28 Nov 2013
29 Sept 2013
I am shapeful and gracely, a creature of the air I'd say | NEW WORK BY ROBIN JONES
126 are proud to present
I am shapeful and gracely, a creature of the air I'd say
NEW WORK BY ROBIN JONES
PREVIEW | FRIDAY O4 OCT 2013 | 6PM | FLOOD SREET | GALWAY
EXHIBITION DATES | 05 OCTOBER - 02 NOVEMBER 2013
I am shapeful and gracely, a creature of the air I'd say
NEW WORK BY ROBIN JONES
PREVIEW | FRIDAY O4 OCT 2013 | 6PM | FLOOD SREET | GALWAY
EXHIBITION DATES | 05 OCTOBER - 02 NOVEMBER 2013
126 proudly present
I am shapeful and gracely, a creature of the air I'd say
05 OCTOBER - 02 NOVEMBER 2013
PREVIEW | Friday 04 OCTOBER 6pm
Robin Jones works with a range of materials to make three dimensional objects and wall based works. He uses a variety of media; wood and bolts from DIY shops, paper, cloth etc., through which he invents and reworks a vocabulary relating to adaptable, mutable forms and structures.
The objects have a certain fragile quality, they seem close to collapse, remaining upright through internal tension, but sometimes suddenly overbalancing in slapstick fashion. They are often modular structures, re-makable, the parts roughly interchangeable, made through cutting, dismembering, replacing. It is not always certain if they are complete and their orientation and position is usually not fixed or certain.
The work takes in ideas around drawing as a language considered in various ways. Line is traced as cut and or join. Speed of line, qualities of surface and speed of surface are concerns, as is an interest in proximity, hapticity and bodily gesture. Jones attempts to explore possibilities for combining and composing, breaking up and dispersing - groups of work that may or may not evolve towards coherence.
Robin Jones went to art school at LSAD, GMIT (then Galway RTC) and the Slade School of Fine Art, London
He has exhibited in the Claremorris Open exhibition, Jerwood Drawing Prize, London, In the House, London, Iontas, EV+A and various other group exhibitions. Previous one-person shows include Galway Art Centre and Siamsa Tire Arts Centre, Tralee. He is curating 'Taking Note or The Curious Eye' at NUIG art gallery in November 2013
I am shapeful and gracely, a creature of the air I'd say
05 OCTOBER - 02 NOVEMBER 2013
PREVIEW | Friday 04 OCTOBER 6pm
Robin Jones works with a range of materials to make three dimensional objects and wall based works. He uses a variety of media; wood and bolts from DIY shops, paper, cloth etc., through which he invents and reworks a vocabulary relating to adaptable, mutable forms and structures.
The objects have a certain fragile quality, they seem close to collapse, remaining upright through internal tension, but sometimes suddenly overbalancing in slapstick fashion. They are often modular structures, re-makable, the parts roughly interchangeable, made through cutting, dismembering, replacing. It is not always certain if they are complete and their orientation and position is usually not fixed or certain.
The work takes in ideas around drawing as a language considered in various ways. Line is traced as cut and or join. Speed of line, qualities of surface and speed of surface are concerns, as is an interest in proximity, hapticity and bodily gesture. Jones attempts to explore possibilities for combining and composing, breaking up and dispersing - groups of work that may or may not evolve towards coherence.
Robin Jones went to art school at LSAD, GMIT (then Galway RTC) and the Slade School of Fine Art, London
He has exhibited in the Claremorris Open exhibition, Jerwood Drawing Prize, London, In the House, London, Iontas, EV+A and various other group exhibitions. Previous one-person shows include Galway Art Centre and Siamsa Tire Arts Centre, Tralee. He is curating 'Taking Note or The Curious Eye' at NUIG art gallery in November 2013
20 Sept 2013
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126 present:
Friday 20th September 2013 | 6pm
On view for Culture night at 126, in addition to 'Overland | The Ongoing', will be a short excerpt from a documentary called “The Inislacken Project" which has been made collaboratively by Jennifer Cunningham, Tim Acheson and Ray Burke.
