CIRCA 87
News bits
More change…regionalised reviewing
This issue marks a move to 'regionalised reviewing'. We engage reviewers for particular regions - Cork, Belfast, London, and so on. Their brief is to tell us what they feel CIRCA readers need to know about what's been happening in their area. It's subsidiarity in EU-speak.
The advantages? First, we hope it will lead to broader coverage, with fewer deserving events being overlooked. Second, reviewers get to write about those things they feel strongly about. Gone, we hope, will be the struggle to reach the word quota, to be replaced by an enthusiasm for what's good. Third, we hope to give more coverage to events outside of Ireland; we've been hampered in this aim in the past by a reluctance to leave out good shows at home. With luck, we'll soon have the best of both worlds.
There are odd side-effects. For example, the big-city bias to which all publications are subject is suddenly reversed. A way will have to be found to give back to the Dubs their fair amount of space. Knowing Dubs, they'll see that it happens.
Farewell, Welcome (new contributing editors)
After many years, Samuel Walsh has stepped down as Limerick's Contributing Editor to CIRCA. We are very grateful to Sam for all his work and ideas. Sam's exhibition Still (paintings and drawings) opens in the Rubicon Gallery, Dublin on the 22nd April. Theo Sims, one of CIRCA's Contributing Editors in Belfast has also left. Following his recent exhibition there (see CIRCA 86), Theo has followed his heart to Winnipeg. In London, sadly, Anne Tallentire is also leaving us after long service as Contributing Editor, to spend more time on pressing projects - including particularly her preparations for this year's Venice Biennale. We wish Sam, Theo and Anne all the best. In the meantime, we are delighted to welcome two new Contributing Editors to our panel. They are Shirley MacWilliam in England, and John Hunt who will keep an eye on the West of Ireland for us.
Gang of Four
The four shortlisted artists for the IMMA Glen Dimplex Artists Award have been announced. They are Irish, Brussels-based artist Orla Barry who works with texts, sound and video; Belfast sculptor and installation artist Susan MacWilliam; photographic artist Hiroshi Sugimoto from Japan, and British artist Catherine Yass for her photographic and video work. The exhibition of shortlisted artists opens at IMMA on 28th May, with the date for the award, worth IR£15,000, not yet fixed. On studying the form of recent years, the money should be on Sugimoto as the only Kerlin Gallery artist.
[image: Susan MacWilliam: Faint, 1998, work in progress, still from H18; courtesy IMMA]
New Space at Commercial Rates
The Ashford Gallery is the name of the new commercial space opened recently at the RHA in Dublin. According to Administrator, Deirdre Carr, whilst priority will be given to RHA members for exhibiting, the space will also show a mix of both new and established artists who are not Academy members. The gallery's policy is biased towards painting, sculpture and print over installations and other non-object based art, and the space is available either on the basis of a 40% commission rate, or for hire at IR£5,000 for three weeks.
New Resources
After eight very productive years, the Midlands Arts Resource Centre in Mullingar closed its doors in December, to be replaced by the new Mullingar Arts Centre. Incorporating a 407-seat theatre, gallery space, bar and two large areas of art workshops, the new centre is the result of an IR£1.3 million renovation of The Old County Hall. At time of writing, acting director Patricia Gibney is coordinating the programme until a permanent appointment can be made. Incidentally, the centre is adjacent to the office of the only female county manager in Ireland, Anne McGuinness, of Westmeath County Council.
Converged
Artists Tina O'Connell, Pauline Cummins, Fionnuala McKenna and Niamh O'Malley have been appointed to four of the recent Waterford Corporation Per Cent for Art Commissions as part of the second phase of the Convergence project, with a total budget of just under IR£150,000. Negotiations are under way with Los Angeles artist Daniel J. Martinez for the fifth commission at Farran Park.
Real Virtual
The Irish Museum of Modern Art has recently launched its website at www.modernart.ie. Designed by ONIVA, the site gives details of all IMMA's activities. Useful information indeed, but don't expect to see many pictures there. Meanwhile, CIRCA's online projects are developing with works by John Gerrard (currently working in Chicago), Brigid McLeer (Wales), and Marielle Nylander (Minneapolis).
