and text-based art. Anti is funded by the Finish Arts Council, EU Funds and New Moves in the UK – and has a budget of approximately €250,000.00. http://www.antifestival.com/
Denis Romanovski, Navinki Weld, Stockholm, Sweden. The Navinki Festival has worked with a wide range of International artists on a limited budget over the last 10 years. The organisation has established a relationship with the Boston School of Art – with exchange student opportunities, and is in the process of establishing a link with the Stockholm School of Art. Denis Romanovski runs and maintains the EAPO website – which is a vital international Performance Art Network and information site. http://iapao.net/
Lars Sewilius Berg, Club Art, Gothenburg, Sweden. Set up in 2005, Club Art nights involve a broad range of art practices – video projections, some live art and performance, etc. For the most part artists respond to the context in which the event is taking place. Curators from outside Sweden are invited to four or five artists for each Club Art night. Club Art has recently gained some funding, which is being ploughed back into equipment and running costs. www.sewilius.se
http://www.liveaction.se/index.php?z_rubrik_id=429&lg=01
Ingrid Blekastad, Kunstbanken, & Performance Festival Hamar, Norway. Ingrid Blekastad is the director of Kunstbanken (The Art Bank), Arts Centre in Hamar. In 2003 she initiated a performance festival. She is also aiming to set up a structure similar to the UK’s Live Art Development Agency. http://www.kunstbanken.no/?English
Peter Rosvik, Movement to Performance, & Platform, Vasa, Finland. Platform was founded in 2000 and comprises several initiatives. Their major project is a festival, which takes place every three years in September. The event is run on a low budget; but has attracted a high profile and good audience figures. Platform also runs a residency programme for four or five artists participating every year. Each artist is resident in Vasa for about two months each. All costs are covered and a small fee is granted. http://www.platform.fi/residency.html
SU EN, Friction, Uppsala, Sweden. Su En a contemporary dancer/ choreographer established the Friction Festival as a broad based performance and live art festival, linked to the City Art Museum in Uppsala. Artworks are presented both in the cities streets, as well as
Willem Wilhelmus, Art Contact, Helsinki, Finland. Since 2004 Art Contact has organised a variety of live art / performance, dance, and contemporary music evenings in the Cable Factory, Helsinki – presenting up to 40 artists every year. http://www.artcontacthelsinki.com/about.htm
Jonas Stampe, Live Action Göteborg and Infraction, Sete, France. Founded in 2004, ‘Infraction’ is an annual site-specific performance art event, which takes place in Sete, France, each September. All performance works take place in the public realm – with over 30 performances taking place over a few days. The event has been run on a modest budget and so far artists do not receive fees, but are accommodated and fed. http://www.infraction.info/
Brian Connolly Notes (1)The following representatives were either unable to attend the meeting or participated in the discussions on the second day: Agnes Nedregard, Performancekunst, Stavanger (Norway); Irma Luhta, Là Bas Festival, Helsinki (Finland); Tinna Guðmundsdóttir, Sequences festival, Reykjavik (Iceland); Richard Borgström, Lofoten International Art Festival, (Norway); Timo Soppela, Amorph Festival, Helsinki (Finland); Petter Petterson, Lilith Performance Studio, Malmö (Sweden); Aapo Korkeaoja / Fluxee -performance club in Turku; Sampo Linkoneva, Honkahovi in Mättä.
10
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
March – April 2009
FAF SHOWCASE REPORT
Suzanne Mooney. Sceneography for Dance Theatre Ireland's Parallel Horizons
Ivan Twohig – work presented at 'Doyourown thing'
It's Your Thing Rayne Booth reports on ‘DoUrOwnThing’ The 6th FAF showcase evening, held at the Lab, Dublin 16 Oct 2008. Artists will always do their own thing. That’s what artists do. And yet the issue of autonomy – the actual doing of your own thing; is still a favoured topic for discussion in artistic circles. Complete autonomy is something all artists strive towards, but doing exactly what you want to do, when you want to do it, can be difficult. Pressures apply – economic, social and political; the most common being a lack of income or funding. For me, as an administrator and curator of an artist-run gallery and studio space, the idea of artistic autonomy is synonymous with artist-led projects. The alternative space movement began as long ago as the 1970s when New York exploded with new exhibition spaces like the Kitchen, PS1, 112 Green St and Franklyn Furnace. There was a similar surge of artist-initiated activities in the 1990’s London of the YBAs, when galleries such as City Racing, and artist group Bank were added to the city’s art scene. But here in Dublin and the rest of the country – despite the anomalies of The Project Arts Centre in the 1970s and Temple Bar Gallery & Studios in the 1980s, and more recently Pallas Heights (now evolved into Pallas contemporary Projects) – it took much longer for any semblance of an artist-led gallery and exhibition space network to develop. In recent years, it seems we have enjoyed a marked increase in artists groups and artist run organisations taking hold of the idea of ‘DIY culture’. Galleries such as This is Not a Shop, Four Gallery, Monster Truck and G126 in Galway all appeared to spring out of nowhere a couple of years ago, and more studios and artists spaces soon followed. The Market studios, Commonplace studios, the Irish Museum of Contemporary Art (IMOCA), The Good Hatchery, The Joinery and Joy gallery have all emerged within the last year, leading me to suppose that Irish artists have begun to give themselves permission to start their own ‘thing’ rather than hang around waiting for opportunities to present themselves. Of course this does not always involve setting up exhibition spaces or studios, but the fact that these spaces exist enables more artists to develop and exhibit their work at earlier stages of their careers, which in turn leads to greater confidence and a willingness to ‘give it a go’ amongst a younger generation of artists. For me, this has been a very important and exciting development in the intellectual topology of Irish Art and I was very interested to see how it would manifest itself at FAF’s most recent showcase evening ‘DoUrOwnThing’ held at the Lab on 16 October 2008. FAF is the name chosen by four artists as an umbrella term for their collective project; and it operates separately from each of their individual arts practices (www.fafartists.com). FAF are Ian-John Coughlan, Barbara Vasic, Linda O’Keefe and Suzanne Mooney, and they have been working together for the past four years. FAF formed as a group to support and encourage each other (rather than simply make artwork together) and – most importantly – to present events such as studio seminars and an ongoing series of showcase evenings for artists. The LAB on Foley Street, and the City Arts Office, has played a very important role in supporting each of the showcase evenings to date. The Showcase evenings are advertised on the Visual Artists Ireland e-bulletin service, and invite artists to submit a three minute show-reel of images to FAF, who then select a manageable number of artists, and organise a venue in which to host the event. The artists show up and get to speak about their work in front of an audience of their peers. It’s a free forum for critique, which can sometimes work better than other times, depending on attendance and the personality
of those attending. In a city such as Dublin, where, it seems, each member of our tiny artistic community / clique knows each other in some way, it can be difficult to engage in meaningful group critique, either positive or negative. The FAF showcase evenings are no exception to this, but they are, to my knowledge, providing the only free forum in Dublin where artists can have the opportunity to discuss their work with interested parties and curators can learn more about emerging artists. The ‘DoUrOwnThing’ (16 Oct 2008) showcase evening began with a talk by Ciaran McBride, who spoke from personal experience about the various rules and conventions pertaining to different areas of artistic and creative production; film, television and theatre and visual art. He discussed diverse attitudes and aspects to artistic autonomy, and spoke of the art world as a game with its own strategic rules. This is something all artists can relate to, and it can take recent college graduates some time to learn exactly how this game is played. McBride referenced the idea of artistic autonomy as the most important energy behind the development of modern, postmodern and contemporary art. FAF invited Anne Marie Barry to open the artists’ showcases with a longer presentation on her current work in progress. Barry combines filmmaking and photography with fine art in a practice that has in recent times become more concerned with social issues. Barry explained how, after winning best short at the 2006 Darklight Film Festival, she began to show her work in the context of Film festivals. This is a forum where audience expectations are very different than in a gallery setting, and this has had an according affect on her work. Barry began her talk by showing the audience two videos which influenced her: Modernist filmmaker Len Lye’s 1937 experimental film Trade Tattoo and Jay Will’s 2007 Music Video for M.I.A’s single Boyz. Barry’s interest in the gender specific Jamaican dance steps used in this video is reflected in her own subject matter: the Rialto Twirlers. Barry came across this Majorette group in her local area of Dublin 8, and began working with them on a documentary film project, using her own distinct style and unconventional ‘fine art’ methods. This is a style that she calls ‘Filmic Art’. Ivan Twohig was recently awarded a residency, consisting of a free studio for a year, at the Irish Museum of Contemporary Art, a new and highly ambitious artist run museum based at Moxie Studios Inchicore. A free studio for a year would be a huge benefit to the career of any artist, and IMOCA must be congratulated for taking such a bold step for a fledgling organisation. Twohig showed us a complex work entitled Clone then Heal, which involves an online gallery he founded called the Quarantine Gallery. Artists can contact Twohig who will then exhibit their work online in a virtual space that can be modified to resemble any gallery in the world. This project has the potential to annoy galleries and museums when they find unknown and non-famous artists exhibiting online in virtual facsimiles of their spaces, but somehow I don’t think Twohig is too concerned with this possibility. Next Esperanza Collado presented her project, the Experimental Film Club. Inspired by a talk by Jonas Makas in March 2008, Collado, Alan Lambert, Donal Foreman, Katie Lincoln and Aoife Desmond began to organise screenings in the upstairs room of the Ha’penny Bridge Inn. The group believe that it is important that the club takes place in this venue rather than a traditional cinema or gallery setting, as it allows the formal atmosphere and the boundary
Louise Cherry – work presented at 'Doyourown thing'
between audience and screen that is present in more traditional film presentations to be broken down. The Club takes place on the last Sunday of every month, and more information can be obtained at www.experimentalfilmclub.blogspot.com. Aoife Flynn recently completed her degree in painting and presented work from her degree show. She paints from films that she makes of her family and friends, giving her paintings an ethereal quality, which she likens to the quality of a memory. Louise Cherry showed images of a recent installation, which marks a drastic change in her style of work due to a change in personal circumstances. Now working from home, Cherry had to rethink her methods and processes. The installation – exhibited as part of the MAVIS exhibition programme at Studio 6 in Temple Bar Gallery & Studios - was an amalgamation of materials that can be found in the home, arranged in a precarious balance. Suzanne Mooney, one of the members of FAF, presented work she has made separately to her own art practice. Since 2005 she has been working closely with Dance Theatre Company on productions of contemporary dance. Her brief in working with the dance company was to produce video imagery in parallel with the choreography that would become part of the performance rather than complement or illustrate. Mooney spoke about the challenge, successes and failures of working with an artistic director in a theatrical setting. Working on these projects has influenced her to begin working with performance and she is now collaborating with a dancer on a selfinitiated project. Paul Harris’s beautifully sensitive photographs of Cuba were taken just before Fidel Castro stepped down as leader of the country. His presentation concentrated very much on the technical aspects of taking these photographs, which were made using only available light and without any fixed aim or itinerary. This work is perhaps akin to street photography yet is instilled with a love for the processes involved, and demonstrates the artist’s skill as an imagemaker and his enthusiasm for his subject matter. Jessamyn Fiore, co-director of the artists run space Thisisnotashop made a short presentation on the work of her organisation. Situated on Benburb Street beside the Luas line, this tiny gallery has both a voluntary and a captive audience; those that come into the gallery from the street on their own initiative and commuters on board the Luas which stops directly outside the gallery windows every five minutes. The staff of this voluntary gallery are highly committed to the project, and there is no doubt that the gallery is an asset to the Dublin art scene, giving artists a space in which they can experiment and present work not necessarily aimed at a commercial market. By virtue of its name, this gallery wears its non-commercial agenda on its sleeve, and, by Fiore’s own admission, the directors want to stay as far removed from any commercial agenda as possible. This type of autonomy, a lack of concern for and independence from the all encompassing monster that is the art market, is admirable, and, given the recent Arts Council funding cuts, very brave and rather risky. But it is entirely the choice of the artists who run the gallery. They can do what they want, show whichever artists they like and align themselves with whichever project they think merits interest. These are some of the benefits of running an entirely autonomous artistic project. There are no agendas but your own. Unfortunately, due to time constraints there was not enough time for the participants to engage with any in-depth discussion on the topic, but new connections were made and the theme further discussed after reconvening over drinks in Graingers. Perhaps this was the informal and familiar setting that was needed for the remaining participants to let their guard down and informally discuss the evening’s events in a truly honest manner. Rayne Booth
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
March – April 2009
11
project profile
Andrew Dodds. Arcadia Amongst the Ruins. Commissioned by Leitrim Sculpture Centre, 2008.
Andrew Dodds. Arcadia Amongst the Ruins. Commissioned by Leitrim Sculpture Centre, 2008.
Andrew Dodds. Arcadia Amongst the Ruins. Commissioned by Leitrim Sculpture Centre, 2008.
Exploding the Margins Andrew Dodds relates the influences on his recent commission Arcadia Amongst the Ruins for THE Leitrim Sculpture Centre PROJECT ‘New Sites - New Fields’. ‘New Sites - New Fields’ is an ongoing project investigating the social and political resonances of landscape representation and production. Realised through a programme of contemporary art commissions based at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre (LSC) in the rural, border town of Manorhamilton, the project benefits from access to an exhibition space, a developing study centre, media facilities and a willing community keen to engage with the ideas and experiments of the Centre’s visiting artists. Sited on the town’s main thoroughfare, the newly renovated gallery adopts a multitude of roles – at its very best, a kind of hybrid exhibition space / community-centre / workshop. A blurring of distinctions between the wider community and the artists involved with the LSC offers much to those of us interested in the discursive and conversational aspects of relational dynamics and art practice in the expanded field. Participating artists were invited to embark upon an investigation into “the processes by which ‘landscape’ is transformed and understood historically and in the present” through “new models of arts practice and research on landscape and the social and ecological concerns arising from human interaction with the environment, whilst attempting to put these in the context of time and history”. As such, the project’s aims are clearly demarcated, as is a solid, critical foundation for its future reception and development. Twelve Irish artists were selected to participate in the initial stage of the project – six based locally and six from further afield. One of the key aspects of the remit was that each artist would choose to work alongside a specialist from another discipline. Ideally, individual collaborators would inform and expand the other’s area of specialism, resulting in a unique outcome. By virtue of this goal, combined with the project’s critical framework and generous timeline, most of the successful projects focussed on varying levels of process, research and community involvement. Fortunately, the final exhibition (4 October – 15 November, 2008) was short on spectacle and reassuringly ‘serious’, being for the most part free from ironic one-liners. A contextual framework is important for any artistic practice of merit and it is difficult, if not impossible, to engage with Ireland’s recent history without considering the ‘C’ word – the Celtic Tiger – and the ways in which it has changed the country’s cultural and ‘natural’ landscapes. With the benefit of hindsight it is possible to view the Celtic Tiger as part of a financial tsunami (to intentionally invert Alan Greenspan’s recent description of the global ‘credit
crisis’), swamping Ireland with newfound wealth and subsequent regeneration. But Ireland was recently declared the first European country to go into recession and, as the tsunami recedes, artists will no doubt be the first to meaningfully document the flotsam and jetsam of neo-liberalism’s latest failure. In 2006, as a critical and curatorial extension to my arts practice, I co-founded Arcade (arcade-project.com), a host structure for temporary projects in the public realm (1). Critically and formally centred around a pressed steel, site workers’ hut, the project’s primary focus is to address complicities between the arts and regeneration agendas via an ever-expanding programme of exhibitions, commissions, essays and collaborations. Walter Benjamin’s The Arcades Project (2) provides a conceptual and structural framework – and drawing upon his indexical collection of notes and thoughts on the Parisian arcades of the nineteenth century, Arcade invites a patina of cultural references and associations over time. ‘New Sites - New Fields’ seemed the right opportunity to continue looking at the pressing issues explored in ‘Arcade’ through my site specific commission, Arcadia Amongst the Ruins, and tease out parities between Leitrim’s ‘natural’ history and its social and political histories. The term ‘site specific’ is now so broadly used it is in danger of becoming meaningless and increasingly has the rough edges of socio-political engagement rubbed off by the related, yet more nuanced and currently favoured, idea of ‘place’. I gained early, firsthand experience of the importance of context and site when working as assistant to the directors of the arts commissioning agency Locus + (locusplus.org.uk) in the late 1990s: as an undergraduate I worked with an international array of artists, including Cornelia HesseHonegger, Shane Cullen and Gregory Green, at a formative time for my own artistic interests and strategies (3). For Arcadia Amongst the Ruins I collaborated with Jenni Roche, an ecologist from the Department of Botany, Trinity College Dublin, to conduct biodiversity surveys of the vegetation at two brownfield sites in Manorhamilton. ‘Brownfield sites’ are those in-between spaces of our towns and cities, such as the gaps between buildings, railway embankments, post-industrial zones and untended gardens, that were initially disturbed before being left untended. Generically derided as ‘wasteland’ these overgrown and overlooked sites are, in fact, often rich in biodiversity – kind of mini-Edens where intricate eco-systems thrive behind chainlink fences. Having escaped management strategies that plague our increasingly gentrified
landscape they often become re-colonised pockets of ruderal flora and fauna. In an unsettling reversal of form, those tending the ‘countryside’ – a place traditionally assumed to be the indigenous home to wildlife – have had a drastic impact upon the flora and fauna in their charge. Due in part to the proliferation of monocultures, encroachment onto natural habitat and the extensive use of pesticides and fertilizers, a near-sterile environment has resulted (4). Yet our towns and cities are havens for thriving populations of songbird, foxes and many species of insects and flora. Following informal consultation with members of the community I selected two sites for investigation: Site 1 had been bought by a major supermarket chain and is soon to be developed; Site 2 was a disused section of an agricultural processing factory. Jenni Roche conducted the biodiversity surveys following rigorous scientific method, laying a two metre-square quadrat at various habitats and noting numbers of species as she progressed. Evidence of the surveys were displayed within the gallery as part of the ‘New Sites – New Fields’ exhibition including field samples and notes, a video document of the working process and a fieldguide which was distributed free to the local community. The fieldguide invited people to engage with the sites on their own terms and re-imagine them, not as ‘wasteland’, but as potentially valuable natural environments. After I had returned to London, Sarah Browne, one of the participating artists, kindly placed the fieldguide in the local and county libraries where the booklets might reach a wider audience. In-between spaces such as brownfield sites can be understood as heterotopic (5) places of abandon, loaded with inherent potentiality. Similar sites have long held the imagination of artists and writers. Among artists, Robert Smithson is generally considered to have had the greatest affinity for civilisation’s entropic decline. His Partially Buried Woodshed (1970) and explorations of geological time betray an innate understanding of the processes beyond the Holocene. After London; or, Wild England (6) by 19th century naturalist and author Richard Jefferies, depicts the aftermath of an unspecified disaster upon the city. Jefferies conveys in great detail what is now known as ‘ecological succession’ – a kind of post-apocalyptic, post-human taxonomy – emerging from a devastated London. By way of an extreme example of ecological succession, in Dead Cities (7), Mike Davis describes the phenomenon of “bomber ecology”, the flora and fauna that thrived in European cities after they were razed by wars and other human catastrophes. This “war-mothered” growth he calls “Nature II”. Davis cites a 1980s study of a bombsite in Lutzowplatz, Berlin, which was found to host four times as many species of plants and insects than the carefully attended parkland of the adjacent Tiergarten. The contemporary dichotomy of ‘urban versus rural’ wherein the built environment is perceived to be colonized by humans and left bereft of wildlife, whilst the rural is all rolling hills and teeming hedgerows, is no longer a viable model. Ireland’s natural habitats have recently suffered a two-fold onslaught via the explosion of homogenised cultural and natural landscapes resulting from the regeneration ‘boom’, and at the hands of intensive agricultural practices. The number of brownfield sites, such as those I investigated in Arcadia…, is likely to dramatically increase as regeneration programmes come to a halt and major development projects falter at the starting blocks. If these sites could be said to be analogous to the communities in which they are nestled – a correlation between micro-landscapes and macro-communities, if you will – then we can positively view them as diverse, culturally rich and worth preserving. Andrew Dodds Andrew Dodds is a Belfast-born artist, now based in London. He uses a broad range of production methods and means of distribution in his practice. His work is exhibited widely at major public galleries, artist-run spaces and non-gallery sites. www.andrewdodds.com
Notes (1) For an in-depth article on Arcade see Arcade: Moments not Monuments, Art & Architecture Journal, issue 66/67, 2008 (2) Benjamin, W, The Arcades Project, Harvard University Press, 2002 (3) There are two publications which document Locus + projects, Locus + 1993 – 1996, published 1996 and Locus Solus, site, identity, technology in contemporary art, Black Dog, 2000 (4) For a previous, outline proposal for the future management of England’s countryside see Working with the grain of nature, Defra 2002, http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-countryside/pdf/ biodiversity/biostrategy.pdf (5) In Michel Foucault’s meditation on space and time, Of Other Spaces, 1967, he elaborates on heterotopias as being “counter-sites”, real spaces of difference beyond hegemonic order, defined in contradistinction to imagined utopias. He describes the garden as “the smallest parcel of the world and then it is the totality of the world.” (6) Jefferies, R, After London; or, Wild England, first published 1885, free to download from the Gutenberg Press, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13944/13944-h/13944-h.htm (7) Davis, M, Dead Cities, The New Press, 2002
12
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
March – April 2009
CONFERENCE REPORT
Rethinking the Animal
Fiona Woods considers some of the issues arising from‘The Animal Gaze:Contemporary Art and Animal/Human Studies’ (20 – 21 Nov 2008), a Symposium and Exhibition held at London Metropolitan University. “I am at two with nature” Woody Allen (1) History is shaped by humans, never by animals – or so it seems. As ‘history’ and ‘animal’ are human constructs, does the animal’s conspicuous absence from history have any real significance? Humans act; the animal is generally regarded as a mere accessory to human actions, not credited with agency, mere “passive, unthinking presences in the active and thoughtful lives of humans” (2). Recent modes of thought and analysis, including post-colonial studies, have taught us to pay regard to those excluded from conventional historical narratives. In the light of such discourse we have now a more complex understanding of the way in which beings at either end of a power relationship construct and are constructed by one another. The Native, the Slave, the Woman, the Lunatic – all of these terms have been exposed as manifestations of specific power relations and reworked to reveal hidden histories. So, what of the Animal? A place to begin might be with the branch of thought often described broadly as Continental Philosophy. Amongst other things, it has attempted to “reverse the metaphysical and normative priority granted to human beings over animals”(3). Many philosophers – Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Adorno, Deleuze and Guattari, Derrida, Agamben – have variously considered questions of human-animal distinctions, sketching out a post-humanist perspective that potentially subverts traditional binaries of human/animal, subject/ object, mind/matter etc. Agamben in particular has argued that the distinction between humanity and animality within the human being has made it possible to bestialise entire groups of people, leading to their exclusion from the ethico-political realm. Examples would include the treatment of detainees in Guantanamo Bay or the grim corralling of the Traveller community in Ireland. Agamben argues for the suspension of the distinction altogether.(4) A post-humanist perspective has been informing art practice since the mid-1960s, as evidenced by the introduction into the work of art of actual, as opposed to represented animals – Untitled (12 Horses), 1969, in which Jannis Kounellis stabled live horses in a gallery space; Newton and Helen Meyer-Harrison’s Fish Farm of 1971 which proposed to publicly electrocute fish for consumption purposes; Hans Haacke’s Ten Turtles Set Free, 1971; Joseph Beuys I Like America and America Likes Me, 1974, a two-week cohabitation of artist and coyote in a gallery space; Eduardo Kac’s GFP Bunny, 2000, comprising a fluorescent green rabbit commissioned from a Paris laboratory. These works offer a questioning of the intellectual consumption of animals through visual representation, so pervasive in our culture. They are also part of a shift between the kind of visual mastery associated with a primarily optical mode of visuality, concerned with representations, appearances, signs, language and knowledge, and a more haptic visuality (sometimes described as embodied viewing) that explores a fluid, uncontrolled experience of seeing in which the other senses are also implicated. It turns out then that there is a lot at stake in the human/animal divide, strikingly described by Ron Broglio as an ‘ontological apartheid’ (5). Much thought has been expended on whether the difference between human and non-human animals is one of kind – an absolute difference in which animals are soulless machines (industrial farming and slaughter practices come to mind), or one of degree, a biological continuum in which all beings are equal, with the difference lying merely in humans’ symbolic / linguistic mode of being opposed to animals’ non-symbolic / non-linguistic existence. There is no doubt that nonhuman animals are central to the lives of humans; animal-as-food (up to 50 million animals a year are killed for food), animal-as-pet, animal-as-sport/prey, animal-as-experiment, animal-as-entertainment and so on. But all of this takes on a new shape in the current climate; at least seven out of 10 biologists believe we are witnessing a human-generated, mass extinction event on a scale never seen before (6). The human, it seems, is in the process of wiping out the other animals. In addition to other considerations then, we need to grapple with the terrible, if preposterous, idea of a post-animal world. What would it mean, and what it would mean culturally, to live in such a world? 'The Animal Gaze: Contemporary Art and Animal /Human Studies', (20 – 21 Nov 2008), a two day symposium and exhibition (18 Nov – 13 Dec 2008) held at London Metropolitan University7, set out
Marcus Coates, Dawn Chorus, 2007, stills from video. Courtesy of the artist.
