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| Julie
Bacon: Natural History?, 2002, peformance shot,
steps of the Natural HIstory Museum in London as part
of the Observable Occurrences; photo
Michelle Rheaume; courtesy the artist |
The annual performance event BONE
6 opens in the Schlachthaus Theater, Bern, on
4 December and runs until 6 December. This year, the festival
features an all-women line up, including performances
by artists Esther Ferrer, Julie Bacon and
Anne Bean as well as discussion panels.
A two-person
show by Dublin-based artist William McKeown and
Brazilian artist Tonico Auad should make for a
curious combination at Project, Dublin. McKeown's monochrome
paintings are well known in Ireland. At Project recent
paintings will be hung in an artificial room constructed
inside the building's existing architecture. The room's
dimensions are taken from a convent in County Waterford
where McKeown spent a year painting. The room is also
intended to structure the viewer's perception in a particular
way, becoming the threshold onto an illusionary space.
Subverting expectations of space is also at the crux of
Auad's practice, in which he takes stuff from everyday
life and puts it though a process of material transformation.
These interventions include a bunch of bananas with a
face pricked onto their surface with a pin or fake gold
jewellery dropped onto the floor at an opening. At Project,
Auad will carpet the gallery and use this as a starting
point from which to develop his piece. Dates 16 December
2003 to 31 January 2004.
 |
| Emma
Donaldson: from Dust; courtesy the artist |
Dust,
a solo show by Emma Donaldson, opens at Triskel
Arts Centre, Cork, in December and explores the mis-identification
of 'self' in place and examines the nature of memory and
errors in projection. Dust will encompass a DVD
which follows a self-portrait format and will be reflective
of the kind of flashing, stilling, doubling and blackness
which occurs when scraping back into reminiscence or reflection
about the self. Dates 9 January
to 5 February 2004.
In the new year,
the Context Gallery, Derry, hosts the first solo show
for two artists based in Belfast: Allan Hughes
and Clive Murphy. Hughes' sound installation If
I told you I'd have to kill you opens on 16
January and explores the mythology
set up around American air-force test sites in the Nevada
Desert (until 8 February).
Made in China, an installation by Murphy,
takes as a starting point crudely screen-printed, paper
Chinese lanterns bought in Chinatown, New York, which
are manufactured in vast quantities and are sloppily and
thoughtlessly produced for an indifferent mass-market.
The work explores cultural commodification which brings
the idea of cultural identity down to its lowest-common-denominator.
 |
| Dan
Shipsides: Duel, Lamda on dibond, 60 x 70 cm;
courtesy the artist |
Dan Shipsides' solo show Beta will
open at the Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, in January
and will incorporate material from previous projects such
as Pioneers and Rochers à Fontainebleau
to mark the completion of his AHRB fellowship at the University
of Ulster, in which he explored the relationship between
rock climbing and art practices. It will also include
new photographs and a video compilation of climbs done
in the name of art over the last seven years. Dates 17
January to 21 February.
A comprehensive
solo exhibition of the film and video work of Frances
Hegarty will open at Model: Niland, Sligo on 22
January (to 29 February). The
exhibition will include her Auto portrait series,
a new film and large-scale photographic series, Storyboard.
A publication will be produced to accompany the show.
 |
| Maud
Cotter: prototype for More than anything; approx
1000 x 400 x 400 cm; courtesy the artist; for Solid
Space |
Solid
Space at the Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast, from
12 February to 27 March brings
together works by Richard Serra, Mike Hogg
and Maud Cotter to explore spatiality and representation.
