Visual Artists' News Sheet - 2010 May June

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet ISSUE 3 2010 May – June Published by Visual Artists Ireland Ealaíontóirí Radharcacha Éire

Sonia Shiel Non-Laundrette. Installation view – ‘Shop if can, Look if you want’ a Contemporary art trail organised for Dublin’s 2010 St. Patrick’s Festival. Photo: John Beattie

Mark Fisher Visual Arts Resources & Activity in Leitrim Brown & Bri RDS Taylor Art Award Canadian Performance Art in Belfast Delawab Good dialogical Practice Northern Irish artists in Taiwan Tondo Hospitality in the artworld The journalistic turn in art St. Patrick’s Festival art trail.

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

Introduction

Introduction

May – June 2010

Contents

Roundup 2. Roundup. Recent exhibitions and projects of note.

Welcome to the May / June edition of the Visual Artists News Sheet.

Visual Artists Ireland has just launched a brand new configuration and design of its web site and online

3. Column. Mark Fisher. Just Say No.

services (www.visualartists.ie). The new site offers details about visual art exhibitions, events, festivals, talks

4. Column. Eamon Maxwell. Supporting Emerging Artists.

and conferences across Ireland – alongside comprehensive opportunities, resources and FAQ sections. The

5. Column. Tessa O Brien. An Impure Film-makers Perpective.

website also offers access to a new VAI initiative – The Common Room (www.thecommonroom.net) – a

6. Column. Chris Fite-Wassilak. Underneath the Cuts, The Beach.

professional and social network for the visual arts. The Common Room is free resource for the public and artists, where they can publicise events; share common interests and affiliations; upload images; stream videos; and hold discussions in forums. The Common Room now boasts a membership of over 950 signed up

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

10. Regional Profile. Visual Arts Resources & Activity in Leitrim

members. The site is also directly linked into Twitter (#VisArtsIreland), Facebook (Visual Artists Ireland) and

12. Artists Books. Recently published monographs and artists' books.

other Newsfeeds. Further details can be found in the news section (Pg. 8)

13. Profile. Space & Collaboration. Monica Flynn, VAI Education officer, talks to Rachel Brown and

In parallel with the VAI’s professional development workshops, VAI has been running a series of informal artists talks and networking events. These have included the ‘Airtime’ networking event at Belfast Exposed (24 Feb) and Alice Maher’s talk held at Ards Arts Centre Newtownards (21 April). Further details on upcoming workshops and associated events will be posted on the VAI website, The Common Room and our twitter and facebook pages.

Brighdin Farren about their curatorial project Brown & Bri.

14. Profile. Building the Foundations. Seán O Sullivan profiles the RDS Taylor Art Award and RDS Student

Art Awards Exhibition, held annually at the RDS, Dublin.

15. Profile. Invisible Process. Sinead Bhreathnach-Cashell reports on 'Chaos', a week of Canadian

Issue 13 of Printed Project is currently in production and will be distributed in July. The curator / editor

Performance Art in Belfast, Presented by BBeyond and curated by Sinead O'Donell in collaboration

for this edition is Kevin Atherton. This edition,entitled Virtual Fictional, presents and investigates the notion of

with John G Boehme and Judith Price.

meta-fiction in contemporary art practice.

16. Profile. Phenomena House. Ciara Hickey and Keith Winter Profile Space Delawab in Belfast.

In this issue of the Visual Artists News Sheet (Pg. 30) we introduce the VAI’s new line of up regional contacts. Joining Aideen Barry (West of Ireland) are Laura Graham (Antrim) and Damien Duffy (Fermanagh, Tyrone, Derry). We welcome on board another regular columnist for the VAN, UK based writer / curator

17. Art in the Public Realm: Focus. Are You A Spy? Jay Koh discusses his dialogical projects ', which explore cross-cultural exchange with the Chinese communities in Dublin.

Chris Fite-Wassilak who amongst other things is a contributor to Frieze, Circa, Flash Art and Artforum. Our

18. Profile. From Napoleon's Nose. Brian Kennedy profiles ‘A View from Napoleon’s Nose’ an exhibition by

two guest columnists are Mark Fisher – author of the acclaimed Capitalist Realism; and Irish writer / filmmaker

Tessa O’Brien who is currently studying on the film MA at Goldsmiths, London.

19. Profile. Artists of the Round Table. Patricia Doyle profiles the Tondo artists group.

This edition's regional profile considers visual arts resources and activity in Leitrim – some six years since the VAN’s first visit to the region. This editions features include profiles of the Brown & Bri curatorial partnership; the RDS Taylor Award; ‘Chaos’, a week of Canadian Performance Art in Belfast; Delawab studio / artspace in Belfast; ‘A View from Napoleon’s Nose’ an exhibition by Northern Irish artists held in Taiwan; and the first groups showing of work by the artists collective Tondo.

Thematic articles include Jennie Guy considering the meanings of hospitality in the artworld and Claire

Northern Irish artists held at the Kao Yuan Arts Centre, Kao Yuan University, Taiwan.

22. Focus. Practice Makes Perfect. Jennie Guy considers the meanings of hospitality in the artworld 28. Problems. The Problem Page. Our consierge / curator of agony responds to artworld dilemas 28. Laughism. Laughism. Cartoons by Borislav Byrne.

29. Focus. So Long Roger Fenton. Claire Feeley considers the journalistic turn in contemporary art.

30. VAI Regional Contacts.Regional Perspectives. Visual Artists Ireland's regional contacts – Aideen

Feeley writing on the journalistic turn in contemporary art. Some important issues around making art in the

public realm are discussed in two articles. Jay Koh discusses his projects Ni Hao –Dia Duit and Reading the Self,

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

Reading the Other, which explore cross-cultural exchange between local and Chinese communities in Dublin.

Jonathan Carroll is interviewed about ‘Shop if can, Look if you want’ a Contemporary art trail organised for Dublin’s 2010 St. Patrick’s Festival.

All this and the usual ‘more’ – listings of all the latest opportunities along with news and roundups of

Barry, Laura Graham and Damien Duffy report from the field. engaged practice and other forms of art outside the gallery.

32. Art in the Public Realm. Recycling Spaces. Jonathan Carroll discusses ‘Shop if can, Look if you want’ a

contemporary art trail organised for Dublin’s 2010 St. Patrick’s Festival.

recent projects, events and exhibitions.

Production Editor: Jason Oakley; Layout: Jason Oakley; News: Sabina McMahon; Roundup: Seán O Sullivan.

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

3

May – June 2010

COLUMN

Roundup

Roundup

Mark Fisher Just Say No

The artist Michael Wilkinson’s show ‘Lions After Slumber’, which was exhibited

Ireland, The Arts Council of Ireland, The

Wildly Different Things

Arts Council of Northern Ireland and British Council Northern Ireland. The exhibitions will travel to Belfast following

Comerford & Coyle

its run in Dublin and elements will then

last May at the Modern Institute in Glasgow, was a repository of artefacts from

tour to Paris.

past militant moments. The show was dominated by images and objects

www.ncad.ie

referring to the May ‘68 events in Paris and the punk and post-punk cultural

www.farmleigh.ie

sequences that happened in the UK in the late 70s and early 80s. The largest SYNTAX REVEALED

item in ‘Lions After Slumber’ was a massive photograph of Piccadilly Circus – the same image that had hung, upside down, in Malcolm McLaren’s shop Seditionaries in the 70s. But, tellingly, Wilkinson exhibited the photograph the right way up, a sign of the ways in which – in the thirty subsequent years – power has been restored.

Gary Coyle Lovely Water Swim # 1606, 05.07.2005, C- print,

Wilkinson’s show was in many ways about the same malaise that I described in my book Capitalist Realism (1). The book is about the retreat of the militancy, which ‘Lions After Slumber’ invokes. The surrender of any utopian impulse to a ‘capitalist realism’ which expects business to dominate all areas of

Wildly Different Things – publicity image / invite card.

culture has elicited a range of responses – a mordant sense of resignation, a

The Guesthouse, Cork presented ‘Syntax

plague of youth depression. All of which is manifested in a culture given over to (a largely unacknowledged) retrospection and pastiche. But even as pessimism totally pervades today’s culture at an unconscious level, negativity is officially abjured.

The punk and post-punk cultures whose relics are collected in ‘Lions After Slumber’ were characterised by their extreme negativity – by the new ways that

The Observatory, Sir John Rogersons Quay,

Dermot Browne 'Syntax Revealed' installation view.

cheerily compliant cynicism, an impotent protest, the quiet yet implacable

Revealed’ a showing of new works by artist

Oliver Comerford True Romance II, 2009

The Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin recently presented solo shows by Oliver Comerford and Gary Coyle (19 Mar – 2 May). The press materials describe Coyle’s

Dermot Browne (22 – 23 Mar). The press release described how Browne’s installation “dramatically changes the aspect of the space, blending design with elements of both

geometric

abstraction

and

Dublin presented ‘Wildly Different Things’, an exhibition “produced by artists thousands of miles apart – from North America’s art capital, New York, and from one of Europe’s most westerly capitals, Dublin.” (25 Feb – 20 Mar). The press release also noted that “the exhibition

they invented to say “No”. They were examples of what Herbert Marcuse, in his

exhibition ‘At Sea’, as a “collection of works

One-Dimensional Man, called “the Great Refusal, against that which is”. Marcuse’s

documenting eleven years of daily

critique was developed in the 1950s, when, in the West, consumer capitalism

swimming in Sandycove’s Forty Foot”.

had learned to ward off proletarian discontent by satisfying many of the

Comerford’s exhibition comprised of a

material needs of the working class, and generating a whole series of “false

mid-career retrospective spanning the last

film”. The show included work by Margaret

needs” which only commodities could seem to meet.

two decades of the artists practice.

O’Brien, Sean Hillen, Aideen Barry and

eruption of popular negativity in the 60s – a popular negativity that, ironically

www.theguesthouse.ie

presented work by more than forty artists working in diverse strands to include painting,

Louise Ward

sculpture,

installation,

photography, performance, video and

www.royalhibernianacademy.ie

Marcuse’s vision of a totally administered society in which disaffection and revolt were absorbed by the system was criticised for its failure to predict the

figuration.”

Marty Kelly and New York artists Hank Willis Thomas, Dasha Shishkin, Claudia

AT 126 ...

Alvarez and Karim Hamid.” www.blueleafgallery.com

enough, Marcuse’s own writing played its part in propagating. In some ways, however, Marcuse’s critique, far from being superseded, now has a renewed

Haroon Mirza

pertinence.

For what we have seen in the last two decades has been the very incorporation of the former counterculture, with the result that we find ourselves in a New Fifties in which complacency poses as radicalism, and retrospection masquerades as innovation. Jim McGuigan has described the contours of this process in his book Cool Capitalism, which discusses “the incorporation of the ‘great refusal’ of art in general into the capitalist ideology and market practices”. The New Fifties seems even more seamless than that of

Louise Ward 'Nightlight' installation view. Market Studios.

the original Fifties, because they come dressed in all the faux-sophistication, all the gloss and froth of sexuality and a hedonism, which may have once

The Market Studios, Dublin recently

functioned as refusal, but which now operate as components of a New

presented ‘Nightlight’, an exhibition of

Positivity.

new work by Louise Ward (20 – 25 Feb).

One tactic that the New Positivity typically employs is to dismiss any reference to ways in which things in the past might have been better as

Work from 'Package From China' 126 Gallery, Galway.

The press release described ‘Nightlight’ as an installation that “transformed the

“nostalgic”. But comparisons with the past are only guilty of nostalgia if they

126 Gallery, Galway presented ‘It Means…’,

gallery space into a giant plastic rubbish

distort the past in order to degrade the present. What we find with the New

an exhibition of new works by James

bag. The viewer encounters sculptures

Positivity, however, is a distortion of the present. It is the present, not the past,

Merrigan (Feb 11 – Mar 6). The press release

made from discarded material, streetlights,

which is seen through rose-tinted designer lenses, by a tepid boosterism which

noted that Merrigan’s work “positions itself

video projections of unexpected scenes,

isn’t terribly convincing, but which nevertheless has the effect of maintaining

at a distance from his source, America. He

and the integration of the artist’s voice

the exile of negativity. The accusations of nostalgia preclude any kind of critical

presents a certain skewed displacement in

singing a transient melody while walking

Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin presented

judgement – as if it is simply impossible that we could be in a moment of

works that use fictitious elements, cinema,

around the city.” Ward worked as artist-in-

‘Anthemoessa’, an exhibition by Haroon

sterility and retrenchment. We live in a massively over-rewarded era (has there

movies (horror film), popular culture,

residence at The Market Studios during

Mirza (25 Feb – 27 Mar). The Gallery noted

ever been a time when there were so many cultural awards?), yet this

American vernacular, science fiction, in a

the production of the exhibition.

of Mirza’s works, “Mirza’s low-fi, yet

conspicuous self-congratulation is transparently a thin mask for deep – and

DIY, low-tech style aesthetic”.

The following show was ‘Package

justified – sense of insecurity.

The New Positivity conflates negativity with pessimism, but they are very far from being the same thing. Pessimism assumes that things can never improve, only worsen, whereas negativity can have a galvanising effect. Hatred, anger, alienation and frustration were the libidinal motors of youth culture long before punk: “I can’t get no satisfaction” and “no fun” preceded “no future”. Yet at a time when there really does seem to be no future, when no-one expects culture to do much except recombine elements that are already familiar, where are the new voices ready to say “no”? Perhaps they were muted, tranquillized and subdued by the boom. But now that the boom is over and the neoliberal project has been discredited, is it time for a new Great Refusal to emerge from the wreckage?

Mark Fisher http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org (1) Mark Fisher. Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Zero Books 2009.

From China’, an exhibition of installation

themarketstudios.wordpress.com

Haroon Mirza 'Anthemoessa' installation view.

complex assemblages and installations employ the arrangement of furniture,

Juliana Walters

household electronics and audiovisual

works by Ben Sloat (19 Mar – 10 Apr). This

material” Mirza holds an MA in Fine Art

was the artist’s first solo exhibition in

from Chelsea College of Art & Design and

Europe.

an MA in Design Critical Practice and Theory, from Goldsmiths’ College. He lives www.126.ie

and works in Sheffield and London.

Juliana Walters – work from 'Symbiote'

Upcoming and following shows at

Ireland, Venice, NCAD & Farmleigh

the gallery include exhibitions by Locky

NCAD Gallery Dublin and Farmleigh

Juliana Walters’ solo show ‘Symbiote’ was

Gallery, Dublin are currently showing

presented at Wexford Arts Centre (12 – 13

works from the Northern Ireland and the

Mar).

Republic of Ireland’s exhibitions at the

culmination of Walters’ ‘PLACE’ project

2009 Venice Biennale (12 Mar – 15 May).

that took place in Gorey, Co. Wexford –

Hysterectic Woman

The Venice shows by Susan MacWilliam

“the artist took on a disused shop to create

The Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast

and Sarah Browne & Gareth Kennedy are

an intimate gallery/studio integrating a

presented Sonia Whitefield’s exhibition

presented in association with Culture

functioning shop.”

‘Journey of the Hysterectic Woman’ (25 Feb

The

exhibition

marked

the

www.wexfordvisualarts.com

Morris (7 Apr – 15 May) and Atsushi Kaga (19 May – 26 Jun). www.motherstankstation.com

4

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

Column

Eamon Maxwell

Supporting Emerging Artists Working in Ireland is, in many ways, a strange occupation. On the one hand we are faced with a vast, rich history of literary giants, genius artists and other inspiring cultural icons. Whilst at the same time, we are acerbic, cynical and pessimistic about anything beyond our local boundaries – sometimes this

Roundup – 18 Mar). Accompanying the exhibition

pursuing postgraduate studies at NCAD.

by artists based in Ireland and the US (8 –

was Hysterectic, a limited edition artist’s

The press release described the show as

19 Mar). The event included films by Paul

book. Poet and critic Cherry Smith

featuring “pirates, superheroes, Dolly

Rowley & Nicky Gogan, Anne-Maree Barry,

described the exhibition as “a skillful,

Parton and creatures from the land of

Darren Bolger & Caroline Campbell, Istvan

resonant documentation of a woman’s

Siksjö.”

Laslo and Eoghan Kidney.

forthcoming. I’ve been wondering why this is.

www.mtsl.ie ella-bertilsson.blogspot.com killiandunneart.blogspot.com turbomonthly.blogspot.com

determination to humanise and feminise the experience of having a hysterectomy.” www.sonyawhitefield.com

derision doesn’t even get that far. Day in, day out you’ll hear, see and watch commentary about all that is wrong with Ireland, but seldom will praise be so

May – June 2010

www.cakecontemporaryarts.com

Corporate Republic

@ PS2 EXCHANGE

I went to art school in London and worked there for about 10 years after graduating, so I never really experienced the boom time – the “Celtic Tiger” years, to give them that horrible colloquialism. For many years Irish citizens were used to being the poor relations of Europe and, more particularly, the UK. Then the boom arrived and impacted everyone. Not sure how to deal with this

Ross Cochrane – work from 'Corporate Republic'

new found confidence and wealth, we spent, spent, spent our way to happiness.

Leitrim

People bought big houses and big cars, went on idyllic holidays to exotic foreign

presented ‘Corporate Republic’ (16 Jan – 5

Katrina Sheena Smyth 'Drawing on the Right' at PS2

lands and got credit cards galore. And the visual arts seemed no different.

Sculpture

Centre

recently

Feb), an exhibition of drawing, video,

Funding from Arts Council and local authorities rose exponentially, there were

PS2, Belfast presented ‘Unprivileged Highs

photography and painting by Daniel

new, shiny galleries and a new breed of collectors with disposable income

and Lows’, an exhibition by Joanna

Chester and Ross Cochrane. The press

seemed to be knocking over each other to get the latest thing for their Dublin 4

Karolini (22 Feb – 20 Mar 2010). The

release explained that the artists “explore

exhibition is the fourth in the venue’s

various historical and recent aspects of the

‘Sounding Out Space’ series. Karolini noted

Irish economic crisis and in particular its

of her work, “I will re-negotiate the gallery’s

effect on local and global economies and

own architecture and function, focusing

social order.”

home.

It’s obvious now, that we are not naturally predisposed to such symbols of wealth and excess. The Celtic Tiger has been slain, and hopefully we won’t see the like of it again. But what has been the lasting legacy of the past 10 years?

Undoubtedly, we are too near to the scene of the crime to be impartial observers, but it strikes me that that the sardonic wit that runs through our psyche has

Exchange

now turned into something potentially much darker. But we need to retain our

presented Oddio, a collaborative sound

sense of self in order to inspire others and ourselves.

One thing that does now seem important is how we treat each other as individuals. As society becomes more focused on community and pulling together to try and achieve some kind of better future, it seems an apt moment to think what can be done to help the careers of artists – emerging artists in particular. Unlike institutions, artists need modest financial support to keep

Gallery,

Dublin

www.leitrimsculpturecentre.ie

mainly on the architecture of traces left by

Hard Drivin – invite card / publicity image.

recently

project by Áine Belton and Sharon White

the cultural activities.” Previously on show

Sander at QSS

at PS2 was, ‘Drawing on the Right’ by Katrina Sheena Smyth (24 Jan – 6 Feb). www.pssquared.org

(26 – 28 Mar). Previously on show was ‘Extempora’, an exhibition by Jason Dunne

Katarzyna Gajewska

(12 – 14 March) and Hard Drivin’ a kinetic installation by Ivan Twohig, Benjamin Gaulon and Brian Solon (25 – 28 Feb). www.exchangedublin.ie http://harddrivin.com

going. It is too radical an idea, but imagine the impact if an Arts Council gave €10,000 to each registered artist per annum. Not enough money to live on for a year, but enough to fund a sustained practice. Public funding of artists should be

Mill Theatre Gallery

Ralf Sander – work from QSS exhibition.

based on the mantra that the economist John Maynard Keynes espoused when

Queen Street Studios, Belfast recently

he was devising the Arts Council of Great Britain (now Arts Council England).

presented ‘Equations – World Saving

During a BBC broadcast in 1946 he declared “the purpose of the Arts Council of

Machine’ an exhibition by Ralf Sander (25

Great Britain is to create an environment, to breed a spirit, to cultivate an

Feb – 27 Mar).

opinion, to offer a stimulus to such purpose that the artist and the public can

Katarzyna Gajewska Icare mixed media on canvas

each sustain and live on the other in that union which has occasionally existed

Urban Retreat Gallery, Dublin presented

in the past at the great ages of a communal civilized life. …The artist walks where

‘Angels With Dirty Feet’, an exhibition of

the breath of spirit blows him. He cannot be told his direction; he does not know

new paintings by Katarzyna Gajewska (19

it himself” (1). For a piece of public policy thinking devised over six decades ago,

Mar – 15 Apr). The press release described

it still rings true.

the exhibition using a quote from Agnes

www.queenstreetstudios.net

But leaving such noble thoughts to one side, what other ways can we do

de Mille, “To dance is to be out of yourself.

more to support the artists we believe in? I think we must engender a culture of

Larger, more beautiful, more powerful.

collecting work, from degree shows onwards. Having been involved in the

This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking.”

process of bringing artists and collectors together over the years, I know the joy each party get from these interactions. The artists get to see his or her work go to a new home and they get some much-needed cash. Scrupulous collectors acquire something new and have helped make an impact on the life of a living artist. Irish collectors should be more open about their activities, but not in crass ways. They should take note from collectors like Anita Zabludowicz and her wonderful 176 (www.projectspace176.com) or the more cerebral efforts of David Roberts (www.davidrobertsartfoundation.com). Amazing collectors, who are interested in creating dialogues around collections, will just as easily buy a painting from an unknown artist at a degree show as well as buying a signature piece through an auction house.

For those of us without those resources, we should encourage more opportunities for exhibitions and lobby local businesses/councils to let artists and arts organisations use those shiny, empty edifices. We should visit our local

Allyson Keehan

www.myspace.com/katarzynagajewska Hazel FitzPatrick Because only ashes remain ...

The Mill Theatre Gallery, Dundrum

Black and Tan

presented ‘Those That Were Found…’,Hazel Fitzpatrick’s first solo show (27 Mar – 29 Apr). Fitzpatrick’s work was described in the press release as using photography “to

Allyson Keehan Purple Satin with Blue Light

scratch the surface of an image and unearth

Alley Arts Centre, Tyrone presented

what exists beyond the tangible.”

Previously shown at the venue was ‘Grasshopper’, an exhibition of mixed

‘Comparatively Peculiar’, Allyson Keehan’s

Mick O'Dea The Cairo Gang (2010) 100x150cm

an exhibition of paintings (15 Feb – 10

media works by Eve Parnell (20 Feb – 25

The Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin

Mar). Keehan’s work was described as

Mar).

presented Mick O Dea’s exhibition of new

“representing drapery realistically through

www.milltheatre.com

paintings ‘Black & Tan’ (11 Mar – 3 Apr).

paint … the spatial impact is one of control.

exhibitions and galleries: without an audience they will not survive. If we can

The gallery describes O Dea’s works as “a

The works are painted uniformly, not

we should buy something from those exhibitions – a postcard, a catalogue or, if

radical

exposing where the painting begins and

the means exist, a work of art. Any contribution that directly benefits an artist will benefit all of us.

Master Thief’s Secret Lair The Master Thief’s Secret Lair, Dublin presented ‘Siksjö’, an exhibition of mixed

intervention

into

how

contemporary audiences and future generations encounter and remember

ends.” www.alley-theatre.com www.allysonkeehan.com

war.”

The arts community can be very bad at coming together for the common

media and print by Killian Dunne, Aisling

good. But without the support and respect of and for each other, we face a very

Ni Chonraoi and Ella Bertilsson (Mar 18 –

tough future.

25). Ella Bertilsson and Killian Dunne are

Cake Contemporary Arts

Crawford Art Gallery, Cork presented

members of The Black Church Print Studio

Cake Contemporary Arts, Dublin recently

‘Backwater Twenty-10’, a retrospective

and Aisling Ni Chonraoi is currently

presented its first programme of new film

exhibition featuring 120 artists from Cork’s

Notes 1. Vile Jelly: Birth, Life and Lingering Death of the Arts Council of Great Britain, John Pick, Brynmill Press Ltd

www.kevinkavanaghgallery.ie

Backwater Twenty-10

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

5

May – June 2010

Roundup

Column

Backwater Artists Group (13 Mar – 10 Apr).

Treasa O Brien

The exhibition covered three floors of the

the idea of mortality in relation to

Clarke at Market Studios

technologies, which become obsolescent

Crawford Gallery and was curated by

with increasing rapidity.” www.oonaghyoung.com

Stephen Brandes and Vera Ryan. Founded

As a filmmaker with a visual art background, I sometimes worry whether I need

in 1990 by graduates of the Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork, Backwater Artists Group currently has 27 studios facilitating emerging and established

to choose between a commercial or artistic film route in order to have an

The National Gallery, Dublin presented

audience beyond artists and academics. But in this post-medium era, the idea

‘Taking Stock: Acquisitions 2000-2010’ (13

always dictates my expressive form. Some ideas work better as documentary;

acquisitions by the National Gallery in the

professional practice.

last decade. The exhibition featured works

Steven Clarke - work from 'With a Quiet Mind'

dating from the seventeenth to the early

www.backwaterartists.ie

Signal Arts Centre

National Acquisitions

Mar – 25 Jul). The show focuses on

artists in providing spaces and support for crawfordartgallery.ie

without filming at all. Taking poetic truth as my guide, rather than the truth of accountancy allows more fluidity between genres and media. So my Goldsmith’s MA film N25 – a film about ‘bystander society – had to be made as a narrative

twentieth century, including pieces by

‘With a Quiet Mind’, an exhibition by

Guercino, François Boucher, Vincent van

Steven Clarke (26 Mar – 11 Apr). The press

Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Pierre

release described how the show had come

Bonnard, Max Hermann Pechstein, Lyonel

about via “a sustained period of practice of

Feininger, John Lavery, William Orpen,

the exploration and implications of

Jack B. Yeats, Louis le Brocquy and William

and retelling, through retakes, shot variations and discontinuous editing, in an

neuroplasticity

Scott.

attempt to articulate the necessary death, immortality and nostalgia inherent in

creative

in

the

aesthetic

www.nationalgallery.ie

process

itself.

The

work

film, as it was important that it would address the audience it sought to represent.

My next project Train Story is non-linear and experimental in form, which may place it in an avant garde context. The film will explore the idea of telling

the medium of photography and moving image. It is a film in its own right, but also a homage to all kinds of moving image work, from artist’s video, epic

CROSS & McKEOWN

investigates the role that art can play in

features and home videos.

fostering new neural connections and

My films are quite different from one another in form or genre (which

forging new neural pathways with a view

usually extends to different kinds of audiences as well). Even if I make what

to enhancing learning, cognition and

might be considered an avant garde film, that does not make me avant-garde.

equanimity.”

Labelling oneself avant garde (besides sounding pretentious) can have the

themarketstudios.wordpress.com

inverse effect of limiting the films to one kind of audience. Let the audience / programmers decide where to show it; ideally, many audiences will decide it is

Open Ended

a different type of film. I am not a film purist; I embrace hybridity, destruction,

Lian Callaghan Forcefield Drawing Cross & McKeown 'Pool' installation view.

showing of a series of news works by

production crew using a 16mm film camera kit. When applying for the MA

Dorothy Cross and William McKeown (19

Filmmaking in Goldsmiths University, I had to compete to specialise as director;

“human biological affinity to water … this

The Basement Project Space, Cork Tony Gunning Derelict House, Villierstown

presented Colm Desmond’s exhibition ‘An

Signal Arts Centre Bray recently showed

Open-Ended

‘Force Fields’, an exhibition of installation,

Formalism’ (20 Mar – 29 Mar). The press

drawing and painting by Lian Callaghan

release described Desmond’s work as

(27 Apr – 11 May). Currently on show is ‘A

studying

Collage of People’ by Aoife FitzGerald (11

experimentation with found material …

– 23 May), this is followed by ‘Echoes’, an

the work explores issues of materiality

exhibition of paintings by Tony Gunning

and form with an ongoing concern for

(25 May – 6 June).

what might constitute a relevant

Enquiry

“the

–

In/Elegant

possibilities

Before deciding to do a Masters in Film, I had been more or less a DIY videomaker and had not directed actors in fiction drama, nor worked with a

that the artists’ works both explored a Colm Desmond work from 'An Open-ended Enquiry'

blurring of boundaries.

Kerlin Gallery, Dublin presented ‘Pool’, a

Feb – 20 Mar). The press released noted

elemental relationship has historically been at the heart of each artist’s practice and has resulted in a poetic body of work employing a diverse range of mediums” www.kerlin.ie

and this is the role I stayed in for the year, making four short films in a group of six filmmakers; the other five filmmakers specialising in producing, cinematography (camera), cinematography (lighting), editing, and sound production. The four films we made can be summarised as follows: a dramatised imagined moment in the life of US artist Lee Lozano; a co-directed, in-studio comedy; a non-dialogue fractured narrative filmed on the streets of Soho, and our main project, a tense ensemble drama set on a nightbus.

Although the MA was excellent for the practical experience I needed in

for

directing with a production team, there was an anti-intellectual bent within the SHADOW BOXER

Film MA faculty, who preferred to teach how to make a film rather than why (this was partly due to the limits of collaborating on multiple projects in a 12-month course). I sought out a more critical context for my practice by gatecrashing other departments – such as visual cultures, sociology, politics and

contemporary aesthetic.”

visual anthropology and the wonderful audiovisual library. These factors made

basementprojectspace.wordpress.com

AUTO-MANO

others as fiction drama; a film essay or a multichannel installation – some

The Market Studios, Dublin presented

appreciation of art, as well as for the

www.signalartscentre.ie

An Impure FIlm-makers Perspective

the experience of going to a production-orientated film course a lot more

Curran in Chicago

holistic, especially as Goldsmiths boasts a multicultural student body (compared to the rich kid syndrome of many film schools) and the wider city of London Damien McGinley 'Shadow Boxer' installation view.

Mark Curran – installation view DePaul Art Museum.

The DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, presented photographic works by Mark Curran (14 Jan – 19 Mar). The press release

Fergus Byrne Glebe

The Talbot Gallery, Dublin presented ‘AutoMano’, an exhibition by Fergus Byrne and Joe Stanley (25 Mar – 17 Apr). The press release described the exhibition as

Prima Centre, Berlin presented ‘Shadow

retrospective of the Irish filmmaker Vivienne Dick for the Crawford Art Gallery

Boxer’, an exhibition of paintings by

in Cork. My research around her work led me to many other experimental films

Damien McGinley (23 Mar – 9 Apr). The

and ideas of the avant garde, which was the perfect complement (or antidote) to

artist described the exhibition as “the

the MA’s narrative classicism.

culmination of works developed in the

When it comes to collective creativity, the idea of authorship and autonomy

secluded setting of Donegal […] Faustian

brings challenges. But ultimately filmmaking is a collaborative art and as a

characters jostle in the shadows like prize-

group of six co-producers, we made something bigger than our individual

fighters before a bout, in distressed,

selves. However, clear ideas of authorship are still needed whether they are

distorted scenes.”

invested in one person or a team. The rigour of working on a low budget film

www.prima-center.net

described Curran’s show as “probing the cascading effects of globalisation and economic swings in a Hewlett-Packard plant in Leixlip, County Kildare.” http://museums.depaul.edu/artwebsite/

IRVIne at Frith Street Frith Street Gallery, London presented Jaki Irvine’s multi-screen installation ‘Seven

exploring “the common threads and

Folds In Time’ (12 Mar – 30 Apr). As the

characteristics emerging between Byrne’s

press release noted “Irvine’s work in film

sound drawings and Stanley’s GPS

DANIEL CANOGAR

and video weaves together narratives in

drawings; an underlying interest in mark-

‘Scanner’, an exhibition of mixed-media by

which image and musical score variously

making

random

Daniel Canogar, was recently on show at

overlap, coalesce and diverge”. The

composition. In all cases the drawings are

the Oonagh Young Gallery, Dublin (19

exhibition also included some screenings

and

seemingly

controlled by duration of the journey or

Mar – 30 Apr). The installation’s

soundscape being followed”.

components

www.talbotgallery.com

included

television,

was available with its many film and art delights. Meanwhile, I was curating a

of the artist’s earlier works. www.frithstreetgallery.com

with big production ideals, being responsible for twenty-five people (cast and extra crew) on a night shoot on the top of a rent-by-the-hour doubledecker bus, whilst keeping one’s creative autonomy, was one of the worst and best experiences of my life. One of the main things I learned from this situation is that technique is there to free the unconscious. I felt confident and creative directing on set, because of the immense time and thought I had put into crafting the story in script and plot development, working on the characters’ motivations, creating the cinematographic shotlist, and building trust with the crew and cast.

I prefer to think of the role of director more as the French word: realisateur – the realiser. The verb ‘realising’ incorporates an ongoing set of realisations that renew themselves at each stage of production. Being present and giving my all

telephone and computer cables; the press

to every moment of the process and then being able to let go of it completely, I

release noting that the work “underscores

think is the secret to good directing, good realising.

6

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

Roundup Oonagh O’Brien, Robin Parmar, Patricia

A Walk in the Woods The Courthouse Arts Centre, Wicklow presented Greg Tierney’s exhibition of new paintings ‘A Walk in the Woods’ (21 Mar – 18 Apr). The press release explained how the show took inspiration from the ways in which “trees have always had a keen connection with man as a source of

Reed, Fiona Reilly, Christopher Mahon, Tia Schmidt, Lytle Shaw and Jimbo Blachly, Myles Shelly, Sunghoon Son, Spiritstore, Christine Tauber, David Theobald, Allard van Hoorn, Tara Whelan and Xia Peng. www.eva.ie

shelter, firewood or building materials”.

Column

Chris Fite-Wassilak

Underneath the Cuts, The Beach

Catalyst Arts Catalyst Arts, Belfast presented a fivechannel version of Michael Fortune’s We Invented Halloween (4 Mar). As the press

Arts funding provides an interesting societal portrait in miniature. In a debate that’s

release noted, Fortune’s work follows his

becoming increasingly dichotomous, on the one side are conservative calls for cuts,

mother disguising her identity year after

privatization and the rule of the free market, on the other a social democratic model

year, to fool his grandmother, who imagines her daughter to instead be a

Rubicon Gallery

May – June 2010

great-grandchild.

www.tinahely-courthouse.ie

www.catalystarts.org.uk

which views federal funding for the arts as a necessary social balm. McCarthy and An Bord Snip Nua’s calls for the dissolution of Culture Ireland and the Film Board were hardly surprising in their view of art as the baby fat of business, while the accusations of ‘censorship’ following the threat of such closures is also no new thing. The ‘c’ word

Catherine Delaney

clearly isn’t accurate, as it’s not deliberate silencing: but what do you call the closed

Verge Symposium

Solstice Arts Centre presented ‘Pile’, an

GMIT, Galway recently hosted a

exhibition by Catherine Delaney (24

symposium

Mar – 24 Apr). Delaney’s work was

coinciding

with

the

circulation of Verge, a new visual art

described by the gallery notes as

roads, extinguished possibilities, and things that ‘might have been’ if only the money was there?

I wanted to write an article about similar examples over the years, parallel

publication focused on contemporary

decisions and axed agencies, and its deleterious effects on that locality’s art scene. But

art activity outside of urban centres (19

it is hard to follow a non-existent trail. In 2005, the Canadian Tories shut down

Apr). The press release noted “Verge is an

PromArt, the equivalent to Culture Ireland. It’s hard to say exactly the knock-on effect

alternative to urban-based visual arts

of this. But how many Canadian artists have you seen lately? Ok, so Paul Butler

publications and contains articles from

brought his ‘Reverse Pedagogy’ project to the Model Niland in September last year.

Byrne at the Armory

writers, artists and poets on issues

Anyone else?

For the 2010 Armory Show, New York,

relating to rural arts and profiles of

I do believe that the lack of funding is having and will have very real consequences,

pertinent projects.” The panellists for the

in terms of the visibility, circulation and opportunities for engagement with

symposium were Jay Koh, Megs Morely,

contemporary visual art. Take, for example Circa’s, current suspension of publication.

“converting the gallery into a makeshift recycling centre for the collection of unwanted clothes”. www.solsticeartscentre.ie

The Green On Red Gallery presented Subject, a three-channel work for monitors by Gerard Byrne (3 – 7 Mar).

Byrne’s work was described as addressing “Brutalism in University architecture of the 1960s as a ruin, an allegory of a lost pedagogical civilisation, which had been shaped in the form of a modular machine.” www.greenonredgallery.com

Tom Molloy Dove (X-ray) No.2 25 x 20 cm.

The Rubicon Gallery, Dublin recently presented ‘Aftermath’, an exhibition of new works by Tom Molloy (24 Mar – 24 Apr). The press release explained, “Molloy’s practice has revolved around politics, history, war, and justice, around

Pat Cooke, Michaele Cutaya, Dr. Anne Byrne, Dr. Aine Macken Walsh, Jenny Haughton, Catherine Marshall and Deirdre O Mahony. www.gmit.ie

intersections, and our own complicity in

discussion of Irish contemporary visual artists’ work.

In the UK in 2005, and the Netherlands last year, funding cuts accompanied when less is available to fewer people, public spending dumbs down, leaving the risks

Byrne @ Lismore

to be taken by small projects and venues on their own. It’s telling to see that it is fringe, speciality organisations internationally that have actually had to close: Community

them.”

Micky Donnelly

domestic coverage and comment, Circa the only dedicated platform for critical

attempts to provide funding to new organisations and support younger projects. But

morality and mortality. His new works delve deeper into these subjects, their

While the VAN, Source photography journal and the Irish Arts Review still provide

The following show was the self-

Cultural Development New South Wales shut up shop in March, the funding from the

titled exhibition of painting by Patrick

Australian government pulled after 25 years. Kaleido, the charity that provided

Michael FitzGerald (29 Apr – 29 May).

training and development to assist deaf and disabled artists in southwest England,

The press release noted that FitzGerald

closed its offices the same month.

employs “direct approaches to picture making. Fragmentary, doubtful and

Gerard Byrne A Thing is a hole in a thing it is not still

Maybe there are positives – the squeeze can squeeze back. Bureaucracy is the baby fat that needs to be slashed, and a culture of experimentation and daring, away

always very close to their moment of

Lismore Castle Arts, Waterford has

conception or extinction they have an

announced that their 2010 exhibition

undeniable contemporary feel, there is

will be a solo showing by Gerard Byrne

frequently something more akin to the

(24 Apr – 30 Sep). The exhibition will

Micky Donnelly Placement Oil on Fabric 24 x 30 cm

restless modernist impulses, and extreme

feature four separate films about

Taylor Galleries, Dublin presented

contrasts, of Pierre Bonnard, Liubov

minimalism, shown parallel to one

‘Prospects, Propositions, States of Affairs,’

Popova or Clyfford Still.”

another, alongside work focused the

sponsorship taking on the mantle of arts funding to the current Conservative Shadow

efforts of two actors and a director

Minister of Culture, Jeremy Hunt. (By the time you read this, we’ll know whether the

attempting to understand a script

‘shadow’ has been dropped.) But he wants the government to step out of the scene and

through dramatisation.

the suits to step in at a time when private investment in the arts in the UK is actually

www.rubicongallery.ie

an exhibition of paintings and drawings

by Micky Donnelly (19 Mar to 10 Apr).

from the watchful eye of the State, should be a boon for the Irish arts scene. As an interesting side note, one could trace the rise of conceptual art being taught in the UK’s art schools alongside Thatcher’s cuts to education funding. Limitations can be productive.

Thatcher shared a similar misty-eyed view of philanthropy and corporate

Donnelly’s works were described as

Simon Burch

“exploration of visual ambiguity and the

Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge

restless shifting of perception and

presented Simon Burch’s exhibition of

association intrinsic to our everyday

photography ‘Under A Grey Sky’ (25 Feb

experience”.

– 30 Mar). The gallery notes explained

news that New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has pulled his program of funding

that Burch’s work studies “the bogland

through the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which helped support small, local

areas of Co. Offaly, the black landscapes

non-profit projects throughout the city.

www.mickydonnelly.com

www.lismorecastlearts.ie

ev+a 201

of turf, and the community and

‘Open / Invited EV+A 2010 / Matters’ is

individuals who live and work there.”

need only look to LA, where its Museum of Contemporary Art was nearly derailed

George Vaughan

after a drastic fall in its traditional private donations. More dismaying is the recent

Solutions? Well, firstly get used to the idea of text-based and found art being even more prominent the next few years. Financially, spaces like the Wysing Arts Centre

www.riverbank.ie www.sburch.net

now on show in various venues across

falling. Hunt cites the American tradition of philanthropy as an ideal model, but one

near Cambridge are paving more quietly practical routes, using their studios and

Limerick (13 Mar – 23 May). The selected

project space as a springboard to a group of individual and corporate investors who

artists are Peter Carroll, John Gerrard,

Spontaneous Generation

collectively own a body of work. Setting up a website to get documentaries for social

Tom de Paor, Peter Maybury, Shin

The Zach Feuer Gallery, New York

Egashira, Eva Hild, Rebecca Ivatts, Hans

presented ‘Spontaneous Generation,’ a

change seen and sustained, Goodscreenings.org is giving an alternative route for

Josephsohn, Michael Kane, Peter Märkli,

group exhibition featuring work by

Staffan Nihlén, John Pickering, Stephen

Lynda Benglis, Sarah Braman, Alistair

Rothschild , Sai Hua Kuan, Janna

Frost, Fergus Feehily, Zak Prekop, Ken

Syvänoja, Wang Ruobing, Kaspar Aus,

Price and Kevin Zucker (Feb 6 – Apr 3).

Matthew Beattie, Javier Burón & Eleanor

The press release noted of the exhibition,

Moloney , Loretto Cooney, Aoife

“The works might re-imagine moments

Desmond, Simon English, Tom Fitzgerald,

from Modernism, as they happened in a

Leo Fitzmaurice, Christina Gangos-Klien,

parallel universe that is just slightly

Stephen

Hällsten,

different than this one … they signal a

Fionnuala Hanahoe, Karen Hendy, Sandy

rejection of the notion that every artwork

Kennedy, Kirsty Kilbane, Caoimhe

dealing with abstraction must call

Kilfeather, Valérie Kolakis, Christopher

attention to its condition as a palimpsest

Leach, David Lilburn, Sarah Lincoln, Liu

or collage of the works that came before

Wei China, Jacob Maendel, Francis

it.”

Hall,

Johanna

Matthews, Maria McKinney, Ben Mullen,

www.zachfeuer.com www.fergusfeehily.com

filmmakers to distribute their films and a digital-age version of the filmmakers co-op.

George Vaughan – work from 'Time Place Memory'

Providing a bespoke license fee, you pay for the right to screen the film, then you can

The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny presented

keep any profits made from the event. Simple.

‘Time Place Memory’, a series of new

Meanwhile, Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle’s ‘Time/Bank’ project has only

paintings by George Vaughan (6 Mar –

gotten as far as getting a bankroll of their friends to design hypothetical notes for the

18 Apr). The works in the show were described as “a refined body of work, simple in style, employing a visual vocabulary reflective of the mature artist making work afresh … born from a particular experience, or in reaction to having spent time in a specific place”. www.butlergallery.com

unit of time traded, but its implications might just prove further reaching. Taking a community volunteer structure as the basis for a wider economic model, Time Banks have developed mainly in the US as a means of creating mutual charity and commitment independent of cash. Aranda and Vidokle have imported this into the art world: “if you happen to be in Beijing or Hamburg and need someone to help you go shopping for materials or translate your press release, you would be able to draw on resources from your time/bank account without money changing hands.”

So, now if you can just get that funding to put on that show in Berlin, and you might just have an international art economy on your hands…

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

7

May – June 2010

roundup

Lambert and Fortune

Ní Mhaonaigh Paintings

Taghmon Family Resource Centre,

Dunamaise Arts Centre presented

Wexford, presented a screening of a new

‘Paintings’, an exhibition of new work by

work by Aileen Lambert and Michael

Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh (Feb 25 – Apr 18).

Fortune (Feb 26). The press release notes

The exhibition was presented in

that Lambert and Fortune “worked

collaboration with the Kevin Kavanagh

collaboratively with Girlzone, a group of

Gallery. www.dunamaise.ie

teenage Traveller girls from Taghmon, to Final OPG Show

a collection of contemporary folklore

The Original Print Gallery, Dublin

and superstition from within the

presented its final exhibition, ‘Surface

travelling community.”

and Depth’, a series of new works by

Goodall, Edward M. Kennedy, Billie Jean

concerned with the production of a

King, Henry Kissinger, Kris Kristofferson,

in New York City in 1926, Morton

situation, creating sites of convergence

Nelson Mandela, Willie Nelson, Robert

Feldman was a child prodigy who began

where original context can dissolve in

Redford, Vanessa Redgrave, Chinua

composing at the age of nine. In the

the emergence of alternate readings.”

Achebe,

www.pallasprojects.org mariahtheblack.blogspot.com

1940s he fell under the influence of the early avant-garde composers, going on to become a pioneer of indeterminate

Andrew

Wyeth,

Nadine

Gordimer Graham Nash, Ravi Shankar, Kurt Masur, Buzz Aldrin, Chuck Close, Richard Rodger, Massimo & Lella

Blasphemous

Vignelli, Rosamunde Pilcher, Esther

the experimental New York School of

Mahlangu, Zbegniew Brzezinski and

composers, which also included John

many others. www.wisdombook.org www.siamsagallery.ie

Cage and Christian Wolff. www.imma.ie

Ruth O Donnell and Swedish artist Eva Grytt (Mar 11 – 28). The press release

Cullinan Richards at the Lab

various media, [the group’s] practice is

anthropologist Francesco Pellizzi. Born

music, a development associated with

produce a series of short films, including

www.click-click.ie

and an interview between Feldman and

O’Kelly at TBG&S

Minutiae

notes that O Donnell was “inspired by the Persian poem ‘The Conference of the

'Blasphmous' invite / publicity image.

Birds’, [and references] the many different interpretations and symbols in the tale

IMOCA, Dublin presented ‘Blasphemous’,

of enlightenment. Grytt’s work looks

an exhibition studying the effects of the

closely at nature, […] illustrating the

recent outlawing of blasphemy in Ireland

feelings and shape that it evokes in her.”

The gallery will operate in future organise temporary shows in various venues, whilst maintaining a webpresence. www.originalprint.ie

(2 – 25 Apr). The show presented work

Work by Suki Chan from 'Minutiae'

Roscommon Arts Centre, Roscommon presented ‘Minutiae’, an exhibition by Oisin Byrne and Suki Chan (26 Feb – 31 Mar). The show was described as exploring “the very human dilemma of establishing our position in the world”.

Paperplane Limerick City Gallery of Art presented, ‘Paperplane’, an exhibition by Caline

The exhibition was curated by Linda Shevlin. www.oisinbyrne.com www.sukichan.com www.lindashevlin.com

by artists identifying with a diverse range of religious backgrounds in celebration

Mark O'Kelly – work from 'Leaders and Followers'

of artistic freedom and intellectual

Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin

discourse. The participants were Richard

presented Mark O’ Kelly’s exhibition of

Bartle, George Bolster, Hannah Breslin,

painting ‘Leaders and Followers’ (25 Mar

Alan Butler, Church of the Flying

– 24 Apr). The press release noted that

Spaghetti Monster, Steve Farley, Una

“painting the un-paintable is one of the

Gildea, Sarah Hardacre, Jacinta Jardine,

challenges O’ Kelly sets himself, as in

Mark Lomax, Matthew MacKisack, Justin

how to catch the flames swirling around

McKeown, Noël O’Callaghan, RedMeat

the tail-end of the abandoned plane.

by Max Cannon, Emer Roberts, Will St.

Sometimes he chooses a bird’s eye view

Leger, Kate Walters and Paul Woods. The

with embellishments included to

Cullinan Richards work from 'Maradone Two-For Four'

Aoun, Niall De Buitléar, Guestroom and

The Lab, Dublin presented ‘Maradona

Vera Klute (18 Feb – 21 Mar). The

Two-For Four’, an exhibition of painting

exhibition is described by the artists as

by Cullinan Richards, and curated by

responding “to recent negotiations

Sugar Coated

previous show was ‘Talking Heads’, an

heighten the energy or to emphasise the

Padraic E. Moore (19 Mar – 24 Apr). The

between European editors and an

‘Sugar Coated’, an exhibition organised

exhibition of work by Omer Fast, Peter

notion of occasion or ritual”.

press release explained that the title of

internet search engine regarding a

by Business and Arts Management

Weibel, David Hall, Iain Forsyth & Jane

the show referred to the “two month ban

lucrative and legislated agreement on

students from the Institute of Art, Design

Pollard, Stephen Sutcliffe and Oraib

meted out to Diego Maradona after his

the digitisation of the world’s books.

and Technology, Dún Laoghaire was

Toukan. (19 Feb – 28 Mar).

verbal attack on journalists in 2009”.

Fears that the world’s ‘last library’ might

presented at the Back Loft, Dublin (18 –

be controlled as a commercial enterprise

20 Mar). The following show in the space

have sparked debate about the future of

was ‘Stensuals’, an exhibition of urban

Sara Greavu

featuring works by Michelle Browne,

literature in light of the proliferation of

and stencil art by ADW (15 – 18 Apr).

Context Gallery, Derry presented ‘Numa

Benjamin de Búrca, Cecilia Danell, Vera

Amun – Nouvelle Allégeance’, an

Klute, Sabina Mac Mahon and Julia

At the GT Gallery

exhibition of painting by Montréal based

Pallone. The press release noted, “the

The Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast

artist Sara Greavu (19 Mar – 30 Apr).

starting point for this exhibition was the

recently presented two simultaneous

Greavu’s work is described by the gallery

curator’s encounter with the research of

Louise Manifold

exhibitions, ‘Bad Faith’ and ‘Collected

notes as studying “the prevalence of

Professor

Galway Arts Centre, Galway presented

Readings’ (19 Mar – 8 May). ‘Collected

‘ethnic drag’ or race changing costumes”

Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience in

‘Unnatural Esoteric’, an exhibition of

Readings’ comprised of works selected

www.contextgallery.co.uk

Lausanne, Switzerland … responding to

new video, photography and sculptural

from the British Council Collection,

works by Louise Manifold (5 Mar – 14

consisting of text as an integral element

Spring Stone

which explores the deconstruction of

Apr). The press release noted that

of the image. It featured pieces by Fiona

Stone Gallery, Dublin presented its

meaning, separation of the self, uncanny

“Manifold’s work has the theme of

Banner, Ian Breakwell, Victor Burgin,

‘Spring Show 2010’ (25 Mar – 10 Apr).

spaces and people’s efforts to understand

disconnection and distance from the

Jimmie Durham, Tracey Emin, Hamish

The exhibition featured new works by

and explain our world through imagery,

world which one is living in, while

Fulton, Richard Hamilton, Matthew

Hugh Delap, Caroline Donohue, Claire

icons, dreams and nightmares. The

encouraging a creation of an individual

Higgs, Richard Lon and, Donald Urquhart.

Halpin, Joanna Kidney, Hugh McCarthy,

exhibition was curated by Maeve

reality”.

‘Bad Faith’ featured the first showing of

Susan Connolly, Mike Fitzharris, David

Mulrennan.

Common Culture’s new work I Dreamt I

Turner, Christine Bowen, Murielle Celis,

Platform Arts, Belfast presented ‘Station

Was A Monkey – And They Made Me Wear

Vera Klute, Vanessa Marsh, Karen Hendy,

Part II’, a presentation of site-specific

Shoes, a multi–channel video installation

Geraldine MacDonald, Gerda Teljeur,

Centrifugal Europe

installations by Alissa Kleist, Mairead

Vertical Thoughts

featuring “ex–TV ‘soap’ actors performing

Helen Fay, Gemma Gallagher, Emer

The Centrifugal Book Of Europe (ISBN 978-

Dunne and Ruaidhri Lennon (4 Mar).

The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin

scenes of discrete social interaction” set

Roberts, Brian Ferran, Stephen Forbes,

0-9556395-1-7) is a publication edited by

The press release explained that the

is currently showing ‘Vertical Thoughts:

against a backdrop of high street

Deirdre Hayden, Michael Bartlett and

Daniel Jewesbury, which was launched

participating artists were invited to

Morton Feldman and the Visual Arts’, an

consumption.

David Cleary.

on 18 March, at the Conor Lecture

“present their response to the building,

exhibition featuring works by many of

its atmosphere, its history and its future.”

The exhibition venue is a former police

America’s and Europe’s most celebrated 20th century artists (31 Mar – 27 Jun). The

Not Abel & PCP

Wisdom

contributions from Joše Barši, Sezgin

station on Queen Street, Belfast, and is

exhibition is described as focusing “on

Pallas Contemporary Projects, Dublin in

Siamse Tire, Dingle, as part of the Dingle

Boynik, Taru Elfving, Kalle Hamm, Mina

the second in a series of residency-based

the work of the influential American

association with The Black Mariah, Cork

Film Festival presented ‘Wisdom’, a

Henriksson, Nicole Hewitt, Daniel

events, which will run until 2012. The

composer Morton Feldman and the

presented ‘Private Commissions’, a series

combined film, book and series of

Jewesbury, Tellervo Kalleinen, Susan

following show in the space is ‘The

many leading visual artists with whom

of works by artist group Not Abel (26

portraits by Andrew Zuckerman (12 Mar

Kelly, Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, Stephen

Troubles with Harry’, a video installation

he was closely associated, including

Mar – 27 May). The press release

–

featured

Morton, Aisling O Brien, Robert Porter,

and collaboration between filmmaker

Philip Guston, Willem de Kooning,

described the exhibition as being

contributions

Archbishop

Mitja Velikonja and Zagreb not-for-profit

Gareth Mayes and visual artist David

Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.” The

“focused

Desmond

Turner (4 – 20 Mar).

show is accompanied by a major

re-evaluation and re-presentation of

Madeleine Albright, Billy Connolly, Judi

The press release issued on the

publication, published by IMMA,

particular common or contemporary

Dench, Vaclav Havel, John Hume, Dr.

occasion of the launch of the book noted

including a text by Juan Manual Bonet

cultural references. Working with

Garret Fitzgerald, Nick Nolte, Jane

“the Centrifugal project from which this

www.thelab.ie

Station / Platform

thebackloft.blogspot.com

virtual records as well as the simultaneous decline of readership.” http://gallery.limerick.ie

Station Part II – invite / publicity image.

www.stationproject.com platformarts@live.co.uk

www.galwayartscentre.ie www.louisemanifold.com

www.templebargallery.com

Unfamiliar www.imoca.ie

Red House Arts Centre, New York presented ‘Unfamiliar’, an exhibition

interest

in

the

from

the

www.stonegallery.ie

www.theredhouse.org

Theatre, Art College, University of Ulster, Belfast.

an

Blanke,

Blanke’s texts, the artists present work

www.goldenthreadgallery.co.uk

on

Olaf

17

Apr).

‘Wisdom’

Tutu,

from Clint

Eastwood,

The

publication

features

Platforma 9,81.

8

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet news

ROUNDUP book arises is a loose grouping of artists, educators, architects and theorists who have come together to develop mobile, speculative

methodologies

for

investigating the spatial, political and economic

forces

producing

contemporary ideas of Europe. The project is particularly concerned with finding resonances and affinities across the diverse spaces, histories and political imaginaries that inhabit the edges of Europe.”

Drift Talbot Gallery and Studios, Dublin presented ‘Drift’, an exhibition of paintings by Mars Wright (22 Apr – 15

News NEW Aosdána Members Aosdána, the affiliation of creative artists in Ireland recently elected 7 new members at its General Assembly. This brings its total membership to 246. The seven members have backgrounds in the fields of architecture, music, theatre and poetry.

Unfortunately, however there were no visual artists elected in this round.

The seven new members are: Yvonne Farrell, Vona Groarke, Francis Harvey, Conor McPherson, Grainne Mulvey, Sheila O’Donnell and Kevin Volans. www.aosdana.artscouncil.ie

May). The press release noted “the works often depict ordinary scenes representing the mundane features of contemporary living” www.talbotgallery.com

Regaining Consciousness Rua Red, Dublin presented ‘Regaining Consciousness’, an exhibition of drawing, painting, photography, video and installation by artist collective Sodium (8 – 20 Mar). The exhibitors are Breda Flynn, Judy Foley, Paul Hickey, Jane Locke, Ri Meehan, Roger O’Neill, Linda Rafferty and Miriam Sweeney www.sodium.ie

Lost West Cork Arts Centre, Cork presented ‘Lost’, as part of ‘Choowawaa: Childrens Arts Event and Exhibition’ (20 Mar – 7 Apr). The exhibition showcased artwork from primary school children across West Cork, who have participated in the Arts

May – June 2010

Centre’s

Primary

Schools

Programme. As the press release noted “34 groups of children from 16 schools, including 4 special needs groups, have explored their own ideas in relation to the theme Lost, after visiting the exhibition ‘Mesh’ by Anita Groener at West Cork Arts Centre late last year.” www.westcorkartscentre.com

Get into The Roundup ■■ Simply e-mail text and images for

the roundup to the editor

(jason@visualartists.ie).

■■ Your text details / press release

should include: venue name,

location, dates and a brief

description of the work / event.

Inclusion is not guaranteed, but

we aim to give everyone a fair

chance.

■■ 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.

■■ Priority is given to events taking

place within Ireland, but do let

us know if you are taking part

in a significant international

event.

McAleese Unveils O’Doherty On 13 April the President, Mary McAleese, unveiled a new sculpture by Eamonn O’Doherty outside the main concourse at St James’s Hospital, marking the 300th anniversary of the hospital’s existence. The twenty foot high sculpture, in polished and patinated bronze, is in the form of a double helix, and as well as the obvious reference to the DNA structure, combines the enduring symbol of medicine, the Rod of Aesculapius and its coiled serpents, with the laurel wreath of Hygieia, mythological goddess of health.

NEW VAI WEBSITE Visual Artists Ireland, has launched a newly designed web presence. The new website features a modern look and streamlined site navigation that offers details on visual art exhibitions, events, festivals, talks and conferences across Ireland. “We realised that we had a wealth of information that will prove useful to the art world and to the public alike. For this reason we have created a new look to our website that will allow people access the most up to date information on what is happening in the visual arts across the country” said Noel Kelly, CEO of Visual Artists Ireland.

Gallery exhibitions, talks, performances, and other activities from across Ireland and Northern Ireland are a key feature of the website. The new website offers a wide Resource section providing FAQs, useful articles, top tips and advice that will be of use to those working in the visual arts sector, as well as those with an interest in understanding more about how the visual arts work.

“It is very important for us to provide a wide range of methods for people to access our information” continued Noel Kelly, “for this reason we now provide our information through the website, which is directly linked into Twitter (#VisArtsIreland), Facebook (Visual Artists Ireland) and Newsfeeds so that people can more easily find out what is going on around the country.”

Also included in the new site is access to a new Visual Artists Ireland initiative, The Common Room – social network for the Visual Arts. The Common Room offers the public and artists a free resource where they can publicise events, share common interests and affiliations, upload images, stream videos, and hold discussions in forums.

Only 3 weeks in existence, The Common

Room boasts a membership of over 950 signed up members. www.visualartists.ie www.thecommonroom.net

ICS Sculpture Award This year's Irish Concrete Society Sculpture Award went to Kenneth Lambert for his work ‘Changes’ – a wallmounted artwork, cast in concrete and resin made up of three interlocking curved panels. The side panels are cast in concrete and depict, in low relief, the artist and his brothers in a car returning from his mother’s funeral. The central panel, in contrast, is cast in clear resin.

The jury felt that this work challenged pre-conceptions about the use of concrete.

The overall winner in the building category was Visual Centre for Contemporary Art and George Bernard Shaw Theatre, Carlow where the jury felt that the success of the building is the apparently effortless use of large elements, mainly concrete, in sympathetic scale with the gallery spaces. www.concrete.ie

Model May Day The Model, SLigo reopened on Saturday 1 May following an extensive redevelopment.

The re-opening exhibition, 'Dorm', involves a ‘fair’ of international artist collectives. Twentytwo international artist collectives will transform the building into an unprecedented, all-encompassing art project.

As the press release puts it " with a nod to the political events of May 1968, histories of art collectivism, and as a parody of an art fair, the building will be filled with exhibitions, concerts, screenings and performances all aimed at the social imagination".

The opening night of 'Dorm' included a Public Sleepover Project (PSP) where visitors could spend the night at the venue. In an inventive partnership with the Sligo Institute of Technology, guests were bedded down on sleeping apparatuses designed by design students.

The PSP also featured a special project from Thierry Geoffrey/Colonel along with a musical performance from Pallas Contemporary Projects.

Just beforethe PSP, artist and radio DJ Donal Dineen (Today FM) presented “Fresh Air”, a multi-sensory event featuring projections and live performances from musicians of the Box Social collective in Dublin – Catscars, School Tour, Children Under Hoof, Hunter Gatherer and Patrick Kelleher.

The Sunday following the opening featured screenings and talks by artist collectives as part of a free public forum on art and collectivity.

The exhibition element of 'Dorm' runs untl 4 July – in which the participating artist collectives will present projects in the gallery including installations referencing pagan traditions; projects involving political activism; a collaborative photo and performance project with the local military; complex video projections; participatory projects that involve the public, local government and cats;

sculpture that confronts audiences with international issues; collaborations between Irish and Northern Irish artists; and elaborate, playful constructions in the gallery that invite the viewer within. www.themodel.ie

Vital Signs Website Vital Signs: Arts & Health in Context took place in Dublin in October 2009.

The programme of events included a national conference in the Royal College of Physicians, an exhibition in five venues across Dublin 8 and a series of commissioned opinion pieces about arts and health practice.

The Vital Signs website has been updated with papers, podcasts, articles and images from events. The opinion pieces are available as articles online and can also be downloaded in booklet form.

Vital Signs is an Arts Council initiative, developed and delivered in association with Create, the national development agency for collaborative arts. Your comments on the opinion pieces or any other aspect of the Vital Signs programme are very welcome and can be left on the website. http://vitalsigns.artscouncil.ie for more information. Vital Signs is also on twitter http://twitter.com/artsandhealth.

