IMMA is delighted to launch IMMA Outdoors 2022, a vibrant artistic programme that turns the museum inside out and activates the 48 acres of the museum’s site at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, through artist commissions, performances, music, talks, workshops, and tours. This year IMMA presents a new series of events called IMMA Nights, running every Thursday and Friday evening from May to September, as part of a pilot initiative to support the Night-Time Economy, funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

This year IMMA Outdoors explores the environment and what it means to be radically public by creating an inclusive meaningful space for audiences of all ages to enjoy. Highlights include a new immersive sonic installation by Em’kal Eyongakpa in the Formal Gardens from May, and a stunning painted mural installation by Navine G. Khan-Dossos in the Courtyard from July. The outdoor summer programme will culminate in an Eco Event titled Earth Rising, a weekend celebration of people, place and planet in September.

The new late evening programme, IMMA Nights, presents a wide variety of events including talks, workshops, dance, performances, film screenings, book launches, DJs and live music, across the site on Thursday and Friday evenings. IMMA will also share the site with other cultural organisations, initiatives and artist groups creating a hive of night-time activity in Dublin 8. Highlights include the return of IMMA’s much loved Summer Party taking place on 15 and 16 July; a curated series of poetry and song performances titled More than the reverb, and a series of free Music in the Courtyard events throughout the summer.

IMMA Outdoors Programme Highlights

IMMA is delighted to realise a new commission in partnership with EVA International by Em’kal Eyongakpa, titled Mámbáy bebhɛp 43t / besáŋ berat / bakay nɛkɔ, from May. This immersive sonic installation presented on the Terrace of the Formal Gardens features contributions from singers and storytellers in Southeast Nigeria, Southern Cameroon and Ireland, as well as intersessions between the Gulf of Guinea and Western Europe.

A visually stunning new commission by Navine G. Khan-Dossos titled, Kind Words Can Never Die, will be presented in the Courtyard from July. Transforming the iconic courtyard space with an extensive mural painting along all three colonnades the work explores new psychological states that have emerged in response to a greater awareness of global and local climate change. A series of public workshops conceived by the artist will run through the month of July.

The IMMA Outdoors Eco Event, Earth Rising, is a vibrant celebration of people, place and planet that is deeply interwoven with themes of biodiversity and sustainability. This weekend of eco related programming, taking place from 9 to 11 September, will showcase the most exciting innovators in the field of eco citizen science, design and creativity, enabling intergenerational dialogue and empowering audiences to become agents of change.

IMMA Nights Programme Highlights

 From music and culture in the Courtyard, to late evening yoga, film screenings, talks, workshops, book launches and readings, to bespoke artists performances and dance, these are just some of the activities happening across the site on Thursday and Friday evenings throughout the summer.

On our first evening, 5 May, we are delighted to present Exploring Youth Voice in Art and Culture, in association with the exhibition The Ride Away from the Storm, a display of artworks created by young people participating in Gaisce – The President’s Award at Oberstown Children Detention Campus. This event includes a panel discussion reflecting on the value of youth arts within art, culture and society and a late gallery opening of the exhibition.

To mark the closing weekend of The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now: Queer Embodiment, artist Eimear Walshe presents, The Piper’s Grip (and other stories) in the intimate setting of IMMA’s Garden Galleries on 13 May. Walshe will read from recent texts including The Piper’s Grip (2021), commissioned by Mirror Lamp Press, and FUCK BOX (2020) commissioned by TULCA, Galway. Walshe’s readings will be followed with performances by musicians Seamas Hyland and Djackulate.

A specially curated series of Poetry and Song performances titled, More than the reverb, will take place from 19 May – 29 July in the Formal Gardens. This series of outdoor live events gathers together poets, singers and storytellers to share lullabies, chants, laments, poems and folk songs, and features contributions from Ayuk, Mbongeuh Angwi Tah, Ceara Conway, Em’kal Eyongakpa, Sandra Joyce, John Tunney, Samuel Yakura, amongst others. These performances reflect and expand upon the sonic installation by Em’kal Eyongakpa.

On 30 June in partnership with Granta Books, IMMA is delighted to present an evening in celebration of the book Accidental Gods: On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine by Anna Della Subin. Named a best book of the year in the Irish Times, the TLS, and Esquire, Accidental Gods is an extraordinary meditation on race, empire, and power, told through stories of men who found themselves inadvertently turned into deities. Subin will be joined by renowned mythographer, novelist, and literary critic Marina Warner and introduced by Mark O’ Connell, author of To Be a Machine and Notes from An Apocalypse.

IMMA’s much loved Summer Party returns in July, Continuous Patterns is a two-day summer celebration of music, art and atmosphere in the grounds of IMMA. Experience live music, DJs, art, delicious food, interesting drinks, and some very special surprises over two days of fun and atmosphere in the RHK. On Friday 15 July Continuous Patterns presents an evening of forward focused music and entertainment for that particular Friday feeling, while Saturday 16 July invites you to spend a relaxing evening with friends, surrounded by the sights and sounds of a gently considered programme in the Courtyard of IMMA.

IMMA Nights presents a free music programme in the beautiful surroundings of the IMMA Courtyard. Starting from 6 May on the first Friday of every month DJ Nigel Wood will play from his contemporary World Music collection for audiences to relax and dance too. Also, in May we present guitarist Redmond O’Toole with his groundbreaking ‘Brahms guitar’ and a live performance by Olesya Zdorovetska, a powerful voice in new music.

IMMA Nights will also bring together participants of the IMMA’s Residency Programme to create a ‘Studio Street’ of activation and Open Studio events with resident artists and invited guests generating a suite of artist led activities.

The Flying Dog cafe, located in the Courtyard, is open until 8pm during the IMMA Nights programme.

For full details of the programme please visit the webpage IMMA Outdoors.

5 May 2022

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Contact : For further information and images please contact Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] Patrice Molloy E: [email protected]

An exhibition of work made by young people in Oberstown Children Detention Campus who are participating in Gaisce – The President’s Award, was launched today (Tuesday 26 April 2022) by Roderic O’Gorman, TD, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, at IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art). The exhibition titled, The Ride Away from the Storm, aims to create a platform to highlight the positive value of engagement in the arts and shared creative processes for young people and to give voice to their experiences.

 “The reason why I’m making this art is to show the world to look forward” – young person involved in the exhibition.

The exhibition is the result of a dialogue between artworks in IMMA’s Collection and the young people. The paintings were produced over six months in the art room in Oberstown and each young person selected a work from the IMMA Collection that speaks to or connects with their own work. In preparation for the exhibition, the young people worked with their art teachers on a citizen curation programme which is part of IMMA’s contribution to SPICE, a European research project. They used SPICE tools and methods of citizen curation to enable them to articulate and share their perspectives on art through IMMA’s Collection. Citizen curation aims to support communities who lack access to the museum to share their perspectives through selecting and interpreting works of art.