Serra achieved recognition for his monumental minimal
sculptural works, particularly Tilted arc which
created enormous controversy when it was installed in
Federal Square, New York in 1981. In this exhibition,
his lesser-known, expressionistic, large-scale drawings,
executed using oil sticks, will be on display. Mike Hogg
is creating a new commission for OBG which will continue
his exploration of the early scientific mechanical device
called an 'orrory', which represents the movement of the
planets and stars in space. A new work has also been commissioned
from Maud Cotter, who uses basic materials such as cardboard,
rubber and plastic to explore ideas around space and materiality.
 |
| Cover
of the first printed project; courtesy Sculptors'
Society of Ireland |
It is encouraging to see a new art/culture journal produced
in Ireland. Sarah Pierce was the guest editor for the
first edition of printed project, recently
launched by the Sculptors' Society of Ireland. Titled
'there once was a west', it includes articles by Grant
Watson, Bettina Funcke, Peter Fend,
Rachel Price and images by Gerard Byrne.
Invited curatorial editors for each issue should ensure
a fresh approach. The publication will be printed up to
three times a year with the next issue due late
spring 2004. For information
on how to subscribe visit the website at sculptors-society.ie.
 |
| AES
art group: The Witness of the Future, 1996,
photograph; courtesy Museum of Modern Art, Oxford |
The final leg
of the touring exhibition, Veil,
opened on 22 November at Modern Art Oxford and runs to
25 January.
The project was commissioned by inIVA and curated by Jananne
Al-Ani, David A. Bailey, Zineb Sedira and Gilane Tawadros
and explores the significance of the veil and veiling
in contemporary culture, juxtaposed with historical material
such as Gillo Pontecorvo's film The battle of
Algiers (1965), and Marc Garanger's portraits
of Algerian women taken during the war for independence
in the late 1950s. Participating artists include
Jananne Al-Ani, Shirin Neshat and there
will be large-scale photo works by the Moscow-based art
collective AES, from their series The witnesses
of the future, for which Modern Art Oxford has
commissioned a new image. The project is accompanied by
a publication, Veil, Representation and Contemporary
Art available from inIVA and Modern Art Oxford.
 |
| Hannah
Höch: Aus der Sammlung: aus einem Ethnographischen
Museum, 1929, collage and gouache on paper; ©
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; courtesy
Dundee Contemporary Arts; from Plunder |
Plunder opened on 2 November and runs until
11 January at Dundee
Contemporary Arts and offers a fresh look at how artists
have employed collage as a means of expression from 1920s
through to the present day. The exhibition includes both
the familiar reuse of discarded ephemera, popularised
by the work of artists such as Kurt Schwitters,
and a more contemporary look at collage in the context
of the 'cut and paste' of new technology. Artists include
Roderick Buchanan, Douglas Gordon, Cathy
Wilkes, Sarah Lucas.
 |
|
Paul
Carter: Shrine, 2003; photo Paul Gray; courtesy
Fruitmarket
|
Bend Sinister is a new book by the Edinburgh-based
artist Paul Carter, commissioned by Fruitmarket Gallery;
it is available for purchase from the bookshop priced
£10 (bookshop@fruitmarket.co.uk). The publication
is a survey of selected projects from 1996 to 2003 and
documents Carter's ongoing role as the self-styled amateur
engaged with guerrilla tactics, radio broadcasts and survival
techniques. The book includes texts by Will Bradley,
Gordon Dalton and Neil Mulholland.
|
|
|
Above:
Daphne Wright: Sires, DVD still; right:
Daphne Wright: Stillborn; both courtesy
Frith Street Gallery
|
|
Daphne WrightÕs solo show Sires opened at
the Frith Gallery, London on 14 November and it runs until
10 January 2004. In this exhibition of new work, Wright
examines the complexities and contradictions that exist
in the world of ÔindustrialÕ farming. Works include a
sculpture of a stillborn calf, intaglio prints of bullsÕ
heads which explore the elevated status afforded to domestic
bulls kept on farms for reproduction purposes. The portraits
point towards the underlying menace of these unpredictable
and uncontrollable beasts, in spite of the pampering they
receive. A short video shows only the muddied legs and
hooves of a herd of cattle in the milking parlour.
