Visual Artists' News Sheet - 2012 January February

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet ISSUE 1 January – February 2012

Published by Visual Artists Ireland and Ealaíontóirí Radharcacha Éire

Rivane Neuenschwander, I Wish Your Wish, 2003, Silkscreen on fabric ribbons, dimensions variable, installation view, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona, USA. Photo © Tim Lanterman Photography. Collection Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary; Juan e [and] Pat Vergez Collection.

RIVANE NEUENSCHWANDER A DAY LIKE ANY OTHER 16 NOVEMBER 2011 – 29 JANUARY 2012

Irish Museum of Modern Art – New Galleries Royal Hospital, Military Road, Kilmainham, Dublin 8 t +353 1 6129900 e info@IMMA.ie w www.IMMA.ie www.twitter.com/IMMADublin

Fiona Mulholland Reflections on Things to Come 2011

Admission free

CORK COUNTY COUNCIL

Water Services Public Art Commissions Framework Formation of Artistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Panel !"#$%!"&'()%!"&'*+,%+'(-'./%("%0"#1%2%32'-,%"0%2#(+/(/%0"#%2%/-#+-/% "0%3&4,+*%2#(%*"11+//+"'/%2#+/+'5%0#"1%6-#%!-'(%0"#%7#(%8*9-1-% 2,,"*2(+"'/%0"#%!"#$%!"&'()%!"&'*+,:/%;2(-#%8-#<+*-/%='<-/(1-'(% 6#"5#211-> "SUJTUT XJUI FYQFSJFODF JO QVCMJD TDVMQUVSF BOE SFMBUFE mFMET BSF +'<+(-.%("%233,)%0"#%+'*,&/+"'%"'%2%32'-,%"0%2#(+/(/%0"#%(9;2(-#%8-#<+*-/%6&4,+*%7#(%!"11+//+"'/%?#21-@"#$%0#"1%@9+*9% 2%'&14-#%"0%3&4,+*%2#(%*"11+//+"'/%@+(9%4&.5-(/%#2'5+'5%0#"1% ABCDCCC&3%("%2%12E+1&1%"0%AFGDCCC%12)%4-%2@2#.-.>%H9+/%32'-,% @+,,%4-%+'%3,2*-%0"#%(@"%)-2#/%0#"1%.2(-%"0%0"#12(+"'> !,"/+'5%I2(-%0"#%#-*-+3(%0"#%JE3#-//+"'/%"0%='(-#-/(%+/ Friday 2 March 2012 Information and application forms are available from: www.etenders.gov.uk www.corkcoco.ie www.publicart.ie And also from: The Arts Office Cork County Council County Hall Cork.

021 4346210

Emmet Place | Cork | Ireland +353 (0)21 4805042 | www.crawfordartgallery.ie

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The LAB Foley Street, Dublin 1 T: 01 2225455 E: artsoffice@dublincity.ie W: www.thelab.ie H: 10am - 5pm Mon to Sat

Foresight, Orla Whelan, 2011, oil on canvas, 130 x 160cm

In Paint; In Teeth; In Mountains; In Stars ORLA WHELAN 9 December 2011 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 21 January 2012

In collaboration with abgc architecture and design

4

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January - February 2012

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Introduction WELCOME to the January / February edition of the Visual Artists’ News Sheet.

Contents 1. Cover Image. Fiona Mulholland Reflections on Things to Come 2011.

5. Roundup. Recent exhibitions and projects of note.

5. Column. Jonathan Carroll. Smells like Postmodernism.

To welcome in 2012 we have two interviews with newly appointed directors, looking at their respective plans for the upcoming year. James Merrigan talks to Cian O’Brien, the new Artistic Director of Project Arts Centre, Dublin, and Marianne O’Kane Boal chats with Aileen Burns and Johann Lundh, the new Directors of Context Gallery, Derry.

6. Column. Emily Mark Fitzgerald. State of the Arts.

7. Column. Mark Fisher. Towards a New Mainstream.

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

In our profiles section, Sarah Searson takes a countrywide look at the status of Arts Officers, and issues of disparity between counties. This feature serves as an introductory overview, before we begin our regular regional profile section in the next issue.

Of our regular columnists, Emily Mark Fitzgerald discusses Jim Elkins’ recent essay ‘The State of Irish Art History Revisited’: its reception and implications for the future of university teaching in Ireland.

Jonathan Carroll reviews two recent exhibitions in London: ‘Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970 – 1990’ at the V&A and Anri Sala at the Serpentine Gallery. Mark Fisher investigates the idea of a ‘new mainstream’ following political turmoil and widespread protest in 2011.

It’s been a busy couple of months at Visual Artists Ireland, with the launch of our new service for North-

10. Regional Profile. Arts Officers. Sarah Searson looks at the status of Arts Offices across the country.

12. Profile. Estate of Mind. Mary-Ruth Walsh discusses her recent performance/installation ‘Real EState’.

13. Interview. PAC Man. James Merrigan talks to Cian O’Brien about his new role as Director of Project Arts Centre, Dublin.

14. Profile. Message in a Bottle. Vera McAvoy discusses the ‘Honeycomb’ project, achieved during her residency at Stradbally, Co. Laois on the Arthouse NCAD award and bursary.

now take part in the exciting studio exchange programme, Artelier, in partnership with Artquest. In

Critique. This four-page section features six reviews of exhibitions, events, publications and projects – that are either current or have recently taken place in Ireland.

addition to this we have a new programme of professional development workshops and events, and an

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

ern Ireland, details of which can be found at www.visualartists-ni.org. Furthermore, members of VAI can

upcoming competition to win a residency at Digital Arts Studios.

In the November / December issue Alex Davis discussed the Artists’ Resale Right. We are pleased to say that this legislation is now in place. From 1 January 2012, the families and heirs of Irish artists stand to benefit from their royalties. This important Right pays artists royalties each time their work is resold by an auction house or art dealer. The right has applied to living artists since 2006. The full implementation means that artists can leave this Right to their families with royalties helping support the vital work carried out by estates to preserve the artist’s legacy after their death, and for a further 70 years.

19. Interview. New Context. Marianne O’Kane Boal talks to Aileen Burns and Johann Lundh, the new co- directors of Context Gallery, Derry.

20. Regional Contacts. Visual Artists Ireland’s regional contacts, Laura Graham and Aideen Barry, report from the field.

22. Profile. The Performance Process. Pauline Keena discusses her performance process with Estonian artist Sorge (Margus Tiitsmaa).

Membership Form Name: Address Production Publications Manager: Jason Oakley; Assistant Editor: Lily Power; Layout: Lily Power; News: Niamh Looney, Damien McGlynn, Siobhan Mooney; Roundup: Siobhan Mooney. Opportunities: Siobhan Mooney; Proofing: Anne Henrichson; Invoicing: Bernadette Beecher.

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Contributors Sarah Searson, Pauline Keena, Mark Fisher, Jonathan Carroll, Emily Mark Fitzgerald, Aideen Barry, Laura Graham, Joanne Laws, Alissa Kleist, Curt Riegelnegg, Sarah Lincoln, Mary-Ruth Walsh, Eilish Cullen, Vera McAvoy, James Merrigan, Marianne O’Kane Boal, Alison Pilkington.

Contact Visual Artists Ireland Central Hotel Chambers 7–9 Dame Court Dublin 2 T: 01 672 9488 F: 01 672 9482 E: info@visualartists. ie W: www.visualartists.ie Board of Directors Liam Sharkey (Chair), Roger Bennet, Paula Duffy, Susan MacWilliam, Maoiliosa Reynolds, Niamh McCann, Linda Shevlin, Fergus Martin, Donall Curtin

Staff CEO/Director: Noel Kelly Administrator: Bernadette Beecher Publications Manager: Jason Oakley Advocacy Programme Officer: Alex Davis Membership Manager: Valerie Earley Professional Development Officer: Monica Flynn Information and Communications Officers: Niamh Looney, Damien McGlynn Bookeeping: Dina Mulchrone Assistant Editor: Lily Power Publications Assistant: Siobhan Mooney Membership Administrator: Aoife Leddy

Regional Contacts Aideen Barry (West) aideenbarry@gmail.com Laura Graham (Antrim) laura@visualartists.ie

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS PUBLICATION, UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THOSE OF THE EDITOR, EDITORIAL PANEL OR VISUAL ARTISTS IRELAND’S BOARD OF DIRECTORS. Visual Artists ireland is the registered trading name of the Sculptors’ Society of Ireland. Registered company no. 126424.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

5

January - February 2012

COLUMN

ROUNDUP

Jonathan Carroll

Smells Like Postmodernism

Ever wondered what one of the ‘isms’ would smell like if it were a perfume? Postmodernism’s scent would be the overpowering aroma of cheap rubber, if the V&A’s ‘Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990’1 had anything to do with it.

For me, the early promise and exciting prospect of this exhibition soon vanished, much like Postmodernism itself.

tons) and my abiding memory of how she smelt

exhibited in the Project Arts

trickery of time itself – and

Centre, Dublin (11 Nov – 14

the mood, affect and influence

tional weed’ she was exhaling.5 In fact, the white

Jan). The show was based

which these human-devised

elephant in the room has to be all those illegal

on and created by a group of

meta-forms have upon human

substances these guys enjoyed on their trip from

artists, comedians and writers

experience and behavior.”

Modernism to Postmodernism.

who worked together on ‘The

www.somacontemporary.com

project in St Louis, Missouri, was dynamited.2 Also featured is a prescient drawing by the Italian architect Gaetano Pesce of his Church of Solitude (1974): a cross section of a proposed underground location in New York, intended as a place of contemplation. The above-ground space is littered with the ruins of architecture from eras past that looks uncannily like the 9/11 memorial. Add in the complete reconstruction of Hans Hollein’s façade from the 1980 Biennale of Architecture, ‘Strada Novissima’ (a garish mess of stage props best seen at a distance), the original outfit worn by Blade Runner’s Zhora, the odd Warhol screenprint or Laurie Anderson performance piece, and you get some sense of the ideas and images clashing together in this exhibition.3 Spoilt for choice, the V&A curators over-indulge, ruining any chance of a coherent conclusion. Or maybe they’ve hit the nail on the head by contrasting the clarity and simplicity of Modernism with the complexity and contradiction of Postmodernism. They sum up this contrast quite neatly in the text panel:

thinking that went into the design of the space is all recorded. However, I’d recommend for future shows that they get off their computers more and

in fact my next stop, a stones throw from the V&A in London, was to the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde park, where my experience of the rubber matted flooring was so impressive that I came away with a sample, kindly provided by Claire Feeley, assistant curator of the gallery. The brilliant solo exhibition by Anri Sala (born Tirana 1974) was in complete contrast to the variety show at the V&A. Here we received one complete sensory experience through music, performance, video and installation, and a rare intimacy, denied to the

new world. Postmodernism, by contrast, was more

and examined the processes ‘History of the Visitation’ was a recent exhibition by Damien Gallery, Dublin (10 Nov – 10 Dec). The press release states “ This new body of work investigates the notion of the human in the landscape, the investigator, the digger, the geologist. The body appears fragmented and transient in the landscape....The paintings layers are left exposed, scars of previous layers twist and turn on the surface leaving the history of its making.”

ELODIE PONG

finished, like a pied piper insisting you give it all another go. Should I Stay or Should I Go ought to be the anthem to all contemporary art, and especially performance art. One is often unsure if one ‘gets it’ or has stayed long enough in a space to do the artwork justice. Will the length of a durational performance outlast your tolerance? Certainly in the Serpentine I felt sorry for those who left just back through the exhibition. The videos played in sequence like blinking eyes, while Vida riffed with

recently presented Elodie Pong’s video work ‘After the Empire’ (9 Nov – 17 Dec). The press release notes that Pong “.... investigates such cultural legacies and landmark moments, moral and amoral, caught in

ence while ‘Postmodernism: Style and Subversion’

tragedy, second as farce”

(she being the perfect cyborg of artists past, a

like...

fridge magnet of postmodern ideas)? The various

on the walls of the space, using the medium of graphite pencil. watch artists as they make their written pieces. The press release states “(sub)TEXT is a collaborative, time based, multi media

and spoken word, (sub)TEXT opens up dialogues between the participating artists and the viewer, challenging the experience and perception of ‘room’ as

notes “Artistic production and its reception is a subject full of contradiction and conjecture.

Lynch’s curated exhibition sug-

and showing of art are as much a genuine theme of aesthetic understanding as the intentions that bring the art object into being”. The show is curated by Sean Lynch. www.crawfordgallery.ie

SUBSTANCE ‘The Coercion of Substance’

by Samuel Walsh was recently exhibited at Visual Carlow (17 Sep – 8 Jan). The press release notes of his work “A practice which emerges from endless dualities: drawing and painting, line and colour, art and audience, seeing and drawing and poetry ad prose.” The title of the show comes from a Seamus Heaney poem. www.visualcarlow.ie

a contemporary art space.” www.themodel.ie

DIFFERENCE ENGINE

FREE-FALL West Cork Arts Centre recently exhibited ‘Free-Fall’ by Amy Walsh (23 Sep – 12 Nov). There were three inter-related bodies of work titled ‘Saturday Swimmers’, ‘The New Gardeners’ and ‘Small Stories’. The show consisted of aerial photographs,

snatches of cultural quotation;

photographic stop motion animations and an interactive audio visual work. The press release notes “ In this exhibition

www.motherstankstation.com

CONTRABAND

Walsh explores the relation-

Belfast Exposed recently pre-

ship between humans and the landscape they inhabit.”

sented ‘Contraband’ by Taryn

zones of the exhibition, including ‘Apocalypse

(Nov – Jan). The press release

The audience were invited to

(in a virtually bare room) in

Interesting idea, but did all this fragmentation is this ‘mirror’ now in Lady Gaga’s dressing room

written text; working directly

her characters speak or perform

“history repeats itself, first as

DVDs. Now, I wonder what Modernism smelt

the entire gallery space with

lective cultural history, making

‘Anri Sala’ makes for a great exhibition experiwould do better as a catalogue with attached

Nov – 23 Dec). Artists filled

the “great encyclopedia” of col-

many fragments.”4 take place in an underground bondage club? And

held in the Model, Sligo (5

Pong has restaged passages from

the on-screen musicians.

in the Crawford Gallery, Cork

occurrences around the making

the maelstrom of globalisation.

like a broken mirror, a reflecting surface made of

exhibition currently on show

gests that incidental events and

of ideas through the written Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin

‘A Rocky Road’ is a group

‘(sub)Text’ was a group show

By facilitating an exploration

Should I Go, by The Clash, (featured in many

A ROCKY ROAD

(sub)TEXT

concept, impact and aesthetics.

perfect timing, punk anthem Should I Stay or

back through the exhibition you thought was

www.projectartscentre.ie

relationships between process,

but for sound, continuity and visual effect. With

saxophonist Andre Vida, as he leads you through

individual practices.

installation that contemplates

The matting here was not for health and safety

of the works in the exhibition) is picked up by

of self-representation in their

Flood held in the Green On Red

visitor of more populated museums and galleries.

before the saxophonist serenaded the lingerers

“The modernists wanted to open a window onto a

involved in the original project

ating-the-exhibition/#part1) The discussion and

Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against rubber,

on 15 March 1972, when the Pruitt-Igoe housing

mix of people and personalities

exhibitions/postmodernism/postmodernism-cre-

a heady mix of art, architecture, design, photog-

the moment the era began, apparently at 3.32pm

prequel/sequel dissected the

provide on the website (www.vam.ac.uk/content/

The V&A’s unrivaled, eclectic collection allows for

tion. The exhibition shows us some images of

sitcom set in the artworld. This

was the incredible detail the exhibition team

the olfactory-free zone on-screen.

fashion, to be brought together in this exhibi-

Last of the Red Wine’, a radio

One of the best things about this Postmodernfest

spend some time in the actual space rather than

raphy, music, furniture, craft, literature, film, and

DAMIEN FLOOD

does not involve rubber but more the ‘inspira-

Simon (28 Oct – 30 Dec). The

SOMA Contemporary, Water-

show is based on five days the

ford presented ‘Difference En-

BLOUSED

photographer spent in John F

gine; Manifestation V’ which is

Kennedy Airport in November

an evolving touring exhibition,

‘Bloused’’ by Caoimhe Kilfeather

2009. ‘Contraband’ includes

a model of autonomous artist

1075 photographs of over 1000

curation, by artists Mark Cullen,

items detained or seized from

Wendy Judge Gillian Lawler &

passengers and from express

Jessica Foley, and featuring Gor-

mail entering the U.S. from

don Cheung (28 Oct – 3 Dec).

abroad. The press release men-

The press release notes that

This ‘Club Space’ was dedicated to some musi-

tions that the photographs are

“The intention of this project

cal icons of the period: Grace Jones, David Byrne

taken on a “neutral grey back-

is to elaborate upon the dual

(represented by his famous Stop Making Sense

ground, producing an ‘objec-

meaning of the term jamming –

oversized suit) and Klaus Nomi. I once shared a

tive’ scientific record, devoid of

in one sense ‘jamming’ signifies

lift with Grace Jones (my job was pushing the but-

context. Removed from the in-

stasis, shock, or rupture, and in

dividual passenger’s belongings,

another, opposite sense, it signi-

each item loses its distinguish-

fies a kind of fluid and chang-

ing personal associations and is

ing improvisation between

transformed into an artifact of

players.....The project concerns

the larger global network.”

itself also with structures,

RED WINE

systems and architecture – all of

Then’, ‘New Wave’ and ‘Money’ are accessed via PVC door curtains of various groovy colours. If that isn’t enough rubber for you the organizers of the exhibition inevitably had to carpet the various levels of their ‘Club Space’ section with health and safety rubber mats. It all made for a rather overpowering pong, pervading the space and seriously affecting one’s overall experience of the Postmodern exhibition.

1 ‘Postmoderism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990’ at the V&A runs from 29/9/11 – 15/1/12 2 The first room of the exhibition is called ‘Last Rites’ and features the following text panel: “The death of modernism has been proclaimed on countless occasions. For historian Charles Jencks, it ended at 3.32pm on 15 March 1972, when the Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. Louis, Missouri, was dynamited.”

3 The tokenistic inclusion of contemporary art in this sort of eradefining exhibition, in museums that are not dedicated to visual art, somehow removes much of the power of the work.

.

4 Exhibition introductory panel

‘The Last of The Red Wine: the 5 Claim to fame number 23.

prequel/sequel’ was recently

those frequently rigid phenomena that succumb only to the

www.westcorkartscentre.ie

was held in the Lab, Dublin (19 Oct – 4 Dec). As the press release notes this show features “Strips of black rubber hang heavily over a supporting steel structure. The vertical lengths of rubber create a changing linear

field and allows the work to be viewed as an image or drawing yet the weight, smell and scale of the material gives it the distinct presence of sculpture.”

6

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

COLUMN

Emily Mark Fitzgerald State of the Arts

ROUNDUP ployed. If certain subjects within Irish art history feel at this stage well-worn (early twentieth- century Irish painting and modernism, for example) there remains a large body of overlooked forms of Irish cultural production that has yet to receive sustained critical attention (ephemera, forms of social ritual and performance, and popular cul-

In 2006, the outgoing Head of History of Art at University College Cork, Jim Elkins, published ‘The State of Irish Art History Revisited’ in CIRCA, referrring to an earlier critique published in 2003 and updating his opinions and recommendations concerning the practice of art history in Ireland.

While his review (quite harsh in tone) met with a mixed reception, it struck me at the time as a very useful insight drawn from an extensive international comparative perspective. Certainly some of the pedagogic recommendations (the introduction of non-Western art at undergraduate level, for example) seemed non-starters due to lack of expertise, institutional resourcing, and (whisper it) general interest, amongst students and staff.

