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REDISCOVERING LOCALITY 09
artTRAIL
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CONTACT & CONTENTS
ArtTrail YMCA Building, 11/12 Marlboro Street,
Cork.
The following pages contain visual responses, reminders, and
representations of works and events presented as part of ArtTrail in 2009.
For best results, use with the 2009 festival catalogue. No maps required.
www.arttrail.ie [email protected] &
CONTRIBUTEUse the contact page on the website to send your comments or reviews of
any event or project.Contributions will be addedto a public blog on the site.
RESEARCH &DEVELOPMENT
REDISCOVERING LOCALITY
FINAL REVIEW
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INDEX
6. INTRODUCTION
7. RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT 10. V FOR VIDEO 12. SOUNDWAVE 2: A CONVERGENCE
15. REDISCOVERING LOCALITY16. VENUE PREPARATION19. PROJECTS 21. MOLLY MISHkAS 22. JOANNE COLLINS 23. LISA DALTON 24. AMANDA DUNSMORE 25. PETER MCMORRIS 26. DANNY HOLCROFT 27. JUzA WONGkUMMAD 28. LA SOCIETE DES AMIS DU CRIME (PAUL HEGARTY & VICkY LANGAN) 29. FIONA kELLY AND AMANDA RICE 30. CONTAINER PROJECTS STEPHEN MCGLYNN 31. OPEN SHUTTER 32. ALbERTO PERAL 33. MARIANNE kEATING 34. FAY HUTCHINSON 35. ALLANAH bYRNE 36. REDISCOVERING LOCALITY A SONOLOGY OF CORk SOUND ART + 37. ADHAM FARAMAWY
39. OPEN STUDIOS 40. bASEMENT PROJECT SPACE 41. ALAN JAMES bURNS 42. MONIQUE bESTENS 43. THE bARN GALLERY 44. CATHY MURRAY 45. CORk COMMUNITY ARTLINk 46. GLEbE HOUSE 48. CORk PRINTMAkERS 49. CUIG 50. CORA MURPHY 51. OUTLAW STUDIOS 52. ORCHARD ARTS 53. TREVOR GORING 54. TOM CAMPbELL 55. TOMA MCCULLIM 57. WALkS 58. kNEE JERk 59. DANNY HOLCROFT 60. DAVID bLANDY 61. OLIVER FLEXMAN
65. TALKS & WORKSHOPS 66. GUERRILLA GARDENING 70. EYE & MIND 71. SLACk SPACES 74. REVIEW - FIONA FULLAM
FINAL REVIEW
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What precisely is “locality” and why is it only now being “rediscovered”? Are we to understand that it has somehow been recently ignored, overlooked,
unseen, lost or hiding and therefore in need of being uncovered, unearthed, made visible, audible, palpable. In the march towards globalisation, has
the local become marginalised? And if so, what steps can be taken to undo this amnesia? Rediscovering implies that though locality may have been temporarily forgotten, that it nonetheless always existed and exists,
needing only new recognition. Locality is rooted in time and space. It literally refers to the position of a thing, to the place where it is, but has come to be
understood as the surroundings of someone, the local surroundings of a person. These surroundings could be physical: landmarks, buildings, streets,
fields, monuments; or temporal: folklore, memory, history, dialect, tradition. These spatial and temporal elements however, must be bound together
in order to constitute a locality. A building or dialect is local insofar as it is familiar, absorbed into the communal (local) psyche. This is how locality is
presently perceived. It is unlikely even so, that the people who are local to a particular time and space, need reacquainting with that sphere. Rather it is the relationship with the concept of locality, of belongingness, of familiarity and community in general which needs to be explored. Furthermore while
a rediscovering of a particular, isolated locality might not be seen to have a broader significance, it is how connections are made between the local, the
relevance of the local and a wider audience, which is here of interest. The wider audience is after all made up of individuals, who each also belong to
a greater or lesser extent in a locality, who each can identify with a sense of belonging, or a yearning to belong. It is how this acknowledging of the
importance of locality is explored, emphasised or teased out, which makes it necessary.
