Page 24 – IMMA

Picturing New York at the Irish Museum of Modern Art

An exhibition of 145 masterworks from the photographic collection of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, celebrating the architecture and life of that unique city from the 1880s to the present day, opens to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday 25 November 2009. Picturing New York draws on one of the most important collections of modern and contemporary photography in the world to celebrate the long tradition of photographing New York, a tradition that continues to frame and influence our perception of the city to this day. Presenting the work of some 40 photographers including such influential figures as Berenice Abbott, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, Lisette Model, Alfred Stieglitz and Cindy Sherman, the exhibition features both the city and its inhabitants, from its vast, overwhelming architecture to the extraordinary diversity of its people.

The exhibition reflects photographers’ ongoing fascination with New York, a city whose vitality, energy, dynamism and sheer beauty have also inspired innumerable artists, writers, filmmakers and composers. New York’s unique architecture is explored, from elegant skyscrapers to small shop fronts; likewise the life of its citizens, from anonymous pedestrians to celebrities and politicians. The city’s characteristic optimism is caught time and again in these images, even in those taken in difficult times. Together, they present a fascinating history of the city over more than a century, from Jacob Riis’s 1888 view of bandits on the Lower East Side to Michael Wesely’s images taken during the recent expansion at MoMA.

The photographs reveal New York as a city of contrasts and extremes through images of towering buildings and tenements, party-goers and street-dwellers, hurried groups and solitary individuals. Picturing New York suggests the symbiosis between the city’s progression from past to present and the evolution of photography as a medium and as an art form. Additionally, these photographs of New York contribute significantly to the notion that the photograph, as a work of art, is capable of constructing a sense of place and a sense of self.

“I am thrilled that Picturing New York will be presented in Dublin—a city whose vitality, grit, and vibrant artistic community resonates with that of New York,” said Sarah Meister, Curator in MoMA’s Department of Photography, who organised the exhibition. “In addition, the layout and scale of the galleries at IMMA will allow this story – of New York and photography becoming modern together throughout the twentieth century – to unfold as if chapter by chapter.”

Joe Duffy, Country Executive for Ireland, BNY Mellon, sponsors of the exhibition, added: “As the first New York bank, established back in 1784 under the leadership of Alexander Hamilton, we have a deep and abiding connection to this great city. Over the past 225 years our history has been inextricably linked to that of New York and we have seen at first hand the transformation of a city of some 30,000 inhabitants into the modern, iconic metropolis we know today. Our support of fine art and popular photography has long been a key element of our philanthropic endeavours and we are proud to support the Irish Museum of Modern Art in bringing such a marvellous exhibition to Dublin during this, our 15th year since first opening offices in this city.”

Picturing New York: Photographs from The Museum of Modern Art is organised by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and is supported by The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art. It is curated by Sarah Meister, Curator, Department of Photography at MoMA. The exhibition was also presented at La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain (26 March to 14 June 2009) and the Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Italy, (11 July to 11 October 2009).

Discussion: Sarah Meister and Tod Papageorge
On Monday 23 November at 5.00pm MoMA curator Sarah Meister will introduce the exhibition Picturing New York, followed by an illustrated presentation by renowned American photographer Tod Papageorge, who will discuss key themes in his work and how they relate to specific works featured in the exhibition. The event will conclude with an open discussion. Admission is free, but booking is essential. Please book online on www.imma.ie. The lecture will take place in the Chapel at IMMA.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue produced by The Museum of Modern Art, which includes a foreword by Enrique Juncosa, Director, IMMA, an essay by Sarah Meister, and texts by notable New Yorkers.

Picturing New York continues at IMMA until 14 February 2010.

Admission: €5.00, concessions €3.00.
Admission free for under-18s, those in full-time education and on organised Museum programmes and IMMA members. Admission free for all on Fridays.

Public Forum on Amalgamation at IMMA

A public forum on the amalgamation of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Ireland and the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, announced by the Government in 2008, will be held at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday 18 November. The event is being organised by IMMA both as a means of exploring further the possible impact of the decision on the Museum and in response to the many queries which IMMA has received on the subject from visitors, artists, collectors and other stakeholders.

The forum aims to provide a cross section of perspectives on the amalgamation, both for and against, from a wide-ranging panel of speakers. In addition to drawing together the various strands of opinion on the issue, it will also make available the experience of international colleagues who have operated within, or been involved in setting up, an amalgamated structure and will give interested parties within Ireland the opportunity to contribute to the debate.

Speakers will include Sune Nordgren, founding Director of the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo; Michael Houlihan, Director General, National Museum Wales; artists Hughie O’Donoghue and Jaki Irvine; Noel Kelly, Director, Visual Artists Ireland, and gallery/studio directors Jerome Ó Drisceoil and Jacinta Lynch. Visual arts academics, Mike Fitzpatrick and Brian Fay, cultural policy analyst Pat Cooke and leading economist Jim Power will also speak, as will IMMA Chairperson, Eoin McGonigal, and Director, Enrique Juncosa. The forum, which will be chaired by Terry Prone, will end with a series of round table discussions in which all are invited to participate.

Commenting on the Museum’s reasons for organising the event, IMMA Director, Enrique Juncosa, said: “We believe that there is much to be gained from bringing together those who are best placed to offer an informed and engaged opinion on the amalgamation, be they visual arts professionals or members of the gallery-going public; also that their contributions will greatly assist us in mapping out the way ahead, whatever direction that may take.”

Admission to the forum is free, but booking is essential. Bookings can be made online, please click here, or by email on [email protected].
Booking closes on Monday 16 November.

