Visual Artists' News Sheet - 2009 November December

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

ISSUE 6 2009

November – December

Published by Visual Artists Ireland Ealaíontóirí Radharcacha Éire

Martin Carter. Burn the Banks with Martin Carter. Lawrence Street Workshops, Belfast.

Reverse Pedagogy The Google Settlement Supporting Artists Tax Exemption Visual Arts Resources & Activity in Co. Down Sliabh Gearr granite symposium Art in Public The Golden Bough Ulster Museum refurbishment Capitalyst Arts Sculpture inthe Parklands Residency Lismore Castle Arts ISEA Conference DIY initiatives

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

2

Introduction

November – December 2009

Contents

Contents

Introduction Welcome to the November / December 2009 edition of the Visual Artists News Sheet.

This issue’s news section includes coverage of some the latest developments regarding support for the arts in the context of the current economic situation. This includes the Arts Council’s criticism of proposals for any “thoughtless hacking” of cultural budgets – as Pat Moylan of the Oireachtas Committee on the Arts has argued, “…it simply makes bad business sense. The Arts Council supports 3,000 jobs (both directly and indirectly) with the €73 million allocation it receives from the taxpayer. In turn, those organisations pay €65 million in direct and indirect taxes each year”. We also note that Martin Cullen TD, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, made similar points at the Global Irish Economic Summit in September, stating “as other elements of Ireland’s international reputation and success have been challenged in the last year, Irish culture has come into focus as one of our most important national assets and selling points in building brand Ireland”. VAI’s arguments for the on the retention of the artists tax exemption scheme, can also be found in the news section (Page 9) Visual Artists Ireland would like to stress that now is the time for action. Artists and artworkers should lobby their local representatives in their electorial areas – information on how to do so can be obtained from VAI or the website of the National Campaign for the Arts (of which VAI is a member) www.ncfa.ie The features in this edition include a focus on the aims and ambitions of major institutions – including interviews with Tim Cooke, Director of the Ulster Museum about the refurbishment and re-launch of the museum; and with Eamonn Maxwell, Director of Lismore Castle Arts, Co. Waterford. We also profile The Golden Bough series of exhibitions at Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane.

A wide range of artist-led projects are profiled – including Helen O’Connell reporting on the Sliabh Gearr granite symposium; James Hepburn on Capitalyst Arts, catalyst Arts Summer programme; and Damien McGlynn’s overview of the recent upsurge of DIY initiatives and other alternative solutions devised by artists in response to current economic conditions.

In terms of education and discourse, Fiona Whelan profiles the University of Ulster’s MA, Art in Public; and Chris Clarke profiles ISEA 2009, a conference and exhibition programme on the subject of art and technology, which took place in Belfast and Dublin.

Brian Duggan is the subject of our How is it Made? feature. And Alan Counihan discusses his participation in the 2009 Sculpture in the Parklands Residency in Lough Boura Co. Offaly. County Down is the subject of our regional focus.

In the news section, are details of VAI’s advertising of our services and programmes for artists in Northern Ireland on the streets of Belfast. The advertisements are currently on display as part of curatorial duo Brown & Bri’s ongoing ‘Kiosk’ project. On page 29 we introduce a RETURN an important new initiative of IVARO (The Irish Visual Artists Rights Organisation) that comprises of a royalty payment scheme available for Irish visual artists.

3. Roundup. Recent exhibitions and projects of note.

3. Column. Seamus Kealy. A Few Notes on Reverse Pedagogy III 4. Column. Maeve Connolly. Writing After the Exhibition: 'Tactically Yours' 5. Column. Michael Burke. The Google Settlement.

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

9. Advocacy. Supporting Artists Tax Exemption.

10 . Regional Profile. Visual Arts Resources & Activity in Co. Down.

13. Symposia. Doing it for Themselves. Helen O’Connell reports on the Sliabh Gearr granite symposium held

in Wexford (29 August – 13 September)

14. Profile. Relational Complexities. Fiona Whelan profiles the University of Ulster’s MA, Art in Public.

15. Project Profile. New Juxtapositions. Hilary Murray on The Golden Bough series at Dublin City Gallery,

The Hugh Lane

16. Institition Profile. Understanding & Inspiration. Jason Oakley talks to Tim Cooke, Director of the Ulster

Museum about the refurbishment and re-launch of the institition.

17. Project Profile. The Art of Capitalism. James Hepburn profiles 'Capitalyst Arts', Catalyst Arts Summer

programme of art projects and interventions across Belfast.

18. How is it Made? Countdown. Brian Duggan discusses the making of his exhibition 'Step inside now

step inside' created for The Golden Bough series of exhibitions at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin.

20. Residency. Working the Land. Alan Counihan discusses his Sculpture in the Parklands Residency

21. Art the Public Realm Roundup. Recent public art commissions, site-specific works, socially engaged

practice and other forms of art outside the gallery.

23. Profile: Lismore Castle Arts. An interview with eamonn maxwell, Director of lismore castle arts, Co.

Waterford.

24. Opportunities. All the lastest grants, awards, commissions ect.

28. The Problem Page. Our consierge / curator of agony responds to a selection of queries and conceptual

quibbles – offering in return, nothing less than life-shattering, dilemma-inducing, paradigm-shifting

nonsense.

28. Artoons. The foibles, ironies, and occasional stupidity of the art world – captured with clarity and

economy by Pablo Helguera.

29. Advocacy. Maximising Returns. Alex Davis, introduces Return, a new royalty payment available to

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Name: Address:

31. Conference Report. ISEA Conference. Chris Clarke profiles ISEA 2009 which took place across various

artists in Ireland for the first time. locations in Belfast, Dublin, Derry, Coleraine, Dundalk, Portadown 23 August – 1 September, 2009 32. Focus. Dodging Hurdles. Damien McGlynn discusses DIY initiatives and other artist-led solutions and

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Contributors Seamus Kealy, Maeve Connolly, Michael Burke, Helen O’Connell, Fiona Whelan, Hilary Murray, Tim Cooke, James Hepburn, Brian Duggan, Alan Counihan, Jason Oakley, Eamonn Maxwell, Pablo Helguera, Alex Davis, Chris Clarke, Damien McGlynn, S.J McKee, Ursula Burke, Gail Prentice, Richard Peters, Denise Griffith, Emily Walsh, Noel Kelly.

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or Visual

Artists

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

3

November – December 2009

COLUMN

Roundup

Seamus Kealy

Roundup

A Few Notes on Reverse Pedagogy III

CONVERGENCE

GHOSTS OF THE FUTURE

COMHGHALL CASEY

Brendan Earley I Wanted to Start Again. Installation.

Brendan Earley’s exhibition ‘Ghosts of the Future’ was recently on show at Mother’s Nine artists lived in Sligo for two weeks, to work collaboratively on an exhibition with no particular plan previous to their arrival (1). The project was previously produced at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada; and at the 2009 Venice Biennale. In all versions, artists live and work together to produce artwork, to educate one another, and to conspire in opposition to traditional art educational models. The heart of Reverse Pedagogy is semi-collaborative, improvised projects that eventually open to the public upon completion.

Founder Paul Butler conceives of Reverse Pedagogy as a “sanctuary from the pressures and responsibilities that come with being a professional artist.”

Participating artists are both teachers and students in this collectively directed, nomadic experimental school. Overall, the project was a test of faith between the artists, as well as with the curatorial team at The Model.

Each exhibition room was created out of a collaborated plan hashed out early on – then revisited consistently as the project unfolded. The first room was converted into a “night club for fairies.” Humans may line up and wait their turn to peer into a precipice constructed through the wall – an entry to the other world. Led by intuition and collaborative process – and clearly influenced by local mythology – this installation, The Vortex, “made itself with help from the fairies.” Alongside The Vortex is a town-based campaign (with Lisbon Treaty parodied posters) to “say yes to fairies” – implying that they should be included in Ireland’s future.

In addition to five walls of diverse drawings, collages and murals, the artists produced a number of videos in and around Sligo town. One video summed up the life of the late American cult musician Warren Zevon, known for his sardonic and political lyrics. This biopic tackles the tragedy and incomprehensibility of Zevon’s life in an amateur, comic manner. Each sequence provokes questions – in a format of collaborative, serious fun – about the relevance and factuality of documenting people’s lives.

A text and sound video reproduces the artists’ attempt to faithfully reproduce a conversation between all the artists in a noisy pub. Each artist read out their parts in script from the original conversation – as transcribed by one artist as was possible. Full of logical gaps, the conversation illustrates an almost impenetrable communion the artists had together, where collaboration evoked a creative process that they have full ownership over. An apparent remoteness from observers (or indeed at times from the artists themselves – provoking trust in the unknown between them) is discernible here, and thus serves as an interesting entry point for Reverse Pedagogy as both a process and ethos.

Another video involves a colour-wheeled, parcelled-head character circulating through town – browsing in shops, observing a busker, and crossing a bridge. The spaces she traverses become apparent as places of absolute civil obedience – a purely conditioned space of uncanny equivalence. The apparent tranquillity of these consumer spaces is not disrupted so much by her presence as underlined as a place of both marking and erasing differences in the day-today homogenisation of experience in order for human relational co-existence to be maintained. The character becomes both observer and spectacle in her placid exploration. The simplicity of this interaction – both as a visual experiment (coloured head alongside interior patterns) and as behavioural experiment – whimsically refers to larger issues of community, otherness and cultural difference.

Two short videos, one of a person traversing a sand dune and one of a building interior, act as “markings of time and space.” A traditional motif of ‘man versus nature’ in the dune video is tempered by its association with the video of an empty retail building atrium. This second space, transitional due to socioeconomic pressures beyond its scope, is stripped bare and instead of betraying its anticipated economic potential, – a visual hollowness ensues. The concurrence of these two spaces – where an emotive vastness resonates from each and becomes compared to its video other – may remind the viewer of greater phenomena beyond human control, and acts as an effortless, spatial and phenomenological critique.

The Yukon City Sweet Gold Drinkery is a sculptural-functional space. Made from salvaged materials, this social sculpture was a workstation, food station, tool shed, garbage repository for the exhibition, reference to local pubs and a bar for the opening. The entire construction also includes a stereo found in a trash bin, recycled materials from Sligo’s quays, corrugated metal found on the coast, and a television showing the tag rugby match between the artists and a local team. The sculpture sits as a relic of the residency and may be activated by visitors as a social space.

Altogether, The Model was as an open site of resourceful production where artists were free to live within collective throes of open collaboration. The entire resulting project appears as a form of cognitive mapping through intense immersion in locality and creative otherness.

Note (1) ‘Reverse Pedagogy’. The Model Satellite, Sligo 26 Sept – 22 Nov 2009. Artists: Dean Baldwin, Katie Bethune-Leamen, Paul Butler, Stephane Gilot, and Swintak (Canada); Mark Garry, Bea McMahon and Fiona Marron (Ireland); Asdis Sif Gunnarsdottir (Iceland).

Tankstation, Dublin (16 Sept – 31 Oct).

The show featured new sculpture, Ian Wieczorek Fragmentary 1

installation and drawing works by the artist. The audio/video piece 9 Reports

Ian Wieczorek’s exhibition ‘Convergence’

featured JG Ballard’s short story; Reports

at the Upstairs Gallery of Kilkenny’s

from an Unidentified Space Station read

Watergate Theatre (3 July – 21 August)

aloud by artist and theorist, Brian

presented a body of paintings exploring

O’Doherty. www.motherstankstation.com

“the physicality of the human condition Comhghall Casey Self Portrait

and the resonances and commonalities that exist with the systems that underpin

Solomon Fine Art presented a solo exhibition by Comhghall Casey at the Merrion Hotel, Dublin (8 – 11 Oct). Casey was the recipient of the 2009 Hennessy Craig Scholarship at the Royal Hibernian Academy Annual exhibition. www.solomonfineart.ie

A PASSION FOR FREEDOM

the physical world”, and engaging with notions concerning the experiential nature of painting. www.kilkennycoco.ie www.ianwieczorek.com

GUERRILLA GIRLS

IMMA PROCESS ROOM

Eve Parnell A Passion For Freedom. Installation Guerrilla Girls Let's Toast Irish Art, Lads!

Eve Parnell’s solo exhibition ‘A Passion For Freedom’ was shown at the Pearse Museum, Dublin (11 Aug – 4 Oct). The exhibition is described as a simple installation, examining “notions of boundaries and scale to create an experience of surreality which at the same time obliges the viewer to be keenly conscious of their presence in

Ian Burns. A Seperate State.

Guerrilla Girls I'm Not a Feminist, But ...

The Guerrilla Girls will present new works at Millennium Court Arts Centre (1 Oct – 28 Nov); there will be a panel discussion on 29 Sept at UCD, and 2 Oct will see an activist workshop at the University of Linda Quinlan. Eileen Gray's Travel Case. Circa 1920's

Ian Burns, an artist recently on the IMMA Artists Residency Programme, presented new sculptures in the museum’s Process Room (4 –16 Aug). The works investigated “the powers and phenomenological potentials of domestic appliances and objects”.

Linda Quinlan’s Process Room show (14 – 27 Sept) featured works based on the artists ongoing researches into “the hidden, overshadowed and undefined”; and in particular “the inexhaustible configurations and outcomes presented by the tangram”.

IMMA’s Process Room facilitates access to the ongoing practice of artists currently on residence at IMMA. Artists participating on the programme use it on a rotating basis. www.lindaquinlan.com www.imma.com

Ulster. MCAC Director and exhibition curator Megan Johnston noted that the Guerrilla Girls “have something very important to reveal to us in the visual arts sector, they comment on the status not

the space.”

LILA: ACTIVITIES OF GOD Siamsa Tíre, Tralee recently presented the show ‘Lila: Activities of God’ (9 Sept – 2 Oct). The exhibition featured work by three artists – Sarah Maple, Marysa Dowling and Amanda Coogan. Maple presented new photographic works, while Dowling showed her project The Movement of an Object, and Coogan showed her work The Yellow Mountain. www.amandacoogan.com www.marysadowling.co.uk www.sarahmaple.com www.siamsagallery.com

only of artists who are female but also on gender, race, nationality and religion in contemporary society”. www.millenniumcourt.org

AUTOMATIC Auto Italia South East, London presented

THE THING THAT COULDN’T DIE During September, Monster Truck Gallery, Dublin presented a month-long painting season entitled ‘The Thing That Couldn’t Die’ featuring shows by Anne Hendrick (4 – 8 Sept), David Eager Maher (11 – 16 Sept), Bennie Reilly (17 – 22 Sept) and Brendan Flaherty (25 – 29 Sept). As the press release outlined—“the title is taken from a 1950s B-movie, and was selected as a comment on the continual revival and reinvention of the medium of painting”. www.monstertruck.ie

‘Automatic’, a group exhibition of photography, sculpture, and sound installation (4 – 26 Sept). The show featured artists Karl Burke, Alicia Frankovich, Candice Jacobs, Gereon Krebber, Ruth Proctor, Linda Quinlan and Berndnaut Smilde. The press release described

the

show

as

exploring

“temporary consolidations, cumulative processes

that

condense

before

dispersing.” www.autoitaliasoutheast.org

4

Column

Maeve Connolly

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

November – December 2009

Roundup ‘Mythologies’ and ‘How Do You Know’;

MUTABILITY

two exchange exhibitions presented in

Writing After the Exhibition: Tactically Yours

coordination with Blankspace Gallery, Oakland, California, USA. ‘How Do You Know’ at Blackspace Gallery featured Vera Klute, Paul Murnaghan, Padraig Robinson, Christopher Banahan, Jackie Nickerson, Emma Houlihan, Adelle Hickey, Bernie Aoife Cassidy & Anita Delaney ‘Of Men and Mountains’

Emmet

Kierans,

Fiona

Chambers, John Jones, Theresa Nanigian,

exhibition space.

Paul Hickey, Helena O’Connor, Tanya

Previous exhibitions at PCP included

O’Keefe and James Hayes. ‘Mythologies’ at

shows by Cannon Fodder—a Dublin

126 hosted San Francisco Bay artists Gina

The Stone Gallery, Dublin presented

collective of artists Fiona Marron, Gerard

Tuzzi, Samara Halperin, Brian Caraway,

‘Mutability’, an exhibition of new painting

Erraught, Nora Duggan, Serena Teehan

Lena Reynoso, Crystal Morey, Sam Lopes,

by Deirdre Hayden, Kathy Tynan, Hugh

and Caroline Doolin (3 – 5 Sept) and ‘Play’

and Renée Gertler.

Delap, Sheila Rennick and Anthony Kelly

(20 – 22 Aug) featuring artists from the

(6 Aug – 17 Sept). The works were described

gallery’s internship programme; Emer

as addressing “current movements within

Bermingham, Aoife Doolin, Niamh

painting practice and simulate an engaging

Dunphy, Fiona O’Keefe, Moya Revins,

conversation both individually and

Emma Rowe, and Neil Ryan.

Deirdre Hayden I Remember Coming Here

www.pallasprojects.org

collectively”. www.stonegallery.ie

In an analysis of North American narrative cinema during the 1970s and 80s, focusing on the recurrence of political conspiracy themes, Fredric Jameson emphasises the critical potential of the ‘indirect’. He argues that Videodrome (Cronenberg, 1983) is particularly effective as a representation of post-modern urban life precisely because it does not aim to capture the documentary truth of Toronto but instead highlights the generic qualities of the city, through settings that are placeless and timeless. Elaborating on this concept of indirection, Jameson wonders whether direct experience is actually possible (1).

He suggests that if we confront experience "with a will towards assimilating it at once, without mediation, we lose it". In earlier contributions to this column I have suggested that writing a review often serves to erase memories of the exhibition, perhaps implying that ‘real’ experience has been lost in the process.

But Jameson’s concept of indirection contests the very possibility of any immediate encounter and, by insisting upon the role of mediation, draws attention to the collective dimension of all experience.

Returning to the domain of contemporary art practice, the work of Frances Hegarty and Andrew Stones – specifically the exhibition ‘Tactically Yours’ at the Butler Gallery in 2007 – employed mediation and repetition to comment on the experience of collaboration and to explore the relationship between political action and art practice. Twenty-four CCTV monitors displayed black and white video imagery of a left-handed woman and a right-handed man hurling rocks in a forest clearing. Filmed from above, the figures are engaged in a form of selfsurveillance, repeating the action as though in competition with each other and themselves. Significantly, the documentation of this repetitive action is itself repeated, played out in various arrangements of monitors across three rooms, so that the visitor may be tempted to return to an earlier work and revisit their own experience. In the fourth room, a colour video projection showed a woman’s left-hand and a man’s right-hand drawing rapidly with charcoal on the same sheet of paper, filling the frame before the image is erased by the appearance of another blank sheet. This final video ultimately withholds the closure it promises because, as noted in the press release, ‘if the end of the work is to be 'drawing' or 'art', what, then, of the other connotations of the action in the forest, the undercurrent of violence, the allusions to insurrection, protest and resistance?’(2) For Brian Hand, ‘Tactically Yours’ should be read partly as a response to the specific location of the Butler Gallery in the Kilkenny Castle, so that the action of stone-throwing references a wider history of rebellion and insurrection, and the exploration of collaboration becomes historically loaded (3). He notes that, in the final room, the viewer is invited into the work, both as ‘graphologist’ (to interpret the drawings) and referee (to judge the winner) and crucially, as ‘co-conspirator’ in a collaborative project. This suggests that the invocation of art in this final video does not constitute a dead-end, but rather offers another route into this exploration of collaboration, in which the specific location of the Butler is perhaps no more important than the generic qualities of the gallery setting. Here I am referring to the ways in which ‘Tactically Yours’ draws its strategies of production and display from a repertoire (even arsenal) shared by many artists working with video and performance.

It does not seem accidental that Hegarty and Stones use CCTV imagery to explore repeated gestures and actions, and employ a sculptural approach to the arrangement of monitors. This allows for the experience of ‘Tactically Yours’ to be productively mediated, consciously or otherwise, by the memories of other

MORE THAN ONE WAY OUT

works.

www.blankspacegallery.com www.126.ie

NO EMBARGO The Arts and Disability Forum, Belfast presented ‘No Embargo’, an exhibition of new animated works by Joel Simon and Steve Noonan (27 Aug – 25 Sept). The

BOXID, ROUND II

Frances Hegarty & Andrew Stones Tactically Yours, 2007. Installation view. © Courtesy the artists.

Notes 1. Fredric Jameson, Totality as Conspiracy, The Geopolitical Aesthetic: Cinema and Space in the World System, Bloomington, Indiana and London: Indiana University Press and BFI, 1992, 83, note 10.

2. Press release, ‘Tactically Yours’, Butler Gallery, June 23 – July 29, 2007.

3. Brian Hand, ‘Tactically Yours’, CIRCA 121, 2007, 110 – 111.

Masterson,

to assemble a human pyramid in the

press release described Simon’s work as dealing with his experiences of “standing out as an amputee”, and Noonan’s exploring the life of a character that “brings the joys of reading, writing and counting to the nation.” www.adf.ie

ORANSSI APPELSIINI ‘Oranssi Appelsiini’, an exhibition by Finnish artist-in-residence Antti Leppänen, was presented at his studio in Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin (26 Sept). As

Work from 'BOXiD, Round II'

the press release noted, the works in the

The Black Church Print Studio, Temple Bar in coordination with Original Print Gallery

Maud Cotter So and So

presented ‘BOXiD, Round II’, a fundraising

The Rubicon Gallery, Dublin recently

exhibition featuring 297 works by more

presented Maud Cotter’s exhibition (2 Sept

than 150 artists (23 – 27 Sept). Contributors

– 3 Oct) ‘More Than One Way Out’. The

were asked to create a piece, in any media,

works in the show were described as “a

to be presented inside a CD case. The

mode we might call the domestic surreal.

works were exhibited anonymously, with

In her sculptures, ordinary furniture and

the artist’s name revealed upon purchase—

crockery become wondrous, and slightly

each being priced at €50. Featured artists

disconcerting”.

included Yoko Akino, Liam Belton, Pauline www.rubicongallery.ie

show featured “an interconnected series of sculptures” that referred to “vernacular architecture and Modernist-inspired store display units”. www.templebargallery.com

PERSISTENCE OF VISION

Bewick, Carey Clarke, Felicity Clear, Maud Cotter, Clodagh Emoe, Mark Garry, James

PASTORAL CITY From 10 Sept – 3 Oct Talbot Gallery, Dublin exhibited ‘Pastoral City’ by John O’Reilly.

O’Reilly’s works in oils and aerosols depicted contemporary objects and landscapes influenced by graffiti art to

Hanley, Bernadette Madden, Lars Nyberg, Mick O’Dea, Jane O’Malley, Barbara Rae, Nigel Rolfe, Therry Rudin, Maria SimmonsGooding, Susan Sex, Charlie Whisker and

Oonagh O’Brien first solo exhibition

Peter Wray. www.print.ie www.originalprint.com

bring an urban experience to canvas”.

Themes explored in the show included the relentless dominance of nature over the

was recently presented at the Riverbank Sept). The show featured photography, projection and digital video. The press

light and mould … the effects of time and

release noted O’Brien’s focus on the

change on the city.

“moment when an image becomes a

www.talbotgallery.com

moving image … working with strobe lighting,

RECENT EVENTS AT PALLAS

at

night

creating

scenes

reminiscent of early representational

‘Of Men and Mountains’ at Pallas

research”.

Contemporary Projects, Dublin (11 Sept –

www.riverbank.ie

Peter O'Kennedy – work from 'Skip bump roll scratch'

video, installation, and sculpture by Aoife Cassidy and Anita Delaney. The exhibition’s

‘Skip bump roll scratch’ 126, Galway (23

documentation describes Cassidy’s interest

Sept – 10 Oct) Peter O’Kennedy presented

in “ecology, wildlife, and the cultural

a new body of work. The exhibition

anthropology of society”, and Delaney’s

contained

pursuit of “systems of interpersonal

mechanical sculpture, and included a

communication particularly language,

kinetic installation consisting of two

genre and semiotics”. For culture night (25

mobilised record players playing the same

Sept) the artists presented a special live

record.

event, comprising a collaborative attempt

‘Experiments in the Persistence of Vision’ Arts Centre, Newbridge, Co. Kildare (1 – 30

ON AT 126

built environment, in such forms as rain,

10 Oct) was an exhibition of drawing,

Oonagh O'Brien – work from 'Experiments in the Persistence of Vision'. Riverbank Arts Centre, KIldare.

video,

photography

and

(30 Aug – 19 Sept) 126 initiated

PARADISAEIDAE Monster Truck Gallery, Dublin presented Bennie Reilly’s exhibition ‘Paradisaeidae’ (17 – 22 Sept). The works in the show were described as exploring “the potential for intrigue and mystery in the natural world by presenting to us the rarely seen and much mythologised Birds of Paradise.” www.benniereilly.com

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

November – December 2009

5 ColumN

Roundup ON AT FOUR

Previously shown at the gallery was

interior architecture of The LAB, Cullen

an exhibition of new paintings by Paul

sets up a stage for experiencing the artwork

Doran (3 Sept – 3 Oct).

as positioned in imaginary time, whereby

www.greenonredgallery.com

WEXFORD ARTS CENTRE

operating at odds to the concerns of mundane time”.

Also at The LAB, ‘Force Majeure’, a and Saoirse Higgins (31 Aug – 24 Oct).

Participating artists included Aideen Barry, Lynda Devenney, Vera Klute, Bea McMahon, The Grafting Parlour and Benjamin

Four, Dublin presented ‘Two Or Three

Gaulon. The show was devised as part of Hughie O'Donoghue Secrets, oil on board with collage,2009.

Electronic Art. As the press release noted, the work explored “how natural and man-

of video, performance and drawing by Kate

made power operates” along with “process-

Davis and Jimmy Robert, curated by

driven experimentation and a scientifically

Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith (11 Sept –18

influenced playful approach”. www.markcullen.org www.isea2009.org www.thelab.ie

Nov). The press release notes that the works in the show—which takes its title from Jean-Luc Godard’s 1967 film—“signal RED LIGHT

a shared concern with historical precedents Helen Gaynor Confluence, oil on canvas,2009

of representation, on questions of image and imaging”.

Previously on show was ‘Lightness of Being’, a video installation by Tracy Hanna (2 – 12 Sept). The press release described Hanna’s work as “studying how we interact physically and cognitively with our environments”. www.fourdublin.com

Wexford Arts Centre recently presented Hughie O’Donoghue’s ‘Sea Pictures’ and Helen Gaynor’s ‘SeaChange’ (21 Sept – 1 Nov). O’Donoghue’s works incorporated painting, print and collage, and “considered

Redmond Entwistle Red Light 2009

the subject of emigration and the ideas and experience embodied in the concept of departure and return.” Gaynor’s exhibition was focused thematically on “journeying

FRAME, GLASS, BLACK

First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.

Attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892 – 1984)

the 2009 International Symposium on

Things I Know About Her’, an exhibition

and predecessors” along with “the problem

The Google Settlement

the viewer may participate in a zone

group exhibition curated by Sheena Barrett

Kate Davis & Jimmy Robert, '2 or 3 things I know about her', pencil and tape on paper, 2009

Michael Burke

and transformation” along with the “interplay between loose indeterminate lines of thinly applied paint with strongly modulated planes of colour.”

Also at Wexford Arts Centre, Niamh Flanagan and Ruth O’Donnell presented an exhibition of prints at D’Lush Café, during September. Flanagan’s current work explores ideas of space, borders and boundaries, freedom and containment, and things that seem beyond our control.

O’Donnell uses etching and carborundum printmaking to focus on the salient detail

Belfast Exposed presented Redmond Entwistle’s ‘Red Light’ (13 Aug – 25 Sept), an exhibition that “reflects on the indeterminate space that Belfast finds itself in between the unfinished work of the peace-process”; the main exhibition is composed

of

twelve

previously

unpublished photographs from the early to mid-nineties. Entwistle examines how “the centre of town has developed as a neutral space … but the overwhelming sense is of a space for consumption rather than a civic or communal space where a genuine

body

politic

might

be

established.” www.isea2009.org

of form and pattern, the sensuality of colour, and the tactile quality of print.

FIELD

www.wexfordartscentre.ie

FRANCIS TANSEY Niamh O'Malley Glass (2009) oil paint on two-way mirror

Google has made a unilateral decision. They have decided to digitise – to scan – ALL BOOKS; and to make them available on line to whoever wants them. Some they will charge for, others will be provided free of charge or at minimal cost.

I refer to it as a unilateral decision, because the decision was made without reference to the authors, their publishers or agents. Google’s intention was to implement this task without payment to the authors. It is theft!

Two separate class actions were taken in the US against Google. These actions were taken by the American Authors’ Guild and the American Association of Publishers. These class actions were successful – to a point – and have resulted in one settlement – The Google Settlement (1). Under the settlement, Google is now required to pay the author the magnificent sum of $60.00 per book scanned. Google is also required to pay a percentage of the profit deriving from the online or other distribution of an author’s work.

So what’s the problem? There are a number of problems.

Any payment made to an author is subject to 20% withholding tax payable to the government of the United States! So much for the Boston Tea Party and the concept of “no taxation without representation”. Your $60.00 is reduced to $48.00. My bank tells me that at current exchange rates and after charges that equates to about €30.00.

Google can give the book away at cost or free of charge. So the author gets a percentage of nothing.

Visual artists – photographers, illustrators, graphic designers, are excluded from the settlement (with the exception of illustrators of children’s books).

Their rights are completely disregarded.

Google has included everyone ‘in’. It is up to disgruntled authors to ‘opt-out’ – assuming they knew about the process in advance of the 4th of September deadline. It should be noted however, that opting out doesn’t mean that your work will not be scanned and made available – it will. Google will totally disregard your wishes and your author’s rights, opting out just means that you won’t be paid for your work and that you have reserved the right to sue Google in the future and in an American court.

Individual authors who are aggrieved by the terms of the settlement – it would appear – have to pursue the case in the United States courts – a costly and unfamiliar process. It should also be noted US precedent has been set in a recent case in a minor New York court, copyright was not recognised in the case of books not registered in the US. So who cares apart from authors? We’ll get to read all the books at little or no cost.

Instead of asking who cares, perhaps you should ask whose next? Author’s rights in the area of music are currently threatened by the music industry which doesn’t want to bother paying composers / authors / performers when their music is downloaded.