Eduardo Kac, GFP Bunny, 2000, transgenic artwork. Alba, the fluorescent rabbit. Courtesy of the artist.
to consider some of these questions, bringing together thinkers and practitioners from a variety of disciplines – philosophy, geography, zoosemiology, phenomenology, history and art. A broad spectrum of attitudes towards animals and the animal (the two are not the same) was also evident. These ranged from a discourse of animal rights, to academic critiques of Cartesian models of the animal, to animal phenomenology, to ideas of a human/animal/cybernetic continuum and more. The presentations in the two-day symposium were rich and diverse, impossible to cover in a report like this; I will present some of the questions that arose and focus on some of the artworks presented. In his presentation The Death of the Animal, Giovanni Aloi discussed a surprisingly large number of artists who have engaged in the killing of animals for the purpose of their work (8). All the works were compelling and disturbing, in particular Don’t Trust Me, 2008, by the artist Adel Abdessemed, a video work that portrays six animals— sheep, horse, ox, pig, goat and fawn—being struck and killed by a hammer. The artist statement claimed that the work was an allusion to the uncontrolled expansion of China as a world power, founded on brutality and violence towards its own population. The gallery press release focused on whether the killings represented “slaughter or sacrifice? What are their social, cultural, moral and political implications?” (9). To my mind this is either a failure of rhetoric or a failure of representation because the real subject of the work is evidently a cruel and gratuitous killing of large mammals for aesthetic purposes. Are all actions justifiable under a banner of art? This was a predominant theme of symposium discussions, ranging from animal welfare advocacy to Matthew Poole’s contrary stance (after Richard
Rorty) that ethics complicate and obfuscate mechanisms of thought, so that the evacuation of ethics and truth from thought and action opens up the possibility of a greater negotiation of justice based on empathy. Other interesting questions concerned the individuated animal versus animal species, the idealised animal manipulated through breeding practices, the animal as pest, with no place in ‘our’ world; the condition of human versus animal skin which demarcates a separation of human and non-human forms of life; the question of animal aesthetics and the related possibility of mapping a “myriadic ecology”(10) encompassing multiple species in virtual space. The exhibition attempted to show “stances outside anthropocentrism, deconstructions of species taxonomy, constructions of the idea of difference and documentation of the consequences of indifference.” (11) It brought together work by 40 international artists, largely, though not exclusively, lens-based work including video and stills documentation of a number of performance works. Ladybirds by Miranda Whall (12) was shown on a small monitor in a room full of video works; it stood out from much of the other work in the room in spite of (or possibly on account of) its deceptively delicate construction. The work is an animation of watercolour paintings in which a woman masturbates with the aid of a colourful device, surmounted by one or more songbirds singing declaratively. The work features seven different figure/bird assemblages, the whole lasting approximately four minutes. The fusing of ornithographic and pornographic modes of viewing generated interesting tensions, resulting in a decidedly haptic space. Whall’s work plays with all kinds of classifications and, in the context of an interrogation of ‘the animal’, transgresses various human/animal boundaries, requiring the viewer to shift back and forth between ideas of nature and culture. Birdsong has a particular place in the cultural and phenomenological life of humans, and featured in a number of the works exhibited or discussed. Marcus Coates, an artist whose work occupies a zone of indeterminacy between the human and the animal, showed Dawn Chorus, 2006, during his presentation to the symposium. This work was developed from an audio recording of birdsong made on the edge of a forest. Each individual call was digitally slowed up to 16 times and given to a member of a local choir to sing. Seventeen people were filmed performing their ‘song’, sitting or lying in nondescript interiors – office spaces, waiting rooms, a car-park, kitchens, bedrooms. The resulting video was speeded up, generating a near-perfect auditory resemblance to the original bird-call. It had the added effect of intensifying the animality of the human bodies; breathing became visibly rapid, eye and hand movements darting. Each human body became fragile and vulnerable, its gestures almost bird-like. Coates’ work is infused with a humour that short-circuits representational clichés of the human/animal relationship. He plays with anthropo- and zoomorphism, staging impersonations that are as much about impersonating the human as they are about impersonating the animal. Is it possible to exceed the subject/object dichotomy, or does a screen of subjectivity stand forever between ‘us’ and the actuality of real, non-human animals? As a practice that stages representations, art is of course aligned with human subjectivity, yet many artists are employing art as a proposed contact zone between species. At its best, this work explores the failure of the animal ‘object’ to go fully into the ‘animal’ concept, leaving a residue akin to what Adorno called non-identity (13). This presents an unmapped anti-territory where axes of binary thinking provide no useful reference. Fiona Woods Notes 1. Quoted in Woody Allen: clown prince of American humor, Bill Adler and Jeffrey Feinman. 1975, New York: Pinnacle Books. 2. Erica Fudge, The History of the Animal, http://www.h-net.org/~animal/ruminations_fudge. html 3. Matthew Calarco, Animals in Continental Philosophy http://www.h-net.org/~animal/ ruminations_calarco.html 4. Georgio Agamben, The Open: Man and Animal, Meridian, 2002 5. Ron Broglio, Making Space for Animal Dwelling, (a) fly, Snaebjornsdottir/ Wilson 2006 6. Claim made in a survey carried out in 1998 by the American Museum of Natural History, quoted in the Press Release, The Animal Gaze, Unit 2 Gallery, London, 2008 7. 'The Animal Gaze: Contemporary Art and Animal/ Human Studies Symposium'– Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design, LMU, November 20 – 21 2008. The symposium was accompanied by an exhibition held at the Unit 2 Gallery, London Metropolitan University, November 18 – December 13 2008. Abstracts are available on www.animalgaze.org 8. This paper also took the form of an article in Issue 5 of Antennae, ed. Aloi http://www. antennae.org.uk 9. San Francisco Art Institute, ‘Don’t Trust Me' Press Release, March, 2008, curated by Hou Hanru 10. Mathew Fuller, Art for Animals, Animal Gaze symposium. 11. Rosemarie McGoldrick, Animal Gaze curatorial statement http://www.animalgaze.org/11. html 12. www.mirandawhall.com 13. Theodor Adorno, Negative Dialectics. Translated by E.B. Ashton, London: Routledge, 1973 (Published in German in 1966)
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
13
March – April 2009
residency profile
balance of routine and freedom. They laid the foundation with the thoughtful design and renovation of the residence and studio, while extending support in the small daily details – whether it is a pot of tea at the right hour, tips on the best scenic spots on the property, or ordering needed art supplies. The landscape surrounding the farm was such an important aspect to the experience because it functioned as a sort of common language. It was impossible for each of us, Irish and American alike, not to respond and react in some way to such a dynamic and yet contemplative environment. Lastly, the exhibition at Wexford Art Centre was a rewarding opportunity and culmination of the residency. While my work and that of Haden Nicholl are remarkably different, I can’t help but think that our two months together in the studio brought out a commonality and cohesiveness that was thoroughly surprising to both of us. Peter Allen Hoffmann lives and works in New York. Calmed and Engaged
Cow House Studios – interior.
Rural Engagement
ROSIE O’GORMAN INTRODUCES COW HOUSE STUDIOS, A NEW ARTIST-LED RESIDENCY STUDIO SPACE – AND ARTISTS PETER ALLEN HOFFMANN AND HADEN NICHOLL DESCRIBE THEIR RESIDENCY EXPERIENCES.
Residency Artists 2008: clockwise from top left: Aoife Cassidy, Maria Hinds, Peter Allen Hoffmann & Haden Nicholl
Cow House Studios is a new artist-led space, established on a 180-acre farm near Rathnure in county Wexford. My husband, Frank Abruzzese, and I initiated the project from a desire to facilitate contemporary visual arts practice; making artists aware of a broader rural context; and bringing critically engaging art to areas traditionally isolated from such work. Focusing on cross cultural learning and collaboration, Cow House Studios offer courses in the visual arts, and an artist in residence programme for visual artists. Cow House Studios is named for its practical origins on the O’Gorman family farm – where the family have lived for over 200 years. In 2005, Frank (originally from Philadelphia) and I returned from the US with a hatching plan to convert part of the farm into a studio. My father, Michael, generously donated two buildings to our proposal; and after a successful planning application, we renovated both buildings between 2006 and 2008. Built in 1915, the studios are housed in the former cow house. It is architecturally quite unique at twice the width of typical Irish stone barns. Today, the 220 square-meter open plan studio contains a wood shop, darkroom, computer lab and lounge. Individual studios measure 18 square meters with abundant natural light, and there is a communal space suitable for large-scale work. The darkroom consists of three Omega D5XL enlargers with black and white printing capabilities up to 20” x 24”, and the computer lab consists of four Apple Macintosh computers, a Minolta Dimage Scan Multi Pro high resolution film scanner, an Epson R2400 A3 plus size colour printer, Adobe Creative Suite 3 Professional, Final Cut Pro and wireless broadband. The accommodation in the ‘barn’, situated next to studio, is home to Frank and I, and to the artists during their residency. In 2009, Cow House Studios will provide three residencies; two of which are open to both Irish and international artists. A third, open to international artists only, is run in partnership with Wexford
Arts Centre, where the artist will exhibit following their residency. During the 10-week stay (14 Sept – 1 Dec) Cow House Studios provide 24-hour access to the studio and facilities, and each artist has their own en-suite bedroom. Artists are asked to contribute €60 per week to cover food and other consumable costs, and they are responsible for travel and material expenses. For one international artist whose work will be exhibited following the residency, Wexford Arts Centre support expenses for shipping of artwork and marketing of the exhibition. Applications are open to visual artists working in any medium. For the inaugural 2008 programme, four artists were invited to participate; Aoife Cassidy, from Galway (awarded the residency as part of the 2007 Tulca Festival), Maria Hinds originally from Co. Meath and currently based in New Orleans, Peter Allen Hoffmann from New York, and Haden Nicholl who lives in San Francisco. Below, are accounts from Peter and Haden about their experience during their residency at the Cow House, and their joint exhibition at Wexford Arts Centre in January 2008. For more information and to view the work of all four 2008 residency artists please visit www.cowhousestudios.com. Rosie O’Gorman Co-Director, Cow House Studios www.cowhousestudios.com
A Productive Environment I have been living in New York City for the last five years; and while it affords many opportunities, it is not always easy to find a quiet place to get work done. With that said, the prospect of spending a few months on a farm in rural Ireland seemed like an ideal chance to re-evaluate the work I had been making and the direction it was headed. What was unexpected, was what else Cow House Studios had to provide. First and foremost, the experience of being in a small community of intelligent and generous artists was truly fantastic. Frank and Rosie did an excellent job of choosing a diverse group of artists whose interests and approaches created a stimulating dynamic. Within the first week, I immediately felt comfortable and intrigued by those around me. Each night we sat down to a delicious meal where discussions ranged from art and film to politics and society. Without the many distractions of modern life, there was time and space to listen and respond. These conversations would often carry on into the studio and helped foster an atmosphere of communication. Almost immediately, we all wanted to help make the residency as successful as possible. As artists themselves, Frank and Rosie possess an intuition for creating a productive environment for the residents—an essential
Upon arriving at the Cow House, I was immediately struck by the beauty of the surrounding countryside. I realise that it is a cliché to speak about how wonderful the landscape is – but it can’t be helped! Everywhere I went, I was taken aback by the relentless green flora tumbling over itself, out of every crevice and crack. It looked like little worlds pouring out from between the bark and stone. I spent entire days exploring areas as big as a living room. Nearly everywhere I walked I could hear the sound of running water; and nearly every night I could see the Milky Way. In short, it was an environment that left one feeling perfectly calm and engaged, which is perfect for the creative process. The facilities were also excellent. I had my own bedroom and bathroom, which included a heated floor, a luxury I had to experience to appreciate, and a studio with enough space and gear to complete a project of nearly any size and medium. The individuals that I was working along side of, also turned out to be great people with whom it was a pleasure to get to know and spend time with, and at times crucial to the development of my work. I knew that Rosie and Frank would be great because I know them from the States, but it was really great to make new friends as well. Each person brought something to the table and I look forward to seeing and working with them again some day. Peter and I worked very well together; we actually ended up sharing a studio and spending a lot of time working on our pieces together. Peter and I spent many late nights in the studio working and talking about our ideas and what we wanted to do with the show. My conversation with Peter really made an impact on me. I was impressed by his conceptual and historical knowledge of painting as well as his skill, but what was really great was his genuine love of painting. In my conversations with Peter I found that my own love of painting had been lost in a mire of academia and endless waves of terrible paintings buttressed by ill-conceived conceptual rhetoric. Yes, dear readers, you have wandered into a tale of wonder, a potential feel good movie of the year – and for that I apologize. With my love of painting rekindled, I embarked on a series of watercolours while concurrently working on the series I had started, and found a relationship between the two that was before unacknowledged. As Peter and I worked, we began to think about our show and what it should be called, as well as conceptual themes around the show. Peter had painted a version of Courbet’s The Origin of the World, being drawn to it for its beauty as a piece – as well as its compelling history. I also ended up making a version myself. I was drawn in by the works references to primordial origins and its relationship with psychoanalysis. For me the piece summed up the symbiosis between the mysterious and unknowable elements of existence, and our pursuit of knowledge to understand the world around us, as well as manipulate what we have knowledge and mastery of. After some brainstorming Peter and I decided to call the show ‘The Origin of the World’. In conclusion I have to say that my time in Ireland at Cow House Studios was well spent and very constructive. Not only was I able to complete the body of work for the show, but I also managed to get started on a few others as well, not to mention the friends I made while there. Ireland rules. Haden Nicholl originally from Colorado, currently lives and works in San Francisco.
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
14
March – April 2009
How is it made?
Sensibilities of the Body MARY-RUTH WALSH talks to Fergus Byrne about the conceptual underpinnings and processes involved in his current body of work.
Research work at DanceHouse
Notebook page
artists) have been involved in realising this basic meeting between disciplines. The idea was about challenging working processes and all of the learning and engagements have been of an experiential quality. Project funding allowed me to pay people for their time and expertise. The research done has set the ground for video and performance work. Venues were sourced by recommendations, the Leinster Cricket Club was recommended by John Scott, director of Irish Modern Dance Theatre. This venue was often used by dancers prior to the building of DanceHouse in Foley Street. The Hercules Club was where the sibling pairs first met up and Dance Ireland also provided a Dance Incubator residency at DanceHouse. The final venue, which you visited, was located beside my studio in Brunswick Street. In future, I would not move from a position of work-shopping a dance process, straight into directing camera shoots without some pause between. I underestimated the business of camerawork and storyboard and did not work with Paul Murnaghan as much as I had with Megan and Jessica. Also during one of the filming weeks, I hired a guy to do lighting, which was not a good idea, as the lights became a hindrance to the moving camera MRW: How did you manage to continue the wrestling / dance work in venues that were not equipped for this?
The Wrestlers: notes on a sculpture (still) DVD.
Fergus Byrne’s work has long focused on the body as subject and as medium. Whether in performance, drawing or writing, physical activities and perceptions are the basis of his work. The medium of performance first attracted him because it allowed his physical training in martial arts, while at college, to be integrated with his art. Subsequent to this he explored different forms of dance training, the most interesting of which were contact improvisation and body weather (1) training. His current work was motivated by a desire to address the relationship between contact improvisation and martial arts. The focal point of the work was a statue in the National Gallery, The Wrestlers by Piamontini, an 18th century copy of a Hellenistic Greek bronze. Using this as a consistent reference, his project thoroughly explores the themes inherent there in. Mary Ruth Walsh: Let’s begin by talking about the statue in the National Gallery and the dialogue you had with the invited wrestlers while you all examined the statue. I was struck by the resultant video work and the amount of research and background drawings connected to this body of work. Here I’m referencing the two strands I see; one is body contact in the form of dance, wrestling, contact improvisation and martial arts; the second strand being the drawings, clay modelling, photographs and video work; the latter being the residue or the investigation of the former? Can you talk a little bit about this? Fergus Byrne: Because I wanted to emulate the position of the statue, I used drawings to familiarise myself, and the dancers / wrestlers with it. It is not easy to memorise all the statue’s aspects. Drawings were used to show its position to the wrestlers in the first workshops. Also a miniature statue was a focal point for those workshops in the gym with wrestlers Dan and Keith Kennedy. They knew the statue from wrestling medals and trophies – and even bought a miniature from a Greek tourist stall and gave it to me. The clay was used similarly, I asked the twin dancers, Megan and Jessica Kennedy, to draw and sculpt the statue, to observe it for themselves as I felt that some drawing and sculpting by the dancers would add to their immersion in the subject. From a formal viewpoint the manipulation of clay is not that different from that of flesh. There is a sensibility through the hands, arms and body common to both. MRW: That commonality you describe, between the physical performance you directed and the way you involved the wrestlers and dancers in drawing, writing and the use of clay – something I’m sure they are unused to – I notice a constant cross over between the two processes. Do you see any divide between these or do you view them as an extension of the one idea?
Research clay model – Megan & Jessica Kennedy
FB: I see it as a clear divide between wrestling / dancing and the clay modelling / drawing. In the former there are two people involved and each party is challenged by the negotiation of another individual. Drawing and modelling, while quite active in themselves are relatively passive. The clay does not fight back. That’s not to sound smart but within that basic difference are significant elements. Both wrestling and dancing call on an emotional engagement with the other – a willingness to compete; to create together. Drawing doesn’t force you to be so alert as wrestling does. Mind you, one person who saw the video, read the wrestling / dance work in terms of life drawing, gesture and the figure. He was quite perceptive in this regard and identified something that is second nature to me – analysing the statue, stills, movements, all of which I practised in teaching and modelling. MRW: You mention an emotional engagement with the other, which reminds me of the surprise I felt when watching you work with the dancers and wrestlers in a very relaxed, but serious manner, there seems to be a trust between you, how did this come about? FB: This came about because of the amount of work we did. When you saw us we already had four weeks together, had worked in several spaces, including a wrestling gym and dance studio. I am very much involved on a physical level with the dancers and Megan and Jessica are excellent professionals. In addition they have their own company, Junk Ensemble and have a long record of working in other people’s productions. Working physically with people is part of what they do as professional dancers. MRW: And how did you establish a link with the wrestlers? FB: I wanted to address the relationship between contact improvisation and martial arts. It’s for that reason that I joined the wrestling gym, in order to build a rapport with Dan and Keith. MRW: It seems you got great support from wrestlers and dances. But how did you find and organise all the venues and related people, like the cameraperson, for instance? FB: Organising was important because it became a significant part of the work, as any project would that involves a lot of people. The first video, which secured Arts Council funding, was filmed by Paul Murnaghan. This was later shown at Hotel Ballymun (April ‘07) with accompanying readings. More recently it was shown at IMMA during the Museum 21 Symposium (November ’08). Over the course of the projects 17 people (dancers, martial
FB: At the Hercules Gym the floor was matted. For other venues, initially I borrowed mats from Brian Walsh, Ballyfermot College of Further Education and Dublin Fringe Festival. The rest of the padding was insulation foam and cardboard purchased form grant money. Later I got cardboard and made up mats. I was keen to have something that didn’t refer instantly to a gym product. So the cardboard was good in this regard, although its size was awkward to transport, this meant van hire each time. In our first week Megan and Jess wrestled on a wooden floor and that’s when I knew they were special. MRW: How do you negotiate your way, or differentiate, between artwork, sport and dance? I’m thinking here of Martin Creed’s commissioned work which surprised me a little. The longer I stood in those magnificent Tate Britain Duveen Galleries and watched the athletes sprint through, every 30 seconds, I marvelled how it disrupted that normally tranquil space; how people reacted to the dashing body and later how humorous it was, a slow deep humour. FB: You didn’t tell me you saw that piece! I like what I have read of Martin Creed’s No.850. The sight of somebody running, and giving themselves fully to that activity, whilst moving through a gallery would be quite beautiful. MRW: Again on sport and art, you drew my attention to Justin McKeown’s article on SPART, titled Play is Older than Culture in the last issue of VAI (VAI News Sheet Jan-Feb 2009). What do you think of his ideas? FB: Justin McKeown’s article was very interesting particularly his quotation of Stewart Home on the “objective superiority of those things singled out as art” by the bourgeoisie. He also pointed out that artists, with the upcoming 2012 Olympiad are starting to dabble in this area. I particularly understood his description of his past experience of martial art and “the sensation of the flow of fighting in which conscious thought disappears and all is left to the materiality of the body meeting the materiality of another”. I would say the same for contact improvisation where one is so much in the moment, in negotiating movement with a partner that consciousness is brought into question. And curiously, the concept of ‘artsport’ has been suggested as a suitable name for contact improvisation, if I remember correctly the term is attributed to Nancy Stark Smith (a pioneer of contact improvisation in the 70s). On the other hand as the teacher Andrew Harwood said, contact improvisation is a conversation ‘through touch’. MRW: Thank you for that Fergus. FB: You’re welcome. Thanks for your interest. Fergus Byrne is currently on the IMMA residency programme, until March 31st. Mary-Ruth Walsh is in an artist and writer currently on a residency in Philadelphia. Notes (1) See Fergus’ article Body Weathers / Body Apparatus in March / April 2007 edition of the VAN and Seamus Dunbar’s Emptying the Body in the Jan / Feb 2008 edition of the VAN.