Orchards
Liam Kelly has departed Derry's Orchard Gallery and returned to academia, leaving Brendan McMenamin as Acting Director. Given the tendency for Derry's Curators to move on to bigger things elsewhere (Declan McGonagle to IMMA, Noreen O'Hare to OBG, Hugh Mulholland to OBG…) we wonder (a) who will come next and (b) where they will go?
Big Apples
This summer sees the spotlight firmly on Irish Art in New York, with three major exhibitions: at the Grey Gallery (When Time Began to Rant and Rave, 20th century Irish figurative painting), at the Drawing Center, SoHo (A Measured Quietude - contemporary Irish drawing), and PS1 (0044, twenty young Irish artists from the London area, showing in the US before coming to Cork's Crawford Gallery). There will also be a special Film Festival at the Lincoln Center. CIRCA will be organising a New York event (to rival Vanity Fair's post-Oscars party) as part of the celebrations. So should Clinton decide he needs a little extra cultural credibility to woo back a jaded US public, he need look no further. Still in New York, PS1 and MOMA are to merge, with PS1's current Director Alanna Heiss becoming a deputy director of the Museum.
And as a PS [2] to that, the adjudicator for this year's EV+A has been announced as Jeanne Greenberg from New York.
And wee trees…
Four Irish artists are among those selected for the fifth Pépinière awards offering residencies across Europe to those 'young' artists who happen to be under thirty-five, which seems increasingly ageist the older I get. In visual arts, Ciarán Ó Cearnaigh will go to Mons, Belgium; Elizabeth Caffrey to Angrado Heroismo, Portugal; Dara McGrath to Dudelange, Luxembourg. The only Pépinière award in printmaking went to Joy Gerrard from the Graphic Studio in Dublin who will spend 6 months in Jyväskylä, Finland.
[image: Joy Gerrard, Image Group 1, 1998, lambdachrome prints mounted on aluminium; courtesy the artist]
Heavens above!
Recent reports from Barcelona, via Chigago's New Art Examiner, indicate moves afoot to beatify Gaudí, the architect responsible for some of the city's most crazy and beautiful buildings, including his unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia cathedral. Not only a genius, apparently Gaudí was also a very holy man before he was killed by a tram in 1926 while stepping back to admire his work. Ricard-María Cardinal Carles of Barcelona, in proposing Gaudí's beatification, spoke of the architect's lesser known "intimate and spiritual life…" But should sainthood be bestowed for architectural ability alone, will future generations be expecting to revere SS. Scott, Tallon & Walker and pray at the shrine of the Dublin Civic Offices, or the Saints of Group 91 for the immaculate conceptual work of Temple Bar?
Cremaster 5 - Matthew Barney 1
For the first time in Ireland, Temple Bar Properties will be presenting work by Matthew Barney in a free screening of Cremaster 5 to take place in Meeting House Square (outside the Gallery of Photography), Temple Bar. Cremaster 5 is the final aspect of Barney's Cremaster project, and is set in Budapest. Written and directed by Barney, and starring Ursula Andress, the work is a combination of science fiction, fairytale and opera. The screening will take place on April 29th, and tickets will be available nearer the date from TBP. The completed Cremaster series will be shown at the Guggenheim Museum, New York in 2000.
Mug up
The newly designed and custom-built gallery at Arnotts is to host the re-launched National Portrait Awards, sponsored by Arnotts. As well as being Arnotts' PR man, Eddie Shanahan is in charge of the exhibition programme for the gallery. The exhibition will be held in October.
Cash in your CIRCAs
Due to the increasing demand for full sets of CIRCA from libraries and institutions, money (in brown envelopes or paper bags, if required) is yours for the asking if you have any of the following back issues of the magazine in your collection: issues 50, 63 and 69, for which we will pay £15 / $21, and number 18, which we will take off your hands for a tenner ($14). We know it will be difficult (if not impossible) to part with your precious back issues, but think of the service to education and to art. Back issues must be in good condition, and we will also cover p&p. Please contact us before sending…
(News round-up compiled by Gemma Tipton)