Visual artists – photographers, illustrators, graphic designers – are already being screwed by the so-called Google Settlement when their works, included in books, are scanned. What’s next – images of work scanned and merchandised without permission or payment?

So what’s to be done?

A number or artists’ and authors’ organisations at national level in various countries and at European level are taking case actions against Google. (2) The EU must intervene. They must protect the rights of their authors’.

They were able to take on MicroSoft in a major anti-trust case on competition grounds. They must intervene in this major theft case.

Francis Tansey Specteral Horizons

Black’ was recently on show at the Green on Red gallery, Dublin (7 Oct – 7 Nov).

Featuring new sculpture and drawing, the framing

devices

as

“complex

strategies

for

emphasising the distance from source to spectacle.” This was O’Malley’s third solo exhibition the gallery. Forthcoming shows by the artist include exhibitions at Gaain Gallery, Seoul, Korea & Centro Cultural Monthermoso Kulturune, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.

Kerlin Gallery, Dublin hosted ‘Field’ by Mark Francis (10 Sept – 17 Oct). “In the

every cow her calf and to every book its copy".

Tansey’s show ‘Francis Tansey – Geometric

Niamh O’Malley’s exhibition ‘Frame, Glass,

works in the show utilised

On an Irish note, the logo of the Irish Copyright Licensing Authority (ICLA) is a combination of the international copyright symbol “©” and the heads of a cow. This logo references the world’s first copyright case. In about the year 500AD, St Colmcille borrowed a book of the Gospels from St Finnian of Maigh Bhile and secretly copied it. On realising what had been done, Finnian demanded the return of the book and also the copy. Colmcille objected, saying that the copy was his. The matter was referred to Diarmaid mac Cearrbheoil, the high king. His judgement was "le gach bó a buinín agus le gach leabhar a chóip, to

Bad Art Gallery, Dublin presented Francis

Paul Doran Untitled (PDREF124) 2009 Oil on Linen over mdf panel, 14 x 16 inches

Colourist’ (17 Sept – 8 Oct). The exhibition documentation

noted

the

artist’s

deployment of a “hard edged geometric style” and use of “acrylic paint with many layers of glaze to create vibrant colour field paintings in a modern abstract geometric colour language, that is his own.” www.thebadartgallery.ie

SHOWING AT THE LAB The LAB, Dublin presented Mark Cullen’s installation ‘I See A Darkness II’ (9 Sept – 24 Oct), which “continues Cullen’s exploration into cosmological states of awareness. Through negation of the

Mark Francis Universal, 2009, oil on canvas, 214 x 153 cm

new set of paintings, Francis explores the grid format in a much more obvious fashion. Formerly it has always appeared, through the brushing in vertical and horizontal marks, subtly in the background.

Notes 1. The Google Settlement was discussed on “Today With Pat Kenny” RTE 1 - 10:00am to 12:00 noon Wednesday 2nd of September 2009 http://www.rte.ie/radio1/todaywithpatkenny/ The Google Settlement can be found at www.googlebooksettlement.com 2. see www.eca.dk / www.icla.ie

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

6

November – December 2009

Roundup The more evident appearance has come

Church and physical force of nationalism,

Delohery’s work has focused on “the

influences such as Goth street style,

zone of undecidability between the

through inspiration from sound graphs,

and their replacement by a more

need for religious and cultural tolerance”.

music and subculture.” Running at the

human and non-human worlds.”

musical notation and astronomical

utilitarian,

He states, “More than just people died in

same was ‘here’s nothing… hold it tight’,

diagrams such as spectrographs.”

pragmatic world”.

the Holocaust, I think a certain part of

a series of new works by Dee McDonnell.

humanity did.”

McDonnell’s exhibition was described as

gender-inclusive

www.kerlin.ie

and

www.bernardcanavan.com

Signal recently presented ‘Soft Day,

JAKI IRVINE

AT DRAÍOCHT

Jaki Irvine’s ‘Seven Folds in Time’—a

Currently on show at Draíocht,

site-specific

video

Blanchardstown (9 Oct – 21 Nov) is Jaki

installation was shown at Temple Bar

Irvine’s new video work ‘City of Women’.

Gallery & Studios, Dublin (24 Sept – 31

The piece was video developed in

Oct). The exhibition notes outlined the

response to Hogarth’s 1732 series of

artist’s focus on the relationship between

prints, ‘The Harlot’s Progress’. As the

music and image; “Working with

gallery notes explain “women of many

musicians Marja Gaynor and Joe

ages

O’Farrell, Irvine has developed a work in

Macushla Dance Group, and the young

which the editing process itself comes to

women of Sheriff Street, participated in

the fore as an organising principal.

its filming. Also showing is ‘Amharc

Moving between overt musicality and

Fhine Gall VI’, the venue’s annual show

the edges where a sound begins or ends,

of recently graduated artists. The

the artist focuses on the rigours and

exhibition features work by Deirdre

pleasures of playing an instrument,

Byrne, Logan McLain, Lorna Fitzsimons,

bringing together the private space of

Jennifer Phelan and Tracy Hanna.

practice with the possibilities of

Coming up at Draíocht is Colin Martin’s

performance it anticipates”.

exhibition ‘Chalet Town’ (27 Nov – 23

multi-screen

www.templebargallery.com

and

backgrounds,

including

Jan). www.draiocht.ie

“a world of hidden

Thank God’, an exhibition of new

narratives where buttons and coat

paintings by Leah Beggs (1 – 13 Sept).

hangers can come to life in humorous

www.signalartscentre.ie www.thomasdelohery.com

and unexpected ways … the meaning of the work lies in the experience of it, the place where engagement occurs.”

RUSSIA IS EVERYWHERE

www.galwayartscentre.ie

Queen Street Studios Gallery, Belfast hosted Edmund Goubert’s exhibition of new paintings ‘Russia is Everywhere’ (17 Sept – 17 Oct). Goubert publicised his exhibition using four passages of text purportedly quoted from Tony Blair, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Pope Benedict XVI and Vladimir Putin. These included the phrase, “designating the tangible primordiality of the world, the vastness of the Russian countryside advances with

monstrous

incontinence,

consuming our putative domination of the earth in a tidal wave of farmyard excrement”. www.queenstreetstudios.net

MERE COINCIDENCE? ON AT SIGNAL

engaging with

EOIN BUTLER AT RUA RED

“struggle between a small community defending the safety of its people and the consortium of Shell Oil, Statoil and

www.projectartscentre.ie

recently presented ‘The Visual Force’, the sixth instalment in the series Collective Histories of Northern Irish Art (18 Sept –.7 Nov). Curated by Dr Slavka Sverakova, the exhibition looks at the works of artists across three generations,

whose

works

were

AT MERMAID A selection of Dan Shipsides ongoing series of landscape-based videos, entitled ‘PAN360’ were shown at Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray (17 Sept – 31 Oct). The

landmarks in their field. The artists

works were created on rock climbing

featured in the exhibition were: John

expeditions by “attaching a modified

Aiken; Vivien Burnside; John Carson;

camera to a leash and whirling it through

Brian Connolly; Martina Corry; Lynne

the space above and around the artist’s

Davies-Jones; Ciara Finnegan; Adrian

body”.

Hall; Tony Hill; Ronnie Hughes; Steve

Mermaid also presented the related

Hurst; Sharon Kelly; Fiona Larkin;

exhibition ‘Figuring Landscapes’, which

Alistair MacLennan; Paddy McCann;

comprised of a screening of video works

Moira McIver; Peter Richards; Dan

by British and Australian artists on

Shipsides; Theo Sims; Una Walker and

themes of landscape (17 – 24 Sept).

Charles Walsh.

Curated by Catherine Elwes and Steven Ball, the programme had previously been screened at Tate Modern, London.

Gallery, Derry (18 Sept – 2 Oct). The show comprised photographs taken in Armagh Women’s Prison presented

The current show is ‘Artists Proof’ (5 Nov – 19 Dec), organised by The Graphic Studio, Dublin in association with the Chester Beatty Library, an exhibition that was previously shown in Wexford Arts Centre. www.mermaidartscentre.ie

along with audio interviews. The press

Eoin Butler. Work from 'Evocation – Bog Series'

release noted that the work “weaves the stories of two women prisoners who

‘Mere Coincidence?’, an exhibition by

offer their own memory, traces of the

Fintan Friel opened at Unit H, The

past, held in the spaces depicted in the

Market Studios, Dublin (12 –19 Sept).

photographs”. The previous exhibition

The exhibition explored how “meaning

IMMA EDITIONS

at Context was ‘Glorious Flotsam’ (28 Sarah Morestead

Aug – 11 Sept), an exhibition by Killian

practice, how ambiguous narratives

Doherty of photographs exploring “a

become solid forms and how mistakes

recovering New Orleans”. www.contextgallery.co.uk

are the portals of discovery”.

Previously on show during August

RAY DUNCAN

was ‘I Made This For You’, an exhibition of painting and installation by Milada

Creative Exchange Studios, Belfast

Eoin Butler. Work from 'Evocation – Bog Series'

hosted ‘Back To Abstraction’, an

Bacik, Joanne Boyle, Vivienne Byrne,

‘Evocation – Bog Series’, curated by

exhibition of new paintings by Ray

Alternative Entertainments, is currently

Duncan (1 – 30 Oct). The press release

on show at Rua Red South Dublin Arts

noted the artist’s return to “one of his

Centre, Tallaght (29 Oct – 28 Nov). The

earliest concerns as a painter, the

TOMORROW IS TODAY

press release describes the work as “not

abandonment of recognisable subject

‘Tomorrow is Today’ (29 Oct – 8 Nov) a

descriptive, but conceptual. The bog

matter in favour of abstraction”.

collaborative exhibition between 20

paintings

graphic designers and printmakers, was

grounded—uncluttered and are often

Ciara Grant, Niamh Heery and Helen Horgan. themarketstudios.wordpress.com

held at the Original Print Gallery, Dublin.

Thomas Delohery - work from 'If This is a Man'

Each designer was teamed with a printmaker to create an original print. www.originalprint.ie

are

pared

back,

Signal Arts Centre, Bray presented an exhibition of paintings and drawings by

reduced, or simplified compositional as if charged with an inner life-energy, which become an integral part of the whole.” www.altents.ie

Bernard Canavan’s show of new was

presented at the Central Library and Archive, Pearse Street, Dublin (15 Sept – 6 Oct). The exhibition was described as considering “the collapse of two central values of his childhood: the Catholic

and unstretched canvas “questioned the role of the sketchbook and of drawing in painting”.

Also at Signal, ‘If This Is A Man’, an exhibition of mixed media, and the thirty-eighth solo show by Thomas Delohery (15 – 27 Sept). In this decade

Alex Katz Untitled. Silkscreen. 2007.

The Irish Museum of Modern Art is currently exhibiting thirty-one prints by Irish and international artists (26 Sep – 3

THE JOINERY Ciara Mc Mahon’s show ‘Détruis Space’ was recently presented at The Joinery, Dublin (29 Sept – 3 Oct). The press release describes the exhibition as “covertly questioning the viewer’s

Jan 2010). The show, entitled ‘Traces: IMMA Limited Editions’ celebrates a series initiated by the Museum in 2003.

Artists represented in the exhibition include Michael Craig-Martin, Dorothy

addressing

Cross, Gary Hume, Isaac Julien, Alex

Galway Arts Centre presented ‘Song to

The preceding show was ‘Breach’

Peyton, Jack Pierson, Sean Scully, Louis

the Siren’, an exhibition of drawings and

by Tracy Staunton and Fiona Woods (24

le Brocquy, Patrick Scott and Camille

photographic work by Breda Lynch (3

– 27 Sept). This exhibition incorporated

Souter.

Sept – 3 Oct). The show was described as

drawing, video, sculpture, photography

examining “gender identity in art,

and images on billboards and was

literature, film and contemporary

described as “interrogating a liminal

Morshead’s large-scale work on paper

CHANGING TIMES

www.rayduncan.net

more

structures, holding on to the incidentals

Sarah Morshead (29 Sept – 11 Oct).

Times’

gallery notes outlined, examined the

coast of Ireland.”

2006 show ‘Visual Residue’ at Context

‘Changing

(28 Aug – 10 Oct). The exhibition, as the

the Corrib gas field, off the North-West

was presented alongside pieces from her

paintings

Nolan’s ‘Corrib Gas Project Arts Centre’

The Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast

Patsy Mullan’s exhibition ‘Their Stories’

is constructed in the context of art

Project, Dublin presented Séamus

Marathon, over valuable gas deposit of

STORIES & RESIDUES

Fintan Friel – publicity image for 'Mere Coincidence?'

CORRIB GAS AT PROJECT

VISUAL FORCE

www.goldenthreadgallery.co.uk

Leah Beggs Raised Bog

www.thejoinery.org

commitment TWO AT GALWAY ARTS CENTRE

to

environmental issues”.

Katz, William McKeown, Elizabeth

www.immaeditions.com

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

7

November – December 2009

ROUNDUP EUPRAXIA

ANJALI DESHMUKH

The Joy Gallery recently presented

Higher Bridges Gallery, Enniskillen

‘Eupraxia’ (6 – 11 Sept), a series of new

presented ‘Where You Want to Be’ by

works by Sam Keogh, Joseph Noonan

Anjali Deshmukh (28 Aug – 21 Sept).

Ganley, and Alice Rekab. The press

The work comprised digital drawings,

release describes an exhibition “aiming

texts

to root out an ethical base for action in a

“relationships between the sublime,

radically unfair world”. The show

geopolitics, and mythology”.

and

ARABIAN FILM TOUR

paintings

examining Wael Noureddine – video still. Work shown at the Solus Irish / Arabian avant-garde film tour.

'Space is the Place' – publicity image.

combined found object installation with

Niamh McCann – installation view LSC.

LIVE @ NUMBER 8

Callanan, Joseph Delappe, Benjamin

The Solus Irish /Arabian avant-garde

Live @ Number 8 presented ‘Grounded

Gaulon, I Left This Here You To Read,

film tour brings the work of over twenty

in This Phenomenal World’ (22 Jul). The

Institute

for

filmmakers and artists from Muslim,

CONFLICTING ACCOUNT

event was curated by Louise Manifold, in

Thorsten

Knaub,

de

Arabic speaking countries to six venues

Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda presented

association with Tulca, Galway Arts

Situaciones, Glenn Loughran, Conor

around Ireland this autumn (until 15

‘Conflicting Account’, a series of new

Centre, Tate Modern, and B3 media. The

McGarrigle, Eve Mosher, Christian Nold,

November). The Irish screens run

works by Paul Seawright (27 Sept – 28

show presented a selection of film,

PARKing, Katie Paterson, Quadrafónica

concurrently with the screening of work

Oct). The show is based on opposing

digital, animated shorts and performance.

Urbana, Gordan Savicic, Mark Shepard,

by fifteen emerging and established Irish

Majella Clancy – installation view LSC.

histories, events and language within

The featured artists were Vera Klute,

Surveillance Camera Players, Brett

and international filmmakers and artists

Aug), a show about the ongoing

Northern Ireland. Seawright notes his

Niamh MacCann, Pearl Heneghan, Ruby

Stalbaum, Transborder Immigrant Tool,

in three North African and Middle

experimental collaboration between

interest in “different and mutually

Wallis, Michelle Horrigan, Una Quigley,

Trespass and Jeremy Wood.

Eastern venues. Solus is an independent

artists and archaeologists of the same

antagonistic ways of telling the story of

Elizabeth Lynott, Danny Greany, Johanna

film collective and platform for

name. The event considered Bronze Age

Ireland”.

Laitaninan, Paul Gilllispie, Jennifer

filmmakers working in Super 8, 16mm

casting technology, with participants

and DV.

reproducing ancient forms to create

poetry, philosophy and manifesto. www.redspace.cc

www.highlanes.ie

Cunningham, Louise Manifold, Sabine

Applied

Autonomy,

Laboratorio

www.ncad.ie/gallery

MAPPING HUGH LANE

www.soluscollective.org

Höpfner and Stacy Makishi.

original artworks.

www.tulca.ie

NOUGHTIES BUT NICE

DREAMING IN CHINESE WHISPERS AT THE HOLY WELL

LSC also presented an exhibition of sculpture, installation, painting and video by Majella Clancy and Niamh

Kieran D. Murray presented his

McCann (29 Aug – 12 Sept). The show

exhibition ‘At the Holy Well’ at Man-

studied “subjective and objective realities

made Images, Donegal (14 Aug – 13

and how they are perceived, visualized

Nov). Historian Christy Gillespie opened

and related as painted and digital

the show.

image.”

www.man-madeimages.eu

www.leitrimsculpturecentre.ie www.umha-aois.com

MARK O’KELLY Black Mariah, Cork recently hosted Mark Seamus Nolan – work from 'Noughties but Nice. 21st Century Irish Art'

O’Kelly’s ‘Unconscious’ (12 Sept – 17 Oct). The work “explicitly references mediated experiences and signifiers as

VENT 'Dreaming in Chinese Whispers' installation view.

opposed to the actual signified cultural or political context of the sources. His work is engaged in analysis of the experience of seeing, re-seeing, adopting

PS2, Belfast presented ‘Dreaming in Corban Walker Mapping the High Lane. Installation view.

Currently on show at the Dublin City

ECOTONES

painted directly on the walls of PS. The exhibitors were Lisa Conlan, Brian

■■ To have your exhibition or

Cunning, Colin Dunlop, James Foster,

event considered for inclusion

Walker’s installation for the venue ‘The

David McClelland, Ashling Meenagh

in the round-up section, simply

Golden Bough’ series (30 Sept – 17 Jan).

and David Timlin.

e-mail text and images to the

editor (jason@visualartists.ie).

Gallery The Hugh Lane is Corban Aideen Barry – video work from 'Noughties but Nice.

21st Century Irish Art'

Get into The Roundup

this show artists of the VENT collective

and engaging with representations of culture”.

Chinese Whispers’ (17 – 20 Sept). For

Limerick City Gallery of Art features

Walker’s work, which utilised Perspex

‘Noughties but Nice: 21st Century Irish

sheets. “presents the viewer with an

Art’ (10 Sept – 8 Nov), an exhibition

environment

featuring Aideen Barry, Amanda Coogan,

relationship to their surroundings”.

challenging

their

www.ventcollective.co.uk www.pssquared.org

LEITRIM SCULPTURE CENTRE

■■ Your text details / press release

should include: venue name,

Denis Connolly, Anne Cleary, Joe

Also on show is ‘A Terrible Beauty’,

location, dates and a brief

Duggan, Ciara Finnegan, Andrew

an exhibition celebrating the centenary

description of the work / event.

of Francis Bacon’s birth featuring

Note that ‘hard-copy’ cannot be

paintings,

photographs,

accepted due to the volume of

Kearney, Tom Molly, Caroline McCarthy,

Padraig Nolan – work from 'Ecotones'

Seamus Nolan, Eamon O’Kane, and John

drawings,

Shinnors. The press release describes

‘Ecotones’ Padraig Nolan’s exhibition of

unfinished works, and slashed canvases

material that needs to be

“the extensive terrain of art made in

new paintings was show at the Crow

(28 Oct – 7 Mar).

collated for this section of the

Work from 'Umha Aois – The Bronze Age 4.000 years on'

Ireland during … this millennium”, and

Gallery, Dublin (6 – 10 Oct). The works

publication. Inclusion is not

the exhibition’s focus on seminal Irish

were

exploring

Quick and the Dead’, a major exhibition

guaranteed, but we aim to give

works from this decade.

“subconscious recognitions, reactions to

featuring Patrick Graham, Patrick Hall,

everyone a fair chance.

shared

Timothy Hawkesworth and Brian

www.limerickcitygallery.ie

described

as

environments,

and

other

Maguire (29 May – 27 Sept).

elemental resonances”.

IMAGES OF A MINE

Previously the gallery hosted ‘The

■■ Our criteria is primarily to

www.hughlane.ie

www.padhraignolan.com

Solstice Arts Centre, Navan recently hosted a photographic exhibition

NCAD GALLERY

HIDDEN HISTORIES

entitled ‘695-1575: Images of a Mine’ by

‘The Wandering Image’, an exhibition of

Dorothy Smith’s exhibition of new

Tim Durham (9 Sept – 10 Oct). As the

new paintings by Lesley Anne O’Connell

paintings ‘Hidden Histories’ was shown

press release explained Tara Mines,

and Sanja Todorovic was presented at

at The Courthouse Arts Centre, Tinahely,

Navan is the largest lead and zinc mine

the NCAD Gallery, Dublin (11 Sept – 10

Co. Wicklow (13 Sept – 9 Oct). As the

in Europe – and one of the largest in the

Oct).

press release outlined, the works in the

Róisín Loughrey – work from 'On the Edge of Eden'

Leitrim Sculpture Centre presented ‘On the Edge of Eden’ a showing of new

world. In 2008 and 2009 photographer

Previously on show in the venue

show were “drawn from ordinary scenes,

works by Róisín Loughrey (18 Sept – 10

and artist Tim Durham had access to all

was ‘Space is the Place’ – and exhibition

ordinary things, where we work and live,

Oct). The exhibition explored the subject

areas of the mine. The photographs

that documented “artistic practices that

where we spend time, what we don’t

of children and their relationship to

depict areas both above and below the

intervene in public space” (27 Aug – 1

look at and what we often don’t

nature through a series of prints and

earth in their available light.

Sept). The contributing artists included

consider.”

video installations.

www.solsticeartscentre.ie

Aram

Bartholl,

Blackletter,

Ralph

Borland, John Buckley, Martin John

www.tinahely-courthouse.ie

Earlier LSC hosted ‘Umha Aois – The Bronze Age 4,000 Years On’ (28 – 31

ensure that the roundup

section has a good regional

spread and represents a

diversity of forms of practice,

from a range of artists at all

stages in their careers.

■■ Priority is given to events taking

place within Ireland, but do let

us know if you are taking part

in a significant international

event.

8

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

November – December 2009

NEWS

News VAI KIOSKS IN BELFAST

of Polish / Irish relationships and the labour market. Democracies (2009) another work by Zmijewski was also shown at the Biennial – comprising a series of short films exploring the diversity of political uses of public space; including a short film documenting the annual 12 July parades in Belfast, shot by the artist during his residency. www.iskv.org/bienal www.firestation.ie

Information on Visual Artists Ireland is now on display in central Belfast, as part of the curatorial duo Brown & Bri’s ongoing ‘Kiosk’ project. Brown&Bri are managing advertising spaces on five new telephone kiosks in central Belfast, which have been transformed into designated arts and cultural information points. Visual Artists Ireland is currently utilising the Kiosks to promote our services and programmes for artists in Northern Ireland. Bookings are still being taken for advertising spaces on the Kiosks. Details from: brownandbri@ googlemail.com BREAKING GROUND The official launch of the final series of projects commissioned as part of Breaking Ground, the Ballymun Regeneration Ltd. PerCent for Art Scheme, took place at the Civic Centre in Ballymun at 1pm on Wednesday 21 October. Martin Cullen TD, Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism, performed the official opening of the commissioned works which include a new sculpture by Kevin Atherton at Balcurris Park, new paintings by Paul McKinley at the Civic Centre, a timeline exhibition at Axis, and a survey of all Breaking Ground projects in a 200-page publication and Art Map. www.breakingground.ie

DCC STUDIO AWARD Dublin City Council has announced that Niall De Buitléar is the recipient of The Irish Artists’ Residential Studio Award 2009–2010 at The Red Stables in St. Anne’s Park, Dublin 3. The Irish Artists’ Residential Studio Award is intended to support an emerging visual artist at a crucial stage of their professional practice and includes studio and living accommodation at nominal rent at Dublin City Council’s Red Stables studio complex and inclusion in exhibition programme at The LAB, Foley Street, Dublin 1. www.nialldebuitlear.com www.theredstables.ie

DUBLIN / ISTANBUL Two Monuments a film by Polish artist Artur Zmijewski commissioned by Fire Station Artists’ Studios in Dublin, was screened in Turkey as part of the Istanbul Biennial (Until 8 Nov). The work is the result of an invitation by Fire Station as part of its annual Studio Award (2008-2009) to develop a project in Dublin looking at the changing nature

AC CRITICISE CUTS The Chairman of the Arts Council, Ms Pat Moylan, has said it would be folly for the Government to treat the arts as some kind of luxury that would be easy to cut in a recession and has warned against “thoughtless hacking” at the Arts Council’s budget. Instead she said the arts should be embraced and its job creation potential exploited at a time of major unemployment.

Speaking to the Oireachtas Committee on the Arts (14 October), where her delegation included actor Brendan Gleeson and writer Colum McCann, both of whom were funded by the Arts Council in the early stages of their careers, Ms Moylan said if successful Irish artists were sports stars, they would be more feted in Ireland. Also with Ms Moylan was actor Gabriel Byrne, who accompanied the delegation as a show of his support for the Arts Council.

Ms Moylan told the Committee “I would like to illustrate the folly of treating the arts as some leisure pastime for the middle classes – something nice to-have but not need-to-have, in tough times, something that the state can save money on at the moment without too much negative consequence … it is a flawed analysis and a faulty conclusion”.

Ms Moylan added “… and I am saying this not only as a lover of the arts. I am saying it as a business woman. It simply makes bad business sense. The Arts Council supports 3,000 jobs (both directly and indirectly) with the €73 million allocation it receives from the taxpayer. In turn, those organisations pay €65 million in direct and indirect taxes each year. www.artscouncil.ie

NEW ART FAIR ‘Art Fair 09’ at the RDS, Dublin 4 (13 – 15 November) includes work by past exhibitors and develop new aspects of the show which will draw on the legacy of Art Ireland. The show will include the last chance to see selected work by recent graduates and students from art colleges throughout the country at the annual RDS Student Art Awards Exhibition, as well as a series of lectures and presentations by artists, curators and personalities from the visual arts sector, including Mick O’Dea, Oliver Dowling and Valerie Connor, in the new Reading Area. As well as featuring work from over 100 galleries, Art Fair 09 RDS features ‘Art on the Balcony’, a showcase of work emerging Irish artists Aideen Barry, Suzannah Vaughan, Sinead Curran and Elaine Hurley. www.ticketmaster.ie www.rds.ie/artfair09

AN COSÁN GLAS An Cosán Glas, the annual environmental sculpture project established by artists from Falcarragh and Gortahork in Co. Donegal in 1995, has launched a new website documenting the project from its beginnings.

An Cosán Glas was set up by Deirdre Brennan, Annjo Carr and Seamus Kennedy in the Baile Chonaill Estate Gardens in Falcarragh to promote the visual arts in the Donegal Gaeltacht.

Each year the group of core and invited artists create a sculpture trail in the area between Errigal Mountain and Tory island on the north west coast of Co. Donegal during the Earagail Arts Festival. Since 2004 the project has focused on ‘Loinnir’, a series of night time exhibitions of giant illuminated sculptures in the sand dunes on Magheraroarty Beach.

The new website features images from each of the 15 sculpture trails to date, details of participating artists and information on Saothair Ealaíon, An Cosán Glas’ education programme for primary and secondary school students in Irish-speaking areas of Donegal. www.cosanglas.com

O’DOHERTY / IRELAND Brian O’Doherty/Patrick Ireland: Between Categories by Brenda Moore-McCann, published by Lund Humphries. Will be launched by Enrique Juncosa at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in early December 2009. This will be the first book published on the complex figure of Brian O’Doherty, who renounced his name following the Bloody Sunday killings in Northern Ireland in 1972 and was known as Patrick Ireland for 36 years, until 2008. Covering all aspects of the career of both artistic personae, using artworks and writings from the 1960s to the present, the publication will provide contexts for the multiple layers of O’Doherty/Ireland’s work and artistic identity. Brian O’Doherty/Patrick Ireland: Between Categories can be ordered now for the special online price of £31.50 from: www.lundhumphries.com

O’DOHERTY & WOLSEY Eamonn O’Doherty has been shortlisted from an international call for submissions for the competition ‘A Wolsey Artwork for Ipswich’ which closed on 18 September 2009. The brief for this major public art commission supported by Ipswich Borough Council is for a sculpture of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, one of the most influential figures in Tudor England, which will be located in his native Suffolk, England. A final decision on the competition will be made in December 2009 and the £100,000 work is to be completed in 2010.

MAJOR FUNDING FOR MODEL On 1 October 2009, The Model in Sligo announced that it has been awarded €2.4 million from the EU / Border Midlands Western Regional Assembly, providing a major boost to funding for its ambitious redevelopment programme. The BMW Fund is allocated from an advance payment of the EU Structural Funds to Ireland, representing a continuation of the Assembly’s

commitment to the development of Sligo under the National Spatial Strategy framework and prioritised in the BMW Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013.

Construction on the redevelopment of the Model Arts and Niland Gallery stared in April this year and it is due for completion at the end of 2009, with the centre’s re-opening scheduled for spring 2010. The project will see The Model expand in size by over a third in an attempt to realise its potential and consolidate its position as a flagship cultural centre in Ireland. The Future Model will deliver high-level incubation spaces for creative industries, a purpose built performance space and artists’ studios. Meanwhile the existing building will house a new gallery and exhibition space, a restaurant and additional education spaces. The total estimated cost of the project comes in at €5 million.

It is estimated the award will also contribute to the creation of an additional 23 construction jobs. www.modelart.ie/futuremodel.htm

Carraroe, Co. Galway features a large body of his work, and his work can also be seen at St. Michael the Archangel church in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway and on the UCD campus at Belfield in Dublin 4.

Speaking following the announcement of his death, Mary Cloake, Director of the Arts Council, described Edward Delaney as “an outstanding sculptor, a pioneer in situating work in the public domain”.