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
15
March – April 2009
CONFERENCE REPORT
Interchangeable Points of Orientation
Niall de Buitlear reports on open spaces – a series OF talks, and critical responses initiated by Dublin City Council in relation to facilitating artists’ engagements with various sites and spaces Throughout Dublin City.
Open Spaces is a programme of events, talks, and critical responses through which Dublin City Council, with the support of the Arts Council, aims to “stimulate dialogue, inspire new thought and suggest creative partnerships to support artists engagement with Dublin’s open spaces” (1). Open Spaces was launched on 15 October 2008 with a talk by Vagabond Reviews (artist Ailbhe Murphy and sociologist Ciarán Smyth) at the Lab, Foley Street – and a range of events are planned until May 2009. Two further talks were held at the lab – Berlin-based architects Peanutz Architekten spoke about their cross disciplinary collaborative practice (6 Nov ‘08) and Paul Domela spoke about his work as the programme director of the Liverpool Biennial. Vagabond Reviews’ presentation focused on Art in Urban and Suburban Open Space, a report they were commissioned to produce by Dublin City Council. The aim of the report was “to research international models and programmes that support innovative engagement of artists with Urban and Suburban Open Space” (2) . Two further objectives were to identify the critical issues and themes which underpin art in the public domain internationally and to suggest models / programmes of support relevant to the Dublin context. The report a range of themes including – Urban planning and Art in Open Space; Re-generating Open Space; Art and Public Landscape; Artists and the City; Civic Governance, Art and Open Space; Curatorial Practice and Art in Open Space; Art. Murphy and Smyth stressed that these were not intended to be mutually exclusive categories of rigid divisions – but rather they were suggested as “interchangeable points of orientation for navigating this diverse field”. ‘Urban Planning and Art in Open Space’ was discussed alongside ‘Re-generating Open Space’ in terms of art and architecture crossovers and collaborations – with London based architects Muf being cited as a key example. Muf make subtle interventions which attempt to influence a given development by working around its edges. Muf’s practice was described as “quiet and thoughtful” in contrast to the brasher “corporate approach” employed by companies such as Future City – who approach artworks as product to be delivered as a part of the branding of a site. A third approach was also discussed – that taken by Teddy Cruz, an architect and academic based on the border between San Diego and Tihuana – a meeting place of post-industrial capitalism and poverty. Cruz’s practice was discussed as an example of an analysis of the politics of art and architecture’ as well as taking a long-term approach with a view to influencing planning policies. Vagabond Reviews’ thoughts on ‘Art and Public Landscape’ emphasised approaches to siting artworks in parks. Millennium Park, Chicago and the Serpentine Gallery’s pavilions were given as highprofile examples. On the other hand more low-key projects such as Park Fiction (3) in Hamburg were discussed in terms of being concerned with reclaiming land for the local community, in opposition to the privatisation and corporatisation of public space. Gunpowder Park, Essex, UK (4) was cited as another low key approach – the park is conceived of as a laboratory where artists and schools are invited to run research based-projects. In relation to ‘Artists and the City’ and ‘Civic Governance, Art and Open Space’, Vagabond Reviews saw Michael Rakowitz’s ongoing Para-site (5) project as an important critical urban intervention, as it took place at an unofficial level. The project involved the creation of shelters to enable homeless people to harness waste heat from the air ducts of office buildings. In terms of support bodies, the Lower
Manhattan Cultural Council’s (6) support of the Sitelines project was seen a good model. Sitelines is an annual performance event held in Wall street, New York (7). Vagabond Reviews explained that the most important type of support the council provides is not financial, but rather its mediation that enables artists to focus on the creative process free from logistical concerns. In terms of their interest in ‘Curatorial Practice and Art in Open Space’, Vagabond Reviews singled out the Liverpool Biennial as a notable example of the biennial model – in part this was due to the ways which the events organisational framework is embedded across a range of institutions in the city. Addressing how their research might apply to Dublin, Vagabond Reviews made three main points. Firstly, the advocate an experimental ethos. Secondly they proposed a mediation rather than delivery role for Dublin City Council in relation to a public art programme. And lastly they recommended a collaborative charrettes-like (8) process as means of linking up the local with the international. As part of the charrette process, they suggested international and local practitioners being brought on ‘regeneration tours of the city. The aim would be to “build bases of knowledge”; in order to avoid the problems associated with parachuting in international practitioners for short periods to time. Peanutz Architekten’s presentation at the Lab (6 Nov ‘08) focussed on how their temporary architecture-related projects deal with issues of ‘semantic reloading’ and the relationships between built structures and social situations. Elke Knoess and Wolfgang Grillitsch cited Umberto Eco’s claim that “objects are semantically worn out long before the materials they are made of” (9) as a concept central to their work. Their practice often involves the ‘semantic reloading’ of such structures, often through a process of modification that they refer to as ‘tuning’ – they described their approach as analogous to computerhacking. Peanutz Architekten also appropriated the terms hardware and software – to refer to their interest in the relationships between a built structures and social situations. Their project The Non-Swimmers Club which place in place in Graz, Austria which was focussed on a small river where swimming was forbidden, typified this. The project negotiated this situation with a contractual and built solution. As it was the responsibility of the owners of properties along the river to prevent access to the river; a contract was devised for members of the club – whereby they agreed not to swim. In return they received a code which enabled them to access another area by the river with a boardwalk equipped for swimming. The Non-Swimmers Club was intended as both a practical solution and a polemic against the restrictions placed by property owners. With their project Dolmusch X-press in Kreuzburg-Berlin, Peanutz Architekten engaged with the area’s large Turkish community. Dolmusch X-press adopts an aspect of Turkish culture – rather than trying to introduce external ideas to the Turkish community. ‘Dolmusch’ being a Turkish term for an informal transport system – involving taxis running along set routes. Peanutz devised a Dolmusch system for Berlin-Kreuzberg, with drivers were recruited from the local communities. Part of the arts funding for this project was funnelled directly into the community – the drivers were paid €100 out of the funding. Paul Domela began his presentation (24 Nov ‘08) with a brief history of how the Liverpool Biennial came to be involved with
public projects. He noted that the first Liverpool Biennial (1999) included an international exhibition curated by Anthony Bond, a curator based in Sydney. In Domela’s view, as Bond worked from his base in Sydney, that the “knowledge accumulated” during the curatorial process was not truly grounded in Liverpool or shared with the city. Thus, since the second the Biennial (2002) the curated international exhibition component has aimed to be integrated into fabric the city – with artworks distributed across various galleries and public sites in Liverpool. As Domela put it, this approach entails “using the exhibition to strengthen the infrastructure of the city and also bringing the knowledge of the city to bear on the exhibition”. Domela’s presentation tied together the concerns expressed in the previous Open Spaces presentations. For example, he talked about a number of projects working that paralleled the concerns Peanutz Architekten’s works. These include the video work made by Jill Magid for the 2004 Biennial – which was produced by arranging for a CCTV camera operator to follow the artist as she moved about the city; as well as Otto Karvonen’s 2008 work that involved street signs placed around the city. Explaining how the Liverpool Biennial operates outside the conventional frameworks of the biennial types of exhibitions, Domela talked in detail about the importance of long-term partnerships with locally based initiatives. For the last five years the biennial had been involved in ‘Big Table’ – a collaboration with three organisations located in different areas of the city. Domela noted that the reason the biennial collaborates with organisations already based in communities, is because it enables them to engage with people at a neighbourhood level; and on a long-term basis. Moreover, the goal was not for this work to be necessarily presented as a part of the Biennial exhibition – Domela was quite critical of this approach in part because he felt that exhibition formats lead to undue pressure and expectations for a particular product to be delivered within a particular timescale. Another key project is ‘Art for Places’, involving three public works in different communities over three years. The first of these projects was realised in 2008 – Kitchen Monument by German architects Raumlaborberlin was based in an area of social housing along the Leeds-Liverpool canal. This disadvantaged area is located close to the site of major planned development. Raumlaborberlin designed a portable, inflatable building which was sited in various locations along the canal and hosted events including discussions involving local people and planners. This project in particular echoed Peanutz Architekten’s engagement with giving power back to local people – along with paralleling the concerns of the work of Muf and Teddy Cruz in their attempts to influence planning through various interventions. Speaking about the 2008 Liverpool Biennial, Domela noted that it had often been the case that artists had tended to respond to somewhat obvious aspects of the cities history –such as slavery, post-industrialisation and regeneration. As a way make a break with this approach, for the 2008 Biennial the curatorial team was asked to work with the theme ‘Made Up. The phrase is a saying in the North of England, which means meaning happy, ready or pleased – but the theme was also intended to reflect the Biennial’s hope that the artists would draw more on the imagination and the sense of make believe – rather than the specific histories of the city. As such, Domela was attempting to move away from the notion of ‘site specificity’ towards the idea of actual ‘context sensitivity’ – an ethos which seems unite the Biennial’s work with that of Peanutz Architekten; the many of the practices identified by Vagabond Reviews and indeed the aims of Dublin City Council’s Open Spaces programme. Niall de Buitlear Notes (1) Jack Gilligan. Open Spaces leaflet. (2) Art in Urban and Suburban Open Space – A Report on Innovative International models of Support Vagabond Reviews (Ciarán Smyth and Ailbhe Murphy). Commissioned by Dublin City council. (3) www.parkfiction.org (4) www.gunpowderpark.org (5) http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2004/12/parasite-shelte.php (6) www.lmcc.net (7) http://www.lmcc.net/art/programs/2008/sitelines/index.html (8) The word charrette refers to any collaborative session in which a group of designers drafts a solution to a problem. While the structure of a charrette varies, depending on the design problem and the individuals in the group, charrettes often take place in multiple sessions in which the group divides into sub-groups (9) http://www.peanutz-architekten.de/en/tuning/moebel.html and referred to during their oral presentation.
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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet ARTISTS Books
VAI NORTHERN IRELAND REPRESENTATIVE
Consultations VAI Northern Ireland representative Daniel Jewesbury on ARTS Strategy CONSULTATIONS; AN AUDIT OF UNPAID ART-LABOUR; and ARTISTS MOBILITY. The report and recommendations are awaited from last year’s consultation on a new visual arts strategy for the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. There have been a number of similar consultations, but it would be unfair to say that artists are suffering from ‘consultation fatigue’. Those of us working in the visual arts know that provision continues to shrink, that career prospects for young artists look increasingly bleak, and that Northern Ireland is now more cut off from any international arts scene than it has been for some time. If the object of the consultation was to give the Arts Council a sense of the lay of the land, then artists are happy to colour in the contours and give the necessary detail – we all want policy that will improve conditions for visual artists. Indeed, artists could hardly be accused of not having engaged with policy-making processes in recent years. We’ve participated in each new conversation, most notably in response to the Review of Public Administration in 2005, and the Draft Programme for Government last year. The effective collective voice of those involved in all the arts, in various meetings convened by the Department of Finance and Personnel as part of that last consultation process, ensured an uplift in arts spending from the figures outlined in the draft programme. This was a (small) victory that was won by artists themselves. We’ve not been backward in coming forward. But the most striking and notable thing is that artists, have continued doing what they do best – organising and improvising an arts infrastructure (that’s to say, the one we make ourselves), making art that continues a dialogue with the particularities of the place we live in, devising new ways to survive in routinely impoverished circumstances. There are some who are suggesting that straitened economic times might provide an opportunity to focus on what’s being done well already. The Arts Council can make a positive contribution at this time by indicating clearly that it wishes to support the diversity of activity that artists themselves are initiating, and by committing long-term to routes for professional development that can help to bring that activity into contact with new publics not just in Northern Ireland but internationally. +++ In discussions that have flowed from the visual arts consultation it’s become clear that we’re constantly arguing for a proper value to be placed on the arts, beyond the instrumentalised, economistic costings of ‘benefits’ to such sectors as tourism and leisure (art’s usual administrative bedfellows these days). And of course, when arguing for proper recognition of the core, infrastructural work that we routinely do, we understand the potential for funders to argue that, “Sure, if you’re doing all this with the pennies we give you, then you’re really providing great value and you don’t need any more money at all, do you?” In this light it seems a good idea to call for artists and arts organisations in the North to carry out an audit of their own unpaid labour, whether in their own careers or in the organisations for which they work. I’d like to invite artists and arts
March – April 2009
administrators in the North to contact me with ideas about how such an activity might carried out. If it were possible to secure sufficient participation, the exercise might produce some genuine and useful data with which to counter the dated cost-and-benefit quantifications of the ‘creative industries’ lobby. +++ Since Spring 2008 I’ve been working as one of the consultants putting together recommendations for a new cultural diversity policy for the Arts Council of Ireland. Over the last year, the necessity of opening up Ireland’s arts provision to all, regardless of their ethnic, cultural or national background has become even clear to me. I’ve also been aware that the European Council’s Culture programme cites as one of its priorities the mobility of artists and their work within the Union, and between the Union and the rest of the world. In the course of this research I’ve obviously been travelling quite frequently between Belfast and Dublin – in fact I’m writing this column on yet another 8 am Enterprise train to Connolly Station. The thing is, I’m a little apprehensive about what might be waiting for me when I walk down the platform at Connolly this morning. Shortly before Christmas as I disembarked the same train, to go and interview Council members, I was asked by the Gardaí to give (and prove) my nationality before being allowed to proceed. I was surprised to be asked this question myself but knew that it has been routinely asked for over a decade now, on trains and buses travelling from Northern Ireland to the Republic; I have friends and acquaintances from various professional (and ethnic) backgrounds who refuse to travel to Dublin by public transport because of this demand to identify themselves – in effect, a discriminatory operation of the Common Travel Agreement, under whose terms the citizens of Ireland and the UK are granted the right to travel without such documentation. Black and Asian citizens and residents of the North are routinely prevented from entering the Republic, whether to spend money in its shops or to lecture in its universities, because they haven’t brought their passports. I’ve lived in Ireland, north and south, for over sixteen years. I’m half-Indian and have a black beard. The Gardi's insistent argument, as we sat in a Portakabin at Dublin Port, that the stops that take place on the platform of Connolly Station and at Busáras are conducted ‘at random’ is plainly a fiction. There continues to be deep, ongoing and casual discrimination in all areas of public provision, on both sides of the border. It is typically in the arts that difference is most easily and most genuinely negotiated; and the mobility mentioned above as an EC priority is not just a buzzword that’s having its moment, it’s abslutely crucial if the arts are to be dynamic, and change, and develop. But drawing up cultural diversity policies for the arts will be meaningless if we aren’t willing to fight discrimination and accept difference in society, at a much more fundamental level.
Artists Books At Sea Published: Feb '09Artist: Gary Coyle. Title: At Sea. Design: Atelier David Smith. Available from: www.kevinkavanaghgalleru.com Contribributors: texts by Patrick T. Murphy, Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes & Maeve Connolly. Price: €20. Format: The 130 pages, full-colour. (Limited edition version included print and slip cover). Description: Almost every day for the past decade Gary Coyle has gone for a swim at the Forty Foot in Sandycove. During his 10 year swim-a-thon he has kept a record of his experience through detailed diaries and photographs. The Sea explores one man's observations of places, obsessive swimming, death and performance art. Publisher: Kevin Kavangh Gallery. Permaculture Published: Dec 2008. Editors: Sarah Pierce & Grant Watson. Title: Permaculture. Dimensions: 21cm x 16.5cm. Pages: 120. Format: Perfect bound, soft-back. Contributors: Karl Burke, Gerard Byrne, Rhona Byrne, Nina Canell, Vaari Claffey, Declan Clarke, Gavin Delahunty, Oliver Dowling, Dunk, Annie Fletcher, Maria Fusco, Mark Garry, Tessa Giblin, Sarah Glennie, Janna Graham, Darragh Hogan, Georgina Jackson, Jesse Jones, Susan Kelly, Declan Long, Ronan McCrea, Eoghan McTigue, Padraic E Moore, Rachel Ni Chuinn, Isabel Nolan, Seamus Nolan, Niamh O’Donnell, Niamh O’Malley, Paul O’Neill, Garrett Phelan, Alan Phelan, Sarah Pierce, Eva Rothschild, Declan Sheehan, Rachel Thomas, Joe Walker, Robin Watkins, Grant Watson, Grace Weir, Lee Welsh, Willie White. Availability: Project Arts Centre www.projectartscentre.ie Price: €8. ISBN: 1-872493-25-4. Description: Permaculture is set out as a consolidation of documentary images, of all of the exhibitions presented and commissioned by Project Arts Centre from 2001 to 2006 – alongside short reflections by individuals, artists and curators. The publication’s images and texts present our investment in artists and how the process of making new work became a defining feature of our programme. The contributors’ texts reflect how the artists’ work was received, understood, recalled and remembered. In a Village Artist: Ciara Healy. Title: In A Village. Pages: 20 pgs full colour. Format: Hand stitched, hardbound. Publisher: Ingnition.ie Price: £12.50 postage not included. Available: www.ignition.ie Description:
In a Village draws inspiration from the rural village in East Sussex where the artist lives. Using paint and antique natural history books, the work reflects upon the impact, both transient and permanent that we have on our environment. The book is a visual and poetic tour through the village, highlighting the simple day to day activities that take place. The work is a visual celebration of the layers of lives that have gone before and the traces they have left behind. Transitopia 2008. Title: Transitopia 2008. Artists: Michelle Browne, Jo Anne Butler, Elaine Reynolds, Dominic Thorpe, Carl Giffney, Dara McGrath, and Sarah Browne Contributors: Mark Durkan and Mary-Jo Gilligan. Available: free to the public from Parking Meter Arts, Kildare Arts Office, and selected libraries and venues. Description: The publication is part of the 'Transitopia' project funded by Kildare County Council which seeks to explore the shifting built environment and identity of Naas, Co. Kildare. The publication contains documentation of, and elaboration upon, the work of four artists; Michelle Browne, Jo Anne Butler, Elaine Reynolds and Dominic Thorpe – and presents the completed research projects of a further two artists, Carl Giffney and Dara McGrath, who were also commissioned by the project. A visual/textual piece by Kildare born artist Sarah Browne, also features in the book along with texts by the project’s curators Mark Durkan and Mary-Jo Gilligan. Sapphire Highway Published: Jan 2009. Artist / authors: Carl Giffney and Ruth Lyons. Title: Sapphire Highway, a Good Hatchery project Dimensions: A5. Pages: 40. Format: soft-back etc. Contributors: Mark Durkan, Ronan Coughlan, Sinead Bhreathnach-Cashell, Patrick Corcoran. Availability: www.thegoodhatchery. wordpress.com Price: free. Description: Sapphire Highway documents the outcomes of a three week, site specific residency residency program that was run by the Good Hatchery in 2008. The project aimed to investigate the potential role of challenging and meaningful art activity in the very rural surroundings of East Offaly. Featured artists include Ronan Coughlan, Sinead Bhreathnach-Cashell, Patrick Corcoran.
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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
March – April 2009
Regional Profile
Visual Arts Resources & Activity Cork City
Experiment and Exchange
The Guesthouse, Shandon, Cork Nathan Coley Untitled (Baricade Sculpture). Installation image – 'Getting Even: Oppositions + Dialogues in Contemporary Art'
Tuesday Lunch in session.
Maddie Leach preparing Tuesday Lunch.
The Quiet Club (Mick O’Shea and Danny McCarthy).
Some of the host chefs outside the Guesthouse.
For many years the Cork Artists Collective had been discussing the need for a project space that facilitated a kind of artistic practice outside of studio; and in 2004 we approached Cork City Council to find a suitable building. The City Council had been purchasing property in the Shandon area as part of their cultural plan and offered us the use of a building that was previously a guest house. In early 2006 after Cork’s adventures as the capital of culture the National Sculpture Factory organised a post capital of culture meeting, for artists and organisations to discuss the aftermath and project a plan for the future. Some of the recommendations that emerged from the meeting were – "that flexible space for meeting and screenings and exhibitions be made available; spaces for production be made available to artists; and that an ongoing reading group, reading room / book club be maintained". The meeting also identified some key needs – "for a flexible contemporary exhibition space that is artist led.; maintaining and building on international art networks: maintaining and developing a more comprehensive and inclusive discursive culture in Cork; to create stronger links between visual arts and related arts disciplines and related academic disciplines in Cork” What became apparent at this meeting, was that the guesthouse that the CAC had recently acquired from the City Council as a project space had the capacity to tick most of these boxes and more. Our interest was in developing a space that was engaged with a social and discursive potential within practice. As well as this we waned to facilitate international and national exchange; and to support the artists initiative within the city – to create a meeting point to enable an encounter with other disciplines and different ways of thinking; to encourage opportunity for collaboration and the development of new initiatives and to be a catalyst for new production.