Locality is a constantly shifting construct however: buildings go up and come down; roads are extended, straightened; dialects evolve or die out; memories
are replaced; and history, always a fragile, splintering construct, only exists at all, insofar as it is accepted by a number of people. Locality therefore implies a here and now. One has to be there, in it, living it, absorbing it,
fuelling it, creating it, making connections between the self and the space, the environment one occupies. Equally it is true, that locality can only exist insofar as there are places, spaces, which are not local, which are strange or unfamiliar. Without the other, there can be no self. Self exists only in its
relationship to other. Locality exists only in its relationship to not local. It is this dialectic, which allows the investigation, the “rediscovery” of locality to emerge
as having a global importance. Looking in is not possible without alooking out.
A looking out and a looking in, a drawing in, making connections, making familiar, making local, rediscovering locality.
Fiona Fullam, October 2009
As ArtTrail Writer In Residence 2009, Fiona will be writing a regular blog on the ArtTrail website - see www.arttrail.ie Selected as Writer-in-Residence for the 2009 festival, Fiona published a series of reports on the ArtTrail website
during the festival. Read her comprehensive review on p74.
INTRODUCTIONRediscovering Locality
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Take a bow!The arts really matter to us in Ireland; they are a big part of people’s lives, the country’s single most popular pursuit. Our artists interpret our past, define who we are today, and imagine our future. We can all take pride in the enormous reputation our artists have earned around the world.
The arts play a vital role in our economy, and smart investment of taxpayers’ money in the arts is repaid many times over. The dividends come in the form of a high value, creative economy driven by a flexible, educated, innovative work force, and in a cultural tourism industry worth a5 billion a year.
The Arts Council is the Irish Government agency for funding and developing the arts. Arts Council funding from the taxpayer, through the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, for 2009 is a75 million, that’s about a1 a week for every household.
So, at the end of your next inspirational encounter with the arts, don’t forget the role you played and take a bow yourself!
Find out what’s on at:
www.events.artscouncil.ieYou can find out more about the arts here:
www.artscouncil.ie
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ARTTRAIL OPENING NIGHTDJenerate
SAVOY THEATRE
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RESEARCH&
DEVELOPMENTA Research & Development strand was initiated in 2009, to present standalone events during the year focussed on different areas of artistic practice, separate to the festival while aiming to support and expand it’s scope. The events proved
valuable ways to give a more dedicated presentation in one artform, thereby revealing the breadth of exploration, experimentation, and development within it.
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V FOR VIDEO VENUE: 23rd - 25th April 2009. VENUES:
Henchy’s, The LV, The Roundy, TomBarry’s, Bradley’s.
V FOR VIDEO was an exhibition specifically designed to highlight the
importance of video in the work of Cork artists (as well as Irish artists in general) by presenting examples in a surprising context: Cork pubs.
The concept of this exhibition, devised with a view to reaching sections of the public that might
not normally frequent art venues or events, allowed for the inclusion
of a telling, if far from exhaustive, variety of video work. As well as
stylistic diversity - encompassing performance, documentary,
animation, flicker, found footage and
other approaches - V For Video put works by established artists next to talented emerging artists and recent art school graduates. The
collaboration of Cork Film Centre in curating the programme reflects this organisation’s ongoing intervention
in Cork videomaking through its commitment to helping video artists
bridge the difficult gap between college and into professional practice.
This involves not only collapsing the distance between professional
and appropriately accomplished entry-level work, but also causing outstanding Cork-made video to
circulate alongside work created in a broader national (and, in other projects, international) context. The
bringing together of uncommonly diverse artists with an unusual
audience was a goal much in keeping with Cork Film Centre’s ongoing
aims.
- Max Le Cain, Cork Film Centre.
V for Video was presented inassociation with Cork Film Centre.
www.corkfilmcentre.com
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“Event Poster”IN CORk PUbS
“Event Poster”IN CORk PUbS
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SOUNDWAVE 2: A CONVERGENCE
12th September 2009, Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh.