Jennifer works in a variety of media and has won several awards for her work including the Taylor Art Award and Thomas Dammann award. Most recently she was awarded residencies in the RHA, the Tyrone Guthrie Center and Firestation studios Dublin. Tim Acheson is a visual artist based in Galway City. His practice consists of object making, video and field recording. He is currently a member of Engage Studios. Ray Burke researches, edits and presents a visual arts programme called The Artists Space on 103.2 Dublin city fm.
For several years now, Jennifer and Tim have participated on an artist residency called “The Inishlacken Project” curated by Rosie Mc Gurran. Inishlacken is a depopulated island off the coast of Roundstone in Conemara. It has been uninhabited for forty years but for a week each June, Rosie repopulates the island with artists who produce work in various media. Over 50 artists have taken part in this residency and resulting work has been shown around the world including New York and Australia.
The documentary being produced by Jennifer, Tim and Ray addresses the islands isolated beauty and its function as liminal space, separate from the mainland. The film will act as an intersection between documentary making, studio process and the natural world.
CULTURE NIGHT 2013
@126galleryFriday 20th September 2013 | 6pm
Image: Gerard Dillon House
On view for Culture night at 126, in addition to 'Overland | The Ongoing', will be a short excerpt from a documentary called “The Inislacken Project" which has been made collaboratively by Jennifer Cunningham, Tim Acheson and Ray Burke.
Jennifer works in a variety of media and has won several awards for her work including the Taylor Art Award and Thomas Dammann award. Most recently she was awarded residencies in the RHA, the Tyrone Guthrie Center and Firestation studios Dublin. Tim Acheson is a visual artist based in Galway City. His practice consists of object making, video and field recording. He is currently a member of Engage Studios. Ray Burke researches, edits and presents a visual arts programme called The Artists Space on 103.2 Dublin city fm.
For several years now, Jennifer and Tim have participated on an artist residency called “The Inishlacken Project” curated by Rosie Mc Gurran. Inishlacken is a depopulated island off the coast of Roundstone in Conemara. It has been uninhabited for forty years but for a week each June, Rosie repopulates the island with artists who produce work in various media. Over 50 artists have taken part in this residency and resulting work has been shown around the world including New York and Australia.
The documentary being produced by Jennifer, Tim and Ray addresses the islands isolated beauty and its function as liminal space, separate from the mainland. The film will act as an intersection between documentary making, studio process and the natural world.
31 Aug 2013
126 presents:
OVERLAND | THE ONGOING
TIM ACHESON | WINNIE PUN
September 7-28th 2013
Preview | Friday 6th September 2013 | 7pm
OVERLAND | THE ONGOING
TIM ACHESON | WINNIE PUN
September 7-28th 2013
Preview | Friday 6th September 2013 | 7pm
Images : Tim Acheson, Caravan (2013); Winnie Pun, Space Mountain (2013).
OVERLAND | THE ONGOINGTIM ACHESON | WINNIE PUN
September 7th - 28th
126 is delighted to present new work OVERLAND | THE ONGOING by Tim Acheson (Ireland) and Winnie Pun (Hong Kong).
Tim Acheson's new work deals with the duality of a sense of perspective. Although we observe our surrounding landscape we are simultaneously in a landscape of memory and outside references. The work looks at the simultaneous nature of seeing and memory, perspective and location.
Tim Acheson is a visual artist based in Galway City. His practice, consisting of object making, video and field recording, deals with the human aspect and reaction to the physical landscape. He is currently a member of Engage Studios.
Winnie Pun's work encourages active looking. Seeing is always in motion within each image, and each image portrays a mechanism of seeing that can be continued in other work, and in other mediums. It is not her intention to create photographic paintings or photographic images that resemble paintings as such. The banality of subject matter is non-narrative, but has the intention to slow down viewer’s perception. The indirectness induces an ambiguous moment where the mechanism of seeing and the nature of representation can be confronted.