Between 2005 and 2007 the City Council renovated the guesthouse with support from the Arts Council and in collaboration with the CAC. The building was developed to accommodate a residential space in the attic, with separate shower and kitchen, a project room on the second floor, another project room on the first floor and a kitchen and dining room on the ground floor. In 2008 we began a weekly ‘Tuesday Lunch’ event that invited practitioners to cook and meet – and introduced the space to the community. The event was made possible by the donations to the larder and the generosity of the host chefs. ‘Tuesday Lunch’ expanded into performances by the Quiet Club and other visiting artists; presentations and screenings; and also facilitated artists visiting the city to meet up with the arts community – and those in related disciplines to engage with a community. Other initiatives and events that took place in the Guesthouse included the YOYO Club In Tandem project, an experiment in collaborative practice, the ‘Radio On’ project broadcast for one week, Safe House – a sound event, the Sound Eye poetry festival as well as a Domestic Godless food event and Culture Night. In Sept 2008 the CAC established a board to represent a diverse range of practices and interests. The members appointed to manage and develop a programme of activities included Mick O’Shea, Colette Lewis, Claire Guerin, Trevor Joyce, Matt Packer and Irene Murphy. We are presently setting up a framework of activities that open opportunities for spontaneous contributions that develop out of conversations. Currently, we run a monthly Sunday lunch event and Dobz O’Brien will be organising a series of curated exhibitions called 'The Back Room". We will be officially launching The Guesthouse Project and a website in April, as well as setting up a programme of activities exploring ideas of selforganisation titled ‘Adventures In A Fitness Landscape’. Irene Murphy www.myspace.com/the_guesthouse
Neither of us are from Cork and have only recently been appointed as curators at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, which perhaps gives us something of an ‘outsider’s’ view of the local art scene. For the same reason, it is difficult for us to get a full sense of the changes and events that have taken place here in the past few years, such as Cork’s tenure as European Capital of Culture in 2005 and the initiation of recent projects in the city such as the Guesthouse and The Black Mariah. It seems clear, however, that since the establishment of the Glucksman in 2004, it has run an ambitious programme of exhibitions and events, and that this has helped to provide an international context for the artistic practices and concerns of the local arts community. Looking ahead, the Glucksman has to maintain a certain balance; of engaging with local artistic discourses while simultaneously looking beyond Cork towards other models, trends and developments. In practice, this can involve working with a mixture – of locally, nationally and internationally – established artists in gallery exhibitions; or addressing issues and thematics that are particularly relevant to Cork. This approach has the benefits of injecting new ideas and strategies into the Cork art scene, while, at the same time encouraging challenging artwork that relates to contemporary society in all its complexity. We actively explore the advantages of being a university gallery, situated within an academic environment that connects many disciplines. Recent exhibitions such as ‘Embodied Time: Art Video, 1970 to present’ and ‘An Eye for an Eye: Representations of Conflict in 20th Century Ireland’ have been developed in conjunction with academic staff at UCC. ‘The Eye + Mind’ research forum, led by Ed Krcma of UCC’s art history department, is another incidence of the engagement between the Glucksman and the University. In addition to this, the Glucksman acts as an important first point of contact with the visual arts for many students. Beyond the university campus, we’re looking to plug into the city itself in different ways. Pavel Büchler’s recent intervention in the Cork Waterstones bookshop, which ran parallel to his involvement in the ‘Bookish: When Books Become Art’ exhibition, is one such example. There are real challenges in delivering an ambitious programme, not least of which is funding. The focus of Arts Council support in the city tends towards resources for artists and this has generated a strong infrastructure for the artistic community. We hope that going forward there will also be increased investment in the vital role the Glucksman has to play as a public site of experiment and exchange, in giving grounds to artistic practices and in encouraging discourses that extend opportunities for artists in the longer term. Chris Clarke, Curator of Education & Collections. Matt Packer, Curator of Exhibitions & Projects Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork
Diversity of Supports Cork City Council supports a wide range of arts activity through a range of diverse activity. The diversity of our supports reflects the strength and depth of the cultural sector within the city. Cork is a city of the arts. We celebrate this and do all in our power to sustain and promote its development as a centre for culture and creativity. We strive to create conditions conducive to creativity. Our work is strategic and only as appropriate do we engage directly in programming activity. We continue to invest in artists and arts organisations and work with stakeholders to facilitate the development, funding and realisation of arts and cultural projects. Cork is culturally significant, nationally and internationally, because of its heritage and the work of contemporary artists and arts organisations. The city has a national and international profile and role, which City Council wholly supports. In 2009 revenue funding in excess of €1.8 million has being allocated the Arts Service of Cork City Council. These funds are from the local authorities own resources. The grant aid, which forms a portion of these funds, supports a range of arts activities in the city in a number of ways : Arts Grants – direct grant aid to support not for projects arts organisations Project Grants – funds for new and innovative projects across all disciplines Bursaries – support to individual artists across all disciplines Travel & Mobility – support for artist and organisations focussed on international projects. Community Arts Development Grants – for projects focused on artists working with specific communities on process-based programmes. In addition to these supports there are a number of organisations housed by Cork City Council in buildings owned by the local authority at no or minimal rent. These include: The National Sculpture Factory, Cork Printmakers, Backwater Artists Gallery, Cork Artists Collective at the Guest House, Munster Literature Centre, Cork Folk Festival, Cork Midsummer Festival, Cork Choral Festival, Cork Jazz Festival Committee, Corcadorca, Tigh Fili, Art Trail and Jack Lynch House Artists House and the Cork Vision Centre. In addition we have provided funding to the refurbishment of Cork Opera House, the Everyman Palace Theatre and the Firkin Crane over a number of years. A number of projects are run directly by the Arts Office. These promote engagement with the arts throughout the city and its citizenry. Culture Night, the Cork St. Patrick’s Festival, Composer in the Classroom, printmaking workshops, residency programmes and international artists exchanges form a central part of this programme. The Arts Service of Cork City Council manages the public art commissioning of the local authority. Additionally commemorative programmes marking key moments in our civic life such as the sculptor Seamus Murphy’s centenary celebrations in 2007 and the forthcoming celebrations of centenary of the birth of the composer Aloys Fleischmann are project managed by the office in partnership with other organisations locally and nationally. Culture is at its most relevant when it is dynamic and evolving. A strategic approach provides the flexibility necessary in a constantly developing sector. Liz Meaney, Arts Officer.
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
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March – April 2009
Regional Profile
ArtTrail
Not Willing to Lie Down
Takahiro Suzuki IKIRO. Installation for ArtTrail 08/ Cork 2008.
Backwater Artists Studios
Backwater Artists Studios
Backwater Artists Studios
Backwater Artists Group, is now in its 19th year and is based at The Wandesford Quay Complex, Cork along with Cork Printmakers and the Fenton Gallery. It was set up by graduates of the Crawford College of Design in 1990 and is now one of the largest artists-lead studio groups in the country – with 27 studios and 30 artists currently working from the studios. In addition, there are two jobsharing administrative staff, as well as a caretaker, who works for the Wandesford Quay Complex. The group is committed to addressing issues concerning the practice of visual arts and to promoting improved conditions and support structures for artists. As well as providing studio spaces, we also provide access to computer, framing and photography facilities for our members. Backwater still attracts a lot of graduates from the Crawford College of Art & Design due in part to our two Ciarán Langford Memorial Bursary spaces; our two nine-month Crawford College of Art & Design postgraduate spaces’ and our temporary / project spaces. Increasingly too, artists are relocating in order to join. The membership is made up of long, medium, short-term and sharing artists. Having several different lengths of tenure creates a good balance between stability and invigoration. At present there is a palpable energy within the group. This energy seems to be reflected in other pockets of activity throughout Cork city. A number of other studio groups have set up in answer to another surge in demand for workspace. Cork Contemporary Project (CCP) is a new initiative which aims to provide graduate and emerging artists in Cork with both space to explore their working processes and a gallery space which acts as a platform for new, innovative works across the visual arts, music and design disciplines. There is already interest from artists within Backwater in this idea. Backwater and its individual artists are keen to promote access to the public and to be recognised
as an integral part of the city’s community. The annual Open Studio Event sees Backwater collaborating with Cork Printmakers to open their studios for viewing to the public and for school / group tours, artist’s talks and exhibitions. Aside from Open Studios, we also participate in Culture Night and Heritage Day in conjunction with Cork City Council. These events have become very popular and are now part of the calendar for many other groups. Backwater has forged and maintained links with other artists, curators and artists groups within the city and beyond. As part of the residency programme there have been a number of visiting artists from Ireland and abroad – Franko B (the international Performance artist); Aideen Barry, Alastair MacLennan; SeeSaw, a Swedish Artists Group and Rebus Dance Company are only some of the artists who contributed to the dynamic of Backwater. Backwater has also maintained links with city based initiative’s such as Art Trail – and through individual participation to a host of events, programmes and shows both in the city, nationally and abroad. Unfortunately, in recent times, there has been a decline in the number of gallery spaces in Cork. More and more artists here are availing of good non-gallery exhibition space such as Cork School of Music, CIT, and UCC. At Backwater, we have instigated monthly ‘by appointment’ exhibitions where members can promote their work in a supportive environment. As the economy slides, it seems artists here in Cork are not yet willing to lie down. For more information on the group and on our artists visit www.backwaterartists.ie Kathleen Hurley Co-Administrator Backwater Artists Group
Colin Crotty. Installation for ArtTrail 08/ Cork 2008.
ArtTrail is an artist-led voluntary organisation founded in 1996, with a principal purpose to provide an enduring and internationally recognised platform for contemporary art in the City of Cork. ArtTrail primarily exists as an annual festival of artists’ works and projects, which occur in-and-around the city in non-designated art spaces. Concurrently, ArtTrail also provides open studio events, awards and commissions, talks, workshops, tours, and publications. Since its inception, ArtTrail has changed from year to year, both in terms of its physical context, and in terms of its artistic approach. It has continued to be driven and informed by the evolving interests, practices and needs of artists in the city, as well as by visiting artists. It has proven to be an invaluable testing ground for new ideas, and a rare opportunity for the artists of this city to share their work with the public and other artists in a direct way. ArtTrail accepts proposals each year via open submission, but this is balanced with a number of ‘invited artists’ projects. In this way, ArtTrail tries to hold a space open for younger or emerging artists, while also ensuring a standard of excellence to the festival as a whole. ArtTrail has at various times been involved with the existing galleries and facilities for artists, but often seemed most energetic when working on the peripheries of this system - supporting the development and presentation of practices not easily supported by the existing facilities, and finding and opening new temporary venues and contexts for artists to present their work. During its history, almost every available, disused, or condemned building in the city centre, as well as churches, convents, shops, streets, bridges, and the river have been sites for ArtTrail projects. To date, both Cork City Council and
private owners have largely been supportive and willing to allow ArtTrail use their premises. ArtTrail’s access to Public Liability Insurance is a crucial factor in securing spaces and presenting work, and a vital one as very few of the festivals could have taken place without it. Insurance requirements for artists in Ireland can often be stifling, or at least off-putting, as many practices (performance and installation in particular) can be well outside any existing definition or category for cover. (1) Not determined by a single space, ArtTrail can bring artists and audience to a different level of interaction with their surroundings, outside the definitions of Gallery or institution. The current Board of ArtTrail are using 2009 to review the current context for ArtTrail and for contemporary art in Cork city through a series of monthly research/presentation events focusing on different practices and issues, building up to a festival and review publication at the end of the year. We are grateful for the continued support of the Arts Council and Cork City Council in these challenging economic times, and for the involvement of so many artists each year and aim to develop a sustainable, supportive, vibrant organisation that can respond to these challenges. See our website www.arttrail.ie for further details, and contact us to register your area/s of interest – arttrail.cork@gmail.com Kevin Tuohy Notes (1) ArtTrail would welcome and support increased education for artists – both at student and professional levels – on insurance issues in general, and personal artist insurance in particular, as an awareness of the process and requirements are vital to the planning process for any public work. Knowing how the insurance system will treat you does not mean compromising your work, but can help you avoid problems later in the project (for example, not being allowed present the work due to personal or public safety concerns that you could have prevented early on, but now don’t have time to).
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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
March / April 2009
Cork, the World and Everywhere.
Working Experientially & Experimentally
Manglano-Ovalle Weather Station (After Beckett). Autumn 2008. Cork.
Adham Faramawy Hassan-I Sabbah (2009). This work will feature as part of Adhams show – ‘Al Hashashin’ opening 10 April at The Black Mariah.
Cork has never seen itself as regional. And it has never really suffered from second city syndrome. It never developed an inferiority complex due to its lack in population, geographical size or simply not being the centre of all things Irish. Its connections to other parts of the island are often tenuous. They are constructed simply, around a mélange of ad hoc relationships, none of which have ever revolved around much self-reflection or competition, with the great exception of the tribal instincts made manifest by the GAA. The apocryphal chant that Cork believes itself to be the REAL capital is rather a common form of insult or mockery from those in the provinces – hinging on the Cork’s slight self-dislocation from the adjoining regions. But maybe they are not wrong. Technically Cork is the centre of the universe, at least for those who live on the banks of the Lee, as in – there is Cork and there is everywhere else; and Cork has been connected to everywhere else for as long as there has been Cork. The second largest natural port in the world forces a relationship on its inhabitants to everywhere else – that is now endemic in its people. This hyperopia (far-sightedness) amongst Corkonians creates a symbiotic condition that has connected them with the possible everywhere else of everywhere else; it has become a part of their psyche, forever connected to an exterior. Cork’s docklands well represents this interstitial (1) space and it was in this zone that the National Sculpture Factory commissioned three ambitious projects in the Autumn 2008. Artists Sorcha O’Brien and Eli Caamano (Cork / Barcelona), Seamus Nolan (Dublin) and Inigo ManglanoOvalle (Chicago) were commissioned to developed temporal public art projects directly responding to and engaged with the site of Cork City docklands. Balloon, by Sorcha O’Brien and Eli Caamano, challenged the foreboding concrete of the industrial of dockland architecture with a lightness of touch – poetic work with an ethereal feel. Comprising four spherical 20ft red balloons placed on top of the landmarks of the Cork Docklands – the R&H Hall and the Odlums Building being the most distinctive, these celestial red blimps punctuated the heavy architectural blocks and vaults characteristic of dockland landscapes, putting in place a counterpoint of form and colour that was visible from most points in the city. Docks Tour was a collaboration between the last of the local dockers and Dublin-based artist Seamus Nolan. A worker’s tour of the region was
researched, organised and programmed, issuing in an unfolding of the landscape in the form of contemporary stories and histories told from the perspectives of the dockworker. Echoing the nature walks and visits to protected environments that are part of our post-industrial culture, visitors were taken on a historical horse-drawn tour around the remaining functioning factories while weaving through the ruins of the industrial age now past. Finally there was Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle’s Weather Station (After Beckett). A sea container precariously suspended between the land and water, neither arriving nor leaving, reflected the ‘state of suspension’ of the docklands itself. The container, its appearance altered to that of a white cube with a glowing red light visible through transparent doors at either side, housed a functioning weather station. The meteorological instruments, taking measurements but not records, continually processing but without product, provoked thoughts on climate, micro-culture, globalisation and locality. All this was sited where Eamon De Valera Bridge meets the borders of the Docklands Authority – which is ironic when you think of the venomous tête-à- tête, the stand-off between De Valera and Winston Churchill during the 1930s and 1940s over the geo-political and strategic importance of the same harbour. A relationship so bad that Churchill took time to berate De Valera during his infamous radio VE address in 1945 to the British nation. Cork still feels connected to these choppy international waters, to an image of itself as an important geo-political link in international trade, as a European city of culture even. But those halcyon times are now well passed. But this hasn’t stopped the expectations of its citizenry and of its institutions to continue their direct association with the outside world, with the everywhere else and the greater planet as a whole. In the wake and the imminent demise of the docklands as a functioning entity maybe some of these grand ideals and ambitions can be witnessed in the on-going development of the National Sculpture Factory’s international commissioning programme. David Dobz O’Brien Programmes Manager at the NSF. Artist and member of Art/ not art. (1) Editors Note. In other words – an in-between space; or transition space connected to, but slightly apart from the whole. 'Interstices' being small gaps or cracks within or inbetween things. The term 'interstitial' has recently cropped up a lot in the work of a number of cultural theorists, to refer to spaces of resistance to the state that can exist within the state – sites of potential that can be found in various social and cultural in-between spaces.
The Black Mariah is an artist led project and exhibition space situated on Washington Street in Cork city centre. The space was set up in May 2007 in response to the lack of artist-led exhibition spaces in the city – when a small office space with reasonable rates became vacant above a friends record store. At that time we were in our third year of the Sculpture and Combined Media course at LSAD and had previously organised crossdisciplinary events in Limerick city involving our peers, lecturers, past students and visiting artists. The development, execution and outcome of these particular events informed us of the benefits of being capable of DIY, and influenced how we programme The Black Mariah. Not wanting to adhere to any strict curatorial policy while also creating an identity for the project was a difficult prospect. The only way we could operate was by working with people who were compatible with the situation – meaning people prepared to work within our financial limitations and in a collaborative manner that was beneficial to all involved; whether experientially, experimentally or more specifically for example, through facilitating a basic exposure that might result in some form of dialogue for participating artists. The first year’s programme involved people we knew, the majority of whom we had worked
with previously in some capacity; these collaborations led to meeting or being informed of others whose practices might be of interest to us. We recently presented work from eight artists that have contributed to the overall identity of The Black Mariah at URA project space in Istanbul. In May this year a reciprocal project will happen in Cork and in September 2010 we return to take part in an offsite event hosted by URA during the 11th Istanbul biennale. The focus of the project is to cultivate new audiences through collaborative exchange. We run 12 main projects a year with occasional interim events. The space is currently unfunded and survives solely on a lot of in-kind contribution. At the moment we are developing a series of artists editions, a regular stock of particular magazines and books and monthly fundraising performance based events at the space, hoping that these additions will assist financially and create new functions for the space. In the coming months we look forward to working with, Leo & James Mc Cann, Adham Faramawy, Mihda Koray (URA), Alex Conway, Tom Fitzgerald, Sean Lynch, Crawford College / LSAD Graduate Selection, Mark O’ Kelly, Stephen Brandes, Dick Evans, Logan Sisley, Peggy Franck, Claire Feeley. Not Abel
CORK CONTACTS – AT A GLANCE The Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork, Cork, www.glucksman.org The National Sculpture Factory, Albert Road, Cork. T: 021 431 4353 E: info@nationalsculpturefactory.com www.nationalsculpturefactory.com The Black Mariah, 4 Washington Street, Cork. www. myspace.com/mariahtheblack Backwater Artists Group Wandesford Quay, Cork. T: 021 4961002 E: admin@backwaterartists.ie www.backwaterartists.ie Cork City Council Arts Officer, Liz Meaney, Recreation, Amenity & Culture 1st Floor Abbeycourt House, Georges Quay, Cork. T: 021 4924298 E: arts@corkcity.ie
Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Emmett Place, Cork . T: 021 4805042 E: crawfordinfo@eircom.net www.crawfordartgallery.com Fenton Gallery Wandesford Quay, Cork. T: 021 431 5294 E: nualafenton@eircom.net www.artireland.net/sys-tmpl/door Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin Street, Cork. T: 021 4272022 E: info@triskelartscentre.com www.triskelart.com Cork Artists Collective, Library House, Dean Street, Cork. T: 021 4317445 www.thecollective.ie Cork Printmakers Wandesford Quay, Crosses Green, Cork. T: 021 4322422 E: crk@iol.ie www.corkprintmakers.ie The Guest House. www.myspace.com/the_guesthouse
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
23
March – April 2009
career development
There Are Other Times Fergus Martin sets out some of the key events and decisions that have shaped his art career It was also a struggle. One day I flung down my drawing crayon in frustration and jumped on the subway to get to MOMA to the Ad Reinhardt exhibition that was on. I remember sitting in front of one of the paintings and thinking, “I was thirsty and I’ve been given water to drink”. Back in Dublin, I taught English and Italian to support myself; and stopped working part-time at outside work when sales or grants enabled me to do so. I have received grants from The Arts Council, including The Marten Toonder award in 1999. I also received extremely generous grants from The Pollock-Krasner Foundation in 1999 and 2006, which enabled me to live and work for considerable periods of time. Grants like these are also a tremendous boost to your morale. In 2001 I was elected to Aosdana. Green on Red, as my agent, promotes my work through exhibitions and the proposing of work to clients, as well as representation at art fairs. That is one of the main ways contacts with other galleries are made. This has led to my showing in public galleries, such as Hugh Lane in 2008, other commercial galleries, as well as many non-profit spaces and events. Fergus Martin. Installation view. Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane. Left to right – Lane 2008 acrylic on canvas 163 x 41 cm; Untitled 2008 acrylic on canvas 163 x 41 cm; Today 2008 acrylic on canvas 263 x 82 cm. Photo: Denis Mortell
I sometimes wonder if we are not like the steel ball in a pinball machine – plans, luck, chance encounters, deliberate encounters, the kindness of people, acceptance, rejection, unexpected events, send us this way and that.
When I look back, it can seem like all this was the outcome of a definable sequence of events, but it was more the result of accumulated experience, greater confidence, and knowing this was all I wanted to do.
I studied at Dun Laoghaire School of Art in the 1970s and worked on my own for a year. My efforts were tentative – I was less sure of what I wanted to do after art school than before I went. This made me want to travel and, in January 1979, I went to live in Milan.
This is often mirrored in my work, when an idea springs into view after what has seemed like days, weeks, months of going round and round.
I had gone to Milan because I had always been fascinated by its industrial design; and it turned out to be home for 10 years. While I did not work as an artist when I went to Italy first, I saw great works of art and architecture in the flesh and was able to spend time with them – from Giotto’s frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua to the Greek temples in Paestum, to name but two from the bottomless well of artistic riches that is Italy. I also saw Italy’s genius for fashion and design and display all around me. My eyes were hardly able to take in what I saw in the windows of the shops of Via della Spiga near where I worked – things we had never seen in Ireland! An extraordinary place for an education in life. To support myself, I began to teach English and after a few years got a job as an assistant lecturer in English language at the University of Milan. I began to incorporate visual means and ideas in my teaching. When I saw that students were letting individual words get in the way of understanding the meaning of texts they had to analyse, I had poster-size versions of those texts made in which words were cancelled out with Tippex, for the students to – passively, even – get a feeling for the piece and take in the whole meaning. That developed into more experiments in which I tried different textures, materials, colours and layers for my large-format photocopy prints and led to my making my own work again after eight years. It had now taken over all-else and I knew I had to stop teaching full-time. One of the reasons I came to live in Dublin again was because at that time – 1989 – it was much easier to find cheap accommodation to live and work in than Milan.
