Visual Artists' News Sheet - 2013 July August

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

issue 4 July – August 2013

Published by Visual Artists ireland Ealaíontóirí Radharcacha Éire

eva International 2014

Open Call for Proposals

Curated by Bassam El Baroni

Biennial of Visual Art

Closes 2 September 2013

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Limerick City

27 JUL - 14 SEP

PREVIEW 26 JULY, 6PM - 8PM

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Arts Council of Northern Ireland Developing the arts in Northern Ireland

WALKING ON WHITE LINES JESSICA KENENDY

THE DANCE OF MAKING & TIME… AND AGAIN Gallery 2

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

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Changing Tracks EuropEan publiC arT Commission for irish arTisTs

Mayo County Council Arts Office, Public Art Programme, in partnership with Northampton County Council (UK) and Transversal (Catalonia, Spain) has been successful in securing EU Culture Programme funding from the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive of the European Commission (EACEA) for: A major public art programme of outdoor temporary work.

One artist living in, or from, Ireland will be commissioned to create three temporary artworks, one in each partner country, related to the shared common theme and site of old railway lines. An artist from the other two partner countries will also be commissioned.

Total budget for each artist, including fee, production and all related costs: c. €61,000 Full briefing documents can be accessed via: www.mayococo.ie or by emailing Gaynor Seville, Public Art Co-ordinator gseville@mayococo.ie This is a two stage application process.

Deadline for stage one: Friday 27th September

4

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

Editorial

July – August 2013

Contents

Visual Artists Ireland’s Get Together 2013 took place at NCAD, Dublin just prior to this edition being circulated (Friday 28 June). It was a day that offered a diverse programme of information, discussion and networking sessions for artists and visual arts professionals of all kinds. In our next edition we will report and reflect on the highlights, conclusions, questions and ideas arising from this lively shindig. In the meantime, you are warmly welcomed to the July / August edition of the Visual Artists' News Sheet.

Visual Artists Ireland’s supports and services are highlighted in this issue: our Professional Development Programme; the Help Desk; the Local Groups Initiative; Show and Tell evenings and our interest in accessing and supporting academic research into arts practices, cultural policy and arts audiences. In addition, an outcome of VAI’s consultancy work, undertaken for the RPA in 2012, is profiled in an account of Cleary + Connolly’s digital public art commission Look Both Ways.

Reviews in this issue include: ‘Points of View’, Monster Truck, Dublin; Eamon Colman, Triskel, Cork; ‘Northern Ireland: 30 Years of Photography’, The MAC and Belfast Exposed Gallery; ‘Octagon’, West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen; Magnhild Opdol, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny; Gillian Fitzpatrick, Goethe Institut, Dublin.

As ever, our columnists offer a gourmet thought banquet: Emily Mark-FitzGerald considers cultural democracy in the age of the Internet; Mark Fisher ponders issues of agency, Freud and “eerie GIFs”; while Jonathan Carroll muses on the consequences of an international artworld that is "e-fluxed to death".

The regional focus in this issue is on UK City of Culture 2013, Derry-Londonderry. Our regional representatives – Aideen Barry and Feargal O’Malley – offer, respectively, an account of new residencies in the West of Ireland and a profile of the multifarious projects undertaken by PS2, Belfast.

The experience of artists who are parents is explored in a profile of London-based Martina Mullaney’s project ‘Enemies of Good Art’, an initiative that combines activism with an interrogation of issues around the visibility of parenthood within the art world. We hope to return to this subject in future editions, specifically considering Irish art world contexts. Other project profiles focus on the bi-annual Dublin open studio event, VISIT, and ‘Idionumia’, a site-specific intervention in a former hotel in Graignamanagh, Kilkenny.

Residency reports include an account by Amanda Rice of her time at the Ateliers Rondo facility in Graz, Austria and Clare Breen's report from a residency reconceptualised as an experimental camping and trekking trip in the Scottish Highlands.

A wide variety of production and exhibition facilities are profiled in this issue: Kilruddery Arts, Wicklow; Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre, Limavady; Black Church Print Studio, Dublin; The Complex, Dublin; and Queen Street Studios, Belfast In a ‘How is it Made?’ feature, Christodoulos Makris considers painter Thomas Brezing’s departure into performance through the development of Brezing’s Carpet Man persona. Looking at change and progression from another perspective, Laura Gannon offers an account of three recent projects – in education, film production and live / performance work – to give a snap-shot of her career development.

All this and more, including: the roundup of recent exhibitions and projects, including work in the public realm; details of all the latest grants, awards, exhibition calls and commissions; key news items from the visual arts sector; and Pablo Helguera’s hilarious Artoons.

Join

Visual Artists Ireland

1. Cover Image. Thomas Brezing, Carpet Man on Disappointment Bay, digital photograph, 2013.

5. Roundup. Recent exhibitions and projects of note.

5. Column. Emily Mark-FitzGerald. The Feedback Loop. Cultural democracy in the age of the Internet.

6. Column. Jonathan Carroll. The Generals Assemble.

7. Column. Mark Fisher. Imperfect Loops & Screen Memories. Agency, Freud and eerie GIFs. 8. News. The latest developments in the visual arts sector.

9. Regional Focus. Visual arts resources and activity in Derry.

12. Project Profile. A Herculean Task. Jakob Livgine Kreek reports from VISIT 2013.

13. Residency. This is Pseudo Nature. Amanda Rice discusses a recent residency undertaken at Ateliers Rondo, Graz, Austria.

14. VAI Advocacy & Supports. Our Best-Kept Secret? Niamh Looney profiles VAI’s help desk services.

14. VAI Advocacy & Supports. Group Think. Alex Davis introduces VAI’s local groups initiative.

15. How is it Made? Almost Fit to be Hugged. Christodoulos Makris writes about Thomas Brezing’s performance-based project 'Carpet Man’.

16. Institution Profile. It’s Complex. Annemarie Kilshaw details the development of The Complex, a multidisciplinary artist-led space in Dublin.

17. Art in Public. Anorthoscopic Effects. Anne Cleary profiles Cleary + Connolly’s digital public art commission ‘Look Both Ways’.

18. Project Profile. Enemies of Good Art. Martina Mullaney discusses her ongoing project ‘Enemies of Good Art’, which interrogates the invisibility of mothers in art practice.

19. Critique. ‘Points of View’, Monster Truck, Dublin; Eamon Colman ‘Scattered Showers’ Triskel, Cork; ‘Northern Ireland: 30 Years of Photography’ The MAC & Belfast Exposed Gallery; ‘Octagon’ West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen; Magnhild Opdol Point of No Return’, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny; Gillian Fitzpatrick, ‘Die Welt von Morgen’, Goethe Institut. Dublin.

23. Project Profile. Turning Outwards. Gail Ritchie explores how and why Queen Street Studios, Belfast has moved to a new location.

24. VAI Membership Activities. Focus and Expose. Sara O’Gorman reports on VAI’s third Show and Tell event, which featured seven Belfast-based artists.

24. VAI Advocacy & Supports. The Pursuaders. Niamh Looney outlines VAI’s engagement with academic research into cultural policies, arts audiences and the proffessional status of the artist.

25. Career Development. Letting the Work Lead. Laura Gannon discusses three recent projects to

illustrate the progression of her practice.

26. Residency. Into the Unknown. Clare Breen discusses ‘Winter Resort’, an artist-led, self-initiated

residency in the Scottish Highlands.

27. Institution Profile. Generational Dialogues. Fionnuala Ardee profiles Kilruddery Arts, Wicklow.

27. Institution Profile. Celebrating the Local and the Global. Desima Connolly introduces Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre, Limavady.

28. Project Profile. Residual Character. Maria Tanner and Deidre Southey outline their project ‘Idionumia’, which took place in Graignamanagh, Kilkenny.

29. Regional Representatives. Aideen Barry and Feargal O’Malley report from the field.

30. Discussion. Owing Me, Knowing You. Sarah Allen reports on the round table discussion held to accompany the exhibition ‘I Know You’ – prompted by Ireland’s presidency of the EU – currently on show at Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin.

31. Public Art. Public art commissions, site-specific works, socially engaged practices and other forms of art outside the gallery.

32. Artoons. Pablo Helguera. Artoons. The foibles and ironies of the art world.

32. Professional Development. Developing Development. Monica Flynn profiles recent hightlights of the Professional Development Training Programme.

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

34. Professional Development. The VAI professional development training and events programme.

35. Institution Profile. Productive Process. Alison Pilkington profiles Black Church Print Studio, Dublin.

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

Niamh Looney. Invoicing: Bernadette Beecher. Contributors: Emily Mark-FitzGerald, Jonathan Carroll, Mark Fisher, Greg McCartney, Rory Harron, Blaine O’Donnell, Richard Gordon, Emer Grant, Jakob Livgine Kreek, Amanda Rice, Niamh Looney, Alex Davis, Christodoulos Makris, Annemarie Kilshaw, Anne Cleary, Martina Mullaney, Anne Mullee, Alison Pilkington, John Gayer, Sarah Baume, John Graham, David Brancaleone, Gail Ritchie, Sara O’Gorman, Laura Gannon, Clare Breen, Fionnuala Ardee, Desima Connolly, Maria Tanner, Deidre Southey, Aideen Barry, Feargal O’Malley, Pablo Helgera.

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

Column

Mark Fisher Imperfect Loops & Screen Memories The audio-essay I recently produced in collaboration with Justin Barton, On Vanishing Land, was in part a disquisition on the eerie.(1) For us, the eerie was defined by problems of agency. In the deserted spaces which often trigger the feeling of the eerie, we are forced to ask if there is an agent present, unseen but watching us. If an agent is present, what is its nature? Is it hostile, friendly, or merely indifferent?

The feeling of the eerie is also likely to be provoked by the contemplation of the relics left behind by agents who have long departed. The statues on Easter Island, the stone circle at Avebury ­– these confront us with gaps in our knowledge. What kind of agents built these constructions, and what (now irretrievably lost) symbolic regime made sense of them?

5

Roundup everything that is not there

celebrating contemporary Gaeltacht based print art”. Featured artists

optimism

Els Borghart’s ‘Everthing that is not

included: Aoife Mc Garrigle, Heidi

there’ ran at the Upstairs Gallery,

Nguyen, Caitlin Ní Ghallachoir, Ian

Kilkenny (1 – 28 May). The press release

Joyce, Kordula Ludwig, Oona Hyland,

noted that “many of her works involve

Lisbeth Mulcahy, Michael Flaherty,

the questioning of self in its complexity

Deirdre McKenna, Tomás Ó Cíobháin,

hidden behind the mask of our

Julie Beckett, Caroline O Connor,

appearance. Questions informing this

Clodagh Edwards, Jack Bates, Kathleen

body of work are: What is a portrait?

McAuliffe, Niall Naessens, Ruth Carbery,

What remains when the portrait is

Pat Owen and Ciara McKenna.

eliminated? What is a non-portrait?

What

becomes

present

through

absence?”

essence & existence Catherina Hearne’s exhibition ‘Essence

Tadhg Ó Cuirrín, Fall Straight, 2013

The synthesiser pioneer, artist and designer John Foxx was one of a number of musicians who contributed music to On Vanishing Land. Part of the reason we asked Foxx is that we felt that his sonic and visual work is saturated with a sense of the eerie. This is because Foxx’s work is so informed by the imagery and logic of dreams – and dreams always pose the question of whether there is some agency, unknown to us, which constructs our dreams as coded messages.

Tadhg Ó Cuirrín’s exhibition ‘Optimism’

octagon

ran at Ormston House Limerick (24 May – 22 Jun). The press release described how Ó Cuirrín “addresses the rapidly growing proliferation of new digital technologies and media of the early twenty first century”.

One of the events accompanying On Vanishing Land was a performance by Foxx and video-artist collaborator Karborn of their ongoing project Electricity and Ghosts. Foxx played some limpid piano over some of ambient sounds recovered from cassettes he had recorded in the 1970s, and a montage of animated GIFs, all of which had been discovered on the Internet. When he introduced the performance, Foxx said that he had become fascinated with GIFs because they functioned like memory.

Yet this locking of the mind into loops, which it is compelled to repeat, is more like Freud’s concept of screen memory than the ‘ordinary’ function of memory. In screen memory, Freud claimed, the mind repeatedly replays an apparently innocuous (sometimes confabulated) scene, in order to cover over – or screen – something more traumatic or unsettling. Freud, for instance, tells of a patient who recalls being two years old, sitting outside a cottage in a meadow with some other children. They are picking dandelions together.

One of the girls has the best bunch when “as though by mutual agreement, we – the two boys – fall on her and snatch away her flowers”. She runs away and is given some black bread as consolation. When the other children see this, they throw away their flowers, and they too are given bread. “In my memory the bread tastes quite delicious,” Freud’s patient continues, “and at that point the scene breaks off”. Like the invocation of the “screen” itself, the expression “the scene breaks off” cannot but make us think of film, and there is something very reminiscent of the animated GIF in this little vignette. Of course, it turns out that the apparently banal scene refers to more troubling emotional events (part of the interest of this particular screen memory for Freud is that it refers to events that occurred later in the patient’s life, when he was a teenager and had fallen in love with one of the girls).

The animated GIF, like Freud’s scene, is an unresolved loop. But there is evidently a difference between what Freud describes – an initially enigmatic scene that is in the end capable of being explained – and the orphan GIFs endlessly repeating on the internet, unmoored from any context. These GIFs are externalised memories, the significance of which cannot be recovered for the vast majority of those who see them.

They are not so much found objects as found memories – someone else’s memories, often in the double sense that they are memories of feature films, memories, that is to say, of other people’s memories, captured by the cinematic apparatus. The more obscure and untraceable the source, the more banal the scenes that they show, the more haunting an animated GIF becomes.

An audio sample can be looped perfectly, but this is rarely the case with film.

Whereas an artfully looped audio sample can conceal the point at which it loops, the loop point in animated GIFs can never be smoothed out. The jerkiness of the GIF, its failure to convincingly loop, is what gives GIFs so much of their melancholy and their eeriness: like a mind mechanically forced to keep trying to solve a puzzle it cannot even recognise.

Note 1. Mark Fisher and Justin Barton, On Vanishing Land, 6 Feb – 6 April 2013, The Showroom, www.theshowroom.org

Signal Arts Centre, Bray. The press release described how “the title of the exhibition… encourages the viewer to frame their experience of these works beyond the seductive decoration and pattern initially suggested”. www.signalartscentre.ie

www.ormmstonhouse.com

the redemption machines

complete bin development

‘The Redemption Machines’, a solo exhibition by Astrid Bin, ran at Ps2, Belfast (20 – 25 May). The press release noted, “It is a site-specific, transmedia Alison Cronin, Slipping through my fingers, 2013

The group show ‘Octagon’ ran at the West Cork Arts Centre (4 May – 8 Jun) and featured painting, print, drawing, mixed-media, video and sound work by Alison Cronin, Marie Cullen, Sharon Dipity, Paul Forde-Cialis, Ian Humphreys, Tess Leak, Susan Montgomery and Sarah Ruttle.

theatre experience about the interaction of humans and technology. Blending elements of theatre, performance, game, narrative, audio art and mobile

Liam Gillick, Complete Bin Development, 2013

technology, this experience explores the

The Kerlin Gallery, Dublin exhibited

public space of central Belfast and how

‘Complete Bin Development’ by Liam

human beings and machines got to

Gillick at Art Basel, Hong Kong (23 – 26

know each other here during the early

May).

days of industrialisation”.

“’Complete Bin Development’ is a www.pssquared.org

www.westcorkartscentre.com

remember me (before i forget )

The

press

release

noted,

sequence of towered structures which comprise a series of open frameworks in

selective perspectives

a series of permutations. The work relates to the research into possible

Red Bird Youth Collective presented

permutations available within car body

‘Remember Me (Before I Forget)’, an

production just prior to the introduction

exhibition presenting work by artists

of completely automated production

Cecilia Danell, Emmet Kierans, and Red

systems. At the same time the works are

Bird in collaboration with Jonathan

abstractions in their own right”.

Sammon and Ruadhrí Brennan, at the

www.kerlin.ie

Galway Arts Centre (2 May – 2 Jun). www.galwayartscentre.ie

household Belfast-based

the lost property project

curatorial

collective

HOUSEHOLD curated the visual arts programme for this year’s Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival in Belfast (2 – 12 May). Seven artists were featured in three spaces across the quarter: Liam Crichton, Tonya McMullen, Laura

Danny Rolph, Return 3, 2013

That brings us back to the eerie. For if the eerie necessarily revolves around the unknown, for that very reason, it always involves a fascination. We are fascinated because we don’t know, and in many of these cases, because we can’t know; the fact that the meaning and context of many animated GIFs is unlikely to be recovered makes them intrinsically eerie, but they are also eerie because of their relationship to time. The unresolved in the GIF takes the form of trapped time, a bad infinity.

They are somewhat similar to audio samples, but the difference between an audio sample and an animated GIF is telling.

and Existence’ ran from 4 – 16 Jun at

The

group

exhibition

‘Selective

Perspectives’ ran at the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery (30 May – 27 Jun) and featured

McMorrow,

‘The Lost Property Project’ ran at Unit 1, Wicklow from 24 – 26 May. The press release stated, “The project may simply

Christine Frerichs (USA), Paul Housley (UK), Sinead Ni Mhaonaigh (IE), Aliza

Boyle,

www.householdbelfast.co.uk

showroom

Nisenbaum (MEX), Danny Rolph (UK) and Sonia Shiel (IE). www.kevinkavanaghgallery.ie

appear to be just an exhibition but it is far more than that. It is about viewing emerging artists’ work, reshuffling our thoughts and breaking down the barriers that may be attached to art”.

The exhibition culminated with a discussion entitled Regener:eight, which featured eight speakers from within the arts that are “creators and change makers”.

nasc 'Nasc', a group show, ran from 2 – 6 May during Féile na Bealtaine, marking the link between Meitheal Eitseála in West Kerry and Cló Ceardlann na gCnoc, Donegal, the only two Gaeltacht-based print studios in the country. The exhibition was described in the press release as “a melting pot of talent,

www.thelostpropertyproject.blogspot.ie

Brian

Clarke.

work by Robert Armstrong (IE), Evan Johnson, 2013

Martin

Morrison, Catherine Devlin and Colm

Tiane Doan na Champassak, Showrom 46, 2013

6 COLUMN

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

Roundup

Emily Mark Fitzgerald

Tiane Doan na Champassak’s exhibition ‘Showroom’ ran at the Copper House

archaeological seagulls trained to

Controversy accompanies any meaningful process

Gallery, Dublin (29 May – 25 Jun). The

investigate a submerged village in

press release noted, “Showroom is a

Killiney Bay, the exhibition provides a

collection of images Champassak made

fascinating insight into the life and

in Tamil Nadu, India, focusing on an

times of Eileen Champion Poole and the

annual festival attended by thousands

place that she called home.

At the end of May, Dublin City Council approved initial plans for the construction of the state’s official memorial to the victims of institutional abuse. The winning design Journey of Light, by Studio Negri in conjunction with Hennessy and Associates, was selected in July 2012 in a competition run by the Department of Education, and comprises a new memorial space that will be built alongside the Garden of Remembrance (1966) in Parnell Square. Budgeted at €500,000, the memorial has proposed a subterranean walkway linking the garden’s existing cruciform pool and Children of Lir sculpture by Oisin Kelly to a new commemorative plaza and water feature directly opposite. The memorial plans consciously reference (and reposition) the garden’s own symbolic elements: the Irish flag which forms the backdrop for O’Kelly’s sculpture (and apex of sightline) carries very different associations when seen from this opposite perspective, flanked by a large inscription of the official state apology to the victims of abuse. Similarly, the legend of the Children of Lir is revisited in the image of a bronze bell placed underfoot, recalling the end of the story when the children (transformed into swans) assume aged, human forms as their enchantment is broken.

The monument’s design – which includes a prominent water feature, subterranean lit passageway and design concept based on the cartography / footprint of a pre-existing site – suggests more than a passing familiarity with recent high profile public memorial competitions, where such architecturally-based aesthetics increasingly proliferate. Finalists for the 9/11 memorial in New York City, for example, included projects entitled Votives in Suspension, Passages of Light, Garden of Lights, Lower Waters, Inversion of Light (in addition to the winner Reflecting Absence

by Michael Arad). The trend towards architectural solutions to public commemoration is, on the one hand, an extension of the dominance of minimalism in public commemorative art practice. It seems to accommodate the demands now placed on contemporary monuments: that they be apolitical, open to viewer response, non-figurative (and thus able to accommodate multiple symbolisms), and conciliatory or otherwise denoted as spaces for ‘healing’.

Yet these too are political choices, and the Parnell Square project has not been without its critics on the basis of site, symbolism and function. The Irish Georgian Society has objected to the plans, claiming that the dimly-lit subterranean passage will become a target for anti-social behaviour. Members of Aosdána recently tabled a motion to reject the project on the basis that it would damage the integrity of a separate and hallowed memorial to the cause of Irish independence (the motion was later withdrawn). Mannix Flynn, one of the project’s most vocal detractors, has denounced the initiative on aesthetic and moral grounds, claiming the positioning of the memorial on a landscape replete with signifiers of church and state is insensitive, and furthermore falsely implies reparations have been fully made to the survivors.

With the public realm comprising a platform for ‘official’ national selfpresentation, as well as space for ‘unofficial’ civic protest and dissent, the development of commemorative sites inevitably raises tensions between differing modes and motivations of remembrance. In May I visited Washington DC over Memorial Day weekend, the major holiday of public remembrance in the United States. There are probably few geographies more revealing in commemorative trends and influence than the Mall, from the grandiose Lincoln Memorial (1922), to the sprawling and socially liberal FDR Memorial (1997), and the bellicose National World War Two Memorial (2004) – the latter a recent reminder of how contemporary politics impact upon memorial design and direction (triumphalist in design and inscription, it was conceived just after the Gulf War, and built and dedicated amidst the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan).

Yet the most striking event was the convergence of hundreds of thousands of motorcylists, many of them Vietnam veterans, who annually bring traffic to a halt in a mass rally to commemorate war veterans (and draw attention to the plight of prisoners of war and those still listed as ‘missing in action’). It is a testament to the powerful design and conception of the renowned Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial (VVM) in DC by Maya Lin (1982) that it persists as the final destination for the demonstration (called the Run to the Wall). Given the contentious history of this memorial project (and its initial rejection by many who found its design un-heroic and lacking in patriotism) its widespread popularity today across visitors from a wide range of political persuasions is remarkable, especially in a nation still sharply divided across party lines.

In Ireland, the fractious relationship between public commemoration and traumatic social histories – from the Famine to the Troubles, Civil War to participation / neutrality in the World Wars – today continues amidst projects to repaint Belfast’s sectarian murals, reposition Orange Order parades as shared community events, or redevelop Irish workhouses for contemporary purposes. In the words of Jan Scruggs (who launched and oversaw the VVM, and later participated in the 9/11 memorial jury), “controversy will accompany any truly meaningful process”. From a policy perspective, the challenge will lie in finding common ground between acknowledging social and government misconduct and repressions, and allowing public space for articulating anger, sorrow and rage – without neutralising the force of their political import.

Dr Emily Mark-FitzGerald School of Art History & Cultural Policy University College Dublin Twitter: @emilymfg

ancient piece of brack and a team of

new worlds

of hirja or eunuchs, a transgender community who are permanently trapped in an identity and social class

found

that is seen as both sacred and shunned

‘Found’ was a group exhibition held in

by Indian society”.

the atrium at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin (24 – 28 May) featuring

www.thecopperhousegallery.com

third year Visual Arts Practice students

Jack Bates, Remembering the Glen, 2013

far from here

‘New Worlds’ was a solo exhibition by Jack Bates held at Goat Street Studios, Kerry (15 – 18 Jun). “In this exhibition of mixed media landscapes”, the press release noted, “Jack Bates explores the relationship between the real and the unreal”. www.jackbates.net

from IADT. The show featured work by Marcela Gomolva, Keith Hardiman, Shane

McCormack,

Ailbhe

Nic

Cinngamhna, Eileen Kuntz and Leah Smith. The press release stated, “Every artwork starts with a search by the artist for inspiration to produce their work.

This leads to them finding something by chance or by investigating the world around them. The interpretation by

generation ‘Generation’, a day of performance art, took place at The Dock, Carrick-on-

each artist of these findings is the theme of our show”. www.templebargallery.com

Shannon, Jun 15. The day comprised eight performances from artists Noel Arrigan, Kaspar Aus, Patrick Hall, Chris

rusting roofs

Doris with Ivor Browne, James King, Deirdre Murphy, Regan O’Brien and Paul Bloof and the Performance Collective.

The event was curated by Fergus Byrne.

Ella Bertilsson, Far From Here, 2013

Black Church Print Studio, Dublin recently held and exhibition of work by

the future is domestic

Ella Bertilsson (11 Jun – 3 Jul). As the press release noted, “Bertilsson relates her work to the concept of ‘Invisible

Pauline Garavan, Lismirrane I (detail), 2013, oil on board

Presence’ and themes surrounding this

Pauline

topic. This notion is closely related to memory intertwined and changed

Apr – 30 May).

personal stories, locations and the

drawing and sculpture as an "in-depth

theme in her practice, which spans print,

sculpture and video”.

Evelyn Muursep drawing, part of ‘The Future is Domestic’

Local and international artists gathered www.print.ie

in North Clare from 12 – 19 May for a pan-European art project marking

kura

The press release

described the exhibition of painting,

unconscious mind. It is a recurrent photography,

solo

Clew Bay Hotel Gallery, Westport (12

through time, evoked by narrative,

installation,

Garavan's

exhibition,'Rusting Roofs', ran at the

Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of Europe. The project featured artists from MoKs (Centre for Art and Social

study of West of Ireland rusted, galvanized

corrugated

roofs”.

Continuing, “A close-up examination the work explores their hidden and sometimes irregular beauty. It is based on a detailed photographic study of rusting roofs over a number of years”.

Practice) in Estonia and SERDE, a centre for art, folklore and heritage in Lativia, along with an informal association of artists based in rural North Clare named Outrider Artists.

Sabina McMahon’s solo exhibition ran at Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Hall from 23 May – 7 Jun. The press

hosted an exhibition by printmakers Yoko Hara and Takahiko Hayashi, represented by Yanagisawa Gallery in Tokyo, and Irish artists, Richard Gorman and John Graham, who have exhibited extensively in Japan. www.graphicstudiodublin.com

release states, “’A Story about the History of Dún Laoghaire’ is a temporary exhibition of selected artefacts from the collection of the pioneering but sadly now largely forgotten (and fictional) antiquarian, amateur archaeologist, etymologist,

oak sapling' was a show by Eve Parnell

ethnographer,

upon-Avon (16 May – 30 Jun). The press release noted, "In this new collection

eileen champion poole

Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin recently

'The stag shelters each night under an that ran at Fred Winter Gallery, Stratford-

www.the-future-is-domestic.blogspot.com

Richard Gorman, Red Heavy

the stag shelters

local

historian, novelist, watercolourist and photographer Eileen Champion Poole…

From the remains of a Vegetable Lamb believed to have grazed in the rockstrewn pastures of Glenageary to an

Eve has, as in her previous collection, used her camera as if it were a brush loaded with pigment, creating real brush strokes out of pure light, giving each 'painting', each piece of art, a real sense of having come from the hand as well as the intellect, creating something that almost breaks your heart in its powerful simplicity... what this new exhibition brings home to the viewer... is the life of an artist who has - from experience, knowledge, and sheer brilliance of execution – created work that

will

communicate

many

fundamental principles about the nature of art, and the art of life".

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

COLUMN

7 Roundup

Jonathan Carroll

gathering momentum

show featuring work by Neil Carroll,

changing rooms

The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon held an

Jane Fogarty and David Lunney, Helen

‘Changing

The Generals Assemble

exhibition by selected recent graduates

Hughes, Tadhg McSweeney, Maggie

Printmakers (22 Jun – 6 Jul) and

from IT Sligo (20 Jun – 5 Jul). The press

Madden and Liam O’Callaghan. As

presented new works created during the

release described the work on show as

noted in the press release, the exhibition

International Temporary Residency

an “eclectic mix of formal and

looked at how “seven sculptors, two

(TR5). Seven artists participated in a two

conceptual concerns expressed through

working collaboratively, utilise walls

week residency at Cork Printmakers:

a wide range of art practices”.

and other vertical gallery surfaces in a

Prawat Laucharoen (Thailand / USA),

variety of different ways that is essential

Neil Emmerson (New Zealand), Sean

to their work, whether laying bare the

Hanrahan

welcome to the neighbourhood

processes of artistic design, using

(Dublin), Marine Ky (Cambodia), Linda

Ashkeaton Arts held an exhibition by

painterly

expand

McConville (Cork) & Sioban Piercy

Irish and international artists in

narratives, elaborating into three

(Galway). The exhibition was presented

residence, Anders Kjellesvik & Andreas

dimensions from two, or amplifying the

as part of The Cork Midsummer

Siqueland, Michelle Browne, Aaron

dialogue between construction and

Festival.

Lawless, Marie Roux, Freek Wambacq.

representation”.

www.thedock.ie

Jonathan Carroll (left) and Sylvere Lotringer at 126 Galway. Photo: James Merrigan.

techniques

The show was curated by Michele During May, I was called out west on two consecutive weekends. On Saturday 11 May, I couldn’t resist ‘Curating Partnerships’, a roundtable discussion of curatorial heavy-hitters at Limerick City Gallery of Art, and on Saturday 18 May, I was thrilled to learn that the inspirational Sylvere Lotringer was speaking at Galway’s 126 Gallery.

Lotringer was in Galway to make a film retracing the steps of Antonin Artaud, who spent time in the city and the Aran Islands in 1937. As he was in the locale, Katharine Waugh inveigled Lotringer to lead a symposium at 126, entitled ‘Once upon a time in the West’. Waugh is a fan like me, and she is on mission to convert us all to ‘Lotringer-ism’ – having previously shown filmed interviews with Lotringer at eva International and IMMA. As an aside, ‘Curating Partnerships’ clashed with VISIT in Dublin (11 – 12 May) – a kind of ‘petting zoo’ for artists – which was a terrible shame. Don’t get me wrong, VISIT is a welcome event, but I do think it should be less public-focused and much more ‘industry’ focused, ie aimed at facilitating structured studio visits for artworld professionals, such as those folk assembled in Limerick.

The panel line up in Limerick was just so good. It included: Bassam El Baroni, Co-Curator of Lofoten International Arts Festival 2013 and Curator of eva International 2014; Lewis Biggs, Curator of Aichi Triennale 2013 and Folkestone Triennial 2014; Nicholas Schaffhausen, Director of Kunsthalle Wien and Curator of the Bucharest Biennale 2014; Annie Fletcher, Curator of Exhibitions at the Van Abbemuseum and Curator of eva International 2012; Zoë Gray, Vice-President of the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art; Woodrow Kernohan, Director of eva International; and Helen Carey, Director / Curator of LCGA. As I listened to these assembled artworld top-brass, I started to imagine them with ‘campaign medals’ for artworld derring-do attached to their lapels. Schaffhausen would have his ribbon and bar for the two national pavilions he curated for Germany at the Venice Biennale (the highest honors). Biggs would have his 10-year Tate insignia as well as his Yoko Ono bared bosom commemorative clasp (earned during one infamous Liverpool Biennial campaign) and El Baroni would have his medal for bravery earned while working as Co-Curator of Manifesta 8 in Murcia.