Winnie received her Bachelor of Fine Art Degree from GMIT in 2011. Her work has been selected for various exhibitions including RDS Student Awards (2010), Eigse Carlow Arts Festival (2012) and Osage Gallery, Hong Kong (2013). She is currently based in Hong Kong.
28 Aug 2013
VAI/ 126 hosts Galway Show and Tell Evening | 12th September at 6pm
Galway Show and Tell Evening | 12th September at 6pm
126, Artist-run Gallery, 4 Commerce House, Flood Street, Galway
The Visual Artists Ireland 'Show and Tell Evening', provides artists with the opportunity to give a presentation on their practice in an informal setting where they can network and meet people with similar ideas and interests. Due to popular demand a number of 'Show and Tell' events will now be held outside of Dublin, with the first event being held in the 126 Gallery, Galway. We are now inviting artists, curators, etc. to attend/take part in this free event.
The presentations will be fast paced and will consist of 10 slides/images per speaker. The images will change automatically, giving the speaker a few seconds to talk about what is on the screen. This ensures that an equal amount of time is given to each image. There will be a maximum of 10 speakers asked to present. Speakers must be current members of Visual Artists Ireland.
If you are interested in participating, email your selected images to adrian@visualartists.ie. Please register for the event online via the correct link below before emailing your images.
The deadline for both registration and submissions is 5.30pm, 8 September 2013
The event will be held at 126, Artist-run Gallery, 4 Commerce House, Flood Street, Galway City and will be followed by a wine reception.
Anyone is welcome to attend although there is a €2 charge for non-members. The maximum number of attendees is 40 (including speakers) so book now to avoid disappointment.
To register to present at the event please click here.
To register to just attend please click here.
For any other information, please email event organiser Adrian Colwell : adrian@visualartists.ie
The event will be held following a 'Documenting your work' Professional Development Workshop with Tim Durham. More information about the workshop can be found at this address - http://visualartists.ie/
B
126, Artist-run Gallery, 4 Commerce House, Flood Street, Galway
The Visual Artists Ireland 'Show and Tell Evening', provides artists with the opportunity to give a presentation on their practice in an informal setting where they can network and meet people with similar ideas and interests. Due to popular demand a number of 'Show and Tell' events will now be held outside of Dublin, with the first event being held in the 126 Gallery, Galway. We are now inviting artists, curators, etc. to attend/take part in this free event.
The presentations will be fast paced and will consist of 10 slides/images per speaker. The images will change automatically, giving the speaker a few seconds to talk about what is on the screen. This ensures that an equal amount of time is given to each image. There will be a maximum of 10 speakers asked to present. Speakers must be current members of Visual Artists Ireland.
If you are interested in participating, email your selected images to adrian@visualartists.ie. Please register for the event online via the correct link below before emailing your images.
The deadline for both registration and submissions is 5.30pm, 8 September 2013
The event will be held at 126, Artist-run Gallery, 4 Commerce House, Flood Street, Galway City and will be followed by a wine reception.
Anyone is welcome to attend although there is a €2 charge for non-members. The maximum number of attendees is 40 (including speakers) so book now to avoid disappointment.
To register to present at the event please click here.
To register to just attend please click here.