The wave carries, as sound carries. Frequencies without destination, but
that end somewhere nonetheless. Where better than the harbour to
hear the sounds play out, washing over and against us? ‘Soundwave 2’
represented a long–delayed return of an event to the Sirus Arts centre, five years to be precise. The space is perfect for almost abstract sound to fill. The building frames the water
and the endless movement of and on the water. For the day of the event,
this all worked as frame for torrents of sound, and the sounds, in turn,
worked as frame for the exterior. Cork is home to a great deal of
sound art activity, and collaborative events are the lifeblood. Sound art
divides, roughly, into installations and performances, but both aspire to occupy space with sound that is somehow not quite music, though
the experience for the listener and performer alike is of something
musical. If that seems an arcane distinction, then to clarify, what I mean is that sound art does not start from the same materials or
presumptions that music has worked with for much of its history in the
West: it looks to detritus (material and sonic), to the potential of
electronics and electrical circuits, to noisy machines and improvised
clusters of things that might be notes, but often are not. Sound art is environmental – and the listener is like the obserever of a quantum
experiment – it is they who will make it musical, make it an environment
they inhabit and structure rather than visit.
Sound art takes much of its material from the non-musical world,
including field recordings that bring
the world into musicality. Sound art is almost about music, in that it leaves music only to refresh it on returning. Somewhere near sound art is noise
– not noises, but a structuring of sounds that ends up as noise, yet somehow also music. Noise goes
against music, but is bound to it. Similarly, it is not quite on the same path as sound art, whilst it can be a part of it. Noise is what is kept out, not welcomed into musicality. The noise environment is one that the
listener is made to inhabit rather than choosing to reside in it. And yet it
happens in the same place music, or indeed sound art, happens. And
this is both metaphorical and literal, because the worlds of sound art and noise do not exclude each other but
tug at one another flirtatiously. In ‘Soundwave 2’, a host of sounds that never lived in the machines we
normally think of as instruments came into the air. These sounds
had fled from the ‘real world’, transformed, or, surfaced blinking
into the coastal light from digital or electrical circuitry. Or, again,
they were coaxed from reverbative objects. Still others came from
throats, recombined electrically. In the midst of all this emergence,
voices imposed two moments of rational discourse, for a moment re-asserting the order of things, only to
merge into the soundworld. Paul Hegarty, 2010
SoundWave2 was curated by Paul Hegarty and Danny McCarthy,
presented in association with The Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, Co. Cork.
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“Event Poster”
“Performance”kEVIN TOUHY
“Talk on ‘Noise/Silence’ “FRANCIS HALSALL
“Performance”TONY LANGLOIS
Photos: Anthony Kelly / David Stalling
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ARTTRAIL FESTIVAL
REDISCOVERING LOCALITY
200912 - 22 November
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VENUE PREPARATION“Window Display”
JEFFERS bUILDING
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VENUE PREPARATION“Sound Sculpture space”JEFFERS bUILDING
VENUE PREPARATION“Sound Sculpture space”JEFFERS bUILDING
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VENUE PREPARATIONLooking out onto Patricks Quay
JEFFERS bUILDING
VENUE PREPARATIONJuza WongkummadJEFFERS bUILDING
VENUE PREPARATIONStephen McGlynn
JEFFERS bUILDING
Photos: Kevin Touhy
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PROJECTSArtTrail aims to support thedevelopment and presentation ofsite-responsive work, in a rangeof locations and contexts.PROJECTS includes proposalsselected from an Open Call, andcollaborations with partnerorganisations. In 2009, selectionwas made by the Board ofDirectors of ArtTrail.
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OPENINGS:ArtTrail Opening Event at the
SAVOY Theatre - featuring LisaDalton, Molly Mishkas, JoanneCollins, and Adham Faramawy
with PlugD DJs.
THE kITCHEN TAbLE: by Amanda Rice and Fiona
kelly
Photos: Kevin Touhy
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EXTRACT FROM WHICH TEXT? on aesthetic potential, for the framing of my subterraneous interventions. Since I had my head down a hole, I never knew what was going to happen. Luckily serendipity held my hand, as the wind whistled around places unmentionable.