The roundtable allowed for plenty of audience participation from the outset. I naturally availed of this opportunity to vent some nebulous frustrations with the event – no surprise, for those who know me. I’ll spare readers a verbatim account, as it wasn’t until Galway – and thanks to Lotringer – that I properly understood what I was trying to say.

By way of an interlude, the day after travelling to Galway, I was back in the capital for the final day of Tino Sehgal’s This Situation at IMMA, Earlsfort Terrace. Sehgal’s gathering of intepreters – offering a kind of ‘artificial intelligence’ experience – was presented in rather isolated quarters, on the top floor of the building. I thought to myself, Just what is it about art and big ideas in small places? Why do us intelligentsia have to be crowded together in art cupboards? Suffice to say, the tiny 126 Gallery in Galway was so packed for the Lotringer event that even the great Olwen Fouéré had to sit on the floor. Olwen was fresh from a performance as the voice of the river in Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake and features in Vivienne Dick’s new film playing Antonin Artaud – which was shown to us as part of the day’s events. Artaud’s presence had followed me from Limerick, where Paddy Jolley’s film The Door Ajar (2011), based on the Artaud’s visit to Ireland, was on show at LCGA. Forgive me, I’ll commence to gush: encountering Lotringer is the closest I have come to feeling like a disciple. Everything he says is a gem of wisdom. Lotringer is like a baseball hitter scoring home runs with every phrase. I was left speechless.

He eloquently riffed on how the global saturation of ideas facilitated by new media – the artworld being “e-fluxed to death” as he put it – resulted in a scarcity of original ideas. As a counter strategy, he stressed the importance of ‘invisibility’ and trying to keep ahead of audiences (be they publics or artists) – so that they might get creatively lost trying to catch up with you.

It was his remarks on the erosion of the periphery that really crystallised what niggled me about the Limerick gathering. Lotringer observed that everywhere he goes now, he sees the same thing and hears the same concerns and conversations being played out. The artworld’s professionalism – though partially welcome – has lead to a homogenised global artworld, which can be perfectly previewed from press releases, and offers no surprises in encounters with actual work.

The question I should have asked in Limerick? “Can this array of veterans from various foreign campaigns offer anything other than a generic future for the Irish artworld?”

to

(Cork),

ran

Ray

at

Cork

Henshaw

www.corkprintmakers.ie www.catalystarts.org.uk

Horrigan and ran from 17 – 25 Jun. The

the producers

artists hailed from Berlin, Oslo, Dublin,

kit french

Limerick, London and Brussels, and

Kit French’s solo show ran at the Signal

each presented work made in and

Arts Centre, Bray from 18 – 30 Jun. In

around the town of Askeaton.

the press release, French said of his

www.askeatonarts.com

Rooms’

work, “I am interested in breadth, the way that light lifts to create form and repose. The work tries to reflect those

superstitious aura

fleeting moments, when nature shows those small passages of extreme beauty and wonder. I find the act of working from life a deeply profound one”. www.kitfrenchartist.com

‘The Producers’ was a collaboration

unit 1 Unit 1 presented an exhibition focusing on sound artists and performance artists who use sound as a key material.

Featured artists were: James King, Caroline Pugh, Fergus Kelly and Paul

Grainne Tynan, How to Receive Magic, 2013

Vogel. The artists performed a chapel on

‘Superstitious Aura’ was a solo exhibition

Halston Street on Jun 25.

by Gráinne Tynan which ran at The portrait cuts itself out

“analyses Frazerian themes relating to

specific installation includes large

‘Portrait Cuts Itself Out On The Floor’

immersive

was an exhibition of new works at Project Space at PP/S, Dublin by Limerick

current paintings incorporate various motifs in their quite often ruthless and laboured construction. They are the result of a brutal reshuffling of studio materials, narratives, art histories, biographical elements and formal structures, all of which come together in such a way that they have been chewed, swallowed and regurgitated to construct works. This is a cut and paste approach to absorb and refract the different things he may have experienced or imagined. Ultimately however the works become their own point of reference and aim to connect to painting’s visual tradition, and the

Exhibition poster, 'Nailing Jelly to the Wall', 2013

Catalyst Arts, Belfast held ‘Nailing Jelly to the Wall’ (31 May – 28 Jun), a group

and local community garden groups. A recipe salon and recipe swop were held and ideas on curating art, foraging for and growing food were discussed”.

born painter Ramon Kassam (26 – 30 Jun). The press release stated, “His

nailing jelly to the wall

food garden and studio 468, St Andrew’s

Centre, residents from the Rialto area

shared myths in today’s world. The site-

www.grainnetynan.com

the South Circular Road community

who access St Andrew’s Community Ramon Kassam, Portrait Cuts Itself Out on the Floor, 2013

sculpture and paintings.

studio 468 residency period with this

a myriad of activities with local groups

an age of science; she produces art that

with

O’Sullivan marked the closing of their

Vaari, Jeanette and Seoidin interacted in

social meanings of ‘magical’ practices in

along

Claffey, Jeanette Doyle and Seoidin

“During their studio 468 residency

Her

engagement with folklore questions the

drawings,

took place between 25 – 29 Jun. Vaari

cold food dishes. The press release noted,

1938 Schools Folklore Scheme in UCD’s

probes and problematises the place of

Common Ground and studio 468 that

screenings, artworks and locally grown

research of local submissions to the Archive.

Food Garden Project, in association with

‘The Producers’ will present film

It continued, “The work is inspired by

Folklore

the South Circular Road Community

Community Centre, Rialto, Dublin 8.

magic, belief, primitivism, and survival”.

National

between Gracelands, the food thing and

informal, performative event hosted in

Courthouse, Wicklow 1 – 27 Jun. The press release described how Tynan

'The Producers', 2013

physical and psychological landscape of his world”. www.pallasprojects.org

Get into the Roundup ■■ Email text & 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.

■■ Priority is given to events

taking place within Ireland,

but do let us know if you are

taking part in a significant

international event.

8

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

News

cooperation. Since 2011, NCAD has

almost beyond human recognition.

VAI News

THE MOTHERSHIP PROJECT

been a recognised college of University

Healy and Musson’s arts practice focuses

GET TOGETHER

The Mothership Project is a new

College Dublin.

on the meaning of the concept of www.iadt.ie, www.ucd.ie

network for Irish visual artists and art workers who are parents. The founders of this project have come together to address the range of issues, perceptions and challenges faced by being artistparents in Ireland. The participants have set up a blog and will be hosting four sessions related to some of the themes that have emerged from the discussions

–

'Networks

for

art

professionals working out side a group studio structures'; 'Time & Money: precarity and getting paid'; 'Perceptions of the mother / artist: How does having a child effect the artist within a reputational

economy?';

'Support

Networks & Creches: Can we create alternatives? www.themothershipproject.wordpress.com

Superstars RETURN Four priceless superstar artworks have returned to the Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane from the National Gallery London.

Part of the famous Hugh Lane Collection is a group of eight paintings by renowned French Impressionist painters. This group is shared in a unique agreement with the National Gallery London. These eight paintings are divided into two groups, with four paintings on display in Dublin for six

BA Visual Arts for north Mayo Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) and Mayo County Council have

The four paintings returned to

by Auguste Renoir; Portrait of Eva Gonzales by Edouard Manet; Jour d’Ete (Summer’s Day) by Berthe Morisot; and View of Louveciennes by Camille Pissarro. www.hughlane.ie

accredited BA in Visual Arts Programme in North Mayo, commencing in September 2013. This programme presents a unique opportunity to study art in a rural context, using the beautiful and diverse landscapes of North Mayo to inspire students.

The four-year modular honours degree programme will offer a dynamic and creative education in the visual arts and will be fully accredited, managed and delivered by the Dublin Institute of Technology and Mayo County Council, in partnership with local organisations Áras Inis Gluaire / Belmullet Arts Centre

Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology (IADT) and University College Dublin (UCD) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the IADT, Kill Avenue Campus. This formal agreement signifies the implementation and development of new substantive educational and creative collaborations between the two parties.

The announcement was made following the publication last week of the HEA report Report to the Minister for Education and Skills on system reconfiguration,

inter-institutional

collaboration and system governance in education,

which

highlighted plans to thematically cluster third level institutions in the Dublin region around the Creative Arts Media

souls to connect to other worlds. www.126.ie

comber foundation Maurice Gunning has been appointed as artist in residence with the Comber Foundation in Romania. The Comber Foundation was established in 1990 by Irish volunteers and work in bringing about

long-term

Based in the Erris region, this innovative model combines delivery

change

through

supporting Romanian people and organisations to develop better disability services at local level. Maurice Gunning will work on a new body of photographic work during the month of June in Romania. The work will be published later in the year. www.mauricegunning.com

and Coláiste Chomáin, Rossport.

Contemporary Art@NGI

through onsite tutorials, live and electronic media and specific off-site

areas

and

which

recommended the development of strategic collaborations.

The HEA report to the Minister recommends that IADT continue to develop its role as an institute of technology with a specialist mission in the field of creative arts and media. It goes on to suggest that IADT should engage in discussion with UCD and National College of Art and Design with a view to developing an alliance that could actively exploit opportunities for

The Visual Artists Ireland Get Together 2013 took place at NCAD on 28 June.

The day-long event comprised four strands that ran simultaneously: Short Information Briefings, Art Writing, Current Trends in Academia and Cultural Corridors. The Common Room Cafe provided a social space throughout the day for taking time out, networking and gaining information – including a presentation of artists books and publication projects. A speed curating event also took place, where artists and curators met in quick-fire sessions.

The day culminated with a wine reception where the many issues and discussions arising from the day were continued in an informal context.

In the next edition of the Visual Artists' News Sheet we will report and reflect on the highlights, conclusions, questions and ideas arising from the event.

offers these items for hire at very affordable rates to members of the organisation. If you are not yet a member you can join online and enjoy equipment hire along with a number of other great membership benefits.

For more on VAI membership see: www.visualartists.ie/join. In Northern Ireland, VAI offers competitive equipment hire rates through our partner organisation Digital Artists Studios. For details see our website for artists in Northern Ireland visualartistsni.org. show & Tell

nn

The next VAI Show and Tell event will take place at the end of July. Keep an eye on our website and ebulletin for more details. A report by Sara O'Gorman on our third Show and Tell evening, that featured presentations by Belfast based artists, can be found on page 24. www.visualarttists.ie

practice.

The application deadline for the next intake of students is Fri 21 Jun 2013. Interviews will be held at the Belmullet Arts Centre commencing Tue 2 Jul 2013. Applicants will be asked to bring a portfolio of recent artwork.

Wendy Judge The Western Series II, 2013, graphite on paper, 45 x 68cm, photo©NGI

The Mac Tourism Award At the recent Northern Ireland Tourism Awards, over 30 businesses, initiatives and events were awarded for their contribution to tourism. Organised by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, this annual

ceremony

celebrates

and

showcases the very best of Northern

IADT & UCD UNDERSTANDING

and

to be portals or thresholds that allow

www.dit.ie

Dublin are: Les Parapluies (The Umbrellas)

higher

Thin places are traditionally understood

announced the establishment of a fully

years at a time.

Irish

‘thinness’ in contemporary thinking.

July – August 2013

Ireland’s local tourism industry.

This year’s ceremony particularly reflected the successes and achievements of 2012, a massive year for tourism as a result of the ni2012 campaign, which ties in with the MAC’s first year since it opened its doors to the public on 20 April 2012.

This award comes at the end of what has been an award-winning opening year for the MAC with three awards already under its belt in 2012 / 13 – Best Creative Business (Belfast Business Awards), Best Belfast Brand (Aisling Awards), and Runner-up in the Arts, Heritage and Creative sector in the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Awards. www.themaclive.com

126 ArtFarm Residency Siobhan McGibbon (Ireland) has been awarded the July residency, and Ciara Healy and Karl Musson (Wales) have been awarded the August residency.

Residencies will lead to an exhibition of work shown in 126 Gallery. McGibbon has a keen interest in science, particularly medical science and the practice of diagnosis and treatment of abnormalities. She is engrossed by the body’s ability to stretch and morph itself

William Evans of Eton (1798 – 1877) Spanish Arch, the Claddagh in the Distance, Galway, 1838, photo©NGI

New work by Wendy Judge has been installed in the Print Room of the National Gallery of Ireland, as part of the exhibition 'From Galway to Leenane: Perceptions of Landscape'. The show draws on a collection of topographical watercolours of the West of Ireland by William Evans of Eton (1798 – 1877).

Judge has has created sculptural works and drawings that address themes of the perception and representation of landscape. These include two installation pieces, A Grand Precipice and Mind There Now. Also on view as part of the exhibition are a number of nineteenthcentury travel guides of Ireland from the National Gallery’s archive.

William Evans was drawing master at Eton College near Windsor. He travelled to Ireland in 1835 and 1838, touring around Galway and Mayo, recording images of the landscape and its inhabitants. Few images of prefamine Ireland exist and Evans’s collection of watercolours is a valuable visual record of life in the west of Ireland in the first half of the nineteenth century. The exhibition runs 15 June – 29 September. www.nationalgallery.ie

Artist-Led Spaces Directory Are you involved in the running of an artist-led space? If so, Visual Artists Ireland (VAI) invites you to take part in a short survey of Artist-Led Spaces. The information provided will be used by VAI to compile an up-to-date directory of artist-led spaces across the island of Ireland.

The survey is intended for all notfor-profit galleries, studios and dedicated art spaces that have been developed by artists. The directory will be a source of information for anyone interested in artist-led spaces. It will be a tool to aid collaboration and networking, to raise the profile of the spaces and to promote their importance to the visual arts sector. A link to the survey can be found on our website. If you have any queries please contact alex@visualartists.ie.

VAI@DAS Residency Award

Joanna Hopkins, What We See, 2013

Joanna Hopkins, What We See, 2013

In partnership with Visual Artists New Equipment for hire

Ireland, Digital Arts Studios offers a residency to an artist/member of VAI as an award. 2013 will be the second year of the VAI@DAS competition; a residency award open to professional visual artists. The residency is awarded to only one artist per year, with the 2013 winner

receiving

a

four-month

residency from October 2013 to January Visual Artists Ireland is delighted to let you know about a number of new pieces of audiovisual equipment we have available to hire. The new equipment includes four HD Optima Projectors, three DLP Projectors, A Sony Blu-ray Disc Player, two stereo amplifiers and a set of IMG Stage Line speakers. This new equipment is in addition to our already well stocked equipment hire room which includes Optima, NEC and BenQ Projectors, a number of cameras, tripod, MAC editing suite and flatbed scanner.

For a full list of items available for hire see: www.visualartists.ie/resources/ equipmenthire. Visual Artists Ireland

2014. A peer panel that will include representatives from the Digital Arts Studios and Visual Artists Ireland will select the winning artist. The award is now open for applications and the deadline for receipt is Friday 16th August by 4pm.

The VAI @ DAS Residency Award Winner 2012 was Joanna Hopkins, a multimedia artist working in video, installation and interactive art.

For full details on how to apply see the Visual Artists Ireland website.

The Visual Artists’ News sheet

July – August 2013

9

Derry-londonderry: Resources & Activities Gordon Gallery

Blaine O'Donnell

The Empire Picture Frameworks, c 1890

gordon gallery, 2013

goRDon gallery has its roots in a framing business

the city, some for the first time, which generated

started by my great uncle, David Gordon (c 1860).

money for the local economy. This was followed by

His younger brother Ephraim took over the

a retrospective of a local artist, the late Richard

business and, by the 1880s, had begun selling

Livingstone, which was then followed by a

paintings. It wasn’t until 1947, however, that his

retrospective of the late TP Flanagan, another artist

son Nat started a dedicated gallery, which formed

we have dealt with since the 1950s.

part of a business that also included Scandinavian

The current show brought the Texaco

crafts and a boutique selling the couturiers of the

Children’s Art Competition to the city. Although a

day. Since that time, the Gordon family have been

definite non-selling show, it aims to bring in

dealing with some of the most well know artists in

students of all ages to see what their peers are

Ireland. Little interruptions such as the creation of

doing, which will hopefully encourage them in

a border dividing Ireland and the later troubles in

their own pursuits.

the North created difficulties for the business.

The July show is an all Ireland group sculpture

I restarted the framing business in 1983 and

exhibition; this will be followed by a graffiti

took over the running of the gallery from my father

exhibition in August organised with Man One of

Nat in 1993, purchasing a more accessible building,

Crew West Gallery in Los Angeles. In September,

which then suffered due to redevelopment of the

we have a show that is part retrospective of the late

city. The present exhibition space is situated in the

and much loved Sister Aloysius McVeigh, a painter

heart of the old walled city in an area known as the

we have been associated with since 1940. She later

Cathedral Quarter, with 2000 square feet of floor

became one of the leading iconographers in Ireland

space and 184 feet of linear hanging. The gallery is

and will be joined in this exhibition by one of the

on the ground floor with easy and disability-

leading Greek iconographers, Dimitris Kolioussis.

friendly access. Exhibitions include solo, two person and group shows.

October sees an interesting show from St Columb’s College in Derry featuring the work of

The Cathedral Quarter contains a number of

present A Level students together with work from

the city’s arts organisations such as The Playhouse,

past students such as Willie Doherty, Felim Egan,

the CCA Gallery, the newly formed London Street

Brian Ferran, Maurice Harron, Eamonn O’Doherty,

Gallery, the Cowley Cooper Gallery and the Vintage

Padraic Timoney and John Sherlock.

Markets of Bedlam. Exciting recent developments

In November, we present a solo show by

in this area include Creative Village Arts, who

Patrick Bradley, a local painter, sculptor and

provide starter artists’ studios and the Derry Print

assemblage artist. At the same time the gallery, in

Studios – with newly purchased presses – which

association with the Scott Foundation, is bringing

will become a major part of the art scene. The very

in a work created by William Scott for the new

latest development, being put into action as I write

Altnagelvin Hospital, which was commissioned in

this, is the opening of stuDio 6ix, an arts and

1957 by the committee that included Nat Gordon.

education charity that will provide 20 artists’

This mural consists of fifteen panels and measures

studios, a communal space and attached to this, to

nine feet high by nearly forty-six feet long. This

open later, a French bistro in the courtyard.

will remain in the gallery until early January 2014

Derry is the current UK City of Culture and

and there will be a link with the Ulster Museum,

consequently the world’s attention is focused on

which is holding an extremely large exhibition of

the city. It’s an exciting time and a wonderful

Scott’s work during the same period.

opportunity for the city. The headline event is the

December sees the end of the City of Culture

Turner Prize but there are so many other art

year and the annual BigSmall ShowV will take

projects and exhibitions taking place, which are

place. Here, a large number of small works (limited

adding to the city’s cultural offerings.

to approximately 12 x 12 inches) will be exhibited

gordon gallery started off the year with a group show of wall based work from artists all over Ireland. This was followed by the retrospective exhibition, ‘Blackshaw at 80’, an artist we have had dealings with since the 1950s. This brought approximately 1000 visitors to see the show and to

sIncE graduating from NCAD in 2009, I have been predominantly based in Derry – my hometown.

The positive experiences I have had here, working as an artist, owe a great deal to Void. I utilised free studio space at the Void Artschool in 2010, which eased my transition between education and professional practice – a time when financial concerns can often slow down the career progression of recent graduates.

Until 2012, I was resident in one of Void’s six studios, which were then the only dedicated artists’ studios in the city. Void is a vital hub for locallybased artists. I have benefited from interaction and critique, technical facilities and the general good vibes offered by the venue.

Between 2011 and 2012, I served on Void’s board of directors, and this year I’ve worked as a technician there. This experience has enriched my practice – through working with visiting artists, other cultural practitioners and audiences – and contributed to my development. The existence of spaces like Void and the recently developed CCA Derry-Londonderry, make it feasible and enjoyable for visual artists to live and work in Derry.

My practice is fundamentally concerned with the materiality of image-objects, specifically painting, and with art’s capacity to engender prime moments of understanding, vision or transcendence.

My making process involves collecting images from diverse sources: cinema, science, natural history illustrations and dioramas, religious iconography, Renaissance painting, German Romanticism, personal photographs and dreams.

I’ve amassed a large – and ever growing – collection of materials: children’s reference books, magazines such as Focus and New Scientist, other science volumes, out-dated encyclopaedias and art history books. Many of these are sourced from charity shops in Derry – there are at least 10 that I frequent – and the local library, which has regular book sales. I source some imagery, via screen grabs, from DVDs and YouTube. I am also a fan of auctions and auction catalogues as sources of imagery such as vitrine table displays. Recently, I have been taking photographs of religious architecture in Derry, which may be used in future work.

Since 2009, I have been producing a series of watercolour paintings, which draw upon research into diverse areas of science, cinema, religion and philosophy. These paintings embody a syncretism of source material, in an attempt to bring about what Einstein called “cosmic religious feeling” – the experience of the universe as a single significant whole. The works’ nod towards mysticism is complicated by their allusion to the progressively more mediatised nature of contemporary life.

Molecule Moon (2009, watercolour, acrylic and colour pencil on Somerset paper, 112 x 77cm), for example, depicts two children confronting a moon, anchored within a molecular framework, of which

a table is a component. The phantasmal characters seem less solid than the frame that contains them.

The work references Caspar David Friedrich’s Two Men Contemplating the Moon (c 1825 – 30) and Two Men by the Sea (1817).

The table is a motif that recurs in the series of paintings this work belongs to – in this series it provides a starting point within pictorial space by establishing a physical presence, forming an intrinsic platform for the phantasmal events that emanate from and are supported by it.

Characters also recur in this series, as do various elements of landscape. The table base serves as the point of origin upon which a variety of influences are constellated, repeated and departed from into new areas. The works do not represent ‘end points’ of a process, but rather souvenirs of attempts. Like performances of a song, they aim only for what Ted Hughes described as “a hologram of the mental condition at that moment... a momentary wholeness”.

All Things Are Pigment (2010, watercolour, pencil and varnish on Somerset paper, 84 x 63.5cm) evokes a phenomenological foray into the mysteries of colour. Four children run into a landscape where a mysterious cosmic event is unfolding. The sun-like colour wheel that appears to explode in mid air is, on closer inspection, also a palette labelled with the names of pigments used in the painting, invoking the disparity between colour as light and colour as pigment.

The pigment names are inscribed throughout the scene whenever they occur – making the work a kind of reverse colour-by-numbers: a painting narrating its own creation and theatrically aware of its own materiality. These named pigments speak too perhaps of the industrialisation and homogenisation of pigment production that obscured its hitherto more apparent relationship to the earth.

More recently, my practice has grown to focus on the materiality of photographic imagery and the relationships between signifying objects and their referents. Some of this new work will be shown in ‘Tomorrow’s Almost Over’, a group exhibition representative of Derry’s small but fertile community of artists at Void (13 July – 23 August). Curated by Gregory McCartney, it includes Paola Bernardelli, Damien Duffy, Conor McFeely, Locky Morris, Pascale Steven, Susanne Stich and Mhairi Sutherland.

I’m currently back studying in Dublin on the MA Art in the Contemporary World programme at NCAD, but this is on part-time basis, so I remain largely based in Derry, where I plan to return fulltime when I graduate in 2015.

Blaine O'Donnell, Molecule Moon, 2009, watercolour

Blaine O'Donnell, All Things are Pigment Pigment, 2010, watercolour

Blaine O’Donnell www.blaineodonnell.com www.derryvoid.com

in a show that is open to artists from all over Ireland and further afield.

Richard Gordon is the Director of Gordon Gallery, Derry. www.gordon-gallery.com

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

REGIONAL PROFILE: Derry-Londonderry

Abridged Magazine

London Street Gallery

Jack Reed, Untitled, from the 'Poledance' series

Abridged continues to cut its own idiosyncratic path in the visual arts and poetry arena. I began the journal in 2004, with the aim to publish contemporary

/

experimental

poetry

and

contemporary art free from exhibition ties and specially commissioned for the magazine. From the beginning, artists and poets have been encouraged to investigate the articulation of Abridged themes, which focus on contemporary concerns in a rapidly changing society: desire, decay, power and isolation, for instance. Abridged is a free publication and funders have included the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Arts Council of Ireland.

At the moment, the Abridged team comprises myself (Editor and Project Coordinator) and Susanna Galbraith (Editorial Assistant). However the make-up of Abridged is quite fluid and we have worked with various personnel over the years and

Pommefritz, Mr Vanni

no doubt will continue to do so. So far, 2013 has been an interesting year for Abridged. We’ve

of subscribing to a particular theoretical position

already published our very popular Once A Railroad

or philosophical stance – apart from our own, and

and Primal issues, improving production values in

we even abandon that from time to time. Our

the process, and had exhibitions in Switzerland

thematic concerns are deliberately vague. We try

and Belfast. Our current issue, Lockjaw, is in

to create an art / poetical eco-system in magazine

collaboration with the Belfast Photo Festival.

and exhibition form that encourages the reader /

As Abridged is a free magazine, we rely on

viewer to go on paths of discovery rather than

public funders and advertising, which of course

providing definite answers. Art or poetry that

has very apparent risks. However, it has become a

provides answers is far too close to propaganda for

part of our philosophy and something that we

our liking. That’s not to say that contributors don’t

would be very reluctant to change. The Arts

take particular stances; they may very well do, but

Council of Northern Ireland continues to be our

the one on the next page may believe the

most important supporter and without them

opposite.

Abridged would be very different or may not even

Abridged is 10 years old in 2014 and we have

exist. We have built great relationships with other

plans. We will continue to treat Abridged as a

arts organisations in the city particularly the Verbal

curated space and we will see it evolve further both

Arts Centre, Void and the CCA in Derry, as well as

in magazine, exhibition and online format. Projects

the Golden Thread in Belfast and Artlink in

planned for 2014 include: exhibitions in Derry and

Donegal.

beyond; our first poetic / filmic architectural

It has been inferred that, by developing in

exploration of abandoned and empty social space

terms of presentation and achieving regular

in the city; a celebration of our 10 years in existence;

funding, we may have lost that do-it-yourself punk-

as well as three poetry / art publications.

like spirit that Abridged initially possessed. Whilst we’re proud of our very early issues in terms of content, there were major faults in the production values mainly due to lack of experience and

On 20 April 2013, the London Street Gallery opened its doors within our historic walled city.

Generously gifted to the Culture Company by the Inner City Trust for 2013, the gallery emerged in response to the necessity to further facilitate the mass of exciting art experimentation and production within the city and wider region. We are run almost entirely on a voluntary basis; the gallery’s goals are to support and promote emerging and established local visual art and to build strategic and sustainable partnerships between artists, educators, businesses and communities.

Driven by the energy of Noelle McAlinden of Culture Company and Steve Lewis of Creative Village Arts, the space has quickly established itself as a dynamic and vibrant addition to the emerging Cathedral Quarter and the city’s wider artistic community.

The inaugural ‘Off the Cuff' exhibition (April) showcased work by local artists and designers alongside fashion students from the North West Regional College. Future notable events include: a series of lectures on art and society; solo shows of work by Eamon O’Doherty and Colin Davidson; a joint exhibition by Maurice Harron and Brian Ferran; collaborations with the Arts Council, Glasgow School of Art, Goldsmiths and University of Ulster; an all Ireland craft exhibition, ‘Columcille’s Spiral’ curated by Greg McCartney; and a mass group exhibition of local art to conclude the year.

The current ‘emerge + see’ exhibition (May – June) consists of an eclectic body of artwork by almost 50 local artists. While clearly a celebration of local creativity, it is also a conceptual experiment on what art is and who defines it. The exhibition seeks to negate art-world framing by including as many artists as the space could contain. Its curation was inspired by Joseph Beuys’ declaration that “every living being is an artist”.

The exhibition will be developed later in the year when the Playhouse and the London Street Gallery will co-host a ‘No Jury, No Prizes’ exhibition.

Running in tandem with the Turner Prize, the exhibition will comprise hundreds of artworks on pieces of material measuring one square foot, by both artists and non-artists. A conference on taste and ownership in art and society with key speakers is also planned. As ‘No Jury, No Prizes’ exhibitions provided a platform for experimentation denigrated by the official Parisian Salon, such aesthetic negations were integral to the emergence of the historic avant-garde, modern art and the movement for democratic change in the social structure.

Catherine Ellis and Catherine Duddy are the current artists in residence in the gallery. For

Gregory McCartney is the Editor and Project Coordinator at Abridged magazine. www.abridgedonline.com

finances. We much prefer where Abridged is at the moment.

The coming year will see a strengthening of Abridged in organisational terms in order to ensure that it continues during these uncertain times.

Abridged will continue to explore the dark alleys and car-parks of the mind. We deliberately have a somewhat ambiguous stance and tend to stay clear

Catherine Ellis, Comfort Blanket, 2013, image by Alexia Henderson

‘emerge + see’, Catherine Ellis exhibited Comfort Blanket. In part inspired by David Beresford’s history of the Maze Hunger Strikes, the installation features a sleeping female enmeshed in wire on a steel bed.

For Ellis, the work addresses the mothers, daughters, girlfriends and children of the hunger strikers, highlighting that they too were prisoners. The piece can of course be interpreted in myriad ways.

In relation to this work Ellis has commented, “a space to grow can be viewed as necessary in the development of all life forms. This is highlighted in physical terms by cramped living conditions and the construction of boundaries. Psychological boundaries which exist in the form of repression and marginalisation also inhibit the ability to grow”.

Catherine Duddy exhibited The Wee Chair for the exhibition. Consisting of a very small child’s chair wrapped in bandages, the work addresses her battle with overcoming cancer. Duddy describes the ideas and process behind the work thus, “On this devastating journey from illness to recovery, my creativity has kept me sane; my fine art practice has enabled me to mentally go back in time, revisit the trauma, pull out the emotions and direct and inject these straight into my work. This act and process has helped me relay strong feelings that I could not express verbally and has allowed me to heal the heart image, transforming truly negative experiences into positive ones. The process of repetitive wrapping and winding of the bandage around the chair had a strange comfort for me both mentally and physically. Following a conversation with my oldest daughter (also a recent graduate in fine art), I was encouraged to loosen the bandage, which has consequently taken the work in another direction. The slow unravelling of the bandage symbolises a sense of letting go; restriction has passed, a lightening up has occurred, thus the healing process has begun”.

The facilitation of art and dialogue within institutions can in part lead to differing futures on a personal, social and political level. We hope that the London Street Gallery can develop such conversations and developments through a programme featuring visually rich, conceptually sound and socially progressive work throughout the year, and that the gallery will cement a commitment to local visual art in the city and region for many years to come.

Rory Harron is an artist, writer, curator and researcher based in Derry. He completed his PhD at Glasgow School of Art in 2013. www.londonstreetgallery.org

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

REGIONAL PROFILE: DERRy-L ERRy-LONDONDERRy

Void & the City of Culture

Resonance FM featuring Bob and Roberta Smith, Why I named my son after Fergal Sharkey. May 2013, British Pavilion, 2013 Venice Bienniale.

This year, Derry-Londonderry became the first ever UK City of Culture, a tremendous achievement for a city of 115,000 people, who are all justifiably proud of its visual arts community and heritage.

Void Gallery opened in 2005 and has established itself as a pioneering gallery and cultural organisation, contributing, alongside other institutions, to a dynamic Northern Irish arts scene, and securing Derry’s legacy as a culturally vibrant city. This is a special year for the city and, at Void, we have curated a seminal programme of offsite projects and exhibitions that demonstrate why the city has won this award and how a gallery exhibiting contemporary art can make an incredible difference to the culture of a specific community.

