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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
COLUMN
ROUNDUP
Lisa Fingleton
OFFER
Paul Moore’s humorous public social media event ‘No Narnia’ took place as part of the East Belfast Arts Festival. Taking its premise from C.S. Lewis’s 1950 children’s novel The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe, Moore invited members of the public to photograph their own personal wardrobes to present an online document through the hashtag link #nonarnia.
A Vision From the Verge I have been a member of the vibrant and dynamic Rural Arts Group (RAG) for the last 10 years. Since our foundation we have really focused on developing a collective vision and sense of purpose. While people often point out the disadvantages of living in such a peripheral location, we see it an opportunity to develop our creative careers in a stunningly beautiful and inspiring context. From here on the West Coast of Ireland it is an eight-hour round trip to Dublin and the next stop west is New York. Much to the surprise of visitors, we have a great rural arts infrastructure with custom built, professional exhibition spaces. We used to rely heavily on pop-up spaces but we got tired of DIY, cleaning, invigilating and incurring debt. We now have a clear transparent process for accessing the local arts infrastructure. RAG operates as a collective and has a rotating membership made up of artists, curators and representatives from each of the local arts organisations. Together we contribute to the arts programming in the county, ensuring that the resources and spaces provide opportunities for local, national and international artists. The arts programme reflects our concerns and interests, and vigorously supports the role of contemporary art in the wider world. This shared programming has led to far greater engagement with the arts locally. We also strengthen and build the capacity of local artists by providing feedback on proposals and opportunities for professional development. Everyone’s contribution is equally valued and we are all financially remunerated for our contributions. We are proud of our dynamic residency and visiting artists programme, which bring vitality and energy to the community. We invite a number of artists but are also committed to an open submission process. We find that international artists are attracted here by the remoteness of the region, the opportunity to experience real rural Ireland and the potential for collaboration. We regularly invite selected curators and arts managers from outside the area for a day of organised studio tours, local organic food and cultural experiences. The feedback has been extremely positive and this initiative has led to a number of creative projects such as the Feminist Farmers’ Luncheon and the ‘Digging the Dirt’ exhibition series. We have worked closely with local agencies to develop a good broadband infrastructure. This has been a great relief as we used to have to travel to our nearest town to upload large files. We find that this has greatly enhanced the possibilities for home working and setting up new creative businesses. We have a number of individual and shared studios in the area but we find that our more flexible coworking venues, Imaginate and Share, are really popular. Artists can rent an open studio or desk space by the day or the month, which greatly expands the sense of creative community and reduces the risk of isolation. The co-working venues are multifunctional and cross-disciplinary. They act as performance spaces where artists, musicians and other practitioners can experiment and share works in progress as well as completed projects. The childcare services in these spaces are critical, supporting parents to develop their practice without disruption. This service has also attracted a number of younger creative people to relocate to the area, which has had a positive knockon effect. We are fortunate to have the only official publicly funded retirement accommodation for artists in the country. The eco friendly passive homes at La Retraite overlook the sea and have direct access to the beach. Each artist has her/ his own private living quarters and studio. The intergenerational programme at the centre provides invaluable opportunities for younger artists to learn from those with more experience. The art therapy and creative activities also provide opportunities for employment for local artists. Linking in with the local community has really helped us to develop a sustainable creative network. We have a number of socially engaged creative projects with asylum seekers, Travellers, people with disabilities and other youth and community groups. Artists who enjoy working with children are active in developing the creative capacity of the next generation through workshops and artistic programmes. Working with local businesses and social entrepreneurs has led to a patronage scheme that financially supports artists at all stages of their career. We have a purchase scheme where local businesses, hotels, cafes and pubs are supported in buying original artworks directly from artists. We’ve also witnessed the development of murals and public art projects, which have further enhanced the area and received positive reviews from tourists. All in all we are delighted with the progress over the last 10 years. We have learned the valuable lesson of creating a collective vision with clear and achievable goals in order to achieve real change for artists in our area.
