Archived entries for Events

With-Hold, Exhibition by Padraig Cunningham at the Return Gallery

Return Gallery, Goethe-Institut Irland, 37 Merrion Square Dublin 2

Opening
20th September, 2019 6.30 – 9pm
Exhibition runs through 31st October, 2019.

With-Hold forms part of artist Padraig Cunningham’s 2019 thesis submission for the MA/MFA Art in the Contemporary World in the School of Visual Culture at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin.

The exhibition at the Goethe-Institut, With-Hold proposes a series of intervals, each one based on a particular site: firstly the Goethe-Institut itself and its role as instigator as a place to think and explore, and how it along with the MA/MFA Art in the Contemporary World have etched
a series of intersecting possibilities for education, theory and making; secondly, Kesh Caves in Sligo and the folklore narrative the cave as a portal, a primordial site of consciousness, a place to enter and a time to be-in; and thirdly, the tiny Claggan Island in Co. Mayo that is just about held onto the mainland by a small sandbank. The film explores the cliche of the cave while an accompanying publication speculates on the island’s precarious position and the opposing forces that keep it in place.

The work is presented as a series of intervals, embedded in the philosophy of Deleuze and his reconsideration of temporality through cinema and image-making.
An embodiment of thought in-time or sub-time where Art as a quasi object, a portal, is unfixed and in transit.
An event.
Something to be apprehended than held counter too.

Common Denominator is curated by Art in the Contemporary World,
a theory-practice postgraduate MA/MFA programme at the School of Visual Culture, National College of Art and Design, Dublin, led by Francis Halsall, Declan Long and Sarah Pierce.
www.acw.ie

Supported by the Goethe-Institut Irland in collaboration with the National College of Art & Design.

Gallery hours:
Monday–Thursday 10am to 9pm
Friday 10am to 5.30pm
Saturday 10am to 1:30pm
Closed Bank Holiday weekends.

Contact:
Heidrun Rottke
Cultural Programme Co-Ordinator Goethe-Institut Irland
+353 1 6801100 heidrun.rottke@goethe.de

POST-DANCE


August 15, Project Arts Centre
Performance 5pm//Lecture 6pm

curated by ACW alumni Sara Muthi (ROU)// performed by Oran Leong (IRL)// composition by Aoife Kavanagh (IRL)// lecture by Amanda Øiestad Nilsen (NOR)

Post-dance is a new and rather empty terminology. Initially a 2015 conference of the same name it took place at MDT in Stockholm. Created by Danjel Andersson, André Lepecki and Gabriel Smeets, it gathered artists, scholars, thinkers, producers, activists and those who care deeply for dance. Together they considered this new vocabulary as a container for contemporary dance practice/thought which may otherwise suffer from an attempt at capturing it in historically loaded language. Post-dance has no agenda to advance or project the future of movement. Rather, it gives licence to connect things that seem farfetched, make what was once evident, foreign again; consider and cross-pollinate work that does not easily slot into commercial or institutional contexts.

Post-dance is an “open-source concept.” “It is not a leader. It is a container. It needs to be filled.” While performance art practice is overrun with multi-/inter-/post- disciplinary artists, dance may have become a term so vague and unstable that it can envelop any-body. The Dublin context, however, does not often consider the cross section of these paralleling practices. Both approach similar concerns of embodiment, meaning and touch through varying methods, methods that are appropriately and productively transferable. This contribution to Post-dance aims to connect often disparate creative performing communities. It proposes a space to borrow and test each other’s methodologies in order to labour for new answers to worn out questions like; what is dance? What is performance? It also has the potential to prompt answers to questions we have not yet asked.

This performance/lecture hopes to introduce the container of Post-dance to the Irish context through subverting expectations of what we consider to be dance, live-art, musical composition and, perhaps, audience. Post-dance is a container that serves the needs of every national community differently. This is Dublin’s contribution, hopefully one of many.