The visual arts programme throughout the city this year is something that Derry and indeed UK and Irish art audiences have never seen before; it really is something to shout home about. To present and promote the city’s exceptional visual art programme, Void are delighted to have taken the lead in an exciting new project, ‘Contemporary Art at the City Of Culture’, which has been supported by the Arts Council, the British Council and Culture Company. The project represents the entire visual art programme for the City of Culture and takes the form of a pop up map and digital platform.

Void have teamed up with award winning Northern Irish illustrator Peter Strain and origami artist Katharine Grant on this project to highlight the impressive contemporary arts offerings from Derry-Londonderry in 2013. The publication and website (www.cityofcultureart.com) was launched at Void on May 23rd, and then at an event hosted by the British Council in the British Pavilion as part of the 2013 Venice Bienniale. The event was introduced

by Penelope Curtis (Director of Tate Britain), David Alderdice (Director of the British Council) and Roisin McDonough, Chief Executive of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, followed by a one off, specifically commissioned performance by Resonance FM featuring Bob and Roberta Smith, Why I named my son after Fergal Sharkey. The event was a great success, with Biennale press weekend guests treated to a truly original taste of Derry’s visual arts programme including a guest appearance from the Mayor of Kilkenny, Seán Ó hArgáin as part of the performance, encouraging the international art world to make a trip to Derry in the near future.

The rest of the year sees an impressive mix of exhibitions, offsite projects, workshops, talks and events. At Void, until 28 June, Russian Conceptualist Andrei Molodkin showed his sensational exhibition ‘Catholic Blood’. This was the first time Molodkin, who represented Russia at the 2005 Venice Bienniale, has exhibited in Northern Ireland. Molodkin’s controversial work reflects an ongoing examination into the corruption imbued in social, political and religious constructs. Using human blood the artist forces the viewer to re-engage with uncomfortable concepts of power and perversion inherent in society and government. For his exhibition at Void,

curated by Conor McFeely, Andrei Molodkin presented a new installation, ‘Catholic Blood’. The kinetic installation comprises separate symbiotic elements: the central acrylic sculpture forms an exact, hollowed replica of the Rose Window adorning the façade of the Houses of Parliament.

Adjacent to this, a pharmaceutical fridge holds samples of freshly donated human blood. Regulated by an industrial compressor, a medical pump pushes the refrigerated blood through plastic tubes and into the parliamentary window. Critics and the public alike have either loved or loathed the work, which makes a provocative observation on symbols of power and the politics of interpretation.

In July, Void will present ‘Tomorrow’s Almost Over’, curated by Greg Mc Cartney, where, for the first time ever, Derry based artists will show together in a group show in Derry. ‘Partition’ will follow this; co-curated by Damien Duffy and Static Gallery (Liverpool), leading artists, critics, writers and curators such as Padraig Timoney, Anna Dezeuze, John Byrne and Mary Conlon will gather in Derry over the weekend of the 16 / 17 July. The practitioners will be given two rooms: one to discuss, debate and document an intensive gathering, the other to hold a potential exhibition (depending on the outcome of the debate). ‘Partition’ will feature a live performative debate on exhibition making and institutional critique by contemporary exhibition makers under the glare of the public eye. Whether they give the public what they want (ie ie an exhibition) remains to be seen. Partition is part of Void Sites which will produce the Artist Garden’s and Resonance FM project throughout the year.

‘Partition’ will take place in the newly opened City Factory gallery space, which sits above Void and is currently hosting ‘Picturing Derry’ featuring photographers such as Gilles Caron and Homer Skyes. This year, it will also house Willie Doherty’s major retrospective and ‘When I leave these landings’ by Jonathan Cummins in the Shirt Factory Space, where Rita Duffy’s pop up museum is currently on show. Shortly after, and following on from Venice, Resonance FM will begin their sixweek residency in their mobile, purpose-built broadcasting truck, presenting stories from Derry and the hinterland. They are doing a callout for artists to get involved, so get in contact with void@ resonancefm.com if you’d like to participate in this trailblazing sound art project. The exhibition programmes at Void, Void Sites, CCA, the Nerve Centre, the new City Factory Gallery, The Shirt Factory Gallery, the London Street Gallery, Lumiere and finally the Turner Prize (which comes to Derry this year), have reinstated the city as a hub for contemporary art, artists and art audiences alike, yet the city retains a distinct style that will not be found anywhere else but Derry. There has never been better time to visit the edgiest edge of Europe.

Emer Grant is a writer / curator at Void Gallery / Contemporary Art at the City of Culture.

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12

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

Project profile

Art for Art's Sake tour, Firestation Artists Studios, VISIT 2013, photo by Tadgh Nathan (www.photographicmemory.ie)

A Herculean Task Jakob 'Wine soak' LigvineKreek reportson a FRANTICweekend of Artists’ Studio encounters and adventures in DUBLIN, during this year's edition of 'VISIT' (11 – 12 May).

Art for Art's Sake tour, Monster Truck, VISIT 2013, photo by Tadgh Nathan

VISIT Artists’ Open Studios is a bi-annual event, which sees artists’ studios all over Dublin city opening their doors and inviting the public into these usually private spaces to talk to the artists and see their work first hand. This year, 22 studio organisations that accommodate over 250 artists took part in VISIT 2013 (www.visitstudios.com).

On Saturday at noon, as I alighted from a train in Tara Street station, an ungodly rain shower struck and I was driven to seek shelter under the roof of the station building. When the cloud burst came to an end, the crowd that I found myself surrounded by did not disperse. I was about to hurl expletives and make a charge for the freedom of the street, when a young woman began to address the assembled hoard.

She introduced herself as Jeannette Donnelly from Art for Art’s Sake and welcomed everyone to the walking tour of the VISIT 2013 open studios. Over a shoulder I could see a map showing the locations of artists’ studios across the city. Knowing something of artistic hospitality, I had inadvertently stumbled upon an opportunity for the kind of adventure I adore. The VISIT 2013 map revealed a peculiar tale of two cities. The 22 studio complexes were divided over the two days of the weekend; the south side studios were open on Saturday and the north side studios on Sunday.

I followed the crowd to the first point of call, Common Place Studios on Burgh Quay. The rickety stairs shook terribly as we ascended to the studio of Ashleigh Downey. Her playful use of thread made a fine metaphor for the labyrinthine navigation that lay ahead of us for the day. I also noted two brandy miniatures that were unfortunately empty.

On the floor below, Channelle Walshe was exploring the innards of beasts and fowls inspired by visits to the natural history museum. We also squished into the studio of Eoin Moyle, trying not to step on his poor little dog, who looked very stressed indeed.

With no refreshments in sight we pushed on to the Temple Bar Gallery + Studios. Barbara Knezivic was constructing sculptures from industrial materials and enjoying the ephemeral properties of Himalayan rock salt. David Beattie was up to some kind of strange alchemy exploring the transformative properties of salted water

Art for Art's Sake tour The Red Stables, VISIT 2013, photo by Tadgh Nathan

through evaporation. It was all making me decidedly thirsty. Susan McWilliam, recently arrived from Belfast, was exploring themes of para-psychology and the paranormal (not the sort of spirits I normally look for). Then, to my dismay, I found that the refreshments were nonalcoholic. However, the coffee and chocolate biscuits were appreciated.

Just before leaving we caught a glimpse of David Eager Maher’s beautifully rich and highly detailed drawings; Alan Butler’s colourful studio was quite mesmeric and intentionally hard on the eye.

We rushed on to the Black Church Print Studios, where a young man down on his luck asked us what we were queueing for as we filed into the door. I told him, “We are going to see art”. To which he replied, “Art who?” There were printing demonstrations and slices of the most exquisite carrot cake, but no sooner were we in and we were off again.

Through a clatter of hailstones, we raced to Eustace Street to the Independent Artist Studios Ltd. Things began to look a bit brighter: the fireplaces were roaring and I spotted some fine spirits on the top landing; Wendy Judge, who is preparing for a show in the National gallery, gave us a warm greeting; Alison Pilkington was playfully exploring the uncanny through painting; Helen Hughes was offering Ferrero Rocher, spicy nuts and grapes; and Mark Garry and I spoke about stone circles. But just as I was reaching for the Courvoisier bottle, beside the cream cheese, Jeannette whisked up the crowd and I was flushed out onto the street by the flowing tide.

Next we marched quickly up to the Moxie Studios on Pembroke Row, a former OPW depot that can accommodate 60 – 70 artists. We met Margot Quinn who was keeping a diary through painting, and Richard Boland of Fail Safe Films, who extolled the advantages of a studio over working from a room in the mother’s house. Dave Madigan was constructing something that looked like a poitin still and Fiona Snow demonstrated laser etching on beer bottle caps. The only refreshments on offer were fruit and apple pies; by now I was starting to get the shakes!

We buzzed on down to Broadstone Studios, a former governess’s home on Harcourt Terrace, where we met Jenny Guy and her dog

Spruce. We also met Gabhann Dunne from whom I demanded some bread and olives to stave off the fainting spell that was threatening to overcome me. At last, a quick pint was had on Camden Street to settle the nerves and we were off to the Pallas Studios in the Coombe where we met Niamh Moriarty who was exploring the waterways under the city, and Lucy Sheridan who was looking at the idea of animals and captivity. Jessica Conway had recorded her dog Layla’s tail wagging out an unsynchronised beat, and Anna Rackard showed us portraits of sleepers and gave me a strange postcard featuring a dog from a movie.

In Monster Truck Studios, it was a quick charge up and down the stairs for a brief encounter with Rory Tangney, Shane Power and Deborah Madden. La Catedral Studios was a festive whistle stop of paella and sangria. Finally, it was on to the Steambox studios where Lauralee Guiney pointed out the advantage of open plan studios and we saw one of the new residential spaces. There was beer, hot dogs and burgers for the foot sore visitor. You could also buy a notebook for €6 to help save the sight of Harvey, one of the studio’s residential dogs. After a day of canine tales, I beat a thirsty retreat back to Ligvine HQ. But not being one to abandon a match at half time I rejoined the tour on Sunday morning for a day dominated by cakes and finally some very welcome red wine. A city bus ride to St Anne’s Park started us off at the Redstable's Studios. In this shangri-la of studios we met several artists: Martina Galvin exploring the properties of coloured fishing line and wind felled twigs; Mark Clare, who has just moved in, showed us a film piece made in the park around makeshift shelters; and Conor Gallagher spoke of his recent paintings inspired by the landscape of Mayo. I resourcefully found a solitary bottle of Guinness in a studio under renovation. The day was starting well. A bus ride later in Richmond Studios they had the best chocolate tart ever. Naomi Goodman hypnotised us with her abstract animations and Aileen Malone discussed the intricate difference between the process of painting and drawing.

At the Graphic Print Studios, Robert Russell gave an enjoyable explanation of lithography. From there we ran down to the Firestation studios where tea, coffee, buns and rice crispy squares were to be had in abundance. Maria McKinney was working on garlands for prize cows made from plastic straws and was weaving fishing line through shopping baskets. Eleanor Duffin was lamenting her last days at the Firestation and we spoke of the trauma of having to leave such a supportive studio environment. She is, however, going on a residency to the great wine-producing continent of Australia, so we shouldn’t feel too bad for her.

In the Talbot Gallery Studios, after another round of coffee and cake, I was starting to feel like Father Christmas on his rounds. Elaine Grainger filled in the background to the studios and Claire Halpin explained her exploration of religious icons and drone technology.

Then we were off again down to Marlborough studios where Renata Debrun revealed that it was the site of a former brothel. Eileen Tunney showed us her mono-colour paintings and nascent stained glass works.

Without time to catch our breath we found ourselves struggling up the steps of Ormond Studios, where Deborah Smith explained her fascination with the familiar through video and animation. I had barely said thank you and we were treading the weary pavement to the New Art studios where, in the company of Mary Burke and Irene Uhlemann, I had my first exquisite mouthful of red wine for the whole two days: a moment that almost brought me to the edge of tears. On the top floor, Maggie Madden was constructing fragile miniature worlds from complicated structures of fibre-optic strands and Allyson Keehan was exploring magical juxtapositions between trompe l’oeil painting and the flat surface of blank canvass.

The unwinding thread of fate that had guided us through the two days of studio visits had run out before every location could be covered.

To cover all the studios in the time allotted would be a herculean task.

So, finally, in Block T Studios I thankfully found more red wine and I spoke with Kerry O’Hare and Sarah Farrell about how the economic recession that coincides with the decline of the art market seems to have resulted in an explosion of affordable studios throughout the city.

These studio complexes, old and new, are helping to form diverse artistic communities that are fuelling a revitalised art scene. Many of these spaces that were unavailable or hard to come by during the boom years are becoming catalysts for development and change, as artists explore new ways of working and expanding their creative momentum, working together in greater numbers through the growing studio network.

Noted flâneur and wine expert, Jakob Ligvine Kreek, regularly reports on what’s on offer in the way of refreshments at exhibition openings. If there is a free beverage available, Ligvine will be there. www.facebook.com/ligvine

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

13

Residency

Amanda Rice,Obstacle, digital C-Type print, work from Platform China residency, 2011

Amanda Rice,Fluorescent / Video Experiment, Rondo Ateliers, 2013, all images by Amanda Rice

This is Pseudo Nature Amanda Rice outlines the background to the projects and researchundertaken during a residency at Ateliers Rondo, Graz, Austria.

Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that became the first in the party to flee to these mountains for security.3 is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible The NSDAP slowly moved into the area and by 1937 the original objects, or operates in a matter analogous to terror, is a source of the residents of Obersalzburg had been bought out or served notices of eviction. It was evident that the party were constructing their own sublime...1 private utopia. In the two years leading up to the end of the war in I began this year with a two-month scholarship residency at Ateliers 1945, Hitler refused to visit bombed German cities, retreating further Rondo, Graz, Austria. The point of departure for my current line of into life at Obersalzburg.4 During my research, I found the disparity research, which I explored in Austria, has its roots in my time spent in between the calm, idyllic surroundings in relation to the context of Beijing on residency at Platform China in 2011. Funded by the Arts unfolding war in Europe at the time an interesting point of exploration: Council Travel and Training Award, myself, Edel O’Reilly and Fiona the region's overwhelming beauty almost took on the guise of a Kelly – all members of visual arts collective Cork Contemporary constructed reality.

Projects – proposed to develop a line of research in Beijing, as a As I had left Beijing feeling that the work began there was collaborative venture. This opportunity to fully re-engage with our unfinished, I was determined to seize the chance of engaging with the artistic practice after running a project space the previous year was Obersalzburg site as an extension of the research I had started into much needed.2 We shared a common interest in the rapid rate of urban synthetic natures, the seizure of land and the construction of idealism. redevelopment and gentrification occurring there, and this was the I began the research process by figuring out practical ways of navigating primary reason for undertaking a residency in somewhere as far away around the region. Obersalzburg within Berchtesgaden National Park as China. draws people to the region, as does the area’s infamous history.

Whilst on residency in Beijing, I happened upon an area of land Kehlsteinhaus (The Eagle’s Nest) was the party’s diplomatic reception that has since had a huge effect on my practice. I was half way through building, set on the peak of a 6000-foot-high mountain ridge (Kehlstein), the residency and exploring the outskirts of the city on a scooter, when which survived the bombings and also serves as a draw to the region.

I discovered kilometres of rubble flanking either side of the road which Since my allotted time at Atelier Rondo was from January to I was traveling; they formed a vast and broken landscape of red bricks, February, I set aside January as my research period – time to work out tiles, upturned earth and other housing remnants. I discovered that some large-scale installation ideas that I hadn’t had time to work on in forced evictions of citizens from villages that were designated to be Ireland prior to my departure for Austria. I started planning for the demolished for redevelopment was commonplace and decided to base Obersalzburg trip in this period by contacting tourist boards as a source my project in these demolished villages. I found myself working siteof information. These tourist boards informed me that trekking into specifically in the rubble, developing a photographic project. I worked the mountains and ascending Kehlstein Mountain at this time of year with cheap and locally-made neon text lights, set in a the brutal and was hazardous due to potential avalanches. I set about looking for almost Beckettian landscape: the neon texts outlining a cyclical lowland hikes that weren’t of significant danger, using the social suggestion of the impending re-development. The final work took on networking site for travellers Couchsurfing.org. I sought out people in the guise of a subversive postcard project, advertising an almost twisted the vicinity who had an interest in hiking and knowledge of the area. dystopian holiday destination. After working in the in rubble in Beijing This proved successful and I befriended two hikers in the neighbouring and the horror of experiencing a vast expanse of synthetic man-made Austrian town of Hallein. We drove to Scharitzkehlalm, the start of a landform, I began research into alternative landscapes. This led me to vast ridge of mountains (which included Kehlstein) that sweep around the residency at Atelier Rondo in Graz, Austria, which gave me to access in a wide u-shaped valley locally known as Endstal. to a natural landscape containing a similar degree of horror: On the first day, we hiked to the end of the valley, an arduous task Obersalzburg. due to the steep incline and the snow, which was over half a metre Obersalzburg is a picturesque region just above the German town deep. My guide – who was both an experienced filmmaker of winter of Berchtesgaden on the Austrian border. It became infamous as the sports documentaries and a mountaineer – stated that the valley was mountainside retreat of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German actually quite safe and that deluges were rare here as it faced north with Workers’ Party (NSDAP). As early as the 1920s, this idyllic region lessened exposure to the sun (a determining factor in triggering started to become a refuge for rightwing thinkers. In 1923, Dietrich avalanches). The infrastructure leading to Scharitzkehlalm was pretty Eckart, one of the arch ideologists behind the party’s radical views, was efficient so thereafter I traveled on my own to the valley, checking for due to appear in court at Leipzig for his inflammatory writings; he avalanche warnings every morning before I set out. I filmed for six days

Atelier Rondo, Graz, Austria, studio facade, 2013

in the area until my trip was cut short due to heavy snowfall. Whilst filming, I was aware of the volatility of my situation; the history of the region became a secondary focus and my only concern was that if there was a sudden change in the climate it could be days before I was found.

On my return to Ireland, I was going through my footage and heard myself muttering a profanity during a powdery baby avalanche at Endstal. I was experiencing was what philosopher Edmund Burke outlined in his writings on the sublime. Here, the mountains were obscured by mist and fog, so potential threats were hidden from sight.

This feeling of the unknown inspires a kind of horror. When compared with this, the historical weight of the region didn’t feel like a threat.

Atelier Rondo housed four international studios and 10 workspaces for artists based in Graz. The residence had all of the rudimentary equipment available; however access to cameras had to be sourced externally. Due to the sale of some of my own work and some part-time tutoring, I saved up to buy a Canon 5D Mark II, so I wasn’t faced with the problem of hiring a camera. The very kind and hospitable BLYF photographic collective located on the fourth floor of Atelier Rondo offered the loan of tripods, a lens swap and access to the fully equipped photography studio as an unofficial gesture in addition to the equipment made available for the international residents. A stipend of €800 per month plus free living / working space was offered for the development of the project. This was critical and allowed for two months of distraction-free research. My Arts Council Travel and Training award helped with further mobility.

My residency at Atelier Rondo was an ideal opportunity to reflect on and assimilate two bodies of work that are intrinsically linked; the pseudo nature of the demolished villages and the natural landscape at Obersalzburg are both in essence sublime experiences. During the application process for my project at Obersalzburg, I had stated that I would introduce some kind of synthetic element to the final installation.

I considered lighting, which would link into the neon used in my China work, but this proved too harsh an element for such delicate footage. I am working on introducing another synthetic element.

In a wider context, my project seeks to explore the cyclical nature of landmass and how, through time, expanses of earth take on different roles or guises. For example, explorations during summer at Obersalzburg would indeed be very different to winter, with the onslaught of mass tourist season in full swing – perhaps a potential extension of the project itself in terms of investigating the idea of aar tourism. I’m currently working at the National Sculpture Factory, Cork creating sculptural land forms which directly interlink with my work in China and with the Alps.

Amanda Rice

The work produced during Amanda Rice’s time at Atelier Rondo was exhibited in the solo show Spectacular Form of Amnesia’ at the Custom House Gallery and Studios, Westport, Mayo (13 June July 2012) supported by Mayo County Council, the Arts Council and Kulturservice Steiermark.

Notes 1. Edmund Burke,A Philosophical Enquiry, section VIIOf the Sublime first published 1757 2. The Space, 7 South Mall, Cork, September 2009 – September 2010 3. Ernst Hanisch,Obersalzburg, the Eagles Nest and Adolf Hitler, 1998, Anton Plenk Verlag,11 4. Ibid, 24

14

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

VAI Advocacy & Support

VAI Advocacy & Support

Our Best Kept Secret?

Group Think

Niamh Looney profilesVAI’s Help Desk services.

ADVOCACY PROGRAMME OFFICER ALEX DAVIS INTROD UCES VAI'S LOCAL GROUPS INITIATIVE, THATS FACILITATEs GRASSROOTS INP UT & FEEDBACK FOR VAI’S ADVOCACY & REPRESENTATION PROGRAMMES.

As readers will appreciate, the issues that reach Visual Artists Ireland’s help desk are confidential and can relate to sensitive ongoing negotiations.

We thought it was important, however, to spread the word about the nature and availability of this service by highlighting in this short article a number of typical scenarios, case studies and frequently asked questions. Visual Artists Ireland’s help desk is one of the core services of the organisation and we currently deal with over 100 requests for information and advice each week.

The aim is to troubleshoot problems and provide guidance to artists at all stages of their career and with a wide range of needs.

Queries come from a variety of individuals working in diverse art-related sectors, including artists, commissioners, gallerists, local government personal, press and media representatives, competition organisers, community groups, art buyers and collectors, college staff and other arts workers. The issues we deal with are wide and varied and include questions about or advice requests relating to: public art commissioning, sourcing and commissioning artists, licensing artworks, artists’ rights, costing proposals, tax, pricing works, insurance matters, sourcing materials, contractual issues and debt collection to name just a few.

In light of the current tough economic environment, one of the most alarming types of complaints the help desk receives – which are, disturbingly, on the increase – relate to instances of artists not being paid for work sold or of artworks being mislaid by commercial galleries and other retail outlets who are not properly managing their operations. In the past, artists’ relationships with galleries and dealers were often based solely on trust with nothing put in writing. VAI has been very active over the years in campaigning, on behalf of both artists and galleries, about the importance and tremendous mutual benefits of having in place clear written agreements. It has been particularly alarming, therefore, for VAI to hear that some artists are still expected to enter into informal, non-contractual arrangements and, moreover, to receive reports of a small number of galleries and dealers not respecting contracts. This failure to follow professional business practices is disturbing as it indicates a lack of understanding and experience of the art market and the working lives of professional artists.

We take such complaints very seriously. In a case where an artist is owed money, VAI will act as a mediator by representing the artist in communications with the debtor. Initially, we will request as much evidence and documentation from the artist as possible, relating to the sale / transaction. From our experience of dealing with such cases, we can’t stress enough the importance of keeping copies of all correspondence, letters, emails and contractual agreements made with galleries, buyers or commissioners.

Once we are satisfied that the artist has a case, VAI will then begin the process of acting on behalf of the artist. Sometimes a simple phone call or a letter from VAI is enough to spur the debtor into action and to pay the money owed or recover the artworks belonging to the artist. If this does not yield a positive outcome, the next step is to consider legal proceedings.

Given that few people choose or want to go through lengthy and costly legal processes to recoup what are often small sums of money, VAI has, for the benefit of its members, established a partnership with a leading solicitor and debt collection agency as a referral service. For a fee (usually a percentage of the monies owed), the debt

recovery agency will take on responsibility for recovering the debt. The initial stage of this process is a formal letter of demand sent to the debtor from the agency. This letter only costs €18, but coming from a legal firm it holds more weight and is often enough to close the dispute. If not, they will proceed to issue and serve proceedings in consultation with the artist if required.

Another common request posed to the help desk comes from artists seeking advice with regard to applying for public art commissions and / or commissioners seeking advice on how to go about the process. The VAI help desk advises people with regard to best practice public art commissioning in line with the National Guidelines for Public Art Commissioning (www.publicart.ie). Undertaking a public art commission involves a commitment from both artist and commissioner and a good relationship between both parties is central to a successful process. We have a special public art advisory document that we make available as part of our consultation process and we also have a number of helpful texts detailing the process which are available on our website.

Information on insurance is another of our most frequently asked questions, as artists seek cover for various projects, exhibitions or studio workspace. We can advise generally on how, why and in what circumstances you may need insurance and then recommend certain insurances packages offered by our partner insurance company O’Driscoll O’Neill. Other questions we deal with on a regular basis include the following: I wish to apply for the Artists’ Tax Exemption.

How do I go about it?

What should I look for in an exhibition contract?

A person who wishes to use one of my images on an album cover has approached me. Can you advise on the copyright implications of such an exchange?

How do I attract professional critics and curators to my exhibition?

I am an artist registered as self-employed.

Please would you advise me regarding preparing my annual tax returns?

Answers to most aspects of these questions can be found in the info-pool articles and information sheets on our website – but of course we can deal with specific cases over the phone, in person or via email.

Our help desk, along with our advocacy and membership services, has been offering broad ranging consistent support since the VAI’s foundation. We always maintain the confidentiality of our advice and services as a key policy in their delivery. So the word is out on what was our bestkept secret: you can call, email or drop in to our offices anytime to get independent, friendly and reliable support and advice.

Niamh Looney Communications Officer Visual Artists Ireland Useful Links Help Desk Profile www.visualartists.ie/resources/help-desk FAQs www.visualartists.ie/category/regularly-askedquestions Articles www.visualartists.ie/resources/infopool-2 Advocacy www.visualartists.ie/advocacy Supports & Resources www.visualartists.ie/resources

Visual Artists Ireland's advocacy and representation programme covers areas such as tax and self-employment, artists’ rights, fair payment, industry standards, social security, contracts, copyright, insurance and much more. Our current advocacy priorities are detailed in a series of Advocacy Datasheets available on the VAI website.

Campaigns such as the Visual Artists' Charter and ASK: Has the Artist Been Paid? are also outlined, supported by case studies, research and proposed actions.

These datasheets are not intended to be fully complete, rather they’ve been drafted as starting points for discussion, research and to garner responses. We’re eager to have our artist members flesh these documents out, to contribute to their development and then, vitally, to support and promote them in their locality. To this end, we have invited members to help by coming together to form volunteer groups that can feed into and support the advocacy campaigns and also to act as advocates in their own areas. So far, 21 members have volunteered and an advisory panel for the local groups initiative has been set up.

The purpose of the local groups is to guide the advocacy work by engaging with the current campaigns, providing input into their direction, and champion objectives in their locality. Just as importantly, the volunteers are identifying issues and common concerns in their areas and have begun communicating this information back to VAI. This enables VAI to provide specific and relevant information, advice and representation.

Issues identified include: difficulties accessing social security, galleries defaulting on payments, scarcity of fees, lack of funding and a dearth affordable studio space. Tackling these issues requires engagement and collaboration – both with institutions that contract artists' labour and with local and national governmental bodies. How the local groups can best access and influence these decision makers is one of the topics which was discussed by the advisory panel set up to steer the initiative.

The panel, comprising volunteer members and VAI’s regional representatives, met in late April to discuss existing and potential models of artist-led action and ways to support the growth and development of the groups. Contributions from artist Shane Finan, founder of Push Remote Arts and Mary Conlon, Director of Ormston House, provided valuable insights into the formation and structure of artist-led initiatives. Discussions that followed highlighted how the value of gathering to support peers, to collaborate, and to share ideas; problems and successes is vital to many artists’ practices.

The panel suggested that, as many artists are already involved in one or more groups, it would be more efficient to harness the support of existing groups rather than solely concentrating on setting up new ones. To this end, it was decided that a directory of collectives and artist-led spaces around Ireland would be compiled. This directory (available on the VAI website) should prove to be a useful resource in its own right. For example, in areas where there are two or more artist-led spaces, it may help the spaces to identify their unique attributes and distinctive relevance in their locality.

This can be very useful when making applications to funding bodies who keen to avoid any possible ‘duplication of funding’.

VAI is contacting all of the groups on the directory to invite them to become part of the local groups initiative (if you’re part of a group and haven’t heard from us yet, please do get in contact).

The kind of supports, guidance and tools VAI can provide to volunteers groups are as follows: Action Pack The Action Pack contains our series of advocacy datasheets for discussion among the volunteers.

Topics covered include artists’ fees, contracts, international engagement, further education and the Artists' Charter. It contains sample letters that can be sent to TDs and local councillors and provides advice on areas such as co-ordinating meetings, tips on collective action, lobbying elected representatives and working with the media.

Meeting Places VAI works with many organisations and venues and can assist volunteers with finding a suitable location to meet. A list of potential venues is underway and we would like to hear from anyone who has a space which can be added to this.

Communications The activities, events and meetings of the local groups can be covered in the Visual Artists News Sheet, the VAI website, e-bulletin and our various social media platforms. An advocacy volunteer section has been set up on VAI’s online social network for artists, the Common Room. Here, groups can share the outcomes of their discussions in the forums and get support from peers and feedback from other groups (www. thecommonroom.net.)

Regional events VAI can provide information sessions on our advocacy campaigns and bring our services to artists in their locality. These will be run in connection with our membership events and professional development workshops which take place around the country. The first event is being organised in July, details of which will be sent out in the e-bulletin.

How can you participate?

It’s critical that existing artist collectives and groups become involved in the initiative. We’d like to hear from you if you are already involved in an artists’ network at a local level, or would like to get involved.

To register your interest in the local groups initiative visit: www.visualartists.ie/advocacy Alex Davis Advocacy Programme Officer Visual Artists Ireland

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

15

Project profile

Almost Fit to Be Hugged Christodoulos Makris discusses Thomas Brezing’s ‘Carpet Man’, an ongoing performance-based project.

Thomas Brezing,Carpet Man, dilapidated house, Balbriggan, digital photograph, 2013

All the lonely people Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people Where do they all belong?

Paul McCartney,Eleanor Rigby, 1966

I first met the Carpet Man first towards the end of 2011, during the opening of Thomas Brezing’s exhibition ‘The Art of Failure Isn’t Hard to Master’ at the Highlanes Gallery in Drogheda (12 November 2011 – 11 January 2012). There he stood, chaperoned by a gallery assistant but otherwise apparently helpless, his feet in an old pair of woollen socks and his outstretched arms the only things extending from his body – an old carpet – letting everybody know through text sewn on his torso that he was “almost fit to be hugged”. Brezing’s daughters were the first to try erasing that “almost”, eventually cajoling many of the other guests to follow suit. The Carpet Man hugged everybody back.

Where did the Carpet Man come from? Who is he? Why is he among us? What does he represent? In the course of an email interview / discussion I’ve been conducting with Brezing, one of his answers revolved around his current sense of removal from painting, which has been his primary practice for at least a decade. Without ruling out a return, he feels he has said everything he’s had to say up to this point through the medium, and is looking to “go through other experiences”.

It has not been a surprise to learn that he particularly enjoys the physical act of making: his training in metalwork being primarily about craft, its focus on working with the hands rather than with the mind.

Clearly, though, the Carpet Man project is strongly conceptual.

