C100 Review: Aimnín at Context, Derry

aimnín: no place I'm going to, 2002, installation shot; photo Allan Hughes; courtesy Context Gallery

Almost a year ago, the artist aimnín staged his own wake, funeral and mourners' meal over a four-day period in Sublimate Transcend. At this time aimnín stated "the presence of the artist within their work only comes to fruition when it's finally absent, it's that kind of process of letting go."¹ Sublimate Transcend marked the metaphorical death of the artist and in no place I'm going to at the Context Gallery, the installation is marked by his absence. Clearly developmental in terms of the artist's practice, no place I'm going to is an attempt to "negotiate the aftermath" of Sublimate Transcend.

no place I'm going to illustrates the unreconciled process of becoming that aimnín represents. The general aesthetic suggests the influence of practitioners such as Rebecca Horn and Alastair MacLennan. The installation is apparently designed to act as a symbol of the livings' facile and futile attempt to communicate with the dead. The entrance space is painted grey. On one wall a four-lined stave is painted in black with square notation marks inscribed upon it. Directly opposite this on the facing wall appears the text 'ha! ha!', occupying a tiny space of 5 x 18cm. This is presented at head level, challenging and mocking the viewer.

The main gallery space is painted dark brown. Here the stave occupies the upper area of the four walls and is rendered in gold. At regular intervals tambourines are bracketed to the wall on the first two lines of the stave. As a result of artificial lighting, the shadows cast by the tambourines upon the stave resemble the hemispherical shapes of musical notes. There are 23 tambourines in total and a wooden stool placed beneath each one. The looped audio consists of a haunting recording of delicate tambourine sounds and within this one can hear the varying rhythms and tones.

According to the artist, the installation is sourced thematically from an extensive collection of references from Gothic literature to spiritualism, Bob Dylan to fourteenth-century church music. Ultimately we are left with a room full of tambourines and vacant seats.

With this visually impressive installation, the artist attempts to provide a transcendental experience for the viewer. aimnín has removed himself to allow for greater involvement of his audience but his ambitious aim is negated due to his unreconciled motives for the production of this piece. Sublimate Transcend was clearly conceived but no place I'm going to, with its tentative collection of disparate influences, is convoluted in concept and this leaves the viewer asking questions, which we learn was the artist's sardonic intention.

Marianne O'Kane is Visual Arts Officer at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Curator, Cavanacor Gallery, and Lecturer for Boston University's Dublin Internship Program.

¹CIRCA 98, Winter 2001, p. 16

aimnín: no place I'm going to, Context Gallery, Derry, April/May 2002