For any other information, please email event organiser Adrian Colwell : adrian@visualartists.ie
The event will be held following a 'Documenting your work' Professional Development Workshop with Tim Durham. More information about the workshop can be found at this address - http://visualartists.ie/
B
126 & VAI Professional Development Workshop - Documenting your Work with Tim Durham
126 &VAI Professional Development Workshop
- Documenting your Work with Tim Durham
- Documenting your Work with Tim Durham
In partnership with Crafts Council of Ireland. Thu. 12 Sept. (10.00 – 17.00) 126 Gallery, Flood St, Galway Cost: €80 / 40 (Members) Places: 10 Artists often struggle to photograph their own work or spend scarce money paying someone else to do it for them. But with some basic guidelines and practice, artists are, for the majority of purposes well able to photograph their own paintings, drawings, etc with the digital compact or SLR camera that they already own. For most of the situations in which you present images of your work whether: submitting proposals, portfolios of work for submission to galleries, websites, catalogues, press releases for magazines and newspapers, this workshop will assist you in a methodical step-by-step process to obtain the best possible results with your digital compact camera or digital SLR. This session is about getting the very best quality results from the equipment you have. Perhaps you may still need to employ a professional photographer for producing coffee table books and limited edition prints. But having undertaken this workshop you will have a better understanding of the process and potential pitfalls, and be able to communicate knowledgeably with a photographer. The course will cover, exposure, ISO, white balance, apertures, depth of field, jpg and raw quality, resolution of images, tripod use and much more. To take part you will need: Your camera (and manual if possible) Blank memory card Fully charged battery and spare if possible Cable for downloading images Tripod if you have one (I will also bring some for the group to use) A piece of artwork to photograph Tim Durham is a photographic artist working from his home in Westmeath. He is interested in architectural interiors having photographed the last month of the Irish Times in D’Olier Street in 2006, Shackleton Mills in Lucan in 2009 and Tara Mines for a show at the Solstice Arts Centre in 2009. He is also interested in architecture and landscape. He completed a percent for arts project for Kells Town Council based around the town of Kells and the island of Iona in their connection with St. Columkille and the Books of Kells. He is currently working on a percent for arts project for Westmeath County Council on the history of social housing in that county. His practice includes art documentation and photographic workshops. For the past 4 years he has been teaching artists how to photograph their own work. |
22 Aug 2013
THE MACHISMO PROJECT
Panel discussion & Documentary screening
Thursday 29th August | 6.30pm
126 is pleased to present the second in the series of panel discussions for THE MACHISMO PROJECT.
There is a deficit of work in current contemporary art practice which confronts masculinity directly as its subject matter. The MACHISMO PROJECT was conceived as a means by which this neglected area of research could be examined and explored. Through an exhibition and panel discussions, a dialogue will be opened up where the complex pressures of traditional gender constructs can be unpacked and discussed. This project does not hope to provide answers to the issues it raises but rather to begin to subvert and question the roughly hewn narratives of machismo and its intersection with society.
For this panel discussion, artists Conall Cary and Gary Dempsey will be joined by David Patterson, mens community worker based in Gort, Co. Galway along with a representative from the Galway Branch of The Mens Sheds Association. The aim of the discussion will be to constructively develop the conversation about machismo within a social context, providing the framework with which to view the current MACHISMO EXHIBITION.
Prior to the discussion, there will be screening of the MACHISMO documentary by Flying Knee Productions for The MACHISMO PROJECT, which discusses issues concerning contemporary masculinity.
This is a free event and all are welcome
Further info:
Within the MACHISMO EXHIBITION, curated by Gerald Heffernan (Tactic @ Sample-Studios), the topic of male identity is explored through the work of artists Conall Cary and Gary Dempsey in their use of printed imagery and innovative construction methods. The work consists of large scale prints on cast concrete and cut steel, utilising the inherent masculinity of the materials size, strength and toughness juxtaposed against the surface imagery.
Gary Dempsey is a visual artist and printmaker currently working as a member of Backwater Artists Group and Cork Printmakers. He graduated from the Limerick School of Art & Design with a degree in Fine Art Printmaking and has been involved as a member of the Francisian Church and Limerick Printmakers, showing work in a variety of group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. In 2011 he was awarded the Bursary Award from Cork Printmakers and he continues to work and teach there. Dempsey's work draws on his experiences of relationships and human interactions and imposed sexual expectations placed on men today. In his work men and women are replaced by curious, animal like creatures that are used to explore the ways in which men are encouraged to reduce themselves to a series of primal urges.
Conall Cary is a visual artist and printmaker currrently working as a member of Backwater Artists Group and Cork Printmakers. After his studies at the University of Oregon, he went on to study Printmaking at GMIT and graduated with a first class honours degree in 2010. As artist-in-residence at the Highland Print Studio in Inverness, Scotland he worked with mental health patients facilitating workshops using printmaking methods. With recent residencies at the Sirius Art Centre, Cork Printmakers and Ratamo Centre for Printmaking & Photography in Finland, Cary has continued a direction of work that is concerned with the modern male identity, in particular the issues facing men living in rural isolated environments.