CCP New Website The EU Cultural Contact Point Ireland website has undergone a complete re-design and has been re-launched. The CCP website provides information about available funding, how to apply for funding, examples of previously funded projects and strives to answer some commonly asked questions about EU funding for Culture. It also provides up-to-date news and information from Europe that will be of interest to the sector. http://ccp.ie

Child Protection Two new resources relating to child protection and welfare in the arts have been published on the Arts Council’s website.

Child Protection Policy and Procedures – Information for Children is designed as a leaflet that can be given to children and young people. It is intended to provide them with a brief guide to the measures that are in place in their arts organisation to ensure their safety and welfare.

Information covered includes code of behavior, making a complaint and how they can expect to be treated.

Child Protection Policy and Procedures – Information for Parents/Guardians provides an outline for parents/guardians on the policies and procedures that are in place in an arts organisation attended by their child. It includes guidance on recruitment procedures, how the organisation will communicate with the parents in the event of a concern regarding their child and lists points on how parents can cooperate with them to ensure the safety and welfare of their child. www.artscouncil.ie

Sligo Art Gallery Closes Sligo Art Gallery is to close its doors and cease trading in the coming weeks. In a statement, the gallery said that the closure is due to financial constraints and a withdrawal of funding by the Arts Council. In the absence of any other source of major funding the gallery is obliged to cease trading as of May 2010.

The current exhibition, Yeats and the Golden Age of Print will run until the end of April 2010. The gallery acknowledged and thanked the artists, friends and organisations who have supported the gallery over the years.

Irish Artists for Jerwood Irish artists Natasha Conway and Kevin Cosgrove have been selected for the Jerwood Contemporary Painters prize 2010. Selectors Paul Huxley RA, Callum Innes and Vanessa Jackson have curated this review of emerging painting practice in the UK. Jerwood Contemporary Painters aims to promote, discover and support imaginative and vibrant practice in contemporary painting. The 24 selected artists will exhibit in London 21 April until May accompanied by a series of talks and lectures on contemporary painting practice. The exhibition will tour nationally until October 2010. www.jerwoodvisualarts.org/contemporarypainters

Changes at OPG The Original PrintGallery, Dublin has left its permanent gallery space in Temple Bar, but is continuing to represent artists. The website www.originalprint. ie will operate as a “24 hour gallery”. In terms of exhibitions OPG will be organising a range of events in venues in Dublin and around the country.

Upcoming shows include exhibitions at Rathfarnham Castle and Temple Bar Summerfest. Further details are available on the website or the recently established blog http://originalprint.wordpress.com

New Minister for Arts In the cabinet reshuffle the Taoiseach appointed current Minster for the Department of Social and Family Affairs, Mary Hannafin, as the new Minister for the Department of Arts, Sport, and Tourism. Mary Hannafin replaces Martin Cullen who recently resigned from public life.

In addition the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism will be renamed as the Department of Tourism, Culture & Sport.

European Public Art Network The European Public Art Network, research web site – http:// europeanpublicartnetwork.com – has been created to facilitate dialogue and debate around the opportunity for a European Public Art Network. The site will act as a conduit for expressing interest in the potential of a fully serviced European Public Art Network & as a focus for the dissemination of information.

The European Public Art Network Forum has been set up to allow you to share thinking and enlarge the debate on the opportunity to create a European Public Art Network

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

9

May – June 2010

News

MART site Mart announces the launch of a revamped MART website – www.mart.ie The website includes: An improved full Artist Directory – with embedded Video and Artists Galleries. Showcasing Performance, Installation, Video & New Media Artists from Ireland, UK & Beyond; A Detailed List of MART’s previous Exhibitions; An improved and detailed Mart Directory – outlining Galleries, Initiatives, Resources for Visual Artists in Ireland & The UK. You can now also sign up to our Monthly Newsletter in the Contact us Section. The Newsletter will outline: new Artists, updates, events, reviews and more.If you would like to showcase your work on the website or wish to exhibit in one of our upcoming exhibitions please email info@mart.ie

Éigse Postpone Selection Due to financial restrictions in 2010 Éigse Carlow Arts Festival will postpone the Éigse Open Selection exhibition until 2011. In a statement festival Director Tara Connaghan said:“It is with great difficulty that we made the decision to postpone the 2010 Open Selection as it has been the back bone of the festival for so long but due to substantial cuts this year we just weren’t able to afford it” commented Tara Connaghan, Festival Director. “We are really grateful to artists who have supported the Open Selection through the years and hopefully the year break will give us a chance to turn this into a positive project for 2011 with a new improved Open Selection.”

The Éigse Carlow Arts Festival takes place from 11 – 20 June 2010. www.eigsecarlow.ie

or see Join Section of Website. www.mart.ie

Readman wins ‘Prix Mourlot’ Irish artist Ben Readman has been awarded the 10th annual ‘Prix Mourlot’ (Mourlot prize) for contemporary painting in Marseille, France. Work from the five finalists will be exhibited in Galerie de l’Esbam rue Montgrand, Marseille, from the 2nd until 25th March. www.benreadman.com www.esbam.fr

Cumberland Wins Davy Northern Ireland-based artist Ian Cumberland is the winner of the 2010 Davy Portrait Award. Cumberland was awarded £10,000 at a ceremony in Belfast for his oil on board self portrait.

Davy is one of Ireland’s leading providers of stockbroking, wealth management and financial advisory services. The awards, in association with Arts & Business, are open to artists working in traditional and nontraditional media across Ireland. The judging panel comprised Rosie Broadley, Associate Curator of Contemporary

Collections at the National Portrait Gallery in London and Brenda McParland, a renowned International Curator and Arts Management Professional in Contemporary Visual Arts.

Cumberland’s self portrait, was shown alongside 28 other shortlisted paintings at the 2010 Davy Portrait Awards exhibition which takes place at the Naughton Gallery in Belfast. During April the exhibition was presented at the Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin. www.davyportraitawards.com

Three Irish Guggenheims The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has awarded 180 fellowships to artists, scientists, and scholars. Three Irish artists were successful this year; Helen O'Leary in the creative arts and Joseph O'Neill and Colum McCann for fiction. The fellowships are often characterised as 'midcareer' awards, and are intended for those who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. The successful candidates were chosen from 3000 applicants. www.gf.org

Online AC Applications Artist can now apply online for Arts Council Projects and Travel & Training awards using the Arts Council online services website – http://onlineservices. artscouncil.ie.

These online services was developed to more efficiently manage funding applications and payments. This new website means that you can: Download application forms and guidelines; Create a profile for banking, tax and contact details (which you can reuse for other applications); upload the completed application form(s) and up to 20MB of electronic supporting materials; avail of a one-week deadline extension to complete online applications; (where successful), submit a payment request or payment schedule with supporting documentation.

Artists should register immediately for online services as, for security reasons, it may take up to five working days to complete the entire process. We also advise you to submit your final application as early as possible to avoid the heavy traffic on the site in the final days before a deadline.

If you have already used online services to manage payments you do not need to register again. You can log in to the system using your existing details and create applications from your account. To register go to online services: http://onlineservices.artscouncil.ie.

Art Handling Website Maurice Ward Group, the specialist art handler have launched a comprehensive new website www.mauricewardarthandlin.com Maurice Ward and Co. Art Handling & Transportation handle

every aspect of moving and storing art.

From collection to clearing customs to shipping by ocean, road or air to storage, every care is taken to ensure your art remains safe and secure by people sensitive to the needs of artists, conservators, curators and collectors.

A new Scheduled departure departs every 22 days from Dublin – London – Dublin. Maurice Ward + Co.’s established network of partners also means we can deliver to destinations across Europe and beyond by road freight for full or part loads.

Maurice Ward’s custom-built trucks are special ‘Art Spec’ vehicles with air ride suspension in which temperature and humidity are controlled and the cargo area is padded and barred. Cameras trained on the cargo provide a full digital record of every minute of the journey for customers who can track the exact position of their art via satellite tracking in real time. Additionally, the crew cab of each truck is fitted out to enable up to 4 gallery staff to accompany the art in complete comfort.

The group are approved to ‘hand search’ air freight and enjoy privileged airside access so they can witness artworks being loaded onto and off the aircraft. They also offer a VIP Hand Carry service for art that you do not want to let out of your sight. All packaging uses acid-free conservation grade materials and is carried out by experienced, trained professional staff. www.mauriceward-arthandling.com

Rory Gallagher Sculptor: David Annand

Unveiling 2 June 2010, The Diamond, Ballyshannon

Commissioned by Donegal County Council Public Art Office, in association with the Rory Gallagher Festival Ballyshannon.

www.donegalpublicart.ie

10

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

May – June 2010

Regional Profile

Visual Arts Resources & Activity in Leitrim Productive Place

Subject Stevens

The Dock

Christine Mackey It’s not what I have started… but where we begin…

(2009) from ‘Diagrammatic Interventions’.

I don’t subscribe to the view that an artist cannot have a career based in the rural environment; or that their practice is somewhat ‘weaker’ or disadvantaged to those produced in an urban context. With commitment and hard work there is no need to be isolated. The Polish art historian Piotr Piotrowsky suggests that the ‘margin’ can be a site with which to create a critical debate with urban centers of culture (1) . As Bruno Latour asserts, what we need is to shift our attention from “matters of fact” to “matters of concern” (2) that could challenge political and social rhetoric and the inherent mastery of the ‘object’ and I may add, the misplaced criteria of some curators and public art in general.

I’ve been based in Leitrim since 2006. To date, my practice has been supported by Leitrim Arts Office, Leitrim Sculpture Center, Arts Council of Ireland, Cultural Ireland and UU Belfast. I am in the final year of a practice-based PhD, which has enabled me to develop a range of distinct projects. I’ve been based in Leitrim since 2006.

I have managed to work on public commissions; and a residency through TRADE organized by Leitrim and Roscommon arts offices. For the latter, I worked with artists such as Gareth Kennedy, Anna Macleod, Alice Lyons and Carol Ann Connolly. With the support of LCC and the Arts Council, Dublin we were able to manifest the production of our projects launched in 2008 at the Dock Art Center. I presented new work for a large group exhibition, ‘New Sites New Fields’ developed at LSC (where I have a studio); and for Kids Own on a residency project, ‘The Nature of Sligo’, that focused on re-drawing the cultural and social aspects of the ‘landscape’.

My international projects have included: Argentina (RIAA) which brought a group of artists from around the world to work at Ostende / Pinamar in an historical hotel; e-MobilArts – a project tailored around the process of creating interactive installation artworks using mobile technologies. Workshops were held in Greece, Finland and Vienna with exhibitions launched in Poland and Greece. This project was collaboration with Cliona Harmey (IR), Nita Tandon (AU), and Lorraine Walsh (US) and involved new work – ‘Sound-lines’ an interactive sound sculpture and installation.

In June 2009, I spent six weeks in Portugal at Drawing Spaces, based in a former military arms factory in Lisbon. Drawing Spaces is an artist run exhibition and research center whose primary motivation is to investigative practices related to the subject of drawing. From Portugal, I spent a few weeks at Studio Golo Brdo, Croatia, run by artist Tomaslav Brajnovic, where I made a number of diagrammatic interventions.

Leitrim is a very productive and innovative place to be based, but if the support for ‘local’ creativity is absent then the local and the work of the local cannot fulfill itself in the space of the ‘margin’ and this may prove a challenge too great for any individual to overcome.

Christine Mackey www.christinemackey.com Notes 1. http://www.artmargins.com/content/interview/roundtable.html 2. ‘Nature Space Society’ Tate Modern in 2004 in conjunction with the artist Olafur Eliassous installation ‘The Weather Project’. http://channel. tate.org.uk/media/27686262001

The old courthouse which now houses The Dock on the banks of the river Shannon

Dominic Stevens Hurl Comic – first publishe in Verge magazine

Subject: Dominic Stevens, architect.

Where are you based?

A village called Cloone in South Leitrim.

How long have you lived in Leitrim?

About 10 years.

What your reasons for moving to Leitrim?

Very affordable – I bought a cheap site and built my own house – no mortgage, lovely place and only 100 miles from Dublin.

Do you have a studio?

It is in a truck container beside my house. It cost €1000 and is very comfortable and warm.

What professional links do have to visual arts institutions in the county and nearby?

I’m a member of HURL – The Home University of Roscommon and Leitrim. I have exhibited at the Dock Arts Centre.

How much of your activities in terms of your practice takes place in Leitrim and how much elsewhere?

My base is Leitrim, though I design buildings, make projects and teach throughout Ireland and aboard.

Do you find Leitrim a good base to work from in terms working locally, nationally and internationally?

It is brilliant. I am surrounded by an inspiring group of artists, musicians and writers in my everyday life, Dublin, Galway and Belfast are all only 2 hours away and (if broadband was a bit more accessible) the world would feel pretty close too.

In your opinion are there any key issues that need to be addressed in terms of visual arts activity and support in Leitrim?

I think that the Arts Office does a good job (within their means), supporting people who want to do things and inviting interesting people to show here.

In the cash-strapped future, I believe that it is critical that low-level support is given to small scale, grassroots initiatives while not ignoring the value of bring good Irish and international work to Leitrim.

' Sacred Soup' event – opening of the 'Sacred' exhibition in Nov 09

Poet and Curator Alice Lyons with Staircase Poetry which – installed in The Dock throughout 2006

You’ll find The Dock, housed in an award-winning re-vamp of Carrick-on-Shannon’s town courthouse, looking down onto the bank of the river Shannon.

Our doors opened in the autumn of 2005, and since then we have had the pleasure of exhibiting works from both internationally and nationally acclaimed artists. International exhibitors have included Atta Kim, John Walker, Adrian Paci and David Michelak and from our own country, we have been graced by the work of John Gerard, Denis Mc Nulty, Aideen Barry, Grace Weir and Gillian Lawler amongst many others. Guest curators have included Mark Garry, Oliver Dowling, and now Maurice O’Connell who is about to curate our fourth architectural exhibition in early summer. Part of our 2006 / 2007 programme included a poet-in-residence Alice Lyons, now our associate curator. Alice created 12 poems which were installed on the main stairs in the foyer. The same space was used in 2008 by artist Robin Whitmore for his installation Dream Diary. For an entire year, the first thing that Robin would do on waking was draw his dream from the night before.

These drawings were projected at the top of the stairway and visitors were invited to sit and contemplate his visual dream diary, while listening to Robin’s voice interpret their meaning.

With our three galleries we are able to run a varied and diverse programme from group shows to separate solo shows running simultaneously. We are flexible in the use of the building with our technical team regularly creating dividing walls or entrances as needed by the artist. We endeavour to ensure that an artist showing with us feels that the space is very much their own.

We have four studios in the building, currently let out to visual artists Laura Gallagher, Anna Spearman and Louise Meehan, along with musician Cathal Roach. In 2007, our then studio artists Linda Shevlin, Padraig Cunningham, Laura Gallagher and John Duignean along with our director Caoimhín Corrigan came up with the idea of an exhibition called Convergence. The studio artists were asked to choose an artist from whom they had drawn inspiration, they then exhibited a work from their chosen artist along with an inspired work of their own.

As well as our strong exhibition programme we prioritise gallery and artist talks. Exhibiting artists are invited to give a short talk on the evening of their opening, which marks the occasion and adds an element of focus to the gathering. Our exhibition openings are social events where locals and invited

audiences enjoy art, food and banter together. Our winter 2009 exhibition 'Sacred' included artist Djerbi making soup for all that attended. We sat in the transformed green room of The Dock, then shrouded in white, at a table of 12 sharing in the communal warmth of breaking bread with strangers.

Our healthy working relationship with Leitrim Arts officer, Caoimhín, who as well as being the director of The Dock is Co. Leitrim’s arts officer, has led us to host exciting events such as ‘Trade’, ‘Create’ seminar and the John McGahern Summer School.

During the John Walker exhibition we had a large audience attend a talk given by Belinda McKeown and Declan Long on The heroic within the writing of John McGahern and within the paintings of John Walker. This tethering of events definitely adds to The Docks programme while also extending our audience remit.

The Dock is a hub of learning within the local community. There are regular courses in life drawing, family fun days, children’s festivals, crafts, painting and a series of master classes that take place throughout the year. Recent artists to give the master class include Nick Miller, Sinead Aldridge and Geraldine O’Reilly. The Leitrim design house shares the building with us so we have no dearth of crafts people and artists to draw from when we are putting together our programme.

In the coming autumn, we will celebrate our fifth birthday. We have a fine line-up of events and celebrations to mark the occasion. This has also prompted us to reflect on what we’ve done so far, to think about the changes we want to make and also to consider our aims and hopes for the next five years and longer.

We are in the process of putting together our visual art programme for 2011 and 2012 this will include a gigantic drawing show, which is sure to evoke a lot of interest. We would also like to incorporate more performance art into our programme.

As part of our vision we want to get the balance right, that balance being between nourishing those within the art world living in Co Leitrim and also inspiring and planting the seed of curiosity for those within the community who may feel less familiar with the environment. It is with this balance at the forefront of our minds that we create and run The Dock.

Clare McAree

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

11

May – June 2010

Regional Profile

Subject Weir

Curating Space

Gracelands

Gareth Kennedy, The Future of Ice, performance, 'New Sites-New Field's 2008.

Cinema Northwest events, HURL – Home University

During 2007/08 the Leitrim Sculpture Centre (LSC) went through a radical transformation that saw its two buildings in Manorhamilton, North Leitrim completely renovated. Underlying the overall design was a commitment to access and artistic manouvarability between specialist areas of practice and studio production. Alongside these developments, reflections on the changing geographies of ‘landscape’ and its re-visioning through artistic engagement with place, site, ecology and time have become an important critical framework from which the centre operates. Projects such as New Sites-New Fields investigated the changing landscapes of North Leitrim and the more recent Fields of Vision Peace III explored the human geographies of the border region through a participatory and cross-community interaction between selected artists and local schools.

The premise of the new exhibition spaces is not only to show finished artworks, but to function as a ‘medium’ for artists to test out new projects and ideas. In such contexts, sculptural or artistic interventions work not so much as representational or symbolic form but engage in a dialogical way with communities and landscapes that emerge around them.

In the introduction to Brian O’Doherty’s Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space, Thomas McEvilley describes the traditional gallery space that “must be sheltered from the appearance of change and time. This specially segregated space is a kind of non-space, ultra space, or ideal space where the surrounding matrix of space-time is symbolically annulled (1)”.

Mindful of the history of these ideas the centre supports a programme of artistic and social interaction within an open and fluid location for experimentation and research across visual arts practices.

In a recent show ‘Scales of Energy’, for example, Cathal Curtin’s visionary models for the future use of wave energy off Irelands shores explored the exhibition medium as research tool and a means for generating local feedback regarding energy issues.

The gallery was able to function very much at the interface of public response and the processes of experimention integral to creative practice. This format suggests an artistic testing ground for experimentation within a space protected from the uniformity of behavioural and artistic patterns or commercial concerns.

Information about the above activities as well as the workshops, residencies, projects and community engagements that form our larger programme will be archived in the centre’s Library and ‘Landscape study resource’ presently under development. This collection will reflect not only LSC’s own activity but will make links to national and international arts initiatives concerned with exploring the open systems that link subjective, social and environmental space.

Sean O’Reilly Director

Roscommon Leitrim, The Dromahair in Transition

Leitrim Sculpture Centre

Project arose from a can-do community of like-

www.leitrimsculpturecentre.ie

Mimetic House, architect Dominic Stevens, built 2005

Subject: Grace Weir, visual artist working mostly in video.

Where are you based? Dromahair. Since 2005.

Why did you mov to Leitrim? I bought a piece of land here cheaply (instead of a computer and a new camera). My 93 year old cousin advised me to look at it. When we stood at the gate and looked in, it was beautiful and Joe (my partner) suddenly said “You know, I have always wanted to build a contemporary house” and that was that. We built a house with Dominic Stevens. The initial idea was to spend part of the year here, to not be in city centre all the time, but after we moved in, we increasingly based ourselves here.

What local professional links do you have? I Currently I have a show on in the Dock, Carrick-onShannon and I am on the board of The Model in Sligo.

Do you find Leitrim a good base to work from?

When it comes down to it, I work largely with a laptop. My only necessity is broadband. My practice is research-based, so I spend a lot of time online or reading books. I am Amazon’s best customer. I communicate a lot through e-mail and travel to meet the people I am working with or they come here.

I have a two-tier approach to producing work, some pieces, I shoot and edit myself; others involve working with a film crew and production house.

Some works are shot in my home and others abroad.

Leitrim is 2 – 3 hours from Dublin and its airport, we have gone up and back for an opening. You do a lot of driving but learning to drive, which I only did when I moved out of Dublin, has made me realise how accessible the country is. Knock airport, tiny, prone to fog and wonderfully international is 50 minutes away. It is a one hour flight to London.

And I like having a big field. It is an extension to my studio. Having space around me and building a house cheaply gave me a sense of possibility that came after Dublin had become overdeveloped and expensive. You can think about building a studio, a gallery, an observatory, a hedge school, hello Dia Dromahair. The ‘Gracelands’ project came about from that. Works like In my own time and From here also came from living here.

Are there any key issues that need to be addressed in terms of visual arts activity and support in Leitrim? The Model, The Dock and Leitrim Sculpture Centre are all important local institutions.

People are resourceful culturally. Gracelands, The Adaptation film festival and numerous other

minded types. It’s these kinds of grass roots initiatives that need to be recognised, valued and supported.

(1) Thomas McEvilley, Introduction to Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space, O’Doherty, B., University of California Press. 1976. 1981, 1996.

Gracelands 2008

Isobel Nolan – work for Gracelands 2008

Gracelands is an event – now annual – comprising sculpture, screenings and performance.

It takes place in a field on the site surrounding Grace Weir and Joe Walker’s Mimetic House, designed by architect Dominic Stevens.

Stevens’ practice is concerned with affordability and resourceful usage, as much in terms of lifestyle and aesthetics as materials. Weir and Walker, both very established artists, are active and generous.

Their house, celebrated worldwide, is both beautiful and modest. Primarily though, it’s home. The nearby village of Dromahair is the rural equivalent of Berlin. Low property prices (and the conditions leading to them) result in a particular population of architects, film-makers, food producers and others working and living in ways characterised by flexibility, co-operation and resourcefulness. All of this provides a context for Gracelands.

Gracelands 2009 presented a programme of artists’ films alongside specially commissioned sculpture / interventions and performances. It includes performative lectures and readings. The site is introduced by a path, which winds around the outskirts of the land. Alongside this ran a sculpture

by Declan Clarke; an intermittent series of blue and red lights on wooden posts. Made from household basins and tyres, the work mimics a lighting system common in petrol stations in Bolivia. The pathway opens to a clearing presenting a series of circular wooden viewing platforms, a large screen and two ‘galleries’; a copse and a marquee.

The programme was delivered over one day and a night, in the concentrated manner of a music festival. The day begins with a performance on a boat as it tours around Lough Gill, after which the audience were bussed to the site. They then followed the path, around which are sculptural works and installations. Rhona Byrne’s Heat Exchange Units provided shelter. The programme continued with slide shows and lectures. An unfolding series of participative performances punctuated the film and performance programme.

For the first Gracelands, which took place on a freezing night in November 2008, we screened works by Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt, Joan Jonas, Lars Lauman, Elisa Pone, Johanna Billing, Bea McMahon, Grace Weir, and Jan Swankmajer. Sarah

Rhona Byrne Heat Exchange Units. Gracelands 2008

Pierce presented Gordon Matta Clarke’s Tree Dance – with a live element and a one-time screening of her film, Skater. Sculptural works included pieces Walker and Walker and Karl Burke. Isabel Nolan produced a series of T-shirts. The night ended with a screening of a film by Bernard Smyth, which depicted the artist carving the names and birthdates of the participating artists and curators into trees in Epping Forest. Music specially composed by Jaki Irvine concluded the evening.

The 2009 event was entitled ‘Folly’. Aurelien Froment staged a reading of his Interview with Werner Herzog on board the The Rose of Inisfree, as it motored out onto Lough Gill. Froment acted as narrator, Isabel Nolan played Froment and Charlie Claffey, my father, played Herzog. On land, Georgina Jackson described an outdoor exhibition, ‘Utopias and Visionaries’, curated by Pontus Hulten in 1971.

Acting as a ‘reluctant choirmaster’, Jaki Irvine conducted a series of participatory soundworks by John Cage, Cornelius Cardew and others, including the artist herself. Sculptural works included Isabel Nolan’s WOOF; Sam Keogh’s A hole in a thing it is not; Dennis McNulty’s Golden Gamble and Bea McMahon’s inflatable folly. Grace Weir made a ‘black hole’ to one side of the path – to the other Nina Canell created a ‘stone’ using a melon and a bag of cement (the weight of the water required to harden the cement was equivalent to the weight of the watermelon).

Stephen Brandes served sea-urchin-pot-noodle, Alice Rekab performed stories and Walker and Walker’s performance, entitled In No Immediate Danger saw them shoot off a flare. Among the films presented were works by Oleg Kulik, Carlos Amorales, James Lee Byers, Factotum, Pil and Galia Kollectiv, Aleksandra Mir, Les Blank, Grace Weir, Karl Burke and Seamus Harrahan.

Vaari Claffy www.vaari.eu

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

May – June 2010

12

Artists Books

Artists Books Northern Grace Published: Feb 2010. Title: Northern Grace.

Dimensions: 25 x 21cm. Pages: 134. Contributors: Michael Shulman, Magnum Photos, New York.

Description: A social documentary of Scotland’s people taken over an eight-year period. It deals with and contrasts urban and rural aspects of Scottish life.

Available: www.syro.net/northerngrace Venice: Why/Because Title: Venice: Why/Because. Artist: Peter Morgan.

Format: A concertina book, 16pp 120 x160mm, folding out to 960 x 160mm, pbk, 10pp colour photographs, 4pp text. Edition: 350. Published: Nov 2009. Price: €3. Description: A collage of photographs documenting the 53rd Venice Biennale. Four pages of text appropriated from the two exhibition catalogues: a highly ambiguous statement. Available: www.roadbooks.ie The pataphysics of making bread Title: The pataphysics of making bread. Artist: Judy Kravis. Pages: 48. Format: perfect bound, 102 x 148mm, pbk (will fit in shirt pocket). Edition: o201.

Published: Oct 2009. Price: €5. Description: What the baker sees as she kneads, what she hears on the radio, her lurking stories and idle thoughts. At the centre, the morphing loaf. Different yet the same, week by week. With sourdough recipe.

Available: www.roadbooks.ie A short walk along the kefir road Title: A short walk along the kefir road. Artists: Judy Kravis & Peter Morgan. Pages: 18pp. Format: 185 x 130mm, 8 b+w pictures, assembled by hand. Edition: 57. Published: Oct 2009. Price: €7. Description: Kefir is a fractal, a yoghurt plant, a zoo in a bowl on a shelf – and growing – given a few simple conditions.

A rambling yet practical poem for cooks, walkers and physicists. Available: www.roadbooks.ie Samizdat Published: Nov 2008. Title: Samizdat. Dimensions: 14.8cm x 21cm. Pages: 30. Format: soft-back.

Contributors: Deirdre Morrissey, Aine Ivers, Chris Fite Wassilak & Kate Mc Larnon. Description: The publication is a response to the shared ideas of an exhibition of the same name based around notions of replication, shared knowledge, the distribution and circulation of forms, philosophy and spirituality, fear and paranoia. The exhibition evolved through artist Ciaran Walsh’s ongoing and developing artistic research and resulted in three new artworks and the production and distribution of the printed text.

Samizdat was printed with the assistance of printer Vinny Capriani and museum curator Mairead White at The National Print Museum, Dublin 4. Available: http://themarketstudios.wordpress.com Le Chéile Print ProjecT Published: March 2009. Title: Le Chéile Print Project: Irish Artists. Dimensions 10 x 12 inches. Pages: 8.

Format: Hand made, hard cover, melodeon type.

Contributors: Margaret Becker, Monica de Bath, Pamela de Brí, Bethan Hodgson, Rebecca Homfray, Eileen Keane, Eilis McCann, Deirdre Shanley. Description: Handmade book of 8 prints, some variable, 2 editions of 10. Made to order. The book is part of an ongoing Welsh-Irish Collaboration inPrintmaking. Available: http//lecheileprintproject. blogspot.com Eye View Published: Dec 2009. Title: Eye View. Author: Gloria Casey. Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Pages: 75. Format: Soft-back. Contributors: Dr Micheal O’hAodha & Peter Morgan. ISBN: 1-44381389-3. Description: What has changed with regard to photography – everything or nothing?

Contemporary commentators have suggested that due to the development of sophisticated technology and the digitization of the photographic image, the ease with which it can now be manipulated gives rise to a certain amount of distrust in the truthfulness of the images we see.

Temperamental Artist: Maureen O’Connor. Title: Temperamental 2009. Published: Oct 2009. Dimensions: 210mm x 240mm portrait. Pages: 48. Format: Thread Sewn, Soft Cover. Contributors: Gavin Delahunty Curator, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art. ISBN: 978-09555120-2-5. Description: The publication was initiated by the exhibition: ‘Temperamental Paintings and Projection’, at Solstice Arts Centre, Navan 2008.

Loneliness in West Germany Published: February 2009. Artist: Declan Clarke.

Title: Loneliness in West Germany. Dimensions: 21 x 15 cm. Pages: 32. Format: Stitched perfect bound, soft-back. Contributors: Rolf Stehle, Georgina Jackson.

Description: This publication documents the sitespecific solo exhibition by artist Declan Clarke at the Goethe-Institut Ireland in January – March 2009.

Included is an introduction by Rolf Stehle, director Goethe-Institut, an essay by curator Georgina Jackson, full colour installation images and list of works in the exhibition. Available: Goethe-Institut, Dublin.

Walking Drawing Making Memory Artist: David Lilburn. Title: Walking Drawing Making Memory: A Ballynahinch Sketchbook. Published: July 2009. Edition: 300 (Books 1 – 150 include a frontispiece of an original intaglio print and are signed and numbered by the artist). Publisher: Ballynahinch Castle and Occasional Press. Price: Books 1-150 are priced at €85.00; books 151- 300 at €30.00. ISBN: 978-09548976-8-0. Available: www. occasionalpress.net Description: This publication is the first in a series focusing on Connemara based artists. Lilburn’s book presents panoramic drypoint printworks alongside preparatory sketches.

Hieroglyphs in Unexpected Places Artist: Emma Barone (with poet Eileen Casey).

Published: November 2009.

Title: Reading Hieroglyphs in Unexpected Places. Dimensions: 17 x 17cm. Pages: 80 pages. Format: soft cover perfect bound. Contributors: Emma Barone and Eileen Casey. Publisher Fiery Arrow Press, D24. Description: A collaboration between the artist Emma Barone and poet Eileen Casey – a book of magical shoes /a book of magical poems about shoes. Available: www.emmabarone.com DHG publications 2009 Artist / Title: Mamma Andersson. Cry. Artist / Title: Joseph Grigely. Imbrie. Artist / Title: Matthew Day Jackson. High, Low & In Between. Artist / Title: Paki Smith. Artist / Title: Fergus Feehily. Pavilion. Artist / Title: Jim White. Superwhite!/Wild-Eyed Tree. Title: Japanese Country Textiles. Title: Questions of Travel.