However, three of Elkins’ points of critique – the need for art history to continue to be challenged by visual culture; the narrow range of methodolo-

ture, to name but a few) from scholars specialising in visual analysis and history. In other countries, such investigations have often been fuelled by the desire to resurrect counter/alternative histories: the idea that objects and images from outside the canon of ‘high’ art can complicate historical narratives and deepen cultural understanding.

Rather than revisiting canoncial traditions, how might new Irish art scholarship discover how such objects and images mediate, reflect upon and produce cultural relationships? When we broaden the scope of inquiry from connoisseurial appreciation to include questions of production, reception and artistic economy, we allow Irish art scholarship to take part in more global conversations about the common ground between artmaking and social history, and concern itself with both the physical and intellectual dynamics of seeing and

PALLAS PERIODICAL

The press release notes “The

POLYPTYCH

Pallas Projects, Dublin recently

exhibition aims to interrupt the

‘Polyptych Subsets: Experiments

disjunction of life and death in

with Paint’ by John Ryan was

contemporary Western society,

recently held in the Joinery,

operating via narrative, anec-

Dublin (15 – 19 Dec). The press

dotal, philosophical, symbolic,

release states “’Polyptych’ is an

phenomenological, performa-

on-running project by John Ryan

tive and intertextual means; it

that examines works that acts

features video works – Kiron

collectively and autonomously

Robinson’s On Photography and

when exhibited. Ryan’s interest

Death and Kate Murphy’s Cry me

lies not in what one can do with

a Future; a Gardar Eide Einarsson

paint but what it can do itself

‘flag’ work; a text piece by writer

when exposed to the elements,

and critic Brian Dillon; a tempo-

air and gravity….Paintings that

ral performance/installation by

border three-dimensionality

Lee Welch; and a new work by

consume the walls, sculptural

Pieces were selected by Ruth

Martin Healy.”

objects rise from the floor and

Carroll, Carl Giffney, Mark Cul-

SOLAS ART

hang from the ceiling, trans-

len & Gavin Murphy.

Solas Art Gallery, Leitrim

forming both the atmosphere

VISUAL PATTERN

recently held two solo shows (4

Ciarán Walsh recently exhibited

– 26 Nov). Siobhan Cox Carlos

held ‘Pallas Periodical Review’ (18 Nov – 17 Dec). The press release states “Pallas Periodical Review is not a group exhibition per se, it is a discursive action, with the gallery as a magazinelike layout of images that speak (the field talking to itself). An exhibition as resource, in which we invite agents within the field to engage with what were for them significant moments, practices, works, activity, objects, nodes within the network.”

‘This brief visual pattern’ in Pallas Projects, Dublin (7 Oct – 5 Nov). The press release

gies practised within Irish universities; and the

making.

notes “In the video work It’s

lack of Arts Council engagement with university

In terms of the relationship of the Arts Council to

sit in a production studio, re-

research and teaching – resonated strongly as essentially correct in their substance and capacity for change.

Five years on, how do we stand as charged? In terms of the art history/visual culture divide, the camps remain fairly polarised (and still divided

the profession, the picture is greyer. It goes without saying that the capacity of the Arts Council to invest in new ventures and institutions is extraordinarily limited in the current economic climate.

Nevertheless Elkins’ five-year old critique (and my current one) of the Arts Council is based on moral,

across university/college lines), and these distinc-

not financial grounds.

tions are nowhere more apparent than within

The active involvement of the Arts Council could

scholarship on Irish art. The need to conduct basic recovery research on many aspects of Irish art and architecture, whilst a vital occupation, has nevertheless skewed our students’ ambitions and interest. Too often it seems the tendency has been to encourage students’ pursuit of marginal figures within Irish art, with the outcome of ‘discovering’ a body of ‘neglected’ work that was better off consigned to the dustbin of history in the first place.

Instead we should be prompting young scholars to reconsider and interrogate the very basis of Irish art scholarship; to recognise and build on the achievements of volumes like Ireland’s Painters, but to forge new critical paths in line with intellectual developments already well advanced in other art historical contexts.

Dedicating oneself to archival research and innovative interpretative methods should not be an either/or proposition, and this false dichotomy should be resisted. A vibrant (if small) community of scholars is currently pursuing extremely innovative research into Irish visual cultural history (whether based in art history departments or not).

Recently published texts such as Linda King and Elaine Sisson’s Ireland, Design and Visual Culture: Negotiating Modernity, 1922-1992 (Cork University Press, 2010) and Justin Carville’s Photography &

help stem the erosion of postgraduate funding in the arts and humanities (via slowly shrinking mechanisms like the IRCHSS) and provide evidence and support of the intimately connected ecosystems of higher education, university research and cultural production. New intiatives like the Arts Council’s ‘Stories from our Archives’ is a step in the right direction, hopefully igniting the long-dormant field of advanced research in the history of Irish cultural policy, but much wider changes are required. From my observations working in the field over the past decade, there is a need to develop the relationship between the Council and those programmes in art history, visual culture and cultural policy whose students

Just a Shadow Away two actors performing the original Russian dialogue (a language in which

tual’, a collection of paintings which are “an explosion of colourful, expressionist responses to the world of nature, explored through her exuberant and joyful creative process.”Helen Pinoff showed ‘Urban Jumble’,

This steel sculpture will be a

of this alien language, and this

on long term display in the

fragmented staging, in the

grounds of The Model and will

attempt to create meaning and emotional verisimilitude....In an adjacent room, an assemblage composed by a sculpture, an archival photograph and several watercolour pictures-fragments

a collection of paintings and her fascination with the urban landscape, the jumble and mix of shapes and patterns, colours

of the artist’s ongoing visual

and textures.”

and textual research-reflect the

FISH, FLESH & FOWL

artist’s interaction with found

‘Fish, Flesh & Fowl’ is the

images and short fragments of text, drawing on historical imagery and science-fiction film to consider both physical immediacy and gestures that promise

and staff are also the creative producers and audi-

transcendental agency.”

ences to whom the Council is dedicated. Second,

WHOOPEE

current exhibition by Dermot Seymour in the Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast (15 Dec – 4 Feb).

The show includes works from 1979-2012, with a selection of large works from the period prior to 2000 alongside a num-

it is essential that the Council play an active role

ber of smaller works from 2000

in advocating for the support of arts and humani-

onwards. The press release states

ties education at third level, as this debate has

“Seymour’s paintings, both

far-reaching implications for the future position of

baffling and insightful, present

arts and culture in Irish society. Third, we need the

a unique commentary on the

Council to vocally support (and advise the govern-

complexities of recent Irish his-

ment accordingly) the conservation, research and

tory and the contradictions of a

exhibition of visual and material collections in

rapidly changing society.”

Ireland, which form the very basis of humanities

www.goldenthreadgallery.co.uk

scholarship and knowledge in Ireland, and indeed

BLIND PRIVATE PARTY

of videos, fabric pieces, and

those of us committed to the field to push our-

sculptures gathered from dif-

selves and our students in ever more challenging

ferent projects and places made

directions, ensuring what comes after our tenure

over the last few years. The press

is better than what came before.

release notes “As with many

The Black Mariah, Cork is cur-

recent exhibitions of his work,

discipline, and strengthen cross-university col-

visual culture studies concerned both the nature of the object and the range of methodologies em-

‘Here’s the Tender Coming (WHOOPEE) We’re all Going to Die’ was exhibited in Pallas Projects, Dublin (2 Sep – 1 Oct).

be unveiled at the opening.

sculpture which “evolved from

12 Jan). The show is a selection

As Elkins recognised, the challenge posed by

ings, and as part of this project

outside The Model building.

has progressed in the discipline. It remains to

laborations already underway.

sculpture, paintings and draw-

they struggle against the limits

Party’ by Alan Phelan (9 Dec –

grant a platform to a progressive voice within the

Feb). The exhibition features

Nolan, which will be erected

encouraging, and in the space of five years much

recently advertised) offers further opportunity to

by Isabel Nolan (10 Dec – 12

repetition of this projection,

rently showing ‘Blind Private

a new Head of Visual Culture at NCAD (a position

showing ‘A hole into the future’

sioned a new work by Isabel

Solaris. Caught in the looped

temporary art historical scholarship in Ireland is

culture can be. The forthcoming appointment of

The Model, Sligo are currently

The Model has also commis-

The level of ambition and breadth of much con-

the confrontation between art history and visual

www.thejoinery.org

ISABEL NOLAN

short sections of the 1972 film

examples of innovative, cross-disciplinary scholar-

under consideration – evidence of how fruitful

space.”

they have no knowledge) of two

the bedrock of our cultural life.

context and modification of the object/images

and the architecture of the

exhibited ‘Pink, Small and Punc-

Ireland (Reaktion Books, 2011) provide excellent ship that account for the construction, reception,

January - February 2012

Phelan has combined contrasting works to re-narrativise them, using old and new pieces to chart out another story, in this case a party of objects”

Get into The Roundup Q Simply e-mail text and images for the roundup to the editor (jason@visualartists.ie).

Q Your text details / press release should include: venue name, location, dates and a brief description of the work / event.

Q Inclusion is not guaranteed, but we aim to give everyone a fair chance.

Q Our criteria is primarily 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.

Q Priority is given to events taking place within Ireland, but do let us know if you are taking part in a significant international event.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

7

January - February 2012

COLUMN

ROUNDUP

Mark Fisher

the scale of Occupy Wall Street would have been

Towards a New Mainstream

now an inchoate alliance of the discontented,

ON THE BEACH

unimaginable. But what form will this movement,

and petitioning are futile; public funds will be cut,

commodification

and they will not be returning in any foreseeable

we shall shortly be arriving in mayhem

for authenticity in life…our

Wallis and Ian Wieczorek.

desire for tastes, for routines and

www.ormstonhouse.com

ultimately take? Berardi warns that complaining “Thank you for flying with transnational

Robinson, Kristian Smith, Ruby

future.

‘Enignum and other stories’ is

PREAMBULATORY RHETORICS

the current show in the Oliver

‘Perambulatory Rhetorics’ by

Sears Gallery, Dublin (17 Nov ‘On The Beach’ was the recent

– 27 Jan). The artist Joseph

if there is anybody on board who can impersonate

labour market, of the illusions of full employment

exhibition by Austin D H Ivers

Walsh says of his work “In the

a pilot

and a fair relation between labour and capital, can

in 126 gallery, Galway (14 Dec

open up a new way. Only self-reliant communities

– 7 Jan). The press release states

leaving the field of social competition can open a

, “In his new one person show,

Never have these lines from Nick Land’s 1992

way to a new hope.”3

“On The Beach”, Austin D H

theoretical-fiction Circuitries seemed more acute.

Certainly, the crucial question now facing those

After 2011, it would be perverse for anyone to talk about the end of history any more. It was as if, after a prolonged period of emaciation, history has been bingeing. The density of world-historic events in 2011 was such that it seemed almost impossible either to keep track of them, or to believe that they had all happened in one year: the Arab Spring, the death of bin Laden, the Breivik atrocity, the Japanese tsunami, the riots in England, the Euro crisis, the emergence of the Occupy movement. We are in the midst of almighty, and perhaps unprecedented, chaos. The world has never been more interconnected, but parliamentary politics has never seemed more impotent. The globalised systems connecting the planet are vectors for financial contagion, not channels for expressing collective agency. There are no credible experts. Mainstream economists have been radically discredited, not only by their failure to predict the financial collapse of 2008, but their complicity in it. Professional politicians designed for an era of supposedly post-political administration, in which nodding compliance to business was all that was required, are unable to adapt to the new conditions, in which imaginative thinking, decisiveness and charismatic interventions are at a premium. In an attempt to orientate ourselves, we seek historical parallels. The most ominous is, of course, the 1930s, with the prospect of Europe slipping from neoliberal consensus towards internecine and

who seek an escape from the capitalist catastrophe concerns the balance to be struck between withdrawal and participation. Wherever possible, it is crucial that we refuse capitalism’s injunction to participate on its terms. We’ve already seen the emerging movements using network culture to produce new forms of solidarity – the question is how these can be

we are in at the moment. If we withdraw from mainstream politics and media, the far right certainly will not. At the same time, if the neoliberal era has taught us anything, it’s that there is little to be gained from competing on the terrain established by business and its lackeys. A strategic retreat from those kind of spaces is therefore wise, but we must do what the neoliberal right did, and think about the medium and long-term. By thinking ahead, neoliberals were ready to impose what had previously seemed politically impossible. So rather than seeing the inevitable graduation of some in the Occupy movement from radical outsiders to professional politicians, we should plan ahead for how this transition is to be managed. Our task is to build a new mainstream media and politics,

space, the snapshot and how as two artists, Smith and Sweeney walk, observe and meander through the ‘city’ which has

early eighties, a series of interrogations are conducted, via

Enignum series of work, I have

CCTV. We cannot know what

stripped wood into thin layers,

they are about or where they are

manipulating and reconstruct-

taking place. There can be no

ing them into free form com-

meaning to this.”

positions. I then shape through

‘Anatomists, Engineers & Artists’ in association with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Trinity College Dublin

these layers to reveal not only

was recently on display in the

Droichead Arts Centre,

RHA, Dublin (9 – 21 Dec). The

Drogheda recently held ‘ Lon-

result of the collaboration was

gevity, if not immortality’ by

‘Caves’ was a solo exhibition by

an online Surface Anatomy Guide

Sabina MacMahon (23 Nov – 5

Anthony Murphy in Occupy

in 3D which shows the motions

Jan). The press release notes

Space, Limerick (2 – 22 Dec).

of muscles and the sites of struc-

“The exhibition...brings together

The press release notes that

tures from the surface inwards

for the first time a collection of

‘Caves’ “is an exhibition of three

.The exhibition showed how

objects that, over the years, have

large scale works, each designed

“...by using movement, colour,

each attempted to approach the

to immerse the viewer, and then

illustration and 3D technology,

status of and with it, to attain

to confront the audience with

anatomists, engineers and art-

the immortal life on earth that

a question regarding how far

ists can collaborate to teach the

sainthood confers on the ev-

they, as privileged viewers of the

body from the outside in.”

eryday objects that saints leave

shadows and reflections being

behind”.

played out upon the walls, are

‘Reflections on things yet to

Blian ag Fás – Ar Ais Aris’

come’ was a recent show by

(‘Twenty Years a’ Growing –

Fiona Mulholland in the ? (11

Back Again’) (9 Dec – 20 Jan).

Nov – 1 Dec). The press release

This is a group show, the artists

Michael Cullen, Jill Dennis,

sequences are now playing out. The first is the

Felim Egan, Simon English,

intensification of the neoliberal programme. We

Martin Finnin, Tim Gould-

are now seeing a ferocious final-phase

ing, Con Kelleher, Siobhán Mc

neoliberalism, taking the form of violent asset-

Donald, Seán Mc Sweeney, John

states “ Her practice is primar-

stripping of publicly funded institutions and

Philip Murray, Sarah O’Flaherty,

ily concerned with examining

infrastructure by a financial capitalism that, as

Cormac O’Leary and Jim Sheehy.

fragments of everyday life and

Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi put it in his latest book in

UNDERTOW

making visible oppositional elements of urban existence. In

discrediting of neoliberalism, but neoliberal

appropriated objects/materials

culture has successfully decomposed working

along with universal symbols

class consciousness, and – it seems – destroyed the

(sun, tree, etc), in order to in-

conditions for any re-composition. “I think that

vestigate the tensions between

long-lasting neoliberal rule has eroded the

‘dreams’, ‘fantasy’ and the realities of modern living.”

tion in Ormston House. (14 Dec

IS THIS HAPPINESS?

– 28 Jan). The show is a curated

Mad Art Gallery, Dublin

project by Aideen Barry and Al-

recently exhibited ‘Is This

ice Maher presenting the work

Happiness?’ by Damien O’Reilly

of 11 Irish and international

(18 – 25 Nov). The show was “a

The second sequence is the faltering but

artists. The artists involved are

collection of paintings inspired

nevertheless very definite emergence of an

Gimena Blanco, Paul Halla-

by contemporary life and the

alternative. A year ago, a movement in the US on

han, Lisa Marie Johnson, Ali

evolution of casual communica-

Kirby, Karin Lindholm, Veronica

tion....Also investigated in ‘Is

Nicholson, Will O’Kane, Padraig

This Happiness?’ is our desire

face it. The mutation produced by global capital intermingled with recombinant technologies cannot be undone.”2

1 Nick Land, Circuitries, 1992 2 ‘Bifo’ Berardi After the Future, 2011

3 Ibid.

2D shapes; regular polygons are exploded to create fractured

third dimension.”

these sculptural works she uses

Berardi writes. “And this is irreversible. We have to

based on explorations of simple

tions can begin to draw out a

from social life.” 2008 may have seen the

which was the progressive core of modernity”,

a false reality. The works are

emerge, upon which the projec-

If anything is clear from all this, it is that two

‘Undertow’ is the current exhibi-

believe what they know to be

another until intricate forms

Eamon Colman, Seán Cotter,

cultural and material bases of social civilisation,

willing to allow themselves to

pattern, or layered upon one

involved are: Patricia Burns,

English, After The Future, “has achieved autonomy

CAVES

LONGEVITY

are currently showing ‘Feiche

intensely anxious about what it is to come.

Niland Gallery.”

& Science Foundation Ireland

REFLECTIONS

by everything that has happened since 2008, and

the raw structural space of the

and material”.

The Vangard Gallery, Macroom

populations that are bewildered and shell-shocked

spatial installations within

a unique collaboration of man

of our current withdrawal.

far right are ready to ‘impersonate pilots’ for

the creation of two intertwined

but the sculpted form which is

VANGARD

flail and bluster on a collapsed centre ground, the

made an extended trajectory in

the honesty of the structure

and paradoxically, this may be the ultimate legacy

perhaps ethnocidal conflict. While politicians

in The Niland Gallery, Galway

focuses on spatiality, structure,

and murky futures. Set in the

total withdrawal from the ‘mainstream’ could

Sweeney was recently on show

release notes that the show “...

fascination with imagined pasts

ANATOMY

artists Victoria Smith and Lisa

(26 Nov – 3 Dec). The press

Ivers continues his crippling

sustained. But, even supposing it was possible, our result in a catastrophe even worse than the one

www.madartgallery.com

ENIGNUM

“Only withdrawal, passivity, abandonment of the

it would be of comfort to the other passengers”1

of course our attitudes.”

8

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

NEWS

January - February 2012

ANNOUNCEMENT

News VISUAL ARTISTS WORKSPACE Visual Artists Ireland, on behalf of the Arts Council, announces the grant allocations under the Visual Artists’ Workspace Scheme, for 2012. Grants of up to a maximum of !30,000 have been offered towards the running costs of visual artists’ workspaces. In keeping with the Council’s policy document Visual Artists’ Workspaces in Ireland – A New Approach, this scheme has the aim of assisting artists workspaces throughout the country to provide the best possible environment for working visual artists and, where feasible, to enable a level of subsidy for resident visual artists. 48 applications were received, 30 of which were shortlisted and 22 of which were awarded funding.

The total demand figure was

discussions on socially engaged

is delighted to welcome Alan

art practice, through conference

James Burns to the Red Stables.

presentations in Ireland and

Alan is the recipient of the

internationally.

Irish Artists’ Residential Studio

INDECON REPORT ON ARTS

Award, 2011-2012, in The Red Stables, St Anne’s Park, Dublin 3.

William McKeown 1962 – 2011 “There are two types of art – open and closed. All closed art is negative and anti life. Art which is open accepts without judgement, is expanding, positive, and life enhancing.”