MOLLY MISHkAS‘HELEN’ 2 Channel Video Installation with text SAVOY THEATRE
“Helen”THE SAVOY THEATRE
Photos: Molly Mishkas
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Photos: Kevin Touhy
After kurt Schwitters’‘Ursonata’Performance
SAVOY THEATRE - MEzzANINE
After kurt Schwitters’‘Ursonata’Performance
SAVOY THEATRE - MEzzANINE
JOANNE COLLINS‘After kurt Schwitters’ ‘Ursonata’’
PerformanceSAVOY THEATRE - MEzzANINE
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Image provided by: Lisa Dalton
“Celestial Cobwebs”VIDEO STILL
LISA DALTON‘Celestial Cobwebs’’Single channel videoSAVOY THEATRE - MEzzANINE
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AMANDA DUNSMORE‘Head in a whole Woman’
Public interventions edited to single channel videoNO. 10, PATRICk’S QUAY
In June 2008 I found a hole in a rural road and put my head in it. I became
intrigued by the simple visual metaphor of this act.
The subsequent video and photographic material gathered from
repeating this action has fuelled my artistic inquiry since that event. This inquiry involves exploring how
different locations create different contexts. The moment of production
is a integral element of this artistic process.
In Cork, for ArtTrail, a small tour took place, viewing locations. Then I stuck my head in various holes, found and made around the city. The sites were
selected on aesthetic potential, for the framing of my subterraneous
interventions. Since I had my head down a hole, I never knew what was going to happen. Luckily serendipity held my hand, as the wind whistled
around places unmentionable.
Website: lit.ie/dunsmore Video: headinawholewoman.blip.tv
Blog: headinahole.blogspot.com
Photo: Kevin Touhy
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PETER MCMORRIS ‘UNTITLED’MDF, Fiberglass, Rsin, Paint; Silkscreen on PerspexNO. 10, PATRICk’S QUAY
“Detail from Print Work”JEFFERS bUILDING
“Sculpture”JEFFERS bUILDING
Photos: Kevin Touhy
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“Directions by Public”JEFFERS bUILDING
“Installation view”JEFFERS bUILDING
“Directions by Public”JEFFERS bUILDING
Danny Holcroft‘Getting Lost ‘
Mixed MediaCORk CITY
Photos: Kevin Touhy
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Juza was one of two recipients of the 2009 ArtTrail Graduate Award. His work was selected for its technical innovation, cohesiveness and visual language.
“Detail”JEFFERS bUILDING
“Detail”JEFFERS bUILDING
“Detail”JEFFERS bUILDING
Juza Wongkummad ‘Sound Sculptures’Mixed MediaNO. 10, PATRICk’S QUAY
Photos: Kevin Touhy
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“Visitor information at site”RED AbbEY
“Paul Hegarty & Vicky Langan”RED AbbEY
“Remains of Red Abbey”RED AbbEY
LA SOCIETE DES AMIS DU CRIME
(Paul Hegarty & Vicky Langan) ‘The Empty zone’
Live performance of recorded and generated sounds RED AbbEY, OFF DOUGLAS STREET
Photos: Kevin Touhy
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“A message about something”JEFFERS bUILDING
“A message about something”JEFFERS bUILDING
“A message about something”JEFFERS bUILDING
FIONA kELLY & AMANDA RICE‘The kitchen Table’Performance Installation 19 NICHOLAS STREET
Photos: Kevin Touhy
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CONTAINER PROJECTSCurated by Sarah Iremonger in association with ArtTrail, Stephen McGlynn
and Open Shutter developed projects in shipping containers located at the Port of Cork. Generously supported by The Port of Cork Company
A reflective consideration of any live project is a vital thing. Much of what
is learned by way of this process tells you more about the nature of
yourself and the nature of you’re work than you can hope to learn in
it’s absence. For my live project which ran over the weekdays of arttrail I
hoped to conduct a place in which stories could be brought or left at the
discretion of the viewer, something I quickly learned was unlikely to
happen , a realisation which changed the project into a more performative space. Greeting people and talking
them through my intentions became
an essential part of my process and the stories that were generated took
on a much more singular quality than i had originally set out to produce.