Gerald Heffernan graduated from the Crawford College of Art & Design in 2010 with a bachelors degree in Fine Art. Having previously founded and programmed the Patrick St. Gallery in Cork from 2006-2009 he became involved with the creation of Sample-Studios in Cork City. He currently acts as Director and Chairperson while also being the co-curator and programmer for TACTIC project space in Sample-Studios. Heffernan has curated several exhibitions both in TACTIC and elsewhere, most notable being NLAIII at IMOCA in Dublin in 2012. He is currently involved in on-going curatorial projects such as The Machismo Project.
http://www.machismo.ie/M-A-C-H-I-S-M-O
http://www.conallcary.com/
http://www.rockthefuckoutjr.com/
www.facebook.com/TACTICart
www.126gallery.blogspot.ie
19 Aug 2013
ARTIST TALK 8 | Aaron Lawless
Thursday 22nd August 2013 | 7pm
Free event open to all
126 Artist Talk | Aaron Lawless
Thursday 22nd August 2013 | 7pm
126 presents its ongoing series of Artists talks that aim to encourage critical conversations about contemporary art practice in Ireland. Artist Aaron Lawless will discuss the development of his artistic practice along with a presentation of a selection of his works.
Aaron Lawless' works are playful experiments of authorship and authority.
Using the urban environment as an entry in which to engage with the individual. His works are transitional objects that cross reference components of the every day, giving them new meaning and new use. Lawless' practice involves recycling leftover found materials into startling arrangements, exhibited as installations or as sculptural entities. Often guided by YouTube tutorials and DIY instruction manuals, his constructions rarely hold an allusion to high art, rather that he sees them as makeshift solutions made with the resources at hand…. Drawing on the viewer’s personal relationship with the objects, in their new and old forms. Activating the viewer and blurring lines of participation. Or maybe just asking “sure, what is the use?”
As a contemporary art practitioner engaging in aspects of improvisation and frugality, specialising in making performances and installations in public spaces, Lawless has been invited to work with local environmental group Transition Galway. During this talk, Aaron will give an introduction and background to his series of work todate, as they playfully related to ideas of exchange and economy, whilst opening up a discussion on the possibilities of activating a new cultural and creative context working within Transition Galway.
Selected Works:
2013 Culture Night Lawless will present a series of musical instruments in ‘Visual’ Carlow, made of recycled and found material located around the Carlow area.
These forms will be used on the night in a public event with local musicians.
For further information visit… http://www.visualcarlow.ie/
2013 “Act of Portrayal”,Limerick City Gallery of Art, Ireland
“Welcome to the neighborhood”, Askeaton Contemporary Arts, Askeaton,Limerick, Ireland
“Whats A Little Fallout?”, St. Patricks Day Parade, Askeaton Contemporary Arts, Askeaton,Limerick, Ireland
2012 Eva International, Faber Studios, Re-Possesion, Curated by Annie Fletcher
2011 Chairperson Faber Studios-to present,
2009 “Aulstubleift”, Das Built, Utrecht, Netherlands
“Plotfarm”, Zal 100, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2008 “Way Out”, Limerick, Ireland
For more information please visit:
www.aaronlawless.com
http://transitiongalway.
6 Aug 2013
126 presents:
THE MACHISMO PROJECT
Gary Dempsey & Conall Cary
curated by Gerald Heffernan
August 10th -31st 2013
Preview | Friday 9th August 2013 | 7pm
THE MACHISMO PROJECT
Gary Dempsey & Conall Cary
curated by Gerald Heffernan
August 10th - August 31st 2013
Preview | Friday 9th August 2013 | 7pm
'THE ROUGHLY HEWN NARRATIVES OF ‘MACHISMO’ AND THE COMPLEX PRESSURES OF TRADITIONAL GENDER CONSTRUCTS ARE EXPOUNDED THROUGH A FORM OF SELF-REFLEXIVE HUMOUR; A HUMOUR WHICH ACTS AS A FRONT PARADOXICALLY REVEALING THE WEIGHT OF THE SUBJECT MATTER ENTAILED'
There is a deficit of work in current contemporary art practice which confronts masculinity directly as its subject matter. The Machismo Project was conceived as a means by which this neglected area of research could be examined and explored. Through an exhibition and symposium a dialogue will be opened up where the complex pressures of traditional gender constructs can be unpacked and discussed. This project does not hope to provide answers to the issues it raises but rather to begin to subvert and question the roughly hewn narratives of machismo and its intersection with society.
