Occupy Paper Issue 7

Occupy Paper Issue Seven 1

OCCUPY PAPEROccupy Paper /////// June 2012 /////// Seventh Issue

/////// Contact Studios /////// The Nature of Engagement /////// Helen Carey /////// /////// Spiders from Mars /////// Open Call Articles ////// Now Thats What I Call Praxis ///////

/////// Michele Horrigan /////// The Wood Between Worlds ///////


Claire Walsh - Co-Editor

Aoife Cox - Co-Editor

Orlaith Treacy - Occupy Space Photographer & Junior Director

John O’Brien - Graphic Designer

Claire Walsh graduated from LSAD in 2011 with a first class honours Degree in Painting. Since leaving college she has been involved as a gallery assistant at Occupy Space and has more recently become co-editor of this, its online publication. As recipient of the annual bursary awarded to a final year painting student, she also spent six months working at Contact Studios, Musgrave Street.

Aoife Cox is a writer, editor, visual artist and social practitioner. She is currently living and working in Limerick City having completed a BA in Sculpture 2010 and an MA in Social practice and the creative environment in 2011, both in Limerick School of Art and Design.

Aoife’s visual art practice is based in Faber studios. Aoife is also a member of Art links Limerick and Occupy

Orlaith Treacy is a visual artist and an assistant director with Occupy Space. She recently graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. She interned with The Butler Gallery in Kilkenny in 2009 and 2010 and volunteered for the Crafts Council of Ireland and for Kilkenny Arts Festival. She also was the volunteer co-ordinator for Spirit Store’s Catdig in Limerick in 2010. She has exhibited in numerous shows such as Tetris, Stix, Limerick

John O’Brien is a Freelance Graphic Designer, based in Limerick for the past few years. His client list includes the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Limerick School of Art & Design, Flynn & O’Donnell Accountants, The LAB Art Gallery, Digino Marketing and YellowLeaf Group, to name a few.

In 2010 John graduated from the Limerick School of Art and Design with a First Class Honours Degree in Visual Communications.

Aesthetic and conceptual interests for Claire Walsh overlap within the theatre; which she uses as a model for exploring the tensions between reality and artifice in art-making. Much of her past work consists of investigations into the material and immaterial elements of theatre and stage applied to her particular situation at the time. She is strongly influenced by the literary work and dramatic productions of Bertolt Brecht and Samuel Beckett and also cites Gerard Byrne, James Coleman,

Space. Her most recent publication Hidden Community is published and available through blurb.com

City, 2009, Public House, Shannon Rowing Club, Limerick City, 2010, Copyleft, Faber Studios, Limerick City, 2010, Spirit Store, Catherine St., Limerick City, May 2010, Degree show ’11, Limerick School of Art and Design, June 2011, Ludic, Ludo, Lodos, Occupy Space, Limerick City, September 2011, Distil Life, University of Galway, Galway city, November 2011.

John will soon be relocating to Edinburgh to further his career as a Graphic Designer.

Mercedes Vincente and Candida Hofer as role models for her work.

Her interests in stage theory and contextualization processes have lead to a change in direction towards curating and art-writing and while currently employed at the Scottish National Galleries in Edinburgh, she plans to begin an MFA in Contemporary Art Theory at ECA later this year to concentrate on developing these practices.

She is now working with Art for Art’s Sake to create a tour of the galleries and studios around Limerick.


CONTENTS

Editors Letter 4A word from Occupy Paper’s co-editiors Aoife Cox and Claire Walsh.

Welcome to Askeaton34How did contemporary art find itself in Askeaton’s hairdressers and supermarket? ‘Welcome to Askeaton’ looks at Michele Horrigan’s ongoing curatorial project that took contemporary art out of its comfort zone.

The Wood Between the Worlds42Press release for the latest Occupy Space exhibition.

Student Stats54Occupy Paper takes stock of 3rd year painting at LSAD. Find out what they’re into.

Contact Studios44Each issue we will feature one of Limerick’s artist’s studios. Issue 7 sees the turn of Contact Studios, Musgrave Street. With interviews from four current members, we take a look inside Limerick’s longest running studio.

Open Call Articles24Responses to our call for submissions on the topic of artist-led spaces, engagement and sustainability. Our contributors have their say.

Now Thats What I Call Praxis 16Susan Holland reviews the recent Occupy Space exhibition ‘Now Thats What I Call Praxis’ .

The Nature of Engagement6An interview with Limerick based Artist, Photographer and LSAD Lecturer Paul Tarpey.

Helen Carey12Why the Limerick City Gallery Director is delighted about Annie Fletcher’s curatorial approach to this year’s eva international.

Spiders from Mars20Michele Horrigan talks briefly about her current project.

EDITORSLETTER


Hello and welcome back to Occupy Paper! We’d like to introduce ourselves as the new editors; both recent graduates of Limerick School of Art and Design and current affiliates of Occupy Space, we have been working together to bring you the 7th edition of Occupy Paper, which also unveils its newly redesigned and restructured format.

With the brand new, well... brand comes some new objectives for the Paper. If our position is as a platform for discussion and debate on topics ‘close to home’, then we feel that it is important to establish a perspective and speaking position for Occupy Paper. To do this, we need to examine the context of this publication which exists through Occupy Space; a space provided rent-free by Creative Limerick on the back of the current economic downturn.

Currently Limerick is enjoying a huge level of creative activity thanks to the presence of many of these art-initiatives scattered throughout the city. This leads onto the ‘theme’ of the current issue; Issue 7 looks at artist-led spaces and the “opportunity” provided to artists by the “crisis” of recession. This “crisis and opportunity” discussion also includes an exploration of new strategies of engagement that seem to be evolving around these spaces. We also want to know; what is the new role of the artist and the curator in this context? Through placing calls for submissions, we hope to generate debate on these important issues and questions of sustainability that surround them.

Following on from the recent news that Occupy Space will be evicted from its current Thomas Street premises due to commercial investment in the building, it now seems more relevant than ever to talk about sustainability for artist-run spaces. So many have been set up in commercial buildings left derelict by the downturn, what happens to them once things economic begin to recover? As creative professionals we need to be able to establish why these small arts organisations are important.

Artist and independent curator Megs Morley responded to our open call with an inciting directive; urging people to talk about sustainability and to work towards possible solutions to this inevitable problem. She compares the current situation to the New York Alternative Space movement of the 70’s and 80’s, which ended in the favour of the original owners of the buildings who cashed in on the artistic regeneration of the derelict areas, leaving the artists ‘back on the street’. Other contributors such as Emer Ni Chiobhain agree-read their full text responses in our ‘Article Submissions’ section… page 24.

Paul Tarpey socially engaged practitioner and educator in Limerick School of Art and Design discusses his diverse practice as an artist, as well as the developing role of the artist within the social sphere and the importance of engagement, communication and cross-disciplinary collaboration…page 6.

Curator and Director of Limerick City Gallery, Helen Carey, shares some interesting views with Occupy Paper. She outlines that while both the institutional and the independent space have their separate benefits; working together could create a bigger bounce… page 12.

Exploring the subject of engagement within independent artist-initiatives, we featured Michele Horrigan’s Welcome to the Neighbourhood project including an interview with the woman herself, who has recently been selected for the Vessel International Curatorial Workshop 2012… page 34.

Every issue Occupy Paper will feature one artist-run studio in Limerick city, from the perspective of a member. This issue sees the turn of Contact Studios, with interviews from Marie Varley, Carl Doran, Gerry O’Mahony and Nuala O’Sullivan… page 44.

Susan Holland, assistant curator for eva International has contributed a review of Occupy Space’s first open call show ‘Now Thats What I Call Praxis’ featuring various artists in a multifarious representation of current contemporary art practices… page 16.

Other features include ‘Student Stats’, ‘Now That’s What I Call Praxis’, ‘Spiders From Mars’, ‘The Wood Between The Worlds’ and more…

We are looking forward to the prospects that lie ahead for Occupy Paper and we would also like to commend Occupy Space as it currently faces a swift change in direction.

Occupy Space itself has over the years become noted as an integral point of transition and activity within the limerick art community. Providing essential opportunity for artistic engagement, interaction, development and innovation. As the physical space concludes its term as a gallery, the values and functions of Occupy Space transition into an ethos; one which will hopefully re-emerge and continue to demonstrate itself as an exemplary realization of what artist led spaces can achieve.

We hope you enjoy the read,Sincerely,

Aoife & Claire

Acknowledgments

Our version of Occupy Paper is simply a continuation of the original work of the paper’s founder and Editor Aoife Flynn, who initiated the paper in 2010 with the help of graphic-designer Sheena Flynn. Aoife established a name and reputation for the paper through her energy and hard work, we are extremely grateful for this opportunity to pick up where she left off and are very aware of the big shoes we have fill. We could not have created this issue without the support and guidance of Occupy Space directors Kevin O’Keefe and Noelle Collins and would like to take the chance to thank them for giving us this opportunity, and for putting so much trust in us. Also thank you to Occupy Space member Orlaith Treacy-our ‘in-house’ photographer, without whom there would be very little pictures in our paper. Talented graphic-designer John O’Brien came on board and took this project out of our Clip-Art inclined hands, in the end producing a more professional and dynamic design structure than we ever imagined for the Paper. John became an essential part of our mini team, devoting much time and effort to Occupy Paper; he visually tied the features together and also produced our fantastic new virtual manifestation.

*Finally, we’d like to add that our call for submissions is continuously open and that we welcome responses to any issues discussed in the paper. Please send your input to [email protected]

AOIFE COX & CLAIRE WALSH


THE NATURE OF ENGAGEMENT


Paul your practice is varied, you work between design, event management, fine art and audiovisual disciplines? How do you balance these roles within your practice?

Out of necessity mainly. The projects I tend to gravitate towards usually are non-institutional spaces where it’s best not to have a singular approach or to prioritise one discipline over another. Particularly working with the SpiritStore I now approach every project from a multi disciplinary perspective.