Speaking at the launch, Minister O’Gorman, said “I am delighted to be here today at the launch of this fantastic exhibition showcasing the wonderful work of young people from Oberstown here at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. The beautiful artwork on display here today illustrates the importance of the self-development programmes in place on campus at Oberstown. Despite often coming from difficult backgrounds young people can achieve so much when they are provided with a safe and secure environment and the supports to flourish. The aim of Gaisce is to support young people in fulfilling their potential and that reflects the Oberstown commitment to help young people to return to their communities and make a positive contribution.”

Damien Hernon, Director, Oberstown Children Detention Campus said “We are so proud of the young people and the art they have created and delighted to see it exhibited in the prestigious surroundings of the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Engaging with programmes in Oberstown helps young people develop skills and work towards maximising their potential so they can move on with their lives in a positive way after they leave the Campus. Young people in Oberstown can, and want to, contribute to the wider community by availing of the opportunities on offer, through programmes such as Gaisce. We are thrilled for the young people and the recognition of their great work.”

Yvonne McKenna, CEO, Gaisce – The President’s Award said “Gaisce – The President’s Award is delighted to be part of this unique and ground-breaking collaboration showcasing artworks which give voice to young people through self-discovery and creativity. Gaisce is committed to supporting young people to reach their full potential regardless of their social or personal circumstances and celebrating the vital role creativity can play in youth development.”

A discussion reflecting on the value of youth arts within art, culture and society, titled Exploring Youth Voice in Art and Culture, will take place at IMMA on 5 May 2022. Guests include Anne O’Gorman, Consultant and former Senior Project Officer for Youth Arts in NYCI; Jim Lawlor, Rialto Youth Project; Avril Ryan, Gaisce – The President’s Award; John Smith, Oberstown Children Detention Centre, and will be Chaired by Helen O’Donoghue, Head of Engagement and Learning, IMMA. The guests will offer a range of perspectives on youth facilitation work and discuss the guiding principles of best practice of incorporating active engagement across sectors of museums, culture, community and contemporary art practices.

This exhibition is the outcome of a partnership between the Engagement and Learning Programme at IMMA, Gaisce – The President’s Award and Oberstown Children Detention Campus. This partnership illustrates the vital role of building relationships and making connections with wider society and stakeholders and is a public demonstration of the positive value of the Gaisce Awards in terms of supporting the personal development of young people.

26 April 2022

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Contact : For further information and images please contact Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] Patrice Molloy E: [email protected]

Additional Notes for Editors

Exhibition Details
Title: The Ride Away from the Storm: An exhibition by young people highlighting the transformative power of art
Dates: 26 April – 8 May 2022
Admission Free
Open: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm. Wednesday: 11.30am – 5.30pm. Sunday: 12noon – 5.30pm. Bank Holiday Monday 2 May: 12noon – 5.30pm.

Discussion:  Exploring Youth Voice in Art and Culture
Thur 5 May 2022, 6.30pm – 7.30pm, The People’s Pavilion, IMMA

About the Partners

Oberstown Children Detention Campus
Oberstown Children Detention Campus (Oberstown) is a national service that provides a safe and secure environment for young people remanded in custody or sentenced by the Courts for a period of detention. Website visit here.

Gaisce – The President’s Award
Gaisce – The President’s Award is a self-development programme for young people under 26 in Ireland which has been proven to enhance confidence and wellbeing through participation in personal, physical and community challenges. Gaisce Awards are a direct challenge by President Michael D. Higgins for young people to ‘dream big and realise their potential’. Website visit here

IMMA
IMMA connects audiences and art, providing an extraordinary space where contemporary life and contemporary art connect, challenge and inspire one another. We share, develop and conserve the Irish National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art for now and for the future.

SPICE Project
SPICE is an EU H2020 funded project dedicated to citizen curation of cultural heritage. The aim of the project is to foster diverse participation in the heritage domain through a process of citizen curation. Citizen Curation aims to support communities who lack access to the museum to share their perspectives through selecting and interpreting works of art. Website

visit here

IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) is delighted to present What Does He Need? – an exhibition and audio work by artists Fiona Whelan and Brokentalkers (Feidlim Cannon and Gary Keegan), which form part of a long-term critical inquiry into the formation of masculinity, exploring how men and boys are shaped by and influence the world.

Presented on the façade of IMMA’s main reception, What Does He Need? offers a range of viewpoints on the needs of men and boys in different scenarios and at different stages of life. Short texts are shown as responses to the central question What Does He Need? and were gathered through workshops with diverse groups of adults and young people as part of an ongoing inquiry into the current state of masculinity. Responses made to the central question include – To see his father cry, To hit back, A strong male role model, To get off her, Hugs every day.

The texts are accompanied by a powerful 30-minute audio piece, which tells the story of a fictional boy from the day of his birth to early adulthood. Throughout his young life, the boy is confronted by a series of situations, weaving between themes of empathy, power, the suppression of vulnerability, violence, mental health, pornography, and suicide. The public is invited to listen to the audio piece and to consider their own responses to the question ‘What does he need?’ The audio is available to listen to online here.

Commenting on the project, artist Fiona Whelan said; “At a time when a spotlight is being shone on many patriarchal structures and male behaviours and attitudes, we would encourage people to go for a walk and listen to the 30-minute audio piece, and let it be a prompt for reflection and conversation with others, in the home, the workplace, the sports club or the pub.”

Fellow artist Feidlim Cannon (of Brokentalkers) adds; “As a male working on this project, I feel it’s really important that as many men as possible listen to the audio, to begin a conversation on what it is to be a man.”

What Does He Need? is part of a long-term project by artist, writer and educator Fiona Whelan, theatre company Brokentalkers and Rialto Youth Project developed in association with a Dublin city network of organisations in the areas of arts and culture, youth work, community development and education. This multi-layered project is a critical inquiry into the formation of masculinity, exploring how men and boys are shaped by and influence the world.

Helen O’Donoghue, Head of Engagement & Learning at IMMA said; “IMMA is facilitating a workshop with key experts in education on 28 April to explore the possibilities of developing this as a module in formal education with a particular emphasis on teacher formation. We are interested in hearing from people who would like to take part.”

In 2019 IMMA’s Artists’ Residency Programme supported the project at its developmental stage, providing space to work with communities and groups. Since then, there have been public manifestations which include an audio piece, a cross-city public poster project and a programme for children and young people.

In 2021 IMMA’s A Radical Plot Open Call for the Artists’ Residency Programme presented an opportunity to bring back Fiona Whelan and Brokentalkers to the studios to continue expanding the reach and context of such an important project.

24 March 2022

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For further information and images please contact: Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] Patrice Molloy E: [email protected]

Additional Notes for Editors

Exhibition Dates
What Does He Need? continues at IMMA until 2 May 2022.
Resources What Does He Need?
Click here to listen to the audio.
To visit the project website click here.