Available: www.douglashydegallery.ie

YOUR BOOK LISTED HERE If you are an artist and have recently produced (in the last 12 months) a monographic publication, simply email the following details to jason@visualartists.ie – date of publication; title; dimensions; number of pages; format (eg: spiral, stitched perfect bound, hard-back / softback etc.); list of contributors; ISBN number (if relevant); short description (two or three lines).

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

May – June 2010

13

PROFILE here don’t allow for applications to bring curators, critics, collectors, which is frustrating. We’ve never been funded as an organisation, which is fine as we’re relatively new. However, you find ways. For example, we, along with the Contemporary Arts Society in London are organizing a group of 18 curators and collectors from major galleries and museums throughout the UK to visit Belfast in September 2010.

RB: Being on the periphery isn’t necessarily a bad thing – I wouldn’t want to dismantle that. The periphery of Europe is where we are. But where’s the centre? London, Berlin or Venice every two years? Our aim with bringing people over is just to open up new paths a little, whether to the ‘centres’ or to other peripheries. The arts community here has a huge amount to offer to other communities.

Image selected by Brown & Bri from the photographic archive at Belfast Exposed Photography'.

Image selected by Brown & Bri from the photographic archive at Belfast Exposed Photography'.

Space & Collaboration

Monica Flynn, VAI Education officer, talks to Rachel Brown and Brighdin Farren about their curatorial PROJECT Brown & Bri. Monica Flynn: How did your collaboration begin?

Brighdin Farren: Rachel and I joined Catalyst Arts in Belfast in 2007 as directors. During the summer of 2008 we worked on The Garden Project and thought we should work together more. Neither Rachel nor I knew Belfast or each other before 2007, so Catalyst gave us a very direct route into the heart of the contemporary art scene and a comprehensive understanding of how it functions and maintains itself, we could therefore see how we could build on this.

Rachel Brown: I moved to Belfast solely for Catalyst and arrived here not knowing the city or anyone in it. Naïve as it sounds, I found the experience completely inspiring. Being at Catalyst placed me in the middle of an existing community, where Bri and I developed similar ideas for how to contribute locally.

MF: What in particular about Belfast interests you both?

RB: Belfast has a great base and tradition of artist-led, grassroots initiatives. I have a lot of respect for the work that is being produced and how the scene here supports that production – including how it has supported us.

BF: Belfast is a gem. It doesn’t give much away to the uninitiated, you have to spend time, to look and listen, but as you do, it becomes very apparent that it’s a special place. Not unique. There are a lot of postconflict cities, a lot of places with quality product and poor infrastructure, but for Rachel and I, the attraction lies in the potential.

MF: Can you briefly outline your curatorial approach?

BF: Brown & Bri is a curatorial project. Our work is very much a creative practice and in some ways difficult to define. We are interested in the machinery of the art world, interpreting its formats and functions and discovering how we as curators or artists or two people working together can contribute.

RB: Design by committee can be problematic but the feeling of being a necessary part of something good – a genuine collaboration – is what we’re trying to instigate with Brown & Bri for both ourselves and the people we work with. Overall we are concerned with space and collaboration.

MF: Would ideas like Mary Jane Jacob’s interest in creating a nonauthoritarian ‘spaces of permission’ (1) have influenced your approach?

RB: I wouldn’t use the word ‘permission’, but we are interested in providing the frameworks that allow work to happen. The restrictions and opportunities that we encounter here in Belfast are shaping what we do more than anything else.

We’re learning a very broad trade through the very specific case study of Belfast. Some individuals and organisations here have been supportive and influential – including Hugh Mulholland, Pauline Hadaway, John Duncan and Factotum.

Artists who work collaboratively are of interest to us, for example Broomberg & Chanarin, who we’re working with currently on a commission for the new gallery at Belfast Exposed. Or Elmgreen and Dragset. The Centrifugal Project is also interesting to us (of which Daniel Jewesbury and Aisling O’Beirn are the Belfast wing). More generally, Paul O’Neill’s writings have been very useful in trying to define what it is we’re doing.

BF: I think ‘permission’ for us is as much of a complex term for us as it was for Mary Jane Jacob. While we manoeuvre ourselves into positions of being able to allocate practical and necessary things, like funds and venues, we do try to approach making work, curating exhibitions and in turn steering experiences with subtlety and sensitivity.

Image selected by Brown & Bri from the photographic archive at Belfast Exposed Photography'.

We are concerned with creating space for artists and for audiences.

Each requires different considerations, in order to provide a sense of support without necessarily determining or demanding outcomes.

Our key concerns are to create an environment that allows for rest; along with constructing experiences of working with us that leave our collaborators / audiences with understandings that have arisen quite intuitively.

I like Mary Jacobs’s thoughts about listening (2), to listen helps to build an awareness of why you’re doing something, whatever it is, and for whom you’re doing it.

MF: Your approach brings to mind Agamben’s idea of the ‘coming community’ (3) – in that you utilise social occasions that encourage connections.

BF: Your parallel makes sense, at least in the beginnings of what we try to do. However it is important for us though that the majority of times there is a realisable outcome, whether that’s a photograph, an exhibition, an event or initiating an ongoing collaborative relationship.

Creating and orchestrating circumstances for certain selected people to meet is a large part of what we do. Food is an important tool we use to help with this. Meeting and inviting interesting artists to come to Belfast and in turn having them meet with local practitioners generates a certain discussion. Meeting and inviting curators, critics and collectors into Belfast generates another, different, discussion; that of a greater awareness and interest in the good contemporary art being produced here.

RB: We’re concerned with Ireland’s position on the peripheries and how that affects its artistic output and international profile. The Northern Irish arts scene is of exceptional quality, wonderfully selfsufficient and largely free of bullshit. We want to support that. Often that’s through establishing and strengthening existing links locally and generating a more active, supportive (though not necessarily larger) arts audience. The next stage of this is to establish and strengthen links further afield, pricking the ‘bubble’ of the scene here with new work and new connections.

MF: Are you specifically aiming to engender a greater confidence and dismantle the sense of being on the periphery?

BF: Most people I know that devote their time to making art or would call themselves professional artists or photographers – they have plenty of confidence. They don’t necessarily need outside appraisal or approval.

Through working with other organisation’s budgets, we’ve brought interesting arts practitioners over to visit, but the main funding bodies

MF: So you don’t really think, as such that the Irish art scene is too turned in on itself?

RB: I don’t think we’re too turned in on ourselves. But I don’t think we reach out enough either though. Basically, the two should go together and find a balance – generating local energy and pushing for international profile.

BF: In an ideal efficient world, everyone has a fixed purpose and defined role that they can focus on and get really good at. Obviously that doesn’t happen, especially in a smaller city or region. Everyone here is stretched and we all on some level have to work as ambassadors.

The contemporary art community is already working in these ways, looking out, looking in, bringing out and bringing in. We need more initiatives, agencies or official bodies whose role it is to shine a spotlight on this.

MF: Gatherings, be they collections of archive material or people seem to be important to what you do.

BF: It’s fair to say we are really excited by collections of photographs and of people. One of our current projects is working with Belfast Exposed Photography on commissioning and developing new work in response to their photographic archive of over 500,000 negatives. This is a huge project for us, which has several strands. It’s an amazing resource, both for research and focus for photographers, artists and academics as well as for us.

Less output driven projects would be The Sunday Society, Blind Date, Free Time and Sundays in Spring. These are about encounters and possibility. For example The Sunday Society relies on and is shaped entirely by the people who buy into it. Anyone can join the society, as long as they eat lunch with us and pay a fiver for it. Their fiver also allows them to submit an idea for a small-scale project. All the money goes into a kitty, which builds up until the society decides to cap it – at around a few hundred pounds. Over one of the lunches, society members vote on all the ideas proposed so far. Whichever idea gets the most votes gets all the money. So far we’ve collected a dozen or so proposals.

RB: This is just beginning really – our role in it is to host, coordinate and lead discussion when necessary. We try to keep a really light hand with it though, as it isn’t supposed to be Brown & Bri thing. We will shape the society and its decisions, but only as much as anyone who attends every one.

Our aims for the Sunday Society are similar to our aims for the Beggar’s Banquet, which we hosted as part of 'Exchange Mechanism' at Belfast Exposed recently. We invited artists, architects, arts council and city council representatives, policy makers from home and further afield along with the public to attend a banquet. We had thirty guests around a banqueting table in the gallery for a three-course meal. The subject of the dinner table conversation was set out in the invitation – “A country that doesn’t invest in culture, is a country without a soul … how do we argue for the value of our work in the wake of economic crisis and cuts?” Everyone was invited to prepare a short toast to an event, individual, exhibition, policy or idea of their choice. We decided who would sit next to whom, people had to pass and pour for their neighbours. Certain dishes were for sharing ... it was orchestrated, but hopefully in a subtle way.

Since Bri and I were cooking, we had to just set the scene and leave it. All we could hear were intermittent clink-clink-clinking of knives on glasses as people began toasts. It was better that way, I think. We had to exercise a bit of restraint – asking people to talk about their ideas is one of those things that shouldn’t be over-worked. www.brownandbri.com www.belfastexposed.org Notes 1. Mary Jane Jacob, Making Space for Art in What Makes A Great Exhibition?, Paula Marincola, Ed. (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative/Pew Charitable Trusts, 2006) 2. Ibid.

3. Giorgio Agamben, The Coming Community Trans. Michael Hardt, from Theory Out of Bounds Series Volume 1, University of Minnesota Press, 1993.

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

May – June 2010

PROFILE

Building the Foundations

Seán O Sullivan profiles the RDS Taylor Art Award and RDS Student Art Awards Exhibition, held annually at the RDS, Dublin.

Murphy’s selection will involve a difficult balancing act in choosing between acquiring expensive significant works, and smaller less celebrated pieces, a choice complicated by the cost of insuring the exhibition; some of the included works are valued in excess of €500,000.

On behalf of the Taylor Art Trust, Murphy has selected fifty works by twenty-five Taylor Art Award winners, and plans that the exhibition will receive a three-week run. The artists represented in the show will include Walter Osborne, Roderic O’ Connor, Sir William Orpen, Beatrice Elvery, W. J. Leech, Mary Swanzy, Patrick Tuohy, Harry Clarke, Seán Keating, Mainie Jellett, Nora McGuinness, Maurice McGonigal, Colin Middleton, Melanie le Brocquy, Louis le Brocquy, Hilary Heron, Anne Griffin Bernstorff, Dorothy Cross, Ronnie Hughes, James Hanley, Eamon O’ Kane, Isobel Egan, Maria McKinney, Robert Manson and the winner of the 2010 competition. (3) As Patrick Murphy explained, his motivation in becoming involved in the exhibition was that he could secure works that remain unseen by the public at large – “it is rare that artists of this quality are put together, but I did not become involved in the exhibition to just borrow works from the National Gallery of Ireland and IMMA, because people can see those. I want to get masterpieces out of private collections, particularly those ones around the country that the public have never gotten to see.”

Seán O Sullivan The deadline for application to the RDS Student Art Awards is the 18th June.

The exhibition ‘The RDS Taylor Art Award – Celebrating 150 Years’ will open at the RDS in early 2011. For further information, visit www.rds.ie/arts

Peter Murray This Land Again (2009 Taylor Award Winner)

The Royal Dublin Society’s Student Art Awards and exhibition, held

slightly different emphases coming through.” Lewis-Crosby’s father,

annually during July and August, have been a part of the RDS programme

worried about the standard of traditional methods when compared to

since 1860. They are one of many vehicles for the society’s mission of

new tendencies in art, created the most recent addition to the annual

promoting the arts, science, industry and agriculture within Ireland, a

endowments. The R.C. Lewis Crosby Award recognises distinction in

task to which the RDS has applied itself since 1731. The Student Art

painting, which in the late 1980s as seemingly falling out of vogue

Awards’ main prize, The Taylor Art Award began with an endowment

with younger students – a trend that Lewis-Crosby notes as having

in the will of Captain George Archibald Taylor in 1856. Taylor died a

reversed recently.

young man, and left his estate to a series of Trustees with the instruction

Antony Lewis-Crosby had previously served in a career operating

that they endow his extensive art collection to a national art gallery,

orchestras in London, most recently as the Managing Director of the

though none existed at the time. Upon his death, the government

London Mozart Players. His responsibility to the Taylor Art Trust is

formed the National Gallery of Ireland to house his collection. His will

primarily that of managing its financial health. The Trustees have had

also required that his Trustees give a sum of money to an outstanding

to reduce the endowment from a high point of €20,000 in 2007, to a

art student every year. Although the RDS granted the first Taylor Art

still substantial €5,000 in 2010; Lewis-Crosby mentioned that the

Award in 1860, research is still required on the identities of its recipients

restructuring of the Award’s finances was necessary in order to allow it

during its first fifteen years. The records date back to 1876, when

to continue indefinitely. The prize should ideally give its recipient the

Edward J. Brennan was the sixteenth winner, and likely the recipient of

freedom to practice as an artist, using the fund as support; for instance,

£100.

the winner of the 2008 prize, Robert Manson, used his money to obtain

NOTES 1. Quotations concerning the RDS Student Awards and the Taylor Art Award were taken from a conversation between the author and the Chairman of the Taylor Art Trust, Antony LewisCrosby, 22 March 2010.

2. Quotations concerning the RDS Taylor Award Retrospective Exhibition are taken from a conversation between the author and the Curator of ‘The RDS Taylor Art Award – Celebrating 150 Years’, Patrick J. Murphy, 22 March 2010.

3. The artists represented in the RDS Taylor Art Award Retrospective Exhibition are correct at the time of print.

Sarah Ross, Arts Development Executive for the RDS provided extensive information for this article, in conversation with the author 24 March 2010.

Taylor Art Award Winners 1980 – 2009 1980 Stephen Rinn, Eamonn

1989 Helen Richmond, Ronnie

Vincent Sinnott, Robert Russell,

Hughes, Padraig Hughes,

Regina H. Hughes. (Commened),

Margaret Morrison.

Donnacha Mac Gabhann. Peter

1990 Maureen O’Connor, Gary

Jones, John O’Leary.

Clarke, Helen Richmond,Mark

1981 Mary Burke, Stephen

Orange.

Rinn. (Commended), Donnacha

1991 James Hanley, Katherine

MacGabhann,. Maureen Cahill,

Park, Siobhan O’Leary.

Mary P. O’Connor, Eamon

1992 Helen Finney. Davis

Previous Taylor Art Award winners have included Walter Osborne,

a 35mm print of his award-winning film. Lewis-Crosby points to Sir

Sir William Orpen, Melanie le Brocquy, Dorothy Cross and James

William Orpen, who won the Taylor Art Award on three occasions in

Hanley. Speaking with Antony Lewis-Crosby, the Chairman of the

his early career, and reputedly found it to be an extraordinary boost –

Vincent Sinnott, Heather

Quinn.

Taylor Art Trust, I discovered that the Taylor Award is quite likely the

he was soon to be in high demand as a portrait artist.

Winfred White, Adrianne M.

1993 Conor Walton, Cora

Diamond.

Burke, Nicola Bunbury.

oldest privately funded national art award in the world. As a whole, the

That the awards are privately funded presents an unusual

RDS Student Art Awards are open to any full-time student from the

challenge to their organisers, that of how to keep money flowing from

1982 Angela P.E. Shanahan,

1994 Louise Norton.

Republic or Northern Ireland. However, the RDS cannot grant the

private donors, and to exceptional young artists. Over the last two

Josephine A. Fogarty, Gretta

1995 Marie Foley.

Award to anyone over the age of twenty-five. The RDS has given

years, these challenges have been compounded by the economic

O’Rourke, Kenneth J. Donfield.

1996 Eamonn O’Kane. Thomas

permission to rescind this rule in 2011; as Antony Lewis-Crosby has

difficulties facing all patrons of the arts. However, this has not

Anne Siggins, Geraldine

Mulcahy.

explained, he regretted occasions where he had seen deserving work by

prevented the RDS from ensuring that every award that it has endowed

O’Malley, Marie W. O’Connell,

1997 Breda Marron, Julianne

mature students accepted for exhibition, but that was inadmissible for

in the past still exists in 2010. Aside from the Taylor Art Award, these

Attracta Madden, Stephen Rinn.

Neville, Susan Connolly, Eoin

the main prize. (1)

include the RDS James White Award for Drawing, the Patrick Freyer

1983 Anne Crowley, Mary

Llewellyn.

Each of the student art awards are administered by the RDS, under

Award, the RDS Printmaking Award, the Henry Higgins Travelling

Philomena O’Connor, Gerard P.

1998 Eoin Llewellyn.

its arts development team led by Sarah Ross. In selecting the prize

Scholarship and the Peter O’Kane Solo Exhibition at Cavanacor

Sweeney.

1999 Neva Elliot, Isobel Egan.

winners, the RDS convenes a judging panel composed of three invited

Gallery.

1984 Dorothy Mae Smith,

2000 Aideen Cahill, Rosemary

Joanna Robertson, Thomas A.

O’Gorman.

experts in the visual arts. It also appoints the chairperson of the judging

In early 2011, the 150th anniversary of the Taylor Art Award will

panel; in 2010 this will be Eddie O’Reilly. The Royal Hibernian Academy

be celebrated, the RDS is organising a retrospective exhibition

Mc Guirk,Denis Lonergan.

2001 Richard Gavin. Jessica

and the National Gallery of Ireland then appoint one panellist each.

provisionally entitled ‘RDS Taylor Art Award – Celebrating 150 Years,’

1985 Ellen Moore, Annraoi

The RDS tasks these three with deliberating over the nearly five

that will gather some of the most noted works by past winners of the

Wyer, Yvonne P. Blackmore,

hundred submissions received for the awards every year from colleges

award. Patrick J. Murphy will curate the exhibition; he was previously

Catherine J. Goodhue, Noel

Brouder.

2002 Jennifer Cunningham, Yvonne Lee.

around the country, and to provide their feedback on entries in an

the Art Advisor to the Office of Public Works and the Chairman of the

Guilfoyle.

2003 Sarah Fitzpatrick.

overall written report.

Arts Council. Patrick Murphy is a lifelong patron of Irish art; he has

1986 Helen McAllister, Mary

2004 Ray Tsang.

The quality of work both submitted and displayed in the annual

donated more than 350 items from his personal collection to the

Madigan, Annraoi Wyer,

2005 Maria McKinney.

exhibition gives the public strong insight into changing currents in

University of Limerick, and mentions with some pride an episode

Margaret McLoughlin.

2006 Liam Ryan.

Irish culture. Lewis-Crosby notes, “talking to the judges we get a feeling

where he prevented Dublin Airport Authority from auctioning 96

1987 Alice Mary Power,

2007 Ceri Garfield, Clive

as to the quality of the work that’s coming in from the colleges, and

state-owned works by Nora McGuinness to foreign private collectors.

Dorothy Ann Daly, Jane Bowe.

Moloney, Sam Keogh, Harriet

what is outstanding in any particular year. Painting has come back, last

The government subsequently gave the works to the Crawford Gallery,

1988 Jason Roche. Mary Kirby.

Tahany.

year it was very strong. The winner in 2008 was a video artist, but then

Cork. (2)

in 2009 the quality of the video work had weakened. Each year there are

2008 Robert Manson.

2009 Peter Murray.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

May – June 2010

15

PROFILE

Tanya Mars performing What did the 0 say to the 8? in Catalyst.

JudithPrice durational performance in the Art College Glass Box.

Paul Couillard negotiating passage for goldfish onto the Belfast Wheel on the last day of CHAOS.

Johanna Householder in Badiou-Cobain's The Subject of Art at the Black Box, Belfast.

Invisible Process (1)

SINÉAD BHREATHNACH-CASHELL REPORTS ON ‘CHAOS’, A WEEK OF CANADIAN PERFORMANCE ART IN BELFAST, PRESENTED BY BBEYOND AND CURATED BY SINÉAD O DONNELL IN COLLABORATION WITH JOHN G BOEHME AND JUDITH PRICE From Monday 8 – Saturday 13 February, ten Canadian-based multidisciplinary performance artists commissioned by Bbeyond made new work in Belfast (2) in an event entitled ‘Chaos’. The project profiled the vibrant performance art and non-profit networks of both the Canadian visitors and Northern Irish hosts. It created space to explore cultural commonalities and diversities across these two territories affected by British colonialism.

The creative impulse for 'Chaos' emerged out of Sinéad O'Donnell's contact with Canadian performance artists during other international events. She was fascinated by the close links between the Canadian feminist movement, performance art and non-profit networks. Sinéad was particularly intrigued with how performance art was and continues to be a powerful communicative tool for Canadians addressing the multiple identities within their culture. These initial impulses began to take seed in 2007 when John G Boehme invited Sinéad to make new work in Victoria, British Columbia in 2010, as part of an another event also called ‘Chaos’ (3).

The Belfast ‘Chaos’ event took shape around the aim of inspiring curation among emerging and established performance artists / organisers. The invited artists had careers spanning 10 to 40 years. With diverse methodologies, they mobilise the gestural languages of diaspora, gender, presence and sexuality through a range of durational, fixed, spontaneous, site-specific, political, satirical, intimate and autobiographical performances.

With the curatorial idea in place, Sinéad pooled resources with sympathetic partners to realise this project. Bbeyond seemed an obvious choice: supporting emerging artists alongside more established practitioners. Their goal is to enrich lived experience and promote intercultural dialogue through performance art.

Bbeyond is a non-profit itinerant organisation funded on projectto-project basis. They’re committed to nurturing and promoting performance art and artists through exchanges, workshops and monthly action meetings. ‘Chaos’ was an experiment for Bbeyond, as it was their first time presenting a curated project. Local artists were invited to partake in organising as a way of “empowering them into roles of responsibility and strengthening the potential for others to learn about organising and curating performance art practices.” (4) ‘Chaos’, like all projects, happened through invisible processes – meetings, endless conversations, inboxes flooded with emails titled "Re: Chaos"; tentative plans hung for months on end more often on the ifs rather than whens of funding and timing; anticipating the starter’s pistol whilst ready to be reshuffled at a moments notice. A constant ‘hamster in the brain’ for all involved – whether folding posters or planning other projects. Imagine a quick Changing Rooms style montage including some dodgy red carpet fitting; and hey presto PS2 was ready to be the week’s hub for pit stops, storage, watching documentation, or thawing out in front of the TV monitor fire (5).

‘Chaos’ began. Expectations, preparations and realities collided.

The artists explored their surroundings. Ed Johnson, whose family had

immigrated during the famine, visited 4 Palmer Street, the birthplace of his great-great-grand mother. Assisted by local artist Christof Gillen, Rachel Echenberg collected laughter from people in the city centre, including the Lord Mayor.

Live art events are as much about the coming together as the visceral shared moments of the performances themselves. For some it’s like a family reunion, others move like awkward bumper cars between events. Throughout the week people exchanged ideas, hatched future plots, relived past exploits through a haze of disorientating jet lag, pre and post-action nerves. The first public event in PS2 was a poignant reminder that this coming together in physical space is a privilege. Guest artist Poshya Kakl, who can only travel in a shadow form across political borders, was introduced in a screening. Supported by PAVES she uses poetic responses, simultaneous actions and Skype to participate in the international art community (6). In an action made on Monday for ‘Chaos’ – The Game with political identity – Poshya and Wrya Budaxy played hopscotch for visas outside the parliament building in Kurdistan.

The event utilized Belfast’s range of non-profit venues. By moving around, ‘Chaos’ enabled the artists to make different kinds of work for different audiences, giving some people their first direct experience of this ephemeral practice.

Tanya Mars gave an insightful lecture Hippies and Feminists in the Art College about her personal journey with performance. In PS2, Johanna Householder experimented. Placing a speaker outside, she invited people to read aloud texts about where ideas come from. Preparations continued.

Chief of materials Hugh O’Donnell was in the corridor on the phone politely: “…I’m not from a company, I’m an artist… looking for a bag of milk…it’s to put in an object…a black Labrador…NO! Not a real one”. Later in the BlackBox dressed in layers of Catholic school kilts, Irene Loughlin drank milk from the suspended teddy Labrador before dismembering it, taping it to her body in a series of surreal actions about Irish diaspora.

Afterwards, I met with Paul Couillard to add to his collection of challenging objects for Saturday’s action. The conversation fluttered around the barren object as we discussed habits, inhibitions / inspirations, objects as fetishes/burdens and the process itself.

Laughter was a common sound during ‘Chaos’. It was provoked in different ways. Rachel felt she used laughter without humour. It was about release sharing “a physical bodily moment of connection with another person”(7). She also asked people in the BlackBox to laugh with her into jars and released her collection of Belfast Laughs. Nervous embarrassment and spontaneous laughter rippled around the audience with tangible energy. Later that night Johanna used humour as a provocative feminist strategy with her satirical lip-syncing of Alan Badiou texts and her Fuck Off song.

Dressed like a Lady-Gaga leprechaun, Tanya used herself as a foil tracing the emotional steps of her forefathers’ transit from Ireland to North America. She played with the double meaning of "go home /come home" written on plates for the garlic laden potato ghosts she cooked for Friday's audience in Catalyst Arts. She also evoked her Irish / Russian parentage through exaggerating clichés, sharing shots of whisky and

vodka with the audience, between doing press-ups while practicing Russian. This contrasted with Ed's own poignant transformation and solemn intimacy when he slowly touched our necks. Shannon Cochrane’s love letter to the 2008 ‘7a11d Festival’ had its deadpan moments in a collage of encounters with pungent perfumed handshakes and legraising Viagra (8).

John used the strategies of superficial interactions that we use as social protocols when acknowledging other people. He said “it’s not intended to be funny but often there is humor in those captivating moments when you know someone is lying to you with their facial expressions”(9). John had the audience laughing during his costume changes, DIY and fake smiles, then provoked a swift change of atmosphere as he suddenly took the chair he was sitting on and smashed the dais he’d just built. The night in Catalyst ended with the projected image of the unbroken empty chair and dais where the smashed remains lay.

On the final day Sylvette Babin’s performance in PS2 used a sophisticated cocktail of self-deprecating black humour, slapstick and repetition. She drew on her experiences that week, re-contextualising what she’d absorbed in a series of memorable actions. Her wall text was like a set list, words like “Tanya’s shoes” echoed Shannon’s performance/ festival/performance. She laughed for Rachel with such force that the jar steamed up. Hidden behind a table with her mouth full of pomegranate seeds she sprayed the audience like a machine gun then called a truce from behind her ‘peace line’ waving a white glove on a stick. The Suicide of the Queen encapsulated Sylvette’s hope that “the way we (Chaos artists) play, humour isn’t just something funny” (10). Through repetition, she transcended hilarity in the action of shooting herself in the head with a squeezy bottle and collapsing. Finally Sylvette stood outside PS2 on the window ledge bowing to the passers-by, trousers down revealing to the crowded room inside with text taped to her knickers that this was the end.

Saturday was a day for passers-by – Judith’s falling into focus was visible in the Glass Box. Blindfolded she created a blizzard of soap peels over a picture of a forest then made snow angels. Unsuspecting shoppers encountered Paul, soap in hand and tiny teapot on his head, as he negotiated the Northern Mall’s wary security. He lead the ‘Chaos’ entourage round Belfast on a journey of actions with the donated “challenging” objects and back for the discussion in Belfast Exposed chaired by Peter Spiers.

Here the artists and audience had time to verbally tease out their experiences and close the show together. It highlighted how “every country has a very different way of being an audience”. This elicits responses that blur the distinction between what we perceived as Canadian ways of working and the ways of working that Belfast itself provokes.

Sore heads and groggy brains after some late-night karaoke, we embarked on another diasporic episode as the Scottish bus driver overflowing with proud banter drove us along the Antrim coast.

Fortuitously, smoke breaks and recommended photo points seemed to coincide. This merry bandwagon happily slept on the journey home after a few nips of whiskey, to send off our visitors, saturated by performance and with a few pickled livers ready for Monday’s postfestival detox. Sinéad, Shiro and some Bbeyond elves prepared to do all the invisible glamorous drudgery of postproduction that keeps the live art train chugging along to its next destinations.

‘Chaos’ was well received. Anticipation of professional and personal needs of artists evident in even small, nurturing decisions like accommodating all the artists in the one location was greatly appreciated by the visitors. Empowerment through responsibility involved long days setting up venues, nervous tension through performances; it also stimulated value-based decision-making, self-effacing cathartic conversations with fellow practitioners about shared anxieties and how other peoples’ practices sometimes seem more appealing than our own.

The visiting artists brought powerful performances to a sophisticated audience. They took risks and challenged their own ways of working. We are still digesting the event that Sinéad described as "probably the best experience I've had curating art to date"(11). The longevity of such a project will be its impact on all involved and on these two growing and supportive performance art communities.

Sinéad Bhreathnach-Cashell 1. “Normally people only look at the flower, the final artistic production, without ever seeing the root or the stem, the ‘invisible’ production process that goes on in the background, by which creative ideas come to fruition.” Bbeyond administrator Brian Patterson, In Place of Passing, 2007.

2. It was supported by The National Lottery Fund through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Belfast City Council, University of Ulster, University of Toronto Scarborough, Ontario Arts Council, Quebec Council, Canadian Council for the Arts, Camosun College, PS2, Catalyst Arts, the BlackBox and Belfast Exposed. For more see www.bbeyondperformance.org 3. John G Boehme in collaboration with Judith Price invited a strong group of international female artists to make new work in Open Space, Vancouver. This September Pauline Cummins, Sandra Johnston will accompany Sinéad O’Donnell to Victoria BC www.openspace.ca 4 Sinéad O'Donnell 5.. www. pssquared.org 6. Sinéad also showed sykpe images & read text by Poshya during ‘Transmission Identity’ in the BlackBox. Poshya is 20 years old, makes performances and studies graphic design.

PAVES a yearlong collaboration reflecting on how intense, wider political context inevitably sculpts work. See www.annebean.net and www.manifestoclub.com 7. Rachel quoted during discussion in Belfast Exposed, Saturday 13th, www.belfastexposed.org 8. 7a*11d Biennale www.7a-11d.ca and FADO www.performanceart.ca 9. John G Boehme quoted during discussion, Belfast Exposed. 10. Rachel quoted during Belfast Exposed discussion. 11. Sinéad O’Donnell quoted when opening the discussion in Belfast Exposed

16

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

May – June 2010

PROFILE

Phenomena House Ciara Hickey and Keith Winter Profile Space Delawab in Belfast.

Ormeau Baths 160 Years' event at Delawab. Jan 2010.

Anthony Kelly & David Stalling Compound at Delawab. May 2009.

C 13 Collective – work from 'Ted and Daisy' at Delawab. April 2009.

Aideen Barry Installation at Delawab. March 2010.

Delawab is an alternative art space in Belfast that was set up in September 2008, the result of a fortuitous move into a Victorian terrace house by three people. Since then Delawab has been lived in and curated by Claire Hall, Keith Winter and myself, Ciara Hickey.