See programme for the forum below.

For further information and images please contact Monica Cullinane or Patrice Molloy at Tel: +353 1 612 9900; Email: [email protected]

6 October 2009

Programme

Date: Wednesday 18 November 2009

Venue: IMMA, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin 8

9.30 Participants arrive. Tea/coffee available

10.00 Chair, Terry Prone welcoming address

10.05    Eoin McGonigal, Chairperson, IMMA

10.15    Two international directors speak of their personal experience of operating within/setting up an amalgamated structure

Michael Houlihan, Director General, National Museum Wales

Sune Nordgren, Founding Director of the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, currently Project Manager at the Kivik Art Centre and the Museum Vandalorum in Sweden

11.00    Noel Kelly, Director, Visual Artists Ireland
             Jacinta Lynch, Director, Broadstone Studios
             Patrick T Murphy, Director, Royal Hibernian Academy

11.30    Tea/coffee

11.50 Jim Power, economist
Pat Cooke, Director, School of Art History and Cultural Policy, University College Dublin

12.20 Mike Fitzpatrick, Head of School, Limerick School of Art and Design.
Brian Fay, artist, lecturer and member of IMMA’s Artists’ Panel

12.40 Lunch (including time for media interviews)

13.45 Anthony Cronin, writer and Saoi of Aosdána

13.55     Hughie O’Donoghue, artist
              Jaki Irvine, artist
              Jerome Ó Drisceoil, Director, Green on Red Gallery

14.25 Enrique Juncosa, Director, IMMA

14.40 Tea/coffee

15.00 Round table discussions (or general open questions and answers)

15.30 Feedback from round tables

16.00 Chair draws forum to a close, with summary of conclusions

Philippe Parreno at the Irish Museum of Modern Art

An ambitious overview of the work of innovative Algerian/French artist Philippe Parreno opens to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday 4 November 2009. Philippe Parreno: November is a major solo exhibition comprising some 15 mixed-media works ranging from such seminal films as The Boy from Mars to installations such as Speech Bubbles. This exhibition is not merely a survey of previous works but is seen by Parreno as an opportunity to revisit and even refabricate older works in order to transform the gallery spaces at IMMA. The title, November, is a starting point for injecting life and energy into the exhibition as the newly adapted works are exhibited from the month of November. As part of the Irish Film Institute programme a new film by Philippe Parreno, 8 June 1968, 2009, will be screened for the first time in Ireland, along with his ground-breaking earlier film, Zidane, a 21st Century Portrait, 2006, made in collaboration with Scottish artist Douglas Gordon.

Philippe Parreno: November questions notions of time, reality and representation, as well as exhibition-making and performance. Parreno’s work develops from different sources ranging across art theory, philosophy, science fiction, popular culture and film, and adopting many different forms such as installation, performance, photography, drawing, sculpture and film. His practice is rooted in Conceptual Art and is highly experimental, dealing with issues surrounding the presentation of art, and also its interpretation and meaning. Parreno also questions the concept of authorship and has worked in collaboration with many artists. He belongs to a generation of highly influential artists from the 1990s, including Pierre Huyghe, Liam Gillick, Jorge Pardo, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Douglas Gordon and Carsten Holler. In 2006 he co-curated the experimental exhibition .all hawaii eNtrées / luNar reGGae at IMMA with Rachael Thomas, Senior Curator: Head of Exhibitions, IMMA.

For his exhibition at IMMA Parreno has adapted existing works such as Orange Bay (After Gabriel Tarde’s Fragment of Future History), 2002, in which orange plexiglas is placed in the windows of the galleries creating an orange glow that bathes the space in a surreal light, transforming the way we see the exhibition spaces. While in Speech Bubbles, 2009, an installation of helium balloons, Parreno has changed the colour of the original work Speech Bubbles, 1997, from white to gold. The cartoon shaped speech bubbles, which where originally created to carry trade union slogans during a demonstration, appear in this installation as a cloud of bubbles, empty of words, collecting on the ceiling suggesting a potential or suspended discourse which may or may not occur.

The Irish Film Institute screening of two film-works by Parreno, 8 June 1968, 2009, and Zidane, a 21st Century Portrait, 2006, allows the viewer to see these films on large cinematic screens. Zidane, made in collaboration with Douglas Gordon, creates a real-time portrait of the soccer star Zinédine Zidane. Filmed during the course of a match between Real Madrid and Villareal on 25 April 2005 and using 17 cameras all trained on the title character, the film documents literally every movement Zidane makes for 90 minutes, resulting in an unique and immersive portrait of an athlete in action.

Born in Oran, Algeria, in 1964, Philippe Parreno lives and works in Paris. Recent solo exhibitions include Il Tempo Del Postino: A Group Show (with Hans Ulrich Obrist), Opera House, Manchester (2007), Le Cri ultrasonic de l’écureuil (with Ronn Lucas), Studio 28, Paris, France (2006); The Boy From Mars, Centre for Contemporary Art Kitakyushu (CCA), Kitakyushu, Japan (2006); Fade Away, Kunstverein Munchen, Munich (2004) and No Ghost Just a Shell (with Pierre Huyghe), Rosa de la Cruz Collection, Miami (2003). Recent collaborative exhibitions include Zidane, a 21st Century Portrait (with Douglas Gordon), Magasin 3, Stockholm (2008); Briannnnnn & Ferryyyyyy/Law Creativity (with Liam Gillick), Kunsthalle Zürich; Konsthall Malmo and Vamiali’s Athens (2006) and Rirkrit Tiravanija: No Vitrines, No Museums, No Artists, just a lot of People (with Rirkrit Tiravanija, Pierre Huyghe and Maurizio Nannucci), Telecom Italia Future Centre, Venice (2004).

