Visual Artists' News Sheet - 2010 July August

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet ISSUE 4 2010 July – August Published by Visual Artists Ireland Ealaíontóirí Radharcacha Éire

BGL, Meatballs / Tribute to the Group of Seven, 2009, plexiglass, cans, grill, 32 x 48 x 27 cm. Courtesy of the artists. Work show at 'Dorm' Model. Sligo.

Visual Arts Resources & Activity in Cavan educational & community projects The 22nd International Sculpture Conference Homeworks 5, Beirut graffiti art Sligo Local The Model relaunch The EYE-KEA Project Touring Exhibitions – Who Benefits? The Partnership for the Arts & Creative Engagement Conversations on Practicalities Through Practice

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

Contents

Introduction

Introduction

July – August 2010

Roundup 3. Roundup. Recent exhibitions and projects of note.

Welcome to the July / August edition of the Visual Artists News Sheet.

Printed Project 13: ‘Virtual Fictional’, curated / edited by Kevin Atherton has just been published by Visual Artists Ireland. A launch event was held at The Void, Derry on Saturday 3 July, comprising of a discussion between Kevin Atherton, Void curator Susanne Stich and artist Sarah Pierce. The conversation ranged across the subjects of meta-fiction, virtual space, humour, fabrications and authorship in relation to

3. Column. Mark Fisher. Mapping the Complexity of the Everyday .

4. Column. Eamon Maxwell. Art in Public.

5. Column. Jonathan Carroll. Curatorial Housekeeping.

contemporary visual art. The event was prompted by the overlapping concerns in both Atherton’s interests

6. Column. Chris Fite-Wassilak. Possibly Maybe.

and the exhibition ‘What Remains’ by Christian Jankowski, on show at the Void (until 16 July). ‘Virtual

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

Fictional’ is now available for purchase from gallery book stores across Ireland and internationally. Copies can also be purchased online from Amazon.co.uk and www.printedproject.ie This edition’s guest columnist is curator Jonathan Carroll. In his article Curatorial Housekeeping, Carroll discusses the need for institution's curatorial vision to be embedded at both management and strategic levels. We welcome again a column from renowned cultural analyst Mark Fisher; as well as the contributions of our regular columnists Eamonn Maxwell and Chris Fite-Wassilak. Further critique and opinion can be

11. Regional Profile. Visual Arts Resources & Activity in Cavan.

12. How is it Made? Questioning & Change Clifton Rooney discusses his experience of projects in

educational & community contexts.

13. Conference Report.What is it? Kevin O’Dwyer on the 22nd International Sculpture Conference.

found in Adam Stoneman’s ‘polemic’ article in which he considers why Ireland needs “graffiti art with a

14. Conference Report. Defining Content. A report on Homeworks 5 –Beirut, Lebanon (21 April – 1 May)

message”.

16. Polemic. Signs of Change. Adam Stoneman considers Why Ireland needs graffiti art with a message.

In two ‘How is it Made?’ features, artists Clifton Rooney and Paula Naughton discuss their respective practices. This edition’s career development feature focuses on the ‘Sligo Local’ initiative, which was devised

17. How is it Made? Architecture of Migration. Paula Naughton discusses her research and practice.

by the artists Elliott-Harris as a means to develop the professional practice and aspirations of artists. The

18. Career Development. Soften Up. Neva Elliott & Lynn Harris discuss 'Sligo Local'

article also offers an account of how Elliot-Harris’s use of a collaborative model of practice informs their art

19. Institution Profile. Inviting Audiences. Jason Oakley talks to Séamus Kealy, Director / Curator of The

careers.

A number of recent conference and discussion events are covered in this edition. Kevin O’Dwyer

Model about the redevelopment of the institution’s premises.

reports on the 22nd International Sculpture Conference in London; Sarah Tuck covers ‘Homeworks 5’.

23. Opportunities. All the lastest grants, awards, exhibition calls and commissions.

Beirut, Lebanon; Edel Horan writes about ‘Touring Exhibitions – Who Benefits?’a round table discussion

27. Project Profile. Critiquing the Quick Fix. Stephanie Hough profiles ‘The EYE-KEA Project’.

held at VISUAL Centre Carlow; and Chris Clarke considers ‘Getting On With Art: Conversations on Practicalities Through Practice’, held at CIT Cork School of Music, Cork.

The Cork-based initiative The Basement Project is profiled in a discussion of their recent ‘Eye-Kea Project’ exhibition by Stephanie Hough. Other profiles include a feature of PACE – The Partnership for the Arts & Creative Engagement; and an interview with Séamus Kealy, Director / Curator of The Model about the redevelopment of the institution’s premises and its opening exhibition ‘Dorm’. Visual arts resources and

28. Problems. The Problem Page. Our consierge / curator of agony responds to artworld dilemas 28. Laughism. Laughism. Cartoons by Borislav Byrne.

29. Conference Report. Touring for One & Many. Edel Horan reports on ‘Touring Exhibitions – Who

Benefits?’ a round table discussion held at VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow on 28 April

30. Project Profile. The Pace of Gallery Education. The Partnership for the Arts & Creative Engagement

activity’s across Cavan are the subject of this editions regional focus.

All this and the proverbial ‘more’ – listings of all the latest opportunities along with news and roundups of recent projects, events and exhibitions.

31. Art in the Public Realm: Roundup. Recent public art commissions, site-specific works, socially

engaged practice and other forms of art outside the gallery.

32. Conference Report. Get Up & Go. Chris Clarke ON ‘Getting On With Art: Conversations on

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

3

July – August 2010

COLUMN

Roundup

Mark Fisher

Roundup

The recent ‘Uneven Geographies’ exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary, curated by T.J Demos and Alex Farquharson, demonstrates that art can play a crucial role in the current political situation. That role was defined by Fredric Jameson long ago, in his prophetic essay Cognitive Mapping from 1990.

The problem as Jameson saw it was the massive disjuncture between lived experience and the distributed, complex, abstract and occult structure of global capitalism. At a certain point in the development of capitalism, Jameson argues: “The truth of [the] limited daily experience of London lies ... in India or Jamaica or Hong Kong; it is bound up with the whole colonial system of the British Empire that determines the very quality of the individual’s subjective life. Yet those structural coordinates are no longer accessible to immediate lived experience and are often not even conceptualizable for most people. There comes into being, then, a situation in which we can say that if individual experience is authentic, then it cannot be true; and that if a scientific or cognitive model of the same content is true, then it escapes individual experience.”

This difficulty has only been exacerbated as the complexity and interrelatedness of the world system has increased. Still, the aesthetic difficulties posed by the opacity of global capitalism – Jameson writes of the “tremendous and crippling problems” it poses for art – are also opportunities.

Jameson maintained that “the various modernisms” arose from the attempt to deal with these representational impasses, and there is a sense in which it is only the counterintuitive forms of art and theory that can provide viable maps of the sublime contours of global capital.

There were two remarkable features of the art on display at ‘Uneven Geographies’. The first was the fact this art was based on, or itself constituted, research. Ursula Biemann’s Sahara Chronicle is a series of short films about the migration of sub-Saharan peoples to Europe. The work of Bureau d’Études and Mark Lombardi is in a sense nothing but research: their hyper-intricate diagrams track the stupefyingly complex relations between corporate and political power. These are not maps in any merely metaphorical way; they are inventive attempts to disclose the real terrain of geopolitics. Goldin + Senneby’s Headless, meanwhile, combines genuine research with fictional extrapolations, an apt strategy since the ostensible goal of the project is to investigate an offshore company called Headless Limited. Fiction stands in for the gaps that no amount of research can reveal.

This brings us to the second notable feature of much of the art at 'Uneven Geographies' – its incompleteness. Biemanns’s Sahara Chronicle is an evolving project to which more films could be added at any time. Bureau d’Études and Mark Lombardi’s diagrams are only ever curtailed at some arbitrary point; the ramifying enigma that is the impossible object of Goldin + Senneby’s investigations is as endless as it is headless and centreless. The unfinished or partial quality of the art here is no accident: it is structurally necessary. It is as if the shifting totality of the capitalist world system can only be grasped in a series of (connected) fragments: interconnection, after all, is the other side of structural incompleteness.

What differentiates Biemanns’s Sahara Chronicle from standard journalist practice is the lack of an overall framing narrative. “No authorial voice or any other narrative device is used to tie [the films] together,” Biemann has written, “the meaning is produced by the viewer who has to extract it from the interstices between the videos, i.e. from the connecting lines between the nodes where migratory intensity is bundled, which is the stretch most invisible to the eye.” What this art aims to do is point to those structures that are “invisible to the eye” – that is to say, foreign to individual experience – and which are accessible only to cognition.

In this respect, the work at 'Uneven Geographies' has something in common with David Simon’s television series The Wire, which, as Alberto Toscano and Jeff Kinkle argue in their essay Baltimore as World and Representation: Cognitive Mapping and Capitalism in The Wire, provided an extended, albeit “always-already incomplete”, exploration of the impact of global capital on one city. “The sheer length of the show allows for a depth that other ‘cognitive mapping’ films cannot possibly approach and it allows it to move away from an anthropomorphic narrative centred upon the trials and tribulations of a single character,” Toscano and Kinkle maintain, while “the serial format allows The Wire to both map the city space to an extent unimaginable in other tele-visual formats.” Toscano and Kinkle in fact cite some of the work at 'Uneven Geographies' – Lombardi’s diagrams and Steve McQueen’s celebrated film Gravesend – as parallels with what The Wire achieved. The Wire, like the work at Uneven Geographies, famously refused to concede anything to casual viewers’ demands for ready intelligibility. Something like Bureau d’Études maps cannot be quickly consumed; in order to be adequately understood they have to be effectively reconstructed by the person looking at them. At a time when the dominant culture peddles an attenuated, impoverished and ostensibly depoliticised version of reality, this work of cognitive mapping has never been more crucial.

Known Facts

Mapping the Complexity of the Everyday

Between on thing & Another

for the first time in the venue. British and international highlights include works by JMW Turner, LS Lowry, Francis Bacon, Bridget Riley, Gilbert & George, Graham Sutherland, Jean Dubuffet and Karel Appel. A new publication ‘Visions - A Celebration of Irish Art from the Ulster Museum’ detailing 100 Irish works from the 17th century to the present day, has been produced to accompany the exhibition. www.nmni.com

Joinery shows

Katya Sander ‘A Landscape of Known Facts’ Project, Dublin

Katya Sander’s ‘A Landscape of Known Facts’ (23 April – 26 June) was a newly commissioned artwork that transformed the gallery of Project Arts Centre, Dublin.

Sander’s installation was described by the press release as “projected like a lighthouse, a beam that scans the circular room in a slow, continuous, 360 degree revolution”. The work explored the history and cultural significance of the panoramic spectacle. www.projectartscentre.ie

Eating Cake

Alison Pilkington Veil

Custom House Studios & Gallery, Mayo presented ‘Between one Thing and Another’ by Alison Pilkington (21 May – 13 June). The show brought together work from the first year of her practice based PhD at National College Art and Design Dublin. Her enquiries, the press release noted, were “centred around the subject of the uncanny; as well as how imagery in painting can be presented in such a way that the viewer must reconstruct it themselves in order for it to make sense.” The exhibition included references to the work of surrealist artists Yves Tanguy and Rene Magritte. www.customhousestudios.ie

GALWAY ARTS CENTRE

Work by Abigail O'Brien from "Let them Luv Cake'.

Cake Contemporary Arts, Kildare presented ‘Can’t Operate Properly ‘Til Eyes Refocus (‘Copter)’, a solo exhibition

by Alan Butler (24 April – 19 May). The press release noted that Butlers work sought challenged “the ways in which we experience global culture by making use of appropriation, remixing cultural artefacts and icons”.

Previously on show was ‘Let them Luv’ Cake’, an exhibition of selected work by artists, Cris Neumann, Abigail O’Brien, Mary Kelly, Natasa Paterson-Paulberg and curated by Carly McNulty (27 March – 16 April). www.cakecontemporaryarts.com

Floating World

SIB Contemporary Art, Tokyo presented ‘Floating World’, an artist books show initiated by Irish based artist Andy Parsons (3 April – May). The press material described the aim of ‘Floating world’ as “to find ways for artists to disseminate their ideas as widely as possible using the medium of artists books.” www.s-i-b.net www.floatingworldbooks.com

The Joinery, Dublin recently presented ‘Displacement’ by Shelley Corcoran (5 – 11 May). The works on show, as the press release put it explored, through video, projection and photography, “the psychiatric mechanism of displacement.”

The following show was ‘Breath and other Shorts’, an exhibition by Barbara Knezevic, that presented a series of sculptural studies examining the “failures inherent in object-hood” (2 – 8 June).

Previous shows in the space have included ‘Niall Dooley Drawings’ (7 – 11 April); ‘Method B’ by Karl Burke (16 – 20 April) and ‘Singer’ by Fergus Byrne (22 April – 1 May). www.thejoinery.ie

L’ Ouverture

George Bolser – work from 'A Space for the Three Great Loves' , Galway Arts Centre.

Galway Arts Centre presented ‘A Space for the Three Great Loves’, a solo exhibition by New York based Irish artist George Bolster (29 April – 29 May). The press release stated that “his work engages a wide range of ideas, such as: the equation of Christianity with contemporary culture; the re-contextualisation of religious figures; and the curiosity, bewilderment and even envy that accompany an aporetic experience of religion. He is interested in the exploration and invention of contemporary allegory and views look at religious buildings as the first sites of fusion of the arts.” www.galwayartscentre.ie

'Floating World' installation view, SIB Tokyo.

Work from Niall Dooley's show at The Joinery, Dublin.

Irish & International The exhibition, ‘Visions – Spectacular Art from the Ulster Museum’ currently on show at the Ulster Museum (26 March – Autumn 2010), features more than 170 works from the permanent collection.

The new show includes works by a range of painters including Sir John Lavery, Jack B Yeats, Paul Henry, Gerard Dillon, Dan O’Neill, Louis Le Brocquy and Roderic O’Conor. One of the museum’s newest acquisitions, Ghost Story by Turner Prize finalist Willie Doherty, is also on display

Ida Mitrani – work from 'L'Ouverture' Cross, Gallery.

Cross Gallery, Dublin recently presented ‘L’Ouverture’ an exhibition of new mixed media works on paper by Ida Mitrani (6 May – 29 May). The press release noted that the exhibition “reflects on important moments in life when external situations challenge routine. What is familiar seems to vanish leaving feelings of confusion and fear.” www.crossgallery.ie www.idamitrani.com

Collecting the New ‘Collecting the New’ an exhibition of recently acquired artworks is now on show at IMMA, Dublin (19 May - 8 August). Works by 26 Irish and international artists are represented, including pieces by Amanda Coogan, Patrick Hall, Stefan Kürten, Catherine Lee, Janet Mullarney, Makiko Nakamura,

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Column

Eamon Maxwell Art in Public

As I write this column the legendary American artist Louise Bourgeois has just passed away at the epic age of 98. Her impact upon contemporary art, especially in the last twenty years of her life was immeasurable. Bourgeois had an indomitable life force. A close friend of hers, who lives in Ireland, said “We thought she would live forever. Everything she did was so phenomenal.”

Examining the various obituaries, I am drawn to considering art in the public realm and the problems inherent in taking art (normally sculpture) out of the controlled conditions of the museum or gallery, and placing artworks on footpaths, public squares and roundabouts. Without doubt Bourgeois’ sculpture Maman (first realised in 1999) has become one of the best-loved and most iconic works of art in a public setting. Versions of it are on permanent display at The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea, Mori Art Center, Tokyo, Japan and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada. Millions of people have scuttled under the belly of the spider and marvelled at the spindly spider legs made gargantuan. Given the benchmark established by Bourgeois, I want to discuss the art that has been commissioned or purchased for public display in Ireland.

Over the last 10 years some good work has been done in Ireland in relation to public art commissioning – leading to the predominant model of best practice here being projects that incorporate community engagement, time based art practices alongside physical / sculptural works. This isn’t always apparent however, as arguably it is still quite conservative work that is evident across the country.

On this island, most towns will have a piece of public sculpture or civic art. The rationale for selecting these works would have been as varied as the quality of the work. Many have been funded by councils, others by institutions and others through fundraising. Often these sculptures (invariably they are sculpturally based objects) will have a strong local connection – a memorial to mark a tragedy, a life-size replica of a local hero or an artefact of the industrial heritage of the area – but sometimes they seem to have little correlation with their immediate environment.

It should be noted that in these difficult financial times, that the funding for public works of art has significantly dropped, in line with the harsh cuts faced by the rest of the arts. One only has to look at the call for submissions in the VAI newsletter or e-bulletin to see evidence of this. Also I would have concerns that, despite the retention of some limited financial resources, there is now a danger of commissioning becoming compromised. Many of our elected officials and civil servants are paranoid about how public money is seen to be spent, so they might make efforts to constrain the artistic process.

It often seems that when a new piece of public art is announced, usually in a fanfare of publicity by a minister, it is greeted with derision. Local people clamber onto the accompanying media bandwagon about a misuse of public funds on art, when money should be spent on hospitals or schools. Artists, curator and critics often denounce the work as a missed opportunity and something that doesn’t represent the best contemporary practice. So who wins?

A case in point is the Magic Jug sculpture, commissioned by Margaret Ritchie, the Social Development Minister (not the Culture Minister ... go figure) in the Northern Ireland Assembly, which will soon grace a prominent city centre position on Fountain Street, Belfast. The BBC website wondered how long it would take for a nickname to be apportioned to the work (1). Given that “jugs” is slang for breasts in the North, I doubt it will take very long!

During the boom times each new commercial edifice was accompanied (in some fashion) by a new work of art. Under the Percent for Art scheme all capital construction projects had to allocate 1% of the overall construction budget to for the funding of a project. The 2004 guidelines on the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism (now called Tourism, Culture and Sport) website “This levy on building construction recognizes the important contribution made by public art, particularly visual arts like Irish painting, Irish sculpture, to the quality of our immediate environment, and furnishes valuable additional funds to support both individual Irish artists and an increased public awareness of art.” (2) What future Percent for Art will continue to have is under review by the Arts Council and the Government, but it seems fair to assume that art projects will be low on the list of future construction projects.

On a more positive note, in 2009, www.publicart.ie was launched. This online resource, funded by the Arts Council and the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism, endeavours to archive the publicly funded works of art commissioned in Ireland in recent years. It not only records permanent works, but also time specific projects. Currently there are 118 projects listed on their directory. Thankfully many of the projects listed on here involve respected Irish and International artists including Adam Chodzko, Jochen Gerz, Donald Urquhart, Sean Lynch, Clodagh Emoe and Corban Walker. What is clear from this archive is that having Arts Council funded organisations involved in the selection process often ensures an interesting and relevant outcome.

So, whilst Ireland doesn’t have any of the size and scale of Maman, there do seem to be projects to offset the possibility of bland irrelevant sculptures peppering our villages, towns and cities.

1 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8592794.stm 2. www.arts-sport-tourism.gov.ie/pdfs/English-text5.pdf

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2010

Roundup Hughie O’Donoghue and Susan Tiger. The press release notes that “the exhibition reflects the Museum’s acquisition policy that the Collection should be firmly rooted in the present, concentrating on acquiring the work of living artists, but also accepting donations and loans of more historical art objects with a particular emphasis on work from the 1940s onwards.”

Stockton and Swords

Mark Swords – work from 'Perennial'

www.imma.ie

Blue

Eve Stockton – work from 'Evolutionary Landscapes II'

Liam Gillick. Installation view 'Seven Structures and a Large Vodka & soda ...'

Deirdre Robb – work from 'Blue' Engine Room, Belfast.

The Engine Room Galley, Belfast presented the solo exhibition ‘Blue’ by artist Deirdre Robb (1 April – 24 April). The show comprised a large body of works including paintings, installations and experimental prints. The press release described ‘Blue’ as related to “an architectural, cultural or aesthetic experience of Belfast. When examining the various characteristics of this city, Robb found she was more and more drawn by the river, water and the many connotations associated with it.”

Perspectives and a Short Scenario’. The press release noted “an essential element of his reconsideration of how to formulate a retrospective was the production of new work for the Kunstverein in Munich.

The resulting work: Mirrored Image: A Volvo Bar (2008) takes place in a bar next to a Volvo factory. Various scenarios play out concerning teamwork, post-Taylorist working practice and the idea of a society that is supposed to be ‘beyond crisis’ facing a series of problems that go far beyond the production of cars alone.” For the Kerlin Gillick produced seven new abstract wall structures. www.kerlin.ie

Wexford Arts Centre recently presented two exhibitions: ‘Evolutionary Landscapes II’ by Eve Stockton and ‘Perennial’ by Mark Swords (17 April – 18 May).

Stockton’s show contained prints made during the past few years that are exemplary of the artist’s ongoing investigation of the natural world. Her woodcuts depict nature at different scales, and whether micro or macro in scope, nature’s energy is evoked by the abstracted shapes and chromatic layering in each print. Swords exhibition was described as utilising “materials that are often overlooked, including carpet, tent fabric, and string, without attempting to hide the processes of making”. www.wexfordartscentre.ie

www.engineroomgallery.net

Marienbad Palace

Jackie Nickerson

Black Tears

Installation view – 'The Marienbad Palace' Cecily Brennan Britta

Taylor Galleries, Dublin recently presented ‘Black Tears’ (13 April – 1 May).

The exhibition included large charcoal drawings on paper (18 foot in length), small watercolours and a video work of the Irish actress Britta Smith who dies in October 2008 as she weeps the black tears of the show’s title. The video piece was shot by Seamus Deasy, one of Ireland’s best known cinematographers. The press release described the exhibition as “a continuation of the emotionally intense work that Cecily Brennan has been making for more than a decade.” www.cecilybrennan.com www.taylorgalleries.ie

Woodstock Draiocht, Dublin presented ‘Woodstock’ a new series of drawings by Holly Dungan.

(16 – 29 May). Described in the press release as “presented in silhouette and disregarding specific detail concerning colour, species or contours of the bark, her images allude to what could be a fleeting glance of a tree’s majestic form on the horizon as seen, perhaps through the window of a car or train.” www.draiocht.ie

Liam Gillick The Kerlin Gallery, Dublin recently presented Liam Gillick’s exhibition ‘Seven structures and a large vodka soda...’ (25 March– 1 May) The show was a development of one component of his 2008 ‘retrospective’ exhibition ‘Three

Jackie NIckerson – work from 'Gulf'

The Butler Gallery presented ‘GULF’, an exhibition of previously unseen, largescale photographs by renowned photographer Jackie Nickerson (24 April – 6 June). The press release noted that Nickerson works draw attention to the ways in which “economic prosperity and technological advancement are transforming all forms of cultural activity in this part of the world, evidenced in the interplay between landscape, architecture, commerce and technology”.

The Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda presented ‘The Marienbad Palace’ (30 April – 3 May).

The exhibition took its title from a reference in JG Ballard’s short story The Enormous Space (1989). The show featured works

by

Laura

Buckley,

Diana

Copperwhite, Jorge De La Garza, Alicja Kwade, Haroon Mirza and Ian Monroe. The exhibition was presented as part of the 2010 Drogheda Arts Festival and was co-produced by Highlanes Gallery and Droichead Arts Centre with the Drogheda and Louth Arts Office.

www.butlergallery.com

www.droghedaartsfestival.ie www.highlanes.ie

Locky Morris Rialto Twirlers

Locky Morris – installation view 'From Day One'

Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin recently presented ‘From Day One’ by Locky Morris (7 April –15 May). The press release described his work as “in and of the everyday, out of history yet immersed in it. Therefore it simultaneously looks like everything around us and absolutely nothing else at all.” www.motherstankstation.com

Anne Maree Barry Rialto Twirlers – still.

The Lab, Dublin recently presented the film Rialto Twirlers by Anne Maree Barry (7 – 29 May). The exhibition was the result of Barry spending a year working with the dance group. The soundtrack of the film was composed in collaboration with Duncan Murphy. The project also a workshop led by Mark Bryan, a Philadelphia based music producer. www.create-ireland.ie

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

5

July – August 2010

Roundup series of large paintings containing texts from a bombarded mass environment, such as media, health warnings, advertisement, political posters, policies, etc., which act as a prescribed format for living but instead generate products of anxieties, fears and phobias.”

Friendship

www.roscommonartscentre.ie Padriag Robinson – work by fomr 'A Poem of Friendship'

’A Poem of Friendship’ was an exhibition held at Occupy Space, Limerick of media based art featured the work of Daniel Kane, Breda Lynch and Padraig Robinson (25 March ­16 April). The press release stated that “this exhibition presented artwork from three artists of three different generations that specifically explore themes around queer identity and lifestyles, sexual interaction and gay history.” www.facebook.com/people/Occupy-space-Limerick

TiltShift

Palimpsest

Clemmesen & Kilfeather 'Splith' – promotional image.

are embraced as an important part of the finished work.” The works for this show were primarily made from found newspaper images.

The following event at venue was ‘Redress State – Questions Imagined’ a durational performance artwork by Dominic Thorpe. The performance took place over a total period of nine days (over the 12 May – 27 June). The press release noted that “the artist repeatedly wrote questions of a confrontational and often detailed nature that he felt would be asked during adversarial hearings like those of the Redress Board Hearings.”

www.hughlane.ie

Taking Place

Ó' hAodha 'Taking Place' installation view.

Exchange Gallery, Dublin presented ‘Taking Place. (10 – 30 May) an exhibition marking the culmination of Ó hAodha’s residency at Exchange Gallery, Dublin.

The show made use of waste materials left for collection on the streets around the gallery. The press release noted that “Ó hAodha’s interventions are centred on the tools of resistance, meeting and organisation, teaching and dissemination of information, in an attempt to suggest or prompt a return of these tools to common use.” www.exchangedublin.ie

126 126, Galway presented ‘Spilth’, a twoperson exhibition of new work by Christine Clemmesen and Caoimhe Kilfeather (15 April 15 – 8 May). The press release noted that both artists were “drawn to a type of practice that shows evidence of its own making – a sort of honesty where the working methodologies

Hugh Delap exhibited a new series of painting in a solo exhibition at the Talbot Gallery and Studios, Dublin (20 May – 19 June). The show entitled ‘Palimpsest’ was described in the press release a featuring paintings that are “worked and reworked leaving behind evidence of an organic evolution on the surface of the canvas. www.talbotgallery.com

Flynn & O’Dwyer at Collect

www.rirb.ie www.126.ie

Niamh McCann 'Tiltshift' installation view.

The Hugh Lane, Dublin presented Niamh Mc Cann’s exhibition ‘Tiltshift’ (April 30 – 18 July). Curated by Michael Dempsey, the show was presented as part of the ongoing Golden Bough series of exhibition showcasing the work of Irish contemporary artists. The press release outlined how “collective memory and its bearing on the construction of visual historical narratives are at the fore of the Niamh Mc Cann’s project”

Hugh Delap Untitled oil on canvas.

PS2

Liam Flynn & Kevin Dwyer – work show at 'Collect 2010'

Helena Hamilton 'To Whom it May Concern'

PS2, Belfast presented ‘To Whom It May Concern (iequalsyouequalsweequalsme)’

by Helena Hamilton (22 – 25 April). The press release described the exhibition as “the result of an intense drawing project developed in different stages: from an initial drawing performance, blindfolded and with soundproof headphones in front of a vast audience, to a week long and totally isolated concentration on a complete wall drawing.” The exhibition was the fourth in a series of projects, in which artists are invited to use the walls of PS2 as a surface for their drawings. The programme started with ‘20 eyes’ by Miguel Martin, followed by Beverley Clelan’s ‘The Drawing Room’ and Katryna Sheena Smyth’s ‘Drawing on the Right’ The following show in the space was ‘Polska Folk’ held as part of Polish Cultural Week (6 – 20 May). The exhibition featured work by Polish designers inspired

by Polish folk art and crafts – form, materials, technical solutions and folk poetics. The exhibition was previously on display at the London Design Festival (autumn 2009) and was curated by Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka. www.polishculturalweek.com www.pssquared.org www.helenahamilton.com

Campaign Roscommon Arts Centre presented ‘Campaign’ an exhibition of paintings by Ann Boyle (9 April –13 May). The paintings evolved from Boyle’s interest in the Shell Corrib Gas Project. The press release described the show as featuring “a

Liam Flynn and Kevin O’Dwyer premiered their collaborative work at Collect 2010, an international art fair held at the Saatachi Gallery, London (14 –17 May).