To explain the premise, organisation and motivation behind the setting up of Delawab, it is essential to first mention the physical space and structure of the house itself. Built in 1865, the four-storey building is the first on a row of terraced houses overlooking the Belfast hills. The original features of the house remain intact; the rooms are highceilinged with dramatic cornicing, marble fireplaces and bay windows.

The furnishing is a mismatch of styles and objects from different eras where bona fide antiques stand beside the paraphernalia left over from the tenancies of former residents. Sentimental Victorian prints of domestic scenes and old fashioned clocks adorn walls from which ancient wallpaper slowly recoils. Every pocket of vacant space is occupied, resulting in a unique atmosphere that lies somewhere between the decaying grandeur of a once majestic house and an elaborate stage set.

The charm of the house and the sheer amount of available space inspired and enabled us to entertain the idea of utilising the house as an arts venue. We had seen successful art spaces running along similar lines in Belfast and beyond which encouraged us to realise this idea. In particular, the Residence programme at Shac Housing on Donegall Street run by Sighle and Sinead Bhreathnach Cashell, the ethos of Peter Mucthler at PS2 and the stories about the College Green House on Botanic Avenue were local precedents. Elsewhere, inspiration came from domestic spaces such as Kettles Yard in Cambridge, the Home Project in London set up by Laura Godfrey Isaacs and smaller domestic spaces we had visited in London and Berlin. It was this type of model for exhibiting art that seemed more akin to the venture that was beginning to take shape in our home.

We originally allocated one room as the dedicated gallery space, chosen for its clean white walls, stripped wooden floors, and surprisingly minimal amount of decoration compared with the rest of the house. It seemed the perfect white cube antidote to the clutter and historyheavy spaces which dominated the rest of the house. It was in this

room that, at the end of September 2008 we held our first exhibition; a series of drawings and graphic posters by Keith Winter and Steve Mykietyn. Since then, Delawab has hosted a range of residencies, events, exhibitions and experiments stretching across a wide range of art forms including performance, film, painting, photography, sculpture, sound installation, artist talks, a vibrant music programme, a silent film screening, evening banquets and recently, the afternoon tea party to end all afternoon tea parties with artist Aideen Barry.

The sense of drama and history that resonates within the house is something that has seemed to consistently capture the imagination of the artist and viewer alike. After the first couple of shows, it became clear that the rest of the house could potentially be as interesting as an art space as the appointed gallery and the two spaces now mostly run simultaneously, with artists showing work in the gallery and also making interventions in the rest of the house. One of the early examples of this was an installation and performance piece by artist Cian Donnelly. Donnelly used the innate drama of the house to enhance the fictitious narratives in his own work. He completely reinvented the house as the home of a particular character from a story on which his work is based.

The fact that the traces of the people who lived in the house before us were not eradicated but actively contribute to the personality of the house is something that has been celebrated and explored by many artists working at Delawab. In homage to the history of the house, C-13, a Belfast-based cross-disciplinary collective, created a series of installations all over the property and garden entitled Ted and Daisy, which speculated on the lives of a brother and sister who were former occupants of the house. Part of the process involved C-13 interviewing neighbours, from whom they gleaned fragments of information on the history of the house.

The interest in the space itself has remained the most prevalent theme running through the exhibition programme. Most of the work that has been shown explores or makes reference to the space or to the nostalgia and drama which it can evoke. The most recent exhibition, 'Sunday Races' by Ben Craig, was pitched as an idea to create an interactive and playful installation borne out of an interest in memory

process and childhood attachment to and mythologizing of particular spaces. What resulted over the course of three weeks was an installation where Craig created four different toy car race tracks that spanned the entire height of the house.

Delawab is a non-funded organisation. In fact, the term organisation can only loosely be applied. Delawab exists as a labour of love, working around the timetables and work commitments of three housemates, two of which are in full time employment and one is a full time artist and musician researching a PhD at the University of Ulster.

The communication between all three underpins the successful and smooth running of Delawab. The entire project can only exist through the commitment to and enthusiasm for its development. At regular meetings ideas are pitched, talked over, rejected or agreed to and tasks are delegated working to everyone’s strengths. Because Delawab is also a home, everyone must unanimously agree to a project in order for it to go ahead. Happily, there have been very few ideas that have been refused. The incentive for setting up Delawab was to use the house as a testing ground for artistic expression and an open minded and flexible attitude by all housemates has enabled the project to fulfill this core aim.

Occasional fundraisers and donations contribute to artist travel or postage costs, wine, paint or whatever is needed. This is the only money that passes hands between the curators and artists. Removing money from the equation has generated one of the most satisfying aspects of the whole enterprise; the amazing goodwill and generosity of spirit that has been shown by everyone involved, from participating artists to all of the loyal friends and supporters whose enthusiasm is always the strongest form of motivation. Removing payment has created a system where contributors are free to enjoy the experience of working in a unique venue without the pressures of the pre-existing power structures of cultural production; gallery representation and commercial success.

Instead, Delawab embraces alternative methods of public validation, appealing to values based on esteem, building relationships, community and reputation.

The size of the house enables us to be able to offer artists a place to live and work, should they want to stay on a residency basis. At the house, the small domestic details such as eating together enables a real opportunity for conversation, critical exchange and encounters with a new network of contacts. This currency of goodwill and the open sharing of ideas have inspired a democratic sense of community, a fluid collective of charged people who take these ideas and carry them to other places.

In recent years, an active and infectious DIY attitude to setting up alternative spaces in which to encounter art has characterised the emerging art scene in Belfast. The domestic setting of Delawab adds another model to this new wave of spaces opening up. One of the key aims of Delawab was to create an environment where visitors feel as welcome and familiar coming into the space to view art as they would if they had been invited around for a cup of tea. The fact that it is, after all, a home is integral to the whole experience. It is hoped that this will promote the access to and engagement with artwork by viewing work outside the art institution or typical gallery confines. Building a public environment in one’s home challenges boundaries between public and private spheres and also encourages intimacy between the artist, the art object and its viewer.

Delawab aims to provide an alternative platform in Belfast, which provides artists with the support and safety to experiment with artistic expression in a free and welcoming environment. Witnessing such a unique house and its potential inspire artists and audiences alike has been incredibly educative and satisfying in the results. However, the sense of identity through collaboration that has overflowed into and out of the house since Delawab’s first exhibition has perhaps been the most exciting and encouraging aspect of the whole venture.

Looking to the future we are excited about producing a publication documenting all the work which has taken place as a part of this project. In addition, we have invited essays placing Delawab within a wider art context, promoting Belfast and providing some sense of a blueprint for others who may wish to try turning their house into a phenomenon.

Artists shown at Delawab: Irene Barberis, Aideen Barry, ts Beall, Sighle Bhreathnach-Cashell, C-13 Collective, Ben Craig, Angela Darby, Aoife Desmond, Cian Donnelly, Phil Hession, Anthony Kelly, Tim Laverty, Miguel Martin, Tokumasa Matsubuchi, Mark McKeague, Steve Mykietyn, Robert Peters, David Stalling, Michael John Whelan, Keith Winter, Adebisi Shank, Not Squares, Kicks Blue, Girls Names, JL Seagull, Albrecht’s Pencil, Desolation Wilderness.

Ciara Hickey & Keith Winter www.delawab.wordpress.com

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

May – June 2010

17

art in the public realm

Jay Koh – article in the Sun Emerald, relating to 'Ni Hao –Dia Duit'.

Informal workshop / talk on dating. Part of Jay Koh's 'Ni Hao –Dia Duit' project

Are You A Spy?

Jay Koh discusses his dialogical PROJECTs Ni Hao –Dia Duit and reading the self, reading the other, WHICH EXPLORE cross-cultural EXCHANGE BETWEEN the local and Chinese communities IN DUBLIN. This article discusses some aspects of the dialogical components of my practice that are focused on the creation of trust between potential collaborators via dialogue and exchange (1). My specific focus is Ni Hao – Dia Duit (hello in Chinese and Irish) and Reading the Self, Reading the Other, cross-cultural projects concerned with identifying and building sustainable interactive channels between the local and Chinese communities around Dublin’s Parnell Street).

Background. Ni Hao –Dia Duit was initiated in 2007 via CityArts, Dublin with support from the Irish Youth Foundation and Dublin City Inner Partnership. The project aimed to research, identify and nurture some key sustainable ways of establishing interactive channels between the migrant and local communities around Parnell Street (2).

From my research, I found that the general behaviour of Chinese migrants is that they prefer to remain invisible and not to attract attention – basically so that they can go about doing their studies or business without hindrance. This trait can be seen as being inherited from a conditioned strategic response to living in a densely populated and competitive society and under an authoritative, scrutinizing system such as China. At the same time, as a group they desire to congregate within the comfort of the familiar (food, aesthetic, language and proximity) – resulting in the creation of ‘Chinatowns’ in whichever part of the world they migrate to.

Such inclinations and actions can create certain ‘fronts’ (3) that communicate non-verbally a message of isolation and ghettorisation.

In Ireland, such behaviour may be seen by some Irish people as signs of unfriendliness, especially when augmented by the fact that many Chinese people lack the knowledge to communicate in local slang; refer to local events (sports, politics etc) or participate in Irish drinking culture.

Encounter 1. “Oh! Are you a spy?” I was confronted with this question when trying to initiate a conversation with a young Chinese man living in Dublin. The incident took place in the initial stage of the dialogical framework of practice – using everyday situations and encounters to identify potential participants for Ni Hao – Dia Duit. Their questions probably emanated from reasoning, based on their cultural knowledge, that artists usually paint or write calligraphy; and that commercial goals are probably an important criteria of art activities. They may well also have thought that in China any artist, who acts and operates freely in public spaces, is probably assigned to do so by the state authorities.

As an artist working without a commercial goal and funded by NGOs, I came to understand that what I was doing would likely appear to be a strange phenomenon, from the pragmatic cultural perspective and knowledge of this particular Chinese migrant.

Reducing uncertainty between strangers. The encounter above highlighted for me the need to establish some basic forms of acceptance between strangers, before further engagements could take place. In the methodology of my dialogical practice I utilise listening, conversing and investing time in order to reduce the uncertainty (4) between strangers during initial encounters – so that they can move forward to form relationships. In order to create social situations to facilitate this, for example in Ni Hao – Dia Duit I organized get-togethers with potential Chinese participants and Irish artists who had an interest in participating – usually in a private room of a Chinese restaurant fitted with a state-ofthe-art karaoke machine, a common retreat space for the Chinese to socialise and relax among friends.

Encounter 2. It was at one of such arranged interactions that a case of cultural misunderstanding occurred – leading to the withdrawal of one young Chinese person for the project. He felt that he was being put under scrutiny, like a specimen on display, by the barrage of questions put to him by an Irish artist participating in the project. The artist had a background in youth work, and seemed to see the dialogical process as a question and answer game – as the answers keep coming, it seemed to them that the interaction was moving along positively.

Listening & Non-verbal dialogue. Gemma Corradi Fiumara, in The Other Side of Language, criticises western philosophy for prioritising the articulation of ideas (in writing and speech) and suppressing the role of listening. If listening isn’t regarded as integral component of a dialogical exchange, the conversation is literally one-sided and authoritarian. (5) By ‘listening’ I would also include attentiveness to non-verbal body language – the posture of the body and micro-expressions that can denote discomfort, irritation and suppression of certain feelings.

Pioneering researchers, Haggard and Isaacs discovered ‘micromommentary’ expressions when researching into films recorded during psychotherapy sessions (6). I don’t mean to suggest that artists need training in psychotherapy, but they should have an awareness of the role of the non-verbal communicative within dialogical / communication based art projects.

Other forms of non-verbal dialogue that I investigate as part of my practice include the generation of meanings through interpretations and public and communal perceptions, as created by sources such as rumours and third party accounts, that would bear consequence on evolving relationships in, and the continuation of, a participative project.

Reading the Self, Reading the Others (7) Ni Hao – Dia Duit has continued to take shape, one outcome being the formation of the Irish Chinese Cultural and Sport Association. I continued working with collaborators from the Chinese community while also carrying out activities such as mentoring, evaluation and the mediation of art and development projects in Ireland. Ni Hao – Dia Duit, which is still ongoing, has become my longest-running project in Ireland to date.

Reading the Self, Reading the Others (RSRO) was the most recent event associated with Ni Hao – Dia Duit. I collaborated with Thomas O’Connor, whose participation in the project dates back to 2007. For this project, we encouraged the Chinese community in Ireland to submit images of themselves to be viewed and interpreted by others.

A series of articles published (November – December 2009) in the Sun Emerald, the largest Irish Chinese weekly newspaper (8) functioned as informal workshops ‘on the page’ and covered various topics such as the construction and reading of meanings through and in photographs and interactions in karaoke rooms in Chinese restaurant. These newspaper pieces served to motivate members of the Chinese community to participate in the project. Submitted images were exhibited in a photographic exhibition that became part of Dublin City Council’s 2010 Chinese New Year Festival (12 – 21 Feb. 2010, in different locations of the city). The photographs in the show portrayed the various ways in which the Chinese viewed themselves and the Irish.

Encounter 3. During its one-week exhibition run, (14 – 20 Feb. 2010, 15 West Essex St.) RSRO featured daily talks organized around various

themes. In one of the talks on dating practices, a young Chinese participant responded to a question by an Irish teenager on how one would ask a Chinese girl out, by going into a long lecture on the responsibility associated with dating a Chinese girl, including a list of duties to be observed / performed (such as protecting the girl, anticipating her anxieties, fears etc), and expectations to be met before courting should begin. These sentiments were, however, not totally shared by the other Chinese present. To someone brought up in a ‘western’ cultural background, these sentiments would appear as conservative, patriarchal (a view affirmed by at least one Irish member of the audience), perhaps even overbearing and oppressive. However, for the Chinese, a foremost consideration in life – a message drummed in from a young age – is a sense of responsibility, to one’s parents and family; one’s self or one’s country. Thus someone from a similar cultural background would likely interpret the sentiments expressed by the young Chinese man as showing responsibility; consideration and care for others – something akin to chivalry.

Intersubjective meanings – building blocks of relationships. From this encounter we see that meanings are made based on ‘subjectivities’ in play – along with judgments based on a person’s received values, experiences and background.

In my practice, I place a great importance on giving enough time and space for positive inter-subjective meanings to form between participants. Rash judgment would foreclose the development of further engagement. For example, individuals viewpoints are not only closely linked to one’s cultural context, but also to the economic and social conditions that creates certain expediencies – such as when a Chinese female participant expressed that she is less likely to date for fun, due to the fact that she feels she has the responsibility to care and provide for her parents and siblings.

Conclusion. To some extent my approach can be related to the type of ‘dialogical aesthetics’ Grant Kester has set out in texts such as Conversation Pieces: Community and Communication in Modern Art (9), which stress a sensitivity to the role of inter-subjective meanings in creating collaborative relationships.

However when working across cultural differences – both in terms within and between cultures – there are some difficulties in relation to the application of this theory. This is due to the extent of the differences of knowledge and viewpoints internalized by an individual’s subjectivity. These differences –such as in ascribing meaning to a particular term or type of behaviour – can be revealed during the process of communicating across social and cultural groups.

In my case, I found that in order to communicate with the Chinese community in Dublin – a group who I found had no previous knowledge or experience of participation in cross-cultural art activities, that it was not sufficient for me to merely initiate conversations with them. I also had to supplement these with supportive visual and textual materials and contextual experiences. To be effective, these activities needed to build upon continuity – therefore acting as a capacity building process, producing inter-subjective meanings that would in themselves allow further inter-subjective understandings and relationships to evolve.

Overall, my art-led creative process aims to encourage participants to question their own viewpoints and subjectivities; and encourage the envisioning of alternatives and new possibilities. This experience-based process is informed by interdisciplinary (communicative and anthropological) methods and a cross-sectoral approach and not by a ‘modernist’ approach that often employs avant-garde acts of intervention and top-down communication. The interventions in my process are negotiated after an introduction to and explanation of my intentions during the initial phase of encounters.

Jay Koh Notes 1. A longer version of this text can be read under this link http://ifima.net/IFIMA/personal/ Introduction%20to%20a%20Dialogical%20Practice.htm 2.Parnell Street, Dublin used to be a neglected area connected to drug trade in the 90s.

Migrants begin to move in attracted to the low cost infra structure and since the mid 2005 evolved into a vibrant and unofficial Chinatown of Dublin.

3.’Fronts’, is a sociological term coined by Goffman, Erving reprint 1990. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Penguin Books (Chapter 1: Performances) to denote the everyday performance put forth by individual and group to create meanings for the others 4.Uncertainty Reduction Theory is put forth by Berger, C.R. And Calabrese, R.J. to deconstruct the communication stage of the initial socialization process between strangers.

5.Gemma Corradi Fiumara, The Other Side of Language: A Philosophy of Language, translated by Charles Lambert (London: Routledge, 1990), p.9, 23, 26.

6. Haggard, E. A., & Isaacs, K. S. (1966). Micro-momentary facial expressions as indicators of ego mechanisms in psychotherapy. In L. A. Gottschalk & A. H. Auerbach (Eds.), Methods of Research in Psychotherapy (pp. 154-165). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts 7. This project is a collaboration with ICCSA with support from the Artist in Community scheme from the Arts Council managed by CREATE - Ireland 8. Sun Emerald, the largest Irish Chinese weekly newspaper, articles can be viewed under this link http://ifima.net/IFIMA/personal/Reading%20Self,%20Reading%20Others.htm 9. Kester, Grant 2004. Conversation Pieces: Community and Communication in Modern Art. University of California Press.

18

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

May – June 2010

profile My engagement with the art world, either as a curator, artist, or writer has always been about opening up opportunities for artists and audiences in as wide and varied a way as possible: giving new artists the chance to show their work; bringing international art to Ireland that would otherwise not get shown; showing Irish art on an international stage. Throughout Northern Ireland’s troubled history, it was important to have cultural exchanges where people could learn to respect and understand different cultures, religions and ways of life. It was imperative to see beyond the political and geographical borders, to be aware of how large and diverse the world was outside our tiny shores.

My own practice was informed by moving away to create a space for reflection on concerns about the politics of place and to explore

Phil Hession …a stranger I came… Taiwan, video, 10min 30sec, 2010

Clodagh Lavelle Other Logic Installation view, 2009

questions of identity, society and cultural convention. The more I travelled, the more I realised just how changeable borders are. The borders between countries, between high art and popular culture, between painting, television, dance and comedy are all being questioned.

The type of artists I wanted for the show were ones who were willing to break down borders, artists who had demonstrated an interest in having their work seen in different ways and from different cultural perspectives. I did not want to bring out some kind of survey show to Taiwan; I wanted a show that would come from here and engage with people there. I ended up with a wide range of artists, some well-established having exhibited nationally and internationally for over twenty five years, others making names for themselves and several who had already represented Ireland and Northern Ireland at the Venice Biennale and Sao Paulo Biennale. Others are young artists emerging at the cutting edge of contemporary practice.

Susan MacWilliam Dermo Optics Video, colour, stereo, 4min 9sec, 2006

Allen Hughes Nagraphobia Photographic print on PVC, 2010

In the end, the artists I chose to work with were Lisa Byrne, Ian Charlesworth, Phil Hession, Allan Hughes, Clodagh Lavelle, Susan MacWilliam, Justin McKeown, Philip Napier, Peter Richards and Victor Sloan. The next step in putting the exhibition together was to look for funding. 2009 was not the best time to do this with a recession starting to bite. Luckily, Culture Ireland had the vision and generosity to back the project and provided funding for travel and transportation of the work. The venue had agreed to offer accommodation, technical assistance and promotion but then also got funding from the Council for Cultural Affairs, Taiwan that funded a catalogue and full-page advertisements in the two main Taiwanese art magazines as well as some beautiful old-fashioned posters.

It was now time to organise the transportation of work. The artists

The artists and curator at the opening of the exhibition.

Victor Sloan Stop 16 Lambdachrome prints on dibond, each 37.3 x 55.88cm, 1979-2010

From Napoleon's Nose

Brian Kennedy profiles ‘A View from Napoleon’s Nose’ an exhibition by Northern Irish artists held at the Kao Yuan Arts Centre, Kao Yuan University, Taiwan.

were aware of the limitations regarding size and weight and they all responded well, being realistic about exactly what we could transport.

Three of us, Phil Hession, Victor Sloan and myself arranged to travel to Taiwan to install the show. Victor took most of his images in his checkin luggage; Phil was scheduled to do a performance out there so he was asked to bring out the video projectors. I brought out the remainder of Victor’s images and Philip Napier’s work in my checked luggage. My carry-on luggage included the videos and a disc with Allan Hughes’

I am on a tropical island smaller than Ireland and on the other side of

image that would be printed out there. The rest of the work was posted

the world but with a population of 23 million. Artist Phil Hession is

out. There was a contingency plan that if some work was lost in transit

teaching a group of aboriginal people how to sing the chorus of an Irish

then we would email large file images out and print them there;

song. Between the singing, one man is wailing that his wife will beat

thankfully, we didn’t need to do this.

him when he returns home. It turns out that this particular tribe are the

On arrival, we had one week to install the show and it took all of

one matriarchal aboriginal tribe in Taiwan; they live on the remote and

it. The greatest difficulty was the installation of the video work. We

wild East coast of the island.

thought that by bringing our own video projectors we would simplify

How does an artist or curator end up in such a remote place? Well,

the installation but we found ourselves in a country that does not know

it started over ten years ago when one Chin-ming came to Ireland to

what a SCART lead is. It was only through Phil’s determination that we

take part in an exhibition called ‘HorseHead’ that in turn had originated

managed to get all the videos working.

in Seattle. I was in both shows but never actually met Chin-ming. An

The exhibition opened in the afternoon and was followed by a

artist friend, however, had met him and when I met this artist again

formal lecture. That night Phil did his performance. He had been

when doing a residency in Melbourne, we made contact with Chin-

teaching three Taiwanese people to sing an Irish song and that gave rise

ming who, by this time, was teaching and running an arts centre in

to good contacts with various people. After his performance, Phil sang another song and was joined by some aboriginal artists who were doing

Penghu, a group of small islands between the main island of Taiwan and China.

Caption

residencies at the university. By the end of the night there was a rich cultural mix of singing and dancing.

I kept up my contact with Chin-ming and when he moved to a

promote Northern Irish artists internationally, Peter was very interested

large university in Kaohsiung he asked me to do a solo show there in

in the gallery becoming involved in touring a show to Taiwan that

2009. As well as doing the show, I did a series of lectures, one of these

would offer an international exhibition opportunity to local artists.

Over the course of the evening I made contact with a curator who specialised in curating aboriginal art; she also ran a gallery on the east

lectures was at Kao Yuan Arts Centre that is part of Kao Yuan University.

As an artist and independent curator, I find it is important to get

coast. She asked Phil and I to travel out to the east coast with her to see

I really liked the gallery spaces at the venue. Professor Lee, who I met

the backing of an institution, whether a gallery, studio organisation,

the gallery and visit an old sugar factory that was now been used as

there, had previously been the director of the Kaohsiung museum and

university or whatever, as this helps with applying for funding as well

studio spaces by aboriginal artists.

I proposed the idea of doing an exhibition from Ireland or Northern

as administration, transport of work, design and production of

I was also asked to give a talk about the exhibition in Kao Yuan

Ireland in his arts centre. The exhibition ‘A View from Napoleon’s

invitations and catalogues. It’s also good to have colleagues to discuss

Arts Centre and Phil was asked to sing. That is how I ended up outdoors,

Nose’ has its origins in that conversation.

the project with as it evolves. I started to talk over the names of possible

giving a Power Point presentation in the rain under large umbrellas,

On my return to Belfast I met with Peter Richards, Director of the

artists with Peter. One of the good things about curating an exhibition

chewing beetle nut and drinking 58 (named because of its alcoholic

Golden Thread Gallery. I have worked with the gallery for many years

is thinking about the artists one wants to be involved. For me, this also

strength) listening to aboriginal voices singing the chorus of an Irish

and before I left for Taiwan had talked to Peter about the possibility of

shapes the exhibition as I prefer the art to lead the show rather than it

song.

developing contacts with Taiwan. In keeping with the gallery’s aim to

being driven by some obscure curatorial idea.

Brian Kennedy

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

19

May – June 2010

Profile

Artists of the Round Table Patricia Doyle profiles the Tondo artists group

Tondo exhibition installation view.

Eve Parnell – work from the Tondo exhibition.

Lioubov Kadyrova Petals

Gerard Cox Centre of the Universe

Visual Artist Ireland’s peer critique workshops are an acknowledgement of a situation well-known to many artists. Even those working in communal studio spaces may experience isolation in the necessary solitude of their practice; and thus from time to time be in need of practical communication and feedback (of the constructive sort, of course) from other artists about their work. It was from just such a VAI peer-critique workshop that the group Tondo sprung – thus realising an oft-expressed hope of the hosts that the sessions would foster continued peer support among participants. The founding members of this group decided to continue to meet in order to both support each other in their individual practices and, in addition, to make collaborative work.

The Tondo artists, Gerard Cox, Liubov Kadyrova, Eoin Mac Lochlainn and Eve Parnell, work in a variety of media and have exhibited work both in solo and group shows in the past. However, their inaugural group exhibition, entitled ‘Tondo @ Pearse Street Library’ (3 – 27 Feb 2010) was particularly notable in that it evolved from a sustained collaborative exploration of ideas over a period of time.

As the group explained in their press release (1), the name Tondo was chosen because of their round table discussions, the proving of ideas through discussion being a central element of their impetus. The word tondo is derived from the Italian ‘rotondo’ meaning round. As a group, they are interested in exhibiting work in alternative spaces. The reason being, that one of Tondo’s key aims is to reach out to audiences outside of the art world. To this end, they seek out unusual and interesting places for their collaborative exhibitions. Tondo’s inaugural group exhibition was held in the Dublin Room at the Pearse Street Library in February 2010. For those who do not know it, the Pearse Street Library is a rather beautiful building of classical proportions with high ceilings and large windows, making for a wonderfully lightfilled space.

Tondo described how, when they discovered this room, they knew immediately that they wanted to make work to respond to it (2).

Initially, they formulated plans to hang work from the ceiling, to use the height of the space to its best advantage. The group discussed the use of muslin and thread and so on, before finally settling on rice paper, feeling that its delicate texture and slightly translucent appearance would work well in harmonising the various works. Also via discussion at meetings, the group tossed around different ideas and themes while continuing to experiment with rice paper. Gradually a body of work emerged which was to be the core of their first collaborative exhibition.

They had also settled on a Pearse-related theme, with each artist approaching it from a unique standpoint.

Tondo artist and Noel Kelly at the opening of the Tondo exhibition.

The group has stated (3) that as individuals, they were hoping that the process would inspire new directions for each person’s own work, while at the same time being beneficial to the group. As they progressed, they found that it became an increasingly integrated process as each person’s strengths were appreciated and a true spirit of collaboration was developed. The group found that they had to change plans when they discovered that, as the venue was a listed building, they would not be allowed to attach anything to the walls or ceiling. Instead, they used the floor space and display boards. Tondo acknowledge that as they continue to make work for various alternative art spaces, they expect that they will often encounter challenges like this. While the staff in Pearse Street Library were justly proud and protective of their space, they were also very helpful to the group at every stage of the process.

The work shown at Tondo’s inaugural exhibition included drawing, painting, sculpture and installation – all investigating various aspects of the legacy of Pádraig Pearse and its relevance in the present day. Noel Kelly, CEO / Director of VAI, opened the exhibition and noted a sense of togetherness prevailing throughout, a sense, he said, that the works “breathed in unison”. This was not only due to a unity of materials used in the drawings / paintings (most of which were on rice paper) and a fine use of the space – but also, it was clear, to the energy of purpose which brought them together.

In his statement for the exhibition, Gerard Cox mentioned a visit to St Enda’s House, Rathfarnham. This is the house to which Pearse moved his bi-lingual school for boys in 1910. Cox says he was struck by the quality of the light in the building, particularly Pearse’s office.

What first appeared to be a dark room seemed to radiate with a green

light reflected from the trees outside. This was something which Eve Parnell had also noticed and made use of in her installation in St. Enda’s in the summer of 2009 – in a work which framed the green light of upper-storey windows and at the same time physically (or psychically) prevented access to it by the viewer, utilising the space to explore ideas of freedom and restraint.

Cox described making a woodblock print in response to his experience of St. Enda’s; and in his other drawing / print works in the exhibition, he also pondered what Pearse would have made of “our history, culture and tradition... eaten up and spit out by a raging Celtic tiger with a thorn in his paw” (4). Cox concluded that Pearse, who was a visionary, a poet and at the same time a practical man of action would have gone to his library to seek out Sun-Tzu’s The Art of War, a classic text on military strategy. In the talk which Cox gave some days after the opening, the artist drew an analogy between the contemplative and creative nature of repetitive mark-making in his drawings; and the repetition of movements used by Asian warriors in preparing mentally and physically for battle.

Eve Parnell made pencil and charcoal drawings on rice paper, which were loosely representational landscapes, but were hung portraitstyle, curling off the support onto the floor. Thus, viewing the drawings required a physical engagement on the part of the viewer (turning this way and that to make ‘sense’ of the landscape) and drew attention to the space itself, the fragile rice paper flowing out, beyond normal, safe confines and the edge where two dimensional becomes three. Parnell, in her statement, said that the energy and joy of drawing was her ultimate concern as has always been the case “from the charcoal drawings of Cro-Magnon man through to the political and artistic upheavals of our own centuries” (5). There was a joyous, organic quality to the drawings shown, expressing the thrust of life on and with the paper breaking free of boundaries.

Liubov Kadyrova explained that her work explores the relationship between “drawing and word; word and image; image and drawing” (6). She was interested in Pearse’s fascination with mythology and his belief that language is an important part of identity. In her strong images, which she says emerged over an extended period of research and drawing, she focused on simple narrative images (fusing Ulster mythology and Russian folk tales), concentrating on images of a girl and a dog, which she noted “both represent waiting. Waiting is not just a passive state of mind and body... Waiting represents a gradual accumulation of power and anger”. There were links here between the calm of the military strategist and his ultimate aim, and the artist’s long, considered gestation of fiercely personal work.

Eoin Mac Lochlainn’s work for this exhibition comprised vibrant drawings and paintings of a scarecrow rising from a scarified landscape and a striking installation-piece, towering over the other works (and indeed, visible to commuters on buses passing by the large library windows). Mac Lochlainn noted in his statement on the work that in his poem, The Fool, Pearse was aware that his vision of the 1916 Rising was possibly foolhardy – but he and his comrades were determined to take a stand to bring hope to a downtrodden people. In literature, the idea of the fool is often that of a wild and unpredictable character unencumbered by normal conventions, frequently ridiculed and yet playing the crucial role of speaking the truth when others are in denial or in fear. Mac Lochlainn’s fools / scarecrows thus embodied the foolish or comical characteristics of their type yet are also heroic, human, the guardians of green spaces.