A positive interest and working knowledge of design, installation, press photography and audio visual direction allows you to do what needs to be done as well as being able to communicate with others who can do certain jobs better. These days funding scenarios demand that creative’s bring as much to the table as possible for expedience. Boundaries blur as exchange is often factored into the organisation of a project and I have often traded lens-based work for material when it’s needed in a project. An obvious point but one worth stating is that due to easy assess to high end audio visual technology, situations that previously would have been represented singularly in fine art and design environments now have a shared kinship. Situations tend to overlap and operate with similar agendas. A project may begin under the auspices of fine art and end up being registered as design. This is evident in much of the cross-disciplinary appreciation of the current creative work for example Limerick city centre.

Why did you decide to adapt your practice from Sculpture to Visual communications and did you find it beneficial to have such a diversity in you training?

Sculpture, as I came to know it leaving college in the late 80s, was an expanded process that encompassed many directions and outcomes. It didn’t occasion a career for me but the training was useful for a variety of creative community work when I went home to the west of Ireland. As I worked in Mayo on long-term collaborative projects, the specific engagement I had associated with what was known as social sculpture was often problematic. For example when I instigated ideas for events

with a community of interest, I would have framed these situations as artist led social projects to generate collaborative frameworks.The prescribed reception associated with artist led situations never appealed to me, more so as I sought advice from designers on aspects communication. I realized that the anonymous responsibility traditionally associated when a designer is embedded as part of a team seemed something I could focus work through. I do respond to the hierarchy of a design led process with all participants aware that the nature of engagement is fully recognised as an integral part of how any project is read.

For my masters I took the subject of vernacular display in rural museums, focusing on the particular subject of unbaptised children’s graves as a collaborative project with the Knock Folk museum Co Mayo. In this project I certainly benefited with a fine art back ground due to the emotional nature of the subject matter and its associated visualisation for display. On occasion when I needed an abstract or vague finish I was able to justify it by presenting research that embraced both disciplines. Visual Communications is by definion a diverse discipline. With that security I even mediated some of that project through traditional printmaking.

Who would you say influences your work and teaching?

Aileen Mc Keogh in NCAD was a very influential teacher who introduced me to the ideas that I came to recognise as social practice. Time based/ transitional projects, the creative’s responsibility to the audience in site based work and ‘what is left and for who?’ were all ideas that were I was made aware of as being part of a sculptural process early on. Currently I find the work and writing of Ailbhe Murphy in the project ‘Vagabond Traces’ significant particularly in the project she instigated for the Tulca arts festival in Galway last year. I frequently return to the ‘area between people and architecture’ concept in Stephen Willats long-term work for teaching as well. Also the links between ethnographers and geographers such as Doreen Massey in defining the uniqueness of place are always of interest.

THE NATURE OF ENGAGEMENTAN INTERVIEW WITH PAUL TARPEY

Visual Artist Paul Tarpey has maintained a practice as a socially

engaged worker and educator since 1989. He has trained in NCAD Dublin (BA Sculpture / MA Visual Communications 1989/2007)

and is presently a senior lecturer in LSAD with responsibilities in the MA programme in Social Practice and the Creative Environment

(SPACE) and the department of Visual Communications.

He currently operates a lens-based approach as part of The SpiritStore Art Project. Tarpey also maintains the site www.skiptraces.net as an ongoing Limerick based research space where lens based visual investigations are balanced with commentary and ethnographic

research for extensive projects.

SpiritStore, the ongoing Limerick based participatory and interactive art project, which has created many temporary installations and interventions in Limerick such as the SpiritStore Art Café at the Sarsfield Bar, Packet and Tripe at ev+a 2010, SpiritStore CATDIG in Catherine St and recently the SpiritStore Poetry Depot in collaboration with Inkstorm in various spaces nationwide. Can you tell us about your role here?

The artist Marilyn Lennon conceived SpiritStore in 2009. At the beginning the intention was to run a one off temporary project to reopen the Sarsfield Bar, which is situated in Limericks oldest Georgian building. It reopened successfully for 6 weeks as a self funded performance/ lecture space /café and drew a large group of diverse practitioners as participants. The experience seemed to energise and focus a Limerick dialogue that encompassed slack space, opportunities for the increasing amount of creative graduates who chose to stay in the city and the cultural identity of the City. I remained in SpiritStore after that as project management and logistic duties increased. We tend to consider and approach diverse ideas as socially engaged projects with each one bringing with it its own construction and creative challenges. I concentrate on documentation and PR duties and on occasion talk on the projects to local organisations such as the Northside Learning hub and Transition Limerick. This outreach is important to us, as we are aware that groups with similar creative agendas for the city do not automatically know each other and in this we encourage links between them.

Social themes appear to be a consistent element in you artistic work, what draws you to social practice?

Variants of social practice frequently occur in art and design education through types of active learning and student-led off-campus projects and this activity does encourage participation from those working in education. Openness and diversity in situations register with me as opportunity and this leads me to work with a mix of art and non art professionals in a overall mission that I would like to think of as contributing to a re-configuration of existing forms of cultural production, in Limerick at least! Brian Holmes, who has written on long term frameworks of understanding and action asks of the creative process ‘How can new values of solidarity and reciprocity become

visible in thought, serving as measures and standards for vitally needed changes in reality?’ That’s a good measure of social practice as an engaged mission statement as I would use for a continuing interest in the field.

What impact do you think the current utilisation of slack spaces will have on the urban environment and will it be sustainable?

Everybody has their own particular opinion in this debate depending on where their stake is in it. Publicly, there appears to be official sanctioning of an ‘art’ presence in the city centre via the agency of Creative Limerick but this remains transitional. A facilitation of space that supports a creative scenario is officially aspirational and is referred to in regeneration terms only as ongoing and linked to an interm shop front issue. Away from the actuality of the situation the facts are that the dozen or so artists spaces that have operated in the city centre since 2008 have proven that there is a continuous creative led demand for showcasing practice in the city centre. The standard of gallery/studio has been ambitious and the cultural exchange within the city arts community has been high. Is there an index outside civic and commercial concerns that measures the spaces creative standards in regard to sustainability? I think that in the absence of such an independent index this question can only be considered when any discussion of the majority of spaces pass a 5 year occupancy and is separate from commercial concerns in this area. Do you think that the social agenda of the artist has developed on such a wide scale out of a sense of responsibility or having to "earn your keep" in response to all of the benefits the art community has gained through the recession?

Without being too general art work that calls for a reading via an institutional or gallery setting is usually seemed to be called to account around recession times (commodity value etc). By contrast many inclusive socially engaged practices, which appear to be active around definitions of community, become regarded as a sort of viable ‘ethical’ path and will attract attention sometimes as a perceived other. I think an ‘earn your keep’ phrase suggests a constant regarding the collective reception of art as a beneficiary that may not be there.





Do you think that the work encouraged currently in these slack spaces can produce viable and/or long-term careers for the future?

I think everybody would agree they could. The spaces that have been in existence in the last few years have proved themselves and at present provide a solid base for recent graduates starting out. There is official and semi official links with city institutions including the dialogue with Ev+a that will need to continue as the spaces should develop not as outside entities, ad hoc and peer linked but as legitimate resources recognised and supported by the city. The progressive education schemes that most spaces have instigated is something that is a slightly under represented collective strength. What are your expectations for future contemporary Art and Design practices?

There are a few points on the map. I recently asked one of the organisers of Offset, a significant design forum, about the state of current collaboration between fine art graduates and designers. He said that he observed a number of fine artists positioning work more as design as communication is at a premium regarding ideas and finished projects in busy cultural environments.

It is also possible the collective projects that unified the creative disciplines and accommodated disparate types of perception and expression in the early 20th century are being re positioned as universal models in their own right again. LSAD has significantly hosted cross-disciplinary collaborations that can only invite and expand on ideas that draw on a collective approach in Limerick and beyond. Artists such as Fiona Whelan’s ‘what’s the story?’ collective in Dublin have developed models from long term creative projects that are influential to both educators and issue led public groups. ‘What’s the story?’ recently registered both as the basis for Fiona’s lecture to MA SPACE and as an inspiration to an upcoming Limerick city centre street dance festival who’s participants were inspired by ‘what’s the story’s mapping of participant responsibility after visiting Dublin. This is and example is a positive tracking of future expectations surrounding contemporary Art and Design practices.

Paul TarpeyInterviewed by Aoife Cox


Experimentation, up-ended ways of seeing and embracing the outsider on the one hand, strategic development

platforms with negotiable places in decision-making on the other. Outlining the pros of both the artist-led and the institution, Helen Carey talks to Claire Walsh about the

importance of working together to make an impact.

Helen Carey is the recently appointed Director and Curator of LCGA. She previously worked as an independent Curator and was the inaugural director of the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, Director of Galway Arts

Centre, Ireland, and Public Project Manager for the landmark Millennium Commission at Bristol.


Claire Walsh: Has there been a particular exhibition or art project that has had a major impact on your career as a curator? If so can you tell us why?

Helen Carey: There have been several of course, but most recently the exhibition THE PROMISES OF THE PAST in 2010, at the Pompidou Centre has had a real influence on me in several respects: the impact of Performance Art in the present and its role in understanding the past is enormously powerful; also the design of an exhibition has a direct narrative function, and Monica Sosnowska is extraordinary. I also find the catalogue enormously important as a repository of the exhibition experience. In looking at the recent history of Eastern Europe, I found this exhibition helped me to imagine the place of the Artist in such a world as well as the world itself; also the importance of the individual gesture, where the audience hasn’t yet been imagined but there is a conviction that truth will find its audience in time. I also think the curation by Christine Macel and Joanna Mytkowska is inspired and inspiring.

Another exhibition that has impacted on me is the exhibition in the Louvre in 2007 of Desiderio da Settignano sculptures and reliefs from Florentine Renaissance times – extraordinary in themselves and in the care of the materials that made up the sculpture – hair included.

I couldn’t leave out the Catalan/Subotnik/Gioni exhibition Of Mice and Men Berlin Biennale 2006 – for its insertion into a city street and for its catalogue.

CW: Are there certain galleries or institutions that you look at as role models for how you would like LCGA to operate?

HC: I don’t have role models for LCGA as I think it has a great structure and history already. I think I admire some of the contemporary processes for how a place like LCGA could operate in this time, are in INIVA in London, in the outreach programme of the Bluecoat Liverpool, of the Bourriaud-Sans Palais de Tokio – but LCGA will find its own character for 2012 onwards.

