The Space to Grow

The Space to Grow

Mairead O’hEocha, view of the artist’s studio at TBG+S; image courtesy of the artist.

MEMBERS OF TEMPLE BAR GALLERY + STUDIOS CONSIDER THE ORGANISATION’S LEGACY AND CONTINUED IMPORTANCE ON ITS 40TH ANNIVERSARY.

FOR 40 YEARS, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios (TBG+S) has been a bedrock for artists in Dublin. In this article, we hear from five of our current studio artists, who consider what TBG+S means to them personally. We praise all who made TBG+S happen in the first instance and wish to thank all who have contributed to the organisation over its 40-year history to make it such a special place – this includes over 500 Irish and international artists, as well as everyone who has worked here, every board member, all funders, and audiences.

Clíodhna Shaffrey, Director, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios

It has meant a great deal to me to be a part of Temple Bar Gallery + Studios over the past few years. Being here has given me the security, freedom, continuous support, and attention that an artist requires to sustain their practice. This has had a significant and positive impact on my work. The appeal of a secluded artist residency is the opportunity to escape everyday life and focus on making. Outside of this context, I never would have thought it possible to find the optimum artmaking conditions of tranquillity, peace, and pragmatic focus. TBG+S provides all of this, not only in the midst of everyday life, but right in the bustling heart of Dublin, near many other major cultural institutions and organisations. TBG+S facilitates a community of artist peers to share ideas and inspire each other. One of the most unique experiences in a residency is watching projects by other artists develop over the same timeframe as your own. As spectators, we normally experience artworks in their final state of completion. Yet there is something inspiring about stepping into an artist’s studio and contemplating

their work unfolding. My favourite part of artmaking is seeing uncertainty fade as ideas begin to solidify. It is a privilege to share this process as a member of one of Ireland’s major artist studios.

Atoosa Pour Hosseini is a Three-Year Membership Studio artist at TBG+S and will present a solo exhibition in the gallery in October 2023.

Being the recipient of the TBG+S Recent Graduate Award has been transformative. Sharing a space with a strong community of artists has given me confidence and a sense of solidarity – as well as confirmation that the path I’ve chosen to take is the right one. Learning through studio visits and informal conversations in the corridors, I benefit enormously from the support and feedback of other members. It has helped me re-imagine how I see my practice. It has encouraged the expansion of my work – off the screen onto the walls, in the form of large-scale images – which I hope will help to sustain my practice into the future. Having studied in IADT and living in the suburbs, a studio space in Dublin’s city centre connects me to the heart of the city and its artistic energy for the first time. Despite the noise from buskers and tourists, I enjoy the immediacy and vibrancy. As an emerging, working-class artist, I am very aware of the critical lack of affordable studio space and its impact on emerging and established artists. In this climate, the continuance of established, resourced, purpose-built studios like TBG+S is all the more important. Happy Birthday!

Luke van Gelderen is the 2022 Recent Graduate Resident artist at TBG+S.

Every morning I leave the street and enter a lift which floats me up to an enchanted greenhouse that is the top floor of Temple Bar Gallery + Studios. Pushing back any giant leaves guarding my door, I feel as lucky as Jack in the fairy tale, when he finds the giant’s castle at the top of the beanstalk. TBG+S is unique because of the people who make it so. The team work incredibly hard to create a dynamic exhibition programme, while also providing immeasurable studio support to artist members. It is not just a material resource but an imaginative enterprise that expands on contemporary art themes of social engagement and community. They do this both inside and outside the gallery space. TBG+S was founded in the 1980s and unfortunately there has been nothing quite like it built in Dublin since. Purpose-built studios for artists in Ireland are in extremely short in supply. I have been exceptionally lucky to have a space in TBG+S. Artists need publicly funded spaces to allow them to rise above the constraints and grinding costs of living. I really hope the government’s promised plans for more studio spaces will build the magic castles that artists need right now.

Mairead O’hEocha is a Three-Year Membership Studio artist at TBG+S.

Atoosa Pour Hosseini, Cradle of Creation, 2018, Super8 film still; image courtesy of the artist.

Niamh O’Malley, view of the artist’s studio at TBG+S; image courtesy of the artist.

Painting is a mostly solitary activity, and the necessary solitude and constancy to undertake this form of practice can be found in a studio. The messy materials and processes of painting can be left to stew there, and the changes, experiments and transformations can be observed – brought to boil or cool off – over daily visits to the studio. The process of blending liquid substances into solid form, while attending to the meaning of images in a changing world, is enough to drive one crazy, but the solidarity of knowing that others are engaged in similar pursuits in adjacent studios might be enough to keep one sane. I have had a studio in Temple Bar Gallery + Studios since it was established as a workspace for artists by Jenny Haughton in 1983. Previously, I had a studio on Ormond Quay, where I lived at the time. As a committed city dweller, the move across the river was very convenient and the advantage of joining

a community of artists was as much about opening up to new horizons, as about nourishing an existing practice. TBG+S has survived many trials over its 40-year existence and succeeds in consistently allowing artists the space to grow.

Robert Armstrong is a founder member at TBG+S.

I worked in a small, converted shed for eight years. It was useful because as an artist, part-time lecturer, and parent of a young child, I was able to snatch studio time at night and during short school hours. The space was tiny with very low ceilings; I longed for a room that didn’t also have the washing in it. When I moved back into TBG+S (I’d had a stint here 2009-12) it coincided with a career break from TU Dublin. Newly isolated from my academic colleagues, I was so grateful to be working again in a community, alongside other artists. This is a strange life to choose, and it helps to have companionship along the way. My practice shifted again, almost immediately. I have been able to expand my materials, experiment with scale and form, and allow for compositions of objects to shift, reconfigure and evolve. In the depths of the pandemic, for the Ireland at Venice project, Clíodhna Shaffrey, Michael Hill and I considered the nature of the studio. It is a space that is more important to some artists than others –but in pitching to show work in Venice, we wanted to highlight the role of TBG+S, of all ‘good studios’, in cultivating and facilitating practices that necessitate a fashioning of forms, a thinking through making. I will miss my beautiful, life-changing room so much.

Niamh O’Malley is a Three-Year Membership Studio artist at TBG+S. She represented Ireland at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, with a solo exhibition titled ‘Gather’, which was curated by the TBG+S Curatorial Team.

Established by artists in 1983, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios was one of the first DIY artist-led initiatives in Ireland. TBG+S was founded by Jenny Haughton (Founding Director) and a group of artists, who occupied and rented a disused shirt factory from Córas Iompair Éireann (CIE). As well as studios, the building housed an exhibition space, cafe, sculptor’s annex, and a print studio, influencing the atmosphere of Temple Bar in the 1980s and establishing the area’s reputation as a cultural hub. It was one of the first cultural organisations rehoused by the Temple Bar Cultural Quarter regeneration.

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Luke van Gelderen, #future#content, 2021, UV Print on Dibond, Artificial Intelligence, 180 x 100 cm; image courtesy of the artist and The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin.

Robert Armstrong, view of the artist’s studio table at TBG+S; image courtesy of the artist.