And there’s a large dose of situationism within it (Guy Debord defines situation as “a moment of life concretely and deliberately constructed by the collective organization of a unitary ambiance and a game of events.”1 But both preparation and execution revolve around physical activity.

Here is an old-fashioned carpet. You cut it with an army knife to an appropriate size so that when rolled around your body the feet show but the head is covered; you also cut two holes for the arms to go through. You remove the straps from an old rucksack (one that may have gone everywhere with you in what now seems like a previous life, and which you’re loathe to take apart because of an emotional attachment to it, thus effectively enforcing a sort of severing from that past) and sew them onto the back so that it can be closed up. Then you try getting into it, having made sure you have someone nearby to strap you in. You are satisfied it fits an average-sized person. The material is thick and there are no gaps to see or hear through, thus disabling the faculty of sight completely while all that’s audible are muffled noises.

Your movement is severely restricted, not only because you can’t see where you’re going, but also because your steps must necessarily be short.

Thomas Brezing,Carpet Man, Gormanston College, digital photograph, 2013

About 15 years ago Brezing found himself in circumstances that forced him to move suddenly out of a residential space, and ended up for a few days sleeping on his studio floor. Lacking a sleeping bag, all he could do to keep warm at night was to roll up an old carpet and sleep in it. He has spoken about those nights spent inside that tube-like contraption in terms of feeling “utterly lost” and in an “extremely awkward” state, getting a glimpse into what it might be like to sleep rough. He describes it as “the low point” in his time as a practicing artist in Ireland, when he thought that “this artist thing” just wouldn’t work.

A decade and a half later, those circumstances and some specific material involved (carpet, rucksack, army knife) became the seeds for a project marking a sort of renewal within his practice.

To bring the Carpet Man to life, the artist, who ordinarily embodies him, needs plenty of assistance (“a sign of things to come...”); I have helped bring about this incarnation several times, closing the straps at the back and leading him to locations he wants to occupy, either by the hand or with vocal directions. A potent sense of responsibility takes over: not only because what you’re doing is crucial to the work, but also because the artist’s physical safety can be at stake.

The Carpet Man is near-impotent, and one ends up operating around him much like a carer. Several of the locations he chooses to occupy are rather desolate, often involving difficult terrain, abandoned sites or broken edifices. There have been excursions to the Cooley Mountains, Gormanston College, an unused beach and an abandoned house in North County Dublin, the artist’s attic space, a forest in County Wicklow...

Yet the Carpet Man remains a little shy. With the notable exception of his appearance at the Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, he prefers to avoid the public, quite happy instead just to have his movements and actions documented. A film of his activities is currently in production, with a trailer shortly available for viewing. Supporting material has included a raft with a host of mini Carpet Men, an embalmed seagull (a symbol of the artist’s / Carpet Man’s environmental concerns) and an old suitcase which he carries everywhere. But he has let it slip that he is keen to shake off his fear of onlookers and audiences – that he’d like to meet more people and make more use of public spaces.

The collaborative aspect of making these documents provides a contrast to the isolation, even loneliness, evoked by the work itself.

Brezing has often used discarded or unwanted material provided by a community of friends and colleagues, while his daughters have taken part either as unwitting providers of titles or as sound accompaniment.

To make the film Carpet Man, he has again enlisted the help of many from this community. In particular, film editor Oliver Fallen has been on hand with a lot of technical advice.

A soundtrack giving voice to a text in parts written by Brezing himself, in parts selected from other sources, accompanies the visual material. Several individuals have been recorded, reading excerpts

from the text, creating a collage of voices whose varied characteristics – their accents in particular – imbue the film with a disorienting, dreamlike effect. At times, these voices are laid over each other to bring about a choir-like sound, something akin to prayer.

“We put a four and a half minute long trailer together and every now and then a few words taken from a text I wrote would blend in and out, supporting the visuals. When the trailer was done, Oliver suggested we add sound at some point, which I had considered, in the form of a piano piece based on Mogwai’s Music For A Forgotten Future. I was going to let my eldest daughter, who plays the piano, strip the song down to its core tune, take that tune and improvise with it. I suggested we have a voice speak some of the words from the text I wrote as well. Oliver suggested having several voices speak together at once and do an overlay. This immediately appealed to me and reminded me of the time when I was a kid when I heard the voices of a congregation pray “Our Father…” in church together, my father standing next to me, with the deepest voice of them all – powerful moments in unity and togetherness.

So, in different people’s houses I’m recording deep male voices as one part of the sound and female voices as part of another. Some voices sound beautifully vulnerable as if their personalities were laid bare through it, some other voices sound more controlled, self-conscious or matter-of-fact, but every voice has something captivating.”

Creating the Carpet Man started out as a stray thought, one that at first Brezing admits he was reluctant to pursue. And he maintains that, despite having already appeared in a gallery setting and been documented in photographs and on film, the character, as well as the project, is still very much a work in progress. The Carpet Man’s facelessness is a key element in his effectiveness as a piece of performance / conceptual / semi-public art: viewers and audiences are afforded the freedom to project thoughts and feelings onto this shell.

Whenever he appears, the environment is altered for a brief period, and people respond to him in different ways. Mostly it tends to make them smile or leave them a little bemused. But it also brings out one’s caring side; in his clumsiness and in his vulnerability, in the fact that he is rather unkempt and looks quite lost, we recognise in the Carpet Man something close to home.

Christodoulos Makris is a poet and editor based in North County Dublin. His collections include 'Spitting Out the Mother Tongue' (Wurm Press, 2011) and the artist’s book, 'Muses Walk' (2012). www.yesbutisitpoetry.blogspot.com www.thomasbrezing.com Note 1. Guy Debord (trans.Ken Knabb), Internationale Situationniste #1, Paris, 1958

16

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

Instititionprofile

The Complex – exterior

It's Complex Annemarie Kilshaw, Visual Arts Director of The Complex, Dublin, profilesthe developmentof this innovativeartist-led multi-discIplinary art space.

The Complex – 'C3' space Benburb Street

The Complex – interior

The Complex was first established in three interconnecting empty units on the west side of Smithfield Square, Dublin. The initiative originated in the use of these same spaces for the innovative staging of Anthony Goulding’s play Complexity in February 2009, devised to be experienced as a “promenade production”, where the audience walked with the action of the play. It was built on huge scaffolding rigs, designed by theatre set designer Sonia Haccius, to give the effect of a housing block on the verge of imminent collapse. The production was conceived and led by theatre maker Vanessa Fielding, with the participation of an extensive team of professionals from all arts disciplines, many of whom had worked together before in multiple and diverse arenas.

Complexity gained a following and caused a stir amongst artists who saw the potential in this kind of open plan space. The play had been funded by the Arts Council, with a grant that facillitated the installation of temporary services, but these had to be withdrawn after the production had finished. The ‘company’, meaning the Complexity team, met to determine what might be achievable in the future, if the space remained vacant and the owner permitted an extension to our agreement. This was based on a rent free arrangement in return for managing, insuring and securing the units and of course being health and safety and fire compliant.

The owner, Chris Kelly, was more than obliging, despite being in a state of turmoil himself, with impending doom looming and the pressures of Anglo and NAMA taking his attentions away from Smithfield. The Complexity team continued, unclear of our position but keen to make the most of an empty building, redundant since its construction seven years before and unlikely to attract a commercial tenant in an ever-declining market. Some of the team excelled at developing their skills; others went their own ways. In June 2009, the Complexity team hosted DIT’s final year design exhibition, transforming the space into a gallery. At this point it became clear to us that the units could work as a multi-functioning arts space, offering opportunities for alternative design, exhibitions and theatre productions. Critically, the space required permanent services such as electricity and toilets that would cost thousands to install.

Local businesses in Smithfield gave generously to initiate the process of fundraising that culminated in ‘Kickstart the Complex’ in November 2009, an evening hosted by Tommy Tiernan and Hector O’Heochaghain, with Apres Match, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Jape, RSAG,

Hog, Foil and Arms, David O’Doherty, Jarlath Regan, and North Strand Contraband in Vicar Street, launched by the then Lord Mayor, Emer Costello. Funds were raised to cover essential services and the work commenced. Charitable status was sought and granted for Complex Productions and the subsequent application for rates exemption successfully delivered. The venue was then launched as The Complex and it ran in this building for three years (2009 – 2012), delivering a packed programme of mixed events embracing all arts disciplines, producing its own exhibitions and theatre productions and hosting visiting shows. Rents were kept to a minimum to pay for overheads and a percentage of staff time and subsidised staff from FAS, TUS and Jobridge were engaged, totalling 19 in 2012.

During this time, more formal approaches were made to the landlord regarding a lease and negotiations continued on the future of the units. However, despite his good will and indeed his sympathy with the benefits of our occupation, a cloud of uncertainty remained regarding the legitimacy of his ownership, which impacted any decision making and any long term strategies for these or other units in Smithfield. It was out of his hands. The Complex continued to grow with grants from the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht for a new lighting and sound rig, other equipment and core costs funded by the Historic Area Rejuvenation Project (HARP) via Dublin City Council and a new Youth Theatre supported by the City of Dublin Youth Services Board (CDYSB) and National Association of Youth Drama (NAYD). As the Complex became more sophisticated, the rents rose, though never to a commercial level, and income was then able to support indigenous artistic endeavours.

In 2012, NAMA, on the foot of eviction notices, brought The Complex to court and our occupation was terminated. Our case was simple: if an active commercial tenant had agreed to take a lease, then The Complex would move aside. Tesco had been hovering, but their planning application had been denied on appeal and it had been made clear to The Complex that its interest would not be sustained without a drinks licence. Tesco has reapplied and been denied again this year.

The units remain vacant one and a half years later.

Relationships were built with core clients such as DIT, NCAD, IADT, PhotoIreland, the Dublin Fringe Festival and the Winter Solstice.

These links have been maintained following our move to the current Complex spaces in Benburb Street that comprise an administrative hub in an old butchers shop and a smaller quirky gallery space in an

adjacent old shop (C3). At the end of the street, beside the entrance to the National Museum of Decorative Arts and History in Collins' Barracks, is located a gallery (C2) that fronts onto the LUAS line, Croppy Acre and a south facing window span of 200 feet, attracting the positivity of intermittent sun-streams and a substantial daily footfall.

From Smithfield to Benburb Street, The Complex has evolved into a multidisciplinary resource for artists working in diverse disciplines. The organisation was founded in order to facilitate practices that were difficult to place in main stream contexts, in both physical and social terms. At The Complex, through the shape and planning of our spaces and the way in which it is used and managed, we have attempted to achieve a spirit of inclusivity and intimacy. Our focus is on work that is interdisciplinary, complex, provocative and accessible that ranges across visual art, design, industrial design, architecture, urban and innovative arts technology, dance, performance art and live theatre. In relation to theatre, a key aspect of our overall programme includes a youth theatre for 14 – 19 year-olds that is now in its second year.

The Complex is now led by Artistic Director Vanessa Fielding and myself – the Visual Arts Director – and it is supported by a large diaspora of artists and contributors that have collected since 2009. It is governed by a board of five directors, which is currently chaired by Angel Luis Gonzelez, Director of PhotoIreland. It has charitable status, affording exemptions in rates and taxes that are critical to our survival.

It is non-profit, limited by guarantee and to date has been funded by Dublin City Council, Department of Arts, Culture and Gaeltacht, the Arts Council, Leargas, TUS, FAS, Jobridge, CDYSB, NYCI and FARE. The Complex programme is made up of projects originated by ourselves, shows by invited guest artists and ‘outside events’ that hire the space. It is a non-commercial entity: our objectives are solely to produce and promote a programme with integrity and artistic value.

The visual arts programme is an integral part of the overall scheduling of The Complex. We deliver a safe, affordable facility for artists exhibiting their work, at the same time providing a forum for recent visual art graduates and artists that have just begun to exhibit.

This spring / summer, The Complex Gallery (C2) will continue to house NCAD Masters show, DIT shows and looks forward to accommodating The PhotoIreland Festival in July which includes the return of BurnIn Company. The Complex Gallery was formally launched in July 2009, producing ‘Yawn’, a group show by artists including: Roger O Neill, Paul Hickey, Terry Markey, Sarah O Neill and myself. I had worked with these artists before and selected them in the knowledge that their work would fit the ethos of the space in terms of accessibility and artistic value. From there came a series of exhibitions by invited artists: ‘Shul’ included work by Jane Locke and Judy Foley, while a solo show by Mario Sughi of graphic paintings was a new direction for The Complex. Some of these artists still return to exhibit their work with The Complex on a regular basis, such as Paul Hickey and Sarah O Neill; Roger O Neill will produce a solo show for the gallery this September.

Once the tenancy in Benburb Street was secured in 2012, The Complex produced a piece of mine, Wait, which dealt with reproductive institutionalisation. The space as-was suited this installation perfectly: the piece fitted the work and the work fitted the piece aesthetically, politically, geographically and historically.

Submissions are accepted all year round for new innovative work for the gallery. We can be contacted through our website or by email; our programme is usually devised based upon our own research, ie studio or gallery visits. The installation of exhibitions is funded by ourselves, though unfortunately funds are not abundant enough to pay exhibiting artists; this is obviously something we would like to be able to do in the future.

In ‘C3’ on Benburb Street, just beside our office, we are facilitating the Dublin Creative Therapy Centre, a group of art therapists who are the only service providers of art therapy for young people and children in Dublin. All our visual art spaces are on Benburb Street in an attempt to galvanise interest and support for the regeneration of the area.

The Complex is committed to maintaining its nucleus within the north west inner city, where many links have been established with local community groups and surrounding businesses, and partnerships have been forged with like-minded practitioners, viewers and a strong audience base. We are currently in negotiations with Dublin City Council for a new permanent home on Benburb Street that will have artists’ studios, a gallery and an open plan performance venue. This will give The Complex the necessary security to fully realise its objectives and ambitions, established and demonstrated in the pilot years in Smithfield, in a new thriving centre in Benburb Street.

Annemarie Kilshaw is Visual Arts Director at The Complex www.thecomplex.ie

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

17

VAI Consultancy

Connolly + Cleary,Time is a dimension like any other, digital video commissioned by RPA, Dublin, 2013

Connolly + Cleary,Real Time Rolling Shutter, Clarity, DCU

Connolly + Cleary,Real Time Rolling Shutter, installed at LCGA, Limerick

Connolly + Cleary,Time is a dimension like any other, digital video commissioned by RPA Dublin, 2013

Connolly + Cleary,Time is a dimension like any other, digital video commissioned by RPA Dublin, 2013

Connolly + Cleary, research image based onJacques Henri Lartique'sUne Delage au grand prix de l’Automobile-Club de France de 1912

Anorthoscopic Effects Anne Cleary of CONNOLLY / CLEARy DISCUSSES ‘Look Both Ways’, AN INNOVATIVE DIGITAL PUBLIC ART COMMISSION MANAGED YB VAI FOR THE RAILWAY PROCUREMENT AGENCY. If Socrates leave his house today... was the title of our proposal for the Luas / Cherrywood public art commission (deadline October 25th 2011).

The phrase is drawn from a quotation from the 'Scylla and Charybdis' chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses, that continues, “…every life is many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-law. But always meeting ourselves”.

This notion of parallel streams of reality running alongside each other, separated only by moments in time, is something that we had previously explored in Moving Dublin (2008), a film that superimposed everyday journeys through Dublin in cars, on bikes, trams, buses, on foot… developing the idea that a single point in space is occupied simultaneously by thousands of parallel lives, experiences and stories.

The Luas / Cherrywood public art commission was managed by Visual Artists Ireland for the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) as part of its consultancy work. When this commission was advertised, we became interested in it as it potentially offered us a long-awaited opportunity to continue our work on urban mobility, a theme that has a particular resonance for both of us as non-drivers by choice. Decisions about how each and every one of us move in a city have such a huge significance in the way cities have evolved in the past, and will influence all our futures.

The idea of movement in the city hit another chord too. At the time, we were deeply involved in developing a new series of works on visual perception, in collaboration with scientists from Dublin and Paris. Patrick Cavanagh, from University Paris Descartes had introduced us to ‘anorthoscopic effects’, a general term for a host of perceived visual distortions that occur while moving at speed. We have all experienced the incredible effect created when passing through countryside on a train: a thick mass of trees becomes virtually transparent as you pass it at speed, farmhouses and machinery are completely visible, only to disappear through the mass of trees as the train slows. The mind knits together fragments of images glimpsed through trees into a complete view, filling in the gaps where necessary.

Another interesting example is the recently documented ‘Hong Kong Peak Tram Distortion Illusion’, where most users of a tram swore that a nearby vertical building leaned over as they passed it on the tram, which followed a particularly hilly route. It seems that the illusion is caused by the interaction between the vertical and horizontal movement that the viewer is experiencing on the tram.

An early example of this type of distortion was captured in a photograph taken by Jacques Henri Lartique in 1912. This famous photograph, Une Delage au grand prix de l’Automobile-Club de France de 1912 shows a Delage Automobile moving forward, but it is strangely distorted. Analysis of the distortion confirms that it was caused by the interaction between the forward movement of the car and the vertical movement of the rolling shutter, which exposes the film through a slot that moves either up or down. Thus, each newly exposed section occurs a millisecond after the previous section. If the object is moving,

this produces an effect of leaning forward or backward, depending on the direction of the movement and the shutter.

All of these ideas came together for the Luas Cherrywood commission and we decided, rather than proposing a physical installation to be installed somewhere along the Luas route, that we would suggest developing a new video installation based on these ideas that would reproduce the effects of distortion from the Lartigue photograph but on the spectator’s image and in real time. This installation would become part of an art / science collaborative exhibition that we were working on for Dublin City of Science 2012 and would then tour, giving the work a wider exposure than it would have in a fixed location.

We won the competition, but then entered into quite a long period of negotiation with the RPA. Visual Artists Ireland worked as a ‘middle man’ between the RPA and us, in terms of drafting the contract and addressing issue of fee delivery and some complex VAT issues relating to the fact that we are based in France.

The RPA were clearly quite excited by the ideas behind the project, but there were a lot of questions concerning exactly what we were going to deliver. What would the RPA have to show for the investment at the end of the day?

We looked at many solutions. Why not have a screen on a Luas quay with a live installation? Or take a live feed from the exhibition?

But each idea had its drawbacks. It was risky to place video equipment on a public tram platform. The equipment would have to be armored to withstand vandalism. Then there was the question of image rights: could we film people and distort them without their permission in a public place? The same question came up about the idea of taking a live feed from the exhibition. Though people make a choice and accept being captured on camera when they enter the exhibition, they may not be quite so happy about having their image broadcast around town.

Finally, we came to an agreement with the help of VAI. We would develop the interactive artwork, plus a new video artwork filmed on the Luas, all to tour with an exhibition, but we would also produce a smartphone app exploring movement in time that would be available for download to both Android and iPhone. It was a bit of a tall order, but we reckoned we could handle it. We also agreed that though the title, if Socrates..., was evocative enough, we really needed something that related more closely to the LUAS. Hence the title became Look Both Ways, a common message included on signage on all the Luas platforms, but equally relevant to an exhibition about vision.

My partner Denis (Connolly) is a bit of a nerd, but the programming for iPhone and Android was beyond even his capabilities. For this aspect of the project we worked with CLARITY Centre for Sensor Web Development at Dublin City University – a public research laboratory that had helped us in the preparation of our 'Hall of Mirrors' exhibition (Farmleigh March – July 2012, LCGA August 23 – October 5 2012, Solstice Arts Centre October 19 – November 23 2012, Ballina Arts

Centre December 5 2012 – March 4 2013). Our trusty scientists agreed to develop the Android app, and said that they would have a look at the iPhone one too, but wouldn’t guarantee that they could do it; iOS uses completely different code to Android. That was good enough for us to get started.

CLARITY advertised for a summer intern to develop the app, and meanwhile Denis and I got down to work on the video project. The Luas piece was straightforward enough, but we were having problems with the interactive piece. Denis usually built interactive installations using software called MAX, but the calculations necessary for using MAX to integrate a series of incremental time delays into a moving image in real time were just too much for MAX to handle. We gave CLARITY a call once again and Dr David Monaghan stepped in. “No problem, we can do that for you”. This wasn’t the first time that CLARITY have saved our skins.

CLARITY took on a young Digital Media Engineering graduate – Conor Gallagher – with a background in audiovisual media design, as an intern for the summer of 2012 to work with us on development of both the interactive installation and the app. To start off, we invited him to Paris to talk about the work. We had coffee the first morning and discovered that we were all avid Lost fans, which broke the ice (though Conor refused to give spoilers, we were only half way through the cult TV show at that stage).

Over the summer, David and Conor worked on the code for the interactive piece and sometime in early July they cracked it. We got a delightful short clip by email: Conor and David sitting sensibly at their desks, then they both got up and performed a perfect spagetti-man double helix. We spent the rest of the afternoon trying out hilarious twists and turns with our twin daughters. We knew it there and then: it was a take!

The interactive work was entitled Real time Rolling Shutter and shown as part of our touring exhibition ‘Hall of Mirrors’ at Limerick City Gallery (August 23 – October 5 2012) and in subsequent touring versions of the exhibition at Solstice in Navan and Ballina Arts Centre, before going to Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris as part of the celebrations for the Irish Presidency of the European Union in March 2013.

The iPhone version of the app turned out to be more complicated and took several more months. It too was launched on March 23, 2013 at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, which completed this long and arduous project. In the end, Look Both Ways comprises an interactive video installation, three experimental video works, a slideshow and two smartphone apps, all documented on the website www. lookbothways.ie.

Look Both Ways is exhibited alongside an analysis of the distortion that took place in the original Lartigue photograph, and an exhibition copy of the same, through kind permission of the French Ministère de la Culture. It looks like this project may have quite a long touring life, as I write we are discussing with University Paris Descartes a continuing tour, and there is also a question of exhibiting Look Both Ways at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris in May 2013, for a larger exhibition marking the end of the Irish EU Presidency. À voir...

Anne Cleary www.connolly-cleary.com www.lookbothways.ie

18

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

PROJECT PROFILE

Documenta - Halle, 10/08/12, photo by Martina Mullaney

Enemies of Good Art meeting, at Gosha Macuga's 'The Nature of the Beast' exhibition, Whitechapel Gallery, London 2009, photo courtesy of Enemies of Good Art

Enemies of Good Art Martina Mullaney discusses her ongoing project ‘Enemies of good art’ that interrogatesthe invisibility of mothers in art practice.

There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall women-only or feminist gatherings; it is our aim to appeal to all artists. We do however believe that this is a feminist project.

Cyril ConnollyEnemies of Promise 1938 In London, it is increasingly difficult to attend talks, lectures and The above line was quoted to me during the summer of 2008, when other events aimed at the intellect, accompanied by a small child.

I was about four months pregnant. I am an Irish artist living and While there are endless art-carts and family rooms in publicly funded working in London. After the birth of my daughter I initiated the spaces such as the Tate galleries, there are no publicly advertised dayproject Enemies of Good Art in response to my frustrations around time lectures or talks that are child friendly. If at times gallery staff what I consider to be impediments to art practice for artists with may seem to be sympathetic, the audience most likely will not be. children, such as: outdated views of artists with children by the art While many artists continue to work on a freelance basis, finding world; childcare costs; and the lack of public crèche facilities. Enemies affordable childcare can be as difficult as finding paid work after a of Good Art interrogates the invisibility of mothers in art practice. We period of interruption. Affording childcare to study an exhibition or believe that every artist has the right to practice; having children attend a talk is rarely a possibility for most artists. In November 2010, should not prohibit one from exercising that right. we initiated a series of public lunchtime lectures with Troika Editions In March 2009, while visiting the Goshka Macuga installation in their small gallery space. This series of lectures was also open to The Nature of the Beast at the newly redeveloped Whitechapel Gallery, the public, and children were welcomed as part of the audience. This when my little girl was about three months old, and seeing the was an experiment on our part to see if we could convince a gallery to meeting table the artist had installed, I imagined a large group of work with us, but also to test an audience. Our talks (not to our breast feeding mothers gathered around it so that we might talk surprise) were well attended, the children either played with small about art, creativity and our concerns as new mothers. toys huddled in the corner or listened to the proceedings.

Living in London’s East End with its large population of artists, Since October 2010 we have broadcast on Resonance 104.4FM, most without family or community networks, I knew I was not the the UK's only Arts Council funded radio station. Guests have included: only artist with a small child in need of support. In July of 2009 I artists Wendy Ewald, Rut Blees Luxembourg and Elinor Carucci; organised our first Enemies of Good Art meeting around that large academic and feminist theorists Dr Catherine Grant, Dr Amber table. Without an established email list for this endeavour, I contacted Jacobs and Dr Lisa Baraister; convenor of the Manifesto Club, Josie fellow artists, of all ages, with and without children, to join me in a Appleton; sociologists Paul Halliday and Dr Rachel Thomson; round table discussion. I invited the art writer and critic Jennifer psychologist Dr Tracey Jensen; curators Susan Bright, Helen Knowles, Thatcher to chair. At the time, Jennifer was not a mother; I thought Rachel Anderson, Camilla Brown and Lina Dzuverovic; Lacanian someone with a more objective perspective might make for a more psychoanalyst Bice Benvenuto; philosopher Renata Salecl; and Jude balanced discussion.

Kelly, artistic director of the Southbank Centre.

Over 20 women with babies and or small children attended. For On April 1st 2011, we performed our first action at Tate Modern. our second meeting in the same space we had more than 45 women Our plan was to meet in the Turbine Hall and head straight for our in attendance, most accompanied by children. From the start we secret location: the Rothko Room. More than 20 women with children made it explicitly clear that childcare issues should not be a reason ranging in age form very young babies to very active toddlers, for absence. I was convinced that we could hold meaningful gathered in the Turbine Hall to organise our first pop-up crèche. On conversations around our concerns with our children in tow. This the day, gallery staff refused us access to our intended space. Instead was also a political act, as it became painfully clear to me after I had were invited to use the vast expanse that is the magnificent Turbine given birth that most art and cultural events were now off limits.

Hall. Needless to say, this was not an option – for a creche we needed We have gone on to host public meetings in several venues: the a more contained space, with only one exit we thought the Rothko Turbine Hall at Tate Modern; the ICA, within the installation The Room was the perfect location. After much agitated discussion, we Urgent Need to Struggle, by the Russian Group Chto delat (what is to be eventually settled for a space on level two. We were persuaded by the done?); Chisenhale Gallery; Royal College of Art; at the Southbank fact that it was surrounded by glass on three sides; we thought that at Centre as part of the annual international feminist festival Women of the very least our action might be visible. Once settled, we organised the World; and more recently Tranzit Display Gallery in Prague. ourselves into groups and took turns in looking after the children, so Public meetings have been chaired by the writer and art critic JJ that we might each have a little time to be with the work on display.

Charlesworth, the academic and filmmaker Laura Mulvey and Czech In London there are no crèche facilities in any publicly funded sociologist Jirina Siklova. Meetings are held on a public basis where art spaces, yet major institutions such as the Tate galleries, the anyone with an interest in the subject of creativity after having National Gallery and the Royal Academy to mention a few, actively children is welcome to attend and contribute to the discussion. To invite you to take part as a family – with a view to increasing date, our meetings are predominately attended by women, but a attendance numbers. None actually provide the possibility of you handfull of men have attended some of our larger meetings. Men are studying the work on display while your child is happily entertained not excluded from our events, and we do not advertise them as without you in a crèche. If organisations like the Scottish National

Assembly and Ikea can successfully operate such facilities, why can't major art institutions do so? Enemies of Good Art believe that major art institutions should provide such facilities as the norm; we're not interested in organising and running 'Big Society' style do-it-yourself crèches.

During August of 2012, I visited Documenta 13. As circumstances dictated, I travelled with my daughter, who by then was three and a half years old. While being there was an unforgettable experience, I came away feeling frustrated and angered by how little of the work I could study. Not to mention the hostility we felt from the mostly white, serious, middle class, art going audience towards her presence and indeed mine for taking her. As a result, Enemies of Good Art have written to the organisers of Documenta requesting that they consider crèche facilities in the planning of Documenta 14. We are in the process of making the same request to other art institutions.

Through my work on Enemies of Good Art, my primary research suggests that childcare is still a feminist issue, while fears around children as impediments to creativity, mobility and flexibility are major concerns for many practicing artists.

Within the confines of the art world in relation to practicing, committed artists, the subject of the family is still a taboo. Many women artists are deciding not to have children as they feel unsupported at home by partners, and in a more public context by the state and art institutions. The reality of precarious working conditions for many artists compounds the problem. In Britain, the current national gap in pay between men and women is 15%. In London it is 23%. Currently in the UK, 93% of women continue to carry the burden and responsibility of childcare. We pay the highest rate of childcare in London than anywhere else in the world.

Right now we are enjoying a resurgence of feminist activities across the board with regards to issues surrounding the sex industry, unequal pay and domestic violence – to mention a few. While collectives and activist groups campaign for an end to unpaid work within the cultural sector, an end to violence against women and against the sexualisation of women, many activist groups are also looking at the position of the mother and how she might be supported. This is achieved by providing childcare within collective activist spaces and support on the ground during actions and demonstrations. The art world, however, continues to ignore the needs of the artist with children.

Enemies of Good Art held its first international public meeting in Prague in October 2012 and will soon host its first meetings in Scotland; and very recently contributed to Visual Artists Ireland’s Get Together 2013 in Dublin. Enemies of Good Art has secured a project space in the East End of London. From this collective space housing other activist groups, Enemies of Good Art will run campaigns, continue to research and host events for artists with children present.

Martina Mullaney www.enemiesofgoodart.org

The Visual Artists’News Sheet

Critique Supplement Edition 12 July / August 2013

'Northern Ireland: 30 Years of Photography' The MAC & Belfast Exposed, Belfast 9 May – 7 July 2013 This exhibition’s title, ‘Northern Ireland: 30 Years

Armagh Louth Border – or other signifiers of the

of Photography’ suggests an exhaustive survey of

legacy of the troubles alluded to in a bland or

photographic work. But while it is certainly an

oblique way, that are no less menacing despite a

ambitious undertaking, a too literal reading of the

lack of heavily armed soldiers or masked men.

title would render it something of a misnomer. As Karen Downey, the exhibition’s curator, is quick to

David Farrell’s unnerving and often beautiful

point out in the accompanying brochure, it is

series, Innocent Landscapes (2000), refers to those

better understood as a showing of “new art-

who have vanished over the decades of conflict

documentary practices, more often produced for

and whose remains are concealed in the six

the gallery space and the photo-book than for press

counties’ boglands and meadows. Following the

and media”.1 In fact, this specific focus offers much

authorities charged with finding these remains, he visits lonely spots by night, honing in on a bank of cut peat, a hole made by a digger and what we could assume is darkly humorous graffiti indicating the location of ‘bodies’ on a lonely country road.

Donovan Wylie’s 2009 documentation of the destruction of the Maze prison bears witness to the undoing of the notorious jail as it is slowly and methodically reduced to rubble, then nothing but a concrete stage, the wrecked forms of its high-tech gauze-like fences unwittingly knitting themselves into spiky sculptures.

More ephemeral monuments are captured in John Duncan’s Bonfire series (2008), which records impressive, towering architectural structures of pallets and tyres. The ambitions of one group of pyre-builders, resulting in a structure cleverly constructed to resemble an ocean liner, referencing Belfast’s shipbuilding past – another part of the city gone forever. Paul Seawright’s rusting, rotting, Union Jack-shaped Gate, Belfast (1997) also adds poignancy and speaks of a once-thriving industrial past.