In Conversation: Philippe Parreno and Rachael Thomas
Monday 2 November at 6.10 pm, Irish Film Institute
The IFI screening of two of Philippe Parreno’s film-works will be followed by an interview with Parreno, in conversation with Rachael Thomas, about these works and the influence of cinema on his work as an artist. This event takes place at the Irish Film Institute, 6 Eustace Street, Temple Bar, D 2. For further programme details and booking see the IFI website www.ifi.ie

The exhibition is an international collaboration between Kunsthalle, Zürich; Centre Pompidou, Paris, and Bard College, New York, where it will be shown in Spring 2010. For each venue Parreno has created different exhibitions in close dialogue with the curator.

Two publications accompany the exhibition, a comprehensive survey catalogue of Philippe Parreno’s work, including critical notes by Christine Macel, Chief Curator, Centre Pompidou, Paris, and the first chronological list of the artist’s works to date. It also includes an interview with the artist by independent curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, an essay by Maria Lind, Director, Centre for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York, and a work of fiction inspired by Parreno written by IMMA Director Enrique Juncosa. Price €49.00. Its companion book, Parade?, a children’s book, which features sixteen monsters inspired by Parreno’s work, created and illustrated by Johan Olander, with a storey written by the artist. Price €18.00. These books are produced by Centre Pompidou Editions and JRP Ringier.

The exhibition is supported by L’Ambassade de France en Ireland and Culture France.

Philippe Parreno: November continues at IMMA until 24 January 2010.

Admission is free.

Opening hours:
Tuesday – Saturday: 10.00am – 5.30pm
except Wednesday: 10.30am – 5.30pm
Sundays and Bank Holidays: 12noon – 5.30pm
Mondays, 24 – 26 Dec & 28 Dec: Closed

For further information and images please contact Monica Cullinane or Patrice Molloy at Tel: +353 1 612 9900; Email: [email protected]

28 October 2009

Lynda Benglis at the Irish Museum of Modern Art

The first solo exhibition in Europe of the American sculptor Lynda Benglis, best known for her ground-breaking work challenging accepted artistic norms through a pioneering merging of content and form, opens to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Dublin, on Wednesday 4 November 2009. Comprising works from the 1960s to date, Lynda Benglis highlights the artist’s extraordinary creative output, which has defied prevailing views on the nature and function of art over 40 years. The exhibition is organised by IMMA in collaboration with museums in the Netherlands, France and the USA.

Lynda Benglis focuses on the way in which the artist’s interest in process has led her to expand the possibilities of material from latex pourings and expansions to more precious materials such as glass and gold. Taking the body and landscape as prime references, she creates abstract works that oozes immediacy and physicality. Many appear to a defy gravity, being famously described as ‘frozen gestures’. Her interest in process first manifested itself in her early wax reliefs, created by applying one layer of wax on top of another, building up a geological landscape in such works as Cacoon, 1971. Materials are also at the core of Benglis’s ‘Fallen Paintings’, such as Blatt, 1969, in which liquids, including rubber latex or polyurethane foam, are poured directly onto the floor and against the wall.

In the 1970s she created a series of metallised and sparkling ‘Knots’, such as the glittering wall sculpture Psi, 1973. Looped and tied with her own physical force, they also serve Benglis’s wider purpose of disrupting the male-dominated worlds of Modernist and Minimalist art. In 1989, she described society’s attitude to matters of good and bad taste: “There will always be a Puritan strain in society that gets nervous if things are too pleasurable, too beautiful or too open. That’s the most significant legacy of feminist art; it taught us not to be afraid to express these things.”

The exhibition includes a number of the artist’s well known video works, many toying with the recurring theme of gender politics. Videos such as Now, 1973, and Female Sensibility, 1973, capture and mock the sexual prejudices of the times as well as breaking new ground in terms of early video and documentary-making techniques. Other notable works include Wing, 1970, an incarnation of one of her cantilevered sculptures, and the 1975 installation Primary Structures (Paula’s Props). Benglis’s metalised ‘Pleats’ sculptures of the 1980s and ‘90s and her more recent works in polyurethane, such as The Graces, 2003-05, and Chiron, 2009, are also being shown.

The exhibition also presents documentary material outlining the artist’s statements and photographic gestures: ‘The Sexual Mockeries’ series. Benglis used media to control her image and highlight and challenge gender imbalances and power struggles. Her most famous and explicit gesture, in Artforum magazine in November 1974, created a long-running controversy in the American art world. This was part of a series that began at the same time as she worked on videos and famously collaborated with Robert Morris.

A new work, North South East West , 2009, taking the form of a cast bronze fountain, will be shown for the first time in the Formal Gardens at IMMA. The artist has been developing the idea of this hydraulic sculpture since her extraordinary cantilevered installations of the early 1970s, now mostly destroyed. Her first fountain The Wave (The Wave of the World), 1983, was created for the World Fair in New Orleans.