CW: You have previously mentioned that as director and curator of LCGA contemporary socially-engaged practice will be part of the Gallery’s agenda. I was wondering if you could discuss some strategies or plans you have to facilitate this type of work? And whether or not this a challenging position within the ‘white cube’ setting and alongside LCGA’s collection?

HC: I am currently involved in projects that look at Industrial histories and commemorative rituals. We are entering the decade of commemoration for Ireland and this allows us to look closely at the past and ask about the present and future, in formal exhibition as well as in the processes that link the contemporary to the past. In Art practice, engagement of Artists in looking at the society we live in has happened over a long time – often ignored but sticking to their enquiries. So my strategies will include highlighting existing Artistic enquiries in exhibition form, as well as initiating new approaches to socially relevant issues in the form of commissions and research projects. These draw on my own interests but they also find resonance in Limerick’s changing social profiles and the urgency around addressing regeneration, social cohesion, communication and many other acknowledged critically important aspects of living in Limerick. Working with others involved in these agendas is a clear priority for me: being a platform for many voices are all aspects that LCGA can contribute towards – for example, I am very happy that the current Turf Cutters’ dilemma that features in Deirdre O Mahony’s work is included in the current exhibition TENSE.

CW: This issue of the paper is concerned with exploring the reasons for the prominent emergence of many new artist-led spaces, and also with examining the need for them now. In comparison to the established art institutions such as LCGA what niche or gap do they fill in the art world?

HC: Independence is life’s blood to effective and deep artistic presence, and what the resultant spaces have by comparison with the institution such as LCGA, is a flexibility and an absence of bureaucracy that allows rapid response and re-invention. As Artist-led, much is allowed: Experimentation, up-ending ways of seeing, embracing the outsider, adopting positions within shows that can be controversial – all this is possible for the independent space in a unique way. With this of course, much is expected, so comes an imperative to explore as fully as possible, as the gap the independent artist-led spaces fill, is an important catalyst. So I think when Artist-led spaces are embraced and articulated as a need, in the way this is happening in Limerick across all sectors of the community, it is a cry from the heart for Artists to be leaders.

What the institution can bring on the other hand is a strategic development platform, with a coherent legacy to draw on and a negotiable place in decision making. The combination of the independent and the institutional is a powerful one, and are perhaps even dependant on each other – perhaps even one without the other can mean the activity remains gestural instead of impactive. So working together in my opinion is very persuasive and I believe the Limerick potential now for this to happen is very strong.

CW: What are your views on the ideas and concepts behind this year’s eva International, After the Future?

HC: I think from the above rationales I’ve given, you can imagine how delighted I am that eva international has this curatorial approach – I think the imperatives and the urgencies that are articulated daily are part of what Annie’s Fletcher’s curated exhibition will address, and will help us to try and understand that the question of what kind of future do we want is a function of what we do today, now. I think that eva International will echo and articulate lines of enquiry that exist already and will open up all sorts of debates and possibilities that will add hugely to the nourishment of all artistic activity in Limerick over the next couple of years.

CW: Finally, could you tell us a bit about the current show TENSE, which runs at the gallery until April 29th?

HC: In TENSE, the work of 9 artists is exhibited. The broad curatorial device I’ve used concerns oppositions and tensions that are physical and emotional – each of the artists are exploring these aspects of being in the world. It is also an attempt by me to get to know the spaces in the gallery as it is my first exhibition – from the walls, lighting, sound possibilities, proximities and operations, through this exhibition, the team has explored how the various media will work together and how the building in its refreshed and extended form will operate – with all the tensions that are within. So TENSE concerns the work and the installation, the fact that it is my first exhibition in LCGA and that it was put together quickly, that the building has a new way of operating and breathing – perhaps the next such exhibition might be called BREATHE….

Helen CareyInterviewd by Claire Walsh

The combination of the independent and the institutional is a powerful one, and are

perhaps even dependant on each other – perhaps even one without the other can mean the activity remains gestural instead of impactive.


Varvara Shavrova The OperaLimerick City Gallery of Art

Amanda Coogan & Paddy Cahill Yellow, An ArtFilm. PictureLimerick City Gallery of Art


Mark Clare Shangri LaLimerick City Gallery of Art

Brian Duggan The Short Term EvacuationLimerick City Gallery of Art

Photography by Studioworks


NOW THATSWHATI CALLPRAXIS


On first glance Now that's what I call Praxis is a clean and considered installation; the eight artists present one to three works, each inhabiting a separate wall or floor.

Positioned centrally in the gallery Building Blocks evoke a contemporary industrial monument gleaming in pristine white. Here Gillian Fitzpatrick has constructed a large asymmetrical arch, which seems to invite audience to enter. On passing to the reverse side suddenly the sharp edged blocks show their true construction; the unpainted cardboard inners demonstrates the monuments' true construction and exposes the very fastenings holding the object in place. The general reaction of a perceptible inhale followed by a thoughtful smile, suggests that as audiences we are all too ready to suspend disbelief, yet are more engaged by gritty reality than utopian ideals.

On the wall to the right hang three prints of domestic interiors Denise, Johannes and Clement by Pamala Condell. These unassuming images could have been accidental shots while playing with a new camera, yet on examination reveal a layered complexity and intrigue. Each image whets our human curiosity, representing an intimate domestic space which invites us to piece together elements of the inhabitants personal interests. These images present a world of curios yet somehow retain an essence of the private space in which they were taken. The familiar sense of propriety is reasserted, only after the viewer has unexpectedly found themselves experiencing the guilt-tinged pleasure of snooping.

Situated on the back wall of the gallery is Tadhg O'Cuirrin's Untitled F.B.B. a 1990x1530mm rectangular monochrome print in a familiar shade blue. The harmonious

resonance of this expanse of blue is enveloping, disrupted somewhat by bulldog clips pinning each corner. The single colour application raises obvious references to mid 20th Century modernists, while the familiar acronym FB in the title reasserts the work in the age of facebook. International Klein Blue (IKB) is said to have represented for the artist the immateriality and boundlessness of his vision of the world. One wonders what reaction the association of IKB and the cobalt of the social media giant would have caused Yves Klein...

Neon signs seem to have made a return to vogue judging by the proliferation in Frieze 2011. Yet on this occasion the usual crisp gallery presentation is subverted in preference of the derelict landscapes of outer Beijing. The series which includes these works, No Mans Land and Obstacle, was initiated by Amanda Rice on a recent residency in China

NOW THATS WHAT I CALL PRAXISA REVIEW BY SUSAN HOLLAND

Susan Holland is a curator based in Limerick,

currently working with eva International.


in response to the destruction of villages in the periphery of Beijing in name of global expansion. The eerie glow of neon in these incongruous landscapes poignantly reiterates the capitalist greed which has spurred the demolition of these once homes.

Moving from the main gallery through toward the inner space a small work hung on a raw wall catches the eye. The monochrome composition, of a ladder reaching toward a raised cavern, is striking in its simplicity. Joanna Hopkins diorama's have a surreal quality, often reconsidering familiar locations and objects in unexpected contexts. The ethereal nature of the image is amplified in this instance by the soft glow of the exit sign re-appropriated as a light-box. Rather than urge an exit, this contemplative image invites the viewer to enter a gently illuminated sanctuary.

A heart-warming video by Charlotte Bosanquet awaits in the dark inner gallery, where a class of primary school children stand together in a school hall facing toward camera. In the first instance one expects the group to burst into song, instead the children

launch into a chorus of enthusiastic applause. The viewer unwittingly becomes the focus of the group's commendation. After two full minutes of warm applause from thirty zealous performers, one can't help but leave with a smile and a lighter step.

Within the second large gallery a video piece also by Tadgh O’Cuirrin catches your attention with its radiating colours and hypnotic repetition. Francophile, a looped GIF style video work featuring James Franco, is a humorous comment on the self indulgent nature of today’s society.

On the adjoining wall two vivid paintings by Orla Gilheany hang on the back wall. Pleasant suburban bungalows float within conflicting hybrid landscapes. These montages reference zoological and geological phenomena resulting in surreal landscapes. The works have an unsettling presence, indicating a decorrelation between the lives we lead and the wider world we inhabit.

Perhaps the most whimsical work in the exhibition is Untitled (Fan + Balloon) by Sofie

Loscher. A large black latex balloon hovers and gently circles in the upward air flow. Precariously levitating. Yet once the lights switch off and the gallery closes for the night, the once suspended orb falls to the concrete floor, its uncanny presence dissembled and awaiting its morning resurrection.

Now that's what I call Praxis is a considered yet playful exhibition which draws together threads of the unexpected, intriguing the viewer with surprising perspectives. A selection of idiosyncratic works, each concise in their delivery, offer thoughtful engagements with the contemporary world. At times surreal, contemplative and amusing this exhibition achieves its intention as an authentic survey of contemporary practice with distinct relevance to the current social environment.

Now that's what I call Praxis was presented at Occupy Space, Limerick from 8th to 31st March 2012.

Susan Holland



SPIDERS FROM MARS


SPIDERS FROM MARSMICHELLE HORRIGAN

Michele Horrigan talks briefly about her current project ‘Spiders from Mars’ on display at Occupy Space and the Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick city. The exhibition at Occupy Space finished on April 28th, the Belltable contingent of the show continues to run until May 11th.

Spiders from Mars features two exhibitions, sited at Occupy Space and The Belltable. The project experimentally links a series of contemporary art positions to David Bowie’s 1972 concept album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

Ziggy Stardust is an alien from a faraway galaxy struggling against the temptations and vices of earth while attempting to give humanity a message of hope in the last five years of its existence. With the world about to end due to all natural resources being exhausted, Ziggy ends up in a rock ‘n roll band, but with no electricity left to play his message aloud. Rebellious youth then go out and pillage the planet’s remains.

Imagined as a loose cohort of reactionaries, the artists in Spiders from Mars twist and contort the environments around them, exposing numerous possibilities for otherworldly encounters ineveryday experience. Ziggy’s predicament is situated and played out in Limerick City centre, an urban agglomeration now verging, as I describe on the invite “on an apocalyptic recessional dilemma, a place where visual artists and independently-led art spaces have now plundered and taken over the city’s commercial core.”

