Press Release | Works | Schedule

Public Gesture: Pirate Capital Press Release

A contemporary art programme of projects and events
Presented by the MA in Visual Arts Practices (MAVIS), IADT

Opening Event: Thursday 3 June 2010, 6pm – 8pm
Exhibition opens from 10am – 6pm, Friday 4 June – Tuesday 8 June 2010 (Closed Sunday 6 June & Monday 7 June 2010)
The LAB, Foley Street, Dublin 1

From the 3rd to the 8th of June 2010, students from the MA in Visual Arts Practices (MAVIS) will present a contemporary art programme of projects and events at The LAB on Foley Street. Titled Public Gesture: Pirate Capital this contemporary art initiative will stage an unconventional and at times unexpected four day programme of new, research led art projects and events.

Art-practitioners, curators and critics from the course, along with invited artists and practitioners, will present work in a variety of media, with a programme evolving over a four day period.

The theme of Pirate Capital will be explored ranging from contemporary interpretations of the current economic and political crisis to initiatives motivated by historical perspectives including the history of Ireland’s pirate queen Granuaile (Grace O’Malley).

Projects will include performance, installation, photography, drawing, sculpture and will incorporate a moving image programme in a specially designated screening area. Pirate Capital will also include talks, interviews and discussions in the main LAB gallery space.

MA in Visual Arts Practices is a Masters of Arts programme, provided by the Institute of Art, Design & Technology and is based in Dublin City Centre at The LAB, Foley Street. MAVIS attracts and engages students seeking to explore the intersection and tensions between contemporary practices of art-making, criticism and curating.  As well as offering an opportunity for viewers to experience a diverse exhibition programme Public Gesture: Pirate Capital offers insights into the framework, practices and process of the MA in Visual Arts Practices at IADT.

The full schedule is available on 
http://www.mavis.ie/publicgesture

For further information on Public Gesture: Pirate Capital and for press images please contact:
Anne Lynott    e: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it m: + 353 (0)87 910 9147