Born in 1941 in Louisiana, USA, Lynda Benglis lives and works between New York, Santa Fe, Kastelorizo and Ahmedabad. Solo exhibitions include Shape Shifters, Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, 2008; Lynda Benglis: Pleated, Knotted, Poured…, Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, 2007; Lynda Benglis, Cheim&Read, New York, 2004; Lynda Benglis: Sculptures, Bass Museum of Art, Miami, 2003; Michael Janssen Gallery, Cologne, 1998; Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, 1991; Dual Natures, curated by Susan Krane, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 1990; The Kitchen, New York, 1975; Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, 1975; The Clocktower, New York, 1973; Lynda Benglis: Video Tapes, curated by Robert Pincus-Witten, Video Gallery, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY, 1973; Kansas State University, Manhattan, 1971; Hayden Gallery, MIT, Cambridge, MA, 1971; Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, 1970; Galerie Hans Müller, Cologne, 1970. In 2007 Cheim & Read staged the critically acclaimed exhibition Circa 70: Lynda Benglis and Louise Bourgeois. Benglis has also exhibited widely in major group exhibitions including the seminal Anti-Illusion. Procedure/Materials, Whitney Museum of Art, New York, 1969; The New Sculpture 1965-75: Between Geometry & Gesture, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1990; Fémininmasculin: le sexe dans l’art, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 1995, and more recently Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis, Tate Modern, London, 2001; Summer of Love: Psychedelic Art from the 60s, Tate Liverpool, 2005; High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting 1967-1975, Independent Curators International, New York, 2007, and Lynda Benglis/Robert Morris: 1973-1974, Susan Inglett Gallery, New York, 2009.

Her current exhibition is organised by IMMA, Dublin, in collaboration with Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; Le Consortium, Dijon, France; Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, and New Museum, New York.

A 480 page fully-illustrated hardcover monograph, produced by Les Presses du Réel, accompanies the exhibition. It comprises texts by Dave Hickey and Elisabeth Lebovici, and exhibition curators Franck Gautherot, Caroline Hancock, Laura Hoptman and Judith Tannenbaum, an interview with the artist conducted by curator Seungduk Kim, and an in-depth chronology compiled by curator Diana Franssen. Famous and unseen archival material (magazine articles, photographs, letters, installation shots) will be reproduced as well as an overview of Benglis’ work since the mid-1960s. Seminal articles published in Artforum magazine are reproduced: “The Frozen Gesture” by Robert Pincus-Witten (November 1974) and “Bone of Contention” by Richard Meyer (November 2004).

This exhibition is made possible by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The partnership includes the loan and subsequent donation to IMMA and the Rhode Island School of Design of two of Benglis’s sculptures from the bank’s corporate collection, Caelum, 1986, and Pleiades, 1982.

Rena DeSisto, head of Marketing & Corporate Affairs for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Global Arts & Heritage Executive said: “Bank of America Merrill Lynch has a well-established art and art-lending programme in the U.S. and we are very excited to be extending this to Europe. We are especially proud to help introduce to European audiences this particularly exciting and pioneering American sculptor. Lynda Benglis explores universal subjects such as body and mind using highly original materials. Her thought-provoking pieces will create dialogue and connect people on new levels.”

Lynda Benglis continues at IMMA until 24 January 2010.

Admission is free.

Opening hours:
Tuesday – Saturday: 10.00am – 5.30pm
except Wednesday: 10.30am – 5.30pm
Sundays and Bank Holidays: 12noon – 5.30pm
Mondays, 24 – 26 Dec & 28 Dec: Closed

For further information and images please contact Monica Cullinane or Patrice Molloy at Tel: +353 1 612 9900; Email: [email protected]

8 October 2009

Notes to editors
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is a major supporter of arts and culture in the United States, and increasingly in Europe. The bank’s support is built on a foundation of responsible business practices and good corporate citizenship that helps improve access to the arts and arts education in local communities. Through its travelling exhibition programme, Bank of America Merrill Lynch shares exhibits from its corporate collection with the community through museum partners. In addition, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation provides philanthropic support to museums, theatres and other arts-related nonprofits to expand their offerings to schools and communities. Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s unique arts and culture programme makes good business sense by providing customers with a distinct benefit, while supporting the economic and cultural vitality of the communities the bank serves.

Exquisite Corpse at Ormeau Baths Gallery

An exhibition presenting a variety of fresh perspectives on the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s Collection opens to the public at Ormeau Baths Gallery on Friday 16 October 2009. As a publicly funded gallery, the Ormeau Baths Gallery is supported by Belfast City Council and The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, OBG are proud to be exhibiting a unique artistic concept from an international gallery such as IMMA. This exhibition marks the first occasion that IMMA’s National Programme and OBG have collaborated.

Exquisite Corpse comprises 17 works from IMMA’s Collection selected by range of people from across the Irish and international arts world. These include renowned Surrealism scholar Dawn Ades, award-winning writer Colm Tóibín, celebrated artist Michael Craig-Martin and senior Tate curator Frances Morris. The resulting exhibition features a diverse range of works, including those by Barrie Cooke, Dorothy Cross, Richard Hamilton, Rebecca Horn, Caroline McCarthy, Vik Muniz, Kathy Prendergast and many more. The exhibition will be officially opened by Christina Kennedy, Senior Curator: Head of Collections, IMMA, at 7.00pm on Thursday 15 October.

Also known today as Consequences, the game Exquisite Corpse was invented by the Surrealist poets in 1925 and derives its name from a phrase used by them: Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau (The exquisite corpse will drink the new wine). This involved several participants creating a poem or drawing with the idea of the body as a point of departure. A crucial element was that each player was unaware of what the others had written or drawn, resulting in a sequential collage of words or images.

The game grew out of the Surrealists’ interest in developing techniques that inspired free forms of association, unfettered by aesthetic, moral, and rational considerations. This mechanism provided a strategy for drawing out content in a spontaneous, unselfconscious way to allow the creative process to come to the fore, thus broadening the range of possible meanings. One of the fascinating aspects of the game is how, despite its apparently disparate elements, underlying connections often materialise, and visitors can judge for themselves the extent to which this is also the case with this exhibition.