I hope I have given some idea here of the force and commitment of the Tondo group, both in terms of their first exhibition and the artists themselves. There is always a need for new approaches and nowadays artists often have to make their own opportunities. There is no doubt that collaboration with other artists obliges one to clarify ones thoughts about work and to home in on what is important. The individuals who make up the Tondo group are of varying ages and experience and at different stages in the development of their careers. They believe that this has added greatly to the group dynamics and ensures there is always a refreshing element of surprise at their meetings. They have taken a difficult and brave step in coming out of their solitariness to engage in a discourse that is clearly both energetic and energising in terms of creativity and might well influence others to take a step in a similar direction.

Patricia Doyle During the month of July, Tondo is holding an exhibition on the platform and in the waiting room of the McBride Railway Station in Drogheda, Co Louth.

Notes 1. Press release ‘Tondo @ Pearse Street Library’ 3 – 27 February, 2010. The Dublin Room, Pearse St. Library, 138 – 144 Pearse Street, Dublin 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid 4. Ibid 5. Ibid

Gallen Community School Public Art Commission The Board of Management of Gallen Community School Ferbane, Co.Offaly, wishes to commission a Permanent Outdoor Sculpture which is to be funded by the Department of Education and Science under the percent for art scheme.

The budget for the design, supply, ground works, installation, and fix of this project is â‚Ź58.000 inclusive of all costs, expenses, VAT, insurance and other charges.

Selection is a two stage open submission process.

Closing date for Stage one is 11 June 2010.

Full details and application forms available from our school website www.gallencs.com Any queries can be emailed to Mrs .Ursula Finnegan, Deputy Principal E: fccdpr@eircom.net

22

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

May – June 2010

FOCUS

Jennie Moran, Hospitality under Duress performance & installation at 'Lean-To'

Anthony Haughey How to be a Model Citizen2008.

Practice Makes Perfect

Jennie Guy considers some of the various meanings of hospitality in THE artworld This text draws attention to a selected range of artistic and curatorial situations in the art world that involve hospitality – both in terms of its presence or absence. For the purposes of this article I’ve deliberately chosen to focus on local projects, while briefly referencing a few international examples to provide context.

An obvious and somewhat ‘artless’ version comes first. There is a seemingly superficial dimension of hospitality that sets the stage for every exhibition one might attend. Imagine the conditions that generate physical or social discomfort that could make it difficult to engage with an artwork or exhibition. Maybe it’s a cold and damp space; or the wine has run out? Maybe it’s a video work and the seating in the gallery space is uncomfortable? Or perhaps you never received an invitation to the event, so you’re not sure whether you are really welcome?

The hospitality in question here and the provision of hospitality required might be seen as a rather low-level or mundane matter. Yet it is exactly these types of factors and situations that are of interest to many art world professionals who work with concepts of hospitality as a key factor in their methodologies.

Consider the recent exhibition ‘Lean-to’, curated by Rosie Lynch, which took place over seven evenings last February at Commonplace Studios in Dublin. ‘Lean-to’ focused on themes of nomadism and places of temporary shelter, directly employing references to hospitality as a conceptual tool implicit in both the artworks on show and the curatorial event in which the works found their context. Moreover, the exhibition sought to address each viewer as a hybrid form of nomad / guest who were sent personalised invitations to come and visit and participate in the exhibition.

Entering ‘Lean-to’, I was able to activate artworks on exhibit such as Superfolk and Jo Anne Butler’s site-specific seating arrangement – which doubled as a plinth for more static works. Jennie Moran, an artist who specifically uses her practice to provide moments of hospitality was continually present in the exhibition space. Through her installation, Hospitality Under Duress, Moran offered cups of garlicky-herby soup. This gesture was less about offering a moment of culinary delight – where ingredients are harnessed together to create a memorable taste sensation – but more significantly, it was a successful and conscious construct that allowed a poor wanderer (me) to sit, eat, stay warm and to activate an intermittently peopled space. Moreover, the act of accepting sustenance provided a ‘temporal-experiential platform’ that encouraged me to take time to absorb other works on exhibit, such as Sarah Lincoln’s drawing of explorers wandering poetically off-page.

Another venture-venue that actively invested in such explicit gestures of hospitality and their importance in nurturing an art community was thisisnotashop in Dublin. At this small, not-for-profit gallery (which has sadly departed for New York), acts of hospitality seemed to be inscribed in their programming. I recall the pancakes with maple syrup on offer on a Sunday morning amongst the activities of their Writing Workshop (March 2008). It’s an approach that echoes Gordon Matta-Clark and his seminal restaurant Food – which was not only a place to eat, but a place for a small community of artists to meet, work (to earn money) and produce new artworks in a corner of New York City (1). This dematerialized, yet hospitable, approach to art making makes me think also of Studio Orta, who since 2006 have hosted a series ‘viral dinner parties’ through their project 70 x 7 The Meal, which they use as a platform and discussion forum for a range of social, economic and political issues (2).

In my own practice – that utilizes both curatorial and art-making methodologies – I often make use of hospitality in a similar way, inviting people into comfortable temporal installations and spaces that open them up to more durational works. This formal act of

hospitality can lead to an unconscious opening of the audience’s attention span. This overt demonstration of hospitality is also a framework for establishing a mutual respect between artists, curators, and their audience. The act of establishing this respect alludes to a form of exhibition-making that invites the audience in through simple, familiar gestures, instead of excluding them by highlighting their lack of familiarity with current art vocabularies and thematics.

In these situations, creating an informal atmosphere does not indicate a lack of serious intent; it merely posits a different strategy for communicating a potentially complex set of ideas (3).

Hospitality can also be established through an artist’s mere presence. Consider Louise Ward’s recent exhibition ‘Nightlight’ in Market Studios, (March 2010) in which Ward transformed the interior space of the gallery into a giant refuse sack within which she sought to “archive accidental, coincidental, and temporal experiences in everyday life” (4). To this end, Ward organised Livestock, an informal temporal event within this physical and conceptual exhibition framework, comprised of cross-disciplinary performances, readings, and soundbased works. During this event, Ward’s constant presence established her intent by creating a framework to sustain human encounters with audience members and participating artists. The frequent encounters between artist and viewer (host and guest) were tangible amongst the audience, rendering her methodology visible as a hospitable form of participatory research.

Anthony Haughey’s participatory project How to be a Model Citizen (2008) at the Dublin City Council’s Civic offices on Wood Quay illustrates another take on hospitality. Haughey’s approach in this work was strategic – tearing apart and laying bare assumptions about hospitality in both philosophical and political terms. In the course of How to be a Model Citizen, the artist temporarily placed members of the non-Irish national community in positions of authority within the council’s organisation structure. Haughey’s project participants handed out questionnaires on Irish Citizenship to members of the Irish public visiting Civic offices for a myriad of different purposes – these subjects found themselves waiting in seats, merely a number on a chair partaking in a test about ‘Irishness’. Most of them failed. In this work, Haughey was concerned with exposing a lack of state hospitality and used the notion as a portal from which to observe political and social relationships – in this case, the Irish state as a ‘host’ and its relationship to non-Irish citizens. In a work such as this we are invited to interrogate instances of inequality that may exist between host and guest, that there is much at stake when assumed ‘equalities’ are absent.

Having discussed hospitality as an artistic tool and as a political and social device, what about hospitality as an organisational responsibility, a necessary cog in the wheel of any functioning curatorial vision? No matter how avant-garde their origins or outlook, curatorial ambitions will fail unless certain routine practicalities of hospitality are taken into consideration. Take, for example, the first year of the Gracelands festival in November, 2008. This one-day, outdoor contemporary art event curated by Vaari Claffey took place in the remote fields just outside of Dromahair, Co. Leitrim. Despite this unfamiliar location, this event was consciously planned to attract a specific contemporary art audience distributed throughout Ireland (and abroad). I was commissioned to act as the ‘Curator of Hospitalities’, a role which entailed my facilitating the logistics and communications related to travel and accommodation that would ensure that this specific audience could experience this unique programme of screenings, performance, sculpture and installations. By staying in constant contact with both the participating artists and the audience regarding these practical details, I provided a personalized point of contact for the festival, supporting Claffey behind the scenes and

Studio Orta (Lucy + Jorge Orta) 70 x 7 The Meal, act L City of London, 2006-2050.

enabling her to focus on the actual content of Gracelands. From a logistical perspective, when an audience makes an effort to journey or stay overnight, this form of hospitality is absolutely essential. Train and bus times; hotel vacancies; along with factoring in dark and wintry locations become crucial curatorial considerations.

Such a curatorial stance also focuses on the importance of showing hospitality to the artists involved in the exhibition. Bringing an artist to a given site is one thing; making them comfortable is different again – proving that hospitality often occurs as an invisible force, a behind-the-scenes strategy. Think of all the junctures within the setup of any exhibition or event in which some form of hospitality takes place. These are all the sites of invisible power dynamics that determine how we as artists (and curators) operate in a functional community. For example, if an artist meets a curator for coffee, who pays for the coffee? Or if X invites Y over to their house to discuss a project, do they offer dinner? If an international curator comes to Dublin and wants to do studio-visits, who brings them from door to door? There are so many behind the scenes gestures of hospitality to be considered.

These concerns extend to the larger institution’s responsibilities within the contemporary art world. It is easy to grumble about such institutions putting on lavish dinners, but what are the repercussions on the art world if grand social gatherings do not take place? Shouldn’t an institution such as IMMA(5) make the people they work with and for (audiences and artists) comfortable? And if they don’t, who will? A potential lack of hospitality would threaten the perceived authority that is fundamental to such an institution’s very existence.

These are just some of the reasons why the subject of hospitality is so fascinating to me. Issues of hospitality are always at play within the spheres of contemporary art – even though we may not see it.

When hospitality becomes visible, it is all the more relevant, particularly when it is more formally realised and acknowledged, either in the ideology of an artwork or when incorporated within curatorial or institutional considerations.

Jennie Guy www.jennieguy.com Notes (1) Food was founded by Matta-Clark in 1971 and was host to many art / food performances.

(2) 70 x 7 The Meal, initiated in London is a complex set of dinner parties that aims to examine society on economic, social and political levels via placing large sets of deliberately invited individuals from a range of socio-economic, multi-disciplinary backgrounds. (2006 onwards). http://studio-orta.com/artwork_list.php (3) For example, for my project A Salon (Studio 6, Temple Bar Galleries & Studios, 22 – 24 June 2008) comprised of the installation of a domestic salon-type environment within a studio space, within which an invited selection of Irish and international visual, performance and sound artists and writers presented works. The space altered daily with an emphasis on the site of art as being a place where the spoken word, communality and the production of knowledge took precedence. The audience could lie or sit comfortably, touch and engage with most artworks as one might in a home environment. Participants: Anonymous, Mark Clare, Padraic E. Moore, J.P.Donleavy, Jessamyn Fiore, Jessica Foley, Ben Geoghegan, Jennie Guy, Russell Hart, Sarah Hurl, Mit Jai-Inn, Susan MacWilliam, Adam McEwen, Vanessa Marsh, Kitty Rogers, Laurie Schneider, Susan Thomson. www.jennieguy.com (4) Louise Ward; Artist statement for Nightlife; http://themarketstudios.wordpress.com (5) There is a half-serious pun / point to be made here about IMMA being housed with the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

23

May – June 2010

Opportunities

Opportunities Job Vacancies JOBS RHA Volunteers The Royal Hibernian Academy is currently seeking volunteers to work as front of house assistants in the gallery. Volunteers would be required to familiarise themselves with exhibitions, be able to offer assistance or answer any questions from visitors, answer the phones, deal with any sales from the bookshop and sales of artworks, invigilate on larger exhibitions when required, ensure the exhibitions are all in good order; the spaces kept tidy and the required equipment and lighting turned on, and other administrative duties.

Qualified candidates should possess a love and appreciation of art, a flexible attitude for dealing effectively with the public, basic computer skills, and an understanding that reliability is critical. Fluency in spoken and written English is essential.

Volunteers are asked to commit a minimum of one day per week for no less than two months. The front of house daily shift is from 11am-7pm Tuesday-Friday and 2 – 5pm on Sunday. Interested candidates should submit their CVs with a covering letter to: Email info@rhagallery.ie Studios STUDIOS Pallas Grangegorman Pallas Studios have spaces available in their Grangegorman Road premises, just minutes from Smithfield Square / Luas and Manor street, Stoneybatter. Spaces are 24 hr secure access, have on-street parking and plenty of room for bicycle parking outside!

Rent €185 euros per month – including wireless broadband internet. email info@pallasstudios.org Address Pallas Studios Grangegorman Road Lower, Stoneybatter, Dublin 7 Web www.pallasstudios.org Brunswick Mill Studios Studio available immediately in Brunswick Mill Studios in Smithfield. Space measures 10 x 16ft, 183euro a month with internet included. 24 hour access with secure parking.

Telephone 086 3956422 e-mail brunswickmillstudios@gmail. com Nth Great Georges St, D1 Artists studio -renovated basement of a Georgian house.

Approx 15 x 13ft – separate shower room, skylight, windows and door to private patio. Tiled floors, gfch, hot water, elec, broadband connection. All included in the rent. Telecom phone watch security and smoke alarms. Extra belfast sink with taps. Min lease 6 months. €350 per month – negotiable.

Telephone Denise 01 8722285 CottageCo. Leitrim Traditional stone cottage in tranquil location with 2 separate studios available for long term let.

3 acres of land (including its own river, meadow and forest) open rural views, quiet and private.

Perfect for self sufficiency, the land has many chicken huts, a polytunnel and vegetable beds.

Would suit a couple or single person looking for the perfect live/work space. Contact Angela: Email info@angelahope.com Telephone 087 6477 544 Sligo Town Work space available for rent to artist/ craft worker or business.

The space has plenty of natural light with a high ceiling and is adjacent to a private outdoor yard.

All services are available. This centrally located space is 36 sq. meter/405sq. ft., with a secure private entrance.

Telephone: 086 8099022.

a 2-bedroom top floor flat to share with another artist. (€510 per month excl. bills). Spacious studio in adjacent Georgian building available. (€160 per month incl. bills).

Telephone 0857034201 Temple Bar Formerly Crow Gallery, 6 Crow Street, Temple Bar. Dublin 2.

Attractive 1st floor, glass fronted bright and cheerful space, small but perfectly formed, plus kitchen and toilets. Suitable for Office/ Studio/ Gallery/Retail. Short lease if required.

Telephone Pat: (01) 677 4234 Space54, Dublin Studio and Hot Desks at Space54 in Smithfield. Artist Studio 5–4 sq metres. Spacious and bright studio with a beautiful drawing desk is available now for only €60 a week. Four hot desks going for 180 a month each. The hot desk is a communal artist space in our new building.

Email spacefiftyfour@gmail.com Telephone Shane: 086 3825302 / Francesca: 087 7662718 Dublin 1 Studio space to rent in Dublin 1.

Ground floor, 25sq m, hight ceilings in victorian building, very central location, close to LUAS, DART and bus routes.

Studio has been recently refurbished and could suits 1-3 artists. Rent €400 a month.

Internet, heating and alarm monitoring included.

Web www.madartstudio.com Telephone Hubert at 0872968653 Flat & Studio Double bedroom in spacious, quiet and well lit Georgian flat with floor to ceiling windows, fireplace and great views. To let in a 2-bedroom top floor flat to share with another artist (510 per month excl. bills). Spacious studio in adjacent Georgian building available (€160 per month incl. bills.)

Telephone 0857034201

Studio 9, Dublin A studio space is available to rent at Studio 9 on North Great Georges Street, Dublin 1. Large size, high ceilings with communal outdoor area. Rent: €150 includes electricity bills & broadband. For more information please contact: Telephone Alan on: +353 868260989 Email jroconnell2002@yahoo.co.uk

Studio Share, Sligo Third artist required to share artist’s studio on Main Street, Enniscrone, Co Sligo. Available from 1 May 2010. Rent €120 per month. For details contact: Telephone 087-6535638 Email mheemskerk@eircom.net

Flat & Studio Dublin Double bedroom in spacious, quiet and well lit Georgian flat with floor to ceiling windows, fireplace and great views. To let in

Studios, Dublin Studios (Rooms) to Rent, City Centre.

Telephone 087 2506144

Budapest Short term affordable live /work space for artist interested in opportunity to develop creatively in a new, vibrant artistic environment. The large, bright 2 roomed self contained space is in a unique classic building shared by other artists and creatives, located in the city centre. Budapest is internationally recognised for its cultural & artistic life, of benefit to any artist searching for creative inspiration. Available from mid May-mid August. For further details: Telephone 086 6047599 Residential Studios Applications are welcome for two residential studios, which will become available in February and March 2011. Fire Station Artists’ Studios, Dublin offer city centre subsidised residential studios for professional visual artists. The studios are let from a period of between one year and two years nine months. International artists may apply for shorter periods.

Resident artists have free access to high end computers, software, WiFi, technical expertise & support and also subsidised access to digital equipment. Selection panel includes Fire Station representatives, 2 external curators and an independent artist.

Web www.firestation.ie Email artadmin@firestation.ie Telephone 01 8069010 Deadline 9 June 2010, 4pm Seeking Office / Studio Independent exhibition curator/ artist agent looking for office/ studio space in Dublin city, preferably in the Temple bar area.

Artist-lead environment would be ideal but would consider all offers. Contact Olivier Cornet at: Email ocornet@indigo.ie Telephone 0872887261.

Residencies RESIDENCIES Seacourt Seacourt Print Workshop, Down seeks an artist demonstrating knowledge and understanding of non toxic approaches to printmaking and at least 2 years professional printmaking experience, for a 12-week Artist Residency beginning 6 September 2010. Artist fee of £3000.00 paid in installments. Application forms and information available from our website. Completed applications must arrive by 4.00pm, 28 May 2010. This residency is funded by North Down Borough Council Telephone

+44 (0) 28 91460595 Email info@seacourt-ni.org.uk Web www.seacourt-ni.org.uk residencies/residencies.htm Cill Rialaig Residency Applications invited from practising artists for residency award (2-4 weeks) at the Cill Rialaig Retreat on Bolus Head, near Ballinskelligs, Co Kerry.

From October 2010 onwards.

Residencies are rent-free.

Application fee E40 euro.

Email Mary O’ Connor cillrialaigartsgmail.com.

Banff Thematic The Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada is currently accepting applications to a number of its 2010 and 2011 visual arts Thematic Residencies as follows: ‘The distance between our minds and thoughts equals the distance between our words and mouths’ with Jan Verwoert. (13 Sept – 29 Oct 2010). Application deadline: 14 May 2010. This residency is about acts, ideas, and emotions that constitute community in a different manner, through enacted difference and standing apart together.‘Revolution 2012’ with Adrian Stimson (5 Jan – to 22 Feb 2011). Application deadline: 31 August 2010. First Nations, Métis, and Inuit artists will conduct critical and reflective research. ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It?’ with Ashley Neese (Jan – Feb 2011). Application deadline: 31 August 2010. A residency dedicated to the investigation, critique, and cultivation of love in contemporary art. For details of the above please contact The Banff Centre at: Telephone 001 403 7626100 Email arts_info@banffcentre.ca Web www.banffcentre.ca/va Deadlines Various, see above Curatorial Residency Context Gallery offers an opportunity for an individual curator to visit Northern Ireland to research contemporary visual art produced in Northern Ireland and the North West of Ireland and to build contacts with local artists/curators and galleries. The selected individual will develop an international curatorial project with the Context Gallery being one of the host venues for the show in 2011. It is envisaged that the resulting project would involve a minimum of 50 participants working in the north of Ireland. This pilot programme is open to all individual curators worldwide with professional experience in organizing and curating projects based in contemporary visual arts.

The residency is set up with open travel periods based over a sixmonth period with a budget for travel, accommodations and a research fee. Travel arrangements will be agreed between the individual and the gallery but it is envisaged that there would be between two and three trips made to Northern Ireland to allow for the necessary research to be carried out. In addition the selected individual would be requested to give a lecture or workshops during one of the research visits. Please include your expression of interest (max 1000 words). Curriculum Vitae, a curatorial statement/bio and examples of previous work to: Address Context Gallery, 5-7 Artillery Street, Derry, N. Ireland.

Telephone 01144 (0)28 713 73538 Website www.contextgallery.co.uk Email director@contextgallery.co.uk Deadline 22 May 2010 Exhibitions Ireland EXHIBS IRELAND Sol Art Dublin New gallery on Dawson Street, Sol Art Dublin is looking for submissions from professional sculptors. Please send your submissions with images, bio and your prices to: Email info@solart.ie.

Halloween Arts Thurles Halloween Arts Festival seeking visual artists to exhibit at its festival. Our festival runs from 25 – 31 October 2010 in various locations around Thurles. We will provide space and advertising for all exhibitions and will pay travel expenses and a budget restricted artists fee. Our festival is growing every year and we expect huge crowds to attend our event this year. We are very open to any type of artwork and exhibit and would be thrilled to hear from anybody wishing to get involved in our week long arts festival.

Email jimryanproperty@eircom.net Telephone Jim Ryan 086 2397376 Brigit’s Garden ‘Outside:Insight’, site-specific outdoor Exhibition – call for proposals 11 July to 11 September 2010. Brigit’s Garden, Roscahill, Co. Galway in cooperation with Galway Arts Centre. The 3rd annual exhibition begins in parallel with the Festival season in Galway and continues into September. ‘Outside: Insight 2010’ is an annual arts event presented

by Brigit’s Garden and Galway Arts centre, designed to attract a high calibre of artists and present sculpture to a wide audience from

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Opportunities Ireland and abroad. Brigit’s Garden is a not-for-profit project on an 11-acre site near Moycullen, Co. Galway. The gardens are a unique combination of old wisdom and contemporary design. They are themed on the Celtic calendar and are surrounded by woodlands and meadows. The result is a beautiful, tranquil place with a very special atmosphere. We are now seeking submissions, and invite artists to create/submit site specific works that respond to the natural and architectural landscape of the garden and its inherent themes.

Site-specific works will be accepted in a range of materials and forms, including environmental sculpture, light installation, video, performance and sound Web www.brigitsgarden.ie Telephone +353(0)91 550905;/087 2206219 Email jenny@brigitsgarden.ie Deadline 5pm, Friday 14th May 2010 Bicycle Festival Kerry Bicycle Festival which is currently in its 3rd year seeks submissions of both bike related short films and bike themed art works for this year’s festival, which takes place from the 13 – 22 May. Kerry Bicycle Festival is a free festival which brings together a selection of diverse events which aim to celebrate the bicycle. This festival encompasses musical, artistic and outdoor events all of which are free and will take place within the environs of Tralee town.

'Cycling Shorts' – Not the questionable fashion trend of the early 90s, but a night of short films about and featuring bikes, which will be screened in Blennerville on the 14 May during this year’s Kerry Bicycle Festival.

The selected films will also be screened at a viewing post in Siamsa Tire for the duration of the festival. Films should be less than 15 minutes long, and there is an award of €500 for the best entry.Entries on DVD can be sent to: Address Kerry Bicycle Festival, c/o Samhlaiocht, The Old Presbytery, 20 Castle Street, Tralee, Co. Kerry Email filmkerrybicyclefestival.org Deadline 7 May 2010 Frame X 'Frame X' – Due to the success of last year’s exhibition Frame the bicycle themed art exhibition will be returning this year. We are currently seeking submission of all type of art; photography, sculpture, paintings, illustration, audio and installation, which either feature or is inspired by bicycle and cycling. The

exhibition will run in the Siamsa Tíre gallery for the duration of the festival, and there is an award of €500 for the best artwork, as well as an opportunity for artists to sell their work. Please email submissions, proposals and queries to: Email frame@kerrybicyclefestival.org Web www.kerrybicyclefestival.org Deadline 7May

with anyone who wishes to share a message. An Lár TV requires that content be suitable for a general audience and not contain any offensive material. If you have programming content that you would like to broadcast, or have interesting proposals for new content, contact: Email info@anlar.tv Telephone 01 486 5566 Publications Publications

PhizzFest Phizzfest : Phibsborough Community Arts Festival, 9 – 12 September 2010. We welcome ideas and proposals for inclusion in the festival which encompasses the creative arts including music, literature, visual art, and theatre.

We also welcome ideas for our Community Day (street performance, buskers, music etc).

Phizzfest is in its first year and is developing into an exciting and innovative event. We can provide venues, facilitation and support.

However, as always, funding is an issue. Phizzfest cannot guarantee funding for any project. Artists, companies and performers are invited to submit proposals for inclusion in the 2010 Phizzfest For further info and an application form: Email phizzfest@gmail.com Website www.phizzfest.ie Deadline 5pm, 7 May 2010. moving image Moving Image Agent Ria Introducing The Agent Ria, a registered in art online film & video channel hosting current digital media work by artists from the UK and Ireland. Showcasing film, video, documented performance, audio and recital, The Agent Ria provides a platform for invited and selected works, as a viewing station and database.

Recently launched on youtube, each month new work by various artists will be added.

Website w w w. y o u t u b e . c o m / u s e r / registeredinart For submissions, in the first instance, please contact: Email RIAsubs@googlemail.com (with a low-res quicktime movie, or 5(max) still images and a short statement about the work) An Lár TV An Lár TV is a new Irish internet TV channel – www.anlar.tv. As the name suggests, An Lár TV is TV with an Irish Flavour. Their aim is to provide a platform for local Irish communities to share information and entertainment.

An Lár TV’s ethos is one of inclusiveness, and is open to work

Abridged Abridged magazine seems submissions relting to theme of the colour Magnolia – “In the world of colour charts and iconic English sheepdogs, Magnolia represents the fence-sitting hue that neither offends or accosts the senses. Adorning the walls of TurnKey packaged homes of firsttime buyers or haunting the corners of final destination rest homes of howls and despair, Magnolia stalks us from the cradle to the grave. It is the bastard offspring of white: it is the disgraced sibling of beige. It is nothingness yet it is everywhere”.

A maximum of 3 poems may be submitted of any length. Artworks can be up to A4 size and can be in any media – to be submitted as 300 dpi scans. Submissions to: Email abridged@ymail.com Address Abridged c/o The Verbal Arts Centre, Stable Lane and Mall Wall, Bishop Street Within, Derry BT48 6PU. Deadline 21 May Exhibitions International international exhibs Plein-Air, Lithuania The 17th International Painting Plein-Air, Lithuania, 1 – 10 August 2010, Kaunas, Lithuania. The plein-air event is dedicated to Antanas Samuolis – one of the most famous Lithuanian interwar painters and a member of modernists’ group ‘Ars’. We invite professional artists from various countries to represent different painting schools so that they together reveal a common theme of the plein-air. This year’s pleinair will be closely related to a Lithuanian UNESCO heritage site – Kaunas Pažaislis Abbey. Pleinair will take place right in the complex of Pažaislis. The event exhibition, catalogue and trips around Pažaislis are being planned too. The organizers are providing free rooms in the guesthouse of Pažaislis Abbey, full board, canvas and paints. Participants cover their travel expenses. If you wish to participate in the plein-air, please send your CV and photos of your works (or a link to your site) to: Email artkaunas@gmail.com

Deadline 15 June, 2010.

Madrid Process AVAM (Associated Visual Artists of Madrid) with the sponsorship of the Madrid Regional Government, invites proposals for a competition to select four artistic projects for inclusion in Madrid Procesos 10. This open call is an initiative promoted by AVAM and backed by the Madrid Regional Government and aimed at improving the conditions experienced by plastic and visual artists when they are producing and creating work.

The objectives of Madrid Procesos 10 are:To offer the artists collective a platform for the support of coordination and the financing of artist’s productions; To further experimentation and the production process To analyse and draw attention to different models of contemporary artistic production, highlighting the factors which determine its development; To respect the rights of the profession and those of the author; To help Madrid’s artists create and disseminate their work, thereby promoting active international cooperation; The aim of this competition is to select four artistic projects to be undertaken during Madrid Procesos 10 in the following manner: a) Two artistic projects will be produced principally with existing resources in the Madrid Region during a period of approximately five months (JuneOctober 2010). b) Two artistic projects will be produced in Berlin during an exact period of two months (August 15 – October 15 2010).

Artists of any nationality may participate, regardless of age.

Grants available. Details from: Web www.avam.net madridprocesos10/ madridprocesos10_english.htm Funding & Awards Clare Supports 1 The annual Arts Act Grant Forms are now available from the Clare Arts Office. Forms for the Tyrone Guthrie Bursary also available. In addition Clare Arts Office has introduced a new arts forum on its website in which it posts local, national and international opportunities and items of interest in all disciplines.

Individuals can also register with the forum and post their own information or comment on posts. Application forms and details from: Website w w w. c l a r e l i b r a r y. i e / e o l a s / cominfo/arts/artsnews.htm www.clarelibrary.ie/arts.htm Email arts@clarelibrary.ie Telephone 065 6899091

Incubation/ Workspace Dublin City Council invites applications for the award of free incubation / work-space. The award is intended to enable innovative arts companies/ collectives to research and develop new work, over a period of up to six months, through the provision of dedicated workspace in The LAB A small development stipend may also be awarded , dependent on project proposal. The award is intended to enable innovative arts companies/collectives to research and develop new work in a supportive environment. Based in The LAB, the Award provides a free good sized bright work/ rehearsal studio , approx. 64.5m2 . The LAB also provides a shared ‘green room’ facility(basic tea/ coffee making facilities / fridge / microwave). Wireless broadband is available throughout.

Applicants may apply for a minimum of one month up to a maximum of six-months time slot, to fall within the year July 2010 – 11 Deadline 5PM, Friday 21 May 2010 Address Applications to Incubation Space Award, The Lab, Foley St. Dublin 1.

Email Maura.carty@dublincity.ie Telephone 01 – 222 5455 DCC Bursaries Dublin City Council invites applications from artists who wish to be considered for a Bursary of €4,000 towards studies at an advanced level or the development of work/ professional skills.

Artists, resident in Dublin City Council’s administrative area, can apply for a Bursary in Visual Arts, Music, Dance, Drama and Literature.

One Bursary will be awarded in each discipline. Application forms, guidelines and criteria may be obtained by contacting: Address: The Arts Office, Dublin City Council, The LAB, Foley St, Dublin 1.

Telephone 01 222 7850 or Email maura.carty@dublincity.ie Web www.dublincity.ie/ RecreationandCulture ArtsOffice/Artsfunding Deadline 5pm Friday 14 May 2010 Lorg Bursary Lorg Printmakers is offering a 1 Year bursary to one Honours Degree student graduating in 2010. The successful applicant will receive 12 months free membership of Lorg Printmakers which includes 24hour access to workshop facilities. In June 2011 the artist will have the

opportunity to exhibit the work produced during in the year in White Room Gallery, Liosban Ind Est, Galway. For further details and an application form please contact Email lorgprintmakers@gmail.com Deadline 5pm on Friday 28 May 2010.

Art & Science The UdK Award for Interdisciplinary Art and Science aims to give the impetus and opportunity to artists (fine art, media, architecture, design, music, theatre, visual communication etc.) and scientists to work between the priorities of the arts or between the arts and science. The prize is awarded on a biennial basis and is endowed with €7,500. As art and science are moving towards one another, discovering common issues and working methods, the creative, imaginative processes in the arts and sciences are similar, whereas the concrete realisation of their results tends to differ.

Repeatedly, this difference is the source of productive tension and areas of friction. In all disciplines of the arts and sciences, further developments over recent decades have been characterised by mutual influences and efforts at differentiation. Today, traditional dividing lines between the spheres can no longer be maintained; they are being newly defined and presented in their permeability.

