Visual Artists' News Sheet - 2014 January February

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet issue 1 January – February 2014 Published byVisual Artists Ireland Ealaíontóirí Radharcacha Éire

irish bronze Dedicated to the faithful reproduction of the sculptor’s vision

T: 01 454 2032 E: irishbronze@eircom.net W: www.irishbronze.ie

Willie Malone: casting sculpture for over two decades Kilmainham Art Foundry Ltd. t/a Irish Bronze, Inchicore Rd and Griffith College, Dublin 8

FOLLY Art after Architecture Jeff Carter Blaise Drummond Laura Gannon Pierre Huyghe Chris Mottalini Eamon O’Kane Hiroshi Sugimoto

Arts Council of Northern Ireland Developing the arts in Northern Ireland

FOLLY

Art after Architecture

runs until 23 March

An extensive programme of curated events, public talks and art workshops takes place throughout the exhibition run.

Lewis Glucksman Gallery University College Cork Tel. + 353 21 4901844

Admission Free / Suggested donation €5

10 - 5 Tuesday - Saturday 2 - 5 Sundays Closed Mondays

www.glucksman.org

Arts Council of Northern Ireland, MacNeice House, 77 Malone Road, Belfast BT9 6AQ. T: +44 (28) 9038 5200. W: www.artscouncil-ni.org. E: info@artscouncil-ni.org

Image: Brendan Jamison, Green JCB bucket with holes. Arts Council Collection

Curated by Gary Boyd and Fiona Kearney

With support from the:

Prequel symposia series:

Translating in/Justice Curated by Omar Berrada 24 & 25 January 2014 Dar Al-Ma'mûn, Marrakech

EVA International 2014 Ireland's Biennial 12 April — 6 July 2014 Preview: Friday 11 April

It Makes us Think of a Dance and a Fête as Much as of War (On Violence) Curated by Doreen Mende 22 March 2014 IMMA, Dublin

Curated by Bassam El Baroni Full programme and artists announced February 2014 www.eva.ie | info@eva.ie

Image: Stuart Cairns, Photographer: Sylvain Deleu

CULTURECRAFT

FREE. To reserve a place rsvp@eva.ie

Gordon Ashbridge, Christopher James Burns, Stuart Calvin, Ian Cumberland, Craig Donald, Fiona Finnegan, Eimear Friers, Ben Groves, Angela Halliday, Dorothy Hunter, Aisling Kane, Miguel Martin, Tim Millen, Brian J. Morrison, Blaine O’Donnell, Eamon Quinn, Peter Spiers, Anne Marie Taggart

21 Jan - 19 March 2013 37 makers from Ireland, Northern Ireland and the UK were asked to create an object which reflects their understanding of culture, in order to explore how material objects can carry a community’s shared history and reflect a cultural perspective.

Late Date: Thurs 30th Jan, 6pm Artist talk with Caroline Scholfield

Late Date – Friday 29th June Late Date: Thurs 27th Feb, 6pm at 6.30pm. Join us for a glass Artist talks with Nigel Cheney & of wine and an informal tour of Dr Helen McAllister the exhibition.

OPENING THURSDAY 6 FEBRUARY, 7PM EXHIBITION CONTINUES 7 FEBRUARY – 29 MARCH 2014 AT MILLENNIUM COURT ARTS CENTRE CURATED BY FEARGAL O’MALLEY WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MCAC, VISUAL ARTIST’S IRELAND (VAI) WILL RUN A SERIES OF INFORMATION SESSIONS, CURATOR AND ARTIST TALKS. A NEW PUBLICATION ACCOMPANIES THE EXHIBITION.

4

The Visual Artists’News Sheet

Editorial

January – February 2014

Contents

Happy New Year and welcome to the Jan / Feb 2014 edition of the Visual Artists' News Sheet. The columnists in this issue – Emily Mark FitzGerald, Jonathan Carroll and Rebecca Strain – consider the value of university art collections, IMMA’s re-opening at the RHK and the realities of ‘making it’ as an artist.

Reviewed in Critique are: ‘Common ground’, Occupy Space, Limerick; ‘The Work of Micheal Farrell’ Crawford Gallery, Cork; Dragana Jurisic, Belfast Exposed; Mary Burke Draiocht, Dublin; ‘A Lamb Lies Down’, Broadstone Studios, Dublin; Sinead Rice in a group show at Flowers Gallery, London; and Mark Durcan at The Lab, Dublin.

Laois is the subject of our regional focus. Aideen Barry, our West of Ireland representative reports on a VAI Common Room Café hosted by HQ / Occupy space, focused on financial security for artists. VAI’s Northern Ireland manager Feargal O’Malley discusses the 132nd RUA exhibition, while Jason Oakley reports on a talk initiated by VAI and hosted by the Golden Thread, Belfast that considered what artists and institutions gain from high profile awards such as the Turner Prize.

For the Dublin Live Art Festival, VAI presented a master class with Nigel Rolfe and the discussion ‘Sustaining Performance Based Practices’; El Putnam reports on both on page 15. Details of upcoming VAI Professional Development events are on page 33.

The VAN’s focus on the topic of contemporary art and philosophy concludes with Aoife Tunney and Eilís Lavelle's discussion of ‘I Won’t Say I will See You Tomorrow’, a project that explored the legacy of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Jason Ellis charts how the professional aspects of his art career are indivisible from his practice, in an article entitled Becoming a Better Sculptor. Also considering the evolution of her work, Lisa Fingleton reports on a workshop led by Shirin Neshat at the London film school.

Three articles profile projects addressing the public realm: Ruby Wallis’s multi-media project ‘Illuminate’, focused on people with intellectual disabilities; ‘Art Lot’, a programme of artworks presented in a vacant lot in Dublin city centre; and Kathy Herbert and Dorothy Smith’s open studio project ‘Open to the Public’, also in Dublin.

Ciara Healy and Karl Musson, write about their time at 126’s ‘Art Farm’ residency. Maria Mckinney, Sue Corke and Hagen Betzwieser describe their experiences of the studio exchange between Fire Station Artists’ Studios, Dublin and Acme Studios, London.

Barry Kehoe profiles Block T, Dublin. Patricia Hurl and Therry Rudin are interviewed by Fiona Woods about Damer House, a new artist-led space located in an historic building in Tipperary.

The topic of collaboration is addressed in two articles: 'Palimpsest/ Rianú', a project involving works created by overlaying a number of artists' interventions, is profiled by Eoin Mac Lochlainn, who describes its presentation at ‘Artisterium VI’ in Tbilisi, Georgia; Musicians Fergal Dowling and Michael Quinn, along with visual artist Ailbhe ní Bhriain, outline the ideas and processes underpinning Mirrors of Earth – a presentation of a chamber ballet Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho accompanied by video works by ní Bhriain.

And, as always, we have the roundup of recent exhibitions and public projects, details of all the latest opportunities, news from the visual arts sector;and Pablo Helguera’s Artoons dissecting the absurdities and ironies of the art world.

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Visual Artists Ireland

Cover: Mark Swords, Reflections and Variations, 14 September 2013, Redcross Woods. Presented as part of 'I wont say I will see you tomorrow' a multi-disciplinary project exploring the legacy of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Photo: Enda Doran.

5. Column. Rebecca Strain. Snooping & Shooting in the Dark.

5. Roundup. Recent exhibitions and projects of note.

6. Column. Emily Mark Fitzgerald. A Special Beauty in all that is Goodly …

7. Column. Jonathan Carroll. Steadier on its Feet.

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

8. VAI News. Recent VAI activities, campaigns, comment and analysis.

9. Regional Focus. Laois: Resources & Activities. Adrienne Symes, Angela Delaney, Laois Arts Office, Jackie Carter, Karen Hendy.

12. Residency Profile. Immersed in Possibility. Ciara Healy and Karl Musson, recipients of 126 gallery’s Art Farm residency, offer an account of their experiences.

13. Institution Profile. Evolve, Learn, Grow. Barry Kehoe profiles Block T studios, Dublin.

14. Profile. Fostering the Countrypolitan. Patricia Hurl and Therry Rudin talk to Fiona Woods about Damer House, a new artist-led space in Tipperary.

15. VAI Professional Development. Sustaining the Ephemeral. El Putnam profiles VAI's masterclass by Nigel Rolfe and the discussion ‘Sustaining Performance Based Practices’ at the Dublin Live Art Festival.

16. Residency. Station to Station. Maria Mckinney, Sue Corke and Hagen Betzwieser describe the studio exchange run by Fire Station Artists' Studios, Dublin and Acme Studios, London.

17. Project Profile. Tbilisi Traces. Eoin Mac Lochlainn profiles the 'Palimpsest/ Rianú' project, which was shown as part of Artisterium VI, held in Tbilisi, Georgia during October 2013.

18. Career Development. Becoming a Better Sculptor. Jason Ellis describes his training and background and reflects on the motivation and philosophy behind his art practice.

19. Critique. ‘Common ground’, Occupy Space, Limerick; ‘The Work of Micheal Farrell’, Crawford Gallery, Cork; Dragana Jurisic, Belfast Exposed; Mary Burke Draiocht, Dublin; Sinead Rice in a group show at Flowers Gallery, ‘A Lamb Lies Down’, Broadstone Studios, Dublin; Mark Durcan, The Lab, Dublin 23. Workshop. Intention, Then Interpretation. Lisa Fingleton reports on her participation in a workshop with Shirin Neshat at the London Film School.

24. Art in Public. Digital Inclusion. Ruby Wallis describes her multi-media project ‘Illuminate’, focused on people with intellectual disabilities.

25. Collaboration. Visual Counterpoint. Fergal Dowling, Michael Quinn and Ailbhe ní Bhriain outline the working processes underpinning ‘Mirrors of Earth’, a presentation of a chamber ballet by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, accompanied by a responsive video work.

26. Art in Public. Held Captive by the Site. Sarah Allen profiles ‘Art Lot’, a programme of temporary visual arts projects programmed by Jonathan Carroll for a vacant outdoor site in Dublin city centre.

27. Profile. A Pretty Quiet Place. Aoife Tunney and Eilís Lavelle discuss ‘I Won’t Say I Will See You Tomorrow’, a multi-disciplinary project exploring the legacy of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.

28. VAI Northern Ireland. Ambivilant Spectacle. Jason Oakley reflects on ‘Arts Awards: Prizes! Prizes! Prizes!’, a talk organised by VAI in conjunction with 2013 Turner Prize and the Golden Thread Gallery.

29. VAI Event. Financial Security Aideen Barry reports on a VAI Common Room Café hosted by HQ / Occupy space, which focused on artists payments, pensions and financial security.

29. VAI Northern Ireland. Feargal O’Malley, VAI’s Northern Ireland Manager, on the 132nd Royal Ulster Academy’s annual exhibition embracing both contemporary and traditional modes of visual art.

30. Art in Public. The Allegory of Place. Silvia Loeffler profiles Kathy Herbert and Dorothy Smith’s project ‘Open to the Public’, which was shown at Satellite Studios project space, Dublin during October 2013.

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

32. VAI Event. Show and Tell. The most recent VAI 'Show & Tell' held at HQ / Occupy Space, Limerick.

33. Artoons. Pablo Helguera’s Artoons disect the foibles and ironies of the art world.

33. VAI Professional Development. VAI’s upcoming professional development programme events.

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

Production: Publications Manager: Jason Oakley. Assistant Editor: Lily Power. News & Opportunities:

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

Niamh Looney. Invoicing: Bernadette Beecher. Contributors: Rebecca Strain, Emily Mark Fitzgerald, Jonathan Carroll, Adrienne Symes, Angela Delaney, Laois Arts Office, Jackie Carter, Karen Hendy, Ciara Healy, Karl Musson, Barry Kehoe, Patricia Hurl, Therry Rudin, Fiona Woods, EL Putnam, Maria Mckinney, Sue Corke, Hagen Betzwieser, Eoin Mac Lochlainn, Jason Ellis, James Merrigan, David Brancaleone, Andy Parsons, Mary Catherine Nolan, Roisin Russell, Kirstie North, Curt Riegelnegg, Lisa Fingleton, Ruby Wallis, Fergal Dowling, Michael Quinn, Ailbhe ní Bhriain, Sarah Allen, Aoife Tunney, Eilís Lavelle, Jason Oakley, Aideen Barry, Feargal O’Malley, Silvia Loeffler, Pablo Helguera.

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

Column : Making it

Rebecca Strain

5

Roundup

Veterans & Psychophonies

speculative forecast of a world that runs

Lacuna [1]

An exhibition by Madrid-based artist

parallel to our own”.

Snooping & Shooting in the Dark

Santiago Sierra entitled ‘Veterans and

www.flooddublin.com

Psychophonies’ rat at Void, Derry (12 Meaningless work is potentially the most abstract, concrete, individual, foolish,

Nov – 30 Dec). It was curated by Sara

indeterminate, exactly determined, varied, important art-action-experience one can

Greavu and Jonathan Cummins. Sierra,

undertake today.

the press release stated, “is known for

Art School

exploring the relationships between

Walter De Maria, On Boxes for Meaningless Work, 1961

labour, capital, empire and oppression through My key priority over the last 12 months has been to make sense of the reverse culture shock I experienced since returning to a changed homeland (after 12 years studying, training and working as an artist in England) and trying to use my skills, experience and qualifications to support myself – both morally and financially.

This process has involved general snooping and shooting in the dark, suffering perpetual rejection and a sparse scattering of acceptance. This has been coupled with nervous anxiety about potential failure – and generally getting myself roped into all sorts of challenging situations. As I trundle blindly onwards with arms outstretched, I’ve encountered some of the most generous, friendly and warmhearted beings and fabulously interesting personalities along the way. Some of them I’ve discovered in awesome surroundings: under mountain peaks, on islands and facing gales at the edge of the world.

Finding myself back in Milford, Donegal, living with my parents, I made a shop job into a performative art job. Throughout the day, I answered the questions put to me by old acquaintances about the purpose of a MA in Fine Art, which were usually along the lines of "why would you persist with a laborious activity that is at times detrimental to your health for no foreseeable monetary gain?".

Happily, this paved the way for an all-expenses-paid residency at Cló, the print studio located in the Donegal Gaeltacht at the foot of Mt Errigal, and later an exhibition at Hive Emerging in Waterford. At Cló, I made alliances with other professional artists: Ian Gordon, Sarah Lewtas, Heidi Nguyen, Sue Morris, Anna Marie Savage, Ian Joyce and Oona Hyland. I still converse regularly with Sue in Sligo and Anna Marie in Newry – each of us nurturing the creative a seed that fell on fertile ground during our spring shared in Cló, where we collaborated on ‘Ceamara Agus Other Pinhole Devices’, which included a rather spectacular tinfoil covered car.

After my brief time spent as gaelige, I was whisked off to Inis Ceithleann (around the time of the G8 conference) following a successful application to Harnessing Creativity, a programme for creative enterprise based in the North West.

Myself and another 11 selected artists were tasked with developing a ‘creative lab’ in response the town of Enniskillen and the context of the political, economic and environmental discourse. At first, I felt that my presence in this context was somewhat random, but I resolved to go with the flow, experiment with the elements and concoct a ‘creative enterprise’.

The outcome was another ‘performative occupation’, which has evolved into an ongoing project that involves making hand-made circular paper as a portable medium to exchange and disperse the revolutionary thoughts of thinkers. Those featured include philosopher Edward deBono, graphic designer Kenya Hara, architect and MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte and Catholic theologian John O’Donohue.

Harnessing Creativity assisted me in acquiring a six-meter wide hexagonal mobile pop up art venue, which I’ve also been using as a workspace; if all else fails at least I have a roof of sorts over my head. It has already been used at Ebrington Square in Derry for an exhibition of works by Landscape Ireland, which in turn was used to entice participants into the David Shrigley drawing activity at the Turner Prize.

Nine months after my return to Ireland, I’ve finally bagged myself a more-orless regularly paying job. In September 2013, I was appointed Project Co-ordinator at Artlink Ltd, which is located at the military base at Fort Dunree in Inishowen, Donegal. My role is making an unfunded organisation survive in the wilds of the 33rd county on a JobBridge scheme. As well learning to be ‘at work’ in a ‘job’ – complying with government bureaucracy, remembering not to pull all-nighters on sideline projects and fail to arrive at the appointed time to be present at ‘work’ – I’m immersed in dialogue with great artists: Christine Mackey, Conor McFeely, Sara Graevu, Cathal McGinley, Phillip McFadden, Sebastiano Furci and John Beattie, as well as my colleagues Patricia Spokes and Declan Sheehan.

Besides my local and national contacts, I’m also in regular contact with artist Damaso Reyes from New York, whom I met on a residency in Tallinn back in 2010.

Damaso is also a mentor to aspiring photographers and maintains an informative and opinionated blog, www.damasoreyes.com. We contribute to each other’s work through online conversations, including the odd wine fuelled Skype party / debate.

Our current line of conversational enquiry follows ideas of ‘frivolous activity’, in particular the work of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). We are looking at how, just like artists, the FDA is plugging away at a cause they are passionate about, which improves wellbeing in society but in the main falls on blind eyes. Despite getting little attention and recognition they get up every day and do their work; and so do I. Rebecca Strain www.artsaboutya.com/blog

poetic

and

frequently

'Lacuna' promotional image, 2013

controversial

‘Lacuna [1]’ ran at Taylor Galleries,

representations of the exploitative

Dublin (7 – 30 Nov) and featured work

transactions of everyday life often

by Lucy Andrews, Maggie Madden, Sean

involve contracting people to perform

Molloy, Eveleen Murphy, Helen O’Leary

useless, degrading or repetitive tasks…

and Gwen Wilkinson. The ongoing

In

‘Lacuna’ series is curated by Sabina

commissioned by Void – Veterans and

McMahon and David Quinn and

Psychophonies – Sierra addresses the

embraces “experimental and enquiring

legacies of the conflict in Northern

practices in image and object-making”,

Ireland through an engagement with

the press release noted. This first

demilitarised sites and former soldiers”.

iteration featured six artists and aimed

www.derryvoid.com

two

new

actions.

His

site-specific

works

to show “the diversity of their current practices, processes and concerns,

Taking the Scissors to Society

offering them a space in which to show drawing,

The Kerlin Gallery, Dublin recently showed ‘Art School’ by Paul Winstanley (15 Nov – 7 Jan). The work derived, the press release noted, from Winstanley’s “archive of photographs depicting nearly all the fine art degree studio spaces of Britain. Winstanley spent two

new and recent work that encompasses sculpture,

Paul Winstanley, Art School 14, 2013, oil and wax on panel

summers meticulously documenting

installation,

the empty studio spaces of art schools

painting and photography”.

throughout England, Scotland and

www.taylorgalleries.ie

Wales.

These

spaces,

previously

overlooked and undocumented, have

To begin and begin again

resulted in photographic images which present minimal spaces of creative potential”. www.kerlin.ie

Roger Hudson, exhibition image, 2013

‘Taking the Scissors to Society’, an exhibition of photomontage works by Roger Hudson, ran at the Centre for Creative Practices (7 – 15 Nov). The show is described in the press release as “a visually dazzling and thematically complex collection of what can be seen as visual poems or even motionless

Rachel Healy, exhibition image, 2013

RHA The Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin recently held five exhibitions (14 Nov – 20 Dec): Stephen Brandes, ‘April 22nd’; Rachel Joynt, ‘Sea Change’; Joanna Kidney, ‘dig, undid, redig’; and Tony O’Malley, ‘Constructions’. www.rhagallery.ie

movies, comments and analyses –

Rachel Healy’s solo exhibition ‘To begin

sometimes piercing, sometimes cynical,

and begin again as if for the first time’

sometimes lyrical and surreal – on the

ran at Satellite Studios, Dublin (7 – 13

foibles and nightmares of humanity”.

Nov). The press release described how

www.cfcp.ie

Healy’s work is “informed by her interest in art history, cinema and the

Ordinary Things Group exhibition ‘Ordinary Things’ ran at CIT Wandesford Quay Gallery, Cork (13 Nov – 7 Dec) and featured Backwater Artists group members Brian Crotty, Jo

The Year of the Flood

convergence of art and the moving

Kelley, Lorraine Neeson and Ben Reilly.

The press release stated, “The use of the

image. In her debut solo exhibition she

ordinary or recognised object or motif

explores the process of image-making

in the work of the four artists forms a

and the mechanism of the creative

connective dialogue. Though there are

process. ‘To begin and begin again as if

differences of aim and materiality, the

for the first time’ uses Healy’s interest in

work connects in its use of the

the domain between motion and still

transformative to explore experience”.

pictures to examine the translation of

www.ccad-research.org

an image from a photograph – the reduction of information in which the work becomes symbolic in content – in

Tom Fitzgerald, Saint (for Margaret Atwood), 2013

an effort to rearrange the established

‘The Year of the Flood’ ran at Flood

relations and patterns of understanding

Gallery, Dublin (14 Nov – 5 Dec). The

and perception”.

exhibition was curated by Michelle www.rachelhealy.weebly.com

A Line of Inquiry

Browne and featured work by Michelle Browne, Mike Cooter, Benjamin Di

Meanings

Burca, Tom Fitzgerald, Zoe Fothergill,

‘Meanings’, an exhibition of Polish-Irish

Clea van der Grijn and Mark McGreevy.

painting, ran at Stalowa Gallery, Warsaw,

As noted in the press release, the show

8 – 30 Nov. The project was initiated by

was “based on a 2009 novel of the same

John Beattie, A Line of Inquiry, 2013

Anna Tchorzewska Geoghegan in

name by Canadian author Margaret

John Beattie’s exhibition ‘A Line of

colaboration

gallery-owner

Atwood. The book focuses on a small

Inquiry’ ran at Saldanha Galleries, Fort

Krzysztof Fabijanski. It featured work by

community of survivors of a biological

Dunree, Donegal (16 Nov – 26 Jan). The

Tommy Barr, Marcin Kowalik and Oliver

catastrophe referred to as the ‘waterless

press

Whelan and was supported by Culture

flood’… Taking such a construct as a

orchestrated an operation with his crew

Ireland.

point of departure, ‘The Year of the

and aviation pilot, to fly a drone from

Flood’ exhibition develops a kinship

the hilltop bunkers of Fort Dunree,

with Atwood’s writing, acting as a

through the abandoned military base,

with

www.stalowa.art.pl

release

noted,

“The

artist

6

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

COLUMN

January – February 2014

Roundup

Emily Mark Fitzgerald

into the adjacent art gallery space, to

Haughey,

land the drone onto a helipad located

Elaine Agnew. The exhibition set out to

A Special Beauty In All That Is Goodly …

inside the art gallery. Once the drone

“explore hidden histories, unresolved

landed in the art gallery, it was

antagonisms, and personal hopes and

In making his case for the importance of liberal arts education, John Henry Newman

programmed to execute a message

dreams”, the press release noted. “The

argued in his Idea of a University (1852) that the value of education lay in its

(drawing) onto the helipad, using a

project brings together people directly

intellectual and broader social contribution, not merely in terms of its impact on the

scripted

computer

affected by trauma to share their

commercial economy. Reflecting on the aesthetic cultivation of landscape – and

software, and a customised device

experiences through photography, film

how this duty of care might be translated to the cultivation of the mind – he queried:

attached to the drone to draw a message.

and music. Filmmaker and ‘Aftermath’

“Why do you take such pains with your garden or your park? You see to your walks

The results left on-sight for the viewer

director

and turf and shrubberies; to your trees and drives; not as if you meant to make an

on entering the gallery”.

commissioned artist Anthony Haughey

code,

wireless

orchard of the one, or corn or pasture land of the other, but because there is a special

www.artlink.ie

Laurence

have worked closely with victims /

www.aftermath-ireland.com

fundamental to the idea of the modern Irish university, entrenched as we are in the current model of output and impact-driven education. Yet what is further interesting

Raymond Watson’s ‘Towards Broighter’

tended physical environment is obvious and shared. In terms of Irish universities’

Limavady (22 Nov – 4 Jan). Watson was

policies and procedures related to cultivating the cultural life and artistic vibrancy

inspired, the press release stated, by “the

of their campuses – such expectations are met only inconsistently.

deposited in a field in the townland of

Aileen Drohan’s exhibition ‘With a

significant art collection, more quietly achieve remarkable levels of public access

Difference’ ran at Tbay Surf and Eco

and exposure through active lending and exhibition policies. The Naughton Gallery

Centre, Tramore (5 Nov – 5 Jan). “The

at Queen’s University Belfast has functioned as a key exhibiting space in Northern

emphasis of the photographs,” the press

Ireland for more than a decade; and University of Limerick has arguably led the

release noted, “is on abstraction of the

university pack in savvy contemporary acquisitions and community engagement

image with a focus on an intriguing and

curator) and a wealth of artworks on the walls and dotted across campus – on any given day students walk by Rachel Joynt’s popular Noah’s Egg close to the veterinary school, or Corban Walker’s gridded glass sculpture outside the Health Sciences Library. Though by comparison UCD’s historical collections are relatively thin, some important and stunning works can still be uncovered (with persistence) at

fresh exploration of light… Aileen

the Clinton Institute. Yet UCD’s visual arts committee (established under President

Broighter is a mystery. What purpose this unique vessel and other special objects, such as the small golden cauldron, might have served and meant is the cause of much speculation – spiritual,

votive,

locale that speak to her in their familiarity: the view from her window,

Susan MacWilliam, F-L-A-M-M-A-R-I-O-N, 2009 www.roevalleyarts.com

show ‘The Air of Songs’ at Celje Center for Contemporary Art, Slovenia (6 Dec – 24 Jan 2014). The show featured work created around the Air Celeia artist’s at

home from a car window. None of these

the Center for Contemporary Arts in

scenes are recognisable to us due to her

Celje. The press release noted, “The

use of kinetic (motion) photography”.

works, which are diverse in subject

www.tbaysurf.com

Enda O’Donoghue’s exhibition ‘Revolve’ of recent work was shown at Galerie Klettgau in the southern German region of Klettgau (29 Nov – 9 Mar).

current administration. A number of acquisitions to the college collection have or oversight as to the purpose and direction of visual art, here at the largest

Rua Red, Dublin held ‘Spectrum’ by

With a number of new buildings recently unveiled or under construction at

Garret Power (23 Nov – 24 Dec). The was

UCD, public art commissioning has persisted, but in a piecemeal fashion with no

Power’s first solo exhibition, the press

larger consultative process. Unfortunately some of the most recently unveiled

release noted, and “comprised a large

public pieces on campus are the woeful legacy of this failure. The newly-opened and

by some recent paintings that explore

facilities, but no one is responsible for their longer-term programming or

relief an alternative approach to campus planning. A massive civic project that will unify DIT’s campus at the site of the former St Brendan’s hospital in north Dublin, it will be one of the most important urban developments in coming years. Managed by the Grangegorman Development Agency, a campus art committee is already in place that will work with architects, landscape architects and representatives from Dublin cultural institutions to envision how the environs can be designed to meet the physical, aesthetic and intellectual needs of its future population.

This committee is deliberately independent and wide-ranging in its membership and brief. With so many resources, potentialities and enthusiasms (student, faculty,

elements of colour and light perception.

Sonia Sheil, Misadventure Seeks Rainy Afternoon, 2013

The piece, a large pyramid structure,

Sonia Shiel’s solo show, ‘Misadventure

consists of hundreds of coloured batons

Seeks Rainy Afternoon’, curated by Mary

of wood”.

Cremin, ran at the Oonagh Young

topical issues of today, the power of the collective consciousness, the effects of and the natural environment …) all share an explicit use of sound, various ways of using the voice, music, singing”. www.celeia.info

Distributed Through Space & Time

www.ruared.ie

Gallery, Dublin (22 Nov – 16 Jan). The press release noted, “Rooted in both

tbg+s Are Dead

fictional and non-fictional narratives,

‘Temple Bar Gallery and Studios Are

[Shiel’s] painting, video and animated

Dead’ was a group exhibition that ran at

sculptures

human

Temple Bar Gallery + Studios (22 Nov –

aspirations to survive against their odds.

25 Jan). Chris Fite Wassilak, who took

Idyllic scenes of nature, society and

the 30-year anniversary as a starting

industry are underscored with the

point, curated the show, which featured

preposterous

explore

base,

community) to draw upon, each of our college environments should be bursting

caricature and indefatigable resilience

work by Barbara Knezevic, Sean Meehan, Prinz Gholam, Jim Ricks, Iain Sinclair

with creative activity of every kind, but such visions must be supported and

of cartoons”.

and Josh Tonsfeldt . The press release

violence,

inflated

encouraged by enlightened leadership. As Newman well understood, education

stated, “Thinking about the history and

serves the ambition to “open the mind, to correct it, to refine it, to enable it to know,

uses of the TBG+S building, Fite-

and to digest, master, rule, and use its knowledge”. Visual art – and the curating of

Aftermath

Wassilak

the campus itself – have an essential part to play in expanding such cultural

Group exhibition ‘Aftermath’ ran at the

reorganisation of the gallery and the

capacities.

Sean Hollywood Arts Centre, Derry (14

studios, a gesture intended to raise

– 30 Nov) and featured work by Anthony

questions of accessibility, audiences,

Emily Mark Fitzgerald

of events from the past or exposing the

scale sculpture installation accompanied

architecturally acclaimed student centre now boasts an impressive range of arts

The ongoing development of the new DIT Grangegorman campus throws into

paranormal field, to the reinterpretation

consumerism on individual subjectivity

Spectrum

university campus on the island.

unprovable phenomena such as the

entertainment industry in forming a

www.klettgau-galerie.de

been made (even in straitened financial times) but there remains no strategic vision

students’ visual and aesthetic appreciation, at the university he helped establish.

matter (from addressing scientifically

Enda O'Donoghue, Fuzzy Memory, 2012

Misadventure Seeks

Susan MacWilliam’s ‘F-L-A-M-M-A-R-IO-N’ was exhibited as part of the group

Revolve

dog, a fleeting glimpse of her journey

representation across the university, was disbanded several years ago under our

is paid to developing the collections, space and resources that might develop

and

the surroundings while walking the

Art Cosgrove) that oversaw the purchasing of many works, and drew wider

development. One suspects Newman himself would be aghast at how little attention

decorative

functional”.

explores a ‘sense of place’ – areas in her

Belfield – including Lady Elizabeth Butler’s Evicted canvas in the Folklore Department, or John Hogan’s sculptural masterwork Hibernia with the bust of Lord Cloncurry in

The Air of Songs

Hoard. How and why the boat was Aileen Drohan, Minaun 3, 2013

Gallery is the most obvious example – while others, such as Trinity College Dublin’s

We have the fabulous Newman House on St Stephen’s Green (under the care of its

www.templebargallery.com

discovery of the Broighter Boat and Gold

University art collections are probably one of the lesser-known resources in the

contemporary trajectory of strategic vision for arts and culture is more disappointing.

quarter’”.

ran at the Roe Valley Arts Centre,

recent attention to managing their own physical surroundings – especially in

At my own university – University College Dublin – the recent record and

and the aspirations and realisation of the Temple Bar area itself as a ‘cultural

Towards Broighter

to draw from Newman’s metaphor is the assumption that the value of a thoughtfully

with its historical collections.

Part of the mid 1970s proposal for a transportation centre in Temple Bar, image courtesy of Gandon Archive

displaced by conflict”.

Clearly we are some distance removed from Newman’s principles as

Some have achieved high profile and acclaim – University College Cork’s Glucksman

and

asylum seekers, refugees and people

With a Difference

visual arts, encompassing an enormous range of historical and contemporary works.

McKeown

survivors of the northern conflict,

beauty in all that is goodly in wood, water, plain, and slope, brought all together by art into one shape, and grouped into one whole.”

Laurence McKeown and

proposes

a

temporary

Zoe Murdoch, exhibition image

Curated by Sarah McAvera, ‘Distributed through Space and Time’ ran at Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast (5 Dec – 19 Jan).

Nabokov’s Pale Fire, the press release stated, was the “starting point of a discussion on the blurred lines between reality

and

fiction.

Christopher

Campbell, Deirdre Mckenna and Zoe Murdoch have dissected the enigmatic text to create equally inscrutable and perplexing works across a range of media”. www.goldenthreadgallery.co.uk

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

7 Roundup

COLUMN

Jonathan Carroll

Production CCA

social, cultural and environmental

‘Peaks of Present, Sheets of Past’, by Tom

change”, the press release noted.