The process of selecting the participants has been the main curatorial input by the Museum. Eligibility relied on the participants’ having some previous experience of IMMA’s Collection. The period of deliberation was kept as brief as possible, in order to maintain the instinctive nature of the game. It was serendipitous that Dawn Ades, renowned for her scholarship in Surrealism, was by virtue of her surname also the first player and so was able to bring her particular expertise to bear at the very beginning of the process. This led to her essay on Surrealism and the Outsiders and her choice of a work by Madge Gill from the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection at IMMA. As she mentions in her text, the Surrealists were among the first to recognise the potency of Outsider art (created by those working outside established art structures) and in it the freedoms that they advocated.

The paradoxical title Exquisite Corpse itself influenced diverse choices and responses. Some works evoke the body in a visceral sense, others through abstract means, and some both at the same time, such as From the Mechanism of Meaning, 1971, by Shusaku Arakawa, chosen by Mick Wilson. Nicola Lees’ selection is a response involving the Ulysses inspired prints of Richard Hamilton from the Collection and a book installation by artist Simon Popper consisting of 120 copies of his alphabetized version of Ulysses. Artist Mark Garry’s selection plays on the ruse inherent in the game by inviting Erin Potts to choose the artwork and collaborating with Dianne De Stefano and Potts to evolve the text. The other participants are Gerald Barry, Aileen Corkery, Jonathan Carroll, Michael Craig-Martin, Deirdre Horgan, Jaki Irvine, Nicola Lees, Tony Magennis, Lisa Moran, Frances Morris and Colm Tóibín.

Commenting on the use of the Exquisite Corpse device to generate new insights into the Collection, Christina Kennedy, Head of IMMA’s Collections and the curator of the exhibition, said: “Exquisite Corpse could be seen as an elaborate, esoteric, some might say frivolous, historical model, yet it provides a unique methodology for a form of experimentation and creative experience which bypasses the exhaustive mediation of post-modernism and is a framework which allows for the possibility of the unknown, the unforeseen, the ambiguous, the open-ended”.

The central aim of the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s National Programme is to establish the Museum’s core values of excellence, inclusiveness and accessibility to contemporary art on a national level. Focusing on the Museum’s Collection, the programme facilitates offsite projects and exhibitions in a range of venues and situations throughout Ireland. IMMA aims to act as a resource at a local level through working in partnership and relying on the knowledge and concerns of the local community. Partner organisations are wide-ranging and include a variety of venues both in traditional art and non-arts spaces, allowing for far-reaching access and interaction. The National Programme is supported by the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism.

The exhibition is co-curated by Christina Kennedy and Charlotte Bonham-Carter, former Assistant Curator: Collections at IMMA. The exhibition was first shown at IMMA in 2008/09.

A fully-illustrated publication, with an introduction by Christina Kennedy and texts by all the participants, accompanies the exhibition.

Exquisite Corpse continues at Ormeau Baths Gallery until 21 November 2009.

Ormeau Baths Gallery
Ormeau Baths Gallery is a converted Victorian Bath house situated in the heart of Belfast; exhibiting international and local artists in contemporary and traditional practices.
Opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10.00am – 5.00pm
Address: Ormeau Baths Gallery, 18a Ormeau Avenue, Belfast, BT2 8HS
Tel: +44 (0)289 032 1402, Email: [email protected] Web: www.ormeaubaths.co.uk

For more information on OBG’s education programmes and artist talks please contact Ciara Hickey on tel: 028 9032 1402 or email: [email protected]

For press information please contact Gillian Collins, Ormeau Baths Gallery, on email: [email protected] or Monica Cullinane, Irish Museum of Modern Art, at tel: +353 1 612 9900 or email: [email protected]

5 October 2009

Aidan Dunne, Art Critic, The Irish Times, to open exhibition in Ballina Arts Centre

An exhibition of works from the Collections of Mayo County Council, South Tipperary County Council and the Irish Museum of Modern Art opens to the public on Friday 14 August 2009 at the Ballina Arts Centre, Ballina, Co Mayo. Altered Images includes work by artists Thomas Brezing, David Creedon, Alice Maher, Caroline McCarthy and Abigail O’Brien, with especially commissioned works by Amanda Coogan and Daphne Wright. The exhibition will be officially opened by Aidan Dunne, Art Critic, The Irish Times, on Thursday 13 August 2009.

Accessible, interactive and inclusive in ethos, Altered Images aims to stimulate engagement with the visual arts for the general public and particularly for people with disabilities. The idea that a visual art exhibition should be accessible to all is not a new one, most museums and galleries have an access programme that enables people with disabilities to experience art works. However, the idea of selecting an entire exhibition with an emphasis on accessibility in a multi-dimensional way is relatively new in Ireland. The exhibition aims to enhance people’s engagement with the works through the tactility of relief models, by listening to the audio and artist’s descriptions and by viewing the sign language interpretation by Amanda Coogan.