Individuals and groups are eligible to participate in the competition. Further information can be found at: Web www.udk-berlin.de/udk-award.

Address Universität der Künste Berlin, Communications and Marketing, Inge Scheffler / Joachim Schwalbe, Postfach 120544, D-10595 Berlin, Germany; Fax +49 (0) 30 3185 2821; Email udk-preis@udk-berlin.de Deadline 31 May 2010.

Cultural Policy Research The European Cultural Foundation, the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and the European Network of Cultural Administration Training Centres have officially launched the call for applications for the 2010 Cultural Policy Research Award.

Designed to foster academic and applied cultural policy research and to explore issues at stake in contemporary Europe, the Cultural Policy Research Award aims to contribute to new competence building among young scholars in comparative cultural policy research.

Applications must be made through the online application

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

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May – June 2010

Opportunities form on the CPR Award website.

The winner of the CPR Award 2010, worth 10,000 euros, will be publicly announced on 6 October during the 18th ENCATC Annual Conference taking place in Brussels, Belgium. Detailed information is available at Web www.encatc.org/pages/index php?id=19 Deadline 24 May 2010 Kilkenny Arts Office Kilkenny County Council Arts Office has announced the availability of the following awards for Kilkenny born or based arts practictioners: -Drama League of Ireland Summer School Bursary 2010 and Tyrone Guthrie Bursary 2010. For further information and application forms on these bursaries please contact Niamh Finn, Arts Administrator: Address Kilkenny County Council Arts Office, No. 76, John Street, Kilkenny.

Telephone 056 779 4138 Email niamh.finn@kilkennycoco.ie Website www.artlinks.ie Deadline 4pm on Friday 7 May 2010. commissions Commissions Jordanstown Applications are invited from suitably qualified and experienced artists for inclusion on a shortlist to design, manufacture and install public realm sculptures at Jordanstown Loughshore Park, Co Antrim. The Council is not obliged to accept the lowest or any tender. The Expression of interest application information can be obtained by contacting: Email tenders@newtownabbey.gov.uk Deadline 4 June O’Flaherty Memorial The Hugh O’Flaherty Memorial Committee was established to increase public awareness of the humanitarian work of the Monsignor in saving so many lives during the WW2 Nazi occupation of Rome and to commemorate his life. The Hugh O’Flaherty Memorial Committee invites submissions for a permanent memorial sculpture for Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, which will be located in a street side central location in Killarney town, as selected and facilitated

by Killarney Town Council. The purpose of the memorial is to capture and communicate the caring and selfless spirit of The Monsignor in a manner that will inspire residents and visitors to Killarney town. While the

interpretation of the brief will be left to the artist the committee have in mind a life size piece, which must be constructed in a material that will be permanent and easily maintained. It is envisaged that Killarney Town Council will take responsibility for the civil work related to the installation of the piece and its ongoing maintenance. The Committee are seeking submissions for work that will fall with its envisaged budget of €50,000 to €60,000 and will not exceed €70,000 including vat. For a full brief and further information contact: Address The Chairperson, Hugh O’Flaherty Memorial Committee, c/o Killarney Chamber of Tourism & Commerce, Tourist Information Office, Beech Road, Killarney, Co. Kerry, Ireland.

Telephone +353 (0)64 6637928 E-Mail jerry@killarney.ie (Jerry O’Grady) Web www.killarney.ie Deadline Friday 11 June 2010.

Gallen School The Board of Management of Gallen Community School Ferbane, Co.Offaly, wishes to commission a Permanent Outdoor Sculpture which is to be funded by the Department of Education and Science under the “percent for art scheme”.

There is no specific theme for this project however we would expect the artist’s submissions may be influenced by the location of the school and the history and location of Ferbane town. The budget for the design, supply, ground works, installation, and fix of this project is €58.000 inclusive of all costs, expenses, VAT, insurance and other charges.

Selection is a two stage open submission process. Full details and application forms available from: Address Mrs .Ursula Finnegan, Per Cent for Art Commission, Gallen Community School, Ferbane, Co. Offaly Email fccdpr@eircom.net Website www.gallencs.com Deadline 11 June 2010 Talks / Lectures Unique Reproduction The University of Ulster, Belfast Campus – 17 June 2010, 10.00am – 4.00pm, Seacourt Print Workshop in conjunction with Ulster Festival of Art and Design is pleased to present ‘Unique Reproduction – Definitions of Original Printmaking in a Digital Age’ a conference exploring issues

around editioning and reproducing multiples from the perspective of the artist, editioning studio and collector. Some key questions addressed at the conference include: What are the inherent qualities of the processes used in traditional printmaking that make it a meaningful activity? Why engage in traditional printmaking, it can’t be about reproduction – so what is it about? Are the inherent limitations of materials used and their influence in creating the image important? Should there be an international quality standard and agreed definition of what constitutes an editioned original? Helping to answer these questions are Keynote Speaker – Marjorie Devon, Director of the Tamarind Institute, New Mexico, Invited Speaker – Kelly Troester, Worldwide Co-Director of Modern and Contemporary Editions, Phillips de Pury NYC. Joining these two speakers for a round-table discussion will be: Stephen Hoskins, Professor of Fine Print & Director of the Centre for Fine Print Research at the University of the West of England, John McKechnie, Director of Glasgow Print Studio and Jenny Roland, Managing Director of the Curwen Studio.

The discussion will be chaired by Robert Peters, Director of Seacourt Print Workshop organised in partnership with the Ulster Festival of Art and Design. This event is free to the public though booking is advised by contacting: Email info@seacourt-ni.org.uk Telephone +44 (0) 28 91460595 Word & Image University of Ulster, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast presents an IAWIS Focus Conference from 4 – 6 June. Conference Convenors include Dr Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes, Dr Karen E. Brown with Keynote Speaker: Professor W. J. T. Mitchell. This conference will bring together word and image, as well as literary scholarship, art history and theory, art practice, curatorial practice, museology, and visual culture, in order to address the interrelationship between word & image and display.

Website www.gtgallery.fsnet.co.uk/ Culture Week ‘Catch up on Culture Week 2010, 15 – 22 May (includes International Museums Day and European Night of Museums) is being promoted by the Irish Museums Association in association with Temple Bar Cultural Trust to encourage the public to visit our museums and cultural organisations this spring.

Visitors are looking for things to do to help them pass their time in an enjoyable and worthwhile

way. By drawing the attention to ‘Catch up on Culture Week 2010’ we have the potential to gain new audiences, provide free and enjoyable experiences, and encourage our visitors to return and use our venues more frequently over the summer. The Irish Museums Association is providing a logo and promoting events, in partnership with Temple Bar Cultural Trust and other organisations. A list of events and participating venues will be available on the website in the weeks building up to, and throughout ‘Catch up on Culture Week’. We are asking museums, historic houses, galleries, arts centers, folk parks etc., to be proactive with events and displays, and do everything in your power (email, poster, website, radio, newspaper) to communicate this to your local community. A list of helpful hints for things to do at your cultural organisation is available on the website. For details contact the IMA Administrator Carla Marrinan.

Telephone +353 (0)14120939 Email office@irishmuseums.org Web www.irishmuseums.org Studio network meeting Artists Studio Network Ireland (ASNI) would like to send an open invitation to all studio providers and those with affiliated interests to the next ASNI General Meeting taking place on Tuesday 18 May 2010 from 3 – 5pm, at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Further details about the network and the meeting can be found at: Web www.asni.info Courses courses Glass Masterclass Glass Masterclass with Angela Jarman (UK) at Fire Station Artists’ Studios, Dublin. ‘Hybrid Forms Using Glass, ­ 6 – 10 September 2010. Price €250 (includes lunch) This class will specialise in creating form and texture with cast glass. It will be an intensive and focused look at what is possible to achieve in a week. The class will be fully comprehensive demonstrating every stage of working; however for those with experience, a more detailed approach can be taken with lots of useful hints and tips.

Places are limited and are allocated on a ‘first come first served’ basis. Application form available from Jessica at: Email artadmin@firestation.ie Tel: 01 8069010 Website www.firestation.ie www.angelajarman.com

Relief Printmaking Five day workshop in Relief Printmaking with tutor Debra Bowden att Grennan Mill Craft School, Thomastown, County Kilkenny. Monday 28 June – Friday 2 July, 2010. 10am – 4pm daily. Explore line, colour and texture with a variety of relief printmaking techniques including; Japanese Woodblock, Linocut and Collagraph.

Experiment with environmentally friendly materials on a variety of papers.

Suitable for Beginners and Refreshers. Cost of workshop €150 plus €15 for materials. Nonrefundable deposit of €50 is required to secure booking. For further information please contact Debra on: Telephone 086 0678314 Deadline 31 May 2010 Pastel Portrait ‘Portraits in Pastels’ A 4 day Pastel Portrait Work Shop by the internationally recognised award painter Alicia Sotherland will be held at the Lake Hotel in Killarney on the 24 – 27 August 2010. The work shop will run from 11am – 5pm and the cost for the 4 day work shop is 300 Euro. For more info contact: Website www.aliciasotherland.com Telephone 0873212948 Life Drawing Weekend The weekend workshop will cover gesture drawing, portrait and reclining poses. Location: Crawford College Art Therapy dept, Modelfarm Rd, Cork. From 11am – 4pm, 22 – 23 May 2010.

Price €110. Basic materials provided and tea and coffee. For details contact: Email ehealy2@gmail.com Telephone 0861571452 Weaving and Painting Tapestry Weaving with Taipéis Gael. In this week-long course (3 – 10 July), two local artists, teach the skills acquired from the area’s older weaving practitioners.

Participants will have the opportunity of working with the skilled weavers of Taipéis Gael and meet with those people who generously passed on their skills from the previous generation.

Tapestry frames and yarns will be provided.

The week-long programme includes: Natural Dyeing demonstrations, Carding, Spinning on Donegal Wheels, Designing for tapestry, Tapestry Weaving. It is expected that each participant will have produced a tapestry by the end of the course.

Summer School in Marine & Landscape Painting: this Summer School is conducted in the heart of the Sliabh Liag peninsula in

the South-West Donegal Highlands. Local professional artists Kenneth King and Conal McIntyre will provide tuition for the weeklong sessions on 3 – 10 July and 21 – 28 August. For more information contact: Email oideas.gael@eircom.net Telephone 074 97 30248 Website www.oideas-gael.com Seacourt Print Courses Papermaking / Book Arts. 5 places with Jenna Kirkwood, tutor. Price £80. Dates: 12 –13 June 2010 10 – 4pm. Salt-Etch 5 places with Penny Brewill, tutor. Price £80.

Dates: 26 – 27 June 2010 10am – 4pm. Waterless Lithography 5 places with Penny Brewill, tutor.

Price £80. Dates: 24 – 25 July 2010 10am-4pm. For more about all courses see: Web www.seacourt-ni.org.uk Telephone 02891 460595 Address Seacourt Print Workshop, Unit 33, Dunlop Industrial Units, 8 Balloo Drive, BANGOR, BT19 7QY T Bronze Casting Trainer: Helle Helsner. Dates: 9 –10 June 2010. at the NSF Cork.

No. of participants: 6 (max). Cost: €140 (NSF members) & €170 (non-members) Aims & objectives: This 2 day introductory bronze casting workshop will cover wax working, mould making (modern and pre historic), casting and finishing techniques.

It is the aim of the workshop to give the participant a deeper understanding of the bronze casting process as well as an introduction on how to set up a foundry on a small-scale basis using self-made equipment. To book/ pay for a place contact: Elma O’Donovan, Administrator/ Artists’ Liaison.

Email info@nationalsculpturefactory. com Art Weekends Art Weekend at Bunbury Art Studio Ballyconnell Tullow Co Carlow Ireland. Watercolours with Trudi Doyle: Prices: 2 days €140 or 1 day for €75. For information on 2010 courses see: Web www.trudidoyle.blogspot.com printing, Life Drawing New schedule of courses in Screenprinting and Life Drawing at the Old Rectory Studio, Co. Wicklow.LifedrawingWorkshops (2 day workshop) 15 – 16 May 2010 from 10.00am – 4.30pm.

Price: 180 Euro inc. vegetarian lunch and all materials. Tutor: Sahoko Blake. Level: Beginner/ I n t e r m e d i a t e /A d v a n c e d .

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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

May – June 2010

oPPoRTuNITIeS Screenprinting (2 day workshop) / 19 – 20 June 2010 / 3 – 4 July 2010/ 24 – 25 July 2010. Time: 9.30am – 4.00pm. Price: €190 inc. vegetarian lunch and all materials.

Tutors: Stephanie Sloan, Joanna Sloan.

Level: Beginner/ Intermediate.

Advanced Screenprinting (2 day workshops) 22 – 23 May 2010 / 14 – 15 Aug 2010. Time: 9.30am – 4.00pm. Price: 190 Euro inc. vegetarian lunch and all materials.

Tutors: Stephanie Sloan, Joanna Sloan. Level: Intermediate/ Advanced.For booking for all courses and information contact: Email info@theoldrectory.ie w website www.theoldrectory.ie t telephone 086 2887251 colUMBIA Columbia University School of the Arts: 2010 Summer Program, New York City. Master Classes, Workshops, Courses, Public Events in Film, Theatre Arts, Visual Arts, and Writing.

Every summer, Columbia University School of the Arts welcomes world-renowned artists and hundreds of students from around the globe to its campus in New York City for a Summer Program of vibrancy, creativity,

and artistic breadth.

During summer at the School of the Arts, students choose from a diverse range of master classes, workshops, and courses, and attend numerous public arts events created specifically for the School of the Arts summer community. Programs are designed by School of the Arts faculty and guest artists to engage and appeal to all levels of experience, from emerging artists to professional practitioners. For full list of 40+ Summer Program offerings in Film, Writing, Theatre Arts and Visual Arts, and to enrol see: w website www.arts.columbia.edu/summer PRINtMAkING kIlkENNy Traditional Printmaking Workshop from 5 – 9 July 2010, 10am – 4pm. 150 euros, materials extra. Three Techniques covered: Dry point, carborundum and etching with ferric acid. Limited to 12 places. To book contact: Address Grennan Mill Craft School, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny t telephone 0863094520 w website www.ameliapeart.com

DERRy ERRyAUN ERRy yAUN cRAFtS Derryaun Crafts in Co. Mayo is currently enrolling for classes advertised as part of their Workshop Calendar 2010.

Timetable is as follows: Bead Weaving 6 June; Jewellery Making with Semi-Precious Stones 15 –16 July; Basket Weaving with Joe Hogan 18 July; Found Object Sculpture with Tom Meskell 13 –14 November; Environmental Sculpture with Tom Meskell date TBC; Precious Metal Clay with Maura Dickerson date TBC; Copper, Beads and Wire- date TBC; Wire Framed Art Dolls.

Information and bookings: t telephone Suzie Sullivan 098 21888 Email suzie@derryauncrafts.com w web w w w. d e r r y a u n c r a f t s . c o m lANDScAPE PAIN P tING Master classes in Drawing and Painting in Sligo – using a variety of mediums. Oil and acrylic.

Location in the scenic surroundings of Coney Island in Sligo Bay. Learn new drawing and painting techniques from the professional artist Neal Greig.

(Max. per workshop 6) 7 – 9 May 2010: Mixed Media Drawing & Painting Workshops (noresidential). 4 – 6 June 2010:

Mixed Media Drawing & Painting Workshops 3days (residential).

5 – 7 July 2010: Mixed Media Drawing & Painting Workshops 3 days (residential). To book a place of for more information: Email eileenfneal@eircom.net. w web www.nealgreig.com BRoADStoNE Three day life painting workshop at Broadstone Studios, Upper Dominic St, Dublin 7, designed for those who want to take full advantage of 3 days to do a painting, but shorter periods are available. No tuition, artists will have to provide their own easel.

Tea & coffee provided. Dates: 11– 13 June 2010, 10am – 5pm daily. €150 for 3 days, €100 for 2 days, €50 for 1 day, €25 for half a day.

For info contact Email joflynn@eircom.net t telephone 087 2709097 lIFE DRAw RA ING A RAw At SIGNAl Signal Arts Centre, Bray – Four week sessions: from the 26 May – 16 June.

Five week session: from the 14– July 11 August.

Six week sessions: from the 1 September – 6 October and from

the 13 October – 17 November.

All of these sessions will run on a Wednesday, 7pm – 10 pm, The individual session cost 11euro, to be paid up front a week before the session starts. Enquiries about bookings to: Address The Signal Arts Centre, 1 Albert Ave, Bray, Co. Wicklow.

Email signallifedrawing@gmail.com

DoN’t FoRGEt Do look at the advertisments in this VAN, also check our web site & subscribe to our e-bulletin for further opportunities.

othER tIME BANk Chris Fite-Wassilak, a writer and curator based in London, is currently looking for assistance towards the installation of a forthcoming exhibition in Dublin. In the place of a monetary payment, we are seeking to replace this with an equal exchange of time and skills.

Assistance is sought in the days leading up to the 2nd June for a range of activities; payment would be ‘in kind’, as a return corresponding donation of services as required. Information / contact: w web www.growgnome.com Email chrisfw@gmail.com

wAtch wA Atch oUt We strongly advise readers to verify all details to their own satisfaction before forwarding art work, slides or monies etc. thANkS A-N: The Artists’ Information Company; The International Sculpture Centre (New Jersey / uSA) and the NSF Cork.

Open InvItatIOn

Artists Studio Network Ireland (ASNI) wish to send an open invitation to all studio providers and those with affiliated interests to the next aSnI General Meeting taking place Tuesday 18 May 2010 3 – 5pm.

The Irish Museum of Modern Art. Further details about the network & the meeting from: www.asni.info

Dame Street Gallery 36 Dame Street, D2 (opposite the Central Bank)

contact Gallery director: Louise Clark

From May till September, artists are invited to rent the Gallery and run their own shows! €850 per week, Monday - Sunday. €1500 for two weeks.

e: 36damest@gmail.com SMS: 087 244 5527

No sales commission charged.

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

27

May – June 2010

Cavan County Council and Sliabh Beagh Cross Border Partnership present

Seeing Across Boundaries April – October 2010 a visual arts cross-border project

Michael Mc Swiney Slag Heap 100x130cm Oil mixed media on linen 2009

European Baskets

In association with The Crafts Council of Ireland 9 April – 29 May 2010

Holly Dungan

Woodstock 16 April – 29 May 2010

Michael McSwiney Recent Paintings 4 June – 28 August 2010 Magnhild Opdøl New Work 4 June – 28 August 2010 Artist in Residence Garvan Gallagher

Blanchardstown Centre Blanchardstown, Dublin 15 T: 01 885 2610 F: 01 824 3434 www.draíocht.ie

Drawing from the local landscape, experience and knowledge of the Border, project participants will work with the concepts of observation and surveillance.

After a period of research and development, participants will be invited to develop and promote artwork inspired by the central themes of observation and surveillance. This process will inform the development of a landmark project proposal for the Border.

Queries & further information: Republic of Ireland The Arts Office, Cavan County Council, Farnham Street, Cavan.

E: rtidy@cavancoco.ie T: +353 (0)49 4378547 www.cavanarts.ie

Northern Ireland Sliabh Beagh Cross-Border Partnership, Roslea Enterprise Centre, Liskilly, Roslea, Co. Fermanagh.

E: info@sliabhbeagh.org T: 0044 (0)7519334818 www.sliabhbeagh.org

Project supported by PEACE III Programme. Managed for the Special EU Programmes Body by the County Cavan PEACE III Peace & Reconciliation Partnership

28

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

Problems

Laughism

The Problem Page

Laughism

Our concierge / curator of agony responds to artworld dilemas

By Borislav Byrne

Mid-Career ANXIETIES

LONely arts

Dearest Concierge,

Dearest Concierge,

A pal’s show was recently described as a mid-career

So many lonely and struggling artists I know are in need of attractive, intelligent and supportive life partners. But more to the point, they are looking for someone to love, adore and manage their practices.

Where might I (er… I mean other artists) find that special someone who is good at editing artists statements, drafting funding applications, bookkeeping and generally being interested in keeping my studio tidy and providing me with nourishing and tasty suppers for those times when I am working late in the studio?

And oh, they need a vast technical, legal and financial know-how. Everything from video editing, web-design, carpentry and welding; to filling out my tax returns to dealing with licensing and copyright issues. PS they’d also need to be working in a really secure and well-paid ‘real’ job, in order to subsidise my existence. Oh and another thing, they should be very well connected with well-heeled art buyers and curators. And they’d have either an interest in international travel or be very understanding about my long absences away on residencies.

Let me hasten to add, I (er … again I mean, other artists) would be open to the idea of perhaps just not one person meeting these requirements. Perhaps a stable of main and sub-squeezes would be more appropriate? However a monogamous set up would be so much more appealing, simply on the basis of time-management issues and the overall convenience of a one-stop shop art-life partner arrangement.

retrospective. At first it made me snigger. Just two or three short years ago they were featured in a host of exhibitions platforming promising, young and dynamic upstarts.

But guess what? My self-satisfied bitterness only gave me passing joy. While this was disturbing enough, I also started to worry about how I might know if my own mid-career fulcrum point was close or far away? In other words, the instant after which things will get better or worse for my art career. Is it something that creeps up on artists unbeknowest?

And what would be the recommended healthy lingering times for the various stages of ones art career?

The ‘mid-career’ is the vulnerable and tender waist or belly section of an artists life. And we all know that it is common wisdom not to have to much padding around this region. For this reason and others, being ‘mid-career’ is not on the whole a good thing. It hints at a slight souring and going-off of both one’s abilities and the public and artworld’s interest in your work.

If possible it should be postponed for as long as possible.

The good news is that in the artworld the laws of physics can be defied and the march of time be arrested. Is it not the dominant pattern for sucessful artists today to attempt to perpetually hover in a state of (to cadge a couple of ever-trendy but obscure phrases from philosphy and cultural theory) ‘becoming’ or ‘immanence’?

A particularly popular strategy, that works for a few years at least, is to extend one’s time spent in further education – to bounce from one MFA or Mphil programme to another. Or (shudder!) float in the limbo-like state of livingdeath that is PhD research. Another classic move for the aspiring ‘Peter Pan’ artist would be to move abroad and starting as a ‘newbie’ elsewhere.

This might, at some point, be followed by a

Not asking for much are you? All I can say is that I will see what I can do. But already the data fields are looking very complex to incorporate into a properly cross-referenced card index system. Also, if qualified candidates do exist, I would predict a great reluctance on the part of their current artist keepers / concubines to lend them out even on the most lucrative of shortterm lease arrangements.

OK then. In response to you request, for this edition of the problem page, I have reconfigured part of my alloted space, as a lonelyhearts column. Here is what I sadly have to report is the cream of the crop:

return home and then ingraciating yourself with a new generation of artists and artworld scenesters to whom you seem to be an exotic messenger from another time and place. This latter tactic incidently can work just as well with artists who ‘go dormant’ for various reasons in their native lands (those who hibernate within the fields of academia, organic farming, cultural policy or other affiliated careers).

This kind of approach, while it may not eradicate the mid-career point entirely, can reduce it to a mere pimple on the horizon.

Seeking a quiet introverted and nerdy type, with an ambition to work in video / moving image work, who is eager to spend long evenings in reviewing and editing my footage – as well as solving minor and major software and hardware problems.

Hairy woodcarver seeks a special skivvy / someone to fetch wood and light the studio stove in the mornings (before I rise) and prepare hearty brunches. NB it is essential that they do not attempt to utter a word to me until after my 3.00pm gin and tonic.

Afterall, the public at large and artworld alike are not entirely composed of fools with limited attention spans. Eventually, people will cotton on to the extraordinary and unfeasible longevity of your ‘emerging’ status.

For the lucky few, this will be very fortuitous moment. In a process not unlike the ‘made-guy’ principle that we are all familiar with from mafia-based TV and cinema dramas, the more fortunate and well-connected artists will instantly progress to a state of permanent and fully-fledged artistic maturity; thus commanding a smidgen of grudging respect (but mostly fear) from their less fortunate ‘still-emerging’ peers.

May – June 2010

Older academic seeks the companionship of young impressionable students in order to validate their existence. In other words, someone to come to a few tutorials and trust me enough that I can close the door behind them; and occasionally rest my hand on their knee, in order to provide ‘encouraging and re-assuring’ squeezes.

Abstract painter, seeks partner for light muse duties – mainly comprising of lolling on a day bed in the corner of my studio, slightly overcome by paint fumes and the aura of my vigorous genius.

JORDANSTOWN LOUGHSHORE PARK TENDER FOR PUBLIC ART COMMISSION Applications are invited from suitably qualified and experienced artists for inclusion on a shortlist to design, manufacture and install public realm sculptures at Jordanstown Loughshore Park, Co Antrim.

The expression of interest application information can be obtained by contacting the Council at: tenders@newtownabbey.gov.uk Applications must be received no later than: 12 Noon on Friday 4 June 2010 Newtownabbey Borough Council Mossley Mill, Carnmoney Road North, Newtownabbey, Antrim, BT36 5QA. www.newtownabbey.gov.uk

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

May – June 2010

29

FOCUS

Oraib Toukan, Talking Heads, 2009, DVD. Photo: IMOCA. Installation view.

Omer Fast, CNN Concatenated, 2002, DVD stills. Image courtesy of Postmasters Gallery, NY.

Steve McQueen, Queen and Country (Lance Corporal Benjamin Hyde, Royal Military Police, Died 24 June 2003 aged 23), ongoing. Image courtesy of The Art Fund

So Long Roger Fenton Claire Feeley considers the journalistic turn in contemporary art.

The career of Roger Fenton, arguably the first war photographer, is exemplary of an all-too-contemporary phenomenon: that of the embedded journalist. Having been sent to the Crimea in early 1855 by the opinion-making branch of the British state, Fenton was blocked from taking pictures of the dead, the maimed or indeed any other subjects that would reflect poorly on the war effort abroad (1). Due to the constraints of camera technology at the time, the photographs he returned to the popular press showed staged tableaux of a dignified military life. The images of well healed soldiers decked out in immaculate military dress presented a reality clearly at odds with the depraved and unsanitary conditions reported elsewhere in the printed press. From its very inception, so called ‘aesthetic journalism’ proved itself to be subject to directorial manipulations and interpretive control. The idea of the objective witness, the foundation of the journalistic attitude, was complicated by Fenton who revealed a way of working thoroughly embedded in its social matrix and complicit with the people his photographs represented.

Leaving aside the good faith typically invested in the figure of the artist, what can an artist create that differs substantially from the work of either a Victorian artist-reporter, or a contemporary photojournalist or editorial cartoonist? How is the artistic method of fact gathering qualitatively better than that of a media professional? Today, with the diffusion of socially committed art forms (dealing with the political, the humanitarian and the inter-subjective), artists are reinventing modes of ‘embeddedness’, adopting it as a method of infiltrating socially sensitive situations. Robert Capa’s oft-quoted maxim “if your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough” finds unexpected confirmation in an epoch where artists are increasingly adept at swinging between a position of being ‘too close’ or ‘not close enough’ in order to access a context, engage with a constituency and influence an outcome. This can involve an open critique of media conventions for packaging and distributing information or it can necessitate a more collaborative subversiveness with artists ‘entering the battlefield’, so to speak, as active players.

One such artist is Turner prizewinner Steve McQueen who in 2002 was the recipient of the Imperial War Museum’s Official War Artist commission. Traveling to Basra, Iraq, for a 6-day lightning visit, McQueen found himself shepherded by Ministry of Defense officials.

Unable or unwilling to report what he saw, he returned home with nothing in his camera. As he later told the Financial Times, “It was like a magical mystery tour. They led me by the hand. I couldn’t investigate anything”. The production of Queen and Country (postage stamps of each of the British soldiers to lose their life in the war) saw McQueen led on an equally labyrinthine tour, but this time he was sidetracked by the combined bureaucracy of the Royal Mail, the Ministry and the commissioning museum. McQueen hit the first of many roadblocks when the Ministry of Defense refused him access to the addresses of the 115 soldiers who had died thus far in the conflict. “The second in command there is also on the board of the IWM” recalls McQueen, “and he suggested I do a landscape instead.” The hoops McQueen had to jump through in order to push through this artwork makes clear that diplomacy and mediation are skills in which today’s artist must be

adept if they wish to make work that rubs against the grain of preestablished points of view. Indeed, if it were not for the intervention of Alex Poots from Manchester International Festival (who agreed to support the work) and MP Paul Flynn (who lobbied its merit in the House of Commons), Queen and Country might have been assigned to the scrapheap of censored art.

Similarly, the work of French photographer Bruno Serralongue tacitly acknowledges the complex network of social and commercial pressures that inform the selection of newsworthy images deemed fit for public consumption. During his sojourn at Brazilian daily newspaper Jornal do Brasil in 1999, Serralongue took hundreds of photographs of subjects ranging from a tourist’s murder to a football training session.

Only nine were ever published, and it is these that make up the final artwork. By ceding the selection of his photographs to picture editors who decide what’s newsworthy and what’s not, Serralongue confirms a point well made by Vilem Flusser back in 1983 when he contended that it is not the photographer that produces the photograph, but the photographic ‘institution’ (2). The fact that media leaders will report on some stories whilst maintaining silence on others is an unhappy consequence of the economic realities of the media machine and one with which photojournalists have been continually struggling.

Major broadcasters have been quick to pick up on this generation’s near bottomless appetite for information, and artists too are learning to embrace the ‘journalistic turn’ in contemporary art. In this context, the ‘journalistic turn’ encompasses artistic practices that either follow a journalistic imperative to report on issues of public concern (albeit within the signifying system of contemporary art) or who employ a journalistic methodology (fact gathering, field research, interviews, documentaries). Although the documentary mode is by no means a new departure for art (John Grierson’s theorization of documentary practice as a “creative approach to reality” (1926) and Dziga Vertov’s commitment to “reflexive documentary” (1924) are notable starting points in this debate), the past decade has certainly witnessed a rise in major exhibitions focusing specifically on how artists are engaging with the genre (3). Documenta II (Kassel, 2002), 'Experiments with Truth' (Fabric Workshop, 2004), 'Making History: Art and Documentary '(Tate Liverpool, 2006), 'Come and Go: Fiction and Reality' (Gulbenkian Foundation, 2007) and more recently 'Talking Heads' (IMOCA, Dublin 2010) (4) all brought together artists whose work borrows, in one way or another, from the conventions of journalism.

Moreover, these exhibitions have, by and large, been dedicated to moving-image and video works. In the early 70’s, when video artists such as David Hall began making works addressing the widespread accessibility of images through television, it was at a time when there was only two or three national stations and when the Internet was a niche application in military defense systems. Now, over forty years later, the artist’s toolbox has expanded to embrace the possibilities suggested by the digital image to explore ideas about culture and community, aesthetics and technology. For CNN Concatenated, Omer Fast recorded hundreds of hours of TV reporters speaking directly to camera. From this cache of words, he pieced together an eighteenminute monologue, allowing his own script to be channeled through

the mouths of TV’s most recognizable anchormen and women. Unlike the spit and polish of classic TV reportage, Fast’s tirade of words quickly slips into open confessionalism; alternatively seducing the viewer (“… get near to me…”) or exploiting their fears and anxieties (“Look, I know you are scared…”). The conventional apparatus of news broadcasting is revealed as a vast game of cat and mouse in which both broadcaster and audience are complicit in a complex web of needs and desires. By addressing the on-screen reporter as a figure of influence, Omer Fast’s CNN Concatenated lends insight into the constituents of the massmedia machine. Here the viewer is accustomed to identifying with the speaking figure as a conveyor of public information yet it also makes plain the compromises of the present mediascape in which this relation of trust is taken as given.