CLAREMORRIS AWARDS The Claremorris Open Exhibition 2009 was officially opened on Saturday 5 September 2009 by Cllr. Gerard Mannix Flynn and exhibition curator and adjudicator Tom Morton awarded prizes to Joint First Prize Winners Laurence Kavanagh (London) for his installation Volta and David O’Kane (Donegal) for his video Palabras. The winner of the Emerging Artist Award was Lisa Fingleton (Kerry) for her video installation ‘Outside I’m Singing’. www.coearts.org www.davidokane.com

CAVANACOR AWARD The Cavanacor Gallery in Lifford, Co. Donegal, has announced that Cristina Bunello is the recipient of this year’s Peter O’Kane Solo Exhibition at Cavanacor Gallery Award. The award was presented at the opening of the Royal Dublin Society Student Art Awards 2009. For the second year, Cavanacor Gallery has offered The Peter O’Kane Solo Exhibition Award as part of the RDS Student Art Awards’ ethos of recognising excellence in emerging Irish artists and supporting them in the development of their careers. The Award provides the chosen artist with a solo exhibition at the Cavanacor Gallery, curated by the Gallery Director, in summer 2010, as well as mentoring the artist on the selection, display and promotion of their work in the art world. www.cavanacorgallery.ie

EDWARD DELANEy The death of sculptor Edward Delaney RHA on Tuesday 22 September was been followed by many tributes from members of the Irish art world. Delaney died peacefully after a long illness and was buried following a Funeral Mass at Crossboyne Church in Crossboyne, Co. Mayo on Friday 25 September.

Born in Claremorris, Co. Mayo in 1930, Edward Delaney is best known for the large-scale public monuments to Irish patriots Wolfe Tone and Thomas Davis that were commissioned by the Irish government and are now located in St. Stephen’s Green and College Green in Dublin 2. Delaney, a member of Aosdána, studied at the National College of Art and Design and in Germany during the 1950s. Going on to represent Ireland in the Paris Biennale in 1959 and 1961 and at the World Fair in New York in 1965, he also participated in the establishment of the Project Arts Centre in Dublin in the 1970s.

Delaney initially worked in bronze before later experimenting with stainless steel, and his work is widely represented in both public and private collections throughout the country. The open-air sculpture park near his home in

COW HOUSE RESIDENCY On 21 September Cow House Studios, in partnership with Wexford Arts Centre, announced that the recipient of the 2009 International Artist in Residence and Exhibition is Canadian artist Julie Lequin. Cow House Studios has also awarded two residencies to Londonbased artist Aoife Collins and William Rueck from America. All three artists are in residence at Cow House Studios near Rathnure, Co. Wexford, for ten weeks from 14 September to 22 November 2009. As part of her award Julie Lequin will exhibit her work at Wexford Arts Centre in January 2010. www.cowhousestudios.com

Words of Support Martin Cullen TD, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, 19 September 2009 has stated that “the Irish imagination is one of our greatest assets and that creative ideas are the lifeblood of innovation and economic success”. The Minister was speaking at the Global Irish Economic Forum in Farmleigh, Dublin. The Minister also said that new research has shown that the cultural and creative sector is one of the most dynamic areas of the Irish economy, with a total economic impact last year of €11.8 billion.

Speaking on the theme, ‘Promoting Brand Ireland through our global cultural profile’, the Minister said “As other elements of Ireland’s international reputation and success have been challenged in the last year, Irish culture has come into focus as one of our most important national assets and selling points in building brand Ireland”.

The Minister said that the global association of Ireland with creativity and imagination has the potential to support the Government’s Smart Economy strategy; reinforce the branding of Ireland as the ‘Innovation Island’; position the country as a global creative hub and an attractive destination for foreign direct investment; and drive the dynamic growth area of cultural tourism.

According to a new research

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

9

November – December 20099 Advocacy and lobbying

NEWS document, the ‘Economic Impact of the Cultural Sector’ by DKM Economic Consultants, the cultural and creative sectors are in themselves a major sector of the economy in terms of both output and employment (defining the cultural sector as arts and cultural heritage, and the creative sector as audiovisual, film, music, publishing, architecture, design and advertising). The Minister also said that the link between the cultural and tourism brands is “particularly powerful”.

The Minister referenced a newlypublished report by the Ireland Funds, The Global Irish Making a Difference Together: a comparative review of international diaspora strategies, which comments that “Culture is the great ‘Gateway to Ireland’, and has a powerful role to play in connecting with the global Irish and should be part of all our strategies. Our culture provides us with a significant competitive advantage”.

Minister Cullen also stated that “The Government has a clear strategy for promoting Irish arts and culture internationally and we established Culture Ireland four years ago to take on this challenge. Since then the agency has promoted and supported over 1,350 Irish cultural initiatives and events in 74 countries. In theatre and dance alone in 2008, live international audiences of over 530,000 experienced CultureIreland funded productions world wide”.

The Minister also acknowledged the Arts Council and the role it plays in providing the core funding to Irish artists and companies, which enables them to create the work which is subsequently promoted and presented worldwide.

VISUAL VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art & the George Bernard Shaw Theatre in Carlow’s official opening night took place on Thursday 24 September 2009.

Opening with a new performance by Amanda Coogan from 6pm onwards, VISUAL celebrated its official launch with an inaugural exhibition programme including artists Joseph Albers, Polly Apfelbaum, Brian Connolly, Maud Cotter, Yingmei Duan, Richard Gorman, Neva Elliott, Cecil King, Alastair MacLennan, Tadhg McSweeney, Eilís O’Connell, Declan Rooney, Patrick Scott, Sean Shanahan, Sean Scully, Charles Tyrrell, Ciarán Walsh and Michael Warren. Daphne Wright presented a new work commissioned by Visualise/ Carlow Arts Office in addition to a new public art work commissioned under the PerCent for Art scheme by Eileen McDonagh. www.visualcarlow.ie

THE LIGHT ROOM The new roof-level extension to the Gallery of Photography in Temple Bar’s Meeting House Square in Dublin 2 was formally opened on Wednesday 9 September by Martin Cullen TD, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism.

The new extension, known as ‘The Light Room’, was designed by O’Donnell & Tuomey Architects as a flexible multipurpose space suited to a range of activities, from site-specific exhibitions to education workshops and projects.

Established in 1978, the Gallery of

Photography engages with new and existing audiences through a range of initiatives including artistic programmes, outreach work, photography training courses and the provision of darkroom facilities. The Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism provided €437,500 in capital funding to the Gallery of Photography to facilitate the development of The Light Room as part of the ACCESS programme. www.galleryofphotography.ie

ARTISTS’ TAX EXEMPTION In a statement issued on Monday 7 September, the Arts Council said that it is to argue for the continuation of the Artists’ Tax Exemption Scheme. The Arts Council has reported that it will make a strong case to Government for the retention of the tax exemption scheme, the discontinuation of which was recommended by the Taxation Commission’s report published on the same day. Ms Pat Moylan, Chairman of the Arts Council, was quoted as saying that the Arts Council’s unequivocal advice to the Minister for Finance and the Government will be that the tax exemption scheme should be retained in its entirety. Outlining the issues that the Arts Council has with the Commission’s recommendation 8.98, Ms Moylan emphasised the detrimental effects that the removal of the Artists’ Tax Exemption could have on artists who would be directly affected by an abolition of the scheme and on the country’s global cultural profile.Ms Moylan’s comments may be read in full on the Arts Council’s website. www.artscouncil.ie/en/news/news aspx?article=4df23294-2946-4a53-9cfa-88fd732fc887

Errata The article Landscape, Power and Heritage, published in the Sept / October edition of the Visual Artists News Sheet (pg. 31) contained a number of inaccuracies and omissions. Visual Artists Ireland and the Visual Artists News Sheet wholeheartedly apologise for the errors and misrepresentations that appeared in the text, which were the result of editorial oversights.

Corrections Due to a misunderstanding on the part of the editor, the article incorrectly and misleadingly states that the ‘Where Art Grows Greener’ seminar (PS2, Belfast, December ’08) “… was a review of how the PS2’s ‘Urban Space Shuttle Project’ template worked as a model for Ground Up” (paragraph 5). This inaccurate statement arose from a misunderstanding of remarks made at the opening of the seminar in relation to PS2’s donation of the portacabin structure that was used as a mobile venue for the ‘Urban Space Shuttle Project’, to the Ground Up Artists Collective. The portacabin has since been used for various projects by the collective.

Where Art Grows Greener’ took place to mark the Northern

Irish launch of the publication Ground Up; Reconsidering Contemporary Art Practice in the Rural Context,(2008, curating editor Fiona Woods). The Urban Space Shuttle Project (2006) was never a model for the Ground Up project, which began much earlier (2003 – 2007).

Paragraph 11 begins: “Deirdre O’Mahony’s curatorial involvement and participation in the projects – Ground Up and X-PO – were discussed in depth … ”. Deirdre O’Mahony had no curatorial involvement in Ground Up, but participated as an artist in one strand of the project.

Due to editing errors, the text offers an unclear and inaccurate account of Vladimir Arkhipov’s project Functioning Forms Ireland having “portrayed some of the participants in a manner they had not expected” (paragraph 14). An accurate account of this story is contained in the Ground Up book: “A video and publication accompanied the work; students at the college also undertook an intervention to encourage as many local people as possible to attend and to discuss their attitudes to the work. Mostly, these were very positive, but some people were offended by the literal transcription of interviews in the publication; it seems that this act was not viewed as neutral, but as a form of ‘description’ and not a flattering one at that! Interestingly, those who expressed offence were not those who had been interviewed.”(Ground Up; Reconsidering Contemporary Art Practice in the Rural Context, p 195 - 198).

Full transcripts of the interviews (which drew negative comments from just two visitors to the exhibition), can be found in Vladimir’s Arkhipov’s publication Functioning Forms Ireland, which accompanied the show. It should be noted that the response of those who participated in Arkhipov’s project was overwhelmingly positive; they did not perceive that their culture had been portrayed as primitive or other but rather that their inventions and ingenuity had been shown in a creative and positive light, which is the stated purpose of Arkhipov’s ongoing international project The Museum of the Handmade Object.

Supporting Artists' Tax Exemption In the Taxation Commission report published on 7 September we saw another attack on the Artists Tax Exemption Scheme. In the recommendation 8.98 the Commission called for a complete abolition of the tax exemption. The fact that individual artists are one of the most economically deprived groups that punch above their own weight in their contribution to Irish society was ignored.

In our recent survey, The Social Economic and Fiscal Status of the Visual Artist in Ireland (published June 2009), Visual Artists Ireland shows that many of Ireland’s visual artists live below the poverty line. We have outlined that 67% of visual artists earn less than €10,000 from their creative works each year. A further 24% earn between €10,000 and €25,000. They are therefore dependent on additional supports to make ends meet. Our report shows that 33% of artists earn less than €10,000 in total earnings. A further 34% earn between €10,000 and €25,000. These total earnings are comprised of income from creative work, and part time or casual labour earnings that are subject to the normal levels of taxation. But, as with most sectors of the economy, opportunities for supplementing creative earnings are diminishing.

Therefore, with these current recommendations we will see more and more visual artists being made to take advantage of the social welfare system to allow them to make ends meet.

Visual artists are also unique in that their primary purpose in creating artistic work is not so as to gain financial reward. The ethos that drives visual artists to make art is not economic. The act of creating is not motivated by profit and artists do not normally tailor their ‘product’ to an economic consumer. Visual artists also create on a continuous basis without any guarantee of financial success. Financially speaking this is a very high-risk strategy and the value of an artists’ work (economic or otherwise) may take many years to be recognised. The value therefore of what visual artists contribute is of immense worth. It is also worth noting that no consideration is made for the fact that visual artists are a part of the indigenous economy. Visual artists do no repatriate funds outside of the country. In fact, it is quite the opposite. By their very nature, visual artists who may utilise the Tax Exemption Scheme contribute these savings directly back into the Irish economy. The Tax Exemption Scheme is one of a small number of incentives that artists have to continue to remain in Ireland and to make work.

It has been noted that the largest subsidy to the cultural life of Ireland comes not from governments, corporations or other patrons, but from the artists themselves, through their unpaid or underpaid labour. Artists need the every incentive to continue to create. The withdrawal of the scheme would have an adverse effect not only on individual artists but on the arts sector as a whole and more especially on the public’s engagement with, and enjoyment of the arts in Ireland. In order to maintain a cultural climate we need to invest in our artists, we need to value and recognise what artists contribute and we need to create a sympathetic climate in which the arts can flourish. By abolishing Tax Exempt status for artists the government would remove one of the key incentives for artists to live, work and produce art in Ireland.

Ireland’s image abroad is consistently sold on its cultural heritage. The regeneration of our country as an attractive location for inward investment places great emphasis on the attractiveness of this cultural heritage. The Artists’ Tax Exemption Scheme has created an image of Ireland abroad as a liberal, forwardthinking country proud and confident of its own culture and one that values its creative practitioners. If the scheme were to be abolished not only would it be a blow to the artists who avail of the scheme but it would send out a signal internationally indicating a changing attitude of the Irish state to the value it places on the arts in Ireland.

In the short term the removal of the Artists’ Tax Exemption scheme may seem an attractive proposition to Government. Visual Artists Ireland believes, however, that the benefit derived from the removal of the scheme would be far outweighed by the problems it would create in the long term. There is always pressure on artists to become more self sufficient and not to rely so heavily on direct public subsidy in the production of their work. The Tax Exemption scheme is an indirect way of encouraging and facilitating the production of new work by creative artists without the need for direct grant aid. The removal of the Tax Exemption scheme would lead to further reliance on direct public subsidy for funding of the arts and place greater pressure on an already overstretched Arts Council, as well as placing yet more people on to the live register.

Noel Kelly, VAI Director / CEO

An image of Fiona Woods work was incorrectly attributed to Deirdre O’Mahony. The work (shown above) should have been captioned – "Fiona Woods, Local Rural Population, 2003".

MORE NEWS Further news on the latest developments in the arts sector can found on the Visual Artists Irelands website and via the E-Bulletin.

Website www.visualartists.ie/sfr_news.html E-Bulletin To register for the the VAI's free information email information service go to – www.visualartists.ie/sfr_ebulletin.html

10

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

November – December 2009

Regional Profile

Visual Arts Resources & Activity in Co. Down Samantha McKee

Writing Down

Lucy Turner, Kilcooley Obelisks, 2006/7

Ursula Burke. Inch Pier, Donegal. 2009.

Samantha. McKee. The Endgame (Detail). Installation view. Basement gallery. Dundalk. Seaweed construction with blue lights.

Shortly after completing a printmaking based degree at East Anglia College in Cambridge (1994 F.E. McWilliam Women of Belfast V (1972)

Ursula Burke Ireland Deserves Better – Poster. 2009.

County Down’s geographical proximity to and distance from Belfast, has over the years given rise to a series of challenging and diverse cultural practices. The region has been witness to a variety of gallery and site-specific projects. Some motivated by post-troubles community regeneration initiatives and others by practitioners attempting to tackle social and community issues at local levels. Aspects of the socio-political contexts that these projects seek to interrogate have influenced my own practice, and as such are worth mentioning.

As an Irish artist with an experience of living and working both in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the issue of context – both geographically and conceptually – has become allimportant. I am in the latter stages of a PhD at the University of Ulster in Belfast, which is a part theory part practice research project.

State of Grace is a body of sculptural and photographic work that I have produced during 2006 –2009 that takes the issues of identity and representation within contemporary Ireland to task. The many and varied versions of a ‘modern’ Irish image, or the complexity involved in constructing a contemporary representation of Ireland, which diverges from the dominant popular representational paradigm projected by the media, tourism agencies or cultural guardians is one aspect of my research. The idea of ‘being’ (or becoming) Irish in an increasingly mobile and global climate is one of the many issues at stake. To what extent is culture or everyday life in Ireland becoming the same as or remaining different from the West? In an era where Ireland is witness to a variety of racial confections and national borders are increasingly made more fluid, does this make Irish cultural characteristics and heritage seem more or less important?

Another artist who was concerned with issues of identity and representation is the surrealist artist and Co. Down born – F.E. Mc William. Banbridge Borough Council has recently opened The F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Studio, which currently

houses an exhibition of 120 pieces of McWilliam’s sculptures. His 1971 bronze series of Women of Belfast is a powerful treatment of various female forms flung back, subject to the impact and torque of a bomb blast. Many of the pieces in the current exhibition are on loan and will be on exhibition until February 2010.

Worth mentioning also is the four-year public art project, Art of Regeneration: supported by North Down Borough Council and other agencies and co-ordinated by Gail Prentice, Arts Officer for North Down Borough Council and Lesley Cherry, Art of Regeneration Officer. This project aimed to address the visual and conceptual legacy of the conflict in Northern Ireland, which was made painfully manifest by the residue of anti-social and paramilitary slogans, and murals in the Kilcooley and Loughview/Redburn estates of Holywood.

During a period of four years, a series of artists were invited to work within the two communities in order to tease out and mark the oral histories of the area, to encourage intergenerational participation, to build on skills and to encourage pride within the community. The result of this challenging project, completed this year, was a variety of critically charged public art sited in and around both estates, the production of a publication and short film charting the processes involved and the progress made.

The Regenerate project is another example of an interesting multi-faceted approach to community based arts initiatives, where artists are placed in residence within one or many of the five Council areas of Armagh, Banbridge, Cookstown, Craigavon, Dungannon and South Tyrone: and are encouraged and supported to develop projects within the community assisted by lead artists – Philip Napier and Mike Hogg. Other artists include Average Inc, Factotum, Brian Maguire, Helen Sharp and Aisling O’Beirn, Julie McGowan, Lesley Yendell and Tatter Dandelion. The Tatter Dandelion duo, aka Paddy Bloomer and Nicholas Keogh have been involved in many machinations within communities, most notably: the pair erected a Barn for the Midsummer’s Festival in Lurgan in 2008, which was in keeping with the Amish tradition in intention and design.

These cultural practices, diverse in their scope and intention serve to confirm the variety of arts activity throughout the region of Co. Down.

Ursula Burke

–1997), I moved to Northern Ireland – spending time in Newry; then Lisburn. From Lisburn, I travelled daily to Belfast Print Workshop where I was a member for several years.

However, I felt that the intensity of my creative processes and life – the highs and lows of extreme thought, and my need to be surrounded by my research and stimulants, without constraints of time – didn’t work well in communal studios. Nine years ago, I moved to Loughbrickland, outside Banbridge, where I have the first floor of an old coach house for a studio.

The isolation suits me well. If I feel a need for art stimulation, I can go a few hundred yards to the F.E McWilliam gallery where I enjoy studying McWilliams sculptures and changing exhibitions of other artists’ works – along with talks and other I have found some of the facilities I need

Samantha. McKee. Lay You Down On A Bed Of Thoughts (Detail) Installation view. Ceramic, black glaze. Pilows. Each approx 35X25cm.

Photo: Nesta King

locally, whilst other times I’ve had to travel to

is for spaces, which give life to the work; and have

Belfast. I went to Belfast Metropolitan College, to do

an atmosphere suitable to the feelings I want to

a bronze-casting course in order to make aluminium

convey. After exhibiting prints, sculpture, and word

‘thought’ pieces for my 2008 exhibition ‘The Bowels

scrolls at Golden Thread Gallery, I looked for

of The Mind.’ I initially tried pottery at Newry

underground

College; but moved on to work with Scarva pottery

otherworldliness – which are more likely to give the

in Banbridge, where I got my ceramics fired.

feeling of an ‘internal dwelling’ for the work to rest

events.

spaces

with

the

flavour

of

Having a large studio has allowed me to play

in. My sculpturally based installations focus on the

with the environments for the constructions and

biology of the brain – either working or in failure –

assemblages of larger work. I could also consider

and the internal dramas, which we experience as

lighting and sound elements. I first worked with a

‘mind’.

musician in a performance at Cambridge, then with

This enquiry into the brain began years ago,

Susan Enan for my 2004 exhibition at The Golden

when I wanted to put on paper what a thought

Thread Gallery, Belfast. Enan’s delicate sounds and

might look like as a physical mass; and to visualise

thought-stirring vocals, provided real and immediate

a cavernous landscape of the brain. One core form

sensations for the artwork to bounce off. Sound is

appears regularly in my in prints, drawn, and

vital to the multi-sensory experience I aim to

sculpted. It is a bulbous body with forks at the tip –

achieve in my work.

representing the thinking brain. The basic features

In 2006 I experienced a new form of music at

of this form come from knotted wrack seaweed,

the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Belfast – working

which to me echoed the appearance of diagrams

with Miguel Mortizperez on the performance

and scans of neurons in brains and their signal

ROMPE Break.

connections.

I collaborated with Thomas Conyngham for Preserves of the Minds Larder (1) at Lagan Weir, Belfast in 2005, then again with the

S.J McKee 2009

Bowels of the Mind at the Basement Gallery, Dundalk in 2008. Thomas’s unique, haunting voice naturally complimented the visuals and conflicting moods of the instillation.

As far as exhibiting goes; thus far I have not shown locally – the nearest show I’ve had to home was at the Downpatrick Arts centre. My preference

Notes 1) A review of Preserves of The Minds Larder and recent interview with the artist by Dr S. Sverakova can seen at www.recirca.com

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

11

November – December 2009

Regional Profile

The North Down Arts Section

Seacourt Print Workshop

Helen Sharp and Duncan Ross Kilcooley Sky Arch

Willie Heron Endless Column screen prin 38x48cms

Karin Patry Wedding of the Cultures Screen print & letterpress

The County of Down is a sprawling conflagration of rural and urban communities. The highest proportions of artists live on the Ards Peninsula, but there are creative souls scattered across the county for whom a range of services are provided by local council’s and support networks. This article will focus mainly on the work of Seacourt Print Workshop (SPW), as its Director I make no apology for the bias – but I will touch on other provision as well.

SPW is the only visual arts resource based in North Down. Initiated by Jean Duncan and Margaret Arthur, it has been operational for over 27 years offering opportunities to make art in traditional and experimental print media, including etching, lithography, screen-printing, relief printing and digital processes. The group seeks to meet its central aim of promoting the art of printmaking through three strands focusing on art, education and research. It receives its core funding through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

The strand supporting art takes the form of providing physical resources, professional practice training, exhibitions, residency programmes and initiating partnership projects. Non-gallery venues are targeted as a means of reaching new audiences, for example an ongoing exhibition space has been negotiated with a local Homebase store and a sitespecific show installed in Armagh Planetarium. The Planetarium project is one of several partnerships enabling members to create work in collaboration with non-arts organisations. Other partnerships include creating prints with Arizona State University inspired by photographs of Native Americans taken between 1902 – 08 and with the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust inspired by the history of its Castle Espie site. The works have just gone on sale within the visitor attraction’s shop, opening printmaking to new audiences and potentially new buyers.

We offer a three-month residency and an international visiting artist programme funded by North Down Borough Council. We’re fortunate to have master printer Penny Brewill with us on a 12-month residency supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Brewill’s presence has also allowed us to edition prints with visual artists who do not consider themselves primarily as printmakers.

These include Turner prize nominee Christine Borland, Beck’s Futures inaugural winner Roderick Buchanan; established artists Ian Charlesworth, Darren Murray and Angela Darby and emerging artists Keith Winter and Miguel Martin.

Our education programme is varied and includes professional practice modules for art students at the South Eastern Regional College.

Outreach to community groups is a growing area.

The structured techniques of printmaking support the making process and lead to accomplished outcomes, building confidence amongst those with

no art training or bad memories of school.

Researching ever-safer printing processes provides the third strand of our work. This has included hosting a symposium attended by Nik Semenoff and Cedric Green – both trail blazers in the world of non-toxic printmaking.

Unfortunately SPW does not have its own dedicated gallery and there is no dedicated public gallery in Bangor. Gail Prentice, the Borough Council’s Arts Officer, has attempted to address this by hosting ‘Art on the Seafront’ which places contemporary art interventions in public spaces with high visibility.

The nearest gallery is at Ards Arts Centre in Newtownards. The art centre provides two galleries and a rolling programme of monthly exhibitions.

Artists submit proposals to a visual arts subcommittee, which meets several times a year. Ards Arts also organises an annual event each August called the Creative Peninsula, which showcases the work of artists and crafts people living on the Peninsula through exhibitions, open studio tours and demonstrations.

Highlights this year included Willie Heron’s sculptural genius in combining beached flotsam and jetsam into structures that delight the eye and confound reason. Ned Jackson Smyth’s use of stripped branches mounted with rusting agricultural forks were placed in a bedroom cleared of all furnishings. The stark installation conjured a nightmarish coppice, like an image from a bedtime story transmuted in sleep and made physical.

Both these artists are members of Ards Arts collective, an artist-led association, which grew out of the Creative Peninsula event. The group has been involved in a number of innovative partnership projects involving product development training and a sci-art symposium.

Further south, Downpatrick also has a public gallery at the Down Arts Centre. Artist’s proposals are accepted on a rolling basis for its monthly programme. Down Community Arts is also active in this area and can be contacted by artists who are interested in engaging with the wider community.

The Graffon Gallery is based in WWT Castle Espie and seeks to exhibit artwork, which engages with the nature and environmental issues. The F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Studio was built in Banbridge to house the sculptor’s studio as a permanent attraction. It is running an exhibition programme of significant collections and collaborations covering both the fine and applied arts. Although programmed for 2010 the gallery will be seeking submissions for group and collection based shows next year for its 2011 calendar.

Richard Peters

“The Borough of North Down is situated on the southern shores of Belfast Lough. The town of Bangor functions as a service and administrative centre, as well as a market town and seaside resort.

North Down also includes Holywood a popular residential area and also five villages Crawfordsburn, Groomsport, Helen’s Bay, Conlig and Seahill and a hamlet Six Road Ends. North Down is a successful tourist resort and is regarded as one of the most tranquil and stable areas in Northern Ireland.” (1) Down Borough Council Arts Committee. 2006 –2010 Arts Strategy.

I was pleased that Down Borough Council Arts Committee was keen to encourage the development of the visual arts as one of the key elements of the 2006 – 2010 Arts Strategy for the Borough, having come from a visual arts background. As an objective of the strategy, North Down Arts Section has been focused on the funding of visual arts organisations and individuals through arts grants and capital; along with grants, multi-annual grants for established organisations; and also The Kilfedder Memorial Bursary, which offers visual artists residential opportunities.

The Council has continuously funded established organisations like Seacourt Print Workshop, as well as supporting emerging visual artists. The arts section also provides general arts advice and support for artists in for example encouraging the set up of artist run studios and organisations, by making use of reduced rent vacant town centre units made available by the economic down turn.

Another important element is the development of a public art strategy for the Borough – and the general development of public art. This is especially important in light of the lack of dedicated visual art spaces in the Borough. Projects like ‘Art on the Seafront’ have succeeded in bringing contemporary visual art out of the gallery space and into the public realm. This is an ongoing project, which began in 2002, and has utilised traditional advertising media, ie. billboards and bus shelters to display the work of visual artists like Peter Richards, Gary Shaw, Ursula Burke and Brian Kennedy. In

June 2009 planning permission was granted to erect 330ft long hoardings as an outdoor exhibition space along the length of a seafront development site. The first exhibition, which continues until November 2009, features large-scale photographic works by Moira McIver. Throughout 2008 and 2009 McIver documented the early stage developments of the newly opened walled garden at Castle Park, Bangor.

Recently, a large-scale public art project has been completed in North Down – the ‘North Down Art of Regeneration Project’, which involved the Council committing to a four year project which started in 2005 working specifically in the Kilcooley Estate, Bangor and the Loughview/Redburn Estate, Holywood in partnership with ACNI, NIHE, DSD and LSP. The main aim of the project was to use public art to influence regeneration, with a challenging aims to address paramilitary murals and anti social graffiti through the development of new public art works. The central priority through all stages of the project – from conception of ideas to the siting and installation of the art works – was that the artists worked with residents to instil a real sense of ownership of the completed art works.

Over 1000 residents of all age groups were involved in the project. Over the four years, seven artists – Joanne Smith, Jim McKevitt, Lucy Turner, Ursula Burke, Patricia Lavery, Duncan Ross and Helen Sharp – engaged with the communities, in order to create eight large scale public art works in main community thoroughfares. For example the Kilcooley Obelisks are seen by an average of 10,000 commuters, residents and visitors on a daily basis.

Two of the artworks have replaced paramilitary murals; and two repeat areas of anti-social and paramilitary graffiti have been replaced by artworks created through the project.

The Kilcooley Obelisks have transformed an area formerly renowned as a contentious space. The work has instead become a positive landmark and the obelisks used as a visual image in promotion of the North Down area. The success of this project has touched many people’s lives and will remain in the memory of the communities for years to come. The legacy of this project has built upon community confidence in these communities and in the other six estate areas of the Borough whose residents have began to initiate their own projects.

The North Down Arts Section will continue to encourage the development and strive to strengthen the position of the visual arts, this is especially important in the run up to the Review of Public Administration and North Down’s proposed merger with Ards Borough Council.

Gail Prentice, Arts Officer North Down Borough Council

DOWN Contacts Charles Gilmore Fine Art, 31 Church Road, Holywood, BT18 9BU T: +44 (0)28 90428555 E: charles@charlesgilmore.com www.charlesgilmore.com Davison Gallery 53a High St, Holywood, Down, BT18 9AB T: +44 (0)28 9042 5982 E: info@davisongallery.com www.davisongallery.com magos Art Gallery, Crieve, Newry, Co. Down, BT34 2LP T: +44 (0)28 30834927 E: info@imagosart.co.uk www.imagosart.co.uk The Saint Patrick Centre, 53a Lower Market Street, Downpatrick, Co. Down, BT30 6LZ T: +44 (0) 28 4461 9000 E: director@saintpatrickcentre.com www.saintpatrickcentre.com North Down Museum, North Down Heritage Centre, North Down Borough Council, Castle Park Avenue, Bangor, County Down , BT20 4BT. www.northdown.gov.uk/heritage heritage@northdown.gov.uk (028) 9127 1200 Seacourt Print Workshop Robert Peters info@seacourt-ni.org.uk +44 (0) 28 91 460595

North Down Arts Office: Gail Prentice, Gail.Prentice@northdown.gov. uk +44 (0)28 91 27 0371 Ards Arts: Emily Walsh, Emily.Walsh@ards-council.gov.uk +44 (0) 28 91 810803 Ards Arts Collective: Betty Brown, betty@brownheron.co.uk Ards Arts Centre Conway Square, Newtownards, BT23 4DB. 028 9181 0803 arts@ards-council.gov.uk Down Arts: Denise Griffith, Denise.Griffith@downdc.gov.uk +44 (0) 28 44 610747 Down Community Arts: Vicki Maguire vicki@downcommunityarts.org +44 (0)28 44 616006 F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Studio, 200 Newry Road, Banbridge, Co. Down. BT32 3NB femcwilliam@banbridge.gov.uk +44 (0) 28 40 623322 Ava Gallery Clandeboye Estate Bangor, BT19 1RN 028 9185 2263 info@avagalleryclandeboye.co.uk Down Arts Centre, 2-6 Irish Street, Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland. BT30 6BP. 028 4461 0747 www.downartscentre.com

12

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

November – December 2009

Regional Profile

Investment in Public Art in Down District Council

Ards Arts The Ards Peninsula is an area of outstanding natural beauty and its stunning scenery has inspired a growing number of artists and craftspeople to move to this region and unleash their creative talents. The main town, Newtownards is only eight miles from Belfast yet our small villages, archaeological sites and secluded bays let you escape from the pace of life.