Altered Images works on many levels. Firstly, curatorial decisions were taken to ensure a cohesive body of work. The selected works all make reference to classical or art historical sources either in the method of depiction or their subject matter. While each of the partner organisations has very different Collections in terms of capacity and the period of time they have been collecting, it was agreed at the outset that each would be represented equally. Each art work is accompanied by a multi-sensory display in order to provide meaningful access. In addition, an audio CD and Braille documentation of the large-print exhibition catalogue are available on request. Sign language tours are available by arrangement and an accessible website for the project can be found at www.alteredimages.ie

Padraig Naughton, Director, Arts and Disability Ireland has commented on the exhibition in the accompanying catalogue; “What makes Altered Images an advance on what has gone before in an Irish context is the curation of a whole exhibition that has a multi-sensory approach to access thus having an inclusive appeal that will reach the widest audience possible. While in my reflections I have concentrated predominantly on my access requirements as a visually impaired person, Altered Images intends to provide access solutions that are cross-impairment while simultaneously creating an exhibition of equal interest and accessibility to a non-disabled audience. Consequently encouraging disabled people and their families and friends to come and explore the exhibition together. Furthermore it will for example allow people who are blind or deaf to explore the conceptual nature of visual and sound art along side non-disabled people.”

Altered Images continues until 30 September 2009 at the Ballina Arts Centre.

Altered Images was shown at South Tipperary County Museum from 20 June to 5 August 2009, and will tour to the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2010.

Visitor Information:
Ballina Arts Centre, Ballina Civic Offices, Arran Place, Ballina, Co Mayo
Tel: +353 96 73593, Email: [email protected] Website: www.ballinaartscentre.com

Opening Hours:
Monday – Friday: 10.00am – 5.00pm
Saturda: 10.00am – 3.00pm
Closed: Sundays

For further information and images please contact Monica Cullinane or Patrice Molloy at Tel: +353 1 612 9900; Email: [email protected]

31 July 2009

Alan Phelan exhibition at IMMA

An exhibition of new and recent work by Irish artist Alan Phelan opens to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) on Wednesday 22 July 2009. Alan Phelan: Fragile Absolutes presents 16 works inspired by the artist’s ongoing engagement with political history, cultural theory, popular culture, masculinity and modified cars. A new IMMA-commissioned sculpture, created to coincide with the exhibition, is located in the Museum’s Formal Gardens. The exhibition continues a strand of programming at the Museum showcasing emerging Irish and international artists, which has already included Shahzia Sikander, Ulla von Brandenburg, Orla Barry and Paul Morrison.

The new commission, Goran’s Stealth Yugo, 2009, began in 2006 during a residency in Belgrade, Serbia, where Phelan collaborated with Goran Krstiæ, a car designer from the Zastava/Yugo car factory in the city of Kragujevac. The work resembles a stage in the design process, where 3d modelling is used to approximate a structural framework for a new car design. This phase has been rendered in chrome-plated steel, supported by extended twin exhaust pipes, attached to an underwater stabilising base. The effect is both dynamic, as the car turns and points into the sky; as well as disguised, with the framework covered in Phelan’s signature fake pine twigs, drawn from the ‘blend-in’ techniques used in the telecommunications industry to hide mobile phone masts (generally as fake trees). As Dušan I. Bjeliæ writes in an essay published in the accompanying monograph on Phelan’s work, the sculpture represents the “complex totality of geopolitics, history, industrial production, and aesthetics using the car as a central metaphor”.

The titles, subtitles and structure of the exhibition are derived from a project Phelan completed during his time on IMMA’s Artists’ Residency Programme in 2008. Taking the italicised words from the Slavoj Žižek book The Fragile Absolute – or, why is the Christian legacy worth fighting for? and using them as random word associations towards 15 ideas for works, now realised in a variety of materials and processes, from hand-carved marble, through to video and papier-mâché sculptures.

The works in the exhibition traverse numerous sources and time periods, from current affairs, popular fiction, boy racers, nationalist heroes, world war, economics, psychoanalysis and globalisation. Phelan sets up a complex mix of the literal and metaphorical references, simultaneously providing background information on many of his subjects, yet leaving them open to conflicting modes of interpretation. Heroes are vilified and despots are celebrated. Good and evil mix freely, undermining the certainty of truth. The decapitated head of Douglas Coupland, the Canadian writer famous for creating the term Generation X, is displayed on a basketball hoop stand; while laudatory death notices for former Serbian President Slobodan Miloševiæ are framed on the wall. Irish nationalist hero Arthur Griffith is rendered as an irritating mosquito, while fictional Irish Times columnist Ross O’Carroll Kelly is celebrated for his legendary sexual prowess. A woman who stole from a farmer is represented by her court-exit outfit and cute baby seals made from papier-mâché are clubbed to death. Classical Greek statuary is reduced to a store-bought modelling hand, resized and carved in marble in China, while the beginnings of World War I are displayed as a mock-billboard television bank.

In these, and other pieces, we see the artist humorously undermining the content of his own work by setting up sometimes inappropriate, or even tasteless, relationships between his subjects. These works operate side by side in a form of parataxis, without hierarchy – feeding off, informing and contradicting each other – yet shaped from Phelan’s interests in narrative, trans-cultural potential, and provisional meaning. As he reconfigures diverse elements they are lent a new voice – their context providing a means towards interpretation. A number of common elements can be discerned within the Fragile Absolutes body of work. They have a raw, unfinished quality – almost a sense of incompleteness which points to the artist’s intention of presenting discursive or dialogical structures in the place of ‘finished’ artworks. Dušan I. Bjeliæ uses Heidegger’s term Zuhandenheit to frame the materiality of Phelan’s practice, pointing to a type of ‘infrastructural aesthetic’ which focuses on what is left in the background of a philosophy rather than on what it specifically brings to light.