Their collaborative work ‘Below Sea Level’ combined the turned and hand carved oak of Liam Flynn with the hand forged and fabricated sterling silver of Kevin O’Dwyer. A special edition of bronze and sterling silver sea pod forms were also premiered at the exhibition, as well as their personal work. Liam Flynn and Kevin O’Dwyer are represented by Sara Myerscough Fine Art. www.millennium2000silver.com

Portmanteau

Tadhg McSweeny – work from 'Pormanteau'

Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin recently showed Tadhg McSweeney’s exhibition ‘Portmanteau’ (15 April ­­– 8 May). The press release noted that the show, comprising new paintings and sculptural works “took as its starting point, the idea of a collection”. www.kevinkavanaghgallery.ie

Column

Jonathan Carroll

Curatorial Housekeeping I have lived in both Dublin and Madrid, two cities that have a lot in common when it comes to the founding of their respective Museums of Modern Art. MNCARS (1) (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia) and the Irish Museum of Modern Art were founded at the beginning of a museum boom – 1990 and 1991 respectively – which continued until recently, where many regional cities wanted to join the Modern Art march. In Spain, Bilbao was to do this most successfully with the opening of a signature building by Frank O Gehry in 1997 and the perfect tenants, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The success of this venture led to the tiresome phrase in Museology and Tourism of ‘El efecto Guggenheim’. All regional cities wished for the Guggenheim magic; but few have thought beyond the infrastructure.

While IMMA like MNCARS is also housed in a former hospital, it has only dabbled with its infrastructural development. MNCARS has added a substantial connecting museum by French architect Jean Nouvel (2005). But it is no longer the architecture that is attracting the attention of frequent visitors to MNCARS, rather it is the more important change in personnel and particularly in the position of director that is causing a stir.

Spain at last is reaping the benefits from the repeal of its appointment laws with regards to civil servants and heads of national institutions. Manuel BorjaVillel was appointed (2008) after a directorship of this kind was put out to tender for the first time. In turn, Borja-Villel invited internationally renowned curator Lynne Cooke to join him as Deputy Director and Chief Curator.

Suddenly, a major intellectual and spatial transformation has been affected in MNCARS. The inspiring thing is that much of this initial transformation has taken place in the existing infrastructure of the old hospital. Whereas before you could just join the diligent procession in viewing the displays, now you are invited to explore previously unused areas of the museum to complete the tour of any one exhibition.

The simple ‘upstairs, downstairs’ housekeepers’ revolt has allowed for exhibitions and visitors to spill over into previously out-of-bounds terraces, vaults, wood-panelled protocol rooms and attics, and is also making use of the extensive cloister areas connecting all these spaces. But this is not just a matter of filling new spaces. The director has spoken at length about his spatial strategy in a moment where he sees many museums appearing more and more like shopping centres (2). Borja-Villel considers the museum as a city with a series of co-existing heterotopias that confront each other, with the visitors acting as agents rather than mere consumers. Borja-Villel says that art requires consequence, with the agent / visitor making their own way around the museum’s presentations while modifying them at the same time.

Lynne Cooke’s curation of both the recent Juan Muñoz retrospective and 'Thomas Schüte: Hindsight' exhibitions used more than six different spaces each (3). This meant one could experience the works of these artists in a far more eclectic manner, allowing for often very different perspectives on the work. It sounds simplistic but these exhibitions made with the excitement of someone who loves the visual encounter with art and wants the spectator to in turn experience this excitement, is quite different from token illustration of an intellectual idea through objects. Primacy is given to the experience of the work in specific spaces. Cooke is also curator-at-large for the Dia Art Foundation in New York and it is here that she impressed with her use of large former industrial sites and a wide variety of spaces, which allowed for the type of exhibition that can highlight changes in the work of an artist over their career.

Returning to the Irish context, with investment in infrastructure unlikely to be repeated for quite a while, new exhibition spaces will have to rely on similarly clever curatorial housekeeping to make best use of the boom-time legacy (4). Visual Carlow for example has now one of the best and biggest communal gallery rooms in the country with Rua Red in Tallaght having the other.

By communal, I mean a room where the public can collectively experience art. The collective experience is one of the primary reasons for the promotion of cultural centres in the first place and one that in the visual arts is often neglected (5) . As the composer Morton Feldman (b.1926 –d.1987) talking about the Rothko chapel once put it, galleries offer a “a spiritual environment …….as a place for contemplation where men and women of faiths, or of none, may meditate, in silence, in solitude or celebration together”.

We need look no further than MNCARS for some good housekeeping tips; and an underling respect of the importance of the communal experience of contemporary art (6). MNCARS aspires to “generating new spaces open to sociality and debate in the public sphere” and exploring “models of resistance” to a society “in which consumption and commodities abound in privatized space”.

Notes 1. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia 2. Interview with Manuel Borja-Villel by Alberto Sánchez Balmisa, Editor-in-Chief Exit Express and Director Exit Book 3. Telephone conversation with Lynne Cooke June 2010.

4. Gemma Tipton, All dressed up and nowhere to go? The Irish Times Weekend Review 22/05/10 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2010/0522/1224270867508.html 5. Morton Feldman quoted in the catalogue for the IMMA exhibition ‘Vertical Thoughts Morton Feldman’ page 17.

6. http://www.museoreinasofia.es/museo/mision_en.html

6

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2010

Roundup

Column

Chris Fite-Wassilak Possibly Maybe

The Nature of Things

A little less known than White Fang (1906) or Call of the Wild (1903), Jack London’s dystopian novel The Iron Heel was written in 1907. On one level, it is the unfinished biography of a socialist revolutionary; but, at the same time, a history scholar

Patricia McKenna - work from 'Take Hold'

writing in the year 2600 gives an introduction and extended footnotes. The book details the origins of an attempted working-class uprising in America in 1912 and the subsequent fascist state, the ‘Oligarchy,’ that arises out of the struggle.

From our view just 100 years on, London’s book is uncanny in predicting the US’s eradication of the left, which historically began with the Espionage Act in 1917 and was thoroughly quashed by the anxieties of the Cold War. But for large parts of the novel, it seems London’s aim is didactic, giving his characters lengthy lectures and speeches on aspects of Marxist theory, and it is in the middle of reading about the disposal of unconsumed surplus that I got a strong sense of déjà vu.

Through the meta-narrator’s comments, we learn that the revolution that the protagonist is fighting for is doomed to failure that the Oligarchy will rule for several centuries before and finally, an egalitarian ‘Brotherhood of Man’ will emerge.

London’s simultaneous first person account countered by a long view with the benefit of hindsight creates a particular bind, moving both forwards and backwards at the same time. This movement re-inhabits the past to suggest a hypothetical alternative present, but with the weight of foreknowledge the text carries no small degree of smugness. London’s methodology of imagination in The Iron Heel, perhaps combined with his pseudo-economic ramblings, seemed a strikingly similar match to that of one Liam Gillick.

In his essay, Maybe it would be better if we worked in groups of three? for the e-flux journal, Gillick set out a manifesto of sorts for ‘discursive art practices’: “The discursive is the only structure that allows you to project a problem just out of reach and to work with that permanent displacement. Every other mode merely reflects a problem, generates a problem, denies a problem, and so on.” There is no doubt that discursive practice is on the rise—a quick glance at younger artists will readily

Lee Welch – work from 'The Nature of Things'

During May Gallerie Le Petit Port, Leiden, Holland presented ‘The Nature of Things’ a group show that featured works by Irish artists Nina Canell, Robin Watkins, Blaise Drummond, Sarah Durcan, Fergus Feehily, Mark Joyce, Fergus Martin, Maureen O’Connor, Helen O’Leary, Linda Quinlan, Meabh Redmond, Jennifer Walshe and Lee Welch. Curated by Mark Joyce, the press release noted that the exhibition title, ‘The Nature of Things’ was “derived from the Lucretius poem “De Rerum Natura”, which urged his Roman contemporaries to look again at the natural world, as it really exists, in all its material, atomic and abstract qualities.” www.lepetitport.wordpress.com

Nordic Saga

reveal Benoit Maire and Falke Pisano, Luca Frei, Laure Prouvost, Lee Welch. For Gillick, this linguistic act of re-examining and re-imagining the day before a certain key event is a unique feature of the past two decades.

There are, of course, countless precedents, from Beckett, Borges, to W.S. Graham, Alain Resnais and Chris Marker, but what seems to be different is how the

aesthetically intriguing and constantly inventive, offering a space for reflection and thinking on the physical qualities and properties of things and the material world around us.”

Previously on show was Patricia McKenna’s exhibition ‘Take Hold’ by Patricia McKenna (1– 26 May). The press material noted that the artist’s work explored “the potential of materials to trigger and heighten awareness". In ‘Take Hold’ McKenna looked closer at the personal space and places that she inhabited and moved through on a daily basis. www.bluewallgallery.com

notashop at the Tate Thisisnotashop presented a group exhibition entitled ‘Everything is Up’ as part of ‘No Soul for Sale – A Festival of Independents’ (14 – 16 May) held at the Tate Modern, London. ‘Everything is Up’ was curated by Jessamyn Fiore featuring new work by Thisisnotashop artists including Clive Murphy, Wendy Judge, Kathryn Maguire, Robert Carr, Marta Fernandez Calvo, Catherine Barragry and The Writing Workshop.

Thisisisnotashop at No Soul for Sale was supported by Culture Ireland. www.thisisnotashop.com www.nosoulforsale.com

discursivists of recent times have used this language. In Resnais's Last Year in Marienbad (1961), a monotonous, nameless narrator’s endless insertions are deliberately disorienting, leading the viewer around wrong corners and shifting clues. As in The Iron Heel and like Gillick implies above, the discursive is still a narrative tool, as a reflection on art as memory. Recently, however, narrative has been expunged from discourse, using its formal language to merely speak of formal language. A conflation of critical theory and academic terminology has risen in surfeit of any experimental or idiosyncratic attempts at communication.

We’ve all heard Gillick going on about his Volvo factory, but what’s interesting is the way he manages to go on about it: whether talking about discursive art, or ‘criticising art criticism,’ he sneaks it in as a model for everything. But then he never gets further than the fact that the workers have re-convened in a closed factory to discuss what to do—then remain silent. They never actually say anything.

While I embrace the discursive, I do feel like it is a tool and not an end in itself.

Falke Pisano is a good example, because on one hand she has produced amazing works that are self-reflexive, open-ended and inquisitive, such as Chillida (Forms and Feelings) (2006), and on the other, such as her exhibition ‘Figures of Speech’ at Hollybush Gardens last year, has used inane rhetoric to the point of dissolution, where words follow each other as simply bland, generic signposts that indicate meaning should be going on without any actual content. I suppose what I’m apprehensive of more is the rise of what I have comically heard referred to as ‘seminartists,’ whose practice exists solely at the endless talks, seminars and lectures around exhibitions, where rather than language being the site of production within a ‘proper’ discursive practice, as a site where potential is created, language is taken as simply equivalent to justification.

The discursive can never fulfil promises, it can only make them. But those hypothetical promises can then go to inspire and create other consequences, and that’s where the power of the discursive lies. In order for it to even suggest those

Rebekka Gudleifsdóttir work from 'A Nordic Saga'

Man-made Images Photo-Gallery, Donegal presented ‘A Nordic Saga’, an exhibition by the Icelandic surrealist photographer Rebekka Gudleifsdóttir (14 May – 14 August). The press release noted that “Gudleifsdóttir’s work has been mentioned in various international media, ranging from the BBC, Der Spiegel, The Observer, The Sunday Times and The Wall Street Journal. www.man-madeimages.eu

Surplus Value Occupy Space, Limerick presented a group exhibition of artworks by Mike Fitzpatrick, Angela Fulcher, Oliver Heinzenberger, Sean Lynch and Holly O’Brien (6 – 7 June). The show was curated by Michele Horrigan. As the press release noted that the exhibition was focused on the Marxist concept of ‘surplus value’, coined by Karl Marx and taken from Marx’s writings on the Limerick baking industry written in the1860s. www.occupy-space.blogspot.com

promises of different possibilities, its linguistic act has to be used to gesture beyond the linguistic. In the words of Albert Meister, channelled via Luca Frei in his interpretation of the prospective The So-Called Utopia of the Centre Beaubourg (2007), “revolution, your revolution, starts with eating differently, f**king differently, sleeping differently, and laughing differently.”

Meister’s book imagines the

functional workings of a subterranean community beneath the Centre Pompidou, and while the text itself is mundane, its discursive vision manages to inspire you to seek to create the differences of which it speaks.

Unto this Last Raven Row Gallery, London presented ‘Unto This Last’ with work by Irish artist Sarah Browne alongside pieces by Thomas Bayrle, Andrea Büttner, Alice Channer, Isabelle Cornaro, Dewar & Gicquel, Pernille Kapper Williams and Bela Kolárová (19 May – 25 July). As the press release outlined the show took its cue from John Ruskin’s 1860’s book of the same name and “considered the complicated relationships between contemporary art and craft.”

www.roscommonartscentre.ie

Lines, Layers & Light

Gerda Teljeur – work from 'Lines, Layers & Light'

The Stone Gallery, Dublin presented ‘Lines, Layers & Light’, an exhibition of new work by Gerda Teljeur (29 April – 15 May). The exhibition consisted of a collection of works on paper; many recent and several that were developed over a period spanning two years. Due to the intimate nature of the venue’s space, the artist substituted customary large works on paper for medium and small-scale works, which the press release noted, marked “a new departure through the artist’s explorations into the manipulation of density and space between parallel lines.”

The following exhibition was ‘Doubles’ a collaborative exhibition of work by Michael Bartlett and Cathy Lomax (20 May – 3 June). The press material noted that the works in the show marked a continuation and expansion, of the two artists interest in “the themes of repetition and duplication”. www.stonegallery.ie

Oneiriography

www.ravenrow.org

Limerick City Gallery Limerick City Gallery in association with the Hunt Museum and the AIB Prize 2009 presented Still life with... a new work by Denis Connolly and Anne Cleary (4 June – 11 July). Connolly and Cleary’s project was inspired by Patrick Hennessy’s painting Still life, which is held in the permanent collection of Limerick City Gallery of Art. As the press release noted Still life with … reconstructed Hennessy’s work as a three-dimensional installation, “inviting

The Material Consequence ‘The Material Consequence’ at the Bluewall Gallery, Cavan featured works

by Isabel Nolan, Cliona Harmey, Felicity Clear and Helen Hughes (29 May – 29 June). The show was curated by Cliodhna Shaffrey. The press release noted that central to each artists practice, was “a commitment to on-going exploration of materials, so that the works they make ... are

Padraig Cunningham Roscommon Arts Centre recently showed Padraig Cunningham’s exhibition ‘Lost and Found’ ” (22 May – 24 June). The show featured a series of works related to “the notion of site, our influence upon it and how this informed the cultural construct of landscape”.

the viewer to step right into the painting. It provided a meeting place for pixels and pigments, for moving and fixed images ... creating a bridge between old media – painting and sculpture; and new media – computers, video and digital printing.” www.connolly-cleary.com www.gallery.limerick.ie

'Oneiriography' – installation view.

The group show ‘Oneiriography’ at the Green on Red Gallery, Dublin featured works by work of Simon and Tom Bloor, Michelle Deignan, Ruth Ewan and Ragnar Kjartansson (3 June – 3 July).

The exhibition was curated by Chris Fite-Wassilak The press release outlined that the show was concerned with an attempt “to mark the blurred, unknown distance between what is and what has come before”.

The previous exhibition in the gallery was ‘Between Sight and Sound’, a joint showing of works by Ronan McCrea and Aurélien Froment; along with contributions from the New York based journal Dot Dot Dot (6 May – 29 May). www.greenonredgallery.com

7

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2010

news

News TBG&S 2010 & BEYOND Temple Bar Gallery and Studios (TBG&S) issued the following statement on 16 June. “In January 2010, TBG&S received a 35.5% reduction in support from the Arts Council, its major funder, which had itself received reduced funding from the Exchequer. The Arts Council’s grant offer prioritized artist studio provision.

While fully appreciative of Arts Council support, the radically altered financial reality the organisation now found itself in required TBG&S to fundamentally re-examine itself, both to secure its immediate viability within financial constraints and to ensure its longer-term ability to carry out its core remit.

Since January, the organisation has faced and addressed critical challenges to reduce costs and refocus the organisation in line with this new financial reality, which will result in, among other difficult decisions, a restructured organisation with different and fewer staff roles. TBG&S’ concern is to ensure such restructuring is aligned to a focused vision, and it has worked to develop a viable long-term framework plan for the organisation, in consultation with staff, the artist membership and stakeholders.

While the focus on studios in the grant offer is acknowledged, TBG&S does not underestimate the importance of its contemporary art gallery space and believes it is the dual function of studios combined with exhibition that is at the core of the organisation’s uniqueness and public value.

TBG&S’ long-term plan, which is currently being finalised, sets out to maintain an active gallery programme, which enables a coherent connection between gallery and studio functions while ensuring curatorial ambition and expertise. The organisation plans to do this in a way that will be financially sustainable within diminished resources, while concurrently developing its capacity to generate other financial resources to guarantee the continued success of this unique facility.”

The statement went on to explain that the gallery had been closed between exhibitions and that a new exhibition would be commencing July. At the time of going to press details of the programme were not yet available, however information should be now available the TBG&S website; along with other gallery listing services including the listings and events section of the VAI website.

O’Gorman and an exhibition of photographs commemorating 107 years of the Gordon Bennett Race from the collection of George Stuart. Carlow Institute of Technology in association with Artforms Gallery whosted an exhibition featuring works by artists Karen Hendy and Joan Coen. Carlow Photographic Society presented an exhibition in collaboration with contemporary Slovenian artist Tomaz Lunder. www.eigsecarlow.ie

Comerford for Sovereign Oliver Comerford has been short listed for the €25,000 Sovereign European Art Prize for his painting True Romance IV. The artists were nominated by art experts from over 30 European countries. The shortlist was selected by judges, Sir Peter Blake (artist), Tim Marlow (White Cube), Philly Adams (Saatchi Gallery), Gavin Turk (artist), Robert Punkenkhofer (Art & Idea), Joseph Backstein (Moscow Biennale) and Nasser Azam (artist). The judges decided the winner of the first prize during the exhibition of the short listed works at the Barbican Centre in June. Comerford is represented by the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery in Dublin.

RHA O’MALLEY RESIDENCY The RHA is currently offering the Tony O’Malley Studio Residency to suitable applicants. As the RHA explain “during his lifetime Tony O’Malley was the recipient of subsided studios and accommodation in St. Ives, Cornwall, which allowed the artist time to concentrate on creating work. Jane O’Malley has never forgotten the privilege of those decades for herself and Tony. A number of years ago she acquired Tony’s family home in Callan Co. Kilkenny. Jane, working with her architect, set about renovating the building into a first class facility for an artist to live and work in. And in association with the Royal Hibernian Academy she now wishes to offer this home/studio to an artist on an annual basis”.

The artist awarded the residency will have the exclusive use of the house and studio for 12 months, from January to December 2011, at a nominal cost of €250 per month. This full-time residency is for an artist who works primarily in the medium of paint and application are accepted until 30 July. www.royalhibernianacademy.ie

Éigse Éigse Carlow Arts Festival (11 – 20 June) is celebrating its 31st year and showcased local, national and international artists.

The Visual Centre for Contemporary Art & George Bernard Shaw Theatre, opened in 2009, was the anchor venue for the festival. On show was a retrospective exhibition including work by William Crozier, Peter Howson, David Blackburn, Shani Rhys James, John Shinnors, Donald Teskey, Eileen MacDonagh, Jim Behan, Beverly Carbery and Caoimhín Ó Néill.

Other exhibitions included a presentation of non-narrative film and video work by filmmaker and visual artist Marc-Ivan

INTERNET / EMAIL SCAM Visual Artists Ireland has been made aware that an email scam that targets artists is doing the rounds again and we ask artists to be alert.

The scam works like this. The fraudster emails an artist expressing an interest in one or more of their artworks – usually found on the artist’s website.

The ‘buyer’ agrees to send a cheque for the value of the work but a couple of weeks later a cheque far exceeding the price of the work arrives by post to the artist. The fraudster then acknowledges their mistake and either asks the artist to send back the remainder (using a Western Union Money Transfer or other method) or suggests that some of the excess money can be used to buy more artwork. Of course the cheque sent by the fraudsters is counterfeit and the artist stands to lose both money and artworks.

Cheques can take some time to clear and the fraud works by duping artists into sending money before the counterfeit cheque clears.

Look out for emails with very unlikely names, bad spelling /grammar/ punctuation, evidence of cut’n’paste composition, over enthusiasm to pay immediately and they often ask for discount.

If you or any other artists you know are in negotiations with someone and you fear it may be a scam you should contact the Garda Fraud Squad immediately.

LCGA DEVELOPMENT On Sunday 23 May, the Carnegie Building housing Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA) closed its doors ahead of a major redevelopment to provide better services for its visitors. For the duration of this closure LCGA will be located off-site at Limerick City Council, Istabraq Hall on Merchants Quay. The Gallery will return to the Carnegie Building in 2011.

The LCAG Phase II Development, funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport and Limerick City Council is a large-scale redevelopment of the historic Carnegie building that will provide necessary infrastructure and facilities for the gallery and its collection. The aim is to develop the gallery in a manner that preserves the original building but re-orientates it to give access towards the People’s Park on which

the

building

stands. The

development will upgrade the existing exhibition spaces and provide a purposebuilt permanent collection storage area, a multi-purpose space for kids and community activities and a large café/ library/social space. For details of off-site

WRIGHT GALLERY, MAYO The Wright Gallery, opened at The Quay in Westport, Co. Mayo on 3 June. The new gallery is run by a collective of ten locally-based artists under the banner of ‘The Wright Artists’.

The collective comprises off: Breda Burns, Mags Duffy, Betty Gannon, Pam Gray, Claire Griffin, Mary O’Grady, Gráinne O’Reilly, Susie Quinn, Sinead Wall and Ian Wieczorek. http://thewrightartists.blogspot.com

programmes and updates on the redevelopment see the website: www.gallery.limerick.ie

Belfast exchange Belfast Exposed launched Belfast Exchange – the venues second gallery space on Saturday 1 May. Belfast Exchange is run by local curators Brown & Bri a besides housing Belfast’s Exposed photographic archive, it will present events that animate and explore this unique collection.

Dating from the 1970’s, the archive

presents Belfast’s recent history through the eyes and lenses of some of the key players – Northern Ireland’s communities.

Over 2,000 images have been digitized and can be viewed via an interactive browsing system, available in the new gallery. www.brownandbri.com www.belfastexposed.org

ASKEATON CONTEMPORARY Anita Di Bianco, Angela Fulcher, Jeronimo Hagerman, Dennis McNulty and Filip Van Dingenen are the participating artists for this year Askeaton Contemporary Arts’ ‘Welcome to the Neighbourhood’ programme.

Founded in 2006, Askeaton Contemporary Arts promotes contemporary visual art in Askeaton, County Limerick. The fifth edition of ‘Welcome to the Neighbourhood’, which sees invited international and Irish artists resident and working in the town will occur from 12 to 24 July, 2010. www.askeatonarts.com

AC Community Awards The Arts Council recently announced winners of ‘Artist in the Community Scheme” Round One: 2010 Research and Development Awards’. The winners of the award are George Higgs, Tadhg McGrath, Martina Cleary, Ciara McMahon, Fiona Hallinan George Higgs, will conduct research with the Dublin Deaf Choir to explore possibilities of developing a music and performance piece and investigate the area of vibrations in music.

TadhgMcGrath will carry out research with a community of interest, the Justice for Terence Wheelock campaign.

Martina Cleary is researching sociocultural issues connected to concepts of safety and refuge with the Clare Women’s Network. During the research phase she will be mentored by Seamus McGuinness.

Ciara McMahon will research with members of the Irish Heart and Lung Transplant Association, exploring possibilities of an event based work or work in multiple media.

Fiona Hallinan will conduct research with the Palmerstown Active Retired Walking Group, with a view to creating a site specific audio work. She will be mentored by composer Alex Synge The Arts Council also announced the winning projects for the ‘Round One: 2010 Project Realisation Award’.

Limerick Community Education Network will be working with artist Christina Gangos-Klien to create a series of one-shot documentaries (1-5) minutes, featuring everyday events that can reveal the potential and beauty of subjective observation.

Donegal Chamber Orchestra (DCO) will be working with composer Ian Wilson, interviewing them so that the members of the DCO will actively become part of an original composition, and musical transcriptions of fragments of the conversations will be used as the basis of the sections of the proposed 20 minute work.

St Margaret’s Traveller Community Association, Ballymun will work collaboratively with artist Seodin O’Sullivan on the Nomadic Mapping Project.

The re-formed Sligo United Trades

Club will work with artist Seamus Nolan to devise a living monument to the club, its history and social significance, using social memorabilia and diverse archive material. Events and an exhibition to look at using the Trades Club premises, its site and architecture as a place of collective development will also form part of the artwork. www.create-ireland.ie/professional-development/artistin-the-community-scheme

AC POLICY ON WORKSPACES The Arts Council has announced a new policy on Visual Artists’ Workspaces – Visual Artists’ Workspaces in Ireland: A New Approach. This policy follows on from the Review of Visual Artists’ Workspaces in Ireland, completed in 2009.

The new policy aims to address the infrastructure of visual artists’ workspaces in Ireland in a way that is sensitive to the dynamics and diversity of the sector. Claire Doyle, Head of Visual Arts at the Arts Council said: “We are delighted to be launching a policy on visual artists’ workspace provision in Ireland. Although this infrastructure may not be immediately visible to the public, recognition and acknowledgement of the role it plays in supporting the work of visual artists is critical to the well-being of the visual arts sector in Ireland”. The new policy can be viewed on the Arts Council website. www.artscouncil.ie

TYRONE GUTHRIE BURSARY Every year Mayo County Council offers two special bursary awards to artists born or living in Mayo, to enable them to spend two weeks at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig, County Monaghan. This year’s successful applicants were visual artist Keith Wilson and composer Donal Sarsfield. www.mayococo.ie

RHA WINNERS The Royal Hibernian Academy’s 180th Annual Exhibition is currently on show (until 31 July). Academy Members, invited artists and works selected through an open submission process are showing painting, sculpture, print, photography and architectural models.

The RHA Annual has a prize fund of over €50,000. This years award winners are” The Hennessy Craig Scholarship.

Joint winners: Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh and Patrick Horan. The RHA Conor Fallon Sculpture Award sponsored by Gormleys Fine Art: Joe Butler. The Ireland – US Council and Irish Arts Review Portraiture Award: Colin Davidson. The Curtin O’Donoghue Photography Prize: Fergus Martin. The AXA Insurance Prize for Drawing: Michael Quane RHA The James Adams Salerooms Award: Miseon Lee. The de Veres Art Award for a work of distinction: Graham Gingles.

The Don Niccolò d’Ardia Caracciolo RHA Medal and Award: Comhghall Casey. The Fergus O’Ryan RHA Memorial Award: Joe Dunne ARHA. The Keating/ McLaughlin Award, Medal and Prize,awarded by the ESB: Eoin MacLochlainn. The Oriel Gallery Award: Patricia Lambert. The K + M Evans Painting Prize: Marcel Vidal The Whyte’s Award: Joshua Sex. The

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

8

July – August 2010

News Conor / Moran Award for Outstanding Sculpture, Medal & Prize, awarded by the ESB: Jean Greene. The Abdul and Katharine Bulbulia Art in Health Award: Jane O’Malley www.royalhibernianacademy.ie

SOL ART Despite it being a time when foreclosures seem to be the order of the day, Martin Davis, a native of Dublin, has relocated his Sol Art Gallery from Cavan to the capital. The official opening was held on 28 May in the new premises on 8 Dawson Street, D2 and performed by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr. Emer Costello. www.solart.ie

ART FAIR 2010 Art Fair 2010 will take place from 5 – 7 November 2010 at the Royal Dublin Society. As the press release outlines “following substantial market research and consultation in the arts sector, new aspects to the Fair will include a curatorial approach with particular reference to display and presentation, which will favour galleries and professional artists in Fine Art disciplines exhibiting their work for sale to the public. Additional elements such as exhibition and display of further art works to attract a wider audience will be hosted over the weekend, to take place adjacent to the Art Fair 2010 RDS”. www.rds.ie

DEPAOR FOR VENICE DePaor Architects have become the first Irish practice to be asked to create an installation for the main exhibition at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (29 Aug – 21 Nov). DePaor architects, with support from Culture Ireland, will build a folly of pleated linen and lavendered softwood, entitled 4am, in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in the Giardini of Venice.

DePaor architects were invited by the biennale director Kazuyo Sejima, to explore the overall Biennale theme of ‘people meet in architecture’. Sejima selected 43 contributors from around the world, ranging across architects, artists, filmmakers and engineers, including individuals such Wim Wenders, Fiona Tan and Rem Koolhaas’ OMA. www.architecturefoundation.ie

TBG&S STUDIO AWARD Irish artist Martin Healy and Finnish curator Laura Köönikkä, are the recipients of the Irish and Finnish Exchange and Studio Award for 2010.

The award is managed by Temple Bar Gallery and Studios (TBG&S) in association with HIAP–Helsinki International Artist-in-residence Programme and The Finnish-Institute in London and fosters opportunities for exhibition, exchange and dialogue in the arts internationally.

Laura Köönikkä from Finland will research and develop a new project at TBG&S from 1– 31 July 2010. The project will focus on the contemporary art scene in Dublin and also create links with the Finnish cultural scene. Irish artist Martin Healy will spend three months at HIAP Studios from 1 June – 31 August 2010 where he will research and develop new film and photographic work in Helsinki. www.templebargallery.com

BOI to SELL COLLECTION Bank of Ireland is to sell its art collection and put the proceeds towards its community and charitable investment programme. The bank currently owns 2,000 pieces of art, which is one of the largest collections in the country. The works, which are estimated to be worth over €4m, will be sold on the open market.