About the Artists
Established in 2018, What Does He Need? is a long-term project by artist, writer and educator Fiona Whelan, theatre company Brokentalkers and Rialto Youth Project, developed in association with a Dublin citywide network of organisations in the areas of arts and culture, youth work, community development and education. The project explores how men and boys are shaped by and influence the world they live in. Operating at the intersection of collaborative arts practice, performance, qualitative research and youth work, What Does He Need? aims to create significant public dialogue about the current state of masculinity.

IMMA Residency: A Radical Plot
Taking place from July 2021 – January 2002, A Radical Plot residency connects the Museum community, affiliated mentors and residents as a gathering of co-thinkers who work together in adaptable, radical and dynamic ways to reignite the possibilities for creative continuity and inclusivity. Core values for the programme are care and repair, civic agency, play, inclusivity, community, ecologies, and the future. A Radical Plot Residency artists include, Aoife Dunne, Isadora Epstein, Clodagh Emoe, Sean Hanrahan, Chinedum Muotto, Liliane Puthod and Fiona Whelan with theatre company Brokentalkers, (Feidlim Cannon and Gary Keegan).

 

 

A major exhibition by The Otolith Group called Xenogenesis and the accompanying Department of Xenogenesis is part of a rich and diverse programme taking place at IMMA in 2022. IMMA’s 30th Birthday exhibition, The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now, continues throughout the year in four themed exhibitions that explore the past three decades. Other significant highlights include the return of IMMA Outdoors presenting new artist commissions by Navine G. Khan-Dossos and Em’kal Eyongakpa; a four-day Eco Event celebrating people, place and planet; and an international research conference, examining the thematic of Self-Determination, presented as part of Ireland’s Decade of Centenaries Programme.

The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now is a major museum-wide exhibition that celebrates 30 years of IMMA. Presented in four Chapters, each one explores the past three decades through different thematic approaches – Queer Embodiment; The Anthropocene; Social Fabric and Protest and Conflict. This exhibition showcases the significance of the IMMA Collection, presenting more than 200 artworks across four exhibitions. An extensive programme of talks, performances and events delves deeper into the themes arising from each chapter.

In July, The Otolith Group: Xenogenesis, brings together a significant selection of works by The Otolith Group, the London-based artist collective founded in London in 2002 by Anjalika Sagar and Kodow Eshun. Curated by Annie Fletcher, Director of IMMA, this exhibition is the final venue of its international tour and features a cross-section of key works produced between 2011 and 2018. The exhibition reflects the artists’ ongoing commitment to creating what they think of as ‘a science fiction of the present’ through images, voices, sonic images, sounds and performances which work to create forms of life that announce a devotion to an aesthetic of discrepant abstraction, post-cinematic blackness and post-lens based platformalisms. The Otolith Group’s pioneering artworks which include post-cinematic essay films, videos and multiple screen installations, address contemporary social and planetary issues, the disruption of neo-colonialism, the way in which humans have impacted the earth, and the influence of new technology on consciousness.

The Otolith Collective, The Otolith Group’s long-standing curatorial and research platform, will also enact the Department of Xenogenesis (DXG) at IMMA, DXG is a time space for convening public online and offline discussions, performance, screenings and exhibitions with artists, filmmakers, theorists and musicians. The DXG builds upon the exhibition and has developed throughout the tour.

From May the Museum will be turned inside out as the vibrant IMMA Outdoors programme activates the 48 acres of the museum’s site, the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, with artist commissions, performances, talks, workshops and tours. This year IMMA Outdoors will focus on the environment and includes a new site-specific installation by British artist Navine G. Khan-Dossos and an immersive sensory installation by Cameroonian artist Em’kal Eyongakpa, a commission by IMMA and Eva International. A new series of IMMA late nights will begin in May and run throughout the summer. We are also thrilled to announce the return of IMMA’s much loved Summer Party in July. This outdoor summer programme will culminate in a four-day Eco Event celebrating people, place and planet in September.

In the Autumn IMMA is hosting an international research conference to mark a century since the formation of the Irish Free State centered around the theme of Self-Determination. Titled 100 years of Self-Determination and taking place from 10 to 12 November, this conference will delve in how this rhetorical term dominated the discourse of emergent democracies and freedom movements beginning in the interwar period of the early 20th-century and how it resonated both nationally and internationally. It will focus on the role of art and visual culture in formulating the imaginary of the Irish state that emerged in the aftermath of the First World War. It will situate this work within a global context of artistic responses to emerging nation states and independence movements in this period. This conference is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012-2023.

IMMA Programme 2022

The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now
IMMA: 30 Years of the Global Contemporary
Chapter One: Queer Embodiment until 15 May 2022
Chapter Two: The Anthropocene until end 2022
Chapter Three: Social Fabric until end 2022
Chapter Four: Protest and Conflict until end 2022

Encounters: IMMA & EVA International Commission 2022
Em’kal Eyongakpa
May 2022

IMMA International Summer School 2022
20 June – 8 July 2022

The Otolith Group: Xenogenesis
7 July 2022 – 12 February 2023

International Conference 2022
100 Years of Self-Determination
10 – 12 November 2022

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For further information and images please contact:
Monica Cullinane E: [email protected], Patrice Molloy E: [email protected]

Winter at IMMA is delighted to present DREAMSPHERE a stunning new immersive installation devised by IMMA artist-in-residence Aoife Dunne. Hypnotically staged in the IMMA Courtyard, DREAMSPHERE engulfs spectators in a site-specific, multi-sensorial mindscape, creating a memorising and powerful experience not to be missed. This is the fourth artist commission in a series of outdoor commissions to celebrate IMMA’s 30^th Birthday.

Exploring the notion of consciousness as a physical shared space in which to roam and reside, audiences are encircled by arresting sounds and screens. Viewers are sent on a surreal trip through the tumultuous mind; teasing prospects of shared consciousness whilst exploiting technology to stretch the psychological parameters of human experience.

Dunne’s long-standing penchant for blending physical and digital disciplines is conveyed by the onscreen projections. From the material splendour of her costuming to the tactility of obscure found objects, a miscellany of palpable textures is transported to this virtual dimension. The multi-sensorial feel of Dunne’s dream realm is heightened by the sonic idiosyncrasies which soundtrack the performer’s fevered envisioning, creating an increasing sense of mental overwhelm and entrapment already sparked by the work’s enclosed structure.

DREAMSPHERE epitomises the multi-hyphenate nature of Dunne’s practice: the installation’s myriad features, unlimited to sculpture, sound, performance and film, were single-handedly conceived by the artist, reflecting her tireless dexterity and flair for phantasmagoria.

To view a short video of this work please click here.

Viewing Details – Admission Free
Located in the IMMA Courtyard.
Dates: Jan – 28 February 2022
Times: Daily: 12noon – 7pm
Please note: The work is best viewed from 4pm. The work contains rapidly flashing lights and colours.
Link to webpage click here.