The ceremonies and prescriptions of documentary as a form of truth telling are also on parade in Oraib Toukan’s twelve minute video Talking Heads. The work parodies the desirability of a ‘hot story’ as well as the ways in which representations of Toukan’s homeland have become the basis of an insatiable opinion industry. As a geopolitical hotspot, the Middle East is never far from the being front-page news, and certainly from where I sit in the West, there is a desire to ‘be in the know’; whether as a businessman, a student activist or simply a concerned armchair pundit. This ‘need to know’, like every popular need, is exploitable, and with the rise in Ross Kemp style exposés, one struggles to keep track of the docu-adventures, info-slashers and eduhorrors as they emerge. Part of Toukan’s working method, however, is to coach her interviewees into voicing opinions that best suit her directorial agenda, a complication that is further abetted during the editing process when the artist adds emphasis to choice phrases so as to exaggerate the absurdity of the set-up. Considering the choices the artist has made in presenting these issues in this precise format, it is clear that what’s at stake is something more specific than a simple satire of private ownership. The work reveals something far more powerful about how all issues of global importance are assimilated, formatted and distributed through the conventions and vocabularies of the media machine. In this way, Toukan’s Talking Heads recalls and updates Richard Serra’s prophetic ‘New Media State’ in which “control over broadcasting is an exercise in control over society”. (5) So what to make of the marriage between art and journalism in exhibition making? Is it answering the pressures on art centres to appear socially and politically relevant? Or is there genuine running room allowed to artists that makes their reportage above and beyond that of trained media professionals? In a forward to Alfredo Cramerotti’s 2009 book Aesthetic Journalism, Andrei Siclodi makes the claim that the necessary structures for formulating and articulating social criticism have become impossible within the mass media (6). As a result, he champions art as a privileged domain for conducting discourses on reality. Siclodi might be laying it on a bit thick and it’s arguable whether there is much mileage to be gained from aggrandizing the importance of art in the face of a media machine which, for better or worse, has proven itself capable of effecting foreign policy or ‘manufacturing consent’ (7).

Considered from the perspective of a skeptic, the journalistic turn in contemporary art could pan out to be little more than a specialized news service for the art circuit. Do we really need to see more tourist-art snapshots of bankrupt social housing projects, environmental disasters or reminders of spent ideologies? Rather than offer a complimentary viewpoint than that on offer in the daily newspaper, a constructed critique of the media might provide a much-needed audit of the industry’s routines and conventions. Conversely, it is interesting to think whether the checks and balances in place in the professionalized sphere of journalism will have knock-on effects for art practices that mimic its function.

Claire Feeley Notes 1. William Agnew, of the publishing firm Thomas Agnew & Sons proposed Fenton as the photographer for a commercial venture to the Crimea although his actual trip was sponsored by the British Government at the instigation of Prince Albert. To get to the Crimea, Fenton needed the cooperation of both the war ministry and the actual commanders in the field. He got letters of introduction to these commanders from Prince Albert as well as transport on a government vessel.

2. Flusser, Vilem (2000) Towards a Philosophy of Photography, London: Reaktion Books (first published in Germany, 1983) 3. Grierson coined the term ‘documentary’ in a review of Robert Flaherty’s film Moana (1926).

Grierson went on to develop a liberal model for documentary informed by the idea of furthering education. At the same time, Dziga Vertov’s Kino Eye project saw in documentary the potential of radical social transformation.

4. Taking its title from the filmic convention common to docu-journalism and webcam exhibitionism, 'Talking Heads' was an exhibition featuring the work of Omer Fast, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, Stephen Sutcliffe, Oraib Toukan and Andy Warhol. It took place in the Irish Museum of Contemporary Art (IMOCA), Dublin, from February to March, 2010.

5. The quoted text is taken from Richard Serra’s video Television Delivers People (1973), which pairs a Muzak soundtrack with a scrolling list of statements describing the manipulative strategies and motivations of corporate advertisers imbedded in television.

6. Cramerotti, Alfredo (2009) Aesthetic Journalism: How to inform without informing, Bristol: Intellect.

7. Also known as the ‘CNN factor’, the CNN effect refers to the influence of worldwide print and broadcast media on policy makers. The decision of American to become involved in Somalia in 1992 has been attributed to the pressure exerted by media coverage of the conflict on US foreign policy. Conversely, in their 1988 book, Manufacturing Consent, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky outline several case studies whereby power elites have influenced the selection of news and emphases placed upon their importance.

30

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

May – June 2010

VAI REgional contacts

Regional Perspectives visual artists ireland's regional contacts – Aideen Barry, Laura Graham and Damien Duffy report from the field.

West of Ireland Aideen Barry One of the most significant losses earlier this year was the Galway City Public Arts Officer Megs Morley – following the decision by Galway City Council not to renew her temporary contract. It seems completely illogical due to the size of Galway City that there is only one full-time Arts Officer (James Harold) with no support staff. In a previous report, I highlighted how a number of arts office and arts officer positions in Galway County and Clare County Council were not being replaced, or were finding their contracts not renewed due to the civil service employment embargo. This atavistic (1) decision not to renew these key contract positions by some councils has led to stagnancy in arts development, commissioning and expansion in areas in the West and around the country. The chief worry being the further implications of these losses – without representation to the Council and local governments in these areas, there will be an inability to make a case for further visual art development, sustainability and investment.

Coincidentally, the decision by Galway City Council not to renew Morley’s contract comes at the same time as the release of the Draft City Arts Strategy for Galway 2010-2013 (2). The draft strategy allows for a more ‘glasnost’ approach to the arts and arts decision making policies in the council and the arts office, highlighting a clearer and more transparent selection process in relation to City Council-supported bursaries, grants and residencies. However, the ambition of the draft report is somewhat stunted by the inability to implement best practice without the support of a fully functioning Arts Office.

The visual art community are enormously disappointed that the Draft City Arts Strategy gives no concrete commitment or timeline for the building of a Municipal Gallery Space, purpose-built for the visual arts. The Draft Galway City Council Development Plan 2011 – 2017 (3) states that it “recognises that there remains a deficit of culture and arts infrastructure in the city” and goes on to commit to supporting “the development of a municipal arts gallery in the city”. Well intentioned – but without a serious commitment of time, planning and concrete resolutions, it is unlikely to see the notion turned into a serious infrastructural reality. Many visual artists in the city and in the west are quite aggrieved by yet another missed opportunity by the Council.

Students of GMIT’s art and design department have led a campaign to highlight the need for this facility in Galway, petitioning the Council to address this gap in provision.

A delegation from the visual art community will make a presentation to the Council later this month with a proposal for a ‘Temporare Kunsthalle’ model (4) for Galway City. This is a bold and unique proposal for Galway. The proposal for this temporary structure is based on the extremely exciting Temporary Kunst-Hall for Contemporary Art in Berlin (Mitte). The proposal, which will be submitted to Galway City, proposes a 25,000 sq. meter temporary space that can accommodate all the needs of a museum of modern art. The proposal also suggests a steering group, so that investment in the development of the structure is not the be-all and end-all. Investment in the programming of such a space will be essential to insure its success. The key with this submission to the Council, is to change the perceived view within the Council that the arts are merely an aesthetic pastime – but rather the key means for injecting the local economy with attractive business opportunities.

The need for such a space is evident each year, when organisations such as Tulca and the Galway Arts Festival constantly have to hire privately owned spaces for their exhibitions. There is a serious deficit of venues in Galway city, in terms of providing the facilities needed for high quality shows and exciting curatorial projects. For Galway to live up to its long flogged-to-death title of ‘City of the Arts’, it must move up a gear – or it will regress back to being a town of mediocrity.

A Model of Best Practice.

The visual arts community waits with bated breath for the impending opening of the renovated Model Niland. The podcasts, updated photos and reports have us foaming at the mouth with anticipation. One of the most exciting projects, and visual art institutions, the Model is one of those flagship entities that we are lucky to have in the West. Seamus Kealy has become the benchmark for “get up and go”, and has shown how to make a good project a great one. Succeeding in bringing on board huge investment in the form of €2.4 million from the Border

Midlands Western Regional Assembly, and in exposing the organisation as a fluid and adaptable entity, with exciting off site programming, The Model is set to become a “model” of best practice in the arts nationally and internationally.

VAI Graduate Pack.

Over the next few months I will be traveling around the country visiting various art colleges. I will be delivering the first VAI Graduate Pack to visual artists. This pack is intended to give students and recent graduates an idea of the practical areas they will need to consider and the options open to them following graduation. This 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.

With more visual and applied arts courses available then ever before, the number of aspiring artists continues to grow. The pack covers areas such as “ The Business of Art”, to “ Artists Tax Exemption” to “Career Paths”, to applying for grants and bursaries. For more information on the pack and a list of institutions I will be visiting, please email me aideen@visualartists.ie Notes 1. Atavism (derived from the Latin atavus, a great-grandfather’s grandfather; more generally, an ancestor) denotes the tendency to revert to ancestral type. An atavism is an evolutionary throwback, such as traits reappearing which had disappeared generations ago.

2. You can find a copy of the draft City Arts Plan on www.galwaycity.ie 3. The draft city development plan 2011-2017 http://www.galwaycity.ie/AllServices/Planning/Publications/DraftDevelopmentPlan20112017Publications/ 4. www.kunsthalle-berlin.com The Temporare Kunsthalle, in Berlin in Mitte.

Derry, Fermanagh, Tyrone Damien Duffy Derry / Londonderry has been short-listed in its bid for UK City of Culture 2013. It is now in the last four (the other cities being Birmingham, Sheffield and Norwich). The bid is led by Derry City Council, along with the urban regeneration body ILEX who are managing the redevelopment of the ex-military sites at Ebrington and Fort George, along with the Strategic Investment Board of Northern Ireland.

Integral to the bid is a programme of cultural events that celebrates and investigates the issue of Anglo Irish contended identity and territory. The process of putting the bid in place has resulted in the formation of a cultural partnership forum that has brought many of the arts organisations around the table, addressing programming.

More recently, it has been announced that the office of US Economic Envoy to the North, Declan Kelly, is to get directly involved in support of the bid, embedding senior members of his economic development staff with the local bid team for the duration of the process.

The bid has energized the arts community; if successful it will have positive repercussions not just for Derry / Londonderry and the Northwest cross-border region, but Northern Ireland as a whole. In the event of the bid being unsuccessful, the vision put in place by the process will be harnessed for a cultural program for 2013, which is also the 400th anniversary of its Walled City.

Against the background of the bid, Derry City Council has promised further support to the arts sector, demonstrating its commitments to the cultural sector as an integral element in regeneration. An increase in service level agreements has been put in place.

One area where that support is most needed on the ground is the provision of suitable and substantial studio space.

Some movement in that direction has been made by an independent group, Studio Six, an independent non-profit company with charitable status whose aim is to provide artist studios in the Northwest. To date, attempts to secure premises have been set back by the current slump in the property market, a situation which normally provokes landlords to seek other means of leasing otherwise empty spaces. Further details maybe had from info@studio6ix.org Elaine Forde, Director of Artlink, Buncrana is leaving to take up a post within the Play House, Derry. There she will be responsible for the new International Culture Arts Network (ICAN). Along with North 55, ICAN will bring international artists to Ireland to work with local artists, community groups and organisations in the border counties of Derry and Donegal. The artists will share, exchange and trade knowledge and skills with the aim of strengthening relationships and creating long-lasting networks and partnerships.

Derry artist Patrick Bradley has his first solo exhibition at the

Gordon Gallery. Bradley who has worked semi- professionally as a visual artist in the Northwest for the last thirty years gave Willie Doherty his first show in Derry in the early eighties in artist run premises just doors away from the Gordon Gallery. Bradley’s paintings in lyrical abstraction demonstrate a shift in gear, in terms of scale and ambition that indicate a marked shift in maturity.

Void Gallery’s exhibition of Hiraki Sawa’s film animations marks the second show of their fifth anniversary programme. Sawa’s films are meditative excursions into imagination and childhood (www. derryvoid.com).

Antrim Laura Graham The coming months in Belfast will showcase a wonderful range of art.

It is a vibrant city, and ready to glow much brighter, thanks to the commitment of so many – and social networking sites! But in the ethos of this place a huge amount of time and energy is and has been given for free. This is laudable and I applaud the integrity of anyone doing so, but at a certain point a society has to start respecting the commitment of its members to create colour and texture in a grey world. As has oft been said, the workman is worth his wages. In a time of great economic constraint, it is hard to argue for artists to get more money when faced with competition from other essential sectors such as schools and hospitals; however, there is a saying in Japan, the meaning of which is when you are down to your last yen, you should spend half on bread to feed your body and half on a flower to feed your soul.

It is time to look for another way in which visual artists may be appreciated. If money isn’t available, then benefits-in-kind should be.

The City Council and Arts Council could be instrumental in re-imagining and building such a model.

Last year saw the first Culture Night in Belfast – one of the most enjoyable and exciting nights I have seen in the city since moving here from Glasgow 17 years ago. The feeling of being part of something special was embodied in the events, but also in the engagement of the people of Belfast. It took vision to create that night.

Recently Belfast Exposed ran a wonderful series of events offering varied and engaged work, debate and opportunity to consider art practice and intention, highlighting how essential it is to provide opportunities to artists and the general public for debating and understanding art practice. In a similar vein, the Golden Thread Gallery is offering monthly lectures.

May brings the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival and although it has a good visual art dynamic, the difficulty for artists arises in visual arts alone being unable to benefit from footfall payment in the manner of theatre and music and yet the CQ contains many of Belfast’s most interesting and challenging galleries. The location and variability of work on show has been supported over the past few years, but a great initiative has been First Thursday, where all the galleries taking part open on the first Thursday in the month and the art bus drives visitors and locals around the galleries.

As a method for engaging and showing the general public gallery locations, it has proved invaluable to a sector that faces great difficulty operating within ever decreasing funding parameters whilst trying to showcase emerging or difficult art.

Such initiatives are indispensable and invaluable, however funding available to the arts sector is being radically reduced and most galleries and festivals will suffer further funding cuts.

At the end of May we have the wonderful Children’s Art Festival – exciting and creative, a way of engaging with a new generation of artists. Another stalwart of the CQ at the other end of the educational spectrum is the York St campus of the University of Ulster. This houses the school of art and design and throughout the year offers lectures and opportunities to engage with art practice.

In light of funding cuts and the costs involved, the question raised recently about Northern Ireland’s participation in the 2011 Venice Biennale was prescient. The Arts Council, to their credit, have initiated canvassing of the visual arts community. Unfortunately, very little notice was given of the meeting so the numbers attending were small and all attendees were either art or curatorial practitioners or from the British Council.

In view of the international nature and prestige of the Biennale, the equivalent of an artistic Olympics, I couldn’t help but wonder – if this had been the sports council with Olympic trainers and hopefuls – would anyone have dared ask if the Olympics were worth going to?

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

31

May – June 2010

Art in public: Roundup

Art In Public: Roundup Scales of Justice

currency for those who use it today and asked the question – what happens to a private gesture of wealth when it becomes a collective one? In an effort to negotiate these questions based around post-colonial Ireland, Gifney proposed to construct a Victorian lawn tennis court. The resulting tennis court was scaled up to accommodate the many people who today use the park. It measured 44 x 96 meters, with its net standing at 4.3 meters high. As Gifney described the work “being oppresive yet ludicrous, this unique tennis court was created for the public living in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland”. www.carlgiffney.wordpress.com

Favour Bank

Description: Festive Shop Window Display, Connaught St, Birr, Co. Offaly. The work comprises of shallow cardboard boxes, stacked in rear of window painted with text and illustrations from the book Struwwelpeter by Dr. Heinrich Hoffman (1845). At the base stood nine Christmas trees in pots, amongst which lurked a large assortment of antique and created objects directly related to the cautionary tales. This window installation was designed to be purely decorative. Commenting on the work, the artist has noted “my practice generally involves collected or ‘found’ objects combined with created images using paint, stitch etc. These lead to tableaux with an undercurrent of environmental concern flowing around the foibles of human nature”.

Artist:Leo Higgins Title: Scales Of Justice Location: New Criminal courts, Dublin.

Commissioner: Office of Public Works Commission Type: Open competition Materials: Sheet bronze and cast bronze

Niamh White Favour Bank

Supreme Court / Imperial Measurements

Carl Gifney Supreme Court / Imperial Measurements

Artist: Carl Gifney Title: Supreme Court / Imperial Measurements Commissioner: Dublin City Council Sited: July 2009 Budget: €1500 Commission type: Invitation & proposal Project Partners: Claire Power (curator), St. Anne’s Park Staff, Dublin City Council.

Description: Supreme Court / Imperial Measurements was commissioned along with five other works for Park Life, an outdoor exhibition curated by Claire Power in St. Anne’s Park, Dublin.

Participating artists were asked to create a new work in response to the various ways that people use the park today. The now public Park was once the grounds of an estate owned by the Guinness family and much of its Victorian heritage still remains in its appearance.

When responding to the project’s brief, the artist wondered if the park still has a similar

The Kitchen Sessions

Micheal Fortune The Kitchen Sessions

The Cattle Drover

Artist: Barry Wrafter.

Title of Work: The Cattle Drover.

Commissioning Body: Limerick County Council.

Date Sited: 4 Jan 2010.

Commission Type: Open Competition.

Project Partners: Limerick County Council.

Description: This sculpture takes its inspiration from Patrick Kavanagh’s poem Shancoduff – which includes the line “while the cattle drover’s sheltering in the fetherna bush”.

Dimensions: 6 x 12 x 4 feet.

Materials: Stone and stainless steel.

http://www.raptureheap.com http://www.eilismcdonald.com http://www.dublincity.ie

New Artwork for Kildare Library

Leo Higgins Scales of Justice

Barry Wrafter The Cattle Drover

Back to Reality is the second instalment of the series.

For this work, the artists delivered a body of work that is a result of her 6-month residency in the retail space. The residency afforded the artist time and space to explore the wealth of diverse activity in the surrounding area – from the various cultural institutions, such as the LAB and DanceHouse, to the Buddhist Centre, €2 shops, financial institutions, beauty salons and 24-hour internet cafés.

Artist: Niamh White.

Title: Favour Bank.

Commissioner: Roscommon Arts Office / Percent for Art. Advertised: Oct 2009.

Sited / carried out: Jan – March 2010.

Budget: €2000.

Commission type: open competition.

Project partners: Roscommon Arts Office, Castlerea Mart, Rural Men’s Network, Castlerea Library.

Description: Favour Bank was a non-monetary system of offering and receiving help based on the rural Irish system of Meitheal. The Meitheal men were groups of young men who would go from farm to farm helping their neighbours for nothing more than lunch and the promise of a favour in return. www.fbankcastlerea.wordpress.com

Engaged Space at Bloom Co. Antrim based artist Dawn Aston and architect Crawford Leitch designed Engaged Space / Urban Oasis for last years' Bloom Horticultural Show at the Phoenix Park, Dublin (3 – 7 June 2009). Their show garden project comprised of an accessible walled garden and structure, that facilitated elevated views of the garden and the surrounding park. Key zones within the garden represented the four elements, using plants, natural materials and Aston’s artworks. This work highlights relationships between art, the natural world and the built environment. Pat Fitzgerald’s MyPlant, Kilkenny supplied the main planting.

Peter’s Grove

Elke Westen Books of Colour

Elle Westen’s new glass artwork Books of Colour was recently installed at Kildare Library, Kildare Town.

The work was direct commissioned through Kildare County Council Arts Office. The work comprises 5 painted glass panels, each 0.5 cm wide by 3.6 m high, standing from the inside in front of the existing glass wall of the library. The painted glass integrates dichroitc glass sections as well as sandblasted areas and optical lighting film. www.elkewesten.com

Rapture Heap v2.0 Title: Rapture Heap v2.0 : Back to Reality Artist: Eilis McDonald Location: Unit 3, James Joyce St. (Corporation Street), Liberty Corner, Dublin 1 Sited / Took Place: 20 – 27 March Commission: Dublin City Council Percent for Art. Project Partners: Commission / Curator Aisling Prior.

Description: A multi-phased project that centres around the occupation of one of Dublin’s many empty retail spaces. The first instalment of the project saw McDonald curate an exhibition that highlighted the artists that influence her and brought to Ireland some of today’s most prominent Internet-based artists (http://www.raptureheap. com/v1).

Artist: Michael Fortune Title: The Kitchen Sessions Location: Fána Burca, Galway and website www. thekitchensessions.ie Commissioner: Galway City Council.

Commission Type: Open Competition.

Timeframe: Project began in September 2008 – December 2009.

Budget: €37,000 Description: The project began in 2008 and centred on the housing estate of Fána Burca in Knocknacarra, Galway City. The project featured a participatory process whereby the residents of Fána Burca were invited to join the artist in learning digital video, photography, animation and web-based media, and in turn to share and articulate their personal experiences of their home on the estate. Following this open call, a group of five families and friends came together to work alongside the artist.

This creative exchange resulted in the production of a limited number publication which documents the unfolding stories of each family’s life mapped through conversations and observations of the objects and temporary traces of everyday life in their homes.

The participating families also developed a new website www.thekitchensessions.ie and, working alongside Michael, hosted a YouTube film festival in the Fána Burca estate during December 2009. The publication was launched in Galway Arts Centre on the 17 Dec 2009. www.michaelfortune.ie www. thekitchensessions.ie

Irish Bronze Kilmainham Art Foundry Ltd

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IRISH BRONZE

for sculptors seeking the perfect cast

telephone: e-mail: website:

Work by Lynee Hoare

Artist: Lynne Hoare.

Sited / Took Place: Dec 2009 – Jan 2010.

Budget / Project Partners: Minimal expenditure and the shop window space was provided by kind permission of the owners.

Willie Malone 01 4542032. irishbronze@eircom.net www.irishbronze.ie

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

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

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

32

The Visual Artists’ News Sheet

May – June 2010

art in the public realm JO: Are there particular steps you took to address the audience, in terms of this event being part of the St. Patrick’s Festival?

JC: The main challenge is to maintain some integrity for the artists.

That is you must include some work that you have considered in advance as useful for the press and marketing. I would have to several times discuss what a TV crew would experience if they came to see the show “what is the picture? What is the headline? Where is the action?”.

This entails a certain amount of ‘show-ponying’ of your artists, the performance/live element is crucial for exposure and attracting media, without this the rest of the exhibition is ignored.

Nevan Lahart, 2:20 Horsepower Apocalypse. installed at the 'Non-Car-Showroom. Photo: John Beattie.

Recycling Spaces Jonathan Carroll talks to Jason Oakley about ‘Shop if can, Look if you want’ a Contemporary art trail organised for Dublin’s 2010 St. Patrick’s Festival.

JO: How did ‘Shop if can, Look if you want’ come about?

JC: I had been involved the visual arts element of the St. Patrick Day Festival since 2007. Each year, I would begin putting together a variety of proposals from September for the following March. The sponsorship team and the festival’s CEO would basically act like door-to-door salesmen looking for partners to help fund one of my proposals. The difficulty of getting funding became the creative force behind the ‘Shop If Can, Look If You Want’ idea.

Temple Bar Cultural Trust liked the idea of using empty retail spaces for art; and my initial idea was to highlight the fact that there are always things to see and do in Temple Bar that do not involve alcohol or a deep wallet. TBCT additionally provided me with a small budget, which was matched by the festival itself (the festival does not ringfence a budget for the visual arts but relies on outside partners and funders).

JO: What were the key curatorial ideas and themes?

JC: I stated the following in the press release: “the sites of commerce and culture find themselves in a moment of confused transition where the abiding sense is that of uncertainty of the next step. The exhibitions reflect this ambiance by occupying vacant retail spaces”. So I was primarily thinking of the experience of the expected audience. I had a desire to elicit the feeling that they were in an undefined space, a temporary mirage or oasis coming out of these recessional times.

Rather than exhibition invigilators, we had ‘non-shopkeepers’ who were general festival volunteers. I wanted to use their inexperience to my advantage, so I told them that the role they were to play was that of a shop assistant that works for a temp agency, they could have been sent to the Brown Thomas department store, but today they were sent to the Non-Car-Showroom, this confusion would equalize them with the visiting public rather than putting them in conflict with them or putting them under pressure to ‘sell’ the curatorial idea.

The Non-Car-Showroom, located in the former Cultivate retail space on Essex Street was the first space I wanted to curate. It’s a large interior space and I thought it would be a perfect venue to exhibit an artist’s work that dealt with the automobile. I had in mind an anti-Top Gear stage set, relating to a notion of ‘bottom gear, driving through the recession’. Therefore, underlying themes such as recycling and DIY along with the era when the automobile offered a bright vision of the future underpinned the recycling of space throughout the exhibition.

JO: How did you source the artists for the show?

JC: I chose all the artists starting with the notion of the theme for each individual space. I eventually had five different Non-Shops in mind: Non-Taxidermy, a Non-Gymnasium, a Non-Car-Showroom, a NonLaundrette and a Non-Electricians. When I contacted one artist they would suggest another and when I described the idea to anyone else in the arts they also gave me some names. It grew organically from there.

I don’t consider any exhibition to be definitive, but rather a starting point for many more projects.

JO: How did you secure the venues and staffing?

JC: TBCT gave me two spaces to use for free and they introduced me to the Gaiety School of Acting and Smock Alley Theatre. I negotiated a lease for the larger Cultivate space. I researched what a gallery of equivalent size would charge and thought of an offer that would suit what is only an empty retail space with no staff or gallery lighting. I had to provide copies of insurance cover, including public liability – fortunately the festival has this cover. The staff were sourced from the large number of volunteers that the festival attracts each year.

JO: The show was successful in getting media coverage in the Times and on RTE. Did you have a strategy to address wider audiences that the usual contemporary art constituency?

JC: The key to curating any exhibition is to know your audience and the strengths of the organization behind the initiative. Within the St Patrick’s Festival, the visual arts must compete to be noticed. The Festival is all about loud noise and the big picture, ‘Skyfest’ and Big Day Out types of things – parades and funfairs. You have to play the game that you are in. I liked having this challenge as a curator and think it makes for a more interesting career if you can balance this with the more concentrated conversation within the artworld.

The Festival does publicity very well – they are like a very colourful butterfly, they have only a week to express themselves and then they disappear for another year.

Firstly I had the chance to include the exhibition in a printed programme of 200,000 that is distributed with the Irish Independent and a website that receives one million hits from January to March. My publicity was also supported by the festival’s dedicated private PR consultancy whose sole job for a few weeks is to get you into the papers and onto television. To take advantage of this, I programmed the visual arts to begin before all other events and continue until the end of the festival. Nonetheless we had only a window of two hours to publicize our event before the Skyfest knocked us off our perch. In the end, we appeared on the RTE Six-one news but we replaced by Skyfest for the later bulletin.

JO: Could you briefly describe some of the key works in the show?

JC: Nevan Lahart’s 2:20 Horsepower Apocalypse was the largest work in the exhibition and was key to a lot of other work that was displayed with it. It was a full-sized hearse made out of black bin liners along with other various inventively-used throwaway materials. It was an eyecatcher, prominently displayed in the centre of the Non-Car-Showroom.

It worked perfectly – both metaphorically and physically – as a symbol of the recession. But also offered a humorous and inventive possible future. Joe Stanley also responded brilliantly to the invitation to include his Auto-Geo Machine in the Non-Car-Showroom, by creating a revolving fluffy display case that would fit perfectly in one of the prominent windows in the exhibition space.

Joost Conijn’s Hout Auto / Wood Car video was a lot of people’s favourite work in the show. It was projected in a cupboard through a jungle hut like reed mesh that existed in the Cultivate space when we arrived. The video shows the artist travelling through twelve countries (from Amsterdam across Eastern Europe) in his hand-made, wooden, steam powered, wood-burning car. The idea that you can drive for free from donated wood through so many countries again offers an alternative route for our survival when oil runs out or we have to rely on barter again.

Amanda Coogan’s Adoration Live 2010 was also a key work, which encapsulated many elements of the exhibition and the effect of the recession on the arts. Amanda proposed a live performance of her video piece called Adoration. For a live performance, Amanda required six choristers and four soloists. As we did not have the budget to make this happen, Amanda came up with a new work that would change from a window display with mannequins to a work with Amanda taking the place of the mannequins and performing live. We then had three different ways of showing Adoration throughout the short run of the exhibition. The window display, with an inside and outside view of the work; as a video performance; a live performance by Amanda and the large projection of the work in Meeting House Square after dark. I had four nights of projections running during the exhibition; these complemented the main exhibitions and hopefully gained the interest of a different crowd, who only come into Temple Bar after dark.

Roisin Beirne’s work The Fall in the Non-Gymnasium was the most challenging piece we tried to include. This large performance / sculpture work had only before been tested indoors as part of her final year exhibition in NCAD. It had to be rethought and built from scratch in a very short time. The idea of commissioning new work in public spaces would be desirable for the Festival in the future.

Sonia Shiel had a solo space, which she transformed into her NonLaundrette. What was important and different about Sonia’s approach was the underlying political reaction she had to the invitation. She made a large sculptural piece that showed the position of the arts in the greater scheme of things that is at the bottom of the pile, well below bars and cafe society and now on a par with the banks, which have just joined the estranged arts. I liked that Sonia was sceptical about celebrating the sudden availability of now devalued space. Like her, I agree that all is not all rosy in the arts garden.

One of the spaces that worked best in the exhibition was the NonElectricians, where four artists installed themselves in a very complimentary way. Sharon White had been using the space (2 Saul’s Court; the former 2 Cool Design unit) as a studio to make new work for the exhibition, so she had a good sense of where she wanted to place her wacky and playful inventions (made from old wood and found objects). Gillian Fitzpatrick also produced all new work for the exhibition. She creates work that takes on the appearance of futuristic space age technology by making moulds from waste packaging and found objects and making casts in plastic and resin from these. The resulting objects appear to be mass-produced and machine-made. In fact they are unique and hand-made artworks. When she exhibits her work, she utilizes the infrastructure of the exhibition space. She often places her work in close proximity to existing signage, electrical points, fixtures and fittings.

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

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

John Philip Murray, Ar Thóir Athnuachana, oil on canvas, triptych, 90 x 180cm, 2005

16 April – 8 May My Mind is a Map – Youth Exhibition and Event Work by WCAC’s Friday Night Youth Arts Group with artist Julia Pallone and Deep Woods, an exhibition of animated drawings by West Cork second level schools working with artist Tess Leak.

15 May – 19 June Patrick Graham & John Phillip Murray A joint exhibition of painting and drawing from the eighties to the present.

26 June – 17 July West Cork Artists 2010 A group exhibition of paintings, drawings, photographs, prints and sculpture by artists living and working in West Cork.

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