Bank of Ireland (BoI) began building the collection in the 1970s and went on to develop one of the largest corporate collections in the country. In recent years, the group has donated its more significant pieces — including works by Jack B Yeats, Paul Henry, Louis le Brocquy and Robert Ballagh – to the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). The bank has been left with about 2,000 pieces — including other works by Camille Souter, Basil Blackshaw and John Behan.

Reminder Public Art Commission Banagher College, Co. Offaly The Board of Management of Banagher College, Colaiste na Sionna, wish to commission a permanent artwork which is to be funded by the Department of Education and Science under the per cent for art scheme. The budget for the design, supply and fix of the artwork is €58,000, inclusive of all costs, expenses, VAT insurance and charges.

Selection is a two stage open submission process whereby visual artists are now invited to submit expressions of interest for Stage One. For a full copy of the brief and application form please see www.bccns.ie or email Deputy Principle Kevin Jordan kevinjordanlsu@hotmail.com Closing date for Stage One expressions of interest is July 23rd

This news has led to speculation that Allied Irish Banks (AIB) may also be considering selling its 3,000-piece collection of paintings, sculptures, tapestries and photographs. It has been reported that a spokeswoman for AIB has said the future of its art collection is under review.

NEW GOLDEN THREAD CHAIR Writer and broadcaster Dr Fionola Meredith is the new chair of Belfast’s Golden Thread Gallery. A former academic, Fionola contributes features to the Irish Times. Meredith is a specialist in gender issues and also supplies comment and review to BBC Northern Ireland television and radio programmes; as well as being reviews editor of Belfast’s arts and culture magazine, The Vacuum.

MONSTER EXPANDS Monster Truck Gallery and Studios (MSGS) is to take up residence at Number 4, Temple Bar, formerly the home of the Original Print Gallery. MTGS had been based on Francis Street in Dublin 8, for over three years and has played host to hundreds of graduate and emerging artists, providing them with space to work and exhibit. The new gallery will be dedicated to maintaining and developing this strand of programming while the France Street space will be temporarily dedicated to the provision of studios space only and become known as Monster Truck Studios.

The new Monster Truck Gallery opened in June with two exhibitions dealing with the architecture of the space. Graduates from the Masters in Music and Media Technologies at Trinity College Dublin were invited to engage with the space using sound installations and audio feedback. For the second exhibition three artists from the 2009 open call: Helen Hughes, Barbara Knezevic, and Vanessa Donoso López were invited to create installations in response to the architectural challenges presented by the new space. www.monstertruck.ie

CCAD GALLERY In June The Crawford College of Art & Design (CCAD) launched a new exhibition space on Wandesford Quay in Cork city. Commenting on the new venue, Acting Head of CCAD, Orla Flynn, said “the establishment of the Wandesford Quay Gallery as a creative space is a significant step towards the advancement of a culture of creativity within the Institution itself and between the Institution and the broader community and region”. The gallery opened with an exhibition of work by three graduating students from the Master of Arts Fine Art Research programme, Liz Cullinane, Mags Geaney and Roseanne Lynch www.cit.ie

The Fred Conlon Contemporary Sculpture Award Closing Date: Thursday 22 July 2010

Sligo County Council Arts Service invites visual artists, particularly sculptors, to apply for the Fred Conlon Contemporary Sculpture Award 2010.

This award offers the opportunity to avail of studio and living facilities for two months in the inspiring scenic region of Easkey, West Sligo and one month in the Leitrim Sculpture Centre followed by a solo exhibition in the Leitrim Sculpture Centre upon completion of the residency. Dates of the residency are fixed between mid January and mid April 2011.

Open to national and international artists, applicants will be required to have a third level qualification in art or an equivalent record of application and achievement.

Application forms are available on www.sligoarts.ie and from rmcgrath@sligococo.ie

Offaly Local Authorities Public Art Commissioning Programme 2010 / 2012 Artists of all disciplines are invited to make an application to be placed onto a panel for potential public art commissions arising from per cent for art schemes in Offaly. This invitation will remain open on a continuous basis until the end of 2012. To make an application, please request a copy of the guidelines from Offaly Arts Office on 057 9357400 or arts@offalycoco.ie or download it from www.offaly.ie

10

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2010

Regional Profile

Visual Arts Resources & Activity Cavan Focus

Sylvia Grace Borda. Images from workshop sessions.

Eileen McDonagh. Red Square (outside the Bluewall Gallery)

Bluewall gallery – Gabhann Dunne & Alison Kay exhibition.

Gerry Reilly, work from the Untitled Wedgwood series

The Bluewall Gallery

Quiet Demeanour

Bluewall Gallery is a new, privately owned space for contemporary visual art in County Cavan. It is located 10 km from Cavan town, nestled in the beautiful surrounds of Lough Oughter, close to the Radisson Hotel at Farnham Estate and Killykeen Forest Park. The gallery is housed in a converted artist’s studio, formerly used by my wife Jane McCormick. Modest from the outside and set in landscaped gardens overlooking the Lough, the gallery reveals three bright, pristine exhibition spaces and an outdoor sculpture garden.

Bluewall aims to maintain a platform for new work of excellence on both sides of the border and to create an audience for contemporary art in the North-East by producing a programme which is stimulating, challenging and accessible. Exhibitions are curated and produced in-house and through an open submission process. The gallery’s current programme presents a broad range of high quality contemporary art practice from emerging and established artists working in all media.

The inaugural exhibition, ‘Breath’, opened on 27 February 2010, literally marking the gallery’s first breath. The exhibition presented an exciting range of work by six renowned and distinctive Irish artists.

Works by Alison Kay (ceramics), Michael Fortune (photography / film), Eileen McDonagh (sculpture), Marianne Keating (print) and Gabhann Dunne (painting) were shown in the gallery and sculpture garden, with a performance by Brian Connolly at the opening reception. The work of the artists chosen for this first show reflects the quality and range of practice that Bluewall is keen to represent.

We experienced great joy and excitement in seeing the first show installed and the doors opening to the public. We had been planning the gallery and contacting and networking with artists and curators for two years, so bringing it to this point was a slow process. With finances very tight, we had to pull back on our original plans but we are delighted with the gallery. In time, we hope to develop an additional sculpture park to the front of the gallery for larger sculptural works.

Following on from this very successful first exhibition, Bluewall presented the famous photomontage works of Sean Hillen and a wonderful installation by Patricia McKenna and is currently housing ‘The Material Consequence’, a curated show

by Cliodhna Shaffrey with artists Cliona Harmey, Felicity Clear, Isabel Nolan and Helen Hughes.

Meeting and working with the artists has been the high point for us so far. Some of the artists have spent several days installing their work, as with Patricia McKenna’s exhibition. The gallery has a sense of purity that artists seem to love working within. We have had wonderful support from friends at the openings to date, some of whom have volunteered assistance from directing parking to distributing cakes! We have also had the pleasure of welcoming both the local community and newcomers to the gallery.

Programmed shows over the coming months include ‘Form; works by members of Leitrim Sculpture Centre’, 26 June-21 July and ‘Immersed’; work in progress by recent degree and MA students, 24 July – 4 August. With the aforementioned exhibitions and these very exciting upcoming shows we hope to attract more members of the community, who may not be used to visiting art galleries. By encouraging them to come to the Bluewall, experience the shows and react to the work, we hope to make the art gallery a regular part of their lives. From our experience to date, being immersed in art on a daily basis certainly seems to be good for the soul!

Joe Keenan www.bluewallgallery.com

Cavan has something of a quiet demeanour in terms of its arts activity. With regional art centres such as Droichead (Drogheda) The Dock (Carrickon-Shannon) and Solistise (Navan) all nearby; the area can somewhat become eclipsed by their art activities. It is unfortunate that no such centre or active artist collective is currently based in the county.

There are however two exhibition spaces – Bailieborough Arts and Cultural Centre and the recently opened Bluewall Gallery. In addition to these, the arts office exhibits in both the County Museum and in library spaces. With no dedicated public exhibition space, it does unfortunately inhibit the type and variety of artwork shown.

Sound and videoworks are both problematic for these types of spaces.

I would love to see one larger exhibition programmed annually in the county. This could be done through the use of ad-hoc spaces such as empty retail units in the town. This would address the lack of exhibition space, and could allow more dynamic exhibitions to take place here.

Since my initial contact with my local arts office, I have to say it has been nothing but positive.

If anything, I would say that I under utilize them.

My advice to anyone starting out, is to make contact with your local arts office – introducing both yourself and your work to them. Since my first contact, the arts office have given me the opportunity to travel, exhibit and make work. Three very vital ingredients when sustaining an art practice.

With arts funding being cut around the country, more and more local authorities are having to re-think how they are fulfilling their core remits.

This year, Cavan Arts office has shifted away from funding a small number of individual artists, instead they have focused on commissioning more inclusive projects that engage with a larger number of local artists and those interested in the arts. This is something of a do-more-with-less approach, which should be commended.

‘Camera Obscura, Seeing Across Boundaries’ (facilitated by Sylvia Grace Borda) is one such project. This was an open call for anyone interested in participating in the region. Having mainly worked independently prior to this, I admit that I was sceptical about enjoying the process of participating on a project like this. But after nearly four weeks, I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised.

The group is composed mainly of artists ­– but there are also other disciplines such as architects and engineers involved. These different disciplines allow a sharing of knowledge and opinion, which is providing a rich resource for dialogue. We meet once a week and have looked at and discussed issues ranging from cartography and borders to how to make a darkroom for under a tenner ­ – with lots of tea and sandwiches in-between.

The project has been an opportunity for me to broaden my own interest areas; and also the chance to meet and network with other artists. Since finishing art college, I have become much more aware of the importance to adapt and remain open to new opportunities that present themselves, even if they initially seem unrelated to your own work.

Over time I have found that such experiences feed positively into your own existing practice – almost unbeknown to you.

It is these types of initiatives that are a welcome development in the area. Even without core infrastructure and resources readily available, it shows how this type of integrated approach to programming has allowed artists the opportunity to collaborate, communicate, network and exhibit locally.

Gerry Reilly

Seeing Across Boundaries

Sylvia Grace Borda. Seeing accross borders workshop.

As a Canadian artist living and working on the island of Ireland, I have been interested in the concept of the ‘border-line’, and what some will perceive as peripheral – and others in terms of physical – geography. Over the course of my residency, it seems that the border areas between Northern Ireland and the Republic in fact appear metaphorically situated between these definitions.

As a result of these reflections, I developed the project ‘Seeing Across Boundaries’ as a way to foster an appreciation of both cultural identities and social histories traversing the Border areas and to further define them within a broader artistic and technological history.

Historically, in Western Europe, artists were engaged in utilizing the latest technologies to observe and record the natural and built environment. The camera obscura was one such tool that was widely used for artistic and scientific illustration from the Renaissance period to the Victorian era. The camera obscura was also scaled to serve as observational viewing platforms, and importantly, it is a precursor to the invention of photography and surveillance technology Remarkably, the camera obscura does not have a clear documented presence on the island of Ireland.

In ‘Seeing Across Boundaries’, my intention is to amend this marked absence and in so doing to re-examine the art of observation. The latter is particularly associated with the notion of the border; since at the height of the Troubles, Northern Ireland and the border counties were the most photographed in the world; yet the public was not in a position to view or control its own images.

Building on these links, I am mentoring artists in observational processes that involve the art and science of drawing, painting, astronomy, photography, and landscape recording. Currently I am working with 17 artists who come from across the borders in Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Together, we are working to transform and create new images to define the Border areas. So far we have temporarily transformed the Clones Canal Store rooms into a 180’ panorama camera obscura.

This endeavour has also led to an opportunity to explore the astronomical foundations of the camera obscura as deployed by Kepler and Galieo in the study of the sun.

Further as an artists’ think tank, we are also collaborating to produce a series of public artworks informed by the principles of applied research into the functionality of the camera obscura as an artistic recording tool. These results informed through observation and interdisciplinary learning are already dramatically challenging the stereotypical notion of surveillance. It is through these processes that we are working together to re-assign value to the Border territories, and the concept of producing contemporary art from within ‘borderline’ areas.

Equally significant through all of these processes, we are learning that the power of observation can continue to provide both the team and the public with new perspectives on what it means to ‘seeing across boundaries’.

Sylvia Grace Borda

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

11

July – August 2010

Regional Profile

Public Art – Resources & Activities

The Arts Office

A draft public arts policy for the county was officially adopted by Cavan County Council’s SPC (Special Policy Committee) in February this year. Whilst the initial groundwork is underway on programme development, the draft policy will be further informed by the publication of the revised Public Art National Guidelines later this year. The final document will also be refined and published as integral to Cavan’s Countywide Arts Plan 2011 – 2016. The formal adoption of the policy together with the appointment of a dedicated member of staff has enabled a much more strategic approach to arts development across the county.

Rather than making distinctions between public art and core arts, this strategic approach has enabled a process of resource shifting that emphasises the development of new synergies between the core arts programme and public arts.

One example of this is the ways in which a conception of ‘public arts’ has informed the development of a new Cavan arts website. The site has been designed specifically to develop synergies between artists, audiences and potential stakeholders, as well as providing cost-effective administrative back-up to the Arts Office.

The benefit of having a strong focus on core programming in the years prior to formalising the public arts policy, is that there are now resources available through public arts at a time when the core service is compromised due to adverse environmental conditions. Flexibility in approach to public arts commissioning allows the Arts Office to respond to certain zeitgeists and seize opportunities to stimulate areas of development and promotion rooted in local culture with potential in a national and international context.

For example, ‘Seeing Across Boundaries’ is a visual arts project that has roots in art historical observational techniques and the Border culture of surveillance. Although still in its infancy, as a crossborder project with huge potential as a ‘gateway’ artwork it has already attracted buy-in from a range of stakeholders including Peace III, Queen’s University, Tyrone Guthrie Centre, the CavanFermanagh Geo Park, professional artists and audiences in the region, amongst others. An example of a visual arts project very different in nature is the John Byrne visual spectacle to coincide with the Fleadh Cheoil 2010.

The very nature of public arts requires an interdisciplinary approach, various levels of expertise and often involves diverse stakeholder groups. In terms of outcomes, much depends on the initial research and development and the critical ingredient of stakeholder buy-in. Depending on context, this forms the backbone of everything to come and often affects the way in which artworks are conceived, produced and received. A flexible approach to this process allows for the element of surprise and fosters new relationships and unexpected outcomes.

There are added benefits to working in this way in so far as projects can take on a life of their own and communities of artists, other professionals and the general public can work together in taking ownership of a project, driving it forward through a deep commitment, passion or belief. When this happens the main focus of the commissioner becomes one of stakeholder management: ensuring that these communities, groups and individuals remain engaged, and that there is adequate expertise and funding to help the project to reach its full potential, to safeguard the vision. This might sound simplistic ­– but in a complex environment it can be a challenge on the best days. For now and hopefully for the long-term, developing a rurally-based hub of arts and cultural activity outside of the metropolis is a challenge that this county is fully embracing.

Rhonda Tidy, Public Arts Office Cavan Co. Council

The core aims of the Cavan County Council Arts Office are as follows – 1 To support and promote artistic excellence and encourage a vibrant arts environment; 2 To promote the cultural identity of County Cavan; 3 To develop new audiences for the arts and improve participation for all cultural activities; 4 To enhance professional development for artists; 5 To improve the infrastructure for access and participation by artists and audiences.

These aims were set out in our Arts Plan in 2004 and we are in the process of reviewing this document and writing our new strategy for the next five years. What has changed in the meantime?

Plenty! On the strength of the objectives of the arts plan and the money that became available to arts initiatives particularly in the period 2005 – 2008 the County enjoyed arts initiatives, prosperity and confidence. Despite reductions in public funding the needs of the arts community remain undiminished, the demand and interest for the arts in this community has increased year on year. The Elected Members need to continue to be appreciative and vigilant as to the value the arts have in a rural county such as Cavan. The Arts Council in their ongoing engagement with the City and County Managers Association need commitment on the value, retention and strengthening of local arts in local authority settings. The arts community needs constantly to engage and voice their evolving expectations and commitment. It is imperative on arts office staff that we keep the arts agenda high both at senior management level and with the Elected Members On a positive note we are a county that can avail of Peace III funding. The ‘Seeing Across Boundaries Initiative’ with artist Sylvia Grace Borda is a result of this. Peace work is challenging it requires trust, partnership and understanding within and between communities. The administration of peace funds is resource consuming.

The most exciting work in the Visual Arts in County Cavan has evolved from the organic initiatives that have developed by artists working together or with this office. Joey Burns motivated this office to engage on the; Mórtas an Chabháin – Pride of Cavan Symposium; that took place in April with artists who will showcase their work during Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2010 in Cavan from 15 – 22 August. The group includes among others members of WhiteRabbitProductions and a number of young female artists who are active in making and showing work in County Cavan and a County Councillor who is an artist.

Bluewall Gallery is an example of ‘can do’ attitude, Joe Keenan in a few short months has established this space as an example of contemporary work successfully showing against all odds in very rural county Cavan.

Cavan Local Authorities are working to renovate two disused Council houses into a space to make and show art at Bullock Lane. Andy Parsons, Floating World Books who is on a residency here is steering this initiative with local input. Croí 8 describe themselves as a dynamic group of artists from border counties Louth, Cavan and Monaghan who have come together to experiment and create new work. They have recently had their first show in The Athena Room at Sol Art Gallery, Dawson St, Dublin.

As for the next five years who knows where any of this will lead. To a strong, resilient and recognised Visual Arts environment in County Cavan, let us hope.

Catriona O Reilly, Arts Officer

Edwin Lynch willow-weave sculptures, Con Smith Park, Cavan Institute.

Sally O’Dowd creating work for the sculptue symposium.

Open Art session – Jole Bortoli.

Bluewall gallery interior.

Open Art Being from Cavan, I have an ongoing relationship with the local arts community and the local authority arts office – that has assisted my practice over the years, whether I have been resident in the county or elsewhere. I recently returned to deliver the ‘Open Art’ programme, a series of free events presenting contemporary visual arts practices at the Johnston Central Library throughout Winter / Spring 2010.

The programme unfolded over seven Saturday mornings in the Library’s multipurpose white-cube space.

I devised the programme in response to a talk I attended there in 2009, which focused on aesthetics in relation to the history of painting. While the talk was informative and well received, the subsequent conversation proved more interesting; focusing on topics such as accessibility to the visual arts, engagement with the visual arts by those outside of the arts community and understanding of contemporary visual arts practices. With the distinct absence of a dedicated arts centre, creative space or studio complex in the main town, for example, and no visible galleries along the main street, the Visual Arts could be perceived as a silent voice in Cavan.

Two words came to mind; advocacy and demystification – ie engaging the public in aspects of the making of work, in the broadest possible terms, engendering, at the least, more understanding and, at the most, an interest in participation.

While I trained as a painter and printmaker, my practice has diversified over the years to include a variety of media and processes. Residencies, workshops, conversations and collaborations with other artists have influenced this development. Often it is diversity that excites me most about contemporary visual art in Ireland. A third intention then, was to instil excitement in the broad possibilities for and potential relevance of contemporary visual arts practices for the public of Cavan.

Open Art engaged the general public, visual artists and the broader arts community in a series of sessions that showcased the processes and motivations of a number of visual arts practitioners, via word, image and practical presentations by the artists themselves. Andy Parons, Karen Downey, Helene Hugel & Siobhan Clancy, Jole Bortoli, Aideen Barry, Ben Geoghegan and Create presented to audiences that were consistent in number but diverse in backgrounds. The audiences witnessed generous, humorous, informative, practical and inspiring presentations, responding with enthusiasm both toward the content and the presenters. The programme provided a platform for networking and professional development, not just amongst artists, but between artists and members of the non-arts community; ideally the start of collaboration across disciplines. I hope the programme has paved the way for support and understanding of future visual arts practices, events and programmes in Cavan and indeed of local, relocating or returning visual artists.

In support of Cultural Tourism, I brought the visiting arts practitioners along the beautiful rural roadways to the newly opened Bluewall Gallery and highlighted the recently established Gonzo Theater Club, the Cafe Sessions and Origins Music Events and insisted on the homemade cakes at Delish! The Open Art programme was timely, it transpired, as one of a number of fresh artist-led initiatives in Cavan. With a stretched but highly supportive Arts Office in the equation, there is scope for local artists to shape and deliver projects going forward. There is a distinct crackle of energy at the moment, which is hopefully the start of something more sustained for the Visual Arts in Cavan.

Open Art was supported by Cavan County Council, Johnston Central Library, Cavan County Council Arts Office and the Arts Council.

Yvonne Cullivan http://www.yvonnecullivan.com/openart

12

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2010

How is it MADE? generated image was projected using a multi-media projector onto the wooden boards in full. The participants drew around the general outline of the imagery. We then moved the projector closer to the boards, re-aligned the imagery in sections and drew in details.

The creation of a dedicated studio space (we sometimes use an empty classroom) is useful in the management of a project of this scale. For this project, I found that the allocation of roles helped to ensure smooth running of and shared responsibility for the project.

Such roles include: research and development, studio managers, head of drawing and quality control. At this stage the mural was divided into smaller sections and participants worked in groups on individual boards (obviously joining boards when working on adjoining sections).

Colours were mixed using cheap gouache paints in empty glass jars.

Initially, I mixed colours but as the project develops, the participants often learn to mix for themselves. Print-outs of the finalised design were distributed amongst the participants, which they used as a guide when applying colour. A mural of up to 24 ft. in length can easily take Clifton Rooney (lead artist) with transition year, Fifth year and Sixth year students from Presentation College Bray and Dominican College Sion Hill. 5:50:500.

Gouache on primed MDF boards. Completed in April 2009. Exhibited at Wicklow County Council Offices.

Questioning & Change Clifton Rooney discusses his experience of projects engaging with Social Justice issues in educational and community contexts.

up to three weeks to finish – and it is during this time that I find that the participants really engage on a one-to-one or group basis with the topic being explored.

When the mural is complete, the participants who were allocated the research and development role begin preparing a speech or presentation about the process and issues that are being explored. The mural will then be used as a backdrop to and starting point for further discussion with other members of the school community, parents and the community at large. The media were also advised of the project,

While any artistic endeavour generally includes considerations

which helps to bring attention to both the issue being discussed and

between subject, materials and methodologies, this complex

the unique capacity of art to facilitate that exploration. Finally,

interaction can often be a solitary one. My interest is in artistic

participants will write a reflection, which is generally printed in our

processes that have the potential to be experienced not only as merely

year book.

the artist’s endeavour but also as a celebratory feast of shared

Another project, which highlights this process, is a mural

participation. Moreover, to my mind, artists should above all be living

exploring the unjust treatment of the developing world by the

seismographs – that is sensitive to the cultures, societies, justices and

developed world. The research for this project came from 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World (1). 80:20 produced a teaching

injustices in the world in which they exist.

There is nothing new in this kind of concept of a community art

resource which highlights the fact that at a global level, for every €5

or artist. Arguably art has been undertaken within the community

we give in charity, governments give €50 in foreign aid but for every

since time immemorial. There is however all too often an invisible

€55 received by the developing world, the developed world takes back

divide between those who create art and those who view art – and

€500! This is done in the form of trade barriers and tariffs, product

indeed those who have very little interaction whatsoever with art.

‘dumping’, subsidising our own industries and brain drain to name a few (2).

This divide, embedded in our society, perpetuates an exclusionist

5:50:500 being painted at a family Gala Day at the Presentation College Bray school.

attitude, pushing the viewer further from the creator. I’m not by any

parties, looking at all sides of an argument. This research becomes the

For Example, Ghana imports almost one third of EU frozen

means questioning the value of solitary creative processes, however

artist’s subject matter and to pay superficial attention to this stage

chicken that goes to Africa. Cheaper EU chicken has resulted in the

my own interest lies in proposing a methodology which facilitates

could be likened to an artist creating a series of explorations on the

decline of the local Ghanaian poultry industry, which threatens the

artists, educators and commissioners to share in a vision of art which

Wicklow Mountains merely from postcards alone.

livelihoods of many Ghanaian poultry farmers. EU chicken is cheaper

is inspired from our community, created by community and presented

As an example, a mural on disability advocacy which I was

due to the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, which subsidises EU

for the community. This approach might be one axle on what could be

recently involved with (Jan-Mar 2010) at Presentation College, Bray,

described as the juggernaut that comprises the visual arts; bringing the

comprised a number of research stages. Firstly, in-depth discussion

farmers (CAP has an annual budget of 45 billion Euro) while Ghanaian poultry farmers receive no governmental financial support (3).

creator, the viewer and those who ordinarily have very limited access

with workers in the field of disability; followed by sourcing educational

I worked with the English department in our school to develop a

to art closer together.

materials from disability organisations; speaking to people with

metaphorical comparison between George Orwell’s 1984 and our

I was trained as a graphic designer at Dublin Institute of

disabilities; exploration of attitudes and facts from the CSO (Central

treatment of the developing world. The visual motif of a series of

Technology (1999-2003) and I worked in the industry for a short

Statistics Office); exploring parameters of what disability is and

CCTV camera screens was used to represent this intrusive and

period. I wanted to work with people and art; so art teaching was the

various inequalities from web sources; and getting a broader

controlling Big Brother style developed world dominance. The imagery

perfect harmony of those desires, I completed my H.Dip in Art and

understanding on the implications of disability in a developing world

placed within the green screens represents the various aspects of this

design Education at NCAD in (2005). I worked in Loreto Secondary

context by working with 80:20 Educating and Acting for a better

control. This mural aims to present to the developed world, us, our

School in Bray for two years (2005-07) where I undertook my first

world.

own Room 101. That is to say, to confront us with our own worst

large-scale project with my students (panelling a neo-gothic building

A presentation was then organised to the participants (comprising

nightmare that we are not as charitable and as compassionate as we

with the life cycle of its founder). Since (2007) I have been teaching at

transition year students from Presentation College, Bray and learners

would like to think. The mural was painted outside in the community

the Presentation College in Bray where my interest in large-scale work

with special support needs from the National Learning Network). This

so that by-standers could ask about the issues being depicted. The

began to reflect social justice issues. As well as this I have worked with

generated a lively debate that included the recounting of some first-

strap-line used was inspired by a quote from the book and is set in a

80:20 Educating and Acting for a better world, a development education

hand experience stories. We then discussed as a group, what it was that

pixelated typeface. We were given permission to exhibit the mural in

NGO specialising on education resources on a regular basis since

we would like to communicate in our mural – as there were many

the Wicklow County Council buildings and as the exhibition space

2008.

angles, which could have been pursued. At this stage, as the lead artist,

was quite large we decided to extend the project outside the bounds of

In my view, we all have a moral imperative to challenge what we

I had prepared a malleable creative vision as to how we might visually

the mural and produced a series of large mounted paintings resembling

see as wrong, and to question the accepted. The visual arts have a

communicate the groups’ voice. I showed this to the participants,

flat screen monitors. This had the effect of consuming the space with

special role to play in the exploration of social justice – with their

which we then discussed, developed and eventually finalised. The

depictions of these incessant injustices.

inherent capacity to communicate directly, to generate discussion and

participants were then given roles – for instance, research on specific

Overall, my philosophy is that artists should use their skills,

inspire action, it is perfectly placed to use as a tool for questioning and

topics, sourcing of various imagery, generation of strap-line and

talents and privileges to be totally unreasonable in demanding an

change.

choosing of keywords. The next meeting involved presentation of all

equal, fair, just and compassionate society. As George Bernard Shaw

the aforementioned research areas and guided group discussions as to

put it “Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable

what would be included in the finished mural.

people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress,

In order to undertake such a project one must place a mirror firmly in front of oneself, ones community or ones world. On this surface of self-reflection, one must add a magnifying glass and it is by

For the next stage – we used Adobe Photoshop to layout the

looking through this magnifying glass that both justice and injustice

agreed final design. When the layout was complete, I used a Photoshop

is isolated. It is a mistake to look through a window which creates a

filter to simplify each graphic into a series of shapes of colour and tone.

“them” and “us” starting point. When trying to inspire change it is

The next stage in this process involved drawing up the mural onto

important to work with and present to those who might be open to

wooden boards – I generally use 8ft X 4ft thick MDF boards (I often get

change. Therefore, the first step in creating an artwork of this sort is

them cut down to 6ft). These are used so that the mural is mobile. We

self-education – this cannot be stressed enough. By education I mean

then primed them white using a roller and white emulsion and when

reading about the topic to be explored in depth, speaking to interested

they are dry line them up at the end of a large hall. The computer-

therefore, depends on unreasonable people”.

Clifton Rooney Notes 1. 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World. A development education NGO specialising in educational resources for post-primary and third level. www.developmenteducation.ie.

E: info@8020.ie 2. Aid figures from OECD Development Assistance Committee and Trade figures from IMF. 3. Five Fifty Five Hundred or how the world rewards the rich at the expense of the poor . . . and where we fit in. Educational resource CD. Published by 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

13

July – August 2010

CONFERENCE REPORT

Bronze Pour Workshop Demonstration. Chelsea College of Art & Design. Photo. ISC

What is it?