Flanagan and Megs Morley, ran 5 Dec –

Steadier on its Feet

www.harnessingcreativity.eu

15 Jan at Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray.

“Tom Flanagan and Megs Morley’s

One room in the newly re-opened IMMA site at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham movingly demonstrates just how valuable a national collection of contemporary art is. In the middle of the exhibition ‘One Foot in the Real World’, works by two recently departed artists are shown together – Paddy Jolley and Juan Muñoz – both of whom left us too soon. Everything about this juxtaposition seems to work: the shared monocrome palette; the depictions of water invading an interior space; and

Neil Clements and Dorothy Hunter, exhibition image

a shared sensibility of the humourous and the experimental. I imagine the two of

Neil Clements and Dorothy Hunter

them might have got along very well.

exhibited work at CCA Derry (16 Nov –

Paddy Jolley was a resident artist at IMMA in 2007 and Muñoz is indelibly

18 Jan) after being selected for CCA’s

linked to the museum through his Conversation Piece (Dublin) (1994), which was

annual open call. For the exhibition, the

made specifically for the Museum courtyard as part of his show ‘Silence Please’.

Muñoz’s Dublin Rain Room and Raincoat Drawing (1993 – 94), which are currently on show, made me laugh. Dublin Rain Room reminded me of how shocked visitors from abroad – especially Spain – are by the constant Irish rain. In a scale model of the gallery space, Muñoz magically makes it rain indoors. Anyone who has spent time in IMMA, especially those who’ve worked as mediators, will recall many days staring out the windows at persistent rainfall.

It is memories like these, about the artists who worked and spent time at the museum, that really enlivens this exhibition. Gormley, Bourgeois, Sol LeWitt, Jolley, Muñoz, Lawrence Weiner, Horn, and Höfer are all on show here. The presence of artists and their work has given the institition ‘soul’.

IMMA is at its strongest telling its own history and the excellent final room in this show is a perfect example. This display includes Lawrence Weiner’s outline for

press release noted, “Clements uses a range of sculptural and wall-based works

to

examine

collections of 1960s British abstract art and the effect emerging technologies have played on their reception, from the time of their purchase until the present day”. Hunter “produced work that examines post-conflict spaces – such as the former Armagh Women’s Prison – and structures in a state of transition, re-representing them in order to question their role and historicisation”. www.cca-derry-londonderry.org

his 1991 exhibition,‘Projects’, along with some exquisite watercolours of Sol Le Witt’s New Wall Drawings, installed in 2001. It’s great to be able to see previously unshown work from the archive. Such works should be shown more often and the archive made more accessible to the public.

Just before my visit to IMMA, I’d visited an elderly relative who had just moved

institutional

Dublin Art Tour

collaborative work,” the press release

On 21 Dec, Dublin Art Tour led a special

stated, “over the last number of years,

Christmas tour of exhibitions and

has been an ongoing investigation of

markets featuring visual art. It included:

the language of cinema and its

Talbot Gallery ‘Selection Box’ Christmas

relationship to history and memory.

Group Exhibition; The LAB, ‘I’m

Their series of moving image work

Astonished, wall, that you haven’t

exploring real and imagined politically

collapsed into ruins’ Mark Durkan and

complex sites and forgotten histories,

‘Spike, an overlay’, by Seamus McCormack; Cobalt Cafe and Gallery,

attempts to intervene into collective

‘Being Here’, Aga Szot, Mahua La Meur,

the space between images, memory,

Maura

Robbins,

knowledge and action. ‘Peaks of Present,

Hillsboro Gallery Group Exhibition;

Sheets of Past’ is the first time in Ireland

Icon Factory, ‘Blues for You’, by Kevin

that a selection of their past film works

Bohan; Graphic Studio Dublin, ‘Winter

are being screened in the context of

Exhibition 2013, Temple Bar Gallery

their new moving image installations”.

Austen,

Eamon

understandings of the present, exploring

‘Temple Bar Gallery and Studios are

www.mermaidartscentre.ie

Dead’, Barbara Knezevic, Seam Mehan, Prinz Gholam, Jim Ricks, Iain Sinclair,

A Round Now

Josh Tonsfeldt; Tamp and Stitch, ‘Super Impositions’, by Chris Lynam ; White Lady Art Gallery Christmas Market; Pallas Projects, ‘Periodical Review #3; Steambox,

‘Draughtsman

Award

Shortlist Exhibition’; and Block T Christmas Market . www.dublincityarts.com

Nova Members of Cork Printmakers exhibited at CIT Wandesford Quay Gallery 11 Dec

Insight – Insound

– 11 Jan). The press release stated, “The

Ciaran Murphy, Highway Kind, 2013

featured prints have been created

‘A Round Now’, by Ciarán Murphy ran at

specifically for this exhibition and each

Taymour Grahnne Gallery, New York

piece has been hand printed by the

(10 Dec – 25 Jan). This was the artist’s

artist. The prints are available in limited

first exhibition in New York and

The time and money spent refurbishing the Royal Hospital have been for

editions, with their subject matter

comprised a selection of new oil

health and safety purposes. We’ve now got a little less space than before, but our

including landscape, figurative, abstract

paintings and watercolors. The press

visit is safer and more is accessbile – there’s new firedoors and no fear of any ceilings

and the humorous, amongst others. The

release quoted art critic Luke Clancy,

or floors collapsing anytime soon. The building has been insulated, the air regulated,

artists have used a wide range of

who referred to Murphy’s paintings as

humidified and dehumidified to better conserve artworks. It is the art that now

printmaking techniques from etching,

“spectral images… His ghost shapes and

dominates, not the building itself. Most of the windows (one of the building’s best

lithography, photo intaglio, to screen-

attributes) are now covered over to better protect the work, and arguably improve

printing and digital prints”.

into a nursing home. I couldn’t help noticing some similarities between my visits.

IMMA’s return to the RHK felt less like visiting a newborn and more like calling on a hip-replacement patient. IMMA will be steadier on its feet, but we can assume that it won’t be running any marathons soon – not in the current economic climate.

the visitor’s viewing experience. But I do miss making the connection between the

www.corkprintmakers.ie

almost disintegrating (or never even

'Insight – Insound' poster

Nexus Arts presented ‘Insight – Insound’ at Barlow House, Drogheda on 14 Dec.

visual distraction of the Royal Hospital’s beautiful surroundings and the Dublin Relative Place

Featured artists were: Jonathan Harris,

Leaving aside these physical changes to IMMA, ‘In the Line of Beauty’ (which

Colette Egan and Mollie Douthit

Aaron Muson with music by Mark

runs until February 2014) is an exhibition showcasing a new generation of artists at

exhibited ‘Relative Place’ at the Burren

Templeton, Joey Bania with music by

the centre of its opening programming and is very heartening. It’s a shame that the

College of Art, Clare (7 Dec – 17 Jan). As

Orla Wren, Jeff Frost, Kurt Hentschläger

show is crowded into the relatively modest ground floor gallery rooms. Hopefully

stated in the press release, “Mollie

and Thierry Gauthier. The press release

this isn’t a sign of the confidence IMMA has in these artists. I wonder if some of them

Douthit works in paint on canvas and

noted, “The premise of this exhibition is

get the metaphorical and literal nod to come upstairs anytime soon. It’s not a bad

Collette Egan produced ink drawings

to showcase work of artists / filmmakers

on paper. Both artists seek to address the

in which equal consideration is given to

fragile nature of memory and time in

both the audio and the visual aspect

relation to place. The relationship these

resulting in a unified whole. The overall

artists have with their material is central

unifying theme of the exhibition deals

to the ideas they are investigating.

with humanity and natural structures,

Through exploring the possibility of

both realistic and abstract. Works of

ink and paper to capture the essence of

varying styles are included, some subtle

experience, or how paint can be used as

or contemplative in their interplay,

a medium of transcendence, valuable

while

new understanding of our relation to

provocative in their approach. A large

the world may be uncovered”.

focus was put on selecting artists from

vistas.

space per say, just better suited to a single artist’s work – Olafur Eliasson’s The Curious Garden and the paintings of Callum Innes were shown here very successfully.

Rhona Byrne’s installation works best in the space and even echoes Eliasson’s use of colour: he deployed screens on the window to filter yellow monofrequency light and a blue tarpaulin to form a tunnel for a sensory visitor experience. Aleana Egan is an artist who has proven her ability to work successfully on a large scale – with her exhibition ‘day wears’ at the Douglas Hyde Gallery in 2012, for example.

But there isn’t space to show her work to best effect in these rooms.

There’s a contrast here with the 2002 emerging artists show ‘How Things Turn Out’, which featured nine artists. Its stated aim was to “allow each of the participating artists a substantial space in which to show a body of work or new project”. What happened to allowing space for new talent? Gerard Byrne’s participation in 'How Things Turn Out' was a key step in his career development; in 2011 IMMA hosted his solo show ‘Through the Eyes’, during the same year that he represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale.

The good news for artists and art audiences is that many other art venues have opened or have improved their exhibition spaces since IMMA was founded. The RHA, for example, has a rival exhibition, 'Futures' – now in its fifth edition, which features seven artists exhibiting in the best spaces available.

www.burrencollege.ie

others

more

visceral

around the globe to broaden the scope of this project”.

Expanded Territories

www.nexusarts.eu

‘Expanded Territories’ ran at Dublin Civic Offices Atrium Space, Wood Quay

Peaks of Present, Sheets of Past

which we are all heading. They are speculative paintings in that they share with speculative fictions an ability to peer imaginatively into a future and in the act of looking, call that speculation into being”. www.taymourgrahne.com

Get into the Roundup ■■ Email text and images to

lily@visualartists.ie

■■ Details should include: venue

name, location, dates and a brief

description of the work / event.

■■ Inclusion is not guaranteed,

but everyone has a fair chance

■■ Criteria: to ensure that the

roundup section has a good

regional spread and represents a

diversity of forms of practice, from

a range of artists at all stages in

their careers.

(9 – 13 Dec). The exhibition comprised

■■ Priority is given to events

“visual representations of ideas and

taking place within Ireland,

concepts developed through a ‘Creative

but do let us know if you are

Lab’ process where practitioners from

taking part in a significant

Leitrim, Tyrone and Fermanagh regions

international event.

with a range of skills and knowledge Jonathan Carroll is an independent curator based in Dublin.

and

forming) objects come from a place into

worked through notional ideas for

Still from 'Peaks of Present, Sheets of Past', 2013

8

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

News Arts Council Strategic Statement The Arts Council recently published its Strategic Statement, which outlines its strategic direction, key goals and objectives as its moves into 2014.

Central to the Strategic Statement is a commitment by the Arts Council to carry out a strategic review in 2014. The review will be overseen by a steering group chaired independently by Terence O’Rourke, and will have Arts Council and external membership. It will begin its work in January 2014 and report to the Council in the summer. Its findings are likely to shape Arts Council investment from 2015 onwards, in terms of actions and decisions across the four pillars of the council's work: advice, advocacy, investment, and partnership. www.artscouncil.ie

Ignite Commissions Three major new commissions, representing the largest ever investment in Ireland’s arts and disability sector, are bing funded by the Ignite initiative.

In Mayo, Aideen Barry will join with artists from the Western Care Ridgepool Training Centre and members of the Scannán Technologies group, in a project facilitated by Ballina Arts Centre.

In Galway, Jez Colborne will be working with Galway-based project ‘That’s Life’ and the Town Hall Theatre to create a musical experience entitled Trickster, inspired by the stories of Odysseus, a man on a journey.

In Cork, a project led by Simon Mckeown will present a major live art event during Cork’s Culture Night 2014, working with Cork-based disability organisations Cope and Sound Out, along with the National Sculpture Factory and Create.

These commissions each represent an investment of up to €60,000. The three commissions will be presented at local level in 2014 and the initiative will conclude with a tour of one of the resulting works to all three counties (and beyond) in Spring 2015. www.adiarts.ie

ArtSlant – Irish NOminee Irish artist Alison Pilkington was selected for the final shortlist of three artists considered for the ArtSlant Prize for emerging artists. The Artslant Prize 2013 Showcase Series offers over $20,000 in cash and exhibition prizes.

Pilkington’s work was be exhibited at the ArtSlant booth at Aqua Art Miami. www.artslant.com

Arts & Older People in NI The £1m Arts & Older People Funding Programme 2013 – 2016, uses the arts to tackle the important issues of isolation, loneliness and poverty affecting many older people across Northern Ireland today. Funded by ACNI, DCAL, Public Health Agency and the Baring Foundation, grants between £10,000 – £30,000 are available. The programme is aimed at constituted community and voluntary groups who are working at a local level to support older people and who can demonstrate strong partnership working with relevant age sector

organisations and local authority initiatives. This programme is also open to non-governmental organisations, local authorities and arts organisations who can clearly demonstrate partnership working with older people. www.artscouncil-ni.org

Modernising Copyright The Report of the Copyright Review Committee, entitled Modernising Copyright was launched on Tuesday 29 October 2013. Commissioned by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, the report was presented at a public forum in the Royal Irish Academy by the committee members Dr Eoin O'Dell, Patricia McGovern and Professor Steve Hedley on Monday 9 December.

While certain aspects of the report may be welcomed, such as the recommendation that a small claims procedure in the District Court be extended to intellectual property, many of the other proposals are alarming, in particular for visual creators.

One instance is the extension of an exemption to allow reproduction of art work to advertise public exhibition and to cover publication of a catalogue for such exhibitions. This is an activity that is already licensed by the Irish Visual Artists Rights Organisation (IVARO), therefore this exemption will benefit only auction houses and galleries, at the expense of artists and their beneficiaries.

VAI supports the campaign of the Association of Artists Representative Organisations (ARRO) which is highlighting the proposals contained within the report which are undermining the rights of creators and their ability to make a living from their work. The department is currently reviewing the recommendations in the report with the intention of bringing forward legislative proposals for reform in this area. VAI will be working closely with AARO and IVARO to ensure that the creators voice is heard in this process.

Emerging Visual Artist Award Wexford Arts Centre, Wexford County Council and the Arts Council announced that Teresa Gillespie is the recipient of the seventh annual Emerging Visual Artist Award. The initiative supports promising visual artists in Ireland through providing a monetary prize of €5,000 plus a solo exhibition at Wexford Arts Centre. Gillespie was selected from over 120 submissions received. As the recipient of the award, Gillespie will be required to create a new body of work during the period of January – December 2014, which will be exhibited at Wexford Arts Centre during January 2015. www.wexfordartscentre.ie

Creative Europe The new seven-year Creative Europe programme, comes into effect in 2014, and includes a culture sub-programme supporting heritage, literature, performing arts, visual arts and other areas and a media sub-programme for the audio-visual and cinema sector. As with the previous programme (Culture Programme 2007 – 2013), the bulk of the funding from the Culture Subprogramme under Creative Europe will be distributed through the cross-border cooperation projects strand. Other measures will support networks to

strengthen the culture and creative sectors to operate trans-nationally and platforms of cultural operators to promote emerging and established artists and stimulate a European programme of cultural and artistic works.

Made in Limerick 109 projects have been funded through the Made in Limerick programme. The projects cover a range of diverse fields and can be viewed on the new City of Culture website www. limerickcityofculture.ie In addition, as part of the City of Culture year, Limerick will host a package of opportunities for artists across the country to develop work. A range of ‘artist calls’, encompassing the visual arts and all other artforms will offer opportunities to contribute to the year. www.limerickcityofculture.ie

Into the Light The publication Into the Light, which accompanied a major exhibition celebrating the inspiring work of Irish artists and over 60 years of support for the arts by the Arts Council, has been honoured with a prestigious award by the Institute of Designers in Ireland.

The 370-page book, which was designed

by Atelier, won the overall EYE Award in the Promotional Literature and Publication design category.

VAI News Northern Ireland guidelines Launched in December 2013, Visual Artists Irelands Payment Guidelines for Professional Visual Artists in Northern Ireland enables the correct calculation of equitable levels of payments, and allows organisations to properly budget for their programmes and for the variety of work that professional artists undertake in they venues and other spaces.

Visual Artists Ireland has collaborated with artists, organisations and our international partners to create this set of guidelines. The guidelines are based upon international best practice, and are scalable for organisations of different sizes as well as the experience / reputation of artists. They also take into consideration the different work undertaken by artists within the context of exhibitions and supporting services.

It anticipated that the Northern Ireland payment guidelines will be as successful as those devised by VAI for the Republic of Ireland, which have been receiving ongoing positive feedback and responses from both artists and institution alike since their launch in early September 2013.

The Payment Guidelines for Professional Visual Artists In Northern Ireland can be found on our website: www.visualartists-ni.org Show & Tell Limerick Visual Artists Ireland's ‘Show & Tell Evening’ provides artists with opportunities to give presentations on their practice in an informal networking context. Due to popular demand, a number of ‘Show & Tell’ events are being held outside of Dublin. On 11

December, Occupy Space, Limerick hosted a VAI 'Show and Tell' event. For information on future events, please email event organiser Adrian Colwell: adrian@visualartists.ie.

DCC adopts Payment Guidlines In December, the Cultural Strategic Policy Committee of Dublin City Council accepted a motion proposed by Noel Kelly CEO of Visual Artists Ireland that “Dublin City Council puts in place a policy that artists in all art forms undertaking work commissioned or otherwise undertaken on behalf of Dublin City Council are paid in an equitable manner, and that a further policy is put in place requiring any organisation or group applying for funding from Dublin City Council to clearly show that artists employed as part of the applicants projects are paid in an equitable manner as a condition of the funding provision”.

Common Room Cafe, Limerick In association with Visual Artists Ireland, Occupy Space hosted the Common Room Café on 11 of December at H-Q, Lower Cecil Street, Limerick.

Aideen Barry, VAI's West of Ireland representative, presents a report on the session in her regular column.

The Common Room Cafe is a series of ‘pop up’ events providing an informal and social space for artists to network, to share skills and knowledge and to discuss issues of common interest and concern.

These free events are open to all and are relevant to artist collectives, curators, writers and those with an interest in the visual arts. Participants are invited to suggest topics in advance to be discussed on the day.

For more information contact: alex@visualartists.ie.

January – February 2014 of Modern Art; Philip Napier, artist, Head of Fine Art at NCAD; Hugh Mulholland, former director of Ormeau Baths Gallery and currently Curator at The MAC, Belfast.

International delegation Derry The British Council recently partnered with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Visual Artists Ireland to bring an international delegation to Northern Ireland (1 – 6 December). The visit, timed to coincide with a number of events taking place as part of the Derry-Londonderry City of Culture 2013 programme,

including

the

announcement of the winner of the Turner

Prize,

aimed

to

develop

opportunities for those working in Northern Ireland's visual arts sector.

Noel Kelly, CEO of Visual Artists Ireland joined colleagues Deirdre Robb, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Colette Norwood, British Council to welcome the visiting delegates who had travelled from the US, South Africa, Turkey,

the

Ukraine,

Germany,

Zimbabwe and India, among others.

The six-day schedule included visits to artists' studios, organised talks and tours of galleries including refurbished and regenerated spaces like the Shirt Factory in Derry – all demonstrating the current strength of the visual arts sector in the city.

Exhibitions by local artists Locky Morris, Ciarán Ó Dochartaigh and Willie

Doherty

featured

in

the

international visitors' programme as well as the Void sites projects curated by the Void Art Gallery and 'Production' by Derry's Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA). The visit also included a focus on Belfast studios, collectives and galleries assisted by Catalyst Arts.

David Alderdice, Director, British

From Grassroots to Celebrity

Council Northern Ireland commented,

On Saturday 9 November , VAI and the

“There is a new generation of talent at

Turner Prize hosted ‘From Grassroots to

home just waiting for international

Celebrity’ at Golden Thread Gallery,

opportunities and that is why we are

Belfast, a free day-long programme of

bringing in this delegation for a bit of

events in conjunction with the Turner

creative match-making. We need to get

Prize 2013 .

to a scenario where we are benefiting

The day was devised to draw attention

the

dynamic

this generation, the city and the region

between

well beyond 2013. It's been a really

emerging grassroots visual arts activity

fantastic year and now we need to build

and the role of high profile events such

on that".

as the Turner Prize in supporting and promoting contemporary visual art.

Graham Sheffield, British Council, Director Arts, speaking in Derry during

The day began with a welcome and

the international curators' visit added,

introduction by Feargal O’Malley

"The citizens of Derry-Londonderry

(Northern Ireland Manager, Visual

should be very proud of the success of

Artists Ireland) and Lynn McGrane

the year of culture in 2013. The key now

(Head of Learning, Turner Prize 2013).

is to build on the spirit of 2013 and

This was followed by a curators’

develop the ambition and achievements

tour, ‘Catalyst Arts: Collective Histories

to an even higher level, and with an

of Northern Irish Art X’ with Dr Cherie

even

Driver. ‘VAI Introducing’ followed the

resonance”. During the programme of

tour (3 x 15 min presentations followed

visits the British Council also announced

by 3 x 20 min walking tours).

a £100,000 investment in the North

more

lasting

international

In the afternoon, the panel

West in response to ongoing financial

discussion ‘Prizes! Prizes! Prizes!’ took

commitment from the Arts Council of

place, featuring Jason Oakley as chair,

Northern Ireland, Derry City Council as

Publications Manager Visual Artists

well the Department of Culture, Arts &

Ireland; Peter Richards, artist, Director

Leisure. This financial support will

of Golden Thread Gallery; Brenda

include partnerships with Void, the

McParland,

curator,

CCA and Willie Doherty, as well as

contemporary art consultant and former

work in the creative industries and

head of exhibitions at the Irish Musuem

other art forms.

independent

The Visual Artists’ News sheet

January – February 2014

9

laois: Resources & Activities Stradbally Arthouse

Jackie Carter

karen Hendy working at Arthouse

IN 2011 I was appointed one of the first professional artists-in-residence in the newly refurbished Arthouse in Stradbally, County Laois, along with three other artists. At the time, I was working from a studio in an old mill building in town and when the residencies were advertised, I decided to apply and was delighted to receive a letter saying that I had been successful. The Arthouse is a former courthouse that has been renovated: a gallery, several offices, a fully equipped music rehearsal space, studios and apartments are located in a new extension to the old building.

Stradbally itself is a small town built, as the name suggests, along a linear street with two squares on the western side: the Market Square and the Courtyard Square where the Arthouse is situated. Milling was the main commercial activity in the town for decades but all mills are now obsolete and some of the older buildings have been renovated to provide residential accommodation.

Stradbally is now renowned for its annual steam rally and, more recently, for the Electric Picnic.

The ˆ 1.2 million development of the Arthouse commenced early in 2010 and was completed in late December 2010. The official opening, by Jimmy Deenihan, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, took place on 13 May 2011 and President Michael D Higgins visited it in the following year.

Muireann Ní Chonaill, Arts Officer for Laois County Council, now manages the Arthouse. A wall mounted stainless steel sculpture in the garden by Wicklow-based artist James Hayes was commissioned for this area through a Per Cent for Art scheme. In front of the building is another sculpture by Henk Korthuys that was also funded by the scheme and was fabricated in limestone by the artist, who was on an international residency at the time.

As artist-in-residence, I have my own studio in the older part of the building. Although the Arthouse can be a busy place at times, artists have the luxury of their own private spaces to work in.

Work areas are generous and are equipped with under floor heating, extractor fans, good lighting, sinks and fireproof lockers. There is a communal area for meeting with the other artists as well as kitchen facilities. Being an artist in the Arthouse has allowed me the time to develop my own practice while also having the opportunity to be involved in events such as Culture Night, Bealtaine Festival, National Drawing Day and other workshop activities. These events offered new experiences,

which I would not have had in a solitary studio situation. On the official opening, artists were invited to present their work to the local community and, as part of the Culture Night events; studios were open to the public and children. The Arthouse also offers a graduate program funded by NCAD / Laois County Council, which facillitates further collaboration and workshop opportunities for the local community.

The building is located alongside the Cosby estate, now better known as the venue for the Electric Picnic festival. In 2011, I was invited to develop a recycling art project together with four other resident artists at the Arthouse for the festival. We designed and built a lighting installation, using 2000 recycled bottles in combination with LED lighting. The honeycombshape installation was installed on the Art Trail for the duration of the festival. During the first year, the installation developed into an interactive piece for children, who had great fun trying to reassemble it, after some sections had been removed during the first night of the festival. Through this experience I have formed new friendships and become closely involved with the local community, which has fed into my practice on other levels.

The gallery space is offered to both emerging and professional artists working in different disciplines and has shown work by local, national and international artists. My work is abstract in nature and, during my residency, has been influenced by the local landscape. Ideas of change and permanence have informed the theory behind the process. I work with objects found during walks, trips to the sea and external residencies such as sticks, shells, peats, sand, nets, ropes etc etc, which are then used to make marks or are incorporated into the painting process. Different media such as inks, oil, acrylic, charcoal and pastels are employed together with these unconventional materials to give the work a strong texture and tactile quality.

The process involves scratching and scraping, tearing and layering. Since the start of my residency, I have been involved in a number of group and solo exhibitions, one of which just finished in the Dunamaise Arts Centre in November. My threeyear residency at the Arthouse has been a great opportunity for my professional development and practice. Images and information about the work

ThE beauty of Laois lies in its inability to sing its

pieces, challenging the viewer by placing pieces

own praises. It is often seen as a place to simply

behind glass, taking away the choice of touch. We

drive through, overlooked and undervalued. Yet it

all too often dismiss textiles as being functional,

is a county that is very much alive. The environment

domestic and tactile. More recently, emerging

is gentle and rolling, offset by the shadow of the

artists have pushed the boundaries and helped the

Slieve Bloom mountains. I am allowed to praise it

discipline to grow. New approaches explore a more

because I am a blow-in. I have the advantage of

conceptual ideal and blur the lines between craft

seeing it in a different way.

and fine art.

I moved to 14 years ago to take a teaching job

I became a student again in the last year,

and never left. I found an art scene that was

studying for my MA in Limerick School of Art and

growing, met some inspirational artists and settled

Design. I chose the MA in Art and Design Education

into the life I now live. My teaching job became

because it felt like a natural progression and it

one of the greatest passions of my life and has

allowed me to merge the artist and teacher elements

continued to excite the artist in me every day. The

of my practice. Within the vibrant and fresh

art department in the Further Education Centre,

approach offered by this faculty I began exploring

Abbeyleix began life in a humble way, with 16

a more personal space. The focus of my recent

nervous students and a very nervous tutor in a

work

room that had previously existed as a metalwork

autobiographical framework – searching for an

classroom. It grew beyond any expectations,

expression of the space between trace memory and

evolving in an organic and creative way. The

active memory, a limbo space. The concept hinges

current intake for this year is 48 students. We offer

on a small book that I had owned as a child. It was

two courses at FETAC level 5 and 6, and two large,

returned to me by chance after 32 years. When I

bright studios.

opened it I found an inscription I had written as a

episodic

memory

within

an

Two very talented artists, ceramicist Edel

six year old. This inspired a range of ideas that deal

O’Keeffe and painter Jock Nichol, joined the

with that ‘before’ feeling prior to a life changing

department, and I feel privileged to work alongside

event. The importance that we place on objects

them. As an artist / tutor, students often ask which

fascinates me; material culture is universal and

I prefer, teaching or practice: I have learned from

transcends social confines. Textiles lends itself to a

experience that for me the two are inseparable.

haptic approach and the work became a mixture of

Without my own practice I could not teach and if I

print and stitch using horse hair which acted as a

left teaching I would miss it informing my

temporal bridge for me. The work was shown as

practice.

part of the MA group show, ‘REV’, in Faber Studios,

Living in any area you find yourself drawn to

Limerick in November 2013, curated by the

likeminded people. I have the pleasure of working

wonderful Maria Kerin. Reflecting on this

with these people in a creative environment that

experience, I realised that my own art always

extends beyond the walls of the studio. Past

comes from a personal space, a reaction to

students who have graduated from the various

environment, thoughts, emotions and narrative. I

third level institutes or are still on the journey of

like to tell stories. Being based in Laois has become

education have now become a network of artists

part of that story.

connected to Laois. These emerging artists keep

While the Slieve Bloom mountains cast their

appearing at openings of exhibitions, talks and

shadow on the county, so too does Dublin. It can be

various art related events, demonstrating the

hard for smaller counties in Ireland to stand up

enormity of the art scene in Laois. This extended

beside the big ones and this results in a lack of

community gets continued support from the

confidence. We tend to get more excited about

Dunamaise Arts Centre and the Arts Office in Laois

artists and work outside our own county. The time

County Council, both of which do wonderful work

has come to tap into the wealth of art activity

in challenging times. They have proven themselves

happening in Laois. Perhaps the next time you

as patrons of the arts in Laois.

drive through Laois, you might stop and have a

My own background is textiles, with an emphasis on the mark made by the stitched line. In my previous work, I responded directly to my own environment and explored boundaries and protected spaces. Much of this work was exhibited locally and in a two-man show in the Courthouse Arts Centre in Tinahely, Co Wicklow. I have often experimented with the presentation of exhibition

can be found on my website.

Karen Hendy www.karenhendyartist.com

is

Work by Jackie Carter

look around. In fact, you might never want to leave.

Jackie Carter graduated from NCAD in 1998 and began teaching in Laois in 1999. She is Co-ordinator of the Art Department Head of Textiles at the Further Education Centre, Abbeyleix.

10

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

REGIONAL PROFILE: Laois

Laois Arts Office

Adrienne Symes

The Laois Arts Office is located in the County

in artistic events at the Electric Picnic, and will

Council headquarters in Portlaoise. Our staff

continue to do so in 2014. We hope to exhibit an

includes: Arts Officer Muireann Ní Chonaill,

artistic feature by Laois arthouse artists, musical

Assistant Arts Officer Bridie Keenan, Clerical

offerings from Music Generation Laois and a

Officer Maureen Culleton, Laois Music School

showcase of literary talent as backdrop to our

Co-ordinator Nuala Kelly and the Co-ordinator of

annual Leaves Literary Festival.

Music Generation Laois, Rosa Flannery. The Arts

We have had a diverse range of artists availing

Office manages a multifarious programme and also

of the studios in Stradbally and we hope that the

runs the Arthouse in Stradbally, which opened in

recently-advertised opportunity for artists to

March 2011. The Arthouse consists of four studios,

participate in our three-month residency scheme

two apartments, a studio space, exhibition space,

will facillitate interesting and diverse projects in

music rehearsal space, kiln and garden space.

County Laois, enriching and enhancing the arts.

Library facillities and sound and digital equipment

Since the Arthouse opened, we have hosted two

are also available. In addition, the Arts Office also

year-long residencies with Vera Mc Evoy and Cóilín

manages a self-contained apartment and studio in

Rush. During their stay, both artists-in-residence

Mountrath for the use of an artist. Visual Artist Pat

worked closely with the community. In addition to

Byrne currently resides there. We also work in

activity around the Arthouse Studios, we also host

close co-operation with the Dunamaise Arts Centre,

art exhibitions, workshops and performance

the primary arts venue in County Laois.

opportunities in the public library situated at the

Our strategic objectives are set out in the Laois

front of the building.

Arts Plan, 2013 – 2016. It is the fourth arts plan to

A large, eye-catching contemporary sculpture

be implemented by Laois County Council and

for the garden space of the Arthouse was created by

represents a positive consolidation and nurturing

James Hayes in 2011. Growth was made from laser-

of programmes and strategies, many of which were

cut 3mm thick stainless steel and is approximately

established in the 2006 – 2011 plan. Within this

6.5m x 2.75m, float mounted 0.5cm from the

current arts plan there is also scope for embracing

courtyard wall. Hayes described it as “…an artwork

new ideas for partnerships, and for further

which acts like a Rorschach inkblot. The positive

developing the work we do with artists, creative

and negative shapes of the artwork, the changing

communities and the public. We are very conscious

light and colours on the polished metallic surfaces

that the plan has been devised and written during

will allow the artists and other visitors to free their

economically challenging times. We aspire to be

imaginations and to see what they will in the

forward looking in our plans to develop the arts, in

artwork”.

the hope that things may start to improve, at least incrementally, over this time-span.

