New Exhibitions in February | ‘All is not Lost’, ‘Object Wars’, ‘Doggie Eyed Stare’ and more
Here are the new and upcoming exhibitions showing around the country this week.
All is not Lost | Graphic Studio Gallery
Work by Ruth O’Donnell
6 – 27 February
Graphic Studio Gallery, Through the Arch, off Cope Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Friday: 10am – 5pm, Saturday: 11am – 5pm, Monday & Sunday: Closed
All is not lost is an exhibition of new etchings based on the artists visits to museums, alongside a selection of the working drawings and some earlier works, which resonate with them, that are presented for the first time.
Ruth O’Donnells new work stems from her time at Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris in 2014. As artist-in-residence she made an extended series of studies 150 drawings and watercolours of ceramics from 14 museums as well as researching images of ceramics in still-life and narrative paintings. These working drawings are the starting point for her new etchings made at Graphic Studio Dublin, which include a series inspired by porcelain recovered from shipwrecks (now in the Musee Guimet). O’Donnell is engrossed with ceramics, intrigued by the multiple connotations ceramic imagery has in the history of art, they form the predominant subject of her work.
Through an emotional engagement with her material O’Donnell examines the history, politics nad economics which museum pieces carry overlaid with preoccupations of anxiety and affection for what is fragile, and admiration for resilience. Her carefully considered compositions highlight the choices she has made from a vast array of objects.
[email protected] | 01 6798021 | www.graphicstudiodublin.com
Object Wars | ArtBox Gallery, Dublin
Work by Barbara Knezevic | Tadhg McSweeney
ArtBox Gallery, 3 James Joyce Street, Dublin 1
5 February – 5 March | Exhibition launches: 4 February at 6pm
Opening Hours: Thursday-Saturday 11pm-5pm, and by appointment
“The sense of something irreplaceable at stake in each example is matched by the paradoxical way this reverence is reawakened by the sound of its own disintegration, whether we actually hear it or not.”
Object Wars explores the rich history of object making, collecting and the place of the object in fine art today. Museum collections and the objects therein, are often seen as the vehicle of historic human narrative. Depicting scenes from World events, these objects often reduce the complexity of human suffering into a simplified mark or decoration. Through the contemporary art object, artists challenge the framing of history through cultural institutions, whilst acknowledging the delicate balance between the preciousness of the object and the precariousness of life.
[email protected] | www.artboxprojects.wordpress.com
Doggie Eyed Stare | Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin
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Work by Hannah Fitz
Work by Hannah FitzStudio 16, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, 5-9 Temple Bar, Dublin 2
4 – 6 February 2016 | Exhibition launches: Wednesday 3 February 6-8 pm
Opening hours: Thursday 4 February 11am – 6pm (entry though side door), Friday 5 + Saturday 6 February: By Appointment.
In 2015, Hannah Fitz was awarded the Temple Bar Gallery + Studios Recent Graduate Residency. Now approaching the end of her tenure in Studio 16, Hannah Fitz opens her studio for a short preview of the new sculptural series; Doggie Eyed Stare. This work, produced during her residency, elaborates on her approach to uniform materiality and figurative representation. In Doggie Eyed Stare, Hannah Fitz develops folds and slippages in the relationships between works and their viewing, blurring the defining lines of subject boundaries and emotive intentions.
The preview is accompanied by the artist’s text Look at the Dog with one eye.
[email protected] | 01 6710073 | www.templebargallery.com
Knowledge and other Myths | Platform Arts, Belfast
Group show | Saoirse Wall, Tara McKeon, Kerry Guinan, Avril Corroon, Eimear Walshe, Renèe Helèna Browne
Platform Arts, 1 Queen St, Belfast BT1 6EA
5 – 20 February | Exhibition Launch: 4 February at 6pm
‘Knowledge and other myths’ seeks to validate experiential knowledges of young, female, queer, and precarious subjects. Through the appropriation of rationalist discourses the artists articulate frustration with the unacknowledged labour of the cultural sector, the objectifying gaze of medicine, the indoctrination of patriarchal values, and the marginalising erasure of histories. This is the second co-curated exhibition by the group, who have been collaborating in research, writing, and art practice since 2013.
[email protected] | 028 90311301 | www.platformartsbelfast.com
RIVERINE: 9 Stories from the Gambia | The Glór Gallery, Ennis
Work by Maurice Gunning and Alice McDowell
The Glór Gallery, Causeway Link, Ennis, Co. Clare
3 – 27 February
Opening hours: Monday – Saturday, 10am-5pm
With the support of the Simon Cumbers Media Fund, Maurice Gunning and Alice McDowell travelled to The Gambia in early 2015 to create RIVERINE: 9 Stories from The Gambia. glór is delighted to present this remarkable and stunning exhibition upstairs in glór gallery during the month of February.
A quiet, yet powerful revolutionary movement is underway throughout this small African nation – to protect and nurture female health and sexuality across the country.
In a series of intimate photographic portraits, the exhibition explores the physical and internal landscapes of nine women: utilising interviews and ambient recording from their homes in The Gambia. These women have made the life-changing decision to abandon the traditional practice of female circumcision. However, as custodians of the tradition, their actions to cease this practice have not always been embraced by their communities: as female circumcision is widely regarded as a religious and cultural obligation.
Through dialogue and advocacy with religious scholars and the district chiefs of the villages which stretch from the Upper River Region of The Gambia to its meeting with the Atlantic, local organisations have begun to eradicate this practice from the country. The nine women and their stories presented here, illustrate how combining the elements of custom and tradition with education and knowledge, great change can come about for a country and its people. All nine women are forging a new life and livelihood for themselves, and most importantly, a new future for women in The Gambia.
Maurice Gunning is the photographer in residence at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick. Alice McDowell is a documentary film-maker working with the Galway Film Centre.
[email protected] | 065 6843103 | www.glor.ie | www.mauricegunning.com
Independence on the Skin | Red Barn Gallery, Belfast
Work by Erik Messori
Red Barn Gallery, 43b Rosemary Street, Belfast, BT1 1QB
4 February – 23 April | Exhibition launches: 4 February at 6pm
Opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday 11am-4:30pm
The Red Barn Gallery is pleased to announce ‘Independence On The Skin’ with Italian photographer and co-founder of the collettive CAPTA , Erik Messori:
Occupation, nationalism, and struggles with identity plague our world’s history. In Ireland in particular, hundreds of years of British rule – which is argued to be the longest war of occupation in the world – has produced generation after generation of independent-minded Irish who have fought for their national identity. Their names are related to infamous organisations, such as the IRA and other pro-independence organizations. Even if there is a treaty of truce, these women and men remain in the fight to achieve their dream of independence.
Their tattoos tell the painstaking story of their lives, fallen friends, past actions. Their bodies bear indelible writings of an ideal and the human price paid to conquer it. Every drop of ink under their skin carries the memory of ancestors and comrades who died in this invisible war. Much has been written about them, especially in the seventies and eighties, during a series of attacks that seemed to never end, and in the collective conscience they are considered to be terrorists and subversive, but little – or almost nothing – is really known about them. This photographic account is an insight into their world, and it serves as a proof of adamant willingness to not give up, but to continue to fight for an Ireland that they will be able to call their own.
[email protected] | 028 90231901 | www.rbgbelfast.blogspot.ie | www.erikmessori.com