The most recent example of this was my participation at the end of 2008 in the exhibition ‘Yo’ Mo; Modernism’ at CCNOA (Centre for contemporary non-objective art) in Brussels. CCNOA saw work of mine at Galerie Michael Sturm in Stuttgart, who in turn had seen my work at the Green on Red stand at the Cologne Art Fair in 2004. In 2000 I was invited to submit a self-portrait for The National SelfPortrait collection, for which I wanted to make a digitally-enhanced photographic portrait. This got me fascinated in the fictive potential of digital enhancement, and I made a series of fake portraits of myself for an exhibition at Green on Red in 2001.
The summer before I came back to live in Dublin I used to go into the Rank Xerox shop on St Stephen’s Green to try out new photocopy ideas. I handed in my originals and had them photocopied. One day, the manager said to me “We’re very interested in what you are doing and we want to offer you a machine to use when you want”. I couldn’t believe it! I spent the whole summer working there. I was also beginning to find the originals for my photocopies interesting in themselves – more heavily textured than the copied versions – and this led to my making my first paintings with Tippex on paper, which I brought to the Oliver Dowling Gallery, because that had been the gallery showing the most interesting things for me when I was a student.
I wanted to find a photographer to take my picture, and a chance question when I was giving a lecture at NCAD led me to Anthony Hobbs, photographer and Head of Media at NCAD, and whom I have since worked with collaboratively as Martin & Hobbs on a number of projects,
Oliver Dowling took some of my work and showed it in a group show; and that led to my first exhibition in 1990. I had two solo exhibitions there before Oliver Dowling closed the gallery. I was then asked by Jerome O’Drisceoil if I would like to show at Green on Red Gallery – where I have exhibited since 1994.
I have submitted proposals for public sculpture commissions both in open submission, and in recent years as part of invited shortlists.
After my first exhibition, I felt I needed some kind of contact with an art education after the years of not painting, and applied to the Summer Program at The New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture. I won a Dublin Corporation visual arts bursary to assist me with the funds to go. When I arrived at the school and saw how great its emphasis was on working with the figure, I asked the Dean, Graham Nickson, why he’d accepted me having seen my slides and the way I worked. He told me that my letter of application had made them feel that I would benefit by what might seem like ‘taking a step back’ in order to go forward. I was one of a number of students who had a studio practice and had exhibited. For that reason, while I was asked to follow the school’s programme of drawing and painting the figure as much as I could, I was given my own studio to work in whenever I wanted. Which I did, and I also walked and took in New York city-life. I threw myself into the eight-hour days of life drawing and painting. I remember that the effort was all the more intense – physical – because of the torrid heat and humidity.
While working on my Heads project I discovered that Anthony was using high precision photography in ways I had never seen before and which excited me. We found we shared many points of interest and decided to join forces – as painter and photographer – on a number of projects. This works because we are practitioners of different kinds of work independently.
Last year, I completed a new sculpture, Steel, for the entrance to The Irish Museum of Modern Art. This was commissioned by The Office of Public Works as part of its Per Cent For Art scheme when they were making a second entrance at the East Gates. There is of course a difference between this kind of work and what you do in the studio, the most obvious for me being that you are working with people, from many different professions, and you are alone in the studio. Everyone at IMMA and the OPW were always supportive, enthusiastic and unstinting in the help they gave me. An exhibition of mine has just ended at The Hugh Lane Gallery and I have just finished working on a book to be published on occasion of that show. I am now working towards an exhibition at Green on Red in June. I don’t always follow one exhibition soon after another, but there are the times when the ideas and energy are there. Then there are the other times, to sit still and watch the light fading on the studio walls. Fergus Martin
Kathy Herbert Urban Foxes
Diane McCormac Convey
Brendan Eastwood Running Greyhound
Willowview Foundry Ballykinler Co. Down new website www.willowviewfoundry.com iron, bronze and aluminium casting. lost wax / ceramic shell and green sand processes
M: (0044 from ROI) 0 7830285031 E:info@willowviewfoundry.com
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
March – April 2009
25
Art in the public realm roundup
Art the Public Realm Roundup
Recent public art commissions, site-specific works, socially engaged practice and other forms of art outside the gallery. Poulnabrone Village
few plantings of over 3000 bluebells were facilitated with the backing of Dublin City Council and a contribution towards costs from the Railway procurement agency. The partnership between the RPA’s Biodiversity Action Plan, Dublin city council and Fiann is set to continue with planting days set out for 2009-2011. Fiann hopes to extend the concept across the city and create a biodiversity spine and culture trail across Dublin from a monastic garden in Tallaght to a weaver’s garden in the Liberties and offer a horti-culture and tourist boon to each locality. WALL OF FAME
Artist: Jim Ricks. Title: Poulnabrone Village. Funding: Clare County Council Arts Office and the Ground Up Artists Collective. Advertised: Winter 2007. Project dates: Oct – Dec 2008. Cost: €1000. Type of commission: Open call for small projects under the Clare County Council Assistance Under the Arts Act Grant, awarded January 2008 and further supported by the Ground Up Artists Collective. Partners: Siobhán Mulcahy (Clare County Council Arts Officer) and Tommy Byrnes (landowner). Description: Sited in the property immediately adjacent to the well-known 6,000 year old tomb, the Poulnabrone Dolmen, this sculptural installation used timber and commercial signage to mimic the manufacture and semiology of large advertisements for a housing development. The piece was designed to challenge the commercialisation of the historic area and the sometimes rampant development taking place in the Burren. Reading “Poulnabrone Village, 33 Luxury Units in the Heart of the Historic Burren” followed by an email contact and featuring images of the dolmen, a new kitchen and a happy young couple, the piece drew ire and curiosity without delay. The artist was contacted by the Gardai, the county Development Board, the Community Warden and even potential buyers. However the most notable response was the ongoing vandalism. The eighteen foot tall piece was vandalised on three separate occasions, causing it to collapse each time. The artist re-installed the piece each time only to find the supporting timber detached, sandbags removed and wires cut again. As a result Poulnabrone Village was visible for only a few weeks. BLUEBELLS FOR BLUEBELL The bluebell project began with artist and horticulturalist Fiann Ó Nualláin’s interest in place-names; and how their etymologies are linked to native plants once grown in that location. Although no historical record ties the place to the plant, Fiann selected Bluebell in Dublin 12 as a ‘perfect repository’ for Ireland’s native bluebell – Hyacinthoides non-scripta – which is under serious threat from competition for habitat and hybridisation with the Spanish bluebell. The planting of the bluebell was seen as a way for local school children and youth groups to take ownership of their locality and participate in growing the place-name and boosting civic pride. Fiann worked with pupils and staff from Our Lady of the Wayside National School, Bluebell in 2008. Under Fiann’s guidance, the pupils planted native bluebells in the school grounds and in a small patch surrounding the name-stone in the grassed area opposite Bluebell Luas Stop. The first
who were invited by Circa art magazine. Keogh and Bloomer chose to locate their project titled Underground House in the cave networks under Reims which were originally Gallo-Roman chalk pits dug by Roman slaves. In the 1860s the Pommery caves were connected up by Belgian and French miners who dug out 18km of interconnected galleries, prepared as rib or barrel vaults for making Champagne. The artists explained “after a bit of exploring we found caves, not used since the 1860s where there were crude steps and places to sit and eat your lunch carved by the miners. There were still discarded Champagne bottles lying about from their last lunch break. We built stairs up to this cave and built a house there, did a bit of mining ourselves and grew mushrooms in the garden.”
County Council under the per-cent-for-art scheme. Project Partners: Mary Phelan, Public Art Co-ordinator, Galway County Council & Catherine O’Flaherty, Co-ordinator, Cullairbaun Commmunity House, Athenry ADC. Date: Commenced early October 2008, Launched 20 November 2008. Budget: €5,500. Description: Photographer Jane Talbot worked ‘in residence’ in Cullairbaun since early October 2008. During this time the artist offered local residents the opportunity to have their portrait taken, framed by their own front door. These portraits, which reflect the community back to itself, are now on permanent exhibition at the Community House. Each participating household also received a high quality print of their own portrait. The Cullairbaun Community Album remains on permanent display at the Community House in Cullairbaun.
THE BIG ONE Sphere of Locks
Artist: Veronica Forsgren. Title: Wall of Fame. Date: 2 – 9 November 2008. Location: Parkgate Street, Dublin 8. Materials / media: Bin liners, garden wire, green tape, discarded food and drink wrappers / containers mounted on panels of garden mesh. Description: The installation Wall of Fame was created as an extension of ‘Folka Polka’ an exhibition drawing on Swedish Folk Art, which the artist curated at Thisisnotashop. The work was created with the support of ESB Networks and consisted of floral and leaf panels covering the listed ESB substation building on Parkgate Street, Dublin 8. The cost of installing and creating the installation was approximately €100 euro which the artist covered personally. UNDERGROUND HOUSE
Artist: Barry Wrafter. Title: The Big One. Location: Cavan Institute of Technology. Commission Advertised: November ’07 – Open Competition. Materials: Wicklow Granite. Budget: €30,000. Dimensions: 4.6 meters high by 1.2 meters by 1.2 meters. Description: Reflecting Cavan Institutes academic achievements and its technological doctrine, Wrafter’s describes his response as “abstract, technological and modern – the sculpture is intended as an inspirational piece rising up in to the sky”.
Artist: Orla de Brí. Title: Sphere of Locks. Location: Dublin Castle, lower castle yard. Commission: Direct – OPW / Revenue Commissioners. Project Partners: Architect Barbara Kenny OPW. Description: Revenue along with the OPW were renovating the crypt in the lower castle yard to house a museum – the artist was invited to make work in response to a number of old locks, that had been used in Dublin Castle, the state warehouse, and many excise stations throughout the country. The commission was to make a sculpture using the locks. The locks are welded together to form a 21" sphere - the keys of the locks are I then gold leafed and hung inside the sphere.
COMMUNITY ALBUM
The Pommery Estate and Beaux Arts magazine invited various contemporary art magazines in Europe to each select two young artists from their country to participate in the exhibition ‘Pommery Experience #5: Art in Europe’ (June 08 - March 09) at The Pommery Estate in Reims, France. Around fifty artists representative of 27 countries were featured in the exhibition, including Northern Irish artists Nicholas Keogh and Paddy Bloomer,
Artist: Jane Talbot. Title: The Cullairbaun Community Album. Location: Community House, 69A Cullairbaun, Athenry. Commissioner: Commissioned by direct invitation by Galway
YOUR WORK HERE ! If you have recently been involved in a public commission, a percent for art project, socially engaged practice or any other form of ‘art outside the gallery’ we would like you to send us images and a short text (no more than around 300 words) in the following format – Artists name. Title of work. Commissioning body. Date that the commission advertised. Dates project was sited / carried out. The project budget (NB artwork / site work). What type of commission was is? (eg direct invitation, open competition, limited competition, did you have to prepare a submission at a short-listing stage?). Who were the main partners for the project? (eg did you work with a local authority arts officer, community representatives, architects, engineers, project managers?). Brief description of the work
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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
Visual Artists Ireland Western Representative
March – April 2009
ART IN THE PUBLIC REALM: FOCUS
Anti-Complency League(1) What's the Story? VAI Rep Aideen Barry focuses on the recent publication of the second edition of Brochure in Galway and turns her attention to community forums in Galway and Clare. What is a community forum? Galway city’s community forum and its affiliate in County Clare operate as a representative of voluntary community groups’ work in the areas of charitable work, heritage, cultural development and enterprise. For example, Galway city’s community Forum incorporates charitable groups such as Galway Civic Trust, Educate Together Primary Schools, Engage Ireland – but more recently; the likes of the gallery and artists collective 126 and Engage studios have become members. However, visual art groups – such as artist led initiatives, artists’ studios and voluntary arts organisations – are enormously under represented at these forums. The importance of having a voice at community forum level shouldn’t be underestimated. Many county and city forums act as direct channels of communication to city and county councils – communication that can and inform the direction of strategy for such policies as the Galway City arts plan and Clare County Councils 10 year vision plan for the arts. On a recent info clinic to Ennistymon, I was quite alarmed to note that most practising artists where unaware that arts plans at council level were in existence; and that input into the creation, advocacy and lobbying of such plans can take place on a local level through community forums. Recently the employment freeze placed on the civil service has created problems at local authority level. In Clare County Council, the over stretched arts office has undergone even more pressure of late – evident from the removal of the role of the music officer and also in light of the fact that Fiona Woods previous role as ‘North Clare Regional Arts Co-ordinator’ was never re-advertised. Artists at the info clinic held in Ennistymon were quite agitated by the new restructuring of the counties’ arts office. With these added pressures on arts offices across the country the question of whether ‘vision plans’ and ‘3 year arts policy plans’ can reach their objectives is questionable. It is telling as well of inadequate funding and resourcing, that it is very difficult to locate such arts plans on county and city council websites. Galway City’s Councils Arts Plan website currently only show the Arts Policy 2002 –2004 (2) – no access to the policy plans for 2005-2009 or beyond exist at present. This lack of information is quite unhelpful to visual arts groups who wish to place their input into a vision of cultural infrastructure and development. (3) Details of your local community forum should be available from all county and city council website (4). In light of what I begun this report with, I would like to turn my attention to the second edition of Brochure written and published by A&G (5) . Brochure 2, follows on from the first issue produced in 2006 –initiated by Ard Bia Gallery – that featured contributions by Galway-based and International artists, curators and writers. Brochure has in the past focused on visual art activity and sustainable visual culture in Galway. Brochure 2 re addresses the issues that have created a hive of cultural activity in this west of Ireland city, reflecting its disadvantaged and commenting on unconventional solutions to obstacles which many of these groups and artists have under-taken, affirmed the importance of initiatives such as 126, Artist, and The Artist Led Archive. A&G is the pseudonym for new work body of
by Galway-based artist Niall Moore. A&G stems from his interest in the intersection between culture and commerce Moore is currently working on a number of projects, which deal with some of the issues that arise from this convergence – Brochure being one such example. As the result of a research residency at Ard Bia Berlin, Moore decided to produce an issue of Brochure, which drew on his experiences of living and working in Galway –“the project is aimed to promote a sustainable visual arts culture in the region and encourage debate amongst artists and administrators alike about the intentions going forward. “Brochure 2 loosely considers the themes of travel and exchange – reflected through some of the work of artists featured in the publication such as John Brady, Linda Quinlan and with an in-depth discussion with Brian O’Doherty. Brochure 2, is not available in any one place but in many –it is scattered around the city and beyond, casually finding its way in amongst the Tourism Brochures of the local Tourist office, in local pubs and restaurants, the city library, and beyond, reinforcing the notion of travel and exchange. And for anyone who wishes to download Brochure in PDF form you can visit A&G’s website www.andgltd.com where you are greeted by the slogan “Anti Complacency League! Baby!" Which is an oblique reference to the music video for A Town Called Malice by The Jam (blink and you’ll miss it, it’s 41 seconds in). A&G also references the Arts Council’s Critical Voices’ initiative The Visual Arts in County Galway, proposed by Gregory Sholette, in 2001. In this document Sholette, highlighted a strategy for the development of sustainable visual culture in Galway. Interestingly though, although this report was held with much distain on its release, all of the guidelines have in fact been implemented by most of the new art initiatives in the city – though many would have been un-aware of the existence of such a report. In reference to the beginning of my report on community forums –a document of Brochure’s importance must be observed by any arts office when formulating visual arts plans and policies in the future, in order to sustain this momentum and build on the success of this important cultural practitioners. In my next report, I will focus on a project commissioned by the Niland Gallery in their offsite mode. Elliot / Harris, (Neva Elliott and Lynn Harris), are developing a participatory project engaging with local artists in and around Sligo. Working to create a professional artist’s led scheme and build a relationship with The Model and Niland that will continue to run alongside The Model’s yearly program. I will also head outside my ‘limitations’ again, as I will focus on Donegal, and look at some of the problems the county faces in light of the recession, as well as profiling some interesting curatorial programmes at Letterkenny Arts Centre. Aideen Barry Notes (1) Town Called Malice, The Jam, music video http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=r3fDXsPE0Sc (2) www.galwaycity.ie/AllServices/ArtsandCulture/Publications/ FileEnglish,1146,en.pdf (3) http://www.clarecoco.ie/Community_Enterprise/Clare_ Community_Forum.html (4) http://www.galwaycityforum.ie/directory.php (5) www.aandgltd.com
Niall de Buitlear reports on A talk by Fiona Whelan & Rialto Youth Project participants, at The Lab, Dublin (14 Jan).