Laois County Council has commissioned some major public art projects for the county

Recent initiatives such as the completion of

including Flow, A new public artwork for the M7 /

Arthouse Studios and Library, Stradbally clearly

M8 motorway at Clonkeen, Portlaoise. This newly-

demonstrates our ongoing commitment to

installed artwork, by artist Eileen MacDonagh, was

strengthening and sustaining contemporary arts

funded under the Per Cent for Art Scheme,

development in diverse and inclusive ways in

following a two stage open competition. Flow takes

County Laois. Key pillars of our arts programme

its inspiration from the aerial view of the River

include: music development, visual arts, the

Nore as it twists, turns and meanders its way

Arthouse Stradbally, the Dunamaise Arts Centre,

through the local landscape. The sculpture is 3m

literature and a focus on young people and the

high and 2.8m wide and is carved in limestone

arts.

from Three Castles, Co Kilkenny, where, The Arts Office seeks consolidation and

development of these areas and we remain open to

coincidently, the River Nore also flows. It was made in McKeon’s Stone Yard in Stradbally.

become toilets!

after two years in temporary, rented accommodation

I have much more to find out about Laois, but

with possessions, art work and materials stored in

my husband and I have been made very welcome

multiple locations, followed by settling in and

with friendly and helpful people assisting us and

getting to know people and geography.

letting us know what events are happening. Our

I was born in Dublin and have lived either

arrival in Durrow coincided with its imaginative

there or in north Kildare all my life, so I knew life

All Ireland Scarecrow Festival. We look forward to

in Laois would be different. While I was familiar

viewing it at leisure next year rather than from a

with the county, it was largely from journeys to

fully-loaded car and trailer! The village has also

Kerry or Cork when the Slieve Bloom mountains,

hosted a world record attempt for the largest

the raised bogs, Dunamaise castle brooding on its

gathering of ‘High Nelly’ bicycles: I have not yet

rocky crag or the attractive estate towns and

found out if the record was achieved. I look forward

villages such as Abbeyleix, Stradbally and Durrow

to bringing out my old bicycle and hope it will

made a lasting impression. So why did I move to

qualify as a ‘High Nelly’ as it is at least 50 years

Durrow? Well, we found a beautiful house on the edge of the village and a good road and rail network

old!

to Dublin, where I am a member of the Graphic

intend to work from it and also paint around the

Studio and retain a painting studio.

county. I enjoy working in a variety of media,

subject matter in art is landscapes featuring water – sea, rivers and lakes – and, in particular, reflections

Vera McEvoy’s exhibition ‘Shine’ runs at the

Offaly and Westmeath, is very well produced,

in them. I will maintain my membership of the

Arthouse, Stradbally 16 January – 13 Feburary

informative and useful to a newcomer. Laois

Graphic Studio in Dublin for etching.

2014. Opening Preview will take place on 16

County Council offers a number of awards to

Currently I am exhibiting with them in ‘A

January at 1.30pm.

artists including Tyrone Guthrie Centre bursaries

Natural Selection: 100 Aspects of the National

and Artist in Schools placements. Several artists

Botanic Gardens’, an exhibition of 100 original fine

have benefited from the Per Cent for Art scheme

art prints. Last year I had an exhibition of oils in

within the county.

Normandy and in March Olivier Cornet exhibited

Muireann Ní Chonaill, Arts Officer

The Dunamaise Arts Centre, located in the

my French paintings in his Temple Bar gallery. I

precincts of the fine Portlaoise Court House, is a

will also be participating in Olivier’s Christmas

multi-disciplinary venue catering for theatre,

show in Filmbase, also in Temple Bar.

music, dance, literature and cinema as well as the

I have only explored a tiny part of Laois to

visual arts. It hosts a number of exhibitions and

date but if everywhere else is as art friendly as the

development workshops for artists throughout the

parts I have seen then it is a certainly a healthy

year. At present there is a very interesting open-

county for artists.

submission exhibition of work by artists from the midlands with Maria O’Brien winning the prize of a month-long residence at the Arthouse, Stradbally.

Michelle de Forge, newly-appointed director of Dunamaise, hopes that the exhibition will further promote and strengthen connectivity and collaboration within the visual arts community in the midlands. The Arthouse and Library in Stradbally provides further opportunities for local Workshop image, courtesy of Laois Arts Office

I will now have a studio in my home and

arts events in the counties of Laois, Longford,

to us for advice and with proposals.

Stradbally is best known for the Electric

re-cycling a building – even the holding cells have

of my time has been spent organising the move

painting in oils, watercolour and acrylics. My chief

of the visual arts, the Arts Office runs events for

Picnic, and our Arthouse artists have participated

library and studios; it's an excellent example of

on living and working in the county. To date, most

Midlands Arts and Culture Magazine, which covers

Office and welcome artists and the public coming

modest income to artists.

that has been most tastefully adapted to house the

five months, so I’m yet to fully form my opinions

exploring my surroundings through drawing and

networking with artists and communities. In terms

schools programme. All these programmes give

I have been resident in Durrow, Co Laois for around

discovered about art in the county so far. The

We have an open door policy in the Laois Arts

and National Drawing Day, as well as an artists-in-

Adrienne Symes, The Gap, Varengeville-sur-Mer, oil on canvas

I have been very impressed by what I have

ideas that might emerge through partnerships, and

Culture Night, Bealtaine Festival for Older People

Adrienne Symes, The whole street seemed on the move, etching

artists. It is an attractive, redundant court house

Adrienne Symes is a painter and printmaker.

She is a member of the graphic Studio, Dublin and a Council member of the Contemporary Irish Arts Society.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

11

REGIONAL PROFILE: LAOIs

Dunamaise Arts Centre: Angela Delaney

Abigail O’Brien: With Bread

7 February - 5 April 2014

Artists with their friends and family at the 'Let's Connect' opening

mental health. Some were established international artists, others first time exhibitors. I also created new work inspired by projects I had undertaken with clients in the HSE. Among the internationally acclaimed artists who contributed were Brian Maguire, Geraldine O’Reilly, Eilis Crean and writer and artist Niamh Boyce. There were also contributions from artists working in the area of art therapy and community arts. In total, 21 artists participated in the final exhibition. As the programme of events developed, I received funding from Laois Partnership to hold an additional free Liam Cully,Free As A Bird, 2013

workshop in the gallery space during Mental Health Awareness Week. This workshop, ‘Mark My

The exhibition ‘Let’s Connect’ (5 – 7 September

Words’, was a collaboration with Niamh Boyce and

2013) came about from my work as an artist and as

focused on using our creativity in art and writing

a Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) in Art Therapy

to mind our mental health. The development for

Interventions in the area of psychiatry over the last

the project was organic and I felt supported by all

seven years. The links between art and mental

involved.

health have been well evidenced in history, and the

‘Let’s Connect’ opened on 5 September 2013

lines between them are often blurred. Having

to a packed house, and we were honoured to have

curated previous art exhibitions for individual

Minister Kathleen Lynch TD, Minister for Disability,

artists that I had worked with in the HSE, I saw that

Equality, Mental Health and Older People launch

the audience for this work was often limited to

the exhibition. Speaking at the launch, Minister

people directly connected with the artist. I felt the

Lynch said the exhibition represented everything

time was right to open up a dialogue around this

that is good about mental health services.

subject and involve the whole Laois community.

Michelle de Forge, Director of Dunamaise

For some people, the stigma around mental health

Arts Centre, also emphasised that Dunamaise was

is greater than the mental illness itself. My aim was

an arts facility for the whole community, and

to exhibit artwork that helps us feel connected. I

exhibitions like ‘Let’s Connect’ send a clear message

had previous experience of contributing to arts

that art transcends all boundaries. Later in the

initiatives in the county so in early 2013 I submitted

month, Laois Connects launched their programme

a proposal to the director of Dunamaise Arts Centre

of events with Mary Kennedy from RTE, with the

for an exhibition that explored how visual art

exhibition as a backdrop. All these events received

intersects and contributes to our health and well-

large audiences, positive feedback and media

being.

coverage.

The Arts Council and the Dunamaise Arts

In my role as a CNS, I use art to encourage and

Centre funded the project, with a ˆ 400 fee and

support people who experience mental health

ˆ 100 for transporting the works. It was important

problems to use their strengths and interests in art

to involve as many key stakeholders as possible.

as a tool in their recovery. Some of these artists

The exhibition provided a unique opportunity to

want to exhibit and sell their art just like established

exhibit artwork by people from different

artists but, due to their circumstances, have

backgrounds – such as established artists and

difficulty accessing exhibiting opportunities. At

mental health service users – and served as a

the heart of this exhibition experience were citizens

platform to normalise the experience of mental

who should have the same rights as everyone else.

illness and prevent stigmatisation and exclusion of

There is no doubt that this art exhibition

people who are ordinarily on the margins of

provided the clients of Laois Mental Health Services

society. I was keen to extend the exhibition

with a profound sense of self and community. One

experience to the widest possible audience so I

participant said, “When I create art I feel I can do

discussed my proposal with Laois Community

anything. Some people just see me as a patient but

Forum, a collaborative group comprising a number

I’m more than that”. The exhibition experience had

of partners including: the HSE, Laois Sports

been valuable for all involved. Friendships and

Partnership, Mental Health Ireland, SHINE, Laois

support networks have been formed, which I hope

County Council, Laois Partnership Company and

will extend to future collaborations.

Laois VEC. They decided that this exhibition should form part of Laois Mental Health Awareness Week, Laois Connects, as it highlighted how the arts can play an important role in mental health.

Artists from all different disciplines responded to the callout for artwork, which focused on personal responses to the links between art and

Angela Delaney is an artist, curator and Clinical Nurse Specialist in Art Therapy Interventions with the HSE in Laois.

Grande Dame, Levain Series, 2013, Ed 1/3

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12

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

Residency Profile

Ciara Healy and Karl Musson., work in progress, ArtFarm Residency, July / August 2013

Ciara Healy and Karl Musson, work in progress, ArtFarm Residency, July / Aug 2013

Ciara Healy and Karl Musson, installation view, 126 Gallery ArtFarm exhibition

Ciara Healy and Karl Musson, work in progress, ArtFarm Residency, July / August 2013

Immersed in Possibility CIARA HEALY AND KARL MUSSON, RECIPIENTS OF 126 GALLERY’S ART FARM RESIDENCY AWARD, OFFER AN ACCOUNT OF THEIR EXPERIENCES WORKING ‘ON THE FARM’ DURING AUGUST 2013.

126’s inaugural ARTFarm residencies took place during July and August 2013. The opportunities were advertised in April 2013.

Siobhan McGibbon (Ireland) was awarded the July residency, and Ciara Healy and Karl Musson (Wales) were awarded the August residency. Both awards included an exhibition at 126 relating to the artists’ residency experiences and outcomes. The ARTFarm is owned and operated by Sheila Flanagan and comprises a live / work space in the rural and secluded setting of Cloonkeen, Newbridge, Ballinasloe, Co Galway.

Ciara Healy

By July, the end of the teaching year at the University of Wales, my brain starts to feel a bit like a motorway service station at the end of a hot bank holiday weekend. The metaphorical equivalent of an out of date pastry and some dried up doughnuts are all that remains of my imagination.

So while driving west across Ireland to participate in the ARTFarm residency, I started to worry about how these meagre mental ingredients were going to nourish a two-week artist residency in an isolated cottage in Co Galway. Would Karl and I end up recreating scenes from Withnail and I? I wasn’t sure I liked the Midlands of Ireland. Isn’t that where Garage was filmed? Oh God. They’re going to find out that we’re artists and we’ll be hunted down!

As I drove through Moylough, I had to do everything I could to suppress a sudden urge to stop at a café and demand the finest wines known to humanity. And cake. Yes, to sustain this residency we were going to need lots and lots of cake. But turning into Sheila Flanagan’s secluded driveway, listening to the grass in the middle of the road brush the undercarriage of the car, seeing the swathes of flame yellow montbretia bowing benignly on either side of us, this anxiety began to subside.

There was a hammock under a tall pine tree. A haze of turf smoke drifted out of the open cottage door. Dappled sunlight bounced off fragments of mirrors casting prism coloured petals onto a large open barn and a low white washed studio. A nest of young swallows squabbled as they prepared to fly for the first time. Beyond the ash and pine trees in the neighbouring field, a chestnut horse galloped towards us. Heavy hooved in the gloaming, her long, unkempt auburn mane made her seem like a creature from Narnia or Tir na Nóg. Everything here was suddenly very otherworldly.

This could be a ‘thin place’. Let me explain: thinness and thin places is a central concern of my PhD research. In ancient mythologies, an entrance into the ‘otherworld’ was known as a ‘thin place’. This is

a marginal realm, often parallel to, or sometimes beyond, everyday human experience and perception. It was believed that in a thin place mortals were able to pass into the otherworld more readily, or make contact with those in the otherworld more willingly. This kind of shared cultural world view, which colours individual perceptions as well as collective social behaviour, was termed a ‘structure of feeling’ by the Welsh born cultural theorist Raymond Williams (1921 – 1988).1 Rather than succumbing to the pressure to ‘make’, I decided to spend two weeks absorbing this thinness. We travelled to the Burren, to the Sculpture Centre in Manor Hamilton and to bookshops in Galway. We walked for several hours around Lough Corrib trying to find an ancient burial site marked on a 1972 ordinance survey map, only to discover a developer had dug it up and slung it into a hedge in order to make room for a Celtic Tiger era housing development. We watched the sun set on stone circles in Sligo and hid for an hour in the dark belly of Queen Morrigan’s cave in Rathcroghan, Co Roscommon, a place once known as the gateway to the underworld.

We reflected on how flimsy the ubiquitous pseudo-Georgian farmhouses looked beside lichen coated stone walls. We spent evenings writing and reading by the turf stove or jogging through the pitch-dark Coillte woodlands nearby.

Thinness occupies so much of my research and yet, like most people, I can become consumed by the demands made of us in thick places. This residency helped me to recognise that thinness is nascent in all sorts of historical material, which demonstrate that other modes of existence are possible. When we experience this kind of convergence, our consciousness is moved via our hearts rather than our eyes, because this is ultimately where our imagination resides.

Sheila’s cottage, her studio and way of life were a living, breathing demonstration of possibility – a revelation: thinness still exists today.

Karl Musson “Jaysus! That’s not my car!” said Bob Quinn as he got out of the car he had only a second before got into. Bob then resumed his mini tour of Connemara, as we accompanied him in his automobile and absorbed his illuminating narrative. One of my central research interests is prenational maritime culture and meeting the filmmaker Bob Quinn – famed for his Atlantean theories of Irish origins – was a key objective of mine during this residency.

Though our conversation was by no means a conventional research interview, it was nonetheless informative. Some of the connections noted by Quinn in his Atlantean hypothesis have

interested me for a long time.2 In particular, his observation that, as archaeological records are better preserved by the land than by the sea, there is a ‘land-centric’ view of history. Bob took us to meet and talk with a boat builder who had recently finished building a Galway Hooker – one of the most notable boats in the place we today call Ireland.

This notability amongst other traditional Irish boats is due largely to its distinguishing features. They have a sweeping, tall, round prow – which recalls Homer’s “Black Danaian ships” or Norse longboats. A hookers rigging wouldn’t look out of place on an Omani Dhow. Indeend the hooker is compared with traditional boats of the Atlantic coast of Spain, North Africa and the Arabian Sea, the similarities to its Atlantean cousins become strickingly apparent.

Evolutionary biology provides a method for considering such trans-cultural similarities. In the 1990s, Dr Perianen Synapethy proposed the Independent Birth of Organisms theory. According to Darwin, two species with meaningfully similar attributes will have shared a common ancestor. In contrast, Senapethy proposed that a common ancestor is not necessary in order for two species to have meaningful similarity – they simply needed to have evolved in similar circumstances. While this is a helpful idea, the concept of scale still needs to be contemplated. If James Lovelock’s Gaia Hypothesis is considered, similarities of evolutionary circumstance are themselves part of a broader biosphere, and thus the distinction between species becomes hair splitting.

Thinking on a global scale – the issue of how specific the forms of the hooker are specific to Galway seems less interesting, than the implications of Quinn’s Atlantean hypothesis – the freedom to consider the sea as a home and a space of movement, both of people and ideas. The Hooker may have, as Senapethy suggests, simply have gained its appearance because there was no specific reason not to have done so, which may also have been the case with the Dhows of Oman and a number of other traditional boats from the Mediterranean.

Using Darwin’s approach, however, the similarities between the Hooker and the Dhow suggest that the people who built them shared a common cultural ancestry – a pre-national culture – where people spent more time on the seas than records can show. In this context, I thought about the works of Joseph Beuys and the idea of residue. We are invited to recall actions and ideas – a process comparable perhaps to looking at ruins of ancient architectural triumphs or the key points left written on a black board after a class has finished. We are left asking, What went on here? What did I miss?

Similarly, national identity, perhaps also personal identity, is something we only comprehend after the fact. Contemporary western culture is economically motivated to sub-divide, define and reinforce division by criteria of difference. But what if we are all the same?

What if these apparitions of identity with which we distinguish ourselves from each other are in fact commercial constructs of a postindustrial age?

Our ARTFarm residency was a crucial relief because of the freedom of thought it provided. This freedom came from not being judged, from being allowed to explore new ideas in a spirit of genuine exploration, unhindered by a requirement to fulfil a predetermined brief. The rural nature of the residency was also important as it allowed us to be totally immersed in thought. We could work around the clock for two weeks, focusing solely developing new work. This was a rare and precious thing, as far too often artists are distracted by the limits and diversions of everyday life. The ARTFarm offered us a very special journey and it was a great privilege to experience a residency there.

Ciara Healy is a writer, book artist and the Head of Critical and Contextual Studies at the School of Creative Arts, Coleg Sir Gar / University of Wales Trinity St. David.

Karl Musson is a sculptor and lens based artist who is concerned with the nature of light, perception and alternative realities to contemporary post-enlightenment capitalism. He also works as a Ceramics Technician and Lecturer in Art History at the School of Creative Arts, Coleg Sir Gar / University of Wales Trinity St. David and Narberth Museum, West Wales.

Notes 1. Williams concept of ‘Structures of Feeling’ refers to things we think of as characteristics of our present times – for the ancients there was a belief in other realms, in the present day comparible notions might be concerned with global economic and environmental collapse or other seemingly less profound matters such as prevalence of social networking. Raymond Williams, chapter 9, 'Structure of Feeling', Marxism and Literature, 1978, Oxford University Press 2. Atlantean is a quartet of documentary films and accompanying book (The Atlantean Irish, Lilliput, 2005) by Irish film maker Bob Quinn. The films and book dismissed as myth the popular belief in ‘Celtic’ origins of the inhabitants of Ireland, Scotlan, Wales, Cornwall, Asturias, Brittany and Galicia / Portugal, Cantabria and proposed instead that they are part of a common 'Atlantean' culture that includes the western seaboard of Europe and North Africa.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

13

Evolve, Learn, Grow

organisation like BLOCK T and in this case the support of the French Embassy was essential. She went on to say that, even though BLOCK T is generating a larger revenue stream and is actively pursuing a selfsustaining model for arts and culture provision, public funding has been crucial for the organisation over the first few years of is existence. They received a Capital Grant from the Arts Council of €5000, a Dublin City Council Seeder Grant for €3000, and they also received the workspace scheme grant for few years from the Arts Council and a Project Grant from Dublin City Council. All of this only accounts for two percent of BLOCK T’s revenue over the first three years of the operation. This may seem like very little now, considering that BLOCK T generates six figure sums from the studio rents alone, but without getting the public support when it was needed, the founders of BLOCK T would have had a much tougher time sustaining the project. Of course, it’s important not to forget that the cost of running a complex the size of BLOCK T absorbs most of the revenues generated by the studios. They also provide an Undergraduate Award that includes a work space and an exhibition, and a Project Award that includes a free work space for a certain period of time as a part of their support programme subsidised from their own funds.

The changes at BLOCK T have reaped many benefits for the organisation. Laura took me on a quick tour of the complex leading me through a maze of Kafkaesque corridors lined with doorways each one housing a studio space. Behind one of these doors she brought me to the new dark room, where with a sense of pride she described the difficulties of sourcing the equipment. They have managed to gather several colour enlargers that are becoming very difficult to find since the advent of digital technology. As a result, BLOCK T is now one of the few places in the city where analogue colour printing can be done. On the ground floor, they have just installed a new screen print studio and are in the process of installing a new hot desk facility of 25 spaces for those who need office access but cannot afford or do not need a full studio. There will also be a permanent Design Gallery, a networking space and a coffee dock. The ground floor space that faces onto Smithfield Square will continue to be used as the main exhibition space.

All of these developments have been made possible by the successful move BLOCK T has made into the former probation services offices. The increased revenue provided by the move and their other fundraising activities has also meant that they can now salary nine staff members. These positions are still largely at a parttime and minimum wage level but it is encouraging that they are now, after only a relatively short time in operation, able to employ staff. This is a significant change in the operations of BLOCK T, considering the sacrifice and dedication initially made by the founders, who worked for free for over two and a half years while getting the project off the ground. With the increased revenues – Laura was quick to point out – all the profits that BLOCK T accrues are reinvested in the organisation and go towards subsidising their exhibitions, developing new resources and facilitating their new education programmes.

Sitting in the afternoon sunshine, Laura spoke of a particular ethos that underlies the philosophy and aims of BLOCK T. Although the founding members all had different interests and visions for what BLOCK T was to be, from day one they insisted on a level of professionalism and a dedication to enabling creativity. As a result, they have started building what they believe is a self-sustaining model that can be pioneered and grown into a support network built on a strategy of collaboration rather than competition. BLOCK T aims to become an umbrella organisation creating multiple strands of arts practice with a core mission that promotes artistic and aesthetic values underlined by best business practices that remain ethically driven by a desire to enable creativity.

BLOCK T’s ambitions for the future include the development of an online radio station, online TV and other Internet channels.

Through their newly developed strand of taught courses, a desire to become a centre for education and advocacy at all levels of creative production is clear. Laura was keen to stress that it is only the creative economy that can continue to grow indefinitely as it is not limited by any resource other than the imagination. Ultimately for Laura and the team at BLOCK T, people are the main asset when it comes to creative industries and they see themselves as an extended family offering mutual support in a holistic way, nurturing and motivating creativity in others. Her parting words to me were, “evolve, learn and grow”.

Institution profile

BARRY KEHOE VISITED BLOCK T TO FIND OUT HOW THE ORGANISATION CAME INTO BEING AND to DISCUSS ITS RECENT EVOLUTION INTO A CREATICE ORGANISATION HOSTING MULTIPLE STRANDS OF ARTS SERVICES AND A COMPLEX OF AROUND 90 ARTISTS’ STUDIOS.

Caroline Le Mehaute, 'Vertical Instincts', installation view

Performance by Alan Delmar at 'Process'

Performance by Alan Delmar at 'Process'

Seated in large, worn yet comfortable second-hand armchairs in a sunny corner office of what used to be the probation services in Smithfield, I met with Laura Garbataviciute-Dovn, Managing Director of BLOCK T. We began by talking about how, just over a year ago, BLOCK T moved into a large office complex in Dublin’s Smithfield and expanded its studio provision from 11 to 90 artists’ studios. With a casual laugh Laura recalled this decision, made by the founding members, to take on the monumental task of managing such a large property, “We thought, Why not? What’s the worst thing that could happen? Yes, it could fail, but then we’d just have to start again from square one.” There is something infectiously positive in her approach to my question about how intimidating the prospect of taking on such a large project must have appeared. However, after more discussion, I began to understand that her self-effacing humility hides an acute business mind with a passion for creative enterprise. It became clear that the expansion of BLOCK T reflects the ambitions of its founding members to make a considerable positive impact on the creative landscape of the city.

BLOCK T began from very humble origins, with a group of art college graduates simply looking for spaces to work in and perhaps have exhibitions or run events. Laura was a member of the Smithfield Business Association and had been running a talent agency from an office in Smithfield for nearly seven years. As a result, she already had a good relationship with the landlords and business people of the area. This certainly made it easier for the group to be taken seriously by the property owners as they began to look at some of the empty industrial spaces as potential studios. When Laura initially visited the site where BLOCK T established its first home with Grace McEvoy (Visual Arts Director) and Simon McKeagney (Team Facilitator), she said, “No way”, thinking the space was too big to manage. However,

on a return visit that included Ben Readman (Artistic and Marketing Manager) and Joe Salam (Director of Operations and Events), they began a series of conversations that led to a change of heart – and BLOCK T was born.

In the space of just three years, BLOCK T has become one of the largest studio providers in the city. Not only has the organisation expanded its studio provision exponentially, it has established a notable profile at large cultural events such as Electric Picnic and Arthur’s Day, during which BLOCK T curated an arts festival in the Guinness Store House. They have just held the fourth annual Christmas market, The Dublin Flea & BLOCK T Christmas Cracker, in a large warehouse space in Smithfield. With 120 stalls it claims to be the biggest Christmas flea market in the city. In the last year, an education programme has also been developed, offering courses in diverse creative practices such as photography, creative drawing, painting, electronic music production, interactive audio-visual and robotic machine design, video editing, short story writing and writing for the big and small screen. Courses in darkroom printing and screen printing techniques have also been added. Students who participate in their education programmesare eligible to be chosen for an annual show curated and funded by BLOCK T. In terms of the visual arts programme, the solo show by French artist Caroline Le Méhauté, titled ‘Vertical Instincts’(9 – 23 October 2013), proved to be one of their most successful exhibitions to date.

She was the first artist selected for BLOCK T’s inaugural international residency award that has become a new element of LINK, BLOCK T’s ongoing international exchange programme and biennial festival, LINK Culturefest. On this occasion, Le Méhauté’s residency was made possible by support from the French Embassy in Ireland. Laura stressed that grants and public support is still important for an

Barry Kehoe is a performer, writer, musician, historian and educator. He works in the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) facilitating talks, tours and workshops for the museum’s various education programmes.

14

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

PROFILE FW: I know that you have an ambition that Damer House might function as a critical art forum in the Midlands. Though it’s early days yet, can you tell me more about how you would like to see that critical art forum develop?

PH/TR: We wrote our mission statement in a spirit of foolhardy optimism and in a state of high excitement – we were, after all, facing our dream! However, we believe that Damer House Gallery can create a platform to present and advocate topical discussions that explore contemporary thinking in the context of what was once a wonderful old market town and its environs. This may take the form of looking at the historical legacy of the place in the context of humankind’s obsession with progressing civilisation and technology.

Kate Mc Elroy, ‘Overture’ graduate show, image courtesy of Damer House Gallery

in need of some attention. However, they decided to grasp the opportunity and the Damer House project was born.

FW: Tell me about your first season.

PH/TR: Following the initial work involved in setting up the programme and visiting various art colleges to select work for the emerging graduates exhibition 'Overture', the Damer House Gallery opened to the public on the 21 July 2013. The second exhibition was an international collection of prints from the Birth Exchange Project, a diverse collection of original prints in various media by American, European and Africa women artists. This collection has been gathered to reaffirm a human experience of the process of birth, which has been “clinified, medicalized, and to a large degree taken away from women”, according to Sylvia Taylor and Patricia Hunsinge, organisers of the collection.2 We concluded on Culture Night, 18 September, with a photographic workshop for the surrounding community and for artists, which will develop into an exhibition early next year.

We had in excess of 700 visitors over the 10 week period, many of whom travelled from Cork, Limerick and Galway for the graduate show. We had a surprisingly large number of locals and people from Dublin. The largest group were visitors from abroad, mainly France, Great Britain, Italy and the USA, who seemed really pleased to find the gallery in a place where they hadn’t expected it, and promised to recommend us.

Fiona Woods: How does the Damer House project fit with your artistic practices?

Patricia Hurl / Therry Rudin: The fact that Damer House is an artistled initiative allows us the freedom to take risks within art / life boundaries. We are putting as much of ourselves into Damer House Gallery as we would into our studio, seeing this as a new wellspring within our work. Our collective experiences in curatorial, collaborative and participatory art allows us to approach our ideas for Damer House Gallery as an extension to our art practice.

FW: How does Damer House find its public?

PH/TR: So far we have used social media – Facebook – and the usual media avenues like local newspapers and the Irish Times supplement, ‘The Ticket’. Damer House has been highlighted in Tourist Board and OPW publications and we have advertised in art publications like Visual Artists’ News Sheet and ebulletin. We have created invites and posters locally and liaised with the local arts office, which publicise events in their monthly newsletter. Word of mouth has also proved important.

FW: What is your approach to programming the venue?

PH/TR: This coming year will be our first full season programme; our aim is to form a board with artists and industry-figure members from Roscrea and the immediate surroundings. In some way, the funding will dictate the programming of the venue. Damer House Gallery is committed to showcasing a selection of emerging artists from the regional art colleges each year. Another one of our aims is to document artists who have been overlooked or forgotten, in their lifetime or after they have died.

We are currently planning an artist in residency placement, where the successful candidate will be offered living accommodation in Silverbarn Studios with a studio and exhibition space in Damer House Gallery. We have also been in talks with the Black Church Print Studio, Dublin, with the intention to set up a once-off demonstration workshop and exhibition of the work of artist members.

For the past three years we have been engaged with Birr Theatre and Arts Centre in a programme of discursive art ‘talks’ on contemporary art; work from a while back is considered and discussed in order to put current practice in context. We will include Damer House Gallery in this as a form of travelling lecture, with the longterm plan to create a broadsheet publication.

FW: Is the project open-ended or do you have a particular life span in mind for it?

PH/TR: The project is directly supported by the OPW as we do not pay rent or utility bills and they have given us complete freedom in relation to the programming. Apart from that, we finance the programme ourselves. So far, our costs have been mainly for the publication of invitations and posters, the presentation of work and equipment for display. We invigilate the exhibitions and do the administration ourselves. Other funding will be necessary for the project to be sustainable; we are planning to apply for an internship for 2014 to support the running of the project. We don’t have any lease on the space, so that gives us a certain amount of freedom to how things develop.

Performance by Holy Burnard, ‘Overture' graduat show, image by Damer House Gallery

Fostering the Countrypolitan PATRICIA HURL AND THERRY RUDIN TALK TO FIONA WOODS ABOUT DAMER HOUSE, A NEW ARTIST-LED SPACE IN TIPPERARY THAT SEEKS TO ADDRESS THE LACK OF PLATFORMS OUTSIDE OF METROPOLITAN CENTRES FOR ADVENTUROUS, EXPERIMENTAL PRESENTATIONS OF CONTEMPORARY ART.

Exterior, Damer House, Roscrea, Co Tipperary, photo courtesy of the Damer House Gallery

Damer House is a new artist-led centre for contemporary art located in Roscrea, Tipperary. The project is housed an eighteenth century building, an example of pre-Palladian architecture in the Queen Anne Style. The house is part of a thirteenth century castle complex, managed by the Office of Public Works, which also includes a stone castle with a gate tower, curtain walls and two corner towers dating from the 1280s. There is also a restored mill displaying the original St Cronan’s high cross and pillar stone. It has been open to the public as a heritage centre since 1992.

Patrica Hurl and Therry Rudin are the artists behind this project.

Since moving to the area in 2007, they have engaged with the local art scene, making work at their studios in Ballybritt and Roscrea, and presenting work in Birr Theatre and Arts Centre and the Arts Centre in Tullamore. Working both independently and collaboratively, Hurl and Rudin have developed multi-layered practices over the years, making, curating and developing socially engaged projects that respond to their own lived experiences and local contexts. They began to reflect on the awareness of contemporary art in Roscrea in the last couple of years, and came to the conclusion that there was room to develop a contemporary art initiative there, something that would create a platform for artists and publics to come together.

Having previously lived in Dublin and in Clare, Hurl and Rudin are keenly aware of the gap that exists outside of metropolitan centres for adventurous, experimental approaches to the presentation of contemporary art. In 2012, recognising the potential for Damer House to function as a contemporary art exhibition space, they decided to approach the Office of Public Works seeking permission to use an empty floor within it for that purpose.

Hurl and Rudin were pleasantly surprised by the prompt, positive response that they received. The Office of Public Works, to its credit, saw how much this venture would add to the experience of visitors to the centre and to the cultural life of the town. The artists were also a little taken aback to find themselves responsible for the space so much sooner than they had expected, particularly as it was

FW: Does Damer House function differently as a result of being in Roscrea, compared to how you might expect it to operate if it was in Dublin?

PH/TR: It’s very early days to answer this question fully! Damer House Gallery seeks to “redress an imbalance in the development of art initiatives sited on the margins of the more centralised visual arts discourse”.1 Our aim is not to replicate the norms of the city establishment. We would like the gallery become a warm, inviting space with tea / coffee facilities, a book reference area and access to someone who can explain / engage with the work on show.

FW: What are your plans for the coming year?

PH/TR: The most exciting part of our programme for 2014 is the two residencies we are hosting. Not only will the artists bring some fresh thinking into the gallery, but it will also be nice to have artists living and working with us, forging the beginnings of a sort of small artists’ colony! In general, exhibitions will last four weeks. We are currently in talks regarding an exciting retrospective, but the details of that can’t be made public yet. Watch this space.