Public Gesture: Pirate Capital Works

	Abdellatif Abdeljawad | Blind Justice, article No. 1 This work is a visual representation of the ongoing collective punishment of the population of Gaza as seen through children’s eyes. War, desperation and persistence to live are put together through a series of mute images and blind text to protest in silence.
	Sinéad Aldridge | Wink Wink (Anxiety of Complicity) The 'Wink Wink' project is intended to invoke and record responses to a complex social symbol in the current economic and political crisis. Positioned by the window of the gallery, with a prominent view of the street, the artist dressed to look like a gallery staff member shall 'wink' at people as they walk pass by or when they enter the gallery space. In the context of the socialisation of private financial risk and losses, an unsolicited wink can stand for or evoke the complicity of a shared joke or scam. Are we 'all to blame' or are our problems the result of a few financial buccaneers? Do we ignore what is going on or do we revel in the game?
	Tinka Bechert | Treasure Hunt As I have just returned from a collaborative residency in Egypt, I will create a laboratory/ studio in which I will work to order objects found on the Giza plateau. I am interested in subjective taxonomies that question the distinctions between rational and irrational relations between things. Through the appropriation of archeological and other scientific methods of categorizing, collecting and exhibiting objects, I am un-making sense to make sense.
	Emma Betts, Sarah Roche, Sharon Murphy | Currencies of Engagement Emma Betts curates the work of Sarah Roche and Sharon Murphy in a collaborative space. Labour-intensive activities of craft and the handmade will be placed in a public forum, stimulating audience engagement. Sarah Roche is exploring art as a process of expenditure of self, of materials, of resources. This work emerges from her current research into knowledge hierarchies and notions of progress. Sharon Murphy will perform durational wool spinning in visual and aural isolation. The public will be invited to complete a questionnaire and to ask for a spinning tutorial, promoting audience-self-awareness as they consider the role of pedagogy.
	Jennifer Brady | Stormhaven This video work is an exploration of the tensions that exist between real and simulated space in gaming culture. Borrowing from the conventions of the establishing shot used in film and television, the history of a fictional city is mapped onto images of a suburban park using voice-over to destabilise these familiar scenes.
	Andrew Carroll | Talk Hard, Steal the Air This installation finds its roots in the culture of pirate radio that existed in Ireland and internationally since between 1968 and 1989; it nostalgically recalls the zeitgeist of momentary freedom from the bonds of capitalist control during that period. The mise-en-scene is part based on actual movie scenes, and part derived from the artist's own imagination, intuitions and concepts. Part of the installation will include a short-range transmission, that will be set to interfere with a transmission from other artists working in the gallery. The installation will be dedicated to the late DJ, Gerry Ryan, who began his career in pirate radio.
	Enagh Farrell | Stealing from Stillness Mythology and various spiritual texts are heavily referenced within this performance piece. Water acts as a metaphor for time - a thief, stealing from us what is seemingly permanent and fixed. This performance is constantly in flux and evolving over a period of time, and what appears as a certainty is eventually eroded to reveal something entirely different.
	Veronica Forsgren | Bench-test Constructing and displaying benches for Public Gesture is a method of experimenting with new ideas that have surfaced in resent research. Inspired by Folk Art and ideas from the Arts and Craft Movement my key concerns are: What is my heritage and how is this linked with socio-political events in the past and present? Having identified the home as a site of personal and political importance I am exploring ideas of beauty, in terms of decoration, as a moral and functional method of creating and promoting change in society.
	Carl Giffney | Loukanikos / Kanellos Loukanikos / Kanellos is the alleged name of a stray dog that lives on the streets of Athens. This video screening documents some of the places that he likes to go. http://carlgiffney.wordpress.com/
	Rachael Gilbourne | Quiet Revolution 1 Gilbourne presents Quiet Revolution 1, a live, site-responsive gesture. This work offers an alternative conversation of sound between people and place. Performed by musician James Kelly, the social interactions of the gallery audience are ‘read’ as a musical score in motion. These improvised sounds are lead by acoustic drumbeats and simple instruments are provided to invite participation. (Image courtesy of Shane McKenna, 2009).
	Janet Healy curates the work of Matthew Hellett, Liz Crow and Sean Hamill  | The act of showing must also be shown If culture and artistic developments are interpreted as integral aspects of the human social condition, what happens when any dominant group asserts it power by imposing its culture on others? In the Brechtian aesthetic, the real struggles of life and the oppressed, in respect of the relationship between real struggle and the metaphorical or symbolic illumination of struggle in art, cannot be shown naturally. In The act of showing must also be shown, Janet Healy curates a screening of works by Matthew Hellett, Liz Crow & Sean Hamill inspired by lived experiences of disability. The screening acts as a spring board for dynamic conversation about intimacy and exposure, of screened works that speak to hidden histories of the body and multiple forms of visibility and invisibility.
	Kevin Holland | Figurehead This sculpture is an amalgamation of various forms and materials which relate to the Pirate Capital theme of the exhibition. The choice of materials is to be commonplace, sourced from the discount stores and hardware shops on the streets surrounding The LAB gallery. The form that these materials strive to become is based on the pirate queen Grainne Mhaol. Once the figurehead on the prow of the Asgard, the sailing vessel that was a symbol of Irish pride, she now lies at the bottom of the sea.