19 January 2022

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For further information and images please contact: Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] Patrice Molloy E: [email protected]

Additional Notes for Editors

About the artist
Digital installation artist Aoife Dunne creates visually-arresting, immersive environments fusing sculpture, video, sound, performance, technology, and costume. Fuelled by a fascination with digital and material culture, Dunne’s idiosyncratic touch is laced with references to the surreal and hyper-real. Exploring an ethos rooted in post-pop and post-internet, Dunne’s work envelops audiences in abstract, detail-driven virtual and physical realms. Her multi dimensional approach to crafting large-scale, experiential work is informed by a diverse creative background steeped in dance, performance, fashion and musical composition. Bulldozing through the boundaries of what conventional exhibitions entail, Dunne reaps continent-crossing acclaim for her inimitable aesthetic and site-specific, colourfully chaotic work. Aoife Dunne studied Fine Art Media at The National College of Art and Design and received her BFA in 2016. Since graduating, Dunne has held numerous exhibitions internationally, including The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, The Royal Academy of Arts London, and upcoming solo shows in Puerto Rico, New York, London, Dublin, Paris, and Tokyo. For further details visit: aoifedunne.com @efadone

IMMA Residency: A Radical Plot
Taking place from July 2021 – January 2002, A Radical Plot residency connects the Museum community, affiliated mentors and residents as a gathering of co-thinkers who work together in adaptable, radical and dynamic ways to reignite the possibilities for creative continuity and inclusivity. Core values for the programme are care and repair, civic agency, play, inclusivity, community, ecologies, and the future. A Radical Plot Residency artists include,  Aoife Dunne, Isadora Epstein, Clodagh Emoe, Sean Hanrahan, Chinedum Muotto, Liliane Puthod and Fiona Whelan with theatre company Brokentalkers, (Feidlim Cannon and Gary Keegan).

IMMA 30th Birthday: Outdoor Commissions

Y O U N G F O S S I L by Forerunner

Club Chroma Chlorologia by Niall Sweeney

Ping Pong Diplomacy by Mark Clare

DREAMSPHERE by Aoife Dunne

Opening on Friday 30 July 2021, IMMA presents the first chapter of The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now, IMMA: 30 Years of the Global Contemporary, a new Museum-wide exhibition showcasing the IMMA Collection to celebrate 30 years of IMMA.

The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now opens in four phases throughout 2021, with each new chapter exploring the past three decades through different thematic approaches. Chapter One: Queer Embodiment opens on 30 July followed by Chapter Two: The Anthropocene on 24 September; Chapter Three: Social Fabric on 5 November; and Chapter Four: Protest and Conflict on 19 November. This is the first time that the Museum has been given over entirely to showing the IMMA Collection and will showcase a selection of recently acquired artworks to the Collection through a fund from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Alongside this, several key loans will augment the artworks in the Collection and Archive. The exhibition is designed by the collaborative architecture and design practice led by Jo Anne Butler and Tara Kennedy.

The exhibition positions IMMA’s inception in 1991 as part of a crucial moment in the history of globalisation, within the European context. Around this time, several museums of contemporary art in countries such as Poland and Lithuania were redefining their cultural identities in the context of a post-Communist Europe. These and wider shifts towards globalisation, with the dawn of the internet and rise of neoliberal politics in the West, provide the context for thinking about IMMA’s role in relation to the global contemporary.

The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now traces urgent themes across the 30-year period as they impact the personal, the political and the planetary, and prompts thinking about the effects of globalisation today in the Irish context as we respond to global crises from COVID-19 to Climate Change and the Black Lives Matter movement. The exhibition will explore ideas of bodily autonomy, conflict and protest, the Anthropocene era, and digital technologies, through the rich holdings of the IMMA Collection and Archive which represent a diverse history of artistic responses to these themes.

The first Chapter, Queer Embodiment, maps the context for the project, reflecting on the dramatic legislative changes that occurred in Irish society such as the decriminalisation of homosexuality (1993), provision of divorce (1996), marriage equality (2015) and the repeal of the Eighth Amendment (2018). These moments in the struggle for human rights find echoes across the globe, as grassroots movements continue to contest the impact of the State on the Body. The Museum’s Collection and Archive reflects a strong history of feminist practice, relaying the defiance of women in Ireland against church and state oppression; as well as queer histories that capture moments of resistance and joy, as well as presenting the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS. While many of these changes have built a more compassionate society, some of the artists in this exhibition engage with troubling issues, such as Irish citizenship and migration, which remain unresolved.

Opening on 24 September, Chapter Two: The Anthropocene, considers the present geological era in which human activity has become visible as a dominant and destructive influence on Earth. Expanding the focus on rising sea levels, heat waves and species extinction, the exhibition looks at the temporalities and underlying structures of the Anthropocene. Chapter Three: Social Fabric, opening 5 November, shows how artists have used textiles, as a space of resistance and activism. Included are works which address how textile materiality has been used as a vehicle for interactivity, a collective voice, peripheral communities and agency. The final chapter opening on 19 November, Chapter Four: Protest and Conflict, celebrates how artists have utilised protest as a dynamic act of resistance and assertion; subverting power while surrounded by turmoil and conflict; documenting shifting narratives linked to the creation of the world wide web and the digital dissemination of information and disinformation. It contains multiple artistic perspectives on the conflict in Northern Ireland as well as narratives of political unrest further afield.

Signalling the role of the Museum at this key moment, the exhibition embraces decolonisation as a process to actively reflect the diversity and the voices of the people within the Collection and around us. The reach of the artistic representation within the exhibition is global and includes various media such as painting, sculpture, film, video, installation, performance, internet art, sound, textiles, drawing, community-based practice, collaborative practice, and socially-engaged practice.

The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now will present an ambitious Engagement & Learning programme with a significant online presence including  online presentations, lectures, and public programming. A major publication will present a new history of the IMMA Collection bringing international voices together to probe what it means to be both global and local in 2021.

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For further information and images please contact:

Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] / Patrice Molloy E: [email protected]

20 July 2021

Additional Notes for Editors   

The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now
IMMA: 30 Years of the Global Contemporary

Chapter One: Queer Embodiment, 30 July – 2022

Chapter Two: The Anthropocene, 24 September – 2022

Chapter Three: Social Fabric, 5 November – 2022

Chapter Four: Protest and Conflict, 19 November – 2022

Admission Free, exhibition tickets must be booked in advance here.

List of Artists

Chapter One: Queer Embodiment
Bassam Al Sabah; Asylum Archive / Vukašin Nedeljkovic; Cecily Brennan; Amanda Coogan; Vivienne Dick; Lucian Freud; Kevin Gaffney; Gilbert & George; Anita Groener; Patrick Hall; Patrick Hennessy; Rebecca Horn; Shirazeh Houshiary; Patricia Hurl; Jaki Irvine; Graciela Iturbide; Derek Jarman; Sandra Johnston; Eithne Jordan; Klein and Kühne; Breda Lynch; Alice Maher; MacDermott & McGough; Maser; Leanne McDonagh; William McKeown; Fergus Martin; Zanele Muholi; Hughie O’Donoghue; Doireann O’Malley; Alan Phelan; Names Project, AIDS Memorial Quilt; Kathy Prendergast; Billy Quinn; Rochelle Rubinstein; Rajinder Singh; Kiki Smith; Wolfgang Tillmans; Andrew Vickery; Amna Walayat; Eimear Walshe; Apichatpong Weerasethakul; Women from the Family Resource Centre / Joe Lee.