Ards Arts is the arts service of Ards Borough Council who has undertaken a number of initiatives to support the visual arts in the Borough, most notably the development of the Ards Art Trail with assistance from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. The 16 pieces of public art that comprise the trail were constructed in two phases over a sixyear period between 1997 and 2003. Each piece was selected to complement its surroundings and the villages set the criteria for their own specific work of art, stating what elements of their community, culture and heritage they wanted to see represented.

They also chose the area of their village where the final work would reside. The trail has now become an established and much admired addition to the beauty and unique cultural heritage of the Ards Peninsula.

Coupled with the established Creative Peninsula event each August, Ards is renowned as the artistic and creative hub of the county of Down.

The Creative Peninsula event is an Ards Borough Council initiative, now in its eighth year, aiming to promote visual artists and craftspeople living and working in the Ards Peninsula. Organised by Ards Tourism, Ards Crafts and Ards Arts, the event comprises our now well-established exhibitions’ series, taster workshops and open studios where you can visit artists at work in their own surroundings and purchase a piece of work. The event also features a ‘Craft in the Square Day’ with craft demonstrations, music, and a Children’s Creative Peninsula area with hands on activities to get young ones involved.

Ards Arts Centre is a lively arts venue based in the beautiful Georgian Town Hall in the centre of Newtownards, Co Down. The building was refurbished in 2000 and has facilities for arts based workshops and a multi purpose function room for conferences, meetings, weddings and events. Within Ards Arts Centre, there are two galleries showing modern, local and international art exhibitions throughout the year. The Sunburst Gallery plays host to many local artists and displays the work of community groups in receipt of funding to

Ards Arts Centre

encourage their artistic and creative development.

The highlight of the year is the annual Creative Peninsula exhibition in the Main Gallery where over 80 visual arts and crafts practitioners living in the area are invited to submit a piece of work.

Ards Arts Centre also facilitates a number of leisure art classes for adults and children including Art For Kids; Patchwork; Parchment and Watercolour.

A number of local art groups make use of Ards Arts Centre, meeting on a regular basis, ranging from Ards Embroidery Guild to Ards Choral Society & Ards Historical Society. For further information and opening hours please contact us at: T: 028 91810803 E: arts@ards-council.gov.uk Emily Walsh Arts Officer / Director Ards Arts Centre

Alan Burke Bronze Vessel

Chris Wilson Global Journeys

The landscape of Down District has changed dramatically over the past three years with major public realm schemes completed in Newcastle and Ardglass. The completion of the construction of the new Downe Hospital has incorporated public arts throughout. There are future projects planned for Downpatrick and a major Public Art gateway project in advance of the new Newry and Mourne and Down District Council Merger. All in all, an exciting time for visual arts in Down.

Public Art is central to all of the projects initiated by Down District’s Culture and Economic Development Department in the public realm schemes in Newcastle and Ardglass. Mourne Heritage Trust has initiated a Gateway project aiming to place large sculptures in Clough, Rathfriland and Warrenpoint in the first phase with additional sites being identified as areas of outstanding natural beauty.

Public Art in Newcastle includes Chris Wilson’s Global Journeys, a piece which compliments the landscape design of the award winning promenade, reflecting the sky and sea, people and place. Charles Normandale’s Tails of Flight captures the spirit of flight with a maritime twist, referencing Harry Ferguson’s pioneering flight in Newcastle in 1909.

At nine metres high this piece acts as a marker for the promenade at all times. The Gateway piece into the town by Ron Baird, Words in the Wind, makes an impressive statement; it is a 12 metre high kinetic sculpture, reflecting the cultural and natural landscape in its petals, carved with Celtic and Neolithic drawings.

Ardglass boasts the work of local artist Alan Burke. Burke’s piece, Bronze Vessel, the bronze bow of a medieval fishing vessel, heralds a time when Ardglass was known as a Royal port and a key centre

on the eastern coast of Ireland.

Downe Hospital embarked on an exciting journey, which included public art in the very fabric of the new building. The South Eastern Heath and Social Care Trust observed the 1% for art and involved artists in the project from the initial concepts to completion. Work from local artists such as Kevin Killen, Diane McCormick and Eleanor Wheeler grace the site internally and externally.

Sharon O’Connor, Director of Cultural and Economic Development, Down District Council has commented “Public Art has added considerably to the potential of Newcastle to attract visitors who have consistently remarked in a positive way on the quality of the art and their appreciation of it. Public Art enhances the environment and nurtures the spirit and will be especially important at the Downe Hospital, a site where health is the focus”.

Downpatrick has received funding from the Department of Social Development for the Public Realm project planned for 2010. Through this project the town will be transformed very much in the same manner as Newcastle. One of the highlights will be a large sculpture in Millennium Square. This specific project will go to tender in the near future.

The focus on public art in the large development projects in the area provides huge opportunities for artists locally and abroad. These projects are supported by numerous statutory bodies such as the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Department of Social Development, Northern Ireland Tourist Board and Department of Agriculture and Rural Development along with Mourne Heritage Trust and Down District Council.

Denise Griffith, Arts Officer Down District Council

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

13

November – December 2009

SYMPOSIA

Doing it for Themselves

Helen O’Connell reports on the Sliabh Gearr granite symposium held in Wexford (29 August – 13 September)

Padraig McGoran. working at the symposium. Photo: Helen O'Connell.

There was not a cloud in the bright blue sky as I wove my way down to Wexford from Dublin, a welcome break from the monsoon season we have reluctantly come to accept as the Irish summer. I arrived at Niall Deacon’s yard to the welcome sound of hammers hitting chisels, chisels hitting stone, the shrill screeching of angle grinders and the sight of a group of school kids gathered around a sculptor at work with evident genuine curiosity.

The Sliabh Gearr Granite Symposium (29 Aug – 13 Sept) is the first stone symposium to take place in Ireland in 10 years. I resolved to try to get to the bottom of this mysterious absence from Irish cultural life, during a time when the arts were receiving ample funding and support; and find out what it is that makes symposia so beloved of stone sculptors in particular. One of the participating sculptors Eileen MacDonagh, who has extensive experience of symposia internationally, believes the economic boom may have been the cause. Most symposia are artist-led, and given that so many professional sculptors were so busy during the last decade maybe they felt no pressing need to make symposia occur. She postulates that maybe there will be an upsurge in symposia now with the downturn in the economy.

Symposia are a phenomena, not exclusive to the art of stone carving – but very much suited to the specific needs of the stone sculptor. A symposium generally involves anything from six to 15 artists coming together to produce work over a specific period of time – which would usually range from a fortnight to a month. The public are usually welcome to come along and observe the process and individual work practices entailed in the production of the sculpture during the symposium ­– thus serving to demystify an artistic practice about which there is often much ignorance. The finished sculptures resulting from the symposium then usually remain behind in the location where they were made, the artist having been paid a modest fee for participation and provided with bed and board. Symposia are often funded by local county councils, art council, or organisations such as the Heritage Trust – which cover the sculptors for their time and efforts with a minimal stipend. However in the case of Sliabh Gearr, despite a modest contribution from the local council to cover various overheads, in return for which the artists are working collaboratively to carve a bench for the local national school, the artists were all working unpaid on their own time.

Sliabh Gearr was brought into being almost single-handedly by the unstoppable energy and enthusiasm of a remarkably charismatic individual called Niall Deacon. Deacon carves the local granite himself working in his own enviably equipped stone yard in the heart of granite country stretching across Wexford’s Blackstairs mountains, where he has also been involved in tillage farming since the age of 14.

A throwaway ignorant remark overheard on the radio one morning by somebody reviewing a graduate art exhibition that “nobody carves stone anymore” galvanized Deacon to address the invisibility and marginalisation of stone carving in the contemporary Irish art scene.

With the help of stone sculptors Cliodna Cussen and Padraig MacGoran, Deacon formed a committee through which he managed to bring together nine sculptors to participate in the symposium by advertising in the Visual Artists News Sheet and E-Bulletin. Together they organised for donated artworks from the sculptors to be sold to raise funds to finance the symposium back in June. Wexford County Council was keen to show their support for indigenous skills and agreed to fund some of the overheads. Although the sculptors are not being paid a stipend for their participation their work will be for sale at the Norman Gallery where it will be exhibited to coincide with the Wexford Opera Festival.

Deacon’s incredible, intimate knowledge of Sliabh Gearr and love for the local countryside and its granite is contagious. He brings these granite boulders that lie on the surface of the land down the mountain himself to work with them. As participating sculptor Eileen Mac

Martha Quinn Constellation. 800x1200x600 cms. Photo: Helen O'Connell.

Cliona Cussen carving. Photo: Helen O'Connell.

Niall Deacon working at the symposium. Photo: Helen O'Connell.

Donagh commented, “He knows more about granite than anybody around because he’s dealing with it everyday”. The participating sculptors were invited onto the land to choose the stones they would like to work with in the irregular forms of their natural found state, as opposed to being presented with commercially quarried blocks, as most sculptors would be used to dealing with. As a result, several of the sculptors’ designs were influenced by the beautiful sculptural, organic forms of the blocks of granite themselves. Italian sculptor Emanuela Camacci altered her original design upon seeing the granite boulders, deciding to let the material itself influence her intervention. Similarly Bojana Krizanec availed of the freedom afforded her to follow the natural lines and curves of the boulder, working on several stones, which could dialogue amongst themselves.

One of the advantages of working in Deacon’s yard is that the place is so well equipped with cutting machinery and lifting equipment, all of which are essential in saving time, especially in the context of a symposium when the sculptors have a finite amount of time to finish their pieces. Sculptor Paul Haggins who carved a large version of the ancient Irish letter ‘b’ was saved a considerable amount of time by the fact that Deacon could bore a hole through the stone for him using a large core drill. He points out that “sometimes the time pressures of a symposium can lead to new, innovative ways of working the material”.

Most of the sculptors taking part in the symposium would not have the means to work on such a large scale in their own studios and seem excited by the possibilities afforded by an increase in scale.

Speaking to all of the nine artists (Cliodna Cussen, Martha Quinn, Eileen Mac Donagh, Paul Haggins, Padraig Mac Goran, Emanuela Camacci, Martin Lyttle, Bojana Krizanec and Niall Deacon) I am struck by how invaluable an experience they consider it to be to take part in a symposium where sculptors can feel at home in a community that understands their particular set of challenges. As Haggins – who has

taken part in symposia in Vietnam and Thailand and has recently returned from a month long symposium in Canada – explains, “if you keep your eyes open at a symposium you take everything in like a sponge. You’re looking at other people’s techniques”. He cites the invaluable experience of learning about the culture of the country hosting the symposium but just as importantly the experience of learning about the cultures of the other sculptors from across the world and the increased respect for one’s own culture that seems to result from these international encounters. I notice there is a chunk cut out of his hammer, which he explains is a trick he picked up from an Indian stone carver to lighten the weight of the back swing of every hammer blow.

Cliodna Cussen is a sculptor who has been working long enough to have seen several artistic trends come and go. As a stone sculptor myself I can relate to the vehemence of her feeling “…it’s not fashionable.

Totally unfashionable. If you want to do something unfashionable, go do stone”. It often seems that we work in a medium, which falls between the proverbial stools being considered craft by the fine art world, and fine art by the craft world. Even the art colleges, finding themselves short on physical space and addled by the threat of insurance claims, seem to have little interest in maintaining the tradition of stone sculpture with its awkward world of dust and noise.

According to Cliodna “stone has been completely neglected as if it was never going to be necessary again”. Even The Leitrim Sculpture Centre in Manorhamilton which began its life as one of the only facilities dedicated to stone sculpture nationwide, has gradually moved in the direction of technology based media and installation in keeping with current trends in Irish contemporary art, although they do keenly encourage stone carvers to use the facility.

Cussen feels symposia are “very good for meeting people and pulling you back into reality again”, the perfect antidote to the isolation that can result from working alone. She refers to the conviviality and the sense of motivation one gets working alongside other sculptors.

Most of the sculptors at Sliabh Gearr are eager to mention the particularly friendly working environment on the symposium and the unique balance of personalities. Cussen explains, “when people start competing it’s no fun at all”. At Sliabh Gearr there is “nobody fighting, nobody competing fiercely, nobody acting macho or ultra feminine”.

Stone sculpture almost invariably brings the artist into contact with heavy weight and mass with most of the blocks being carved in Sliabh Gearr weighing over a ton. Dealing with this kind of weight is naturally made easier by the helping hands of fellow sculptors on a symposium and by suitable lifting equipment.

While Deacon’s determination to put stone carving back on the map of Irish art was brewing down in Wexford, Martha Quinn was simultaneously up in Sligo “missing the fact that there were no opportunities” and feeling that “something needs to happen to raise the profile” so when she saw the ad in the Visual Artists News Sheet she was quick to respond. Even for a sculptor like Quinn who has been consistently busy with commissioned work, it is the sense of community that she finds so important about symposia. “The whole purpose of a symposium is to share knowledge, share skills, share what’s happening and build a community. There isn’t that sense of community in terms of people who make three dimensional objects out of stone and I for one have missed that sense of participation”. I left Sliabh Gearr with the impression that this symposium would mark the beginning of a whole new period of interaction and communication between Ireland’s scattered stone carving community.

Helen O’Connell

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

14

November – December 2009

PROFILE

Relational Complexities Fiona Whelan profiles the University of Ulster’s MA, Art in Public. tutorials that were highly constructive. Another positive element to the 07 / 08 course was a seminar series titled; Dialogue, Negotiation, Collaboration, and Participation: Towards a Better Future, which involved a series of presentations/workshops by individual students in partnership with their external partners. As the arts sector and art educational institutions rarely reach across sector to engage and listen to other disciplines, this was an exciting and challenging element of the course to me. To have the opportunity to invite youth workers and young people with whom I collaborate, to participate in debate in an art institution felt very progressive. During the 18 months, staff also made a number of visits to Dublin to engage in discussion and participate in events with my collaborators, staying connected to the complexities of this relational practice. For me, this commitment to the specificities of each artist’s individual practice Eleanor Phillips, Master Project Widow's Conversation Part III, Belfast Jan 2009.

'Mapping the Terrain', Group session with Declan McGonagle, October 2007

The MA Art in Public at the University of Ulster, Belfast is currently

permanently constituting plural public spheres in a constant state of

setting out with its third batch of students. It comprises an intensive

negotiation.”(4) In September 2007, in its first year, I undertook this

18 months Masters programme, initiated by research centre Interface

MA on a full time basis (two days seminars and lectures and three

and run at the University of Ulster. As the university website states,

days practice a week) and I am one of four people who have so far

“this new Masters programme…has evolved from current complex

completed this Masters since January of this year.

concerns for the role of art and artists in a dramatically changing

The semester one module ‘exploration and enquiry’ included

society under the influence of two main interlinked societal trends:

many guest lectures, workshops and group critique. This led into a

globalisation and digitization. It engages in the interrogation of the

development module in semester two, where ideas were honed and

civil ‘territories’ of art and the modes of practice to inhabit and

contexts negotiated with more visiting contributors and site visits.

develop them.”(1) The student cohort attending this course has been

Additional modules in the first two semesters such as information,

diverse; and is reflective of the broad spectrum of artists who are

communication and writing; how the arts think; cultural practices in

faced with these issues. To date, the course has attracted artists from

context and research, all added theory, context and skills; and

a variety of disciplines with interventionist and activist practices;

required students to engage in essay writing and practical exercises.

artists who design and make installations, events or public sculptures;

Semester three was entirely focused on each student’s own ‘master

and those with relational practices, who engage with non-art

project’.

disciplines in the interest of collaborative, participatory or dialogic

The course was part of a new ambitious matrix at UU; and so the Masters programme was also linked in some modules to the MA in

processes.

Over six years, I have built my practice as an artist in Rialto, in

Multidisciplinary Design and the MA in Textile Material Product. On

Dublin’s south inner city. This practice is rooted within a complex set

paper, this sounded extremely interesting, suggesting a diversity of

of interconnected relationships with individuals, organisations and

debate and a skill transfer across discipline. In reality, in its attempt

social realities and I now operate as part of an interdisciplinary

to address such different fields within art and design practice, the

Collective of Artist, Youth Workers and young adults. (2) For a number

content of certain modules was often too broad. Having being drawn

of years, I had searched for an MA that would suit this engaged

to the MA Art in Public because of how uniquely specific it was

practice. I was aware that programmes such as the MA Art in the

pitched, being in class with a broad range of practitioners often

Contemporary World in NCAD or the MA Visual Arts Practices in

prevented a more in depth analysis of the specific field. However, we

IADT could perhaps accommodate such a practice, but I was eager to

were the first generation of students in this matrix and perhaps this

find an MA that was dedicated to exploring the complexities of the

structure has grown to be more beneficial. In my time there, two

specific relational field in which my practice is situated.

modules did gain from working across discipline. In the first two

I had identified a number of relevant programmes abroad,

terms, we were partnered with the MFA students for certain modules.

however, having committed many years to one locality and

This fit with fellow artists was much more appropriate and there

developing the suitable conditions for an evolving practice, my

were many crossovers in practice and many rich discussions.

primary interest was for my masters to stay connected and directly

Interface is an intimate, focused research centre with exciting

impact my work there, and so I wanted to pursue an MA on this

individuals, positioned within the University of Ulster. It obviously

island. The MA Art in Public seemed the most specific of what I’d

gained status and no doubt funding from being part of a big

found. It was also attractive as it qualified for a higher education

University. However, on beginning the MA, I had anticipated that the

grant for students from the Republic; which I was later to realise was

Masters students would be less integrated into the broader UU and

not the case for students from Northern Ireland. During the interview

more connected to many of the artists working as Interface researchers

stage, I successfully negotiated with staff to keep my specific

or PhD students – who would have offered massive strength to the

contextual practice as central to my studies rather than engage in any

course content. However being part of a big university structure had

alternative placement or context so they were the conditions within

other advantages, namely the ability to attract significant practitioners

which I set out.

for lectures, workshops and creative contributions to city events. In

Interface is a research centre in the University of Ulster, which

2008, for the Biennale ‘Art, Media and Contested Space’, the presence

was developed in 2004 out of the research strengths of active staff at

of various creative practitioners such as Faisal Abdu’ Allah, Wendy

UU who identified the topics; art in context, art in contested spaces

Ewald, Andrew Freeman, Peter Kennard & Cat Phillipps, Alfredo Jaar,

and art and its locations, as its intended direction. Its first director

Anne Sarah Le Meur, Brian McClelland, Peter Neill and Paul Seawright

was Professor Declan McGonagle (until 2008). With individuals

made for interesting discourse. Other guests to the MA have included

including Kerstin Mey, Susanne Bosch, Anthony Haughey and Sarah

Monica Nunez, Norbert Heins, Shan Millar, Brian Connolly, Kerstin

Pierce on staff and artists such as Ailbhe Murphy and Lorraine Leeson

Mey, Sandra Johnston, Daniel Jewesbury, Finger, Anne Douglas,

engaged in PhD studies, this indicated to me that Interface was

Platforma, Irma Optimist, City Minde|d, Walid Raad, Guerilla Girls

something new and energetic brewing at the University of Ulster.

and Willie Doherty with Doina Petrescu as external examiner. Most

The MA Art in Public was described as being designed “for creative professionals who seek to acquire knowledge and skills in

significantly in my opinion is the recent addition of Alfredo Jaar, who has now come on board as the visiting professor for 2009.

practice and intervention in the complex public territory of art and

Setting aside my issues with the structure, The MA Art in Public

The course acknowledged from the outset that

is well designed with committed staff. In its first year, the staff

“public is seen as neither a pre-existent substance nor an immutable

regularly changed, but has settled now to a core team of Susanne

terrain. Rather, public practices are themselves involved in

Bosch and Dan Shipsides – both of whom engaged with me in regular

civil society.”

(3)

was unique – and it offered huge a learning opportunity to the students, the staff, the institution and the external individuals and organisations.

The MA Art in Public is committed to accommodating a broad range of practices – which was reflected in my experience of the master projects module, where each of us was required to develop a resolved body of work in the public domain. There were few restrictions on this, with students producing work in a variety of forms – in locations in and outside of Belfast; allowing us to be true to our individual processes and creating work organically at a time most suited to the specific project. This flexibility was preferable for most students – rather than being forced to adapt context specific work to a set location. Ironically however, this also made it difficult for the MA Art in Public to build a profile – as final projects manifested in different locations at different times with no central exhibition or focus.

This highlights an underling issue in the institutionalisation of practices that often sit outside the mainstream; practices that regularly challenge and ask the difficult questions of institutions including art educational institutions. The second generation of students to this course along with the MA staff attempted to deal with this issue at the graduation show last June. They also extended an invitation to those of us who had recently completed the course to participate. For the opening night, when graduates of all departments of the Belfast campus presented their work to the public, the MA Art in Public students past and presented and their individual staff members, positioned their work on the land outside the University in a counter exhibition entitled ‘An.nex’, adjacent to the one inside the institution. Having students and staff present work together in this alternative way reflected to me something special about this course.

Having completed the course many months ago, I now identify it as a real turning point for my practice. Having worked as an artist in one context for many years, it was very refreshing to dedicate time to interrogate the complexities of the relationships, structures and specificities of my practice and to identify gaps and weaknesses. The primary issue I had identified within my practice was finding a means to translate such a relational process into a form that was equally dialogic and reflective of the depth of engagement. Through course content and ongoing tutor support, I made huge headway in this area which had a direct and immediate effect on my collaborative process, leading to the development of new work including film, live reading events and the construction of a mobile space for conversation and creative exchange.

This shift in form has marked a significant transition in my work. I have also maintained a relationship with tutor Susanne Bosch who continues to inform and include past students in opportunities arising at the University and beyond. This commitment and support has led directly to a number of developments professionally for individual students since completion of the MA Art in Public, including my own selection for the NEU/NOW festival in Vilnius later this year. My belief is that if this MA Art in Public can attract a diverse and experienced student group, it has the potential to grow into something really exciting.

Fiona Whelan Notes www.ulster.ac.uk/prospectus www.section8.ie www.ulster.ac.uk/prospectus http://www.interfacebelfast.com

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

15

November – December 2009

project profile

Corban Walker. Mapping Hugh Lane. 2009. Image courtesy of the artist.

Grace Weir. In my own time. 2008. Image courtesy of the artist.

New Juxtapositions

Dorothy Cross. Land Scape. 2008. Image courtesy of the artist

linker. The challenge of The Golden Bough series is this cohesive element of medium cannot be relied upon. Dempsey argues that the current economic situation affords art institutions the opportunity to

Hilary Murray on The Golden Bough series at Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane

take chances and The Golden Bough allows him to infiltrate this established course with more difficult projects not normally seen in the space allocated to the core collection.

The Hugh Lane has recently installed a series of mid-career artist

Of course not so long ago, museums were anathema to

This idea is obvious when we look at the referencing behind The

exhibitions in gallery eight of Charlemont House, right at the heart of

contemporary practice. Yet artists today, habituated to showing their

Golden Bough. The phrase, ‘The Golden Bough’, is taken from Sir James

their historic collection. This project entitled The Golden Bough,

work in galleries, are already well-accustomed to creating a zone for

George Frazer’s book and references the defensive outlook of tradition

designed by senior exhibition’s curator Michael Dempsey, allows for

their work in various types of cultural establishments.

and the ambition of the new (1). In a show of such ambition Brian

developing artists to see their work alongside that of old masters. The

The Golden Bough shows are commissioned and developed in

Duggan’s Step inside now step inside saw a ‘wall of death’ – a model of the

established character of the Hugh Lane in the Irish museum world has

collaboration with The Hugh Lane, rather than being part of a show

famous motorcycle track – inserted into the end-wall of the space,

been based on its somewhat awkward balance between late 19th

that may have travelled from another institution. The series offers an

utilised by the artist to make a humorous jibe at works hanging in the

century impressionist works – which still lie at the heart of the

ideal opportunity for the artist to show they can handle the confines

main gallery.

collection – and more recent work from artists such as Sean Scully and

and contradictions of a museum. It also allows the museum to attempt

However the notion that an artist has to be past their prime to

William Scott. As such the museum has been primarily known for its

new juxtapositions and try-out work that they may acquire in the

show in a museum is fading and artists are now embracing the

extensive painting collection. The installation of the Francis Bacon

future. Therefore the challenge for contemporary artists is not

challenges that such a complex institution affords new art. Both

studio in 2001 did much to redress this imbalance, yet so far attempts

necessarily to fit in to the space, but to centre their work in a

museums and modern art came about and developed together, forming

at integrating contemporary art into the collection have been few.

contemporary capacity within the historical, situating their work in a

a complex bond. The museum has for the most part maintained its

manner that allows them their signature in the overall scheme.

ability to absorb the avant-garde, inculcating what was proposed to be

The Golden Bough allows for such an integration, albeit in a temporary capacity (each show runs for three months). Yet for Dempsey, the series goes further and questions the role of the museum in art today. In recent years the emphasis of most museums has been on education and the Hugh Lane has followed suit. Dempsey however sees The Golden Bough as an aside from the desire to move the museum into the public sphere and a chance to allow part of the museum to function in a purely creative capacity. He points to the fact that, for him personally, the nature of such a project affords greater scope for curatorial experimentation. Having come to the Hugh Lane in 2007 as head of exhibitions, Dempsey inherited several large shows such as the Hugh Lane Centenary exhibition in 2008. These formal projects already in the planning, afforded the curatorial team adequate time to mark their creativity in group shows such as 'Frequency', 'Other Men’s Flowers' and 'The Quick and the Dead'. These exhibitions in the upper gallery space however ran the risk of situating contemporary art and the main collection at odds with each other. The Golden Bough however sees the creativity exhibited in the upper galleries come into close quarters with the collection in the main gallery.

The series began in March 2008 with a selection of work by Dorothy Cross and has continued with work from Garrett Phelan, Grace Weir and Brian Duggan. The current show will feature the work of Corban Walker entitled Mapping The Hugh Lane which directly challenges the environs of the museum and the manner in which the viewer moves through the well-known space. This exhibition will be followed by the work of Katie Holten.

The artists chosen by Dempsey for The Golden Bough series are normally mid-career and Irish, or predominantly Irish-based. The layout of the classic Georgian building and the connotations of museum as institution create a template for art tradition that cannot be overlooked – a template, which in reality any contemporary artist is going to have to deal with.

Gallery eight, which houses The Golden Bough series is ideally

non-museum art effortlessly into the canon. Works developed with a

located. Situated at the right side off the main gallery, its unusual

mind to remain outside of the museum became in time documented

shape and proximity to the central collection, allow visitors to see the

so vociferously that the ensuing archive eventually became the work

tradition from which the featured artist originates. The room itself

and can now be seen most museum collections. This uneasy association

provides a challenge for the artists involved given its unusual shape.

between museum and contemporary art is waning. Artists no longer

Dempsey admits that many of the artists chosen for the series have

see the museum as something to challenge and museums are

asked if the heated seat, situated at the centre of the narrow space, can

broadening their ideas of what should be shown. This coming together

be removed. Yet such are the realities of the exhibition space, and for

of parallel art strands is mutually productive. The institution stays

many artists that have grown-up on the white cube format, this space

within the contemporary art scene, no longer losing out to galleries

affords them an opportunity that others cannot. The highly decorative

and the artist gains a new space to exhibit. Artists now take the

and historical aspect to the Hugh Lane establishes an inescapable

opportunity to show in both museums and galleries often alternating

historicity and lineage. Some artists embrace this, while others remove

between small single gallery shows, group collectives and museum

themselves from it. Grace Weir’s In my own time, an installation

retrospectives of their own work.

influenced by 19 century scientific thought, saw the artist install

The juxtaposition of contemporary art and classical collection

highly-technical 21st century flat screens into the gallery space. Weir

seen in The Golden Bough allows for a rare contemplation of one’s

made sure to hang her central video piece in line with the paintings

situation in the grand schema, both for the artist and viewer alike. As

situated in the main gallery, the overall work referencing a commonality

Gallery eight is somewhat closed off from the main gallery, it allows

in enlightenment thought and today’s evolution in technique. By

the visitor the choice to include the new work in their walk through

contrast Garrett Phelan’s Radio tombs and interpretation maintained a

the gallery. As such the series serves as an ideal way to introduce

detached outlook; blackening out the space and cutting it off from the

museum-goers to what’s happening now in Irish art. It also affords a

main gallery. Phelan’s work established an oblique questioning of the

novel opportunity to see the evolution of art as it unfolds.

th

surroundings whilst remain autonomous.

Corban Walker’s Mapping The Hugh Lane can be seen in Gallery

This bolt-hole for contemporary art created by Gallery eight

eight of the Hugh Lane from 30 September 2009 – 17 January 2010.

allows for a certain detachment from the institution that surrounds it,

Corban Walker’s exhibition will be followed by the work of Katie

and though interplay can and does occur, the ability for artist and

Holten in 2010.

curator to forge a novel format is inspiring. Dempsey admits that with cutting-edge art comes much learning on both sides. The crew at the

Hilary Murray is a writer and PhD student at University

Hugh Lane have been exposed to the latest in high-tech art and

College Dublin

because of the novelty of such in a museum more known for its paintings, each side gains from the process.

For Dempsey this coming together of the old and new has always been somewhat effortless at the Hugh Lane, as the paintings, be they impressionistic or contemporary, always had the common medium as

Notes (1) “… it was a custom in the cult of Diana for a slave to cut a branch from a sacred tree and then kill the priest responsible for guarding the tree. The slave took the priest’s place and was later killed himself in the same way”. http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Fi-Go/Golden-Bough.html

16

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

November – December 2009

Institution profile

Understanding & Inspiration Jason Oakley talks to Tim Cooke, Director of the Ulster Museum about the refurbishment and re-launch of the INSTITUTION.

Sean Scully. Courtesy Ulster Museum.

JO: By way of introduction, could you outline a brief history of the Ulster Museum?

