An exhibition of works created as part of a series of Education and Community programmes organised by the Irish Museum of Modern Art in conjunction with its highly-successful Andy Warhol exhibition opens to the public at the Museum on Saturday 30 May 1998. Wall of Myths includes paintings, prints, collages and drawings selected from works produced by a wide variety of groups, including primary school children, young people, adults and older people. In all, approximately 1,800 people participated in the programmes.
The exhibition illustrates the extraordinary range of creative responses to the theme of identity in Warhol’s work. It includes three-dimensional collages made by teachers exploring internal and external aspects of the self; hand-made books representing children’s thoughts and feelings through poetry, writings and drawings; and paintings and prints investigating colour, pattern and texture. For example, taking Warhol’s Campbells Soup Can prints as their inspiration, St Michael’s Primary School, Ballyfermot, made a series of paintings of their favourite foods, such as Cadbury’s Drinking Chocolate, Heinz Spaghetti and Avonmore Milk.
The exhibits are drawn from Andy and Me, a project developed by the Museum, in conjunction with the Department of Education and Science, involving Dublin-based schools participating in the Breaking the Cycle primary schools programme;Warhol to Wallpaper and Paint, Print, Pattern, Pop two classroom-based primary school projects in schools from Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Wicklow, Roscommon, Louth and Limerick; Focus on Warhol involved groups from Sunbeam House, Bray; the Drugs Task Force, Rialto; the Fatima After Schools Programme; the Active Retirement Association, Inchicore Art Group; and St Vincent’s Trust, Henrietta Street. The groups worked with artists Sally Douglas, Cliona Harmey, Úna Keeley, John Langan, Niamh Lawlor, Sandra Meehan, Liz McMahon, Kierán McNulty and Margaret Morrison.
Commenting on the background to the exhibition Helen O’Donoghue, Senior Curator: Education and Community, said: “Art is profoundly important for the full growth of the individual because it deals visually with ideas, feelings and experiences. By giving people access to a broad range of art materials and experience, with artists and art works of excellence, a programme such as this one, focussed on Warhol, seeks to create an atmosphere of genuine exploration of artistic and aesthetic expression, creative thinking and making.”
The exhibition continues until 20 September.