Antony Gormley giving the keynote address. Image by Marie Weichman

path that forms the centrepiece of the site, once a barren, windswept, inaccessible tract of land adjacent to a major highway. This monumental earthwork and park, which incorporates light installations, was self-

Kevin O’Dwyer reports on ‘What is Sculpture in the 21 Century?’ the 22 International Sculpture Conference, held April 7 – 9 in London. st

nd

funded at no cost to the taxpayer. The funding of the £5.5 million park was generated through landfill charges as the mounds incorporate the final resting place of Wembley Towers and Heathrow’s Terminal 4 building! Peter acted as a provocateur throughout the conference and

The annual conference of the International Sculpture Centre took

engaged with panelists on a variety of issues.

place in London this past April. Proceedings centred on the question

John Grande, the author of Balance: Art and Nature (Black Rose

– which also gave the conference its name –What is Sculpture in the 21st

Books), Art Nature Interviews and Dialogues in Diversity, chaired the panel

Century? Curator and artist Simon Bill came to our rescue with the

discussion on environmental art. Grande has been a prolific writer on

definition “a sculpture can be absolutely anything in the world

issues in art and the environment, and has interviewed some of the

provided it’s not a painting” (1). And indeed, the conference presentations had as much to say about 21st century curation as it had about 21st

most important environmental artists on both sides of the Atlantic. He

century sculpture and led to lively debate throughout the conference.

gave us an overview of the status of art and nature and his concerns

Antony Gormley opened the conference with a keynote address

about the quality and sustainability of the environment in the 21st century. Grande stated that, “art of the future could represent a modest

at the National Gallery. Awarded the Turner Prize in 1994 and the

reintegration of man’s spirit into nature. By not being the central

South Bank Prize for Visual Art in 1999, Antony Gormley is one of the

feature of a given environment such an art would be an unexpected

most celebrated artists working in the UK today. Since the 1980s his

discovery.”

work has focused consistently on the human figure, using his own

Ian Hunter, founder of Littoral Arts, a art trust working for social

body as the starting point, as well as the material, tool and subject.

and environmental change talked about its rural arts project ‘New

Gormley was in total command of both his thoughts and his audience

Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient Phillip King. Photo: Valerie Friedman

Fields’, conceived as an arts and cultural sector response to the changes

as he spoke about his engagement and experimentation with the

the attitudes and landscape of a neighbourhood. The community

taking place in European agriculture following CAP reform. Hunter

human body and the space around it. Citing examples of his work,

became a destination for art lovers and Liverpool families who wanted

proposed that, “agriculture is a new audience for art. It sits at the heart

from Another Place, a sculpture that consists of 100 cast iron figures

to observe the cast iron figures throughout the seasons. The installation

of culture and there is a huge opportunity for artists to develop rural

which face out to sea spread over a 2 mile (3.2 km) stretch of Crosby

brought about a greater understanding of the arts within the

projects”. Robert Ferry talked about his project Land Art Generator

Beach in Merseyside, Liverpool, to his recent exhibition at the Hayward

community through public engagement and consultation, as well as

Initiative in Abu Dhabi, where he is working with artists to construct

Gallery, Gormley spoke about finding new ways to interact with his audience and inviting viewers to engage with each other. The 4th Plinth

generating income for local businesses through visitor numbers. The

public art installations that combine aesthetics with clean energy

community and the artist wanted it as a permanent installation and

generation. The panel discussion gave a snapshot of some of the

project in Trafalgar Square was all about “the viewer becoming

fund-raising for the purchase of the sculptures was straightforward

projects that embrace the environment from ephemeral to high tech.

viewed” as Gormley invited people to occupy the empty fourth plinth

when compared to the planning issues and political positioning by

John Grand and Ian Hunter’s passion for their projects and the issues

every hour, 24 hours a day, for 100 days without a break.

their public representatives. After numerous engineers’ reports, worm

that surround the environment were the highlights of the session. John

Peter Noever’s inspired and passionate presentation entitled The

counts and safety audits the art managed to prevail and continues to

Grande will be writer-in-residence at Sculpture in the Parklands this

Void After opened the Thursday session with an overview of his

attract large numbers to a beach that was once abandoned by the

coming September and we look forward to his presence in our

curation as director of the Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary

community.

community.

Arts (MAK) in Vienna. His work in MAK has included major

Curating Sculpture treated us to Simon Bill’s deadpan presentation

The conference was not all about panel discussions however; we

interventions and installations by James Turrell (MAKlite), James

that could not have failed to put a smile on your face. His irreverent,

were also treated to some great exhibitions including Anthony Caro’s

Wines (Gate to the Ring), Donald Judd, Anish Kapoor and Philip

playful and provocative curatorial position concerning selection and

exhibition at Annely Juda Fine Art, Henry Moore at Tate Britain and

Johnson. Noever has fought with his city’s cultural complacency by

positioning of work within a space was in direct contrast to the

William Tucker’s stunning exhibition at Pangolin. There was a

commissioning artists to engage with MAK’s permanent collection, as

curation and presentation of a collection of sculptures collected by

significant Irish presence at the conference; and I was reminded by

well as create large-scale works within the Museum space. He is

Sigmund Freud throughout his lifetime and presented by Jon Wood of

Jenny Haughton and Eileen MacDonagh of our hosting of the

interested in the dialogue and relationship between sculpture and

the Henry Moore Institute. The debate was intriguing as it touched on

International Sculpture conference in 1988. It brought back some great

existing spaces and has explored this within the museum and without,

issues including the curator as artist, the artist as curator, the curator as

memories of the Sculptor Society of Ireland’s enthusiastic hosting of

through architecture and land art projects. He described museums as

stylist and the lighting designer as curator and artist! Other sessions

workshops with Zoltan Bohus, Maria Lugozzi and Eduardo Paolozzi

“splenderous but meaningless institutions that have less and less to do

during the day dealt with Sculpture, In An Age of Expanded Information

and a memorable keynote address by Eduardo Chillida.

about art.” Noever felt it was important for sculptors “to learn how to

and Objecting to Objects: the Future of Dematerialization.

fly”, and to push their work beyond the limits of decoration.

The final event of the conference was the 2010 International

Vivien Lovell, founder of Modus Operandi Art Consultants

Sculpture Centre Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony honouring

It was interesting to observe that many of the presentations and

chaired a session that looked at light-based projects as a sustainable

Phillip King and William Tucker. A Gala event took place at Chelsea

discussions throughout the afternoon focused on curation even when

approach to permanent and ephemeral artworks. Vivien gave an

School of Art with guest speakers Sir Anthony Caro, Peter Murray

the title had little or nothing to do with it! I attended a presentation

overview of how light has been used since the Bauhaus period and followed the development through the 20th century highlighting Dan

(Director, Yorkshire Sculpture Park) and Keith Patrick (Editor, Studio

entitled Public Art, Public Purse which looked at the challenges involved when art is destined for public spaces, and using public funding. Lewis

Flavin, Pink Floyd, Walter De Maria and James Turrell. Modus Operandi

Biggs, Director of Liverpool Biennial, chaired the session and started a

was involved in a recent commission involving Susan Collins where

award winners. It was a wonderful evening and an appropriately spirited close to the 22nd International Sculpture Conference in London.

lively debate by stating that “sculpture means most when the artist is

LED lighting was installed in street drains for the Light Up Queen Street

Next year’s conference will take place in Chicago.

control of the space”. The endless red tape, over-regulation and

project. This subtle use of lighting in which the light glowed “from

administration attached to public sculpture commissions has produced

within not out” was in complete contrast to Peter Fink’s large scale

bland and uninspired work that lacks spontaneity, fun and engagement

light installations on the Thames which incorporated laser, water

with the community. Laurie Peake, programme director for public art

screens and multimedia installations during the millennium

during the Liverpool Biennial described her engagement with the

celebrations. Peter’s panel presentation Lightin’ Up treated us to his

community around Crosbie Beach in Liverpool when they installed

recent large scale installation The Northala Fields Project located along a

Antony Gormley’s 100 cast iron figures. Although originally a

motorway in London. This monumental installation consists of four

temporary installation the community saw how art can change both

great mounds that dominate the skyline, one with a distinctive spiral

International) who gave personal accounts of their memories of the

Kevin O’Dwyer, Artistic Director, Sculpture in the Parklands (1) Simon Bill and Cedric Christie curated ‘Oysters Ain’t’ an exhibition exploring contemporary definitions of sculpture, via a dialogue between the exhibiting artists, who besides themselves included Shahin Afrassiabi, Sam Basu and Fergal Stapleto. The show took place 26 April - 31 May 2009 and was presented at The Almond Building, The Biscuit Factory, Bermondsey, London.

The exhibition was an initiative of V22 projects www.v22collection.com

14

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2010

CONFERENCE REPORT

Defining Content A report on Homeworks 5 – A Forum on Cultural Practice, Beirut, Lebanon April 21 – May 1, 2010

The Homeworks discussion panel. Photo: Ashkal Alwan

Organised by Ashkal Alwan, the Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, the fifth Homeworks symposium (1) sought to explore the social, historical, political and philosophical dimensions of contemporary arts and cultural practices. Given the vastness of the programme over the 10 days this is only a partial response to the range of panel discussions, presentations, performances, exhibitions and related events, programmed to facilitate critical reflection on ‘crisis’ and the ways in which artists, curators and art institutions look to respond.

The lived experience of precariousness in Beirut provided a social and spatial metaphor for Homeworks, acting as a catalyst to the criticality and urgency of the debates, as people journeyed across the city to the various venues of the symposium.

Ashkal Alwan in foregrounding Beirut city as a palimpsest, where the density of history is legible in the cultural topography, insinuated the bi-polarity of remembering and forgetting as a motif of our current crisis. As artist Tony Chakar describes in his walking tour, The Sky Over Beirut, this is an ‘eyeless map (2)’ in which interstitial / in-between- spaces are reprocessed as events that slip in and out of identifiable political and cultural affiliations, creating the condition of a suspended violence.

As the city is currently being reshaped in the image of Los Angeles, these in-between-spaces also provide a disruption to the newly built architectural hegemony, as spaces of reticent longing, resisting the assertion of a global and globalised city. This feature of uneven development was explored in a panel discussion chaired by artist Walid Raad –Where is Beirut, Ramallah, Cairo – From the Saadiyat Island /Arab and / or Emirati and / or Yet-More-Islands-of-Happiness: The Making of Art, Artists, Art Histories, and Art Museums in the Arab World.

The panel examined the model of museum as franchise and the significant investment in arts infrastructure in the Arabian Gulf. Walid Raad began the panel discussion by listing the franchise ‘partnerships’ that have been established for the cultural enclave called Saadiyat Island (conventionally translated as “Island of Happiness”). As Walid noted “This 27-square-kilometer project includes the largest-to-date Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Gehry, the Louvre Museum

by Jean Nouvelle, the Sheikh Zayed National Museum by Fosters and partners. It will also include a Maritime Museum by Tadao Ando and possibly a performing arts centre by Zaha Hadid, marinas, seven-star hotels, golf courses …Abu Dhabi isn’t just hiring star-chitects to build spaces to be stocked with high-end, market tested Western, Arab, Turkish, Iranian and Indian art in the hope this alone will attract millions of visitors. Abu Dhabi plans an infrastructure that will include universities, colleges, magazines, journals, prizes, foundations, private and public, Islamic, Western, and Eastern, ancient, modern and contemporary art collections, art handlers, insurers, writers, critics, galleries, patrons, archives, libraries”.

Andrew Ross, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University, offered an account of how faculty and students at NYU had organised to advocate for human rights and labour rights in the establishment of NYU in Saadiyat Island. In his analysis of the corporatisation of higher education he described how “NYU is behaving exactly like a corporation that is entering its mergers-andacquisitions phase – like we’re just another brand being bought in a worldwide shopping spree, like Gucci”.

In opening the panel discussion Raad had suggested that a more interesting conversation would be had if the “two weighty caricatures” of Gulf Arab states’ passion for culture did not become the focus - the first of these caricatures suggesting that the Gulf Sheikhs and Sheikhas’ motives are grounded in “diversifying their petro-chemical economies as a means of staying in power and making more money” – and the second depicting the investment in arts infrastructure as an Arab renaissance “to assert the complexity and diversity of Arab Islamic and Emirati values in the wake of the September 11 attacks and Islamic terrorism.” Instead Raad proposed that “the new ‘facts on the ground’ can make other facts possible,” aesthetic facts as well as economic, social and political facts’. Andrew Ross’ contribution in its detailed analysis of the inequitable labour rights of the migrant workers constructing the offshore NYU, sidestepped Raad’s opening request,

Irish Bronze Kilmainham Art Foundry Ltd

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Death of Cuchulainn. Oliver Sheppard RHA (1865 – 1941).

Oliver Sheppard sculpted this exquisite world-renowned piece In 1911/12. The original work in plaster was exhibited at the RHA in 1914. Purchased by the State in 1935, the work was cast in bronze (commissioned by Eamon de Valera to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the 1916 Rising) and placed in the GPO Dublin.

Commissioned by The Office of Public Works in June 2002, the second Cuchulainn was cast in bronze at Griffith College Dublin by Willie Malone. This picture shows the new work on permanent exhibition at the Custom House, Dublin.

firmly questioning the political motives and intentions of the franchised expansion of western art institutions. The realpolitik motivations of NYU, the Louvre and the Guggenheim generated a lively discussion in the audience that challenged the idea of their ‘relocation’ as ‘new facts on the ground’ rather than examples of a globalisation of economy and political calculation.

Mishaal Gergawi, an Emirati commentator on socio-economic and cultural affairs in the UAE, who also manages projects and events for the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, provocatively stated the ambitions of Saadiyat Island – “I don’t think anyone associated with Saadiyat Island is able or interested in developing a relationship with the old Arab cities beyond acquisition of art and or touring exhibitions.

Pan-Arabism is based on a time when there was a reciprocal relationship.

The perception nowadays in the Gulf is that, when it comes to expertise, the Arab world doesn’t have much to offer”.

This divestment of faith in the political promise of Pan-Arabism was addressed in a paper by Farouk Mardem-Bey. Based on experiences from two cities – Paris and Damascus – Mardem-Bey evaluated the 1960s and its repercussions in the shaping of a Pan-Arabism, charting the political, social and economic potential to current day Nicolas Sarkozy, who in his Presidential campaign suggested the 68 legacy should be ‘liquidated’ once and for all because it “had imposed intellectual and moral relativism” on France. Mardem-Bey’s invocation of the 1960s as a political project that intimately connected Paris and Damascus as a critical movement, prompted the question of why Islamicist movements have fallen short of co-opting the cultural and intellectual canons and practices of the Arab left, while managing to reify its political canon.

This question was posed to Ali Fayyad, an Oxford trained political strategist for Hezbollah who was elected to the Lebanese Parliament in June 2009. Fayyad in presenting an Islamicist world-view articulated a shift from Pan Arabism to Pan Islamic goals, in which a communal Islamic ‘identity’ would prescribe and legitimate arts and cultural practices. Audible gasps could be heard from amongst the audience as Fayyad referenced Foucault in his account of Islamicists and the realm of culture, a reference that expressed an indebtedness to the intellectual left and revealed the failings of the left in developing a popular base. As Fayaad explains the Hezbollah’s base is with the poor "who have no development and no opportunity to work" (3).

At the close of Homeworks many questions remained as to how arts and cultural practitioners can respond to the crisis, summed up by Mishaal Gergawi – “We, as a real critical movement … are not going to be able to communicate with anybody, unless there is a movement of content production in the UAE. Until there are filmmakers, musicians and poets that do make work in these cities, until then the identity of these cities will not be finalized in a contemporary sense. Not folklore.

Where we are now needs to be defined not merely by economists and political scientists but also by the production of content.”

Sarah Tuck, Director Create.

1. See: http://www.ashkalalwan.org/ 2. To experience an audio / virtual tour – The Sky Over Beirut by Tony Chakar visit: http://www. partizanpublik.nl/catastrophicspace/site.html3. For an interview with Ali Fayaad visit: http:// foreignposting.com/?p=116

VISUAL in association with Carlow Local Authorities Arts Office CALL fOR PROPOSALS We welcome high-quality proposals from artists and curators to work in partnership with VISUAL & Carlow Arts Office to create or complete new bodies of work or engage in collaborative commissions. Proposals in the area of film / video are particularly welcome but we are also interested in receiving proposals from visual artists working in all forms. This is an exciting opportunity for visual artists and curators who will work closely with VISUAL and the Carlow Local Authorities Arts Office in realising their proposed ideas. Proposals from artists and curators will be considered for the 2011 & 2012 programme at VISUAL. Carlow Local Authorities Arts Office has received national recognition through its Visualise Carlow programme as one of the leading public art programmes in the country.

We require a written statement of intent of no more than 300 words. A clear CV / Biog and up to 15 good quality images of work. Applications should be postmarked 27 August 2010.

Submissions should be clearly labelled: Visual Arts Programme Proposal VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Old Dublin Road, Carlow, Ireland

West Cork Arts Centre North St, Skibbereen, Co.Cork

t: +353 28 22090 e: info@westcorkartscentre.com w: www.westcorkartscentre.com

Laura Gannon World / Interior (still) 2010

West Cork Artists 2010

until 17 July

Paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, mixed media and sculpture by artists living and working in west Cork.

Sound and Vision

24 July - 21 August

West Cork Arts Centre presents a number of projects as part of the Sound and Vision strand of Skibbereen Arts Festival (18 - 31 July www.skibbereenartsfestival.com ) including a new film by London-based artist Laura Gannon entitled World / Interior and Oileán, a photographic project by 12 young people from Cape Clear Island exploring different aspects of their daily lives alongside a series of landscape images and portraits made by the artist Eoin O’Conaill during his time on the Island.

Film screenings at WCAC 24 – 31 July Including The Art of Time by Katherine Waugh & Fergus Daly and Experimental Conversations: Making and Unmaking the Moving-Image by Fergus Daly.

Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh

28 Aug – 25 Sept

Paintings exploring line-based imagery and abstract elements.

16

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2010

POlemic

2006, photographer unknown. Images of the state governor, Ulises Ruiz are depicted over different captions that read (from l - r): The Innocent, The Cynic, The Thief, The Authoritarian, The Repressor, The Ruiner, The Assassin, The Shit.

Photo: Juan Pablo Ruiz Núñez 2009.

The writing above and below the fist reads 'All Power to the People / All Love to the People".

Signs of Change Adam Stoneman considers Why Ireland needs graffiti art with a message.

The question of whether graffiti counts as art or vandalism – or both,

resulting in the deaths of at least 17 people, including Indymedia

still divides the opinion of the average person on the graffiti covered

journalist Brad Will. In reaction citizens launched a fierce graffiti

street. However, the Irish cultural establishment has been less equivocal

campaign, which saturated the city. The visual impact was compelling;

in embracing this countercultural practice. These days it is not

every inch of available space was targeted – messages were often

uncommon for an ‘urban art’ event to be sponsored by a local council

impulsive and hastily sprayed, signalling a giddy optimism: “¡Abre los

or business, and there are now legal walls designated for graffiti in

ojos! Oaxaca ya despertó’ (Open your eyes! Oaxaca has awoken)”.

many major Irish towns. It has also entered the galleries and museums;

Stencils depicted the Governor Ulises dressed up in fascist uniform, or

this February BaqsR and Crap have displayed their work in the Galway

as a pig, rat or dog.

City Museum and stencil artist ADW held an exhibition at the Back

Despite international condemnation of the deaths, a long march

Loft Gallery, Dublin in April. This follows recent major retrospective

to Mexico City and a hunger strike, the structures of power held firm

graffiti exhibitions at the Tate in London (2008) and the Foundation

and, supported by the President, Felipe Calderon and 3,500 Federal

Cartier in Paris (2009). Graffiti is currently a hot commodity. Two

Police, Governor Ulises stayed in power. Although graffiti alone can

Banksy prints recently stolen from a gallery in central London were

never manage to topple repressive and corrupt governments, it can

worth £16,000.

establish an atmosphere of solidarity and support, which in this case

The increasing popularisation of this pursuit has meant that Irish graffiti artists are receiving international attention. Last December,

helped sustain the opposition’s resolve for seven long months of conflict.

Dublin based Maser took part in the Europe-wide Vodafone 360 Heroes

This is the power of graffiti as a political intervention in times of

Challenge. Certainly there are benefits from the increased exposure:

social turmoil, its potency as a form of visual resistance; Republican

sponsorship for events and materials and perhaps more opportunities

murals in Northern Ireland, writing on the Berlin Wall, Situationist

to make a living. However, a question is worth asking – is something

slogans in Paris during May ’68 and more recently graffiti on the Israeli

lost in the institutionalisation of graffiti?

West Bank barrier - as with protest songs in folk music, graffiti occurs

A recent move to the southern Mexican city of Oaxaca made this

spontaneously as a cultural response to subjugation and tyranny.

question more pertinent for me. The difference was on the walls. Here

But just as 60’s protest music is redeployed to sell Land Rovers

the street acts as a democratic message board. Personal declarations of

and Jeeps, street culture too is easily emptied of social content and

love are scrawled next to slogans calling for proletarian revolution.

appropriated for commercial capital; the youth and energy of the

Complex graffiti characters sit next to simple painted messages

graffiti style, free from any overt meanings or signification, is ideal for

informing passers by of the time and date of the next trade union

lending ‘urban cool’ to marketing campaigns and trendy products.

meeting. If there is one thing that unites all these disparate markings,

Like the iconic Che Guevara image, the vague associations of romantic

it is a spirit of resistance and rebellion that is both poetic and political;

rebellion and youthful opposition are now provided for consumption

the image of a clenched black fist over a red heart – “Todo el poder al

by graffiti culture. Indeed, no form of art is capable of resisting

pueblo (All power to the people)” above, “Todo el amor al pueblo (All

recuperation and being absorbed by commodity culture.

love to the people)” below; a stencil of a child, mouth bound with a gag marked ‘ABC’, reads “Justice not just tests”.

But does this co-opting of urban culture affect the content of the work? The kind of graffiti that receives institutional support tends to

Perhaps it should not be surprising that graffiti here is more

be flashy, highly stylised and message-free. Often well achieved on a

political. After all this is a country with a long tradition of socially

technical basis, it rarely addresses the social world it exists within.

conscious public art. The Marxist muralists of the 1930s – Riviera,

Value is more often placed on energy, line and colour rather than

Orozco and Siqueiros are considered national heroes, their murals

subject matter. And while writing one’s name with a tag inscribes a

decorate important state buildings like the National Palace and the

presence, it does not go beyond the limitations of individual

National Museum of History. Southern Mexican states like Oaxaca and

signature.

Chiapas, where a substantial section of the population face an everyday

Ireland’s own political situation is obviously the other side of the

struggle to feed and clothe their children, have long histories of radical

world from that of Mexico, yet we have no reason to be politically

uprisings. Because the graffiti is more overtly political, corporations

complacent. We are still facing a different version of the same severe

and the state apparatus will sponsor nothing but its removal.

economic crisis, one caused largely by the aggressive greed of both

Graffiti was even part of the political struggle here in 2006, when

local banking systems and global financial markets. The last 20 years

an annual teachers strike was violently suppressed by state police

has seen an increasing gap between the surplus wealth of the top

strata and the subsistence economy of lower income groups. The current inertia in western politics has led to lower levels of popular participation (especially amongst young people). Irish artists cannot afford to turn away from the economic and ecological crises. There is an urgent need for art and culture in Ireland to engage and contend with the deep social problems we face.

Street art represents the ideal medium for an engaged practice. It operates within a public space and therefore lends itself to open, direct democratic speech. It is not so easy to give voice to a political critique in Ireland if you happen to be identified as a ‘member of the travelling community’. A can of paint, like a wooden box on a street corner, is the ability to stand up and speak publicly; an image or message on a wall enters the public domain in an instant; everyone walks down the same streets and so it transcends the social strata. Stencils provide another effective way to counteract the ideologically charged images we encounter every day; easy to achieve, they are high contrast and high impact.

It can also be an invaluable tool for campaigns that do not have traditional access to mainstream media. The ongoing conflict between Royal Dutch Shell and the Shell to Sea campaign underscores this.

While protestors may write angry letters to the editor, Shell can afford to undertake a highly-publicised campaign in every national and regional newspaper; a grassroots group simply does not have the resources to match this. Intelligent, visual incisions made in the public arena however, can foster a decisive atmosphere of support. Although some stencils opposing Shell’s actions in Rossport did appear in my hometown of Galway in 2008, they tended to be more well-intentioned than visually compelling. Too often, political stencils here pale in comparison with the technical skill and aesthetic effect of non-political graffiti pieces. Unfortunately it seems that Ireland’s burgeoning graffiti scene will not become a critical force as long as it maintains its doubleedged relationship with the corporate sector. Until artists start making work that challenges the status quo, graffiti will be condemned to the status of a trendy marketing gimmick, and any radical charge it might have had will have been neutralised.

In Oaxaca I discovered the potential of street art. Whether it counts as art or vandalism or both, what is inspiring is that it is a sign of a people resisting ‘the way things are’. From the beautifully noisy walls of Oaxaca we should take something back home; the possibility for rejuvenating our own stagnant political situation through imaginatively charged democratic street art. Our grey streets could be injected with colour and ideas – words and images to wake people out of a catatonic state of political complacency. Paint is cheap, and ideas cost nothing.

Find a wall and make it speak.

Adam Stoneman

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

17

July – August 2010

HOW IS IT MADE?

Architecture of Migration PAULA NAUGHTON DISCUSSES HER RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

Paula Naughton.Living room in Hernendez house. From the series Migration of Architecture. San Pedro, Michoachan, Mexico. 2010.

Paula Naughton. Circannual Rhythm, 2010. Stop animation. Still from DVD.

Paula Naughton Living room in Gacquinn house Ballyforan, Co Roscommon, Ireland 2008

At the turn of the millennium, more people now live in cities than in rural areas. An economy of globalization has created a shift in jobs from rural areas to cities; and the result has been mass migration and a displacement of people. In my work I study the subject of ‘home’ with a focus on the architecture of migration. My interests range across the physical and phenomenological frameworks and structures of migration; and its effect on memory and the idea of home.

In the course of my researches, I have extensively photographed abandoned homes in Co. Roscommon. It is a landscape scattered with abandoned family homes, which now commonly stand adjacent to large newly purpose built luxury homes. In Ireland the thriving economy of the Celtic Tiger has caused a shift from a largely rural based economy to an urban one. Until the early 1970s, rural Ireland was an agricultural economy.

As global economic changes have culminated in the eventual decline of full-time family farming in Ireland and elsewhere – and its led to mass migration from rural to urban areas. As the relationship between the farm and the home has changed, old family homes are abandoned. Unlike other parts of Europe where people have chosen to renovate and build onto older homes, in Ireland it seems the majority choose newly built homes instead. On a superficial level, such abandoned homes in Ireland are the ruins of rural displacement and a changing economy. But on a deeper reading the ruins symbolize a social change in the Irish subconscious.

I have been strongly influenced by Gaston Bachelard’s book The Poetics of Space. Bachelard’s text instigates a look beyond the physical space and prompts a reading of home – not just through the language of architecture but though the phenomenological language of sociology and ethnography. In The Poetics of Space the home is described as “inhabited space as the non I – the I that protects the I” (1). Bachelard presents the home not only as a means of physical shelter, but also as a means to shelter the imagination.

The home geometrically structures our physical self; and also gives physical structure for our unconscious. Only by fully understanding the many facets that the architecture of home represents can we

appreciate the allegories that it contains and the anthropological value of the ruined home.

Unexpectedly, yet quite appropriately, butterflies were the catalyst for my next phase of exploration. My study of the architecture of migration, led me to look at the migration of animals and insects. I became particularly fascinated with the Monarch butterfly and its migration to the state of Michoacán, in Central Mexico.

Culturally and historically, there are many similarities between Mexico and Ireland, in its cultures and histories. Both share a history of colonisation and Catholicism; along with a long history of emigration and migration. These parallels are particularly apparent in Michoacán region in Central Mexico. As in Ireland, migration here has become part of everyday culture and heritage ­– abandoned homes scattered in every village across the rural landscape of the Michoacán region.

Michoacán is home to the unique natural phenomenon of the Monarch Butterfly. The annual migration of the Monarch butterfly is one of nature’s greatest mysteries and events. Every year approx 300 million butterflies migrate north to Canada and return every winter to the Mariposa Monarca Biosphere Reserve. The life span of the butterfly is extremely short and incredibly the returning butterflies are four to five generations separated from the monarch populations that make this long migration. Science cannot account for this and propose that the butterflies use the sun’s position, or the earth’s magnetic field, to determine which way is south, but how the monarchs find the exact groves each year remains inscrutable.

Local myth suggests the monarchs are the returning spirits of their deceased relatives, mysteriously arriving at the same time each year, coinciding with 1 November, the Day of the Dead. The butterfly shows the circannual rhythm that exists in nature. The monarch butterflies have an internal clock and internal memory that allows them to navigate back to their ‘home’. Their memory lasts four generations and then the cycle begins again.