TC: Originally called the Belfast Municipal Museum and Art Gallery, the Ulster Museum moved to its current location in 1929. In 1972, a modernist extension, designed by Francis Pym, was added to the 1920s neo-classical building.

The original principles of universal access and education remain to the fore today. We have designed the new museum to be more appealing to people who wouldn’t have considered a museum visit before.

As you will know, Northern Ireland’s history has been complex, turbulent and painful. The museum plays an important role in offering insight to Irish history right back to first peoples and beyond. It offers a broader perspective than pupils will get in most schools and it explores a range of disciplines. It has a particularly northern Irish narrative but also looks at world cultures, wider European history, British, European and American art. We want people to discover a sense of wonder when they visit.

The Ulster Museum is part of National Museums Northern Ireland, which includes the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum, Ulster American Folk Park, Armagh County Museum and W5 Science Discovery Centre.

JO: Walk our the readers through the refurbishment …

TC: This £17 million rejuvenation has been radical and deliberate, designed not just to improve the building, galleries and visitor facilities but also to allow new ways of exploring the collections and engaging with learning while offering both space and activity for reflection and creativity.

The new Ulster Museum experience begins outside with a redefinition of the relationship with Belfast’s fabulous Botanic Gardens.

The piazza at the entrance offers views over magnificent specimen trees from around the world and a greater sense of the scale and magnificence of the building.

Inside the galleries are looped around a 23-metre high atrium area, which gives a great sense of space and light. From here, visitors can access all levels of the museum and explore the history, science and art galleries. From the atrium you can also see our three-storey-high ‘Window on Our World’ glass and polished steel display case featuring a range of objects from across the museum’s collections.

There are three interactive learning zones, a new gallery for applied art and much better visitor facilities such as our new restaurant and shop.

JO: How did the refurbishment come about?

TC: The project has been in planning since early 2004 and has involved many partners. Since the initial planning, the project has evolved and changed as we secured more funding. We were delighted, for example, to secure additional, private funding which allowed us to add an Applied Art Gallery to the design.

The design team has been led by Hamilton Architects from Belfast while Patton Construction from County Antrim carried out the construction work. Specialists including gallery designers Haley Sharpe Design and gallery fit-out contractors Becks have brought great imagination and expertise to the gallery designs and exhibitions.

The £17m redevelopment has been chiefly funded by the Department of Culture Arts & Leisure with additional funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and private donations secured by the fundraising team at National Museums Northern Ireland.

Tim Cooke, Chief Executive, National Museums Northern Ireland. Courtesy Ulster Museum.

JO: What were the main points of the re-design brief?

TC: It was widely accepted that the Ulster Museum’s building had become tired and in need of updating. It was a dark building, often with low ceilings which we felt had much more potential. Also it wasn’t easy to navigate – ‘way-finding’ it’s called nowadays.

It was a big decision to close the museum for 3 years but we felt it was necessary. Northern Ireland had entered a new era politically and Belfast’s changing skyline spoke of investment and a new sense of vibrancy and optimism. In essence, it was time for Northern Ireland’s principal museum to reflect such change and confidence.

Our design brief focused on creating exhibition spaces which complemented the Ulster Museum’s unique collections with key themes including accessibility, space, light and, in short, plan a redevelopment which would realise the potential of one of Northern Ireland’s most unique and celebrated architectural designs.

JO: What are the features of the new galleries?

TC: The redevelopment project at the Ulster Museum has allowed new direct access points to the art galleries from the main entrance area of the building. The design of the art galleries at the Ulster Museum has always allowed us great flexibility in displaying works of art. We can accommodate large-scale, internationally important exhibitions and also more intimately designed shows from our own collections.

JO: Are there other art exhibition spaces that have been developed?

TC: The redesign of the internal structure of the building has allowed us to open up some areas that were previously used as stores and offices to become minor extensions of the existing art galleries. The major addition has been a new gallery dedicated to National Museums Northern Ireland’s internationally important applied art collection.

The new history and science galleries contain many pieces from the art collections, as does the ‘Window on Our World’ gallery. Many of these works of art are being seen for the very first time.

JO: Are there any other institutions in Ireland or abroad that you would compare the Ulster Museum’s new facilities to?

TC: The art galleries at the Ulster Museum are unique in Ireland in that they consist of a series of nine interconnecting rooms on the top floor of a major museum building. The scale of these rooms enables us to set out major exhibitions without limiting or compromising the other galleries. The art galleries in the Ulster Museum were laid out in their

present form in the early 1970s and are similar in feel to the Hayward Gallery on the South Bank in London which was built around the same time.

The Ulster Museum art galleries benefit from their proximity to the other collections such as Natural Science, History and Ethnography, and this is unique in Ireland.

JO: Talk us through the Sean Scully show and outline some of the thinking behind inviting the artist? ­ TC: The Ulster Museum was one of the first museums to acquire a painting by Sean Scully. Fourth Layer, Tooley Street was bought at Scully’s first solo exhibition at the Rowan Gallery in London in 1973. Since then the work has generally hung in the art galleries and so we have a long association with the artist.

In looking for such a special show we wanted to do a number of things – to display exceptional art in its own right, to draw attention to our re-opening, to capture the current sense of exploration and possibility in our society at this period of our history, to challenge audiences with something profound and meaningful. Sean’s work speaks to all of these.

The Ulster Museum art galleries are particularly suited to showing abstract paintings. They offer large, uncluttered spaces that are ideal in scale for the installation of a major retrospective of Sean’s work. In the past we have shown major exhibitions of the work of William Scott and Louis le Brocquy so it is very appropriate to now show Ireland’s leading abstract painter. Sean Scully has had major exhibitions in Germany, Spain and the US and so we are delighted to be the only Irish and UK venue for this important exhibition.

Sean has been hugely supportive, enthusiastic and involved. I think it’s fair to say he was seized by the idea and has a real sense of how important this exhibition is to us and to the museum at this time.

To quote Sean in relation to holding his exhibition at the Ulster Museum, he says: “To send an important exhibition to Belfast is so important for me because Belfast is so important. And its importance is intrinsically connected to its historical position as an example of what is possible. In human politics, Belfast is in a historical position to represent and be an example and model, for future metropolises”.

There you are. It’s hard to add to that.

JO: Are further contemporary exhibitions on your agenda?

TC: We are exploring other contemporary exhibitions of both Irish and international content. I don’t like to talk about them until they are done deals as it were. So yes, the contemporary is on our agenda.

But our next show after Scully will be entirely our own paintings, Irish and international to be re-presented and re-launched in the runup to St Patrick’s Day next year. We have a continuing obligation, indeed it’s a great privilege, to show and explore the historical collection. We want to do more with it in terms of exhibitions and programming.

JO: Does the museum have plans to collect contemporary art?

TC: We’re always open to new opportunities to expand and develop our collections and so are pro-active in seeking out works of significance.

The art department’s acquisition policy has continually focused on acquiring works by internationally important contemporary artists for the collection. With the support of organisations such as The Art Fund we have been able to continue to collect significant contemporary works of art.

JO: What kind of wider cultural impact do you think the museum’s refurbishment will have?

TC: The Ulster Museum’s refurbishment has been described as the most important cultural project ever to be undertaken in Northern Ireland and we’re already getting a sense of what that means on both a local and international scale.

Fundamentally, we want people from home and abroad to use it and own it. The approach has been focused on opening up the building and access to the collections. At the same time we are increasing our organisational expertise in delivering formal and informal learning, and in designing partnership projects aimed at developing knowledge resources.

There is plenty to horrify in our survey of Irish and wider history but also plenty to assist understanding and inspiration. There is also much beauty and brilliance in terms of the natural world and across human endeavour. The extent to which individuals and our community connect with and benefit from the diverse displays and programming will be our true legacy.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

17

November – December 2009

PROJECT PROFILE

The Art of Capitalism James Hepburn profiles 'Capitalyst Arts', Catalyst Arts Summer programme of Art projects and interventions across Belfast.

Martin Carter. Burn the Banks with Martin Carter. Lawrence Street Workshops, Belfast. (20 June).

The concept of 'Capitalyst Arts' was decided upon back in 2008, during a Catalyst Arts programming meeting on the subject of the general direction for 2009 in terms of funding applications. At this time it was apparent that there was a global recession imminent; and empty retail spaces were starting to arise in Belfast city centre. The concept of Capitalyst Arts was to bring art to these empty retail spaces and open up contemporary art to a wider audience.

The project was mostly funded by the Northern Ireland Arts Council, but due to the large scale of the programming, we also organised a fundraising event with Deviant Sound System in March, to raise some money to help with artist fees and rental of space. We also received support from the various venues we worked with – the Waterfront Hall to the Chinese Welfare Association enabled us to use their spaces for free. The scale of the programme would have had to be reduced if it hadnít been for this. To publicise the event we used the Catalyst email-out to keep people updated along with a folded A4 flyer and the social networking sites.

In February 2009 a Capitalyst Arts sub-committee was formed, with myself project managing with the support from Kate McCullough and John Cashin. The committee decided to do an open call for submission through the usual artist network sites, at this point the Catalyst directors would also directly invite artists to submit proposals.

The call-out closed in March, with over 150 submissions received, that spanned the globe. The first task for the sub-committee was to select the submissions that we thought both best linked to the brief, and would be viable within our budget. As with all Catalyst projects, the final decision on programming was put to the entire committee for a vote.

The Capitalyst Arts sub-committee presented 22 artists. From this list, 15 artist projects made it through the selection process. The final list included artists from Germany, Slovakia, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland and of course local artists. The variety of media covered multi-media, live art, photography, design and installation.

With the venues booked and all arrangements made, we were able to go to print with flyers and publicity – "Catalyst Arts is bringing art out of the gallery and into the city for the summer, with their new Capitalyst Arts. With the current financial climate we are all aware of the delicate balance and reliance that each of us has staked in capitalism Capitalyst Arts aims to raise awareness of one of the biggest controlling factors in our society capitalism. The programme features a wide variety of media by artists from around the globe. We will explore avenues such as environmental impact of greed, problems with economic growth in China, loss of identity and discuss capitalist issues through performance and public intervention.

You will be encouraged to participate in protest towards those who contributed to the current situation – the banks – with a ceremonial burning of effigies of their logos" .

Capitalyst Arts kicked of on the last weekend May (31 May), with an 'underground' event in Elements Skate Park. Lisa Crowne from A4 Sounds spent a week hiding from the sun, transforming the skate park with large-scale drawings from the A4 Sounds collective. On the night A4 Sounds presented a diverse selection of music from electronic cello sets to live hard techno.

With the opening party now over, it was time to install one of our key events –Slavek Kwiís audio installation at the indoor tropical ravine in Botanic Gardens, Belfast (4 – 11 June). With the support of the Parks Manager Reg Maxwell, he helped us realise the project by providing excellent support and access. In the first room of the Tropical Ravine Kwi installed a 5:1 set up, playing a five-hour loop called Frog Porn ñ in the second an underwater recording. Both works were from recordings made in the Amazon. Over five days, the show was open to the public; and there were nearly 800 visitors from school children to tourists. The purpose of Kwi's show was to highlight the richness of rain forests and the speed in which they are being destroyed.

Rich White. Vigilance. Installation view. North Street, Belfast (23 – 30 June).

The next events took place in the city centre. The base would be two empty retail units on North Street surround by a Bingo hall, tattoo parlours, DIY and an indoor market. Rich Whites installation (North Street, 23 – 30 June) Vigilance recreated the form of a nuclear submarine that appears to have crashed onto the units. Made from discarded cardboard packaging sourced from local retailers this imposing installation attracted the interest of passing shoppers and visitors to the Bingo hall. Also shown in the retail units was Ellie Harrison's work that recorded the purchases made by Catalyst co-directors through a mobile phone using SMS. Every time we made a purchase the CocaCola can would dance.

The launch of Capitalyst TV took place at the opening of the retail space shows, with a recording of a performance by Sinead O'Donnell and Deirdre McKenna called In Bed with McKenna (23 – 30 June). The film depicts the two having a 'capitalist spelling test' where they are challenged to spell basic business and economic terminology.

This has now been archived and can be seen along with other footage on the Catalyst TV page on the catalyst arts website. Martin Boyle's work – Untitled, started its tour from the retail space before heading to various operating retail units throughout the city (14 June – 30 July). Boyle's work at first glance may have resembled an advertisement, but on closer inspection there was a twist – the objects slowly being placed take on a life of their own by quickly sliding of the shelf defying gravity. Jen Syke's Blog Cabin toured Belfast City centre (22 – 28 June) giving folk a chance to tap into wi-fi and communicate through blogging. Syke's created a sanctuary within the cabin to escape the bustle of Belfast City Centre.

The night of the 20th of June saw Catalyst host Burn the Banks with Martin Carter at Lawrence Street Workshops. Martin Carter's work recreated the signage of leading banks, that were then ignited with old bank statements – creating a strong visual impression of the publicís thoughts on the current economic climate.

For the Belfast City Council's 'First Thursday Tour' (2 July), three events were presented. Evlyne LeBlanc Rouberge from Quebec – who had just completed in a residency programme in Beijing, showed photographic work at the new Chinese Welfare Association.

Rouberge's work of dual photographic images highlighted the difference between classes in one of the world greatest capitalist countries. Just over the road from the CWA, at the Rose and Crown pub Aisling O'Beirn hosted her Boom or Bust pub quiz, in this intimate local venue. At Catalyst Arts space, we showcased a retrospective of German record label Raster Noton, as a way of covering the subject of ëdesigní as an artistic tool of capitalism and trade. The label, which combines

Empty retail units on North Street, Belfast.

and interest in art / science cross-over, produce and distribute distinctive audio and visual works by the like of Ryoji Ikeda and the Irish musician and artist Donnacha Costello.

The weekend of the 25th of July took on a European feel with presentations of work by Pedro Lagoa from Portugal and Paul Weirbinski from Germany. Weirbinski lives his life as a 'fake' artist by creating paintings from Photoshop images that he sends to China to be fabricated. He then sells his work at auction houses. His lecture was well attended with great debate at the end regarding his status as an artist or capitalist.

Anyone stumbling across Pedro Lagoaís Record Breaking Party could have been forgiven for thinking they have come across a demonstration of mass lunacy. Visitors experienced sound of football teams dodgy, Christmas tunes, political speeches, religious sermons and bad pop songs being played briefly on vinyl, followed by the records being thrown into the crowd for destruction. And as the night went on the manner of destruction got more creative ñ and at times the odd individual would tackle to save the record from destruction to add to their collection.

With the mayhem over it was time for the headline act of Capitalyst Arts. The Light Surgeons work True Fictions was presented at Belfastís Waterfront Hall (25 July 8.00pm). After about seven hours of technical set-up the show commenced. True Fictions comprised triple overlaying projections and a lighting set up, operated by the four members of the Light Surgeons which presented a journey through American folklore ñ covering the subjects of racism; 9/11; the plight of Native Americans and so on. The work was accompanied by originally scored music for the show ñ resulting in a truly unique audio-visual performance.

To round off Capitalyst Arts, Charlotte Andrews created a 'sweatshop' in association with SHAC, a self-funded residency programme run by Sinead Brethan Cashel and Shingle Cashel (16 – 18 August). Andrews created a system where visitors to the space could participate in creating drawings in factory like set up, by working as a team and duplicating the drawings ñ while following manufacturing procedures, clocking in and out and receiving pennies as payment. In addition to this process, the artist ëcapitalisedí the resulting goods – offering the better works for sale at the Catalyst gallery at full price while selling the lesser quality drawings at second rate.

We hope that Capitalyst Arts provoked some thought regarding the complex issue of capitalism and many thanks to all who attended and took part.

James Hepburn www.catalystarts.org.uk

18

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

November – December 2009

How is IT MADE?

Brian Duggan Step inside now step inside 2009. Installation view. Courtesy of the Artist.

Brian Duggan Step inside now step inside 2009. Installation view. Courtesy of the Artist.

Brian Duggan Step inside now step inside 2009. Detail. Courtesy of the Artist.

Countdown Brian Duggan discusses the making of his installation Step inside now step inside created for The Golden Bough series of exhibitions at the Hugh Lane Gallery IN DUBLIN (13 June – 13 Sept).

Four In 1999 I visited Turner prize exhibition in the Tate Britain in London.

Of all of the artist’s works in the show – by Steve Pippin, Jane and Louise Wilson, Tracey Emin and Steve McQueen – it was McQueen’s piece, entitled Deadpan (1997) that left the most lasting impression.

The work was a large-scale projection of a silent black and white film, that comprised a re-enactment of a classic scene from Buster Keaton’s film Steamboat Bill Jnr (1928), where the entire façade of a three-story wooden house falls on Keaton. The gag is that the protagonist is left unscathed, as he is standing in just the right place so that he harmlessly passes through and open upstairs window. However, I remember thinking that while it was visually impressive, in the end, I actually recall dismissing the work – as I didn’t think it was as funny as the original – which looking back now is hilarious.

Step inside step inside now which I made for a Golden Bough (1) exhibition at gallery 8 of the Hugh Lane, comprised a number of elements – sound, neon sculptures, and a central sculpture entitled a half size half wall of death. (2) It was only after I had built this latter structure, did an echo of the wall in McQueen’s film return to me. This installation had been planned for months, and the details and references were clear to me. McQueen’s piece and my work were talking about different things; and Deadpan hadn’t really entered my thinking for the exhibition, but in some ways I was a little bit pleased that it had returned. Perhaps it was the affinity with the structure, or the scale, or perhaps it was that I finally got the joke. It was an example of how although we might initially be disappointed or confused in our encounters with exhibitions and artworks, nonetheless they remain with us, perhaps working on a subconscious level and leaving deep impressions.

Three Health and safety, two words that ring alarm bells for many – as soon as you say it out loud you can feel the mood deflate, the air gets sucked from the room. But for the making of Step inside step inside now, working through health and safety questions myself, ultimately actually made for a better piece – loath as I am to admit it out loud.

The central semi-circular construction for Step inside step inside now was devised to specifically relate to the unique architecture of gallery 8 – a long rectangular room with curved semi circle walls at each end mirroring each other. The form of the piece completed the internal loop of one of these curved walls. My initial plan was that viewer would not actually see the finished interior circular circumference – as the only way it would be possible to see this would be from the vantage point of a four metre high ladder.

When I plan my works, issues of context and audience always have implications for how things are installed – and what will and won’t ‘work’. So while I find it enjoyable and necessary to take risks and push and stretch possibilities in the studio or even in artist run spaces, in terms of the very pubic nature of the Hugh Lane, I soon realised that I would basically have to plan for the eventuality of everything going wrong. The challenge being, that I wanted the 3.76 meters high curved ‘wall of death’, to offer viewers a very tactile experience – ie. that it could be at least touched and leaned on – even if it wasn’t necessarily going to be enterable or climbable. The wall itself had a number of functions, one of which was to keep people ‘outside’, while also ‘inside’ the gallery, so it needed to be strong enough to be poked at by the public.

I had to ensure the piece was solid and entirely self-supporting, rather than being just a piece of free-standing elements, which would have to reside behind a safety rope. Thus every piece of the wall was securely screwed to a bespoke made frame –with each element the wall fixed in place in a number of ways. And all of these elements had to hidden – as I didn’t want any of the construction to be visible.

Ultimately, the attention safety details resulted in making a work that was a much cleaner, stronger and simpler in form than I had originally imagined (while not being ‘simple’ to construct). One of the best backhanded compliments I got was when someone asked me “how did you get it in the room?”

Two In terms of the brief for the Golden Bough show, Michael Dempsey the curator of the series, explained that I was free to respond to a number of factors. The first being the fable of the golden bough (3) – with its ritualistic killing of the priest/holder of the golden bough so the successor can take over; which also has resonances with ecological/ cyclical outlooks – day follows night, the pattern of the seasons etc. Or I could respond to previous artists, Golden Bough projects or even the museum’s wider collection. All of these starting points were of interest to me. I felt it was a privilege to be invited to work in the unique context of the Hugh Lane, which I think is one of the few progressive museums that can take in work from cannon of art history right up to the contemporary; address municipal, national and international agendas; along with exploring the questions that are raised by such juxtapositions. In addition, to this brief was of course my own concerns and interests, in terms of extending and challenging my previous and ongoing practice.

When thinking about the museum context, I couldn’t help but recall Brian O’Doherty’s classic analysis of the modernist exhibition space Inside the White Cube – “... the outside world must not come in, so windows are usually sealed off. Walls are painted white…the art is free to take on its own life… art exists in a kind of eternity of display, and though there is lots of ‘period’ (late modern) there is no time. This eternity gives the gallery a limbo like status; one has to have died already to be there.” (4) The Golden Bough project space was certainly not a white cube – Charlemont House, commissioned in 1763 is grade A listed with decorative and expressive architectural detailing – but O’Doherty’s words seemed to resonate. Likewise Guy Debord’s equally classic analysis of the notion of spectacle in capitalism consumer society was another touchstone for me – ”… everything that has directly lived has receded into a representation’ … to wake the spectator who has been drugged by spectacular images’.

(5)

One Another exciting part of this project, was just how open the Hugh Lane was to discussing my plans. Not all were accepted, but the conversations were a good filter for the never-ending possibilities that projects like these can generate. One idea that turned out to be feasible was my plan to extend the work beyond the confines of the gallery 8. In the stairwell of the new galleries, I installed a sound work – Untitled (Scout). The piece comprised a 34 minute long looped recording, played on a

hidden amp and speakers, of the starting up and revving engine of a 1930s Indian Scout motorbike (6). As you walked through the galleries and stairwell the sound of the motorbike would occasionally burst into life catching the visitor off guard. It was a departure for my work using just sound. Although one can easily see how sound can fill a room and colour atmosphere, for instance at raves, or a concert hall, it was surprising for me to experience how this small detail changed everything in the perception of the space.

Sound was also a key element of the main installation of Step inside step inside now. The sound-work which tied the installation together in gallery 8 was a recording of Neil Calladine of the Ken Fox troupe. The work is based on recordings of Calladine drumming up interest from a Dublin crowd for the troupe’s touring wall of death act.

In the recording, crowd sounds and his voice are over spilled by music samples from the other fairground stands, including tracks by the Jam and Rod Stewart. While I had initially come to research and film the wall of death hell riders, this audio piece became more significant as a vital encapsulation of the moment – “step this way, it’s a live show it’s a fast show, it’s a value for money show…the show of shows, the thrill or thrills…...take the opportunity that has been given to you,….., Sights to thrill and delight you, not there to scare you. Educational for the children as well…” don’t hesitate, don’t be shy, don’t let your cry be that ‘the wall of death has passed me by’.

(7) .

Brian Duggan www.brianduggan.net www.hughlane.ie Notes 1. New Juxtapositions Hilary Murray’s text, on page 15 of this edition of the Visual Artists News Sheet profiles The Golden Bough series in detail.

2. Mobile ‘Wall of Death’ motorbike acts first appeared in 1911 in Coney Island, New York. They had evolved the closure of fixed outdoor speedway motordromes, that had been banned by various in states around America, due to increasing numbers of fatalities – think of the cycle track in the Olympics, but outdoors and four times the size, raced by early motorbikes with no brakes! The most popular time in their history was during the 30s during the great depression, when there was more than 100 Motordromes touring the carnivals and amusement parks around America. The first wall seems to have arrived in the UK in 1929 in Southend. While the actual act of driving at speed vertically up a wall is itself dangerous enough, there was a time when they were modified to include lions as an extra. These ‘Liondromes’ had both lions on the vehicles, and also in other instances, lions in the arena, making grabs for the riders. Just in case this wasn’t difficult enough already. http://www.thrillarena.com/Lion_Dromes1/lion_ dromes1.html 3. “… it was a custom in the cult of Diana for a slave to cut a branch from a sacred tree and then kill the priest responsible for guarding the tree. The slave took the priest’s place and was later killed himself in the same way”. http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Fi-Go/Golden-Bough.html 4. Brian O’Doherty. Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space University of California press ltd. 1976,1981,1986.

5. Guy Debord The Society of the Spectacle. Trans F. Perlman & J. Supak. Black and Red 1970 / 1977.

6. Indian motorbikes are the oldest motorcycle brand currently in production in the United States, since 1901. The Indian scout was a particular model and the standard motorbike for wall of death, built from 1920 – 1949 and it had a distinctive V-twin two cylinder internal combustion engine. Because of the design they are very strong and have a low centre of gravity – so they are extremely stable. With a left handed throttle the can be operated with one hand – hence their popularity with both stunt and police riders, the latter favouring them as they the gun hand free. Between 1962 – 1967, New Zealander Burt Munro used a modified 1920s Indian Scout to set a number of land speed records – as dramatised in the 2005 film The World’s Fastest Indian, starring Anthony Hopkins.

7. In February of 2009 the Ken Fox troupe arrived in Dublin as part of the RDS motorbike show.

Ken and his family have been involved in the wall of death since the 60s in Skegness. They are always on the move around Ireland UK and sometimes Europe. At each place they visit, the put up the wall and do the show over the few days. Then disassemble it, load it on a truck, and head off to the next city or town. A peculiar note, which I never realised, is that people over time would buy a wall. “This one was built by the Harris family from Sheffield from the 50s” etc. although the wall they use now, Ken custom built himself. And it is one of the few walls still touring. The sound that was central to the main installation was the ‘spiller’ Neil Calladine – who is a vital part of the show, his job being to entice people into the wall to see the event. www.originalwallofdeath.co.uk

Abigail O’Brien, Cusp, Lamdachrome Print, 99 x 120 cm

Fireworks With Soul Oatfield* – Temperance

Pierre-Alain Hubert, Pyrotechnics performance

Regional Cultural Centre Covehill, Port Road, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal.

(074) 912 9186, rcc@donegalcoco.ie, www.donegalculture.com Open Tue – Fri 11am – 5pm, Sat 1pm – 5pm Donegal County Council Public Art Office Regional Cultural Centre, Covehill, Port Road, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal.

(074) 912 9186, declan.sheehan@donegalcoco.ie, www.donegalpublicart.ie

Pierre-Alain Hubert (Artiste Pyrotechnician) An RCC Residency Project in partnership with Donegal County Council Public Art Programme Friday 11 December 2009 at 7pm *Oatfield – The Sweet Stuff A series of exhibitions celebrating 80 years of The Oatfield Sweet Factory presented by Donegal County Council’s Cultural Services.

This project forms part of the Residency Strand of Donegal County Council’s Public Art Program and was funded under the Per Cent for Art Scheme arising from the National Road Authority’s recent construction of the N56 Mountain Top to Illistrin Road Realignment Project.

The Linenhall Arts Centre

Sue Morris, Seven Days, papier-mâché & mixed media.

Sue Morris

The Mayo Artists Show

6 – 28 November

4 December – 30 January

The Obsessive Compulsive Drawings

Flight of Fancy

The Linenhall Arts Centre invites submissions from artists of all disciplines wishing to exhibit as part of our ongoing Visual Art Programme. Proposals should be accompanied by a CV, examples of work, a statement of intent and any other relevant information.

Linenhall Arts Centre, Linenhall Street, Castlebar, Co. Mayo T: 094 902 3733 E: linenhall@anu.ie W: www.thelinenhall.com

Abigail O’ Brien Book and exhibition 17 November 2009 – 16 January 2010 Preview Saturday 14 November 2009 at 6pm

20

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

November – December 2009

RESIDENCY PROFILE

Alan Counihan. Passage. Photo Kevin O’Dwyer.

First cut into the landscape, for Passage. Photo: Kevin O’Dwyer.

Working the Land

Alan Counihan discusses HIS Sculpture in the Parklands Residency

Internal view of Passage. Photo: Alan Counihan.

Julian Wild System no.30. Photo: Alan Counihan.

Some people are happiest out of doors, whether on the side of a hill or some salty shore – it is where they feel most alive. I am one of these people; and it is while making art within and in response to a wild natural setting, that I feel most deeply connected to the world.

It may be perceived as primitivist – but the relationship of a human being to his or her environment seems to me a most fundamental one from which all others, social, religious or philosophical, stem. However, for artists, outside of sculpture parks, the opportunity to explore that relationship through the creative vehicle of enduring place-specific works is rare. While such parks offer a welcome environment for non-gallery based works, their managed or manicured landscapes can lend sculptures sited within them the unwelcome aura of ornament.

Sculpture in the Parklands at Lough Boora, Co Offaly is an intriguing place in this context. It is a sculpture park in a partially managed landscape, which following decades of commercial exploitation through peat extraction, is rapidly returning to a semiwilderness. It is unique in Ireland – if not elsewhere ­­– in being the only sculpture park to be located in a cutaway bog landscape; a remarkable place where the urgencies of nature and of human activity are in constant counterpoise.

It was during the process of draining a lake to facilitate peat extraction here in the 1970s, that the remains of a Mesolithic settlement were found. This was a notable development in Irish archaeology at the time, proving as it did that not only the coastline of the island but its heartland as well had been settled as early as 9,000 years previously.

During the intervening millennia the blanket bog grew over the land to a height of several metres above the remains of that ancient settlement. Since Bord na Mona began peat extraction here six decades ago, the landscape has once again been stripped back close to the levels where the island’s first human inhabitants made a home.

Much of the peatland which remains following the cutaway process has proven unsuitable for agriculture and less than ideal for forestry. Following some years of experimentation Bord na Mona realised that the landscape at Boora was best suited to ‘non-productive’ use. Working closely with local communities it has developed this area, the oldest of the cutaways, into a much-visited parkland which has quickly been re-colonized by plants and birdlife. Lakes, cycle paths and bird hides have been created and there are plans for future development. However, it is not only an experience of nature which draws visitors to the park for the Lough Boora Parklands also comprise one of Ireland’s largest collections of outdoor sculpture.

Sculpture in the Parklands is the brainchild of artist and curator, Kevin O’Dwyer. A resident of Co Offaly, Kevin realised early on that a cultural component should be a central feature to this parkland mosaic. Bord na Mona’s Tom Egan became the project’s midwife and between them, with the assistance of many others, they have brought something very worthwhile into being. Since its inception with a symposium in 2002, under Kevin’s careful guidance the collection has grown to number 21 works by various artists. Each year, as funding allows, two new works are commissioned via an artist-in residence programme. I recently had the privilege, along with Julian Wild from England, of being invited to participate in this programme for 2009.