Find more information here: https://projectartscentre.ie/event/post-dance/

#postdancedublin #artisforeveryone

TYPECAST X David Booth Exhibition Launch & Artist Talk


TYPECAST x David Booth Exhibition Launch & Artist Talk

Opening 14 June 2019 at 18:00 – 21:00
Runs until 29 June 2019

Artist Talk between Una Sealy RHA and David Booth on Wednesday, 26 June at 18:00
(please RSVP to hello@hangtoughgallery.com)

The Hang Tough Gallery is delighted present Typecast, the first solo show by Dublin based artist David Booth. Booth’s practice deals primarily with painting and drawing, using both traditional acrylic and oil paint on canvas but often incorporating mixed media on unconventional surfaces. Sympathetic to the human form Booth’s attention is largely monopolised toward portraiture. While engaging with a widely traditional format such as is portraiture, it is Booth’s stark contrast between hyper-realistic detailed features and graphic illustrative brush strokes which carry his paintings into the contemporary. Rather than an intention to display the expression or likeness of a human subject, Booth’s subjects are often anonymous; displaying the expression of the artistic gesture.

Occupied by the ongoing study into representation of identity, Typecast is the result of this ongoing theme. While working from his own resources, source imagery is developed in collaboration with contemporary photographers Philip White, Cayne Kxa and Eric van Kampen. Booth uses the portrait as a starting point that usually distills other multidimensional viewpoints. As the concept and vernacular of identity is reorienting, Booth recontextualises the term typecast to challenge these developments and how they refer to social, psychological factors.

David Booth completed his BFA at Wexford Campus School of Art. In 2013 he moved to Dublin to begin his full time career as an artist and has since exhibited both nationally and internationally. Booth has featured in The Irish Times, The Independent and has been awarded the Evans Painting Prize in 2016. His painting ‘Unit’ was selected for the Zurich Portrait Prize 2018/19 at The National Gallery of Ireland. Booth was recently accepted to the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London. His work is held in both private and public collections including Office of Public Works (O.P.W) and various private collections in Ireland and Europe.

This exhibition is co-curated by ACW alumni and Hang Tough Gallery Assistant Sara Muthi.

Hang Tough Gallery | 25 Lennox St, Portobello, Dublin 8

www.hangtoughgallery.com

FB | IG @hangtoughgallery

a heap of language #002: radical publishing

Please join us for the second instalment of a heap of language, an ongoing event series organised between Paper Visual Art Journal and the School of Visual Culture at NCAD.

For this event we have invited a number of contributors to speak about radical (artists’, small press, activist, and samizdat) publishing.

A publication, compiled by current students of the MA/MFA Art in the Contemporary World, will also be launched. This publication has been collaboratively produced in response to the idea of cohabitation.

Contributors: Christodoulos Makris, Sam Riviere, David Crowley, Simon Cutts and Erica Van Horn, as well as students of the MA/MFA Art in the Contemporary World.

4 pm: transcription writing workshop with Christodoulos Makris [numbers limited, separate sign up]
6 pm: talks at the Goethe-Institut, Merrion Square
8 pm: publication launch at the Goethe-Institut, Merrion Square

This event is kindly funded by the Arts Council of Ireland. All aspects of this event are free but booking is required. Separate registration for the workshop, beginning 4 pm, departing from the Goethe-Institut.

Tickets here.

Opening: Pauline Oliveros, Software for People @ The Goethe Institut

Exhibition at 126 Artist-Run Gallery

Anticipated Fictions: Monumental Configurations at 126 Artist-Run Gallery from Saturday 27 April to 12 May.

126 Artist-Run Galley,
15 Saint Bridget’s Place,
The Hidden Valley,
Galway,
Ireland

Irish Association of Creative Therapists at IMMA

Within the Irish Association of Creative Therapists symposium at IMMA on the 27th April, ACW student and practicing artist Natalie Pullen is collaborating with art therapist Deirdre Ni Argain and contemporary artist Siuan Ni Dhochartaigh on a workshop exploring therapeutic experiences that happen outside the conventions of a formal relationship with an art therapist, specifically looking at the context of the contemporary art space. Tickets for the symposium are available on eventbrite.

IMMA Presents: A Vague Anxiety

IMMA Presents: A Vague Anxiety
12 Apr 2019–18 Aug 2019

Opening Thursday 11 April 18:00 – 20:00

A new group exhibition of emerging artists addressing new issues of the Generation Y.