I was inexplicably drawn to see this phenomenon, which then raised many questions for me about human memory and migration.

How many generations do human migrants have in their internal

memory? And how is migratory memory passed between generations of humans?

After filming the Monarch butterflies in the Sierra Madre Mountains (and thanks to the hospitality of the Hernandez family), I then focused on one site of human migration in a small village called San Pedro near Morelia. A local family, the Hernandez’s, kindly opened their home to me. Many of the extended families have migrated to the US and there are four empty homes left alongside theirs. Annually the migrated families return with their children and grandchildren. On one such visit the Hernandez family wrote their names in the cemented ground. The next generations inscribed their mark on the home and created a physical link to the place.

Unlike Ireland, many of the abandoned homes in Michoacán, Mexico are kept in good condition by the families that remain, and are preserved for the migrants’ annual return ‘home’. Therefore, while abandoned homes in rural Mexico are due to the economic situation, they also speak of the psychological state of the migrants who have a deep-rooted connection with the old homes.

Just as the butterflies make their annual journey back to Mexico, so do the migrants and their children – the next generation with an internal memory of home. My project, that was begun in order to correlate the comparisons between both countries and its relationship to migration, actually developed to highlight the differences between the two; and in doing so accentuated the current social and psychological state of both societies. In bringing these two case studies together, my project sought to show that the abandoned home, the ruin, represents more about the present than about the past.

Home often symbolises shelter, safety and stability and gives us a sense of place. The home acts as the point from which we view the world, on the inside looking out.

My investigations focus on abandoned homes and are realised through the documentation, analysis, and interpretation of architecture and the locality of the spaces. Our relationship with the buildings shows the internal state of society and the cultural anxieties of our time. In Ireland there is a clear separation from the abandoned homes, highlighting the social separation from what the old homes still represent. Not just shelters of the past but shelters of those memories and dreams within. In studying a specific local, the ruins manifest a materiality of a collective memory.

By observing the home in ruin, the ‘fixed perspective’ of home is flipped and the focus shifts beyond that of place. We are then positioned to observing internally but from the outside in: viewing from the outside looking into a collective memory. The ruined home articulates and memorializes the instability and the fleeting nature of all things and the ruinous nature of our time. By observing the home as a ruin, the home becomes part of the landscape. As Lucy Lippard has noted in her book The Lure of the Local (2) the homes which were once internal places – viewed from the inside – have now become just backdrops in the landscape and have fallen into a collective memory of personal space.

The process of viewing a photographic document of these ruins allows a gaze at a collective memory and offers an alternative cartography. The geography of landscape is complex in a time when even humans have become a moveable commodity. How the ruins remain, says more about society and current attitudes than about any nostalgic reference to the past.

Rather than seeing my practice as an archaeological exercise, I see it as an ethnographic study into the topography of society. As much as Irish society has ‘abandoned’ the old family homes and chosen ‘new’ homes to root themselves, many have chosen not to demolish them.

The landscape has become a physical manifestation of the subconscious.

Although the old structures have faded into the landscape, the remnants remain, the ruin confronting and posing many questions. Just as the ruins of the home are falling into memory so are the memories falling into ruin.

When looking at the ruin we are not just looking at an historical ruin but the ruin of dream and sub consciousness and collective memory. Just as the ruin acts as a bridge to the past and a testament to our current social situation so too does the photographic image of the ruin.

As Roland Barthes wrote, every photograph is a certificate of presence” (3) so the photograph of a ruin can help us position the past in the present and act as a testament to the now. By confronting the ruin and working through the physical rubbles of memory, we can reconcile the presence of the past and move towards possible constructions for the future. The image acts as a social document, and as a visual to articulate and reconcile the changing reality. It acts as a ‘guide to situating ourselves in a landscape of time’. (4) Paula Naughton Notes 1. Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, 1958.

2. Lucy Lippard The Lure of the Local 1998 3. Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography 4. Rebecca Solnit, The Ruins of Memory from Mark Kletts book, After The Ruins, 2006

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2010

Career Development

Soften Up NEVA ELLIOTT & LYNN HARRIS DISCUSS ‘SLIGO LOCAL’ and their collaborative practice.

Elliott Harris – 'Sligo Local'

Elliott Harris – 'Sligo Local'

We, (Neva Elliott and Lynn Harris), began working as Elliott Harris in 2006. Both of us are graduates of Central Saint Martins, and we were brought together by not only the shared interests in our work; but also a common approach to developing our practices. Neva has worked mostly as an ‘individual’ artist – while collaborating and curating on occasion.

Lynn has spent most of her practice working collaboratively on selfinitiated projects. While we have taken quite different paths, we’ve both assumed similar roles to achieve our artistic goals – using discussion, research, publishing, project management, interlocution, speculation and speaking to develop works.

These approaches, that might often be considered more as curatorial rather than artistic strategies, allow us a kind of conceptual and dialogical engagement; as well as a kind of self-garnered agency – that isn’t as easily achieved in traditional studio based practices. This allows us to develop frameworks to work with others – where the processes of engagement are paramount. As such, for us it is context that the work often resides.

Our art practice is very much the making of such engagements, not in any conclusive output.

Relationships with Curators, Institutions & Peers. Engagement with peers and networks is important in our practice, along with working in a sphere where we share skills, experience and opportunities to build relationships instead of competition. When opportunities arise for us to work in the public realm, whether invited or instigated by ourselves – the relationships and negotiations that emerge in such projects fuse with our own approach; and in part determine how the work unfolds.

Our works and relationships consequently reflect upon power structures within the art world. We are interested in the notion of ‘Flat Hierarchies’ – that is situations where when politics are put in place to shift a standard hierarchy from top down to lying down. In other words building relationships that exist on a par through mutual respect and that are reciprocal.

Money & the Real World. There is a lot of mystique around the idea of being a serious professional artist – for instance, the ideal is not to have a day job. Very few artists can afford not to have one, but it’s a taboo subject in the art world to own up to or talk too much about your ‘other life’.

Indeed lot of artists feel a sense of failure if they have a ‘day job’.

But, deep breath, here we go – Elliott Harris are not afraid to admit that we both do work outside of our art practices’ and what is more, we actually choose to do so. We feel that a professional engagement with worlds outside of the arts, has allowed us to make more informed work.

We’ve also learnt valuable skills; which we use conceptually and actually in our practices – like negotiation, communication, managing, organising and budgeting. These skills often define and determine one’s political placement in an organisation or group; and understanding them from the inside, has offered us some very valuable insights in relation to our art practice.

Also in a ‘post-Fordist’ era where labour is based in the development of ‘soft skills’ in a predominantly service-based economy (as opposed to the mechanical production of products or outcomes), we also replicate these soft-skills and service-based activities in the political sphere of artistic practice.

Elliott Harris – 'Sligo Local'

Sligo Local. Elliott Harris’s first major project, entitled ‘Sligo Local’ employed a service-based approach to problem solving, and creating opportunities and opening forms of dialogue.

We utilised ‘design-thinking’ to research, discuss, negotiate and generate ideas. The focus of the project was to interrogate the relationship between arts centres and local artists in semi-rural settings in Ireland – as well as to instigate artist-led activity.

While on previous residencies in Skibereen and Limerick, Neva had identified that within arts centres and institutions, there can at times be a difficulty consolidating local artists needs with running a contemporary arts programme. This disjunction can lead to local artists feeling disaffected and that they have little ownership of their local arts space.

Equally there is the problem of a presumption that local art institutions are somehow obliged to give them space and exposure. In turn this can limit artists engagement with a wider national and international arts spheres or developing their own initiatives. We decided to collaborate on an active research project to address these schisms and to – 1. Ask more questions around artists’ prospects for developing work and sustaining practice in a specific setting.

2 Attempt to develop bridging structures – either actual or conceptual – between an institution and professional practising artists in a semi-rural location. We aimed to focus heavily on self-sustaining strategies for practice.

We spoke initially to a range of individuals in key positions in Irish visual arts institutions (Noel Kelly, Visual Artists Ireland; Sarah Glennie, The Model; Ann Davoren, West Cork Arts Centre; Pippa Little, Limerick City Gallery of Art; Maeve Mulrennan, Galway Arts Centre) to see how theses issues related to their experience and were invited to Sligo by The Model.

Our process began by inviting local artists to meet with us. We conducted a kind of ‘drop in’ centre, where those living in or around Sligo were welcome to come by for a discussion, which was kindly sponsored

by The Riverside Suites Hotel. We used a selection of materials from The Irish Artist-Led Archive, (www.theartistledarchive.com) kindly lent by Megs Morley as resource for discussion – and as a means of illustrating various modes and possibilities for artist led initiatives.

From initial discussions we developed two rounds of suggestions for a more robust support structure in Sligo. Most suggestions came directly from the artists themselves – and were based on what artists desired individually or collectively; what local institutions could do to develop a more sustainable relationship with them; or that they could do for themselves.

Each meeting was well attended and allowed artists from neighbouring counties to meet and created a lot of debate and interest.

These discussions were important in consolidating local artists on this issue outside of the institution and in a structured and goal oriented manner. The space of dialogue was the most powerful element of the project – indeed to our mind it is where our ‘art-work’ took place.

At the end of this process we showed our findings to the local institutions – The Model and Sligo County Council – in the form of a

deliberately bureaucratic PowerPoint presentation that outlined several categories of analysis, objectives and outcomes; from most to least desirable, including short, medium and long-term ‘wins’. The categories included – meeting, mentoring, space, professional practice, information, funding and respect.

We used this presentation method in order to reflect the didactic and service element of the project. We didn’t see why practically gained knowledge should be dressed up in ‘artistic’ theatrics, so instead presented our date in the most dry, professional and accessible manner possible.

In this project we were not trying to ‘do’ anything with the information other than collect it; assess it and define beneficial concepts from it – and then pass it on, while remaining an advocate for the concepts delivered, artists support and initiatives’ in the area. Simply put for us the ‘doing’ aspect of the project occurred in sharing of ideas and relations made relevant by the investigation. Again in our view this for us was what constituted the ‘art-work’ of our project – the inspiration, discovery, debates and understandings arrived at during this process.

The discussions were driven by the kind of expectation, uncertainty and unplanned nature of dialogue that, through its very elusive nature, puts all players in a field of relative democracy. The discussions created a two-fold outcome – firstly revealing the true nature of the anxieties that artists face when deliberating their own survival and secondly, building on this knowledge, actually enabling the development of collective activity.

Some of the participating artists rightly questioned our purpose and motivations. As such our position as outsiders gave the talks real pith and purpose. Such questions revealed the real tensions inherent in artist’s complex relationships within their own community and between competing groups of artists. On such occasions we were forced to consider our own position. These were very productive moments.

Some Outcomes. Through the Culture Night 2009 initiative, Elliott Harris secured a small amount of funds for a group activity relating to ‘Sligo Local’ though applying to Sligo County Council who were offering funding towards local initiatives during Culture Night.

The activity was decided on, run and activated by the local artists working with us on ‘Sligo Local’. Several artists stepped up to take the reigns for the group; and one group of artists, in particular, took on the challenge to form collective SLAM! (Sligo Local Artists Movement) in order to rally interest on a collective scale in Sligo. They then found and secured several abandoned shop fronts for approximately 50 fellow artists to show during Culture Night in Sligo. They also found and negotiated affordable rent on an empty shop front and turned it into ArtMart Studios, housing studio and gallery space.

The artists concerned have a rolling and collectively curated programme; and a year on the group and space are still going strong. The artists are Sophia Murray, Lisa Cannon, Shane Finan and Siabhra O’Brien. They’re always looking for artists to get involved, so please contact them at http://slamart09.blogspot.com.

Another initiative has been developed by students at Sligo IT. Mathew Tucker, an artist we were in contact with for Sligo Local, is setting up “…a dynamic space that is privately run by the collective artists but also open to the public and to be used for studio workspace, gallery space, exhibitions, photographic studio, storage, coffee / meeting / social space, workshops and for film viewings. Our aim is to create a lively, open and engaging environment for local artists to work and art lovers to come and get involved and to give artists an easy and accessible ground up way of communicating with an audience”. They’re also interested in getting lots of artists involved, so please get in touch with Matt at ambrose_uk@yahoo.co.uk.

Elliott Harris would like to thank The Model, Sligo for allowing the project to evolve and to all artists involved in our discussions. The Model is taking some immediate steps in relation to our suggestions and will keep the research on file for future initiatives.

Elliott Harris www.elliottharris.org www.nevaelliott.com www.lynnharris.org Notes (1) Recent and upcoming Elliott / Harris projects include: ‘Five Times in Print, Five Different Sources, Over a Period of Five Years: How To Get a Word Into the Dictionary 26 June 2010 Bethnal Green Library Lecture Hall (www.fiveyears.org.uk). Elliott Harris will be conducting a self initiated residency at The John Latham archive (funded by the fee from this article) to research The Artist Placement Group (APG) – which was founded in 1966 as an artist-run organization, seeking to refocus art outside the gallery, predominantly through attaching an artist in a business or governmental context for a period of time. Lynn Harris is also collaborating with Sam Ely on ‘Unrealised Projects’ and with Eva Weinmayr on ‘AND Publishing’.

Neva Elliot is curating an upcoming show with Jacqui McIntosh.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2010

19

INSTITUTION PROFILE The pocket-sized format of the publication should, I hope, also attract new readers to art discourse, while hopefully enabling the rest of us to resist tossing the texts away over the usual frustrations of much art criticism: empty rhetoric, solipsistic opinion-making, useless romanticisations, badly researched ideas, and far too lengthy, un-engaging texts.

Freee's booth at 'Dorm'

'Dorm' / Model re-opening night.

Club Curious's booth at 'Dorm'

Freee, Fuck Globalization, 2007. Image courtesy of the artists.

Inviting Audiences

Jason Oakley talks to Séamus Kealy, Director / Curator OF The Model, SLIGO about the redevelopment of the institUtion and THE EXHIBITION 'DORM' Jason Oakley: Talk me through the redevelopment / extension by Sheridan Woods architects.

Séamus Kealy: The entire extension of The Model increases our scale by about 40%. It augments the redevelopment undertook in 2000 and balances cleanly with the original architecture. The building is designed with the visitor in mind. It actually feels much more comfortable inside than the grandeur of the new façade might suggest.

I have strong issues with intimidating architecture, especially giant art spaces that are sometimes un-inviting to non-art specialist audiences.

We’ve nine new artist studios. Seven are rented out by local artists, one is set aside as a recording studio, and the final one is an artist residential studio. Our guests include Boris Groys for the summer, and right now we have Italian artist Paolo Tamburella.

Having all these studios furthers our role in being a hub of production, and this production will rotate as we change artists in the residential programme throughout the year.

We also have a new Black Box space that functions both as a cinema and a performance space for music. The space seats 240 for films and up to 400 standing for performances. We’re working with the IFI in Dublin to deliver a new cinema programme that will be delivered in the coming months.

The gallery space has been extended; there is now a full circuit of galleries on the gallery floor of the building. And a new kitchen has been provided for a destination restaurant, also opening shortly.

JO: What are the key ideas behind the ‘Dorm’ exhibition in relation to the re-opening of the Model?

SK: As an opening show, I wanted Dorm to demonstrate a curatorial ethos – a genuine concern for public participation and accessibility, while addressing some currencies around art’s role and relationship to the public.

The concept for Dorm arose when I attended the Frieze Art Fair in October 2008. I was disgusted with the pomp, glamour and emptiness of that fair. It was my first attendance, and I had expectations of course.

To have these expectations absolutely defeated by the vacuity of the fair provoked a kind of employable outrage: This structure of the art fair could be used, parodied even, to make an interesting project about how relevant contemporary art can, should, could and does get produced. So Dorm is just that – it takes the structure of an art fair and returns this format to an ethos of collaboration and non-commercial, ephemeral and participatory projects.

Inherent in the project are questions about the present and future conditions for art production, especially in this more challenging economic climate. We need to look forward to support artists without institutional trappings as well as explore means that artists can

develop their work in a different setting. For me, it’s an exciting time.

The project also tackles the myth of individual genius by stressing the collaborative nature of much art production, and emphasizes the importance of that today. The historical links to collective practice from the 1950s onwards are also vital for taking a hard look at artistic practice today. For example, the general lack of political challenge in contemporary art, despite much theoretical rhetoric, appears here from a different angle. Artist groups and collectives had often aligned themselves with political activism, or had even been political activists themselves. Along with a “cultural critique” there was action. There are instances of this also in the contemporary projects at The Model currently, for example WochenKlausur or Thierry Geoffroy’s work.

Another matter that Dorm faces straight on, which is why I curated this project as the opening project, is that of the art institution as a hub, not as a museal space of quiet reflection and escapism. Art spaces have a role to play in the shaping of cultural and socio-political identities, and this should be a noisier affair in my mind than it usually is.

JO: The re-opening of the gallery got some good local and national print media coverage. Is an engagement with mainstream media is a conscious strategy for the Model?

SK: Yes. This has always been an interest of mine, actually. It can be tricky to find means of mediating contemporary art to the press, which will invariably mis-interpret the artwork if one is not careful.

However, I would be as interested – if not more interested – in having Dorm receiving coverage on the evening news rather than in Art Forum. The art world is often navel-gazing and even defeatist when it comes to engaging broader audiences. We can all agree with Debord and identify and fight the spectacle, but this doesn’t mean turning away from the apparatus altogether. It’s the responsibility of curators to broach creative means of distributing the ideas of exhibitions.

Mainstream media is one tool to employ in that regard.

JO: Tell me about the ‘anti-catalogue’ produced for ‘Dorm’.

SK: Instead of mystifying or even reifying artists and their work, as catalogues often function in doing (especially making the work more commodifiable), I am more interested in building serious discussion and analysis around projects, at different levels. Anti-catalogue is a means of seeking a deeper level of engagement with the project, and also a means of enabling the project to spill out beyond the gallery walls. It is also a collaborative effort, and will continue to be, with different commissioned editors and writers. This doesn’t mean that we will no longer do catalogues, we will, albeit more occasionally than previously.

JO: … and the Model facilitates other different modes and levels of access and engagement – through the Model’s blog, Young Model and the education programme etc. Is this evidence of deliberately holistic curatorial approach?

SK: It’s evidence, rather, of a great team at The Model – that responds to the programme actively and mediates it in various forms to the public.

But again, it is the responsibility of the curator to ensure that projects are communicated as broadly as possible, so we are fortunate enough to have a great website, a leading education programme, and people who engage in various forms of outreach. Gallery outreach is critical today.

In a way, we need to act like the church – ensuring that the message goes out to as many people as possible, so that we can draw people into our walls. The church would believe that it is sharing spiritual salvation; we would believe that we are sharing, provoking even, cultural reflection. Both come to form some sort of identity in a community, whether subtle or not. It might sound idealistic but this has always been an important aspect of curatorial practice for me.

JO: What do you think the role of an historical collection like the Niland collection in the context of the Model is?

SK: We will have the Niland collection displayed on rotation throughout the year. This is a crucial aspect of our multifarious but focused role in providing programming. We have a strong relationship to contemporary art as well as to local and national traditions. We produce shows from our collection and bring new forms of discourse and scholarship around them. For example, this summer ‘Jack B. Yeats: The Outsider’, which is curated by Brian O’Doherty and Emer McGarry, opens alongside a new film by Irish-born artist Duncan Campbell. We continually seek ways of complementing these seemingly divergent projects. With these two shows, we find parallels in discussions around conflict, reconciliation and Irish identity both pre and post troubles.

Both Brian and Duncan will participate in a symposium this September in that context.

JO: From the experience of working in an off-site mode and in temporary premises, will we see more ‘extensions’ of the Model are all of its activities now retracted to the model building?

SK: In addition to our outreach and young model programmes, which reach into Sligo, North West and Northern communities, we will continue off-site projects where possible. We’ve commissioned artist Séamus Nolan with his project The City Centre, which sees him revitalizing Sligo’s Trades Club. This is a long-term project that we’ve had a close relationship to and will continue to maintain a relationship with. Other tentacular projects might see us continuing with off-site projects in Sligo, and of course, out of Sligo. We have many partnerships, and continue to generate new ones all the time, and this means that we are never just contained to the mothership.

JO: Does the Model see itself as a cultural catalyst for the area?

SK: Absolutely. There is a fine dance to play between serving national and international audiences while being, as you say, a ‘catalyst’ for the region. It is in our vision statement to be a “hub for discourse and gatherings around contemporary art and culture” and to develop “relevant, urgent programming.” This means that we have a close relationship to local audiences with every aspect of our programme, and of course, the programme’s overall proximity to socio-political concerns is relevant here. Essentially, we wish to attract people from the region especially to hang out here. We’re not simply a visiting site for tourists and culture vultures – and the building design is key to that and complements the programme that way. A civic space at our new façade will also be developed shortly, and that will enhance this role of being the place to be.

JO: What else can we look forward to from the Model?

SK: Since I spoke about the Yeats show above, I’ll mention briefly the Kabakov show. Their work speaks for itself and we’re delighted to have them come over in October to install their project Angelology. This will be a full installation throughout the space around the idea of an angel that has fallen to earth. The project will be highly accessible while maintaining that splendid romanticism that the Kabakovs employ so well, without falling into sentimentalism. It will be a project for everyone.

RDS National Crafts Competition 2010

RDS Student Art Awards 2010

Celebrating 150 Years of the RDS Taylor Art Award

Prize Winners Travelling Exhibitions RDS National Crafts Competition

The Exhibition

rds Concert Hall Ballsbridge Dublin 4 August 4—12 *

Autumn 2010 National Museum of Ireland — Country Life, Turlough Park, Mayo www.museum.ie National Crafts and Design Fair, RDS, Dublin 4 www.nationalcraftsfair.ie

RDS Student Art Awards Island Arts Centre, Lisburn, Northern Ireland. www.islandartscentre.com

For further information, please contact: RDS Arts Department t: 01 240 7255 e: arts@rds.ie

Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Mayo www.thelinenhall.com *Entry fee applies August 4–8

www.rds.ie/arts

Public Arts Commissions New Acute Hospital for the Southwest (NI) Expressions of interest are invited from professional artists wishing to be included in a select list for a number of commissions relating to the New Acute Hospital for the Southwest. The Project hopes to embrace a wide range of media and art forms to create a welcoming, stimulating and therapeutic healing environment for patients, staff and visitors. The Project seeks to promote user / community engagement.

Expressions of interest should include a CV and a representative portfolio of recently completed works. For a Commissioning Brief, please contact: Miranda Virtue Northern Ireland Health Group 124 Irvinestown Road, Enniskillen Co Fermanagh, BT74 6DN Tel: 028 66 321950 Email: miranda.virtue@nihg.co.uk CLOSING DATE for Expressions of Interest: 17th August 2010 @ 12 noon

9 July – 28 August Preview Thursday 8 July, 6 to 8pm

Somewhere but here, another other place

The LAB, Foley Street, Dublin 1

Maria McKinney. Awarded the Red Stables Irish

16 July – 21 August

Irish Residential Studio Award Exhibition

Preview Thursday 15 July , 6 to 8pm

Ursula Burke 'State of Grace'

Artists’ Residential Studio 2008

Featuring work by Award recipients Tadhg

The Red Stables Artists’ Studios,

McSweeney, Paul McKinley, Maria McKinney

St Anne’s Park, Dublin 3

and Niall de Buitléar. Curated by Patrick T. Murphy, Director of the Royal Hibernian Academy

The Red Stables Irish Artists’ Residential Studio Award 2010 Deadline: 23 July 2010 Dublin City Council invites artists to apply for the Irish Artists’ Residential Studio Award at The Red Stables, St. Anne’s Park, Dublin 3. The award is intended to support an emerging Irish visual artist at an early stage in their professional practice and runs from November 2010 to November 2011. The award provides studio and living accommodation at a nominal rent of €200 per month (including light & heating costs) and inclusion in the exhibition programme at The LAB, as well as administrative and curatorial support through

Sam Keogh 'Babel' Jim Ricks '14th January 2009 (We will say it has nothing to do with us)'

Hospital Gallery & Saldanha Galleries Fort Dunree, Buncrana Co. Donegal

12 July – 11 August

Dublin City Council’s Arts Office.

Open: Thurs – Sat 2PM – 5PM

Further Information: Dublin City Council Arts Office, The LAB, Foley Street, Dublin 1 www.redstablesartists.com www.theredstables.ie

Artlink, Tullyarvan Mill, Mill Lane, Buncrana, Co. Donegal T: 074936 3469 E: info@artlink.ie www.artlink.ie

DESIGN CONTEST NOTICE TO ARTISTS Commission of PUBLIC ART at Ballycastle Seafront and Rathlin Island Foreshore.

Moyle District Council wish to appoint an outstanding artist to design and arrange the production, delivery and installation of one piece of public art at Ballycastle Harbour and one piece of public art at Rathlin Island Harbour. It is anticipated that this project will be completed by February 2011.

The allocated budget for the project is £95,000 GBP. Artists wishing to participate in the contest must submit a Pre – Qualification Response application.

Please note that all previous applicants must re-apply if they wish to be considered for this design contest. NO previous applications will be considered.

For application forms please telephone the Development Office, at Moyle District Council (028) 2076 2225 or email dev@moyle-council.org, or write to Development Office, Ballycastle & Rathlin Public Art, Moyle District Council, Sheskburn House, 7 Mary Street, Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, BT54 6QH. Pre – Qualification Response applications must be returned in writing to: Mr. RG Lewis BSc (Econ) CPFA, Clerk & Chief Executive, Moyle District Council, Sheskburn House, 7 Mary Street, BALLYCASTLE, BT54 6QH, Northern Ireland.

Tel: 028 2076 2225 Fax: 028 2076 2515 On or before FRIDAY 23rd July 2010 by 3pm.

The panel intends to select five artists for the commission who will be invited to prepare concept sketch designs on the basis of the information provided in this application.

This project has been part funded through the Northern Ireland Tourist Board’s Tourist Development Scheme and the Arts Council for Northern Ireland.

Mayo County Council Public Art Commission Castlebar / Lough Lannagh Public Art Programme

Landmark Mayo County Council invites submissions for a public art programme in Castlebar, Co Mayo. The funding for this project has been provided by the Percent for Art Scheme, Dept. of Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Housing Capital Programme. The Programme comprises four separate strands:

Residency.

1 opportunity €30,000.

Permanent Artwork Commissions.

2 commissions €30,000 & €45,000.

Temporary, Performance or Event Based Commissions.

2 commissions €15,000 & €10,000.

Bursary Training Schemes.

2 bursary places €5,000 each.

The panel is open to a wide range of disciplines, including music, dance, drama, literature, film, visual and performing arts. Artists can apply for more than one strand of the programme. Full information packs and application procedures are available from: Gaynor Seville, Public Art Manager, Mayo County Council E: gseville@mayococo.ie T: 00353 (0) 94 904 7561 Or downloadable from www.mayococo.ie under arts service and in public art section Submission Deadline: Thursday 12 August 2010

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

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July – August 2010

Opportunities

Opportunities COMPETITIONS COMPETITIONS THE BATH PRIZE This year The Bath Prize offers a total prize fund of £12,000 (sterling). This includes a first prize of £5,000 and a plein-air award of £2,000. There are many other runner up and category prizes. The top prize will go to the artist who best captures the spirit of Bath and the city is keen to welcome entries from painters coming to the UK during June, July and August. Painters entering the competition are invited to submit as many works as they wish but the first entry must have been inspired by a specific location in the Georgian city.

This location will be allocated by ballot when the entry is received.

Artists will be encouraged to work on the streets, en plein air, but they can also sketch or photograph their subject and complete the work elsewhere.

This summer we hope to meet many artists from overseas. If you decide to come please let us know and we will do our best to help you make the most of what we are sure will be an enjoyable and worthwhile visit. We can also help with submitting the finished work and storing it until the final judging in September. Details and entry form can be found at: Website www.thebathprize.co.uk www.cityofbath.co.uk/ Deadline 3 August BERNICE ABBOT PRIZE The Julia Dean Photo Workshops is pleased to announce The 2010 Berenice Abbott Prize for an emerging photographer. One person is selected for this prize and is given an all expenses paid exhibition at a prestigious LA gallery (TBA), plus a Canon EOS50D/E 28-135 Kit. Juried by David Fahey of Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles. An emerging photographer does not mean a young photographer, though a young photographer can certainly enter. Rather, it means that you have an accomplished body of work that has not yet been exhibited or published widely. Whether you are a fine art photographer or documentary photographer, the work submitted for this contest should reflect a cohesive body of work. The prize is sponsored by: A&I Photographic and Digital

Services; Canon USA; Universal Art Gallery; The Julia Dean Photo Workshops. For Guidelines and Application see website.

Application fee applies.

Website http://juliadean.com/contests/ berenice-abbott-prize/ Deadline 17 July AESTHETICA CREATIVE The Aesthetica Creative Works competition is now open for entries. Aesthetica Magazine is inviting all artists, writers and poets to submit their work into the Aesthetica Creative Works Competition 2010.

