Prendergast gets IACI award / healthcare send-up / Bono's feet of clay (Friday 22 June 2007)
compiled by Rachel Simmons
Kathy Prendergast awarded Irish American Cultural Institute's O'Malley Award
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| Kathy Prendergast:Groom (as a boy), (holding hand), (waiting), 2007,
watercolour on paper, 11.5 x 15 cm each, unframed; image held here. |
The Irish American Cultural Institute has recently awarded Dublin-born artist Kathy Prendergast with their O'Malley award. The IACI was founded in1962 and awards grants, scholarships, awards, and fellowships to "provide vital support to Irish culture, science-arts, and education." According to the press release, their O'Malley award - a 5,000 euro award - "recognizes and promotes achievements in the visual arts, particularly those which have stimulated or guided other Irish artists." It is given in the name of the late Ernie O'Malley, a notable collector of modern Irish art.
Prendergast receives the award mid-career and joins the company of Janet Mullarney (2005), Patrick Scott (2003), Barrie Cooke (2002), Alanna O’Kelly (2000) and James Coleman (1999). Prendergast was born in Dublin in 1958 and graduated from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin in 1980 and the Royal College of Art in London in 1986. She is currently being shown in Dublin at the Kerlin Gallery. According to the gallery's website, "Prendergast's work has persistently revolved around a potent cluster of issues chief among which are sexuality, identity, landscape, mapping and power. Despite the universal import of these issues, Prendergast's work remains firmly grounded in the specifics of her individual experience."
Prendergast's current exhibition at the Kerlin Gallery will run through 14 July 2007 and is the first of two solo-shows for her there over the next 18 months.
Funny bones
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| Two of Brigit Beemster's ceramic pieces from her new exhibit at NUI Galway's Art Gallery, images held here |
It's a view many will share: the Republic's healthcare system is in such a mess, laughter sometimes appears to be the only available medicine.
NUI Galway's Art Gallery is hosting a new exhibition, Laughter is the only exhibition: a comment on the ills of our medical healthcare system, a ten-work show by Sligo-based ceramic sculptor Brigit Beemster. The pieces follow Mary Blarney, from her first visit to the GP to three different versions of heaven. Beemster says of the healthcare system, "It seems to be a topic close to everybody’s interest. And indeed over the last half year, everybody I asked about it (anybody from consultants to patients) had something to say about it - most in frustration." The exhibition at NUI Galway opened Wednesday, 20 June and runs until Sunday, 8 July.
Sculpture of Bono unveiled by Dutch sculptor
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| Above and below: Frans Smeets' critical sculpture of Bono; image above held here; image below from e-shot |
Dutch sculptor Frans Smeets has unveiled Jesus Loves You Too (U2). The sculpture depicts the Irish rockstar in a long white robe similar to those that Jesus is often depicted in, only this one is labeled with a Nike symbol. The look is topped off with Emporio Armani sunglasses. At Bono's feet is an emaciated African infant whose eyes lie startlingly wide open. Its mouth is open as well, as if it is crying out, but the cry seems to fall on deaf ears, as Bono looks straight ahead and appears uninterested, even as he holds out his hands, palms facing upward.
According to the artist's website, Smeets is a "Dutch historian, philosopher, and artist. He makes art in which history, philosophy, skills, globalisation and the controversy between man and nature are important." Most of his sculptures are made of mixtures of materials such as "earthenware product, beeswax, paper, walnutwood, printboards, and woodpulp." The sculpture seems to match recent criticism over Bono's activism, particularly his DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade Africa) organization and its Product Red campaign. There is a multitude of praise and criticism for the rock singer's activism and everyone seems to have their own opinion. Local critic Liam Fay, writer for the Sunday Times, says about him, " It’s rarely mentioned now that Bono concentrates on international emergencies but there was a time when he also believed he had the answer to Ireland’s domestic problems... But that answer has changed with comic frequency."