While there is no specific brief for artists participating in the residency, both Julian and I decided independently, as have several other artists here before us, to create works in response to this landscape employing the very materials which have been used to shape it to its present form. Once funding was confirmed in early spring, we both undertook visits to the Parklands to grow intimate with the place, to select a site and to get to know those who might best help us to realise our ideas. By June we had both made our maquettes and discussed all the challenges involved with Kevin and the

engineering team from Bord na Mona.

The residency proper ran, as usual, during the first three weeks of September, timed to coincide with the end of the annual peat harvest.

During this time we would be able to work in the Boora workshops and to have considerable technical resources available to us. These resources included not only the use of these labyrinthine workshops, where everything from locomotives to peat milling machines are designed and made, but also the assistance of incredibly skilled and experienced tradesmen.

However, three weeks is a very short time in which to realise the works both Julian and I had in mind. To complicate matters further, we both soon recognised that our works would have to be even larger than originally envisaged if they were to be effective within such a landscape. This did not appear to be a problem, as the attitude of all those who collaborate in the residencies from management to shop floor is enthusiastic and positive. After several years of involvement, they are now used to the vagaries of the creative process – and if the previous day’s work needed to be undone and reconfigured, we just got on with it. We could not have realised our works without their skills and commitment; and I think that we both found it a privilege and an education to have them work alongside us. It was not only the help we received that was so greatly appreciated, but also the generous spirit in which it was given.

The works created during the residency are very different, not only in their form but in their relationship to their surroundings. Each was created using the tools and technology which Bord na Mona has employed here for decades. Julian’s new work, System no.30, created from remnants of old peat-cutting machinery, is sited in the waters of a canal and, suggestive of a stone skipping across its reflective surface, has a wonderfully energetic and joyful presence. When the surface of the water is still the reflections are remarkable. The piece comes to life in the air.

My own work, Passage, is by contrast more contemplative, perhaps even sombre – and in this instance, reflects a different approach to making work within a landscape. I was less interested in creating an object where the surroundings become a stage or backdrop for the work; than having them be the means by and through which it is realised. Working in bogland was not new to me having created a series of ephemeral works on the raised bogs of Achill Island during a residency at the Heinrich Böll cottage a decade ago. But this time I wanted to engage differently, to explore beneath the surface, cutting into the memory bed, so that the experience of engagement with the work might also feel like an engagement with time and the processes of material decay. I wanted to create a work which might serve as a visual and physical passage into an experience of landscape, one within which the passage through dark matter into light can be physically felt, one better sensed from within than from without.

Passage comprises a 60 ft long trench cut into a raised turf bank.

The turf bank, bare on its surface, is itself a form of passage, lined on both sides with trees and leading deep into the woodland. Having made the cut (the deep passes of the hi-mac’s blade left patches of luminous red glowing in the black, buttery peat; the wood of ancient alders exposed after millennia to the airs we are breathing) its floor was lined with cloth and stone and a rail track-way laid upon it. This is the same kind of railway track as still used to transfer milled peat from bog to power station. The sleepers Bord na Mona uses are metal, the material of power, and we also employed them, with their rusted surfaces, to line each side of the trench. They were further used to create a series of steps at the end of the cut, which carry one on to the top of the turf bank. Sixty foot further on from the top of the steps stand three vertical rails of different heights, Beyond them, the trail into the forest.

People have described the sense of physical compression they experience within the passage, how they feel ineluctably pulled along its length, eyes down on the track-way until, rising up onto the turf bank they are drawn skyward by the rails and trees. These were visceral surprises I had not imagined when conceiving the piece so that the making process itself became a journey to a territory of new ideas. There were so many surprises and discoveries during this residency. New friendships, new insights, new materials and techniques, a hen harrier hunting one side of a stand of trees, a peregrine the other, the wonderful Molloy family who opened their home to us, deer tracks in the passage cut, the rare sight of partridge, the skill and commitment of fellow workers, the Mesolithic settlement site thrumming with presences, basketfuls of mushrooms, steam rising from the dark bog. A remarkable time in a remarkable place with remarkable people.

Alan Counihan www.sculptureintheparklands.com www.julianwild.com www.alancounihan.net

21

IRELAND’S PRE-EMINENT ANNUAL EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY ART, NOW IN ITS 34TH YEAR

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

November – December 2009

PROJECT PROFILE

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

ANAESTHETIC INTERVENTION

As a collaboration among artists, curators, sponsors, workers and committee members, e v+ a presents yearly to audiences in Limerick evidence of the best that contemporary art offers for the assessment, understanding and celebration of the contemporary culture that impinges on us.

NA FÁNÁ FUACHTMHAR

Work by Jane Locke from 'Anaesthetic Intervention'

OPEN / INVITED e v+ a 2010

Kevin O'Dwyer Na Fáná Fuachtmhar. UCD, Dublin.

Sculptor Kevin O’Dwyer’s work Na Fáná Fuachtmhar

CURATOR: ELIZABETH BONDE HATZ

was recently installed on the campus of University College Dublin. O’Dwyer received a commission to create a permanent work of art in response to UCD hosting the Sixth World Archaeological Congress in

[SWEDEN]

EXHIBITION OPENS: FRIDAY 12 MARCH 2010 EXHIBITION CLOSES: SUNDAY 23 MAY 2010

2008. The press release described the stainless steel sculpture as being “inspired by motifs found inside the Megalithic Passage Tomb at Fourknocks, Co. Work by Miriam Sweeney from 'Anaesthetic Intervention'

Sodium, an artist’s collective recently presented ‘Anaesthetic Intervention’, a collection of works positioned in site-specific locations throughout

v+

OPEN e a 2010 calls for submissions from all artists, using any and all materials, media, practices, styles, genres, themes and concepts.

There is no predetermined concept/theme for e v+ a exhibitions; the concept/theme evolves out of the sense the Curator finds in adjudicating the offered submissions.

Dún Laoghaire (1 – 10 Oct). The project sought

the Neolithic period, is suggestive of the constellation Cassiopeia; visible through the passage tomb between 3000BC and 2500BC.” www.millennium2000silver.com

spaces—including a telephone box—into exhibition

Gracelands

spaces. Formed in 2007, Sodium describes is mission

Now in its second year, 'Gracelands' is an outdoor art

as to “provide opportunities to experience art

programme which happens on the grounds of the

outside of the gallery environment”. The group

Mimetic House, Dromahair Co. Leitrim. Curated by

comprises artists Breda Flynn, Judy Foley, Paul

Vaari Claffey and co-produced by The Model. This

Hickey, Jane Locke, Aisling McGovern, Roger O’Neill

year’s Gracelands took place on the afternoon and

and Miriam Sweeney.

evening of Saturday the 26 September. The 2009

www.sodium.ie

theme was Folly – referring, as the press release put it “to acts of madness, architectural conversation

PEOPLE’S POSTCARD PROJECT On 29 Aug Carl Doran hosted an “open culture event” comprising personalised postcards created and the Civic Centre. The press release noted that: “Doran’s practice focuses on painting and drawing, and on reaching untapped and often overlooked audiences.”

Updates on e v+ a, the 2010 Curator, submission applications and guidelines at www.eva.ie

many cultures throughout the world dating from

transformed shop fronts, business sites, and public

for passers-by within the Ballymun Farmer’s Market

Deadline for all submissions is Friday 27 November 2009

Meath. The chevron motif, a symbol common to

www.breakingground.ie

pieces, or theatrical presentations”. The event included readings and performances, commissioned sculpture, sound works, and artists’ film and video, all presented in a “friendly festival atmosphere”. The participating artists were Carlos Amorales, Stephen Brandes, Les Blank, Karl Burke, Gerard Byrne, Rhona Byrne, Nina Canell, Declan Clarke, Lili Dujourie, Jimmie

Durham,

economicthoughtprojects,

Factotum, Feint/Alice Rekab, Jessica Foley, Mark HETERATOPIC GLITCH

Garry, Seamus Harahan, Sarah Hurl, Georgina

On 19 Sept Aideen Barry and Anne Ffrench

Jackson, Sam Keogh, Pil and Galia Kollectiv, Oleg

presented the performance work Heteratopic Glitch at

Kulik, James Lee Byars, Ronan McCrea, Bea

The Dock, Carrig-On-Shannon, Leitrim. Barry and

McMahon, Dennis McNulty, Alexsandra Mir, Padraic

Ffrench gathered a crowd to witness three works

E. Moore, Isabel Nolan, RW Paul, Sarah Pierce,

demonstrating “the impossible made possible”. The

Wilhelm Sasnel, Bernard Smyth, Dominic Stevens,

event was part of ‘Notions of Capital’ and was

Swintak, Grace Weir, Walker and Walker and The

curated by Clare McAree.

Wonky Choir (with reluctant conductor Jaki

www.thedock.ie

Irvine). http://www.modelart.ie/gracelands.html

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

November – December 2009

22

Art in the public realm: roundup BRIGHT SHADOW

FLAGS OF HOPE

TITANIC QUARTER

SLIGLOW: Come Draw On The City photo: Darren Carr.

which will give the public participants the opportunity to see the work at all stages.

Description: People of all ages, working alongside a team of professional artists created a site-specific installation of light, line and projection on the glass

Raymond Watson Belfast Flags

facade of The Glasshouse Hotel in Sligo. Inspired by Tony Stallard – maquette for public artwork, Titanic Quarter, Belfast.

Projector Collective Bright Shadow

the glass clad architecture, and its views over the city, this event was held as part of Culture Night Sligo. The event consisted of drawing on two levels

Bright Shadow was an intervention in a disused The first public artwork for the Titanic Quarter,

inner city housing development, undertaken by the

Belfast has just been unveiled. Arts and Business NI

Projector Collective in collaboration with Via, with

commissioned Essex-based artist and new-media

the help of Dublin City Council. Sixteen windows

practitioner Tony Stallard to produce a site-specific

of the complex were covered in 23-carat gold

light and cast bronze sculpture. The press release

replacing the usual shutters, a crop of sunflowers

notes the intention of the work to “symbolise

are planted in the disused garden in front of the

Belfast as an industrial pioneer in the era of the

building. The work was on view during September

Titanic”, and to reference the “industrial heritage of

at St. Agatha’s Court, Dublin.

the area as a reverie of the past, to create nostalgia of

www.projectorcollective.org Raymond Watson Belfast Flags

what was once heroic.” Stallard collaborated with

THE GATE KEEPER PROJECT

shipbuilders Harland and Wolfe to produce the

From 21 – 23 Aug, the railings of St. Stephen’s Green,

Belfast-based artist Raymond Watson has created a

Dublin 2 were adorned with Naomi Sex’s The

project to commemorate the life of Tomas Devlin,

Gatekeeper Project. The work was presented as part of

a 16 year-old murdered by a loyalist gang in Belfast

an ongoing study project by the artist entitled

in 2005. Watson has chosen to use Tibetan Prayer

Practice makes practice. The event involved artists

Flags as a reference point and worked with two

Cormac Browne, John Graham, Sinead McCann,

schools from East and North Belfast to create flags

Margaret O’Brien, and Naomi Sex. The project was

that would focus on “spreading harmony and good

realised in a variety of media and was described as

will”. Watson intends that viewers create flags that

“examining the curators’ role and relationship to

engage the spirit of his project, and forward

the artist as a creator of opportunity”.

documentation of their contribution. He also plans to engage with a greater number of schools on the

DELANEY SCULPTURE UNVEILED

project, which is to be exhibited and added to

On 25 Sept IMMA unveiled a restored 1958 bronze

annually. www.belfastflags.blogspot.com

sculpture Eve with Apple by Edward Delaney. This

experience of living and studying in post-war Munich. As Delaney put it “…there was a bench by the side of the street where a few old women sat, tired from long journeys in search of aid, worn and twisted … Every time they raised a hand in a gesture it seemed as if they were imploring the skies for assistance. I wanted to make statues so that he would never forget them and so that other people might see in bronze these symbols of the mystery of agony—and life surviving in spite of agony.” www.imma.ie

onto the glass; and using glow sticks to form light sculptures; creating installations and imagery on the inside and outside of the massive windows that overlook the city. As the evening progressed, the inscribed, projected, and glowing works were seen from the street and enjoyed inside the Glasshouse.

The event featured live music by Mood Indigo with Yvonne Cunningham on vocals and special guests.

Between 800 and 1000 people participated over a four-hour period.

sculpture. www.tonystallard.co.uk

Sliglow Artists: Tinka Bechert, Lisa Vandegrift Davala, Vanya Lambrecht Ward and 800 - 1,000 citizens and visitors to Culture Night Sligo.

YOUR WORK HERE !

Title: SLIGLOW: Come Draw On The City Medium: Site-specific, collaborative light and drawing installation.

Materials: Glass markers, 3000 eight-inch glow sticks, projections on glass Date of Event: Culture Night Sligo: 25 September, 2009, 7-10pm Commissioner: Artist generated project, privately

work was donated by the late Jack Toohey and his widow Agnes. The works originated from Delaney’s

of the glass facade; making slides to use in projections

funded with additional sponsorship provision of EAST-WEST, BBEYOND

venue and poster printing

Bbeyond presented ‘East-West-Via-Belfast’, a project,

Location: The Glasshouse Hotel, overlooking the

which took place at a number of sites across Belfast

Garavoque River, Sligo.

(10 – 12 Sept). The performance art event featured

Advertised: The three artists and Justin Knecht

16 artists from Burma, Germany, Indonesia, Japan,

designed and developed the following websites –

Mexico, Northern Ireland, and Singapore. The

http://www.sliglow.com http://twitter.com/sliglow

project was described as “addressing common

http://tinyurl.com/ycnahrm Event posters and 500

concerns regarding worldwide cultural issues”, and

invitation cards with free glow stick, put into each

was devised as “an attempt to reflect the meaning of

Culture Night Bag of Culture. All online features are

East and West in a global world”.

still active. An exhibition of photos and videos shot

www.bbeyondperformance.org

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

on the night by all the artists and three photographers along with the original glass projections is planned,

Kathy Herbert Urban Foxes

Diane McCormick Convey

Brendan Eastwood Running Greyhound

Northern Ireland Art Foundry

www.willowviewfoundry.com iron, bronze and aluminium casting. lost wax / ceramic shell and green sand processes

Willowview Ballykinler Co. Down M: 0044 from ROI (0) 7830285031 E:info@willowviewfoundry.com

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

November – December 2009

23

Institution profile

after them. It is a home, and it’s so important for us that people feel that sense of belonging. Also I think we’ve brought some of the best contemporary artists to Lismore, so our reputation for putting on great exhibitions has spread far and wide, which is great.

JO: The gallery shows one exhibition a year – why is this?

EM: There are two reasons for only having one major exhibition per year. Firstly, the gallery is accessed through the formal gardens, which are seasonal – they open on 17 March and close at the end of September every year. But the main reason is that Lismore is a difficult place to reach, so if we put on an exhibition for four weeks not that many people would get the chance to visit. Having exhibitions running for five months, means that people from across Ireland and from further afield can have a better chance of seeing the exhibitions. It also means that we can do more to promote the shows and engage audiences.

(L – R) Stefan Bruggemann Conceptual Decoration; Rita McBride Rock Wall; Jason Rhoades Sutter’s Mill; Rita McBride Kells Template.

JO: What other staff do you work with?

EM: There are two other permanent members of staff; Maria, our Administrator and Catherine, our Education & Events Officer, as well as seasonal invigilation staff. I’ve been really fortunate to come into an organisation that has such passionate and dedicated staff. I am keen that we support the local economy, through employing local people, so the staff all live within 20 miles of the gallery. We also use local businesses, where possible, for good and services.

Jason Rhoades 24 Neons and drawings from the Perfect World

Ai Weiwei Oil Spills

Rita McBride Mae West Templates

Lismore Castle Arts

(L – R) Stefan Bruggemann Conceptual Decoration; Corey McCorkle Seven Woods; Rita McBride Kells Template; Jason Rhoades Sutter’s Mill; Jason Rhoades View From Above; Rita McBride Rock Wall; Ai Weiwei Oil Spills.

AN interview with eamonn maxwell, Director of lismore castle arts, Co. waterford.

Jason Oakley: Can you tell our readers about your particular approach and ambitions for Lismore?

Eamonn Maxwell: I want Lismore to be recognised as the best gallery for contemporary exhibitions in Ireland. It’s got to be that in order to convince people in Cork, Dublin, Galway or Belfast to make the journey to Lismore.

Since starting in March, I have spent most of my time getting to grips with running an internationally significant gallery in rural Ireland – which is quite a unique challenge. Thus far I’ve delivered a major exhibition, began to form relationships with the key players in the Irish art scene, agreed new job descriptions with the dedicated staff team here and been involved in conversations with major artists about projects and exhibitions at Lismore Castle Arts, amongst many other things.

JO: How would you describe the facilities and exhibition spaces at Lismore?

EM: Pretty special! The gallery is located in the West Wing of Lismore Castle, with parts dating back to the 12th century, though the bulk of it dates from the 19th century when it was redesigned by Joseph Paxton (who is most famous for designing the Crystal Palace in 1851). In 2005 the upper floor of the West Wing was transformed into Lismore Castle Arts by a leading Cork architecture practice. Blending old elements and contemporary additions, the gallery features one main exhibition space, a smaller gallery, a spherical gallery in a round tower and two project rooms. This totals over 250 square metres of flexible exhibition space, which will allow us to undertake ambitious projects. We also have a small area where we sell tea, coffee, books and catalogues. And the gallery sits in the most beautiful setting, with the Castle and formal gardens providing a stunning backdrop.

JO: There is also a collection of works shown outdoors in the grounds – do you have scope to show / make projects for the grounds of the castle?

EM: I am very keen to utilise the spaces outside the gallery. There are some amazing structures and hidden gems that I want to artists to respond to. For this year’s 'United Technologies' exhibition, Corey McCorkle performed a ritualistic harvest of dandelions in the upper gardens, and these dandelions have now been transformed into wine, based on a recipe passed on from his Irish grandmother. He also made beautiful bottles inspired by the architecture of the Paxton designed greenhouse at the Castle, which were housed in the greenhouse to be discovered by people wandering through the gardens. That’s the kind of thing I want artists to undertake here. The place is so magical that it’s difficult to decide where to start. But I really hope the artists we are talking with about future projects will consider using other spaces for inspiration.

JO: ‘United Technologies’ was curated with an external curator (Philippe Pirotte) – how do you select curators?

EM: For the most part, we will continue to work with external curators.

It helps bring an international perspective to the exhibitions, but also means that we can tap into different networks that may be otherwise be difficult to avail of. Philippe was able to bring a very European perspective to Lismore, which was the first time that had really happened. A collaborative process is so important to Lismore, whether with artists or curators. We want to make the experience as rewarding as we can, so we are open to ideas and possibilities in ways that other galleries may find difficult.

Curators are selected on the basis of their track record internationally and what response they have to Lismore. And we have to find them inspiring and easy to work with.

JO: What factors have attracted curators and artists to Lismore?

EM: Anyone who has visited Lismore has fallen in love with it. The sense of history and the stunning surroundings are mesmerising.

Many artists have said it is the best place they have ever exhibited, not just because of the exhibition space but also because of how we look

JO: Over the run of shows, they are animated by education and other events – could you give a few more details about this?

EM: It has varied from year to year, but we try to ensure a balance of events for each exhibition. For example this year we had 17 education visits, a lecture by a leading German architect, a summer workshop for local children, a talk on the work of A.W. Pugin in Ireland (he designed most of the interiors in the Castle) and a season of films that inspired the exhibition. It’s important to get a balance of international speakers, alongside things that will appeal to our local audiences.

JO: Lismore arts is an unusual destination for contemporary art – in so much as old houses are associated more with the heritage industry and also viewers have to make a certain commitment to see a show …

EM: In 2009, almost 12,000 people visited Lismore Castle Arts so we must be doing something right! The majority of our audience will be cultural tourists and people from the Munster region. I think our uniqueness makes us more of an attraction for visitors. It’s easy to see contemporary art in cities like Dublin, London or Berlin but much more intriguing to see it in a rural, Irish castle.

JO: How does Lismore Arts address itself to local and national audiences EM: Since getting to Lismore I’ve tried to raise the profile locally and nationally. I have chosen to live in Lismore town, so that I’m part of the neighbourhood, which I felt was really important. I’ve also spent a lot of time meeting key people across Ireland, which has been really useful. We fund a bursary for an Irish student to undertake an MA at Byam Shaw School of Art in London. I am currently developing plans for an off-site space that will probably focus on supporting emerging Irish artists.

JO: And what about the international context?

EM: We’ve been very successful in gaining international recognition in such esteemed publications as Frieze, Flash Art and The Art Newspaper.

This year we secured our first cover, with Stefan Brüggemann’s Conceptual Decoration (from the United Technologies) being used as the front of Art Monthly. Those milestones are so important in convincing major international artists to show in Ireland.

JO: Are there any institutions Lismore would compare itself too?

EM: There are some parallels with places like MassMOCA in the US, the Serpentine in the UK or some of the Kunsthalle’s in Europe. But to be honest, Lismore is so unique that international comparisons are difficult. I hope that we can show exhibitions of the calibre that one would normally have to travel a long way to see.

JO: What you are working on for the next show at Lismore?

EM: I am very pleased to announce that our next exhibition will be a solo show by Gerard Byrne. This exhibition is very important for Lismore, as it will be our first show by an Irish artist, but also because it will our first lens based exhibition. As part of the exhibition we are co-commissioning a new film by Gerard, as well as showing key works from his oeuvre. Some key elements are still to be revealed, but this promises to be an amazing exhibition that will be a must-see for all in 2010.

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

November – December 2009

Opportunities

Opportunities NEWmedia MEDIA new 4th Gstaadfilm Festival Call for entries from artist filmmakers for the 4th Gstaadfilm Festival in Switzerland. Prize money of SFr 3,000 is available and the overall winner will receive the Golden Cow Award. The jury will select 20 to 25 films for entry into the festival, of which five will be prize-winners, and the makers will be invited to Switzerland for the festival. For more information and entry forms go online or contact: Email info@gstaadfilm.ch Website www.gstaadfilm.ch Deadline 30 November 2009 TINT TINT, an artist-run organisation based in London, provides an online platform for open discourse, experimentation and display of digital/analogue hybrid art forms connecting the visual fine arts with science, design and technology. TINT is looking for artists, curators and academics; individuals, groups and organisations with an interest in cross disciplinary art that is interactive, responsive, user aware and audience led to join. Members get a personal profile displaying images, statements, links and contact details, as well as access to TINT opportunities and supports. To join TINT email a brief statement with links to additional information and imagery to: Email admin@tintarts.org Website www.tintarts.org Deadline Ongoing EXHIBITIONS IRELAND Dunamaise Arts Centre Dunamaise Arts Centre invites submissions from artists for its exhibition programme. Proposals are accepted on an ongoing basis.

Submissions must include and artist CV, statement, CD with images of recent or proposed work, details of medium, size and scale of work, and SAE for return of submission.

Submissions up to 5MB may be made by email, or post larger submissions to:

Address Visual Arts Programme, Dunamaise Arts Centre, Church Street, Portlaoise, Co. Laois Email exhibitions@dunamaise.ie Website www.dunamaise.ie Deadline Ongoing BCP Black Church Print Studio's Open Submission & Invited Exhibition 2010, curated by Oliver Dowling, John Graham and Margaret O'Brien, is inviting entries of proposal-based works and/or existing works. 'Invisible' is an open submission and invited exhibition that welcomes all forms of art and art practice, including visual, sound, temporal and performance based works.

The exhibition will take place in February 2010 and will be sited in several locations around Dublin city. Artists may consider using their own studios and/or sites other than conventional exhibition spaces for the show.

Participating venues include Original Print Gallery, Curiosity Cabinet, The Back Loft c/o La Catedral Studios and The Digital Hub Development Agency.

Register your interest in order to receive additional information on venues and scheduled site visits by contacting: Email info@print.ie Website www.print.ie Deadline 16 November 2009 City Artsquad City Artsquad will be 20 years old in 2010. To celebrate this achievement Artsquad is calling on all former members to contribute to a publication and exhibition that will commemorate its participation in community arts. If you have been involved with City Artsquad at any point from 1990 to 2010 and would like to contribute to the 20th anniversary celebrations, please contact Fiona Clarke, Programme Coordinator, on: Telephone 01 4547026 Email cityartsquad@hotmail.com 'Blackboard' at Filmbase 'Blackboard' is a site specific art project in Curved Street Café at

Filmbase in Temple Bar. Every 8 weeks the giant blackboard in the 1st floor atrium of Curved Street Café is chalked upon by a different artist, becoming a sitespecific palimpsest of chalkworks. 'Blackboard' is now inviting proposals from artists for the upcoming programme.

Pop by the cafe to see the blackboard and see if you would be interested in putting in a submission, then leave an image of your proposal with the café staff and attach your contact details. For more information please contact Michelle Darmody on: Telephone 01 4789394 The Dock The Dock in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim, accepts submissions on an ongoing basis from artists/ curators who are interested in exhibiting in the galleries at The Dock. To be considered, please provide a detailed proposal or outline for proposed exhibition, images of your work on CD, current CV and supporting documentation (e.g. catalogues of previous work or reviews of previous shows).

Send submissions to: Address Artistic Director, The Dock, St. George's Terrace, Carrick-onShannon, Co. Leitrim Website www.thedock.ie Deadline Ongoing awards AWARDS Golden Fleece Award The Golden Fleece Award is an artistic fund established as a charitable bequest by the late Helen Lillias Mitchell.

Applications for the 2009 Award are now invited from artists or researchers working in the area of figurative painting or traditional craft, where traditional painting refers to representational figurative painting and traditional craft refers to work with a basis in traditional skills and materials, including woven textiles, spinning, dyeing, glassmaking, metalwork, ceramics, stonework and woodwork, etc. Applicants will normally have been born on the island of Ireland and must maintain a strong connection with Ireland. Application forms can now be downloaded from the Golden Fleece Award website at: Website www.goldenfleeceaward.com Deadline 20 November 2009 Premio Valcellina Award Premio Valcellina Award 2009 International Textile and Fibre Art Competition. Emerging fibre

and textile artists and craftspeople are invited to enter the Premio Valcellina Award 2009 International Textile and Fibre Art Competition. Works submitted under the theme 'Boarder Line' will be eligible for prizes of €2,000, €1,500 and €1,000. Entry fee: €20. Entry forms are available online.

Address Le Arti Tessili Association, Via M. Ciotti, 133086 Montereale Valcellina (PN), Italy Website www.premiovalcellina.org Deadline 30 November 2009 Les Boutographies 2010 The Boutographies at Rencontres Photographiques de Montpellier is a competition open to all photographers, amateurs or professionals, living and working in Europe. The criteria for selection by jury are a high creative level, originality and a coherent personal vision. There is no theme. Please send up to 20 printed images and €10 administration fee to: Address Directions des Affaires Culturelles Boutographies, Maison de la Democratie, 16 Rue de la Reppubilque 34000 Montpelleir, France Email contact@boutographies.com Website www.boutographies.com Deadline 30 November 2009 Henry Moore Fellowships The Henry Moore Institute invites applications for Research Fellowships and Senior Research Fellowships 2010-2011 from artists, scholars and curators interested in working on historic and contemporary sculpture using the Institute’s library, archive of sculptors’ papers and the collection of Leeds Art Gallery. Research Fellowships provide up to 4 fellows with the opportunity to spend a month in Leeds to develop their own research. Senior Fellowships give established scholars working on any aspect of sculpture the time and space to develop a research project free from their usual work commitments for periods of between 3 and 6 weeks.

Accommodation, travel expenses and a per diem are provided.

There is also a possibility of presenting research in published form, as a seminar, or as a small exhibition. Send a letter of application stating how you heard about the fellowships, a proposal (1000 words max.) and a CV, to: Address Kirstie Gregory, Henry Moore Institute, 74 The Headrow, Leeds LS1 3AH, England Email

kirstie@henry-moore.ac.uk Website www.henry-moore-fdn.co.uk Deadline 11 January 2010 Abbey Awards 2010 Emerging and mid-career painters who are British or American nationals or who have been resident for at least 5 years in the UK or the US, are invited to apply for the Abbey Awards 2010 Residencies for Painters in Rome, Italy. Abbey Awards will offer painters residencies modern atelier studios at the British School at Rome close to the Borghese Gardens during the academic year 2010/2011. The 9-month Scholarship is awarded to an emergent painter while the 3-month Fellowships are for mid-career painters. All expenses are paid plus a monthly stipend of £500 for the Scholar and £700 for Fellows. For information and application forms visit the website or send a self-addressed (and for applicants in the UK stamped) envelope to: Address The Administrator, Abbey Awards, Upper Ochr Cefn, Rhayader, Powys LD6 5EY, Wales Email contact@abbey.org.uk Website www.abbey.org.uk Deadline 15 January 2010 College Photo Contest 2nd and 3rd level students worldwide are invited to enter the 30th Annual College Photography Contest organised

by Photographer's Forum Magazine and Nikon. Awards for the online photography competition are: 1st place $2,000 & Nikon D90 camera; 2nd place - $1,000 & camera; cash for 3rd and 4th place. All contest finalists will be published in the hardcover book 'Best of College Photography 2010'. Juried by a panel of 3 photography instructors. $4.95 submission fee per photo. See website for details or contact Julie Simpson at: Telephone 001 805963 0439, ext. 240 Email julie@serbin.com Website w w w. p f m a g a z i n e . c o m /AS / contest.aspx Deadline 23 November 2009 FutureEverything FutureEverything welcomes nominations and submissions for the FutureEverything Awards aiming to recognise outstanding achievement for innovation in the arts, music, society and technology, and celebrate creative projects which offer a new and unique way to experience or see the world.

Eligible projects must have been realised within 15 months of the submission deadline in any media. Winners will receive a trophy, cash prize and present their work at the FutureEverything festival which will take place in Manchester from 12 to 15 May 2010. The winner will be announced on 12 March 2010. Submissions should include name of nominee, title, date, media, dimensions or duration (as appropriate), location, project outline (max.

200 words), URL on one side of an A4 page and one item of supporting material e.g. video documentation, text, image or other media.

Email dan@futureeverything.org Website www.futureeverything.org Deadline 1 December 2009 One Minute Film Practicing imaginative visual artists, film makers, animators, film directors and editors are invited to enter the One Minute Film Challenge Competition 2009. Filmmakers are asked to produce an original and imaginative film that works within the confines of sixty seconds.