Please note: The artists Doireann O’Malley, Zanele Muholi and Eimear Walshe are non-binary, please use they/them/their pronouns when referring to them or their work.

Today, Minister Catherine Martin announces that 422 artworks by 70 artists will be added to the National Collection thanks to the €1m fund provided to the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) and the Crawford Art Gallery in October 2020.

The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media has been working with the National Cultural Institutions through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to develop meaningful ways to support artists across the country at this challenging time. In October 2020, Minister Martin committed €1m from her department to IMMA and the Crawford Art Gallery to fund the purchase of artworks by artists living and/or working in Ireland. The investment enabled the two institutions charged with collecting contemporary art to work collaboratively to support artists by buying existing artworks, bringing much needed financial resources to the sector.

IMMA and the Crawford Art Gallery have been working tirelessly to realise this progressive goal for the National Collection and today, the Minister announces the list of works which have been acquired. The body of 422 artworks by 70 artists from across the country has been selected through a rigorous process by both institutions to ensure strategic and thoughtful acquisitions for the nation. Spanning from 1972 to 2021, the works consist of paintings, photographic work, drawings, sculpture, installations, moving image, sound work, film, digital work, embroidery and performance. This is a significant boost to both collections, strengthening and enhancing the breath of style of work, making them truly representative of contemporary Irish practice and available for the public to enjoy for generations to come.

As the cultural repositories for the country, the role of the National Cultural Institutions is to reflect Ireland and her people and tell the story of our country. This is the first time in over a decade that substantial funding has been specifically allocated towards building the National Collection to reflect contemporary culture.

The Minister recognises the immense talent in the arts in Ireland as well as the significance of being represented in the National Collection. At a time when exhibition opportunities are limited, the fund has enabled IMMA and the Crawford Art Gallery to promote artists, supporting and enhancing their reputations by acquiring their work for the National Collection to enable them to practice as artists, now and into the future.

The Minister said: “We are all aware of how difficult a time this has been for everybody in the artistic community.  I am delighted to provide funding to IMMA and the Crawford Art Gallery so that they can support living artists by the purchase of their work.  I am confident that our National Cultural Institutions will do justice to these artists in how they represent their work.”   

The Minister went on to say: “This has also been a challenging year for all our institutions but it has also offered an opportunity to think about museums and what they mean to people and how we share those precious artworks that form part of our National Collections.  I look forward to see how IMMA and the Crawford Art Gallery will share these new additions nationally and internationally where they can be widely viewed by the public and act as a reservoir for future enjoyment, inspiration and research.”

Artist, Sandra Johnston, whose work has been acquired by IMMA, said: “It is a real honour for me to have artworks included in the IMMA collection, especially because of the ephemeral, fleeting nature of public performance actions. So, I am gratified by the curiosity the curators have shown in exploring with me the total picture of how such an artwork is conceived, executed and disseminated beyond the live moment, which is a crucial framework for understanding the surviving artefacts.” 

Artist, Tom Climent, whose work has been purchased by the Crawford Art Gallery, said: “The acquisition of my work by the Crawford Art Gallery for the National Collection has been a great boost for me. Even more so now with galleries closed and opportunities to exhibit reduced. It is not just the monetary income but the recognition and affirmation in my work that is hugely encouraging. Having a painting on public display means it lives on and hopefully reaches so many more people. Thanks to all the team in the Crawford Gallery and the help of The Sternview Gallery for making this happen.”

ENDS

Press and Information Office
An Roinn Turasóireachta, Cultúir, Ealaíon, Gaeltachta, Spóirt agus Meán
Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Tel: 087 6737338 / 087 7374427
Email: [email protected]

Notes for Editors

IMMA
No of works acquired: 197 works (89 paintings, 32 prints, 26 drawings, 12 publications, 11 performance works, 10 sculptures, 10 moving image works, 5 installations, 1 photographic work, 1 audio work). Dates works were made: 1972, 1977, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021.

Crawford Art Gallery
No of works acquired:  225 works (100 paintings, 58 photographs, 14 prints, 28 drawings, 8 sculptures, 4 installations, 1 soundwork, 5 digital films, 1 art quilt, 6 embroideries.

No of Artists represented: 

IMMA
31 (21 female, 8 male, 2 non-binary)

Crawford Art Gallery
39 artists (24 female, 12 male, 3 LBGTQ+)

Breadth of style of work: High quality work purchased from existing work of living artists in Ireland and not commissions. Installation, sculpture, painting, video, film, print, drawing, textile, publication, performance, digital artwork, audio, collaborative work, including discursive, performative and event-based creative expression and outputs by artists, individually and in collectives.

Geographic spread of Artists: All Ireland, (32 counties) artists living in Ireland or living/working between Ireland and elsewhere.

Process Adopted by IMMA and the Crawford Art Gallery
Drawing on extensive research and internal expertise, both institutions worked in consultation with external advisors to adopt a rigorous selection process. This ensured that the works purchased were in line with their respective acquisition policies, filled identified gaps in representation and contributed to strengthening the collections for the nation.

Full List of Artists

Crawford Art Gallery
Aideen Barry
Sara Baume
Stephen Brandes
Angela Burchill
Declan Byrne
Elaine Byrne
Tom Climent
Yvonne Condon
Elizabeth Cope
Gary Coyle
Stephen Doyle
Rita Duffy
Amanda Dunsmore
Kevin Gaffney
Debbie Godsell
Michael Hanna
Marie Holohan
Katie Holten
Brianna Hurley
Andrew Kearney
John Keating
Fiona Kelly
Anne Kiely & Mary Palmer
Roseanne Lynch
Brian Maguire
Evgeniya Martirosyan
Danny McCarthy
Roseleen Moore
Peter Nash
Ailbhe Ní Bhriain
Íde Ní Shúleabháin
Nuala O’Donovan
Sarah O’Flaherty
Tom O’Sullivan
Michael Quane
Jennifer Trouton
Charles Tyrrell
Daphne Wright

IMMA
Bassam Al-Sabah
Marie Brett
Sarah Browne & Jesse Jones
Anishta Chooramun
Amanda Coogan
Vivienne Dick
Edy Fung
Emma Wolf Haugh
Patricia Hurl
Sandra Johnston
Eithne Jordan
John Lalor
Breda Lynch
Alice Maher
Leanne McDonagh
Eoin McHugh
Alastair MacLennan
Sibyl Montague
Maïa Nunes
Brian O’Doherty
Alanna O’Kelly
Sarah Pierce
Atoosa Pour Hosseini
Alice Rekab
Nigel Rolfe
Dermot Seymour
Rajinder Singh
Anne Tallentire
Cléa van der Grijn
Eimear Walshe

A new programme, IMMA Outdoors, that activates the grounds with artist commissions, events, collaborations, social distanced spaces and cafés, creating a new radically public space for visitors to safely engage with IMMA, is part of a rich and extensive 30th Birthday programme at IMMA, announced today (Thursday 8 April 2021). IMMA’s 2021 programme also presents a new museum-wide exhibition showcasing the IMMA Collection and the history of IMMA since 1991, The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now, will open in phases from July to celebrate 30 years of IMMA and the global contemporary.