Featuring ACW Alumni Marie Farrington and including work by Cristina Bunello, Saidhbhín Gibson, Helio León, plattenbaustudio, Brian Teeling and Susanne Wawra, with performances by Alexis Blake and Stasis.

ACW24 -TBG+S

NCAD ACW masters students are currently developing a publication containing a 16 part dossier under the theme of Co-Habitation and will spend 24 hours co-habitating, experimenting, workshopping, writing about, and mapping co-existence. Over the last 7 months, the ACW students involved have studied, written about and discussed philosophy, theory, and surrounding literature concerning contemporary art and writing. The 16 students taking part in this experiment come from a broad spectrum of disciplines and are concerned with the following questions.

What does it mean for a group of visual artists, journalists, curators, historians, and writers to workshop, debate, critique, perform, write, eat and sleep in a single studio space over a 24 hour period?
How will this experience of co-habitation manifest through the process of collective writing?
What are the broader socio-political repercussions of co-habitation and how do these issues affect our considerations of this process?
Where does contemporary art and writing situate itself in relation to this theme?
What does it mean to inhabit a space in these terms?
What individual and collective concerns will arise during this experiment?
And how will this experiment direct the final publication?

Launch of Paper Visual Art Journal, vol. 10

Launch of PVA 10 at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios

Thursday 28 March 2019, 7–9 pm
Atrium Space, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios

“Paper Visual Art Journal will be launching their latest hard-copy issue on Thursday 28 March in the Atrium, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, from 7–9 p.m. Alongside reviews and responses to exhibitions and public artworks in Ireland and elsewhere, PVA 9 comprises a series of texts and contributions focused on borders, political and otherwise.

With contributions by Kevin Brazil, Garrett Carr, Laurence Counihan, Wendy Erskine, Peter Geohegan, Declan Long, Rebecca O’Dwyer, Rachel O’Reilly, Kathy Prendergast, Andrey Shental, and Guy Woodward.

This publication was made possible with funding by the Arts Council.

All welcome. Do come!”

PVA

ACW Alumni Adrian Duncan’s New Novel, Love Notes from a German Building Site.

In April The Lilliput Press will be launching ACW alumni Adrian Duncan’s debut novel entitled ‘Love Notes from a German Building Site.’

‘Love Notes from a German Building Site’ follows the story of Paul, an Irish engineer in Berlin, involved in the renovation of a commercial building in Alexanderplatz. Constantly aware of the cracks in its foundations, the text moves calmly towards a manifest cohesion and stability
as Paul’s daily experiences fragment, collapse and are formed anew.

Duncan recently premiered his documentary on the work of structural engineer, Peter Rice, ‘Floating Structures’ at the Dublin International Film Festival. His process of making and the aesthetic of his works derives from an interest in language, and the processes of construction, both amateur and professional, he has carried this through beautifully to his writing.

The launch will be held at the Goethe Institut on Tuesday 16 April at 6pm.

Old Invitations A DHG Student Forum response to the DHG archive

A DHG Student Forum response to the DHG archive
Thursday 28 February 2019, 1pm–8pm

Since March 2018, we’ve been celebrating 40 years of The Douglas Hyde Gallery, looking back through the DHG archive on Instagram under the hashtag #dhgat40, and gathering reflections from artists and audiences.

On 28 February, we will conclude our year-long anniversary celebrations with a special exhibition and series of performances over one afternoon and evening, curated by the DHG Student Forum.

Join us in the gallery on the 28th to explore Student Forum members’ responses to 40 years of programming at the DHG.

PROGRAMME

GALLERY 1

1pm–2pm
Automatic Writing Workshop with Eimear Regan

Taking inspiration from methods of practice of Hilma af Klint, whose paintings were shown in Gallery 2 in 2004 as part of The Paradise exhibition series (2001–2013), Eimear Regan will conduct an Automatic Writing Workshop. Participants will be encouraged to let their hand guide the process while developing a piece of new writing. No experience is necessary to participate in the workshop.

Open to all, but places are limited. To reserve a place, email dhgallery@tcd.ie.