Damer House Gallery will participate in the yearly summer festival of Roscrea and Culture Night. Artist talks, beginning in the spring, will be listed on Facebook. The Damer House Gallery and Castle will be open to the public from mid-March to mid-September.

Gallery opening hours will be Wednesday to Sunday from 11.00 – 17.30, closed on Monday and Tuesday.

Fiona Woods is a visual artist whose practice includes making, writing, curating and teaching. www.fionawoodsartist.wix.com Notes 1. Dr. Suzanne O’ Shea, Verge, February 2010 2. Quoted from exhibition press release

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

15

VAI Professional development

Sustaining the Ephemeral EL PUTNAM DISCUSSES VISUAL ARTISTS IRELAND’S PRESENTATION OF A MASTERCLASS BY NIGEL ROLFE AND THE DISCUSSION ‘SUSTAINING PERFORMANCE BASED PRACTICES’ AT THE DUBLIN LIVE ART FESTIVAL IN SEPTEMBER 2013.

VAI Professional Development Masterclass with Nigel Rolfe at the Dublin Live Art Festival 2013, photo by Fiona Killeen

Photo by Fiona Killeen

During the Dublin Live Art Festival, which took place at the Back Loft from 25 – 29 September 2013, Visual Artists Ireland presented a number of professional development events that addressed a wide range of issues concerning performance art. Included in these events was a master class taught by internationally acclaimed artist Nigel Rolfe and a seminar entitled ‘Sustaining Performance Art Practices’.

Both the master class and the seminar raised interesting points and posed questions regarding what it means to be a performance artist living and working in Ireland. As a new arrival to the Dublin art scene, I found that these sessions provided an opportunity to become familiar with local art making and critical practices.

Historically, performance art has emerged from the experimental margins of art making, where the artist makes use of the body, space / place and time to create live works. These works tend to be performed for an audience, though an audience is not required.

Performance art is commonly ephemeral and may be connected to a particular site and context, though it can also be documented and distributed by means of other artistic media. With such a vague definition, what does it really mean to be a performance artist? In the master class, Rolfe emphasised that it is not a matter of “anything goes”, but that defining performance art is a complex process and contingent on the cultural context of the work’s development and execution.

Rolfe opened the master class with a lecture, providing a historical overview of performance art in addition to contextualising his own practice within these parameters. Instead of serving as a standard review of art history, his presentation drew connections between the works of established performance artists with conceptual themes and questions, including: action, materials, process and presence. Incorporating anecdotes from his experience into this rich canon of performance art, Rolfe laid out some potential guidelines for being performance artists, and discussed how to elevate and foster this creative practice. The day ended with an hour-long group performance with each participant performing actions while incorporating a range of everyday materials and objects – including yarn, marbles, flowers, and pieces of clothing – which resulted in a cacophonous session of motion, sound and images.

The ‘Sustaining Performance Art Practices’ seminar offered an opportunity to address the more practical questions associated with being a performance artist in Ireland. Moderated by Cliodhna Shaffrey and including speakers Nigel Rolfe and Dr Áine Phillips, this panel brought artists who are nurturing a live practice in conversation with seasoned veterans. Some of the discussed topics were: the advantages and disadvantages of performance art collectives; sustaining a practice in an ephemeral art form; issues concerning documentation; the role of gender in developing and establishing a career as a performance

criticality in performance art? Is it enough to just have a group of people creating work and supporting each other in the process?

Instead of being able to effectively critique work, should we be satisfied with the chance to create work at all?

I consider these significant points not just for performance artists, but also for the visual arts in general. In the current art world, plutocratic collectors like Charles Saatchi are treated as gatekeepers of taste and many works are considered an aesthetic success based on popular draw in museums and the prices garnered on the auction block. The assumption that artists are willing to work for free perpetuates this state of affairs, which ultimately causes more harm than good for creative workers in the neoliberal economy. In this system, artists may experience little or no monetary return, which leads, potentially, to financial and creative losses for the individual.

At this point in time, when performance art has made a strong enough impression on the canons of art history, it is not enough to just create work. We must also promote a critical discourse around this work while treating these artists as cultural workers worthy of being paid for their time and efforts.

How then does a performance artist develop and maintain a professional practice? What I gathered from Rolfe’s class and the seminar is the importance of working. Like any other artistic practice, performance art involves a skill set and craft that must be supported and developed. The collection of and interaction with materials, generating a sensitivity to time and space, and increasing awareness of the body, are some of the ways that a performance artist can further her practice in the studio. It is also crucial to use live events as opportunities to develop relations with an audience. Peer groups can be useful in cultivating and critiquing ideas, as finding a creative common ground with other artists can help break the isolation of studio work. Rolfe, however, warned against becoming too dependent on these groups, emphasising the importance of generating an interior dialogue and not becoming tied to the confines of a group or clique.

From these sessions, it is evident that performance art is thriving in Dublin, with Irish artists developing their own brand. This brings up an issue that was not addressed in either the seminar or master class: How does Irish performance art stand up in the transnational art world? I feel that increased scholarship and critical discourse concerning Irish performance art in both the regional and transnational contexts would further its development, offering unforeseen opportunities for artists working locally and abroad.

artist; and how to create room for criticality in contemporary Irish performance art.

Rolfe highlighted his status as a ‘loner’ in the art world, while Phillips emphasised the importance of artist collectives, especially in times of social and economic hardship. Such groups help build audiences and offer opportunities for artists to produce work and engage in a critical discourse. However, these positions are not mutually exclusive, as it is possible to develop an identity as an individual artist within a collective that can provide key resources, especially in the formative stages of an artistic practice. A group or scene may pose challenges to furthering an individual’s work, though these do not have to be incompatible and it is possible to negotiate between the two.

Artist groups also provide support that offers a more concrete understanding of what constitutes performance art. This point is significant since the uncertainty and challenges in defining performance art has implications for an artist’s professional practice.

As noted in the seminar, during financial recessions, performance art tends to flourish because of the readiness and relative cheapness of raw materials. Despite this, there is still a need for financial resources to sustain a practice. For example, obtaining proper funding can be a challenge, as it can be hard to categorise performance works on grant applications. Even though art institutions are increasingly accepting and promoting performance art, at times even sponsoring the creation of such works, it can still be treated as the bastard child of the art world, despite efforts to distinguish its historical lineage. Also, since many performance works live events, finding opportunities to stage pieces becomes another hurdle. Subsequently, numerous festivals and performance events, such as the Dublin Live Art Festival, have popped up around the world. This raises another issue: unlike other visual arts media, a performance work usually means that the artist must attend the event, which may be costly.

The topic of payment for artists evoked a highly emotional response during the seminar. It is not uncommon to find an artist who has a day job in addition to maintaining a professional artistic practice. There is a concern that younger artists do not have the time to give their art the depth and care it requires, since they are preoccupied with working just to make ends meet, while simultaneously developing a practice that may leave pieces and ideas half-baked. This, combined with the pressure to be visible in order to stay relevant, offers a new set of challenges for younger artists. From what I gathered in the seminar discussion, many performance artists working in Ireland produce work for little or no payment, with artists regularly relying on their own funding to present pieces – a practice that has become commonplace. Rolfe challenged this acceptance, and raised several questions: Does this state of affairs create a space for

Dr EL Putnam is a visual artist and independent arts scholar based in Dublin.

16

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

Residency

We Colonised the Moon, The Embassy of Summer, three black triangular boxes each with three chambers for nine swifts couples, designed to conservation standards in wood, glue, screws, loud speaker, cable, swift calling sound system, 210 cm x 80 cm

Station to Station Maria McKinney, SUE CORKE and HAGEN BETZWIESER describe their experiences of a studio exchange run by FIRE STATION ARTISTS' STUDIOS, DUBLIN and ACME STUDIOS, LONDON.

Maria McKinney, research into corn craft for large sculptural works intended to be worn by line-bred animals, Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading

We Colonised the Moon, The Embassy of Summer

During July 2013, artists from ACME studios London and Firestation Artists Studios, Dublin and swapped their live / work spaces. The exchange arose following a visit in early 2013 by ACME-based artists Paul MacGee and Briony Anderson to Firestation.

During the pilot scheme, Irish artist Maria McKinney took up residence at the ACME studio of Sue Corke and Hagen Betzwieser, who work collaboratively as We Colonised The Moon. Sue and Hagen moved into McKinney’s space in Dublin. The project provided a stipend for the participating artists and covered their respective travel costs to and from Dublin and London.

Maria McKinney ACME studios recently celebrated its fortieth anniversary as an organisation. It is one of London’s key support structures for artists, offering both live / work spaces and day studios in a number of venues. Resident artists for the 12 spaces at ACME Studios are selected from an open call held every five years.

ACME is situated in Poplar, East London. It's en route to the Olympic Village site and the area has been marked by the regeneration instigated by the games. The studios sit neatly halfway between the Bromley-by-Bow underground and Langdon Park DLR stations, providing easy access to the rest of London. The building itself

overlooks the A102, a six-lane road connecting heavy traffic between south and central London.

Behind the studios is a recycling depot, in which there is a huge corrugated iron shed with a curved roof. This slightly hazardouslooking structure is protected from destruction, as it provides shelter to the largest flock of starlings in the UK. Their synchronised display in the early evening is a familiar sight back on Buckingham Street throughout the autumn and winter months. On all other sides are building developments in various stages of completion. The area will be quite a different place in a few years time.

In my application, I proposed to use the time to research new work and, with the support of ACME, gained introductions to other arts practitioners. Julia Lancaster (project and residency manager) was my main point of contact in ACME, and set up about three meetings per week for me with curators and artists she knew. This would not have been achievable on my own; Julia and ACME's reputation imparted a positive sheen onto me.

At the beginning of each meeting, I made it clear that I was not expecting anything from the other person apart from feedback and advice (though any actual outcomes would be a bonus) and just appreciated their taking the time to meet me. I am fortunate enough

to have had the opportunity to exhibit in some publicly funded galleries and the documentation in my portfolio reflected this.

Apparently this in itself is not something an artist of my age could generally expect if living in London; artists have to bide their time for a lot longer to get a solo exhibition in a public space. Expecting funding from the Arts Council of England is also inappropriate for young artists. Both of these realisations made me quite grateful for what we have access to here in Ireland.

London is a massive, self-sustaining system and possesses every necessary aspect: museums, public galleries, private commercial galleries, fairs, artist run spaces, foundations, residencie etc. It's is a difficult and complicated system to crack. The most widely taken route in an attempt to do this is to complete an MA in one of its prominent art schools, as this is where the gallery directors look to for fresh produce. However, there are interesting approaches and projects attempting to counter this. I was introduced to V22 during my stay: a studio group, exhibition space and contemporary art collection. The artists whose work comprises the collection are shareholders in the company, which is floated on the stock market.

Receiving feedback and advice from those with a different perspective was very worthwhile and has helped to expand my outlook and understand some wider possibilities of progression. I was met with an openness and generosity of time that I did not expect. In terms of outcomes there are a few possibilities that may come to fruition, but until they do I will keep them to myself.

WE COLONISED THE MOON (SUE CORKE & HAGEN BETZWIESER) 1 July 2013. We left London on the eight o'clock train to Wales and voyaged on the twelve o'clock boat over the Irish sea. This was the start of our search for Laputa, Jonathan Swift’s legendary city, which hovers on a magnetic field high above the ground, where super intelligent inhabitants are busy all day long thinking only about art and science.1 We were sure that if we visited them they would probably enlighten us about the nature of what we do.

Some weeks before when we talked about our work: the smell of the moon, the taste of the universe, the need for solar powered solariums, and how, in general, we float in the newfangled art cosmos, a brilliant mind called it very 'Swiftian'. This made no sense to us at the time but opened up a pathway of enquiry for our upcoming journey to Ireland.

14 July 2013. After several expeditions, adventures, wonderful encounters with new people, endless discussions and intense afternoon naps in lavender fields, we finally realised the truth at the core of our investigations. One silent evening, sitting on a balcony overlooking the old Dublin neighbourhood, the Monto, the scream of a single common swift flapped us back to consciousness again. We, the artistic researchers, are the Laputians! We actually have no idea how to usefully deploy our knowledge anymore – trapped in the internalised belief system of contemporary art and the death spiral of reference. It is the swifts of today that are missing from the picture.

Every year, as spring passes these incredible creatures migrate thousands of miles from their winter quarters to spend the summer with us before returning south at the break of autumn. They live on the wing, eat, drink and sleep in the air for years, and hardly touch ground except to shelter from storms and nest their next generation.

Through the slow construction of cities over the last centuries, they have dained to cohabit with us; but, due to current patterns of urban development they are now rapidly disappearing.

30 July 2013. We used the given time and resources to build a new fortress for these entities, high up in the air, 16 metres above the ground, on the north face of the Firestation Artists' Studios – an invitation into the future to return again and again and again. If the seasons have an ambassador, it is the swifts.

Maria McKinney’s time at ACME was supported by an Arts Council bursary award.

We Colonised The Moon is a partnership of Hagen Betzwieser (Germany) and Sue Corke (UK). Sue is the recipient of a five-year live work residency award with ACME. www.wecolonisedthemoon.com www.swift-conservation.org Notes 1.Jonathan Swift wrote Gulliver’s Travels (1726) as a commentary on what he perceived to be the disastrous divorce of theology from science

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

17

project profile

Opening night, Artisterium

'Palimpsest Rianu', collaborative image

Iliko Zautashvili, Am I You, performance at Artisterium

Tbilisi Traces

problems in the end and in good time for the official opening on 4 October. The official opening of Artisterium is a very important night in the Tbilisi cultural calendar and the place was packed. Hundreds of visitors thronged the corridors – artists, art lovers, students, writers, press and media – creating an air of great excitement and enthusiasm on the various floors of the museum.

There was an emphasis on performance throughout the week with three separate performances on the opening night, including a re-enactment of the original performance by Iliko Zautashvili of Am I You? American performance artists Jennifer Hicks and Ledoh conducted workshops later on in the week, which were very well attended.

Film was also a strong element; the show featured ‘Difference Screen’, a three-day programme of international artist films running at the Georgian National Museum. There were two panel discussions with UK curators Bruce Allan and Ben Eastop, mediated by Gareth Evans, Curator of Film at the Whitechapel Gallery, London. About 30 films spanning several decades reflected the changing socio-political landscapes of their respective eras and countries.

There was a significant exhibition of Georgian artists at Mtatsminda Park, a contemporary gallery set under a huge ferris wheel in a fun park in the hills overlooking Tbilisi – certainly the most unsual setting for an artist studio and gallery we have experienced. This was mainly an exhibition of painting with strong works by Archil Turmanidze, Iliko Zautashvili and Temo Javakhi, among others.

‘The Palimpsest / Rianú Project’ was very well received and inspired some interesting conversations about the benefits and challenges of collaboration. The range of individual works included drawings, paintings, photography, video and installation, giving a good snapshot of contemporary Irish art. Claire and I gave talks about the work during the week. We also invited artists from Georgia to participate in the project so that, when we show the work in Dublin in 2014, there will be a further layer added to it. Indeed, each time we show the work, we will be inviting further participation.

Throughout the Artisterium week, we attended many openings, performances and presentations and encountered first hand the famous Georgian hospitality, which gave the participating artists and curators many opportunities to meet and to exchange ideas and experiences. All in all, we learned a great deal. We gained valuable experience in dealing with the logistical challenges of organising an international exhibition. We made some new contacts – artists with whom we will hopefully collaborate in the future. But most of all we gained some insights into a different world; we broadened our

EOIN MAC LOCHLAINN PROFILES THE PALIMPSEST/ RIANÚ PROJECT, WHICH WAS SHOWN AS PART OF ARTISTERIUM VI, HELD IN TBILISI, GEORGIA DURING OCTOBER 2013.

In October, Claire Halpin and I travelled to Tbilisi in Georgia to curate and install ‘The Palimpsest/ Rianú Project’ – the Irish representation at Artisterium VI, a major international art event that takes place annually in the Georgian capital. 1 Artisterium has grown in importance each year since its establishment in 2008. It now comprises a 10-day programme of art exhibitions, performances, presentations and workshops with artists from over 20 participating countries.

The events take place in venues across Tbilisi, including the Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi History Museum, Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, the Museum of Georgian Literature, the Rustaveli Theatre, the Centre for Contemporary Art, the Goethe Institute, the Container Gallery and several others. For a city similar in size to Dublin, it seems to have a lot more cultural institutions and art spaces. The programme is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia and various cultural organisations and embassies working in the country.

With a complicated history of invasions and wars, Georgia is an ancient crossroads by the shores of the Black Sea, sandwiched between Turkey and Armenia to the South and the Russian Federation to the North. Tbilisi itself is an eclectic mix of East and West, old and new, with great ornate palaces, crooked little cobbled streets, gilded churches, shabby Soviet-era apartment blocks and modern glass and steel skyscrapers.

Artisterium is curated by Magda Guruli, who describes the project as an “evolving curatorial platform” that each year responds to “prevailing social concerns”. Last year, Artisterium was entitled ‘The Protest that Never Ends’, and focused on global protest movements of various forms via a programme of events exploring how creative works might function as catalysts for change.

Claire and I were invited to curate and coordinate the Irish representation at Artisterium VI. This invitation came about because of our involvement with Cló and The Living Archive in Co Donegal.2 Cló has worked with Artisterium since its inception to represent Ireland, both north and south, at the event. When I was working at Cló during the summer of 2012, I met the artist / curator Magda Guruli along with other artists from Armenia, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Scotland and the US. Cló is an artist-led initiative which provides a platform for creative exchange between artists worldwide and the local Donegal community. It’s the brainchild of artists Ian Joyce and Oona Hyland, who have gathered a large number of artists around themselves – curators, film makers, poets and writers – to make up the extended Cló community. Hidden away in the Donegal Mountains, it is a hive of cultural activity. It offers artists’ residencies throughout the year and runs various art courses in the summer; it has a large gallery and performance area, and a library (The Living Archive) which houses a

huge collection of books, catalogues, CDs and DVDs. ‘Artisterium VI – Am I You?’ was inspired by a 1998 performance of the same name by Georgian artist Iliko Zautashvili, which explored the difficulties of communication that arise from our fixed languages and cultural or behavioural stereotypes. The work featured four participants, whom Zautashvili invited to work in pairs and make attempts at understanding each other while in close physical proximity. The artist placed physical obstacles between the participants, limiting visibility, while they simultaneously recited texts in different languages. Magda Guruli described the themes of ‘Am I You?’ in terms of encouraging reflection on our “responsibility to the other”, coexisting with “unfamiliar, different or even disagreeable ideologies and lifestyles” and as a call for “participation, understanding and empathy”.

As Claire and I discussed and researched the ideas behind this theme, we decided on a collaborative approach involving eight (including ourselves) Irish artists: Brian Fay, Mary A Fitzgerald, Colin Martin, Aoife McGarrigle, Kate Murphy and Nuala Ní Fhlathúin. Each artist was invited to produce an initial image and then pass it on to the next artist. The second artist would respond to it by manipulating it in some way, adding to it or working over it and then email it on to the third artist. This process continued until all the artists had worked on all eight pieces.3 We decided on the title ‘Palimpsest / Rianú’ as a reference to both palimpsests – erased and overwritten ancient manuscript pages – and Rianú, the Irish word for tracing. The project proved to be a very creative and rewarding experience for the artists involved; we each gained a lot from the challenges of working in collaboration. It was interesting to encounter the varied working methods and creative processes of the other artists. The eight finished works were printed out on Fabriano paper (A1 size) by the Black Church Print Studio in Dublin. We received some funding from Ealaín Na Gaeltachta towards the costs of the project. Each artist was also invited to produce individual works on the ‘Am I You?’ theme, to be exhibited as part of the project at Artisterium VI. We travelled out to Tbilisi to install the work, carrying the artworks in our luggage. It is difficult to think of everything in advance for this type of excursion, so we decided to bring as much as possible: hammers, nails, pins, clips, tape and Velcro – plenty of Velcro. In retrospect, we should also have brought filler and white paint.

Our work was shown in the Tbilisi History Museum, the main venue for Artisterium. It’s an impressive building but has seen better days. All around us, in the various rooms of the Museum, artists were working frantically to complete their installations. The one electrician was going from room to room like a man possessed. The two of us managed to install ‘The Palimpsest / Rianú Project’ without too many

horizons and we made new friends at the other end of Europe.

Eoin Mac Lochlainn is an artist and art blogger based in Dublin www.emacl.com Notes 1. www.artisterium.org 2. www.clo.ie 3. A link to Claire Halpin’s short film, showing the works in progress, can be found on her blog: www. clairehalpin2011.wordpress.com

18

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

Career development

Jason Ellis, Supplicant, 2011, Portland limestone, Ht 14cm, image courtesy of Ros Kavanagh

Jason Ellis, Selene, 2013, Carrara marble, h 42cm, image courtesy of Ros Kavanagh

Becoming a Better Sculptor JASON ELLIS DESCRIBES HIS TRAINING AND BACKGROUND AND REFLECTS ON THE MOTIVATION AND PHILOSOPHY BEHIND HIS ART PRACTIcE. The first time I ever realised that such a thing as sculpture existed was during a visit to the Barbara Hepworth Museum at St Ives, near my birthplace in Cornwall, as an A-Level art student. The threedimensional world made much more sense and I was glad to abandon ‘flat art’ in pursuit of this vital goal. Painting was all illusion – sculpture was real, actual objects existing in space. I studied sculpture as part of an honours degree at the University of Chichester, where my lecturer was an exponent of Modernism and the British Twentieth Century School, having himself been taught by Caro in the 1950s.

During a college trip to Paris, I visited the studio of Brancusi, preserved outside the Pompidou Centre. I felt like I’d been struck by lightning, but this blow was to prove double-edged: when you admire the work of a genius, how can you possibly try to emulate that work without falling into pastiche? Whilst an admiration for the early Modernists helped me focus on abstract form as a means of expression, their overarching presence also became at times an obstacle to development.

I moved to London in 1986, where I stumbled upon an opening for an antique restorer and learned how to repair ceramic, glass and stone artefacts for the commercial market. I then started work in a larger conservation studio, specialising in stone sculpture, and was trained in restoring Roman antiquities, Buddhas from the Far East, nineteenth-century statuary and twentieth-century works by the likes of Josef Beuys, Henry Moore and Jeff Koons. Those eight years of training in an extremely wide range of media and styles had a lasting influence and expanded my college education exponentially. I still believe that exposure to other artists and other environments is beneficial and a trip to Paris or Rome, where they treat sculpture with great respect, can help enormously when struggling with a problem or developing a new theme. Before leaving London I carved a piece of Bardiglio Nuovolato, a decorative marble from Tuscany, and underwent another epiphany – stone was the medium that offered everything I wanted: technically challenging, unforgiving, permanent, beautiful and supremely suited to any Modernist discussions on material and form. I was hooked. Robert Jacobsen summed it up: “Material repays in inspiration what you have given it in your attempt to serve it.” 1 I came to Ireland in the early 1990s and set up in business as a sculpture conservator for 12 years. This was another part of my education; witnessing the skill of medieval stone carvers in churches and cathedrals across the country was a particular revelation. Overall, the time I spent in conservation was like an extended apprenticeship: art history, carving techniques, construction, repair and maintenance, geology, chemistry – all these gave me the chance to learn how sculpture is made. (Being self-employed – with insurance, VAT returns, deadlines, liaising with architects and local authorities and all its other delights – certainly helps in terms of running an art practice, too.)

After 20 years of cleaning and repairing other people’s artworks, I was finally compelled to start carving my own work full-time. Part of the process has been seeking justification within the context of making art today; how on earth can such an ancient practice as stone carving be relevant? I held to several Modernist principles for many years: material-specificity, form preceding concept, etc, a la Greenberg, but ultimately found his viewpoint constraining.

The tearing up of Greenberg’s rulebook and the cycle of PostModernism, Minimalism and all the other ‘isms’, each debunking the last in turn, has left a playing field with no borders; contemporary sculpture can be, as Rosalind Krauss puts it, “almost infinitely malleable”.2 However, I find that the philosophical arguments behind some art today are often diluted forms of Duchamp’s original ideas from a century ago and there is actually nothing new in them.

I visited London in 2011 on a research trip to see the ‘Modern British Sculpture’ show at the Royal Academy and a few other galleries around town, both public and commercial. This five-day immersion left me in no doubt that I do not, nor do I wish to, abide by certain contemporary art practice norms.

My rather quaint hope is that I should be uplifted and invigorated when I visit an exhibition, but I often come away feeling empty and disappointed, with the phrase ‘emperor’s new clothes’ resounding in my head. Furthermore, the ‘art world’, aka the ‘art market’, seems to be so business driven now that the quality, even the nature, of the art suffers. Artists, critics and gallerists are wealthy celebrities, as are their clients, which seems to be their wish.

So, how to function in the art world today – the era of the ‘postobject-based’ art practise, where ambiguity and confusion are celebrated, where facile and derivative arguments that are illconceived and badly rendered reign supreme? I have had to learn to trust my instincts. My own appreciation of art is not intellectually driven, it’s more visual, perhaps even primordial – a visceral reaction that has, on a few occasions, brought me to tears in the presence of a truly great sculpture. I don’t want the work explained, I just want to look at it and be moved by it.

Equally, the sculpture I make does not need to be over-analysed; it exists purely because I’m compelled to make it. I have no worldaltering message to convey, it’s more about a fundamental need to carve and a commitment to form, to the medium, to the work of previous masters – the Egyptians, Praxiteles, Michelangelo, the School of the West, Hans Arp, Peter Randall-Page – and to improving my skills. The audience isn’t offered a backstory, or my pound of flesh, as seems to be a current requirement, and I don’t use wall text panels filled with acres of written ‘artspeak’. I believe that an artwork should be judged on its own aesthetic merits and any pseudo-intellectual justification for it only distracts the mind from the ultimate question the eye is asking: is it a good piece of art?

While it is undeniably a great sense of affirmation when an audience appreciates my work and shows that appreciation even

more by purchasing it, I am not making it to sell. Most committed artists I speak to agree that, during the making process, they don’t give a single thought to its future value; they make art because it’s a compulsion and they have no choice. They’ll do part-time work or anything else to facilitate their art practice. I don’t know a single sculptor who continues in practice for the money; our work is slow and expensive to make and sometimes goes unsold. Some stone carvers take on church work: headstones, inscriptions, etc, but many do other things such as teaching, geological analysis, running carving classes or, as in my case, taking on conservation work, and most continue to carve calmly and sell slowly. This small but well-bonded group of artists represents an important network of peers. We meet at openings and symposiums, give our time and advice to one another freely and tell each other about tools and materials for sale or about upcoming commissions. This network is complemented by areas of the stone industry: quarries, suppliers and artisans, who all play key roles in assisting sculptors in bringing large projects to fruition.

Several sculptors used to rely financially on Per Cent for Art commissions, but there are far fewer of these now. All artists in all media feel the same pinch, I believe. Amongst my peers, an average annual gross income from an art practice is between €10,000 and €20,000 – hardly enough to survive on, especially when you consider the cost of stone or bronze and the overheads of running a studio space.

Over the last two years, I have found joining a gallery very helpful: I work slowly, am uneasy with marketing (an aspect that any successful practice needs), receive few commissions and no public funding, so the encouragement and imprimatur of a good gallery have proved invaluable in getting exposure and recognition for the work. My recent show, ‘Corpus’, at the Oliver Sears Gallery gave me access to a whole new audience.

Thankfully, there are many strata to the art world, and there is enough room for old-hat object-based sculptors like me at one end of the spectrum and conceptual artists and their commentators at the other. There are as many audiences as there are branches of artistic pursuit: it’s Mozart for some, Motörhead for others. I shall never garner the fame or wealth of a Hirst but am happy operating in the narrow stratum of stone sculpting, where a small and appreciative audience still remains. I extract fulfilment from making the work, even when it’s a challenge or a struggle, and this, I believe, is a good reason to pursue anything. My primary aim is to become a better sculptor, to make work that is good and that resonates. It will take a lifetime.

Jason Ellis www.jasonellis.ie Notes 1. Jacobsen quoted in Carola Giedion-Welcker Contemporary Sculpture - An Evolution in Volume and Space Faber & Faber, 1954 2. Rosalind Krauss, Sculpture in the Expanded Field (1978), in The Originality of the Avant-Garde & Other Modernist Myths, MIT Press, 1985

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

Critique Supplement Edition 15 January / February 2014

'Common Ground' Occupy Space, Limerick (Aine Phillips, Amanda Dunsmore, Deirdre O’Mahony, Fiona Woods & Sean Taylor), 8 – 30 November 2013 Ground Up Artists Collective (GUAC) is

and even economic merit. O’Mahony's SPUD

concerned with strengthening the foundations for

emphasises the value of generations of knowledge

art created in rural areas, through research and

versus modernisation, as global resources are

collaborations. The GUAC annual exhibition for

coming under severe pressure.

current members was held recently at the

Áine Philips contributed a project that

Ennistymon Courthouse Gallery in Clare but, to

highlighed the positive and lasting impact that art

celebrate the collective’s 10 year anniversary,

in the community can have. Shelters was

curators Orlaith Treacy of Occupy Space in

commissioned in 2005 as a temporary work, but

Limerick and Barry Charles Foley of GUAC teamed

ended up staying in place for years. These simple

up to bring the work of five former Ground Up

sheds were set up at three different unconsecrated

artists to the Limerick city centre venue. The show

burial grounds for un-baptised babies in Co Clare.

Located in places of the utmost beauty and serenity, the sheds were intended to act as a space for reflection and for healing. People were encouraged to leave a symbolic token in memory of these babies. Sheds are usually seen as a space to contain things, but here they served to let things out. A grid of photographs illustrated the project in its early stages on one side and its most recent guises on the other. The accumulation of items, such as little knitted jumpers and shells, are evidence of how people have engaged with this project.

Post Art Condition (2013) by Fiona Woods was a multimedia installation featuring several projects showing man-made interventions in the landscape or ‘natural’ interventions indoors. A trail of leaves were draped around a hospital bed on a drip – is this a reflection on nature in difficulty? An expletive text on the main back wall greets you as soon as you enter the gallery space, bold and unapologetic: “TOTALLY FUCKED OFF WITH ART”. The photographs and plant installation on display create a sense of a developing practice and time passing. This suggests looking back at what has gone before and assessing the current situation, in this case with a sense of disillusionment.

Amanda Dunsmore’s Others Have Their Heads…

Church Band Intervention with Austrian Hedge (2011) provided a contrast and seemed a more lighthearted offering. This video piece of a performance for a festival showed an intervention with local participants. In the work, the body become an almost sculptural tool for altering the landscape – temporarily reshaping the normal lay of things and disrupting the everyday routes of local people.

Fiona Woods, Post Art Condition, 2013

The beauty of this show was in its inherent

Amanda Dunsmore, Others Have Their Heads…Church Band Intervention with Austrian Hedge, 2011

thus offered a dialogue between work exploring

diversity – despite the common interests of the

rural concerns and the urban display context of

artists involved. Collectives, especially in more

Occupy Space.

isolated areas, can instill a sense of mutual support

Sean Taylor’s Silent Protest (2013) banners

and probably heighten the chances of making an

referenced the Communist Manifesto (1848) with the

impact, without compromising individual practice.

slogan “Listeners of the world unite!” and a graphic

Although these five artists are no longer members

of a microphone and headphones standing in place

of GUAC and their practices have no doubt evolved,

of the expected hammer and sickle emblem. The

the fundamental concerns of the collective still

emphasis in Taylor's often sound-based work is on

permeate the works on display. Presenting these

listening – something also pertinent to the

concerns in an urban space opened them up to a

importance GUAC places on working with local

new audience for appreciation. ‘Common Ground’

communities and encouraging engagement.

served firstly to highlight the aims of GUAC –

Softday, Taylor’s ongoing art project, focuses on

which is still going strong, but also to show how

social and environmental issues.

members are carrying forward its ethos, proving

Deirdre O’Mahony’s SPUD (2013) investigated

that art created in rural areas is not on the margins

traditional forms of potato cultivation. The

at all but at the very centre of a distinct

installation on display resembled an ‘educational

movement.

shrine’. Copies of whitewashed pages from literature on the potato, tacked up on the walls, accommodated drawings. The drawings illustrated in minute detail how to grow and harvest potatoes – resembling encyclopedic excerpts. A bookshelf with various books on the potato outlined the vegetable’s historical relevance. This project was developed in conjunction with local farmers who have farmed using traditional methods. A rhythmic accompanying soundscape conjured up images of Opening Night of Common Ground – viewing Áine Philips, Shelters

áine Phillips, Shelters, 2003 – 2013

labourers digging. This project had artistic, social

Roisin Russell is a writer based in Dublin. She has also written for Paper Visual Art Journal, Circa and Vulgo.