The competition is dedicated to celebrating talent across three disciplines, identifying new artists and writers and bringing them to international attention.

The Competition has three categories, Artwork, Poetry and Fiction.

Winners and finalists are published in the Aesthetica Creative Works Annual. Winners of each category receive £500 prize money, plus other prizes.

Entry to the Creative Works Competition is £10 (€12). The entry fee allows the submission of 2 images, 2 poems or 2 short stories.

Deadline 31 August 2010.

Website http://www.aestheticamagazine. com/submission_guide.htm VISION EXPOSED This year Vision Exposed is launching Northern Ireland’s first International Photography Competition. Entry is free and photographers can enter into a selection of 10 different categories, entering either digitally through our website, or alternatively by post. Winners will be announced September 2010 and the exhibition will begin in the centre of Belfast for a grand opening.

Website www.visionexposed.com Deadline 10 August 2010 COURSES/WORKSHOP/ COURSES / workshops CORK PRINTMAKERS Cork Printmakers are pleased to announce our course schedule for June – September. 4 Day Course: Mixed Media: 23 – 26 August, Fee: €320. Weekend Courses are as follows:

Introduction to Stone Lithography – 2 consecutive weekends, 3 – 4 and 10 – 11 July, Fee: €320; Versatile Relief Processes: 24 – 25 July, Fee: €190; Screen-printing with True Grain – New Course 7 – 8 August, Fee: €195; Portrait Drawing & Drypoint – New Course 4 – 5 September, Fee: €190 For more information or to book a place, please contact Cork Printmakers at:

Email courses@corkprintmakers.ie

screen using photo emulsion, operate an exposure unit and use a flat-bed press, prepare suitable artwork, use colours efficiently and mix them well, print using correct registration and how to clean and degrease screens after use. Times and Dates: 10am – 1pm session July only (Monday to Saturday) 2 – 5pm session July only (Monday to Saturday) 5 – 8pm evening session (available Mon – Thurs from now on).

These one to one 3 hour sessions can be arranged to suit your schedule. For further information contact:

Website www.corkprintmakers.ie

Telephone 091 773759

Telephone (021) 4322422

LIGHT EXCHANGE COURSES Professional Studio Lighting Workshop: Saturday 10 July, 10:00am – 5:00pm. €200, deposit €50. This one-day studio lighting workshop will systematically take you through the key principles of studio lighting; using a light meter, understanding the key light and fill light, using reflectors, soft and dramatic lighting techniques, backlighting, and how to create a high-key white background. This workshop is designed with a very hands-on approach so all participants will have the opportunity to shoot portraits during the day. Tutor: Brenda McGuire, 8 places.

Introduction to Digital SLR: This 4 week course introduces the core principles of digital photography. Starts Monday 5 July, 7 – 9:30pm 4 weeks, €200, deposit €50. It begins with a comprehensive guide through your specific user manual, while also covering the essentials of operating an SLR camera, controlling ISO, shutter speed, aperture and depth of field. Other topics covered include: metering, white balance, understanding histograms and ways to improve your composition. This course is ideal for anyone new to the digital SLR camera or expanding from film SLR to digital SLR. Tutor: Emer Fitzpatrick, 6 places.

Both courses will be held at Milltown Park, Jesuit Conference Centre, Milltown, Dublin 6. For bookings and further information please contact : Telephone 085 1904100 Email photo@thelightexchange.ie.

SCREEN PRINTING GALWAY Lorg Printmakers are running an Introduction to Screen Printing course with tutor Eimearjean McCormack. This course is recommended for those with little or no experience of silkscreen printing. Participants will be taught the basic techniques via hands-on one to one sessions. Participants will learn how to: expose and coat a

Email lorgprintmakers@gmail.com Website www.lorgprintmakers.com STONE CARVING Sculptor James Horan will teach a 5 day stone carving course at the Crawford College of art in Cork city. The course is aimed at beginners and will run from the 26 – 30 July inclusive. The course will cost €450 including all materials and tools. People looking to participate should contact the Crawford College of Art and Design or email James at: Email jameshsculpture@hotmail.com Courses at CLÓ Cló, centre for creativity and the environment in North West Donegal will host a series of courses over the Summer of 2010.

Aspects covered are: woodblock printing, Children’s art school, creative writing workshop, colour etching, landscape painting, photo etching, poetry workshop, experimental printmaking techniques and chine collé. Dates for the other courses are as follows: children’s art school (through Gaelic) with John Doohan: 28 June – 2 July; creative writing workshop with Kate Newman and Cathal Ó Searcaigh: 3 – 5 July; colour etching with Aoife Mc Garrigle: 10 – 11 July; Landscape Painting with Heidi Nguyen: 12 – 16 July; Photo etching with Aoife Mc Garrigle: 17 – 18 July; Poetry workshop with Kate Newman & Cathal Ó Searcaigh: 24 – 26 July; Experimental printmaking techniques for artists with Danielle Creenaune: 14 – 15 August; Etching & chine collé with Danielle Creenaune: 21 – 22 August. For further information contact: Telephone Marjorie + 353 (0) 749162800 Email cloceardlann@eircom.net Website www.clo.ie

ILLUSTRATION BOOT CAMP Illustrators Ireland member Adrienne Geoghegan continues with her 5th Illustration Boot Camp this September. This illustration boot camp for is for all visual artists. This course will especially appeal to those who wish to spend time on personal illustration projects, to those who want to build a strong illustration portfolio, and to visual art practitioners who have an interest in pursuing a career in illustration, either part or full time. The main purpose of illustration is to enhance or augment the written word with an image. Over twelve weeks artists will develop their practice, plus broaden and further cultivate their illustration skills in a relaxed and creative environment. There will be discussions, themed projects, critiques, and ‘hands on’ productivity. We will investigate different approaches to problem solving while cultivating our conceptual skills using a variety of media. Projects are fun and relevant to the industry. Price is €780 for the 24 weeks, every Friday evening 6.30pm to 9pm from 3 September 2010.

Address The Garden Art Room, Carmelite Centre, 56 Aungier St, D 2 Telephone 016776032/087 9919211 Email adriennegeoghegan@gmail.com ART DAY The Cockleshell Gallery, Duncannon are running their annual Art Day on The Hook Peninsula on 28 July from 10am to 4pm. This event gives the participants the chance to sketch and paint in two venues on the Hook Peninsula. Cost €75 including tea/coffee on arrival and on departure, and light lunch at approx 1pm. Tutors Eileen Cloney & Catherine Power.

Covering oils, acrylics, and watercolors this day is aimed at intermediate level and advanced level artists. Bookings essential. If weather is inclement on the day, the sessions will revert to The Gallery.

Address The Cockleshell Gallery, Duncannon Fort, New Ross, Wexford.

Telephone 051 389990 ART THERAPY, BELFAST The Northern Ireland Group for Art as Therapy is running its annual summer-school between 26 – 30 July at NICVA in Belfast.

This non-residential summerschool is aimed at anyone with an interest in finding out more about art as therapy for wellbeing for personal or professional development. The week long programme combines morning

presentations and afternoon experiential creative group workshops facilitated by art therapists and artists working nationally and internationally.

This includes presentations and workshops from art therapists working with older people, with children and families, in palliative care and in prison settings. The programme also includes an information session on the MSc Art Psychotherapy which runs at the Centre for Psychotherapy in Belfast. Anyone interested in attending the programme can choose to attend for morning or afternoon sessions or participate in the full week’s programme.

For more information contact Jayne McConkey by email.

Website www.nigat.org Email summerschool@nigat.org ART TO HEART Art to Heart are currently enrolling for summer courses in the theme of Working with Children Through Arts. The timetable is as follows: Foundation Course, 16 – 20 August, 10.00am to 4.00pm.

Art to Heart is offering a unique opportunity to participate in a programme of collective art making, personal exploration and debate. This training programme is for adults. If you are a parent, youth leader, social or health worker, teacher, child care worker or artist who wants to learn more about how to nurture, foster and develop your own creative potential, then this training programme is for you.

No artistic experience is necessary. Story Making Course 19 – 23 July, 10.00am to 4.00pm.

Course content: story making with children; how to create stories with children addressing different age groups, art materials, techniques and art forms. Exploring stories through art; making of a personal story, making of a group story. Each week long programme costs €350 (booking fee €50). The fee covers training, art material, tea and coffee. Lunch €50. Places limited to 9 for both courses.

Telephone Jole: 085 1532220 Email jole@arttoheart.ie Website h t t p : / / w w w. a r t t o h e a r t . i e / artcoursescalendar.html SKETCHING WORKSHOP Urban Sketching at Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast. Explore sketching in a relaxed atmosphere. This 1 day workshop aims to introduce the skills and techniques for sketching and will encourage confidence for working outside.

Develop your own visual journal for capturing personal

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2010

Opportunities observations and impressions.

11 to 12:30 outside location sketching. 1:30 to 4:30 pm (studio based) reflect on and develop your sketches. Cost for day £25 (sketch pack supplied). Tutors: Sharon Kelly & Cilla Wagner. 29 May, 17 July, 14 & 21 August.

Email treehouse@utvinternet.com SCULPTURE Courses Sculpture Courses in wood and stone in the middle of the boglands in Oughteraard, Galway and in Artist Studio in Cahersiveen, Kerry. Dates; Oughteraard: 5 – 8 July and 4 – 7 October 2010. Cahersiveen: 19 – 23 July and 26 – 30 July 2010. For more information contact Pieter Koning.

Email pieterkoning2004@yahoo.co.uk Telephone 066 9472469

GRAD / POSTGRAD GRAD / POST-GRAD ART IN PUBLIC MA The MA Art in Public at the University of Ulster, Belfast has evolved from current complex concerns for the role of art/ artists in a changing society. The programme seeks to develop testing modes of working that are dialogic, participatory, interventionist or collaborative in intention and structure.

Throughout the programme students will work with formal / informal external partners and be expected to develop self initiated, innovative practice based approaches.

Telephone +44 (0)28902 67321 Website http://interface.ulster.ac.uk/ma http://www.interfacebelfast.com http://www.uupadb.com/ Deadline

STONE AND WOOD CARVING Séighean Ó Draoi is a sculptor based near Glendalough, Co Wicklow, Ireland. He teaches stone and wood carving classes at his studio on Tuesdays or Thursdays between 7–9pm. Eight two hour classes cost €180, this includes use of tools, safety goggles, dust masks and stone or wood supplied. Classes are ongoing throughout the year.

Numbers are limited to five people, beginners usually finish two pieces in one course, a low relief introductory piece followed by a more 3D piece. Letter carving and other specific requests also catered for. Classes are relaxed and sociable with a tea break. All enquiries to: Telephone 0879820729 Email sodraoi@hotmail.com Website www.irishstonecarving.web. officelive.com and www.flickr.com/photos/sodraoi PASTEL WORKSHOP Four day pastel workshop with Alicia Sotherland from 23 – 27 August, 10am to 5pm. The workshop will focus on portrait and figurative painting. Students will have a choice of attending only the workshop, or an extended vacation until 3 September. Rooms have been reserved at a special package price offered for this workshop 4 nights at €50 per night/ per person. For more information and registration for the workshop contact: Address Lake Hotel, Lake Shore, Muckross Road, Killarney, Kerry Telephone 0873212948/ 0646622677 Email aliciasotherland@hotmail.com

ongoing PhDArts, Netherlands PhDArts is now accepting applicants for their doctoral study programme in visual art and design. The programme consists of research and training and allows doctoral students to develop their artistic qualities, broaden their academic knowledge, expand their methodological skills and integrate all those elements in order to be able to function as independent artist researchers.

Prospective candidates can submit an application to the Leiden University Academy of Creative and Performing Arts.

Applicants must have a Master’s of Arts Degree or proof of study at a comparable level. Applicants must put together a research dossier for their entrance exam.

A form for this is provided on: Website www.phdarts.eu Deadline 1 October 2010 or 1 April 2011 NEW MEDIA BTEC Higher National Diplomas, in Media (Moving Image), Photography, Business (IT) and Media (Journalism) are being run at the New Media Technology College, Dublin. Courses are for 2 years and cost €2750 per year.

HND graduates may progress directly onto Master’s Degree programmes. Courses running also include: portfolio preparation certificates in: Digital Media and diploma in Multimedia Production .

Address 13 Harcourt Street, Dublin 2 Telephone 01 4780905 Website www.nmtc.ie Email info@nmtc.ie

ARTS & HERITAGE MA Waterford Institute of Technology is currently receiving applications for the one-year taught MA in Arts & Heritage Management programme 2010-2011.

The programme is designed for those who wish to pursue or further their professional careers in arts and heritage management, including visual artists who wish to more effectively manage their own career, those working in heritage centers, arts centers/ offices, and national cultural institutions, as well as those currently or hoping to work in festivals/events management, or those with an ambition to set up their own arts/heritage enterprises. The programme is multi-disciplinary, with modules being developed and taught by academic staff from across the School of Humanities, as well as by lecturers from the Institute’s School of Business. Students enrolled within the programme will undertake modules such as Irish Arts & Heritage; Events Management; Public Relations; Arts in Context; Museum & Galleries Studies and Strategic Financial Management.

Additionally there is a placement opportunity in which students work for one calendar year in a cultural / heritage organization of their choice. Lectures are structured over one week day one evening each week and a Saturday morning. Teaching on the programme is facilitated through face-to-face lectures and seminars, the virtual learning environment Moodle, regular field-trips to local, regional and national cultural/heritage sites.

Visiting lecturers and guest speakers feature across all modules and are a crucial aspect of the teaching and learning within the programme. Those interested in the programme should contact: Email ukealy@wit.ie Telephone 051 845561 Website www2.wit.ie

INTERNATIONAL SALON ART PRIZE We are currently seeking applications for the fourth annual Salon Art Prize, in which we will support artists working in painting, drawing, printmaking, collage, sculpture and installation (including sound). The selection panel will consist of: Peter Bonnell (Curator, ArtSway), Kate MacGarry (Director, Kate MacGarry gallery) and Richard Birkett (Curator, ICA). We expect to exhibit up to 100 works within our 1000sq ft gallery. Also, one artist will be

awarded the Selectors’ Prize supported by John Jones, which consists of £1000 and a solo show at our gallery space on Vyner Street, East London, in 2011.

Website www.salonartprize.com Deadline 5pm, 7 August RENCONTRES, paris The call for entries is open until July 10, for the ‘Rencontres Internationales’ that will take place in Paris at the Centre Pompidou from 25 November to 4 December and in Madrid and Berlin in 2011. Any individual or organization can submit one or several proposals. The call for entries is open to film, video and multimedia proposals, without any restrictions for length or genre. All submissions are free, regardless of geographical origin.

Works proposed to the 'Rencontres Internationales' must not have been previously publicly shown in Paris. See website for full details.

Website www.art-action.org Deadline 10 July EXHIBITIONS EXHIBITIONSIRELAND IRELAND PRINTMAKING Custom House Studios are inviting submissions for an adjudicated printmaking exhibition to run from 11 November to 5 December.

Selector is Mary A. Fitzgerald. Works accepted in all forms of original print eg intaglio, linocut, woodblock, screen-print, lithograph and digital. The prize to the selected artist is the opportunity to spend one month working in print studio at Custom House Studios.

Conditions for submission: Works to be submitted with c o m p l e t e d submission form and fee of €5 per work. You may enter a maximum of three works.

Address Westport Quay, Co

Mayo

Telephone 098 28735 Email customhouse@eircom.net Deadline 1 October NORTHWEST LGBT PRIDE Submissions are invited from artists on the theme of ‘Freedoms’ for the 2010 Northwest LGBT Pride exhibition, which will hang in the Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton during the Pride Festival 5 – 9 August. Art works may illustrate artists’ perceptions of freedom both personal and social and/or address issues of diversity, restriction and choice.

Submission is open to artists working in all kinds of media

(though size restrictions may apply for freestanding pieces).

We are also inviting digital submissions from international artists, particularly those in countries where sexual or other freedoms are restricted. Please submit images of the work(s) either electronically to the email or postal address below (JPEG, TIF or PDF files) or on CD. Include title & price for each piece; artist’s name and contact details and a brief (50 word) biographical note.

Sale prices should include 30% commission which will go to Northwest LGBT Pride. A registration fee of €5 per artist (payable to NW Pride) should accompany submissions.

Address Northwest LGBT Pride, PO Box 001, Community Connections CDP, Killycarney, Blacklion, Co Cavan Email northwestpride@gmail.com Deadline 16 July SOL ART Submissions are requested from artists living in Carlow and Kilkenny for an exhibition in both counties – (in Kilkenny in the end of June) and Carlow in July. Work must be of a professional standard.

Commission on sold works is the standard 40%. Please email between 1 – 5 images of the work you would like exhibit with sizes and prices along with your bio or website to: Email info@solart.ie summer edition Summer Edition – the artist’s book, comic and zine fair is taking place on Saturday 24 July in Filmbase, Temple Bar, Dublin.

It’s open to anyone involved in creating and/or publishing artist’s books, comics or zines. For more info and to fill out an application form see website: Website www.editionbookarts.com BELFAST PRINT WORKSHOP This summer Belfast Print Workshop are offering undergraduates from printmaking the chance to use our facilities over the summer months (June, July, August) at a discount rate of £40 per student. Please contact the workshop on: Telephone 02890 231323 Email info@belfastprintworkshop.org. uk RUA 2010 Call for submissions for Royal Ulster Academy annual exhibition 2010. The Royal Ulster Academy’s 129th Annual Exhibition will take place from 15 October to 14 November 2010

in the newly renovated Ulster Museum. The exhibition will comprise work by RUA members, invited artists and artists selected by open submission. Artists are invited to submit a maximum of two works in any medium for consideration. Work will be selected anonymously by a jury and a range of prizes will be awarded by an exhibition adjudicator. To receive an application form please go online or contact the RUA office.

Address Royal Ulster Academy, 9-13 Waring Street, Belfast Telephone 0044 (0)28 90320819 Email info@royalulsteracademy.org Website www.royalulsteracademy.org Deadline 30 July 2010 PLEIN AIR PAINTING Art in the Open 2010 Plein Air Painting Festival takes place over August bank holiday weekend 30 July – 1 August in Wexford and Enniscorthy. The festival includes 6 extra paint out days around the county, 5 demonstrations of plein air painting with numerous cash awards, good fun and an exhibition opening on Monday 2 August. Download the brochure and registration form on the website.

Website www.artintheopen.org SCULPTURe, dspca The Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which is a registered Irish charity, is looking to improve their animal shelter grounds in Rathfarnham. The animal shelter is located in Mount Venus Road in the picturesque foothills of the Dublin Mountains and we want to create a self sustaining haven for Irish wildlife, birds and insects with natural Irish fauna and flora We would also like to have small sculptures by Irish artists around the shelter grounds. We get thousands of visitors to the shelter each year. We will be listing all pieces on our website with your contact details and these will be published on our facebook page as well. These pieces can be for sale to our visitors with 10% of the sale price going towards the Dublin SPCA. We would invite you to submit your proposals to our committee, format can be proposed drawings or actual pictures of your pieces. If you are interested in getting involved in this project please email. More information can be found on the website.

Website www.dspca.ie Email emmaclarke.dspca@yahoo.ie

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

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July – August 2010

Opportunities COURTHOUSE ARTS CENTRE The date for receipt of submissions for visual arts exhibitions at the Courthouse Arts Centre, Tinahely, Co Wicklow next year has been pushed back to 16 July 2010.

Visual artists working in all media are invited to submit applications before 5pm on this date, to be considered for 2011.

The Courthouse Arts Centre is a multi-disciplinary arts venue and full-time gallery located in the picturesque village of Tinahely in South Wicklow. The exhibition space consists of approx. 175 running feet of wall space, distributed between the main, ground floor and the first floor balcony. Details of the interior can be provided upon inquiry.

Artists interested in being considered for an exhibition to take place in 2011 should send their CV and a letter of application, along with work samples (up to 20 images/samples on CD-Rom or memory stick, or other photographic documentation of the work, with SAE for return if required) to: Address Shelley Hayes, Artistic Director, Courthouse Arts Centre, Tinahely, Co Wicklow Email info@tinahely-courthouse.ie.

(Please restrict message to 1MB) Website www.tinahely-courthouse.ie Deadline 5pm, 16 July ARAS EANNA Aras Eanna invites all artists who have held an exhibition or been an artist in residence here to submit a piece of work for a special exhibition at the Town Hall Theatre Gallery in Galway City, during the month of August 2010. Proceeds from this sale of work will be used to upgrade facilities in the artist’s residence apartment, gallery space and throughout the art centre. For more info contact: Telephone 099 75150 Email araseanna@eircom.net Deadline 23 July FISH TANK The Fish Tank Art House Project invites Dublin city artists’ studios to participate in an initiative that aims to showcase the diversity, the creativity and innovative spirit of Dublin’s artistic community. The Fish Tank Art House is a forum for collaboration and exchange between the various artists’ studios. It is an opportunity for the studios to exhibit their work and to share their skills and knowledge with the community through exhibitions, performance, workshops and seminars. The

Fish Tank Art Project’s 2010 inaugural event will allow Dublin city centre artists’ studio collectives the experience and preparation to engage in a meaningful and planned way in Dublin Contemporary 2011 and beyond. To register your studio’s interest and for further information contact: Email fishtankarthouse@yahoo.ie

group exhibitions in 2010 in the newly opened MadArt Gallery in central Dublin. Please email 5 images of your current work with information about yourself and your work or your website address and your details to: Email info@madartstudio.com Website www.madartstudio.com JOB VACANCIES VACANCIES

LA CATEDRAL STUDIOS La Catedral Studios invites curators, theatre groups, solo artists as well as live art performers and artist collectives working in all media to submit proposals for its spring-summer programme at its spacious multipurpose venue The Back Loft.

The space may be hired for crossmedia events, theatre projects, creative workshops, photography & film location, exhibitions, student’s end of the year shows, live art performances & experimental/acoustic music salons. Interested parties may hire the space from as little as one evening or a half a day slot, up to a month or longer. Rates are flexible and student discounts/ VAI members discount apply.

Submissions should include an outline of the project, the length of the slot and the time the space needs to be hired for, along with a website link or a sample of the work proposed. See website for further information. Email submissions to: Email lacatedralstudios@yahoo.com Website www.lacatedralstudios.org Deadline Ongoing S. GUINNESS GALLERY The Sebastian Guinness Gallery seeks expressions of interest from contemporary Irish artists working within the field of sculpture for various projects and opportunities. Ideal candidates will have experience in creating works of high quality for either indoor or outdoor spaces.

Applicants should note the following: works may be of any scale or medium deemed appropriate for permanent display in prominent public and private spaces; artists who have created works in editions of any scale are specifically of interest; any artists who have worked on public projects of any scale are especially encouraged to apply.

Please send jpegs of past work along with an artist statement and a narrative CV/biography to: Email guinnessgallery@gmail.com Website www.sebastianguinnessgallery. com MADART GALLERY Artist submissions wanted for

KILKENNY ARTS VOLUNTEER Kilkenny County Council Arts Office is currently looking for volunteers. This is an exciting opportunity for anyone wanting to partake, learn, experience, upskill or pursue a career in the arts and cultural industry, cultural management and/ or education and to get valuable experience in a dynamic, busy arts environment. There are a number of opportunities available from gallery front of house and invigilation, project administration, technician work, marketing and IT. If you would like to be considered for inclusion on our volunteer programme, please email Niamh Finn to request an application form.

Email niamh.finn@kilkennycoco.ie.

VISION EXPOSED Vision Exposed is a Belfast based, photographic arts organisation, which holds exhibitions of international contemporary photography. Vision Exposed are currently seeking someone with a qualification in business and or business experience for the post of Business Director. Pay is based on commission. For further information and details feel free to contact us.

Telephone (0)7791330654 Email info@visionexposed.com Website www.visionexposed.com COMMUNITY ARTISTS Finglas Artsquad are now looking for Community Artists. The Project which is based in Finglas is a Community Employment Project; those interested must be eligible under FAS criteria, over 25 years of age, 1 year of more unemployed and in receipt of a payment from Social Welfare. It is 19.5 hours a week over 5 days.

You will have the opportunity to work with anyone over the age of 7 years through various art mediums. There will also be exhibitions and mural work from time to time. If interested please send your CV with a covering letter by post to: Address Bobby Borwick, Co-ordinator, Finglas Artsquad, Unit 14b Main Street, Finglas, D11

FILMAKERS/ EDITORS NextShoot is a video production company that specializes in shooting video content for the Internet. We produce highquality business profiles, property tours, hotel and restaurant promotions and book & author profiles. We have created a national network of filmmakers who shoot and edit video content for our clients. Our online platform gives our filmmakers the tools and information they need to make the videos (music, guidelines, release forms etc) and enables them to upload their finished films for sign-off. We are looking to work with filmmakers with a wide range of production experience who can both shoot and edit – from seasoned professionals to recent graduates.

Some of our work requires no more than a suitable camera, tripod and editing equipment.

Other packages require the filmmaker to have sound equipment and the proven ability to direct an interview. Some projects will need lighting and the skills that go with it. Pay varies on the type of video package you produce. We try to batch a number of jobs together to make a full days filming and editing. If this interests you then please follow the link below and register with us.

Website www.nextshoot.com/signup_ feb10.php COMMUNITY ARTSWORKER Cork Community Art Link currently has a FAS/CE vacancy for an arts worker. The position involves working with a team of arts practitioners to support the development of participatory arts projects in a range of social and community contexts.

Applicants must be eligible for FAS/CE scheme. For further information on this position please contact Sinead Pierce at: Address Coordinator, 107 Shandon Street, Cork Telephone 021 4212914 Email artlink@iolfree.ie FUNDING AWARDS FUNDINGAND & AWARDs CONNECT MENTORING Create, the national development agency for collaborative arts and Common Ground are administering 2 mentoring awards available to artists working in collaborative/ participative arts in the specific context areas: Arts and Health and Cultural Diversity. The Connect Mentoring Programme learning resource will be formally launched at IMMA on 21 July, 2 – 4pm. The launch will provide an opportunity for

interested applicants to the Arts and Health and Cultural Diversity Mentoring Awards to understand more about the Connect programme and the eligibility criteria for the Create/Common Ground Mentoring Awards.

Applicants are strongly recommended to consult the Connect learning resource (DVD and Booklet). Copies are available from Create, to request a copy contact us via email or phone.

Full details on how to apply see our website: Website www.create-ireland.ie/projectsand-initiatives/mentoring. html#mentoringaward Telephone 01 4736600 Email info@create-ireland.ie ARTS COUNCIL BURSARY The following awards will be available for the Arts Council Bursary Award, Round 2: Architecture/ Dance,/ Literature/ Opera/ Traditional Arts and Visual Arts Bursary Awards. The Arts Council provides bursary awards to assist individual artists in the development of their arts practice. The award emphasises the value and benefit to an artist’s development that is derived from an extended process of engagement with their practice.

Applications will only be accepted through the Arts Council’s online services website.

Applicants who have not previously used this system must register in advance of making an application. It is recommended that applicants allow five days for registration prior to making an application. To see the award guidelines, to register, and to make an application please go to: Website www.artscouncil.ie Deadline 5.30pm, 15 July 2010 ARTS COUNCIL N. IRELAND The Arts Council of Northern Ireland's award for Travel is now open for application. All applications must be completed before 31 March 2011. Please note you are still required to apply four weeks in advance of travel. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland will also be launching its Video/fine art film Open Submission Scheme very soon. See web site for further details.

Website www.artscouncil-ni.org CULTURE IRELAND FUNDING Culture Ireland aims to promote and advance Irish arts in a global context. Our principal funding scheme is designed to support the presentation and promotion of Irish arts internationally. The next deadline for Culture Ireland

funding applications for projects and events taking place from November onwards is now approaching. Details, guidelines and information on the application process are available online at: Website www.cultureireland.gov.ie Deadline August 2010 – 15 November CONLON SCULPTURE AWARD Sligo County Council Arts Service invites visual artists, particularly sculptors, to apply for the Fred Conlon Contemporary Sculpture Award 2010. This award offers artists the opportunity to avail of studio and living facilities for two months in the inspiring scenic region of Easkey, West Sligo and one month in the Leitrim Sculpture Centre followed by a solo exhibition in the Leitrim Sculpture Centre upon completion of the residency.

Dates of the residency are fixed between mid January and mid April 2011. Open to national and international artists, applicants will be required to have a third level qualification in art or an equivalent record of application and achievement. Application forms are available on: Website www.sligoarts.ie and rmcgrath@sligococo.ie.

Telephone 071 911 1823 Deadline 22 July NOTICES PROJECTOR SCREENS Wanted: old projector screens – silver screen or white – for use in forthcoming exhibition. Contact: Email info@visualartists.ie SEEKING PLACEMENT Lisa Lasko a University of Ulster Belfast textile art student is seeking placement/ internship in the contemporary arts sector from Oct – Dec 2010.

Telephone 07958322662 Email lisalasko@mac.com PRINTING SPACE SOUGHT Artist looking for well equipped space designed for making screenprints. Required elements are: table space, white wall, storage space, access to more than 100 watt lamp, bath tub (either big sink or shower), no carpets on the floor and big window.