2pm–5pm
Exhibition open to the public, including:

Visionary Art at the DHG – Research paper by Eimear Regan
A research paper following a timeline of visionary art that has been displayed throughout the gallery’s 40-year programme. The Kilim carpets in 1979, the Kalachakra Sand Mandala made by Tibetan monks in the gallery in 1994, K.F. Schobinger’s exhibition of drawings in 2006 (part of The Paradise exhibition series) and Tamara Henderson’s 2018 exhibition Season’s End: More Than Suitcases are just a few of the exhibitions touched on. This paper discusses the thread of attempting to make sense of the mysterious world through artistic practice and aspires to cover artists who have shown in the gallery and whose work has visionary qualities and aims. The research project will be discussed during the public seminar.

Re-Aftermath – 3D projection by Theo Hynan-Ratcliffe
This work consists of four separate videos repeated to form a skin-like cladding for the foundation of the gallery site. An audio piece which acts as the pulse of the archive, an archive soundscape punctuated by definitions of words used to describe the archive and used to describe the intention of intervening in the DHG’s archival materials. The rhythmic action of interacting with the physical archive and the repetitive hypnotic act of turning pages of history, generate skin, body and physicality. The human marks that act as the skeleton of the archive bring the increments of history back into the gallery itself as a physical presence in the space.

5.30pm–6.45pm
Public Seminar: Led by Aisling Ní Aodha, Laurence Counihan and Eimear Regan.

Open to all, no booking required.

7.30pm–8pm
Fleeced! by Isadora Epstein

Fleeced! is a new performance by Isadora Epstein about the mythical Golden Fleece and the 1990 Anselm Kiefer exhibition Jason and the Argonauts. The theatrical lecture will be accompanied by musician/composer Sinéad Onóra Kennedy and choreographer/dancer Aoibhinn O’Dea.

Open to all, but places are limited. To reserve a place, email dhgallery@tcd.ie. Due to the nature of the performance, there can be no late admittance.

GALLERY 2

1pm–8pm
An epistolary exchange with Richard Skelton, by Siobhán Kane

Siobhán Kane invited the artist Richard Skelton into an epistolary dialogue, to revisit his 2011 work Landings for The Douglas Hyde Gallery, and further explore some of his thoughts on landscape, art and the vital role of archiving. What emerges both surprises and educates, putting forward the idea that no art is finite. Through a small installation, both audio and textual, Kane pays homage to the original exhibition of Landings, and its idea of immersion as touchstone.

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Image: Student Forum archival research meeting at The Douglas Hyde Gallery, 16 October 2018.

Artist Talk: Eszter Szakács

Dates: 20 Feb – 20 Feb
Show Time: 5.30pm – 7pm
Tickets: €0 (Free admission, no booking required)

What the Past Holds for the Future: Socialist Solidarity and the Perspective of a Research Exhibition

A curator’s talk within the framework of Active Archive – Slow Institution, organised in association with CCA Derry~Londonderry.

How can the socialist heritage be recalled today? What are the long-term and global ramifications of ‘regime changes,’ when one ideology is replaced by its opposite? How can the field of contemporary art and the spatiality of a research exhibition allow for a complex analysis of historical materials? The point of departure for the talk is located in the concept and practice of international socialist solidarity, a state-directed policy through which the ‘Second World’ (including Hungary and other Eastern Bloc countries) built official relations with ‘Third World’ countries during the Cold War. More specifically, the talk attempts to outline the context and manifold contradictions of socialist solidarity through the case study of socialist Hungary’s media and knowledge production in relation to the Arab World between 1957 and 1989.

Szakács introduces her research exhibition Propaganda, Mon Amour: Palestine As Seen Through Publications in Socialist Hungary and the most recent thematic issues of the online magazine Mezosfera by tranzit.hu – ‘Refractions of Socialist Solidarity and ‘Propositions for a Pan-Peripheral Network’. In doing so, the talk puts forth the importance of historical awareness and the need to critically engage with the state-directed Cold War policies of international solidarity, especially as these transnational connections are somewhat dismissed in both Hungary and across Eastern Europe today, and remain unknown to a generation that was born after the Cold War.

This presentation by Budapest-based curator, editor and researcher Eszter Szakács will be followed by a conversation with Sara Greavu, independent curator and Head of Public Programmes at CCA Derry~Londonderry.