William McKeown, 2002

A report on the economic im-

The Irish Artists’ Residential

pact of the arts in Ireland shows

Studio Award is intended to sup-

It is with a profound sense of sadness and loss that we report the death of William McKeown. Born in

that the arts provide significant

port an emerging visual artist at

Tyrone, 1962, William died at home in Edinburgh on Tuesday 25 October 2011.

direct and indirect employment,

a crucial stage of their profes-

with the Arts Council’s annual

sional practice and includes stu-

funding from the Exchequer

dio and living accommodation

supporting over 2,600 jobs.

at nominal rent and inclusion

The employment supported

in exhibition programme at The

generates an annual turnover of

LAB, Foley Street, Dublin 1. Alan

!135 million with tax revenues

James Burns will use the coming

Through very subtle gradation of tone, a highly refined use of colour, and his enchanting ‘room’

(in the form of PAYE/income

year to research, develop and

installations, McKeown created moment of exquisite beauty and bliss. He steered our attention not to

tax, PRSI and VAT), to the Irish

produce a new body of work

the distant sky but to the air around us, to the openness of nature, the feeling of our emergence into

Exchequer of !41 million. The

that investigates differences in

light and our proximity to the infinite.

arts sector itself supports 21,328

physical and behavioural traits.

jobs and contributes !306.8

He will conduct experiments

million in taxes. The arts, too,

and make observations on the

impact on the wider creative in-

ability to act, think and feel

dustry, contributing !4.7 billion

autonomously. www.redstablesartists.com / www.alanjames-

79,000 jobs. The report, entitled

burns.com

Impact of the Arts in Ireland’,

of work that has had a radical and fundamental effect on our understanding of the age-old relationship of art to nature. The foundation of McKeown’s work and life was his belief in the primacy of feeling. His paintings took on the guise of objective minimalism and the monochrome but presented us with so much more; nature as something real, tangible, all around us, to be touched and felt.

William McKeown studied at Central St Martin’s School of Art & Design, London, Glasgow School of Art and the University of Ulster in Belfast. Exhibitions include ‘a certain distance, endless light’ with Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, 2010; an extensive solo show at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, 2008; the 51st Venice Biennale, 2005; ‘The Bright World’, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, 2004; The Project Gallery, Dublin, 2004; ‘The Sky Begins At Our Feet’, Ormeau Baths

to the economy and supporting an ‘Assessment of the Economic

In the 16 years since he first exhibited work at the Kerlin Gallery, William McKeown developed a body

NATIONAL GALLERY

Gallery, Belfast, 2002; ‘In an open room’, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, 2001 and more recently ‘The Waiting Room’, Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, 2011.

We have lost a singular voice and a vital part of Kerlin Gallery, but more than that a close and cherished

has been published by the Arts

Statement by Olive Braiden,

friend. We wish to take this opportunity to extend our sincere sympathy to William’s family and loved

Council. This 2011 report com-

Chair of the Board of Governors

ones.

missioned by the Council from

of the National Gallery: “I am

Indecon International Eco-

delighted to announce that

nomic Consultants, represents

Sean Rainbird, the Director

ARTISTS IN THE COMMUNITY

an update on Indecon’s previous

of Staatsgalerie of Stuttgart,

SCHEME

independent evaluation of the

Germany, will be our new Direc-

economic impact of the arts,

tor of the National Gallery of

published in 2009. This update

Ireland, succeeding Raymond

report, which is concerned

Keaveney who is retiring. Mr

with the impact of the arts in

Rainbird has an impressive track

Ireland in 2010, indicates “that

record. Since 2006, he has been

the arts continue to be a major

Director of the Staatsgalerie

employer and contributor to

which is well known for its

Irish economic output.” The re-

celebrated extension by James

port indicates that the turnover

Stirling. The Gallery has 220

of the organisations supported

staff and 8,500 square metres of

by the Arts Council determines

space, as well as 12,000 friends,

their ability to purchase goods

the second highest in Germany.

and services, to employ staff

The National Gallery of Ireland

and to undertake programmes

has 120 staff and 16,000 square

of investment. These functions

metres of space. The German

in turn have an impact on the

gallery’s collection spans the

wider economy. Total funding

period 1280 to the present. It has

committed by the Arts Council

excellent holdings of medieval

to organisations and individuals

Swabian, Italian baroque, Dutch

amounted to !60.3 million in

golden age, classic modern and

2010. The estimated turnover of

contemporary art. It also holds

the Arts Council funded organ-

several renowned archives.

isations and individuals in 2010

Prior to being a Director in

as stated, was !135 million. The

Germany, Mr Rainbird was Cura-

Arts Council own grant-in-aid

tor/Senior Curator of Modern

has been reduced by !16.4 mil-

and Contemporary Art at the

lion or 20% over the four years,

Tate Gallery, London from 1987

2008 to 2011; there has been 400

until 2006. He is a Trustee of the

jobs losses since the 2009 report

Marie-Louise von Motesiczky

and an associated loss of !13

Charitable Trust, a member of

million of VAT and other taxes

the Kuratorium of the Bucerius

to the Exchequer. To access the

Kunst Forum, is a former acqui-

2011 update report Assessment

sition advisor to the Verbund

of the Economic Impact of the

collection, Vienna and to South-

Arts in Ireland, see: http://www.

ampton City Art Gallery and a

artscouncil.ie/Publications/Inde-

former advisory board member

con%20Update%20Report_fin.

of the Nuremburg Art Academy

pdf. The 2009 Indecon Report

and Committee Member of the

referenced above is also avail-

Contemporary Art Society.. Mr

able in the publications section

Rainbird will start as Director of

of the Arts Council’s website.

the National Gallery of Ireland

!1,002,154, while the demand from shortlisted applications was !648,604. www.artscouncil.ie

Visual artist Ailbhe Murphy is the successful recipient of the Arts Council Artist in the Community Scheme Bursary Award 2011: Arts and Community Development. The award aims to support individual professional artists in any artform working in the field of arts and community development.

This is the second year that the Arts Council has provided a !10,000 bursary award as part of the Artist in the Community Scheme, which is managed by Create. The bursary’s purpose is to support and nurture professional arts practice, specifically directed at artists who have collaborated and practiced in community development settings and contexts. The Bursary of !10,000 will provide Ailbhe Murphy with time and resources to reflect, research and reconsider art practice realised in community development contexts. As part of the award, learning arising from the Bursary will be shared with the arts and community development sector. Currently working on a Per Cent For Art commission in Galway City, Vagabond Reviews have just completed delivery of ‘Others and Exiles: Culture, Diversity and Creative Research Practice’, a modular course within an M.Soc.Sc programme at the School of Sociology, University College, Dublin. Ailbhe has also published widely and

ALAN BURNS

contributed to contemporary

Dublin City Council Arts Office

in the first half of 2012. www.nationalgallery.ie

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

9

January - February 2012

NEWS

News

selected through an internation-

public can keep up to date on

al open call for proposals and

the visual arts. Also announced

exhibitions take place in both

today are a series of new initia-

gallery and non-gallery spaces.

tives : affordable insurance for

ANGLO-IRISH TREATY

Woodrow Kernohan, Direc-

artists, an international studio

EXHIBITION

tor of eva International said,

exchange programme, equip-

“eva International is delighted

ment hire facilities and a profes-

that Annie Fletcher will be the

sional development programme

Curator for the 35th edition

platform. VAI is pleased to be

of Ireland’s biennial of visual

working with Belfast Exposed

art in 2012. We are looking

and the Digital Artists Studios,

forward to working with her to

Belfast on the project. Further

create an exciting programme

partner organisations and

of exhibitions and associated

existing services are contained

events that will animate the city

on the website. To mark the

and forge links across Limerick

occasion, Visual Artists Ireland

and beyond.” eva International,

in partnership with the Digital

Biennial of Visual Art, will take

Artists Studios are happy to an-

place in Limerick city from from

nounce a New Media Residency

19 May –12 August 2012. An

for Northern Ireland Artists.

international open call for pro-

Further details of this will be

posals will be launched in early

released later in the year in the

December with the deadline for

form of a call for applications.

On the 30th November 2011 An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD accompanied by Jimmy Deenihan TD Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, launched the online Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 exhibition on the website of the National Archives, Bishop Street, Dublin 8. The Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed in the aftermath of the truce which ended the War of Independence (1919–1921) was regarded by signatory Michael Collins as a stepping stone to freedom.

The Treaty was acquired by the National Archives of Ireland from the Department of the Taoiseach in 2002 and has never before been made available for public consultation, either in its original form or online. The Treaty document that forms the centerpiece of this exhibition is completely unique in that it is the original Irish document.

Additional documents will be released online, on a daily basis, culminating in the Treaty signing of Tuesday 6 December, 1921 mirroring events which took place 90 years ago. The exhibition also includes footage from British Pathé newsclip of the delegations outside of Buckingham Palace.

submissions: 31 January 2012. www.eva.ie or contact info@eva.ie

Residents and visitors to

Arts Council are pleased to

Armagh City are enjoying new

announce that Galway-based

public art works that have been

visual artist Cecilia Danell is

installed to complement an

the recipient of the fifth annual

extensive city centre regenera-

Emerging Visual Artist Award.

tion scheme completed last year.

The initiative supports promis-

Commissioned by Armagh City

ing visual artists in Ireland

and District Council, with sup-

through providing a monetary

port from the Arts Council, the

prize of €5,000 plus a solo exhi-

new art features the talents of

bition at Wexford Arts Centre.

artists from across Ireland and

This award is aimed at recognis-

the United Kingdom. To view

ing and supporting the develop-

the artworks, click here:

ment of committed emerging

www.armagh.co.uk/Business/Featured-

artists, in kick- starting their

Developments/Armagh-City-Centre-Public-

career and achieving profes-

www.nationalarchives.ie www.ahg.gov.ie

EVA eva International (formerly ev+a) has announced that the 2012 biennial will be curated

by Annie Fletcher, Curator of Exhibitions at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, and tutor at De Appel, Amsterdam. Annie said of her appointment: “Everywhere we look and everything we read right now seems to tell us we are at a new juncture.

We are at an unprecedented moment of change – whether teetering on the precipice of financial ruin, or witnessing extraordinary new articulations of protest. This year eva International will attempt to tap into this feeling of imminence by understanding how artists define and explain the status quo in relation to global events.

What are we on the verge of?

How do artists envisage what is to come and what is to be done?” Founded in 1977, eva International is an artist-centred biennial of visual art that works with acclaimed guest curators to present innovative exhibitions across the city of Limerick, Ireland. Artists’ projects are

ford County Council and the

Art-Programme.aspx

VISUAL ARTISTS IN NORTHERN IRELAND

sional recognition. Following a national open competition selection process, Danell, was selected from over 80 submis-

Visual Artists Ireland today

sions received. The submissions

announced the expansion of

were assessed by an indepen-

support services for professional

dent selection panel, all with

visual artists in Northern Ire-

appropriate expertise in the

land. First established in 1980,

visual arts. Cecilia Danell is a

VAI is the representative and

Swedish artist based in Galway,

support body for professional

Ireland. She graduated from

visual artists in Ireland. Building

GMIT in 2008 with a first class

upon the support shown by

honours degree in painting and

The Arts Council of Northern

was awarded Paint Student of

Ireland, VAI has consistently

the Year. Since graduating Ceci-

looked at the needs of artists

lia has exhibited in Ireland and

and delivers services to support

the USA, including group and

art makers in their careers in a

two-person shows in The Red

timely and efficient manner.

House Arts Centre in Syracuse

Under the title ‘for Visual

NY, The Crow Gallery in Dublin,

Artists in Northern Ireland’

Galway Arts Centre, Occupy

the new services include a

Space in Limerick, 126 Gallery,

dedicated new website http://

Tulca Season of Visual Arts and

www.visualartists-ni.org which

The Claremorris Open. She is a

provides information on visual

recipient of a 2010 Arts Council

arts events and opportunities

of Ireland bursary award and

in Northern Ireland, other parts

a 2011 Arts Council Project

of the UK, and internation-

Award for her work Build your

ally. The site also contains

own: Scandinavian loneliness.

knowledge and support on

Danell is currently represented

a variety of legal, financial

by the Talbot Gallery at the RHA

and career matters that have

National Art Fair.

been developed in partnership with Artquest (London). It is accompanied by a new Twitter service @4VisArtsNI so that the

A NEW SERVICE FROM VISUAL ARTISTS IRELAND

CECILIA DANELL Wexford Arts Centre, Wex-

ARMAGH

VAI & Artelier

www.wexfordartscentre.ie / www.wexfordcoco.ie

We are pleased to announce a new service available to paid members of Visual Artists Ireland. n partnership with Artquest, VAI has negotiated places for members on their Artelier international studio exchange. Artelier is for professional visual artists to arrange free studio exchanges with their peers anywhere in the world.

Membership of Artelier is by ‘invitation only’ to ensure it is only used by professional visual artists and is safe for members. Members can request an invitation by contacting us through our Artelier webpages.

This is a great opportunity to meet fellow artists around the world and potentially find artists with studios looking to exchange with the city you live in. You can also find and arrange free accommodation or a studio on holiday or when working overseas, or indeed, find someone to look after your studio or apartment while you are away.

Artelier keeps your exact location and personal contact information private until you choose to let individual artists know where you are.

10

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January - February 2012

REGIONAL PROFILE

Terms and Conditions Apply SARAH SEARSON TAKES A LOOK AT THE CURRENT STATUS OF ARTS OFFICES ACROSS THE COUNTRY Significant change, however unsolicited, is here and is real. As Ms Karen Carpenter says, “we have only just begun”. Usually this column focuses on the work of a particular county. ‘Regional Arts’ is the phrase used, just how regional depends on your footing. Broadly, there is sense that political power should remain local. Unlike the ‘arms-length’ governance of the Arts Council, local arts have little distance from politics. This is why external panels of artists and curators, and the mix of their policy work and practices, includes external advice; it creates the opportunity for a break in direct alignment.

Due to good negotiations, the national arts budget has been comparatively preserved for 2012. But given a tightly resourced future for Arts Offices country-wide, what are the underlying conditions? At the time of writing this, local authorities are finalising annual estimated budgets for 2012, and Arts Officers are facing considerable challenges. Organisationally there is a second prang eroding capital: that of human resources. The national embargo on recruitment means there is little to no possibility of bringing new talent, which tempers ambition and impacts on workflow. This is a hugely important change at all levels within county and city councils. Employees who advance are not replaced, older staff members, the ones with nuggets of institutional practice knowledge, are wasted-out through early retirement schemes.

The potential for mobility is dampened, risk taking is low, maintaining achievements is not possible. For example, the appointment of Philip Delamere as Arts Officer to Leitrim County, was great news, but his previous position as Roscommon Arts Officer is yet unfilled. Some Arts Officers who were managing staff of three and four people are now working on their own, with a remit for all art-forms and an entire county. In particular, a tier of public art specialist positions have disappeared, with exceptions in Mayo, Dublin City, Sligo, and Donegal County Councils, who have maintained these posts or contracts. Some staff have taken on new duties.

Arts services resided in varying departments within local authority structures such as Libraries, Tourism and Economic Development, Recreation and Amenities, and so on. They are embedded within the organisational policy and annual programme. Tactically they are dependent on the good will, experience and vision of their colleagues, who support and mediate their work organisationally.

Much of their focus is spent servicing administration and interdepartmental needs, as is the nature of any large body; the turning of the wheel is as much a job of work as mapping destinations.

Arts programmes, bursaries and projects – the public out-put – are new every year (there is programmatic consistency but the nature of the work changes). Budgets lines are small and widely spread.

Payments for grants, projects and events use time and labour intensively. The governance of these small expenditures reflect conditions applied to much larger spends, consequently it can be difficult to be nimble and responsive. An engineer, housing or finance officer, for example, can spend the equivalent of annual arts budget in a day or a month. Efficiencies of scale and the scope of work is radically different to the general practice of local government. Many aspects of arts work is public, which needs

attention and nuanced consideration in ways that might be unfamiliar to Arts Officers’ colleagues.

two senior professional arts managers are available or one is spare – depending on the value and understanding placed on their work.

Largely, there has been tremendous support for the work and expertise of the County Arts services from within their organisations. There has been a good level of interest in the potential of the arts, and Arts Officers have worked very hard to develop this potential. There seems to be little help offered in longterm thinking about sustainability, or clarity about rationalisation.

It is wonderful to consider imaginative scope, to have vision, be creative, but there is also the wash-up to be done and the mortgage to pay.

It will be interesting to see how the role changes as the broader remit of creativity, imagination and innovation, which is a European and National agenda, settles. In cities and larger counties, the arts office is associated with cultural provision beyond what might be traditionally regarded as arts, (arts and culture are often confused in this context). Culture has become an important aspect of the work of local government. The Arts Officer, when valued, works to influence and keeps the arts on agenda, in the mix, as they say.

It’s at this juncture of aspiration, potential, action and that of

Arts Officers have been part of a suite of cultural provision,

resources management and advocacy, that local arts are operating in. It’s a tough job.

including Heritage Officers, Sports Officers, Irish Language Officers, Events Officers, Cycling Officer (Dublin City) and a Walking Officer

Creative thinking works well when it is extruded from a base of

(Mayo). The Arts post is the longest standing of these and consequently many Arts Officers have built capital, are well

solidity. Solidity is now rocky and, in particular, discussions about longer term structures are needed. Up the line, acknowledgment of this is generally weak. I think this might explain the newer language of ‘creative industry’, and a renewed focus on cultural diplomacy, exchange, and collaboration, being appropriated into the languages of the Civil Service and educational institutions. It is a conscious or sub-conscious distancing from the realities of arts practice, (you know, that bit where you actually make work) and re-aligns artists into a much wider scope of understanding that includes the music, fashion, video game, radio and TV production, and advertising industries. The language turns away from that of the individual artist and towards the phrases such as ‘creative practitioner’, ‘creative clusters’, and ‘creative citizens’.

This ‘creative industries’ language represents a significant cultural shift, as it places meaning on social and economic ends. The word ‘investment’ replaces the word ‘funding’. Practically speaking, casemaking and brokering sensible values is the ongoing work of many local arts officers. Perhaps what is urgently in need of attention are the visual arts, which have little or no economy, in the sense that there is no possibility of income to assist expenditure. Artists are coming together in collectives to re-use city spaces, facilitated by city fathers. Critically, thinking about how this plays out in the longer term is needed. It seems the collective value of artists’ mobility, flexibility and creative thinking is highly valued nationally, but what will be the tangible supports?

As pressures facing the overall maintenance of services at local government level increase, the possibility of arts development work, and the argument for arts having intrinsic value continues to abut the arts as an instrumental function. For example, in County Galway the Arts Officer has taken on an aspect of tourism development. This may be due, in part, to the considerable capabilities of that individual, but from a wider or critical perspective this either erodes or aligns the service; it is a service change at the least. This direction, one of a more generalised scope of cultural work arising out of the arts services may continue to evolve, as a number of City and County Councils merge: Tipperary North and South will become one, Galway City and County, Limerick City and County, with more being mooted. This means

respected and have levied good-will beyond their grade status. It is very important to acknowledge that their work has been underpinned by senior management which is apparent in some counties, while others have not been so supportive. This accounts for the varying levels of service and activities around the country.

As central government policy moves in the direction of greater autonomy for the local level, differences will appear, and the hope is that local or regional character and achievements will be retained.

Arts provisions are non-statutory. Meeting aspects of the various councils’ own work programme, coupled with responsibilities to plan and deliver their annual arts work – which is part funded by Arts Council – is a serious stretch, where the officer is a one-person show. Non-statutory services, rather than a ‘public good’ in their own right, are considered to be a means to other ends.