This spring IMMA launches a new programme IMMA Outdoors, that activates the 48 acres of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham and safely connects audiences through artist commissions, performances, talks, workshops, tours, pop-up exhibitions and open-air cafes. Building on the success of last year’s outdoor space The People’s Pavilion and our Social Distancing Circles, IMMA Outdoors will turn the museum’s programme inside out, creating an inspiring programme of activities and events. As IMMA celebrates its 30th Birthday, the IMMA Outdoors programme reflects on and activates the museum’s recent contemporary history alongside the site’s historical resonances. The emphasis for the programme lies in ideas of civic agency, self-determination, global interconnections, environmental concerns and what it means to be radically public by creating an inclusive meaningful space for all ages to relax, contemplate and enjoy. Highlights of the programme include A Radical Plot where IMMA’s Residency Programme artists will create a ‘Studio Street’ of activation; site commissions Young Fossil by collaborative practice Forerunner; Ping Pong Diplomacy by Mark Clare; and Encounters a commission by IMMA and Eva International resulting in a new sound installation by Em’kal Eyongakpa.

To celebrate our 30th birthday IMMA will present a museum-wide exhibition showcasing the IMMA Collection and the history of the Museum since 1991 in the exhibition The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now, IMMA: 30 Years of the Global Contemporary. Opening in four phases throughout 2021, with each new chapter exploring specific themes within IMMA’s 30-year history. This is the first time that the museum has been given over entirely to showing the IMMA Collection and will showcase a selection of recently acquired artworks to the Collection through a fund from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

Commenting on the programme for the birthday year IMMA Director Annie Fletcher said:

“In these extraordinary times IMMA Outdoors aims to revitalise the museum’s role to create a public space that is truly open to all, promoting free expression, human connection and civil well-being. IMMA was founded as a centre for innovation and experimentation in 1991 and 30 years on our founding beliefs ring true. We hope that IMMA will become a radically public space for people to enjoy, relax and feel safe in. We also look forward to opening our galleries again to present the exhibition ‘The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now’ in which the full depth of the treasure that is the IMMA Collection can be explored. We hope you enjoy experiencing IMMA at 30.”

IMMA places Engagement & Learning at the core of our programme. In 2021 we will continue to deliver our successful Art & Ageing national programme in partnership with Creative Ireland. Our annual International Summer School was successfully transferred online in 2020 with some 900 participants, this year’s programme will also be offered online continuing this global reach. IMMA’s Talks programme will have a particular focus on the School of Xenogenesis, a programme which offers people of all ages a platform to explore issues of ecology, shared values of community, solidarity, inclusion, self-determination and hope. Programmes that engage with the IMMA Collection and IMMA/RHK as a site for research are in development with a number of education partners both nationally and internationally. We will continue the successful delivery of our engagement programmes online, these include primary and second level schools; third level student programmes; adult, family and teen programmes.

When current lockdown restrictions due to Covid-19 are lifted IMMA will reopen its galleries with Paula Rego, Obedience and Defiance, which continues until 26 May 2021. This major retrospective of the work of renowned Portuguese artist Paula Rego has been a highlight with audiences. Also reopening is Ghosts from the Recent Past a major exhibition from the IMMA Collection that explores how urgencies of the recent past continue to inhabit the present. The Artist’s Mother is the latest project in a series of responses as part of the IMMA Collection: Freud Project 2016-2021. Central to the project is the work of artist Chantal Joffe who has portrayed her mother, Daryll, in an exceptional series of paintings inspired by Lucian’s Freud paintings of his mother, Lucie. Now available to view online as a virtual exhibition and when we reopen in a gallery display in the Freud Centre. Northern Light is drawn from the collection of photography amassed by Dr David Kronn over the past 25 years. This exhibition presents work by photographers that examines the history of the conflict in Northern Ireland and places it alongside other events internationally. This exhibition is also now available to view online.

IMMA Programme 2021

Opening in 2021

IMMA Collection: Freud Project
The Artist’s Mother: Lucie and Daryll
3 March – 8 August 2021
The virtual exhibition is available to view online

IMMA Outdoors
Mid-April – September 2021
Will begin when current restrictions are lifted.

The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now
IMMA: 30 Years of the Global Contemporary
July/September/October/November 2021 – 2022

Encounters: IMMA & EVA International Commission 2020 – 2021
Em’kal Eyongakpa, mbaŋ: sǒ bàtú/tàngàp, 2021
July – Nov 2021

Continuing in 2021

Paula Rego, Obedience and Defiance
Until 26 May 2021

DCU MELLIE Programme’s Visual Voices & Bok Gwai (2005) by Anthony Key
Until 3 August 2021

IMMA Collection: Freud Project
Until 8 August 2021

Ghosts from the Recent Past
Until 26 September 2021

Northern Light: The David Kronn Photography Collection
Until 10 October 2021
Available to view online as a virtual exhibition.

– ENDS –

For further information and images please contact:

Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] / Patrice Molloy E: [email protected]

IMMA launches today The Artist’s Mother, the latest project in response to the IMMA Collection: Freud Project 2016-2021. Inspired by Lucian Freud’s paintings of his mother, Lucie, this is the first presentation which interweaves digital and physical elements. Central to the project is the work of artist Chantal Joffe who has portrayed her mother, Daryll, in an exceptional series of paintings and pastels.

The exhibition The Artist’s Mother: Lucie and Daryll is the first time IMMA combines both a gallery display in the Freud Centre, alongside a digitally installed exhibition in a new virtual gallery space. In this series of 15 portraits, 6 in dialogue with Lucian Freud in the gallery and 13 in the virtual gallery space, with some of the portraits been shown in both spaces, Chantal Joffe provides insights into the unique bond between mother-subject and artist-child.

At the centre of this conversation are two of Freud’s most outstanding portraits of his mother The Painter’s Mother Reading (1975) and Painter’s Mother Resting I (1976), which form part of the Freud Project. The encounter is further explored online through conversations and contributions by poet Annie Freud, Lucian’s eldest daughter. The project also includes a series of 22 specially produced short videos with artists, writers and creatives in various reflections on the theme of the mother, entitled The Maternal Gaze.