The Visual Artists’ News sheet CRITIQUE sUPPLEMENT

January – February 2014

dragana Jurisic 'yu: the lost Country' Belfast Exposed 25 October – 23 December 2013

'the Work of Micheal Farrell' Crawford Gallery, Cork 9 November 2013 – 4 January 2014

the individual images, making them function as an

on the book, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca

installation. The effect is different from many

West. The exhibition re-traces the author’s steps

installations, which rely on the simultaneous

through Yugoslavia in 1937. West was an Anglo

presentation of multiple images where each image

Irish writer who identified closely with Yugoslavia

retains its own character and power while still

and its people. Dragana Jurisic was born in

contributing to the whole.

Yugoslavia, but now lives and works in Dublin. She

West’s book, as an object as well as a conduit

uses the book as a starting point, and the

for ideas, is pivotal to the exhibition. The four

relationship between the two travellers – separated

copies of book placed in museum cases in the

by 70 plus years – is fundamental to the

centre of the exhibition are a central axis around

exhibition.

which Jurisic’s world rotates. The books in the

Jurisic has used an original copy of the book

cases have photographs intercut into them, for

and added her own contemporary commentary in

example one has the iconic bridge in Mostar pasted

the margins. Photographs of the annotated pages of

in. The bridge was destroyed during the Bosnian

the book punctuate the sequence of photographs,

conflict in 1993 and recently rebuilt and defined as

which are shown as a seamless stream of images in

a UNESCO world heritage site. The weight of

the gallery. As you walk into the space, a large map

history is no more evident than in these small

of Europe from 1937 faces you. To the right of this

interventions, and rather than superseding West’s

there is a small montage of image and text with the

text they enhance and update it in a way that

terse but poetic quote:

seems in keeping with her outlook and intentions.

“Where do you come from?

Micheal Farrell (1940 – 2000), Man Lost in a Glass of Water, 1978, © The Micheal Farrell Estate

This exhibition, produced by Solstice Arts Centre,

bistros, a painting of a boxing match, and Self-

and subsequently shown at the Crawford Gallery,

Portrait (1994), which depicts the artist in France,

aimed to re-evaluate the work of the late Micheal

his home from 1971. Farrell is seen here as an

Farrell (1940 – 2000), from abstract minimalist to

average-looking middle-aged man, balding and

cultural commentator, opening with his Celtic

with a paunch, wearing slacks and sandals, gazing

series from the mid- 1960s. Farrell primarily utilised

out at us in a manner reminiscent of a holiday

the medium of acrylic, which was new at the time,

snap. Again, Farrell’s formal technique seems to

to evoke ancient Irish traditions by integrating

suit the subject matter. This sunny portrait displays

Celtic motifs and symbolism into the hard-edged

a more refined sense of realism and a more leisurely

style of abstraction that was being practised by his contemporaries. His unique take on minimalist painting was termed Celtic Abstraction. While

‘draGana Jurisic’s YU: The Lost Country’ is based

The relationship between history and

From Yugoslavia.

contemporary life is a constant theme throughout

Is there any such country?

the exhibition. In one image, we see a seat on a

No, but that’s still where I came from.”

bridge that was on the route of Franz Ferdinand’s

This text by Jurisic acts as both a beginning

ill-fated journey through Sarajevo in 1914. But a

and an end to the show. Walking into the gallery, I

young man sits insouciantly – wearing shades –

was struck by the pure visual impact of 44 framed

next to an old lady, who gazes somewhere out of

photographs displayed continuously around the

shot. There is a friction between our expectations

room. The photographs correspond with the

of profundity and the mundane reality in these

locations in West’s book. The first photograph is of

historically weighted sites.

style of painting that seems to better fit this portrait

Modernist era building with a broken down sign

There is a frankness and immediacy in the

of a man of retirement age than the sketchy and

saying “Yugoslavija”. Next to it is an image of a

handwritten commentary written by Jurisic in the

raw political works in the lower galleries.

young man and woman in traditional costume,

margins of West’s book. On page 405, it reads, “Not even the magnificent nature could hide all the

Farrell rose to prominence through abstract

Aside from the upper gallery, the exhibition

then a picture of elderly people waiting in an

painting, this exhibition celebrated his move from

overall was dominated by overt symbols of

unpromising urban space. Each image relates,

devastation. Visited former US Special Service base.

the objective to the subjective, bringing together a

‘Irishness’, such as James Joyce in a Celtic tie hung

sometimes tangentially, to its neighbours and to

Nothing left there. Only some horses. Like it never

vast array of later works which deal with Ireland’s

opposite a bar serving only Guinness and Powers

the work as a whole.

happened. Looking at the shops by the side of the

tumultuous political history.

whisky. Despite this preoccupation, and the overtly

Many of the images are beguiling. They seem

road: curtains, garden gnomes, plaster swans and tombstones. This country is FUCKED.”

political context of much of Farrell’s work, a

to allude to ideas of the sublime, yet, when we see

of François Boucher’s Nude Reclining on a Chaise-

posthumous

seems

images of nature at its most seductive, we are

The idea of art based on other bits of art is not

Lounge (1752), which depicts Miss Marie-Louise

unavoidable. The motif the glass and the numerous

brought sharply back to an awareness of history

a new one and a lot of current work seems to relate

O’Murphy, the Irish mistress of Louis XV. This

references to drinking or drowning inside a glass

and trauma. In one image, Jurisic depicts a beautiful

to pre-existing works by other people. But this is

object of male desire becomes, in Farrell’s work, a

evoke not only Ireland’s drinking culture, but also

placid lake scene, with smokey blue grey water and

different. The show has an emotional charge that is

body which has been exploited and used. In order

Farrell’s own troubled relationship with alcohol.

glowing greenery. In this idyll, with his back partly

the antithesis of academicism. The exhibition uses

to amplify this new context, a number of these

More morbidly, works like Sunday (1997 – 98),

turned to the viewer is a soldier in camouflage,

the language of contemporary art to achieve

works were displayed opposite An Incomplete

whose title and orange background make explicit

blending in with his environment like a figure

something that is quite rare in lot of contemporary

History of Ireland (1980 – 81), a painting which

its political context, could also be read in terms of

art: it is emotional, frank, autobiographical and

presents us with a less desirable image of a naked

a personal contemplation of death. This mixed

form a painting by Caspar David Friedrich.

male face down on the floor against a jet black

media work was painted ten years after the artist

background. Translucent brown paint runs across

was diagnosed with throat cancer and two years

his buttocks and is smeared all over the white

before his premature death. It depicts an emaciated

(wall-like) pages of a book, which he seems to have

figure in a hospital bed, surrounded by a thick mass

fallen out of.

of black paint which encases his head and drips

Among these were numerous re-appropriations

biographical

reading

Much of the work in this exhibition dealt with

down from his crown. Of the same period, Black 47

violence as it impacts upon the body, most

(1997), depicts a gaunt but defiant figure against a

impressively in the way Farrell uses the formal

black background, standing at a table upon which

qualities of paint to bring emotional states to the

rests a skull. A skeleton can be seen in the brown

surface of the canvas. Sun 30 Jan 1972 (1997 – 78),

space evoking the earth under the floorboards. This

shows a number of figures gathered around a mass

vanitas painting, referring to the Irish Famine,

of black paint, suggestive of bodies and blood

seems to sum up Farrell’s later work by coupling a

strewn across the floor. These figures themselves

mournful remembrance of the suffering of Ireland’s

are made up of blocks of black and grey paint with

past with the artist’s unflinching acceptance of his

only suggestions of faces as the paint is violently

own mortality. Here the outrage and anger of

dashed and scraped across a dry and exposed

Farrell as a political commentator seems to give

canvas. In other works that refer to both Bloody

way to a more tender consideration of the fragility

Sunday and the Omagh Bombings, we see half-

of life and the shadow of death that hangs over us

sketched, frail figures whose bodies seem

all.

overwhelmed and engulfed by masses of thick paint in bleak colours.

The exhibition continued upstairs with a number of large and seemingly unrelated paintings, the arrangement of which seemed to lack a curatorial agenda. These included portraits of fulllength figures, paintings referring to Parisian

Kirstie North is a PhD candidate at University

Jurisic uses the photographs in a continuous band to create a clear linear narrative and at the same time a complex matrix of connections, allusions and suggestions. Taking out the gaps

honest.

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

between the photographs changes the nature of

Dragana Jurisic work from 'yu: The Lost Country'

College Cork, working on a thesis entitled 'Salvage Operations: Art Historical Memory and the Archive in Contemporary Art'.

Dragana Jurisic work from 'yu: The Lost Country'

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet CriTique SupplemeNT

January – February 2014

Mary Burke 'Memory Traces' Draiocht, Dublin 23 November 2013 – 1 February 2014

Sinead Rice in ‘Small is Beautiful: Who’s Afraid of Red Yellow & Blue’ Flowers Gallery, london 3 December 2013 – 4 January 2014

installation view 'Small is Beautiful: Who's Afraid of red Yellow & Blue' Courtesy Flowers Gallery

mary Burke, Above, oil pastel on canvas, 60 cm x 120 cm

mary Burke, Flashback, oil pastel on canvas, 100 cm x 100 cm

mary Burke, Labyrinth, oil pastel on canvas,120 cm x 120 cm

Looking out the window of the bus to Blanchardstown, you see semi-detached houses – lots of them. As you move through one area to another, you may see some variation in style, but there is nonetheless a strong sense of sameness. The overall impression is of inevitable, indeed unavoidable, banality. And then you walk into Mary Burke’s exhibition, ‘Memory Traces’ and this impression is turned, quietly but powerfully, upside down.

The subject matter of Burke’s work is the suburbia you have just travelled through. She too has looked at it, but with intensity and an incisive eye for detail. She has analysed it into line and form, and broken it down into its component parts. She has found and felt the textures of its materials and re-presented it in a way that dispels the banality and illuminates this everyday world.

There were nine pieces in the exhibition, each demonstrating confidence and maturity. Of the nine, I found Aspect and Equilibrium the least successful – but only in comparison to the others. There is less contrast in the colour palette and the rendering of texture and light feels less accomplished, aspects which are only – barely – noticeable next to the other seven.

Burke delivers on so many levels. Colour is perhaps the first thing that struck me: strong, but not garish, contrasting yet harmonious. Then line.

Given the subject matter, it is not surprising that there is an architectural feel to her work, bordering on a cubist approach, and at times there is a vertiginous Escher-like quality to the image – see, for example, Above – but it is never cold or alienating.

And then there is modality. Burke’s way of re-piecing elements on the canvas suggests collage or patchwork, providing glimpses of our everyday environment – a car wheel, a wheelie bin – that we rarely notice, probably never examine – and certainly wouldn’t be our first choice for a painting.

These are never forced on the viewer, but there to be discovered gradually. One of the sure signs that a piece works is that it draws you back again and again, and this is one of Burke’s great strengths.

What makes her work stand out however, is the way in which Burke brings all these elements

together so coherently. Though her medium is oil pastel on canvas, she uses digital technology and photography in the development of her work; but this process is invisible in the final product. There is a tremendous sense of interconnectedness to her work, yet it never feels repetitive. And she is generous to her viewer. The subject matter is recognisable: familiar items from indoors – stairs, windows, doors; and from the outside – houses, trees and fences. Everything presented in a way that brings the viewer to a new way of seeing this suburban landscape.

Burke’s work is not outrageous, it is in many ways a traditional approach, both the choice of media and the unaggressive treatment of the subject matter. It is honest in its delivery; as the exhibition title promises, the viewer is led into a world where seemingly insignificant but very familiar memories are evoked: ‘that could be my house’. Its mystery lies in its capacity to make you look, and want to look again, at rooftops – not the sunkissed tiles of Italy or the snow-covered slates of Paris – but the unlovely, unremarkable tops of Irish suburban housing. That is the magic of Mary Burke’s ‘Memory Traces’.

SineAd Rice’s work is second on the left as you enter the largest of three rooms on the ground floor of Flowers Gallery, which make up the exhibition ‘Small is Beautiful: Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue’. All works in the exhibition – mostly paintings, but a few freestanding sculptures and one violent diorama – were dictated to be no larger than 22 by 17cm.

On reaching Rice’s Buddhist-inflected Red and white untitled, painted in oil-on-board and transgressively sized at almost 23 by 18 cm, the viewer who has begun in the conventional way would already have passed the mounted neon triangle, but not yet encountered the purposefully crude USSR vs US Cold War cartoon or the panhistorical fusion of Malevich and William Morris.

‘Small is Beautiful’, now in its 31st annual incarnation, is a pointed saturation of the gallery space on Kingsland Road in East London, and offers a largely sales-oriented framework featuring 170 works in total. It was installed during the Christmas season to entice the comfortable but not entirely financially replete art aficionados of the city – the kind of merchant class for whom the gallery’s Shoreditch location is a palatable marketplace, not just a detour on the route to the west end. Flowers also has a gallery space there, on Cork Street, to ensure they don’t exclude the tastes of the entrepreneurs and dauphins.

It’s an annual exhibition as well as a Christmas sale, so it’s perhaps forgivable that there is no legible narrative thread other than the size restrictions on the works. The initiated, who would stiffen at the violation of the white cube’s tenet against crowded walls, might be deterred from visiting. So too might those barefoot ascetics who bristle at the marriage of art and commerce made too obvious and vulgar. For those of the middle way, the blitz of means and materials on display here may still overwhelm the perceptual metabolism; you simple have to accept that to properly digest everything on view is impossible.

Coda To view Burke’s work is to experience harmony, both in the individual pieces and in the overall exhibition, but this is unnecessarily disrupted by the presentation of the accompanying information – or rather, lack of it. What is the reason behind this trend in galleries not to put any details beside the work, forcing the viewer to drop their gaze and look elsewhere? At best this distracts from the enjoyment, at worst it leads to avoidable frustration. In the case of Burke’s exhibition, this frustration is further exacerbated by the requirement on the viewer, if they want to know a bit more, to look at the work anticlockwise. Apart from being a counterintuitive choice, forcing the viewer to see the work in a particular order goes against all notion of allowing them to be drawn into the work. Please, please, please, curators, put an end to this practice!

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

Sinead rice, Red and white Untitled, 2013, courtesy of Flowers Gallery

The show’s subtitle isn’t much adhered to, as red, yellow, and blue factor prominently in some pieces and barely at all in others – only that these colours are the foundations of the spectrum. Rice does choose to engage with red, setting it beside a void of white in one of her ‘monochromatic’ works.

In spite of the self-evident simplicity, the viewer can take a range of approaches to the execution of a monochrome (though the painting is two colours, I employ the word as shorthand), resulting in a range of outcomes.

Rice prefers the hazy application of brushed pigment, repeated carefully but loosely until the surface wears a compromised uniformity, something that seems threadbare, but of indiscernible age. Her white is an eggshell, with blues and beiges visible through the thick fog of it. Her red is pale and struggling, with hints of a now-diminished saturation, darkening at the edges. As with so many works of this sort – two zones of colour cut starkly down the middle – that centre-line speaks volumes. It’s wavering rigidity has no reinforcement of a physical delineation; it is only the cessation of the red and beginning of the white, or vice versa, yet the schism has that mysterious force within the picture plane that make these kinds of work recur so often, at different occasions in art-making, and with different motivations ostensibly attached.

Rice identifies the roots of her work in “the concept of impermanence derived from Zen Buddhist philosophy”. For work that calls on the humanistic motif of repetition and regularity – that might be shared by the ritual sweeping of a floor – this seems perfectly plausible, even if its relevance is unclear.

And the way in which the painted surface could be hardening into clarity or vanishing gradually speaks to exactly that notion: the transience of the physical under the implacability of time. Rice’s work in general, which includes both painting and ceramics, is gestural in that it retains the evidence of simple actions calmly and consciously taken over and over again.

In a field of more garrulous candidates for a lingering glance, which evoke and instrumentalise Pop, Op, globby impasto and the lurid half-narratives of crypto-erotic figure painting, Rice’s work is selfassuredly reserved. It is immaterial in that it refutes its own capacity to remain. Surrounded by a panoply of minutely scaled competitors for a sliver of the viewer’s attention, Rice’s musing on the certainty of uncertainty is a wry feint, and a pressing emptiness.

Curt Riegelnegg is a critic living in London. He is Gallery Manager at Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet CriTique SupplemeNT

January – February 2014

'A Lamb Lies down' (david eager-Maher, Mark Mcgreevy, Lee Welch, Rachael Corcoran, Adrian duncan, Beagles and Ramsay, Martin Healy, Ricky Adam, Vanessa donoso López, Jonathan Mayhew) Broadstone Studios, Dublin 4 – 30 November 2014 This exhibition borrows its title from a double album (A Lamb lies down in Broadway as one of the ten)

by Genesis, released in 1974. The narrative, written and sung by larger-than-life showman Peter Gabriel (about the short life of a Puerto Rican youngster living rough in New York City), unfolds on the first LP, while elaborate instrumental music takes up the second. This kind of music with its now mythical genealogy – from Moody Blues to Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, The Who and Yes to Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Genesis – has a name: prog rock. Suspended in an ever receding past, it has captured the imagination of Paul Hallahan, the curator of the show, which is situated not in white cube grunge, but in a Victorian building, still retaining some of its original fittings, itself an echo of a time long gone. The links are loose; why shouldn’t they be? Dualities come to mind: outward appearance, inner presence or the impact of nineteenth-century popular music (opera) on rock, for example.

I liked the honesty of Adrian Duncan’s daring Romantic Escape (2013), a construction so elegant as to defeat the geometric pattern of the homely carpet, where simplicity signifies itself in a delicate split balance of forces between arte povera materials: a transparent plane held by strips of wood, somehow fastened in fragile ways.

After speaking to the curator about the background to Jonathan Mayhew’s If you loved me, you would admit that you’re ashamed of me (2013), I considered the idea of being more than one person at any one time – the person you once were overlapping with who you are now. The work comprises three sets of still shots taken from a documentary, as far as I could gather, which form a dual portrait of a couple, former punks, using double exposures.

It’s nice to see oil paintings at a time when well over half of Dublin Contemporary, for example, was lens-based media. But I must admit, Mark McGreevy’s bizarre Comfort of a Garden Shed (2008 – 09), with its morphed couple, half human, half not, in an even stranger landscape, was enigmatic. Likewise, David Eager-Maher’s Post (2013) with its bird’s eye view of a troubled land overcast by skies laden with purple clouds. I thought of estrangement or maybe felt estranged by these images, which seemed to relate, remotely, to the nightmare of Rael’s descent into psychological and existential darkness on the second LP. I asked Paul if I needed to know the lyrics. He didn’t think so, but maybe I did.

Foreground: Vanessa Donoso lopez, Tihunita – or the fake lamb, 2013; Background: martin Healy, Genesis 28:12, single channel video, 8.20 min, photo by paul mcCarthy

In Lee Welch’s set of photographs, Que sçais-je?

Other men’s flowers, Behold the hands (How they promise (2013), it felt less important to know how title and image combine. This strikes me as an intervention on the photograph as document of the real; circling, marking or pointing something out with a painter’s brush marks another real, overlaid on the surface glazing the art paper. My impression? That the gaze is fixed, again, on smaller things. This was a far cry from the Baroque enacted in the Beagles & Ramsay video Glitter Desert (2006), where two heads in wigs peer at you in an act ever deferred, their bodies seemingly buried, like the character Winnie in Sam Beckett’s Happy Days (1961), but speechless, almost motionless, in a glittering landscape. Similarly, the eighteenth-century worlds within worlds of Vanessa Donoso López’s Tihunita – or the fake lamb (2013), with its four concentric glass bells and bizarre commedia dell’arte figurine wearing a ruff, which are only partly human.

There’s no denying that Ricky Adam’s Punk is Dead (2010) states a fact in a harsh shot – but why?

It strikes me as a provocation: if prog rock is no more than an empty shell these days, punk is no better.

Anyway, for all its stage rebellion, did it ever have the guts to get to the real African sound behind rock and the other creative dimensions of world music?

There is no duality, though, in the soundscape which often creates a discordant Babel in shows featuring videos. Here, the sound of The Hollies playing in Rachael Corcoran’s video It never rains in Southern California (2012), alternates with Martin Healy’s Genesis video (2006). Corcoran’s is bright but tragic in juxtaposing a concert with a NASA shuttle disaster culminating in the loss of lives; while Martin Healy’s desaturated, almost nostalgic sepia hits another chord, engaging a modern band to play Led Zepplin’s Stairway to Heaven. Corcoran’s piece reminds me of decades of MTV escapism, relentless pop videos playing on regardless of the real world; Healy’s makes me think of an idealised past.

David Brancaleone lectures at LIT-LSAD. His writing has appeared in Circa, Vertigo, Experimental Conversatons, Irish Marxist Review, Enclave Review and VAN. He is also a filmmaker.

'A lamb lies Down', installation view, photo by paul mcCarthy

Mark durcan 'i'm astonished, wall, that you haven't collapsed into ruins' The lab, Dublin 15 November 2013 – 25 January 2014

mark Durcan, 'i'm astonished, wall, that you haven't collapsed into ruins' installation view, The lab, Dublin, photo by michael Holly

Time and memory merge into each other; they are like the two sides of a medal. it is obvious enough that without time, memory cannot exist either Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time: Reflections on the Cinema, 1989

HAVing the architectural personality of those transitional spaces in airports where they plonk the vending machines, The Lab, Dublin, is a challenging gallery to theatricise. But Mark Durkan’s installation of projectors, mirrored objects, water dispensers, ceramic bowls of bubbling / vaporous water and a water fountain with mirrored surrounding, has managed to equalise the remoteness of The Lab’s Jane Doe gallery space and transport the imagination somewhere else.

Although experiential, Durkan’s bright lights and vanity box installation is buried in literary devices. The artist’s techno-theatrics come across as a ‘representation’ of the future from the perspective of the 1960s dystopian science-fiction literati or ’70s cinema equivalent, such as William F Nolan and George Clayton Johnson’s novel Logan’s Run (1968) and Michael Anderson’s film adaptation (1976). The exhibition title, ‘I’m astonished, wall, that you haven’t collapsed into ruins’, is a partial epigram from a piece of ancient graffiti from Roman Pompeii, which ends with the words: “since you’re holding up the weary verse of so many poets”. The literary extends into role-playing elements, represented by a helmet, bow and jug of water placed on a multifaceted, mirrored plinth, which ties into Durkan’s dystopian, sci-fi theatre, implying that the spectatorgamer is to hunt / fight for depleted resources. These dystopian imaginings also suggest the ‘Dying Earth’ sub-genre of science-fiction / fantasy, from HG Wells’ novella The Time Machine (1895) to Danny Boyle’s Sunshine (2007). The combination of such themes and opulent display unavoidably places the The Hunger Games on the tip of one’s tongue.

With winter’s shortened days upon us, Durkan’s exhibition at The Lab is also one with two faces.

During the day the projected and refracted light achieves a visual conceit, as if time, marked by an accelerated orbiting sun, is passing thousand-fold overhead without nightly reprieve. However, the isolation and remoteness perpetuated by Durkan’s orbiting facets of light is built on the balance between daylight and digital light – one chasing the other around the gallery. While at nightfall that balance is lost. This is especially the case with Durkan’s water feature in the ‘dark room’ of The Lab, which lacks the diurnal banality of the main gallery, descending instead into a hyper-theatrical disco or

UV-lit nightclub toilet where veins are easy to miss At the furtherest point from the gallery’s entrance, the artist’s scattered elements coalesce to form a ‘drum-kit’ of mirrored surfaces. Water being a visual and auditory component throughout, Andrei Tarkovsky’s The Mirror (1975) appears in the intertextual frame of reference. In particular the film’s barn fire sequence, in which an implosion of oneiric and non-chronological images are further fragmented through the addition of water and mirrors. The collision between memory and the present to form a ‘crystallising’ future (defined by uncertainty rather than clarity) in both Tarkovsky’s and Durkan’s visual acrobatics, is best described by Gilles Deleuze and his equally agile concept of the ‘crystal-image’, “It is itself the vanishing limit between the immediate past which is no longer and immediate future which is not yet… [a] mobile mirror which endlessly reflects perception in recollection”.1 An exhibition that feels positively cold, soulless, and devoid of life or eventual life – even though the sound of life-activating water tinkles around The Lab – Durkan’s description in the press release of a future fantasy in which the “human population has dramatically decreased” rings true in the experiential encounter with this artwork.

However, Pádraic E Moore’s commissioned ‘letter’ response to the artwork (placed in the gallery) is an unnecessary inclusion to what is a crystal clear vision. This is not a criticism of Moore’s prose but a criticism of the strategy of placing a wandering textual agent within the gallery environment. The text, which begs to be read, distracts you from what are wonderful visual theatrics that can be experienced and ‘read‘ in equal measure. Being commissioned rather than compelled to write, like some new or future world explorer or archaeologist, compounds the redundancy of this document.

Moore’s text has the potential of reducing everything down to theoretical smoke and mirrors. However, it does not spoil what is a sublime experience. Unlike the majority of artists before him, Durkan succeeds in transporting the spectator to a parallel imagining by transforming the ugly corporeality of The Lab into a mere shadow puppet of its former self.

James Merrigan is co-editor of Fugitive Papers and art critic at billionjournal.com note 1. Gilles Deleuze, Cinema II, Continuum, 2005, 79

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

23

Workshop

Intention, Then Interpretation LISA FINGLETON REPORTS ON HER PARTICIPATION IN A 10-DAY WORKSHOP WITH SHIRIN NESHAT AT THE LONDON FILM SCHOOL.

Tutorial with Shirin Neshat

Lisa Fingleton, Talk Wise

I couldn’t believe it when I literally stumbled across the opportunity to work with the world renowned Shirin Neshat. Shirin is an Iranianborn, New York-based artist, photographer and filmmaker. Much of her work addresses the personal, social and political dimensions of women’s experiences in contemporary Middle Eastern societies. She was awarded the First International Prize at the 48th Venice Biennale and in 2009 won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival for her first feature film, Women Without Men. Last September, the London Film School offered 12 international artists the opportunity to work with Shirin for 10 days. I sat blinking at the Artsadmin website, wondering if this could be possible. My disbelief was quickly interrupted when I saw that the deadline was that afternoon.

The application was reasonably detailed. As well as sending examples of my work, I had to explain why I wanted to work with Shirin specifically, and what I expected to get from the workshop. This was quite easy for me as I was really inspired by her cinematic imagery and multi-screen installations. I had been to her retrospective exhibition at IMMA in 2001 and was hugely impressed. I was also curious about how she negotiated her role as artist and filmmaker within the very different the worlds of fine art and film.

I was delighted to get a place on the workshop. It was a very tight schedule from notification to start date, due to a delay with funding from the Arts Council of England. The workshop was free on the proviso that any films created during the workshop would remain the property of the London Film School. I made an application for a bursary to Screen Training Ireland and was very grateful that they agreed to fund my travel and accommodation.

The workshop was run over 10 days from 21 – 31 October. It was extremely packed, with scheduled group work from 10am – 5pm most days, as well as a series of evening events and seminars at the Barbican Gallery, Couthauld Museum and the London Film School.

It was a brilliant opportunity, not only to work with Shirin and her partner Shoja Azari (who came for the first week of the workshop), but also with the other 11 filmmakers from around the world. We started with short presentations of our work. There were eight different nationalities in the group so the diversity of experience and aesthetic form was really exciting. While most of the group identified as artistfilmmakers, some had experience in television and advertising.

Shirin and Shoja are in the process of making their second feature film about the life and music of Egyptian singer Oum Kalthoum, and it was a real privilege to hear about their process of collaborative working. Shirin shared her ‘mood book’ or storyboard for the film.

According to her, “film-making is all about image-making”, and she is very focused on the aesthetic form of any project and how we can transcend cultural narratives and issues through art. She gathered images from her own past work, archives and the Internet to present us with a visual picture of her next film. “I have to be clear about what my

clarifying our individual proposals. From Friday to Sunday we were shooting our projects. We worked in groups of four and organised the filming within these groups. On the following Monday and Tuesday, we worked with professional editors to compete the films. We also had individual tutorials with Shirin. Her enthusiasm, honesty and engagement with each of the filmmakers was really impressive.

The final day of the workshop was spent watching and critiquing each of the films. It was amazing to see the incredible range of projects and how we all responded so differently within the boundaries. That night we screened the 12 films at Bl-nk gallery in Shoreditch, with an audience of around 200 people.

The whole experience was almost equally exhausting and exhilarating. Each day was packed with new questions and challenges.

I found myself constantly sketching and playing with ideas in my notebook. Before I went to London, I was exploring a new project about food, farming and art, possibly based here on our farm in Kerry. The timing seemed a little off. What was I going to do about farming in London? Little did I know that there are hundreds of food, gardening and farm projects in the city.

I did some research and ended up making my film with the Farm Shop in Dalston. What goes around is a portrait of an aquaponic system of food creation within an urban setting. It is essentially about how fish poo can be used to grow lettuce without any soil. Shirin originally thought this was aesthetically impossible and it was quite challenging in a four-hour shoot. However, I took on board Shirin’s feedback about balancing content and form and was really happy with the results.

On applying for the workshop, I wanted to learn more about bridging the gap between film and art. I wanted to learn how to distribute my work, which often sits uncomfortably between the two worlds. I came away with more confidence that it is okay to do both and I don’t have to choose one or the other. Each world offers the work and the audience different possibilities and varied levels of engagement.

Both are equally valid and exciting.

I do have ongoing concerns about living so physically removed from any visual art ‘centre’. Shirin felt it was very important for her to live in New York. “I can hardly imagine living on the periphery. You have to be in the middle of it”. This was reiterated in a session by David Gryn, a visiting film curator from Art Basel who stressed that “If you want to be ‘in’ the art world you must ‘be’ in it”. Travelling to cities and visiting art exhibitions continues to be a challenge when there are chickens to be locked in at nighttime and cats who just seem to like human company. Perhaps the time has indeed come to bring the art to the farm.

Lisa Fingleton, What Goes Around, video still

intentions are and then leave it open for interpretation” she explained.

She talked about the importance of working with others who can bring different technical skills to a project. “You must learn to dance with others but you must not compromise on your integrity”. Both Shirin and Shoja share a studio with other others, which they described as a “laboratory” and space of “community synergy”. “I think I would find it very difficult to be out there alone”, Shirin told us.

She also emphasised the importance of taking on new challenges.

“Experimenting is so important. The anxiety keeps me on my toes. I like the anxiety that I might fail”. Thus, over her career, she has moved from creating photographic images to multi-channel video installations and onto feature films for cinematic release. She described how it took six years to make her first feature, Women Without Men. Both Shirin and Shoja were really open and interested in generating conversations with the group. They posed some thought provoking questions for us all on the first afternoon. “Why do you make art? Who is it for? What is your ultimate goal? Why should the public care what you have to say?” Shirin asked us, “How will you get the world to stop and listen?” She stressed the importance of passion and obsession. “If you have that everything else will fall into place”.

As well as the 10 days of workshops and seminars, each filmmaker had to make a three-minute short film. Day two was spent discussing our ideas and a number of questions such as, How do we frame our ideas? What are our parameters or boundaries? How do we balance the demands of form and content?

By the end of the second day, we had agreed a number of parameters for our projects, to ensure some level of consistency between them all. We decided to focus on portraits of a person or place.

We agreed on a number of rules (and the permission to break one): three-minute duration, no synch sound, black and white, natural lighting and a single-screen projection. My initial feeling was one of resistance, as I don’t generally like rules. However, I discovered that there was great creative freedom within those clear constraints.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent developing, presenting and

Lisa Fingleton is an artist, filmmaker and farmer based in Kerry.

Last September she completed an MA at Goldsmiths College, London. She is currently developing projects on the theme of art and farming. www.lisafingleton.com

24

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

Art in public

Ruby Wallis, Illuminate, 2013, Nun's Island Theatre, Galway

Ruby Wallis, Illuminate, 2013, Nun's Island Theatre, Galway

Ruby Wallis, Illuminate, 2013, Nun's Island Theatre, Galway

Digital Inclusion RUBY WALLIS DESCRIBES HER MULTI-MEDIA PROJECT ‘ILLUMINATE’, FOCUSED ON PEOPLE WITH INTELECTUAL DISABILITIES. In May 2012, I began a year-long residency that culminated in the

disability. In ‘Illuminate’ we worked within the frame of the latter.

participants who, for various reasons, didn’t successfully get involved

exhibition ‘Illuminate’, created for a public art commission by Galway

Madec is a phenomenal advocate and theorist on disability and the arts,

in this creative process.