The result of this is that a variation of approaches to service provision sensibly reflects the local contexts. Attempts to standardise service levels would be a retrograde step, and much radical work comes from understanding and being able to react to local contexts and conditions. Constancy and clarity in resourcing will be problematic in the future (this is not news). Arts policy is the critical tool of navigation, and it needs to be frank in how it addresses change, particularly budget reductions.

Policy needs to be creative to work as framework for direction, rather than a document of organisational protection. It needs to support strategies fluid enough to reflect conditions, without being watery. There has been a tremendous consistency and force at work from arts offices over the years. The cumulative effect of local authorities’ work has made a significant contribution to the nation and added hugely to the landscape of visual practice.

Sarah Searson http://sarahsearson.com

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professional development, and opportuniWebsites: www.visualartists-ni.org www.visualartists.ie

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ties for professional visual artists in Northern Ireland. The website, visualartists-ni.org aims to help to visual arts community to work together to realise shared goals, and to provide an online presence in support of professional visual artists

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12

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January - February 2012

PROFILE

Estate of Mind MARY-RUTH WALSH DISCUSSES HER CONCEPTUAL INSTALLATION/PERFORMANCE, ‘REAL E-STATE’ Ever dream of owning a house in Dublin? St. Patrick’s Close Develop-

stamped and signed by the auctioneer. The façade was then carefully

ments presents ‘Real E-State’, an development of houses erected

folded like an architect’s plan, placed in an A4 silver envelope and

without planning permission and sold by auction.

handed to the buyer.

I hadn’t realised the extent to which the public would seamlessly

Another important area of ‘Real E-State’ was the creation of virtual

engage in the ‘Real E-State project’. It was difficult to describe; part

house miniatures. I was influenced by Susan Stewart’s book On Long-

installation, part performance; with visual and conceptual elements

ing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir the Collection

intertwined. An estate of houses was erected in Dublin, without

where she talks about an altered perception of time in small spaces.

planning permission, and sold on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 October

She describes a study from the University of Tennessee’s Architec-

2011, by a professional auctioneer. In part, it was to challenge ideas

ture Department. They found that people perceptually standing

about art and architecture, real housing and buying ‘off the plans’,

in a room scaled at 1/50 thought half an hour had passed after 15

and the virtual nature of the contemporary financial world.

minutes. When the scale was reduced to 1/25, people felt half an

It seems strange to think that anyone would want to own a conceptual home, yet the ordinary people who engaged with ‘Real E-State’ were absolutely committed to the idea.

The castellated walls of St Patrick’s Close were lined on both sides with house façades; the pitched top of the wall serving as the roof.

A temporary outdoor office was erected at one end. As the news spread, that houses built without planning permission were for sale, many were intrigued and wanted to know more. There were several estate agents who showed people around, using the impeccably produced brochure to describe the attributes of the houses and their wonderful location. It aslo appeared in the Irish Times property section the day before the auction. Kevin Carroll from Savills Auctioneers explained the pricing of each house to the buyers. The value of the house was based on similar houses in the area and then adjusted

hour had passed after eight minutes. ‘Real E-State’ explores the implications of squeezing people and apartments into an ever reducing space, and the effect this has on our perception of time.

Adults, particularly older people, slipped into ‘Real E-State’ as naturally as a young child plays make-believe-house. The project had an engaging performative element, and the feed back indicated that the experience was one of aesthetic pleasure for those involved. However, I feel its strength lies in the carefully considered conceptual basis. These concepts are explored in Katherine Waugh’s brilliant essay ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’. It is an exceptional piece of writing: insightful, fantastically researched and laced with a rye wit that mirrors the tone of the project. Many of Waugh’s insights and challenges articulated my concerns and are linked to the history of the local area.

from a square meter to a square centimeter for ‘Real E-State’. We ar-

A second essay by the architect Dominic Stevens was specifically

rived at the negotiable price of !25 per house.

written and published in conjunction with ‘Real E-State’s’ brochure.

E-Buyers The first to buy was a young woman and her boyfriend who were over from London. They chose their property carefully, with the

It relates to housing in the city and advises the opposite to ‘Real EState’ one-off housing.

Dean Swift

help of a ‘Real E-State’ agent, selecting one opposite Marsh’s Library.

There is an important historical dimension to the ‘Real E-State’ proj-

It had a lovely mature garden and a beautiful view of the library

ect, tied in to its location. Jonathan Swift (Dean of St Patrick’s from

entrance. Watching and listening as they walked to the office, they

1713-1745) walked down St Patrick’s Close every day on his way to

were buzzing with delight at the thought of buying their first home

the Cathedral. In his series of pamphlets entitled Drapier’s Letters

together. For them, it was an official statement as a couple, and from

(1724-5) Swift warned people not to accept ‘Wood’s Coins’; worthless

the outside it looked like an emotional experience.

base metal coins minted in the UK for distribution in Ireland. He

Another man came by on his way to pick up his child from school.

He was local, easy going, yet instinctively tuned into business oppor-

argued that the coins would devalue the Irish currency to an almost worthless level. The Irish Parliament records note:

All images courtesy of Mary-Ruth Walsh

While ‘Real E-State’s’ success was primarly conceptual, it was

tunities. He owned three houses in the area and he saw ‘Real E-State’

‘The Irish House of Commons reported that the loss to the country,

as an opportunity to add a fourth house to his property portfolio. He

even if the patent were carried out as required, would amount to

intends to frame his ‘Real E-State’ house and display it in his hall.

about 150 per cent…and accused the patentee of fraud and deceit.’

One of my favorite stories featured two retired sisters with a brother

This sentiment could easily be applied to our present day economic

architect, drew up the exacting house plans for the brochure. Many

in Australia. They wanted him to move home but he couldn’t afford

crisis.

others contributred particularly the Irish Architectural Foundation.

Swift eloquently described the worthlessness of base metal coinage

Of the 116 ‘Real E-State houses’, there are still some for sale, see

using familiar examples. One genuine coin would buy you a pint

www.reale-state.ie. For those who bought ‘Real E-State’ property, you

of ale, while a weighty pocket full of ‘Wood’s Coins’ was needed to

have become part of an illustrious international virtual neighbour-

serve the same purpose. Three horse-drawn carts filled with ‘Wood’s

hood. The list of buyers will not be disclosed, except for the few

Coins’ would be needed to buy a single horse at market. Swift pro-

mentioned above, but, be assured, you are in good company. This

moted the idea of real silver and gold coinage and distrusted paper

story is to be continued.

a house in Dublin. They came on both days of the auction to carefully survey the houses, and, when they discovered the houses were not numbered, counted the 17th house from the start of the estate and bought it, as the number of their family house had been 17. The house was posted to their brother in Australia, so he would have somewhere to stay when he comes back to Ireland.

A friend of the Dean of St Patrick’s purchased house number one.

wealth, lampooning the South Seas’ stocks and shares investment

He wanted a spot with free parking nearby for impromptu visits.

(an economic bubble that led many to financial ruin).

Andrea Laurent bought a house with a big tree beside it to hang a swing. She was delighted at the prospect of living in such a beautiful leafy road so close to town. Natalie Weadick came along with her dog, George, and carefully selected a lovely house with an animalfriendly garden. A father and daughter selected houses next door to eachother, so they could meet every day but remain independent.

Nicholas Gore-Grimes strolled down along the estate with Mark St John Ellis and, after being shown the properties by an agent, bought a house located in a beautiful, mature setting. Muriel McCarthy, recently retired after four decades as keeper of Marsh’s Library, brought a ‘Real E-State’ house to bring to her daughter in Wisconsin.

Shrinking Time Each buyer was presented with the hand printed façade of the house.

The print was embossed with a bright silver seal reading ‘Real EState, St. Patrick’s Close, 273 sq centimeters’. This was signed by the artist-cum-agent Mary Ruth Walsh, then embossed with an equally shiny red notary seal and signed by the solicitor. Finally, it was

I produced a previous work related to Swift. About a decade ago, I erected a small blue steel house, protruding from the wall of the National Archive Offices, on Bride Street. This street was also part of Swift’s daily journey from his house in Werburg Street to the Deanery. The construction was just below the size that required planning permission. The piece is entitled A Modest Proposal, in direct reference Swift’s 1729 essay. The house was put up at the beginning of the property boom and, as it has no windows or doors, is quite useless as a dwelling.

I see a clear parity between the financial problems of eighteenth centrury Ireland and the present crisis, both emerging from the introduction of ‘virtual’ wealth. Waugh presents this connection succinctly in ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’, comparing the South Seas debacle, which had disastrous consequences for Ireland, to our present day banking crisis and International Monetary Fund bailout.

The parallels between monetary greed in the eighteenth and twentyfirst century are striking.

physically possible because I was based in Dublin in IMMA’s Artists Residency Programme. Past and present visual arts students from WIT Waterford were the ‘Real E-State’ agents while Ross O’Doherty,

Mary-Ruth Walsh wishes to thanks Katherine Waugh for her essay ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles.’

For ‘Real E-State’ brochure containing the essay email realestate.stpatricksclose@gmail.com This project has been selected for CUBEOpen 2011, Manchester, www.cube.org.uk http://maryruthwalsh.com

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

13

January - February 2012

INTERVIEW

PAC Man JAMES MERRIGAN TALKS TO CIAN O’BRIEN ABOUT HIS NEW ROLE AS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF PROJECT ARTS CENTRE, DUBLIN James Merrigan: Can you detail your development as a theatre

really tiny, or enormous. A small number of people live in Temple

producer up to recently becoming the new artistic director at

Bar but the number of people who live in Dublin city centre is

Project Arts Centre (PAC)?

enormous. We are surrounded by other theatres that put on perfor-

Cian O’Brien: I started working in the theatre in college, where I was very involved in the student theatre at Trinity College Dublin.

mance work regularly. We are also surrounded by galleries locally in Temple Bar, not to mention Dublin city as a whole.

texts that shape the reasons for specific works being shown at PAC? Approximately 30,000 people came into Project in 2010; that is the count for the gallery. While 50,000 came for performance nights at PAC in 2010. But what we think is that those two groups of people

The first shows I started producing were at Edinburgh Festival. I did

Traditionally, PAC originated from the idea of an alternative festival

don’t necessarily cross over that much. The important question for

a Masters in Cultural Policy and Arts Management at UCD and did

at the Gate Theatre in 1966. When they finally got their own build-

us is how to track the visitors’ engagement with the visual arts.

my placement in Edinburgh. When I returned to Dublin I started

ing it is my understanding that everything was connected; there

working at the Focus Theatre, a tiny 60-seater theatre on Leeson

wasn’t a separate gallery space. There were exhibitions that you had

The reading space on the ground floor of PAC does invite the

Street, which ended up being a baptism of fire because I had to do

to navigate on your way to the performance space.

everything: fixing lights, booking people in for runs in the space etc. While I was there I produced Hedwig and the Angry Inch – a rock musical – that played at the Focus for two weeks, becoming a cult hit, returning twice to the Focus and also playing at the PAC in 2006. With that I applied to Rough Magic Theatre Company’s SEEDS programme as a theatre producer, and spent two rewarding and important years developing. This offered me the realisation that

public – albeit a public who are more comfortable with visual art – to read and engage with art publications that are not

PAC also has this developmental role. There is a focus for other art

freely available, such as Tessa’s generous practice of printing

centres on local artists and communities, but because we don’t nec-

out copies of e-flux journal.

essarily have a local community, the range of artists that we support, and the type of work we present and get an audience for, is slightly different from other venues. This is to do with the history of PAC and its location in Dublin city centre.

The ground floor bookshop and reading area is a very important resource. We have talked about how we could expand the bookshop and are looking at ways to ask the artists that we work with to bring together a small library, so you would have printed publications that

I wanted to be a producer rather than administrator. Most impor-

The term ‘pluralism’ has been mentioned in Rough Magic

would reflect the exhibition or theatre productions that are running

tantly the programme facilitated research trips to various European

Theatre Company’s mission statement, but also by Willie

at any given time.

cities, where you were exposed to a broader experience of cultural

White (the previous Artistic Director of PAC) in a speech he

production through exhibitions, performance, dance, music, along

gave at the conference The Role of Arts Centres in Civil Soci-

with a more concentrated theatre experience.

ety, at the Axis Arts Centre Ballymun in 2003. What does the term pluralism mean for you in the context of the public’s relationship with PAC? For me ‘pluralism’ signifies many voices. I think PAC’s responsibility to independent artists and the companies that present work here is to allow them to express themselves in whatever way we can facilitate.

At the same time the idea of pluralism is a management philosophy, certainly for Rough Magic. I believe quite strongly that PAC is more than the director. PAC is the staff and the artists who make work here; it is a members’ organisation and those members are made up of a broad range of artists and art workers.

Tessa Giblin, the curator of the visual arts programme at PAC for the last five years, has managed to successfully maneuver within a space that is defined by its strong theatrical tradition, in the minds of the Irish public. How do you hope your relationship with Tessa will play out in the ongoing development of the Visual Arts at the PAC?

Cian O’Brien

Above all, the SEEDS programme offered a general cultural engagement with the city in which you got to see new work but also meet the artists that made the work. Then I was offered a job with Rough Magic where I co-curated the SEEDS programme with Tom Creed and also worked as a producer. A lot of the freelance production work, while I was at Rough Magic, was with PAC, so in a sense I have been working with PAC for the last seven years. This job as PAC

In terms of money, theatre, dance and music are powerful art forms, so it is very important that the visual arts have a voice at the table.

The problem for all programmes at PAC is how you sit them all together, because they are quite separate in the world, and how the industries interact in terms of the programme. Both Tessa and I are very interested in how the programmes can speak to each other in a way that doesn’t necessarily change the work that Tessa is curating or what we are presenting in the performance spaces.

Artistic Director was like coming home.

Is it a necessity that the Artistic Director of an arts centre has a broad appreciation of and exposure to different forms of cultural expression?

The breadth of the programme that we present, and the range of artists that we work with across all art forms, means that it is very important for the director to have an understanding of the cultural landscape, combined with a certain amount of knowledge about it.

Obviously, coming from a theatre background I am very conscious that I need to develop a detailed knowledge, or as much as I can, around the other art forms.

PAC is in an interesting place in the cultural scene because it is a multidiscipline arts centre located in Dublin city centre. It is important for me to have a close working relationship with the curator

Project Arts Centre

of visual art at PAC, Tessa Giblin, to try and take advantage of that multidisciplinary asset, so we can understand how the relationship between art forms can be developed.

What are the significant differences between PAC and other art centres around the country?

PAC faces the same challenges that every other art centre has. The local community, for us, can be looked at in two different ways: as

One of the things we are investing in next year is an audience development programme around the visual arts. Melanie Wright, who is our audience development and marketing manager, is working on how to engage the public with visual art. 2012, for us at PAC, is a whole communications overhaul. How do we talk to our audience?

How do we communicate the story behind the work, and the con-

What is your ambition for PAC’s role in the development of the art practitioner?

My big role at rough Magic was the SEEDS programme (for emerging theatre makers), and laterally a programme called ADVANCE, for theatre makers over 35 years of age. What attracts me to PAC is the organisation’s ability to support individual artists and companies, whether that is Rough Magic or Sally O’Reilly co-curating with Tessa in the current group exhibition ‘The Last of The Red Wine’ (the prequel/sequel).

Most importantly, we hope the support that we provide goes beyond the day-to-day practical support that the artist/curator gets to produce their show, and pushes the company or artist to the next stage of their career.

One of the things Tessa and I have spoken about is PAC’s role in working with Irish artists at a certain point in their career. It has been very important for Tessa to develop an international profile for PAC, which is really strong, so that artists who are making work here are making it in an international context.

On a personal note, having someone like Tessa, who is so engaged and accomplished in the visual arts, is an invaluable resource for me to develop a more detailed knowledge of, and exposure to, the visual arts.

James Merrigan is an artist and art writer http://jamesmerrigan.blogspot.com http://billionjournal.blogspot.com

14

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January - February 2012

RESIDENCY

All images courtesy of Vera McAvoy

Message in a Bottle VERA MCAVOY DISCUSSES HER RESIDENCY AT STRADBALLY, CO. LAOIS ON THE ARTHOUSE NCAD AWARD AND BURSARY Stradbally Had it not been for the first bad snow of 2010 I might not have ended up in Stradbally, Co. Laois. I had seen the application details for the Arthouse Ncad Graduate Award and Bursary and was really keen to apply. Then the snow arrived and I was suddenly house bound, with lots of fuel for the fire and my laptop, so I set about seriously applying for the position. I spent a month working on my proposal, based on art practice within a community context. In mid January, during the next snowfall, I was offered the residency and accepted it with relish. I felt the offer validated my hard work at art school.

that were reused and altered, to make something new. During the

The bottles contained a variety of shapes, which caused the coloured

school holidays I also hosted various workshops for children, such as

lights within to sparkle. The artwork attracted great attention during

‘Making Treasure from Trash and Paper Craft’. These groups were

the Electric Picnic festival; it was used as a meeting point, and many

formed, largely, from discussions with local school-teachers and Arts

were photographed alongside it, especially at night. During the

Office staff.

festival some repair work was needed, as a few bottles went missing

Honeycomb

and some were damaged. Adults and children assisted in attaching replacement bottles and lights, and freely made their own individual

The most exciting project I have been involved in so far at Stradbally

colour patterns and designs. This was unplanned but became a

was ‘Honeycomb’. It emerged from the collective vision of five artists:

wonderful, live, interactive event. I really enjoyed watching how

myself, Laura Byrne (painter), Pat Byrne (painter), Karen Hendy (painter) and Helena Malone (goldsmith). We wanted to involve the

much consideration and fun went into replacing the bottles. People felt they were creating an individual section of an artwork. There was

wider community in creating a vivid artwork that would combine

even a rumour that a proposal of marriage took place on the south

The Arthouse Studios and Library had just been refurbished having

colour, life and art within the Stradbally area. We submitted a

side of the ‘Honeycomb’ around 10.30pm on Friday 2 September. I

served, formally, as the old courthouse and prison cells in Stradbally.

proposal to exhibit our planned sculpture at the Electric Picnic Arts

would love to hear more on this if anyone has any information.

As part of my award I was allocated a beautiful large new studio with

and Music Festival, and were successful. The residents of Stradbally,

plenty of natural light. My aim was to explore the meaning of

young and old, were an integral part of the project, and the title

I continue to be in awe of the beautiful village of Stradbally, set deep

creativity and contemporary art with a group of local volunteers,

‘Honeycomb’ reflects the creation process: people buzzing around

particularly adults, who did not consider themselves creative in

together at work, collecting, cleaning, sorting, painting, testing and

terms of the visual arts. 2011 was the Year of Craft, so I intended to

assembling.

merge concepts of fine art and craft.

in a valley and surrounded by countryside. The residency here has ensured that my first year out of college was a busy one. I have been given the opportunity and the support to develop my practice and to work on and try out several projects simultaneously. I continue to

The finished ‘Honeycomb’ is a large, colourful, light spectacle, which

collaborate with Cultúrbug and we are currently working on our

I went door-to-door with invitations, and put adverts in the parish

reflects and sparkles. It comprises an eight-foot hollow MDF cube

exciting end of year exhibition for March 2012.

newsletter, looking for volunteers. This coincided with canvassing

from which 2,500 empty two litre plastic bottles protrude. Each

for the general election in February. In one circular housing estate, I

bottle contains an individual coloured LED bulb and battery, forming

was aware of twitching curtains, as residents tried to ascertain which

a vibrant multicoloured octagonal pattern. We assembled it onsite

political party I was from. They were even more confused when I told

around a Copper Birch tree, in the Main Arena of the festival.

them that I was organising coffee, art and craft sessions for free, that didn’t involve drawing or painting.

