Common Ground

Common Ground marks the Tenth Anniversary of the Ground Up Artists’ Collective (GUAC).

Aine Phillips, Amanda Dunsmore, Deirdre O’Mahony, Fiona Woods and Sean Taylor have been selected by curators Barry Charles Foley and Orlaith Treacy from over 30 past members of GUAC for Common Ground.

Based in Co. Clare GUAC was formed in 2003 to create a dialogue between > contemporary visual artists on the implications of making work in rural > surroundings and to offer a platform for research and collaboration. From this came an experimental program of contemporary art that attempted to respond to its rural context and create further dialogue amongst rural communities and the broader cultural audience.

GUAC was understood as both an avenue for research and a platform from which sprung temporary and collaborative art projects introducing elements of performance rather than fixed identities for artists and the rural audience / environment. While these artists have moved on and their practice evolved they all still possess elements and approaches that remain true to the ethos of GUAC.

Common Ground attempts to highlight the importance of this collective in setting precedence for visual artists and cultural producers to consider and respond to context while challenging our view of visual art created in a rural setting. The juxtaposition of the rural content in the urban setting of Limerick City Centre serves to again spark a dialogue between rural and urban communities. Common Ground focuses on the dynamic relationships that exist between the artist and audience, practice and productions, ecology and activism and the ever evolving rural and urban.

This event has been supported by the Arts Council of Ireland Visual Arts Project Award and Clare County Council Arts Office.
Fiona Woods