Within the exhibition curated by Gerald Heffernan (Tactic @ Sample-Studios) the topic of male identity will be explored through the work of artists Conall Cary and Gary Dempsey in their use of printed imagery and innovative construction methods. The work will consist of large scale prints on cast concrete and cut steel, utilising the inherent masculinity of the materials size, strength and toughness juxtaposed against the surface imagery.
Gary Dempsey is a visual artist and printmaker currently working as a member of Backwater Artists Group and Cork Printmakers. He graduated from the Limerick School of Art & Design with a degree in Fine Art Printmaking and has been involved as a member of the Francisian Church and Limerick Printmakers, showing work in a variety of group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. In 2011 he was awarded the Bursary Award from Cork Printmakers and he continues to work and teach there. Dempsey's work draws on his experiences of relationships and human interactions and imposed sexual expectations placed on men today. In his work men and women are replaced by curious, animal like creatures that are used to explore the ways in which men are encouraged to reduce themselves to a series of primal urges.
Conall Cary is a visual artist and printmaker currrently working as a member of Backwater Artists Group and Cork Printmakers. After his studies at the University of Oregon, he went on to study Printmaking at GMIT and graduated with a first class honours degree in 2010. As artist-in-residence at the Highland Print Studio in Inverness, Scotland he worked with mental health patients facilitating workshops using printmaking methods. With recent residencies at the Sirius Art Centre, Cork Printmakers and Ratamo Centre for Printmaking & Photography in Finland, Cary has continued a direction of work that is concerned with the modern male identity, in particular the issues facing men living in rural isolated environments.
Gerald Heffernan graduated from the Crawford College of Art & Design in 2010 with a bachelors degree in Fine Art. Having previously founded and programmed the Patrick St. Gallery in Cork from 2006-2009 he became involved with the creation of Sample-Studios in Cork City. He currently acts as Director and Chairperson while also being the co-curator and programmer for TACTIC project space in Sample-Studios. Heffernan has curated several exhibitions both in TACTIC and elsewhere, most notable being NLAIII at IMOCA in Dublin in 2012. He is currently involved in on-going curatorial projects such as The Machismo Project.
http://www.machismo.ie/M-A-C-H-I-S-M-O
http://www.conallcary.com/
http://www.rockthefuckoutjr.com/
www.facebook.com/TACTICart
126 presents:
Artist Talk 7 | Laura Gannon in conversation with Katherine Waugh
Saturday 10th August 2013 | 5pm
Followed by prosecco reception
Free event open to all
126 Artist Talk 7 | Laura Gannon in conversation with Katherine Waugh
Saturday 10th August 2013 | 5pm
126 presents the seventh in a series of Artists talks that aim to encourage critical conversations about contemporary art practice in Ireland. Artist Laura Gannon will discuss the development of her artistic practice along with a presentation of a selection of her works in film, drawing and performance.
Laura Gannon was born in Galway and grew up in Mayo and is now a London based visual artist working predominantly in 16mm and digital film and drawing. She completed the Artist Associate Programme at Lux, London, 2009 and graduated from Goldsmiths College, London, with an M.A( Fine Art) in 2003. Her 16mm film StopGap was the first moving image work purchased by the Irish Arts Council and has recently been included in the touring Into the Light exhibition, and her film A House in Cap-Martin set in Eileen Gray's landmark Modernist house E1027 (2006) has shown internationally to much acclaim.