Email fofnal@gmail.com

26

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2010

Opportunities RESIDencies

RHA/ TONY O’MALLEY The RHA is delighted to offer the Tony O’Malley Studio Residency.

Jane O’Malley in association with the Royal Hibernian Academy wishes to offer this home/studio to an artist on an annual basis.

The artist awarded the residency will have the exclusive use of the house and studio for 12 months, from January to December 2011, at a nominal cost of €250 per month. The artist would be responsible for his or her own utility costs. This full-time residency is for an artist who works primarily in the medium of paint. The studio is not suitable for sculptors. For more info, photos of the space and how to apply see website.

Telephone 01 6612558 Email ciara@rhagallery.ie Website http://www royalhibernianacademy.ie/html/ educate/educate_studio.html Deadline 30 July STUDIOS STUDIOS CERAMIC STUDIO KILKENNY Fully equipped ceramic studio with adjoining shop available from September 2010 at Earthworks Ceramic Studio and Gallery, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny. Ideal for potter – ceramist. Unique opportunity to work in established workshop with all facilities to make and sell your work. Rent is affordable and overheads are shared. Contact Caroline Dolan on: Telephone 086 8334923 Email carolinedolanceramics@gmail. com Website www.carolinedolanceramics. com

Telephone Martin 07751 286 546 Email martin.upcycling@gmail.com CUSTOM HOUSE STUDIOS Artists are now invited to submit proposals for exhibitions at Custom House Studios gallery during 2011 and 2012. Please send letters of interest, CVs and documentation of work to: Address Custom House Studios, The Quay Westport, Co Mayo Email customhouse@eircom.net Deadline July 30 ALAN ARDIFF GALLERY The Alan Ardiff Gallery will be available for summer shows as Alan’s art work is on the move nationwide. Artists with quirky/ 3-dimensional art might like to use the space in the interim. The gallery is located in the Design Tower on Pearse street in Dublin – images can be seen under the ART tab on the website below.

Please write with your expressions of interest to: Email alanardiff@eircom.net Website www.alanardiff.com STUDIO/ HOUSE, BELFAST Located 10mins from Belfast city centre, I have a house with studio available to rent for the Summer months. The contract can be fairly flexible in terms of price and dates. The house can sleep up to 3 people and the studio space can accommodate 2 – 3 people depending on requirements. Large studio window with great light and beautiful view. Basic studio facilities such as desks, projectors etc available as well as sink in close proximity. The house has large gardens, modern kitchen, living room and dining room so is ideal for providing space for social occasions. If interested please contact Gemma on:

STUDIO/ COTTAGE, MEATH Studio and 19 century stone cottage to let in County Meath 9km south of Drogheda. See site for full details.

Telephone 077 4945 7860

Website http://tinyurl.com/3xuoloz

PHOTO STUDIO SOUGHT Photographer looking for large studio space (300 to 600 sq ft) in Dublin and other 2 or 3 other photographers/artists to share it with (in terms of time). Budget: €150 per month each. If you have any information on a suitable space please contact Efren at:

SCULPTURE STUDIOS Space to let in Belfast city centre with workshop suitable for large scale sculptural work. Full workshop facilities with on site technician who will provide machining service in wood, metal, plastics etc. Short term lease options available. Suitable for artists who have a specific project. Preference to artists who use recycled materials or environmentally conscience materials. Fixed rental with rates dependent on services required.

Email info@gemmagallagher.com

Email efrengonzaphoto@gmail.com MARKET STUDIOS Summer rates now available for exhibition/ project space rental at The Market Studios, Dublin.

We are now accepting proposals from all creatives across varied

disciplines for inclusion in our summer programme running from June to October. The Market Studios is devoted to developing a programme of previously unseen work by contemporary, international artists as well as a creating a platform for a variety of events initiated by a dynamic network of Irish art practitioners.

Applicants are asked to provide images of work, a recent bio and a one page outline for show/talk/ event proposed. All kinds of applications welcome. A list of equipment is available on request. You can contact us on: Address The Market Studios & UNIT H Corner of Halston St & Mary’s Lane, D7 Email themarketstudios@gmail.com

Email carrigtwohillcommunity@ gmail.com Telephone 021 4882265 PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO, D8 9 Bond Street, Photographic Studios provides two modern photographic studios for hire on a half day/full day/weekly basis.

Profoto lighting equipment is also available for hire both in studio and externally on location.

Facilities include a fully equipped hair and make-up salon, dressing room, shower and cafe bar with WIFI access in all areas. 9 Bond Street is also available to hire as an event venue.

Address 9 Bond Street Photographic Studios, D 8

Website themarketstudios.wordpress. com

Website

STUDIO SUBLET, DUBLIN Large studio space in Upper Exchange Street for sublet from 15 July to 30 September. Suitable for 1 or more artists sharing. The studio is approximately 45 square meters in area. Monthly rent is €350 inclusive of everything. On first floor of an office building with large window along one length, providing excellent light throughout. Contact Roxana Manouchehri:

Email info@9bondstreet.com

Address Upper Exchange Street, D1 Telephone 086 8436563 Email roxanamanouchehri@gmail. com GALWAY CITY STUDIO Studio space with sink/ toilet facilities and good lighting available to let for €30 a week.

This includes heating (electricity is paid by meter). To share with two other artists. Would suit an artist who needs a space to work in part time. Please contact Ceara Conway, Participatory and Public Art, on: Telephone 087 6934038 ROOMS AVAILABLE CORK Rooms available for art classes, conferences, meetings, exhibitions, etc 20 mins east of Cork City, accessible by road and train. Main Hall: seats up to 250 people. Tullegreine Room: seats up to 80 people. Mulvany Room: seats up to 30 people. Fota Room: seats up to 30 people. Fully equipped kitchen available with all rooms. All rooms available to rent at reasonable rates to art groups/artists etc.

Address Carrigtwohill Community Centre, Cork Website www.carrigtwohillcommunity. com

www.9bondstreet.com Telephone 01 416 6888

COLLECTIVE STUDIO, SLIGO A collective studio space for artists in Sligo is currently being put together. The location will be the old mill on Union St. The space is over 4000 sq ft and it is intended to have approximately 20 – 24 artists sharing the space on a 12 month contract basis with a view to keeping the space longer term. The basic concept is to create a dynamic space that is privately run by the collective artists but also open to the public and to be used for studio workspace, gallery space, exhibitions, photographic studio, storage, coffee/ meeting / social space, workshops and for film viewings. A committee will be established to manage, administrate the studio space and once this is agreed we will be in a position to sign the lease. We are looking for graduates and practicing artists who are committed to art practice, responsible and looking to be a part of an exciting new art studio.

We are also looking for those who would simply like to rent a partitioned work space within the studio and enjoy the benefits of the space but without taking on any further, management, legal or administrative responsibilities. The rental fee for a studio will be extremely affordable, final numbers will dictate the price but the figure will be below €100 monthly.

Please feel free to e-mail or call me on my number listed below.

Telephone Matthew Tucker: 086 236 2430 Email ambrose_uk@yahoo.co.uk STUDIO SPACE, DUBLIN Large studio (50m sq) to rent in Stoneybatter, D7. The space could suit 2 sharing and includes access

to communal yard. Secure building with easy access and plenty of on street parking. If interested contact Dervella on: Telephone 087 7998600 Email dervella@gmail.com STUDIO FOR RENT, KILKENNY Artist’s studio for rent in 4 bedroom house in rural Kilkenny, near the village of Paulstown.

Studio is available for rent together with a double bedroom, to share house with 2 others.

Rent/ term negotiable, depending on length of lease etc. Property located off Main DublinWaterford route (N9), 15 minutes from Kilkenny City & 20 minutes from Carlow. Viewing strictly by appointment only.

bed house in South Dublin/North Wicklow for period of approx. 9 months to one year from September 2010. If interested please contact Helen at: Email heatbyrne@yahoo.ie House EXCHANGE, FR/ IRE We would like to exchange our 2 stone built houses in Baulou, part of the beautiful mountain region of Ariege France, around the beginning of August with Les Irlandais. Our two houses can accommodate two groups of 9 and 6 people. We are two families of 5 and 3 people. A car exchange would also be an interesting option, especially as we live in the countryside. Please contact Juliette or Christian Stigliani at: Address

Website Daft.ie – Ref: 3575295

Naoudet, 09000 Baulou. France.

GALLERY/ STUDIO, DUBLIN Gallery and Studio space available at The MadArt Gallery. It is an exhibition space in central Dublin. Very convenient location, close to the LUAS and Connolly DART station, makes it an ideal place for any art event. More than 60m, divided into two rooms with high ceilings and Victorian windows, makes a perfect creative environment.

Very bright and new studio space available as well. For more information please contact Sofia on:

Email christain.stigliani@wanadoo.fr

Telephone 00 33 5 61 65 32 46

STUDIO AVAILABLE, CYPRUS Traditional village house/ studio available in the Trudos mountains, Cyprus. 25 minutes from a blue flag beach.

Uninterrupted views with the sea on one side and the village on the other. Quiet and inspirational setting in the beautiful village of Vouni. Available from mid May to September.

Website www.sitekreator.com/Vouni

Telephone 0852779024 Email info@madartstudio.com Website www.madartstudio.com STUDIO AVAILABLE, D1 Studio spaces available for rent in Dublin 1. Natural light, separately lockable rooms, 24 hour access and wireless internet. For further information please contact.

Telephone Rebecca 086 1661790 Email rebecca.garner@hotmail.com STUDIO GROUP, BELFAST 4thcorner is putting out a call for interest in a new studio group in Belfast city centre housing around 6 artists. If you are interested please email us a current CV and some images of your work, applicants must have an arts degree.

Email fourthcornerstudios@hotmail. com ANTRIM/ DUBLIN Home Exchange: Comfortable North County Antrim 3 bedroom house with large garage (might suit artist or writer). House situated in peaceful countryside on coast close to Gaint’s Causeway with view of Rathlin Island. Wish to exchange for 3

Don’t forget Do look at the advertisments in this VAN, also check our web site & subscribe to our e-bulletin for further opportunities.

WATCH OUT We strongly advise readers to verify all details to their own satisfaction before forwarding art work, slides or monies etc.

Thanks A-N: The Artists’ Information Company; The International Sculpture Centre (New Jersey / USA) and the NSF Cork.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

27

July – August 2010

Project profile attend our events, and put money in the donations jar who currently fund these projects.

The Eye-Kea Project offered the Irish premiers of a number of international and homegrown works. These included Guy Ben-Ner’s Stealing Beauty – an intriguing piece in which he and his family enact a sit-com in several different Ikea stores. It was a piece that invited viewers challenge accepted notions of consumerism and ownership in a subtle and humorous way. Oliver Laric’s 5050, utilized footage from YouTube to create a montage of 50 people lip-synching to 50 cents popular rap song In Da Club.

Bjørn Melhus’s The Oral Thing comprised sound-bites from The Jerry Springer Show and The Weakest Link and other daytime talk shows, which were layered over footage of the artist in a futuristic TV show Guy Ben-Ner Stealing Beauty. Installation view. The Basemnet Project.

setting, where he lip-synched to the sound-bites, and interrogated his guests, who are reduced to talking heads. The work used looping and repetition to disorientate the viewer, creating a scenario that was simultaneously humorous and unnerving.

Kevin Atherton’s work In Two Minds revisited his 1978 piece of the same name, which comprised Atherton being interviewed by his younger self. This piece was particularly relevant to the overarching premises of the show, in terms of offering a very literal account of the changes and developments in video art practices over the years – as Atherton used the contemporary format of video media and technology to talk back to its previous incarnations.

Cork based artist Máire O'Mahony’s work presented physical staged performances made by the artist to the camera – depicting O’Mahony struggling with the notion of being an ‘entertainer’. Scottish artist Catherine Weir’s work, which shocked some viewers, questioned

James Hayes Rocky Mountain Flyer. Installation view. The Basemnet Project.

Jonathan Velardi Fortune Teller (Still)

the authenticity of footage extracted from YouTube of people seemingly

Critiquing the Quick Fix

committing suicide.

Stephanie Hough profiles ‘The EYE-KEA Project’, an International Video Art Event, held at the Basement Project Space, Cork 16 – 25 April 2010.

Katie Waugh’s Failure to communicate we see technological glitches,

Basement Project Space (BPS) is located on Camden Place, Camden

cultural arena of YouTube.

Quay, Cork city. BPS is an independently funded, voluntarily run, artist-

And since the advent of YouTube it could be argued that video –

led venture. The BPS premises comprise a project / exhibition space,

particularly user-generated video – has become the dominant cultural

artists studios and a media-lab. BPS has been devised to function as a

medium of this century. But ironically the majority of supposedly user

contemporary cultural unit, hosting projects, exhibitions and

generated video material uploaded to YouTube contains content and

alternative events – and overall providing a space to creative

references appropriated from other pre-existing sources, such as

practitioners within a dynamic and friendly environment. There are

television programmes, movies and music videos. In addition

currently six members of BPS: Claire Murphy, Colm Madden, Lorraine

techniques, methods and content are borrowed from popular cultural

Mc Donnell, Paul Maguire, Rachel Mc Donnell and Stephanie Hough.

genres, and are then re-mixed, re-purposed and re-cycled. It begs the

The six members jointly instigate and co-ordinate events. To-date BPS

question whether we are being liberated from the media hegemony (by

has hosted 12 events within six months, featuring the work of 59 Irish

re-purposing material to say something different?) or does YouTube

and International artists.

represent a reinforcing of mainstream cultural values?

‘The Eye-Kea Project’, was devised by BPS as a research event exploring the premise, that video art practices need re-evaluation in

The Eye-Kea Project screened work by 35 artists from 14 different countries (1). Invited and selected artists represented a diverse cross-

light of developments in contemporary visual culture. Specifically

section of methods and methodologies of contemporary video art from

these include the merging of audiovisual entertainment on the internet

around the world.

and across the media – and how video artists have responded to these rapid changes and exploring what key themes have emerged.

An open call was held and circulated throughout the internet, on a multitude of online resources and websites (Rhizome, Re:title, Critical

The show’s title puns on ubiquity of the products the Swedish

Network, Visual Artists Ireland e-bulletin, blogs, Facebook etc). Also

furniture chain ‘Ikea’ and the quick-fix culture it reflects. As their

through mailing lists, distributed through various colleges and

recent television advertising slogan put it “change kitchens, change

University’s around the world. There were a total of 74 applications

lives”. The curatorial focus of the show was a concern with how the

submitted to Basement Project Space, of which 27 were selected.

video medium, echoes a consumerist driven society, a society that

There were a total of eight invited artists, they were invited based

treats its culture as throwaway products. In particular, the view was

on specific video art pieces, which developed upon and added to the

taken that online video is the by-product of a post-modern paradigm,

concepts behind the project. Invited artists were contacted directly,

where culture is increasingly reduced to mere entertainment.

permission was granted by the artists, the work was then personally

It’s not surprising that many people often refer to shopping as ‘retail therapy’. Consumerism as a therapy has taken hold in

sent to the Basement Project Space and in some cases I was re-directed and had to correspond with their representing gallery.

contemporary lifestyle, purporting endless offers on the promise of

Loan form agreements were used for invited artists. Selected

empowerment and control. The Ikea brand for example, embodies this

artists who submitted through the open call entered into an agreement

kind of consumerism – selling products, at throwaway prices and

using the application form, which detailed the uses and restrictions of

throwaway quality. This type of post-industrialized production is

their artwork.

echoed in the entertainment we simultaneously produce and consume via the internet.

Research papers were also selected for the discussion through an open call; the open call stipulated the type of research papers we were

During the relatively short history of video art from the late 1960s

looking for. And the other invited speakers were invited artists whose

until the present, we have witnessed many video artists deconstruct

work was in the exhibition. Equipment was pooled together from

the mediated world around them through a self-reflexive process,

Basement Project Space members, friends and family and Cork Film

creating a commentary on the technologies they were utilizing. Many

Centre also kindly sponsored some equipment.

video artists appropriated film and television footage, and re-purposed

An accompanying brochure for the event was printed with

them into video art pieces. This type of practice is not dissimilar to the

sponsorship money received from CIT, Sin e Bar, The National Sculpture

deconstructive processes now occurring within the mainstream

Factory and JJ Hough’s singing pub. Overall it is the audiences who

American artist Clint Enns’s video piece Putting yourself out there comprised footage taken from video chat websites, and highlight the breakdown of physical communication in contemporary culture. In resembling abstract paintings captured from an American political television station. Jeremy Newman’s Domestic Rhythms took the form of a video collage of footage from various sources including cartoons to newsreels, charting the development of communication technology through the ages.

As part of the event we also hosted a film screening of a documentary about remix culture, Rip: A Remix Manifesto by Brett Gaylor on the 22nd April. There was also a day of presentations and discussions surrounding associated themes on the 20th April. The speakers at this event were Kevin Flanagan who spoke about the democratization of media; Brian Flanagan who presented a paper titled So Bad its Brilliant; James Hayes spoke about his video piece and its relationship to the associated themes and Máire O’Mahony discussed her work and issues around the notion the artist as entertainer.

Following these formal presentations the discussion ranged across further related topics, which touched on ideas around the place of art in a mediated landscape; the role of the gallery in facilitating new media practices; the significance of online video and its relationship to art practices.

The Eye-Kea Project was well received by audiences and media in Cork city. Audiences from around Ireland and several international artists attended the event. Unfortunately, there was very little national coverage, which was disappointing. But we do accept that to some extent that this is just a fact of life, for budding art spaces, which have not fully established themselves and cannot afford to advertise events effectively or thoroughly on shoestring budgets. On a more positive note, overall the event was very well attended. And we received some very positive feedback and suggestions for future events from people who attended. Through this event BPS established connections and links with institutions and artists locally, nationally and internationally.

Stephanie Hough www.basementprojectspace.wordpress.com Notes (1) Participating artists: Celeste Fichter (USA), Oliver Laric (SLOVENIA), Kelly Oliver & Keary Ronsen (USA), Hugh Cooney (IRELAND), Guy Ben-Ner (ISRAEL), Chen Hangfeng (CHINA), Cecile Wesolowski (FRANCE), James Hayes (IRELAND), Katie Waugh (USA), Elisabeth Smolarz (USA), Keren Zaltz (ISRAEL), Aaron Oldenburg (USA), Antti Savela (SWEDEN), Laura O’Connor (IRELAND), Lynne Heller (CANADA), Jonathan Velardi (ENGLAND), Bjørn Melhus (GERMANY/ NORWAY), Selina Shah (ENGLAND), Jeremy Newman (USA), Kevin Atherton (UK/IRELAND), Michael Szpakowski (ENGLAND), Carolyn Collier (IRELAND), Mice Hell (IRELAND), Karen Y Chan (USA), Máire O’Mahony (IRELAND), Lemeh42 (ITALY), Louise Shine (IRELAND), Catherine Weir (SCOTLAND), Gareth Hudson (UK), Wim Janssen (BELGIUM), Richard O’Sullivan (UK), Paul Wierbinski (GERMANY), Clint Enns (CANADA), James Snazell (ENGLAND), Michael Fortune (IRELAND).

28

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

Problems

Laughism

The Problem Page

Laughism

Our concierge / curator of agony responds to artworld dilemas

By Borislav Byrne

The Ultimate Irish artwork.

Dear Concierge of Agony, Yes, I have before me my latest creation. It’s an almost incandesant object of shining brilliance – so much cleverness is bound up in its material form, along with its content, context and references.

I don’t think I am being immodest or inaccurate , when I declare that this is the ultimate piece of contemporary Irish art.

It comprises of a short quasi-documentary video production and series of hybrid sculptural / furniture objects – rendered in stainless steel, that fuse references to Irish modernist architect and designer Eileen Gray (1878 –1976), the fate of the Delorean carplant in Lisburn in the 1980s…

Let me stop you there ...

I can guess how this list continues. Perhaps with some literary references – WG Sebald, Jorge Luis Borges? And don’t even mention the word ‘archive’! I really am thinking of drawing up a banned list of references and source materials, that will be circulated to selection panels and curators.

Sounds unfair? Well, calm down. I do acknowledge that these subjects and sources are nearly inexhaustible mines of inspiration, insight and knowledge.

But come on, guys, chill the attitude! This material is not hard to get hold off. When wielding these seemingly trendy (but actually pretty mainstream) references, be cool about it.

Less of the “OMG. I’ve just discovered the most am-aa-aa-zing thing that no one else is sure to have ever heard off or properly thought about, but will sound really cool to visiting curators and gallerinas”.

The Boutique MA Dear Concierge of Agony, Can you offer hypothetical assistance in relation to this hypothetical scenario? Some spoilt rich kids from a boutique MFA based in a Chateau outside of Zurich, are participating on a college exchange to ‘crap-hole tech’ in ‘rough city’, in order to intern on an artist-in-the community scheme.

These students pay astronomical fees and spend most of their time tastefully arranging expensive materials and equipment in our state-of the-art architect designed studio complex. It is typical for the students to hire mummy’s interior designers or the fabricators / artisans from daddy’s bespoke arms factory to help with their end of year assignments. The students work is critiqued by top flight euro-curators, who are drawn to the institution because of the astoundingly generous honariums and levels of hospitality offered by the Chateau.

The trouble is, Tarquin, Porche and Hercules (don’t guffaw, but they operate as a communistic ‘collective’) have gone missing. They are presumed to be held for ransom in a shelter for retired dope dealers, one of the community projects being facilitated by the local tech and the curiously named Bong Pipe studios. Please advise me.

This is neither the time or place.

How many times do I have make this clear, Herr Director? While I have the utmost respect for your academy / finishing school for contemporary art refinement, it is impossible for me to continue any longer to advise you on educational strategies and learning outcomes.

As you are well aware, the modest stipend payments I was awarded as a graduate prize in

1985 (for my masters thesis on your grand niece’s collection of biennale VIP invite cards and associated ephemera) expired nearly two decades ago. Thus our professional relationship is terminated.

Naturally, if you would re-consider including me in your roster of generously renumerated long-term visiting lecturer series for the 2011 / 2012 semesters, I may well reconsider my posistion. You may well recall the title of the module was ‘harnessing bitterness and cynicism for creative and financial advantage’.

Would you know Non-Knowledge?

Dear Concierge of Agony, Is possible for an artist to generate the wrong kind of knowledge? I’ve been struggling for the last few weeks with trying to generate the latest kind of knowledge via my practice. But everything seems to come out wrong.

See, I’m trying to arrive at non-knowledge. I have been working on the assumption that it is dark and glutinous semi-antimatter-like substance; and that when I’ve cracked the knack of it, the lights in my studio will flicker ominously and temporarily neutralise mobile phone and broadband reception in 10-kilometre radius around my studio.

Nothing of the kind has happened. Instead – and you can imagine how frustrating this for an artist who is trying to be totally contemporary – I’ve made some quite interesting discoveries in the course of my researches and making processes.

Everything from historical data to the sticking properties of various types of insulating tape. So, definitely not non-knowledge, but old fashioned, quite useful, pretty easy-to-verbalise facts. I know, I know it’s embarrassing!

Bear with me while I try to come over a bit serious and clever. While perhaps being ‘newfangled’, some of the ideas around ‘nonknowledge’ can be related to the ideas of Michel Foucault. In The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969) the old Fouc-meister explores how knowledge and definition-making is always an exercise in power. In short, those making the definitions can be identified as those in charge.

This is definitely a ‘wrong’ type of knowledge – it can generate invidious belief systems that lead to cruelty and oppression.

Non-knowledge can be thought of as the opposite. That is, something more self-reflexive and self-questioning; containing within itself an alertness to the danger of fixed ideas or outlooks; and moreover thinking that ‘knowledge’ or ‘understanding’ once arrived at cannot ever be challenged. In other words, a ‘non-knowledge’ based stance is one that recognises uncertainty and the importance of doubt.

The problem is, that thus far I haven’t seen anywhere a straightforward explanation like this being offered by much art writing – be it reviews, essays, articles, gallery press release or artist’s statements. Which is odd, because then the galleries / artists are pretty much guilty of what they are trying to criticise – wielding knowledge as an instrument of power and exclusion.

So sad to say, yes, it is very possible for artists and the art-world to produce the wrong kind of knowledge.

July – August 2010

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

29

July – August 2010

CONFERENCE REPORT

Touring for One & Many Edel Horan reports on ‘Touring Exhibitions – Who Benefits?’ a round table dIScussion held at VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow on 28 April

Coogan added that that a well planned touring show such as ‘Noughties but Nice’, offered a curatorial ‘investment’ in artists. For Coogan, this type of care and attention could make a huge difference for artist in terms of providing a kind of ‘investment’ in artists making innovative and interesting work. Aideen Barry also felt that the curators of this show were very supportive of her work. It was also noted that touring shows often offered the opportunities and resources for the proper documentation and discussion of artists. The ‘Noughties but Nice’, catalogue included essays by the curator, along with contributions by Shaun Hannigan, Niamh Anne Kelly and of the artists. Each artist featured in the show, was given a four-page section in the publication.

Seamus Nolan similarly observed that a touring show could allow for an “expanded practice”. In terms of his own work, this was especially the case, as Nolan’s practice is focused on the politics of culture; and he often works with local community groups. Thus being part of a touring exhibition offered the opportunity to re-contextualises his work in such terms in each venue. For Nolan it was the “immeasurable values are important”, he noted that his experience of being in a touring exhibition had brought up many questions concerning how a venue or show seeks to ‘educate’ its audience. This concern with creating audiences and engaging audiences was something that Nolan found problematic for Nolan. He noted that for the visual arts in general, audience numbers are very difficult to ascertain, unlike theatre where ticket sales are counted and targets set etc.

While it was felt that institutional collaboration could offer a valuable sharing of experience and result in the forming of connections, some problems were flagged. In particular the question of how to communicate to diverse audiences that spanned a wide socio

Andrew Kearney, Silence, Fabric Inflatable Orb, 2001 and Seamus Nolan, Get in the Back of the Fuckin' Van, Cardboard Replica of Police Transit, 2008.

Installation view at VISUAL Center for Contemporary Art, Carlow.

geographic areas was a challenge for the organisers. Reaching out to audiences and creating PR which covered all the particularities of each

VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow hosted the discussion

venues profile and audiences presented a challenge for each director.

‘Touring Exhibitions – Who Benefits?’ (28 April) in conjunction with

PR does “sustain a venue” according to Carissa Farrell and “presenting

st

the venues showing of the touring exhibition ‘Noughties but Nice: 21

an identity of a venue is important in terms of press because they run

Century Irish Art’ (2 April – 8 May 2010) curated by Mike Fitzpatrick

with a certain identity”. As the identity of a venue, especially in

and Susan Holland. The exhibition was originated by Limerick City

regional centres is important in terms of its profile, the issue arose of

Gallery of Art – where it was first shown. ‘Noughties but Nice: 21st

whether a venue loses its own particular identity when hosting a

Century Irish Art’ was supported by the Arts Council touring pilot

touring exhibition? For example some venues have a policy of including

scheme and subsequently the touring and dissemination of work

local artists, for the purposes of their local profile and relevance – a

scheme. The exhibition’s other ports of call were the Regional Cultural

touring show can upset this balance.

Centre, Letterkenny and Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, where it finished

In the application for the Arts Council’s touring exhibitions

up. The stated central curatorial aim of exhibition was to survey the

schemes, Susan Holland outlined how she had stressed the importance

“extensive terrain of contemporary Irish art over the last decade”. The exhibition featured works by Aideen Barry, Sarah Browne, Denis Connolly, Anne Cleary, Amanda Coogan, Joe Duggan, Ciara Finnegan, Andrew Kearney, Sean Lynch, Caroline McCarthy, Tom Molloy, Seamus

Joe Duggan, Golden Boy God, Assemblage, 2009; Two Prominent Boulders, C Print, 2008; Unfinished Church, Wood Model, 2009. Installation view at Limerick City Gallery of Art. Photo: Patrick Biesty.

of promoting “additional links regionally” and sharing a “huge body of research”. By creating links between regional arts centres, Holland explained how the curators of ‘Noughties but Nice’ wished to create

As Val Ballance pointed out, it is essentially audiences – as

opportunities for venues to work with each other. Solstice director

taxpayers – who are the arts funders. As such it was essential that time

Belinda Quirke stressed the need for such connections – especially in

The panel for the discussion comprised Belinda Quirk, Director of

should taken in curatorial and programming planning, to consider,

light of the budget constraints that regional art centres had to work

Solstice Arts Centre and Carissa Farrell Director of VISUAL; the artists

develop and address audiences. Ballance noted that audiences should

with. Quirke observed that touring exhibitions such a ‘Noughties but

Amanda Coogan, Seamus Nolan and Aideen Barry; the exhibitions

neither have art ‘foisted’ on them; or kept from them, as “having work

Nice’ brought a diverse contemporary practice to Navan, which they

co-curator Susan Holland of Limerick City Gallery along with Val

[in a collection] which people don’t see is a waste of money”.

themselves would not necessarily have the resources and budget to

Nolan, Eamon O’Kane and John Shinnors.