The stories became my stories, reflected through the conversations i conducted with those who agreed to participate. The stories became
something that were left in my charge by people who became comfortable
enough with both me and the space. I am grateful to those who were
generous enough to engage with this process and who left some of themselves for others to see. It is rare in these times that we leave
ourselves exposed or open. Stephen McGlynn,
January 2010”
STEPHEN MCGLYNN Mapping Project
Mixed Media SHIPPING CONTAINER AT PORT OF CORk
Photo: Stephen McGlynn
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“Untitled”Video projectionMARLbOROR ST
“Constructing the camera”Shipping ContainerPORT OF CORk
OPEN SHUTTER Medium: Camera Obscura in shipping container; Video projection on Marlboro Street. PORT OF CORK; MARLBORO STREET
A hole drilled in the side of a container converted it into a live observer of it’s surroundings, looking north, East and West. Photographers group OPEN SHUTTER also projected a series of images of often overlooked details in the City onto a wall at Marlboro Street / Oliver Plunkett Street.
Photos: Kevin Touhy
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ALbERTO PERAL Cement, plastic.
ALbERT QUAY
Thanks to the Port of Cork, and NSF for their assistance.
Photos: Kevin Touhy
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MARIANNE kEATING‘Paper’Screenprinted wallpaper and vinyl stickers. MERCHANTS QUAY SHOPPING CENTRE, PATRICk’S STREET
“Installation view”PATRICk ST
“Installation view”PATRICk ST
Photos: Marianne Keating
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“Framed Cases’CITY CENTRE
“Framed Cases’CITY CENTRE
“Framed Cases’CITY CENTRE
FAY HUTCHINSON Digital reprints of paintings, in found frames and menu cases
CITY CENTRE
Photos: Fay Hutchinson
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ALLANAH bYRNE LESSON 1, PLAN 268
Mixed Media installation THE SPACE, 7 SOUTH MALL
“?’THE SPACE
“?’THE SPACE
“?’THE SPACE
Alannah Byrne was one of two recipients of the 2009 ArtTrail Graduate Award. In a timely partnership with Cork Contemporary Projects, Alannah was given their project room/gallery “The Space” to make a new installation.
Photos: Kate O’ Brien
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REDISCOVERING LOCLITY
A new full length audio CD curated by Danny Mc Carthy which forms a ‘sonic polaroid’ of the current sound art/improvisation scene in Cork city, Ireland. Contributors include John Godfrey, SAFE, Quiet Music Ensemble,
Kevin Tuohy, Christian Carley, The Quiet Club (with Mathias Forge) and many others.
“Listening Globally Playing Locally“ could form a subtitle of this collection,
as there are at least seven different nationalities involved, and yet it forms a comprehensive “Sonic Polaroid” of the current sound art/improvisation scene in Cork City, Ireland, at this
point in time. A time when the scene has never been more vibrant or
creative, this CD brings together established and emerging artists,
each exploring different aspects of Sound as a medium, with work crossing over most contemporary
genres from noise to electro acoustic
and all the genres and sub genres in between.
When curating this collection for Art Trail Festival, whose overall
theme this year was “Rediscovering Locality”, I took a radical step in
not selecting the works but in only selecting the artists. The artists
selected the works that they themselves wanted to present. I
feel my faith in the artists has been justified. It is worth mentioning that
over the years there have been various compilations of the city’s
music from jazz to rock and folk to punk but never one to document
the artists of the city whose type of work this CD presents. It is to Art Trail’s credit that this initiative has
been taken at last. There has been a long tradition of sound related work in Cork, where pioneering festivals have brought some of the leading
sound artists in the world to the city. Hopefully this CD will go some small way towards making this city’s artists
listened to elsewhere.