County Council’s Public Art Panel and Public Art Officer, Bernadine

and we were introduced to the charged politics of identity through our

The exhibition took the form of two five-meter-wide screens,

Carroll. The initial installation took place in Nun's Island Theatre in

experience of working alongside him. He strongly stated, “At no stage

which were set at an angle to each other. Our approach to the cinematic

September 2013. I worked alongside the Brothers of Charity’s That’s

do we consider what we do as art therapy. Why should art exist as

material produced was an attempt to communicate the closeness of

Life arts programme, which supports people with intellectual

therapy for some and not therapy for others?”.1 During the process, we

experience to an audience with great regard for the subject. One screen

disabilities and the arts. The project was funded through the Per Cent

were interested in the potential for digital media to provide an

is dedicated to the artwork produced while the others show the

for Art scheme as part of a programme of works that pools Per Cent for

accessible format for creative expression for people with complex

subjects’ engagement with the screen. This is where my own

Art budgets to commission works that connect with specfic

needs. While researching, Gerald drew my attention to Gkjon Mili’s

engagements with documentary and portraiture came back into play.

communities countrywide. This follows on from Galway County

light paintings. In 1939, using long-exposure photography, Mili began

In the filming, I studied the movements and features of the participants’

Council's work on the Arts and Disability Networking Pilot (ANDP)

dissecting movement. I was also looking at the early cinematic films of

close attention.

project, through which a strong partnership with Brothers of Charity

the Lumiere Brothers, in particular the ephemeral quality of Serpentine

arts programme was forged. The total budget for the commission was

Dance (1888).

€20,000.

These films are intended to relate directly to one another and to create multiple layers between subject, object and spectator. In

Gerald was busy researching techniques that could be employed

approaching an audience, I realised that there is always the gap

Bernardine Carroll clarified that the emphasis should be on

to make light-painting images in real-time. He suggested that this

between immediate experience and the represented experience. I felt I

creating a piece of work that would stand alone for exhibition. Initially,

would create an immediate feedback for the participant, allowing them

had a responsibility to bridge this gap, which was daunting at times,

I worked closely with Jon Reynolds and Claude Madec of That’s Life,to

to see the image as they were creating it. It took a lot of research and

particularly when the group of individuals responded to the media

develop weekly contact sessions with groups from all over Galway

experimenting with cameras, settings, software parameters etc to get

with such openness. Furthermore, the question of voyeurism within

County. It would have been impossible to take part in this residency

the responsive, clear image we have developed with ‘Illuminate’. The

the portrait filming is unavoidable and open to dialogue and always

without becoming more aware of the marginalisation of people with

next big step was to record the high-definition video feed we were

accompanies the photographer.

disabilities, in terms of the orientation of mainstream culture towards

generating. This was a reasonably simple step in the process, but it took

There was an accompanying sound piece by Steve Riech, Music for

the ‘normal’ and able-bodied subject. I was invited to respond to my

some time before we could record the light paintings directly in high

18 Musicians, composed 1974 – 76, and verbal responses and

experience of contact with the groups through my practice.

definition. We wanted to document the ‘Illuminate’ sessions as

conversations recorded in the studio when the sessions took place. This

At this time, I had been working with Gerald Glynn, who has a

thoroughly as possible and felt that the images themselves didn’t fully

provided further clues as to the context of the experiences. There is also

background in engineering and digital media. We were both interested

represent the work – we needed to capture the ambient sounds of the

a group of 20 medium format portraits, which combine headshots of

in the potential of combining different skill sets to develop new

room as well. We installed condenser microphones either side of the

participants, carers and artists. These were each 10 x 10 inches and

methods of practice and decided to work on the commission in

screen, recording the hum and bustle of the room alongside the music

were lit theatrically in the dark space.

collaboration, adopting the role of artistic director and producer.

soundtrack, which was played in the background. Finally, I felt that we

The participants’ abilities varied a lot from person to person. They

had captured the ‘Illuminate’ experience to its fullest extent.2

We also organised a panel discussion chaired by artist and curator Vicky Smith, with Bernardine Carroll, Chris Wallis, Gerald Glynn,

included people with mild to severe intellectual disabilities and

Our first experiences were based in Club Tropicana (a club night

autism. Some participants were wheelchair users, others had impaired

for people with intellectual disabilities). We set up the interactive

the whole process and resulted in an in-depth discussion on the role of

vision or hearing, but all were given support in order to engage in this

screen and noticed that people became entranced by their own dance

the artist in such commissions, as well as our ambition for the work to

artistic process in whichever way was most accessible and stimulating

movements and reflections and literally began drawing with light,

reach a wide audience. We are continuing our research in this area and

to them. The space we used was adaptable to most needs. During the

often using expressive motions. It is fantastic to see how digital media

I’m interested in how each person who interacts with the screen has a

research period, we attended a really valuable training course hosted

can create virtual spaces where people can explore their identity and

particular rhythm. It seems that the act of drawing with light using the

by Bernardine Carroll with the participation of Arts and Disability

the presence of their own body and physicality.

whole body inspires somatic movement and improvised dance patterns.

Claude Madec and myself. This proved a useful point of reflection on

Ireland. Once our feet were on the ground and we were engaged in the

The carers supported the participants in all possible ways,

This process creates interesting fluxes, discontinuities, intertwining

process with the participants, what had seemed like a minefield of

exploring the space and screen from a wheelchair, for example, or

and layers of experience, which play between the real and the imaginary.

ideological issues was swiftly transformed into a straightforward

responding to the rhythmic sounds. The participants’ interaction with

We hope to tour the exhibition further afield in the future.

experience.

the sound and visuals varied from tiny hand movements for some to

In each session, we set up a screen and encouraged the participants

large physical gestures and vocal expressions for others. Each person

Ruby Wallis

to draw, dance and move with the light. One of the most challenging

responded to the invitation – taking part in this artistic experience – in

www.illuminatearts.org

aspects of the commission was the blurred line between the role of

his or her own individual way. An exciting outcome to this process was

artist as creator and as carer. Keeping the emphasis clearly on the work

that the participants returned week after week. The physical space

as artistic practice was a challenge. There are distinctions, which need

created by the digital media activated freedom of movement, expression

to be clarified, between art therapy, arts and health and arts and

and often lots of laughter and communication. There were very few

Notes The articulation of some of the ideas within this text have been developed from an initial Q&A with the writer and curator Pádraic E Moore 1. Interview with Claude Madec taken after one of the sessions 2. Gerald Glynn, taken from interview with Pádraic E Moore, August 2013

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

25

Collaboration

Visual Counterpoint FERGAL DOWLING, MICHAEL QUINN AND AILBHE NÍ BHRIAIN OUTLINE THE CONCEPTS AND WORKING PROCESSES UNDERPINNING ‘MIRRORS OF EARTH’ – A PRESENTATION OF A CHAMBER BALLET by FINNISH COMPOSER KAIJA SAARIAHO, ACCOMPANIED BY A RESPONSIVE VIDEO WORK.

Dublin Sound Lab and Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, MAA concert view, photo by Mihai Cucu

Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Window, 2013, HD video, courtesy of Domobaal

Fergal Dowling and Michael Quinn Founded in 2008, Dublin Sound Lab is a contemporary ensemble specialising in electronic, electro-acoustic and computer-mediated music performance. We are the core group members – Michael Quinn (harpsichord and organ) and Fergal Dowling (composer and live electronics) – but we engage other musicians on a project-by-project basis. Our approach to using electronic resources and digital media focuses on the audience experience and we use technology as a means to enhance the concert experience and treat the music material sympathetically and in a unique way for each project. We commission new works, usually from Irish composers, for specific projects that recontextualise the performance space and reimagine how listeners approach music in a concert environment. As well composers and musicians, we have previously collaborated with visual artists, video artists, dancers and actors. At the same time, we often explore existing repertoires that have been rarely heard in Ireland and that we feel can be presented in a new ways.

For Mirrors of Earth, we wanted to present an extended musical work that would form a complete evening concert, together with a visual response that would form, not collaboration as such, but a direct response to an existing musical score.

The work we wanted to present was MAA. Written in 1991 by the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho (born 1952). MAA is one of Saariaho’s earlier extended works, comprising seven movements for varying combinations of seven instruments and electronics (two solo ‘tape’ pieces, two solo instruments with live electronics, a trio, a quintet and a final movement for full ensemble and electronics) spanning 75 minutes.

Saariaho, who has lived in Paris for over 30 years, is well-known for her many works for solo instruments, especially in combination with live electronics, but since the mid-1990s she has become well regarded for her large-scale works, including operas. We have known her work for many years and previously performed her Jardin Secret II (harpsichord and four-channel 'tape’) in both Dublin and Paris. We have always been eager to perform more of Saariaho’s music and had considered her chamber ballet MAA before.

We felt, however, that a form other than ballet could illuminate both the immense detail of the idiomatic writing and the elegance and thematic coherence of the seven-movement form. We considered presenting the work in concert on its own, yet at the same time felt that a visual counterpoint would enhance the audience experience. We eventually decided that a video setting was the most appropriate medium to provide a contrapuntal ‘accompaniment’ that could meet the dual requirements of clarifying the formal structure while not distracting from the surface detail.

We researched a number of artists and approached some others to discuss possible collaborators before we were introduced to Ailbhe Ní Bhriain. We immediately recognised in some of Ailbhe’s previous multimovement works a resonance with the themes that pervade much of Saariaho’s music – journey, memory, a sense of distance and of simultaneously co-existing spaces – and decided to commission a new 75-minute video from her.

In our initial discussion with Ailbhe, it became clear that some of the formal and technical considerations were already given: if the music

was to be presented in a concert environment, the video would have to be presented in large high-resolution format corresponding to the scale of the ensemble of seven players, conductor and electronic setup.

Similarly, the distinct character and varying forces of each movement dictated that the video work should be in seven corresponding movements, rather than a single large span. At the same time it would have remain coherent in language and theme, while continuing an underlying formal progression that complemented the breadth of Saariaho’s composition.

There were a number of practical issues regarding synchronisation, timing, cueing and re-editing that affected later stages of video postproduction. For example, two of the musical movements were for fixed media playback, so the duration was fixed and known before final video editing. But the third movement, de la Terre, for solo violin and electronics, was clearly written as a freely timed, flexible movement that should be allowed to breathe. For live performance with video accompaniment, we decided that the simplest solution to ensure a meaningful correspondence between the endings of the live music and pre-rendered video was to perform the music strictly in time. So, in the musical parts, a number of specific local level cues were accurately placed to maintain a consistent overall timing while preserving the temporal logic and flow of a live performance.

For the conducted ensemble movements, any solution that would fix the temporal flow would have been difficult to implement in live performance. Therefore, we decided, through correspondence with Ailbhe, to develop video works for the ensemble movements that would have inherently flexible closing sequences that could be manually faded out during performance time. So during rehearsals we developed a combination of signals to match musical cues with video entries and exits – conductor’s hand signals, electronic signalling, software-based timers – which kept musicians, conductor, electronic music and projectionist in fluid and adaptable synchronisation. To accommodate these requirements, a specially developed software-based video file player was developed using the Max/MSP/Jitter programming graphical environment that could quickly load files between movements, commence instant video playback and implement flexible, manual fade-outs during the concert performance.

Ailbhe Ní Bhriain When Dublin Sound Lab approached me about this commission, I was both intrigued and wary: intrigued by what the format of live concert presentation might bring to my work and wary of the project scale (a set duration of 75 mins) and the budget required. As my work increasingly requires extensive technical and post-production support, budget is an important consideration. I was concerned that the demands of this ambitious project could paradoxically limit the technical ambition of my own practice.

Ultimately, the music itself convinced me. I was struck by the clear thematic overlaps between Saariaho’s work and my own: a concern with distance, with displacement and with the slippage between internal and external landscapes. Sariaaho creates large sonic landscapes that appear filtered through the interiority of memory; the idea of extending this into a visual treatment took hold and wouldn't let go.

In practice, this project represented an entirely new approach to production. While I do work in series, I never set out with a fixed idea of the number or duration of works. I present work not in isolated sequence but in the form of multi-screen installation. And sound is usually the last element of production for me; it is key to the installation but is typically very spare – more a means to engage the space around and between pieces than a focal point in itself. In this case, however, I started with a predefined structure of seven movements, in strict sequence and each with a very particular pace and atmosphere to respond to.

It became clear that a new kind of camera work was needed to suit the intensity and momentum of Sariaaho's music. I often choose a fixed camera position, precisely to explore a quality of stillness, but it simply didn't work for this context. While Sariaaho’s score does have a drifting and non-narrative quality, it is also very dynamic and, in passages, dramatic. The challenge was to find an approach that could somehow draw together these elements and the experience of the music as whole – but without overwhelming or exaggerating it.

I decided on a series of slow continuous tracking shots that would characterise each of the seven pieces. These were created using 3D photo projections and stop-motion animation. These processes were time consuming (a typical 12-minute tracking shot necessitated over 2,000 consecutive still images taken at 1cm increments) but allowed me to achieve the exact pace, steadiness and image definition I felt the work required. The final pieces combine these tracking shots with elements of green-screen filming, CGI and 3D scanning, to depict an imaginative space in which the boundaries between real and remembered place appear blurred.

The pieces are set in bare or abandoned architectural interiors, within which landscape is encountered through external views, internal projections and rudimentary props. Key to this is the idea of the imagined or remembered 'elsewhere', running in counterpoint with real time and place. This sense of displacement permeates the music; it is also something fundamental to representation itself, in the sense that it engages us with an illusory space or presence. I drew on this idea of displacement, continually playing with the tension between the real and the illusory and between surface and depth. This forms an exploration of the constructed nature of the image and also the ways in which we construct and inhabit our own interior landscapes.

The element of live performance brought a new set of concerns to the editing process. While I knew the precise points I wished the image to fade in and out of the score, I had to factor in some potential alteration of this with the live performance of the music, allowing for a shorter or longer version than the recorded files I was working with. This meant ensuring that the visuals could sustain either version in terms of how they unfolded conceptually.

In rehearsal, I worked with the conductor, the seven musicians and the projectionist to perfect the timings and signals for live control of the imagery. It was quite something to work with this group of people, all experienced performers and equally committed to the project. This made it quite a different experience from the usual lonely gallery install!

Experiencing the music and visuals together on the first night of performance, I felt very grateful to have been part of this project and to the Arts Council and other funding bodies that allowed it to happen.

The music of Maa is evocative and atmospheric, rich with its own detail and internal patterns. I aimed to create a visual work that stemmed from this, but which was also, in a sense, self-contained and possessed its own conceptual framework. For me it was these points of both convergence and divergence that made working with Saariaho's composition so stimulating and that, I hope, produced a dynamic live encounter between music and image.

Mirrors of Earth was supported by an Arts Council Music Project Award, and with assistance from Dublin City Council, the Finnish Music Foundation, Cork City Council, the Finnish Embassy in Ireland and the Contemporary Music Centre.

26

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

Art in public

Neil Carroll, An exhumation of the wreck of hope (no Man is an island), 2013, Artlot, Dublin

Neil Carroll, An exhumation of the wreck of hope (no Man is an island), 2013, Artlot, Dublin

Neil Carroll, An exhumation of the wreck of hope (no Man is an island), 2013, Artlot, Dublin

Held Captive By the Site SARAH ALLEN PROFILES ‘ART LOT’, A PROGRAMME OF TEMPORARY VISUAL ARTS PROJECTS PROGRAMMED

BY JONATHAN CARROLL FOR A VACANT LOT IN DUBLIN CITY CENTRE. A little corner at the junction of Harcourt Road and Richmond Terrace has been undergoing some curious changes over the past months.

Located beside the former diner and Dublin landmark The Manhattan, visual arts project ‘Art Lot’ has set about transforming the long derelict site through thought-provoking artistic intervention. From its inception in June 2013, the project’s curator Jonathan Carroll has acknowledged the dual complications of exhibiting art in the public realm as well as engaging with an inherently problematic space. Having gained experience dealing with public art through his work with the Saint Patrick’s Day Festival (2007 – 2009) Carroll drew up a realistic proposal and succeeded in securing funding for the project from a local business.

The six participating artists: Neil Carroll, Ella de Burca, Teresa Gillespie, Maria McKinney, Seoidin O'Sullivan and Sharon White, have been working sequentially re-imagining the space in bi-monthly cycles.

Emerging at a time when public art projects are receiving heightened media exposure, Carroll is keen to emphasise those attributes which make 'Art Lot' unique. “Granby Park organised by the Upstart Collective staged temporary activities which took place over a short period of time. It was very focused on community engagement and visual art was only a small part of the overall plan. Similar comparisons can be drawn with 'Art Tunnel' in Smithfield which encouraged the local community, including a school, to exhibit their work on the Smithfield site. What 'Art Lot' offers in contrast to these projects is a specific focus on visual art of a particular kind.”

Carroll notes that a local business provided the budget and undertook some work on the site to meet health and safety requirements.

Regarding further funding he notes that each artist received up to €1250 to cover materials and an artist's fee. The artists then installed the work themselves with some assistance from the curator. Neil Carroll, for example, paid a colleague of his to work with him on the site as the installation required a second pair of hands and some skilled labour. Ella de Burca sourced support from Irish Fencing and Railings Ltd company to provide fences for her work in exchange for publicity.

Finally, design work for posters was raised with the support of local business who would prefer to remain anonymous.

Growth and development are at the heart of the project's ethos.

Rather than artists installing and unveiling their work in a short space of time, each artist’s work emerges bit by bit over a two month period.

This concept focuses audience attention more acutely on the means of production, positing that artistic production is as significant as the finished work. The project's blog (www.artlotdublin.wordpress.com) offers a platform for the artists to map their engagement with the site,

thus functioning as an essential element in demystifying the artistic process.

With its cumulative approach, the public enters into an exciting relationship with the ‘Art Lot’ artworks as they come into being. Both the artwork and the viewer's perceptions are evolving and in flux. Into this dynamic space between art and its public, the cityscape and city life itself can inject new meaning. As Carroll points out, the top deck of a double-decker bus allows a bird's eye perspective of the work – and this might well be the best place to experience the project, especially if traffic jams ensure a truly ‘captive’ audience.

As the site is enclosed by metal gates, the artists are also to some extent held captive by the site. This concept of ‘artist in a cage’ might suggest an interesting power shift from the usual white cube dynamic in which – it could be argued – the viewer steps into the space that is emphatically ‘authored’ by the artist. Ella de Burca, who completed her stint on site this November, played off the notion of the cage, constructing a series of fences one behind the other which over time amassed to form an imposing mesh of barriers.

'The Fourth Plinth' project, sited in London's Trafalgar Square, was a source of inspiration for Carroll in devising the project. The latest installation has seen a giant blue cockerel – Hahn / Cock by Katharina Fritsch – reign over the historical square delighting tourists and provoking much debate. There are salient parallels to be drawn between 'The Fourth Plinth' and the endeavors of 'Art Lot', among them how the artist's work enters into a dynamic dialogue with its setting.

The more dramatic 'Art Lot' creations form an arresting juxtaposition with the traditional familiar Georgian facades of Dublin's Harcourt Street and surrounding areas.

One particular landmark in the area – located just a stones-throw from the 'Art Lot' site – is the Bernard Shaw pub. Over the past decade, the pub has cultivated a distinctive image owing in part to its everchanging graffiti art. “Graffiti seems to be the go-to thing for covering vacant sites” comments Carroll. “It is a solution that is popular and very good at grabbing attention; however, with 'Art Lot', we wanted something a bit more solid.” Although it often enlivens drab cityscapes, most graffiti has a more pronounced, decorative function. An essential element of 'Art Lot' and the intrigue it provokes lies not in providing decoration but creating speculation.

Carroll highlights how the group welcomed this viewer speculation during the initial stages of the project. “We had a funny situation where there was an online discussion about what our site could be (this was before we put up any signage). After many postings

online, someone eventually suggested that it might be a public art project – bingo! We also had some rogue signage put up by some inventive passerby, with their humorous suggestion of what the site could be.” 'Art Lot' adheres to contemporary art's eschewal of definitive meanings or absolute truths. Carroll goes on to comment how working in a site which is not designated for visual art is a liberating experience, “You have a chance to return to a purer debate about the role of art and where it should be”.

The option for each artist to leave physical or metaphorical traces of their interventions in the space, after their allotted time is part of Carroll’s curatorial strategy. This can allow specific pieces to speak directly to one another. As part of her work Seoidin O'Sullivan harvested buddleia vines from the site to make flagpoles. Upon completion of her cycle, these were cleared to make way for Sharon White's piece Colony, which consisted of a colony of small wooden houses that mushroomed around the site. Here, Carroll notes how these two projects echo one another in referencing the organic.

Indeed, even if there is no obvious trace of the artist's work left on site, by virtue of their slow incremental 'coming into being', the image of the work becomes installed in the viewer's memory and thus the work is afforded a life beyond its material existence. This might best be exemplified by Neil Carroll's enigmatic sculpture An exhumation of the Wreck of Hope (No man is an island). Its angular silhouette seems to linger in the mind's eye even after deinstallation. Superimposed onto its memory is the image of the following art work and so the two mingle in the mind inviting comparisons and enriching their individual readings.

The title 'Art Lot' was chosen to purpose fluidity, to suggest that the project could take roots in other vacant spaces in the city. Carroll is hopeful for the project's future commenting that, “Ideally we want to secure funding to take over more sites in Dublin and get a conversation going about the cityscape and how the environment could be more fluid. The initiative to make use of derelict sites came from Dublin City Council (the owners of the 'Art Lot' site) who wish to eradicate the blight of hoarding around the city. DCC are accommodating projects by offering space but so far they do not provide funding for running costs. As any artist will have experienced, the money they get for their work is spent on materials; this leaves little left as an artist fee. If more businesses could provide realistic budgets, we can provide projects to suit.”

Sarah Allen is a Dublin based arts writer and journalist. Among other publications her writing has appeared in The Irish Arts Review, Aesthetica Magazine, Photomonitor Magazine and Prism Photography Magazine. www.artlotdublin.wordpress.com

27

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

Profile For the exhibition at Mermaid Arts Centre, a print work by Olav Christopher Jenssen was hung in Bogensberger’s architectural structure.

Also on show were photographic prints by Bernhard Fuchs, a sound installation by Karl Burke, a wall based text work by Joseph NoonanGanley, a projected image by Clodagh Emoe along with wall based works by Mark Swords. For the exhibition launch Joseph Noonan Ganley and Mark Swords both presented sculptural installation works at Redcross Woods.

Mark Swords, Reflections and Variations, 14 September 2013, Redcross Woods, photo by Enda Doran

James Ó hAodha, Our Certainty, 14 Sept 2013, performance Redcross Woods, photo by Enda Doran

Joseph Noonan Ganely, Father, 14 September 2013, Redcross Woods, Wicklow, photo by Enda Doran

Clodagh Emoe, Proposition 7, September 2013, performance Redcross Woods, photo by Enda Doran

A Pretty Quiet Place AOIFE TUNNEY AND EILÍS LAVELLE DISCUSS ‘I WON’T SAY I WILL SEE YOU TOMORROW’, THEIR MULTIDISCIPLINARY PROJECT EXPLORING THE LEGACY OF PHILOSOPHER LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN. ‘I Won’t Say I Will See You Tomorrow’ was a sixth-month project presented by Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray exploring the work of the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 – 1951).1 Running from April – October 2013, the initiative comprised an exhibition and programme of public projects. ‘I Won’t Say I Will See You Tomorrow’ was curated by Aoife Tunney and the public programme was co-curated

by Eilís Lavelle. The project was supported by Wicklow County Council, the Austrian Embassy, UCD Philosophy Department, the Arts Council of Ireland’s Curator in Residence Scheme and Mermaid Arts Centre. A website, designed by Pointblank (www. iwontsayiwillseeyoutomorrow.com) and a blog designed by Ulla Havenga, (www.iwontsayiwillseeyoutomorrow.tumblr.com) accompanied the development of the initiative and now exists as a document of the associated events, discussions and artists’ works.

The blurred photograph of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s hut, perched on the side of a steep cliff overlooking a fjord in Skjolden, Norway first captured our imaginations. This wooden house, which he moved into in 1913, was only reachable by boat. Wittgenstein spent his life seeking out isolated locations in lush but extreme landscapes, where he wrote his great philosophical works. In 1948, he took a bus three hours from Dublin to Kilpatrick House in Wicklow where he chose a modest room overlooking the hills.

Philosophers and sages have historically been regarded as reclusive figures, working in isolation to uncover concepts of the world – not unlike the way artists work in their studios. While in Redcross, Wittgenstein wrote to a friend, “This is a pretty quiet place, and if it were still more quiet it would suit me still better”. We became fascinated with the idea of solitude within the intimate spaces where Wittgenstein worked, along with the architecture of these basic structures from which his work emerged.

We felt that the project could capture both the isolated way Wittgenstein worked along with the collaborative and participatory implications of his writing. And the essentials of his work – a focus on the meaning of language, the role of communication as a social activity and the perception of objects – are all issues that remain relevant in contemporary artists’ thinking about how art is conceived and received.

In bringing these strands together, ‘I Won’t say I Will See You Tomorrow’ was devised as a structure for exploring interrelationships between art and philosophy via the life and work of Wittgenstein.

Objects & Seeing Wittgenstein’s later philosophy, along with Logical Positivism, French Structuralism and the semiotic writings of Roland Barthes, underscored a lot of the seminal conceptual art of the 1960s and 1970s. For the artist Joseph Kosuth – a proponent of Wittgenstein – the meaning of art, as expressed in language, is more important than its appearance. In his

text Art After Philosophy (1969), Kosuth asserted, “What art has in common with logic and mathematics is that it is a tautology, ie the ‘art idea’ (or ‘work’) and art are the same and can be appreciated as ‘art’ without going outside the context of art for verification”.

More recently, art world interest in philosophical concepts such as Object Orientated Ontology can be related back to Wittgenstein’s works. For example, through his notion of ‘aspect seeing’ outlined in Philosophical Investigations (1958), which was illustrated famously with the duck / rabbit illusion, Wittgenstein sought to clarify the phenomena of objects without ‘explaining’ them. Similarly, elsewhere in Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein outlines the notion of ‘seeing as’ to describe the phenomena of how we perceive objects – at the same time ‘ideas’ and objects of vision.

With this project, we felt that Wittgenstein’s life and works offered a rich context for artists to respond to. Aoife selected Clodagh Emoe, Mark Swords, Joseph Noonan Ganley, James ó hAodha, Karl Burke, Bernhard Fuchs and Markus Bogensberger for the different ways in which their work touched upon subjects such as mysticism, performance, language, music, sculpture and architecture – all of which are concerns and subjects that Wittgenstein’s life and work was focused on.

Residency: Works & Commissions Wittgenstein closes his work Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922) with the proposition, “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”, which infers that we must remain silent if we cannot explain certain things in life. Clodagh Emoe’s Proposition 7 comprised a participatory action as an inquiry into this notion. The work was presented on 14 September as part of the opening events associated with the closing exhibition at Mermaid. Emoe led the audience wearing eye masks into Redcross Wood, where they meditated on an exercise in hearing.

James ó hAodha is an artist who works with language and performance. ó hAodha’s performative work Our Certainty was an evening time procession through Redcross Forest to a field where the words "IT IS" were visible on a hillside, emblazoned in blue and red lance-fireworks. The work related to Wittgenstein’s interest in the mysticism of existence explored in Tractatus. During the writing of this work, Wittgenstein had been reading Kierkegaard, which prompted his inquiry into the infinite nature of what we experience as the world.

Markus Bogensberger’s This works if it falls apart (2013) was a structure designed by the artist based the idea of Wittgenstein’s Norwegian hut and Haus Wittgenstein (1928), a building meticulously designed by the philosopher in Vienna. This work was installed in the gallery space at Mermaid Arts Centre (14 September – 31 October) providing a claustrophobic, distorted building in which to walk and view.

The Public Programme The public programme for ‘I Wont Say I Will See You Tomorrow’ was facilitated through a partnership between Mermaid Arts Centre and UCD’s Department of Philosophy. The project was launched on 27 April 2013 at Kilpatrick House, Redcross, County Wicklow, Wittgenstein’s Irish residence. The event included a walk to the forest near Kilpatrick House were a newly commissioned work, Wooden Drawing Series, 2013 was installed by artist Karl Burke. He placed several uniform lengths of processed wood capped with bright orange Perspex in relation to the trees in the forest where Wittgenstein had taken his daily walks. An introduction to Wittgenstein’s life and work was presented by Maria Baghramian, Professor of Philosophy at UCD, followed by a Brahms and Mahler concert by the Trinity String Trio with tea and scones on the lawn of the house. Baghramian’s talk emphasised how art featured in Wittgenstein’s work while he was in Wicklow – especially in his use of metaphors drawn from painting, architecture and music to illustrate his philosophical points.

For the next session, held on 18 May at Mermaid Arts Centre, we focused on Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations and Joseph Kosuth’s text Art After Philosophy. Artists Helen Horgan and Adrian Duncan presented short films relating to language and Wittgenstein’s work. In the discussion, the group read through sections of these texts and discussed the relationships between theory, practice and philosophy and ideas in both Kosuth and Wittgenstien’s works.

On 15 June at Mermaid, we screened Wittgenstein (1993), an offbeat feature length biopic by Derek Jarman that depicts an intensely troubled Wittgenstein. The film is theatrical in style and blends philosophical insights with surreal episodes and expands on how Wittgenstein’s life informed his work. The next reading session, held 27 July at Mermaid, set out to cover another section of Philosophical Investigations and Rosiland Krauss’s Sculpture in the Expanded Field (1979). Mark Price, a lecturer in architecture at UCD, gave a talk on Haus Wittgenstein, and explored how its design reflected Wittgenstein’s philosophy. Artist James Ó hAodha gave a presentation on his work for the project and the processes behind it.

Philosophical Investigations Throughout ‘I Wont Say I Will See You Tomorrow’, our focus was mainly on Philosophical Investigations, published posthumously in 1958; this was the text Wittgenstein was working on during his stay in Ireland. But more significantly, in this work Wittgenstein encourages the reader see the world afresh, rather than asking the reader to understand what cannot be said – as in Tractatus.

The poetic style and composition of Philosophical Investigations make it a very accessible work. Incidentally, Wittgenstein was perhaps unique philosopher in that he didn’t exclusively read about logic and philosophy all the time; he also favoured hard-boiled detective novels and westerns. Philosophical Investigations is full of similes and metaphors that readily lend themselves as being used by readers as ‘tools’ for their own re-thinking of their perception of the world. It’s partly why his influence has been so wide ranging on a variety of disciplines outside of philosophy – including psychoanalysis, architecture and art.

Emphasising the multi-disciplinary legacy of Wittgenstein’s work was a core aim of ‘I Won’t Say I Will See You Tomorrow’, which in turn directed our interest in making all of the associated events collaborative and inclusive in nature, along with an exploration of diverse themes spanning art, architecture and film. Overall, a key idea for us was Wittgenstein’s assertion that his work should not be treated like the findings of a ‘science’, but rather that it represented an ongoing ‘activity’. His aim was for his writing to activate thoughts in the reader – rather than to illustrate them. As Wittgenstein notes in the preface, “I should not like my writing to spare other people the trouble of thinking. But, if possible, to stimulate someone to thoughts of his own”.

It’s our hope that ‘I Won't Say I Will See You Tomorrow’ likewise activated and engaged its audiences and the participating artists.

Aoife Tunney is an independent curator working and living in Dublin. Eilís Lavelle is an independent curator currently living in Donegal and was the curator Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Co Wicklow from 2005 – November 2013.

Note 1. The title is derived from a comment of Wittgenstein’s, “I won’t say ‘see you tomorrow’ because that would be like predicting the future, and I’m pretty sure I can’t do that.” Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1949

28

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

VAI EVENT

Lots of my friends have been nominated for it over the years, and I’m always keen on it when they’re in it, but sometimes they nominate nobody I’ve heard of, so does it matter that much?

I don’t really mind who wins. It’s only the Turner Prize – interesting artists have lost out to dull ones in the past.

Indifferent artists, now forgotten, have bagged the prize.