'What’s the Story?' Discussion event. Photo: Enda O’ Brien (still from video documentation)
'What’s the Story?' Discussion event. Photo: Enda O’ Brien (still from video documentation)
Fiona Whelan is an artist who has been working collaboratively with young people in Rialto since 2004. The artist, along with Jim Lawlor, Manager of the Rialto Youth Project; Jamie Hendrick, one of the project participants; and Gillian O’Connor, youth worker; all gave presentations at the Lab on the ongoing project ‘What’s the Story?’ (14 Jan). Jim Lawlor began proceedings with an explanation of some of the contexts in which the Rialto Youth Project operates within – in terms of the social problems the area faces and its regeneration. He also provided a history of the youth project and the lead-up to ‘What’s the Story?’. Fiona Whelan began working in Rialto when she took up a residency in Studio 468 at St Andrew’s Community Centre. Whelan explained that prior the residency, her experience of working with young people had typically taken the form of shorter classes and projects – often just two hour sessions. Whelan explained how she was dissatisfied with this approach; as well as being uncomfortable in the ‘teacher’ role that she had to adopt. Studio 468 offered her an opportunity to work with young people in a more collaborative and sustained way. After her residency at Studio 468, Whelan decided she wanted to continue working in Rialto – and this eventually lead to ‘What’s The Story?’ a three-year project running from 2007 to 2009. The ‘What’s the Story?’ group was set up in order to discuss issues relating to ideas of power and to collaborate on an artwork involving stories. From beginning of the project, ‘power’ emerged as a key theme – and Whelan noted that there had been some preliminary work done to collect the participating young peoples stories. The group aimed to be non-hierarchical and consisted of two youth workers, the artist, and nine young people. The intention was for all participants to have equal power within the group – with the goal of producing an artwork that would be meaningful for everyone involved. The participants believed in this idea in principle; but explained that it was a very difficult process for a number of reasons. Gillian O’Connor spoke about the difficulties inherent in trying to juggle the roles of both participant and youth worker – particularly when young people were being challenging. Fiona found herself forced to step back a little from her typical role as a leader of the group. Another difficult issue for her was that the group’s weekly meetings were her main focus – while for others in the group the project was less important. She conceded that perhaps the idea of “power sharing” was a little naive. The participants identified a turning point in the process to be when the group’s discussions moved away from general discussions about notions of power; to an actual sharing of personal experiences. For this process, each of the participants shared a number of stories about their own experiences which were recorded and
transcribed. At this point Whelan claims there was a sense that every one had something invested in the project and that the group had a sense of ownership of the project. Specifically Whelan began to question why so many of the projects – which arose from interesting discussions – inevitably manifested themselves as objects such as murals. She felt the need to find a more appropriate form, that would better fit the stories they were working with. This lead to a live participatory reading event with an invited audience. This live event was spoken of as a powerful emotional experience by the panellists and some audience members who had attended it. Jamie Hendrick claimed it was the most personal thing he had ever done as a part of an art project. However Hendrick also spoke about the fear of being mocked by other young people from the area. The event was tarnished for him by the behaviour of some people who laughed at the stories and caused trouble. Similarly, on the night of the live event Gillian was forced back into her into her ‘youth worker’ role in order to deal with disruptive behaviour and missed the reading of her own story. It was clear from this presentation, that the four members of the panel were not content to rest on their laurels. They indicated a willingness to be critical about their own work; and an honesty about the limitations and failings of projects they had worked on – as well as discussing their successes. Jim Lawlor referred to the title of a previous presentation the panel had given ‘An Imperfect Collaboration’ – explaining that all the collaborations the Rialto Youth Project have done with artists had indeed been imperfect – as that is the nature of the work they do. Gillian O’Conner admitted she is herself was a “reluctant collaborator” and brought a certain amount of baggage to the collaboration. ‘What’s the Story?’ itself seems to arise largely out of Fiona Whelan and others challenging all of the aspects of these kind of collaborations. One of the most interesting points made in the talk, was when Jamie Hendrick spoke about the shift from the belief, that a good collaboration meant that the group were doing what the young people wanted – to the idea of a collaboration where everyone had an equal say. 2009 is planned as the final phase of the ‘What’s The Story?’ project, during which it is intended for the work to go public. Fiona Whelan spoke of her desire for the work to have a place in the art world; but she recognised that there are ethical issues to consider. The group is currently working on a film involving actors retelling some of the stories. This might provide a form that would allow entry into the art world whether that is appropriate or not will no doubt be the subject of further debate. Niall de Buitlear
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
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March – April 2009
Opportunities
Opportunities Competitions/Awards competitions / awards Business to Arts Artists who have worked on commissions in the last year are eligible to apply for the €10,000 Jim McNaughton / TileStyle Bursary for Commissioned Artists. The Business to Arts Awards will commend partnerships developed by the business and arts communities by acknowledging these initiatives in eight other categories. To nominate a project or an individual for an award, please study this year’s categories and entry requirements available at: Website w w w. b u s i n e s s t o a r t s . i e / awards2009 Deadline 5pm, 20 March 2009 The Vevey The Vevey International Photo Awards are organised by Fondation Vevey, ville d’images, as part of ‘Images’, the annual visual arts festival in Vevey, Switzerland. 1st prize fund of 30,000CHF (approx. €20,000). The competition promotes original photographic and film work, with no limitations on subject matter or genre. The competition is open to professional artists or photographers, and students. Its aim is to enable photographers to carry out a personal project that will be completed during the year and exhibited at the next festival in September 2010. Prize-winners will be selected by a 5 person jury. Details from: Website www.images.ch Deadline 30 April 2009 New Art Theory 2009 New Art Theory is an annual critical writing competition that recognises the best emerging new writing talent in the visual arts. The winner will receive a £500 grant to aid the pursuit of their work. New Art Theory 2009 is open to all final year undergraduates, current postgraduates and recent graduates of no more than 3 years from of any BA, MA or international equivalent course provided that their submission to the competition is on the subject of art. Texts should be
submitted as either as a Word, Pages or plain text document. PDF documents will not be accepted. Entries should be sent to: Email editor@new-art-theory.org Website www.new-art-theory.org Deadline 5pm, 31 March 2009 Gallery of Photography The Gallery of Photography Artist’s Award 2009 offers opportunities for an artist of any age who has a significant lens-based project or body of work underway. The winner will receive a solo exhibition in the Gallery of Photography in 2010 (or later), €5,000 funding towards the exhibition and/or publication, access to the Gallery of Photography’s Artist’s Digital Studio and Darkrooms, technical assistance, ongoing mentoring, curatorial feedback and publishing expertise, and a full-colour editorial feature in The Irish Arts Review, media partner for the Award. Postal entries should include max. 8 work prints no larger than A4 from the work-in-progress (CD/ DVD if the proposed project is non print-based, e.g. projected DVD, web project etc.), a paragraph outlining the project’s subject/theme/ treatment, a paragraph outlining the planned schedule for completion of the project, current CV (including email address), a stamped SAE for return of same and entry fee of €10 (cheque/postal order payable “Gallery of Photography” or by Paypal). Entries should be sent to: Address Gallery of Photography, Meeting House Square, Dublin 2 Website www.galleryofphotography.ie Deadline 5pm, 16 April 2009 Northern Print Biennale The Northern Print Biennale 2009 Print Awards is an open submission exhibition and prize open to British and international artists whose work is primarily print-based. Selected artists will be invited to exhibit their work as part of the Northern Print Biennale 2009 which will tour to Hatton Gallery, Laing Art
Gallery and Northern Print from June to October 2009. To enter, artists should send images of recent work, supporting CV and statement outlining how their practice is informed by printmaking to: Address Parker Harris, PO Box 279, Esher, Surrey KT10 8YZ, England Telephone 0044 (0) 1372 462190 Email npb@parkerharris.co.uk Website www.parkerharris.co.uk Deadline 20 April 2009 Portrait Sculptors The Society of Portrait Sculptors invite submissions for an open submission exhibition of portrait sculpture to be held at The Gallery in Cork Street, London W1, from 11 to 16 May 2009. Entries may be of a head, bust or figure. Hand-in for selection: 30 and 31 March 2009 at Edwards Removals, North East London. Selected work will be eligible for the Freakley Prize (£2,500) for best 3-dimensional human portrait, the Tiranti Prize (£500) for best exhibit by sculptor aged 30 or under, OlinStones Award (£500) for best relief and the Pangolin Award for a casting in bronze by the best non-member newcomer. Telephone 0044 ( 0) 1962 860904Email sps@portrait-sculpture.org Website www.portrait-sculpture.org Deadline 31 March 2009 Celeste Prize The Celeste Prize – €40,000 is offered across 5 prize categories: Painting, Photography & Digital Graphics, Installation & Sculpture, Video & Animation, and Live Media. Final exhibitions and awards ceremony will be held at the Alte AEG Fabrik, 5 Voltastrasse, Berlin, in September 2009. 46 artists will be chosen to exhibit and vote prizes in Berlin by a panel of international art critics, curators and consultants. To enter, register on the Celeste Prize website. Enquiries to: Email info@celesteprize.com Website www.celesteprize.com Deadline 30 June 2009 FUNDING Funding: Art & Design PhD Applications are invited for DEL and VCRS funded PhD studentships tenable in the Faculty of Art, Design and the Built Environment at the
University of Ulster in Belfast from September 2009. Applicants should hold a 1st or upper 2nd class honours degree in Visual Arts, Design, Art History/Visual Culture, or cognate areas. Masters degrees are desirable. Studentships are for a full-time research studies programmes leading to the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Studentships comprise of fees plus an annual stipend of £13,290 and will be awarded for a period of up to three years. Proposed research topics must be related to art and/or design. If you wish to discuss your proposal contact Dr. Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes, Head of Research Graduate School, or Prof. Kerstin Mey, Director of Research Institute Art and Design, at: Email m.lermhayes@ulster.ac.uk k.mey@ulster.ac.uk Website www.adbe.ulster.ac.uk/schools graduate_school/phd opportunities Deadline 3 April 2009 O’Leary Graduate Award As part of the Sligo Arts Service Arts Grants 2009, applications are welcomed from Final year Fine Art students (Level 8) studying at Sligo Institute of Technology for The John O’Leary Fine Art Graduate Award. Further information and application forms are available to download from the Sligo Arts Service website or by contacting: Address Sligo Arts Service, Sligo County Council, Development Centre, Cleveragh Road, Sligo Telephone 071 9111826 Email sleavy@sligococo.ie Website www.sligoarts.ie Deadline 27 May 2009 ACNI Innovation Fund The Arts Council of N. Ireland’s Creative Industries Innovation Fund Application for Grants of up to £10,000 is open to all creative businesses in Northern Ireland, including sole traders, partnerships and incorporated companies. The first call is to sectoral bodies only, for innovative initiatives which will develop infrastructure, knowledge and people within the sector. Subsequently there will be three levels of grant available to individual businesses: 1. Projects with up to 100% of up to £10,000 available, 2. Businesses seeking to become active Invest NI
client’s companies, through a process of strategy and capacity development, up to 75% of up to £75,000 available, and 3. Other cases, with grants of up to 75 per cent of up to £50,000 available. The Arts Council has a dedicated team for the Creative Industries Innovation Fund who are available to advise potential applicants on their projects. To contact them call: Telephone 0044 28 90 385 200 Website www.artscouncil-ni.org/award/ innovation.html Step Beyond Travel Fund The European Cultural Foundation supports collaboration and networking between young Europeans. The fund is available to artists and cultural operators, activists, journalists, translators and researchers. It contributes to travel, visa, and, in certain cases, accommodation costs. For information visit: Website www.eurocult.org Deadline 8 weeks before the date of travel Fred Conlon BURSARY Residential Studio Bursary 2009 As part of the Sligo Arts Service Arts Grants 2009, applications are welcomed from national and international artists for the 3 Month Fred Conlon Residential Studio Bursary. The bursary provides an individual visual artist from outside Sligo with the opportunity to reside and work for two months in the residential studio Easkey, Co. Sligo, and for one month in the Leitrim Sculpture Centre. This award is offered in partnership with the Leitrim Sculpture Centre. Further information and application forms are available to download from the Sligo Arts Service website or by contacting: Address Sligo Arts Service, Sligo County Council, Development Centre, Cleveragh Road, Sligo Telephone 071 9111826 Email sleavy@sligococo.ie Website www.sligococo.ie Deadline 27 May 2009 Kildare County Council Kildare County Council Arts Service invites applications from visual artists for the three Funding Awards `– that are offered to individuals/groups and arts organisations that are based in or originally from Co.
Kildare. The Art Acts Grants Scheme provides bursary awards for arts education/ training projects, funding for individual artists to develop their work, assistance to groups/ organisations/schools towards the cost of projects or events that stimulate public interest in and improve arts practice in the county. The Tyrone Guthrie Residency Award will fund two residencies which will be awarded to artists from any discipline for a two week stay at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, in Newbliss, Co. Monaghan. The new Film Bursary is open to established and emerging film makers, and aims to support and encourage original film production, enable formal or informal training and fund the recipients’ participation in professional or post-graduate courses. Further information and application forms for the three bursaries listed above are available from: Address Kildare County Arts Service, Riverbank, Main Street, Newbridge, Co. Kildare Telephone 045 448328 Email bbrady@kildarecoco.ie Website www.kildare.ie/artsservice Deadline 18 March 2009 BOI Millennium Scholars’ The Bank of Ireland Millennium Scholars’ Trust awards are targeted at people with talent and ability who, because of economic circumstances or other barriers such as disability, are prevented from reaching their full potential. There is no upper level restriction on candidates’ ages, but applicants must be at least 16 years old at the time of course commencement. Details of the Trust and Nominating Bodies are available by phone from the Trust Office at National College of Ireland (NCI), and on the websites of NCI and Bank of Ireland. Details are also available from any Bank of Ireland branch Telephone 1850 221721 01 4498500 Website w w w. n c i r l . i e /A b o u t _ N C I / Millennium_Scholar www.bankofireland.com/in_ the_community/sponsorships/ millennium_scholars_trust Deadlines Third Level Entry and Continuing Third Level: 2 March 2009. Creative/ Performing Arts: 1 April 2009
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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
March – April 2009
Opportunities Young Ensembles Scheme Applications are now being accepted for the Arts Council’s Young Ensembles Scheme 2009. This fund targets groups of young people working collaboratively to create art, and the resource organisations that support them. Examples of visual arts ensembles may include a film or digital media group; group of young visual artists working collaboratively to create an exhibition of work (or a single, collaborative art work, such as a mural or graffiti piece); or a group that works together to combine a number of art-forms into a single performance/event. Full details of the scheme are available online. For an application pack email: Email mathilde.veldt@artscouncil.ie Website www.artscouncil.ie Deadline 20 March 2009 Laois Funding Awards Laois Co Co Arts Service invites applications for awards and opportunities to individuals/ groups and organisations from Co. Laois that include: Laois Arts Act Grants 2009 grants of max. €1,000 to arts organisations and individuals who meet the artistic and financial criteria; The Laois Artists’ Patronage Award 2009 which offers financial support of up to €7,000 to an artist residing in or originally from Co. Laois working with dance, film, music, visual art, literature, and theatre; Tyrone Guthrie Residency Bursary Award for a two week residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Newbliss, Co. Monaghan; and The Artists in Schools Scheme 2009 which provides grants to primary and post-primary schools to enable artists working with any artform to undertake a residency in a school(s). Further information and application forms regarding the above schemes are available to download from the Laois County Council website or by request from: Address Arts Office, Laois County Council, Áras an Chontae, Portlaoise, Co. Laois Telephone 057 8674342 Email artsoff@laoiscoco.ie Website www.laois.ie Deadline 19 March 2009 Artists in the Community The Arts Council is currently
accepting applications for the Artists in the Community Scheme 2009. The scheme offers grants to enable artists and communities of place and/or interest to work together on projects. Phase 1 ‘Research & Development’, is open to artists who wish to research and develop a project in a community context. Maximum time frame is 3 months and the maximum amount awarded in Phase One is €1,000. Phase 2 ‘Project Realisation’, is open to communities (or their representative organisations) planning a project of between 6 weeks and 5 months duration with a maximum award of €5000, or for projects of between 6 months and 9 months with a maximum award of €10,000. For further information contact Katherine Atkinson, Project Support & Professional Development, on: Telephone 01 4736600 Email support@create-ireland.ie Website www.create-ireland.ie Deadline 5pm, 25 June 2009 Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust Arts Awards are open to residents of the UK and Ireland and they aim to support imaginative and experimental arts projects that investigate biomedical science. All art forms are covered by the programme, including dance, drama, performance arts, visual arts, music, film, craft, photography, creative writing and digital media. Small to Medium-Sized Projects Awards fund projects up to and including £30,000. For further information and to download an application form for the Small to Medium-Sized Projects Award visit their website or contact the Arts Awards Office at: Telephone 0044 (0)207 611 7222 Email arts@wellcome.ac.uk Website www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding Public-engagement/Grants/Arts Awards/index.htm Deadline 3 April 2009 Arts Council Bursary Arts Council Bursary Award is designed to support professional artists in the development of their work by providing artists with the time and resources to think, research, reflect and develop their practice. The award is open to artists at all stages of their career. The
maximum Bursary Award available is €15,000 per year per artist, though in a limited number of cases the Arts Council will also support applications for multi-annual bursaries of up to €30,000 for a 2year period or €45,000 for a 3 year period. Application forms and guidelines are available online Telephone 01 6180200 Email awards@artscouncil.ie Website www.artscouncil.ie Deadline Round 1: 30 April 2009 INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS Round 2: 5 November 2009 Exhibitions International: Applied Art Triennial The 5th Applied Art Triennial in Tallin (13 November 2009 to 21 February 2010) is open to European artists and designers, both professionals and students and this year’s theme is ‘Know How’. Submissions should be designs for pieces that will be (re)produced by visitors to the exhibition on-site. The jury will award one grand prize of EEK27,000 (approx. €1,725) and two prizes of EEK17,000 (approx. €1,085) each. Further information and application forms from: Address KNOW HOW, Tallinn Applied Art Triennial Society, Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, Lai 17, 10133 Tallinn, Estonia Email knowhow@trtr.ee Address www.trtr.ee Deadline 30 March 2009 turn-berlin Gallery, The turn-berlin gallery in BerlinMitte requests submissions from artists for a series of large group shows, each with 20 to 27 exhibiting artists, that will run at the gallery between March and August 2009. Featured artists will be a mixture of turnberlin members and selected, unconnected German and international artists. More information on submitting work for consideration is available from the turn-berlin website. Website www.turn-berlin.de Deadline Ongoing until August 2009 Kumasi Symposium Kiosks Project – The Kumasi Symposium: ‘Tapping Local Resources for Sustainable Education Through Art’ will be
taking place in Ghana, Africa, from 31 July to 14 August 2009. The Kumasi Curios Kiosks Project is a project session of the symposium, an arts-based social experiment designed to provide a context that will encourage participating artists to question their practice and seek resolutions through collaboration and cultural/ artistic interchange. About 30 local artists will be selected to work alongside invited international arts practitioners. To become involved, please send an introductory letter and a statement of interest along with sketches/description of your proposed 6 x 6ft Curio Kiosk to: Email africoae@gmail.com Website http://afropoets.tripod.com/eta Deadline 30 June 2009 Viridian Artists, NYC Open to all US and international artists working in 2D and 3D media. Entries will be judged by Elisabeth Sussman, Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art. 25 finalists’ work will be exhibited at Viridian Artists from 30 June to 17 July 2009. 1st Prize: $500, 2nd Prize: $200, 3rd Prize: $100. Entry costs $40 for 3 pieces of work ($5 for each additional piece). Application forms are available online Address Viridian Artists Inc, 530 West 25th Street, NY 1000, America Telephone 001 212 4144040 Email info@viridianartists.com Website www.viridianartists.com Deadline 10 April 2009 126, Galway & California 126 in Galway are seeking submissions that respond to the theme: ‘How Do You Know?’ for an adjudicated group show in the artist-run gallery Blankspace in Oakland, California. The exhibition will take place in August 2009. The Board of 126 will adjudicate. Blankspace will curate a show of emerging Californian artists, which will exhibit concurrently in 126. To submit work for consideration please email images of your work (no more than ten, 750 KB or less, .jpegs only), an artist statement and a current CV to: Email contact@126.ie Website www.126.ie Deadline 15 April 2009
Exhibitions Ireland: EXHIBITIONS
Deadline 5.30pm, 3 April 2009
Sculpture in Context 2009 The Sculpture in Context Annual Open Exhibition 2009 will be held at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, from 3 September to 16 October 2009. Entry forms and further information are available online. Proposals (typed A4) should be sent by postal mail to the address below and enquiries may be made by telephone to Ana or Beatrice. Address Sculpture in Context, PO Box 10054, Dublin 16 Telephone 087 6258258 or 086 8942851 Website www.sculptureincontext.com Deadline 17 April 2009
Catalyst Arts, Belfast Catalyst Arts are looking for proposals for ‘Capitalyst Arts’, Catalyst’s summer project in July and August 2009. ‘Capitalyst Arts’ will consist of an exhibition, discussions, and a series of interventions and works in the public realm. Further details: Address Catalyst Arts, 2nd floor, 5 College Court, Belfast BT6 1BS, Northern Ireland Email catalystarts@gmail.com Website www.catalystarts.org.uk Deadline 20 March 2009
Dublin Fringe 2009 The 15th Dublin Fringe Festival invites submissions from artists practicing across all disciplines that imagine Dublin with a new vision for the time we live in for its annual outing in September 2009. For further information about the programme or the festival, please visit the Fringe Festival website or contact Róise Goan or Lian Bell. If you have a technical question, please forward it to Tom Lawlor. Email roise@fringefest.com lian@fringefest.com tom@fringefest.com Website www.fringefest.com www.dublinfringefestival blogspot.com Deadline 6pm, 3 April 2009 Áras Inis Gluaire Áras Inis Gluaire, the community arts centre in Belmullet, Co. Mayo, are currently seeking applications for their visual arts programme in the centre’s exhibition space that will run through 2009. An independent, external panel will assess submissions. Submissions will not be accepted by email. Artists who are interested in exhibiting at Áras Inis Gluaire should send up to 6 examples of their work (photographs, slides, or CD), current CV and artist’s statement, and any other supporting material, along with a stamped SAE for return of same, by post to: Address Visual Art 2009, Áras Inis Gluaire, Belmullet Civic Centre, Belmullet, Co. Mayo Telephone 097 81079 Email rita@arasinisgluaire.ie
Commissions: COMMISSIONS Dungarvan Town Dungarvan Town Council/ Comhairle Baile Dhún Garbhán wish to commission a new public artwork to be located at the Plaza, Dungarvan Shopping Centre, Dungarvan, Co. Waterford. The total budget for the project is €10,000. An application form and brief can be downloaded from the Waterford County Council website or by contacting the County Waterford Arts Office on: Telephone 058 41416 Email morgan@waterfordcoco.ie Website www.waterfordcoco.ie Deadline 12 noon, 18 March 2009 Arts Council The Arts Council Commissions Award aims to facilitate creative partnerships between a range of artists and commissioners by providing up to €10,000 in artist’s fees payable by the commissioner for commissions that focus on visual arts, arts participation, architecture, etc. Eligible partnerships must result in some form of outcome or conclusion. For more information contact: Telephone 01 6180200 Email awards@artscouncil.ie Deadline 26 March 2009 TippingPoint Commissions TippingPoint Commissions are a new initiative for UK and Northern Ireland-based artists to create new performance work in the context of climate change. Proposals for projects that stimulate audiences towards the radical and imaginative
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
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March – April 2009
Opportunities thinking necessary to comprehend a world dominated by climate change are invited from practitioners of any performance discipline, as individuals or groups, working on their own or with partners or producers. Max. commission award: £30,000. For further information and to download an application form please visit: Website www.tippingpoint.org.uK Deadline 5pm, 4 May 2009 WORKSHOPS / COURSES Workshops/Courses Business from Your Art ‘Making a Business from your Art’ is a one-day seminar led by Padraig McCaul that will be held on 1 April 2009 in Bewleys Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, from 10am to 5pm. Full details are available online or by calling: Telephone 086 8801733 Website www.padraigmccaul.ie Residencies: RESIDENCIES ARCUS Project, Japan The ARCUS Project AIR programme welcomes applications from emerging artists for its 2009 residency programme. Residencies will run from late August to December 2009. Each artist is provided with accommodation, a studio, transportation fee covering travel to and from Japan, 100,000 yen per month personal stipend and a 100,000 yen per month stipend for expenses related to artistic activity undertaken while on the residency. More information is available from: Telephone 0081 297 462600 Email arcus@arcus-project.com Website www.arcus-project.com Deadline 31 March 2009 L’Abbaye de la Prée L’Abbaye de la Prée is a residency programme run by Pour que l’Esprit Vive Association in association with the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris in a 12th century Cistercian abbey that is open to filmmakers, architects, visual artists and composers. The duration of residencies is usually eleven months (renewable once) from 1 October until 31 August of the following year. Further information and application forms are available online. Address L’Abbaye de la Prée, 36100 Ségry, France