IMMA invited Chantal Joffe to engage with Lucian Freud’s portraits of his mother, Lucie Brasch (1896-1989), who left Berlin in 1933 to make a new life in England with her family. Like Lucie Freud, Joffe’s mother Daryll, herself was an exile who arrived in England aged 23 years old.

Freud produced no fewer than 13 paintings of his mother as well as numerous drawings. He stated that he could only paint his mother after she became ill, when she was no longer interested in him following the death of Lucian’s father, Ernst, in 1970.

Chantal Joffe likewise returned to painting her mother when in old age, after she began to lose her sight.

“My mum has quite bad sight now – which is a hard thing to say because it became easier to paint her because she couldn’t then see the paintings. It’s complicated,” she says, “she is only truly seen when she can no longer see me or how I paint her”.

Christina Kennedy, Head of Collections, IMMA said

“This show provides a focus for contemporary discussions of motherhood, focusing particularly on the complex relationship between mother and child over time. Both Freud and Joffe are drawn by the intensity of this bond, and especially the difficulty of seeing the real woman with adult eyes”.

The Artist’s Mother presents videos, essays, texts and talks, to form a fascinating compilation of images, writing and voices that explore the role of mothers and carers in our lives, the bonds of creativity and intellect in the context of contemporary discussions of motherhood.

The exhibition is presented via Vortic (vortic.art or Vortic Collect in the App Store) and is the first time IMMA has digitally installed a virtual exhibition, made possible thanks to collaboration with Victoria Miro who represent Chantal Joffe. The virtual presentation can also be viewed via the Vortic Collect XR app for iPad and iPhone users to view how artworks would look in-situ, using augmented reality. IMMA is the first museum to utilise Vortic and has welcomed the opportunity to explore new ways of presenting work to the public.

3 March 2021

– Ends –

For further information and images please contact: Monica Cullinane, [email protected], Patrice Molloy, [email protected]

 

Additional Notes for Editors

The Artist’s Mother Project details:
Curated by: Christina Kennedy, Senior Curator: Head of Collections, IMMA.

Exhibition: The Artist’s Mother: Lucie and Daryll
Date 3 March – 8 August 2021
Virtual Exhibition – available to view at imma.ie
Gallery display – will be available to visit in the Freud Centre when current Covid-19 restrictions are lifted.

Annie Freud’s Response
The Artist’s Mother is further explored through Chantal Joffe’s conversations with poet Annie Freud, Lucian’s eldest daughter. Freud recites her poem, Hiddensee (2019), which reflects on the impact on Lucie, mother of a young family who with her husband Ernst was forced to flee Germany ahead of the rise of Nazism and her adjustment to a new life in England. Annie Freud also presents her essay, In the Picture – The Life and Cultural Milieu of Lucie Freud and her influence on her son Lucian Freud, 2021.

The Maternal Gaze Video Series
The Maternal Gaze is a series of 22 specially produced short videos with artists, writers and creatives in various reflections on the theme of the mother. Utilising vox pop style videos and short films, participants answered IMMA’s invitation to reflect on the impact of their mother-figure on their career practice and development. The first video in The Maternal Gaze series will be available on Tuesday 9 March.

IMMA Talks
The IMMA Talks programme connects The Artist’s Mother: Lucie and Daryll, with themes that open up a conversation between Lucian Freud and Chantal Joffe’s works, as they are presented side by side in the gallery and online.

The programme commences in April 2021, with a live streamed conversation, chaired by Christina Kennedy (Head of Collections, IMMA), who invites Chantal Joffe and Katy Hessel (curator, writer and broadcaster) to discuss Joffe’s ‘mother’ series within the context of the artist’s wider studio practice. While in June 2021, join Annie Freud (poet) and Amah-Rose McNight Abrams (arts and cultural journalist) for a live streamed presentation that reflects their ongoing fascination with the subject of the artist’s mother from past to present, taking us on a visual journey across a range of art historical works, to explore shared and diverging interests.

The IMMA Talks programme connects The Artist’s Mother with themes in the upcoming exhibition, entitled Mother! at the Louisiana Museum, Denmark, which will situate the work of Lucian Freud and Chantal Joffe in the context of this major survey exhibition on the theme of Motherhood, viewed through changing notions of art and culture in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Details of the IMMA Talks programme will be made available at imma.ie/talks

About Chantal Joffe
Born in Vermont in 1969 and now living in London, Chantal Joffe has long focused on portraiture, her sitters met in the flesh or on the page. Her slow and continuous process of reading, looking and watching is followed by gestures in paint or pastel which are fluid and immediate and capture a psychological sense of the sitter’s feelings and experience. 

Joffe holds an MA from the Royal College of Art and was awarded the Royal Academy Wollaston Prize in 2006. Joffe has exhibited nationally and internationally with venues including Arnolfini, Bristol (2020); The Lowry. Salford (2018); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2018); Royal Academy of Arts, London (2018, 2017); National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavík (2016); National Portrait Gallery, London (2015); Jewish Museum, New York (2015); Jerwood Gallery, Hastings (2015); Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy (2014–2015); Saatchi Gallery, London (2013–2014); MODEM, Hungary (2012); Mackintosh Museum, Glasgow (2012); Turner Contemporary, Margate (2011). Joffe has recently created a major new work for the Elizabeth Line station at Whitechapel and is represented by Victoria Miro.

About Annie Freud
Annie Freud is a poet, painter, editor, teacher and translator. She is the author of five collections of poetry, the first being A Voids Officer Achieves the Tree Pose published by Donut Press, a time when she was a frequent performer at public events.

Subsequently four of her collections were published by Picador, the most recent being Hiddensee, 2019. Her first collection, The Best Man the Ever Was, won the Dimplex Prize for New Writing (Poetry Section) and The Mirabelles was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize 2015. In 2014, Annie Freud was selected by the Poetry Book Society as one of the Next Generation Poets. She leads a long-lived poetry composition group in Cattistock, Dorset, her home for the last twelve years. She is renowned for her live performances. During the last six years Annie Freud has made a number of paintings, working in oils for the first time; her work in this medium have enriched her practice in unexpected ways.

 

IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art), The Dean Dublin and Press Up Hospitality Group are delighted to announce today (Wednesday 10 February), a new creative partnership at the Dean Arts Studio.

The Dean Arts Studio is a new, multi-disciplinary hub located on Harcourt Street in the heart of Dublin city centre. It is a practical response to the contraction of accessible, affordable city workspaces for artists of all disciplines, due in part to the loss of cultural spaces through development.

Both established and emerging practitioners across visual arts, literature, photography, sound, music and more will begin to take up residency this year. The Studio will be fully funded by The Dean Dublin and Press Up Hospitality Group, and the fourteen studios and office spaces will be gifted to artists, cultural institutions and arts organisations.

IMMA is delighted to be joining this dynamic and exciting creative collective as lead cultural institution partner. The gift of four studios from the Dean to IMMA has enabled IMMA to extend its Residency Programme by awarding year-long residencies at the Dean Arts Studio to Elayne Harrington, Elaine Hoey, Salvatore of Lucan and Brian Teeling.