Floating Structures

Feargal Ward and Adrian Duncan’s film Floating Structures follows a researcher travelling across Europe, exploring an array of buildings and structures that seem other-worldly. Drawing on the ideas and visions of the great Irish engineer Peter Rice, they explore the hinterlands that gave rise to these structures. Wandering from a quiet Bavarian town, to the streets of Paris, to the city of Seville, our past is sifted through and interlinked with precision and wonder.

Reel Art is Funded by the Arts Council.

FLOATING STRUCTURES WAS FUNDED UNDER THE ARTS COUNCIL REEL ART SCHEME WHICH IS DESIGNED TO PROVIDE FILM ARTISTS WITH A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE HIGHLY CREATIVE, IMAGINATIVE AND EXPERIMENTAL DOCUMENTARIES ON AN ARTISTIC THEME
Gráinne Humphreys, Festival Director

Purchase tickets here: https://www.diff.ie/festival/film/floating-structures

Ultra-red, Archiving the Debt

In February 2003, Los Angeles-based sound artists Ultra-red began a year-long project in the Ballymun area of Dublin, commissioned by Breaking Ground, the Per Cent for Art programme of Ballymun Regeneration Ltd. EntitledThe Debt, their project was a series of collective reflections that brought together residents from the public housing communities of Ballymun and Pico Aliso in East Los Angeles.The purpose of these encounters was to compare experiences of regeneration in social housing.

Fifteen years on from Ulta-red’s first encounters in Ballymun we might ask:
What is the legacy of social housing in Ireland?

Set up as a listening room in the Goethe-Institut’s Return Gallery, Archiving The Debt focuses on a specific exchange of experiences, ideas and questions that occurred at a time when large-scale public housing was in under intense discussion in Dublin. Visitors can access recordings made duringThe Debt: resident meetings, conversations with city officials, radio broadcasts, performances and electro acoustic soundscapes of Ballymun.

Presented by the Goethe-Institut Irland in collaboration with the National College of Art & Design. Supporting structures made by Andreas Kindler von Knobloch. Situated under Liam Gillick’s Denominator Platform, 2018.

ArchivingThe Debt is part of Common Denominator: Art and the Contemporary World at the Goethe-Institut, a two-year programme in the Return Gallery. Through exhibitions, seminars, discussions and more, it interrogates what it means now to speak of political solidarity, civic standards or even aesthetic values.

Art in the Contemporary World is a taught Masters programme at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin, focusing on contemporary practices and their cultural, political, social and historical contexts. ACW is led by Francis Halsall, Declan Long and Sarah Pierce.

Exhibition runs from 7 February through 15 April 2019.

Gallery hours:
Monday–Thursday 10am to 9pm
Friday 10am to 5.30pm
Saturday 10am to 1:30pm
Closed Bank Holiday weekends.

Contact
Heidrun Rottke Goethe-Institut Irland
+353 (01) 680 1100 heidrun.rottke@ goethe.de

Return Gallery Goethe-Institut Irland
37 Merrion Square East
Dublin 2

Bauhaus Effects

A conference organised by the National College of Art and Design, University College Cork, University College Dublin and the Goethe Institut Dublin – 7-9 February 2019

Bauhaus Effects will assemble an interdisciplinary collection of papers that analyse the repercussions of the legendary Bauhaus school in the hundred years since its inception, considering the ways in which the broad range of practices have transformed everyday experiences from the 1920s to the present day.

Bauhaus innovations and models of thought continue to resonate within the contemporary built environment, from chair construction to skyscraper design, from interior spaces to urban topographies, warranting a thorough, methodologically diverse studies of its effects a century after the school was founded.

Bauhaus Effects aims to investigate the continuing impact of the Bauhaus on an impressive range of contemporary practices across the globe. We propose that the Bauhaus was not just a radical art school but in fact initiated a fundamental paradigm shift in design culture whose import is ripe for assessment a century on.