To create the piece, I placed notices around the area, requesting discarded two-litre mineral bottles, 3,000 if possible. Many local

The objective of the program is to facilitate weekly dialogue and

residents collected and donated bottles over a three-month period.

workshop sessions on contemporary art, and its relevance to the

Some people we never even met, but the black plastic sacks kept

Stradbally community. The core of my work responds, in particular,

arriving at our door. We received a lot of support from the community,

to discarded consumer products and their reproductive values.

despite some confusion about what exactly we were doing. In the

Through a systematic process of intervention, I create work that

early stages we called to the AES Recycle Centre in Athy to sift

examines polarities of scale, the fragile and the robust, using

through and collect bottles from their plastic depot, which was

discarded familiar objects, products and materials. My vision for the

actually a lot of fun. The Arthouse has a lovely internal garden space

year was to use universal, everyday products, and incorporate

and it was here that many volunteers stripped off labels, washed and

practices of recycling and remaking into the realm of human

dried the bottles, and sorted them into colour-coded areas. We

interactions, set within their social context.

collected more than 3,300 bottles, which required a lot of preparation

The group of participants grew organically and we commenced our sessions in advance of the official opening of the Arthouse by the new Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gealtacht, Jimmy Deenihan.

The group decided to call themselves Cultúrbug, and the first Arthouse exhibition took place in June. This mixed media exhibition, entitled ‘First Expressions’, incorporated familiar products and items

and storage, not to mention all the drinking required to empty them.

The MDF cube was painted in a wave of vibrant colours, and the bottle-caps were screwed on, followed by the bottles themselves, the lights, and the batteries. I was amazed at how much I learned through the detailed process.

Vera McAvoy continues her residency at Stradbally. http://veramcavoy.blogspot.com

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i

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

Critique Supplement

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

Polly Morgan ‘Dead Time’

Boyle wanted to contrast the work displayed in

Void, Derry

narrative…another chapter”2 to the story. In

30 August – 30 September I am at Void, Derry, to see ‘Dead Time’, Polly Morgan’s show, and talk to curator Maolíosa Boyle. I have been here before, and yet Gallery 1 feels unfamiliar as I enter it. It is dark green, dimly lit, and recalls the muted hush of a museum.

Boyle explains that she is always interested in changing the atmosphere of the space, and sought a traditional, Natural History Museum quality, to highlight the nature of Morgan’s work: skilled and

Edition 3. January / February 2012

January - February 2012

intrinsically linked to the natural world.

the two galleries, adding “another layer of Gallery 2 there is no forest green, just raw concrete. A flurry of movement catches your eye as you enter the space. In the back of the gallery hangs a creature that turns out to be a ball of pigeon wings. Blue Fever is the stuff nightmares are made of, an animal without a face, strangely familiar, yet utterly alien. It is suspended from the ceiling and casts a severe shadow on the opposite wall. The room is filled with the sharp, chemical smell of insecticide and preservative. Not even Morgan can manipulate death entirely.

‘Dead Time’ is curated with sensitivity, not just for the feel of the work but also for the diversity of Morgan’s practice. Boyle juxtaposed two prints with the three-dimensional work. The etching, Blackbird with Maggots is perhaps a little overshadowed by the otherworldliness of Blue Fever. There is also a lithograph, Myocardial Infraction, which evokes the type of prints commissioned by wealthy Victorians, where an artist would sketch, etch and then hand-colour each image drawn from life – or more precisely, the taxidermy version of life. Often the faded colour of the feathers was replaced with invented, fantastical hues. Morgan’s subject matter, parrots feeding from a bleeding heart, is macabre, but “beautifully crafted”.3 Much of the literature surrounding Morgan focuses on her fascination with taxidermy.

Repeatedly her eccentric past is mentioned: the myriad animals in her childhood home, constant competitors for her parents’ affection. I suspect we want to be soothed by explanations, because we are not comfortable with death, and those who approach it. Discussing this new medium, (for that is what the traditional art of taxidermy has become in Morgan’s skilful hands) Boyle states, “We don’t want to think about the process”.4 It is much easier to marvel at the material and the maker than to think about the gutting, the blood, and the stuffing.

Polly Morgan Receiver 2009 (all images courtesy of Paola Bernadelli)

Welcome to our critique section, which will appear with each edition of the Visual Artists’ New Sheet.

I realise I am holding my breath, but as I carefully

Each critique supplement features six reviews of exhibitions, events, publications and projects – that are

inhale I can smell only fresh paint. I expected an

either current or have recently taken place in Ireland.

unpleasant scent, a hint of death in this room

Critique relates to VAI’s commitment to developing the professional contexts and infrastructures for artists working in Ireland, that have recently included talks and critical writing bursaries developed in partnership with The Ormeau Baths, Belfast and The Lab, Dublin.

artists, and everyone wants a piece of her work.

containing cadavers. Taxidermy birds feature in all the work. Some, like the one in To Every Seed His Own Body, are displayed lifeless, while others, like those in Receiver, are animated, protruding

Critique reflects the broader aims of the Visual Artists’ News Sheet to be relevant to the broader aims of

from a black telephone receiver mounted on the

visual artists working in all disciplines. The reviews are commissioned to reflect upon and critique a di-

wall, tiny heads crammed into a compact space,

verse contemporary Irish visual arts practice – in terms of media, generation and geography. The review

beaks frozen mid-chirp.

writers have been drawn from a panel that was assembled from an open call-out held earlier this year.

Morgan is part of a new generation of celebrity

Polly Morgan uses animals “in the same way other artists use paints”.1 As raw materials, animals cannot be enhanced, for they are perfect down to the last minute hair. The only option is to distort,

Polly Morgan Blue Fever 2010

Production:

Visual Artists Ireland

displace or mutate. The birds function as objet

Publications Manager: Jason Oakley

Central Hotel Chambers

trouvée, ready-mades, and are combined with

Some individual pieces in ‘Dead Time’ run to 50

Assistant Editor: Lily Power

7–9 Dame Court

other found objects: a leather-bound prayer book,

editions, yet each remains unique. No seemingly

Layout: Lily Power

Dublin 2

a miniature chandelier, to create uncanny, three-

identical pheasant chick is exactly the same.

dimensional still-lives. In Still-Born, three pheasant

When seen as photos the pieces can be mistaken

chicks hang side by side, suspended from coloured

for visual one-liners, yet in the flesh they draw

balloons floating in mid-air. They are displayed in

you in, creating a fascinating dialogue on the

tall domes, like specimens in an eighteenth

universal act of living and dying.

Proofing: Anne Henrichson

T: 353(0) 1 672 9488

Contributors

E: info@visualartists.ie

Alissa Kleist

www.visualartists.ie

Curt Riegelnigg Joanne Laws Sarah Lincoln Eilish Cullen Alison Pilkington

The views expressed in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, do not necessarily reflect those of the editor, editorial panel, or VIsual Artists Ireland’s Board of Directors.

century Cabinet of Curiosity. Boyle was attracted

Alissa Kleist

to Morgan’s work because she feels these are evocative objects, relics almost, and this is reflected in their presentation. In this atmospheric space they are the focal point; spot lit, placed on plinths and morbidly beautiful. They have a magnetic allure, perhaps because the only way we can ever really get close to these animals is when they are dead.

1 In conversation with Maolíosa Boyle, curator, artist and manager at Void, Derry, Thursday 22nd of September 2011.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

ii

January - February 2012

Amy Stephens ‘Restless Nature’

Fiona Mulholland ‘Reflections on Things yet to Come’

Oonagh Young Gallery

Leitrim Sculpture Factory

18 November – 21 December

11 November – 1 December 2011

Amy Stephens Strategic Calm 2011

Amy Stephens Strategic Calm 2011 Amy Stephens Riding the Fault Line 2011

A while ago, a certain exhibition in the city of Dublin was tentatively christened ‘Silence’. It arrived on the heels of a disastrous financial tumble – the kind that promises a season of ‘austerity’ – and prompted some objections. When the ground gives way, after all, and a system is so roundly proven inadequate to its citizens’ needs, many favour a more audible response.

A bit of time has passed now, and given that same exhibition was, in its more recent incarnation, a more exclamatory affair, perhaps a paced, lyrical

Fiona Mulholland Reflections on Things to Come 2011

But, along with the other allusions to the natural

‘Reflections on things yet to come’ was a solo exhi-

its jangling transparent leaves. These were cut

world, its contribution to the exhibition’s entirety

bition by Fiona Mulholland, which presented new

from recycled water bottles, each threaded into

seems inert. Stephens is British, but has been in

sculptural works developed during her two-month

position with steel wire and brass tubing. When

residence at IMMA, and I can’t shed the suspicion

residency at Leitrim Sculpture Centre. On entering

replicated in such a way, the universal symbols

that a shot like this represents another post-Willie

the gallery space my gaze was firmly fixed on a

of ‘sun’ and ‘tree’ became interestingly kitsch, a

Doherty nugget of obligatory bog-love. Invocation

horizontal strip of blue neon lighting, which drew

departure that I found particularly appealing. The

of the damp, overbearing wilderness provides a

me nearer, until some words could be deciphered.

work considered fake states of being: escapism as

solid emotional hook (as the Twilight franchise

A six-foot high billboard-style frame, constructed

a parody on reality, tourism as a human process of

testifies), but feels mutely solicitous when left

from painted steel, supported the question Are we

self-colonisation. If the first space was a monu-

unexplained.

there yet? The luminous lettering exuded an au-

ment to urban existence, then the second was its

dible electric crackle – an iconic sound associated

exotic destination.

Independent of these qualms, the photograph is striking. It was either taken at a very particular

with this type of retro signage.

A third space, located to the left of the main

moment, in a field, during a vivid dusk, or edited

In the background, the rear wall was guarded by

entrance, contained two wall-mounted works

in Adobe Photoshop in a very particular way. Suf-

some clear corrugated perspex sheets, with greater

(Untitled 1 & 2), which were sculptural drawings

fice it to say, as with Stephens’ other work, there is

opacity achieved in the places where overlapping

constructed from orange security netting. The

lozenge for the hoarse throat.

a quiet purpose in every aspect. For this exhibi-

occurred. As a ‘drawing’, it was animated by blue

strong curatorial engagement that permeated the

Conveniently, the work’s reticence parallels that

tion, questions of positioning and tone work best

streaks darting across its reflective surface. As an

other spaces was lacking in this area, and those

when they sidestep the answers.

urban boundary marker, it indicated that I should

particular pieces were less appealing, feeling like

turn back.

appendages to the main event.

so tightly wrought and self-sufficient that the

Behind me a mass of transparent three-dimension-

As an artist, Mulholland has displayed a dura-

verbalized theme seems like an imposition. The

al structures were assembled on the floor, stacked,

tional curiosity about the ephemera of modern

combination of materials on varying strata of

layered, and functioning almost as a diffuser, ab-

life, combining found objects with construction

industrial refinement – raw oak, flock, bronze, and

sorbing, reflecting, and distorting the light in the

materials, producing a sculptural ‘bricolage’

strips of neon-colored tape – and in cautiously

space, while casting dramatic shadows. Visually,

aesthetic. ‘Reflections on things yet to come’ was

specific measurements and orientations, lends Ste-

I interpreted Mirage as a shimmering cityscape.

a continuation of this dialogue, but her inquiry

phens’ work an aura of teasingly elusive meaning.

Geographically, it was a dense floating island.

felt more urgent. The work, whilst retaining its

meander is now the right medicine. For those who might sway toward this sensibility, Amy Stephens’ ‘Restless Nature’ at Oonagh Young Gallery is a

of Irish artist Caoimhe Kilfeather, whose sculpture is displayed in the LAB around the corner from Oonagh Young. The two harmonize in their suggestion of permanence and their formal obliquity, but diverge beyond that. If Kilfeather’s warm minimalism is a haiku, Stephens’ agnostic, intuitive bricolage is a limerick, bounding with graceful unpredictability toward a crisp closure. She prioritises consistency while avoiding repetition, and the result is enjoyable to look at, in part, because it seems enjoyable to make. Though common sense denies it, the hopeful naïf within me thinks the artist might simply have worked until she got

Maybe it’s because the formal relationships are

What would breathe clearly with a cursory gloss and a sympathetically airy titling is compromised somewhat by an over-literalized reliance on the origins, physical and aesthetic, of her plastic ap-

bored.

proach. This is demonstrated in names like Shifting

Stephens boldly exploits directional relationships.

glut of text in the playbill. The title ‘Restless Na-

The spires of her constructions jerk the gaze aggressively into the air, then crash back to earth to slink along the floor, or lob our attention across the room to the next work. The play of shadows around each piece scrawls grey angles along the walls that further exaggerate the exhibition’s halftone disruption of visual flow. A slight upward angling in the polished bronze of Strategic Calm, a modestly sized piece deposited unassumingly against the gallery’s right wall, bounces a subtle crescent of reflections off the wall’s surface. The light play, intermittently bright and dim, surrounds the compact piece with a vaguely graphic sunburst, a faint kind of Byzantine halo ordinarily reserved for saints in cathedral fenestration. There is, in instances like these, a strict but delicate at-

Ground and Riding the Fault Line, not to mention a ture’ seems unnecessary for an exhibition of work that takes advantage of split timber and the play of light on reflective surfaces, and contains such a clear sense of physical transience and tactility.

The author Saul Bellow saw art ideally as the “achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos”.1 How exactly that stillness is reached, and whether it ought to address the chaos, is endlessly debatable. It is a complicated balance to manage that holy meditation in a swirl of distractions, and Stephens’ work does manage it, when undisturbed.

Where silence can exist, it might do so unheralded, and untrammeled, and be in its otherness a language of its own.

Curt Riegelnegg

tention to the formal periphery that only appears

my right, becoming visible through a large gap between the partitioning walls of the adjacent space.

I made my way towards the blazing source, antici-

that not only extended the sensory pleasure of the encounter, but also allowed the symbolism in the work to resonate more clearly and freely, with distinct contemporary relevance.

Mulholland’s use of neon signage stands out as

my approach, I could hear the low whirring hum

being undeniably ‘of the moment’. Frieze Art

of an electric fan, and the sound of something

Fair 2011 show-cased a large amount of text-

synthetic flapping in its breeze.

based work, with extensive use of neon lettering

Of things yet to come was a static sunset, composed of industrial steel gridding and layers of amber perspex, illuminated from behind by fluorescent strip-lighting placed at floor level. It made me think of post-card images, sun-sets at iconic sites: the Pyramids, the Taj Mahal. The re-production and circulation of such imagery serves to perpetuate a false reality. Fully aware of its artificial state, I marvelled at its beauty all the same, and basked for a moment in its radiance.

employed by artists such as Cerith Wyn Evans, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Tracey Emin.

This contemporary re-appropriation of neon is not concerned with nostalgia, rather, it is a mode of declaration that subverts any commodity function, sign-posting instead the stark truths that persist beneath the surface. Are we there yet? articulates a universal impatience. It directs the viewer to a vision of ‘paradise’ – once a simplistic image, functioning in the mind of the city-dweller as a site of liberation – but in late-capitalism, ‘paradise’

To the right of the ‘sun’, the tall figure of a tree

is exposed as a displaced, artificial landscape, more

imposed itself upon the space, projecting oriental

problematic than our immediate terrain.

silhouettes onto a fabric screen (installed to block

‘found tree’. A heavy base secured the tree trunk 1 Alfred Kazin and George Plimpton (eds.), Writers at Work: The Paris review interviews, Volume 3. New York, NY: Viking Press, 1967.

tactile appeal, displayed a paring back of elements

pating heat, but detecting instead a cold draft. On

portrayed the adornment of an already existing

In this vein, the small mounted photograph in a room full of comparatively assertive sculpture.

a luminous orange sunset had revealed itself to

out the street level window). Weeping and Willows

after looking for some time. the corner of the gallery is a pleasant oddball in

During my initial movement through the space,

firmly at an oblique angle, appearing solid and immovable, contrasting with the flimsiness of

Joanne Laws

iii

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

Jim Ricks ‘Death and Sensuality’’

‘In Other Words’’ Lewis Glucksman Gallery 22 July – 30 October

Mina Dresden Gallery, San Francisco 4 November – 3 December Featuring: Nina Amazing, Roisin Byrne, Alan

In The Logical End of All Media, James McCann tack-

Butler, Benjamin DeBurca, Breda Lynch, James

les the themes of sensuality and death. Excerpted

McCann, Leo McCann, Tom Molloy, Not Abel and

YouTube videos of excessively overweight men –

Alan Phelan.

stroking and caressing their ample flesh anony-

The recent exhibition ‘Death and Sensuality’, shown this fall at the Mina Dresden Gallery in San Francisco, succeeded in its intended purpose: to promote Irish culture within an American context. Curator Jim Ricks utilized a curatorial

mously – are transformed into a series of ambiguous, visually sumptuous filmic episodes. They demonstrate an annihilation of the body, beyond health, into erotically charged flesh that hovers between states of extreme neglect and desire.

framework, loosely inspired by George Bataille’s

Alan Phelan’s Watch with Brian the Birth of a Nation

Eroticism: Death and Sensuality. He presented a

is a pointed commentary on the political climate

diverse range of contemporary Irish artists, unified

of present-day Ireland. His crafty mask of former

by their tactical use of appropriation to dismantle

Taoiseach Brian Cowen, a face that may not

and rupture traditional notions of place, political

be readily identifiable to an American viewer,

failure, the representation of war, artistic licence,

satirizes political accountability and degeneracy.

identity, longing, and desire. From the outset Ricks

Phelan’s depiction of Cowen has exaggerated

identifies common themes such as uprooted-

features that recall Honoré Daumier’s timeless

ness, constructions of identity, the dislocation of

caricatures.

memory, shadowy presentations of history, and ambiguous attachments to place or country.

Painter Leo McCann portrays a Fauvist, deeply perin (Protected Corner) Under Arm Alarm (Table) and

envision previously completed artworks by other

Doing No Great Harm. Breda Lynch and Tom Mol-

artists, inserting themselves into a direct dialog

loy re-interpret violent shared histories in fiction

with these works. This elevates the artworks

and in Europe’s recent past, respectively. Meet Your

beyond their original context and the broader con-

Doppelganger Then You Die by Breda Lynch compris-

cerns of each artist. Roisin Byrne interrogates ethi-

es two rendered portraits of the same film still of

cal considerations within art through her work,

Jane Fonda in period costume, with a hang man’s

Massage, which implicitly questions ownership.

noose around her neck. By creating two images of

Byrne aggressively appropriates Ryan Gander’s

the same scene, Fonda’s image is doubly locked in

work Massage; thereby subjugating it to her own

a highly rendered state of trauma, mimicry, and a

line of questioning, wildly beyond Gander’s origi-

self possessed, outward gaze of infallibility. Tom

nal intentions and without his permission.

Molloy re-frames a photograph of Joseph Goebbels

Romantic Journey Through Old Germany), Benjamin DeBurca cuts structured frames of clean lines into images of romantic German landscapes from the 1800s. He physically inserts a new subtext

Michael Stupf Massive Angry Sculpture 2011 (all images courtesy of the Lewis Glucksman Gallery)

sonal narrative of comical isolation and insularity

Roisin Byrne, Not Abel and Benjamin DeBurca re-

In Romantische Reise Durch Das Alte Deutschland (A

surrounded by his family, and a drawing of Benito Mussolini with his wife, at their hanging. He forces the viewer to confront the subject’s humanity, to consider Goebbels in the context of familial life and Mussolini on his passage into death.

