This exhibition
is the result of a year-long community-arts pilot project
that was delivered in the Derry City Council area. It
is described by its Project Officer, Sheila Fairon,
as "artists working in rural and urban locations with
a variety of communiüies, which reflect a broad equality
agenda." The eight participating artists and their relative
disciplines were Sara Greavu - mixed media, Tracy Cullen
- film making, Paul Barwise - printmaking, Todd Herman
and Amanda Coslor - photography/drama/video, Odette
Boal - ceramics, Denzil Browne - photography and Maolíosa
Boyle - photography and mixed media.
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Images
from Resident; courtesy Context
Gallery
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The exhibition's
title, Resident, reflects two aspects of this
project. Quite obviously it refers to the year-long
residency project. Yet it also highlights the project
and exhibition's thematic brief, where the participants
of all ages examine concerns such as family and personal
narratives. Consequently the title also emphasises the
individual's position as resident in contemporary society
and the impact of personal narrative on creative endeavour.
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Images
from Resident; courtesy Context
Gallery
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This
exhibition is one of the most extensive and diverse
displays of art production in the Context Gallery to
date. It consists of numerous installations in various
media - one wall being completely obscured by screen-printed
t-shirts. The adjoining wall features a line of Polaroids
of young children with aspirational statements inscribed
beneath each posed portrait, "I want to be a...daddy,
fireman, dancer, teacher." Another wall presents a black-and-white-photo
narrative sequence where participants staged socialising
and overindulging . There is also a wall of framed examples
of printmaking, a free-standing board featuring portrait
photography overlaid with text, and several plinths
of ceramics. All this is contained in the main space
alone. In the gallery's auxiliary space are a series
of ten lightboxes with photo-collages, again of family,
two video monitors with headphones and another projector
to illustrate aspects of the filmmaking workshop.
According
to residential artist Odette Boal,
Marianne
O'Kane is Curator of Cavanacor Gallery, Lifford,
and Lecturer on the Boston University Internship Programme.
Resident,
Context Gallery, Derry, February/March 2003
