CIRCA 111 review

Cork: C2 at Crawford Art Gallery

Stephen Brandes: Ballyugomoomin­hampton, 2004, permanent marker and oil on vinyl, 198 x 279 cm; courtesy Gandon Editions

The inaugural C2 exhibition is the show with which the Crawford Municipal Gallery has chosen to open its programme for Cork’s European Capital of Culture year. That seems an appropriate choice as the basic premise of the show is to “reflect the contemporary art scene in Cork while encompassing a range of practices often overlooked in mainstream exhibitions” - to quote from the handsome catalogue which accompanies the show. Curated by staffers Peter Murray, Dawn Williams and Anne Boddaert, C2 certainly sets itself an ambitious task - perhaps too ambitious. Over 400 artists submitted applications for one of the 120 places available in open competition (forty were invited), and finally 160 were represented.

To apply severe critical standards to such a show may not be entirely appropriate since it purports to be nothing more than a survey - a snapshot of visual-arts practice in the southern city where it must be said there is a disproportionately high number of people identifying as, and practising, all forms of visual art. At a time when such straightforward survey shows are becoming ever more rare, it is valuable, particularly for the visitor to Cork, to encounter what is a representative slice of the recent contemporary visual culture. Too many such surveys have been undermined by the agendas of curators and have become too constrained by attempts to represent specific theoretical positions. C2 is a rambling, democratic carnival, which offers the viewer a far richer visual experience than some of the more recent shows at the gallery, like the Crawford Open, which was singularly disappointing in its parochial restraint and self-conscious attempts to demonstrate relevance.

C2’s greatest virtue is perhaps also its major vice. In attempting to be as democratic as possible (in Cork this matters), the show lacks taughtness and sufficient overall quality. It’s as if a large drift net has been thrown out into the artistic waters of Cork and when the cod-end was released all sorts of good, bad and even some ugly things have spilled out onto the deck. Thus the experience is rich but also frustrating, the overall impression being one of the best being somewhat lost among the rest. There is a remedy which can be applied without losing the basically valid curatorial premise - less work, and more emphasis on quality and currency. Ten years is too long a time-frame to work with, two would make more sense; even the application of that principle alone would have weeded out much of the less interesting work and truly reflected what is significant at this moment in Cork’s visual-arts scene.

Much of the work suffered from not being presented or monitored effectively. Works were often crowded in cheek by jowl or tucked into awkward spaces and therefore not afforded their best opportunity. A lack of regular close monitoring meant that works like Pipe dreams by Fergus Martin were askew on the opening night and remained that way weeks later. Video work, like Danny McCarthy’s performance documentation Wild oats and cornerstones, suffered from simple but significant problems, like a headphone cord which necessitated that the viewer sit on the floor and battle with the fact that the headphones would only fit a child of five. This may seem petty but such a lack of attention to detail has a cumulatively frustrating effect on a viewer. Again, reducing the number of artists in the show would make it possible to spend more time on ensuring that each is displayed to best advantage.

In a show where “every child wins a prize,” what can we draw from the experience, as a reflection of contemporary art in Cork? Certainly diversity is evident. As elsewhere in Ireland, ‘traditional’ practices such as painting, drawing, sculpture and printmaking are still strong. Even where they appear a little dated, the level of practice is generally high although much of the best work in this area is provided by the longer-term practitioners such as Megan Eustace, Katherine Boucher-Berg, Jim Savage, Charles Tyrrell, Tom Climent, Simon Knowles, Bernadette Cotter, William Crozier, John the Painter, Billy Foley, Denis O’Connor and others. Photography too seems healthy with the work of Dara McGrath, Martin Healy, and particularly Irene Murphy once again not failing to impress. Part of this again results from the fact that each of these artists is represented by body of work large enough to reinforce their quality and clarify their intentions (the lesson being that less artists and more substantial bodies of work from each is a better curatorial strategy to employ). Many artists, it must be said, suffered from under-representation.

Vivienne Griffin: Blue Sky II, 2004, DVD, LCD screen and mirror box, dimensions variable; courtesy Gandon Editions

Video art (or we may have to now find a new nomenclature for that, since much is produced and all is displayed via DVD format) seems alive and well in Cork. From the simple yet powerful work of Niamh Lawlor’s Speaker holes’ and Stephen Gunning’s two works, to the more cinematically rich and darkly emotive force of Anne-Maree Barry’s projection I know this place, and to the elegant poetry of Andrew Johnston and Ger Staunton’s Thursday afternoon, there is depth and variety in video. Mick O’Shea’s work as presented on video would have made more sense had it been supported by a presentation of the actual end result of the process being documented. As it was its context was only partially understood. Space restraints and intrusion issues probably determined that most video was monitor-based, but why maintain the fashionable and questionable practice of placing them on the floor?

Much of the interest in C2 is provided by the younger and emerging artists and perhaps this should be the final note to the curators for the later, non-Culture Capital years. Works like Stephen Brandes’ Ballyugomoomin­hampton, a quirky, fantastical worldscape, Vivienne Griffin’s unassumingly-scaled Blue sky 11, Alex Pentek’s exquisite folded-paper sculpture Cellular automata, Fergus Martin’s elegant Pipe dreams, Dobz O’Brien’s Become a patron of the arts and Linda Quinlan’s Nuclear plants 2, all represent individual, peculiar positions yet retain complete relevance in terms of significantly ‘contemporary’ engagements with current issues and modes of practice.

Cork art can claim to be admitting of a vast range of positions and practices, much of it based on the prioritisation of the material and the formal. But at its most lively it is the work of many younger and recently emerged artists, allied with the constantly inventive power of established artists like Mick O’Shea, Danny McCarthy, Austin McQuinn, Eilís O’Connell, Maude Cotter, Irene Murphy and Dorothy Cross (who reflect constantly developing and diverging contemporary practices), which is both the most rewarding aspect of C2 and the best hope for the future of contemporary art in Cork.

Seán Kelly is an artist, writer and arts administrator currently employed as Programme Coordinator at the National Sculpture Factory in Cork.

C2, Crawford Municipal Gallery of Art, Cork, December 2004 - January 2005

Article reproduced from CIRCA 111, Spring 2005, pp.107–109

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