It’s images like these, given space and breadth in The MAC, that perfectly illustrate what Fionna Barber has called the evolution of a particularly nuanced and reflective “conflict aesthetic” in Northern Irish art.2 Such images provide respite from the kind of traumatic and sensationalist

Phillip Jones Griffiths,Soldier Behind the Shield, Northern Ireland, 1983, image courtesy of Magnum

to facilitate re-readings of Northern Irish photography, which has suffered from limited classifications as a trope of photojournalism associated with ‘the troubles’ or fraught media imagery.

The exhibition is shown at two locations: Belfast Exposed Gallery and a larger display of works spanning three floors at The MAC. At Belfast Exposed, aspects of the city during the 1970s and early 1980s are explored through works including Victor Sloan’s Belfast Zoo III. In this image from 1983, Sloan shows us a chimpanzee behind heavily grafittied Perspex, caught in the glare of the camera’s flash. This work sits alongside the equally uncompromising The Blue Skies of Ulster by Willie Doherty (1986) and the almost Turin Shroud-like 1973 image Soldier Behind Shield, Northern Ireland Hannah Starkey,Butterfly Catchers, 1999, image courtesy of the Maureen Paley Gallery

by Welsh war photographer Philip Jones Griffiths.

The works at The MAC explore the cacophony of conflict and trauma in a more muted, yet equally potent way. Here, a generation of photographers examines the attendant detritus as a kind of ‘material culture’ of war. Nearly all of the images on show are unpopulated by human beings; the focus instead is on objects, places and spaces that have arisen because of the conflict. These may be literally leftovers and refuse – piles of shotgun cartridges on a shooting range in the case of Anthony Haughey’s 1998 Shotgun Cartridges

Victor Sloan,Belfast Zoo III, 1983, image courtesy of the artist

John Duncan,Boucher Road, Belfast, 2004, image courtesy of the artist

media images traditionally associated with conflict.

That these hushed reflections can be as equally as disquieting as their more graphic predecessors owes much to the recognition that menace that can exist outside of the battle zone as well as within it.

Undeniably, the exhibition’s overall thrust is that conflict and the culture of conflict have proven dominant issues in art-documentary focused photographic practices associated with Northern Ireland. Works that address other themes seem somewhat fragmented from this core argument.

Examples would include Hannah Starkey’s striking Butterfly Catchers (1990) and Gareth McConnell’s Portraits and Interiors from the Albert Bar (1999) that seem present only to remind us that, in the words of Pavel Barter, “Northern Irish photography, subconscious or otherwise, exists in a state of trauma”.3 Anne Mullee is a Dublin-based writer and curator. She is currently based at The LAB gallery where she is a freelance curatorial assistant and gallery coordinator.

Notes 1. Karen Downey, Arts Edit: Season 5, The MAC / Belfast Exposed, 2013, 2 2. Fionna Barber,Archiving Place and Time: Contemporary Art Practice in Northern Ireland since the Belfast Agreement, Millennium Court Arts Centre and Manchester MetropolitanUniversity, 2009, 3 3. Pavel Barter, 'Photography',The Sunday Times (culture section) 5 May, 2013

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet CRITIQuE SuPPLEMENT

July – August 2013

'POV (points of view)' Monster Truck, Dublin 17 May – 15 June 2013

Aisling kane, Kanezo, 2012, C-type print, 85 x 104cm

‘PoiNTs of View’ at Monster Truck is a group show where the artists involved have all addressed how lens based media – mainly photography – functions to represent a subject or a place. They are also connected through having lived or worked in Belfast at some stage in their career.

The Belfast connection is most obvious in the photographs of Aisling Kane. Representations of masculinity and place are intertwined in Kane’s photographs of male friends and members of her family from the Ardoyne area of Belfast. Ardoyne is an area of Belfast that has been frequently represented in the media as a sectarian flashpoint especially with provocative images of Orangemen clashing with the local catholic community. Kane attempts to redress the balance by offering a different, much quieter and intimate perspective of the community.

Kane’s work is very much within the realist tradition of twentieth-century photography pioneered by Walker Evans and August Sander. Her photographs evoke the “tender cruelty” of Evans’s work; there is a palpable vulnerability in James (2012), bare-chested and tattooed, the story of his life written across his body. I wondered what had happened to the ‘Philip 1985 – 2003’ marked in ink across his chest.1 In subtle ways, Section 31, a low point in the history of media censorship in Ireland, comes to mind in Ciaran Hussey’s installation Dead Air Air. The censorship of the media in coverage of The Troubles is somehow echoed in the found footage of journalists in that ‘in between time’ of broadcasts.

The ‘dead air’ of the title suggests the mute voices of the Irish media at a time when discussion and debate was needed more that ever.

Possibly one of the greatest and worst aspects of the Web is the seemingly unmediated dissemination of information. Audiences’ increasing appetite for sensational imagery and an acceptance and desensitised attitude towards violent imagery shows no sign of decreasing.

With this in mind, perhaps, Duncan Ross takes the notorious image of soldier Lynndie England posing with a row of Abu Garub prisoners and has it remade as a kind of ‘Bayeux tapestry’ for current audiences. There is a curious flattening of meaning of the image, which is modest in size and alludes to the domestic labour and retelling of stories. As Marshal McCluhan famously stated, “the message is the medium”.2 Here, the piece becomes more about public attitudes towards imagery of this kind and less about the content: images of human suffering and degradation.

On a lighter note, the photographic projects of Jorden Hutching, Tonya Mc Mullen and Andrea Theis offer different perspectives on the ideals of tourism and what tourists want to take away in terms of a photographic record of a particular place.

Magnhild Opdøl 'Point of No Return' Butler Gallery, kilkenny 15 June – 28 July 2013

Ciaran Hussey, Dead Air, 2012, three-channel AV installation, Monster Truck

Hutchings and McMullen’s participatory postcard project Here You Go invited members of the public to mark and describe a place of personal significance on a postcard mapping a mile radius of Gallery PS2 in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter. The artists then visited the sites and photographed them. On display in the gallery is a series of postcard-size photos alongside the original marked postcard with comments from the participants.

The comments and photographs ranged from the banal to the prosaic, but I particularly liked these two: “where I first kissed a boy, decided I no longer wanted to kiss girls” and “war memorial so much suffering so much resilience”.

Anyone who has ever tried to capture an iconic building or monument as a record of their holiday (haven’t we all?) will smile when looking at Andrea Theis’s photographic intervention Reviewing Image Disturbance. Carried out over five days, Theis placed herself front and centre of Weimer’s famous monument to Goethe and Schiller, frustrating and confusing the public by becoming an interloper in their holiday snaps. She recorded reactions to her intervention and shows these in the gallery. In her pictures, she appears to remain calmly stoic and impervious to requests for her to move. There is a curious tension in her position, which is one of power and vulnerability. I enjoyed her tongue in cheek categorising of the public reaction to the event by what appeared to be anger, confusion, bargaining and amusement.

As a group show, ‘Points of View’ holds together very well, and the Belfast connection is an interesting one. There are tenuous undercurrents of anxiety threaded through the work, hints of a shared trauma. Is this perhaps an unconscious response to living somewhere where violence has tainted communities and everyday life for a long time? Somehow it is impossible to ever know how a place will affect us, but there is something in the lines of Seamus Heaney’s poem Clearences that gives a sense of politics, memory and place:

eNTRy into ‘point of no return’ first brings viewers into contact with four pairs of vintage postcards depicting deer. The pairings, all of which share the title some sort of truth, are striking for their similarities and dissimilarities. For example, one presents two versions of the same picture – in colour and in black and white – but the proportion of the images differ slightly and the names of the locations printed on the postcards do not completely agree. In another set we cannot know which scene is correct. One is obviously right way round; the other has been printed in reverse. A third pairing offers two views of the same animals, but the angles from which they have been photographed are not the same. Looking at them perplexes the viewer.

They operate as visual puzzles, but their exact meaning eludes detection. On one hand these curious and quaintly nostalgic mementos appear meaningless; on the other the array of discrepancies holds my attention. As the eyes dart back and forth absorbed in a comparison of features, the mind attempts to discover the purpose of these works.

During this process, I imagine that the images refer to the representation and misrepresentation of animals, or the historical practice of commercialising and romanticising nature, or even the many symbols represented by deer – but none of these ideas seem to capture the gist. Opdøl’s pairings hover in an ambiguous realm. Situated between falseness and verity, these ersatz depictions not only sidestep triteness, they also introduce us to a gnawing tension that pervades the entire exhibition.

What surprised me, though, is how Opdøl explores this sense of unease through vastly divergent themes and materials. She not only expands on the use of deer imagery, but also includes junk food and its packaging, matches and a candle, and scenes of nature and abandoned wooden buildings in works that reference Nordic and North American forests, animated film and the television series Twin Peaks. Her expansive work We’re afraid to go home in the dark features dozens more postcards of deer in which the artist has blacked out all or most of the background. The technique bestows a caught-in-the-headlights kind of look to these animals, which simultaneously proffers feelings of fear and surprise. In the same space, Fawn, a tiny bronze Bambi-like figure imprisoned under a glass dome, seems poised for escape, if only that dome were to be lifted. Its face is oriented not to viewers, but toward the gallery wall.

Further along, 299 stacked pink doughnut boxes evoke hollow sweetness and emotional eating. Titled Invitation to Love, the sculpture borrows its rubric from the fictional soap opera – a show-within-a-show – that appeared in the first season of Twin Peaks. The structure is preceded by Pilot, an unfolded and framed sample box that Pilot delineates the product in its original and unassembled state. Themes of light and darkness populate the third gallery. Here Opdøl presents The Silence After After, a pencil rendering of a compact and anonymous forest space just after a heavy fall of snow. Illuminated in the weak light of winter, the frosty scene conveys a powerful sense of stillness.

This impression is amplified by Being in Darkness Darkness, a bronze sculpture of a burnt out candle and two used matches, and the drawing Three days later that represents the same pair of matches. Together they evoke a potential crisis as they intimate a loss of heat and light.

In the fourth and final gallery, the juxtaposition of several old, scratched and faded forest views with a substantial number of bronze doughnuts creates a bittersweet apposition. The dilapidated state of the buildings in the photographs express abandonment, finality and decay, yet the shiny bronze doughnuts offer a powerful distraction to these sombre documents. Calling up cliché jokes about police officers predisposed to consuming empty calorie foods, these objects also immortalise these fluffy, deep fried rings of dough. Their presence not only attracts attention, it also averts it. Unlike Claes Oldenburg’s amusingly soft and oversize hamburgers, which celebrate the everyday, Opdøl’s accurately scaled and weighty trinkets express something more sinister. She has called them The Necessary Lie. ‘point of no return’ is devised of multiple and diverse pairings that consist of likenesses, faint echoes and contrasts, speaking of the richly textured world around us. Presenting examples ranging from the bland to redolent, exact to inexact, and unique to mass produced, Opdøl depicts this world as a place of sudden changes, consequences and risk, obsessive habits and misplaced desires, and where our relationship to and understanding of nature has eroded.

John Gayer is a writer / artist based in Dublin.

A cobble thrown a hundred years ago keeps coming at me, the first stone Aimed at a great-grandmother’s turncoat brow.

Alison Pilkington is an artist based in Dublin, she is currently undertaking a practice based PhD in the painting dept at NCAD. Notes 1. The curator and writer Lincoln kirstein described Walker Evans’s photographs as having a tender cruelty.Taken from the essay 'Photography Itself' by Emma Dexter from Cruel and Tender: The Real in Twentieth Century Photography, Tate Modern, 2003 Photography 2. Marshall Mcluhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man Mentor, New y york, 1964

Magnhild Opdøl ‘point of no return’, installation view, Butler Gallery, kilkenny, image courtesy the artist

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet CRITIque SuPPLeMeNT

July – August 2013

'Octagon' (Alison Cronin, Marie Cullen, Sharon Dipity, Paul Forde-Cialis, Ian Humphreys, Tess Leak, Susan Montgomery and Sarah Ruttle) West Cork Arts Centre, Skibereen, 4 May – 8 June 2013

Marie Cullen, Sceach an Óir, 2013, mixed media on paper

Tess Leak, Here, Still (detail), 2013, film

Gillian Fitzpatrick 'Die Welt von Morgen (Tomorrow’s World)' Goethe Institut, Dublin 8 May – 21 June 2013 exhibitionS in the Goethe Institut’s Return

Machine – made from ‘Bellaroma’ coffee tins and

Gallery have the benefit of a beautifully compact and architecturally distinctive space, with a lineage

foil covered knitting needles – is a neatly constructed assemblage of domestic parts.4 These

of frequently interesting artistic projects, guided

objects possess the simple charm of carefully made

over the years by several distinctive curatorial

models from a playschool project; they are not

voices.

faithful reproductions of technology but more like

Gillian Fitzpatrick’s exhibition (curated by

gestures to make it humble. A roughly made

Jonathan Carroll) takes a retrospective look at the

facsimile of a sine-wave monitor, Wave, looks like

influential German band Kraftwerk, using a 1975

it was unearthed from a lunar bog. A Bakelite

episode of Tomorrow’s World as her starting point.1 Fitzpatrick is interested in the future from the

telephone, Kling Klang 1, is remade as an oversized

perspective of the past and, in previous works like

item from a Flintstones souvenir shop rather than

Dublin 8 Space Project Project, focused on the restaging of

equipment from Kraftwerk’s onomatopoeically

events associated with the early period of space

named recording studio. Fitzpatrick’s reconstructed

exploration. Emerging from a music scene with its

past is childlike, an imaginary world supervised by

own cosmic affiliations, Kraftwerk provide a

a Dusseldorf hippy perhaps; one that recognises

parallel fixation on explorative hardware, and a

wonder in the humblest schuh-box.

model in popular music that served as a template for much of what came after.

Paul Forde-Cialis, Tell me again, 2013, photo-transfer collage

Something flutters in the corner of my eye and vanishes as soon as I swivel my head. A pair of white hands looms out from the wall. A shadow transmogrifies into a man. A starched shirt collar binds his neck; his face is plastered with a lunatic grin.

I was 17 when I first applied for art school, and I believed that silence and contemplation were the forces driving creativity. University quickly disabused me of my notions. It taught me that artists need to ‘network’, ‘collaborate’ and ‘discuss’ in order for their work to live beyond the studio.

Every day, galleries and art centres across the country set this in motion through education programmes. While these courses, classes and workshops expand the horizons of the people living locally, they also benefit the practitioners who coordinate each programme, providing an opportunity to converse beyond the confines of the artistic community.

West Cork Arts Centre’s schedule of ‘creative learning’ reaches from dance classes to writing groups and embraces people from all stages of experience, from the curious and playful young to the equally curious and playful elderly. The title of ‘Octagon’ is derived from the number of participating artists, and each also works as a facilitator for the centre’s education programme.

Unlike the straight lines and fixed angles of its namesake shape, the work is predominantly loose in style and searching by nature. Colour and form undulates from near translucence to blazing intensity, from diaphanous contours to sturdy replicas. Underlying it all there is a distinct quietness; the works compliantly align themselves.

Untitled by Sarah Ruttle consists of 36 pieces of folded paper, each shaped like a toddler-sized shoe with the toe intricately snipped into a pattern.

White on white, they tremble gently, reminding me both of the paper chains I made in primary school and the lace-like doilies upon which my grandmother sits her cakes. The memory of sugary treats and childhood is sustained by Susan Montgomery’s reinvented sweet wrappers. As an accompaniment to her twinkling sculptures, there’s a video piece that traces the aimless path of a shadow scuttling and soaring against a wall.

Ruttle and Montgomery have chosen to work with the flimsiest materials, yet once combined with movement and light, these fragments take on a

Susan Montgomery, frame, 2013, cabinet card frame, sweet wrappers

silent immensity. The only other video is similarly daydream inducing. In Here, Still by Tess Leak, a compilation of drawings and found images blink by to a soundtrack of field recordings from Cape Clear, the southernmost of West Cork’s inhabited islands. The sounds convey a strong sense of place, a pervading calm.

Ian Humphrey’s paintings depict glittering glasses and polished fruit. The forms are bold, but Humphrey’s stolid technique and stark titles belie a quietness of subject matter. Marie Cullen’s abstract triptych displays the boldest colours of all.

Her brush strokes writhe and leap out from their imprisoning paper. The people in Paul FordeCialis’s photo-transfer collages look as though they too have escaped – this time from old vaudeville posters. There are flickers of psychosis in their achromatic expressions, yet I feel a strange compassion for these long-dead vaudevillians, for the ignominious way they’ve been preserved by history.

I Found Myself in a World with Two Sons by Alison Cronin is a graceful balance of carbon marks and projected light. Cronin is playing with the word ‘sons’ as what we see are two scribbled, coin-sized ‘suns’ spooling up and down from below the largest of three figures. The piece seems to be saying something about the conducting of family life, that it is as seemingly simple yet realistically tricky as spinning a yo-yo. Finally, Sharon Dipity’s work also concerns itself with the rifts and bounds between people, the frail equilibrium of everything.

Cronin and Dipity’s creations certainly show the influence of their parallel work as facilitators, as most of the selected pieces convey that some aspect of this interaction has been carried over into each artist’s studio practice. The exhibition as a whole exemplifies how this is, ultimately, mutually educational and mutually edifying. An artist working in isolation produces a different kind of work to that on show here; an artist driven solely by the force of silent contemplation makes things which are more detailed, repetitive, process-driven.

Whereas the paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs and films comprising ‘Octagon’ are clearly drawn from the experience of being amongst people, in all their peculiar glory. This work is generally rougher, rawer, and humming with empathy.

Sara Baume is a writer based in East Cork.

clay sculpture. Its bulky demeanor resembles an

A short video, Dummy Run, presented on a mini DVD player, shows a female figure (the artist)

With its exclusively electronic sounds and

rehearsing some rudimentary robotics to the

radio-friendly song structures, Kraftwerk’s 1974

accompaniment of a stop-start version of

release, Autobahn, transcended its origins in

Kraftwerk’s Showroom Dummies. Imitating the

Krautrock and led to the Dusseldorf quartet’s first

song’s promotional video, the DVD’s looming

appearance on Top of the Pops. Not everyone at the

shadows also made me think about how much the

BBC believed these ‘Mench Machines’ were fully

famously unexpressive German band learned from

human, and an incredulous DJ introduced the

German expressionist cinema. I thought of the

dapperly deadpan Ralf, Karl, Wolfgang and Florian

1920s film The Golem and, more obviously perhaps,

with the words, “here comes data’s distant relatives”.2 They were spotted, presumably, by the

of the ‘Maschinenmensch’ from Fritz Lang’s

boffins at Tomorow's World and soon became television’s favorite future-heads.

Metropolis.

Part of the pleasure of Goethe Institut shows can be discovering artworks outside of the gallery

In The Future of Nostalgia, Svetlana Boym

space. The ground floor Reading Room contained a

writes, “The twentieth century began with utopia and ended with nostalgia”.3 Nostalgia, she suggests,

magazine rack with a re-imagined cover for the

is not just a harkening back to the past, but a

albums were often re-titled to fit other languages

yearning for a past that never was. Nostalgia is a

and here it is given a rebaptism in Irish as An Duine

superimposition of two images – a reconstruction

Meaisin, with the artist herself in the guise of the

of the past comprising what we ‘know’ now over

red-shirted Kraftwerkers. I encountered a second

what we didn’t know back then.

telephone on the way to the basement loo.

band’s 1978 album Die Mensch-Maschine. Kraftwerk’s

Presented like a display of music archeology,

Fashioned in grey felt, Kling Klang 2 evokes the

Fitzpatrick’s rudimentary reconstructions of Kraftwerk’s ‘instruments’ conjures a time, ironically

spirit of another famous Dusseldorf resident, Joseph Beuys. What might have happened had the

enough, when technology was still shaped like

shaman joined the robots in the Kling Klang

specific objects. Before touch became synonymous

laboratory? That’s a reimagining of the past I

with ‘touch-screen’, even Kraftwerk’s pioneering

would dearly love to see.

drum-machines bore some resemblance to the stretched animal skins of their origin. The artist’s nattily handcrafted gizmos seem to return technology to a more primordial state.

Schlager 1 is made from polyurethane resin and plywood, a row of four wall-mounted discs recreating a quartet of vinyl records, while Drum-

John Graham is an artist based in Dublin. notes 1. The popular Tomorrow’s World was a program dedicated to identifying future trends and ran on the BBC from 1965 – 2003 2. 12 years later, Star Trek: The Next Generation, introduced an android character, Lieutenant Commander Data, who looked like he was auditioning for a role in a Kraftwerk tribute act 3. Svetlana Boym, The Future of Nostalgia, Basic Books, 2002 4. Schlager means ‘hit’; more specifically, Schlager music refers to a form of queasily sentimental euro-pop

Gillian Fitzpatrick, Die Welt von Morgen, 2013, polyurethane resin, metal, plastic, wood, paint

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet Critique Supplement

July – August 2013

Eamon Colman 'Scattered Showers' Triskel Christchurch, Cork 16 May – 31 August

Folk Fiction Translations in Material Cultures Gareth Kennedy

13 July - 4 August 2013

Eamon Coleman, A light white iron wind, oil on Somerset paper, 600 x 910 mm, 2013

How does one explain this paradox: that other painters are present, yet no one but Colman is there?

TS Eliot’s Tradition and The Individual Talent (1920) suggests the idea, transposed, that modern painting too has its vital – impersonal – legacy, which never loses its relevance. This is very different from postmodernist eclecticism. Colman’s are image marks, intensely personal yet entirely impersonal layers of material experience. A painting is a cultural Eamon Coleman, The astonishing art of cold and snap, 2013 artefact, something which neo-formalist approaches INVITATION failand to acknowledge.

Late Date – Friday 29th June Please join us for the opening of Between Art Industry. at 6.30pm. Join us for a glass Time was, when oppositional writers in theeconomist West observations about language and poetry To be opened

by Finbarr Bradley; andThese lecturer, of wine and an informal tour of during Friday the Dark Ages (which corresponded the Craft 25th May at 6.30pm in the with National Gallery. the exhibition. might seem out of place, until you notice Colman’s full Renaissance of Arab culture) investigated long titles. They’re so long as to become more than a happiness in a profusion of writings. Happiness was discreet form of signing or primeval marking of topicalBetween when serfdom and slavery were still normal. a rope flung Art and Industry offers an manufacturing interritory.

Ireland and They the UK. read as aspirational, FIND US opportunity to explore shifting Utilising an evocative mix of If this review could have athe title it would be ‘In Pursuit across the void of sense, across the gap between relationships between craft and installation, film, photography and Castle Yard, Kilkenny City of Happiness: a Painter’s Journey’.

That the pursuit industry and in doing so, to understand objects, of this exhibition privatereflects studioonand public space. the wider contexts of our past and the consequences and costs of Ireland happiness, orand affirmative art,ourisfuture. not a mainstream Colman’s present make plans for shifting patterns of production, andtitles evoke, like poetry, rather than +353 (0)56 7796147 the advent of globalisation, on the potential describe for more sustainable concern ofWith contemporary art – too often issue-bound, or narrate. Visual poetry? Wordsworth’s methods of manufacturing have new models. Between Art and topicalshifted – is something the philosopher Alain Badiou dramatically. Outsourcing Industry features work by Neil definition of poetry as info@nationalcraftgallery.ie emotion recollected in of labour to other countries has Brownsword, Róisín de Buitléar has criticised (Manifesto of Affirmationism, 2005).

Well, the hintswww.nationalcraftgallery.ie of sky and land, tree or resulted in the decline of industrial and Molloy andtranquility?

Sons.

‘Scattered Showers’ is a festival of saturated cloud, remind you of the natural world, so memory colour, in the form of scumbled, layered, glazed, plays its part in sifting and abstracting from distressed pigment, coaxed, dragged or gently wiped phenomenal experience, paring it down to stark across Somerset paper to form abstracted landscapes. shapes, geometric patterns, bold marks, daring These bright colours hardly evoke the desaturated juxtapositions. It is someone else’s Never Never Land colours of ‘soft’ Irish mornings. Rather, the rebellion – here, now and neither. of colour defies the real with the kind of palette you The connection with poetry, as all these titles can only find in a travel brochure or under a suggest, has more to do with rejecting a narrative microscope. I don’t know how it is that these 12 idiom, which Craig Owens once picked out as a new landscape paintings, almost poster sized (60 x 90cm), feature in contemporary art, whereby visual art was hold their own in the Christchurch gallery space allegorical (but, I think – never acknowledged then despite the stained glass and dark pews. or since – also didactic) (The Allegorical Impulse It seems to me that ‘Scattered Showers’ and October, Spring and Summer, 1980). The way a indeed all the work by Colman I have seen is a work painter might pinpoint a feeling, however slight, or a of resistance, expressing, in a difficult craft, mostly passing thought, however ill-constructed, can also be rejected in favour of lens-based media, what the conveyed by naming. Names give shape to things, experience of being happy, vital, grateful to be among including paintings, attempting a correspondence the living – something which eludes us most of the between empirical experience and the mind’s time – might look like. Replace, if you will, the word interpretation of it. But Colman’s titles don’t really ‘happiness’ with ‘beauty’. There is no sign of name. That is why I’m tempted to call them anxious minimalist grids or logocentric dogmas of meaning titles. here, so the eye is led to enjoy Coleman’s painted Maybe his words are superfluous after all. A surface and the mind to ask more and more questions. phrase from Sam Beckett, “the fragment of fragments”, This gaze of mine combines with my personal visual the sheer impossibility of telling, settling for archive, summoning shapes, colours, marks and suggesting instead. Titles which sketch out a story moods; I see the boldness of Abstract Expressionism, the painter is not going to tell you because he wants the lyric paintings of the forgotten (Gastone Novelli, you to imagine it for yourself. That’s how he avoids the best of Afro Basaldella, and many other gestural, today’s didactic art, so dependent on the artist’s drawn, scribbled, feverish, mark-making moments, statement that it fails to make (its own) sense. especially of European Art Informel). But just before Dr. David Brancaleone is lecturer at LIT-LSAD. this neat categorising has time to crystalise, my mind His writing has appeared in Circa, Vertigo, remembers Samuel Palmer’s intimacy or the mystical Experimental Conversations, Irish Marxist landscapes of Cecil Collins, an unfashionable painter who would get his students to draw blind, directly Review, Enclave Review and VAN. He is also a filmmaker. from the mind.

LATE DATE Fri 26th July, 6.30 pm A discussion of the Folk Fiction project and an introduction to his work for the Commonage Summer School, with Gareth Kennedy, Hollie Kearns and Ann Mulrooney.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

23

Institution profile

Bedford Street

Clement McAleer's studio at Queen Street Studios

Under construction, QSS at Bedford Street

Turning Outwards Gail Ritchie, member and Board MEMBER of Queen Street Studios, Belfast, Explores How and why the organisation has moved to its new premises.

Memory is not an accurate record keeper, but spreadsheets are, and thus I can tell the reader that the process of relocating Queen Street Studios, Belfast has taken – almost to the day – four years, upwards of fifty (long) meetings, more than a dozen site visits to various empty buildings, a series of successful and unsuccessful grant applications, two separate tendering processes, as well as countless emails, phone calls and brainstorming sessions. The board has changed several times, studio members have come and gone and funders have written new strategies midway through the process. Continuity has been provided by the dedication of QSS Administrator and artist, Brendan O’Neill, and through the support of present Chair, Dougal McKenzie – who have both had to share the pain of much of the above. In the main, my fellow artist Jennifer Trouton and I have jointly managed the process. What follows is an account not just of the process, but of the motivations, strategic context and future positioning of the group.

Queen Street Studios was established in 1984. Taking its name from the location, the mission of the organisation was to “establish and maintain studio, office, exhibition and workshop facilities for artists whether in premises owned or leased by the company or elsewhere, provided that all the objects of the company shall be exclusively charitable”. The vision was to “promote, improve and advance public education in the arts and to stimulate public interest in the arts for the benefit of the community”.

Despite its previously active and outward facing record of public engagement and sector initiatives, QSS had become, in recent years, not just inward facing, but virtually inaccessible. Over the winter months, it was unworkable. The building itself presented the major

issues relating to accessibility and health and safety – factors which not only posed physical and psychological barriers for the artists, but also offered a less than welcoming face to the public. The gallery was located on the third floor, the studios on the fourth; there was no lift.

The flat roof was not insulated, there was no internal heating system and the fabric of the building itself was rapidly deteriorating.

Internally, the roof was either concrete or wood. Those under the former suffered from unpredictable flooding and falling debris (often sizeable) whilst those under the latter were prey to dripping tar. The winter could be punishing and the summer suffocating. I could go on but it’s germane to stop here and make a point: the building was in the city centre and it was affordable – the rent subsidised by the Arts Council Northern of Ireland (ACNI). In the gallery we showed contemporary work by (mostly) emerging artists, allowing for risk and experimentation – an element that was supported by Belfast City Council. Public funders have strategic requirements, handed down from a higher departmental level and these, in turn, are passed on to the arts. In recent years, we have struggled to argue our case in terms of public benefit, which is a growing priority for many public funding bodies.

In August 2010, ACNI published its Living and Working Conditions of Artists report. While this was a welcome review, its contents revealed nothing new to anyone trying to earn a living from their work, or indeed sustaining their practice through other means.

We had already decided, a year earlier, that the QSS working conditions were no longer acceptable and that the place where art is produced is just as important as where it is consumed. The QSS relocation process, therefore, began in May 2009, with the authoring

of Terms of Reference (TOR) in support of an application towards the commissioning of a feasibility study. This is where the story begins.

The TOR set out the aims and objectives of the project – in short, to find alternative premises which could offer all studio members the same level of accommodation and which had space for a gallery and improved office facilities. The TOR informed the contents of an application to ACNI, under their Capital Projects scheme. The application was successful, allowing a tender process to be initiated, following public procurement guidelines. The contract was awarded to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) whose team included experts in charity law, economics and building.

Before PwC could run the numbers and ‘options appraisals’, they needed QSS to identify potential buildings. This was harder than it sounds even in the middle of an economic downturn when there was no shortage of suitable empty buildings. Jennifer and I pounded the streets of Belfast, noting the many ‘to let’ signs, and arranged viewings either through estate agents or public bodies such as the Department of Social Development (DSD). During this period, we became very familiar with the phrase ‘boutique hotel’. There are many fine old buildings in Belfast that have been designated as boutique hotels yet remain empty and shamefully neglected. That said, several promising buildings materialised and site visits were arranged with the members in attendance. Excitement would build, only to fall, as the buildings were deemed not suitable, or not affordable. In August 2010, QSS arranged a meeting with the visual arts sector, to see if other groups were interested in collaboration. By December 2010, we seemed to have discounted most of the buildings we had viewed and the list of stakeholders with whom we could consult. In addition, the feasibility study was in danger of recommending the worst possible option: do nothing.

6 January 2011 was a particularly cold day. So cold in fact, that I had decided to leave the studio and treat myself to a matinee at the Dublin Road cinema, hoping for some warmth. Afterwards, walking back to the studios along Bedford Street, I was halted in my tracks by the appearance of a large ‘to let’ sign at the former AON insurance building. A viewing was swiftly arranged, and a meeting convened at ACNI with PwC and representatives from the board of QSS. All parties agreed that Bedford Street seemed to be a viable option.

