C96 Column: Visual Arts North

Testosterone hits the wall

In the last issue of CIRCA, when writing about the Sustran's project, I talked about the need for the artist to have professionalism and integrity. How quickly that topic raised its head again! Triskel Arts Centre in Cork recently had a show, which was basically black plastic bags taped over a hole in the wall. With some northern straight talking I said to Valerie Byrne, Triskel's visual-art programmer, "what the hell is that supposed to be?" From her and a few others I managed to piece together the story behind the work.

Back in 1998 before Valerie joined Triskel Declan Kennedy applied through open submission for a solo show and was accepted. The application was vague but to their credit Triskel decided to allow the artist space and time to develop the work. He twice postponed the show but finally a March/April 2001 date was agreed. As the deadline for the show approached he refused to be pinned down as to the content of the show. Then two weeks before the show he said it was no longer a solo show but was in fact a work by the World Art Alliance (WAA) called 50 Fathoms. He also wanted the invite to read Triskel and WAA invite you; this implicated Triskel in the show. Three days before the show Valerie said she needed to know what was going into the space. WAA refused. All they would say was that it would be challenging for her, Triskel and the public; they wanted no leaks. How condescending.

At ten o'clock on the day before the opening the great secret was revealed. They wanted to build a ramp at the entrance of the upper gallery. They then wanted to knock a hole in the opposite wall exposing the office. In the office would be a motorcycle. It would look as if the motorcycle had taken off on the ramp and crashed through the wall into the office. This testosterone-inspired piece of genius was actually seen by the gallery staff as rather tame. They had been expecting something more challenging.

Well WAA started to try and put a hole in the wall. No simple boring a hole in the wall which could then be enlarged. Oh no, these fired-up macho men started throwing a beer keg at the wall. No doubt the story will go down well when told to the lads in the pub. Sadly the wall was not so impressed and it took to well after one in the morning to create the hole and place the bike. If you were placing a bike in an office as if it had been crashed logic would tell you that it would be better to drain the oil and petrol first. Not these boys; oil and petrol only added to the confusion.

The cold light of day can be severe on ill-thought-out plans. Hours before the opening even WAA realised that piece did not work. E-mails were sent around the world to other members. The word came back: "cover it up." So out came the black plastic bags and gaffa tape.

A few hours later a baffled audience was confronted not by challenging work but by a badly covered up hole in the wall. Those at the opening were given the chance to be taken through the office door and shown the bike. The bike however was removed before the general public was allowed in, effectively creating a two-tier system for viewing the work.

Evil Knevil was a well-known drunken misogynist who jumped motorcycles over buses and canyons. He comes to mind when trying to put this work into context. But, regardless of context, what effect does work like this have on venues and audiences. Sadly laddish behaviour like this will make galleries less likely to take chances. Audiences today are too sophisticated to want to be shocked; they want to be engaged. The real losers will be artists who do make challenging work. They will find it more difficult to find venues to back them and audiences with whom they can have a rapport.

The problem here seems to be historical. The main funding bodies have concentrated on what they saw as the most prestigious organisations. Crumbs were flung to a few good causes but never enough for serious development. This has created an unstructured vacuum. It now looks like people who see art as a marketing tool will fill this vacuum. Lets hope global warming is for real if we are all to sit on the streets of Belfast sipping our coffee instead of being inside tucking into our fries.

Brian Kennedy