It seems to mean little in the long run.

David Shrigley interviewed by Will Self, Saturday Guardian, 19 October 2013

Fisun Guner, www.theartsdesk.com, Turner Prize, Ebrington, Derry, 30 October 2013

Jason Oakley, Hugh Mullholland, Phillip Napier, Brenda McParland, Peter Richards, photo by Feargal O'Malley

Ambivilant Spectacle?

JASON OAKLEY reports ON 'ARTS AWARDS: PRIZES! PRIZES! PRIZES!', A TALK ORGANISED BY VAI IN CONJUNCTION WITH the 2013 TURNER PRIZE AND THE GOLDEN THREAD GALLERY, BELFAST.

Phillip Napier, who was shortlisted for the Glen Dimplex and represented Ireland and the UK in Biennale-type shows such as Sao Paulo (1994) and Gwangju Biennale in South Korea (1995), confirmed the ‘positioning’ role of prizes for artists as part of the process by which artists up their game and achieve institutional support and validation.

Napier concurred that artists were in a state of perpetual competiveness

The art world has a funny relationship to art prizes and awards – a

the myriad formats and forms of art prizes: open submission shows,

with themselves and their future potential and reputation – adding

certain sniffyness prevails. Some artists say they don’t care if they win

commissions, biennale-type presentations, commissions, emerging

that artists could only be as good as their last work. By way of

or not, or that they’d rather not be nominated – the surrounding

talent / lifetime achievement awards, surveys and residency prizes

illustration, he recounted that on his nomination for the 1998 Glen

hoopla is just not their thing. Curators are loath to say that they’re

etc.

Dimplex award, he elected to make an untested ambitious work,

overly impressed by the winners of various gongs and baubles. But to

Hugh Mulholland stressed that art prizes should be primarily

treating the award exhibition opportunity as a kind of production

give this attitude its due, Stuart Morgan, writing in the very first

devised with aims and ambitions of artists in mind – artists should

residency. He wasn’t that year’s winner and he ruefully commented to

edition of Frieze Magazine in 1991, perhaps never said truer words

want to be part of them. His own curatorial career, as he’s often

McParland that had he played safer perhaps his chances would have

than, “Artists are not in competition with each other but with

publically stated, was born of a desire to draw attention to an

been better.

themselves and the past”.

emerging generation of Northern Irish artists who were then his

Peter Richards stated that he was an artist with a low level of

So what is the public role of arts awards? On one level, it's always

peers. This culminated to an extent in his presentation of their work

participation and success when it came to art prizes and awards.

gratifying to see the Turner Prize included in mainstream media

at the 2005 Northern Ireland show at the Venice Biennale. Mullholland

Modesty aside, Richards conceded that inclusion in Mulholland’s 2005

coverage – it’s an opportunity for an affirmation and demystification

typified the best art prizes as positioning both institutions and artists

Venice show had been a milestone for him. Likewise, having his work

of contemporary art. But on the other hand, the exposure is not all

in a mutually beneficial way – raising profiles and connecting them

selected for the 1999 Bloomburg New Contemporaries show was a

good. The Daily Mail always has a field day with the Turner Prize,

to national and international networks.

breakthrough; it helped him make links with regional UK venues,

reporting sensationally on what 'gets called art these days'. The prize

Brenda McParland agreed with Mulholland, noting that IMMA’s

which he hadn’t been able to do working out of Northern Ireland. In

is also vulnerable to accusations of ‘festivalisation’ – as it is a once a

Glen Dimplex Prize (1994 – 2001) was consciously devised as part of

terms of his work as the Director of the Golden Thread, he noted that,

year taster that only gives a selective picture of what contemporary

the development of the profile and activities of a young institution.

while the venue doesn’t have any explicit prize structures, in devising

art is. Don’t audiences deserve year-round access and engagement

Also emphasising the centrality of the artist, McParland noted that

shows for artists, their participation in art fairs and their development

with art?

IMMA’s prize exhibition of the four nominated artists was always

of the venue was of course part of a wider field of affirmation and adjudication of the art world.

In theory, the positives outweigh the negatives. Big spectacles

devised a distinct set of independent mini exhibitions. There was no

like the Turner Prize can highlight the talent, creativity and energy of

self-conscious attempt to represent a 'zeitgeist' in the selection process

Richards and Napier didn’t dwell on their own personal experiences

the art world to the general public; they function as occasions for

or the installation. Mulholland and McParland also agreed that central

of the life changing benefits of award monies and accolades to their

healthy debate about the quality and value of art and other likewise

to the whole business of selection was making decisions about when

practices. The financial and reputational benefits of prize and publicity

irresolvable questions.

an artist was at the ‘right’ stage of their careers, ie demonstrating not

are after all more than self-evident. Instead, they joined Mullholland

only a good track record but also the potential to develop further.

and McParland in underlining the importance of artists participating in

As signalled by it's brash title ‘Art Awards: Prizes! Prizes! Prizes!’, the VAI initiated talk, held on Saturday 9 November 2013 at the

Mulholland is clearly an advocate of awards, but sounded some

award structures for more work-a-day and slow burning benefits to

Golden Thread Gallery in partnership with the 2013 Turner Prize, set

notes of caution: those on selection panels should always be on guard

their careers – namely, ongoing visibility and connection to networks.

out to explore the ambivalent attitudes around art prizes in all their

about rewarding success for its own sake, ie giving awards to the

The discussion closed with the consensus that art prizes are one of

forms. The discussion was part of a daylong programme, ‘From

winners of other awards. And he’d witnessed cases of nominated

the key resources used by the art world for its ongoing decision-making

Grassroots to Celebrity’, exploring the developmental pathways for

artists getting stuck in an attention vacuum, the explosion of publicity

processes in terms of exhibitions, residencies – and of course, more

artists, leading them from local artist-led spaces to international

around the winning artist temporarily diminishing their profile.

prizes. To ensure the circulation of your work within the networks of

networks.

In terms of the funding and sponsorship behind awards,

exchange and communication that make up the art world, artists simply have to participate in this system.

The day was the brainchild of VAI’s Northern Ireland Manager

Mulholland and McParland stated that the happiest partnerships had

Feargal O’Malley and Head of Learning for The Turner Prize, Lynn

arisen when sponsors had approached their respective institutions.

While the effort and monies expended on putting together an

McGrane, who kindly invited yours truly to chair a panel of

Both had also worked strategically to court support at one time or

unsuccessful application might seem futile to some, the panel

experienced prize-givers and recipients: artist and Director of Golden

other. But as Mulholland put it, making lists of potential ‘sponsor

emphasised that applying to prizes undeniably gets your work across

Thread Gallery Peter Richards; independent curator / consultant and

benefits’ can become a rather tangential and pointless exercises. In

the desks of the influential artworld gate-keepers. It's a cliché, but true.

former Head of Exhibitions at IMMA Brenda McParland, who also

their experience, the most successful arrangements simply came

To recast Hugh Mullholland’s opening point, all serious artists should

organised the Glen Dimplex and Nissan art awards; artist and Head of

about due to the sponsors’ sincere interest in the contemporary art

want to pursue prizes – what is there to be ambivalent about?

Fine Art at NCAD Phillip Napier; and MAC Curator Hugh Mulholland.

world – and supporting art for its own sake – rather than any strategic

The framework for the discussion was broad, and took into account

concerns for reaping corporate benefits.

Jason Oakley, Publications Manager, Visual Artists Ireland

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

VAI Northern Ireland manager

29 VAI west of ireland representative

Challenging Expectations Financial Security FEARGAL O’MALLEY, VAI’S NORTHERN IRELAND MANAGER, considers THE 2013 ROYAL ULSTER ACADEMY’S ANNUAL EXHIBITION.

AIDEEN BARRY REPORTS ON the VAI COMMON ROOM CAFE, hosted by HQ / OCCUPY SPACE, which focused on finacial security for artists.

Brendan Jamison (with Mary McCaffrey, Mark Revels, Lydia Holmes and David Turner), Sugar Metropolis, (2013), 500,000 sugar cubes180 x 900 x 700 cm, photo

by Tony Corey. From 18 October – 17 November 2013, every visitor to the RUA Annual at the Ulster Museum was invited to participate in this collaborative project, which was sponsored by KPMG, Arts & Business NI and Belfast City Council.

I managed to secure an invitation to the collectors’ preview (a small one-hour sneak viewing the day before the official launch) for the Royal Ulster Academy 132nd Annual Exhibition at the Ulster Museum (18 October 2013 – 5 January 2013).

Challenging expectations was the theme of this year’s RUA annual show, which for the first time in the Ulster Museum, the Academy showcased a selection of local video artists in a bespoke gallery within the exhibition. How could I resist?

On arrival, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had managed to crash somebody else’s party. One particularly well-dressed man who arrived shortly after me was almost rugby tackled and whisked away on a bespoke guided tour by one of the academicians, I later found out that he was quite a serious collector.

The exhibition looked fresh – something I thought I would never say of an RUA show. The decision to use the walls built in the gallery space for the previous exhibition ‘Revealed: Government Art Collection’ was a fantastic idea. It somehow managed the impossible: to slow down the dense academystyle hang. The partitions provided a perfect set of framing devices for a mass of hundreds of works, including a bespoke video gallery and also housing a large collaborative artwork, Sugar Metropolis, which had ambitions to be the world's largest sugar cube sculpture – devised by multi-award winning sculptor Brendan Jamison ARUA. The Royal Ulster Academy is an artist-led organisation that promotes traditional and contemporary approaches to visual art through its exhibition and education programme. It was originally founded as the Belfast Rambler’s Sketching Club in 1879, became the Ulster Academy of Arts in 1930 and finally the Royal Ulster Academy in 1956.

Each year, the Academy hosts an Annual Exhibition in Belfast showcasing the work of Academy members, invited artists and artists selected through open submission.

I got chatting to Jennifer Troughton a new Associate Academician, who said to me, “As a new Associate Academician, I am still young enough to remember railing against what, to an art student who knew it all, seemed like a dusty organisation trapped in the past. I was therefore delighted to accept a position on the 2013 selection panel, which in addition to selecting works from the open submission gave me the opportunity and pleasure of inviting some of the most promising contemporary artists from my alma mater, the University of Ulster, to exhibit in this year’s exhibition. The current president's ambition – to combine the traditional

with the innovative – as evidenced by the inclusion of a dedicated area for video, marks an exciting turn in the long and illustrious history of the RUA and I am happy to be a small part of it, even if my younger self might think that I had sold out and joined ‘the establishment".

I was momentarily surprised when I noticed that a text piece was also part of the show. It actually turned out to be a label stating that a work of one of the academicians had been removed as it was regarded as inappropriate for child audiences. I can appreciate how the RUA would be sensitive around this issue. I’d surmise that a trip to the annual RUA exhibition is one of the ever-decreasing allocation of trips for schools and represents for many children their first visit to an art gallery. I must say that the education programmes for young people, for the exhibition was excellent, one that any institution would be proud of.

Each year the open submission strand of the RUA annual receives a vast number of submissions.

This year was no exception. 116 works were selected from 1,043 entries. Overall, the work on display at the RUA show fluttered between brilliant and not so brilliant. “It’s all about the variety”, I heard one visitor say.

One of the ‘lucky few’, Barry Mulholland, explained to me, “This is the first year that I have entered the annual RUA show, so I was extremely happy that my large architectural piece was accepted.

The exhibition’s duration has also been extended, so the additional exposure is another positive. Some of the open submission art pieces on display are excellent, and it's a boost to one’s confidence to have your work exhibited alongside them”.

In the video room at the end of the exhibition I ran into the serious collector again. I stood behind him as he watched a work, constantly looking down at the catalogue for some guidance. To his credit, he managed to sit through a video piece of a blow up doll deflating in a river for several minutes – if that’s not a sign of some kind of progress, then nothing is.

Feargal O’Malley, VAI’s Northern Ireland Manager, is an independent curator, specialising in contemporary art from Northern Ireland.

O’Malley is currently Curator / Manager at the FE McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge. Prior to this he was a co-director of Platform Arts, Belfast (2010 – 2012) Exhibitions Manager at the Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast (2008 – 2011) and Arts Officer / Curator at Millennium Court Art Centre, Portadown (2003 – 2008).

VAI Common Room Cafe HQ / Occupy Space, Limerick, 11 December 2013

Visual Artists Ireland’s second Limerick-based Common Room Cafe kicked off at HQ / Occupy Space on Wednesday 11 December. Though not as well attended as the last café, the participants were very engaged and a host of meaty conversations dominated the evening. The discourse centred, in particular, on issues of artist payments and the provision of financial security.

In recent weeks, VAI have launched their Payment Guidelines for Professional Artists, a long awaited and much anticipated document that will hopefully act as a lobbying tool to assure parity in the payment provisions made by publicly funded galleries, art centres, festivals etc. VAI members have also been invited to lobby the Cultural Strategic Policy Committee within their local authorities – encouraging them to adopt policies that ensure artists across all art forms are paid in an equitable manner; when commissioned or otherwise undertaken on behalf of local authorities.

Furthermore, VAI argues that policy should be put in place requiring any organisation or group applying for funding from that authority to clearly demonstrate that it pays artists in a fair manner.

There was much discussion of these matters at the Common Room Cafe, in particular about approaching the Limerick CSPC. As CSPCs operate differently from county to county, artists are being asked by VAI to individually contact their own committee, in order to push this provision onto the agendas of various regional panels. It was also suggested that the matter should be brought to the attention of all local authority arts officers, in order to see the payment guidelines put into widespread practice.

The possibility of establishing an‘artists pension trust’ in Ireland was raised at the meeting, along with discussion about the other means available to artists to support them during retirement. In the UK, the Artist Pension Trust (www.aptglobal.org) offers both long-term financial security and international exposure for artists signed up to the scheme.

APT comprises the world’s largest global collection of contemporary art: 10,000 artworks from 2,000 select artists in 75 different countries. With additional commitments totalling 40,000 artworks, the collection is growing by more than 2,000 works each year, as artists are chosen APT’s international curatorial team.

The artworks in the trust are gradually sold over the course of 20 years for the benefit of the APT artists, providing them with future financial security.

The funds from the net proceeds of each artwork sold are distributed to the artists in the following manner: 72% is distributed to the artists in the trust, 40% to the individual artist and 32% among the artists in that trust based on the number of artworks they have deposited. The remaining 28% is used to cover the operational costs of the trust. This is an interesting model and open to international artists to apply.

Inclusion in the programme is not guaranteed – selection is based on the appraisal of its curatorial advisory panel.

This provided food for thought: could such a model be established in Ireland? If so, who could administrate such an operation? Currently, the majority of artists here are resigned to the fact that they will have to work long into their senior years, as they are not in a position to afford to contribute to a pension. Often, artists are reliant on their supplementary incomes – teaching etc – to offer some form of modest pension provision.

The conversation on the night moved from payments and pensions to the subject of life insurance for artists. It was suggested that Visual Artists Ireland conduct a survey to establish how many of its members would be interested in seeking life insurance and pension provision.

It was also suggested that, providing the costs wouldn’t be too prohibitive, contribution to pension and insurance schemes could be incorporated into a form of ‘membership fee’ for VAI members. It should be noted that one of VAI’s partner organisations O’Driscoll O’Neill Ltd already provide life insurance policies.

In 2014, Common Room Cafes will be springing up all over the county like daffodils. In January, we’ll be in Glor, Ennis, with events taking place in Roscommon and Leitrim soon after. If your studio or arts organisation is interested in hosting a Common Room Cafe, do let VAI know. You can email me at aideenbarry@gmail.com or Alex Davis, VAI’s Advocacy Programme Manager, at alex@ visualartists.ie.

Aideen Barry

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

Art in public

Kathy Herbert, Word Tree (detail), 2013, Satellite Project Space, graphite and pastels on painted wall

Dorothy Smith, Tower Drawing, 2013, pen on paper

Dorothy Smith, Study for Tower Drawing, 2013, 8 x 8cm, pen on paper,

The Allegory of Place SILVIA LOEFFLER PROFILES KATHY HERBERT AND DOROTHY SMITH’S PROJECT ‘OPEN TO THE PUBLIC’, WHICH WAS SHOWN AT SATELLITE STUDIOS PROJECT SPACE, DUBLIN DURING OCTOBER 2013.

The character of buildings and the economic realities of an area are all factors that can colour our perception and experience of place. The rhythms of a city, along with its smells and sounds, create emotional impulses, ranging from a sense of well being to repulsion. A focus on emotional and visual responses to space was at the heart of Kathy Herbert and Dorothy Smith’s recent ‘Open To the Public’ (9 – 19 October 2013) project at Satellite Studios Project Space, Dublin.1 In doing so, their work stresses the private and intimate relationship we can have with our environment. Their joint work is a search for possible alternative interpretations of public space.

Both Herbert and Smith have an ongoing interest in taking art out of formal studio and gallery frameworks and a keen interest in forging more dynamic relationships between the artist and the audience. As the title of their project emphasised, their concern was to expand on public experience and involvment with the creative process.

Drawing is central to both Smith and Herbert’s working methods.

Prior to ‘Open to the Public’, the artists undertook individual drawing projects as part of Phizzfest (Phibsborough Community and Arts Festival), Herberts’s Drawing Conversations and Smith’s weareallinthistogether. 2 The artists’ projects for Phizzfest used drawing in public spaces to investigate issues of communication and audience interaction and formed the basis for their work in Satellite Studios.

After working at Phizzfest, the two artists felt the need to take their project one step further and exhibit the work made. This process would also provide a documentation for work which, in Kathy Herbert’s case in particular, was extremely ephemeral. With this in mind, they spoke to Roisin McNamee in Satellite Studios, who invited them to use the Project Space, which they had just acquired from the landlord. Through meetings and emails, the dates were fixed and also the cost. The complete project was run and funded by the artists. The ground floor project space of Satellite Studios, Dublin is a highly visible space, with large windows facing onto Upper Dominick Street. Kathy Herbert and Dorothy Smith were invited to create work to address this context for 10 days.

The roots of Herbert and Smith’s joint project go back to 2011.

Herbert had just finished her MA in Sculpture at NCAD and was looking for a way to create some kind of connection with the audience for her work. Herbert also had the idea that she wanted art to be part of everyone’s everyday experience. The artist decided to keep it as simple as possible and started to draw in public and invite passers-by to come over and converse with her. As this proved successful, Herbert then started to apply to make this work in arts festivals, being accepted first for ‘Earwig!’ at the Tuam Arts Festival in 2011 and the following year for Phizzfest, where she met Dorothy Smith. Where Herbert’s practice

is concerned with art and ecology, Dorothy Smith’s work is focussed on the built environment and how experience of the everyday is shaped, often in relation to overlooked or empty premises. As both Smith and Herbert had interelating ideas and aims for their work, they decided to team up. They then worked with Draiocht for National Drawing Day and with Phizzfest.

‘Open to the Public’ may be related to the Situationist International movement, operating out of Paris in the 1950s and 1960s – specifically their famed collage-based maps which sought to chart psychological influences on space and other playful associations. The Situationists called for new modes of interpretating the city, based on an exploration of the ‘emotional’ realms of urban space, whilst conducting their ‘psychogeographic’ explorations. This idea, and the Situationists’ call for exploring the concept of an ‘intimate and tender mapping’ of public spaces,seems particularly apt in relation to ‘Open to the Public’. 3 It is important to note as well that the Situationists’ maps were not an exercise in gaining dominance or control over a domain, which may often be the motivation for ‘official’ charting of space. Rather they sought to highlight how our interaction with urban space could mirror our internal landscape of emotions. And more radically still, these ‘tender mappings’ sought to transcribe our bodily and mental movement in space, as it is emotions that ‘move us’, literally and metaphorically, from one place to another, with every journey consisting of encounters and actions like departing, meeting, staying.

Word Tree was a key work made by Kathy Herbert for ‘Open to the Public’. It comprised a large-scale wall drawing, created in-situ at the Satellite Studios project space. The piece was part of a body of work entitled Drawing Conversations that Herbert has been developing since Phizzfest earlier in the year. As part of the process, passers by were invited to converse with the artist while she was drawing.

Herbert sees this as a way of bringing drawing into the public domain – both in terms of its making and reception.4 There is an emphasis on the live and unique nature of these exchanges, as no photgraphy or video recording is permitted. Following these conversations, the artist incorporated notes into the drawing about what was said. A crucial part of the process involved the work’s ultimate erasure and removal – Herbert washed layers of the drawing away until nothing was left. This was a work that celebrated the power of the ephemeral: a kind of anti-monument.

Smith presented weareallinthistogether, the composite drawing that featured 30 portraits of members of the public, each of whom had sat for 10 – 30 minutes to be drawn during the course of the September 2012 Phizzfest festival. The work fused representations of this group of people, both as a community and set of individuals. As the drawings

were built up over time with each portrait layered over the previous, individual sitters are not recognisable, but a pattern emerges that recognises both individuality and commonality. The drawings were photographed after each sitting and these images were then animated allowing the slow build up of each work to be viewed. All sitters were emailed the finished animations – a gesture acknowledging their role in the collective creation of the work. These animations were looped and screened on a monitor in the project space but also in another ‘offsite’ venue – McGeogh's Public House in Phibsborough, where the videos were visible from the street.

In the Project Space, Smith also worked on a series of drawings of ‘Phibsborough Tower’, the tower above Phibsborough Shopping Centre – which she saw as a particular urban landmark. Commenting on the process of working in the ‘open studio’ situation of the ‘Open to the Public’ project, Smith emphasised how important the “quality of the process” was in informing her work, which explores the fabric of urban space.

‘Open to the Public’ explored the implications of navigating the city in visually and emotional terms as kind of hybrid mode of transit – and one especially sensitive to in-between zones, thresholds and the shifting cultural identity of parts of the city. Overall, both artists used their drawing-based practices to explore our relationship to public space as a kind of allegory for all human relationships and experience.

In doing so, ‘Open to the Public’ also raised questions about use – relating both to the role of artists documenting the community and how communities themselves inhabit and make use of the buildings that comprise their locales.

The sensitivity of Kathy Herbert and Dorothy Smith’s ‘Open to the Public’ project to its context served to counteract all-too-common experiences of urban space: alienation and lack of ownership. In opening up the solitary and private process of drawing to public interation, ‘Open to the Public’ stressed an individual and human relationship with place.

Herbert and Smith navigated these questions in a non-didactic and open-ended way. Their mapping processes were based on following rather than leading, and attempted to reflect the lived and felt experience of a place. Both artists utilised novel approaches to drawing in order to offer an alternative survey of the infrastructure and inhabitants of a particular area. In this way, ‘Open to the Public’ introduced new possibilities for the interpretation of place.

Silvia Loeffler is an independent artist, researcher and educator.

Notes 1. www.satellitestudios.tumblr.com Satellite Studios, founded in 2011 is a multi-disciplinary artist initiative formed to provide affordable studio spaces for emerging artists in Dublin city centre 2. The fifth Phizzfest festival will take place in May 2014. The festival is wholly founded and run by people from the local community and attracts people from increasing wide circles of interest and geographic location each year. It has been hugely successful in motivating, engaging and connecting people and in beginning to change perceptions of the area 3. Simon Ford, The Situationist International. A User’s Guide, 2005, Black Dog Publishing, London 4. Author conversation, ‘Open to the Public’ panel discussion, 16 October 2013 5. Author conversation, ‘Open to the Public’ panel discussion, 16 October 2013

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

31

Art in PUBLIC

Art in Public

Project Partners: Cassowary Coast Regional Gallery, Innisfail District Historical Society, Cassowary Coast Council and Innisfail State College and DR Margaret Baguley from University of Southern

Public art commissions, site-specific works, socially engaged practice and various other forms of art outside the gallery. never the same day

myles after myles

Queensland Description: Re-imagining Innisfail was created during the first international artist in residence programme supported by Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Queensland and Education Queensland. It engaged students in years 8 and 9,10 and 12 at Innisfail State College in a multidisciplinary arts project that explored the built, natural, social, political and sound environment of Innisfail. Students in Innisfail have endured upheaval caused by multiple cyclones in recent years.

This project considered some of the issues of the community of Innisfail by facilitating a student-led, creative reimagining of space in the town. Through research and exploration, students documented their existing environment and historical images from Innisfail with input from Cassowary Coast Council town planner and Innisfail Historical Society in a forum, reimagining a rebuilt Innisfail. The project stimulated students’ imaginations and prompted them to examine their surroundings in a new way and to develop a deeper understanding about the layers of planning in their own town,

Title: Never the same day...

through a process of arts-led engagement and discovery in a variety

Artist: James L Hayes Commissioner: Healy Partner Architects & Ardscoil Ris, Limerick Date advertised: September 2011 Date sited: September 2013 Commission type: Per Cent for Art Budget: €34,000 Description: The work comprises three interlinked artworks – two internal (one sculptural and one pictorial) and one large-scale external sculptural work. Copper, photo-riston etchings, 316 mirror polished stainless steel and computer controlled LED lighting were used. The first work sits on the right side wall in the reception area of the newly designed Ardscoil Ris in Limerick. It is a pictorial work comprising 50 photo etchings of images that relate to the everyday life and activities of Ardscoil Ris and the school’s past accomplishments. The second work is a sculpture located opposite the array of prints on the left hand wall of the reception, made from the same 50 copper plates that were used for the students’ prints, which have now been folded into replica sculptures of ‘paper airplanes’. The external work is located at the far end of the courtyard: large stainless steel sculptural replicas of paper airplanes. After dark, these external planes are lit up from underneath by computer controlled LED lighting.

of visual arts (photography, video, drawing, sculpture) and music / Title: Myles After Myles

sound.

Artist: Holger C Lönze Commissioner: Strabane District Council and Donegal County Council Date advertised: October 2012

biodiverseCity

Date Sited: 2 December 2013 Budget: £79,000 Commission type: Percent for Art Description: An over-lifesize sculpture of writer and satirist Brian O’Nolan aka Flann O’Brien (1911–1966) and Myles na gCopaleen, in his home town of Strabane, Co Tyrone. Dressed in his iconic coat and Fedora hat, he is leaning against three 2.5m-high first editions of his most famous books, including An Béal Bocht, The Third Policeman and The Dalkey Archive. The work was installed in Abercorn Square in front of the library and Alley Theatre building. The figure was partially cast in bronze in the artist’s studio foundry in West Cork, using the lost-wax process in combination with Bronze Age moulding techniques. Clothing and hat were completed in repoussé sheet bronze and welded to an internal stainless steel structure. The work is a first attempt at combining ancient casting and metalworking techniques with innovative industrial processes such as CNC

never the same day

punching. The advantage of incorporating prehistoric methods with their use of inexpensive, recyclable and abundant materials is the exceptional clean and fine quality of the casts, requiring only a

Title: BiodiverseCity

minimum of finishing and chasing. Together with the use of low-

Artist: Mary Conroy

carbon fuels, recycled materials and low consumption LED lighting

Commissioner: Notice Nature, Dept. Arts, Heratige and Gaeltacht

these techniques results in low embodied energy values (EEV), high

Date advertised: June 2013

recyclability and low carbon emissions of the finished work over its

Date sited: November 2013

production and life cycle.

Budget: €1,500 Commission type: Biodiversity Awareness Grant Project Partners: Limerick City Council

re-imagining innisfail

Description: The Wildroutes Project has been running since 2011 as a long term socially engaged art project. The underlying driving force is the promotion and public awareness of urban ecology and biodiversity in the city through awareness campaigns and public actions. The long-term aim is to see Limerick as a biophilic city where nature is encouraged into the urban area to create a healthier ecosystem for all inhabitants. With the support of Environment

Title: Out of the woods...

Fund for Biodiversity Awareness and as part of the Wildroutes

Artist: James L Hayes

project, a number of animal shelters will were placed around the city

Commissioner: Brackloon NS, Westport, Mayo

centre in parks, lanes, streets and public and private gardens. These

Date sited: September 2013

animal shelters are made mostly from found materials. Materials are

Commission Type: Per Cent for Art

repurposed and recontextualised to create a place in which birds and

Description: Out of the woods… comprises two sculptural components:

small invertebrates such as bees can hibernate in winter and raise

a bronze cast of a large branch taken from an oak tree and a collection

young in spring.The aim of these shelters is not only to provide a

of bronze castings of local flora and fauna, which were collected

habitat for urban ecology but to function also as a visual stimulant in

from the nearby Brackloon woods by the children of St Joseph’s NS in consultation with the artist and their teachers. The oak branch symbolises both the immediate surroundings of Brackloon Woods and also to highlight the importance of the oak tree in Irish Folklore and Celtic mythology. The aim of this part of the work was to highlight the ephemeral and temporal nature of the delicate eco system and natural environment of the forest that surrounds the school.

the city to prompt dialogue and create an awareness of the importance Title: Re- Imagining Innisfail Artist: Darragh O Callaghan Commissioner: Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Queensland and Education Queensland Date advertised: Feburary 2012 Date sited: November 2013, Cassowary Coast Regional Gallery and Innisfail town Budget: $20,000

of biodiversity. The locations of these shelters are shown on an online map of limerick, which creates a visual network for the participating groups and individuals.

32

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet vai event

art in public collection

January – February 2014

of a catastrophic event, investigating the psychological and physical ruptures that occur at the site of trauma. She is concerned with the effects of collapse on the individual and her practice explores the post-traumatic condition resulting from catastrophic impact. At the same time, her practice explores the aftermath site as one of potential transformation and recovery. She investigates the agency of

Show & Tell the most recent VAI 'show & tell' event was held at hq / occupy space, limerick.

swimming and its potential as offering a momentary release from a precarious, traumatised condition. For her socially engaged proposal, ‘Emergence’, she invited residents of a hostel for homeless men in Wexford town to participate in a series of 12 swimming and water safety lessons over the course of 6 weeks this summer. A Wexford

Title: Collection Artist: Colin Martin Commission type: self initiated Project Partners: Arts Council and the Irish Georgian Society Description: Collection is a two channel film installation by Colin

Sarah Lundy presenting at the 'Show & Tell', December 2013

Martin that addresses the spatial legacy of the City Assembly House,

The sixth Visual Artsts Ireland 'Show & Tell' event took place on 11

Dublin and its landmark Exhibition Room, the earliest purpose built

December at HQ / Occupy Space, Limerick. This was the second event

example of a public exhibition space of its type in either Ireland or

to take place outside of the VAI offices in Dublin and directly followed

Britain and possibly in Europe. Each channel films a private and public art collection with different degrees of access, production

water safety instructor gave the lessons, which culminated in an

value and authorship. The work explores the complex relationship

open water sea swim in September. The vision for this project was

between art, context and audience.

to facilitate a moment in which the men of Ozanam House Hostel had the potential to emerge momentarily from a traumatic state of being. The artist, community worker and residents also designed and

the dave project

the Common Room Café, which took place in the afternoon.

The participating artists were: Michele Horrigan, Declan Casey, Breda Lynch, Aaron Lawless, Nuala O’Sullivan, Gavin Hogg, Sarah Lundy and James L Hayes. They ranged from the emerging to the more established and represented a broad range of practices including:

built a raft together, now moored in Wexford harbor as a temporary monument to a shared endeavor. The participants received Irish Water Safety certification upon completion of the sea swim. The raft, with its mirrored surface, offers fragments of illumination. Over the course of the lessons, participants filmed their movement through water using an underwater go-pro camera. The video work and soundscape is being edited for a multimedia exhibition in various venues in Wexford town in 2014.

Unit 1 off site Title: Unit 1 Off Site Artists: Michelle Browne, James King and Brian Connolly.

Commissioner: Unit 1 Title: The DAVE Project Artist: David Byrne Commissioner: Self initiated Date advertised: Running continuously Date sited: April 2013 Description: The DAVE project is an innovative street art campaign, taking place on the streets of Dublin. The project aims to highlight species that are endangered or protected in Ireland, as well as the destructive practises that have contributed to habitat and biodiversity loss. The artist highlights these issues by placing paintings of animals considered to be under threat, or of conservation concern, in urban areas where wildlife is unlikely to be seen or where attractive habitats have given way to concrete. Each painting includes a note describing the project, along with an email address and the project’s Facebook page. Byrne asks the person who takes the painting home to send a picture of the art in its new location. This picture is then shared on Facebook. Each time Dave posts a picture of a painting, he also gives details about the status of the species in Ireland.

