Listings for: Articles
Artist Angie Duignan Explains How She Created Work for the ‘Imagination of Childhood’ Exhibition at the V&A Museum of Childhood in London, which ran from October 2011 to February 2012
‘The Imagination of Children’ brings together nine visual artists who are fascinated by children’s ability to play and ‘make believe’; in particular, the ways in which they can live in their imagination. Historically, children’s imaginings have been seen as a source of conflict with the adult world, but this display recognises and celebrates the profound creativity of a child’s imagination. Some works observe that children can readily become someone they are not for the purposes of a game, and that fantastical stories are created on a daily basis. Other pieces take, as a starting point, the way in which a child’s perception of the world can often find expression through their physical activity. (more…)
Ruth McHugh Profiles ‘Trade: Artists in Conversation’ Seminar
The DOCK, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim, 1 – 3 December 2011
TRADE, a unique pedagogical device facilitated by the arts offices of Leitrim and Rosommon, evolved in 2005 out of Cliodhna Shaffey’s ‘Artist-as-Traveller’ curatorial initiative. Underpinning Shaffrey’s original paradigm was the notion of mobility and fluidity for the artist and the premise that,
“the periphery or the margin is a powerful space and not secondary to the centre. It is critical to it because the centre cannot exist without the periphery and only in such space, in confrontation with the mainstream, the local can successfully be defended”.[1]
Amy Stephens ‘Restless Nature’ Oonagh Young Gallery, 18 November – 21 December
A while ago, a certain exhibition in the city of Dublin was tentatively christened ‘Silence’. It arrived on the heels of a disastrous financial tumble – the kind that promises a season of ‘austerity’ – and prompted some objections. When the ground gives way, after all, and a system is so roundly proven inadequate to its citizens’ needs, many favour a more audible response.
A bit of time has passed now, and given that same exhibition was, in its more recent incarnation, a more exclamatory affair, perhaps a paced, lyrical meander is now the right medicine. For those who might sway toward this sensibility, Amy Stephens’ ‘Restless Nature’ at Oonagh Young Gallery is a lozenge for the hoarse throat.
Mary-Ruth Walsh Discusses Her Conceptual Installation/Performance, ‘Real E-State’
Ever dream of owning a house in Dublin? St. Patrick’s Close Developments presents ‘Real E-State’, an development of houses erected without planning permission and sold by auction.
I hadn’t realised the extent to which the public would seamlessly engage in the ‘Real E-State project’. It was difficult to describe; part installation, part performance; with visual and conceptual elements intertwined. An estate of houses was erected in Dublin, without planning permission, and sold on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 October 2011, by a professional auctioneer. In part, it was to challenge ideas about art and architecture, real housing and buying ‘off the plans’,and the virtual nature of the contemporary financial world.
It seems strange to think that anyone would want to own a conceptual home, yet the ordinary people who engaged with ‘Real E-State’ were absolutely committed to the idea. (more…)
Marianne O’ Kane Boal Talks to Johann Lundt and Aileen Burns, New Directors of Context Gallery, Derry.
This interview was carried out long distance, with Johann Lundh and Aileen Burns formulating joint answers.
Marianne: The Context Gallery has acquired a considerable reputation in Northern Ireland and has seen changes in terms of space and directors. (Hugh Mulholland, James Kerr, Declan Sheehan, and Theo Simms). I served on the board of directors for eight years (2001-2009). What are your views on the gallery’s 18 year history?
Aileen and Johann: The core value, which has run through the nearly 20 year history of Context Gallery, is a commitment to supporting and promoting emerging artists based in, or from, the north of Ireland and beyond. We are in the process of re-imagining how the venue goes about this for the future. A great deal has changed in the city and in the field of contemporary art since the gallery was started. We are creating a model that we hope can carry the organization into the next 20 years. (more…)
Profile: Drawing on Rocks. Michael Timmins
Robert Rauschenberg once proclaimed that the second half of the twentieth century was no time to start drawing on rocks. In spite of his early misgivings towards Lithography, he became one of the most innovative and prolific lithographers of the modern era. In one of Dublin’s oldest districts a new Lithography studio is aiming to re-establish one of the oldest forms of fine art printing in the Irish arts landscape. (more…)
Maeve Mulrennan reports on the Public House residency in Allen, Co. Kildare.
In August 2011 The Leap Inn, Allen, Co. Kildare was inhabited by four artists: Fergus Byrne, Victoria McCormack, Áine Phillips and Dominic Thorpe. I had been granted funding from Kildare County Council to curate a residency in my father’s bar and grocery, The Leap Inn. The artists would be based in the residential section, which has been uninhabited for nearly four years.
At first the aim was simple: give artists time, space and a small fee so they can work. This then developed into inviting the artists to respond to a site: The Leap Inn, the surrounding countryside and the people who frequented the bar and grocery. It was initially kept very open.I had hoped that one of the artists might make some public intervention, but I had to be realistic, we didn’t get all the money we asked for. In the end, all four artists wanted to make work to show.
Alex Davis , administrator for the Irish Visual Artists’ Rights Organisation (IVARO), which manages the Resale Right on behalf of its members, looks at the implications for artists.
In less than two months time the Artists Resale Right is due to be fully implemented in Ireland for the benefit of artists’ heirs and beneficiaries. Yet there is still concern that the Government may fail to bring the Right in on time or will introduce it in a manner that minimises the benefits to artists and their families. Alex Davis, Administrator for the Irish Visual Artists Rights Organisation (IVARO), which manages the Resale Right on behalf of its members, looks at the implications. (more…)
Detail showing the reproduction of Harry Clarke's 'The Last Hour of the Night' 1922
SEAN LYNCH DISCUSSES HIS PROJECT ME JEWEL & DARLIN’
I lived in Dublin in 2008, while I was participating in part IMMA’s artist residency programme. I had never really had the opportunity to be involved with the art scene there, and I had a great time working in the city over seven months. During the course of my residency I decided it would be interesting to explore some histories about the city and make an artwork that would reflect this process.
The resulting project, entitled Views of Dublin, was exhibited at the Gallery of Photography later that year and was based upon a series of inter-related events in the city in 1965. John Le Carre’s cold war thriller The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was produced as a film in that year, and a replica of the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie was constructed in Smithfield Market as part of the film’s set. Actor Richard Burton and his wife Elizabeth Taylor stayed at the Gresham Hotel for ten weeks, attracting much attention. Recollections of these events are today still heard around the city, and the Wall replica is often recalled as an unusual oddity of Dublin architecture.
Artut Zmjewski 'Two Monuments' (2009) Video Still
JASON OAKLEY REPORTS ON – The ethics of collaboration within socially engaged arts practice – A SEMINAR DEVISED BY THE FIRE STATION ARTISTS’ STUDIOS, DUBLIN AND HOSTER BY THE NATIONAL COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN (11 MARCH 2011)
Aesthetics, ethics, participation, collaboration, authorship and power dynamics – whenever art with political aims or some kind of social or community remit is being discussed, this heady brew of concepts is brought to the boil. The most frequent outcome is a simmering divergence of opinions around these ideas; along with anxious hand-wringing about what should, could and can be done, to address the ‘problem’ of highly educated professional artists trying to speak for the disenfranchised and underprivileged groups who are usually the subjects of such projects. What can also percolate is a sense of shame and guilt about how the supposedly ‘empowered’ art world is inconsequential in the face of actual social problems. And so, despite frequently claiming the contrary, contemporary art often has to resign itself to its autonomy – cut off from, ignored and often derided by society at large. (more…)