Kay Rosen Tent 2009/10

Limura returns to a 1967 film in which he

Lewis Glucksman Gallery, transforms the 26 let-

scratched characters from Kojiki – an early

ters of the alphabet into fugitive non-conformists.

Japanese text – into 16 mm film. The original film

Neon letters cling indecipherably to a wall, three-

has been digitised and is played in the gallery at a

dimensional letters are projected falling down the

slower speed, enabling the artist to voice charac-

face of a building, other letters seem brash and bol-

ters which the video pauses upon.

shy, taking the place of the art they are supposed to describe by inflating their own titles. Above all,

There is coherence between these Irish artists,

this exhibition is concerned with the artist’s physi-

remote representations of place, entrenched in an

many of whom made new works specifically for

cal use of text and the potent ability these humble

idealised past.

this exhibition. The individual works carve out

symbols have to light fires in our brains.

their own space, but remain relevant to a more

Tim Etchells Will Be 2010

‘In Other Words’, the group exhibition at the

of geographical and cultural dislocation into

Nina Amazing and Alan Butler examine pop cul-

January - February 2012

Many of the pieces in the exhibition use the words of their titles to form the fabric of the artwork.

Michael Stumpf’s Massive Angry Sculpture renders these words, expressively, as heavy three-dimensional objects stacked upon each other, while the

Kay Rosen’s work has a spare and pared-back

light resin material and timber supports provide

aesthetic. Phantom Limb in Gallery 1 comprises

contrast through their inherent vulnerability. In

the over-sized white letters ‘p’ and ‘b’, spaced some

Sema Bekirovic’s video work How To Stop Falling,

distance apart against an otherwise black wall.

the letters in the title are filmed falling, one at a

Her strategy, using the work’s title to explore the

time, down the facade of a tall building. Tim Etch-

viewer’s ability to fill-in and complete an artwork,

ell’s two part neon work, Will Be, has the viewer

continues in her work Tent in Gallery 2. Rosen

scanning the wall of splayed, brightly coloured let-

examines our ability to construe meaning, while

ters in search of the strident assuredness of neon.

of plastic pastiche-horror troops, dressed in ironic

traversing the slippery boundary between reading

The letters re-assemble on a nearby wall, coherent

costume and weaponry, vying for the camera’s

and seeing. Peter Downsbrough, using a similar

but somehow frustrating. In all these cases, the

gaze. Butler recasts characters from a promo for

aesthetic, utilises our movement through the

manner in which the artworks are executed tugs

Sex in the City as unwitting, oblivious targets, in a

gallery as a means to heighten communication

at and resists the direct self-referentiality implied

video lampooning consumer culture.

between his two works. Downsbrough’s pieces

by folding the title into the artwork.

ture’s fascination with social media, self-representation and parody. Beneath these lie a dark undercurrent of superficial beauty and garish displays of assumed American exoticism. They are reflective of a larger global culture gone awry, a lost world of hypocrisy set against a heightened backdrop of

general discourse on the global arts. Jim Ricks’ thoughtful curation allows the viewer to perceive transgressive notes of both death and sensuality, and American audiences seeing work by these artists for the first time, will discover a new reference point for contemporary Irish art.

war. Amazing’s digital collage presents an army

Eilish Cullen

are physically slight and, like Rosen’s, ensure the complete work is visible in the mind’s eye of the viewer.

Nina Amazing (installation view)2011

Alan Phelan Watch with Brian the Birth of a Nation 2011

tract is one of three ‘provocations’ written by Graham Allen, the co-curator of the exhibition. Allen

ner in which it expands upon a subject matter

uses these provocations to complicate a piece of

predominantly associated with cerebral activities.

work and to emphasise the many academic disci-

‘In Other Words’ examines the means by which

plines relevant to the exhibition. In this particular

our bodies and their location in the world are

text, Allen cites William Blake’s comments on the

implicated and contribute to word formation.

unsettling quality of words carved into stone, and

Short Cuts, by Erica Van Horn and Simon Cutt, is a

their terrifying irreversibility. Central to this ex-

walk-in installation derived from an earlier pub-

hibition is a similar commitment to resisting the

lication. The artists collected verbal expressions

fixed shape of words. There is enormous scope to

from areas around England that describe a narrow

expand upon the ideas in this show, stretching and

passageway between buildings. The quantity and

testing the visual power of words, but ‘In Other

diversity of the words are remarkable but their

Words’ embraces the challenges of the subject

colour and flair are flattened by an intentionally

matter with energy and rigor.

In White Calligraphy Re-Read, Takahiko Limura explores how nuanced tones can become manifest James McCann The Logical End of all Media 2011

of text printed onto transparent adhesive. This

One of the strengths of this exhibition is the man-

homogenised presentation in the gallery space.

Benji DeBurca Romantische Reise Durch Das Akte Deutschland 2011

On the window next to Will Be is a small rectangle

when words are embodied. In this video work,

Sarah Lincoln

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

iv

January - February 2012

Dermot Seymour ‘Fish, Flesh and Fowl’ Golden Thread Gallery 15 December – 4 February 2012 ‘Fish Flesh and Fowl’ at the Golden Thread Gallery

society and politics under the ‘celtic tiger’.

in Belfast is a retrospective of Dermot Seymour’s

Portraits from politics and media, such as those of

painting, spanning four decades. The show is

Brian Cowen and Irish footballer Roy Keane, sit

large, with over 50 paintings and to see his work

happily beside all manner of beasts and fowl. In

en masse in this way, it is hard not to be

one particular painting, from the series ‘Hiberno

impressed by his singular, unchanging approach

God’, a baboon stares wistfully out of the frame,

to the subject matter: the politics and culture of

not at us the viewer but beyond, perhaps at the

Ireland.

world at large or his place within it. His eyes glint

The politics of Northern Ireland has shaped much of the identity of the arts scene there since the

with an uncanny humanity that is absent from many of the human faces.

1980s, and Seymour has managed to carve out a

The exhibition is collated from both public and

particular niche within that canon. His detached,

private collections with contributions in the

starkly realist style of painting, populated with

catalogue from Ireland’s leading literary figures,

animals and headless figures tottering

Seamus Heaney and Dermot Healy. The show will

precariously on precipices, sit somewhat uneasily

travel widely in Ireland and also to the Centre

with Northern Irish political artwork. The curator,

Culturel Irlandais in Paris.

Jim Smyth, remarks in the accompanying catalogue:

Many critics have commented on the literary nature of Seymours’s work and his work has

“In the sense that Seymour considers painting to

graced the covers of literary anthologies. But

be a means to an end, a way of transforming ideas

perhaps it is best to let the pictures be pictures

into tangible form, he stands outside the

and express something in that way, rather than be

mainstream tradition”.1

reduced to language. Seamus Heaney says of the

Seymour himself sees his work as closer to the tradition of magic realism, which would seem a much fairer assessment than the largely conflicting critical responses to his work, which

has no obvious design upon me but leaves me alone with things that are entirely persuasive in their own right”3 One of the more recent paintings, Hiberno Head,

photorealism, surrealism and even

expresses something of what Heaney describes. A

postmodernism. Echoes of Frida Kahlo’s

headless figure presents a fish to us – the viewers

straightforward representational approach to

– from a twilight landscape.

Yet, where her work focuses on the deeply personal, Seymour’s cool detached eye never seems to turn towards the self. His personal vision

beyond words. Heaney writes:

landscape of Northern Ireland in the 1980s and

painterly sense seems to me unquestionable, but

the 1990s examined with unflinching rigour.

he has a technique in the more important sense

development of Seymours’s work. The first phase is the early works that explore ‘the troubles’ and

Visual Artists Ireland Ground Floor, Central Hotel Chambers, 7/9 Dame Court, Dublin 2 T: +353 (0)1 672 9488 F: +353 (0)1 672 9482 E: info@visualartists.ie

also expresses something nameless, something “His [Seymour’s] technique in the immediate

what he considers the four distinct phases in the

www.visualartists.ie www. visualartists.org.uk

The image is in one way powerfully literal, but

charts the world around him, the politics and

For this exhibition, the curator has examined

Creative Ireland: The Visual Arts is brought to you by Visual Artists Ireland the all-ireland body for professional visual artists.

We provide services, facilities, and resources for visual artists; initiate artistic projects and publications; and act as an advocate on behalf of professional visual artists and the wider visual arts sector.

work, “What I admire about Seymour is that he

have situtated him within the realms of

imagery is evident in much of Seymour’s work.

Ireland’s Comprensive Contemporary Visual Arts Resource

that the poet Patick Kavanagh once assigned to it , when he defined it as ‘a method for getting at life’. creative ireland ads.indd 5

26/08/2

And the fact of the matter is that getting at life is extremely difficult”.4

Alison Pilkington

the conflicting identity of Northern Ireland, as seen through the eyes of a young man from the working class, loyalist Shankhill Road community. The second phase – from the mid 1980s to the early 1990s – explores the political

ALL Artists Welcome

landscape of Northern Ireland, which perhaps to

Join Us

an outsider, is a bewildering and densely tangled affair. As Smyth says “It is the juxtaposition of symbolic images, historical references a rag bag of illusions, an

Membership of Visual Artists Ireland is open to ALL kinds of visual artists – sculptors, painters, lens-based artists, installationists, performance artists ...

upended cabinet of curiousities that draw the confused viewer into these paintings”.

2

One particular painting from this era, View from a

Our two main categories of membership – Professional and Associate – are OPEN and INCLUSIVE. Each offer a comprehensive level of supports and services from Visual Artists Ireland: listings, news, training, opportunities, information, advice, support and advocacy.

helicopter with sophisticated surveillance equipment, is a particular comment on the Britsh military presence in Northern Ireland. The image is split between a close-up of a woman’s legs and an aeriel

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view of fields. This impossible dual persepective could be read as a metaphor for the convoluted politics of Northern Ireland. The third phase of Seymour’s work sees his move from Belfast to the

To become a member, go to: http://visualartists.ie/join-us/

rural west of Ireland. Here the paintings explore wider issues of man’s inhumanity to man with

Please note our new address and telephone numbers

themes of war and politics set in a wider context,

Visual Artists Ireland Central Hotel Chambers, 7/9 Dame Court, Dublin 2 T: +353 (0)1 672 9488 F: +353 (0)1 672 9482 E: info@visualartists.ie

albeit through twilight zones populated with animal and bird metaphors and allusions. His more recent phase, in particluar the ‘Eyed’ series, focuses on portraiture. Through it, he has explored the corruption and excesses of Irish 1 Jim Smyth Dermot Seymour ,‘Fish, Flesh and Fowl’: A Retrospective, 2011, 11 2 Ibid. 12

3 Seamus Heaney on Dermot Seymour 2011 4 Ibid.

16

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January - February 2012

OPPORTUNITIES ART TO HEART

COW HOUSE

Art to Heart is offering a unique

Cow House Studios is now

opportunity to participate

accepting applications for their

in a programme of collective

2012 residency programme.

art making, personal explora-

Applications are open to Irish

tion and debate. This training

and international visual artists

programme is for adults. If you

working in any medium. Fol-

are a parent, artist, youth leader,

lowing the ten week residency

social or health worker, teacher

all four artists will exhibit in

or child care worker who wants

a group show travelling to the

to learn more about how to

Wexford Arts Centre and Mon-

Email:

nurture, foster and develop your

ster Truck Gallery.

artsoff@laoiscoco.ie

own creative potential, this

Opportunities FUNDING / AWARDS / BURSARIES

Deadline: ARTS COUNCIL NI Arts council Northern Ireland funding opportunities. Equipment and Minor Refurbishment Funding.

12noon Friday 27th Jan 2012 (No email applications accepted)

training programme is for you.

No artistic experience is neces-

developed and will be led by

ment of their art practice. The

carry out minor refurbishment

award emphasises the value and

to their premises.

benefit to an artist’s develop-

Deadline: 4pm 12 Jan 2012

ment that is derived from a

Web: www.artscouncil-ni.org/award/

with their practice.

at developing their confidence

Web:

children or adults. She focuses

Heart. Jole has extensive experience in working with children through the arts. She has designed workshops for adults that are specifically designed when working creatively with first on allowing each adult to

Deadline:

be creative, individually and

19 Jan 2012

with others. Eight consecu-

Arts Council’s Small Grants programme accepts applications

February, 6, 13, 20, 27 March and

commence in early 2012. Grants of between £500 and £10,000

3 April 2012. Time: 6.30pm – 9.30pm. The programme costs !500, Concessions !350 (stu-

als for work that you wish to RCA

dents, unemployed, part-time workers). Booking fee: !50. Fee

are available to constituted

RCA School of Humanities an-

covers training, art material, tea

organisations for projects which

nounces call for applications for

and coffee.

involve people in their commu-

Postgraduate study with bursa-

nities, bringing them together

ries for Academic Year 2012-13.

to enjoy a wide range of arts

Located in the heart of London,

activities.

the Royal College of Art offers

Web: www.artscouncil-ni.org/award/ smallgrant.html ARTHOUSE Applications are now invited for the Arthouse Studio Award for NCAD graduates. For a second year running Laois County Council in association with the National College of Art and Design are offering this award.

It is intended to support an emerging artist/designer to develop their professional practice whilst engaging in a residency project and community context.

Applicants must have graduated in the past three years from NCAD. The successful applicant is expected to take up this award at the beginning of April 2012.

Address: Arts Officer, Laois County Council, Áras an Chontae, Portlaoise, Co Laois Telephone: 057 8674342/44 Web: www.laois.ie

Address: Carmelite Centre, Aungier Street, Dublin 2

SIM RESIDENCY The SIM Residency is an international residency located in Reykjavík and run by SÍM, The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists. The SIM Residency welcomes visual artists of all media to Reykjavík for residencies lasting one to three months.

The artist pays a residency fee for the stay at SIM as well as his own travel expenses and all other personal living expenses during the residency. The main objective of the SIM Residency is to function as a direct link between visual artists, both nationally and internationally by bringing them together from different parts of the world to

international artists to take

–time Mphil/PhD programmes

thereby creating a broader

in Critical Writing in Art and

esprogramme.html

context within which local

Design, Curating Contemporary

PAINTING

curators and critics in close connection to the internationally renowned artists and designers of the Royal College of Art. Open days are held in November and December, and the priority application deadline is January 2012, although applications are considered throughout the year. Bursaries, towards fees and living costs, are available on a competitive basis. All applications are to be submitted via

Deadline : 13 Jan 2012 Web: Courses/Pages/104.aspx

company based in Siena (Italy) which specialises in the creation of stained, painted and fused glass. Siena was the first centre of stained glass manufacture and design in Italy and Vetrate Artistiche Toscane continues this tradition. The Studio handles original commissions and restoration work (classical and modern stained glass) in both religious and secular subjects. Fused glass projects are also a part of our production.

The apprenticeship periods last one or two months according to

STUDIO TO RENT Artist’s studio and house available to rent for February and March 2012. The house is situated in the midlands, 120 km from Dublin on the N7. It is an easily managed barn-build which has upstairs living quarters with wonderful views. The house is on 3.5 acres and is surrounded by 100 acres of deciduous woods, mainly oak, ash and beech. The studio is newly built and sits away from the house beside a fast flowing stream.

The location is very quiet but has the advantage of a tiny pub, one kilometre down the road. It is five km from Roscrea which has a railway station. The town of Birr is a fifteen minute drive, where there is a thriving arts community.

student’s choice (provided the

Address:

slot is available). Contact us for

Silverbarn, Ballybritt, Roscrea,

available space. We help in find-

Co. Tipperary

ing accommodation. English is spoken in the studio. Intensive

Vetrate Artistiche Toscane, Via della Galluzza, 5, 53100 Siena, Italy.

Telephone: 0872793051 Email: patricia.hurl@gmail.com BIGG LIFE The BIGG Life arts Initiative has sual arts (exhibitions & studios),

‘Introduction to Painting’ led

SIM Residency seeks to promote

Web:

by artist Kitty Rogers will take

an environment of reflection,

www.glassisland.com

place in the Hugh Lane. Satur-

study and play by providing

day 14 January – Saturday 4 Feb-

artists with a working environ-

ruary 2012, 10am – 12pm. ‘New

ment that supports the artistic

I-Park announces its twelfth

Perspectives Through Drawing’

process. Application deadline is

season hosting its multi-disci-

led by artists Felicity Clear and

10 January 2012 for the period

plinary residency program. Self-

Beth O’Halloran. Saturday 11

of July – December 2012.

directed artists’ residencies will

February – 7 April 2012, 10am – 12pm, (excluding St Patrick’s Day). ‘Life Drawing’ led by artists Felicity Clear and Beth O’Halloran. Saturday 11 February – 7 April 2012, 12:30pm – 2:30pm, (excluding St Patrick’s Day). ‘Aspects of Drawing’ led

Web: www.sim.is/sim-res/application.

www.hughlane.ie.

are four weeks in duration and the Visual Arts, Music Composi-

especially suited to practicing artists and for those with an artistic streak that are seeking

experiential with the theoreti-

Web:

November 2012. Most sessions

The Jungian approach is

Web:

01 2225558

be offered from May through

are offered to those working in

working. This course mixes

Telephone:

I-PARK

ART THERAPY

3 April 2012, 10:30am – 12pm.

16 Jan 2012

2012. End Date: 28 April 2012.

experience their own work. The

Tuesday 14 February – Tuesday

Deadline:

STUDIO SPACE

recently opened its space for vi-

website

contact humanities@rca.ac.uk.

30 January

edu@glassisland.com

and international artists can

the RCA Online Applications

Contact :

Deadline:

Email:

by artist John Adye-Curran

www.rca.ac.uk

Fridays. Start Date: 27 January

Contact:

part in the Icelandic art scene,

taught by leading historians,

9.30am and end time is 5pm on

each other. To be a venue for

www.arttoheart.ie/artcours-

Museum). All programmes are

place on Saturdays. Start time is

hands on courses also available.

Web:

collaboration with the V&A

The remaining three days take

work in close company with

2-year Masters and full or part

Art and History of Design (in

of the 14 days are on Fridays.

Vertate Artistiche Toscane is a

Jole Bortoli the director of Art to

tive Tuesday nights: 14, 21, 28

ideal time to submit propos-

860-873-2468.

GLASS APRENTISHIP

to purchase equipment and

COURSES / WORKSHOPS / TRAINING

Telephone:

RESIDENCIES

The training course has been

applications@i-park.org

This is a 14 day programme. 11

www.lit.ie/LifelongLearning/

The Arts Council provides

Email:

such insights in everyday life.

land/for_artists/residency.html

individual artists in the develop-

at any time; however this is the

of the psyche and how to apply

house accreditation certificate

gramme enables organisations

Small Grants Programme. The

will get to know Jung’s model

www.cowhousestudios.com/ire-

Bursary Awards in order to assist

SMALL GRANTS

www.i-park.org/residency.html

ential learning, the participant

At the end of the course an inwill be awarded to participants.

www.artscouncil.ie

tional. Thus, through experi-

Web:

This Arts Council funding pro-

equipment.htm

29 Feb 2012.

Web:

sary to attend the programme.

BURSARY AWARDS

focused period of engagement

Deadline:

both fascinating and educa-

to discover new ways of creative

cal in a venture that combines Jungian Psychology with Art Therapy. By using methods such as art-making, journaling and dream interpretation we shall engage creatively with psyche in a journey that promises to be

tion, Creative Writing, Moving

music rehearsal & recording, film screening and community arts right opposite the Duke of York pub in the ‘arty’ Cathedral Quarter in Belfast city centre.

We now take bookings for our Visual Arts Exhibition Space, community groups, craft workshops, yoga classes, film screenings , music & theatre rehearsal space, conference & demonstration space. A £10 per hour donation to charity is required.