‘Noughties but Nice’ kept in mind both of these points. The show

access. Carissa Farrell did note that however, hosting a touring show,

Val Ballance spoke first and considered the term ‘access’ and what

comprised a mix of previously exhibited works and those that had not.

itself required resources – the hosting venue needs to have enough staff

this means for exhibition organisers and audiences. In his view, it was

The curatorial reasoning behind this mix of old and new, seen and

to invigilate; as well the technical support and staff to run what might

exactly such access – in the most general sense of the term – which a

unseen was due to a desire as co-curator Susan Holland put it, to show

be a complex exhibition in terms of equipment and media set ups.

touring show like this sought to promote. ‘Noughties but Nice: 21 Century Irish Art’ offered other regional publics and institutions the

a “broad wealth of practice” in order to respond to the complexities of

The response to this touring pilot was a positive one, echoed by all

the ‘Celtic Tiger’ decade. Examples in the show included Eamon O’

who took part, including the audience. One of the closing questions

benefits of Limerick City Galleries programming and resources.

Kane’s new work Cardboard Modernist Furniture; and Denis Connelly

was whether Ireland was too small to host touring exhibitions? The

Strikingly, Ballance ventured the opinion, that in his view regional

and Anne Cleary’s Plus / Minus, which although being an old work was

example of ‘Noughties but Nice’ seems to suggest that this is certainly

arts centres, through such initiatives were actually ‘outperforming’

presented in a new way. As well as this, Ballance observed that the

not the case. It was agreed that the connections fostered by the

certain of the city galleries in Ireland, in terms of both offering more

works in the show were predominantly concerned with issues of

participating venues would prove to be invaluable resources for all of

varied programmes and considering the dynamics of their audiences.

viewer / audience engagement. Examples include Aideen Barry’s works

the participating institutions.

Expanding on this idea, Ballance cited Mike Fitzpatrick’s introductory

focus on psychological and mental states; Seamus Nolan’s practices

Overall, Seamus Nolan’s interest in “immeasurable values” had a

comments in the shows catalogue, which discusses consideration of

engagement with state power and Amanda Coogan’s critiques of

key relevance to this project which surveyed work made during the

the ‘one and many’ in exhibition curation and planning –, the one

consumer society.

materialistic yeas of the Celtic Tiger years. What can be said for the

Ballance, Head of Venues at the Arts Council.

st

being the artist, the many meaning the audience. A Fitzpatrick had put

The consensus amongst artists on the panel was that the benefits

next decade? During the ‘tiger’ years Carissa Farrell saw art becoming

it, the aim of a good touring show was to serve “separately but

of a touring exhibition were all in the mobility and making of the work

“very introspective”; but as evidenced in the both work featured in

coherently” the one and the many – and a show ultimate success would

accessible to more diverse audiences. After showing Adoration at Live

‘Noughties but Nice’ and the models of curatorial and artistic practice

be judged by the many: the audience.

@ 8 in Galway, Amanda Coogan was unsure who else would get to see

underpinning the exhibition, there seems to be a turn towards ‘the

The subject of public and audience was made much of during the

it. As part of ‘Noughties but Nice’, Coogan felt the work had got “a really

audience’ taking place – a looking outwards again. As Susan Holland

round table discussion. A key point raised was the notion that touring

good outing” by being shown in four venues as opposed to one. The

noted, more and more “audiences and audience development are

shows had the potential to create and develop new audiences. It was

piece was seen by more people – and along the way came to the

becoming a topic of conversation” between institutions and funders.

observed by Carissa Farrell, that the focus, in terms of funding decisions

attention of both Kinsale Arts Week and Dublin’s St. Patrick’s Festival

Simply put, according to Carissa Farrell ‘Noughties but Nice’ “considered

used to be on artists; and the move to the Arts Council’s emphasis on

who subsequently both incorporated the work in their respective

the audience very well; and that is why it worked”.

considering the audience was a significant and welcome one. Co-curator

visual arts programmes. Another plus for Coogan was the fact that in

of the exhibition, Susan Holland added that the curator’s job as being

each venue the exhibition layout was different, thus permitting the

one of bring together audiences and artists.

artist to re-imagine and re-configure the work in different ways.

Edel Horan

30

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2010

Project Profile

Solas workshop – Family Programme. The Butler Gallery, KIlkenny

Participants from the Engage summer school. July 200 IMMA.

The Pace of Gallery Education A profile of PACE – The Partnership for the Arts and Creative Engagement

A participant in Dublin City Gallery: the Hugh Lane's school programme

“PACE is a web-based initiative developed to provide an opportunity for professionals in the field of arts education practice to engage with each other, to share ideas and to advocate the important role that arts education plays in contemporary society. PACE seeks to facilitate the development of links and working partnerships in Ireland and internationally.”

Louise Allen (PACE founder).

Developing Arts Education Practice in Galleries & Museums In Ireland, arts and education practice – in the context of contemporary visual arts galleries and museums – can be defined as activities that engage and inform communities and increase awareness and understanding of the arts to society. Today, almost all public galleries and museums in Ireland employ a curator or director of education programmes, some museums and galleries have a team of employees charged with developing events and programmes to mediate exhibitions and engage the public. A day in the life of an education curator might involve eliciting and delivering information to different groups in a gallery or museum space; programming events and courses for different communities on site or at outreach locations; scheming about collaborative arts projects with partners from within and outside the arts sector and of course, for the most part finding the funding to do this.

In Ireland, the field is relatively young compared to its British and American counterparts, and is closely tied to the development of community arts practice. Community arts practice emerged in a climate of difficult economic circumstances and widespread social issues. During the 1970s numerous community arts programmes emerged in both Northern and Southern Ireland. By 1983 community arts practice was formally recognised and led to the establishment of CAFÉ – Creative Arts For Everyone (now CREATE). In 1985 the Arts Council established an action research programme ‘ACE’ (Arts

Community Education) that monitored six education and community projects over a four-year period and that year also marked the appointment of Ireland’s first local authority arts officer. By the 1990s the value and contribution of arts education programmes in the development of creatively involved, critically engaged communities was firmly established.

The current mission statement for the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s education department is “to foster within society an increased awareness and understanding of the visual arts by creating innovative and inclusive opportunities for people to engage with the Museum’s exhibitions and programmes, both as audience members and participants”. When IMMA opened in 1991, education was a central focus of its activity. Helen O’Donoghue was appointed as a Senior Curator of Education to lead the development of an education department that would initiate ground-breaking programmes to engage local and national communities and set the standard for the development of arts and education practice in museum and gallery contexts.

Since the founding of IMMA and to a greater extent over the past decade, employees whose focus is on a diverse and dynamic education programme for people of all ages have joined arts organisations across the country in a bid to increase access to these organisations, and offer ways for people to interact and participate in the lives of galleries and museums in a more fulfilling way. The requirement for galleries and museums to focus on the development of education programmes that enhance exhibition programming has been driven largely by the Arts Council of Ireland and inspired by the quality and impact of programming at IMMA. The Partnership for the Arts and Creative Engagement Education curators with extensive education programmes that sit alongside, mediate and overlap with exhibition programmes at their

Jean Brady and John Kenny, at the 'A Sense of Place' project IMMA 1996.

respective galleries are now present in most of Ireland’s major galleries and museums, including Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane, the Lewis Glucksman, Cork, the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, the Model, Sligo and the Butler Gallery, Kilkenny. In most of these organisations, education curators are often the sum of their department, and up to recently had worked in isolation without thorough knowledge of what was happening in terms of similar practice in other counties in Ireland. This was one of the motivations behind the setting up of PACE. In 2006 the Arts Council of Ireland provided funding to the four education curators of the Butler Gallery, The Hugh Lane, the Model and the Lewis Glucksman to develop their practice through research, networking, collaboration and discussion. With support from the Arts Council and the Heritage Council, the Education Curators founded PACE - the Partnership for the Arts through Creative Engagement.

PACE was set up to enable the sharing of resources, to provide the opportunity for critical debate and to create a space to allow for collaborative education programmes to develop that have a national and international impact.

The website www.artspace.ie was launched in March 2009 at the Craft’s Council of Ireland’s ‘Cultural Rucksack’ conference held in collaboration with the Norske Kunsthandvereke. The aim of the website is to allow for virtual interaction, networking, and to give contemporary cultural organisations the opportunity to highlight their work. The site helps to illustrate the high standard of education programming that is already taking place nationwide and, it is hoped, will help to inform future projects and policies. It is also becoming an archive, exhibiting a record of past education practice of the various galleries and museums who are members.

Soon after the launch, PACE hosted Engage’s (the UK organisation for gallery education) International Summer School in July 2009 at the Butler Gallery and Kilkenny Castle. Entitled, 'Shifting Perspectives', 30 delegates from education departments of museums and galleries all over Europe met in Kilkenny to discuss current issues and ideas in the gallery and museum education field. The Summer School attracted a number of international members to the site as a result of this event.

Since then, education curators from the Butler Gallery, The Hugh Lane and the Model have been consistently meeting to develop ideas for the PACE website, to discuss plans for future physical events and to continue sharing ideas about practice, funding and other areas where peer support is necessary.

PACE is now actively seeking to grow its membership base and invites people working in the field of arts and education practice as part of a gallery or museum to join the network. Members can submit projects, training and funding information, look for potential partners, pitch an idea or just brainstorm with colleagues. In 2011 PACE hopes to host its inaugural seminar examining the fundamental theme of ‘Collections and Education’. This is a very topical issue in the Irish arts world at present, considering the current decommissioning of commercial collections and the potential merging of national institutions. PACE wants to pose the following questions – What are our assets? Who is collecting – what and why? Where are our collections being seen? What notable education programmes linked to collections have been achieved in the past? How can we work together to make the most of our collections by collaborating on farreaching programmes that involve the ultimate keepers of public collections – the Irish community at large?

If you are interested in joining PACE or in discussing these questions and other ideas for the 2011 PACE seminar, please contact us by emailing joinartspace@gmail.com.

Louise Allen (ed.), Marie Louise Blaney, Katy Fitzpatrick & Jean Tormey

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

31

July – August 2010

Art in public: Roundup

Art In Public: Roundup

Life Blood

black text on a red ground.

Cavan Symposium

The concluding text element of the work was presented at the Oonagh Young Gallery, Dublin (6 May), along with a panel discussion featuring John Lawlor in conversation with Maeve Connolly (lecturer in the school of creative arts, Dun Laoghaire

Stephen McGlynn Mapping Project

Institute of Art, Design and Technology) and

shipping container across office hours, Monday to

Christina Kennedy, Senior Curator, Head of

Friday. McGlynn's proposal to Arttrail entailed "a

Collections, Irish Museum of Modern Art.

kind of psychological mapping of geographies" –

http://stereojlg.wordpress.com http://twitter.com/stereojlg www.oonaghyoung.com

both real and constructed around Cork City but swelled to encompass the County just as quickly. The project was intened as "a register for

The Product

peoples emotional attachments to things which had shifted or been lost on the geographical landscape", Joey Burns working at the Cavan sculpture symposium.

Cathy Henderson Tefvik Akin – work from Life Blood.

The artist-led sculpture symposium ‘Mórtas an Chabháin – Pride of Cavan’ is running until late August. The project is being held in conjunction with the Fleadh Cheoil. Initiated by sculptor Joey Burns, the symposium’s aims are to reflect and celebrate county pride, especially in terms of local music traditions.

The works being created for the symposium include The Four Players

by Padraig Cahill –

comprising four eight foot tall and three foot wide cylindrical structures, sited on the Dublin approach road to Cavan town. Joey Burns is working on a large wood carved fiddle head that will welcome Fleadh visitors to the town at the Bus Éireann station.

Niamh Smyth is planning an internal piece that will be a calming backdrop to the busy machinations of the Fleadh Head office. Dancing at the Crossroads is the title of a bandstand / interactive space created by Laura O’Connor, in order to

Deepa Mann-Kler The Product, North St. Belfast.

Deepa Mann-Kler completed The Product on 21 March 2010 on North Street, Belfast. The artwork was commissioned as part of the Belfast City Council initiative Tr’ans Urban Street Art Festival 2010’, which was directed by Adam Turkington.

The artist’s concept behind ‘The Product’ was a play on Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup with a Northern Irish twist, commenting as it does on DUP minister’s Gregory Campbell comments about the devolution of policing in Northern Ireland. The work is entitled Campbell’s Condensed Community Confidence. www.deepamannkler.com

New Sculpture on the Curragh

encourage participation and impromptu sessions which are integral to the ethos of Comhaltas and Tina Quinn is working on a sculpture for the Rose Garden at Farnham Street, Cavan. Sally O’Dowd is creating Irish dancing shoes from wire and Sellotape that will be translucent and will be draped

Lynn Kirkham Fionn and the Hounds

The Curragh has a new sculptural landmark of

experimental music videos inspired by the

Fionn Mac Cumhail and his hounds, located at

musicians of Co Cavan.

Ballymany Roundabout (exit 12 of the M7

Edwin Lynch is working on a series of willow-

motorway). The figures, in Corten steel, are the

weave sculptures that will be showcased at the Con

work of Lynn Kirkham of the Greenmantle studio

Smith Park beside Cavan Institute. Anne O’Reilly is

and were commissioned by Kildare Arts Office. The

making four seven foot triangular-based pyramids

sculpture of a spear-wielding Fionn is five metres

and one flat triangle that will reflect early music

high while the hounds stand at three metres. The

compositions.

work provides a link to Fionn’s reputed residence at the Hill of Allen.

Lynn Kirkham’s others works include woven

episodes across the pages of The Irish Times Weekend edition (March – April 2010). The work was described as being “borne of a nostalgia for newsprint and a salute to 1960s conceptual art strategies”.

Working within the organisational system of The Irish Times – its language, format, house style – the siting of each episode relied on a sub-editor’s layout decisions. Without captions or explanations each episode appeared as a modestly scaled piece of

with communities of place and/or interest to realise

Description: This series of portraits came about as

contemporary art projects. Fourteen student artists

a result of a direct intervention by the artist who

worked collaboratively in a range of social and

approached St James’s hospital. The idea emerged

community contexts from January to the end of

from her observation of the institutional portraits

April 2010.

along a corridor in Saint Vincent’s Hospital where

The exhibition presented the processes and

all the sitters were men: senior consultants, board

work created collaboratively by the students and

members, distinguished doctors or benefactors (the

seven different community and resident groups in

sole exception being Mother Mary Aikenhead, the

and around the city and explored the act of

founder of the Hospital) and her wish to redress that

translating the work from the context of production

imbalance.

to the gallery exhibition. This year the participating

An extract from Catherine Marshall’s essay for

community and resident groups included: Spirasi;

the exhibition states that, “Cathy Henderson’s

Iona Centre; National Rehabilitation Hospital

portraits of Dublin City Council workers (2007) and

–Spinal Injuries Ireland; DeafHear.ie; Friends of the

her portraits of workers in Saint James’s Hospital

Elderly; Panti Bar and Prison Arts Foundation (NI).

‘Open

Conversation

for

Artists

and

nor donated by privileged old-boys, and, hence they

Communities’ an ancillary discussion event took

are not hierarchical. Henderson, whose Master’s

place on 27 May. The event focussed critical debate

degree was awarded for a study of workers in the

and reflection on artists and communities working

markets area of Dublin, is interested in all workers

collaboratively.

input from both sitter and artist so that the painted

culture and music to a young audience through

artist John Lalor was presented in five sequential

supports student artists to work collaboratively

Participants: Non-Medical staff at St James’s Hospital

representation is twofold and democratic with real

children to inspire them as they draw what the

Stereo JLG / the editing of the trailer, a work by Irish

The Learning Development programme

Sited / Took place: 11 March – 31 May 2009

www.create-ireland.ie www.ncad.ie

all function in the machine’. Her mode of

workshops inviting musicians to sit and play for the

Stereo JLG

the Learning Development Programme 2010.

Funding body: Arts and Disability Forum

herself, ‘I am interested in individuality and how we

Ross Cochrane is hosting a series of children’s

www.fleadh2010.ie

by NCAD, IADT and Tisch third year art students on

Commissioning body: St James’s Hospital

amount of authority they hold. As she puts it

Irish dancing shoes.

Alan James Burns hopes to market traditional Irish

May – 2 June) was the culmination of work created

Location: St James’s Hospital

irrespective of the colour of their collars or the

across the streets amid sheet music bunting and real

Fleadh and the music means to them. Video artist

‘From Context to Exhibition’ at NCAD Gallery (19

Artist: Cathy Henderson

were neither commissioned by these institutions

the Fleadh.

From Context to Exhibition

Title: Life Blood

‘growing willow’ structures, that can be seen at one of the roundabouts close to Kildare Village. Kirkham is well known for her traditional willow pieces and she also constructs artworks in a variety of media such as bronze, steel, concrete and reclaimed metal.

Fionn Mac Cumhail and his hounds was commissioned as a significant landmark to celebrate Kildare’s colourful history and to acknowledge the military presence in the county since earliest times.

It takes pride of place in the planned public art and heritage trail for Newbridge. The trail will include works by local and international artists who have sited works in the town.

portraits, largely directed by her, are accompanied by a series of recorded interviews with each sitter, in which they present themselves in their own words, with their own voices.” The portraits were also shown during the Arts Council ‘Vital Signs’ exhibition and conference at Dr Steevens’ Hospital, the head office of the Health Service Executive. www.vitalssigns.artscouncil.ie

Mapping Project Artist: Stephen Mc Glynn Title: Mapping Project Commissioning Body: Arttrail Advertised: November 2009 Sited / Carried Out: 9 – 23 Nov 2009 Budget: Self Funded (Promotion and base materials provided by Arttrail / Location and Electrical work provided by Port of Cork) Commission Type: Open Submission Partners: Arttrail (curated by Sarah Iremonger), Port of Cork (Electrical and Engineering work) Description: As part of the 2009 Arttrail McGlynn proposed a public work entitled the Mapping Project.

The artist was partnered with the heritage site of the Port of Cork and conducted the project from a

YOUR WORK HERE !

If you have recently been involved in a public commission, percent for art project, socially engaged project 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 advertised.

Date sited / carried out.

Budget (NB artwork / site work).

Commission type (eg direct invitation, open competition, limited competition, did you have to prepare a submission at a shortlisting 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.

32

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

CONFERENCE REPORT

Get Up & Go

Chris Clarke ON ‘Getting On With Art: Conversations on Practicalities Through Practice’, WHICH took place Friday 26 March, CIT Cork School of Music When one speaks of ‘getting on with things’, it suggests routine, frustration, the necessity of summoning up the willpower to persevere despite all the usual obstacles and difficulties. It’s not the romantic view of art practice often put forth by cinema or literature, where one sees the artist in the studio, singularly focused on the act of putting form to divine inspiration. Instead, ‘getting on with art’ means sleeves rolled up, practising, struggling, failing and starting again, day in, day out.

The phrase also evokes the notion of art practice as something that exists in between and around other activities and responsibilities, all those things that would necessarily preclude spending time making art.

At a period when labour is increasingly outsourced to temporary employees and the distinction between work and leisure blurred to the point of meaninglessness, it is worth noting that artists have always been working like this. In a way, this might stem from the indefinable nature of contemporary art practice, where research, production, travel and everyday life can all be seen as potential points of inspiration and influence. When a company like Google offers their engineers “20-percent time so that they’re free to work on what they’re really passionate about” (1) (and feels entitled to boast about their magnanimity in such an offer) artists can only marvel at such a strict and antiquated delineation of working hours.

Certainly, in trying to find a balance between art practice and the necessity of making a living (and supporting that practice), artists have often demonstrated a pragmatism and awareness that making art goes beyond the studio. It involves all the unseen necessities of writing applications for grants and residencies (essentially turning every prospective project into a job interview), compiling portfolios, giving presentations, networking with curators and collectors, visiting exhibitions, reading and researching, and so on. All these things have become part of what is known as art practice, but they are also demands that, in most cases, only supplement the actual artwork, which make its production and dissemination possible. They are a necessary evil (but necessary nonetheless). All this came to the fore in the seminar 'Getting on with Art: Conversations on Practicalities Through Practice', held at the CIT School of Music in Cork (26 March) and collectively organised by the National Sculpture Factory, Crawford Art Gallery and Crawford College of Art & Design.

I was privy to some of the preliminary meetings held prior to event that stressed the importance of letting artists – and only artists – speak about their practice. That’s not to say the event was concerned with dealing with a traditional conception of art, of those practitioners sequestered in their studios making ‘stuff’. Rather the discussion recognised that the definition of art practice itself has changed significantly – so that the term ‘artist’ is just as likely to imply: artist / critic / educator / writer / curator / whatever. This approach extended to the choice of Alan Phelan as seminar chair, whose own practice has moved freely from visual art (and its various media) to criticism and curatorial projects. It takes one to know one, I guess, and, with a fellow artist at the helm, conversations consistently returned to this notion of the practical. The panellists for this event were Maud Cotter, Clodagh Emoe, Sean Lynch and Edel O’Reilly. While the event had a clearly didactic mandate, the diverse practices of the artists involved demonstrated how everyday concerns are often determined by the work itself.

Maud Cotter’s practice, for example, has undergone significant shifts, from stained glass to sculpture to installation. This openness to experimentation, to the exploration of her materials, and the possibility of ‘failure’, exemplifies the tenacity and flexibility required in making art. There is something liberating about such an approach, where an artist embraces the inevitable shortfall between the initial conception of the work and the finished work itself. This discrepancy is overlooked in much so-called conceptual art and its disregard for the actual production of the object. The process is often seen as merely a way of getting from point a to point b. In Cotter’s practice (which I would argue has a stronger relationship to conceptual art than is immediately apparent, through its use of readymade objects and elements of chance), the ‘thinking’ of the work is inextricably tied to its making. While her practice adheres to a more singular and studio-based approach than the other artists involved in the seminar (or at least appears to) it incorporates external influences and ideas in a subtler way. Rather than subscribing to the single, overriding concept or, conversely, to the conditions and limitations of the materials, Cotter’s work seems to emphasise the relationship between the two, the numerous decisions made along the way and the refinement of an idea through its physical making. In speaking of ‘getting on with art’, the aspect of ‘getting on’ is just as valuable and important as the ‘art’.

Cotter’s presentation demonstrated the very reasons one is drawn

to art as a profession – as a means to investigate new ideas and mediums, and to find a non-literal way of communicating those concepts to a wider audience. This notion is taken to its logical conclusion in Clodagh Emoe’s work. For example, in her 2009 event Mystical Anarchism, which utilised performance, spectacle and interactivity alongside the more staid conventions of the philosophical lecture – the interdisciplinary nature of this piece reflected Emoe’s emphasis on research and collaboration. There was also something inspiring in the artist’s admission that, having previously made work influenced by the writer Simon Critchley, she managed to actively involve him in the project.

Emoe’s footage of him, sparsely illuminated by a miner’s lamp, reading to an audience in the dead of night at Glendalough, demonstrated how such propositions can produce quite challenging, innovative results.

This is one of the benefits of being a contemporary artist; the lack of a consensus on what art is, can prove a real draw to those working in other, more clearly defined, disciplines. It is an opportunity to stretch out and try new ideas and methods.

This can work to the advantage as well. In general, art is open to the input of different fields and the relationship goes both ways, with art’s very indeterminacy lending itself to other contexts and situations. Sean Lynch’s practice typically involves working through existing (and noncultural) institutional channels, and allowing the inherent conditions and limitations of these structures to shape the work itself, as in his Delorean: Progress Report project. Intending to photograph the factory presses used to fabricate parts of DeLorean automobiles, Lynch found the obsolete machinery had been re-purposed to serve as underwater anchors for fish cages. As a result, he was forced to delegate the actual documentation to specialist, deep-sea photographers. For an audience of recent graduates and emerging artists, such an approach might seem a dereliction of duty. In fact, what is most intriguing here is the emphasis on historical research to the detriment of manual labour, the handing over of the aesthetic, ‘artistic’ moment to hired professionals. And yet, one would hardly say that the finished work is incidental or secondary to the process; rather, the realisation of Lynch’s initial concept is essential in communicating the ideas and anecdotes at the heart of the project.

One of the reasons for a seminar like this is to encourage emerging artists to continue and develop their own practices. At the same time, expansive notions of what exactly constitutes art practice shifts some of the focus from production to exhibition and distribution. It isn’t enough to just make work, one has to ensure that it is put out there. Cork has experienced a small revolution in new, independent project spaces and collectives, and this do-it-yourself ethos has had a significant impact on the city’s community of artists, musicians and curators. Typically, success breeds success and, in her presentation, Edel O’Reilly, an artist and co-founder of Cork Contemporary Projects (CCP), made her own endeavours in setting up and running such a space seem well within reach. Fittingly, O’Reilly emphasised the value of consistent programming as much as the exhibition space itself. This is a common pitfall, as enthusiasm dwindles and programmers have to look outside their immediate coterie of fellow artists for exhibitors, and CCP seems to have anticipated this dilemma through its fluctuating membership and determination to run projects as predetermined, durational events (in this case, a series of off-site exhibitions scheduled to occur for one year only, regardless of their success).

There’s an old joke that goes something like: “when critics talk about art they talk about form, composition, the interplay of colour and texture. When artists talk about art they talk about what brand of paint they use.” Fortunately, this wasn’t the case here, even with a panel composed entirely of artists. In fact, the above notions of art practice as collaborative, experimental, administrative, curatorial, as a sort of endless multi-tasking, prove a fitting riposte to common ideas of art as an insular and subjective process. The extension of the practice beyond the studio, to incorporate other positions and develop other ‘tools’ of production, might imply an expectation that artists can do everything themselves but it is precisely the impossibility of working in isolation that makes for an artistic community. Art practice becomes realisable simply because it need not be a solitary activity. It insists upon communication and compromise, shared activity in place of inward contemplation, and practice as a part of the wider world rather than a reflection of it.

Chris Clarke is a critic and Curator of Education and Collections at Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork

Notes 1. See Google’s Jobs page at www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=about. html&about=eng

July – August 2010

REGIONAL CONTACTS

Nights in May A BELFAST ROUNDUP ...

We have been having a cultural feast in Belfast. We began with the Festival of Fools (29 April – 3 May) (1). Curious and disturbing, in equal measure. But, next time, more performance artists please (thought provoking / questioning- good)- less performing artists (too demanding – bad).

With the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival (29 April – 9 May), visual arts – curated by Brown and Bri (2); and a veritable deluge of arts experiences across the city, areas spring to life. Visual arts do this best, gradually making their presence felt. As a last vestige of rebellion in our bland society, artists should be encouraged to flatten hierarchies whilst adding colour and interest. One such area animated by the visual arts is Queen Street, in city centre, Belfast. Within this environ lies Catalyst(3), the Digital Arts Studios / Queen Street Studios (4) and Platform and the Platform collectives’ inspired use of the old police station as an installation / contemporary art venue (5). Brilliant.

Thursday nights hold a special place in Belfast for artists. And when the weather and general city ambience helps, it work just that wee bit better, as happened on a recent Thursday in May. Each of the studio / gallery spaces in Queen Street had an event almost in the same block. Aside from those invited, each and every wandering scion of Belfast nightlife could view any and all forms of art.

The show in Catalyst was inspired by time capsules placed under the floorboards in the first space occupied by catalyst when it formed. These capsules had reached their point of exhumation and this was the culmination. ‘Art Rebels: Catalyst Arts 1994 – 2010, A Curious Retrospective’ (1 May – 12 June ) ticked all the boxes rather well. Curious, intriguing, fun, bit of horror, some compassion, some humility – or humiliation (6) – plenty of alcohol, good music, a sunny dry summer evening. As opening nights go, it was well-conceived, well put together and a credit to the board. But making it there first meant it was almost impossible to extricate oneself to get to other events!

I just wish someone had had the presence of mind to construct aerial walkways or ropes between Digital Art Studios (DAS) / Queen Street Studios (QSS) and Catalyst – the thought of seven flights of stairs is not appealing. Please note when any of you decide you need new premises rent ground floor ones!

Belfast on a sunny evening in May holds its ground and a venue like Catalyst benefits us and behoves the city. It lends an edgy feel with its wonderful big warehouse windows – it could be any industrial city. But it’s not, it’s Belfast – and its edgier than most, despite being the smallest of all.

Political spin, slick marketing and too many ‘attractive’ buildings may polish a city but the polishing grinds away the differences and squanders a cities character. So does questionable public art, which brings me to another special topic. Initiated in Belfast, we have a campaign by artists, academics, curators, architects etc questioning the processes and criteria for the selection and placement of public art. It is entitled ‘No more Public Art in Belfast’ (7) ...

Laura Graham Visual Artists Ireland Antrim Contact Notes (1) www.foolsfestival.com (2) www.cqaf.com (3) www.catalystarts.org.uk (4) http://digitalartsstudios.com www.queenstreetstudios.net (5) www.stationproject.com (6) This event will be reported on in more detail in the next edition of the VAN. (7) http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=110495205642651&ref=nf

Visual Artists Ireland Regional Contacts West of Ireland Aideen Barry aideenbarry@gmail.com Antrim Laura Graham laura@visualartists.ie Fermanagh, Tyrone, Derry Damien Duffy damien@visualartists.ie

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