Claire McCluskey, ‘Offer’, 2016
THE GLORIOUS MAIDS OF THE Claire McCluskey’s exhibition ‘Offer’ CHARNEL HOUSE took place in Mart Gallery, Dublin, 2 – 7 May. Each evening, McCluskey performed a candle-lighting ceremony in Gallery 1, while a light, earth and water installation inhabited Gallery 2. On the 5 and 6 of May, Isadora Epstein performed a dramatic response to the work. ‘Offer’ was curated by Siobhán Mooney.
sculpture. In the triptych of large-scale drawings, three pairs of delicately rendered gloves hang poised. “The gloves have a distinct presence,” the press release stated, “but we are also meant to contemplate the space around them in three dimensions …. a vast space that expands beyond the edge of the physical paper”. goldenthreadgallery.co.uk
THE ENDURANCE DRAWINGS The Jerome Conor Sculpture Centre, Annascaul exhibited a series of drawing works by Medbh Gillard depicting the crew of The Endurance for the centenary of the Imperial Transantarctic Expedition under the command of Sir Ernest Shackleton.
ON MY GREEN WAY I WEND
mart.ie
FLEXIBILISM
Alice Maher, The Great Version
Poster image for ‘Flexibilism’
Alice Maher’s exhibition ‘The Glorious Maids of the Charnel House’ ran at Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin, 2 Jun – 2 Jul and comprised nine large drawings. The works, the press release noted, reflect a continued exploration into metamorphosis in the human body. Maher’s maids “stand guard in a vis- Maria O’Brien, Parasols in Sugar Beach, 2016; oil on paper; 10 x 14 inches ceral universe, where human, animal and vegetal intermingle, co-evolve and Maria O’Brien’s new body of work ‘On My Green Way I Wend’ was shown at overlap in intense, hybrid forms”. kevinkavanagh.ie Laois Arthouse (7 May – 3 Jun) and explored landscape painting inspired by photography from social media. As LIGHTWORKS overall winner of the Dunamaise Open Exhibition 2013, O’Brien was awarded a month-long residency in Laois Arthouse, during which she developed a renewed interest in landscape. By working directly from photographs the artist offers us glimpses into other people’s worlds.
Catalyst Arts, Belfast, presented the group show ‘Flexibilism’, featuring work by Liam Slevin, Mark Buckeridge, All Choir, and Clawson and Ward (2 – 25 Jun). The artists were invited to “develop and reconfigure a previously made or designed work in relation to explicit, esoteric and existential aspects of Catalyst Arts and its site in Belfast as a public space,” the gallery stated. The aim of this was to “interrupt the field of perception associated with a gallery space, resisting the familiarity of selected works in a groups show and instead espouse to reconfigure civic, social and cultural frameworks for considering our role in public, as Sean Grimes, ‘Lightworks’; installation view artists, citizens, communities and creative labourers”. ‘Lightworks’, an exhibition by Talbot catalystarts.org.uk Gallery’s Most Promising Graduate Award recipient Sean Grimes, ran 2 – 15 NO NARNIA Jun. The exhibition consisted of works on paper, photographs and sculptural works based on a code language developed by the artist. As a backdrop to the works. Grimes also constructed blinds to “gently illuminate and isolate the environment”.
talbotgallery.com
lisafingleton.com Note Lisa Fingleton is an artist, filmmaker, writer and facilitator based on a small farm on the Wild Atlantic Way. When she was invited to write this column she very briefly considered subjecting the reader to a factual account of the sometimesbleak experience of rural artists. Having rejected this option, she decided to imagine a currently fictional but ultimately desirable vision for rural artists 10 years from now.
July – August 2016
Paul Moore, ‘No Narnia’, 2016
TODAY I WROTE NOTHING Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, held an exhibition by Leo Devlin titled ‘Today I Wrote Nothing’ (2 Jun – 9 Jul) comprising drawing, performance, video and
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THE LOOKOUT TREE
Martin De Porres Wright, ‘The Lookout Tree’, 2016
‘The Lookout Tree’, an exhibition of abstract paintings and sculptures by Martin De Porres Wright, was shown at the City Assembly House, Dublin, 25 Feb – 13 Mar. Wright was inspired by a tree he visited as a child in the Phoenix Park “to gaze, to dream, to look out and use [his] imagination”.