Gannon recently completed a commission to produce a performance piece based on Elizabeth Bowen's The Heat of the Day as part of the David Roberts Art Foundation's programme A House of Leaves, which investigated further her preoccupation with the relationship between architecture, literature, non-dominant narratives and the body. Her work will be included in a forthcoming group show Folly: Art after Architecture in the Glucksman Gallery.
She has exhibited widely in numerous group exhibitions in Ireland, the UK, Germany, and the USA, in addition to solo exhibitions in the Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane; Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, The Context Gallery, Derry, Sketch Gallery London and Whitechapel Projects London. She has received many awards and scholarships, including the Macauley Fellowship from the Irish Arts Council and the Thomas Damann Memorial Fellowship.
THE MACHISMO PROJECT
Gary Dempsey & Conall Cary
curated by Gerald Heffernan
August 10th -31st 2013
Preview | Friday 9th August 2013 | 7pm
Gary Dempsey & Conall Cary
curated by Gerald Heffernan
August 10th - August 31st 2013
Preview | Friday 9th August 2013 | 7pm
'THE ROUGHLY HEWN NARRATIVES OF ‘MACHISMO’ AND THE COMPLEX PRESSURES OF TRADITIONAL GENDER CONSTRUCTS ARE EXPOUNDED THROUGH A FORM OF SELF-REFLEXIVE HUMOUR; A HUMOUR WHICH ACTS AS A FRONT PARADOXICALLY REVEALING THE WEIGHT OF THE SUBJECT MATTER ENTAILED'
There is a deficit of work in current contemporary art practice which confronts masculinity directly as its subject matter. The Machismo Project was conceived as a means by which this neglected area of research could be examined and explored. Through an exhibition and symposium a dialogue will be opened up where the complex pressures of traditional gender constructs can be unpacked and discussed. This project does not hope to provide answers to the issues it raises but rather to begin to subvert and question the roughly hewn narratives of machismo and its intersection with society.
Within the exhibition curated by Gerald Heffernan (Tactic @ Sample-Studios) the topic of male identity will be explored through the work of artists Conall Cary and Gary Dempsey in their use of printed imagery and innovative construction methods. The work will consist of large scale prints on cast concrete and cut steel, utilising the inherent masculinity of the materials size, strength and toughness juxtaposed against the surface imagery.
Gary Dempsey is a visual artist and printmaker currently working as a member of Backwater Artists Group and Cork Printmakers. He graduated from the Limerick School of Art & Design with a degree in Fine Art Printmaking and has been involved as a member of the Francisian Church and Limerick Printmakers, showing work in a variety of group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. In 2011 he was awarded the Bursary Award from Cork Printmakers and he continues to work and teach there. Dempsey's work draws on his experiences of relationships and human interactions and imposed sexual expectations placed on men today. In his work men and women are replaced by curious, animal like creatures that are used to explore the ways in which men are encouraged to reduce themselves to a series of primal urges.
Conall Cary is a visual artist and printmaker currrently working as a member of Backwater Artists Group and Cork Printmakers. After his studies at the University of Oregon, he went on to study Printmaking at GMIT and graduated with a first class honours degree in 2010. As artist-in-residence at the Highland Print Studio in Inverness, Scotland he worked with mental health patients facilitating workshops using printmaking methods. With recent residencies at the Sirius Art Centre, Cork Printmakers and Ratamo Centre for Printmaking & Photography in Finland, Cary has continued a direction of work that is concerned with the modern male identity, in particular the issues facing men living in rural isolated environments.
Gerald Heffernan graduated from the Crawford College of Art & Design in 2010 with a bachelors degree in Fine Art. Having previously founded and programmed the Patrick St. Gallery in Cork from 2006-2009 he became involved with the creation of Sample-Studios in Cork City. He currently acts as Director and Chairperson while also being the co-curator and programmer for TACTIC project space in Sample-Studios. Heffernan has curated several exhibitions both in TACTIC and elsewhere, most notable being NLAIII at IMOCA in Dublin in 2012. He is currently involved in on-going curatorial projects such as The Machismo Project.