Commenting on the partnership Annie Fletcher, Director, IMMA said;

“Supporting artists in the provision of space for research and making as well as display has always been central to IMMA’s mission. IMMA and the Dean have forged a strong partnership over the past five years and it fantastic to be able to develop this collaboration further.”

Continuing, she commented that

“IMMA has been steadily producing innovative programming under the current conditions and we are excited to move towards reopening the IMMA onsite studios which were temporarily closed due to the pandemic. In tandem with The Dean Arts Studio these combined residencies for artists show a deep commitment to supporting Irish based practice at such a critical time.”

Aileen Galvin, Project Lead, the Dean Arts Studio said:

“We know how privileged we are to be in the position to provide a city centre arts hub in Dublin. This was an early 2020 project that was stopped in its tracks. We worked with the arts community to explore practical ways that we can be supportive of artistic practice in the city and the Dean Arts Studio is the first result of that. It is an investment in our creative community, and we hope removing the stress of workspace rent and bills can give artists a bit of headspace to get on with the work of making and creating. It isn’t the cure-all solution to commercial development vs cultural contraction, but it is a step forward. We are delighted to welcome IMMA and these incredible artists to the Studio. We hope their DAS experience will be happy and productive and filled with possibilities and opportunities.”

The second year of IMMA programming for IMMA’s spaces at the Dean Arts Studio will be realised through an open call which will be announced in Spring 2021. Programming opportunities for IMMA’s onsite studios will be announced later today.

10 February 2021

– ENDS –

For further information and images please contact:
Monica Cullinane E: [email protected]
Patrice Molloy E: [email protected]

 

For more information on the Dean Arts Studio please contact: Aileen Galvin at Sync & Swim [email protected]

 

Additional Notes for Editors:

The IMMA Dean Arts Studio Artists

Elayne Adamczyk Harrington
Elayne Adamczyk Harrington, also known as Temper-Mental MissElayneous, is an accomplished performer in the Irish Hiphop and poetry world whose work explores restriction and oppression with the ideas of judgement and punishment often manifesting in the context of class. Her practice addresses the repressive nature of society and the constraint of its social systems, referring to conditions and injustices such as addiction and alcoholism, access to education and homelessness in a direct way.

Other artworks take a more layered approach in dealing with generational poverty, classism and working-class experience. Utilising wood, concrete, metal, found items and mixed media to create objects which at first glance can appear to be utilitarian entities, domestic or recreational and innocent in nature. Reappropriating the materials covertly interrupts their original function, providing playfulness with an undercurrent of aggression. An integral aspect of the work is engagement and interaction from the artist which incites spontaneous verbal and kinetic articulations that transcend the narrative of the sculptures and evolve the work to performance, spatial activity, duration and endurance.

Elayne Harrington is a Sculpture & Expanded Practice and Critical Cultures graduate of Fine Art in the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland. She served the third year of her International BA Degree in the University of Arts in Poznań, Poland. In 2019 Harrington was invited to feature within CONTEXTS Festival, the 9th International Festival of Ephemeral Art, Sokołowsko, Poland. This marked her first professional live art festival performace as a fresh NCAD graduate. This experience brought together many talented collaborators contributing to the live 2 hour performance artwork by Harrington at the Festival. The music vdieo project ‘Pie in the Sky’ grew out of this experince to merge Harringtons practices of the visual within the Fine Art realm and the verbal/rap element of the contemporary urban culture of Hiphop in which she advocates in her own way.

Website: www.elayneharrington.com

Elaine Hoey
Elaine Hoey works mainly creating interactive based installations, appropriating contemporary digital art practices and aesthetics to explore the politics of digital humanity and our evolving relationship with the screen. She describes her process as ‘experimental’ and is interested in creating new forms of art whose language is digitally native though also subject to critique and informed by questions arising from complex social, political and cultural processes.

Her work often addresses and critiques themes arising from identity, place and the bio-political body. Her virtual reality works commonly include immersing the viewer in performative and often uncomfortable roles within her digitally constructed worlds. She works through a wide variety of mediums such as, virtual reality, AI systems, video, gaming, installation and live performance, including remote cyber performance.

Recent exhibitions include Desire; A Revision from the 20th Century to the Digital Age, IMMA, 2019-2020; Unflattering, The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea, curated by Soojung YI, 2020; Citizen Somewhere Citizen Nowhere, The Crawford Gallery, Cork, 2020. Other exhibitions include The Dictionary of Evil, Gangwon International Biennale, South Korea; Futures, The RHA, Dublin; Turbulence, The Model Sligo; Open Codes, ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany; Surface Tension, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris and FILE SP Fiesp Cultural Centre, São Paulo, Brazil.

Website: https://www.elainehoey.com

Salvatore of Lucan
Salvatore of Lucan is a painter. Through his large scale works he attempts to communicate clearly a sense of the world he inhabits that is both tangible and emotional. Exploring home, identity and relationships, he creates expansive domestic scenes where realism meets the uncanny, and the familiar broaches the magical.

His first solo show, Show of Himself  took place in Pallas Projects in 2018. He has been nominated twice for the Zurich Portrait Prize in the National Gallery with his paintings Me and My Dad in McDonalds and with Lucy With Three Hands and Me Holding on to Her Leg which was highly commended. In 2019 he won the Whyte’s Award, was nominated for Hennessy Craig Award in the RHA, appeared in RTE’s ‘Exhibitionists’ documentary and received the Arts Council’s Next Generation Award. Salvatore is currently developing two solo shows; an exhibition of pastel works for Hang Tough gallery and a collection of large scale paintings for the Kevin Kavanagh gallery.

Website: https://cargocollective.com/salvatoreoflucan

Brian Teeling
Brian Teeling’s practice explores ways of interrogating the medium of photography through an honest, autobiographical account of his lived experience. The work created often ranges from the context of public space to the innately private, often focusing on the trappings of queer, working-class, and masculine identities. Through his interests in music, cinema, fashion, literature, and activism he examines the purported rituals that can sometimes permeate these communities. The resulting work is translated into various forms; CCTV tubes, projected image, clothing, unlimited edition prints, installation, electronic devices, and full-scale sculptural work for expanded topics.

Teeling is an emerging artist living in Dublin. His practice involves photography, print, and recently, has expanded to include sculpture and installation. His work usually focuses on the trappings of queer, masculine, and working-class identities but has also expanded into architectural photography and recollection of memory. Recent exhibitions include A Vague Anxiety, IMMA, 2019; Halftone, The Library Project, 2019, and Uncover, The Library Project and The Lavit Gallery, 2018. Forthcoming work includes an exhibition at PhotoIreland in 2021 and a book on Áras Mhic Diarmada/Busaras.

Website: https://www.brianteeling.com

Dean Arts Studio and Covid-19
Artists will not access the Dean Arts Studio until deemed safe by the HSE and in accordance with all government Covid-19 restrictions and guidelines.