Categories for submitting your film are: Animation, Documentary, Title Sequence, Film Clip, Ident, and Advert. Films can be uploaded directly to the website below or posted to: Address RENDERYARD - Cosme Garcia 5, P1. LAS DUNAS, 26140 Lardero, La Rioja, Spain Email press.renderyard@gmail.com Website www.renderyard.com Deadline 31 December 2009 COMMISSIONS COMMISSIONS School – Donegal Donegal County Council Public Art Programme aims to commission an interactive, participatory, performance or time-based arts event for children, based upon the themes of Frances Browne, the ‘blind poetess of Stranorlar’ and her work ‘Granny’s Wonderful Chair’. The project will include a 10 week residency commencing Spring 2010 based in four National Schools in Ballybofey/ Stranorlar with one class of school-children aged 10-11 from each school included in the project. Artists and arts companies from a range of disciplines (from children’s theatre, to community arts, carnival, literature, film, animation etc) who work with children are invited to make a project proposal. For the

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

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November – December 2009

Opportunities Commission Brief, please contact: Email: declan.sheehan@donegalcoco. ie Website: www.donegalpublicart.ie Deadline: 11 February 2010 Kentish Town The trustees of the charity, Kentish Town Improvement Fund in conjunction with the Arts Council England, seek to appoint an artist for a permanent commission. Kentish Town Health Centre is a newly built, state of the art, healthcare building which has been shortlisted for the Stirling Prize 2009 and the commissioned artwork should make a strong visual statement about the Centre, should be in a durable medium, and suitable for outside space. Start date: early 2010.

Budget: £7,000 (to cover all costs).

Please send CV, statement and 4 jpeg images of your work to: Email marin-pache@hotmail.co.uk Website www.ahmm.co.uk Deadline 21 December 2009 E X H I B I T I O N S INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS INTERNATIONAL National Glass Centre Artists across all art forms looking to work with glass are invited to send proposals to the National Glass Centre in Sunderland, England for exhibitions, short or long-term residencies, and ideas for the commissioning and production of new work. No previous experience of working with glass necessary. Priority will be given to proposals that introduce new ways of working and provide opportunities to work in partnership across media, and internationally. Facilities include a visiting artist’s studio and access to an experienced hot glass studio team, exhibition spaces and an experienced curatorial team and external panel of advisers. Send a statement (max. 150 words), current CV and proposal (1 A4 page each) to: Address Creative Director, National Glass Centre, Liberty Way, Sunderland SR6 0GL, England Email info@nationalglasscentre.com Website www.nationalglasscentre.com Deadline 1 January 2010 If.... g39 in Cardiff, Wales, is calling for proposals for the use of the gallery's ground floor space from artists, curators and other arts

professionals at any stage in their career who have an idea they’d like to try out in a gallery environment or new work that they’d like to expose to a new audience. Successful projects presented as part of 'If....' will alternate with g39’s exhibition programme during the 2009-10 season for 2-week periods including invigilators, publicity and a small project fee. The opportunity does not include a preview event or technical assistance so applicants should be fairly self-sufficient. To apply, send an email outlining your proposal (max. 300 words) with three images in JPEG format (maximum size 1Mb per image), CV and statement and link to your website if you have one, to: Email mike@g39.org Website www.g39.org Deadline Ongoing Art Below Art Below provides artists with advertising space in the London Underground, turning Ad Space into Art Space. For a fee, your work will be displayed for a period of 2 weeks in a station of your choice and they also provide a web page for online viewing.

For more information contact: Telephone 0044 (0)20 89484491 Email info@artbelow.com Website www.artbelow.com www.myspace.com/artbelow Deadline Ongoing Making Tracks 'Making Tracks' is an exhibition of digital video and animation

by Nova Scotian and international artists to be hosted by VIA Rail on flatscreen equipped trains on its Ocean Limited run between Halifax and Montreal in Canada from June to October 2010. VIA will also host 'Making Tracks' on their large displays for the duration of the onboard show at the Panorama Lounge in Montreal. Submissions must consider trains in some way and be no longer than 15 minutes in length. The project will aim to expand the audience for contemporary art in Canada and create a unique dialogue between the works of art and train travellers' experience. The jury will be composed of professional artists from various disciplines and artist fees will be paid.

Submissions should be sent on DVD to: Address 'Making Tracks', Khyber ICA, 1588 Barrington Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3J 1Z6 Email viacoordinator@khyberarts.

ns.ca Website www.makingtracks.ca Deadline 15 April 2010 La Chambre Blanche La Chambre Blanche is an artistrun centre in Québec with a mandate to promote installation and site-specific practices. The residency programme is an opportunity offered to artists for 6 weeks to place into question the nature of artistic practice itself with regards to both its conception and public reception.

La Chambre Blanche is particularly interested in works which, like works-in-progress, consider time as a medium.

Resident artists are provided with access to assistants, personal technical help and a Mac computer lab with a G4 computer and woodwork shop, as well as accommodation and $1,750 (CAN) artist fees. Applications should be sent to: Address 185, rue Christophe Colomb Est, Québec, QC, G1K 3S6, Canada Telephone 001 418 5292715 Email info@chambreblanche.qc.ca Website www.chambreblanche.qc.ca Deadline 28 November 2009 The Muse at 269 Visual artists are invited to submit proposals for exhibitions as part of The Muse at 269's spring/summer 2010 programme. Applications should include CV, artist statement, 10-16 .jpeg images of your work as an attachment or on disc to: Address Spring calendar @ The Muse at 269, 269 Portobello Road, London W11 1LR, England Telephone 0044 (0)20 7792 8588 Email info@themuseat269.com Website www.themuseat269.com Deadline 30 January 2010 STUDIOS STUDIOS Pallas Studios Pallas Studios have a number of artist's studios available to rent at their new premises near the Pallas Contemporary Projects gallery space. Close to Smithfield Square/Luas and Manor Street, Stoneybatter, in the 'Blakeville' building. Prices start from €180 per month including electricity and wireless broadband internet.

Spaces are all of good size, clean and bright, with 24 hour secure access and plenty of room for bicycle parking outside! To arrange a viewing contact: Email

info@pallasstudios.org Website www.pallasprojects.org Mill Street Studios Two studio spaces are currently available to rent at Mill Street Studios in Dublin 8. For more information and viewings please contact Hazel on: Telephone 086 1687044 Email info@dublinartmill.com Website www.dublinartmill.com Studio / Gallery 4 bedroomed farmhouse and large art studio/gallery with detached 2 bedroomed cottage with panoramic views on 1 acre landscaped gardens 16 km from Kilkenny available to rent. For more information contact: Telephone 087 0539504 Email obriencolette@hotmail.com colletteobrien@gmail.com Richmond Road Studios As part of a redevelopment programme, a number of studio spaces are currently available to rent at Richmond Road Studios in Fairview, Dublin 3. Studios suitable for artists working in all media, including video and performance artists. All studios have 24 hour access, secure parking and the option of wireless broadband internet. If interested in a viewing please contact Clodagh at: Telephone 087 2030846 Email richmondroadstudios@yahoo. com Website www.richmondroadstudios.com Archway Studios Archway Studios in Dublin's northeast city centre have several studio spaces available to rent, now at a reduced rate. Each studio has its own door with lock. Sharing space with another artist is an option. The studios has a large outdoor space as well as a common kitchen area, a new storage area and a new communal workspace, as well as broadband.

For more information please contact Antoin O'Heocha at: Telephone 01 8365864 087 7706336 Email antoin1@ireland.com Website www.archwaystudiodub.com RESIDENCIES RESIDENCIES: Camera Club of New York The Camera Club of New York invites emerging photographers who are not enrolled in college or graduate photography

programmes to apply for a 3-month residency at its Manhattan facility. Residents selected by jury will receive film, paper, and stipends, and will have access to CCNY's darkrooms (black & white and colour) and shooting studio, and up to three printing/shooting sessions per week during a three-month term.

Living accommodation not provided. For submission details go online or contact: Email info@cameraclubny.org Website w w w. c a m e r a c l u b n y. o r g / residency.html Deadline TBC VCCA Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Amherst provides artists with working facilities that include adequate space, undisturbed time, and relief from day-to-day responsibilities.

Residencies last from 2 weeks to 2 months duration and visual artists working with painting, media art, sculpture and textiles are invited to apply. The VCCA sits on the 12-acre hilltop of Mt. San Angelo. VCCA provides residents with accommodation, board, food, three meals a day and studio space. Applications should be sent to: Address VCCA, 154 San Angelo Drive, Amherst, Virginia 24521, America Telephone 001 804 9467236 Email vcca@vcca.com Website www.vcca.com Deadline 15 January 2010 The Glasshouse International artists working with film and performance art are invited to apply for residencies of between 7 and 14 days at The Glasshouse in Tel Aviv. The Glasshouse is a home working environment of the artist duo Lital Dotan and Eyal Perry and the basic principle of this residency programme is to offer a base in Tel Aviv for artistic and collaborative projects.

Accommodation, studio space, PR and assistance for the project will be provided. To be considered for the residency artists should send a proposal related to cultural dialogue, gender issues, performance and/or body art to: Address The Glasshouse, 3 Hashomer Street, 1st floor, 61049 Tel Aviv, Israel Telephone 00972 (0)35176090 Email glasshouse@perry-dotan.com Website www.dotan-perry.com/our-

glasshouse-home/residency www.ourglasshouse.wordpress. com Deadline 15 November 2009 CYLAND MediaArtLab CYLAND is a new international media art lab organised by the St.Petersburg branch of the National Center for Contemporary Art in Russia and the St.Petersburg Arts Project in New York. Artists working with new media, video, net and cyber arts are invited to apply for residencies of 2 to 4 weeks in this equipped creative co-operative of artists, engineers, technicians and programmers. Application forms are available online and should be sent to: 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&task =view&id=34&Itemid=30 Deadline Ongoing Townhouse Townhouse Residency Project was established in 2000 to provide artists with the opportunity to work in a studio in the context of urban Cairo, Egypt. Townhouse is located in a renovated three-storey building together with an adjoining annex and 600 sq/m warehouse space, the gallery holds classrooms, studios, a library and bookshop. The residency programme for artists working with drawing, paintings, film, media art and sculpture is nonprescriptive, but priority is given to proposals rooted in an interest in the resources that Cairo and the surrounds may provide to artists. No definite parameters exist with regard to duration of residency. Applications should be sent to: Address Townhouse Gallery, 10 Nabrawy Street, off Champollion Street, Downtown, CAIRO, Egypt Telephone 0020 25768086 Email info@thetownhousegallery.com Website www.thetownhousegallery.com Deadline Ongoing L'Oeil de Poisson L'Oeil de Poisson invites applications for its ongoing residency programme in Québec, Canada. Multimedia, sculpture and woodcraft artists may apply for residencies of 3 months duration at the centre, which is equipped with metal and woodworking workspaces, as well as facilities for multimedia, experimental and inter/ multidisciplinarity work. L'Oeil de Poisson provides resident

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

November – December 2009

Opportunities artists with a studio apartment, workspace, per diems and limited production cost. For more information contact: Address 541, rue Saint-Vallier Est, Québec, QC, G1K 3P9, Canada Telephone 001 418 6482975 Email p r o g r a m m a t i o n . oeildepoisson@meduse.org Website www.meduse.org/oeildepoisson Deadline Ongoing ART OMI & Ledig House Art Omi invites applications from visual artists working with ceramics, drawing, painting, media art and sculpture, as well as curators/researchers, for 3 week residencies in Colombia County, New York. Art Omi provides residents with an opportunity to develop new work, initiate discourse and collaborations among peers, exhibit work to the public and advance their careers in New York City and internationally.

Artists are provided with accommodation close to the studios and access to sculpture facilities, studio space and food.

Application information is available online and submissions should be sent by post to: Address 55 Fifth Avenue, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10003, America Telephone 001 212 2066060 Email claudia@artomi.org Website www.artomi.org Deadline 11 December 2009 Hollufgård Gaestatelier Hollufgård Gaestatelier, 6lm from Odense, offers visual artists working with bronze casting and stone carving the opportunity to work in a sympathetic atmosphere alongside sculptors from Funen Island who work in the workshops and/or exhibit in the outdoor exhibition park devoted to sculpture for up to 6 months. The studios are equipped with an oven, compressor, welding apparatus and lift.

Residencies cost around 55 to 60 Dkr per day. To apply, send submissions to: Address Hestehaven 201, 5220 ODENSE SØ, Denmark Telephone 0045 6595 8998 Email acbo@odense.dk Website www.gah.dk Deadline Ongoing O'AIR O'A.I.R. is an international artist and theorist residency program

based in the historic Isola quarter of Milan in the O' art association headquarters. It offers space to experiment as well as time for reflection and discussion.

Residencies typically run for between 2 weeks and 2 months, and accommodation, studio space and basic equipment provided by O'. Curators, researchers and artists working with film, multimedia, paintings, drawing sculpture and photography who have at least 3 years' experience are invited to apply. For more information on applying please contact: Address O', Via Pastrengo 12, 20159 Milano, Italy Telephone 0039 0266823357 Email i n f o - o . a r t o t e c a @ uovodicolombo.com Website www.o-artoteca.org Deadline Ongoing Salo Art Museum The Majala Artists' Residence in Salo, Finland seeks to increase and improve contact between local artists and domestic and foreign guest artists, as well as promoting interaction between artists and the local community.

Residencies are available for artists working with drawing, paintings, media art and sculpture from between 1 and 4 months. Artists in residence are provided with live/work studio space and access to silkscreen and woodcut printing equipment, and one multimedia workspace has access to digital image editing and multimedia production facilities. The Majala Artists' Residence is administrated and coordinated by Salo Art Museum. For more information contact: Address Mariankatu 14, 24240 Salo, Finland Telephone 00358 2778 4884 Email veturitalli@salo.fi Website www.salontaidemuseo.fi Deadline Ongoing Exploratorium Exploratorium is located within the Palace of Fine Arts, the last remaining building of the 1915 Panama Exposition in San Francisco's Marina District.

Visual artists working with drawing, painting, film, multimedia, photography and sculpture are invited to apply for Exploratorium's ongoing residency programme which facilitates the creation of artworks, installations, films, and performances that can augment large-scale thematically-based exhibitions about nature.

Technical assistance, access to woodwork, metalwork, welding and electronics workshops, studio space, accommodation, per diem and materials are provided. Exploratorium is a pluridisciplinary institution and applications should be sent to: Address Exploratorium, 3601 Lyon Street, San Francisco, CA 94123-1099, America Telephone 001 415 5637337 001 415 674 2820 Email pamw@exploratorium.edu Website www.exploratorium.edu/about/ air.html Deadline Ongoing Ars Electronica Center The Ars Electronica Center facilitates and implements experimental collaboration of art, technology and society.

International artists working with media art and multimedia work are invited to apply for the ongoing residency programme in Linz, Austria. Resident artists are provided with access to a computer lab and technical assistants as part of the Pépinières programme.

For more information contact: Address Haupstraße 2, Linz, A-4040, Austria Telephone 0043 732 72720 Email info@aec.at Website www.aec.at Deadline Ongoing Upernavik Retreat Call for artists working with film, sculpture, media art, photography, drawing and painting to apply for the Upernavik Museum residency programme in Greenland.

Housed in the old cooper's shop, the artists' retreat houses a small flat for 1 or 2 people with the intention of supporting cultural exchange between international artists and the local community.

Expenses for house rent, removal of refuse, water, light and heating are paid by Upernavik Museum, and in return artists in residence are asked to donate a piece of work made while on the residency to the Museum.

Application details are available online and submissions should be sent to: Address Upernavik Museum, Niuertup Ottup Aqq. B-12, 3962 Upernavik, Greenland Telephone 00299 961085 Email inussuk@greennet.gl Website www.upernivik.gl

Deadline 1 December 2009 Darb 1718 International artists are invited to apply for Darb 1718's residency programme in Old Cairo, Egypt.

Residencies last for between 2 and 4 weeks. Egyptian artist Moataz Nasr initiated Darb 1718 in 2008 and aims to integrate the gallery with the local community through workshops, lectures and public programmes. The space has a kiln, stage, space outside the gallery for workshops and a full gallery over two floors.

Visiting artists are provided with nearby accommodation.

Applications are considered on a rolling deadline. To apply contact Darb for more information at: Address Kasr El Sham3aa Street, al Fakhareen, Old Cairo, Egypt Telephone 002 23510611 Email info@darb1718.com Website www.darb1718.com Rocky Mountain Visual artists are invited to apply for the Artist in residence programme at Rocky Mountain National Park Estes Park in Colorado. Residencies take place for 2 weeks from June to September in the William Allen White cabin, home of American editor and author William Allen White which was built in 1887.

For more information contact: Address Rocky Mountain National Park Estes Park, Colorado, CO 80517, America Telephone 001 970 5861206 www.rocky.mountain.nationalpark.com/cal.htm#art Deadline December 2009 Meet Factory The Meet Factory's Atelier Programme in Prague supports the Czech contemporary art scene and artists with the central aim of building strong international relationships through its international residency programme. The Meet Factory hosts 9 ateliers of various sizes, each with a single bed, table and chair, a workshop with basic technical equipment and a music and sound workshop.

Accommodation and support for residents' projects is provided.

Applications should be sent to: Address Ke Sklárne 15 MeetFactory o.p.s., 150 00 Praha 5, Czech Republic Telephone 00420 251 551796 Email meetfactory@meetfactory.cz studios@meetfactory.cz Website www.meetfactory.cz Deadline

Ongoing Guldagergaard Guldagergaard is an international research centre for the development of ceramic art located in Skaelskor, Denmark.

Professional artists from all over the world can apply to work in the studios and accomplish specific project over a period of 1 to 6 months throughout the year.

The facilities and international atmosphere at Guldagergaard offer an opportunity for concentrated work and for exploring new ideas, techniques, materials, and firings. AIRs are expected to work independently and collaborate in using the common studio areas, kilns, etc., and residents may be asked to donate one piece of work to the collection. Applications should be sent to: Address Heilmannsvej 31A, DK-4230 SKAELSKOR, Denmark Telephone 0045 58190016 Email ceramic@ceramic.dk Website www.ceramic.dk Deadline Ongoing VARC Visual Arts in Rural Communities (VARC) in rural Northumberland invites visual artists to apply for 12-month residencies at Highgreen. The Trust is hoping to appoint two artists from applications submitted; one artist to hold the residency October 2010-2011 and another artist to hold the residency October 2011-2012. Residencies include studio, flat, utilities, exhibition costs and catalogue.

Information and details of how to apply are available online or from Janet Ross at: Telephone 0044 (0)1434 240822 Email janet@varc.org.uk Website www.varc.org.uk Deadline 11 January 2010 MacDowell Colony The MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, America, is designed to facilitate a balance between a focus on work and interdisciplinary interaction.

Private studios are available to artists 24/7 along with dining and recreation rooms at Colony Hall, providing an environment adaptable to each individual's needs. Readings, slide shows, open studios, and informal performances allow Colonists to become acquainted with and inspired by one another's work.

Applications are chosen by a peer-review panel and are now being accepted for the residency period form 1 June to 30

September 2009. For full details are available online. Applications should be sent by post to: Address Admissions Director, The MacDowell Colony, 100 High Street, Peterborough, NH 03458, America Website www.macdowellcolony.org Deadline 15 January 2009 SSW The SSW (Scottish Sculpture Workshop) International Residency Centre gives sculptors working with bronze casting, stone carving and woodcraft the opportunity to work on specific projects for varying amounts of time in a rural location in the foothills of the Highlands in west Aberdeenshire. Access to assistants, the reference library, sculpture facilities and industrial equipment is provided. The studio measures approx. 6,000 sq/ft and there is also a large open yard for outdoor work. For more information contact: Address SSW, 1 Main Street, Lumsden, Aberdeenshire AB54 4JN, Scotland Telephone 0044 1464 861372 Email office@ssw.org.uk Website www.ssw.org.uk Deadline Ongoing Kala Art Institute The Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, California, invites artists working with various printmaking techniques, photo-processes, book arts and digital media including sound and video production to apply for their 2010 residency programme.

Resident artists are provided with 24-hour access to the printmaking workshop and/or electronic media centre, individual storage space, exhibition opportunities and 20% discount on classes and private tutoring offered by Kala.

Artists may apply for 1, 2, or 3-month residencies and Kala also offers Emergency Residencies to artists who find themselves in immediate need of studio space to complete a specific project.

Please send completed application form, CV, max. 20 images of your work on CD or DVD or 10 minutes of video work, image list, artist statement and stamped SAE to: Website www.kala.org Deadline 31 January 2009 1646 1646 is an artists’ initiative/ project-space in the centre of The Hague in The Netherlands, which promotes the exchange

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

27

November – December 2009

Opportunities between local, national and international artists and art spaces, and works as a platform for discussion, research, production and presentation of autonomous visual art.

Residencies at 1646 run for periods of up to 2 months.

Submissions should be sent by post to: Address Residency at 1646, Boekhorststraat 125, 2512 CN – Den Haag, The Netherlands Email email1646@hotmail.com Website www.enter1646.com Deadline Ongoing KulttuuriKauppila Through its AIR programme KulttuuriKauppila supports international art activities bringing multicultural dimension to the region. Guest artists working with ceramics, drawing, painting, literature, media art, photography, printmaking and textiles are invited to apply for KulttuuriKauppila's residency programme which provides artists with a live/work studio space and access to the guest atelier. There are 3 other studios on the premises used by local artists. Applications for the residency period from autumn 2010 to spring 2011 should be sent to: Address Kauppilantie 15, 91100 Ii, Finland Email koliresidence@gmail.com Website www.kulttuurikauppila.fi/sivu/ fi/ Deadline 31 January 2010 Pollinaria Pollinaria operates at the intersection of art, science and agriculture. At the heart of rural Abruzzo, Pollinaria integrates research programmes for artists and scientists with practices of organic farming that preserve and support local genetic patrimony in Abruzzo, Italy. The residency is located in an 18th century rural settlement in a forest reserve. For more information contact: Address Pollinaria, Torre delle Valli, 65010 Civitella Casanova, Abruzzo, Italy Telephone 0039 085846142 Email info@pollinaria.org Website www.pollinaria.org Deadline Ongoing Viippola Viippola International Artist Residence is situated in a newly

renovated wooden house in the centre of the city of Tornio, Finland, close to the Swedish border. Artists working with drawing, sculpture, paintings and media art are invited to apply for 6-month residencies.

The residency provides artists with accommodation and studio space under one roof, as well as assistance in applying for possible stipends in Finland.

Applications should be sent to: Address Tornio Cultural Office, Lukiokatu 10, 95400 Tornio, Finland Telephone 00358 16 432424 Email helena.junes@tornio.fi Website www.artists.fi/studio Deadline Ongoing B93 Two live/work guest studios are available to visiting artists in residence at B93 in Enschede in The Netherlands. Artists working with film, media art, multimedia and music are invited to apply for 3-month residencies. One studio is equipped with computers and software for video art, sound art and installation work. The other studio is very light and suitable for painting, drawing and small scaled sculpture. Internet access, as well as basic tools and equipment, is available. Financial support is provided by the city of Enschede and B93 also houses 10 studios for local artists.

Applications should be made at least 6 months in advance of proposed residency period.

Email petragroen@gmail.com Website www.b93.nl www.areholland.com Deadline Ongoing FUNDING FUNDING Bursary Award Please note that the 2nd Round of applications for the Arts Council Bursary Award 2009, originally scheduled for 5 November 2009, has been extended and a new date of 21 January 2010 is now in place.

The Arts Council Bursary Award is designed to support professional artists in the development of their work by providing visual arts practitioners with the time and resources to think, research, reflect and develop their practice.

Revised application forms and guidelines will be available soon.

For more information contact: Telephone 01 6180200 Email awards@artscouncil.ie Website www.artscouncil.ie

Deadline 21 January 2010 Small Grants The Arts Council of Northern Ireland's Small Grants Programme helps small groups in Northern Ireland. The main aim of the programme is to fund projects which involve people in their communities, bringing them together to enjoy a wide range of arts activities. The ACNI gives high priority to activities that are new or develop existing programmes. If you are a group and you need between £500 and £10,000, then the Small Grants Programme could be for you.

Applications can be made online.

For full details visit: Website www.artscouncil-ni.org/award/ smallgrant.html Deadline Ongoing Churchill Fellowships Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travelling Fellowships offer about 100 awards per year to enable UK citizens to undertake travel projects. Grants do not cover attending courses or academic studies. Individual artists seeking between £2,000 and £5,000 funding for research and travel for fine art, architecture, design and fashion work are eligible. Registration for the 2010 Fellowships is now being invited. For more information contact: Address 15 Queen`s Gate Terrace, London SW7 5PR, England Telephone 0044 020 75849315 Email office@wcmt.org.uk Website www.wcmt.org.uk Deadline Ongoing until March 2010 European Cultural Foundation The European Cultural Foundation's Travel Fund supports collaboration and networking between young Europeans. The fund is available to artists and cultural operators, activists, journalists, translators and researchers. It will contribute to travel, visa, and, in certain cases, accommodation costs. For information visit: Website www.eurocult.org Deadline 8 weeks before date of travel COURSES COURSES VAI Professional Development Workshops Full details of Visual Artists Ireland's Professional Development Training Workshop Programme 2009/2010 are now available.

Courses offered include

'Presentation Skills Communicating your Practice', 'Peer Critique – Multimedia & Installation', 'Evaluation Tools for Visual Artists', 'Cross Generation and Reminiscence' and 'Earning Opportunities'.

Information on courses taking place in Derry, Cork, Enniskillen, Down, Belfast, Dublin, Portlaoise, Omagh and Limerick can be viewed online. For more information contact: Telephone 01 8722296 Email monica@visualartists.ie Website www.visualartists.ie/Services/ sfr_current_prog.html Painting & Drawing Winter watercolour, pen and ink, calligraphy, and drawing skills courses available now. For more information contact John at: Telephone 087 0539504 Email info@hillsideartgallery.com De Appel De Appel is an institute for contemporary art that provides space to international artists for projects, installations and research in Amsterdam.

Applications are invited for De Appel's 2010/2011 Curatorial Training Programme which will consist of a range of exhibitions, talks, discussions and video presentations. De Appel does not offer grants or scholarships and the total approximate cost for the 7 month programme is €4,250. For more information contact: Address De Appel, Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 10, 1017 DE AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands Telephone 0031 20 6255651 Email info@deappel.nl Website www.deappel.nl Deadline 15 January 2009 JOBS JOBS Lecturer in Photography A photography lecturer with relevant qualifications and experience is required to teach, assess and examine on BA Hons Photography course at the University of Ulster, and undertake research at a national and international level.

Application pack available online or by contacting: Telephone 028 70324072 Email jobs@ulster.ac.uk Website www.ulster.ac.uk/jobs Deadline 16 November 2009

OTHER OTHER Cork Printmakers Cork Printmakers is currently welcoming applications from artists for Full and Associate Membership. Full Members have 24/7 access to the workshop while Associate Members may use the workshop under technicians’ supervision from 9.30am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday. Other benefits include up to 6 images of work and biography on the workshop website, submission to exhibitions, quarterly newsletter, discount on course fees and free Masterclasses (funding pending).

Full Membership: €400 per annum and Associate Membership: €60 per annum plus daily charge. Go online for more information about the workshop facilities, equipment and to download a membership application form. Complete and return forms with a minimum of six samples of your work in either CD, DVD, slide, photograph, catalogue or portfolio format. For further information contact Clare Hennessy at: Address Cork Printmakers, Wandesford Quay, Clarke’s Bridge, Cork Telephone 021 4322422 Email clare@corkprintmakers.ie Website www.corkprintmakers.ie Deadline 5pm, 20 November 2009 Locws Database Practicing UK-based and international artists working in installation, sculpture, performance or film are invited to apply for inclusion on Locws International's Artist Database.

Locws International works with artists to create temporary, sitespecific visual arts projects for public and accessible spaces. It provides new opportunities for artists and operates a flexible and supportive framework to enable the production of progressive and dynamic work.

To be added to the database, send a current CV and images of your work to: Email locws@locwsinternational.com Website www.locwsinternational.com Deadline Ongoing Willis Newson Database Willis Newson is an arts consultancy working with health, community and corporate clients across the UK to devise and deliver public art projects, artists-in-residence schemes and arts-in-hospitals programmes. They are currently inviting artists whose work may

be suitable for their projects to join Willis Newson’s artists’ database, to be kept informed of forthcoming exhibition, commission and residency opportunities. To apply, send a current CV together, CD with up to 8 PC-compatible 300dpi jpegs of your work, plus a Word document listing all the images with name of artist, title of work, medium, location and date of work, to: Address Willis Newson, 20 Portland Square, Bristol BS2 8SJ, England Email info@willisnewson.co.uk Website www.willisnewson.co.uk Deadline Ongoing

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.

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

November – December 2009

Problems

PABLO HELGUERA's ARTOONS

The Problem Page

Artoons

Our consierge / curator of agony responds to a selection of queries and conceptual quibbles – offering in return, nothing less than life-shattering, dilemma-inducing, paradigm-shifting nonsense.

The foibles, ironies, and occasional stupidity of the art world – captured with clarity and economy

Art Sickness Dear Concierge, I have discovered lately that I feel very unwell when I visit galleries and museums. But I can’t figure out what is causing it. At first I thought swine flu. However I have discounted this as the instant onset of rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and even hallucinations, dissipates when I leave said spaces.

Actually, I am becoming more and more concerned that whilst my brain is telling me to engage with contemporary practice, my body is becoming the greater critic; and is I think is now trying to tell me that I am being conned.

Please find enclosed some tissue samples, computer read outs and other relevant matter to help you read yourself into my case. Hopefully your prognosis will be simple and I will soon be able to resume my wine tippling wanderings from openingto-opening without the onset of nausea.

If I follow you correctly, while your mind confidently embraces contemporary practice and all of it various discursive nodes of cultural operation – your corporeal self increasingly rebels and feels threatened, insecure and doubting in art-world contexts.

While the cyber-punk-esque solution of downloading yourself into a more complacent and art-aware body is not on the cards just yet, a simple solution is I think on hand. Just like dealing with a stubborn – yet well loved – pet, you merely need to firmly, yet compassionately take charge in order to direct your metabolism to once again follow your bidding.

