THE LIMERICK MAGAZINE
a rti st Pro file Steve Maher Steve Maher is a professional artist from Limerick, currently based in Helsinki. He has been involved in
many art projects and festivals that shape the cultural
fabric of Limerick City and County, as well as taking his own solo exhibitions to countries across Europe
and even as far as North America. In 2014, he was given the Kieran Meagher Legacy Award, a prize of €10,000 awarded by Limerick City of Culture to
support his career as an emerging artist. We catch
up with him ahead of his new Limerick exhibition, Melody is the Message, which will be open to the
public at Church Gallery LSAD from 10th December. Where did your artistic career start?
I actually began as a musician on the local music scene in Limerick. I was in a punk band, and then an experimental group. I studied sculpture and combined
media at LSAD then went on to do an MA in social practice and the creative environment. I’ve been lucky
enough to build a career as a professional artist, and that’s in no small part due to the support of Limerick
and the scope of what I have been able to produce was enormously boosted by the Kieran Meagher Legacy Award. Most of my work is socially engaged art – using the mechanisms of society in our surroundings as art
material to create something new and to make people
consider the everyday in a different way. Sometimes it means making a sculpture or installation out of found
items, other times it’s adding or changing something
in the surroundings to make it art. Socially engaged
art is regarded as an emerging form but it’s actually well established, looking at the everyday and making it art is nothing new.
What examples can you give us of everyday features
word out and sell yourself, most people are going to
One example of using sounds that surround us is
and really show the work as you intended.
in such a way?
Heavy Metal Elevator, an installation I created last year
at the gallery in Spain. Everywhere we go nowadays,
You are based in Helsinki, what is like being a
market, eaterie, lobby has some kind of music piping
Helsinki is internationally renowned for its arts scene,
it seems like we’re given a soundtrack – every shop, out. Often it’s just there to fill a silence, and it’s meant to be as unintrusive, unchallenging and inoffensive
as possible. It exists to manipulate our experience
of that place, to provide comfort and make us stay
that bit longer or consider buying that bit more. So
professional artist there?
and it’s probably similar to Limerick in that there’s a lot of mutual support for all creative endeavours, it’s
a place where young emerging artists can find a lot of inspiration and collaboration.
what if we change that? What if the music suddenly
What was your experience of the Limerick arts
background noise? An elevator is the smallest, most
Limerick creativity is just unreal. I suppose it’s more
is something other than the tinny, formulaic pop
enclosed space where this kind of music is typically used, and heavy metal is probably one of the most
intrusive genres of music, it’s the complete opposite of the innocuous, soft tinkling of the classic elevator music. So we collaborated with a Finnish Black metal
band and played their music in the gallery’s actual
elevators. We set it up so that as soon as the lift doors
opened for the person waiting, the music would blare out. It got some great responses.
How do you document those kinds of immersive art exhibitions? Is it difficult to portray the experience of being there?
Trying to record and present those installations is like creating a whole other exhibition. Like, with the Heavy Metal Elevator, videos of the reactions became a bit
like candid camera – next time I want to approach it slightly differently. There’s so much to consider when
trying to put that online for others to see. Of course we want as many people to experience it first hand
as possible, but in order to make that happen people have to be able to see you online, it’s how you get the
10
find you that way. So yes, it is difficult to get that right
scene?
known about since 2014, but people don’t realise that we were always here doing those things long before
City of Culture was even thought of as a possibility. There’s a such a strong support network across the creative scene, and beyond in fact, and everyone
wants to see you succeed. Plus LSAD is producing
more professional artists than any other college as far
as I know. The underground arts scene of Limerick
is unique, and even though I don’t live there now I
still maintain that connection with other artists and what’s happening there – in fact we recently hosted Lotte Bender’s Street Line Critics in Helsinki. The
city has come a long way in terms of culture and it’s fantastic to see people gaining from that confidence.
Something else people might not know is that Ormston House also has a fantastic international reputation in the art world. It’s something the whole
of Limerick should be very proud of. I’m proud too to have had the opportunity to be Project Manager there
with the amazing visionary people who have worked to make it such a beacon of success.