Image and Landscape/Garden

Web:

Design. Except for the $30

www.facebook.com/BIG-

application fee, the residency

GLIFEARTS

is offered at no cost to accepted artists and includes comfortable private living quarters, a private studio and meal program.

International applicants are welcome. To defray the cost of travel, four $750 grants will be awarded in 2012 to international artists.

Telephone 07546878353.

HOUSE/STUDIO Suitable for Artists/Fashion/ Textile/Craft people. Fantastic house cum studio space available to sublet from 1 February until 31 March 2012. Situated

OPPORTUNITIES by the village of Easkey, 20 min-

Deadline:

runs over three days showcasing

Web

with photography projects.

delivered by hand to Limerick

utes each way to Ballina or Sligo

31st of Jan 2012

some of the best documentary

www.126.ie

Must have own equipment and

City or Dublin.

towns. Big studio space with running water and great natural light, double bedroom, kitchen with solid fuel stove, bathroom and entrance hall with open fire.

Rent: !500 p/month.

Email: margaret.lynagh@gmail.com Web: appleloftstudioseaskey.blogspot. com.

GRAPHIC STUDIO Applications from printmakers are accepted twice yearly in January and June. The studio at Distillery House caters for etching, lithography, woodblock, lino, photopolymer, screenprint

Web: www.madartstudio.com

OPPORTUNITIES IRELAND EXCEL GALLERY The Excel Gallery, Excel Centre, Mitchel Street, Tipperary Town, is now looking for submissions for exhibitions to take place in its gallery space in 2012. The gallery welcomes innovative and challenging proposals from established artists and from artists who wish to present a debut exhibition. Group submissions are also welcome.

films on the visual arts. The programme will also include

HACK THE CITY

film on a visual arts topic, Direc-

lege Dublin, Ireland is seeking

and Garda vetting. A panel will

Email :

tor’s Q & A sessions and panel

proposals for an upcoming

be formed for positions arising

info@eva.ie.

discussions.

major exhibition ‘Hack The City’

in early 2012.

Web: www.viewfindersfilmfestival. com

(22 June – 7 September 2012).

Science Gallery’s 2012 flagship exhibition and festival ‘Hack The City’ will rethink our cities

Telephone:

hacker ethos – to bend, mash-up,

01 4547026

ABRIDGED

tweak and cannibalise our city

Abridged, the poetry/art maga-

systems, to create possibilities,

zine is looking for submissions

illustrate visionary thinking

for its Silence issue. A maximum

and demonstrate real-world

of three poems may be submit-

examples for sustainable urban

ted of any length. Art can be

futures. It will capitalize on

up to A4 size and can be in any

Dublin city’s history, legacy, transforming the city itself into

Web:

Address:

Email:

www.graphicstudiodublin.com/

Tipperary Excel Gallery, Tipper-

abridged@ymail.com

gsd/member/membership.html.

ary Excel Centre, Mitchel St.,

a nimble “playground” and live

Email: cityartsquad@hotmail.com WEB DESIGNER Artist turned Web designer wishes to work with designers, filmmakers, visual Artists to create a free professional website.

Contact:

urban hack lab. The exhibition

Shane

will extend beyond the gallery

Email:

Address:

through workshops, labs, events

Abridged c/o The Verbal Arts

Telephone

and off-site projects with Sci-

Centre, Stable Lane and Mall

PERIPHERIES

062-80520

ence Gallery becoming a hub

Wall, Bishop Street Within,

connecting difference city zones

Derry BT48 6PU.

Call for entries for 20 x 20:

to mobile and online worlds.

‘Peripheries – Moments from

Closing Date:

We are seeking proposals for:

the Side which is a group show

Jan 14th 2012

installations, mass-participation

of 20 images, from 20 students

Web:

experiments, events, perfor-

of photography, printed at 20

mances, new products/services/

cm x 20 cm, from a choice of 20

start-ups, workshops, apps, visu-

papers. The show is curated by

126

alizations, maps and mash-ups.

Donna Kiernan. This exhibition

Web: www.tipperary-excel.com

are enthusiastic about being

Deadline:

involved in a spacious artist-

31 Jan 2012

in Limerick City. Successful

Dublin 8.

the spirit and philosophy of the

dpi.

run studio and gallery space

Liberties College, Bull Alley St.,

1 Feb 2012

Mary Alice O’Connor

for creative practitioners who

Fiona Clarke, City Artsquad,

from the ground up through

and other fine art print media.

Slack-space studio looking

Address:

Deadline:

population and infrastructure,

SLACK SPACE

SIGNAL ARTS

www.abridgedonline.com

shn.murphy@gmail.com

candidates will undertake a

Signal Arts Centre is now

three month residency where

accepting submissions for

As part of our continued

Email:

will run from March 1– 30 2012

they will be involved group

exhibitions to be held in 2013.

commitment to support our

teresa.dillon@sciencegallery.

Web:

projects, events management

When submitting your ap-

membership, 126 is delighted

com if you would like to sug-

www.inspirationalarts.ie

and their own art practice. They

plication please include the

to announce an call out for its

gest projects or people for the

will work alongside a group of

following: A minimum of six

5th Annual Members’ Show.

exhibition.

multi-disciplinary artists and

images (clearly marked with

This years project will allow all

have the opportunity for contin-

your name and title of picture),

126 members to deliver a single

ued professional membership.

photographs or images on CD

new piece of work to the gallery,

Active participation is favoured

(all images should be suitable

without fear of censorship or

as minimal fees apply. Please

for print reproduction (300dpi)

rejection. The show will be

submit artist statement and

jpeg format, not exceeding 5mb

inclusive, making no distinction

Friday 20 January 2012.

draft work plan.

in size); a submission proposal –

between artists or selection of

covering what you would hope

works. 126 will adhere to this

SMALL WORKS

to exhibit if you are successful.

framework in an attempt to

Include proposed sizes of work

explore curatorial models and

where possible; artists’ CV (art

boundaries, and experiment

Telephone:

related only) ; artist Statement

with exhibition formats. 126

086 1255976

(for PR purposes); Please enclose

will accept work in any medium

a stamped addressed envelope

and in any (reasonable) size. It is

if you require your photos etc.

not necessary to make a written

returned to you. There is an

submission, however if you

exhibition fee of !250 when

MAD ART

selected.

We are looking for creative peo-

Closing date:

ple with strong passion, unique

30 March 2012, 5pm.

Address: Raggle Taggle, 7 Sarsefield Street, Limerick

Email: raggletaggleconsortium@gmail. com

style, interesting technique and good ideas. Artists showing their works at MadArt don’t have to be art collage graduates

of art. We are interested in many different types of creativity: street art, painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, graphic, textile work.

ev+a) is pleased to announce that the international open

!10 per work (up to four works

call for proposals for the 2012

permitted per artist). Hand-

biennial is now open. eva In-

ing in of works on the 2 April

ternational and Annie Fletcher

feel that your piece may have

between 10am and 4 pm only.

would like to invite artists from

specific or unusual installation

Email:

all over the world to propose

requirements, it is advised that

diane.henshaw@fermanagh.

you contact 126 beforehand,

gov.uk

sion in eva International 2012.

Deadline:

medium and selected artists will

so we may make all efforts to

11th January onwards, or at any point during the exhibition (see dates below). The only condition

Email:

to take part in the exhibition is

signalartscentre@eircom.net

that you are a current 126 mem-

VIEWFINDERS

ber. Drop off dates: 11th – 14th

a new festival focusing on the

sofia@madartstudio.com

visual arts. Based in The Burren Co. Clare, Ireland, the festival

The Higher Bridges Gallery

INTERNATIONAL

sales is 25%. The fee to enter is

Queen Street premises from the

Email:

27 January 2012

Deadline:

eva International (formerly

Avenue, Bray, Co. Wicklow.

VIEWfinders Film Festival is

Deadline:

May 2012 . Commissions on

Work may be delivered to 126’s

01 2762039

thecity

Herbert Street, Dublin 2.

will be held from 5 April – 7

Signal Arts Centre, 1A Albert

experienced in the specific area

www.sciencegallery.com/hack-

Inspirational Arts Gallery, 7

EVA

accommodate the given piece.

Telephone:

Web:

Address:

Easter exhibition of small works

Address:

but they definitely have to be

www.eva.ie

employment eligibility criteria

media. It should be at least 300

Tipperary Town.

Web:

Science Gallery at Trinity Col-

Contact:

26 Jan 2012

cants are subject to community

short films, a narrative feature

(from April 2012), letterpress

Deadline:

training in photography. Appli-

January, 1pm – 6pm 18th – 21st January, 1pm – 6pm 25th – 28th January, 1pm – 6pm

27 Jan 2012 PHOTOGRAPHER Photographer required for City Artsquad Community employment project located in the Liberties College, Bull Alley St, Dublin 8. Position requires photographer to document work of the project with a variety of community groups, of different ages and abilities and also to provide community groups

new or existing works for incluProposals can be made in any be supported to produce new or show existing works in Limerick City, Ireland from 19 May – 12 August 2012. Proposals should be made through the online submission process. Artists can make up to two proposals and there is a submission fee of !20 for one proposal or !30 for two proposals. Supporting materials can either be uploaded through the online submission process, sent by post to Limerick City, or

Deadline: 31 January 2012

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

19

January - February 2012

INTERVIEW

New Context MARIANNE O’KANE BOAL TALKS TO JOHANN LUNDT AND AILEEN BURNS, NEW DIRECTORS OF CONTEXT GALLERY, DERRY

Althea Thauberger The Next 78, 6 Year’s 2011

Olivia Plender Machine Shall be the Slave of Man, but we Will not Slave for the Machine 2008

Aileen Burns and Johann Lundh 2010 (photo courtesy of Tonik Wojtyra)

This interview was carried out long distance, with Johann Lundh and Aileen Burns formulating

have met with Maolíosa Boyle and Damian Duffy, to discuss their

to produce or re-contextualize their work. The artworks in the show

joint answers.

plans for 2013 and their ambitions for the organisation.

wove and altered social fabrics to enter into new and unexpected

Marianne: The Context Gallery has acquired a considerable

Since our mandate is to serve as a springboard for young and emerg-

reputation in Northern Ireland and has seen changes in terms

ing artists, it is also important for us to build connections with

of space and directors. (Hugh Mulholland, James Kerr, Declan

institutions outside of Derry. We have started discussions with col-

Sheehan, and Theo Simms). I served on the board of directors

leagues in Sligo, Dublin, Glasgow, and Berlin about ways in which

for eight years (2001-2009). What are your views on the gal-

our programmes can connect or travel outside of the city.

lery’s 18 year history?

The Playhouse has a significant history and has been well

relationships with their collaborators and audiences. By fostering temporary communities, employing strategic separatism, or reframing social and legal contracts, the artists generated other modes of being-in-common.

Considering your background as art critics, this adds another dimension to your curation and allows for theoretical concepts to be applied to your curatorial practice. Can you com-

Aileen and Johann: The core value, which has run through the

renovated by Blonski Architects. Through renovations, the

nearly 20 year history of Context Gallery, is a commitment to sup-

Context Gallery has been altered so that potential for tradi-

porting and promoting emerging artists based in, or from, the north

tional hanging and wall-based display is limited. How do you

Writing is a big part of what any curator does. First we write to

of Ireland and beyond. We are in the process of re-imagining how

view curation of the gallery?

artists and engage them in a dialogue about making an exhibition.

the venue goes about this for the future. A great deal has changed in the city and in the field of contemporary art since the gallery was

We are excited about the possibilities and challenges that our gallery

started. We are creating a model that we hope can carry the organi-

space in the Playhouse presents us with. As curators we have rarely

zation into the next 20 years.

organized exhibitions that require substantial wall space and prefer

What is the outline of your plans for the gallery?

One new element of the program will be annual themes. They are being introduced to give our audiences well-researched and timely exhibitions, which are clearly connected to the organisation’s public programmes and experimental initiatives. The themes are set by us, the Co-Directors, based on relevant concerns in Derry, Northern Ireland, Ireland, the UK, and globally. This is a strategy that has been successfully employed by major institutions such as CCA Wattis Institute in San Francisco and Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam.

to build exhibition architecture that suits the needs of each show.

Therefore, the open and flexible nature of the current space will be well suited to our practice.

A good example of the way that we have worked with non whitecube space is the show we co-curated at Stiftelsen 3, 14 in Bergen.

‘Stories, In Between’ featured artists whose time-based works trace and unpack complex cultural identities impacted by diasporas. The Cherinet, Venezuelan/Mexican/Spanish Patricia Esquivias, Kenyan/ Canadian Brendan Fernandes, Brazilian/Danish Tamar Guimarães, Chinese/Canadian Will Kwan, Argentinean/Swedish Runo Lagomarsino, and Brazilian/Norwegian Maya Økland. Rather than

every calendar year: solo-shows, two-person exhibitions and inter-

creating a series of clean black boxes to feature the works, we left the

national group shows. The two-person exhibitions are developed in

architecture visible and played with its features.

opportunity to work closely with an international artist who has achieved significant success early in their career. This will allow both artists to expand their networks and give local artists insight into the working methods of some of their most acclaimed peers. In-

You have both previously worked collaboratively in London, Norway and Denmark. How do you approach this working relationship and what are the main benefits as opposed to an individual approach?

ternational group exhibitions are curated to address a central aspect

For Aileen, art history and cinema were at the centre of her studies at

of the annual theme and bring together a Northern Irish, Irish or UK

the University of Toronto and later at Columbia University in New

based artist with foreign artists, with the aim of introducing local

York. Johan trained as an artist at Konstfack in Stockholm before

artists to the international art community and by building networks

turning to curating. Our different paths to curating have given us

through their participation.

different ways of thinking about art and exhibition making. Our

Another significant change will be an increase in the number and diversity of public programmes on offer through the organisation.

These will include discursive events such as talks, symposiums, community-led education initiatives, and in-and-out bound residency opportunities for artists, curators and critics alike.

preference is for creating well-researched frameworks for exhibitions, which serve as the armature or point of departure for the art works that come to shape them. We prefer to work with artists to produce new works, rather than bringing existing works into dialogue with one another. This will be evident in our programme at Context. For example, we are hoping to launch a new stream next

Derry has a number of important cultural spaces – the

year entitled ‘Production Ireland’. It will be a highly publicized prize,

Playhouse, the VOID Art Centre (also directed collaboratively

and production opportunity for a young or emerging artist from

by Maoliosa Boyle and Colin Darke for a number of years),

Ireland.

Verbal Arts Centre and Culturlann Ui Chanain (the Irish Language Centre) by O’Donnell Tuomey Architects. Do you plan to work with other cultural spaces in the city, particularly for the City of Culture 2013?

Then, we write grant applications with the aim of gaining as much financial support for that project as possible. And finally, we act as mediators or translators of that work, writing it into a social, historical, and artistic context. However, I think we both see our critical writing as distinct from our curatorial endeavors. It is a different tool that we hope to keep using in our new home!

I believe you are primarily focused on preparing plans for the City of Culture 2013?

We know what we want to do but will wait to unveil our programme until our new ‘identity’ has been revealed.

show featured new and recent works by Ethiopian/Swedish Loulou

Additionally, we will be presenting at least three types of show in

order to give a young or emerging Northern Irish or Irish artist the

ment on the benefits of this aspect to your work?

A recent example of how we like to work is a residency, an exhibition, and a forum, bound together by an online publication, addressing the future and ‘being together’. The project ‘Terms of Belonging’ featured Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson, Kajsa Dahlberg, Luca Frei,

We are new to Derry and it will take time for us to build links with

Olivia Plender, Pia Rönicke & Nis Rømer, Superflex, Althea Thauber-

our colleagues at the Playhouse, the Void, the Verbal Arts Centre and

ger, and Johan Tirén. We initiated the project in order to devote time,

Culturlann. It will be very important for us to create a programme

energy, and creative thought toward the question: How can we real-

and space that is in dialogue with and supportive of the initiatives

ize ways of sharing our world beyond the confines of nationalism?

at spaces like the Void. Already, during our two visits to the city, we

Participating artists came to Copenhagen for the month of August

Marianne O’Kane Boal is a writer on art and architecture. She contributes regularly to: the VAN, Irish Arts Review, Perspective, Living Design and Architecture Ireland..

20

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January - February 2012

REGIONAL CONTACTS

Regional Perspectives VISUAL ARTISTS IRELAND’S REGIONAL CONTACTS REPORT FROM THE FIELD

Richard Davis The Singing Ukelele

Susan Thompson Fire Station Drill 2011

Jim Parish The Harmonograph 2011

Christof Gillian Reflection 2011

Antrim

ment, no strings attached, literally and metaphorically “remade with

out specifically contributing to the dialogue between art and craft…..

Laura Graham

digital technology to enable the user to perform the instrument in a

could happily exist in both worlds”.5 Although the exhibition would

new way using sensors and open source hardware”.2

not have been out of place in any of the usual galleries in inner city

‘New Media Showcase’, Catalyst Arts October saw the first of a series of shows at Catalyst Arts entitled

The aim was to create an instrument that made even the most inept, tone-deaf user believe they had talent.

Belfast, it did not appear to be the usual for a craft venue, and it was intriguing, drawing a different crowd to the venue.

Bringing together artists from London, Dublin and Belfast ‘Tick Tock’

‘New Media Showcase, Digital Arts in the Gallery’. The gallery, in

The pièce de résistance of the whole exhibition was David Clark and

College Court, Belfast, is spacious and easily accessible. This is a

Marina Roy’s beautifully constructed, Sign after the X. Clark and Roy,

departure for Digital Arts Studios, who, despite offering informed

who hail from Canada, were the only international residents in the

and instructive artists’ talks for years, have not had an opportunity

exhibition. Sign after the X is a website like no other, described as an

to showcase their resident artists’ work until now.

“encyclopaedic interactive web site…[examining] how the letter X be-

The show was original and exciting and brought together innova-

came part of Western language and how it has been used as a cipher

tive, challenging and experimental new work developed through

for otherness and the unknown”.3

the yearly residency programme. Each year, four international artists

If it was as educational as it was entertaining (and the jury is still out

of sound conceived in 1844 by one Professor Blackburn. Although

on certain facts and representations) it ticked all the boxes for me,

no music was actually involved, this recreated mechanism allowed

and I was left with the impression that the same applied to many

for a sense of distance between the very delicate movement of the

“…a diversity of strategy in terms of each artist’s engagement with

others. With a click of a button, sound, picture and animation were

pen at the end of a series of weights, and levers that allowed for the

digital (technology), whilst providing an exemplary demonstration

employed to survey different meanings and histories that relate to

slightest touch to set it in motion. Pen on paper, a drawing. The ef-

of how new media technologies intersect with art”.1

the letter X, and how it has influenced the realms of law, psychoanal-

fect was delightful. Even today, in this digital, rapid-creation age, this

ysis, medicine, technology, geography and linguistics.

piece of kinetic sculpture had a sense of wonder about it.