Email contact@pqev.org Website www.pqev.org Deadline Ongoing The Curfew Tower Void, Derry, is currently inviting applications from interested visual artists for its 2009 residency programme. In 2009 Void will have full curatorial responsibility for The Curfew Tower in Cushendall, Co Antrim. The Tower was built in 1871. It is four storeys tall, topped by modest battlements and has a murder-hole beneath the projecting windows in each side. The Curfew tower is now owned by Bill Drummond and will be used for short-term artists’ residencies supported by the In You We Trust. Further information on the application process and residency 2009 timetable are available by request from: Telephone 0044 28 71308080 Email hello@derryvoid.com Website www.derryvoid.com/news.htm Deadline Ongoing ISIS, Newcastle British and international media artists are invited to apply for a 3 week research residency at ISIS Arts, an artist led, visual and media arts organisation in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, between April and July 2009. AIRs are offered a self-contained city centre studio space, a fee of £1200 (to include travel and accommodation costs) and access to ISIS equipment and technical support. The emphasis for this residency is on research and not on finished art work. ISIS has two studio spaces for visiting artists, a media training room and an inflatable touring venue for sharing media arts with a wider audience. To apply please send a project description, current CV and artist statement, a statement about why you wish to work at ISIS Arts and supporting material/ documentation of work (CD, DVD, .jpgs), along with stamped SAE for return of same, to: Address ISIS Arts, 1st Floor, 5 Charlotte Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4XF, England Email isis@isisarts.org.uk Website www.isisarts.org.uk Deadline 20 March 2009
Gilfelagid, Iceland Applications from visual artists are invited by the Gil Society for residencies of between 1 and 3 months at Listagils Arts Centre. Individual apartments and studio provided. For more information please contact: Address Kaupvangsstraeti 23, IS 602 Akureyri, Iceland Telephone 00354 461 2609 Email studio.akureyri@gmail.com Website www.listagil.is www.artistsstudio.blogspot. com Deadline 15 April 2009 Ernest Anderson Bursary For artists currently living and/ or working in the Castlereagh Borough the annual Ernest Anderson Bursary to the Tyrone Guthrie Centre provides an opportunity to undertake a twoweek residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Newbliss, Co. Monaghan, and to contribute to the Castlereagh Arts Programme. Established local artists in all disciplines are welcome to apply. For an application pack, contact the Castlereagh Borough Council Arts Officer at: Telephone 0044 (0)28 90494566 Email arts@castlereagh.gov.uk Deadline 4pm, 16 April 2009 TAOH at Ozu, Italy Ozu, an art centre located in a former sweet-making factory 50km north-west of Rome in the rural Sabini Mountains, is inviting applications from visual artists working with dance, drawing, painting, film, media art, photography, sculpture and theatre for its 1-month series of TAOH (The Art of Hospitality) residencies. The centre’s aim is to make experimental artforms accessible to a local audience that has no direct experience of contemporary art in the community, and therefore applicants should have an interest in making site or context-specific work while on residency. Workshop access, meals and accommodation provided in exchange for €25 per week to cover costs. Address Ozu, Località Largo Moricone 1, 02033 Monteleone, Sabino (RI), Italy Telephone 0039 076 5885027 Email katharina.trabert@ozu.it Website w w w. o z u . i t / p a g i n a _ o p e n . asp?id=26&lin=eng
Bogliasco Foundation Located in Bogliasco on the Italian Riviera, the Liguria Study Center provides residential fellowships for people who demonstrate significant achievement in their chosen discipline and are working on advanced creative or scholarly projects in the arts and humanities. Fellowships are usually for one month, but in special circumstances can be arranged for two months or longer. Applications are currently being accepted for the residency period beginning in February 2010. Private studios, living quarters with full board are provided, as well as access to computers, internet and music studio with piano. Address The Bogliasco Foundation, Via Aurelia 4, 16031 Bogliasco, Genova, Italy Email info@bfny.org Website www.liguriastudycenter.org Deadline 15 April 2009 AoRTa, Moldova The AoRTa Residency Programme was started by Dutch artist Ron Sluik and Moldovan art historian Irina Grabovan for Dutch photographers. The residency programme is now open to artists working with media art, multimedia, photography and sculpture who are resident anywhere in the world. The length of each residency is variable up to two months and visiting artists will be provided with accommodation near the Centre in Chisinau. For more information please contact AoRTa directly. Address AoRTa Art Centre, Bulgara street 39, MD 2001 Chisinau, Moldova Email art-aorta@narod.ru or sluik@ gmx.net Website www.art-aorta.narod.ru Deadline Ongoing Künstlerhaus The Künstlerhaus Meinersen e. V. provides work and accommodation facilities for artists working with drawing, painting, woodcraft, film, multimedia and media art. Residencies are for a period of between six and 12 months and also include meals, working material and the production of a catalogue documenting the residency. For more information on applying contact: Address Künstlerhaus Meinersen e. V., Hauptstrasse 1, 38536
MEINERSEN, Germany Telephone 0049 5372 8915 Email meppener-kunstkreis@gmx.de Deadline Ongoing Stiftung Starke, Berlin The Starke Foundation at the Löwenpalais in Berlin’s ‘Green Heart’ aims to support talented, emerging artists in the realisation of projects by providing them with accommodation and workspace. Residencies are usually for a period of three to 12 months. Resident artists working with drawing, painting, media art, sculpture and architecture will have access to computers, a reference library, combined living/working accommodation and a communal garden. The programme of residencies focuses on a specific artform each year, and programming is decided upon in response to the applications received and the space/time available. For more information contact: Address Siftung Starke, Koenigsallee 30/32, D-14193 Berlin Grundewald, Germany Telephone 0049 30 8257685 Email info@stiftungstarke.de Website www.stiftungstarke.de Deadline Ongoing IMMA The residency programme at IMMA aims to provide opportunities for artists from Ireland and abroad to research and develop their individual work practice in a challenging and dynamic environment within which they can form new ideas and approaches and/ or engage themselves in theoretical research and discussion. Residencies are open to artists working with painting, drawing, media art and sculpture and can vary in length. Studio space, accommodation, meals and a bursary of €400 is provided. Residencies at IMMA are programmed about a year in advance. To apply, send completed application form (available online), current CV, documentation of your practice and a proposal for a full programme of work by post to: Address IMMA, Royal Hospital, Military Road, Kilmainham, Dublin 8, Ireland Telephone 01 6129900 Email janice.hough@imma.ie Website www.imma.ie
Deadline 31 March 2009 Milton Keynes Emerging visual artists are invited to submit work for consideration for inclusion in the Westbury Farm Studio Galleries May/June 2009 exhibition programme. Westbury Farm is an artist-led organisation and there is no set theme for submissions. To submit work, please send current CV, 6 images and statement of practice to: Email westburystudios@hotmail. co.uk Website westburyfarmstudios.co.uk Deadline 15 March 2009 Banff Residency 2009 The Arts Council Banff Residency provides an established artist with the opportunity to participate in the international residency programme at the Leighton Studios at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, for a period of 8 to 10 weeks. The residency is designed to give the chosen artist the time, space and resources to concentrate on a specific programme/project. The artist will be provided with accommodation, studio space and an overall budget of €11,000 to cover the cost of the residency, travel, insurance and a contribution towards art materials of up to €650 plus a weekly stipend of €500. The Arts Council will select a shortlist based on applications received and final selection will be made by the Banff Residency Jury in Canada. For more information on applying for the residency contact: Telephone 01 6180200 Email banff@artscouncil.ie Website www.artscouncil.ie Deadline 27 March 2009 De Ateliers, Amsterdam De Ateliers is an independent, artist-run institute that provides young and emerging visual artists working with all artforms with the opportunity to undertake a residency that combines intensive selfmotivation with critical guidance in the centre of Amsterdam. Residencies last for 1 to 2 years from 1 September to 31 May each year. Resident artists have access to workshops with machinery and wood and metal working tools, b & w darkroom, basic video editing, PC with internet connection,
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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
March – April 2009
Opportunities and are provided with a €9,700 stipend per year. To apply, send a completed application form (available online) and documentation of your work by postal mail to: Address de Ateliers, Stadhouderskade 86, 1073 AT Amsterdam, The Netherlands Email office@de-ateliers.nl Website www.de-ateliers.nl Deadline 1 June 2009 Art in Nature Flintshire County Council (UK) is offering visual artists the opportunity to participate in one of three residencies that will run for up to 40 days each at Wepre Park, Connah’s Quay, Deeside, from September 2009 to July 2010. Artists will create a body of work to be presented at the end of their residency and will also facilitate INSET for teachers, training for youth and community workers, workshops for schools and masterclasses and drop-in sessions for the general public. Artists will receive a fee of £5,000 per residency. For further information contact the Arts, Culture and Events Team, Flintshire Co Co, by phone, or write to: Address Gwenno Eleri Jones, Arts, Culture and Events Manager, Libraries, Culture and Heritage, Library HQ, County Hall, Mold CH7 6NW, England Telephone 01352 702471 Email gwenno.e.jones@flintshire.gov. uk Deadline 16 March 2009 A.I.R. Vallauris, France A.I.R. Vallauris welcomes applications from international artists for their 2009 and 2010 residency programmes. Duration of residencies varies and they are open to artists working in any artform, particularly ceramic. Artists in residence will be provided with access to an equipped studio, accommodation, and Galerie Aqui Siam Ben, a gallery space where work will be shown at the end of the residency period. To request an application form email: Email contact@air-vallauris.com Website www.air-vallauris.com Deadlines 15 April and 15 July 2009 CYLAND, Russia CYLAND is a new international media art lab organised by the
St. Petersburg branch of the National Center for Contemporary Art and the St. Petersburg Arts Project in New York. The CYLAND residency programme provides an equipped creative space for collaboration between artists, engineers, technicians, programmers, etc. completing video, media, cyber and net art and other art projects dealing with new technologies. Residencies are usually of between 2 and 4 weeks duration and accommodation is provided. To submit a project for consideration please complete an application form, available online. Email medialab.cyland@gmail.com Website w w w. c y l a n d . r u / i n d e x . php?option=com_content&tas k=view&id=34&Itemid=30 Deadline Ongoing C o ur t y ar d , Hertfordshire Courtyard Arts & Community Centre in Hertford are looking for an artist whose main practice is sculpture to take part in their AIR scheme that will run from 27 July to 22 August 2009. The appointee will be given gallery/ studio space to make and exhibit their own work and will be expected to provide some creative sculpture workshops for children/teenagers. Funding is currently being sought to make this a paid opportunity. The appointee will be required to have a CRB check. To apply, please contact the Director by telephone or email. Telephone 0044 (0)1992 509596 Email admin@courtyardarts.org.uk Website www.courtyardarts.org.uk Deadline 30 April 2009 (provisional) Art Farm, Nebraska The Art Farm in rural southcentral Nebraska calls for applications from artists using ceramics, drawing, painting, media art, multimedia and woodcraft to apply for their residency programme. Up to 20 acres of land available for environmental projects as well as kilns, woodwork and metalwork equipment, tractor loaders and trucks. Studio space and accommodation in individual rooms in shared house provided. Artists must pay health insurance. Residency period runs from 1 May until 1 November annually. More information on application process available from: Address Art Farm, 1306 West 21 Road,
Marquette, NE 68854-2112, America Telephone 001 402 8543120 Email af@artfarmnebraska.org Website www.artfarmnebraska.org Deadline 15 March 2009 SSW The Scottish Sculpture Workshop invites international and UK-based visual artists to apply for a programme of 1 month long visual arts residencies hosted by SSW in Aberdeenshire in August 2009. Residencies aim to allow artists to dedicate a month of supported time to focusing exclusively on developing their professional practice. Artists will receive a fee, self-catering accommodation, and have access to studios, workshops, foundry and technical assistance. Travel to and from SSW will be covered and hire cars will be available. For further application details please contact Simmone at: Email office @ssw.org.uk Website www.ssw.org.uk Deadline 27 March 2009 Clay Studio, Philadelphia The Clay Studio invites artists of any nationality whose primary medium is clay to apply to their Guest Artist-in-Residence programme for residencies of 4 to 8 weeks. The Guest AIR programme encourages clay artists to work independently and provides a 12 x 12ft studio, an apartment across the street, a materials and firing stipend of up to $200, a $500 a month living stipend and some technical assistance. In return, AIRs are asked to donate one piece of work to The Clay Studio, present a slide talk on their practice for their members and accompany the Claymobile outreach programme. Application details and forms are available online. Enquiries to: Email jeff@theclaystudio.org Website www.theclaystudio.org Deadline Ongoing Lens / New Media: LENSBased BASED / NEW MEDIA Outcasting Outcasting is a web-based screening channel for all forms of moving image work and they are now calling for submissions for Season 7. Submissions are screened on a rolling basis and all films show will be archived
online. There is a possibility of DVD distribution for selected works. To submit work, movies should be submitted as full quality data files on DVD, miniDV tape or as Flash movies to Michael Cousin at: Address 116 Paget Street, Grangetown, Cardiff, CF11 7LA, England Email contact@outcasting.org Website www.outcasting.org Deadline 16 March 2009 Avanca 09 Submissions to the International Competition of Film Festival Avanca 09 from film and video artists are now open in the categories of: fiction and animation short-films; fiction and animation feature films; documentaries; videos. A prize will be awarded in each category. Only films made after 1 January 2007 and that have not competed in any previous Portuguese festival are eligible to enter. The Festival will be held in Avanca, Portugal, on 17, 22 to 26 July 2009. For more information contact: Address Avanca 09, Cine-Clube de Avanca, 3860-078 Avanca, Portugal Email festival@avanca.com Website www.avanca.com Deadline 1 May 2009 Annexinema Annexinema, a group of Nottingham-based curators working outside of a traditional cinema/gallery environment, are calling for local and international artists working in moving image or sound making single channel, installation or performance work to submit work for their upcoming programme of events. To apply, send work on DVD (.avi or .wav files only) to: Address Annexinema, 11 Cannon Street, Sherwood, Nottingham NG5 2HB, England Email ian.nesbitt@standassembly.org Website www.annexinema.org Deadline Ongoing marmaladE Marmalade, publishers of visual theory, would like to invite artist film makers to submit film and video works for publication on their new artists’ film and video DVD label ‘Filmarmalade’. Each year they will publish a series of films, selected through a process of invited and open submission.
Each DVD will include one film only, however long or short, so as to maintain the individuality of each work and will be published as a limited edition. A l l DVD releases will be sold at £5.99. For more information contact: Address Filmarmalade, Studio 4, 21-22 London Fields Eastside, London E8 3SA, England Email post@gordonshrigley.demon. co.uk Website www.filmarmalade.co.uk Deadline Ongoing Publications: PUBLICATIONS SOURCE SOURCE Photographic Review invites submissions of unpublished photographic work to be considered for publication in an 8-page portfolio in the magazine. Photographers from Ireland and the UK may email a selection of their work to SOURCE editors who will contact successful applicants 2 weeks in advance to arrange a meeting to discuss their work further. There is no fee for publication, but if published, your work will be seen by the SOURCE readership of photographers, picture editors, students & lecturers of photography worldwide. Submissions should include a link to a specific project on your website/up to 6 screen resolution jpegs (300K max. per image, preferably in the main body of an email or as a PDF, no zip files), a two paragraph introduction your work, and your contact phone number. Meetings will take place in Cork, Dublin and Belfast in May 2009. Email submissions to John Duncan (specifying which venue suits you in the email subject heading), at: Email john@source.ie Website www.source.ie Deadlines Cork: 11 May 2009 Dublin & Belfast: 24 April 2009 SuperMassiveBlackHole SuperMassiveBlackHole, a new magazine dedicated to engaging and representing projects and ideas that use photography (digital or analogue), new media (high or low tech), and performance (through documentation), is accepting submissions for its 1st issue to be published in April 2009. Submissions are open for the following sections of the magazine: Theme: ‘Construction’ (1 to 3 images, .jpg, 300dpi, 1200
pixels on widest side); Exhibit: reviews of photography books, websites, exhibitions or performances (1000 words max, .rtf or Word file); and Play: artists projects/experiments/ideas, open subject and design (no more than 8 pages). Submissions should also include a 100 word biography, 200 word statement and contact details (including country) in the main body of your email submission. Send submissions to: Email smbhmag@gmail.com Website www.myspace.com/smbhmag www supermassiveblackholemag. blogspot.com Other: OTHER Artists in Prisons The Arts Council of Ireland in partnership with the Irish Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform calls for applications from visual arts practitioners interested in being placed on the panel of shortlisted artists for participation in the Visual Artists in Prison Scheme. This scheme allows artists to work with prisoners in one of the country’s prisons or detention centres for a period of 8/10 days with a €1,600 fee payable to the artist (€2,000 if the participating artist lives over 80kms from the prison or detention centre they are working in). Artists interested in being placed on the panel of short listed artists should contact Veronica Hoen, Co-coordinator of AIP Scheme, at: Email veronica_hoen@eircom.net Deadline 14 September 2009
Don’t forget Do remember to look at the advertisments in this VAN, also check our web site & subscribe to our e-bulletin for further opportunities. WATCH OUT While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of our information we strongly advise readers to verify all details to their own satisfaction before forwarding art work, slides or monies etc. Thanks VAI exchanges with and sources information from: A-N:The Artists’ Information Company; The International Sculpture Centre (New Jersey / USA) and the National Sculpture Factory Cork.
TheLivingArtists'Archive The VAI Living Artists' Archive is intended as a central point of research for curators, artists and researchers looking at current practice across visual art disciplines in Ireland. The archive is stored electronically on a computer based at the offices of Visual Artists Ireland. Artists can choose to be part of the archive when joining Visual Artist Ireland or renewing their membership. At the time of taking up or renewing membership, artists may provide a CV and four images of current work for the Archive on a CD. Artists must be members of Visual Artists Ireland in order to be included on the Living Artists' Archive. The Living Artists' Archive has a partnership agreement with NIVAL (The National Visual Arts Library) at NCAD – on an annual basis material from the archive will be deposited in NIVAL's files.
As a first outing, the archive will be made available to researchers as part of the 'Ireland at Venice' pavilion during the Venice Biennale 2009 and other events in which Visual Artists Ireland take part. To register with the archive, simply cut out and complete this page; and send it with your visualS and CV (on CD) to: Living Artists' Archive, Visual Artists Ireland, 37 North Great George's Street, Dublin 1.
: ow! T N E er N G R U gist Re
About Your Work
Submissions – TECHNICAL SPEC
Please complete the following tickboxs, in order to indicate the materials used, methods, style of work and your main activities. Artists must be members of Visual Artists Ireland in order to be included on the Living Artists Archive Artists should submit an up-to-date CV and 4 work samples. These must be submitted on a CD and posted or handed in to the Visual Artists' Ireland office. Work samples can comprise of 4 digital images or a combination of images, sound pieces and/or video. The digital images must be in .jpg format. Video show reels must be in either .mov or .avi formats and limited to 15 minutes total. Sound pieces can be in .mp3 format and again limited to total running time of 15 minutes. All work provided on the CD must have accompanying titles / captions – as per international / best practice guidelines.: Artists Name; Title of Work; Year made; Material(s)/ media; Dimensions (if applicable); Edition (if applicable). Your CV must be submitted as a Word document. CV may be saved on the same CD as your samples. Ideally your CV should include up-to-date information on solo/group exhibitions as well as awards and academic qualifications. Please write your name on the CD and send a stamped self- addressed envelope, if you would like your CD to be returned Submit your CD to: Living Artist's Archive, Visual Artists Ireland, 37 North Great George's Street, Dublin 1. Updating Your Information. It is up to members to ensure that information on the archive is up-to-date. Unfortunately we do not have the resources to chase members for new / updated information. If membership of Visual Artists Ireland lapses, entry on the Archive will be set as inactive and images/clips of their work will not be part of the live database. Queries. email: archive@visualartists.ie
Style of Work o Abstract o Conceptual o Documentary o Expressive o Environmental o Ephemeral o Figurative o Live o Issue-based – please specify o Other Main Activities o Art in Architecture o Art in Nature o Artists’ books o Artist as Curator o Artist as Writer o Arts and Disability o Arts and Health o Art Therapy o Award Pieces o Collaborations o Community Art o Context-related o Corporate Commissions o Environmental o Functional o Gallery-based Art o Interior o Interventionist Art o Land o Lens-based
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Multidisciplinary Participatory Performance Photography Portraiture Printmaking Public Art Residencies Screen-based Site-specific Art Text-based Work Time-based Work Working with children / schools Other
Materials Used o Bronze o Ceramics o Computers o Digital images / video /sound o Fibre/Textiles o Fibreglass o Found Objects o Glass o Gold o Light o Mixed media o Mosaic o Organic o Paint o Photography o Plaster o Plastic
o o o o o o o o o o
Print materials Self/Artist’s Body Silver Sound Steel Stone Text Video Wood Other
Method of work o Carving o Casting o Computer-based o Craft o Design o Electronic media o Fabrication o Graffiti o Illustration o Installation o Mixed-media o Modelling o Murals o Painting o Performance o Photography o Printmaking o Site-specific o Other
Living Artist’s Archive Agreement Artists participating in the Living Artists' Archive must agree to and sign the Artists Archive Agreement. Artists must be members of Visual Artists Ireland in order to be included on the Living Artists Archive. 1. By submitting images, videos, soundpieces or other artworks (hereinafter referred to as Content) either electronically, digitally or hard copy to the Artist’s Archive, you authorise and grant Visual Artists Ireland (hereinafter referred to as VAI) a license to use and display your Content and to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the storage of the Content on our database. 2. Furthermore you understand and agree that the information and Content which you submit to VAI will be forwarded to the National Irish Visual Artists Library (NIVAL) for inclusion in their Artist’s Database. This will be carried out in accordance with the regulations laid out in the Data Protection (Amendment) Act 2003. 3. By submitting Content you are guaranteeing that you are the sole author of the artworks, that the works are original and do not infringe any existing copyright, that you are the exclusive owner of the rights conveyed, and that you have not previously assigned, pledged or otherwise encumbered the rights granted under the agreement.
4. You may not submit Content that you did not create or that you do not have permission to submit. You understand and agree that VAI may delete or remove (without notice) any content from the database, for any reason or no reason, that in the sole judgment of VAI violates this Agreement or which might be offensive, illegal, or that might violate the rights of others. You are solely responsible for creating backup copies and replacing any content that you submit or provide to VAI. 5. VAI may from time to time request your permission to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute the Content that you have submitted. The situations will be for the promotion of your work and that of VAI at such events as, but not limited to, the Irish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2009. 6. By submitting Content to the Artists Archive you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to VAI an irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute the work for the purposes laid out in article 5. 7. VAI will endeavour to ensure all information contained in the database is correct however
artist subscribers are responsible for the provision of up to date information and artwork and VAI is not liable for any errors or omissions. 8. At any time you may request removal from our database of the Content and data that you have submitted after which point the above licence you have granted will be terminated. However you acknowledge that VAI may retain archived copies of your work but may not display, distribute or make available such copies. Indemnity VAI does not assert any ownership over your content; rather, subject to the rights granted to us in this Agreement, you retain full ownership of all of your artwork and any intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights associated with your artwork. VAI will not make commercial uses of the content in the Artist Archive. VAI is a nonprofit organization and not a commercial entity. VAI’s sole objective in creating and making available the database is to benefit visual artists and to provide a research tool for local and international artists, students, curators and critics. Researchers using the database will not have access to any personal information other than the names of the artists contained in the database. VAI warrants that it will keep personal data secure from unauthorised access, disclosure, destruction
or accidental loss and will never share personal information with third parties without the prior consent of the artist. Limitation of Liability You agree to indemnify and hold VAI, its subsidiaries and affiliates, and each of their directors, officers, agents, contractors, partners and employees, harmless from and against any loss, liability, claim, demand, damages, costs and expenses, including reasonable solicitor’s fees, arising out of or in connection with any submitted Content, or any violation of this Agreement or of any law or the rights of any third party. o Please tick here and complete the following to confirm your acceptance of the terms and conditions set out above in the Artists’ Archive Agreement. Name: Address:
Signed: Date:
Visual Artists Ireland In association with ArtLinks, Limerick City Gallery, Belfast Exposed and Galway Arts Centre.
Professional Development Training for Visual Artists Spring 2009 Belfast, Carlow, Galway, Limerick, Wexford. Tutors: Martin Healy, Annette Clancy, Kerry McCall, Gaby Smyth & Co, Heli Rekula, Conor Feely. Workshops include: Wexford / Carlow (Artlinks)
Belfast Exposed
Peer Critique – Photography with Martin Healy. Friday 27 March. Old Market House Arts Centre, Dungarvan. Saturday 28 March. Wexford Campus IT Carlow.
