Visual Art | Ireland
Visual Art | Architecture | Ireland
Spectres of Modernity
Making Ireland Modern
Ruth McHugh Free giaf.ie/ruthmchugh
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IMAGE: ARDNACRUSHA - PHOTO: COURTESY OF ESB
11–24 July, 11am–6pm
Spectres of Modernity is born out of the ongoing observation of the final moments of the Ballymun high–rise housing on the outskirts of Dublin. Balbutcher spine–block and Plunkett Tower are the last remains of this modernist, utopian solution to a severe housing crisis. On the eve of demolition the pre–cast concrete shell enunciates a faint, dystopian echo of Le Corbusier’s Radiant City, and of the heroes of the 1916 Easter Rising after whom they were named. The first inhabitants moved into Ballymun Towers in 1967, the high–point of 1960’s style. The modular designs of Mary Quant and Dior’s Mondrian dress when juxtaposed with the brutalist ruins become ciphers of modernism. The project is underscored by the participation of the Ballymun community. Ruth McHugh’s collaborative and experimental lens–based project is concerned with architecture, place, truth and fiction in relation to the ephemeral nature of modernity.
IMAGE: MONDRIAN BY RUTH MCHUGH - PHOTO: RUTH MCHUGH
UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY NUI Galway
Gary A. Boyd and John McLaughlin Architects Making Ireland Modern explores the relationship between architecture, infrastructure and technology in the building of a new nation. Constructed as an open matrix of drawings, photographs, models and other artefacts, the exhibition presents ten infrastructural episodes spanning a period of one hundred years from 1916–2016. Conceived as the Irish Pavilion for Venice 2014, and expanded as a key strand of the Arts Council’s programme ART:2016, Making Ireland Modern describes architecture’s role in transforming the physical and cultural identity of the new state through its intercession in the everyday lives of its population.
BAILEY ALLEN HALL NUI Galway 11–24 July, 11am–6pm Free giaf.ie/makingirelandmodern
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