Born in Dublin in 1968, Alan Phelan studied at Dublin City University and Rochester Institute of Technology, New York. He has exhibited widely internationally including Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; SKUC, Ljubljana; Feinkost, Berlin; SKC, Belgrade. In Ireland he has exhibited at mother’s tankstation, Dublin; MCAC, Portadown; Limerick City Gallery of Art, and Solstice Arts Centre, Navan. He was editor/curator for Printed Project, issue 5, launched at the 51st Venice Biennale, and has curated exhibitions at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, and Rochester, New York. Phelan was short-listed for the AIB Art Prize in 2007 for his work on the new commission, Goran’s Stealth Yugo, 2009.

The exhibition is curated by Seán Kissane, Curator: Exhibitions at IMMA.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated monograph with essays by Seán Kissane, Curator, IMMA; Dušan Bjelic, Professor of Criminology at the University of Southern Maine in Portland, USA; Medb Ruane, writer and journalist, and Tony White, novelist and journalist.

The exhibition is a collaborative project between three venues with new works and configurations appearing at each. The other venues are Limerick City Gallery of Art in November 2009, and Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales, in December 2009.

Alan Phelan: Fragile Absolutes continues until 1 November 2009.

Admission is free.

Opening hours:
Tuesday – Saturday 10.00am – 5.30pm
except Wednesday 10.30am – 5.30pm
Sundays and Bank Holidays 12noon – 5.30pm
Culture Night: Friday 25 September open until 11.00pm
Mondays Closed

For further information and images please contact Monica Cullinane or Patrice Molloy at Tel: +353 1 612 9900, Email: [email protected]

8 July 2009

Different Things: A Flavour of International Contemporary Art from the IMMA Collection at Artlink Gallery, Buncrana, Co Donegal

An exhibition celebrating the diversity of contemporary art practices represented in the Collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art opens to the public at Artlink Gallery, Fort Dunree, Buncrana, Inishowen, Co Donegal, on Saturday 4 July 2009. Different Things focuses on the double video projection work, Dark Mirror, 2004/05, by leading Mexican artist Carlos Amorales and includes a film work, Dúscáthán-Dún an Rí: On the Lake of Shadows, made by local primary school children inspired by this work. Many of the artists featured in the exhibition, although very different in their practices, are linked through their use of drawing as an investigative tool, these include Irish artists Tom Molloy and Garrett Phelan and international artists Michael Craig-Martin, Franz Ackermann and Fred Tomaselli. The exhibition marks the first collaboration between IMMA’s National Programme and Donegal’s Artlink.

Carlos Amorales’s practice uses drawing as the basis from which to develop paintings, video animations and performances. In Dark Mirror, Amorales presents a double video projection featuring an animation by graphic designer André Pahl and an original score of piano music, performed by the composer and musician José María Serralde. The result is a nightmarish animation depicting man and beast in apocalyptic scenes, the imagery of which is rooted in contemporary popular symbols and Mexican icons. The film work inspired by this work, Dúscáthán-Dún an Rí, was made by local primary school pupils in workshops facilitated by visual artist Sara Greavu; contemporary dancer Carrie Logue, and storyteller Joe Brennan.

After moving to the Burren in Co Clare, Tom Molloy became interested in the collection, classification and registration of the natural world carried out by botanists in the area by drawing rather than painting, to minimize the effects of seasonality, colour, brushstroke and other formal considerations associated with expression. In Oak, 1998-99, Molloy focuses on individual leaves from one particular oak tree to query how we arrive at the general idea of a species. Molloy drew each individual leaf which was governed by the same rules of production, the uniqueness of each leaf coming to the forefront. The intense repeated labour of drawing and redrawing an object recurs throughout Molloy’s practice. Garrett Phelan in his work, NOW: HERE 24, 2006, investigates the notion of ‘collective belief systems’ and the ways in which ideas and beliefs enter into society. The NOW: HERE drawings stem from a body of work in which Phelan spent weeks in a semi-derelict apartment within Pallas Heights drawing and writing over as much of the available wall space as possible. Phelan engaged an excess of ambiguous symbols, signs and diagrams, referencing the communication of science, industry and technology, the resulting message is full of uncertainty.

Artlink, Buncrana, aims to link artists to the community and the community to art by devising and delivering innovative art projects resulting in exhibitions, public art and community projects. Artlink seeks to captivate the imagination of the public through participatory, educational and outreach programmes. It invests in national and international emerging and professional artists by creating opportunities for artists to develop their creativity and art practice. Artlink was formed in 1992, their workshop spaces are based in Tullyarvan Mill and the gallery is based in Fort Dunree Militart Museum, Buncrana.

Workshops with local primary schools were supported by the Department of Education and Science.

The exhibition is supported by the Arts Council, Donegal County Council and the Inishowen Gateway Hotel and has been programmed in association with Earagail Arts Festival.

The exhibition continues until Sunday 2 August 2009 in Artlink Gallery, Fort Dunree, Buncrana, Co. Donegal.

Artlink Gallery
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10.30am – 5.00pm, Sunday 1.00pm – 6.00pm, Monday: Closed
Telephone: 074 936 3469
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.artlink.ie

For further information and images please contact Monica Cullinane or Patrice Molloy at Tel: +353 1 612 9900; Email: [email protected]

30 June 2009

Kevin Volans Concerts at IMMA

The work of the distinguished contemporary composer Kevin Volans will be celebrated with two free concerts at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 July 2009. The concerts, which also include pieces by a number of younger composers who have been influenced by Volans’ work, are being presented by IMMA to mark the composer’s 60th birthday this year. The Saturday concert begins at 8.00pm, while the Sunday concert begins at 12.30pm.