I have worked with all of the artists before; Andrew Dodds, Jeronimo Hagerman, Louise Manifold, Mark McGreevy and Oswaldo Ruiz; and was eager to work with them again. Spiders affords me the opportunity to do that.




OCCUPYPAPER

ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS


The model of Occupy Space is an example of one form of solution to the “crisis” and “opportunity” phenomenon generated by the recession. It is one of many new artist-run galleries that are part of the ongoing occupation of vacant commercial spaces by the creative community. This phenomenon has been aligned with a shift in operation that sees new formats for making and displaying art, presenting undercapitalised artists with a new set of opportunities to do this. Of the multiple perspectives that affect our viewing of artworks, the ones that compel this change are sociological, economical and also physical. The exigency of Occupy Space embodies these perspectives.

The architecture of Occupy Space and of the many new artist run galleries popping up around the country is distinctly different to the traditional art gallery, owing to the intended function for the space (in many cases unfinished retail spaces), making it difficult to uphold traditional rules for gallery construction as an unchanging space, or a space where the effects of change are deliberately disguised and hidden. As a result these non-profit ‘institutions’ are playing host to different art-making practices that represent evolving strategies of engagement where many artists are now eschewing formalized contexts for presenting their work in favour of those that produce dialogue embracing the

expansive dimensions of time and space and of collaboration.1

Gradually these occupied spaces have become prolific, providing opportunities which are also laden with certain expectations revolving around this discourse of “crisis” and “opportunity”. Now it seems the function of the gallery, the artist and even the artwork itself have become re-contextualised under a ‘recessional aesthetic’ of social inclusion and engagement.

Certainly the economic crisis provided the background which facilitated this dimension of engagement. Does debt to our situation translate into a sense of “responsibility” and how heavily does this impact on art practice? Where do we stand when granted creative licence on one hand and the responsibility of engagement on the other?

In trying to understand this move towards engagement we wish to open a discussion with creative individuals witnessing these changes. As creative professionals are we now subconsciously inviting the public to re-engage and comprehend our work so as to become recognised as an integrated element of society rather than a dispensable critic of it in an attempt to survive the up-turn?

What is the legacy created by these artist run slack spaces?

OCCUPY PAPERARTICLE SUBMISSIONS Exploring the notion of ‘recessional aesthetic’ as referred to in October magazine, Occupy Paper sent out an open call for articles in response to this topic. We wrote an introductory piece which was used as a starting point for respondents that basically outlined the ideas that influenced us about this topic as members of Occupy Space. We thought it was relevant that this issue of the Paper focused on the “crisis” and “opportunity” effect of the economic climate on the position and function of artists run spaces. The proceeding selected articles convey an overview of the diverse and creative responses we received.

Alongside this, we approached independent curator Megs Morley to ask if she would be interested in responding to our topic, she kindly obliged and produced an insightful and well informed text which is included with the other articles. The following text outlines the introductory piece that we sent out;

1 Recessional Aesthetics, October 136, page 93


OCCUPY PAPERCRISIS AND OPPORTUNITYMegs Morley is an artist, filmmaker and independent curator based in Galway. Previously she has worked as curator of TULCA 2011 ‘After the Fall ’, Public Arts Officer, Galway and creator of The Artist-Led Archive and has had her work exhibited throughout Ireland and internationally. She is currently a participating curator of the project “Lines of Sight”; an exhibition of political works from the Israeli Digital Art Archive for EVA 2012.

“Independence in art and culture, therefore, means contesting art and culture”- David Beech1

While there are many current examples of projects that attempt to trace and map the global proliferation of artist-led culture that is flourishing in cheap or free spaces in urban centres across the world on the back of economic crisis, there is no singular way to classify the varied and diverse practices and motivations of these self-organized, often self-proclaimed autonomous organizations.

However, as a shared ‘philosophy’ of cultural production, most artist-led initiatives, in Ireland at least, begin with aims and aspirations that extend beyond simple individual gain and success, but instead hope to provide opportunities for other like minded artists, and to make a change within the existing arts infrastructure by analyzing the cultural field and filling the perceived gaps within that infrastructure. These perceived ‘gaps’ span between the development of production spaces and the provision of equipment, to the mediation and curation of under-represented practices, to the declaration of positions of autonomy in order to generate criticality.

Another aspect that artist-led initiatives share nearly all of the time, is that they operate on the back of incalculable hours of unpaid, voluntary labour by professional artists. It could be said, that artists that take part in this type of activity are in fact serious intellectual investors in the locality of where they work. These enormous investments of untold hours, and unpaid creative and intellectual activity

into the shared future of our towns and cities are paying huge dividends both socially and culturally. They are providing opportunities for recent graduates to stay, providing frameworks for artists to contribute to the city in an unprecedented manner, and local contexts.

Simply put, all of these gestures attempt to change things in the art world for artists, for the better. Therefore, implicitly, regardless of the practices and aims of the artist-led initiative, there is clearly already a shared engagement with a wider social consciousness towards some sort of collective benefit, conflicting with the individualistic model of the artist that has dominated 20th century discourse, and striking at another more social root.

How far these gestures extend into the social spheres that exist beyond the art world is now also at play, and the stakes are high. The recession has fed into the political rhetoric for culture that serves for art tourism and or as support towards creative economies. However the real opportunity that recession provides self-organized, autonomous organizations is the opportunity to interrogate the relationship between economics, politics and social context to aesthetics, including the gallery space, and by extension, a close scrutiny of the ideological frameworks that dominant cultural institutions now exist in.

I have referred to The New York Alternative Space movement in comparison to the scene that the Creative Limerick initiative sets in previous texts, but I think it is a useful comparison again for a number of reasons. Not

least because the availability of cheap spaces in New York in the 70’s and 80’s led to a whole generation of highly politicized artists and collectives, but also because this ‘bohemian presence’ was eventually capitalized on by Mayor Giuliani, resulting in sky-rocketing real estate in these areas, spelling the end to much of this highly developed independent scene.

So lets presume that Richard Florida is right, (and there are plenty of examples from around the world that would seem he is) that an artistic presence in a city is a desirable factor for investors, and will lead to attractive areas of economic success. Following on from this, we can conclude that an economic upturn will perhaps spell the end to spaces like Occupy, existing in urban centres in Ireland. So I think it’s important to start to initiate conversations about where all this might go, and start to begin to begin to ask some important questions along the way. For example, if we are to consider what artists and artist-led initiatives do as serious intellectual investment into the development of the city, after what time and at what point should they begin to have some equity in the urban centres that they have so heavily invested into?

Megs Morley

1 “Collaborative Hospitality”, David Beech, www.variant.randomstate.org/22texts/Hospitality.html accessed :28/02/06


With Ireland’s taxes and unemployment on the rise and our toxic debts now amounting to a humiliating €67.5 billion it’s fair to say the credit crunch is finally hitting home. But with whispers of living-room gigs, squat-parties, guerrilla galleries and slack-space projects erupting in contemporary art circles it’s fair to say that Ireland’s creative practitioners are finding opportunity in the financial crisis wreckage? Is Crash Art the new High Art?

Ever since the 2009 “Recessional Aesthetics” talk headed by Hal Foster and David Joselit at the X Initiative in New York, these questions have been of hot debate. Foster suggests that the downturn makes it clearer that artists, artworks, fairs, art schools and journals had already been “commodified”, and that there now exists the possibility for shaping a kind of liberating post-market existence. Fitting as it was to have the talk in the Chelsea warehouse that was once home to DIA Centre for the arts, the initiative has since closed having only lasted one year. But what a year it was, housing more than 50 events, with an attendance of over 75,000 and even an honourable mention in the best of 2009 articles by The New York Times art critics Holland Cotter and Roberta Smith.

I spoke with Doreen Carvajal, from The New York Times preceding her recent article “In Ireland, Making Art From the Rubble”, published last month. “ I’m doing an article on generation bailout”, she declared before barraging me with questions about art initiatives in Ireland and whether their existence was only due to the opportunities arisen from the downturn. She spoke to me

about Basic Space, an open creative space for NCAD students, whom she subsequently based the majority of her article on. The owner of the 10,000 square-foot warehouse, Harry Crosbie, is one of more than 800 Irish developers who owe more than €70 billion in real-estate debt to the notorious NAMA. She claims these students have found “a golden opportunity in the wreckage left by a spree of reckless real-estate lending.”

These industrial style spaces, are cropping up all over the Island. Avant-garde project spaces take form in office buildings and warehouses like The Shed, which inhabits the middle pier of Galway City Harbour and Sample-Studios, located across three floors of the former government building on Sullivan’s Quay in Cork City. Due to the inherent commercial architecture of slack-spaces in Ireland, contemporary projects are increasingly taking on industrial settings. What seems to be an inadvertent reality could well be a deliberate and healthy deconstruction of the white cube institution that contemporary art has become enshrouded in.

We cannot argue that the current situation hasn’t provided new opportunities for artists to produce and display their art. Yet these settings however carry certain expectations; how long can they really last? Even the infamous Künstlerinitiative Tacheles sadly met their downfall last April when the owner of the Kunsthaus, HSH Nordbank, scheduled an eviction. Sadly, the lease, negotiated at a mere 50 cents a year expired so the dream ended for the notorious, Berlin art squat. What happens when Ireland, (if ever) regains

financial stability? Dare we mention an economic upturn? We need to recognise the effects of these short term supports versus a need for sustainability in the arts. We simply cannot ignore the implications of the ongoing changes in social trends and remain lacking of public policies addressing contemporary art practices. With themes of engagement and social responsibility on critics lips, are these practitioners now supposed to have a duty to society having benefited from the probable sole redeeming quality of the economic downturn? Or should society have a duty to help sustain the arts, recession or not?

Emer Ní Chíobhain

THE UP MARKET DOWN TURNFAT CATS VS STARVING ARTISTSEmer Ní Chíobhain is a multi-disciplinary visual artist who practices in the fields of digital media and installation. Ní Chíobháin currently holds the role of Co-Director at Sample-Studios


PALLAS HEIGHTSBRIAN DUGGANPALLAS HEIGHTS was a contemporary art space in a block of semi derelict flats awaiting demolition in Dublin, Ireland. It opened in 2003 and closed in 2006-2007.

