CIRCA 86 News bits
"The Irish Times has also learned that the National Gallery's property at 90 Merrion Square has been insured as marine cargo - not a Georgian house." This the final sentence in a front-page article in the Irish Times of November 27, 1998. Previously we had been informed that "It was envisaged that the amalgamation of the Friends' account with the gallery bookshop account would enable the bookshop to be excluded from the Freedom of Information Act." Confused? Perhaps a clue to the first conundrum lies in a quote from the Chair of the Board of Governors: "Ireland is a very leaky country."
Avanti!
The Republic's next representative at the Venice Biennale is to be CIRCA's own London Contributing Editor, Anne Tallentire.
Back to the White Cube
Dear Sir,
I would like to make a number of comments and ask some questions regarding your review of the Patrick Ireland show, Language Performed/Matters of Identity , in the Orchard Gallery (CIRCA 85, Autumn 1998).
Why did the reviewer fail to do adequate research about one of Ireland's most significant artists who, it is acknowledged although in a somewhat grudging manner, has made a major contribution to art? I refer to the fact that it was the writer Brian O'Doherty who wrote the seminal essays contained in Inside the White Cube which were published in 1976. The art object The White Cube on the other hand, to which the reviewer refers, was made by the artist Patrick Ireland, not in 1976 but for the first time in 1998 for this exhibition. He/she quoted but failed to see in Name Change (1972) that it was only artworks that would henceforth be signed by Patrick Ireland. Some cross-referencing of the issues of identity and language between the various works on display might have served to illuminate rather than denigrate and trivialize an exhibition showing for the first time in Ireland aspects of work of the past thirty years by a highly respected and challenging artist.
Why the use of the term 'art terrorist', which is at the very least disturbing and at the very worst, irresponsible?
Finally, why did your reviewer choose to hide his/her identity?
It should go without saying that one is of course prepared to accept the considered and serious opinions of any reviewer, irrespective of the conclusions drawn.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Brenda Moore-McCann MB. BA. (Mod)
Béal bocht?
It has spawned a lot of debate of the head-scratching variety. There's something very odd about the idea, but people can't quite put their finger on it.
Looking good
CIRCA's printers, Nicholson and Bass, have much cause for celebration. In this year's Irish Print Awards they won the Book Award, for Up in Arms (the Ulster Museum's 1798 publication) and the Irish Printer of the Year Award. CIRCA itself was shortlisted in the magazine section ( Image Magazine took the award).
Mobile Gallery
At least now fewer people will call him Jo Kevin Kavanagh of the Jo Rain Gallery, Dublin, is relocating to 66 Great Strand Street (somewhere on the street behind Pravda, basically). The gallery's name? Kevin Kavanagh Gallery. Simple really.
Vade mecum 
The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon and The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, "in partnership with the British Council, and with support from Bord na Gaeilge and the Cultural Relations Committee of the Department of Foreign Affairs" have launched VIA, a "bi-monthly bulletin of information about international awards, exchanges, festivals, conferences and scholarships, as well as international cultural policy news." Much of the information is drawn from the International Cultural Desk in Glasgow. Certainly a positive sign, as the bulletin itself states, of encouraging growth in north-south and east-west co-operation.
The first two issues of VIA are free. Contact Catherine Boothman at the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon ( catherine@artscouncil.ie ) or Elaine Howard at the British Council in Northern Ireland ( Elaine.Howard@britcoun.org ). Subs will cost individuals £15stg/IR£17 per year.
Butler move
The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, has taken on Nathalie Weadick as its new administrator, replacing Shirley Lanigan. Nathalie Weadick has worked for IMMA, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, and the National Sculpture Factory.
Drawn to the States
They came, they toured, they seemed to see just about everyone who had ever wielded a pencil. And they selected Liadin Cooke, Maud Cotter, Colin Darke, Richard Gorman, John Kindness, Róisín Lewis, Fergus Martin, William McKeown and Fionnuala Ní Chiosáin for the show, A Measured Quietude: Contemporary Irish Drawing, which kicks off in the Berkeley Art Museum, California, on January 16. It later moves to the Drawing Center, New York, to open on June 22.
Bed and pix
The Ormond Quay Hotel (the refurbished Ormond Hotel), Dublin, now houses a custom-built art gallery. To be known as the Grosvenor Room, it has kicked off with an exhibition of small works by Picasso.
Laurels
- Cheltenham/Copenhagen/Donegal-based artist Eamon O'Kane ( Grid Reference installation above) has won this year's Tony O'Malley Travel Award for his proposal to travel across America. His work will be seen in exhibitions in Chicago, Tel Aviv and Copenhagen in the new year.
- Assumed to a higher plane (Aosdána, in other words) have been the following visual artists: Janet Mullarney, Rosaleen Davy, Stephen McKenna and Michael Quane.
- New York-based Gerard Byne ( Untitled #1606 shown below) is the winner of this year's Victor Treacy Award hosted by the Butler Gallery. He has since shown in the Butler Gallery and in 'Multiples' at the Temple Bar Gallery, and will take part in 'A Streetwalk Named Desire' in Lucerne next October.
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