Because of the modest refurbishment costs required, an application could be made through the Equipment Grant scheme, which would be enough for a phased approach, where the first stage was to build the studios. There seemed to be light at the end of the tunnel – although we didn’t realise at the time how long the tunnel was!

Perhaps the most stressful phase of the process was the lengthy negotiations with the agents who were acting on behalf of the building owners. The level of detail required in drawing up leases meant that QSS had to engage a solicitor, and there ensued another round of long, tedious but necessary meetings. During this period, Jennifer and I were visiting Bedford Street, poking at window sills with knives and peering down drains, in order to provide the solicitor with the information needed for the lease. Finally, the lease was signed in November 2012.

As of 10 April 2013, the builders moved in to Bedford Street. Two weeks later, QSS moved in, virtually on top of them! The building is not finished; it does not (yet) reflect all of our aspirations, but we do have the required number of studios and, for the first time, an accessible ground floor gallery. The spaces are bright, clean and airy – professional workspaces for professional artists.

It has been a long, complicated and often frustrating process.

Over a four-year period, life – personal matters and professional practice – demand attention and, fortunately, Jennifer and I were able to work effectively as a team, with one stepping in when the other had to periodically step aside. Throughout, we have had the support of those who have served on present and past boards, the patience of the membership and, it has to be said, the understanding and pragmatism of the ACNI Capital Projects Officer. Work is beginning on the gallery and we anticipate establishing a professional, outward facing presence in our new home. We are known, for now, as QSS at Bedford Street and we have a fresh start and the drive to take us forward into the next 29 years!

Gail Ritchie has been a member of QSS, Belfast since 2002.

Currently working as artist in residence in the History Department of the Ulster Museum, she will exhibit a series of work at the museum from July 2014, to mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War I.

24

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

VAI Membership activities

VAI Advocacy & Support

Focus & Exposure

The Pursuaders

Sara O’Gorman reports on VAI’s third Show and Tell evening, featuring contributions by seven Belfast-Based Artists.

NIAMH LOONEY OUTLINES VAI’S engagement with academic RESEARCH INTO CULTURAL POLICIES, arts AUDIENCES and the social impact of the visual arts.

Work by Jane Butler

21

Work by Sara O'Gorman

Performance by Amy Brooks

Work by Liam Crichton

Tonya McMullan, Here You Go, 2011

Sinéad Bhreathnach-Cashel, Camp Site, Catalyst Arts, Belfast

The visual arts sector is steadily recognising a

which VAI and the wider visual arts sector can

greater and more urgent need to initiate research

assist the colleges in identifying research needs, in

with which to support its advocacy and lobbying

order to improve the quality of research and to

activities for the sector at regional, national and

make meaningful and useful contributions to

even international levels. There appears to be a

supporting the visual arts.

deficit of research on the Irish visual arts sector,

A key point for VAI is to establish whether

particularly in relation to public policies and issues

there is existing research out there – completed or

of audiences and the social impact of the visual

in progress – that might be relevant and useful to

arts. Also, in many cases, existing models of

the visual arts sector, but which is currently

research, in their scope and methodologies, are

inaccessible outside of the colleges. Attendant

beyond the financial and administrative means of

issues include: How can VAI understand and

visual arts organisations that wish to conduct this

translate the topics being researched for non-

type of work.

academic audiences and applications? And exactly

seconds to talk about each image – compelled each

However, there are a number of positive

what kind of research does the sector really need to

based artists – Amy Brooks, Jane Butler, Sinéad

of us to condense our practice to the bare essentials.

developments afoot. Firstly, toward the end of this

provide a strong basis for advocating for the visual

Bhreathnach-Cashell, Liam Crichton, Miguel Martin

Generally, we felt this was more rewarding than

year, we can look forward to the inaugural issue of

arts to government agencies?

and Tonya McMullan – made our way to Dublin to

talking at length or showing fewer images. It was

the Irish Journal of Arts Management and Cultural

Our inaugural meeting, held this May, broadly

participate in the third Show and Tell evening

also felt that this held the audience’s attention

Policy. An initiative based at the School of Art

discussed such questions, but also identified a

organised by Adrian Colwell, Visual Artists Ireland’s

throughout all our seven short talks. The atmosphere

History and Cultural Policy at University College

number of challenges. Firstly, the non-public status

Listings Editor and Membership Assistant. Sinead

was relaxed and the audience seemed genuinely

Dublin (UCD), the journal aims to be an exciting

of MA research – which is not subject to same

and I took the opportunity to visit Tino Seghal’s

interested in our work as we found out after at the

and new peer-reviewed, open access e-journal that

rigours of the peer-review process associated with

work This Situation in IMMA’s new residence at

wine reception, when we had the opportunity to

will focus on publishing new research on the arts

work at PhD level – was noted. In some cases this

Earlsfort Terrace before meeting everyone at the VAI

talk to the staff and attendees.

and cultural sector in Ireland.

was problematic as some very useful and valuable

On Tuesday 23 April, myself and six other Belfast-

In my opinion, there doesn’t seem to be much

A campaign by the National Campaign for the

work was being done at this level. The example of

exposure in terms of exhibitions for Northern Irish

Arts (NCFA) is also underway, which argues for the

IVARO was mentioned – which originated from an

Overall, the experience of talking to a group of

artists in Dublin, never mind the rest of the Republic,

importance of planned research – with practical

MA thesis project conducted by VAI’s own Alex

people about your practice is a rare event. For the

so this seemed an excellent opportunity for the

policy goals – in enabling the funded arts sector to

Davis. The possibility of VAI publishing research

seven of us, it had last occurred during our time at

seven of us and, overall, we really enjoyed the whole

undertake social, economic and cultural functions.

was discussed.

art college, so we were a little apprehensive speaking

experience. I hope this generates stronger links

Associated with this project is the NCFA Strategy on

The issue of the value of practice led PhDs

publicly to a group of people who knew nothing of

being made for artists and curators in both capital

Research, which sets out a number of specific long

undertaken by artists – and the delivery of part of

our work (but reassured knowing we were with our

cities and also further afield.

terms aims, while the recently published NCFA

this research in the form of their art works – was

Sara O’Gorman is a belfast-based artist whose work has appeared at eva International, Queen Street Studios, Platform Arts, Catalyst Arts and the Naughton Gallery.

Position on Research seeks to stimulate interest in

considered. It was noted that this type of work

why research matters.

offered challenges in terms of how it relates to

offices. We didn’t have long before people began to arrive and take their seats.

friends). Our practices differ greatly, and include: performance, illustration, sculpture, photography and installation, which made for a diverse group of presentations. In addition, preparing the images in advance of the Show and Tell evening gave us the genuine opportunity to analyse the trajectory of our work, helping clarify important milestones or turning points.

The format – showing 10 images with 30

www.tonyamcmullan.co.uk www.crichton-ross.com amylouisebrooks.com www.janebutler.net uncertainremains.wordpress.com www.miguelmartin.co.uk www.saraogorman.com

n n

The Show & Tell event happens every two months at the VAI offices, Dame Court. The next Show and Tell is scheduled to take place at the end of July. Keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming call out for both presenters and attendees (all presenters must be current VAI members).

For more information about the event, contact: VAI Membership Assistant Adrian Colwell adrian@visualartists.ie

The recently initiated NCFA COLLOQUIA: Conversations about the Arts and Arts Policy is

conventional peer-review processes in other academic sectors.

part of this process. Devised and managed by

Overall, the value of the amassed experience

independent cultural manager and researcher Tara

of the visual arts sector as a form of research in

Byrne, the series comprises four structured

itself was emphasised. Reference was made to

conversations that aim to challenge, but ultimately

successful open ended and informal models of

support in new robust ways, the case for why the

practice – epitomised by organisations such as

arts should be funded.

126, Galway, Faber Studios, Limerick and Catalyst

In addition, with the establishment of a new

Arts in Belfast – which make a huge contribution

Strategic Development Department in the Arts

to the vibrancy of their locales and nurture cultural

Council, we can also look forward to a new strategy

development.

for the period commencing 2014, more focused on

Visual Artists Ireland further considered these

long term strategic thinking for developing and

issues during a closed forum at the VAI Get Together

supporting the arts.

2013 at NCAD, the findings of which will be

To compliment these initiatives and to inform

reported in a future edition of the VAN. We are also

and develop our own information and advocacy

open to suggestions with regard to developing

work, Visual Artists Ireland has begun conversations

these discussions, ideas for knowledge sharing and

with a number of key individuals involved in

research opportunities.

directing and supervising post-graduate research relating to the visual arts. The initial objective is for VAI is to find out what kind of visual art research currently exists and is being carried out in colleges today. We are also interested in ways in

Niamh Looney Communications Officer Visual Artists Ireland

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

25

career development

Laura Gannon, The Heat of the Day performance, 2013, DRAF, London

Letting the Work Lead Laura Gannon charts the progression of her Practice, VIA three recent projects.

During 2002, I moved to London to undertake an MFA at Goldsmiths College. I’ve been based in London ever since. There is a noticeable difference between working as an artist in Ireland and the UK – especially working in London. Scale and access are the biggest differences: access to education, different forms of culture, artists, curators and pluralistic modes of thinking.

Living in a city of eight million people poses challenges around both the visibility of one’s practice and finding a place for production.

It has taken me time to get a functional studio established. I am now finally based in a small studio complex – Tudor Grove Studio in Hackney – whose other occupants include Fiona Banner and Simon English. It is a very intimate community, which is simultaneously autonomous and supportive.

I maintain ongoing conversations with artist and curator peers.

Through these networks I engage with the London art ‘village’ and regularly visit galleries such as the Rowing Project, Almanac, Kate MacGarry, Herald Street, Laura Bartlett, Hauser and Wirth and Spruth Magers. I am currently completing a part-time one-year sculpture course at City Literary Institute in central London, through which I’m exploring materiality and making techniques.

I use the Lux artist moving image archive for research and attend talks programmes at the Chisenhale, the Showroom and Gasworks. I also go to the curated artist film programmes at the ICA, Whitechapel and Tate Modern. While my research is primarily studio-based, on occasion I’ve utilised the British Library, Westminster reference library and the RIBA British Architectural Library. For professional development and information, I use websites such as Lux, Artforum, e-flux as well as receiving gallery mail-outs.

To give a snapshot of my ‘career development’, I’ve chosen to look at three projects: the making of my film A House in Cap-Martin (2007 and 2013); participating in the LUX Associate Artists Programme (2008 – 2009); and The Heat of the Day, a commissioned performance work for David Roberts Art Foundation, London (2012 – 2013). These projects mark some key developments in my thinking and production processes, including a focus on architectural locations and combining these with literary sources to produce narratives and performance-based works.

A House in Cap-Martin (two-screen super 16mm film, 2007) was inspired by Eileen Gray’s letters to Le Corbusier about her house E1027.

The building was designed by Gray with Jean Badovici between 1926 and 1929, and is located on the French Riviera, overlooking the Bay of Monaco. In her correspondence with Le Corbusier, Gray expresses the view that the murals he had painted inside the building were a form of vandalism and that she could never revisit the house.

This film was a significant step for me, in terms of scale of working and the scope of ambition involved in exploring subject matter through engaging with academic research and analysis, specifically the notable work of architectural historian Beatriz Colomina, who had taken a position against Le Corbusier’s mural drawings.

The Arts Council of Ireland and the Elephant Trust, London supported the making of this work. Culture Ireland supported the

Laura Gannon, The Heat of the Day performance, 2013, DRAF, London

London and San Francisco exhibitions of the work in 2008 and 2011.

I worked with an English and French film crew, which included a cinematographer, sound engineer and focus puller. For postproduction I worked with an editor and sound designer.

I’d first visited the site of E1027 in 2006. At this time, the house was inaccessible and closed to the public. I was struck by how the iconic black and white archive images of the house, depicting it as gleaming, stranded ship attached to land, contrasted to the dilapidated condition that I found E1027 to be in. I’d heard that the house was about to be restored and converted into a study centre for architects, and I became interested in capturing this moment before it ceased to function as a residential space.

I devised three character’s: a fictional older Eileen Gray circulating the exterior of the house depicted on the left screen, with Le Corbusier and Badovici shown measuring and discussing the interiors in slow motion on the right screen. The resulting film deliberately played with temporality – slowing time, merging past and present, combining fact and fiction. As a further play on time, I am in the process of writing a narrative to be spoken by the Eileen Gray character. The new version of this work will be shown in the Glucksman Gallery, Cork in November 2013.1 I was one of eight artists selected for the 2008 – 2009 LUX Associate Artists Programme (AAP), a 12-month post-academic development course for artists working with the moving image. The programme offers a mutually supportive context in which to develop work, and to benefit from networking and learning opportunities with arts professionals closely involved in artists’ moving image, with funding to realise a final group project.

Other artists on the programme included Laure Provost and Luke Fowler. The course offered access to leading arts professionals such Whitney Museum curator Chrissie Iles, gallerist Maureen Paley and digital artist Catherine Sullivan.

The programme served to fill in some of the ‘cracks’ left over from my time on the Goldsmiths MA – there weren’t any faculty members who specialised in artists’ moving image work while I was on the course. Key outcomes arising from my participation in this

year-long dialogue with my peers included the expansion of my practice to include drawing and performance as modes of production alongside my film-making.

In 2012, Vincent Honore, the director of the David Roberts Art Foundation (DRAF) in London, invited me to make a live event in response to the launch of their new space in Camden and its inaugural exhibition, ‘A house of Leaves’ (12 October – 23 February 2013). The invitation arose from our ongoing dialogue; Honore had previously written about my work and done frequent studio visits.

The show took its title from a novel of the same name by Mark Z Danielewski, the main narrative of which features a family who discover that their house is changing; the interior of the house seems to be expanding, while maintaining the same exterior proportions.

My piece was motivated by an interest in developing a mode of working I had first explored in 2011, in a piece I presented at the ICA using three actors to create a live reading of collaged texts – from Elizabeth Bowen, Maeve Brennan and Jean Rhys – on the occasion of the launch of the Lux publication Eight Metaphors (Because the Moving Image is not a Book).2 For the DRAF show, I used Elizabeth Bowen’s (1948) novel The Heat of the Day as the starting point for a work of the same title. I choose this book because of its setting – wartime London – in a house adjacent to the DRAF gallery space. I wanted to think about the history and location of the gallery and the events that could have preceded the space becoming a gallery.

The book featured detailed, almost cinematic, descriptions of buildings and interior spaces. In the novel, the apartment at the top of a building becomes the temporary refuge for a woman who doesn’t know if her lover is a spy. I extracted sentences that described the protagonists’ behaviour within the apartment, along with other descriptions of architectural spaces, both interior and exterior. From this I created a new text for four voices.

I chose actors who were in their 80s to read the parts of Narrator 1 and Narrator 2, and two younger actors in their mid 40s to play the parts of Male 1 and Female 1. In the performance, the older actors measured out the approximate floor plan of the apartment and marked it out with tape on the gallery floor. They then placed two chairs facing each other in the space and the younger actors entered the space and sat on the chairs. The narrators remained outside the marked out space, facing each other. This placement of the quartet presented the younger actors as the ‘younger-selves’ of the older narrators. To emphasise interplay between memory and experience, the older actors appeared to read from notes, while the younger actors spoke spontaneously in the present.

The Heat of the Day was funded and supported by DRAF and an award from the Arts Council of England. I applied directly to the Council, with an endorsement from DRAF, for a production bursary to allow me to employ four actors and work with them over a series of workshops to develop the piece. The main difference between the English and Irish Arts Council application processes is that the English process features rolling deadlines and is led by the applicant’s requirements – be they an artist or institution – rather than being governed by predetermined award categories. The applicant also has access to council officers and receives feedback during the process.

However, this doesn’t affect the outcome of the result, it just ensures that applications meet all the Council’s criteria and is deemed fit for consideration.

Although I am based in London, I maintain links with Ireland in my work. I am currently researching material for a new film entitled The Cat Jumps, which features two women in their 80s responding to a Leonora Carrington short story, as well as discussing their own past experiences. The setting is a house by the sea in West Cork. Another work in development explores links with women from the west of Ireland including Nora Barnacle, Grace O’Malley and Margaret Bourke-Sheridan – women who found ways to represent themselves and function in exile under very different circumstances.

Overall, I would say that an internal logic drives the momentum of my art career. The more that I let the work lead – in what Agnes Martin described as a process of “following inspiration” – the more infrastructures have fallen into place around various projects to make them possible. Underpinning this process is a dogged persistence – a determination to go on, to respect the work and create the optimum environment in which to make my work happen.

Laura Gannon Notes 1. 'Folly: Art after Architecture.' 21 November 2013 – 23 March 2014, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork 2. Eight Metaphors (Because the Moving Image is not a Book) presented the work of the artists selected for the 2008 / 2009 associate artists programme at Lux, Lux publications, 2011

26

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

Residency

Winter Resort documentation, images by Andreas Kindler von Knobloch

Into the Unknown CLARE BREEN ON ‘WINTER RESORT’, An artist-initiated residency IN THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS Winter Resort was an artist-led, self-funded expedition, an attempt at an alternative form of artist’s residency. The group comprised Roisin Beirne, Clare Breen, David Lunney, John Ryan, Andreas Kindler von Knobloch and Tom Watt. We traveled to the Scottish highlands in March 2013 carrying all of our food, clothes and equipment on our backs, navigating through the mountains using map and compass and staying in mountain bothies.

Our intention was to travel with no materials for art making, so that the collective encounter with an isolated environment and the venture together into the unknown would become the subjects of the event.

Although I had visions of myself working on the mountain – vague, half formed impressions of sculptures, paintings or interventions in the epic landscape, expanding on the work made at the first Resort residency (www.apopulardestination.wordpress.com) – the reality proved much more mundane. The sheer physicality of the trip, the emotional strain and the shared nervous energy and anxiety bred a more subtle form of collaboration within the group. I became aware of the artwork inherent in all of our collaborative endeavours undertaken as visual artists.

The journey, the experience and the memory of it became, for me, a work in itself. A work where thinking and companionship were the primary materials and the written text became the only medium through which to express some form of frustrated creation.

Below is an excerpt from a log I kept during the four-day trip: Tuesday 05/03/2013 We are in Corryhully Bothy. The previous day we flew from Dublin to Preswick, then took the train from Glasgow to Glenfinnan and walked 6km to the bothy in gathering darkness.

Wednesday 06/03/2013 (the most exciting & adventurous day) Planned journey Leave bothy at 10:30. Walk due north along road, take trail towards Sgurr an Choire Riabhaich (852m), follow the mountain ridge northwest and descend to join a trail that leads to Oban, a bothy by the water. Arrive around 16:00, relax for the evening, make work, possibly swim, enjoy some whiskey and maybe catch a fish for dinner.

11:40 (Actual Journey) Leave Corryhully bothy carrying packs, follow the road toward Sgurr an Choire Riabhaich, take a break along the short walk to the trail. (The pack is heavier than I imagined. I am red and tired and I think my hip might have something wrong with it.

Andreas is taking pictures of us, which makes me want to vomit. I am extremely sweaty after 15 minutes.)

12:00 We leave the road and join a trail, a worn groove along the hill, bald and smooth between stretches of dead yellow grass on both sides.

About five minutes along we need another break; we remove jumpers, it’s a difficult climb, the trail zig-zags along the grassy base of the mountain. I panic again about how I’ll manage to go on, but there’s nothing I can do. The mountain above looks enormous.

Winter Resort documentation

John walks slowly, with the longest legs and the biggest stride. He seems to take it easy at the back, not pushing himself, quiet for most of the time. Roisin rushes along at the front, often faster than everyone else, sometimes stopping and looking back and waiting for everyone to catch up. Lunney is quiet, walking at an even pace with a stick he made from a birch branch. He is wearing a cotton tracksuit that is constantly slipping down over his bum. Andreas jumps and bounds ahead at the front, setting a very fast pace and sometimes going above and ahead to take photos of the group; he is always ready to go again and has two cameras. He suggests that he climbs to the summit of the mountain and catches up with us later, but the group rejects any suggestion of splitting up. Tom stays behind although it’s obvious he could go faster, probably through some sense of responsibility. He makes little jokes and answers all questions about how far it will be and how difficult it will be (mostly posed by me) in a jovial, positive way. I am the slowest and the weakest and the reddest and the most exhausted. My pack is too heavy and I drink too much water and sweat it all out. I suggest most of the rest stops and take two ibuprofen before we left, just in case.

There is not much talk at the beginning of the journey. I certainly didn’t think this part would be so difficult. John agrees. It was really, really hard work. We sweated but kept climbing and it was tough. A piece of shit climb. Terrible, horrible shitarse climb, up and up and up and up and up...

13:15 We come across more solid drifts of snow, this time Andreas takes out his bivvy bag, gets in and slides right down along a snow drift in the valley. Something cracks in the group, like an inappropriate laugh. He goes so fast. Everyone looks and laughs and follows suit.

I imagine my body like some huge elastic band stretched to the maximum, rubbery and hard and just on the verge of snapping – my brain intent on keeping everything in check, being aware of the slightest twinge in my hip or ear or toe that might signal some

unspeakable, debilitating injury and potentially jeopardise the entire trip. With the sliding and laughing and shouting it felt like the band had loosened. It didn’t spring or snap, just loosened. Afterwards, everyone was shaky and embarrassed but it was a huge relief.

There’s so much tension in a group of people walking towards somewhere they’ve never been, trusting each other to take care, to get there safely, not knowing where ‘there’ will even be. I thought about my body and my mind. After the sliding I felt a little lighter. Apparently I can literally put my mind above my body, making it do things it doesn’t want to do.

We all read Renee Daumal’s novella Mount Analogue (1952) before we left. Daumal writes expansively about the philosophy of climbing, the body in relation to the mountain and the human condition, in a playful, fictional adventure story. I felt, reading the book, that he was the kind of man I’d like to be: attuned to the nuances of his own body, aware of its limitations, always attempting to push himself above and beyond what he thought he was capable of. Probably thriving on adventure. (He was also capable of making profound yet simple and beautiful analogies between the mountain and the human soul at the drop of a hat – an altogether witty, wise and spiritual surrealist – plus he was French: basically an absolute dreamboat.) His advice was this: “If you slip or have a minor spill, don’t interrupt your momentum but even as you right yourself recover the rhythm of your walk. Take note of the circumstances of your fall, but don’t allow your body to brood on the memory. The body always tries to make itself interesting by its shivers, its breathlessness, its palpitations, its shudders, sweats, and cramps. But it is very sensitive to its master’s scorn and indifference. If it feels he is not fooled by its jeremiads, if it understands that enlisting his pity is a useless effort, then it falls back into line and compliantly accomplishes its task.”

After the sliding, I consciously began to ignore my body’s attempts to “make itself interesting”.

14:00 We are halfway down into the valley (we made time by sledding). The descent was more tedious, the view got worse, the wind died down, the feet were used in a different way. As we descended, the mountains surrounding us loomed. Just. Huge. We trudged slowly, dwarfed on three sides. Those reading the map seemed to be checking more often, stopping more regularly and for a longer time. Anyone who has used a map in the mountains will understand its awesome inability to convey anything of the expansiveness, vastness, bleakness, or the all-encompassing helplessness of lost(ness).

I am the first to say that we are lost. In retrospect, I can only imagine how irritating it must have been. “Where are we? Are you sure? You don’t know? Do you know? What’ll we do?” I didn’t know; they didn’t know. There’s a river but not in the right place. We see a track but not in the right direction. All the crags, lines, bumps and valleys are wrong. Nothing corresponds and we are alone there, with no phone coverage and dwindling food supplies. (Again, in retrospect, the food we were carrying could probably have fed the group for four days.) I reason quietly to myself that at least it would be fun getting collected in a helicopter.

15:30 Andreas points out where he thinks we are on the map. We have come down a mountain ridge too early. There are two options: climb up and over, due north to 747m and hopefully rejoin our intended trail; or follow the trail we had found to an unknown building marked on the map by a small square. We decide to take our chances.

16:15 We keep walking along the trail. It seems endless, every turn reveals another infuriating, jutting piece of land, totally obscuring the view.

17:15 We see the house, Kinlochbeoraid. Andreas is far ahead, running towards it. It’s a tiny, stone washed cottage with a tin roof, the river snaking down beside it. Everyone inspects the building, the atmosphere tense, nervous. Everyone is silent, eating or changing socks. The house is totally sealed shut: metal barriers locked from the inside blocked all the windows and doors. The front door is metal with a huge bolt and padlock. There is a tiny, dark, filthy shed attached which is open. No one wants to talk; we each look around, coming to our own conclusions.

We have two options: 1: Stay in the house for the night and get up at first light to cross the mountain and try to rejoin the trail 2: Walk through the night...

Clare Breen graduated from BA (First Class Honours) in Fine Art from NCAD in 2011 having also studied at Academy Minerva in Groningen. Recent exhibitions include ‘Resort’, Ballymastocker Bay, 2012, ‘Instructions for Better Living’, Smithfield, 2012 and ‘Miracle on Crofton Road Street’, The Drawing Project, Dun Laoighaire, 2012. She is currently completing an internship at Temple Bar Gallery. www.clarebreen.com www.apopulardestination.com

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

27

Institution profile

Institution profile

Generational Dialogues

Local & Global

Fionnuala Ardee Creative Director of Killruddery Arts, profiles the organisations activities and ethos.

desima connolly provides an introduction to Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre, LIMAVADY.

Jana Zitmann, Thaumatrope, Enchanted Garden, 2009

Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre

Killruddery Arts, established in 2006, seeks to create a stimulating dialogue between the generations through playful, experimental, interactive and established art forms. As an innovative arts company, we aim to create opportunities for arts practitioners, engaged in various disciplines, to advance their practice through commissions, studio access and participation in two unique festivals, the Enchanted Garden, (15 – 16 June 2013) and Killruddery Film Festival (27 – 29 September 2013), both of which are held at Killruddery House and Gardens, Co Wicklow.

The Enchanted Garden is a family arts festival that takes place in Killruddery Gardens. It’s an opportunity for families to engage with the arts in a playful, interactive and enchanting way creating different interactions with theatre music, storytelling, artists and artworks, architecture and the natural landscape. It seeks to build each child’s enthusiasm for the arts, and to engage children in ways that feel specific and innate to them.

In previous years, the Enchanted Garden has commissioned Nina Tanis, George Higgs, Jana Zitzmann, Róisín Coyle, Ger Clancy, Andrew Classy, Oisin Byrne, Theatre Lovett, Monkeyshine Theatre company, among others.

Killruddery Film Festival has specialised in showing rare silent 16mm film, early avant-garde

masterpieces with musical accompaniment, rare archival footage and contemporary classics and artists films, such as The Wind directed by Victor Sjostrom, I Know Where I’m Going, directed by Powell & Pressburger, Grass directed by Cooper and Schoedsack, and Britannica & other stories, films by John Latham and other selected artists working in the medium of film.

Over the years, Killruddery Arts has been developing strong collaborations with various visual art and film curators, directors, film historians, film makers, artists including Rosie Lynch, Chrissie Poulter, Andrew Legge, Kevin Brownlow, Daniel Fitzpatrick and Eilís Lavelle, Serena Brabazon and Monkeyshine Theatre.

Killruddery Arts is a catalyst for cultural exchange and innovative commissioning. We partner with local and national arts organisations including Mermaid Arts Centre and the Irish Film Institute and many of our projects have been partly funded by the Arts Council, Wicklow County Council and our industry partners World 2000 Productions, Ashburn and Killruddery Estate Enterprises Ltd. Fionnuala Ardee is the Creative Director of Killruddery House and Gardens and Killruddery Arts. www. killruddery.com

Opened in October 2010, the award-winning Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre is the flagship arts venue for Limavady Borough Council. It is located in Limavady town and provides a rolling events programme including theatre, music, film, heritage, learning and visual arts exhibitions.

Featuring three galleries, a dance studio, theatre, boardrooms and workshop rooms, as well as a museum store, gift shop, and an outdoor performance space, the centre is the cultural focus of the borough and has quickly established itself as a dynamic venue in the North West, situated between Derry-Londonderry City and the renowned Causeway Coast. As a local authority venue, staff not only deliver a quality and varied arts programme but also nurture and support cultural practice and resident practitioners, whilst working to strategically develop and strengthen the cultural profile of the area.

The exhibitions programme showcases the work of nationally celebrated artists while also showcasing local community arts practice. Previous exhibitions have included: a major retrospective of the work of Limavady-born acclaimed painter Michael McGuinness; ‘Once Upon a Time’, a specially curated exhibition of children’s book illustrators selected from throughout the UK; ‘Hand Made’, presenting the work of five leading makers in

Northern Ireland; ‘Walk the Line’, an exploration of the art of drawing featuring the poetry of John Brown and artwork of Tjibbe Hooghiemstra and Arno Kramer; and ‘Enigma / The Past is Another Country’, a joint exhibition by painter Eddie O’Kane and sculptor Joanna O’Kane.

Our exhibitions programme draws upon celebrating local creativity and community arts, and we want to focus much more on delivering exhibitions of national acclaim which also stimulate engaging community engagement. Our support for resident artists includes exhibition and teaching opportunities, and artist bursaries distributed in partnership with the Roe Valley Arts and Heritage Committee. Further development prospects for creative practitioners are in motion.

We welcome exhibition proposals on an ongoing basis. Artists are invited to submit updated CV, proposal and a minimum of eight high-res images. Forthcoming exhibitions from September – December include work by Eleanor Wheeler, sculptures by Raymond Watson and ‘Matisse: Drawing with Scissors’.

Desima Connolly is the Arts and Cultural Services Officer / Manager at Roe Valley Arts. www.roevalleyarts.com

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

PROJECT profile

Mary Jo Gilligan, The Inexpressible Experience of Dampness, 2012., photograph courtesy of Irene Tanner

Aoife Banville, Hydrangea Room, mixed media, 2012, photograph courtesy of Irene Tanner

Residual Character

processes and in the building itself. Artistic engagement with the space culminated in a series of live performances, installations and new media works.

Mary-Jo Gilligan’s The Inexpressible Experience of Dampness was sited in the kitchen space on the ground floor of No 15. Gilligan channelled the elusive qualities of dampness in a choreographed live performance. Cliona Ni Laoi’s Blackout, a looped video projection, resonated with sounds taken from VCR recordings of the house’s former inhabitants. The piece was sited underneath the stairs of the building and reflected on emotionally-charged histories and environments. You Came Back to See Me, a piece by Nina Tanis, was brought together through the use of water and light, where an old room was subtly mirrored back on itself. Situated in the bar area of No 15, Kieran Healy’s Untitled piece humorously commented on the idiosyncrasies of pub culture, comprising an oversized and unstable wooden bar table propped up by hundreds of beer mats.

To the back of the building, Ben Reilly’s installation The Man comprises traces of an obscure character that may have resided at No 15. The piece consisted of various cast wax objects such as grenades, rifles, a hybrid dog form and the cast head of a man, arranged alongside an old record player that sounded out the music of Joseph Locke. She Took to the Bed, the installation by Marie Brett and John McHarg located in one of the back bedrooms, reflected upon the idea that, irrespective of time, latent memories and energies continue to exist and accumulate in lived spaces. Sharon Mc Carthy’s Paint Peel occupied Peggy Hughes’s former painting studio and questioned the artistic process of painting by foregrounding paint in its minimalist materiality. Located in a loft space on the first floor, Andrew Carroll installed his work Curtains (We Followed the Yellow Brick Road). Here, a miniature model of the emerald city was constructed and silhouetted onto a film still from The Wizard of Oz. The piece reflected on contemporary points of convergence in time through play on historical narratives. In a sitting room to the back of the house, Aoife Banville created an installation which engendered significant aesthetic impact by attaching over 2000 hydrangeas to the ceiling of the room. Banville worked with the colourful variations of each hydrangea in a way that could be likened to a painter working on canvas.

