Autumn 2004- Columns
SEE A look at some events not to miss, compiled by Robert Peters
 | | Image of Robert T. McCall working on The space mural in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC; courtesy Ards Arts Centre |
From 9 September to 22 October the prolific artist Robert T. McCall will be exhibiting at the Ards Arts Centre in Newtownards. Described by Isaac Asimov as "the nearest thing to an artist in residence from outer space," Arizona-based McCall has been commissioned on a continual basis by NASA since the 1950s. This relationship has given him a unique insight into the development of the space program from the Apollo missions right up to the present day Challenger flights. McCall has created artworks for numerous science-fiction films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The exhibition forms part of an ongoing cultural exchange program between Ards Borough Council and Peoria, Arizona. The artist will give a talk on Friday 10 September in Ards Arts Centre.  | | Ernesto Neto, Tatiana Grinberg, Franklin Cassaro, Fernanda Gomes, Carlos Bevilacqua: At a table with friends , 2004, 48 x 36 x 24 cm; photo Anthony Hobbs; courtesy Butler Gallery | Continuing until 10 November, Brazilian Sculptor Ernesto Neto will be exhibiting a site-responsive installation in the Butler Gallery, Kilkenny. His sculptures will take into account the specific appeal of the space along with a perception that includes all the senses. His choice of materials include lycra, polyamide fabrics, sand and styrofoam in which volume is balanced with the impression of ethereal lightness. Neto often conceals spices in his sculptures to produce subtle olfactory experiences transforming sight to scent. One gets automatically drawn into a peculiar and sensual world. In 4 artists and I‚ Neto is collaborating with Brazilian artists Tatiana Grinberg, Carlos Bevilacqua, Fernanda Gomes and Franklin Cassaro. Neto's work creates an atmosphere of intimacy in space. His enveloping sculptures often seem to get their power from their inherent fragility. Moreover, his creations not only affect the eye and nose, but also the sense of touch. This exhibition has been sponsored by the Embassy of Brazil, the Quinn Group and Goodalls Foods.  | | Richard Wathen: Grace , 2004, oil on canvas; courtesy MWProjects, London / Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art | Coming up in September at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland is the group show Year Zero . This brings together a new generation of painters who draw upon historical imagery and idioms to speak about the present. The artists revitalise the tradition of modern painting that runs through Picasso, Picabia and David Salle, which, in response to the extraordinary proliferation of new images characterising modern visual culture, resignifies the outmoded, forgotten, archaic, or arcane. In contrast to the artistic tradition which attempts to create a pictorial 'year zero' and connects Malevich, Stella and Robert Ryman, the artists here plunder the world of images from the past and present to create new narratives about art and its place in the world. As Walter Benjamin argued, "there are revolutionary energies in 'the outmoded'."
 | | Bernhard Schobinger: example of pieces similar to those which will be included in The Paradise [17]; courtesy Douglas Hyde Gallery |
Work by German artist Bernhard Schobinger will form the seventeenth exhibition in The Paradise series at The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, during October and continuing until 1 December. The exhibition will consist of several small pieces made of glass poison bottles plus an additional small item, all of which will be displayed in vitrines. Also, running concurrently with this exhibition will be the group show Huts .
 | | Liu Qinghe: Beyond the bank of a river , 2002, ink on paper, 235 x 180 cm; courtesy Irish Museum of Modern Art |
The Irish Museum of Modern Art will be hosting the exhibition Dreaming of the Dragon's Nation from October to February 2005. This exhibition presents the work of some fifty artists from China as part of the China / Ireland Cultural Exchange. The exhibition has been divided into five parts – Contemporary ink and wash, Oil painting, Oriental Metaphysics (Abstract Art of China), Sculpture and Installation, Photography and Video. The exhibition will include artists who have been working in China since the 1990s, such as Wang Jianwei, Lu Chuncheng, Ai Weiwei and Liu Xiadong ; and also Yang Fudong , who had a successful solo exhibition in the Douglas Hyde Gallery in 2003. The exhibition is co-curated by Li Xu, Director of Academic Research Department, Shanghai Art Museum, and Enrique Juncosa, Director, IMMA. The China / Ireland Cultural Exchange is an inter-governmental project initiated and managed by the governments of China and Ireland. The programme will comprise an exchange of cultural festivals in 2003 / 2004. The Irish Festival in China will be the largest ever overseas cultural event promoted by the Republic's government. A catalogue will accompany the exhibition with an essay by Li Xu. The Void Gallery in Derry is up and running in November. This ambitious centre seeks to fill the gulf in international contemporary visual-arts programming in the city after the demise of the Orchard Gallery. Void's programme for the coming year is "exciting and of a very high quality." Gallery provision is to be accompanied by much needed artists‚ studio space and an innovative education and outreach programme. From 29 October to 4 December Aisling O'Beirn will be developing a series of videoworks recording local nicknames of landmarks and places in Galway city. Her video piece Home town was initiated at last year's Tulca Festival and will be shown at various public locations in Galway city during this year's Tulca event. The aim of the project is to show how mappings of areas or districts and place naming occur through colloquial speech.'Tulca' is the Gaelic word for wave, flood, deluge, gush, outpouring, and the event's aim is "to portray a new 'wave' of creative energy to inspire a new definitive movement in the visual arts." For further information contact info@galwayartscentre.ie .
 | | Constance Short: THE WHOLE 9 YARDS (detail), linocut; courtesy Project | THE WHOLE 9 YARDS will be the core installation in an exhibition by Constance Short , and facilitated by her it will evolve over the month of November in the Basement Gallery, Dundalk. The gallery was once a jail and Short will do an installation in the death cell to acknowledge the gallery's first inhabitants. After that the idea is to fill the gallery with living people and ideas. Other artists, students of cultural studies, and others with strong philosophical views on the nature of art and its place and value in society, life, love, politics, justice, in other words, 'the whole nine yards', will be invited to respond (in word or / and in deed) to THE WHOLE 9 YARDS which is made up of original sayings written by and made into lino cuts by Short. The nine linear yards will hopefully be nine square yards by the time the exhibition concludes. ( THE WHOLE 9 YARDS will be on show from 27 September to 8 October at the Linen Hall Library, Belfast.)
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