The final work in the show was a film by Susan Thomson. Described as “residing somewhere between fiction and documentary”,4 the

Other elements of fine art involved in the exhibition included a

elegance and ease not often associated with inner city exhibitions. In this instance, there was room to think, and breathe, and ‘be’ with the

installation was a two screen offering featuring fire fighters’ drills

centre in which the gallery sits to create a dialogue between the

installations.

on a purpose built tower in a fire station. It was beautifully filmed,

mechanistic nature of our society and our selves. Gillen used the

and provided fascinating insight into the directorial choices made

escalator, a metronome and mirrors. Unfortunately the film of the

in order to create and disperse intensity within drama. Thomson

event was not available to see, so unless one was at the opening, the

achieved this by showing various camera angles of the same shot.

performance would have been missed.

and 12 from the UK and Ireland are given the opportunity to create work that shows:

The space in which the exhibition was housed was roomy and the placement of pieces well thought out, offering the viewer an

One of the most striking pieces was Michael Hanna’s Hour Glass. Its very nature contradicted both the idea of the gallery as exhibition space, and digital technology as an artist’s medium. Hanna chose to place his image on the metal shutter of the door into Catalyst Arts, visible only when the gallery was closed. Though the symbol was memorable, few would have seen it had it not been placed on the

This mediation and manipulation of film was thought provoking, and, over time, I gradually became aware that the dialogue was scripted, and that I, as the viewer, was being managed.

was an exhibition of work by artists interested in movement and moving parts. The exhibition included objects, animation, tattooing and performance, and adhered well to the intention of the curator!

A particularly intriguing piece was Jim Parish’s installation termed automata/sculpture entitled The Harmonograph. The kinetic sculpture stood on a white table combining bits of wood, string and wheels in effective sequencing, to visualise the musical harmonics

two-hour performance by Christof Gillen, using the environs of the

In celebration of the craft ethic, although quite conceptual, the work on show included jewellery, ceramics, DVDs, prints and badges, and all were for sale. It would be good to see a continuation of this

invitation. As a question on a shutter, it threw up many issues and

The show was curated by Angie Halliday, and contained a balanced

theme, particularly in these straitened economic times, encouraging

evoked the sense of waiting associated with digital technology. If

and diverse mixture of work, produced through the residencies.

a cross over, and alternative ways of showing and selling work.

nothing else, it serves as a simple and effective comment on what we

‘New Media Showcase, Digital Arts in the Gallery’ was thoughtfully

are prepared to put up with.

executed and demonstrated DAS’ commitment to the convergence

Other elements of the show proved enjoyable and highly interactive.

Three of the works required physical engagement beyond the exercise of observation. In Carpet Joggers, Ciaran Hussey comments on contemporary capitalist society, obsession and expectation. We were invited to walk, run, or (if you couldn’t be bothered) stand, between

between art and technology.

Tick Tock fine art to craft, or the eternal schism was explored in SpaceCRAFT. Curator and artist Charlotte Bosanquet conceived this exhibition to

sound was atmospheric, evocative and engaging, and I found myself

offer an alternative view, a union of fine art with craft and design.

stopping to listen, as if it were in real time.

The intention was laudable and as artist in residence in spacecraft

inner musician. The piece was billed as a modified musical instru1 Exhibition notes ‘Digital Arts in the Gallery’, Catalyst Arts, 2011.

Catalyst Arts is based in Catalyst Arts, 5 College Court, Digital Art Studios (DAS) 37-39 Queen St, Belfast BT1 6E

On another slightly different note, in November, the relationship of

a parallel set of speakers, either side of the carpet tiles. The surround-

Richard Davis’ The Singing Ukulele provided a chance to engage your

SpaceCRAFT is located in the Fountain Centre, College St, Belfast It is home to the shop, gallery and exhibition space of the Craft and Design Collective.

she, in a sense, was walking the talk, as an artist whose work “with2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Exhibition notes, ‘Tick Tock’, spaceCRAFT, 2011.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

21

January - February 2012

REGIONAL CONTACTS

Regional Perspectives VISUAL ARTISTS IRELAND’S REGIONAL CONTACTS REPORT FROM THE FIELD The West Aideen Barry Mayo Artists’ Network So, as you may or may not know, I keep my fingers in many pies. Recently, as Western Contact for VAI, I took part in an initiative instigated by the Custom House Studios and supported by Mayo County Arts Office. The first Mayo Artist Network ran in the Mill Times Hotel in Westport, County Mayo. The network event was chaired by John McHugh (Custom House Studios) and was impressively attended (approximately 90+ persons) by artists and practitioners who had driven from all over the county to attend the event. There were presentations by Gaynor Seville, the Public Arts Officer for the county, and myself, in my role as VAI contact and as facilitator of the Connect Education and Outreach Programme, currently underway in Mayo.

The network event was a massive success and a second event has already taken place, with plans for another follow-up, facilitated by Sean Walsh, at the newly renovated and extended Baling Arts Centre. The success of the event can be gauged by the contributions from a number of people both on the night that I attended and post-event, and especially from the momentum that seems to be gathering subsequently.

Amanda Rice, a recent graduate of Crawford College of Art, member and co-curator of Cork Contemporary Projects, has recently relocated her practice to the county and offered some significant suggestions

The Fake Public Art Panel From networking we move to the Fake Public Art Panel. The latest of these took place in October in Castlebar, as a part of the Connect Education and Outreach programme, in tandem with the Landmark Public Art programme. It was, again, a great success and we were inundated with applications to join the panel. The Fake Public Art Panel is a professional development programme that aims to improve your chances of securing public art commissions, and other possible proposal-making ventures. This professional development initiative gives artists the unique opportunity to find out exactly what happens in a public art judging panel, and view examples of artists’ applications, by becoming a panel member of a public art selection process. The Fake Public Art Panel day allows 12 artists to assess a range of applications, all fake, but based on real examples that have been submitted for commissions. The participants get great insight into the style, quality and content of applications, how much time each judge spends looking at the submissions, and how decisions are reached.

The idea for this session came from the Mayo Public Art Co-ordinator, Gaynor Seville, and myself, in the number of roles I occupy. We recognised that many artists were regularly making similar errors and limiting their chance of being considered for commissions. We wanted to find a way of showing artists directly how the process works, the types of proposals they may be in competition with, and how important it is to make an impact, and ensure there are no gaps in the information provided.

and proposals, both on the night and since. These are exciting times for Mayo, especially as it appears

The project has become such a success (reflected in the number of people who apply each time) that we

there is an influx of recent returning graduates from third-level institutions, locating their practices in

plan to roll the project out nationally in 2012. The Fake Public Art Panel project will be coming to a place

the county. There are also an increasing number of international artists moving to the west and locating

near you, and further details will be available through the VAI e-bulletin and website.

studios/ workshops etc in the area. Perhaps this new blood will bring a fresh approach to the potential development and ambitions of Mayo’s visual artists?

There are now plans to roll the event out on a bi-monthly basis, in rotational venues around the northwest of the county too. Centres such as Ballina Arts Centre, Aras Inis Gluaire in Belmullet, and a number of artist-run collectives have already generously offered their spaces and facilities to host the events.

Given the attendance figures at both of these events, and plans for a number of professional development presentations to take place in tandem with these gatherings, this project promises to be extremely fruitful for everyone involved. Mayo has a wealth of artists and cultural practitioners who, collectively, could pool their resources to make significant changes to the perceived activity of the county. It was a real eyeopener to most who attended the events and encountered some of the unique opportunities and skill sets that many artists brought to the event. Overall, this was an extremely positive event and the arts office has been inundated with positive feedback since.

From little acorns big oak trees grow, and thus we keep a watchful eye on how the Mayo Artists’ Network develops over the next few months. I will report on its successes or difficulties in the VAN and on the VAI blog, so keep your eyes peeled.

Mirroring this notion of networking, we see a very similar series of events taking place in Kerry. A number of initiatives have sprung up in the county in and around Tralee (Baby Tag), Dingle (The Happy Artist, facilitated by Lisa Fingleton) and the greater Kerry area. I have just taken part in an event facilitated by Siamsa Tire in Tralee called ‘The Gathering’. In a very similar vein to the Mayo Artists’ Network, a collective exchange is occurring. Facilitated by Rebekah Wall (Baby Tag Collective) and Karl Wallis (Siamsa Tire), and through a number of groups and artists, designers and makers, a regular event is underway at the centre. Recently, Noel Kelly and I bore witness to this ‘Gathering’. The structure was quite an interesting one: a number of individuals contributed with a short synopsis of what they do, who they represent etc. There were several break-up discussions and an audit of facilities (or lack thereof) for the visual arts in the county. Then there was a presentation by VAI on potential collaborations and possibilities for professional development in the county. The event was very well organised, with a number of potential plans presented, to deal with lack of provisions in the county. Though we are only at a very tentative stage, energy and enthusiasm was certainly evident on the night. There was also a degree of engagement with discussions on ambitions for the region, and how to challenge certain deficits in the

art students & graduates WHAT IS YOUR NEXT STEP? the visual artists ireland student pack HAS THE ANSWERS THE VISUAL ARTISTS IRELAND: STUDENT PACK has been put together for the benefit of visual and applied arts students and recent graduates making the transition into professional practice in Ireland.

The Visual Artists Ireland: Student Pack covers a wide range of topics and features a range of detailed texts and articles including: The Business of Art; Artist profiles; top tips for students; Career Development; Copyright; Careers Paths; Postgraduate Education; Training & Scholarships; Exhibiting with Galleries; Applying for Awards, Bursaries & Grants You may avail of a copy of the pack for free by joining Visual Artists Ireland (student membership is just €25 per year) or for the nominal fee of €5. Membership information www.visualartists.ie To purchase an individual copy of the pack contact Visual Artists Ireland T: 01 8722296

F VA REE M IS W EM TU ITH BE DE RS N HI T P

existing infrastructure.

22

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

January - February 2012

INTERVIEW

The Performance Process ARTIST PAULINE KEENA DISCUSSES HER PARTICIPATION IN THE LOCAL TO LOCAL ARTS FESTIVAL IN ENNISTYMON CO. CLARE, WITH PERFORMANCE ARTISTS SORGE (MARGUS TIITSMAA) Sorge: It is always the work that is important not the artist.

The work answers all the questions for the artist. What is important too is the intention of the piece, and that can depend on the audience, whether it is interactive or not and so on. We have to think about the ambition and context of the work. The ambition may be to create an illusion so that a tension develops and ordinary reality is disrupted. In the

an apparatus of being.

body until now. It served to bring my attention to a certain

A lot of artists are doing process performance at the moment.

To do this type of performance as a very young artist is a different thing to doing it as an older artist. With the older artist there seems to be a much deeper engagement, with a younger artist there may not be such true feeling.

experience, for example, what it might be like to experience suffocation. In this way it was very important to the whole piece.

However, the object itself was not important, but how it related to me and made me hold my head in a certain way, and what that became as the work progressed.

Why did you leave on your ordinary necklace?

context of a festival such as this it may not be so easy, as

As an artist I want to extend the scope of my materials in terms of

people are expecting something different to take place.

how I articulate certain ideas. How do I make physical that which

I wanted to retain all the elements of my ordinary reality to keep

arises as a concept and develop that in a meaningful way? What

my life in place.

Pauline: I think that when the audience experiences or encounters a live event in their street there is a certain unease, because the position of boundaries arise. In witnessing the live event, there is suddenly nowhere to go to get away from whats happening, there is the need to create a distance and be sure that this new, created reality is not going to encroach on the real life of the street, so that later on the street will be safe again. I think that if the audience looks at an image of the performance the reality of the lived event is framed and contained in the image so the the boundary is very certain; it is an image of the event. However, in allowing the process-room to be a performance, it allows the audience in, something becomes available, there is the possibility of an encounter.

Your work was a long lasting performance so it seemed like a process performance with elements such as focus and repetition.

Yes, I wanted to engage with the process of being in a very slow movement over a period of time, in the presence of and becoming part of the ordinary life of the small street, engaging performance as

was important for me was to observe a meaning to being, through the lived body in the flesh of the world, engaging the body in process as a meeting place of interiority and outer life, to transform

You moved forward three steps and then back two and a half steps.

idea into object. By object I mean a process, the process of

Yes I was using very small ordinary everyday activities in a

performance. So, by performing the self over a long period the

repetitive way as if I was stitched to the street. My attention become

‘objectness’ of body and self were transformed into something else

focused on what was beyond the immediate activity in the real.

that was no longer the most engaging or important element. As if

During the process, did you feel moments when you lost

the ‘I’ of the subject disappears. The doing of the work became the least evidence of what it is. So out of this process of self-language certain states of being – fear, vulnerability, uncertainty – emerge and can be made available, becoming part of the materials the artist

control, when you didn’t know anything?

Ordinary reality was diffused and I was conscious of movement, of stillness, of cold, the rain, noise on the street, the audience

returns to again.

responding in certain ways, but I was not fully available in the real.

What was the thing on your neck? It has no name? How did

You are not responsible for how people react, its is important

you decide to wear it?

not to pay attention to any commotion on the street.

Pauline Keena is an artist based in Ireland http://paulinekeena.com

It is something that I made in my studio a long time ago but it had no real relationship with me until I used it in this piece of work. It resembles a very thick heavy collar. I made it during a different period of my work and my relationship with it had changed over that time. It had never occurred to me before to place it on my own

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Pick & Mix Workshops )??<%.+$(S(:&R(F<*("#$%&'()*+#$+$ 8-G-'<>#.A(0*<><$&'$(7-G-'(,(I#+=(9&*#&..-(2@V&.-(W<&'(S()*+#$+ 8-G-'<>#.A(0*<><$&'$(7-G-'(,, 8<?%E-.+#.A(X<%*(Y<*K( 0*<E<+#.A(Q<%*(Y<*K )*+(Z&./'#.A(S(,.$+&''&+#<.(5K#''$(I#+=(8)5(S(W[H(:I<J/&Q(+<>#?(?<G-*#.A(B/(&./(/#A#+&'( E-/#&(I#+=().A-'&(Z&''#/&Q

:<(*-A#$+-*(#.+-*-$+(#.(&.Q(<F(+=-$-($-$$#<.$(?<.+&?+N 0RQLFD )O\QQ 3URIHVVLRQDO 'HYHORSPHQW 2IÀFHU Visual Artists Ireland T: 353 1 672 9488 E: monica@visualartists.ie http://www.visualartists-ni.org/ For Spring events in Dublin see: http://visualartists.ie/education/register-for-our-events/

The Dock, St Georgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Terrace, Carrick on Shannon, Co Leitrim.

Email: info@thedock.ie Website: www.thedock.ie Tel: +353(0)71 9650828

www.facebook.com/thedockartscentre or follow us on www.twitter.com/thedockarts

Working.Drawing

10th of February / 7th of April 2012

Curated by Alice Lyons and Claire Mc Aree

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An exhibition exploring the diverse way in which drawing is used as a navigational tool in making, doing, thinking, dressing, testing, failing, designing, playing, running and living. Invited artists range from visual artists, animators, designers and architects. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; All will highlight the di erent guises to drawing. Some will use sketches, some doodles, ! $ ! ! ! ! % # ! % ! ! perform May I Draw your Eyes on evening of the exhibition opening.

Tinka Berchert, Una Burke, Gordon Ryan, Fergus Byrne, Magnhild Opdøl, Sharon Kelly, Eamon o Kane, Brown Bag Films, Glenn Leyburn, Fergus Delargy and Olivia Irvine Artists include

January 2012

Issue 15

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50% DISCOUNT OFF ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS TO THE IRISH ARTS REVIEW!

Members of Visual Artists Ireland may subscribe to the Irish Arts Review for a full year for only â&#x201A;Ź28 inc. p&p within Ireland!

Subscribe to the Irish Arts Review by phone or online and quote your VAI membership number. Tel: +353 1 6793525 Online: www.irishartsreview.com

VISUAL

Centre for Contemporary Art & The George Bernard Shaw Theatre Old Dublin Road, Carlow p XXX WJTVBMDBSMPX JF 5VFT 4BU BN QN 4VO QN

Eileen MacDonagh

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5 February â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 7 May 2012

Tour of the exhibition by the artist SUNDAY 19 F EBRUA RY

Sculpture in the Landscape: making large scale work

Eileen MacDonagh Icohsahedron Series Visual 2009

SAT URDAY 24 M A RC H

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The Higher Bridges Gallery The Clinton Centre Belmore St Enniskillen Co. Fermanagh

Gallery opening times: Mon â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Fri 9am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 5pm / Sat 11am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 4pm

FERMANAGH DISTRICT COUNCIL would like to invite you to the Higher Bridges Gallery for the official launch of

The Swimming Naked Prophecy .% 5Ć&#x2039;Ăş0$Ć&#x2039; *1 .5Ć&#x2039;ÜôþÜĆ&#x2039; 0Ć&#x2039;Ăź,)

Aideen Barry Stephen Brandes Alan Butler Mark Clare Felicity Clear RĂłisĂ­n Coyle Culturstruction (Jo Anne Butler + Tara Kennedy)

Jennifer Cunningham Clodagh Emoe Fiona Hallinan SeĂĄn Hillen Jesse Jones John Jones Vera Klute Sam Keogh David Lilburn

Sean Lynch Brian Maguire Bea McMahon Tom Molloy Teresa Nanigian Sorcha Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brien Dominic Thorpe Saskia Vermeulen

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Further details are available from the Arts Officer: % *!Ä&#x160;$!*/$ 3Ä˝"!.) * #$Ä&#x160;#+2Ä&#x160;1'Ć&#x2039;Ä?Ć&#x2039;ôÜßĆ&#x2039;úúáÜĆ&#x2039;ÚôÚôĆ&#x2039;!40Ć&#x2039;ÚÜøÚ

THE COERCION OF SUBSTANCE SAMUEL WALSH

RHA NEW YEAR EXHIBITIONS

Carey Clarke, Courtyard, Santorini, 1990, Oil on canvas, 67 x 92cm, Private collection.

13 Jan – 26 Feb

Carey Clarke PPRHA, A Retrospective Alan Daly, Primary Sources

13 Jan – 22 April

The Horse Show Stephen McKenna, New Work Corban Walker, Please Adjust ADMISSION FREE

GALLAGHER GALLERY / 15 Ely Place, Dublin 2, Ireland +353 1 661 2558 / info@rhagallery.ie www.royalhibernianacademy.ie Samuel Walsh, Charlemont III, 2008, Acrylic, Oil on Canvas, 51.5 x 51.5cm

Laurence Street Drogheda on the Boyne Co. Louth t. +353 (0)41 9803311 e. info@highlanes.ie w. www.highlanes.ie

Opening Hours: Mon - Sat 10.30am - 5pm Closed Sunday

Touring partners VISUAL, Centre for Contemporary Art and Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny, Supported by the Arts Council of Ireland

COMHAIRLE CHONTAE DONEGAL COUNTY COUNCIL

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

Arts Council of Northern Ireland Developing the arts in Northern Ireland

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Join us become a part of something Visual Artists Ireland is the sum of its parts: Artists.

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CAST25 Skills Programme 2012 — Performance Art Workshop – Jürgen Fritz Dates / 24th & 25th February Price / €90 (lunch included) — Glass Workshop – Jiyong Lee Dates / 17th – 21st September Price / €250 (lunch included) — Aftereffects – Mathew Gidney Dates / 17th & 18th February — Sound Production & Post Production – Jimmy Eadie Dates / 30th & 31st March — User Friendly Open Source Web Design – Laura Butler Dates / 20th & 21st April — All of the above digital media courses are €70 (€80 with Fire Station mac) — The Skills Programme is constantly being updated.

For further details, dates and application procedure for all workshops and opportunities: www.firestation.ie

CAST Ltd. 1a South Brown St Dublin 8 www.cast.ie tel: 01-4530133

Contact Leo or Ray for your next project

Email / artadmin@firestation.ie Tel / +353 1 806 9010 — Sculpture Workshop and Kiln Facilities / Hire of space €50 per week for one bay.

Includes access to equipment and general technical support from workshop manager.

This workshop can facilitate large and small scale work. Kiln facilities also available for hire. For bookings Tel: +353 1 806 9010

Image: NSK, Ljubljana, 1986

Visual Artists Ireland represents a diverse membership base of artists working in all visual arts mediums; in every part of Ireland; and representing a rich generational mix.