Date advertised: June 2013 Date sited: 28 September 2013 Budget: €1500 Commission type: Performance Project Partners: Dublin Live Art Festival 2013, DCC, Arts Council Description: 'Unit 1 Off Site' was an exhibition of live performance artworks by Michelle Browne, James King and Brian Connolly which took place on 28 September in various sites across Dublin City. Unit 1 invited each of the artists to make a performance in a site of interest

Attendees at the 'Show & Tell', December 2013

installation, performance, painting and sculptural work. Participants and attendees travelled from as far afield as Cork and Kerry to attend the event and Occupy Space’s new venue, HQ, proved a suitably relaxed space in which to host the quick-fire presentations.

The format, just as before, comprised eight presentations with 10 slides per artist. The images changed automatically, giving the speaker a few seconds to talk about what was on the screen. This ensured that an equal amount of time was given to each image and gave the event a consistent pace.

in Dublin 8 (in the vicinity of the Dublin Live Art Festival's hub). The show was supported by Dublin City Council and the Arts Council and comprised a series of exhibitions, which looks at the history of performance art practice in Ireland. James King used the bottles and cans left around his performance site from the Arthur’s Day celebrations to make an installation in which to perform. Michelle Browne performed in a cleared site, a former community garden on Bridgefoot Street. Her work pointed precisely to the issues inherent in the site's post-bust history. Brian Connolly had a stall in the Dublin Food Co-Op market, selling many strange and wonderful things including countries, cut out from a map of the world or circular pieces of the moon. The performances were followed by a recorded conversation with the artists and Unit 1 curators, Ciara McKeon and

emergence Title: Emergence Artist: Laura Ni Fhlaibhin

spaces; this will be published and freely available next year.

will be announced in the ebulletin and on our website. Contact

Arts Office Date sited: July – November 2013 Budget: €1850 Commission type: Socially engaged art project Project Partners: Ozanam House Hostel Wexford Town, Wexford Water Safety Instructors Description: Laura Ni Fhlaibhin’s practice is situated in the aftermath

Visual Artists Ireland plans to continue rolling out these events across the country. Information on future 'Show & Tell' evenings

Commissioner: Artlinks Emerging Artist Bursary Award, Wexford Date advertised: March 2013

Declan Casey presenting at the 'Show & Tell', Deecember 2013

Dominic Thorpe, which explored themes of performing in public

adrian@visualartists.ie for more information or to express interest in

Correction!

In the previous issue of the Visual Artists' News Sheet, the photograph of White form passing through, a public performance by Hilary Williams, should have been credited to photographer Ger Holland (www.gerhollandphotography. com).

presenting at or attending future events. www.visualartists.ie

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

VAi ProFessionAL deVeLoPmenT

33 ArToons T Toons

VAI professIonAl deVelopment

training & events 2014

Pablo helgeura's Artoons

NortherN IrelaNd www.visualartists.org.uk/services/professionaldevelopment/current republIc of IrelaNd www.visualartists.ie/education/register-for-our-events/

norThern ireLAnd

dUBLin

Early Days VAI, In partnership with Millennium Court Arts Centre and in conjunction with the exhibition ‘Presently’ curated by Feargal O’Malley.

Sat 1 March (10.30 – 20.00) @ Millennium Court Arts Centre, Portadown Places: 30, FREE

Peer Critique Painting with Vicky Wright @Visual Artists Ireland Places: 6, ˆ 80 / ˆ 40 (VAI Members)

Talks and discussions for and by artists and curators, will focus on early career development strategies.

The day will also include an informal VAI Show & Tell social event for artists to discuss their work and meet fellow artists.

Peer Critique Painting with Vicky Wright Wed 26 March (10.30 – 16.30) @ Digital Art Studios, Belfast Places: 6, £40 / £20 (VAI Members) This Peer Critique session is relevant to artists working in painting media. It is intended that the session will create dialogue and openness between artistic peers and foster networking and continued peer support amongst participants.

Six artists will be asked to come prepared with a short presentation on their practices and on future projects they would like to develop.

Vicky Wright studied fashion and textiles at the RCA, graduating in 1992. She completed her MA Fine Art at Goldsmiths in 2008. Recent solo shows include: 'The Garments of the Dominators', Josh Lilley Gallery, London (2012); 'The Informants', Josh Lilley Gallery, London (2010).

Peer Critique Drawing Dates and Speakers to be announced @ Digital Art Studios, Belfast Places: 6, £40 / £20 (VAI Members)

Cross Border / norTh wesT Harnessing Creativity Masterclass Series VAI, in partnership with Leitrim County Enterprise Board (spring into autumn 2014) @ Carrick-on-Shannon, Omagh and Enniskillen Places: 6 – 10 per session, FREE

This Peer Critique session is relevant to artists working in painting media. It is intended that the session will create dialogue and openness between artistic peers and foster networking and continued peer support amongst participants.

Six artists will be asked to come prepared with a short presentation on their practices and on future projects they would like to develop.

Peer Critique Drawing Dates and Speakers to be announced @ Visual Artists Ireland, Dublin Places: 6, ˆ 80 / ˆ 40 (VAI Members)

rosCommon Roscommon Arts Office in partnership with Visual Artists Ireland @ Roscommon Arts Centre Places: 6 – 10 per session, FREE The following topics to be covered: Preparing Proposals Installation Skills & Conservation Issues for Visual Artists Peer Critique All Media your traiNiNg NEEDS If you are interested in suggesting training topics or want to request that we repeat particular sessions, please do get in touch. artiSt & tutorS PaNEl Visual Artists Ireland has an ongoing open submission process for artists and arts professionals interested in being part of an available panel of tutors contributing to the VAI Professional Development Training Programme.

To express interest in sessions not listed online – CoNtaCt Monica Flynn, Professional Development Officer, Visual Artists Ireland, Ground Floor, Central Hotel Chambers,

The following topics to be covered: Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights Peer Critique Sessions for Artist-Designers Preparing Proposals and Tender Documents for Creative Projects

7 – 9 Dame Court, Dublin 2 T: 353(0)1 672 9488 E: monica@visualartists.ie

Anthologies of Artoons – Artoons 1,2 & 3 – are available from Jorge Pinto Books www.pintobooks.com. Further information on author and artist Pablo helguera can be found at www. pablohelguera.net

34

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

Opportunities

January – February 2014

design. The purpose of the awards is to

Studio 9 Artbase

second part of ‘Artistic Justice: Positions

to have this project realised as a returning

provide financial support for successful

City centre studio available from Janu-

on the Place of Justice in Art’, a series of

cultural event in different districts in

applicants in Ireland (North and South)

ary 2014 at Studio 9 Artbase, 9 North

international public symposia leading

Utrecht – each time with a unique

to enable them to: travel abroad for the

Great Georges Street, Dublin 1. €150

towards eva International, Ireland’s Bi-

character and outcome. For the second

purpose of improving their knowledge

monthly including bills. If interested in

ennial, in 2014. Friday 24 and Saturday

Knocknagoney Area Forum

edition of Artshake, an artist from Ireland

of the visual and applied arts, architec-

viewing, please contact John.

25 January 2014, Dar al-Ma’mûn, Mar-

The Knocknagoney Area Forum wish to

is invited to a residence in a neighborhood

ture and the history of art; or to provide

Email

rakech, Morocco, ‘Translating in / Jus-

use an Arts Council STartUP award to

of Utrecht to work and stay for a period

them with funding for projects for the

jroconnell2002@yahoo.co.uk

tice, curated by Omar Berrada, Speakers

recruit an experienced artist to engage

of six weeks. The goal is to make a visual

advancement of education and research

Telephone

TBA. Saturday 22 March 2014 IMMA,

in a programme of creative engagement

artwork for and with inhabitants from

in the visual and applied arts. The

0870666075

Irish Museum of Modern Art, ‘Dublin: It

towards the development of a proposal

this area. The artist meets elderly people

awards are mostly sought by students

for a piece of public art centred around

from the area to talk about the history of

but are open for anyone to apply. The

Hendron’s Collider

Much as of War (On Violence)’, curated

the Turrets in Knocknagoney Park. Ini-

the surroundings where the artist lives.

maximum award is €5,000.

Bright, spacious south-facing artist stu-

by Doreen Mende, speakers TBA.

tial expressions of interest are invited

School classes join in to work with the

Deadline

dios are available to rent at Hendron’s

Website

from artists towards the development

artist for several moments during this

6pm Friday 21 February

Collider. Facilities include: screen-print-

www.eva.ie

of a proposal for the piece of public art.

period. Although Barbara and Linda from

Website

ing room, project space, kiln and a mod-

There are two phases to this project.

Artshake run this educational part of the

www.thomasdammanntrust.ie

est collection of books that make up the

Dustbin Disco

This is the first phase of the public art

project, the artist is expected to have

library. Exhibition space is available at a

The Golden Thread Gallery will host

project, where the outcome will be a re-

experience or affinity in working with

discount rate for members. Hendron col-

open jack jam and circuit bending ses-

port collating information for inclusion

children. The artwork will be exhibited

lider hosts a variety of monthly events at

sions. These events are fully open to the

in the brief for a new public artwork.

in the area during a presentation to the

the space with collectives and organisa-

public and everybody is welcome. Fri-

The second phase of process is the de-

neighborhood. Artshake will help to

Northumberland Residency

tions such as ARN, the Provisional Uni-

day 31 January 2014, 7pm – 10pm, Gold-

velopment of the public art piece and is

create a social network in the area and

12-month community residency for a

versity, the Bluebottle writers’ collec-

en Thread Gallery. For one night only,

subject to funding being confirmed.

enhance the participation of inhabitants,

visual artist in rural Northumberland,

tive, and Slum Cinema. The building is

Barry Cullen and Torsten Lauchmann

Deadline

connecting them with their neighbors.

England. Package includes studio, flat,

buzzing with activity and the managers

are invited to make sense of the almost

17 January

Linda Rosink and Barbara van Beers of

utilities, line rental and broadband,

are looking for dynamic creative people

impossible to play ‘Dust Bin Disco’. This

Kopa work together on coordination of

exhibition costs, catalogue and promo-

who are interested in establishing con-

special event will be the first time that

nections with other artists / collectives

these highly respected international

commissions

residencies

Makes us Think of a Dance and a Fête as

this project. The artist will receive a fee of

tional material produced plus fee and

Create, on behalf of HSE South Cork Arts

€2000 for six weeks working. Travel

materials budget. Artist to produce

/ organisations, both locally and inter-

artists have ever met and is not to be

and Health Programme, is seeking

expenses and materials will be budgeted

work for final exhibition and undertake

nationally. Hendron’s Collider is an in-

missed. Admission Free.

expressions of interest from artists with

after selecting the artist and will be

community projects. Start dates in 2014

dependant, unfunded, not for profit, art-

Website

funded by Artshake.

and 2015.

ists’ space. Studio rental cost is between

www.goldenthreadgallery.co.uk

Deadline

Deadline

€140 – €200 per month.

Address

15 January

6 January

Website

84 – 94, Great Patrick St, Belfast

for the HSE Floor, Blackrock Hall Primary

Website

www.hendronscollider.com

BT1 2LU

Care Centre in Cork. HSE South Cork

www.varc.org.uk

HSE South Cork Arts & Health

experience of working within the context of arts and health for a unique opportunity to create site-specific work

Arts and Health Programme seeks to

funding / awards

commission innovative and context

Workshop With Mick O’Dea

studio space

job vacancies

The RHA School is delighted to offer a

appropriate artwork(s) for its premises in

Arts Council Travel & Training

Blackrock Hall Primary Care Centre. It is

The window for 2014 Travel and Train-

the first primary care centre in Cork City

ing Award applications opened on 27

Limerick Studios

a-n Executive Director

will spend the first two days exploring

located on the Southside off Skehard

November 2013. There are no formal

ARC, the Limerick city based artist

a-n, the artists’ information company, is

the environment of the RHA Studios

Road and opened in February 2010. HSE

deadlines for the Travel and Training

group, is expanding and is looking for

looking for an exceptional individual to

and School through drawing and paint-

South Cork Arts and Health Programme

Award. Applications are accepted on an

new members to rent studios in its new

see it through the next phase of its de-

ing. The final day will be used to further

is seeking proposals from artist(s) with a

ongoing basis. Applicants seeking sup-

premises. ARC is now located in a beau-

velopment. The ideal candidate needs

develop drawing and painting ideas that

track record of collaborative arts practice

port for formal courses (postgraduate or

tiful building on Lower Glentworth St,

to have a genuine affinity with the cul-

have been generated by this process.

within the field of art and health.

equivalent) and for other eligible oppor-

complete with lounge and kitchen area,

ture and values of the organisation and

Mick O’ Dea RHA will participate as a

Proposals from cross artform disciplines

tunities must submit their application

ladies and gents toilets. There are three

an absolute passion for artists and their

member of the workshop, sharing strat-

are welcomed. This brief invites proposals

at least six weeks before their course

studios still available on the main floor.

contribution to society. A good knowl-

egies and techniques through practical

for original artwork(s) which should be

or work programme begins. You are ad-

All studios are €80 per month (exclud-

edge of the arts ecology and a sense of

demonstration. The workshop specifies

informed by the context in which the

vised that the Arts Council cannot guar-

ing light and heat). For inquires or to

future scenarios are also required. a-n’s

a maximum number of participants so

commission is taking place. Artwork(s)

antee to assess applications received

arrange a studio viewing, please see

mission is to stimulate and support

places are limited. To ensure the profes-

must be of the highest standard. It is

less than six weeks before a course or

website.

contemporary visual arts practice and

sional standard of the series, the work-

preferable that the artist will have

work programme begins. Funding will

Website

affirm the value of artists in society. The

shop places will be allocated through an

experience of working in similar /

be available in the following art forms:

www.arcspace.org

focus as a membership body is on the

application process. Artists interested in

relevant contexts areas. All submitted

Architecture, Arts Participation, Circus,

materials are to be clearly marked with

Dance, Literature, Music, Opera, Street

the artist’s name, contact details and the

unique drawing and painting workshop with Mick O’Dea RHA. The participants

conversations around the critical and

participating, should apply by complet-

New York Live / Work Space

professional environment for the visual

ing the application form from the RHA’s

Arts and Spectacle, Venues, Visual Arts,

Sublet available 15 January – 14 March

arts amongst artists, art students, arts

website including: a short CV (Word or

title Artist Commission – HSE Blackrock

and Young People, Children and Educa-

2014. Large loft in Brooklyn (live / work

organisers, producers, educators and

PDF documents only, maximum file size

Hall Primary Care Centre.

tion.

space) under the Manhattan bridge, one

researchers. Within the artists’ member-

500K); up to three low resolution imag-

Deadline

Website

stop on the F train to Manhattan. Bed-

ship, AIR (Artists Interaction and Rep-

es of their work (JPG format only, maxi-

1pm 25 January

www.artscouncil.ie

room and mezzanine (accessed by lad-

resentation) has grown since 2006 into

mum file size 500K). Please note that ap-

der), large living room, wireless internet,

a formidable voice for artists, leading

plication is only available online.

Email katherineatkinson@create-ireland.ie

Damman Junior Award

bathroom with shower and toilet, basic

strategic campaigns to improve artists’

Deadline

Website

The Thomas Dammann Junior Memori-

kitchen, roof access (great view), sixth

social and economic status.

24 January

www.createireland.ie

al Trust has set up this award to honour

floor, freight elevator, bicycle. $1257

Deadline

Contact

the life of the late Thomas Dammann

per month (including wifi) and utilities

5pm Monday 13 January

Academy Co-ordinator, Fernando

Junior. The Trust is a charity, established

(ie electricity – bill is usually $40 or so

Email

Sanchez

in 1985, which makes awards to appli-

a month). One month deposit. Get in

www.thinkingpractice.co.uk

Contact

cants for furthering their research and

touch for more info / photos.

Artshake

practice and visiting exhibitions, muse-

Contact

Artshake was piloted in March 2013. For

ums, galleries and buildings of architec-

Moira Tierney

three weeks, a Belgian artist (Sofie van

tural importance. Applicants must have

Email

der Linden), was living in a suburb of

a special purpose and a specific pro-

epetrol@hotmail.com

Utrecht

the

gramme intended to broaden their prac-

Website

Eva Prequel Symposium Series

inhabitants and making an artwork.

tice in the visual or applied arts, craft,

www. moiratierney.net

After the success of this pilot, the aim is

design, architecture or history of art and

eva International is pleased to launch the

opportunities international

collaborating

with

Academy Co-ordinator, Fernando

courses / training / workshops

Sanchez Telephone 01 6612558 Email fernando@rhagallery.ie Website www.rhagallery.ie

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January – February 2014

35

opportunities Workshop with David Kissan

scheme; feasibility (including financial

ary / inter-media approach enables stu-

glassblower. Improvers Glassblowing:

BX Winter Workshop Series

In the spring, the RHA will also offer

and other support).

dents to work in a flexible manner that

Wednesday 26 March with Louise Rice .

Focus on: Getting to Know Your Digital

an advanced life painting and drawing

Deadline

offers the maximum opportunity for

Course fee: €120. 10am – 5pm. Must

Camera, Saturday 11 January 12pm –

methods course to investigate the un-

6 February

individual practice. Students are asked

have completed the Beginners Work-

4pm . Cost: £80 / £70. This one-session

derlying rhythm, expression and emo-

Website

to engage with systems of enquiry that

shop (above). A one-day workshop for

practical, hands on BX Introductory

tion of the modern portrait. To ensure

www.artscouncil.ie

explore and embrace traditional exhibi-

people to continue where they left off

Level course is designed for beginners.

tion formats alongside wider models of

after completing the Glassblowing for

Stage one: Using Your Digital Cam-

the professional standard of the series, the masterclass places will be allocated

Life Drawing

production, distribution and dissemina-

Beginners Workshop. Working in two

era, Tuesday 14, 21 and 28 January

through an application process. Artists

Kennedy’s Studios present a one-day

tion. Critical discourse on practice with

small teams, the emphasis of this course

6pm – 9pm. Cost: £125 / £110. This

interested in participating, should ap-

workshop: Dynamics of Drawing the

an emphasis on analysis and self-reflec-

is hands-on experience, with demos

three-session practical, hands on BX

ply by completing the application form

Human Form. Saturday 18 January

tion contributes to an understanding of

and support from an experienced glass-

Introductory Level course is designed

from the RHA’s website including: a

2014, 10.15am – 4.15pm , Kennedy’s

contemporary art located within a larg-

blower.

for beginners and those wishing to re-

short CV (Word or PDF documents only,

Studios. To have a slight change from

er cultural, social and political context.

Email

fresh previous knowledge. Using the

max file size 500K); up to three low reso-

standard nudity, the model will have

The MFA supports committed, critically

info@leitrimsculpturecentre.ie

manual controls of your camera to take

lution images of their work including

props / costumes etc and strong lighting.

engaged and sustainable professional

Website

the hit and miss out of picture taking.

drawings or paintings from life done in

Materials will be limited to charcoal,

practice.

www.leitrimsculpturecentre.ie

Focus on: Getting to Know Your Digital

the previous two years (JPG format only,

pastels and chalk on tinted paper. There

Deadline

max file size 500K). Fee: €450.

will be a short morning break (tea / cof-

Ongoing

Deadline

fee served) and one hour for your own

Website

14 February

lunch. Workshops are kept small with

www.mfabelfast.wordpress.com

Telephone

nine people maximum. Early booking

01 6612558

advisable. €60 per person.

MA Art & Process CIT CCAD

Email

Email

The MA Art and Process at CIT CCAD

fernando@rhagallery.ie

gallery@kennedyart.com

is now open applications. The MA Art

Website

Telephone

and Process (MA:AP) is an intensive pro-

www.rhagallery.ie

014751749

gramme enabling artists to investigate,

Website

develop and position their art practice

Arts Council Festival & Events

www.bdgart.com

in a rigorous learning environment.

The Arts Council announces Round 2 of

Address

MA:AP offers: innovative approaches

the 2014 Festivals and Events Scheme

Harcourt St, Dublin 2

to learning, 24-hour access to large

Camera, Saturday 18 January 12pm –

funded on a recurring basis under the

MFA Belfast School of Art

a series of glassblowing workshops in

Annual Programming Grant funding

The two-year MFA at the Belfast School

2014. Glassblowing for Beginners: Sat-

stream, but now being invited to ap-

of Art, University of Ulster seeks to at-

urday 22 and Sunday 23 March with

ply under FES on a non-recurring basis.

tract outstanding and highly motivated

Louise Rice; Monday 24 and Tuesday 25

Organisations wishing to apply to this

applicants. The MFA was established

March with Graham Reid. Course fee:

strand are advised to contact the Head

1979, is based in Belfast and has a long

€250 (two days). 10am – 5pm . No ex-

of Festivals, Una McCarthy, directly. The

and proven track record of providing a

perience required. In this two-day work-

Festivals and Events Scheme is a non-

rigorous studio-based programme with

shop, you will explore the extraordinary

recurring competitive scheme, assessed

access to the expertise of a core staff of

medium of hot glass. You will learn how

by a peer panel. All applications are

nationally and internationally recogn-

to gather glass out of the furnace, to con-

assessed in a competitive context and

ised visiting artists. Within the studio

trol and shape the hot glass, to blow a

within available resources. Applications

and wider environment, the diversity of

bubble and make a simple vessel. Work-

are assessed against the following crite-

teaching input by staff and visiting art-

ing in two small teams, the emphasis of

Art to Heart Carmelite Centre, Aungier Street, Dublin 2 . Eight consecutive Tuesday nights from 4, 11, 18, 25 February and 4, 11, 18 and 25 March. Time: 6.30pm – 9.30pm.

Fee: €500. Concessions €350 (students, unemployed, part-time workers). (Booking fee €50). Fee covers training, art materials, tea and coffee. 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, this training programme is for you. No artistic experience is necessary to attend the programme. At the end of the course an in-house accreditation certificate will be awarded to participants.

This course is an introduction to Working With Children Through Arts and it is based on the belief that, when given the right environment, children instinctively know how to create while most adults need to re-learn how to do it. As adults we often find it difficult to trust a child’s capacity to work out solutions for him or herself, to give children the right space and time. We can treat children’s wishes, ideas and solutions as second to our own. We stop listening and miss their valuable, fresh and original input. When children are engaged in art activities they are open to receive what comes to them in a playful way without questioning it through the mind.

In the same way, during this course the adult is asked to learn ‘to let go’. It is not about being able to ‘do art’, it is about opening up, having a go at things and being flexible. The training course has been developed and will be led by Jole Bortoli the director of Art to Heart. Jole has extensive experience in working with children through the arts. She has designed workshops for adults that are specifically designed at developing their confidence when working creatively with children or adults. She focuses first on allowing each adult to be creative, individually and with others.

Email jole@arttoheart.ie Telephone 085 1532220 Website

ria: artistic merit and ambition; meet-

ists reflects the range of approaches and

this course is hands-on experience, with

www.arttoheart.ie

ing the objectives and priorities of the

contexts embraced. A multi-disciplin-

demos and support from an experienced

individual city centre studio spaces,

(FES). The Council recognises the distinctive role arts festivals play in sus-

Mentoring Opportunity

professional experience through collab-

taining a vibrant arts profile at a local

Curators Aisling Prior and Sarah Sear-

orative projects, peer-to-peer exchange

level. Festivals provide opportunities

son will give one-to-one critical feed-

and an inspiring visitor lecture series.

for audiences and artists to experience

back and practical support to artists

Students engage in seminars, tutorials

new work and ways of making work.

and curators on their practice, how to

and lectures to strengthen their indi-

The Council acknowledges the valuable

present themselves or their project pro-

vidual practice. MA:AP is an intensive

contribution made by voluntary com-

posals. This includes a one-hour meet-

and stimulating taught masters in Fine

mittees in developing these festivals.

ing between artist and a curator at Fire

Art at CIT Crawford College of Art &

The Festivals and Events Scheme will

Station Artists’ Studios in January 2014

Design, Cork City, Ireland that is deliv-

be open to multi-disciplinary festivals,

with a follow up studio visit / meeting

ered over three semesters through the

single art form festivals, once-off events

in March 2014. Open to all artists and

calendar year from January – December.

and concert series. There are three

curators who are actively practicing or

Lecturing staff include contemporary

stands of funding available: strand 1, up

interested in taking a new direction. Ap-

practitioners: Colin Crotty, Jesse Jones,

to €10,000; strand 2, between €10,001

plications dealt with on a first come first

Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Lucy Dawe-Lane

and €20,000; strand 3, between €20,001

served basis. Payment of €20 must be re-

and the Lewis Glucksman Gallery cu-

and €40,000. The Festivals and Events

ceived to guarantee booking.

ratorial team. Visiting lecturers have

Scheme is open to all organisations that

Website

included: Clodagh Emoe, Maud Cotter,

promote festivals or events with a clear

www.firestation.ie

John O’Connell, Mark Garry, Tina Kin-

artistic purpose that will take place

Email

sella, Gavin Delahunty (Tate Liverpool),

in the second half of the calendar year

artadmin@firestation.ie

Stephen Brandes, Anna Konik, Gemma

2014 (July – December). All first time

Telephone

Tipton, Dawn Williams (Crawford Gal-

applicants and applicants who have not

018069010

lery), Something & Son.

been funded previously under the Festi-

Deadline

vals and Events Scheme must apply to

Richard Croft & Helen Kerr

12pm January 6 (late applications will

Strand 1 only. Festivals previously fund-

Artists Richard Croft PPRUA, NDD, ATC

be considered should there be vacan-

ed by the Arts Council under the Small

and Helen Kerr RUA, NDD, ATC, Dip/

cies)

Festival Scheme are advised to apply to

Textiles will give a talk at the FE McWil-

Email

either Strand 1 or Strand 2, subject to the

liam Gallery, Banbridge on 6 January.

trish.brennan@cit.ie

level of funding most recently received.

Website

Strand 3 is intended to accommodate a

www.femcwilliam.com

Glassblowing The Leitrim Sculpture Centre will run

small number of festivals, previously

4pm. Cost: £80 / £70 . This one-session practical, hands on BX Introductory Level course is designed for beginners. Stage two: Develop and Review Your Photography Practice, Wednesday 5, 12, 19 and 26 February 6pm – 9pm . Cost: £150 / £120 . This four-session practical course is aimed at people wishing to further develop their knowledge and practice of photography. Focus on: Pinhole Photography, Saturday 8 February, 11am – 4pm . Cost: £150 . As part of the BX 30th anniversary celebrations, this unique workshop will bring you right back to the roots of photography. Each participant will then get to keep the Ilford Obscura pinhole camera kit they have been using to put their knew skills in practice at home. Stage two: Review Your Photography Practice, Wednesday 26 February 6pm – 9pm. Cost: £25. This 30-minute one-on-one review session is designed for students of photography, amateur photographers and those thinking of becoming a professional. Stage three: Portrait Photography, Wednesday 12, 19 and 26 March, 6pm – 9pm. Cost: £150 / £135. This three-session practical, hands on BX Intermediate level course is aimed at people wishing to further develop their knowledge and practice of portrait photography.

Website www.belfastexposed.org

Caution We strongly advise readers to verify all details to their own satisfaction before forwarding art work, money etc.

Micheal Farrell, Miss O’Murphy d’après Boucher – This Picture will be Finished when Ireland Once Again is One, 1978, Oil on canvas, 152.5 x 254cm, Private collection.

NEW YEAR at the RHA 17 January – 23 February

The Work of Micheal Farrell Vera Klute, Deadweight RHA Recent Acquisitions, until 29 March Paul McKinley, Gacaca, until 27 April Ciarán Lennon, Al13, until 27 April

30 January – 12 March

Richard Mosse, The Enclave Admission free

GALLAGHER GALLERY / 15 Ely Place, Dublin 2 +353 1 661 2558 / info@rhagallery.ie www.royalhibernianacademy.ie

Droichead Arts Centre Presents:

Panto Collapsar Mikala Dwyer 16 January – 6 March 2014 Project Arts Centre on Tour Funded by the Arts Council Touring Award

interconnectedness robert kelly 15 March – 25 April 2014 Stockwell Street Drogheda County Louth T: 041 9833 946 W: www.droichead.com E: info@droichead.com

NASSIEM VALAMANESH

Distant WorDs HASSAN HAJJAJ

Image © Hassan Hajjaj, courtesy of Rose Issa Projects, London

My rock stars experiMental, VoluMe 1

meeting room@vai

Curated by

rose issa

Visual Artists Ireland’s meeting room is available to hire for workshops, meetings, presentations, discussions groups etc.

Emmet Place | Cork | Ireland www.crawfordartgallery.ie January 17 - March 20, 2014

• • • •

Room capacity: boardroom style, 14 people; theatre style, 20 people Members: €60 full day, €30 half day Visual Arts Organisations: €80 full day, €40 half day Other Organisations and Professionals: €120 full day, €60 half day

For more information visit: www.visualartists.ie

Culturefox.ie is the definitive online guide to Irish cultural events, giving you complete information about cultural activities both here and abroad.

To find out what’s on near you right now, visit Culturefox.ie on your computer or mobile phone.

14 DECEMBER 2013 — SPRING 2014 Download the FREE App available now for:

iPhone | Android | Blackberry

Curated by Gregory Mc Cartney Brooke Park, Derry~Londonderry 7.30am—9pm daily

Part of the Void Sites Artists’ Gardens projects VOID SITES 2013 · VOID Contemporary Art Gallery Patrick St, Derry, N.Ireland, BT48 7EL

www.derryvoid.com · facebook.com/derryvoid +44 (0)28 7130 8080 · hello@derryvoid.com Supported by McLaughlin Orthodontics

equipment@vai In addition to our wide range of projectors and cameras, we have various new pieces of equipment available for VAI members to rent:

• IMG Stageline STA7000 Amplifier (275 + 275 Watts) • Universal Karaoke Stereo Amplifer • 2 Speakers - PAB-110MK2 Black IMG Stage Line • 2 x OPTOMA HD 200X Projectors • OPTOMA HD 20LV Projectors • 2 x Acer P1303W Projectors • Members’ Mac Mini • Perfection V370 Photo 4800 dpi scanner with ReadyScan LED technology suitable for slides, film and negatives

For the complete list of all our equipment for hire, please visit: www.visualartists.ie

IRISH ART COURIER ART MOVES PEOPLE...WE MOVE ART

All trucks built to a high spec with climate control, air suspension, alarmed & GPS tracked.

▪ Licensed European Carrier ▪ 64,000 cubic ft of climate controlled storage ▪ Alarmed 24hr monitoring ▪ No public access ▪ Single items to entire exhibits.

Check our TRANSPORT SCHEDULE at: www.irishartcourier.com/schedule/

Ireland's specialists in the transportation of Art, Sculpture, and Ceramics.

For institutions, galleries, artists, auction houses and private & corporate collectors.

▪ Professionally trained Art Handlers ▪ Largest mover of Art in Ireland ▪ Fully insured ▪ Specialising in European deliveries ▪ Weekly UK deliveries ▪ Monthly to Paris, Leuven & Brussels

NEWS We We are operating a new monthly service to and from: AMSTERDAM, BERLIN & DUSSELDORF. This adds to our existing service to BRUSSELS, LEUVEN & PARIS. IAC is now a member of the FINE ART GUILD (http://www.fineart.co.uk/). *NEW* Dublin City Small Van Service available.

ART CRATES: Custom Made Art Crates: packing materials include: Glassine or Tyvek Bubble-Guard Plus; Jiffy-Guard (soft); Heavy-Duty Air-Cap (bubble); Double Wall Cardboard (very strong); Plywood cases made to measure; 50mm and 25mm Acid-Free Foam Sheets; 50mm Ether-Foam for heavy duty pieces. 50mm and 25mm Polystyrene Travel frames for unframed paintings and ornate frames – made to measure. For enquiries contact below.

Tel: +353 (0) 63 84951 Mob: +353 (0) 86 8170151 Email: info@irishartcourier.com www.irishartcourier.com

Size

UK

Germany

USA

Hong Kong

Australia

80 x 80cm

€104

€134

€179

€230

€280

100 x 100cm

€124

€159

€244

€320

€380

ask!

Has the Artist Been Paid?

The Payment Guidelines for Professional Visual Artists are available at:

www.visualartists.ie

JOE MURPHY @ TheArtMover

For the first time in Ireland, venues and artists can now calculate equitable levels of payments, as well as properly budget for their programmes and for the variety of work that professional artists undertake in not-for-profit spaces.

Visual Artists Ireland has collaborated with artists, organisations and our international partners to create the Payment Guidelines for Professional Visual Artists based upon international best practice. They are scalable for organisations of different sizes as well as for the experience/ reputation of individual artists. The guidelines also take into consideration the different work undertaken by artists within the context of exhibitions and supporting services.