During this lifespan it housed many artists studios and also organised nearly 20 contemporary exhibitions.


Pallas Heights/ Sean Tracey House was a municipal housing block from the 60s in the north east inner city, that the City Council was decommissioning. The city council was re-housing the residents and planned to demolish the blocks as soon as possible. Pallas has been working in this area of the city since its inception in 1996 and asked the Dublin City Council if they would support an innovative project that would re use the neglected but empty spaces in Sean Tracey house. While the re-development of Dublin was undergoing a rapid building boom, spaces for artists were continually being overlooked, out priced, and squeezed dry. Pallas has continually sought to address this, and is always evolving to provide support for contemporary artists.

After sometime and many discussions, the City Council agreed to hand over some of the flats to Pallas on temporary basis until their

demolition. During its lifespan there were also some residents living in the flats, waiting to be re-housed, and they supported the project throughout. It is important to note here that the City Council bravely gave Pallas the autonomy to direct the project as they saw fit. There was no curatorial direction or suggestions made from their side. It was also a project that was deeply imbedded in a community, although not a ‘community project’.

In late 2002 Pallas stepped in and took over 4 of these flats on the top level of Sean Tracey house. These flats then were renamed Pallas Heights. The flats had been ‘steeled up’ and Pallas took several months to clean these old residential units and make secure, get power and electricity in, and fit with custom made steel grills that let light in. The spaces were then ready to become studios and exhibition spaces.

The flats then became working units, exhibiting artists were invited in to uses the spaces to make work in, and most exhibitions had a ‘lead in’ to allow artists to make work, and make mistakes or challenge their own practice, onsite [as in a studio]. All of the flats were up for grabs with the exhibitions space consisting of one, two bed flat: balcony, living room, kitchen area, toilet, bathroom and stairwell all useable.

While Pallas Heights gave many first solo exhibitions to upcoming and emerging artists from Ireland, it also invited partners from abroad, undertook group exhibitions and hosted artist’s projects. It changed the very fabric of Dublin and challenged the traditional white cube method of exhibition making.

Brian Duggan


3 MCDONAGH AVE.KITCHEN TABLE COLLECTIVE

In May 2011 a participant led workshop called ‘Open Space for New Horizons’ was presented by Tulca in Galway. The event was facilitated by Belfast based artist Susanne Bosch. During the discussions and presentations it emerged that space to work and exhibit is historically and ever presently an issue among the Galway arts community, however as the session came to a close this issue became more of a question rather than a statement of fact. Is (physical) space the main issue in and around Galway or is it something else? Can space or a lack thereof, also be interpreted as a lack of interactive space or a space of critical exchange? Is there sufficient interaction, dialogue or discussion taking place among the visual arts community in Galway? It was generally agreed at the workshop that this type of interaction is vital to sustaining a professional practice and it became clear to us that a) nothing will happen unless we make it happen b) dialogue is critical to our professional development, growth and as a form of support and c) we are not alone. As a direct response to involvement in the workshop a number of recent graduates from GMIT set up the Kitchen Table Collective and were offered the use of a space at 3 McDonagh Ave., Mervue. The space is a semi-detached house in the older suburbs of Galway city and is owned and occupied by one member of the collective. The house provides a physical area where members of the collective can meet and work. The designation of the area is fluid and can change according to the requirements of the artists who are working within it at a given time - be it as a dwelling, studio, lecture/discussion facility or exhibition area. Central to the success of this process is that decisions regarding the functionality of the space can only be made through democratic discussion, open dialogue and mutual respect. In this way the space can offer itself as a platform for experimentation and exploration in the field of visual arts.

In November 2011 the space was used to stage /shore/, an intervention/installation as part of Tulca 2011 ‘After the Fall’ curated by Megs Morley. The installation comprised

of the construction and placement of large internal timber shores/buttresses against the party wall with the adjoining dwelling. The resulting structure interfered with the dwelling on both ground and upper floors, and as such called into question the functionality of the physical space. In addition the juxtaposition of white gallery space with domestic architecture within a suburban environment blurred the lines between private and public function. At night, a projection was screened onto the front downstairs window bringing the gallery space further outside the walls of the dwelling.

The nine individuals who make up the Kitchen Table are:

Mike Ahern, Judith Bernhardt, Helen Caird, Michelle Conway, Brid Egan, Noelle Gallagher, Tina Hopp, Eithne Ryan and Joan Sugrue

The Kitchen Table Collective


/shore/ installation at 3 McDonagh Ave. Galway, Tulca After the Fall, Nov 2011

/shore/ installation at 3 McDonagh Ave. Galway, Tulca After the Fall, Nov 2011


ART…


Sure is'nt this grand now, they cant rent this building, its a bit damp en the walls are

manky but sure i have time now there is no work on the go. if i can just keep your one in

that hatch happy enough i could get away with this yah know.

Ah yeah just make art all day,sure its not my fault the country hit a nose dive, i was

learnin me 2 times tableswhen they were betting on all these sub prime loans.....Its been a while now, people are starting to take notice,

this place is getting itsname out there, jazuz this is mad is'nt it, people

actually like what is happening here,i reckon if i can keep this going we could actually

change this place a bit.Sure your wan behinde the bullet proof glass has no

idea, with her chusty governmentjob, she just moany cause now she has to deal with

people.the tiger had her fully chilled i'd say,

there is a gang of us now, its good buzz bouncin off each other and you'd have some craic

with all the booze at these openings, we have made a bit of a change, compared to

some a them boy's up in dail eireann any way, universal social charge, ah yeah mad social....

fair play boys, wouldn't it be a nice ole number doin this for a living,

changing the rep of a place, sure wouldn't yah think one of this fellas in tha dail

would take a look, but sure if i said anything they would realise i hadn't been looking

for work.......

James Rabbit SR


WELCOME TO ASKEATON


WELCOME TO ASKEATONPOPULATION 1,149DAYS SINCE LAST ARTISTIC INTERVENTION: 0Michele Horrigan is a visual artist and Director of Askeaton Contemporary Arts, recently she has been appointed curator of visual art at the Belltable arts centre in Limerick city. She was educated at HfBK Stadelschule, Frankfurt am Main and the University of Ulster, Belfast. Her work has been included in solo and group exhibitions in London, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Copenhagen and Buenos Aires, amongst others. She lives between Berlin, Germany and Askeaton, County Limerick.

Michele Horrigan wanted to see what would happen if she took contemporary art out of its urban comfort zone. In August 2006 and with the help of 6 other artists she brought some to her rural hometown of Askeaton, county Limerick. Every year since, a selection of contemporary artists from Ireland and around the world temporarily infiltrate the town with creative work devised for Horrigan’s ongoing project; Welcome to the Neighbourhood.

As a central enterprise of ACA1, the project aims to explore how contemporary practices function outside of the cities and galleries. Without ‘white cube’ spaces the artists display their work in the local supermarket, hairdressers, bank, community hall, civic trust centre, and the Franciscan Friary. While Horrigan tells me that “the organization doesn’t point to itself and declare that we are socially engaged”, it definitely engages the locals in Askeaton in a unique way. Every year, they become involved in the different artists’ projects; as subjects, as assistants and ultimately as audience.

While not necessarily addressing social issues in the town, the project has the ability to engage members of the community by making them an integral part of the work. It provides them with the opportunity to access and enjoy contemporary art projects, while also placing them in a strategic position to question such projects. And who wouldn’t question Plamen Bontchev, selling ‘magic seeds’ in a local shop, or the Mexican artist Oswaldo Ruiz roaming the West Limerick countryside in the footsteps of the ancient King Sweeney? For two weeks, with his unintended destination at an unrealized industrial estate, Ruiz and camera re-enacted Sweeney’s mythical journey. Such a site might not have been too difficult to come

by for Ruiz, who created a sculpture there from found material-an ultimate prop to end the restaged journey. Underlying the more serious aspects to these works is this element of fun and open-endedness with the project. Despite being promised a blooming money tree and occasionally having the airwaves sabotaged by a pirate station2 the Askeaton audience happily take part in the project year after year and welcome the challenges that come with the work.

Horrigan is interested in facilitating and promoting the work of the selected artists and uses her position as curator of the project to provide them with all the resources they need. Coming to Askeaton can allow them to see new possibilities for their work; how it functions in a non-urban context and seen with the eyes of a new audience. A respect that comes from firsthand experience of seeing the artists at work is established, allowing the local community to see artists as workers too, “they are genuinely interested in what the artist is thinking and how they see things and filter that down to a final piece”. It’s not that the work is only legible from a local perspective and Horrigan outlines that the project would benefit from being contextualized with other, similar initiatives on a wider scale.

The current project of ACA is The Hellfire Club; 6 Irish artists have been commissioned to make work based on the legacy of a Hellfire Club which now lies in ruins on an island in Askeaton. Punch-drinking non-devil worshipping ‘devils’ used the club for their meetings where apparently ‘outrageous rituals’ took place and have been the subject of many a lurid myth in the town since. The artists were asked to explore both the ruins and the myths of the Hellfire ‘gentleman’s’ club which has

been abandoned since the 1800’s. A notable interpretation by the artist Stephen Brandes pictures a future for the dilapidated club in the 23rd Century, which according to the ACA website involves unregulated planning, the Swiss Government and giant slugs. If you visit Askeaton before July 25th you can also see the work of Diana Copperwhite, Tom Fitzgerald, Sean Lynch and Louise Manifold with their responses to the ‘devils’ and their club.

Welcome to the Neighbourhood is somewhat different from other community art projects; Horrigan is an artist and curator as well as an Askeaton local; her loyalties lie with both sides of this operation. For me, it’s a good example of what can happen when people are willing to shake things up, journey outside the white box and get some fresh air.

I interviewed Michele about her role as curatorial director of ACA. She told me about the aims of the organization; its successes and how she comes up with new possibilities for projects. I was also interested in how she feels ACA fits in with the topics of this issue regarding the premise of artist-initiatives and engagement. She had some interesting insights...