Danny Mc CarthyCurator
CD, featuring artwork by Harry Moore, available from
www.farpointrecordings.ie
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ADHAM FARAMAWY 4-channel video and audio installationTRISkEL, ESb SUbSTATION, CITY CENTRE PRESENTED bY ‘THE bLACk MARIAH’
It’s not often that an exhibition by an artist I’ve previously never heard of stops me in my tracks and holds me entranced. But Adham Faramawy’s exhibition did. Utilising a disused electricity power station, The Black Mariah, who run the best curated project in Cork and who staged this exhibition, enhanced the concerns that Faramawy has around the dissemination of knowledge, religion and aesthetics. Across 4 screens, images flickered and danced in the gloom of the barren space that somehow tapped into
the energy psyche still inherent in this building. The sonic architecture of each film overlapped and a cacophony of fucked up beats, chanting, distorted metal guitars and screaming immersed the viewer. These psychedelic images shifted from Sufi theology and ritual to Aleister Crowley and sexually charged geometric ecstasies. Contemporary cultural references are difficult, but I was mesmerised by hints of Sonic Youth noise, Jonathan Meese’s performative actions and Chris Morris’s linguistic subversion.
Clearly Faramawy is interested in the fulfilment of total sensory escape, seeking to attain a sense of the “other”. His fusion of many different sources, from culture to allegory and the fantastical is truly wonderful. Faramawy will be one of the key artists of the 21st century and Cork is lucky to have been a destination on his journey to greatness.
Eamonn Maxwell Director Lismore Castle Arts
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ADAM FARAMAWY“Installation view”
TRISkEL @ ESb SubstationCAROLINE ST
www.mariahtheblack.blogspot.com/
Photo: Mike Hannon
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OPENSTUDIOS
The OPEN STUDIOS strandis the foundation of the festival,
offering an insightful look into theusually private world of the artist’s
studio, through tours, formal and informal talks, workshops, and
exhibitions.
Participation is open to all artists working in the city, and in 2009 this
was extended out into the county. For this review, artists were asked to
contribute images or text documenting activities during the festival.
Images and texts in this section are provided by the artists involed unless otherwise specified.
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bASEMENT PROJECT SPACE
1 CAMDEN PLACE, CAMDEN [email protected]!
www.basementprojectspace.wordpress.com
Basement Project Space is an independent artist-led initiative
located on Camden Place, Camden Quay, Cork city. The space itself
consists of a Project/Exhibition area, designated common area, artist
studios and a Media Lab. There are currently 6 members involved in this project: Rachel
McDonnell, Colm Madden, Paul Maguire, Lorraine McDonnell, Claire
Murphy and Stephanie Hough. The aim for Basement Project
Space is to offer an alternative interdisciplinary visual art space as a means to engage in current
contemporary dialogue between practitioner, practice and viewer,
and to bring divergent artistic disciplines to a wider audience in
Cork City and beyond. To do this we are endeavoring to host an array of contemporary artists, creative
thinkers and multifarious creative practitioners, giving them a platform
through an open-ended program of exhibitions and experimental
collaborative projects. BPS involvement in ArtTrail 09’:
As part of ArtTrail 09’ BPS held an open call for proposals which broadly
considered and responded to ideas
concerning “Locality”, for a three week residency, with concluding
exhibition. The two selected artists were Alan
James Burns (IRL) and Monique Besten (NL).
Their aptly titled joint exhibiton ‘Relocating Discovery’, was the first
public event at BPS. Since ArtTrail 09’ Basement Project
Space has developed a program including weekly Reading Group
and Film Night, and monthly events such as ‘The Toilet Lightbox’ and ‘The Podium’. They also hosted
an experimental exhibition by
Cian McConn in December and musicians-in-residence The Jitney
Trio for four performances throughout the month of January.
Basement Project Space have a whole host of projects and exhibitions
lined up for 2010. BPS members would like to take this
opportunity to thank the Board of ArtTrail for their support for this event which would have otherwise been the
poorer for it. Thanks also to everyone who has
supported our endeavors, you make us strong!