Peer Critique – Lens Based Media with Heli Rekula . Saturday 25 April 2009. Belfast Exposed, Belfast. NB: This workshop is part of an extensive programme of workshops scheduled for Autumn 2009 in Northern Ireland, in partnership with Belfast Exposed and CAF (Community Arts Forum).
Earning Opportunities with Annette Clancy. Monday 6 April. Carlow, St Patricks Parish Centre.
Galway Arts Centre Preparing Proposals – Communicating your Practice with Kerry McCall. Friday 15 May. Old Market House Arts Centre, Dungarvan.
Peer Critique – Lens Based Media with Heli Rekula. Saturday 2 May. Galway Arts Centre, Galway.
Limerick City Gallery of Art April – Check online for details. Understanding your Accounts with Gaby Smyth & Co. Preparing Proposals – Communicating your Practice with Kerry McCall.
The Role of the Curator in the Artist’s Career
Also in May – Check online for details. Peer Critique – Sculpture & Installation with Conor Feely Preparing Proposals – Communicating your Practice with Kerry McCall. Working with Public & Private Galleries.
Speakers will include: Dobz O’Brien, ArtnotArt; Tara Byrne, Curator and former director NSF; Caoimhin Corrigan, Commissioner for Ireland at the Venice Biennale 2009 and Local Authority Arts Officer Leitrim County Council; Fiona Woods, artist-curator; Neva Elliott & Lynn Harris, artists.
Panel Discussion and Artist + Curator networking event
Friday 3 April – Galway City Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway Chaired by: Mike Fitzpatrick, Director Limerick City Gallery
This event aims to examine the ways in which curators contribute to visual artists’ artistic and career development. Panelists will discuss their own work as curators or as artists in a variety of contexts (both inside and outside the Gallery). The event will focussing on – national and international professional networks; artists’ mobility and local arts practice within a multi-centred art world. Following the discussion a networking event will provide artists and curators with the opportunity to meet one-to-one, and discuss current work projects and interests, in a fun ‘speed dating’ format. Booking Requried
BOOKING / Further information For booking and further information on the workshops in Limerick, Belfast and Galway – and the discussion event in Galway, contact: Visual Artists Ireland, 37 Nth Great George’s St, Dublin 1 T: 01 872 2296 E: monica@visualartists.ie www.visualartists.ie For further information and to book the workshops in assocation with ArtLinks (Wexford / Carlow) see: www.artlinks.ie
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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
March – April 2009
project profile
Experiment, Evaluate & then Move On
ARTIST Ceara Conway from the Tulca management team talks about Tulca 2008 to deirdre o’Mahony, artist and lecturer in fine art galway – mayo institute of technology. visual arts practice at GMIT. In light of financial cutbacks affecting the education and cultural sectors; it is more important than ever that we develop opportunities for students to meet, hear and see the work of contemporary artists. The practical knowledge acquired when installing projects or artworks is invaluable and gives a unique perspective on the creative and logistical skills required as a practising artist. We are seeing our former students confidently asserting themselves both in the region, and beyond and this is in no small measure due to the support and visibility they have received from Galway Arts Centre and TULCA. CC: At the Tulca venues members of the public enjoyed hearing the stories behind the works. In future I’d like to see how mediation could be incorporated more into Tulca – in order to develop deeper and more inquiring relationships between the public and the festival. It put me in mind of a point made by Rebecca Sinker of the Tate Forum, about expanding the notion of ‘audience development’ beyond demographic terms to encompass instead “the depth and quality of the audience’s relationship with or investment in the institution”(2). What do you think?
Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba Memorial Project Nha Trang. Vietnam – Towards the Complex-For the Courageous, The Curious and the Cowards Courtesy of the Artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York.
Ceara Conway: During Tulca 2008 – ‘I-podism-, Cultural Promiscuity in the Age of Consumption’– I became aware of how audiences were as much interested in George Bolster’s curation as the works themselves. One example being the way that the I-pod ‘shuffle’ feature was used as a model for the selection of the works ‘Shuffle’ exhibition at Merchants Road. As Bolster put it “Shuffle embraces the element of chance, it is a grouping or collection of separate works that is intended to focus on the intent of the individual artist” (1). And there was a global dimension to the curation – we had work by the Chinese artist Jun Nguyen Hatshushiba in the show. Bolster also set up a collaboration with the Allan Kaprow Estate to host a re staging of Kaprow’s 1968 happening Travelog. The latter was a twoway exchange as documentation of the Tulca version is now part of a larger collection with the Kaprow Estate, archived at MOCA. It was a fantastic opportunity for local artists and curators to participate in an ongoing international project. Furthermore the presentations of work by Irish artists – such as Alan Phelan, Niamh Mc Cann and Mick Fortune were framed by discussions generated by the Art-not-Art group around the nature of collaboration. What are your views on inviting international curators to Irish events? Deirdre O’Mahoney: There is no doubt that a visiting curator can bring a valuable perspective to Tulca – in relation to experience, ideas and contacts. In a sense, I think it’s necessary to have both the distanced, global perspective; and the local intimate knowledge – a glo–cal Tulca! But there is always going to be a problem between the two polarities. A critical overview of what went before should be taken into account in relation to planning for the following year; and perhaps some kind of dual curatorial process? Previous Tulca’s curators, who were Galway-based could draw on their knowledge of venues and artists; and there was an awareness of the peculiarities of the local context – which gave the festival a specific quality, which I think was absent in Tulca 2008. However, it could be argued that in bringing in the work of many global practitioners and curating around notions of ‘i-podism’ and ‘global cultural promiscuity’; Bolster actually addressed this local ‘problem’. CC: Our county artists commented to me that they enjoyed exhibiting in such unique venues. To increase our audience attendance next year we are currently researching a residency in a county town and developing a long-term relationship with a primary school with the assistance of the county libraries.
DOM: Yes, you have to plan for both short and long term. And a relationship with a community doesn’t just happen overnight. It takes time, which is why parachuting events or artists into a place without developing a prior relationship can result in small audiences in rural or ‘country’ communities. One of the great things about Tulca is its capacity to change and develop from each new curatorial experience. This is where a good evaluation can pay dividends in the long-term and further learning can take place. Rural towns such as Tuam and Clifden have arts festivals every year – so the local infrastructure already exists. Linking in with these networks to introduce artists doing residencies or site-specific work will help generate a critical mass in advance of the actual Tulca festival. The arts offices of both the city and county already know the grassroots arts organisations and can connect existing countywide networks to Tulca. The expanded reach of the festival also provides a great opportunity for artists to look at the challenges for making work for unusual venues and contexts. CC: Could you tell me about the ‘Public Art In Rural Contexts’ module at GMIT and how you would like to see it working with Tulca? DOM: The module is aimed at both practising artists and students in the heritage degree programme in GMIT, so there are interesting possibilities for cross-disciplinary projects that could, in the future, be proposed to Tulca. The course aims to develop an understanding of the critical issues, research skills, and framework necessary for sustainable visual arts projects in rural contexts and so the obvious advantage of a countywide Tulca is that the students have another potential test site for their proposals and the opportunity to apply their knowledge, in a practical way, in a local context. The relationship between the city and the broader region of the west is particular, has its own historic tensions and dynamics, particularly in relation to tourism. CC: We found that it was a great resource having the third year GMIT painting students work with us as part of their professional practice. We’ve been considering a model that the Tate Forum have used in their peer-led work programme where students get involved in all aspects of organising a large cultural event. DOM: Tulca is a very valuable practical application of the professional practice element of the Level 7 Painting programme; and it benefits not only the students but also the general teaching of contemporary
DOM: In 2002 Gregory Sholette was invited to write about transforming the visual arts in Galway. I think it is worth revisiting one of his recommendations for beginning the process “vital to this approach is the development of both the space and the time for experimentation as well as for failure. This is the most difficult idea to convey since one seldom wants to invest in failure. However, any setting for the arts that generates new work, fresh ideas and challenging approaches to culture requires the flexibility to fail at least part of the time. If Galway can show younger artists that there is support for experimentation and risk taking in a critical as well as visible setting, it will provide exactly that necessary space from which truly outstanding results will arise”. (3) Tulca provides just such a space; an alternative sphere of representation for innovation and experimentation. Tulca, along with G126, Art Is It and the sadly defunct Ard Bia Gallery (4) on Dominic Street, have done a lot to challenge and change perceptions of what visual arts practice can do in the city. Maintaining that momentum will require a shift in focus, perhaps leading to a more lo-fi, DIY ethos, with the emphasis on the process rather than spectacle. Making the process visible can be done in a variety of ways and it would be interesting to see a residency built around the notion of the 'mediator'. This is another aspect where students could take on the role of mediation – having experience of the process of making events or installations they can act as ‘explainers’ deepening their critical skills and gaining valuable experience. CC: It is healthy when you experiment, evaluate and then move on. That’s what I feel Tulca has been doing and continues to do. It is willing to look at what it needs to develop or omit; and its continually willing to take chances and test new ground. In your view, what else could be incorporated in sustaining its growth as a successful visual arts festival? DOM: A successful festival at this place and time depends on whose terms and interests are being addressed –the funders, the communities, the city’s? It is time to focus on the basic stuff. The banks are going under; the government cannot govern; the planet is overheating – so why not reclaim cultural space from the sphere of representation and that of commodity value – to that of participation? A call to cultural arms, moving beyond art practices that masks the reality and consequences of the problems caused by market-driven policies at the expense of social and ecological sustainability and justice. The city already has a politicised community – maybe it is time to galvanize the idealists and reclaim a vision of ‘the future’ distinct from the false premise of the re-occurring present presented during the failure of ‘going forward’? Notes 1. Bolster George, I-podism – Cultural Promiscuity in the Age of Consumption. Introductory essay. Pg 7. 2008. 2. Sinker Rebecca, On the Evolution of a Peer-led Programme, Tate Forum. Issue 10. 2008. 3. Sholette Gregory. Transforming the Visual Arts In Galway. Critical Voices. 2001. 4. Ard Bia Berlin (www.ardbiaberlin) provides residential space for Irish Artists to conduct artistic research, the Ard Bia Cafe in Galway continues to exhibit visual art.
Exercises in Folkatronica8
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Visual Artists Ireland Media Production Awards 2008 Facilities Include: HDDV Camcorder; DV player /DVD recorder deck; Apple G5(OSX) running Final Cut Pro HD video editing software with DVD Burner; Digital Stills Camera; Video Projectors.
Exercises in Folkatronica this year comprises 2 production awards – for €1000 and €500. Each award offers four weeks free and flexible access to Visual Artists Ireland’s digital video facilities. Each participant will have the option of a whole day, or shorter modular sessions working with an expert technician. Participating artists will have the opportunity to have flexible access to our facilities for up to a maximum of four weeks each, 9.30am – 5.30pm Monday to Friday. The title Exercises in Folkatronica refers to the increasing ubiquity of digital technology in visual culture and daily life. It could be said that social behaviour patterns informed by the growing influence of digitisation are evolving into new ‘folk traditions’. Exercises in Folkatronica addresses the need to provide artists access to digital media. Application Deadline: Monday 21 April 2009 Full details online at www.visualartists.ie Or contact: Visual Artists Ireland, 37 North Great Georges Street, Dublin 1, Ireland. T: 00353 (0)1 8722296 E: info@visualartists.ie
Visual Artists Ireland / Picture This Residency 2009 • Access to studio office and production space at Picture This in Bristol • Production, post-production and exhibition technology • Curatorial and technical mentoring and support • Travel and accommodation • Artist’s fee of €500 • €2,000 R&D budget Further information and application forms available from: www.visualartists.ie/ movingimageaward Or contact: Visual Artists Ireland 37 North Great Georges Street Dublin 1 Ireland. T: 00353 1 8722296 E: info@visualartists.ie
Visual Artists Ireland in partnership with Picture This, Bristol UK invite proposals for a pilot residency scheme open to visual artists based in Ireland. The scheme for visual artists interested in developing their moving-image practice, offers artists the resources, support and mentoring necessary to spend a focussed month in Bristol developing and exploring moving image technology within their practice. The residency offers access to studio space, production, post-production and exhibition facilities ranging from lighting and hi-definition cameras to Avid, 16mm or Final Cut Pro edit suites, DVD mastering technology and projectors, screens and play-back equipment. Artists can apply with a professional development proposal, such as mentoring, research, testing and experimenting – Picture This is looking for original and imaginative professional development aims – which are realistic with the resources (money and time) available. A small R&D budget is allocated to the residency, but the artist may augment this through additional project fundraising if needed. Deadline for completed applications: 5pm Monday 21 April 2009 Residency period: 1 – 31 July (TBC)
36
The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
March – April 2009
CONFERENCE REPORT
Co-Existing, Overlapping & Competing Eleanor Phillips reports on ‘Where Art Grows Greener? – Art in a Rural Context’ held at PS2, Belfast 17 December 2008.
Michael Hogg and Philip Napier (Carbon Design) – The Soft Estate Project.
Maria Kerin Sweet Bellharbour, July 2005. Durational context-specific work, embroidered sheets and sound recording.
‘Where Art Grows Greener? – Art in a Rural Context’ at PS2, Belfast (17 Dec 2008) focused on rural art initiatives in the North and NorthWest counties – including projects such as ‘After’; ‘New Sites / New Fields’ and ‘Regenerate’ (1). The event comprised a debate and forum for artists and cultural policy makers from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Artist, writer and critic Daniel Jewesbury chaired the discussion and panellists included: Fiona Woods, artist, curator, writer, initiator and editor of Ground Up; Jenny Haughton, Public Art Adviser, Arts Council; Gareth Kennedy, artist participant in ‘After’ and ‘New Sites / New Fields’; Alice Lyons, artist and writer, participant of ‘After’; Iain Davidson, Arts Council of Northern Ireland; and Philip Napier, artist participant in ‘Regenerate’. I grew up in Killarney – a rural town of around 20,000 souls during the months of December and January. The rest of the year the population fluctuated reaching a metropolitan sized peak with the annual flood of workers and tourists during the summer months. Each year, this flood left behind a smattering of people who became members of that town, both adding to and altering its character. A typical Irish rural town? Killarney perhaps is busier than most; but it is not an atypical experience for the coastal regions of Ireland. Jenny Haughton (Arts Adviser on Public Art to the Arts Council) in her presentation, pointed out that “according to research, some 60% of the population may be described as rural – and that they live outside the five major urban centres and predominantly in coastal counties, with all but an estimated 10% of the population residing within a 14 kilometre radius of the 13 larger urban centres. (2)” The perception of Ireland, by many tourists – including Ireland’s own urbanites – is of a rural idyll where the pace of life is slower; with a traditional culture that is all-singing, all-dancing and ‘mighty craic’. At least that is what they come to expect – and places like Killarney duly oblige, along with a dash of American style country and western, the ubiquitous burger, and house music booming from late night hostelries. Nobody seems to notice the frenzied pace at which the residents work within this ‘rural economy’ – Haughton quoted from the National Development Plan – “rural communities are closely associated with Irish traditions, heritage and culture which have been critical in shaping the national identity.” Implied in this statement is an understanding of rural culture as a vessel which contains and preserves ‘Irishness’, a fixed unmovable discourse, and ultimately, marketable. Neither Haughton or the other speakers at the PS2 event subscribed to the NDP’s reductive notions of the rural – instead this event served to question and interrogated the fundamentals of various premises underlying notions of the rural. Gareth Kennedy a participant in ‘After’ (3) – an element the public arts programme, TRADE, run by Roscommon and Leitrim arts offices – discussed his work Inflatable Bandstand (10 year crescendo). The work comprised of an inflatable bandstand installed in various locations around Roscommon and Leitrim as a commentary on rural development and other economic issues. The background for the
piece included Kennedy’s researches into local land ownership – and specifically his findings that the most likely developers were locals rushing in to get 30 houses on their couple of acres in anticipation of the wave of commuters expected to sweep into the villages. As the global economy grinds downwards, housing developments of this kind now stand largely empty. There is a kind of post apocalyptic banality to them, which recalls the post-famine landscape of empty villages – but with a very modern economic twist. The landlords of the famine era were given to building follies as an answer to that crisis and Kennedy became interested in using this as a structure to ‘frame’ the content. Thus Kennedy’s mobile bandstand structure aptly spoke of notions of mobility and permanence within the context of boom and bust economics. Another participant in TRADE and 'After' – artist / poet Alice Lyons – also offered an eloquent reading of the housing gold rush fever of recent times. Her work for ‘After’ was sited at the old Barracks where the novelist John McGahern grew up – which now looks across to the empty promises of The View – yet another ‘folly’ of a housing estate. Entitled Viewfinder the piece comprised of a text by Lyons etched on to an installation of mirrors. The piece is multilayered, in that it referenced McGahern’s short story Korea – where a young man overhears his father chatting to a neighbour of his plans to “sell his son downriver” (4) – while the mirrors reflect the surrounding housing development. Philip Napier discussed his participation in ‘Regenerate’ (5) a project developed between five local authorities in West and South Ulster. One of the main locations focussed on by the project was Craigavon, a new-town set up and populated in the 1960’s by a largely urban community relocated to the countryside – that was intended to meet all its inhabitants’ needs. A Belfast taxi driver once described Craigavon to me as a place surrounded by roads with “that many roundabouts that you get seasick” – appropriately enough then, Napier began his presentation with stories of local adventurers and explorers who travelled by sea; and later led us to the engineering feats which created the links of communication between Dublin and Banbridge. Napier’s point being, to emphasise how Craigavon as part of network of communication and circulation – and in turn the way all rural places and contexts exist within the field of connections. He reflected on the rural as a site of endless distribution – and talked of “a culture of white vans” reflecting the transience of the rural community; the loneliness of the traveller and overall the required / enforced mobility and flexibility needed to survive in a liberal global economy. Fiona Wood’s account of her practice and researches relating to art rural contexts provided a key framework for the serious interrogation of notions around the rural; the urban; the public realm and art practice (6). Specifically Woods discussed ‘Ground Up’ a four year “experimental programme of contemporary art in the rural, public realm” based in Co. Clare – which involved 22 artists; a series of public events; two publications and eleven temporary art works. As Woods explained ‘Ground Up’ was artist-led and had a strong emphasis on research – for the purposes of the project “art-in-public was understood as both a process of research and a mode of dialoguing between artists, rural communities and the wider cultural discourse.” Woods proceeded to problematise and un-pick some of the key terms associated with public art practices. In particular, she
Gareth Kennedy Ice performance. 1000 litres of lake water pumped from Glenade Lake into a cubic metre container, transported and frozen at -27C until solid of ice, then transported back to the lake for public launch, 2008
questioned ideas of engagement in public art – noting that the notion had “become almost synonymous with participation and occasionally the terms are collapsed into one another … a reification takes place where participation becomes an end in itself.” Woods was essentially concerned it was becoming an orthodoxy that occluded the consideration of “other equally (and perhaps more) political aspects of art.” Woods also emphasised a multiple notion of public spheres – that coexist, overlap and compete; rather than a conception of a singular homogenous ‘public. As such, for Woods questions around proximity, function and the foregrounding of the social use of art were key. Similarly, Woods noted that the term community – in consultation processes or policies documents – could actually serve to mask an absence of democratic politics; and push a “consensus agenda” at the expense of “an antagonistic politics of difference”. Overall, Woods noted how she found herself “reverting to a discourse of spatialisation, a study of the practices – discursive, cultural and institutional – by which place and place-related identities are constructed. In relation to this Woods noted “there is nothing natural or essential about the identities of place or region, but that place must be continually reproduced through practices.” (7) This rather brings me back to where I began, Killarney – a place which is continually reproduced through the flow of people; the changing origins of those who become local; the holiday home bonanza that clutter its hinterland; where you can go from Riverdance to Prodigy in one night. A place, which relies heavily on, the buoyancy of global financial markets whose executives like to play in its exclusive hotels. What monuments to Ozymandias (8) will litter this rural town should the recession bite as hard as is predicted? There were many pertinent points raised during the course of ‘Where Art Grows Greener’, which are relevant not only to a rural context; but to all facets of society. As Jennie Haughton put it “... we must not accept what we thought democracy was, but actually create democracy …we must learn to govern ourselves, to create rights, to invent the machinery that will get a social will created. Democracy depends on local democracy processes … the power produced by relationships is a qualitative not a quantitative thing.” The rural is not a static entity – the varied art practices discussed in the course of ‘Where Art Grows Greener’ reflected and emphasised this point. And in doing so, this discussion also stressed that the most exciting and relevant art practices, are those which simultaneously allow us to reflect on where we are – but are also in themselves as fluid and changeable as life. Eleanor Phillips Notes 1. Another impetus for ‘Where Art Grows Greener’ was the recent publication of Ground Up. Reconsidering Contemporary Art Practice in the Rural Context – which explored similar themes (Ed Fiona Wood. Clare 2. County Council Arts Office 2008. ISBN 978-0-9541870-3-3) 2. Rural Ireland 2025 – Foresight Perspectives available at http://www.finfacts.ie/biz10/ FinalForesightReport.pdf 3. www.After.ie 4. Quoted from Lyons poem Viewfinder. http://www.after.ie/alice 5. http://www.regenerateprojects.com 6. The full text of Woods’ talk can be read at http://fionawoodsmusings.blogspot.com/2008/12/ where-art-grows-greener 7. Woods explained how here thinking was indebted to R. Shields, paper A Sense of Place and Region presented at the conference ‘Putting Region in its Place’ University of Alberta, October 2007. 8. Ozymandias is a sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley, published in 1818. The central theme of Ozymandias is mankind’s hubris. In fourteen short lines, Shelley condenses the history of not only Ozymandias’ rise, peak, and fall, but also that of an entire civilization. Shelley suggests all works of humankind - and humans themselves - are transitory. Whether a Pharaoh or peasant, we are mortal.
All forms of Metalwork and Sculpture commissions undertaken
Bronze Foundry
Anthony Scott Labharcarn
John Behan Ghost Boat
Brian King Convergance
CAST BRONZE FOUNDRY Located in the Liberties area of Dublin, we provide a total sculpture service to artists and commissioning bodies. We pride ourselves in providing a comfortable, welcoming working environment. Our multi-skilled team brings personalised attention to every bronze casting project.
Bob Quinn Bird song
Paul Ferriter Seve Ballasteros
Paddy Campbell La Vespa
Liz O Kane John McCormack
Cast Ltd, 1a South Brown St, Dublin 8. Ph 014530133, fax 01 4735029 www.cast.ie email: info@cast.ie Contact Leo or Ray for your next project