1 Founded in 2006, Askeaton Contemporary Arts promotes contemporary visual art in County Limerick, Ireland.

2 London-based artist Andrew Dodds set up a pirate radio station in Askeaton as his addition to the Welcome to the Neighbourhood project of 2009, where he interviewed locals and recorded performances with musicians in the town. The station, which provided a platform for local talent and opinion, was operated from a secret location in the town.


Claire Walsh: As you know this issue of Occupy Paper focuses on the evolving strategies of engagement within contemporary art practice and the new role of the artist in this context. Do you feel that this role needs to become a more socially engaged one? Your position as curator of Askeaton Contemporary Arts relies on you to facilitate the engagement of artists with the local community there, is this, in your opinion a more worthwhile practice than creating art objects for display in the gallery?

Michele Horrigan: Whether or not the role of artist needs to be a socially engaged one is down to the artist in question. I simply see the work of Askeaton Contemporary Arts as being a project that exists in the public realm. The organisation doesn’t point to itself and declare that we are socially engaged but ACA does somewhat relate to this environment because it is situated in a non-art situation with no ‘white cube’ gallery space.

My position as curator of ACA is to faciliate artists’ projects. There is no overture to ‘perform’ for the local community in County Limerick. The relationship is a little more integrated than that. My position requires that I liase with the community as a means to help structure an artist’s work rather than answer a particular need in the town or its surrounding area. Community art tends to be a much touted word for working outside of gallery environs, and to say that working outside of a gallery is always more worthwhile would be incorrect. For many artists I work with, it is more about the development of their own practice to an engaged and hopefully challenged audience.

CW: The Askeaton project removes the observational vantage point of the artist. Do you think it is important for contemporary art to be recognized as an integrated element of society rather than a dispensable critic of it? How does your project facilitate this integrated practice?

MH: Perhaps the project in Askeaton eases the pressures of this vantage point for artists who work with us. Our annual residency consists of two weeks of living and working in Askeaton. ACA rents accommodation in the town and the artists are given sites to work in for that period. Local people are consistently taking part in the artworks, either as a consultant on the project, a viewer or often times as subject. The residency is successful on a local level because the artists themselves become local for the two weeks. People in the town are aware that the artists have spent time living and working in Askeaton, and so have a vested interest. This is a counterpoint to where the artist is parachuted in to site a piece of work and then vanishes without a trace. Past residents of Welcome to the Neighbourhood always like to come back again and again to visit the town, once you’ve been a local it never


leaves your system and you want to see the changes that have happened since you were last there!

CW: Do you think the people of Askeaton now have a different perception of what it is that the contemporary artist does? Do they accept and respond to the work of the artists and see their work as being a worthwhile/ relevant exercise?

MH: In Askeaton the work of a contemporary artist is perceived as just that, work. A different kind of work to, say, working in a factory or retail store but work all the same. There is a curiosity as to how an artist survives financially and a respect in how they do it. Locals will question the work intensely because they are genuinely interested in what the artist is thinking and how they see things and filter that down to a final piece. Due to the commissioning of new work, in particular with the Welcome to the Neighbourhood

programme, locals see close up the finer details of a process, sometimes getting involved with research, becoming a springboard to throw ideas at and even as subject. There is an openness and an unhesitating confidence to question since the project’s inception in 2006. I can never question a project like this as I and all of my peers have been taught in an academic capacity to look and question things in a totally different way.

CW: Also within the paper we wish to set up a discussion around the premise or legacy of artist-initiatives like Askeaton Contemporary and Occupy Space and the reasons for their emergence. As a starting point for this we are trying to establish shortcomings within the museum or institutional gallery that disconnect it from present discourse and contemporary art projects and which signals a need for these initiatives. What do you think these shortcomings are? In what ways can initiatives like Askeaton Contemporary Arts provide a more relevant platform for contemporary art-making?

MH: It is useful to describe Askeaton Contemporary Arts’ remit here: it was established in 2006, and aims to open up fresh possibilities of how art might operate outside a city environment, while concurrently supporting the production of new artists’ projects. ACA’s activities consist of Welcome to the Neighbourhood, an annual programme of invited international and Irish artists resident and working in the town, with a seventh edition to occur in July 2012. The project has introduced the work of artists from Argentina, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Mexico, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States to Askeaton. ACA have facilitated the commissioning and execution of new artists work from over forty artists.

More recently, exhibition projects and long-term commissions have been organized, often taking the everyday life of Askeaton as a

subject. We just launched The Hellfire Club, a series of five artists commissions sited around the town based around the town’s Hellfire Club legacy, a ruin of a gentleman’s club associated with the Devil, present in the town since the 1740s. Another projected, entitled Paradise Regained, by London based artist Andrew Dodds and supported by CREATE is currently underway.

In reply to your question, each system has its’ own shortcomings. And it would be an unfair analogy to suggest that the artists run space is some kind of utopian ideal. Decisions made here in Askeaton often revolve pragmatically around the resources at hand.

CW: Artist initiatives facilitated by bodies such as Creative Limerick have formed a collective consciousness grounded in the circumstances of their own existences; physically embodied by the architectures of these spaces. Traditional white cube intentions are juxtaposed against half finished shop and office spaces. Similarly,

in Askeaton ‘white box’ rules for presenting art are juxtaposed in community spaces (there’s an amazing photograph of Alan Counihan’s white polystyrene sculpture sitting in the community hall on top of basketball court markings). Do you feel that within emerging processes of engagement the (re-)using of public spaces to present the art is an important practice?

MH: In Askeaton, we just use what we have. It’s true that the ‘white box’ format is considered the better way of exhibiting work. Some artists can be purist in their approach to a space in that regard. Alan Counihan’s work is a good example of what can happen when you just let go of these formalist ideas of what a space should be and simply embrace what your work can actually achieve. Alan showed part of his work in the community hall on top of basketball court markings. The other part was shown in the Fransciscan Friary. He calls both of these works interventions. Both spaces

have a lot of history so it would be pointless to try to erase that. Yes, every space has it’s own history, but I think that in galleries, the history often relates to the previous artworks or exhibitions shown.

In the case of Alan’s work, the community hall has a history of community involvement, as did the Friary but with an addition of a spiritual element. Alan was, of course, aware and attuned his work accordingly. The work in the Friary was also made of polystyrene but with the addition of a glass bell on top, deliberately minus the clapper so it will forever be silent much like the previous history of the space. To quote Alan’s website, the works ‘all variously explored architectures in physical space while challenging the metaphysics or intentions which informed them. In the case of the Community Hall intervention the aesthetic constructs of the artist are as temporal and prey to ruin as those of the monks of Askeaton over six hundred years ago.’


To answer your question, not only is engagement of the (re-)using of public spaces to present the art an important practice, to some of our artists it is an integral part of the work in that the work cannot exist without a specific reference to the space at hand.

CW: The exchange of knowledge between the locals and the artists in Askeaton is also cited as an exchange of historical knowledge and community pride. Coinciding with the renewed interest in the non-institutional and the independent, this type of knowledge exchange is becoming cultural currency. Is contemporary art in a position to channel this transaction, and bring attention to its cultural worth?

MH: Askeaton is very much a real living and breathing town. It doesn’t cease to exist when all the cultural producers leave. Of course, I see the impact of visual art in Askeaton as a very important part of the development of ACA both on a national and an international level. But I see this impact occuring as a soft ebb and flow of waves on a shore rather than a tsunami.

CW: Curators act like an invisible hand to control the transaction between artists and audience, how ‘hands-on’ are you in this sense during the Askeaton project?

MH: To illustrate the answer to this question, maybe it’s best that I outline some of my work

schedule in the running of a project such as Welcome to the Neighbourhood: these include the selection of artists, sourcing of funding and identifying new sponsors, P.R., negotiation of empty spaces and buildings around the town to use as studios and to site projects, liasing with FAS, Askeaton Community Council, Civic Trust and other local groups who interact on a daily basis with the artists, organising the official launch in conjunction with the local Credit Union, organising the open day, it goes on…I think with a project like this it’s inevitable that a hands on approach is the most successful way of making something work.

CW: How do you come up with new possibilities for the future of this project? Is this a lone job?

MH: In 2010 I completed the Curatorial Intensive in New York with the ICI (Independent Curators International). This was a curatorial programme dealing specifically with art in the public realm. As part of this programme I took part in a series of talks, workshops, site visits to different organisations and one-on-one sessions with mentors to further develop the project, and many new possibilities have arisen from this.

Artworks produced here have subsequently travelled to various venues, such as Magdalena Jitrik’s ‘Painting for Askeaton’ which was shown in the Istanbul Biennale in 2011 and featured in the Phaidon publication Vitamin P2. Elaine Byrne’s photographs, taken here

last year, are currently on show in the Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin. Other projects have been showcased in US, UK, Portugal, and Germany, so the project lives on in different contexts for different people.

Another future for the organisation is the introduction of publications. We have two coming out this year, one for The Hellfire Club and another for Andrew Dodds’ Paradise Regained. Both will be launched in Askeaton in mid-July and New York in mid-September in the ICI Curatorial Hub. We have an ongoing relationship with ICI who are keen to support and promote our work.

I have just begun working as curator of The Belltable and certainly I will be featuring some of the projects made in Askeaton as part of my programme. The last exhibition ‘Regressions’ by Allan Hughes featured an ACA-commissioned project.

For more information on Askeaton Contemporary Arts visit the website www.askeatonarts.com. The current Welcome to the Neighbourhood project, ‘The Hellfire Club’ runs until 25th July 2012 in various locations throughout Askeaton.

Michelle HorriganInterviewed by Claire Walsh






THE WOOD BETWEEN

THE WORLDS

ARTISTS: PAUL BOKSLAG, FIONA BURKE, GERARD CARSON, MARIE CONNOLE, AOIFE FLYNN, MARILYN GAFFNEY, JAMES L. HAYES, CHRISTINE MACKEY AND EIMEARJEAN MCCORMACKCURATED BY NOELLE COLLINS.