My diagnosis is that your fleshly carriage simply wants a more physical relationship with galleries, museums and the art in them. In short, I think your reluctant carcass can be persuaded to follow the minds wishes, if would only direct you hands, eyes, nostrils and tongue to more closely to attend to the surfaces, corners, undulations and folds of the contemporary art spectacles and encounters you find yourself attending.

So, yes indeed, caress and sniff textual materials; run your hands over the surfaces of flat screen monitors and freshly painted wall texts. As for conferences, roundtable discussions and indeed exhibition openings – you should not restrain yourself from ‘dropping the hand’ on your colleagues – it will reassure their own bodily selves, ensuring for all the smooth and incident free carriage of minds around the art world.

Fantasmagoria & Reality Dear Fellow Concierge, Am I loosing my sanity? More and more of my fanciful speculations seem to be breaking through the normally impermeable membrane between fantasy and reality.

Let me explain. I write a satirical ‘problem page’ column for an art industry publication. And it seems to me, that my exaggerated riffs on the specificities and peculiarities of the art world are corresponding more and more with actual reality.

For example, just the other day I bumped into a young pipe-cleaner trousered semio-naut, who was out shopping for obscure cakes and tasty books to

prepare their studio-cum-discourse node / hub for an upcoming studio visit. They had just come from a conference – they didn’t need to tell me, I simply surmised this as they still had their mp3 player headphones on. And they informed me that they had just been accepted for a PhD programme – on the basis that they proposed to puncture the rigid structures of various fields of knowing with voids of ‘non-knowledge’.

This was particularly interesting – they planned to create, what they likened to ‘holes of possibility’ by creating bubbles of “pure ignorance and wrong thinking”– generated by their studious avoidance of any actual reading or research …

Here, here! Please, you are not to worry a jot.

Such is the cerebral power of our kind that our minds can conjure – out of the ether – personages and indeed entire cultural phenomena. Now if only we would choose to harness and deploy our powers for the greater good of the art world?

Nah!

Pointy-ended Wooden Sticks Dear Concierge, When I see questions about ‘stakeholders’ on funding applications for community based projects, I think of a pack of baying yokels with pointy ended wooden sticks, waving garlic around and generally terrorising a rather put upon looking bunch of aesthetes – you know the type, clad in black; some wearing dapper looking retro capes. Or is it just me?

No not at all. There is no misunderstanding on your part here at all. You can’t really blame the holder of the people’s purse strings for wanting to ensure the public will be protected from the potentially parasitic and vampiric relationship artists have with the public. The innocent need to be protected from the obscure and impenetrable artworks – supposedly created collaboratively – based on their lives and stories – that then go on to help catapult artists to international jet-setter life styles.

Exploiting the Time-Rich Dear Concierge, In light of the difficult economic situation – both at home and globally, I’ve been giving some thought to the subject of corporate sponsorship and giving in-kind. It seems from the current literature there is now a lack of financial investors but a glut of ‘time investors’ – that is people who are rich in time, in terms of both experience and an empty schedule who might be willing in ‘invest’. I’m just thinking that us artists what with our infrequent and insecure working lives might be sitting on a potential goldmine of pristine ‘time’. That is time unsullied by any particular plans or schedules, empty of self-serving profit motives, full only of daydreams and …

I’ll stop you there. You see I’ve thought this through. The last thing we need is an economic time bubble. With such a time-glut, everything would take so much longer to do, if there is more and more time available to do things.

Things would exponentially sl… ow d … o … w… n... n…n.

Extracted from Helguera’s Artoons by Pablo Helguera Published by Jorge Pinto Books. Copyright Pablo Helguera.

Available at all good art booksellers in Ireland and worldwide.

Further details from www.pintobooks.com

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

November – December 2009

29

Advocacy

Maximising Returns Alex Davis, administrator for the Irish Visual Artists Rights Organisation, introduces REturn, a new royalty payment available to artists in Ireland for the first time.

YOUR REPROGRAPHIC ROYALTIES Visual material is protected by copyright laws, which give creators the right to control the use of their works and to benefit from payment for these uses. Licensing is one way that visual artists can give permission for others to use their works in return for a fee or royalty payment. Licensing is commonly used for merchandising, book publishing, magazines, image banks, advertising and so on. However there are certain situations where it is not always feasible to control the use of ones works. Collective Licensing is used in situations where it would be difficult or impossible for an individual to license their rights, such as photocopying of their work. There is a wide range of images and visual material contained within books, magazines and journals in addition to the text. Because this visual material can be photocopied and/or scanned, it follows that the right to copy visual material should be included in photocopying licences and schemes (known as reprographic copying). Until now Irish artists and photographers who created these works have not received any form of payment as until recently photocopying licences did not include the right to reproduce visual material.

In Ireland photocopying licences are issued to businesses and educational institutions by the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency (ICLA). For the first time ever, Irish artists will be able to claim a share of reprographic royalties through the REturn scheme, one of the services offered by the Irish Visual Artists Rights Organisation (IVARO). IVARO is a not-forprofit copyright licensing and collecting society for artists and visual creators. On behalf of visual artists in Ireland, IVARO negotiates a share of reprography licensing revenue and will be making the first distribution to artists in the coming months. REturn is available to all visual creators, not simply IVARO members. Payments will be made to qualifying artists, photographers, illustrators, and other visual artists, including heirs and beneficiaries.

In the UK, artists are able to claim reprographic royalties through the PAYBACK service run by the Design & Artists Copyright Society (DACS). IVARO has been authorised by DACS to process claims of Irish artists whose works have been included in UK publications or in television programmes broadcast on certain UK channels. The deadline for 2009 applications has passed but next year Irish artists will be able to apply through IVARO for a share of PAYBACK.

REturn Q & A 1. What is IVARO? The Irish Visual Artists Rights Organisation is Ireland’s not-for-profit copyright licensing and collecting society for artists and visual creators.

2. What are Reprographic Royalties? Reprographic royalties are collected from Universities, schools and businesses that use photocopying machines. A share of these royalties can be claimed by any artist/ visual creator whose work is contained in publications which have an ISBN or ISSN number (and are therefore available to be photocopied).

IVARO negotiates a share of this money on behalf of visual creators in Ireland.

3. Who can claim a share? Every kind of visual creator can claim. If you are an illustrator, sculptor, cartoonist, photographer, animation artist, fine artist, architect, designer, craftsperson, or any other

type of visual creator you can make a claim.

Representatives of visual creators can also claim (as can beneficiaries of artists’ estates).

4. So how can I claim a share? All you need to do is fill in a claim form available from IVARO, telling us how your works have been used in books and magazines.

5. Do I need to be a member of IVARO to claim ?

No, you don’t. Any visual creators can claim a share whether a member of IVARO or not. However if you are interested in finding out more about joining IVARO, please contact us on 01 8722296 or info@ ivaro.ie 6. Why do I need to submit a claim to get a share?

There is a vast community of visual creators in Ireland and an enormous number of artistic works in copyright. There is no central source of information recording whose works have been used, and where. We have to find other ways of getting this information in order to share the funds between visual creators, so we ask you to tell us how your work has been used in publications.

7. How do I know if I have a valid claim? You may have a valid publications claim if you are a visual creator whose work has been reproduced in a book, magazine or journal in any year up to 31 December 2008.

9. What can I not claim for? Artistic works out of copyright at the time of use; Works included in newspapers, weekend supplements, leaflets and brochures; Publications without an ISBN or ISSN number; Ordnance survey maps; Logos and trademarks; Writing, literary or musical works; Industry manufactured products; Videos or computer games; DVD, CD-Rom, internet.

artists & creators claim your share of reprographic royalties IVARO, the Irish Visual Artists Rights Organisation, is preparing to distribute royalties received from the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency for the copying of visual works contained in published books and periodicals. This service is called RETURN. If your artwork has been published in Ireland with your permission in a book or periodical you may be entitled to claim a share of RETURN royalties.

RETURN application forms may be requested by emailing info@ivaro.ie or by calling us on 01 8722296.

We will send you a form to complete, and will include all qualifying claims in our first distribution of this reprographic royalty. We expect this to take place before the end of 2009.

More information at www.ivaro.ie

A national touring programme of recently produced video works accompanied by artist's discussions throughout the month of November 2009

12. I don’t know if my work has been photocopied.

Can I still claim? We don’t ask you if your work has been photocopied. We just need to know if your work has appeared in a book, magazine or journal. If it has, then it is available to be photocopied and you may have a valid claim to a share of the money.

13. How will IVARO check the authenticity of claims? You need to sign a declaration on the claim form and provide examples of publications, which featured your work, together with titles and ISBN or ISSN numbers (for publications). We cannot process your claim without this information, as it is necessary to ensure compliance. We may also ask you to provide additional information in support of your claim. If you cannot sign the declaration or provide supporting information, we will not be able to assess your claim.

14. What are ISSN and ISBN numbers? These are standardised identifiers for magazines (ISSN) and books (ISBN). The ISSN number should be printed above the barcode on the cover of any magazine where as ISBN numbers are usually found on the back cover just above the barcode (paperback) or on the inside fly of the jacket (hardback).

15. What does IVARO charge? IVARO makes an administrative charge on the revenue we receive on behalf of artists and visual creators in order to cover our operating costs. In 2009, IVARO will charge a 25% administration fee on the royalties we collect on your behalf to cover our running costs for operating this service.

For further information please contact : Liz Igoe at 01 662 4211 or Alex Davis at 01 872229 E: info@ivaro.ie www.ivaro.ie

Siamsa Tíre/Kerry Film Festival (Kerry).....................................Tuesday 3rd (7pm – 9pm) Belltable Arts Centre (Limerick).............................................Wednesday 4th (8pm – 10pm) Wexford Arts Centre (Wexford)....................................................Thursday 5th (3pm – 5pm) Dunamaise Arts Centre (Laois)...............................................Friday 6th (7.30pm – 9.30pm) Riverbank Arts Centre* (Kildare).........................................Monday 9th (6.30pm – 8.30pm) Droichead Arts Centre (Louth).................................................. Tuesday 10th (11am – 1pm) Galway Arts Centre (Galway)..................................................Wednesday 11th (3pm – 5pm) West Cork Arts Centre (Cork)...................................................Thursday 12th (8pm – 10pm) Solstice Arts Centre (Meath).........................................................Tuesday 17th (7pm - 9pm) Regional Cultural Centre (Donegal)......................................Thursday 26th (8pm – 10pm) Project Arts Centre** (Dublin)................................................Installation (Oct 23rd - Dec 5th) Admission to all events is free. This showcase is supported by each participating venue. To download a copy of the programme please visit www.michaelfortune.ie * An Anthology of Others will be presented as a continous screening in Riverbank Arts Centre 10th- 27th of November. **'The Banshee Lives in the Handball Alley' is shown as part of the international group exhibition 'Every version belongs to the myth' at Project Arts Centre, throughout the month of November.

New Management. New Prices.

Best Quality Guaranteed Everytime.

www.bronzeart.ie

Sanja Todorovic, ‘Tent’, 2008, Oil on canvas 17 x 15 cm, Image courtesy of the artist.

City of Women

Chalet Town

Jaki Irvine Presented in collaboration with The LAB, Dublin.

Until 21 Nov 2009

Colin Martin 27 Nov 2009 – 23 Jan 2010

Noel Brennan

Amharc Fhine Gall VI Bright Beginnings

Artist in Residence Until Dec 2009

Joshua Sex, Sanja Todorovic, Michelle Hall and emerging critic Edel Horan.

Until 21 Nov 2009

Continuing the Tradition Blanchardstown Centre Blanchardstown, Dublin 15 T: 01 885 2610 F: 01 824 3434 www.draíocht.ie

Bronze Art

Fine Art Foundry Leaders in Fine Art Casting

For your next project contact David O’Brien or Ciaran Patterson Tel: (01) 855 2452 Fax: (01) 855 2453 Email: bronzeartireland@hotmail.com Bronze Art, Unit 3, Gaelic Street, Dublin 3 www.bronzeart.ie

“playfulness” From 15 – 22 Nov 2009, switch will occupy unused spaces throughout the town centres of Nenagh and Roscrea in Co. Tipperary to project works of moving image.

Eight video works will be shown simultaneously in various locations in Nenagh and two video works will be shown in Roscrea from 5 – 11pm each evening.

switch:

Participating artists include: Martin Boyle, N. Ireland, CC Elian, USA, Chris Finnegan, Ireland, Sinasi Gunes, Turkey, Harold Harska, Germany, Santtu Koivu, Finland, Robert Ladislas Derr, USA, Kevin Minogue, Ireland, Hugh Watt, Scotland, Michael Wurstbauer, Scotland Switch was initiated in 2008 and is an artist-led initiative supported by North Tipperary County Council’s Arts Office.

promotes and shows contemporary visual art in a public context

www.s-w-i-t-c-h.org

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

November – December 2009

Conference

Revital Cohen Life Support – ventilation dog (2008)

ISEA Conference Chris Clarke profiles ISEA 2009 which took place across various locations in Belfast, Dublin, Derry, Coleraine, Dundalk, Portadown 23 August – 1 September, 2009 The Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts (ISEA) has, over the last two decades, established itself as one of the pre-eminent forums for new media art, emerging technologies and their attendant discourses. This year’s programme of exhibitions, events, workshops and conferences has pitched up in Ireland, with Belfast acting as a sort of operational HQ and satellite activities occurring throughout the region and the Republic. As usual, ISEA’s broad remit has led to a number of interdisciplinary collaborations, as artists, scientists, programmers and engineers have created works that overlap and infiltrate several areas of research. The wide-ranging International Symposium on Electronic Art, mainly taking place at Waterfront Hall, Belfast, seeks to provide some insight into the pertinent themes in the field, through lectures, panel discussions and artist’s presentations. In other words, if Ireland has had little previous experience or history of technologically-driven art, it’s being brought up to speed very quickly.

The variety of approaches and the occasionally quite tenuous links between disciplines can have its drawbacks. I presented a paper at the 2008 conference in Singapore, and to my mind it suffered from a lack of cohesiveness, with lectures covering everything from zombie movies to Chinese art, while its accompanying exhibition often resembled a trade show of impractical appliances and superficial gadgetry. To that end, ISEA 2009 seems to have sharpened up its focus somewhat, operating under the theme of ‘Engaged Creativity in Mobile Environments’ and programming several interrelated strands (including ‘Posthumanism’, ‘Contested Spaces’ and ‘Interactive Storytelling’) that run through both the symposium and the exhibition.

An emphasis on how digital technology affects increasingly nomadic ways of living and working therefore manages to incorporate the international character of ISEA while grounding the programme in social practice.

As an introduction, the ISEA 2009 exhibition, curated by Kathy Rae Huffman and displayed across Ormeau Baths Gallery, University of Ulster and Golden Thread Gallery, immerses the visitor in an array of interactive and challenging artworks, addressing themes of ecology, bioethics, communications and surveillance. Despite the weightiness of such concerns, and the subtle allusions to Belfast’s troubled past in several pieces, the artists generally steer clear of heavy-handed polemics. For example, in Petko Dourmana’s Post Global Warming Survival Kit (2008) installation at University of Ulster, viewers are given infrared visors before being led into a dark room. Inside, one finds a caravan, parked within the gallery space, while a large-scale projection of a seascape flickers eerily against the opposite wall. The awkwardness of navigating the space, the saturation of one’s vision with unearthly green light, and the paradoxical sensation of watching a film that is essentially invisible to the naked eye all contribute to a heightened consciousness of the technological apparatus (its necessity and its hindrances). As seen here, the terrain of new media art is quite tricky; on the one hand, it can seem witty or flashy, while, on the other, it carries an inherent criticality, addressing ideas of modernisation, industry and evolution. At its best, these elements are merged seamlessly. At Ormeau Baths Gallery, Revital Cohen’s prototype for an Artificial Biological Clock and her proposal Life Support (both 2008), of animals bred to serve as external organ donors, raise thoughtful

Jonah Brucker-Cohen Alerting Infrastructure (2009)

questions about our use of transgenic or technological devices to replace biological functions. Akousmaflore (2008) by the collaborative duo Scenocosme (Grégory Lasserre and Anaïs Met Den Ancxt) consists of several hanging plants, with fronds dangling in front of the gallery visitor. The slightest contact produces a variety of sounds – musical chimes, squawks, chirps, beeps – that capture the responsive relationship between humans and plants, technology and nature.

Similarly, Kuaishen Auson’s biomimetic stridulation environment presents an ant colony, linked to video and audio transmitters, which translate their activities to a turntable. As the insects move, they trigger the stylus and scratch out crudely engaging DJ compositions (which aren’t dissimilar to minimalist techno). Auson’s installation imagines a culture of ants as musicians, perhaps even feeding back into their society as they respond to the vibrations of their creations. The development of other (more human) environments, through virtual spaces such as Second Life, video games and websites, is explored in Golden Thread Gallery’s media-lab set-up, with terminals serving as conduits to various online artist projects. These works, including UBERMORGEN.COM’s interactive interrogation software and Joseph DeLappe’s intervention in the online US Army recruiting game America’s Army, posit the web as a site of activism and antiauthoritarianism.

Beyond Belfast, but continuing to explore some of the issues raised at Golden Thread, IMOCA (Irish Museum of Contemporary Art) and DATA (Dublin Art and Technology Association) have programmed 'ReFunct 09', a symposium and exhibition on hacking and circuit bending. Curated by Ivan Twohig and Benjamin Gaulon, the event is particularly timely, as programmers seek to find ways to alter the increasingly impenetrable hardware packages that accompany computers and gaming consoles. Drawing on the Situationist strategy of détournement (of reconfiguring extant materials to work against the object’s original intention), materials are transformed from obsolete and outdated commodities into sculptural and audio-visual artworks. This DIY aesthetic of 'ReFunct' is exemplified in several works; a mesmerising projection by Mattias Arvastsson of microscopic imagery (of the artist’s skin) onto simplified, geometric sculptures, Heiko Wommelsdorf’s ramshackle pile of old-fashioned intercoms, which create an interminable feedback loop when triggered by a foot pedal, and Gijs Gieskes’ interactive circuit boards which manipulate

images (via a spinning, patterned disc) and sound. IMOCA have also generously allowed Jonah Brucker-Cohen to christen their new premises. His work, Alerting Infrastructure (2009), translates hits from their website into the activation of a suspended power drill, chiselling away at the gallery wall whenever anyone clicks onto www.imoca.ie.

The tactility of these works suggests a didactic, hands-on approach to new media. That the exhibition will gradually incorporate works from the accompanying workshops, including ‘drawing machines’ produced by participants in the 'Scrapyard Challenge' session, is indicative of most hackers’ fervour for converting new practitioners as well as a sincere belief in open-source principles of collaboration.

The exhibition 'Force Majeure' at The Lab in Dublin, curated by Sheena Barrett and Saoirse Higgins, presented a series of works by artists Aideen Barry, Lynda Devenney, Vera Klute, Bea Mcmahon, The Grafting Parlour and the aforementioned Benjamin Gaulon. Touching on themes of surveillance, germ warfare, behaviourism and environmentalism, the exhibition continues a general contemporary preoccupation with the ethical dimensions of technology across a range of artistic media, techniques and approaches. In fact, the dispersion of works and events across both sides of the border, from the 'Space is the Place' exhibition at Dublin’s NCAD gallery (including works by, amongst others, Katie Paterson, Institute for Applied Autonomy, Conor McGarrigle, and Surveillance Camera Players) to panels, workshops and lectures in Coleraine and Dundalk, the Template 2.0 exhibition of digital art at Portadown and Simultaneous Echoes, a new installation in Derry by renowned artist Masaki Fujihata with Frank Lyons, is typical of ISEA’s ‘more-is-more’ philosophy. At the main symposium in Belfast, amidst the presentations, panel discussions, live performances (by Benedict Phillips, Claire Feeley, Debashis Sinha, D-Fuse, Cathy Van Eyck, etc.) and interactive works, it’s worth mentioning a few standout examples. John Craig Freeman and Will Pappenheimer’s Clinic which cures participants of their internet addictions by administering a dose of hallucinatory medicine to a Second Life avatar provided a playfully subversive combination of the real and the virtual, with the deadpan bedside manner of the doctors and surreal landscapes of the programme making for a genuinely disorienting experience. The same could be said of the performance event at Queen’s University’s Sonic Art Research Centre, which included Bart Koppe’s interactive mixing board connected to live audio feeds from throughout the Netherlands, Owl Project’s synthesis of digital transmitters and manual objects (lathes, saws, pieces of wood) and Pedro Rebelo’s real-time composition of live sound from online collaborators (with incoming text messages from contributors projected on stage). In these pieces, as in a number of other works and lectures, there was less of a focus on new technologies than on new applications or approaches towards existing ones.

This is no bad thing. It indicates a ‘slowing down’; to examine how so-called ‘Mobile Environments’ have adjusted to the integration of new technologies and to measure the potential benefits and drawbacks of widespread dissemination. The emphasis here went beyond mere recreational activity or artistic diversion. Sadie Plant’s keynote lecture on the capability of mobile phones to achieve political change and Judith Aston’s presentation of interactive, databasenarrative, documentary footage from the Sudan implied a shift towards socially responsible technological applications. The tendency seemed to be that others should learn from our mistakes. Presentations on CCTV surveillance (Pam Skelton, Robert Knifton), nanotechnology (Paul Thomas, Maryse de la Giroday) and the economics of new media art practices (in a panel discussion convened by Vicente Matallana) would suggest that an uncritical acceptance of new technologies can have unexpected and profound repercussions, perhaps best dealt with prior to their permeation into everyday life.

The tension between the euphoria of the new and the sober realisation of its actuality is never really resolved at ISEA, what with its information booths on the creative industries displayed side-by-side with leftist polemics on cultural appropriation and digital colonialism.

Rather, the symposium lets the various agendas and approaches run into one another, encouraging the cross-pollination of different departments, and the critical evaluation of scientific practices from artistic perspectives (and vice versa). If ISEA still seems unsure about what it’s supposed to represent, its overall inclusiveness does point out that, increasingly, such practices are no longer on the fringe of contemporary art, and that, for many artists, ‘new media’ is very quickly becoming simply ‘media’.

Chris Clarke is an artist, critic and Curator of Education & Collections at Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork.

32

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

November – December 2009

FOCUS

Delawab. Photo: Courtesy Delawab.

The Good Hatchery. Photo: Courtesy Damien McGlynn.

The Spirit Store. Limerick. Photo: Courtesy Neville Gawley.

Dodging Hurdles Damien McGlynn discusses DIY initiatives and other artist-led solutions and responses to current economic conditions.

My challenge, should I choose to accept it, is to get through this article

facility would work out. After joining up with a group of IADT

without mentioning that thing that has been mentioned in every

graduates, they began renovating the space and planning for the

article, love letter and pasta recipe you’ve read in the past 18 months.

future. Walsh says their focus is on creating a sustainable studio

Rather than dwelling on what’s gone wrong or what might happen, I

facility for individuals to work in rather than being a collective or

want to look at how artists can and have adapted to the new playing

becoming a well-known gallery. They have had two large shows in the

field.

space so far this year, including ‘Scribble Box’ in July, which sought to All around the country the recent mobilisation of groups working

connect the group to other galleries and collectives through an

in a range of fields towards the methods and ethics of DIY counter-

exhibition inspired by cryptic crossword clues. Plans are afoot to

culture can be seen bearing fruit. Some of the most successful ventures

expand the space’s programme with new events as well as the recently

have been in the music world – supposedly an industry on its last legs,

completed rehearsal space for bands. With no outside funding or

ravaged by illegal downloading. Using non-conventional venues such

assistance so far, the group are concentrating on long-term goals such

as houses, parish halls, art galleries and warehouses young gig

as greater integration with the local and art communities and hopefully

promoters are bypassing the licensed premises hurdle while dodging

becoming a self-sufficient operation.

The Good Hatchery (12) County Offaly was set up in 2007 as an

the overheads involved with traditional venues.

In Dublin, we have seen in the past few years, several venues

attempt by recent NCAD graduates to find a way to forge a path in the

which sprang up in unconventional locations and mixed art exhibitions

art industry without being financially crippled by the demands of

with gigs with varying results. There are The Shed on Foley St and Seomra Spraoi (1), who have operated in various locations and are

living in the capital. After acquiring the abandoned hayloft for free

currently in Belvedere Place, while some of the newer art galleries on

accumulate art materials and other necessities for free. Ruth Lyons and

through Freecycle, the artists continued to use such websites to

found

Carl Giffney, who live in and administrate the Good Hatchery, believe

considerable success in staging sound art events and gigs. Model Arts

that their project proves that young artists can simply maintain

in Sligo have also been involved in staging unique gigs in off-site

contact with the art world online while taking advantage of free spaces

the scene, such as The Joy Gallery (4)

(2)

and The Joinery

(3)

and cheaper living in rural areas to make work.

locations around the city as part of their ‘New Spaces For Music’ series.

It has become apparent that people are looking for a greater sense of

Commandeering empty spaces or altering the defined use of

involvement or community in these cultural spaces. Rather than

existing spaces are now popular options for those wishing to get a foot

simply presenting work for the public to view, it is more important for

on the cultural property ladder. Now, exhibitions in houses are hardly

these spaces to cultivate an atmosphere of participation and a diverse

ground-breaking as we’ve seen plenty of that sort of thing in Ireland

range of activities with which the public can genuinely engage.

The Oh Yeah! Music Centre (5) in a former bonded whiskey

over the years. Often it has been a starting point for students and recent Bombhouse. Photo: Courtesy Bombhouse.

graduates and, in the case of a place like 126 in Galway, a steppingstone to a recognised gallery space.

warehouse in Belfast was set up in 2007 to provide a space for young Lightbody from the band Snow Patrol initiated the project in 2005 and

One of the recent recipients of a relatively new Arts Council grant (the Young Ensembles Scheme) is Exchange Dublin (9), an all-ages arts

attended more talks and debates than you can shake an ill-informed

it is now a recognised charity, which is managed by chief executive

centre in Temple Bar. The operation is run by a team of young

rant at. There was the week of brilliant, lively discussion as part of

Stuart Bailie from BBC Radio. The operation is also run by a large team

volunteers with a democratic decision-making policy and several

‘Change?’ in Project, Dublin in January, ‘The A–Z of DIY’ at Banter in

of volunteers and has received grants from Belfast City Council and

autonomous groups, which look after different areas of their output.

the Twisted Pepper, Dublin (15 Aug), the masked debate in Meeting

others; along with sponsorship from HMV and Carling. They also

One of the key people behind the venture, Dylan Haskins, sees the

House Square, Dublin (19 Aug) and the ‘Opportunity Knocks’ talk

manage to generate some income from the use of the building and also

space as a hub or a springboard for ideas rather than being a controlled

during the recent Dublin Fringe Festival (9 Sep). At each of these

held an exhibition ‘20/20’ in the space last year. Another venue in Belfast, Space Delawab (6), has been staging exhibitions, music and

space concerned with ownership. Haskins has previously been known

events – bar the show-and-tell Fringe talk – there was an overwhelming

for using his home in Deansgrange as an all-ages gig venue known as Hideaway House (10). During this time a documentary on his experiences

feeling amongst participants of there being too much talk and too

people to congregate, rehearse, perform and learn about music. Gary

spoken word events in a listed Victorian home since 2008. The large

In the course of researching the current trend of DIY culture, I’ve

little action.

house off the Lisburn Road acts as “a testing ground for artistic

within DIY gig culture entitled Roll Up Your Sleeves was also produced

expression and endeavour” and recently held an exhibition of work by

in collaboration with Project Arts Centre who are assisting in the set-

perhaps quickly forgotten however, once the crowd have departed. But

Aoife Desmond.

up and running of Exchange Dublin.

there’s already enough action being taken in our little country to instil

Rumblings and mumblings about revolution and change are

In every corner of the country, new spaces and groups are appearing – as recent Cork start-ups, The Black Mariah (7) and Basement

During the past number of years there have been countless

some confidence into potential DIY-ers. New groups and individuals

gallery / studio start-ups around the country which aimed to use the

have begun to find ways to get work done, to get their message across

Project Space show. Basement Project Space is the just one of the latest

individual studios’ rental income to fund the tenancy of the overall

and create their own cultural environments without worrying about

groups to take over a disused building and set about turning it into

building and the operation of a gallery space. This model seemed to be

receiving permission or the financial constraints they may find

studio spaces and a gallery. Limerick also has seen new developments

taken up by huge numbers of young artists and recent graduates and a

themselves in.

with groups like alternative promoters Chain Reaction Promotions

new space or collective was born every other Thursday night. But as

staging gigs in housing estates and the impressive set-up at the

the studio rents steadily increased to almost prohibitive levels and the

SpiritStore Art Café. Situated in an abandoned pub opposite the Hunt Museum, the SpiritStore (8) is fast becoming a focal point for

supply began to exceed reasonable demand, particularly in Dublin, the

underground artistic endeavours in the region and they recently held

block developments in the city.

a talk entitled Art in Slack Spaces looking at “a brief history of arts practice in shops and office buildings, while also addressing the issue

A strange time then perhaps, for Bombhouse Gallery & Studios (11) to enter the fray in Dublin’s north inner city. The venture came about

of short term supports for contemporary art and artists and longer

when Eric Walsh discovered that his landlord also owned the former

term sustainability”.

pottery workshop next door and the two agreed to see how a studio

number of vacant studios started to mirror that of half the apartment

Damien McGlynn Notes 1. http://www.seomraspraoi.org 2. http://redspace.cc/ 3. http://www.thejoinery.org 4. http://www.modelart.ie 5. http://www.ohyeahbelfast.com/ 6. http://delawab.wordpress.com/http://tweak.ie/ 7. http://www.myspace.com/mariahtheblack 8. http://spiritstorelimerick.blogspot.com/ 9. http://www.facebook.com/exchangedublin?v=info 10. http://www.myspace.com/hideawayhouse 11. http://www.bombhouse.ie 12. http://thegoodhatchery.wordpress.com

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Public Research Library 20th Century and Contemporary Irish Art and Design Jaki Irvine, City of Women, 2009

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My World is Over Mark Clare Ground floor gallery Beginning with the End of the Tale Magnhild Opdoel First floor gallery 4 Nov – 23 Dec 2009 Preview 3 Nov, 6:00 – 8:00pm

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Siobhan Bulfin Jumping Horses

Leo Higgins Scales of Justice

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