Contributing Institutions:

Goethe Institut Dublin; National College of Ireland; National Gallery of Ireland ; University College Dublin; Dublin City Council; German Embassy; University College Cork

Organising Committee:

Francis Halsall, NCAD; Kathleen James-Chakraborty, UCD; Thomas Lier, Goethe Institut; Sabine Kriebel, UCC; Declan Long, NCAD; Sarah Pierce, NCAD; Heidrun Rottke, Goethe Institut.

Booking Link

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bauhaus-effects-tickets-54536415888

NB: THE EVENT IS NOW FULLY BOOKED.

Location

National Gallery of Ireland

Merrion Square West

Dublin 2

View Map

Conference Programme

THURSDAY

6pm: Introductions and welcomes by the CONFERENCE TEAM/ AMBASSADOR etc.:

6:30 – 7.30pm. Opening Keynote: Heike Hanada, Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany, CHAIR: PROF. KATHLEEN JAMES CHAKRABORTY

FRIDAY

10:00am – 12pm. Panel 1: Bauhaus Effects in everyday life CHAIR: LISA GODSON

Andrew McNamara (Queensland University of Technology, Australia): Bauhaus Effects and the contemporary legacy
Mariana Meneses Romero (Nottingham Trent University, UK): Vidal Sassoon and the Bauhaus
Kerry Meaken (Dublin Institute of Technology): The Bauhaus Effect on the Fundamentals of Window Display
Jonathan Foote (Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark): Toys and the Innocent Eye: Bauhaus Toys of the 1920s

1:00 – 3:00pm. Panel 2: Paradigm Shift CHAIR: Dr SABINE KRIEBEL

Patrick Roessler (Erfurt, Germany) “New typography”, the Bauhaus, and its Impact on Graphic Design
Dietrich Neuman (Brown University, USA) Space-Time and the Bauhaus
Aleksi Lohtaja (University of Jyväskylä, Finland) Bauhaus effects in political economy of Space and Sign
Jan Frohburg (University of Limerick) Bauhaus and Aircrafts
3:30 – 5:15pm. Panel 3: Bauhaus Aftershocks CHAIR: DECLAN LONG

Vanessa Troiano (City University of New York, USA) The “Bauhaus Idea” in Robert Rauschenberg’s Blueprints
Jordan Troeller (Berlin, Germany) Lucia Moholy in Turkey
Ruth Baumeister (Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark) Bauhaus Effects In and out of Scandinavia
Katarina Elvén (Stockholm, Sweden) Aspects of Doing – The Photographic and Photographed Activity at the Bauhaus

SATURDAY

9:30-11:00am. Panel 4: Bauhaus Effects through pedagogy. CHAIR: FRANCIS HALSALL

Suzanne Strum: Knud Lönberg-Holm and Michigan
Ingrid Mayrhofer Hufnagl: Klee’s pedagogy and computational processing
Philip Glahn: Radical pedagogy of Bauhaus, art as social labor

11:30am – 1:00pm Closing Keynote: Irit Rogoff, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. CHAIR: DR SARAH PIERCE

The Ontology of the Artefact

The Ontology of the Artefact is a digital publication compiled by students, Aoife Banks, Nathan Cahill and Kate Friedeberg of NCAD’s Art in the Contemporary World Masters programme, exploring the conditions of the artefact within colonial museology through to contemporary visual culture. It is a platform for discourse surrounding the artefact and its displacement, creation, destruction, and reimagining.

Read the publication here: http://www.ontologyoftheartefact.xyz

Please join us for the launch of The Ontology of the Artefact at Temple Bar Gallery and Studios on Wednesday 30th Jan at 7pm. Speaking at the launch will be Rachel Dwyer, lecturer of digital cultures in the School of Visual Cultures in the NCAD and Melanie Otto, lecturer of postcolonial literature in The School of English in Trinity College. Talk followed by wine reception.

Wednesday 30 January 2019
7pm
Studio 6

Free admission, no booking required.

Artist In Conversation: Karl Burke and Dr. Francis Halsall

Artist In Conversation: Karl Burke and Dr. Francis Halsall
Thursday 31 January 2019, 6.30pm
Free in.