Occupy Space presents 'The Wood between the Worlds' an exhibition of works from contemporary artists using paper as a fundamental material in their practice. Through both invitation and an open submission call, artists working in sculpture, printing, collage, painting and mixed media explore the transformative quality of paper. The Wood between the Worlds as described in the writing of C.S Lewis is a transitional space between alternate realities. Upon arrival in the Wood you are susceptible to amnesia, but once you have been transported there, other Worlds are accessible through pools of water.

The potential to see different versions of the World we inhabit seems an absurd reference in relation to artists using paper, but it is that sense of possibility and escapism that informed the selection of work.

For more information see www.occupyspace.com

Occupy Space is open 1pm to 5pm, Weds to Sat. ImageFirmament IV by Eimearjean McCormack 2011

CONTACTSTUDIOS


The reciprocal action of exchange; of giving away one thing in return for another, is interesting to reference when describing how Contact Studios is run. Exchange is the means of survival and of renewal for this artist-run studio. It functions through the different levels of exchange it operates; exchanges that create new contexts for the studio and maintain important working relationships between the studio and its benefactors, Le Cheile and the H.S.E.

In artist’s studio years Contact Studios is old. Almost fifteen years in existence it is the longest running studio in town. With years of experience under its collective belt, Contact has a unique dynamic that makes it an attractive place for engaged and productive artists. Unique because of its experience and also for its sustainability, this dynamic grows out of the carefully considered changes in membership. The studio takes in recent graduates and new members on a fairly regular basis joining an experienced and professional existing member base. Carl Doran became a member soon after Contact Studios were founded in 1997, he points out how this works successfully for the studio and on both sides of the coin, with “boosts of new energy coming in on a regular basis as well as a good idea as to how a full-time artist approaches a working life”.

Many of the members are local artists that have been part of Limericks evolving art scene over the years and have formed a strong context from which they make work. Personally, I found that there’s a great admiration for the longer standing members of the studio from the new members. There’s a genuine respect for and curiosity about the way they work on a daily basis. This exchange of knowledge and experience with new perspectives and fresh energy seems to be a

vital part of how Contact operates a successful and productive studio fifteen years on.

There is another level of exchange at play with how the studio sustains itself and pays for the space. As an artist-run studio Contact operates a barter system unique to Limerick*. Collectively the group gives 520 hours of its time to local mental health group Le Cheile every year in exchange for free space. Members come up with new ideas for art and craft classes that they take turns to teach along with organizing other activities for interacting with the Le Cheile group.

This system puts Contact Studios in a unique position where (borrowing from the blog) “It allows artists to contribute to society while retaining autonomy and avoiding imposed niches”. This unusual arrangement is incredibly valuable for members allowing them to be socially active as artists while enabling them to make the type of work that they want. And while members get the benefit of teaching experience, their students learn new skills and develop friendships through the class. After the initial challenges that come with being out of your comfort zone and inexperience this is probably the most rewarding thing I did while at Contact.

On a practical level the place can be a haven for makers. The communal facilities have been built up over the years; they have an extensive range of tools and materials that will cater for whatever cutting, hammering, stretching, sanding or drilling needs you may have. If your work is more lens-based you can thank associate member Joanna Hopkins who set up from scratch a fully functioning darkroom in the building, with all the facilities required for enlarging and printing photos. Computer facilities are a bonus that includes a scanner and printer which save on trips to the printers.

On top of this you have a bank of information and help from skilled fellow members.

Rather than talk about my own experience as a member of Contact Studios I thought it would be more interesting if I asked a few of the current members to answer some questions that will hopefully give an insight into the people in the studio; what they are doing, their motivations, interests, and how the space works for them;

Recent graduate and newest member of the studio Marie Varley knows the importance of the basic but practical needs for a working environment, she mentions running water and heat as two of its assets. Her responses will be interesting to anyone leaving college soon and planning to join a studio. Carl Doran gives an interesting account of how his “fairly irrational” thoughts about the commodity of his work led him to attempts to close the gap between himself and his audience. Gerry O’Mahony was an original member of one of Limerick’s first artist collectives, ‘All + 10 sorts’, set up in 1986. In a section of the Limerick Leader printed in June of 1986 the group’s chairman Tom Ryan explained that the studio “helps artists who have just graduated to work with established professionals who can give them advice and guidance.”1 Gerry has been a member of Contact Studios since 2005. Nuala O’Sullivan is the fourth contributor; at the moment she is an MA by Research student in Fine Art at LSAD as well as a member of the studio. She is currently taking a curatorial role in the development of ‘Process 32’ an exhibition by 3rd year LSAD painting students, also featured in this issue; she acts as mentor and selector for the show. Here’s what they had to share…

IN EXCHANGE;CONTACT STUDIOSAfter graduating from LSAD in 2011 Claire Walsh spent six months working in Contact Studios. Here, she describes the studio in her own words along with interviews from four current members with the aim of giving an insight into Limerick’s longest running studio.

1 Limerick leader 23/06/1986, www.limerick.ie, http://www.limerick.ie/media/art%20042.pdf


MARIE VARLEYCONTACT STUDIOSMarie Varley talks about joining the studio and the more honest motivations she now feels are behind her practice...

Claire Walsh: Can you tell us how you went about joining a studio after leaving college?

Marie Varley: After spending four years in LSAD, I was well aware of the vibrant art scene which had evolved in Limerick over this time. I also knew that the studio spaces set up around Limerick were a big part of its success. I heard about Contact Studios through friends and knew there was a free space. I emailed an Artist CV, an Artist Statement and some pictures of my work to [email protected]. After about a week or so, I got the call from Carl to say I could move in.

CW: Why would you recommend a recent graduate to join Contact Studios?

MV: As a recent graduate I am very familiar with the concerns and needs which face emerging artists. Contact Studios offers so many amenities which facilitate artists across the board of Fine Art. The studio has its own dark room, electric saws and benches for cutting, a computer, printer and scanner and also running water and heat. Some of these things may not seem like a big deal when you’re sitting in the comfort of the college library but as I have learnt, when it comes to setting yourself up as a working artist these resources are invaluable.

What differentiates Contact from other studios in the city is its contribution to socially engaged art. The studio members have a long-standing arrangement with the HSE, whereby members give a certain amount of their time to run art classes with “Le Cheile”, an organisation which offers support to people who experience difficulties coping. By running these classes, you pay for your studio space. This exchange is a very interesting concept which also offers valuable teaching experience to studio members

Aside from these material objects, Contact Studios offers a friendly, easy-going environment to feel comfortable making work. This, I believe is its real asset.

CW: What motivates you to make work now that you are out of college?

MV: I have noticed a big change in what motivates me since leaving college. In college you’re always working towards an assessment or a seminar and ultimately the Degree Show, a date on the syllabus. All of these deadlines have been set up for you by your tutors. The Degree Show is something which is always going to happen. Outside of college, gears shift a bit. You are now the one who has to set up the deadlines. What motivates me now is the possibility of raising my profile as an emerging artist. I constantly check and apply for exhibitions which I see on the VAI e-bulletins and elsewhere. The motivation now is perhaps more honest because I have chosen the deadlines and I solely choose what to submit.

CW: Can you describe your work in a paragraph?

MV: My work generally deals with an appropriation of imagery which has been created for mass consumption. Most recently I have focused a lot of my work on graphic design from the 1950/60’s and in particular, the design of postage stamps. In this era, the postage stamp was the greatest ambassador for its country. With current technological advances and the arrival of the internet and concurrently the ‘email’, the postage stamp has lost its once powerful ability to advertise the identity of a chosen country.

CW: Finally, what books are currently on your studio table?

MV: Red Book by David Shrigley, Brian O’ Doherty’s Inside the White Cube, Animal Farm by George Orwell, the March issue of Art Review and No Logo by Naomi Klein.

Marie VarleyInterviewed by Claire Walsh



CARL DORANCONTACT STUDIOSCarl Doran tells about the divide he felt between himself and his audience and why he’s never been so well informed on celebrity culture...

CW: Why is Contact a good studio to be part of?

CD: A feature of Contact Studios is the range of stages of artist at any one time. We will usually have artists who are just after graduating up to people with many years experience in the profession. This can be very positive for all concerned, boosts of new energy coming in on a regular basis as well as a good idea as to how a full-time artist approaches a

working life. As we’ve had around a hundred artists coming and going over the years, there is a readymade network of people and contacts available to everyone. On a technical level, we can look to and acquire knowledge which would otherwise take us time to figure out.

As there are two main criteria for keeping a space (using your space regularly and providing classes for our partners Le Chéile), there’s an

onus on the member to be professional from the outset, and this is a good discipline for people to observe.

CW: How does it engage with the local community?

CD: Le Chéile is a local mental Health group which provide classes and opportunities for people to come along and have a cup of tea,


do some art or creative writing or just hang out in a friendly atmosphere. In lieu of studio rent, as a group we give 520 hours per year to Le Chéile. We all learn a lot from this arrangement- be it learning how to teach and deliver classes to a broad base (we have had many members going on to HDip.s from here), or just human interaction.

Aside from this, we began a series of open studio days and events called C;inside with other like-minded groups in Limerick about 7 years ago. The idea is to have people come in to our studios and see firsthand how the artistic process works with each individual, and to talk through the processes and ideas with the makers. It’s a way of exerting some control over exposure to the audience-getting rid of the need for a middleman or a gallery/curator, while also forging connections between the members of all the groups

CW: Describe your work in 3 words

CD: Aesthetic, reflective, reactive.

CW: Why is it important to you that your work interacts with the public?

CD: There were a number of reasons for my foray into two-way art projects. I felt that there was a great divide between the audience and myself, and the audience and the artwork.

As a painter using glazing techniques in oil paint, with layers taking weeks/months to dry, and then exhibiting finished works, there was a large chasm of time and thought between the inception of the work, and its final presentation. I wanted to bring finite projects about, where there was a pressure on me to perform set tasks which could be evaluated in very simple terms and on the spot, by myself and the participants, and generally for very little financial outlay. Lastly, there was and still is some anxiety on my part over the perception/treatment of work (paintings) as commodity (albeit fairly irrational), which I wanted to counteract through positive action.