The series is being presented by the Ensemble Madrid, a contemporary music group from Spain, and the SISU percussion ensemble from Norway. The central piece is Chakra, Volans’ spectacular percussion piece, which will be played at both the Saturday and Sunday concerts. The Saturday concert will present two world premieres: Volans’ No Translation – 6 Sketches after Juan Uslé (2009) for string sextet and percussion, and Arild Suárez’s Dúo no 1- dedicated to Kevin Volans (1998) for two percussionists. The concerts will also feature five Irish premiers.

Kevin Volans has been described, by Village Voice, as “one of the planet’s most distinctive and unpredictable voices”. Born in South Africa in 1949, he studied in Cologne with Karlheinz Stockhausen and later became his teaching assistant. In the mid-1970s his work became associated with the New Simplicity movement – the beginnings of post-modernism in music. In 1979 he embarked on a series of works based on African compositional techniques, which quickly established him as a distinctive voice on the European new music scene. In 1986 he began a productive collaboration with the Kronos Quartet. Their recordings of his White Man Sleeps and Pieces of Africa broke all records for string quartet disc sales.

Volans has also written for dance, collaborating with Siobhan Davies, Jonathan Burrows and others. Latterly, he has turned his attention to writing for orchestra and to collaborating with visual artists and has recently completed a piece with the South African artist William Kentridge. In 2004 he received the Martin Toonder Award from the Arts Council. He has lived in Ireland since 1986.

Admission to the concerts is free, but booking is essential on email: [email protected]

Programmes

Concert I – Saturday 4 July at 8.00pm

Kevin Volans, No Translation – 6 sketches after Juan Uslé (2009). World premiere. String sextet and percussion.
Arild Suárez, Dúo no.1 – dedicated to Kevin Volans (1998). World premiere. Two percussionists.
Kevin Volans, Quartet No.6 (2000). Irish premiere. String quartet and recorded sound.
Kevin Volans, Chakra (2003). Irish Premier. Three percussionists.

Concert II – Sunday 5 July 2009 at 12.30pm

Jose Luis Turina, Lama sabacthani (1980). Irish premiere. String quartet.
Arild Suárez, Sexteto No.2 (1996). Irish premiere. String sextet.
Alberto Iglesias, Suite Cautiva (1992). Irish premiere. Sting trio.
Kevin Volans, Chakra (2003), Irish premiere. Three percussionists.

Ensemble Madrid: Joan Espina, violin; Laura Salcedo, violin; Cristina Pozas, viola; Iván Martin, viola; Pedro Karasiuk, cello; Miguel Jiménez, cello.
SISU Percussion Ensemble: Bjørn Skansen; Marius Søbye; Tomas Nilsson.

This event is kindly supported by the Embassy of Spain, the Embassy of Norway, and the Embassy of South Africa.

For further information please contact Monica Cullinane or Patrice Molloy at Tel: +353 1 612 9900, Email: [email protected]

23 June 2009

Mary Cloake, Director, The Arts Council, to open exhibition in South Tipperary County Museum

An exhibition of works from the Collections of South Tipperary County Council, Mayo County Council and the Irish Museum of Modern Art opens to the public on Saturday 20 June 2009 at the South Tipperary County Museum, Clonmel, Co Tipperary. Altered Images includes work by artists Thomas Brezing, David Creedon, Alice Maher, Caroline McCarthy and Abigail O’Brien, with especially commissioned works by Amanda Coogan and Daphne Wright. The exhibition will be officially opened by Mary Cloake, Director, The Arts Council, at 7.30pm on Friday 19 June 2009.

Accessible, interactive and inclusive in ethos, Altered Images aims to stimulate engagement with the visual arts for the general public and particularly for disabled people. The idea that a visual art exhibition should be accessible to all is not a new one, most museums and galleries have an access programme that enables people with disabilities to experience art works. However, the idea of selecting an entire exhibition with an emphasis on accessibility in a multi-dimensional way is relatively new in Ireland. The exhibition aims to enhance people’s engagement with the works through the tactility of relief models, by listening to the audio and artist’s descriptions and by viewing the sign language interpretation by Amanda Coogan.

Altered Images continues until 5 August 2009 at the South Tipperary County Museum. From there it will tour to Ballina Arts Centre, Co Mayo from 14 August – 30 September 2009 and finally to the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2010.

Visitor Information:
South Tipperary County Museum, Mick Delahunty Square, Clonmel, Co Tipperary
Tel: 052 34550, Email: [email protected], Website: www.southtippcoco.ie

Opening Hours:
Tuesday – Saturday: 10.00am – 5.00pm
Last admission: 4.45pm
Closed: Sundays, Mondays and Bank Holidays

For further information and images please contact Monica Cullinane or Patrice Molloy at Tel: +353 1 612 9900; Email: [email protected]

4 June 2009

Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism

IMMA

IMMA

Opening Hours

Location

Find us by

Picturing New York at the Irish Museum of Modern Art

Public Forum on Amalgamation at IMMA

Philippe Parreno at the Irish Museum of Modern Art

Lynda Benglis at the Irish Museum of Modern Art

Exquisite Corpse at Ormeau Baths Gallery

Aidan Dunne, Art Critic, The Irish Times, to open exhibition in Ballina Arts Centre

Alan Phelan exhibition at IMMA

Different Things: A Flavour of International Contemporary Art from the IMMA Collection at Artlink Gallery, Buncrana, Co Donegal

Kevin Volans Concerts at IMMA

Mary Cloake, Director, The Arts Council, to open exhibition in South Tipperary County Museum