The unique nature of the domestic dwelling space at No 15 was integral to the framing and subsequent success of ‘Idionumina’. Over the three days of the exhibition, there was a constant stream of visitors, from local people intrigued as to what was going in the old Hughes building to art audiences that had travelled from different parts of the country to experience the experimental nature of alternative exhibition-making practices. We would like to take this opportunity to extend a special thank you to our artists and everybody who helped to make ‘Idionumina’ the unique and unforgettable experience that it was.

Independent Curators Maria Tanner and Deidre Southey outline ‘Idionumina’, which took place from 16 – 18 November 2012 at No 15 Hughes’, Graignamanagh, Co Kilkenny.

‘Idionumina’ was a site-specific, multi-disciplinary exhibition of contemporary visual art.1 The exhibition presented the work of 17 artists from across Ireland: Ben Reilly, Kate O’Kelly, Andrea Cleary, Kieran Healy, Cliona Ni Laoi, Alison Cronin, Nina Tanis, Lynda Conroy, Mary-Jo Gilligan, Becky Coffee, Marie Brett and John McHarg, Sharon Mc Carthy, Aoife Banville, Julie Moorehouse, Rachel Healy and Andrew Carroll.

Issue and Experiments ‘Idionumina’ stemmed from a number of conversations Deirdre Southey and I had about the possibility of critically engaging with specific structural symptoms of the current Irish cultural and economic climate. We focused, ultimately, on the limits and possibilities surrounding three main issues: the urban decay resulting from the number of vacant buildings evident in rural towns; the effects this has had on the experience of local communities; and the challenges that have developed relating to professional mobility and more immediate intervention by artists and cultural workers, where institutional funding is inaccessible. ‘Idionumina’ came together as an experiment in countering these prevailing issues affecting artists and the local community.

A Tangible Beginning In June of 2012, a building, known as No 15, Hughes’ on Main Street Graignamanagh, was made available to us under bare licence, established with the building’s owner, Frank Hughes. The bare licence, though less protective of occupancy rights held in a lease agreement, took the form of a verbal agreement with the building’s owner declaring that an exhibition could take place in the building over a said period.

Built in the 1800s, this former home, a small commercial hotel with pub and grocery business, was laden with a residual character long past. In our view, the large scale of the building and its importance as a repository of social memory in the town made it a unique space for art to function in context. Given that the building had been standing vacant for almost a decade, we had to roll up our sleeves to bring it back from the grip of decay and dereliction and reveal the potential of the space.

There was no certainty that we would gain funding through official lines, so we made a focused enquiry into alternative funding mechanisms and turned to the crowd-funding site, Fundit.ie. For this next phase, we needed a concrete proposal and website so that pledges could be made online. We also began to meet with local business and community members to discuss our intention to host an exhibition in Graignamanagh. These were very important interactions, which were aimed at building local alliances and facilitating an understanding of contemporary art in context, as a purveyor of new economies within the locality. Having discerned genuine interest and support from the community, we were then in

position to propose a curatorial frame for the exhibition. One of our primary concerns was that this frame be inclusive and reach out to new audiences of contemporary art within Graignamanagh.

In early July 2012, through the VAI ebulletin, we posted an open call for submissions. This included images of the space and presented potential participants with the curatorial framework, which ruminated on a site-specific unfolding of space and an open-ended reconnaissance into local historical narratives. At its core, ‘Idionumina’ proposed an experimental ground where private space (oikos) and public space (polis) underwent a critical transformation in the development of new social relations.

Coming Together We received 40 submissions in total and 17 artists were invited to form part of ‘Idionumina’. On 25 August 2012, an open day for artists was held in the building. This provided an opportunity to meet with the curators, the other artists and to discuss the possibilities for work within the allocated installation spaces. Artists were also brought through the building by Mr Hughes as a form of introduction to the social history and family narratives particular to each room.

Once the space, the concept and the artists had been selected and defined, we then proceeded to build a website where both the project and the artists were profiled. This was a necessary step in order to launch our Fundit campaign. Based on a rewards system for pledges made, our Fundit rewards featured art works donated to the campaign by a number of the ‘Idionumina’ artists and also art works of our own.

Our campaign ran for a set period of 28 days, during which time we tirelessly promoted the project through, for example, a radio interview with KCLFM’s Weekly Arts Show, by rallying local support in the town of Graignamanagh and also through our ‘Idionumina’ Facebook page. Through enormous help from local businesses, philanthropists, family and friends, we approximated our target amount. By adjusting our financial reality to need, Fundit enabled us to install electricity throughout the building, meet the cost of public liability insurance, meet fire safety requirements, provide accommodation for our artists and to produce an ‘Idionumina’ catalogue after the exhibition had closed.

No 15: A Hub of Activity Leading on from the opening day on 25 August, artists worked off-site in their own studios and some artists made visits to the site at their own discretion. From August – November 2012, we maintained – as curators – continual contact with our artists via email and phone, discussing conceptual possibilities and concerns around the processes involved in each installation. In the week leading up to the official launch of ‘Idionumina’, electricity was finally installed and the once dark and neglected No 15 became a glowing hub of activity. Availing of the accommodation provided, artists had the opportunity, over the course of a week, to fully immerse themselves in their production

Maria Tanner and Deidre Southey www.idionumina.com Notes 1. Devised for the purposes of this project, the title of the exhibition ‘Idionumina’ fuses the word 'idio' taken from Idiosyncratic, with the philosophical term 'numina' which describes a spirit believed by animists to inhabit certain natural phenomena or objects.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

29

VAI northern Ireland manager

VAI west of ireland representative

Defying Definition

Residential Potential

Feargal O'Malley profiles artist collective and studio space PS2 in belfast.

AIDEEN BARRY, VAI WEST OF IRELAND REPRESENTATIVE, introduces TWO NEW RESIDENCY PROGRAMMES: ARTFARM AND ROCKETS OF DESIRE.

'Backin' Belfast – culture, arts and leisure', an experimental campaign conducted by PS2 exploring how to re-activate and re-claim the city, Feb – Mar 2013

I often have the honour and pleasure of acting as a bespoke tour guide for visiting international curators and artists when they visit Northern Ireland on research trips. One of the first places they mention, and want to visit, is the PS2 project space in Belfast. PS2 (Paragon Studios / project space) is a small artist collective with studio space in the centre of Belfast. Alongside the studio space, PS2 uses a former shop, on the ground floor of the building, as a project space – a platform for art projects and cultural activities.

PS2 provides a unique public contribution to the visual arts in Northern Ireland, committing its project space to a revolving, unpredictable programme of experimental and performance-led projects, and serving as a rehearsal space for future endeavours. I’ve witnessed a budgie Butlin's holiday camp, a temporary art repair shop, a crèche and a job hunting office and agency, to name but a few.

Peter Mutschler, an artist, co-director and curator of the PS2 project space, shows a healthy disregard for audience expectations and has a continual curiosity for new things that actively subvert patterns.

The focus of PS2 is on urban intervention and social interaction by artists and cultural practitioners, architects, multidisciplinary groups and theorists. Experiment and risk, social relevance and artistic quality are the key elements to its diverse programme: from installations to projects with communities, classes, talks, curatorial residencies and research. PS2 is run on a voluntary, non-commercial basis. Mutschler’s unswerving dedication to keeping the space relevant and available is highly commendable. In his eyes, the art and the artists are primary; he lets the art speak for itself. But dare I say without committed and like-minded people volunteering so much unpaid time on vitally important projects like this, what would the cultural landscape look like?

PS2 also provides a curator in residence position, independent from its other activities, that gives the recipient an opportunity to realise a project and have input in the on-going programme.

The curator in residence programme began in 2011 as a three-week-long research project with nine artists / curators. Individually or as a team, they each developed two proposals, one for PS2 the other for an outside / offsite location. The residency included formal and informal talks with artists, curators and passers-by.

Peter Richards, Director of Golden Thread Gallery, had this to say: “The program at PS2 is fast paced, with new projects, exhibitions and events

taking place every couple of weeks. Its windowed shop-front type space functions like a live public lab, showcasing the enquiry and experimentation of an eclectic range of artists, of all ages and at various points in their careers. With many similarities to visiting an artists’ studio, PS2 has a great rawness and integrity. It is a space in Belfast to first see an idea / project being grappled with, pulled apart and then take a shape”.

The PS2 project space is no bigger than an average sized living room – a perfect economy for experimentation. This experimental street aquarium delivers like no other, stopping passersby in their tracks like a high vis charity collector without the awkwardness. A space that dispenses with the hesitant referential entrance into most art galleries (now how’s that for footfall and audience development!) It’s not unusual to see people peering in, faces against the glass window, looking perplexed, and walking away with a silent shrug of the shoulders in a different direction.

PS2’s project space has worked with literally hundreds of artists and long tern relationships with organisations such as Digital Arts Studios have developed. Dr Angela Halliday, Manager of Digital Arts Studios described how PS2’s project space is “well established as welcoming experimental and challenging work”. She continues, “the flexibility that the space offers makes it an attractive venue for solo or group shows. Artists exhibiting here benefit from PS2’s reputation and ability to draw audiences”.

There are no equations for success in the arts; there are, however, mission statements, exhibition policies etc. Most venues have a familiar programme of exhibitions, as accomplished and persuasive as they are predictable. PS2 actively pushes against institutional thinking, bringing together disparate elements and somehow managing to place concrete brackets on either side, creating a point of difference as well as identifying shared ambitions. Belfast’s singularly experimental shop window gallery often feels like it’s in the process of refurbishment and renewal. Here, transient installations mix with abstract instances and ambiguous performances.

This is something I am truly under-qualified to make sense of in words, other than to say that it delivers utterly authentic and unique experiences.

Long may it continue.

126 Collective, in collaboration with the artist Sheila Flanagan, has initiated the Art Farm Residency Award.1 The award is part of 126’s ongoing commitment to provide professional and artistic development opportunities for its members.

The new residency programme supports the research and production of new work by 126 members. The award includes a small self-catering farmhouse with access to a studio space comprising a large open barn, indoor library / studio and an indoor shed / workshop space. The Art Farm residency is structured for the self-directed residency goer and is suited to independent, selfsufficient artists who would relish quiet, unplugged time to develop their practice or new work.

There are a number of residencies of this kind, offering living and working space, dotted around the west of Ireland. For example, Aras Eanna on Inis Oirr, provides a similar experience – a residential studio with possibilities for the participant to show work in a gallery space upon completion of the residency. What is interesting about the Art Farm partnership with 126 is that it is structured to support artists developing specific bodies of work, which are then featured in a solo show within the 126 exhibition programme. This year’s successful residency award winners are Siobhan McGibbon, Ciara Healy and Karl Musson – each receiving a one-month residency and a slot on the 126’s exhibition programme for 2014.

Next year sees the inaugural run of the intriguingly titled Rockets of Desire programme, devised by The Creative Agency. Rather than follow the model of offering artists living or working accommodation, it will instead focus on offering a suite of activities and facilitations. The Creative Agency are Galway artists Denise McDonagh and Ben Geogeghan who were previously involved, respectively, in the operations of Lorg Printmakers and co-founding 126, amongst other curatorial and artist-led projects.

Denise McDonagh explains, “We are holding the residency to coincide with the 2014 Galway Arts Festival and the Galway Film Fleadh, because it's a time of year when the city is at its most vibrant and dynamic and it is an attractive backdrop for an international residency programme.

Showing off the best of the visual arts community while also making the most of the spectacular features of and sights in Ireland while working with local and national artists and arts institutions”.

Feargal O'Malley feargal@visualartists-ni.org Artfarm, view of residencial space.

Rockets of Desire positions Galway as a strategic location for international cultural practitioners, where they can undertake an intensive programme of self-directed research while simultaneously participating in talks, seminars, informal conversations, group critiques, assignments, walks and performances, all of which will be facilitated by a team of collaborators or ‘Rockets’ as they are being styled.

McDonagh describes the Rockets as “a fluid multi-disciplinary team of creative designers, engineers, fabrication specialists and artists working to develop and execute solutions for various projects, tasks and job briefs: a creative agency matching skills with appropriate solutions to creative challenges”.

The Creative Agency hope to build on a pool of resources that includes festivals, events and programmes happening over the summer months, as well as other infrastructures of facilitated by artists, curators and critics based in Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, Galway, Clare and the greater West of Ireland. In this way, Rockets of Desire is structured similarly to Joseph Beuys’ Free International University. The collaborating Rockets will create short intensive programmes of activity for the participating artists on the Rockets of Desire programme. Artists will participate in these structured activities in the collaborators’ studios, workspaces, galleries etc or out in the wilderness – The Burren for example – while also having the added advantage of experiencing key cultural events that will run in tandem with the programme.

While the cost to undertake the residency may to some seem quite steep at €2000, this fee goes to support the practices of the many collaborators to the programme and investing in the development of visual art in the West.

McDonagh and Geogeghan are also basing their model on other paid international residency programmes, while also aiming to offer participants a unique and enriching experience in the West of Ireland. Rockets of Desire will cater to 15 artists and its first programme starts in June 2014. 2 Aideen Barry aideenbarry@gmail.com Notes 1. For details see www.126.ie 2. www.rocketsofdesire.blogspot.ie

30

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

discussion

Owing Me, Knowing You Sarah Allen reports on the round table discussion held to accompany the exhibition ‘I KNOw You’ – prompted by Ireland’s presidency of the EU – currently on show at IMMA, Earlsfort terrace, dublin.

Simon Fujiwara, Letters from Mexico, 2011, mixed media, seven framed hand-typed letters set on acrylic glass with artifacts, installation view from 'I knOw yoU', IMMA 2013, photo by Denis Mortell

Notions of currency are at the heart of the latest exhibition to be held at IMMA’s offsite location at Earlsfort Terrace, ‘I Know You’ (19 April – 1 September). Advancing beyond the concept of currency in a strictly monetary or economic sense, the show explores the varied modes of currency that can exist within artistic practice. Chaired by the director of IMMA, Sarah Glennie, the roundtable talk was staged at the show’s official opening and elucidated the key themes at play in the exhibition.

The speakers included IMMA’s Rachael Thomas, architect and director of the Städelschule, Nikolaus Hirsch and practicing artist and professor at the Städelschule, Tobias Rehberger.

Located in Frankfurt, the Städelschule Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste is one of the most influential and progressive art institutions in the world and constitutes the unifying element of the show. With more than 70 per cent of its students hailing from outside Germany, the Städelschule is a distinctly international institution and so a uniquely fitting body to use as a vehicle in an exploration of contemporary art practice in Europe.

The format of the exhibition is based on invitations and extended invitations. 27 artists, all of whom are Städelschule alumni, were invited to take part in the project. These selected artists then extended a further invitation to an artistic practitioner of their choosing. This invitee could be drawn from a range of artistic disciples, be they musician, poet, philosopher, scientist or even chef. The conceptual premise of the extended invitations is noted as encompassing the school and the city of Frankfurt “as a prism through which international debate can be explored”.1 Glennie commenced the discussion by sketching out the backdrop to the exhibition; the initial impetus was the feeling that IMMA, as a contemporary cultural institution, should find an appropriate response to mark the Irish hosting of the presidency of the European Union. This was no mean feat given the timing of the Irish presidency, as there existed an implicit pressure to form a positive reflection on the European Union at a time when uncertainty hung over its very stability.

What resulted was the proposal to explore the fundamentally problematic notion of what it means to be an artist in Europe today. It was at that point that IMMA reached out to Rehberger.

Linking in with the show’s interpretation of currencies, Rehberger highlighted how the economic discussion eclipses all other possible conversations that could exist on the subject of Europe. The curators sought to challenge this dominant discourse by highlighting other currencies, which are of equal value. If there was an entity that could emblematise this economic discourse, the European Central Bank seems a fitting one and Rehberger went on to discuss the significance of both the ECB and Städelschule being located in Frankfurt.

The ECB administers the monetary policy for the Eurozone, the largest currency zone in the world. Conversely, the Städelschule is a small institution which is not engaged in the economic discussion, yet is at the forefront of the artistic one. The juxtaposition of these two entities encapsulates the exhibition’s notions of contrasting currencies, with these two institutions symbolising the discrete values at play in Frankfurt itself – the artistic and the economic.

In the design for the exhibition signage, the typeface of the show’s title ‘I Know You’ places an emphasis on the letters ‘I’, ‘O’ and ‘U’, thus the title becomes a hybrid as it signals the notions of ‘I know you’ and ‘I owe you’ in one sentence. Hirsch reflected on the concepts of ‘knowing’ and ‘owing’, which are central to the show. Being in the position of knowing someone would have motivated each artist to extend their invitations, yet an invitation can often bring with it an expectation – a situation which reinforces the show’s emphasis on mutual exchange.

From an Irish perspective, it is difficult to escape reading the notions of ‘knowing’ and ‘owing’ outside of a financial context, especially when the exhibition implicates the economic powerhouse of Germany. Five years after the Celtic Tiger’s roar was so ignominiously reduced to a whimper, the exhibition’s re-imagining of the relationship between ‘knowing’ and ‘owing’ brings welcome respite from conversations on bonds and bailouts which are relayed and replayed ad naseum in the media.

At times, the extent to which the artists have entered into collaboration is quite apparent, as is the case for artists Daniel Dewar and Grégory Gicquel, who worked together in fabricating an intriguing set of fur boxing gloves. In other works, the collaboration is less explicit and in some cases non-existent, with both works retaining separate identities. The cross-disciplinary nature of other pieces seems to underscore the blurred boundaries between genres when it comes to artistic inspiration; a case in point is Bernard Schreiner, who invited the philosopher Marcus Steinweg.

Each curator was in agreement that the show had a consciously open curatorial mode – the result of what Rehberger described as “putting everything in place, kicking it off and letting it roll”. Thomas described the exhibition as having a Kippenberger-like aspect in terms of its focus on humour, going on to note that works should not be read as solely individual, but be thought of in context to the other showcased pieces – an approach which creates a unique pathway through the exhibition.2 Progressing through the show, there is a subtle reverberation of motifs and themes between artists, even those who are not directly related by means of invitation. One such example being the shared presence of spiritual, religious or folk

elements in both Alexander Tovborg and Haegue Yang’s works.

Having little explanatory or contextualising information on the labels feeds into the free-flowing open-ended mode. At times this requires the viewer to be patient in uncovering the sometimesoblique connections between works. It equally requires a level of observance, lest some of the more innovative and playful interventions in the Earlsfort Terrace setting might be overlooked. A prime example here is Pattara Chanruechachai’s piece consisting of an elephant’s shadow cast in the recesses of one of the lecture halls.

This non-didactic curatorial approach can engender what Rehberger described as “productive misunderstandings”, a sentiment that seems to reinforce contemporary art’s rejection of definitive meanings in favour of the myriad interpretations that a viewer can bring. This reluctance to construct a singular ‘truth’ was further explored by Hirsch who highlighted the complexities of curating a group show where there was a concerted effort to avoid enforcing one ideological viewpoint. This again parallels the concept of European identity, as being European may mean many things to many people.

What emerges in the show is the proposal that ‘being European’ is something which has neither a fixed identity nor fixed boarders.

Rehberger highlighted the importance of taking an inclusive rather than exclusive approach to the definition of ‘European’. This is reflected by the inclusion of artists hailing from, or dealing with issues that traverse, Europe’s geographical boarders.

Simon Fujiwara is one such artist and his piece entitled Letters from Mexico, which chronicles his travels in the country, is one of the highlights of the show in terms of content and presentation.

Suspended in glass frames, the display maximises the visual potential of the strange souvenirs that appear alongside the garbled and semiintelligible letters. The wall on which they hang is painted in red and green referencing the Mexican flag. Yet the viewer is left to ponder the significance of omitting the flag’s central colour, white; perhaps this infers that unity (the trait which white often symbolises) is lacking in relations between Mexico and Europe? 3 Both Rehberger and Hirsh agreed that the dominant narratives of the Städelschule are ones of hospitality, freedom and generosity.

Each curator was struck by the generous responses on the part of the artists – a generosity which culminated in IMMA’s largest group show to date. Thomas likened the experience to acting as a ‘cultural broker’, where working with a modest budget the curators experienced various levels of exchange with the goal of reflecting each artist in their truest form.

Perhaps the most interesting point that was raised during proceedings was the interpretation of the show as a window onto an artistic process – a laying bare of the varied sources, conversations and exchanges which may receive little exposure within an institutional framework yet are elemental to the germination of artistic ideas.

Towards the end of the discussion, a series of barbed questions were raised regarding the presence of Irish artists in the show.

Glennie replied succinctly emphasising IMMA’s commitment to Irish art, citing the major retrospective of Alice Maher’s work as the most recent example as well as highlighting a future show which will be dedicated entirely to Irish artists.4 Glennie went on to underscore IMMA’s ongoing strategy, which strives to maintain a dialogue between Ireland and the broader contemporary art world, a point which is of particular salience if Ireland is to remain relevant in global contemporary art discourse.

When questioned on the content of the show and the underrepresentation of painting, Glennie spoke of IMMA’s commitment to show the most current, relevant and diverse work within contemporary art practice.5 ‘I know you’ has succeeded in doing exactly that. The Städelschule functions as an artistic microcosm and, harnessing its artists as a point of departure, has allowed IMMA to offer a dynamic and stylistically diverse insight into the preoccupation and methods that are driving art practice in Europe today.

Sarah Allen is a Dublin based writer. Her writing has appeared in the Irish Arts Review, Aesthetica Magazine and Prism Photography Magazine.

Notes 1. ‘I Know You’ press release 2. Martin Kippenberger was the 'enfant terrible' of German post-war art scene who subverted norms of visual art through his humour and iconoclastic artistic approach 3. Letters from Mexico focuses on the role of public letter writers and high levels of illiteracy in Mexico 4. Of the 27 artists who contributed, the exhibition does feature the work of one Irish artist, Timothy Furey (born 1981, Cork) who studied at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (2001 – 2004) 5. It seems pertinent to note here that running alongside the ‘I know you’ show was a performance piece by Tino Sehgal. Shortlisted for the prestigious Turner Prize, Sehgal’s inclusion in IMMA’s programme is surely a strong indicator of the institution’s devotion to showing the most relevant in contemporary art

The Visual Artists’News Sheet

July – August 2013

31

Art in PUBLIC

Art in Public Public art commissions, site-specific works, socially engaged practice and various other forms ofart outside the gallery. physics timeline

Title: Travels Into Several Remote Corners Of Dublin Artist: Laragh Pittman Commissioner: Create Budget: €10,000 Location: The ‘Bayno’, Bull Alley, Dublin Date Sited: June 2013 Project Partners: The International Women’s Support Group, The Lantern Centre, Synge Street Description: This project-in-progress is an expedition into the heartland of the city of Dublin, instigating a collaborative exploration.

The company is a group of women who have arrived in Ireland from many parts of the world and several Irish women who have travelled and worked for extended periods abroad. With a common interest in

artists who have submitted proposals to create a new work. The work is intended to provoke debate about public space. The empty plinth arriving unannounced in the middle of an historic city square induces a sense of bewilderment a slight double take of confusion in passers by and visitors – it therefore achieves that rare status of being an artwork whose status as art is not immediately obvious.

wanting to better understand the place in which we all live now, these journeys are being conducted like archaeological digs to uncover and reveal the layers of the city. Participants collect and document found Title: Physics Timeline Artist: Niamh Synnott Commissioner: St Declan’s Secondary School, Lucan Budget: €6,500 Project Partners: Physics Institute UCD, Creative Engagement (NAPD)

the alucard code

patterns and traces of decoration in floor tiles, metalwork and urban architecture, referencing the imprint of invasions, migrations and the eclectic styles of adornment transposed during British colonial rule.

The focus will be on seeking out patterns and traces of decoration so that this language of geometric and repeating forms can converse across cultural barriers.

Description: Physics Timeline is a ceramic mural that is permanently installed on a wall within the school. It was commissioned to commemorate Dublin as the City of Science, 2012. It was designed and made in collaboration with fifth year art students in the school

Cuan

and depicts a timeline of significant physicists including Copernicus, Gallileo and Newton right up to Dame Jocelyn Bell and the Hadron Collider. It was made in one piece onto a slab of stoneware clay, cut into sections, fired, glazed and reassembled onto the wall.

Title: The Alucard Code Artists: Vera McEvoy and Frances Nolan Date sited: 6 – 8 June 2013

Tempered Landscape – 70 Oaks

Location: 15 Marino Crescent, Clontarf, Dublin 3 (birthplace of Bram

Title: Tempered Landscape – 70 Oaks

Stoker)

Artist: Urban Tree Project

Description: Artists Vera McEvoy and Frances Nolan – recent NCAD

Budget: €600

graduates of Fine Art Printmaking and Painting respectively – share a

Date Sited: September 2012 – March 2013

fascination with the old and the discarded, and the remnants of past

Project Partners: Tree Council of Ireland, eva International,

lives that live on in dwellings, workplaces and objects. In June of this

Limerick City Arts Office, West End Youth Centre, Hunt Museum, Dromcollogher Organic College, Parks Commission.

Description: Tempered Landscape – 70 Oaks is a collaborative project exploring our association and relationship to place. The artist collective Urban Tree Project in partnership with West End Youth Centre and The Hunt Museum aim to engage the young people of Ballinacurra Weston, Limerick with the positive aspects of their urban environment and help them reflect on and respond to their communities. Through map-making, artistic response, discussion, and nature walks, the participants have been introduced to new perspectives on the environment, ecosystems and the potential of creative response to increase awareness and understanding of environmental issues, community cohesion and social responsibility.

Within the art making process, the objective is to promote change at local level, while emphasising people in relationships to each other

year, they created a subtle, collaborative intervention in Bram Stoker's Title: Cuan (harbour or haven) Artist: Marie Fallon Location: Public Health Facilities

house that respects its historic significance but also raises topical questions about how we negotiate and imagine such burdened spaces.

Commissioner: HSE Commission Type: Open submission Date Advertised: July 2012 Date Sited: December 2012

the touring tama

Budget: €11,000 Description: The intention with this commission was to create a series of 10 paintings depicting harbour scenes from Dun Laoghaire to Balbriggan to be installed in various health buildings. As part of the commission, selected artwork was used on the cover of Health Matters magazine.

and their surroundings. fourth plinth munich Travels into several remote corners of dublin

Title: Fourth Plinth Munich Artist: Stephen Hall Commissioners: City of Munich and curators Elmgreen & Dragset Budget: €125,000 Date advertised: May 2012 Date sited: January 2013 Description: Stephen Hall was invited to create and curate the project Fourth Plinth Munich – a replica of Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth – constructed in Wittlesbacher Platz in the historic heart of Munich as part of a city wide new public art festival, A Space Called Public.

(After initially making a Fourth Plinth in Southwark in London in 2011 called Phantom or A Tale of Two Cities, an empty plinth that stands in the middle of the road at the end of a cul-de-sac in a run down area.)

The empty plinth has been in place in Munich since January 2013 and from June – September will host the winner out of six invited

Title: The Touring Tama Artist: Miriam McConnon Date Sited: 14 June 2013 Project Partners: Dublin City Council, Dublin Parks Department Description: The ‘Tama’ is made up of handkerchiefs and traditional lace, sewn together, which the artist has collected from the people of Cyprus and Ireland. The Touring Tama was previously exhibited at the UNESCO heritage site of Paphos, Cyprus in September 2012 to commemorate Cyprus’ presidency of the European Union. The ancient tree of St Solomoni in Paphos, known as the hanky tree, is a place people have visited for hundreds of years to hang handkerchiefs in memory of those loved ones who have died or who are sick. Tama is the Greek word for the handkerchiefs that are hung onto the tree.

32

The Visual Artists’News Sheet

July – August 2013

VAI PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Humour

Pablo Helgeura's Artoons DevelopingDevelopment monica flynn profiles recent hightlights of Visual Artists Ireland's professional development training programme.

VAI ProfessionalDevelopment TrainingWorkshop Event, PhotoIreland 2011, photo bySteve Crossland

School is currently out for the VAI Professional Development Training (PDT) Programme, but in the meantime planning is underway for the autumn, which is already shaping up well – initial details of some topics and events for September onwards are listed in the 'Autumn Preview' notice on page 34.

The programme has had a fruitful spring, delivering sessions such as: Writing about Your Work, with Kerry Mc Call (April 2013); Gallery Installation Skills – Traditional Media, with artist Gillian Fitzpatrick (April 2013); and Gallery Installation Skills – Digital Media, with artist Angela Halliday (June 2013).

The participation of Kati Kivinen, curator at KIASMA, Helsinki, in the programme was particularly productive. Kivinen facilitated two peer critique sessions (February 2013) and undertook a number of studio visits with artists in relation to her own research on EcoArt. I found facilitating Kati as a visiting curator a real pleasure.

It was really interesting, for participating artists and myself, to hear how exhibition opportunities for artists are supported in Finland and to compare and contrast both visual art sectors. Offering opportunities for exchanges with international practitioners will remain an important part of the programme.

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

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

WHAT'S NEW? There are a number of new developments in the programme. Firstly, specifically devised in response to artists availability and income, I’ve been testing a couple of alternative formats to the usual daylong workshops and hope to provide a number of shorter talks at no fee or low fee to attendees.

So far, events along these lines have included the recent public art case study, A Year in the Field with artist Christine Mackey Artist & Hans Visser Bio Diversity Officer Fingal (May 2013). We also had a lively, and an insightful session on Presenting Yourself & Your Work with Jonathan Carroll, Mark Garry and Cliona Harmey (May 2013) looking at strategies for developing and maintaining networks of support for your practice.

In terms of my own experience of the programme, I’ve gained tremendous insights into the needs and experiences of attendees from sitting on the various sessions. Acting in this way as a ‘listening post’, I’ve been able to respond to the needs and issues that concern artists, in terms of planning future sessions of the professional development programme, but as well as this, also feeding into VAI’s advocacy and information

services. For example, following discussion and questions arising in Gaby Smyth’s workshop Self Assessment and Filing Online with ROS (June 2013), Noel Kelly (VAI CEO) and Alex Davis (VAI Advocacy Programme Officer) hope to develop various tools and initiatives with Gaby’s assistance on issues such as social welfare, mixed income and PRSI issues for artists. These will range from developing briefing / information packs for artists to lobbying.

We look forward to working with our existing partners: the Crafts Council of Ireland, Ennistymon Court House Studios, Belfast Exposed and Digital Art Studios in the coming autumn / winter programme and welcome the opportunity to work with our new partners CREATE and 126 Galway during the coming months. Many thanks also to Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, Meath County Council, IADT Dun Laoghaire and GMIT for the opportunity to offer VAI Information Sessions to their artists and students respectively.

A VAI Professional Development Advisory Panel has been established to facilitate an exchange of knowledge and expertise about all aspects of career development for visual artists and to develop new partnerships, synergies and networks – nationally and internationally – for the VAI Professional Development Training Programme.