http://www.machismo.ie/M-A-C-H-I-S-M-O
http://www.conallcary.com/
http://www.rockthefuckoutjr.com/
www.facebook.com/TACTICart
126 presents:
Artist Talk 7 | Laura Gannon in conversation with Katherine Waugh
Saturday 10th August 2013 | 5pm
Followed by prosecco reception
Free event open to all
126 Artist Talk 7 | Laura Gannon in conversation with Katherine Waugh
Saturday 10th August 2013 | 5pm
126 presents the seventh in a series of Artists talks that aim to encourage critical conversations about contemporary art practice in Ireland. Artist Laura Gannon will discuss the development of her artistic practice along with a presentation of a selection of her works in film, drawing and performance.
Laura Gannon was born in Galway and grew up in Mayo and is now a London based visual artist working predominantly in 16mm and digital film and drawing. She completed the Artist Associate Programme at Lux, London, 2009 and graduated from Goldsmiths College, London, with an M.A( Fine Art) in 2003. Her 16mm film StopGap was the first moving image work purchased by the Irish Arts Council and has recently been included in the touring Into the Light exhibition, and her film A House in Cap-Martin set in Eileen Gray's landmark Modernist house E1027 (2006) has shown internationally to much acclaim.
Gannon recently completed a commission to produce a performance piece based on Elizabeth Bowen's The Heat of the Day as part of the David Roberts Art Foundation's programme A House of Leaves, which investigated further her preoccupation with the relationship between architecture, literature, non-dominant narratives and the body. Her work will be included in a forthcoming group show Folly: Art after Architecture in the Glucksman Gallery.
She has exhibited widely in numerous group exhibitions in Ireland, the UK, Germany, and the USA, in addition to solo exhibitions in the Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane; Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, The Context Gallery, Derry, Sketch Gallery London and Whitechapel Projects London. She has received many awards and scholarships, including the Macauley Fellowship from the Irish Arts Council and the Thomas Damann Memorial Fellowship.
Laura Gannon:
"My work
is an ongoing process of exploring ways to convey fragility, the female body
within architecture and non-dominant
narratives which emerge in geographical margins. This interest stems from a
childhood growing up in
the West of Ireland where language was nuanced and loaded with unspoken
meaning. I have an ongoing
engagement with literature, which explores architecture, storytelling and
memory. I have worked with texts from
Elizabeth Bowen, Maeve Brennan and Jean Rhys. Most recently I have used Bowen’s
novel‘The Heat of the Day’ as a starting
point for creating a performance for four actors. By taking sections of text and collaging it
to create a new structure, the work explored place as narrative.
I am now adding
layers to this ongoing research and exploration incorporating performance and
the
fantastical
coinciding with the domestic containing the voice and actions of older women.
The current
work-in-development
The Cat Jumps (title from an Elizabeth Bowen short story) will allow me
explore
collaged
narrative in film as well as live performance. By including non-actors in their
seventies,
there is room in their filmed performance for an intimate
space to be created and portray the texture
that is part of old age. The use of a
house as location for filming will provide an existing ‘stage set’ for
the
action to take place.
My films
question the placement of an individual body in socio-cultural environments,
specifically within sites of particular architectural or historical
interest. These might be fraught with an uncertain future, troubled by conflict or lie languishing and derelict.
I am also concerned with the alignment of power and the effect of recent histories impacting earlier
histories.
I explore the
appearance of human presence as a form of ritual and staging within both
architectural
and the natural
environments. I am concerned with the notion of performance, staging, existing
histories and the slippage between the dominant history and a story that
is under the skin of that history.
Voice,
storytelling, architectural histories in literature, the edge of the margins:
culturally and geographically, glamour, luxury, fragility, creating
identities through dress, the inconsistent narrator, the construction of domestic environments into a place of
performance and ritual. The secrets of old women. (which really means
remembering outside the dominant cultural and political narrative). Humour and
pleasure in the uncanny and the
slippage of life. Powerful women who
occupy my mind include: Grace O’Malley, Eileen Gray,
Nora Barnacle, Elizabeth Bowen and Margaret Burke-Sheridan".
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