Artist Karl Burke will be in conversation with Dr. Francis Halsall; art historian and co-director of the MA Art in the Contemporary World at NCAD Dublin. In association with Space Gathers Itself, an exhibition of work by Karl Burke, running until 09 February.
Karl Burke is an Irish artist and musician based in Dublin. He has exhibited widely in Europe and North America including The Royal Hibernian Academy, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Hugh Lane Gallery, Project Arts Centre, The Mac, Maria Stenfors Gallery, The Serpentine and The Mattress factory. A site specific practice of primary concern in Burke’s work is the symbiotic relationship between the art object, the space it inhabits and the experiential concerns related to viewership. The work is often minimal or reductive in appearance and takes the form of sculptural installations often utilising the mediums of steel and wood. Video, sound and the photographic image are utilised in other instances.
Francis Halsall is co-director of Master Programs, Art in the Contemporary World, at National College of Art and Design, Dublin and Research Fellow at the Department of Art History and Image Studies, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. His research involves three main areas: (1) Modern and Contemporary art; (2) Philosophical aesthetics (3) Systems Thinking. He has published and lectured widely in all areas.

Active Archive – Slow Institution

Active Archive – Slow Institution is a major research project that delves into Project Art Centre’s rich 50+ year history, uncovering the history (or rather histories) of one of Ireland’s oldest public art institutions.

Over the past six months, recent ACW graduate, Dorothy Hunter and current ACW MFA student, Hannah Tiernan have been undertaking independent lines of enquiry within the centre’s archive. The Long Goodbye exhibition, which opens on Thursday 31st January, is the culmination of this project and will feature highlights from their research.

Dorothy has been researching the disparate threads connected to the “eventualisation” of the Project fires, such as the tension between symbol-making and destruction, how protection and aftermath are dealt with, art that was destroyed and made, and the layered proxy existences within the archive.

Hannah’s research into the LGBTQ+ theatre of Project speaks to the Art Centre’s importance as an artist-led organisation. Having been at the forefront of presenting cutting edge, contemporary and often controversial work, this research looks at the legacy of such an institution and how this reflects in today’s practices.

You, Me and Everything In Between workshop conducted by ACW students in the RHA

Art in the Contemporary World work with the RHA for Learning and Public Engagement, Futures Series 3, Episode 2 with Dublin Youth Dance Company

Working closely with the RHA, Katy Fitzpatrick and Róisín Bohan for the Public Engagement and Learning program for the current Futures exhibition, ACW students, Brendan Fox, Natalie Pullen and Éimear Regan developed You, Me and Everything In Between. A theatrical workshop loosely based around Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, where participants were encouraged to manifest a performative narrative connecting the exhibition content. The artists featuring in Futures Series 3, Episode 2 exhibition are Bassam Al-Sabah, Cecilia Danell, Laura Fitzgerald, Jennifer Mehigan, Joanne Reid and Marcel Vidal. The work on display by each artist in Futures is unconnected and seemingly disparate as the exhibition is a display of their own personal practice rather than a group show that relates to a specific theme or greater narrative. The challenge set forth in the workshop was to develop a constellation between the artists’ work on display, with an outcome of producing and creating a wholly separate piece of performance art. The artists in the Futures exhibition also contributed to the workshop by donating personal objects for a further insight into their world. Among the objects donated were a paint pot cast from layers upon layers of paint, a silver mask and a metal rod. Members of the Dublin Youth Dance Company directed by Mariam Ribon, were invited to participate in the 3-hour-long workshop which took place on Saturday 15 December. The first half of the workshop began with the 11 participants viewing and taking in the work, followed by a meditation and then contained a series of exercises influenced by Boal’s practice where there was a discussion and consequently where the generation of ideas for a narrative emerged. During the second half of the workshop the DYDC participants were divided into three groups and were instructed to develop their narrative of the exhibition through three “moments” that established a final performance. Materials were provided by the facilitators Fox, Pullen and Regan to aid the development and theatricality of the narrative, encouraging the participants to engage in producing a fully embodied piece of art. The dancers infused themselves into the workshop and the outcome was outstanding. Each group performed their finished piece within the space with the artworks as a backdrop. The dancers’ commitment to the workshop was phenomenal and the creative energy generated in the space was quite special.

Éimear Regan, MA Art in the Contemporary World

All photographs by Brendan Fox

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