The panel members include: Cecily Brennan (Artist), Emer Ferran (Enterprise Development Programme Manager, Crafts Council of Ireland), Mike Fitzpatrick (Head of School, Limerick School of Art & Design), Nick Kaplony (ArtQuest, UK), Noel Kelly (CEO Visual Artists Ireland), Kim McAleese (artist and curator, Satis House, Belfast), Patrick T Murphy (Director RHA), Philip Napier (artist & Head of Fine Art & Sculpture, NCAD), Seamus Nolan (artist), Jerome O’Drisceoil (Director, Green on Red Gallery), Feargal O’Malley (VAI Northern Ireland Manager) and Sarah Searson (Head of GMIT’s Centre for Creative Arts & Media).

Finally, I would like to welcome on board the energetic and industrious Aine Macken as the new Professional Development and Membership Assistant – who has been previously doing sterling work co-ordinating this year's VAI Get Together event. Also thanks and appreciation are due to the amazing Ruth Hynes, who has moved on from this position to take up a post with UK based publishers Black Dog – good luck and congratulations Ruth!

Monica Flynn Professional Development Officer Visual Artists Ireland

The Visual Artists’News Sheet

July – August 2013

Opportunities

33

In 1993 with Katerina Bakatsaki he founded Body Weather Amsterdam, a

studio space Cork Collective Applications are invited for a studio at the Cork Artists Collective available

platform for training and performance.

6 – 13 Sept, Mourne Mountains, Co

Cultural Freelancers Ireland

minded people; help the scene grow in

Web

Down. Cost: £280 / €310, concessions

Ireland; and to inspire people to make

www.carmelmadigangallery.com

Inspired by a recent workshop for free-

£250 / €290.

lancers at a large-scale cultural event

and get involved. Email Sarah Bracken

Email

(IETM Dublin), the Cultural Freelanc-

for more information.

seamus.dunbar@gmail.com

ers Ireland Mediators are piloting fort-

Email

nightly breakfast meetings for cultural

sarahbracken@hotmail.com

freelancers during Jul (the first event

Web

took place in Jun). It’s tough to keep go-

www.babybeefartpress.com

(5.6m x 2.6m) with plenty of natural

The course will provide participants

light, 24 hour access, storage heating

with the knowledge to project video and

and wi-fi, situated in the garden grounds

images onto 3-D surfaces and objects.

commissions

of St Finbarr’s Cathedral. Rent reason-

The crash course will introduce partici-

able. For a full list of facilities please

pants to Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and

East Belfast Facade

visit our website. Applications are open

Adobe After Effects. By implementing

to both recent graduates and established

the three programmes, users will be able

artists. Suitable applicants are required

to transform plain objects into moving

to get involved in the collective running

and living visual treats. Tutor Adam

and management of the studios. Please

Gibney is a professional artist based in

email us a CV and samples of recent

Dublin

work.

works with a range of media that in-

Deadline

cludes sculpture, projection, sound,

12 July

video and electronics. His work has also

Email

been featured in group shows in Ber-

corkartistscollective@hotmail.com

lin, Marseilles, London, Athens and Los

Website

Angeles. As a Tutor, Adam Gibney has

www.thecollective.ie

a natural, effective and cheerful way to

(www.adamgibney.com). He

fully share knowledge with a communicative energy. Cost: €160 (a 30% deposit will be asked in advance to confirm your booking). Location: BLOCK T, Smithfield Chambers, Smithfield Square, Dublin 7.

Course takes place on Mon 15, Tues 16

The Glasshouse, The Quay, Westport

and Wed 17 Jul from 10am – 4pm. Book-

will hold a stained glass weekend,

ing necessary.

where participants will learn the tradi-

Email

tional methods of making stained glass panels. Both the copper foiling and the leading method are taught and participants will make and keep several small stained glass panels. No previous artistic experience is expected, most people will be beginners and the course is engrossing and fun! Cost: €180, which includes all materials and frequent cups of coffee.

The Glasshouse will also hold a glass fusing course on the weekend of 27 / 28 Jul, from 10.00 – 5.00. The course will start with cutting practice and opportunities to try out the simple tools used. Tutors will discuss some of the techniques that can be used in fusing and practice these on a small panel on the first day and a larger one on the second day.

RHA Life Drawing The RHA School is delighted to announce the continuation of the weekly life-drawing sessions in the RHA School Studio. Three terms will be offered for the 2013 / 2014 academic year. As part of the RHA School developing programme significant changes will take place over the coming year. From Sept 2013, additional drawing marathons will be programmed, while the Wed Life Drawing tutored sessions and the selfdirected Thurs sessions will remain as a exercise for professional artists wishing to develop their skills and work directly from observation of life-models. RHA a proven and unique knowledge of the

Linda Mulloy

area will facilitate each day. For further

Web

details please visit the RHA’s website.

www.blueglasshouse.com

Web

Telephone

www.rhagallery.ie

0877981123 Tea, Philosophy & Art Tea, Philopsophy & Art is a three day organic art-making workshop, with organic artist Carmel T Madigan in her studio at Cross Village, Loophead, Co Clare. Workshops, which form part of the Carmel T Madigan’s Loophead Summer Hedge School Programme, embody introspection,

education@blockt.ie

Members and distinguished artists with

Contact

self-expression,

inter-

pretation, creation in words and art of that which lies within. Cost of three day course: €200 (to include light lunch).

10am – 4pm daily. Numbers limited to 10 persons. Materials provided. Assistance available with accomodation etc.

Dates: Mon – Wed 15 – 17 Jul, Mon – Wed 29 – 31 Jul, Tues – Thurs 6 – 8 Aug.

buy and sell independent publications

ctmadigan@eircom.net

Projection Mapping

the glasshouse

aims to: provide a platform for people to

Email

from August 2013. The studio is large

courses / training / workshops

opportunities ireland

East Belfast Partnership is calling for experienced and suitably qualified artists / artist teams to produce public art for the back facades of the buildings adjacent to the proposed Connswater Community Greenway, CS Lewis Square. The Partnership are seeking to commission a high quality, permanent, innovative and original work(s) by an artist(s) who will incorporate the context and complement the built fabric of the area into the design. The artwork will contribute to the creation of a vibrant, used, open and welcoming space. The vision is to transform this part of East Belfast, enhance civic pride for local people and improve the environment for residents of, and visitors to this part of the city. The selection process will take the form of a

and zines; help zinesters to meet like

ing as freelance arts worker and how isolating working alone can sometimes be, so their aims are to: kick-start the week for freelancers with a positive, relevant professional engagement; deepen our understanding of other freelancers experience and practice across art forms; support and be supported through skill and advice sharing; develop meaningful connections between freelance arts workers in different art forms over time and through regular contact. E v e n t s will take place on Mon 8 Jul, Irish Theatre Institute, 17 Eustace Street, Temple Bar and Mon 22 Jul, Dancehouse, Foley Street (off Talbot Street), Dublin 1. RSVP to ensure a place.

Email culturalfreelancersireland@gmail.com

Jerwood Encounters Working in partnership, Jerwood Visual Arts and Photoworks invites submissions of existing or proposed work for inclusion in a Jerwood Encounters exhibition curated by Photoworks and showing at Jerwood Space, London in November 2013. The exhibition will present new commissions and / or existing work by three emerging artists / photographers relating to ‘Family Politics’, the curatorial theme of the first issue of Photoworks Annual which will launch alongside the exhibition. Both Photoworks Annual and the exhibition will be open to the expanded way in which photography is being used today.

Work submitted for the exhibition may include approaches not specific to pho-

two-stage open competition. Selection

Draiocht Recent Graduates

tography (eg sculpture, film, drawing,

will be based on the information sup-

County Council and Draíocht Arts Cen-

tapestry) but should draw on a photo-

plied, establishing the competence of

tre are seeking submissions from Fingal

graphic language and reference points.

the artists to carry out this commission.

visual art graduates for an exciting exhi-

Please email a PDF document, no larger

The budget for the project is £40,770.

bition opportunity in 2013. This oppor-

than 5mb including the following in-

The Artist Brief and Application Process

tunity is being developed to recognise,

formation: A short statement outlining

can be obtained by email request from

nurture and showcase the range of tal-

how your work (existing or proposed)

Heather Chesney.

ent of an emerging artist(s) from Fingal,

relates to the theme of ‘family politics’;

Deadline

working in any medium, seeking their

up to five images with captions; a one

3pm, 7 August

first exhibition in a recognised gallery

page CV. An artist fee of £1000 will be

Email

in Ireland. This opportunity may take

available for participating artists.

heather@eastbelfastpartnership.org

the form of a solo exhibition or partici-

Deadline

pation in a group exhibition as part of

5pm 15 July

resonance FM VOid

Fingal County Council’s annual Am-

Web

As part of the 2013 residency at the

harc Fhine Gall (View of Fingal) exhibi-

www.jerwoodvisualarts.org

Derry VOID, Resonance FM is com-

tion to be held in Draíocht from 6 Dec

www.photoworks.org.uk

missioning new sound works that are

2013 – 1 Feb 2014. We will also appoint

Email

30 – 90 minutes in duration. All works

an emerging, independent curator to se-

jva@jerwoodspace.co.uk

will be premiered on Resonance FM as

lect and present your work; a full colour

part of the City of Culture programme,

catalogue will accompany the show. See

broadcast both in Derry from Oct 2013

website for submission details.

for a period of six weeks, and broad-

Deadline

cast in London on the Resonance FM

29 July

schedule there. There are four commis-

Email

sioning strands, designed to encourage

sarah.oneill@fingalcoco.ie

diverse works that correspond to the

Web

station’s core concerns and reflect on

www.draiocht.ie

the wider context and concerns of the

Birr Vintage Week Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival is calling for expressions of interest for this year’s Open Submission Group Show. The Festival is delighted that Peter Prendergast, Director of the Monster Truck Gallery & Studios, Temple Bar will curate and launch this year’s Open Submission Exhibition. The selected Ex-

SuperMassiveBlackHole

hibition will feature on the Visual Arts

Supermassive Black Hole is currently

Trail during the Festival from Friday 2 –

taking submissions for ISSUE 14 with

Saturday 10 August, 2013. Work in any

the theme ‘The Mountain’. For this is-

medium is welcome. For more informa-

sue, the editors are looking for work

tion see website below.

that both represents the mountain in

Deadline

landscape photography, or uses the

22 July

mountain as a metaphor itself.

Web

Deadline

www.birrvintageweek.com/visual-arts

Body / Landscape

city and people of Derry. These strands

Body Weather – Body Landscape is a

are: Site Specific, Radiophonic Sculp-

comprehensive training and perfor-

ture, Oral History, Radio Art. Currently

mance practice that investigates the

a level of funding in place will provide

intersections of bodies and their en-

several commissions of £500 – £1,000

vironments. Bodies are not conceived

but proposals beyond this scale are also

of as fixed entities but as constantly

welcome as specific funding may be

changing through an infinite and com-

sourced for proposal of a larger scale.

plex system of processes occurring in

Applications must include: a 500-word

and outside of these bodies. Taking Body

project description, an artist’s CV and

Weather into the landscape, the aim is

examples of previous work.

to explore and develop consciousness of

Email

the body as an ever-evolving landscape

tom.besley@resonancefm.com

Dublin Zine Fair

roundings of Castletown House and

within a greater surrounding landscape.

derrysites@derryvoid.com

This annual event, founded in 2011

Parklands, are looking for vibrant vol-

Frank van de Ven is a dancer and chore-

Web www.derryvoid.com

to support and promote independent

unteers with expertise and passion, who

ographer who spent his formative years

publishing, zines and artist books, takes

will play a part in making Big House an

place on 17 – 18 Aug at Exchange, Tem-

exceptional experience for all. This is a

ple Bar, Dublin 2. The Dublin Zine Fair

fantastic opportunity to take part in a

in Japan working with Min Tanaka and the Maijuku Performance Company.

10 July Web www.smbhmag.com

big house festival Big House, a festival of arts, music, film and entertainment in the magical sur-

34

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

oPPorTUniTies

VAi ProfessionAL deVeLoPmenT

delightful festival and gain experience

individual artists in the development of

EU students. There is no separate appli-

in the areas such as event management

their art practice. The award emphasises

cation procedure. All fully completed

and in the cultural field. You must be 18

the value and benefit to an artist’s devel-

applications to the courses received by

years or older to volunteer. Big House is

opment that is derived from a focused

the deadline will be considered for the

programmed and organised by the Per-

period of engagement with their prac-

bursary.

formance Corporation.

tice. Guidelines for each award are pub-

Deadline

Deadline

lished on the available funding section

22nd July

volunteer@bighouse.ie

on the website. Applications will only

Web

be accepted through the Arts Council’s

www.bighouse.ie

online services website. Applicants who

Telephone

have not previously used this system

016272827

must register in advance of making an

ennis Open air Following the successful ‘Art for All’ exhibition, which took place during the recent Fleadh Nua weekend, the Clare County Arts Office and Ennis Town Council have announced two additional Saturday open-air exhibitions in the Temple Gate Car Park. The first ex-

application. It is recommended that applicants allow five working days for registration prior to making an application.

Deadline 11 July Web www.artscouncil.ie

JoB VACAnCies dublin dance festival new Marketing Manager. Reporting to the Director/ General Manager, the managing an effective communications plan to promote the festival, grow audiences and deliver box office targets.

The Marketing Manager (working with the General Manager) is responsible for

with the Ennis Street Festival on Sat,

The Intercultural Arts Grants Pro-

Jul 6 with the second following up four

gramme aims to support meaningful

weeks later on Sat, Aug 3. Both exhibi-

collaboration between ethnic minor-

tions are open to all artists interested in

ity communities and artists. Artist-led

displaying their work and meeting oth-

interventions can take many different

er artists. The initiative, which is based

forms – through music, visual arts, per-

on a similar and very successful scheme

forming arts and literary arts. For more

hosted in St Stephen’s Green, in Dublin,

information check the Arts Council of

was the brainchild of local art student

Northern Ireland website.

Ann Cronin. Registrations to exhibit

Deadline

are now open and anyone interested in

12 September

exhibiting should contact the County

Web

Arts Office.

www.artscouncil-ni.org

short task as part of the interview in or-

vai@das residency

tion skills.

In partnership with Visual Artists Ire-

Deadline

land, Digital Arts Studios offers a resi-

12 noon, 10 July

dency to an artist / member of VAI as an

Web

mart summer markets

award. 2013 will be the second year of

www.dublindancefestival.ie

The MART is reopening and is seeking

the VAI@DAS competition, a residency

vendors for its summer markets. Held

award open to professional visual art-

over weekends throughout Jul and Aug

ists. The residency is awarded to only

(the first took place in Jun), the market

one artist per year, with the 2013 win-

host vendors selling art, crafts, knits /

ner receiving a four-month residency

fashion and jewellery (all made by sell-

from October 2013 to January 2014. A

ers). When possible, the market will also

peer panel that will include representa-

host live music, visuals, installations

tives from the Digital Arts Studios and

and art games from some of the MART

Visual Artists Ireland will select the

artists. This will be a fun and enjoyable

winning artist. The award is now open

experience for our guests and vendors.

for applications. The VAI @ DAS Resi-

The market is located in the old fire sta-

dency Award Winner 2012 was Joanna

tion in Rathmines High Street – one of

Hopkins, a multimedia artist working

the busiest pedestrian thoroughfares

in video, installation and interactive art.

in Dublin. The MART Market is an inti-

(www.digitalartsstudios.com/artists/

mate affair with 15 stalls allowing you

joanna-hopkins.) For full details on how

space to shine. Book now as spaces are

to apply see the Visual Artiss Ireland

limited.

website.

Web

Deadline

www.mart.ie/market

4pm 16 August

Telephone 0656899091

Web

fUnding / Aw AwA wArds / BUrsAries

www.visualartists.ie ncad pOstgrad schOlarship Visual Culture, NCAD is delighted to of of-

arts cOuncil bursaries / awards a The window for making an application is now open. The following awards are available: Architecture Bursary Award, Dance Bursary Award, Literature Bursary Award (English Language), Literature Bursary Award (Irish Language), Opera Bursary Award, Traditional Arts Bursary Award, Visual Arts Bursary Award, YPCE Bursary Award. The Arts Council provides Bursary Awards in order to assist

fer the first Postgraduate Scholarship for MA studies. Following the successes of the two Masters programmes offered by the Faculty of Visual Culture at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, a scholarship worth full tuition fees will be awarded to a student on either the MA Art in the Contemporary World (Theory only) or the MA Design History and Material Culture. The scholarship will be awarded on merit and all applicants are eligible, including EU and non

AUtUmn preVIeW information / register NortherN IrelaNd www.visualartists.org.uk/services/professionaldevelopment/current republIc of IrelaNd www.visualartists.ie/education/register-for-our-events/

dUBLin / gALwAy / kiLkenny

BeLfAsT

documenting your work with tim durham.

In partnership with the Crafts Council.

Thurs 12 Sept (10.00 – 17.00). @ Galway venue.

support session for artists working with groups with niamh O’connor.

In partnership with Belfast Exposed.

Wed 18 Sept @ Belfast Exposed Gallery.

performance art masterclass with nigel rolfe.

In conjunction with the Dublin Live Art Festival.

Thurs 26 Sept @ The Back Loft, Dublin.

publishing and distributing artists’ books with andpublishing.

In partnership with Belfast Exposed.

Marketing Manager is responsible for

intercultural arts grant

arts@clarelibrary.ie.

VAI professIonAl deVelopment

Dublin Dance Festival is recruiting a

hibition will take place in conjunction

Email

July – August 2013

identifying and managing development opportunities / activity within the festival. Support for the role of Marketing Manager is provided through a number of key external agencies and consultants (communications, Box Office, PR, design and IT). E-mail cover letter addressed to The Director, Dublin Dance Festival along with a detailed CV listing two referees to recruitment@dublindancefestival.ie. Please note that selected candidates will be asked to complete a der to assess copywriting and presenta-

sustaining a performance art practice: a panel discussion with nigel rolfe, jonas stampe & others. in conjunction with the Dublin Live Art Festival.

Sat 28 Sept @ The Back Loft, Dublin. costing & pricing your work with patricia clyne-kelly (workshop & clinics) In partnership with the Crafts Council of Ireland Wed 2 Oct (09.45 – 18.15) @ Kilkenny venue

!

Caution we strongly advise readers to verify all details to their own satisfaction before forwarding art work, money etc.

web & social media marketing clinic with mary carty.

In partnership with Crafts Council of Ireland.

Sat 12 Oct (10.00 - 14.00). @ VAI, Dame Court, Dublin 2. facilitation skills for artists working with groups with niamh O’connor. in partnership with CREATE. Tues 15 Oct @ CREATE, Dublin.

Wed 16 Oct @ 126 Gallery, Galway. handling artists’ agreements talk t & legal clinics with linda scales Tues 22 Oct (10.30 – 16.30). @ VAI, Dame Court, Dublin 2. further dates & details to be announced: Peer Critique Painting with Vicky Wright @ Visual Artists Ireland, Dublin; Developing Proposals for Collaborative Curatorial Projects Case studies @ 126 Gallery, Galway; Developing Projects & Proposals for Individual Artists In partnership with Ennistymon Courthouse @ Ennistymon Courthouse; Public Art Case Studies @ Visual Artists Ireland, Dublin; Producing Artists’ Digital Film – Case Studies.

Wed 9 Oct (10.30 – 16.30) @ Belfast Exposed Gallery. documenting your work.

In partnership with Belfast Exposed. @ Belfast Exposed Gallery.

PArTnershiP Visual Artists Ireland Professional Development Training Programme (PDT) works in partnership with a range of organisations at regional level. We welcome approaches and expressions of interest from artists' studios, galleries and local authority Arts Officers who might wish to partner on training events.

ArTisTs & 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 (PDT).

To register on the PDT Artists Panel: www.visualartists.ie/education-2/ current-programme cOntact monica flynn Professional development officer Visual Artists ireland ground floor Central hotel Chambers 7–9 dame Court. dublin2 T: +353 (0)1 672 9488 e: monica@visualartists.ie

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

July – August 2013

35

institution profile

View of Black Church Print Studio exhibition 'Repetition' (curated by Margaret O’Brien, with Niamh Ann Kelly), Monster Truck Gallery, Dublin, 2013

Jesse Jones, The Golden Age has yet to come, produced as part of Process 2012

Productive Processes

For Brian Fay, whose work explores art conservation techniques, the Process project offered ideas for ways of developing his practice.

“Process opened up my thinking around image production.”

Commenting further, the artist noted, “The process of print-making itself … opened up my more ‘solitary pursuit’ of drawing in the studio.

If in this case drawing is understood as a individual 'subjective' activity then printmaking seems to echo a more collaborative inter-subjective method that for me had echoes with decision making processes in the conservation of artworks. So looking at drawing through an intersubjective model is something I would like to develop”.

Perhaps within this ‘post-medium’ age, it is the specific sets of choices that the medium of printmaking offers, that are its strength.

For studio member Raymond Henshaw – who worked with Jesse Jones on her piece for the Process project – print techniques offer unique creative options. In Henshaw’s view, “Artists using the specifics of the medium are creating [print] works as installations and exploring the same contemporary concepts as other visual artists … shining through is the medium’s intrinsic qualities, which provide options not available elsewhere in art production”.

Black Church has organised a number of critically well-received exhibitions, that address many of the issues that circulate around the medium of print – such as the inherent tension between copy and original, reproduction, sequence and seriality. The upcoming exhibition ‘Circulation’ (August 2013) curated by Paul McAree explores many of these issues.2 McAree has focussed on ideas around modes of production and distribution. He is particularly interested in works that demonstrate an economy of means, using easily available printed matter such as flyers and photocopies. Overall McAree sees artists participation in ‘Circulation’ as a means to “look at and subvert an approach to looking at social or political issues, while at the same time displaying an awareness of and relationship to art historical practices”.

It could be argued that printmaking, as an art practice, has often suffered from an ‘inferiority complex’ compared to other mediums – traditionally painting and drawing, but more recently film and digital media. Printmaking techniques tend to remain a mystery to the general public; within the visual arts they are considered a somewhat ‘niche’ practice that seems to verge on obsolescence. Black Church Print Studio is a key player in Ireland in countering such misapprehensions, promoting and placing printmaking as a medium central to contemporary art practice – while the studio’s website gives a generous overview of the variety of activities it is involved in.

According to Sara Suzuki, associate curator of print at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, printmaking is undergoing a kind of “stealth renaissance” and artists have used printmaking to create some of their most profound and compelling works of art.3 Historical examples would include Paul Klee’s Angelus Novus, or Goya’s Disaster’s of War series (both etchings). Contemporary works would include those by William Kentridge, Chuck Close, Alfredo Jaar, Ellen Gallagher and James Siena.

With an influx of new members to the studio and the ongoing commitment of longer standing members to the medium of print, it is clear that Black Church will ensure that printmaking continues to flourish.

Alison Pilkington profiles black church print studio, dublin

Brian Fay incorporates drypoint into his wider creative practice as part of Process 2013

Damien Flood experimenting with a range of techniques as part of Process 2013

Black Church Print Studio, situated in the heart of Temple Bar, supports and nurtures printmaking as an art practice. It provides fully equipped facilities for all types of fine art printmaking, from traditional to innovative techniques. Approximately 200 artists use the studio yearly, through various access programmes and courses / workshops. As Colin Martin, chair of the board, puts it, “a lot of people have a stake in the studio – through our visiting artists programme and international residency programme, as well as our educational programmes – and there are a lot of benefits that come with that”.

The list of past and present artists who have worked at the studio from its founding in 1982 to the present day reads as an impressive list and includes Barrie Cooke, Cecily Brennan, Margaret O’Brien, Niamh O’Malley and Andrew Folan. Folan was one of the founding members of the studio and was chairperson from 1997 – 1999; his own work reflects the ethos of the studio in deploying both traditional printmaking techniques whilst also pushing the boundaries of digital printing technologies.

Black Church Print studio was established in 1982 by a splinter group of the Graphic Studio. The history of the studio is captured in a publication Milestones, Black Church Print Studio 1982 – 2007, a celebration of 25 years of the studio, which accompanied an exhibition of the same name at the Office of Public Works, Dublin in 2007. A fascinating read, it charts the growth of the studio from its initial premises on Ardee Street to its eventual home in Temple Bar as part of Temple Bar’s cultural re-development.1 The Black Church name derives from initial plans to move to the deconsecrated St Marys Chapel of Ease, St Mary's Place, Broadstone – built in 1830 and known as the Black Church due to the darkened hue the limestone takes on when wet. The name was kept, even though the studio never actually moved into the space due to health and safety reasons. In Milestones, Sara Horgan explains, “We submitted conversion plans for the Black Church to the Arts Council, who agreed to give us £80,000 – which was a lot of money at the time. However, as the Dublin saying goes, "three times around the Black Church and you meet the devil". We had concerns about the plaster in the Black Church so had it analysed and found that it was a double layer of disintegrating asbestos – to remove it would have added £40,500 to the cost, which we were unwilling to bear”.

Black Church continues to be supported by the Arts Council, through an annual grant, supplemented by income from membership

fees and other income streams. But the margins are tight for the studio’s running costs, so fundraising initiatives are important. One such scheme is the Friends Scheme, which as Studio Manager Rachael Gilbourne notes, offers the benefit of an annual print draw. “Each Friend is allocated a ticket number. On the night of the draw, all ticket numbers are placed in a hat and the holder of each number drawn will be given the opportunity to choose from the prints on display. Everyone is guaranteed to win a print; if you are picked from the hat first you have the choice from 55 prints. There are a maximum of 50 tickets sold, so everyone will have a choice. All prints included are by Black Church Print Studio artists, many of which are worth twice or three times the price of the Friends subscription.”

Another aspect of the studio’s activity is its extensive education programme. It offers a range of evening classes and weekend workshops, which cover a wide variety of printmaking techniques. Etching remains a popular choice, but lesser known techniques such as stone lithography is a skill that is also taught and that is gaining interest within the studio membership.

Rachel Likely, a recent graduate of NCAD and new member, works almost exclusively in this area in the studio. I was interested to know why she was attracted to this technique, which many printmakers shy away from as it tends to be tricky and laborious. Likely explained that “the lure of the smooth drawing surface created through the grinding of the stones is something I keep coming back to”. The artist also emphasised that “Black Church has been a great platform for working as an artist, while it has also provided me with the opportunity to get in touch with other artists working in the medium of lithography which has also pushed my understanding of it. Since joining Black Church I have learned new methods in lithography, such as the Sharpie marker technique used for achieving flat areas of colour, without the need to use a second or third stone”.

Many of the studio members’ practices straddle a number of media and a recent studio initiative, entitled Black Church Process, invites leading art practitioners from other art disciplines to work with the resources of the print studio. The pilot for Black Church Process was initially financed through a successful Fundit campaign and the programme continues today. So far, the artists involved have been Brian Fay, Damien Flood, and Jesse Jones – all established practitioners within their individual fields of drawing, painting and filmmaking respectively, but new to printmaking processes.

Alison Pilkington is an artist based in Dublin. She is currently undertaking a practice based PhD at NCAD Dublin.

Notes 1. Milestones, Black Church Print Studio 1982 – 2007 Black Church Print Studio 2007 2.‘Circulation’ curated by Paul McAree, Monster Truck Gallery / FLOOD, August 2013 3. Sarah Suzuki, What is a Print?, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (10 Oct 2011)

VAI@DAS Residency Award 2013 – 2014

2013 will be the second year of the VAI@DAS competition: a residency award open to professional visual artists.

The residency is awarded to only one artist per year, with the 2013 winner receiving a four-month residency from October 2013 to January 2014. A peer panel that will include representatives from the Digital Arts Studios and Visual Artists Ireland will select the winning artist.

The VAI @ DAS Residency Award Winner 2012 was Joanna Hopkins, a multimedia artist working in video, installation and interactive art.

ALL ON THAT DAY Michael Warren

New and recent sculpture 13th July -14th September 2013 Exhibition opening on Friday 12th July at 6pm The Dock, Carrick on Shannon, Co.Leitrim Admission is free to exhibitions in the galleries Open Tuesday to Friday 10am - 6pm / Saturday 10am - 5pm +353 071 965 0828 info@thedock.ie www.thedock.ie

The award is now open for applications and the deadline is: 4pm, Friday, August 16th.

For full details on how to apply, see our website: www.visualartists.ie www.visualartists-ni.org

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS WINTER OPEN 2013

DEADLINE 5PM, 15 AUG THE OVERALL WINNER OF THE RUA RED ART PRIZE WILL BE AWARDED A SOLO SHOW IN 2014. THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD WINNER, DETERMINED BY PUBLIC VOTE, WILL RECEIVE A CASH PRIZE OF €1000.

Garrett Power, Untitled, Winter Open 2012 RUA RED SOUTH DUBLIN ARTS CENTRE TALLAGHT DUBLIN 24

VAI_July_Winter_Open.indd 1

01 451 5860 WWW.RUARED.IE INFO@RUARED.IE

15/06/2013 12:26:17

cloud illusions i recall

an exhibition exploring art & cinema

Marcel Broodthaers James Coleman Peter Doig Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster Lady Clementina Hawarden Michael Powell & Emeric Pressberger Allen Ruppersberg Ed Ruscha Cindy Sherman Andrey Tarkovsky Cerith Wyn Evans

22 JUNE 25 AUGUST irish museum of modern art–new galleries military road, kilmainham, dublin 8 01 612 9900 info@imma.ie www.imma.ie

Lady Clementina Hawarden Clementina Maude, 5 Princes Gardens; Photographic Study, c. 1863–4 photograph, 61.0 × 50.8 × 2.3 cm Victoria and Albert Museum, London Given by Lady Clementina Tottenham © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Bronze Art, Fine art Foundry

St. Columba Artist: Niall Bruton St Columb’s Park, Derry.

Accept no compromise in the quality of your work, come work with the specialists.Best quality guaranteed everytime at competitive prices.

For your next project contact: David O’Brien or Ciaran Patterson Unit 3, Gaelic St, Dublin 3, Ireland.

Tel: 353-1-8552452 Fax: 353-1-8552453 Email: bronzeartireland@hotmail.com Join us on Facebook

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SPECIAL ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATE FOR VAI MEMBERS €28 (INC P&P)!

T. 01 6766711 www.irishartsreview.com

new equipment@vai Now available to VAI members:

• • • • • • • •

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 New 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

THE MARKET PLACE THEATRE & ARTS CENTRE, ARMAGH Submissions are invited from artists for exhibitions for the venue’s Gallery and its Foyer Walls with dates available from March 2014 onwards.

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.

Download the FREE App available now for:

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Submissions should consist of: artist’s CV, exhibition proposal [max 200 words], samples of work on CD / DVD [max 10 high resolution images], details regarding medium, size and technical requirements, current contact details (including email address), SAE for return of materials. Submissions are welcomed for all disciplines including fine art, photography, printmaking, multi-media, craft, sculpture and installation work. Solo and groups exhibitions are also welcomed. All submissions will be assessed by a selection panel.

Details of the Market Place Gallery (including floor plan and hanging system) can be downloaded from www.marketplacearmagh.com/visual-arts A virtual tour of the gallery and Foyer exhibition spaces can be viewed from www.digital-door.com/marketplacetour Closing Date: Friday16 August 2013 Late submissions cannot be accepted Further enquiries and to receive an information pack contact Christine Donnelly

The Market Place Gallery Market Street, Armagh BT61 7BW T: 44(0)2837521804/02837521820 E: christine.donnelly@marketplacearmagh.com

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