	Simon Keogh | ‘Do some of us die because people have terrible memories?’ The work comprises a site-determined mixed media installation. The work is an inquiry into how certain memories may be triggered which affect our different perceptions of the same space. On entering a space which has competing sensory elements the audience is invited to lie down and open themselves to an experience. Does this piece require the participation of the audience for its completion or can it rely on its materiality and structure to stand alone as a formal aesthetic piece? The work forms part of Keogh’s ongoing research into the control exerted over viewers of art and their role in creating meaning.
	Laura Kelly | Hold-All A spatial, three-dimensional drawing will be created for this exhibition using references to framing and information excess in the contemporary world. The framing of information is essential for meaning to be created. However, when information overload occurs, frames of reference can break down with the consequent loss of meaning. Our lives tend to consist of building and rebuilding small frames of order around ourselves so that we don’t disappear into a chaotic existence. Spatial drawing is a form that deliberately goes ‘beyond the frame’ and so is ideal for exploring this area.
	Joanne Laws | Word Depot Words can be prescriptive, inviting, celebratory or explanatory. They can be symbolic, poetic, deliberate or subconscious... In WORD DEPOT the audience is invited to connect with the potential of words through play using magnetic poetry. The ritual of nostalgia will also be found in the keys of a typewriter. This repetitive act provides a soothing insight into pre digital activity; an era when pirates really were pirates...
	Chiara Liberti & Colette Lewis | on air: public space In 1988 the Radio and Television Act was introduced in Ireland by the state and provided for the first time a structure for licensing non-RTE services. Prior to this Act during the 70's and 80's pirate radio stations had been lobbying for a more participatory and democratic access to legal public broadcast. In contrast to this time in history the internet has now opened wide public access to broadcast. A web radio station will operate in the gallery for the duration of the event acting as a platform inviting public participation. Found archive news footage from the 70' - 80's will be screened in conjunction with a sound installation of radio recordings.
	Anne Lynott, Judy Carroll Deeley, Monica de Bath, Siobhan McDonald, Ann Murphy  | Granuaile – Ireland’s Pirate Queen Anne Lynott curates the work of Judy Carroll Deeley, Monica de Bath, Siobhan McDonald and Ann Murphy in a project based on the life of Grace O’Malley (Granuaile). O’Malley, who lived in Ireland from about 1530 – 1603, was a fearless leader, political pragmatist and tactician, pirate, rebel and matriarch. Through re-imaging and highlighting the life of Granuaile, this project seeks to explore current and historical themes of gender imbalance and bias, land ownership and acquisition, folklore and national identity. Through paintings, drawings and informal conversation, the artists will represent various aspects of the life of one of the world’s most extraordinary female leaders.
	Aoife O’Toole  | PGPC Data No.1-25 This experiment in collating and filing will endeavour to highlight and analyse the concept of artworks as objects, their value and worth in today’s marketplace and to the individual viewer. The files will register and catalogue each piece of work in Public Gesture: Pirate Capital. A series of collated files will register particular areas of investigation; in order to explore questions of method, authorship, interpretation, monetary worth, conservation and purpose, amongst many others. All files and findings will be on display for the public’s perusal over the allotted time.
	Padraig Parle | Progress My work explores the proposed Utopian urban centres that were sold to the public during the Celtic Tiger. These imaginary urban spaces seemed to pledge social harmony and full employment however, this optimistic vision of the future – sold to the Irish public by the government and developers, failed to deliver. The national identity of Ireland since the turn of the century was one built on economic confidence, growth and optimism. But somewhere down the line, confidence turned to arrogance and boom turned to bust. My work investigates the vacant urban spaces that now litter the Irish landscape, serving as monuments of a failed political system.
	Paul Regan | Communion [two grand I believe] [two grand I think] The ethics of authenticity are raised in composing an exhibition installation involving a seven-year-old boy’s bed [with the boy actually in it]. The boy recently “made” his first holy communion and received gifts of cash totaling almost 2,000 euro. Did this really happen? He did dress up in a fancy suit but did he really commune with Jesus, receive all that money and [with his mother’s consent] participate in an art exhibit about it? This work is part of ongoing larger body of work exploring issues of faith and belief through the assembly and construction of objects.
	Kate Strain | Critical Currency For Public Gesture: Pirate Capital, Kate will self-publish a documented research enquiry investigating selected methods of the dissemination of immaterial artwork. Kate is interested in the idea of Corporate Art Collections- especially relevant today as the Irish banks gear up to flog theirs, and how conceptual practices and immaterial gestures relate to the notion of public ownership in art.
	Maria Tanner | Sites of interrogation Coming together in conversation are the founding members of two artist led initiatives Fiona Goggin of Station Project Belfast, Northern Ireland and Bartek Nowak of ART=ADDING Gorzow , Western Poland. Through an exchange of questions Goggin and Nowak will share their experience of the artist led initiative. The conversation will address the organisation and running of both initiatives and it will also consider the implications of artistic response to emotionally charged sites of communised and colonised histories. http://www.terminal08.org and http://www.stationproject.com/

Public Gesture: Pirate Capital Schedule