By way of example, my first attempt was in a Contact Studios/ Engage Studios (Galway) collaboration (2005), and was called the Pocket Portrait Project. While the Galway leg of the exhibition was open in Engage Studios, I based myself in one of the first spaces and invited (often bemused) people to lend me any object from their person. I would do several drawings of these and on finishing their tour of the show they would collect their object and a drawing. There is a sense of ownership in this transfer of knowledge for the donor, and for me the drawing/artwork becomes more valuable to the donor, as a story becomes part of it. Much as provenance might add value to antiques, so I hope to add to the attachment to the artwork and the associated memories. At

the same time, it also allows me to interact and chat with people about what art is or isn’t, which with any public projects can lead to interesting encounters...

CW: What books are currently on your studio table?

CD: Loads of gossip magazines-Heat, Nuts, Grazia (my personal favourite for the washed-out colour saturation) etc - all glossy mags for a series of cat collages I’m working on. I’ve never been so well informed on the celebrity world, albeit a week or two behind after they’ve been read by my kind donors.

Carl DoranInterviewd by Claire Walsh


NUALA O’SULLIVANCONTACT STUDIOSFor MA student Nuala O’Sullivan Contact Studios offers the space and good energy that benefits the making side of her practice...


CW: An extract from your bio tells me that your work “questions how the remnants of the past filter into our lives and influence our present...the subject matter harks back to the 1950’s and explores the tension between the outward gloss of public image, and the social and religious constraints that existed for individuals at the time”. Can you tell me how this influences you?

NOS: I have always found the friction that exists between what is visible and what lies just under the surface fascinating. For me, the imagery of the 1950’s encapsulated this perception. Alongside this, the aesthetic and culture of that period has a strong visual resonance for me.


NOS: Fifties Style: Home Decoration and Furnishing 1950’s , Vitamin P2 on loan from the library, Amongst Women and Memoir both by John McGahern, Susan Sontag On Photography, The Artist Manual, Art and Fear, Albums of old photographs, Magazines, and lots of confusion.

CW: You are currently doing an MA in the college, what does it mean to have the space you have in Contact during this time?

NOS: Having the use of a space at Contact Studios, along with a study space in the college, has been great. The Contact Studios space is used as a workspace, away from internet etc. where I can really focus on the making side of my art practice. The space there has a good energy to

it; opening the door and being met by the smell of oil paint brings an expectation with it - to get on with the work.

CW: What have been the main benefits to you of doing the MA in painting? How has it changed the way you work?

NOS: The MA has given me the opportunity to research my interest in the 1950’s period. The two year project allows time to work through ideas both in my writing and artwork. While, as is always the case in an undertaking like this, a lot of the work made will not make it to the final exhibition, the process of making and researching has been valuable. In terms of changing my work, I have gained a greater understanding of integrating my research with my painting and of making critical judgements about the direction of my work. Also, as I have progressed I am becoming more consciousness of using the paint itself to help express my ideas.

Nuala O’SullivanInterviewed by Claire Walsh


GERRY O’MAHONYCONTACT STUDIOS

Gerry O’Mahony is a highly prolific painter, here, he talks about his motivations and reading that inspires...


CW: You were part of the first artist-run studios in Limerick ‘all+10 sorts’ established in 1986. Tell me a bit about the studio itself...

GOM: It was a large, high ceiling open plan studio on the first floor of Ormston House, in Limerick City Centre, with a small gallery on the ground floor. There was a real buzz about the studio that was very conducive to work, individuals came and went during the course of the week at times that suited their work practice. It included a selection of Limerick based artists, including Richard Slade, Richard Anglim, Vivienne Bogan, Pauline Goggin, Kevin Quinlan, Lorraine Murphy, Des O’Farrell, Mike Fox, Paul O’Reilly, Andrew Kearney, and Tom Ryan, who was the secretary. I’m sure there were some others, and some more that joined the group when we moved to Windmill St. I was a member I think from 1987 to 1991 when I took up a position in the City Library (The Granary) as an Artist in Residence for a year.

CW: What was it like working as an artist in Limerick then? What was the energy in the Limerick art scene like?

GOM: It was a developing art scene with a lot of energetic artists trying to enthusiastically grow an appreciation for the visual arts in Limerick. A lot of the members were recent graduates of LSAD.

The group regularly exhibited together both in the studio gallery and also nationally in various Art Centres throughout the country, including The Irish Life Gallery, Dublin, Triskel Arts Centre Cork, and several others. Around the same time there was another artist collective in Broad St., run by Armour Harris and some others.

CW: Why did you join Contact Studios?

GOM: I had a studio in O’Connell; St. Limerick above a retail outlet for about twelve years, but when the shop closed the studio was no longer available. I painted at home for a

while but it was a bit restricted, so I put in an application for Contact. Shortly afterwards I was invited to join the studio for three months in 2005 and I’m still there.

CW: Can you describe your work in three words?

GOM: A visual of the whole. (sorry about the maths)

CW: You are a very prolific worker, what motivates you?

GOM: A belief in the idea that the more you do the better you get.

CW: What do you hope to convey to the audience

GOM: A sense of hope and optimism for the future.


GOM: Art and Fear, by David Bayles and Ted Orland

-I think it is one of the most interesting books on art that I’ve read, and one that I hate to be

without; I must have given this book away so many times that O’Mahony’s Book shop had it on their computer for years. A real inspiration.

And “Mark Tobey/ Art and Belief ” by Arthur L Dahl.

-One of my favourite artists and always someone who uplifts and inspires.

Gerry O’MahonyInterviewed by Claire Walsh

Unfortunately I couldn’t interview more of the members for this piece. There are some really interesting people making interesting work at Contact that I should mention here. At the moment; Maurice Foley, Michael Delohery, John Murphy, Sheila Stone, Marie-Claire Boothman, Sue Corcoran, Andreina Scott, Sheila Richardson, Julie Brazil, Ann-Marie Morrin, John Collins, Marie Varley, Carl Doran, Gerry O’Mahony, Nuala O’Sullivan and associate member Joanna Hopkins make up Contact Studios. For more information on their work and Contact Studios check out the blog on www.contactstudios.wordpress.com, find them on Facebook or email [email protected]


PROCESS 32Process 32 is the title of an exhibition organised by 3rd Year students of the Painting Department at Limerick School of Art and Design

(LIT). The show will take place at Shannon Rowing Club, Sarsfield Bridge, Limerick from May 17th to May 19th, 2012.

PROCESS 32STUDENT STATSProcess 32 refers to the collaborative process which students engaged with in order to organise and curate this show. The group invited Nuala O’ Sullivan, an MA by Research student in Fine Art, at LSAD, to help them curate the show and to facilitate discussions which formulated the ideas examined within a diverse range of work. The reference to Process in the title is also reflective of the variety of research activity which takes place within the studio throughout the year. This is where ideas are tested out, explored, challenged and reconsidered. Students develop research through examining aspects of Contemporary Art Practice and this has influenced the use of a range of media in the exhibition, including painting, photography, sculpture, drawing and video.

The number 32 indicates the number of students involved whilst giving a sense of the breadth and diversity of ideas which they have engaged

with. The exhibition attempts to explore ideas concerning remembrance, antiquity, humour, notions of public and private architectural space, land and identity, music, celebrity status, location, light and text. The exhibition is free to view and will be open daily between 1pm and 6pm.

The Opening reception will take place on Thursday, may 17th at 6pm.Occupy Paper sent the 3rd year painting class some questionnaires which they kindly answered so we could make this piece. With the responses we hoped to give a general overview of the class in terms of taste and opinion-the artists they admire, what they’re reading, why they went to Art College and what comes next. In the run up to their end of year exhibition, here’s our attempt to (apologies) ‘paint a picture’ of the class of 2013...


Under a list of ‘perfect’ artists come;

Michael Borremans,Lucien Freud,Susan Rothenberg,Rembrandt,Peter Doig,Lucian Freud,Rothko,Pipilotti Rist,& Caravaggio

Some of what they read;

Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard,Aftershock Kieran Cashell,Blasphemy- art that offends S. Brent Plate,The Artist’s Studio John Lavery,A Thousand Years Damien Hirst& The Sacred Prostitute Nancy Qualls-Corbett.

Did your parents encourage you to go to Art College?

Yes 63%37% No

The Angel of the North features among artworks members of the class wish they’d made. The list also includes;

Fate of the Animals by Franz Marc,Christina’s World by Andrew Wyeth,Paintings,Bohemia by the Sea by Kiefer,The Little Dancer by Degas,& Harvest in Provence by Van Gogh.

Do they feel that the media that they work with should represent our present day?

Most of the class said NO 45%With the rest divided between YES and DEPENDS 22.5% each

How many work alongside studying?

33% Work67% Don’t

Do you think being a fine artist is a viable career?

56% of the class answered YES33% agree that this is possible SOMETIMES1% said NO

Should Art be socially engaged?/Is your work socially engaged?

Yes 33%/ Yes 28%No 22%/ No 72%Depends 45%

Should art address political issues?

YES 38%NO 12%DEPENDS 50%

A majority 89% of this class plan on being practicing artists after leaving college

Why did you decide to go to Art College?

a. I want to teach/lecture 22%b. I want to develop my skills in order to become a practicing artist 67%c. Other (explain) I Art therapy 11%

Warhol or Banksy?

67% : 33%

Caravaggio or Hirst?71% : 28%(1% answered “not fair”)

Freud or Pollock?77% : 22%

Painting or Photograph?89% : 11%

Modern Painters or Art forum?77% : 23%

Printed Project or Afterall?33% : 67%

Institutional gallery or artist-run space?

44% said artist-run space. Here’s why:

-It seems more free-Because it obviously allows more freedom for the artists to show exactly what they want although I do think Institutional Galleries play an important role in promotion of artists internationally-It’s important for artists to look after their own interests

12% said Institutional gallery because:

-There would be too many egos in an artist’s run space

44% chose both:

-I think intuitional galleries are financially supported and this is important in having great works and exhibitions. Artist- run are good to see contemporary work and have personal contact with a working artist. Also they can be in interesting places-As both serve two very different purposes-Why Limit-Both have their benefits

How often do you attend events and exhibitions at Occupy Space on average a year?

a. Never 11%b. Occasionally 78%c. Regularly 11%

Only 33% intend to join an artist’s studio when they leave college


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