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bPS - ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - ALAN JAMES bURNS‘The answer will follow shortly’Single channel PowerPoint presentation, 9’20’’
Without Injuring Eternity, Three channel mini DV video, Looped. Burns’s work, created throughout the residency, looked at the presence of conditioned thoughts within the consciousness. The work explores the social circumstances of spaces and situations, within cork city, where conditioned thoughts are challenged by time - from derelict holding cells and asylums to supplied entertainment at the local social welfare office. Alan James Burns works in video, creating single and multi-channel
non-plot video works incorporating self-contained video narratives of expressive, highly charged activities and video segments documenting psychologically shared social aggravations of acceptance, expectations and the conditioned thought. - Alan James Burns, 2010
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bPS - ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - MONIQUE
bESTENS ‘Chewing Gum World & Walking Amsterdam in Cork’
CITY CENTRE
“Some people read their future in the stars: I see my present in the old chewing gum bits.Some people say you have to look up at the sky. I would say don’t forget to look at yourfeet.“Although there are two installations they seem to be one, connected by the footsteps of Monique Besten. The Dutch artist walked her way around Cork and you can hear it the moment you enter the project space. The sound of two feet walking comes out of a monitor, “lying” on the ground It shows two legs in a continuous movement. When you look at the
monitor it almost feels as if they are your legs. Where are they going to? The maps on the wall show the route. It runs through the centre of Cork and forms the word “Amsterdam”, the hometown of the artist.When you look up from the monitor your gaze encounters another street scene. The whole ceiling is turned into some sort of crazy sidewalk, hundreds of prints cover the complete surface. Inbetween tiles and concrete there are drawings of men and women, animals and objects. The drawings have been made by drawing white lines inbetween old chewing
gum bits on the sidewalk. There’s a wolf and a man being hit by another man. A book. A drunk. A pair of lips. On the wall a huge round map, resembling a starmap, shows where the drawings can be found. And in the window there’s anothermap, here the bits of chewing gum have been turned into small holes. At daytime you can see the constellations from the inside of the gallery, at nighttime you can see them from the street.The titles of the drawings are universal and poetic but refer to contemporary local life as
well. The “woman holding a heavy weight”, “the fool” and “the man with the big heart” don’t just inhabit the world of Monique Besten but are out there in the real world as well. And sometimes these worlds miraculously overlap. Only days after she drew “the weeping lady” in a street leading towards the River Lee this same river flooded the city ofCork.www.moniquebesten.nl- Monique Bestens, 2010
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THE bARN GALLERY Gallery and studio of Sheila Hooks.DRIMOLEAGUE, CO. CORk
Main HouseDRIMOLEAGUE
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CATHY MURRAY‘An Exhibition’
13 RICHMOND HILL
“Details of works and the Studio”
Richmond Hill
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CORk COMMUNITY ARTLINk ‘Exhibition from “What if...’107 SHANDON ST, CORk
ArtLink CentreSHANDON ST
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GLEbE HOUSE Glebe Art Studios
ballinadee, bandon
Niamh Lucey’s dreamy compositions Ceo and Bogland, are evocative of the early morning mists on the river. Her earthy browns and pale sky greys capture the essence of that elusive place where water meets earth. Her compositions are peaceful yet full of movement capturing a sense of quiet timelessness.Helle Hellsner’s Bronzes exude noble stillness; they stand comfortably observing the world. Helle is an expert Bronze Caster, using prehistoric methods, and was recently invited to New Mexico to take part in an international conference. Her figures are compact and full of personality.Her nudes on canvas, grouped in threes or fives overlap each other comfortably, their perceived calmness implying patient waiting. We appear to be viewing them
from below which elongates their legs and lower torsos, and gives the impression of looking up. Small amounts of vibrant colour contrast with the blackness of Indian ink contributing to a contemporary vision of the Classical theme. Gill Good’s abstract landscapes, ‘till my glory passes by’, are contemporary visualisations of ancient texts. As the series develops the images become an emotional response to the text, an imagining. Texture is built up using knife with impasso paint occasionally scored to reveal the hidden layers of former drafts. The ambiguous ethereal forms, and use of tertiary colour, are an interpretation of the re-visualised image. Jane Skovgaard’s life drawings are brimming with spontaneity and good humour. Her series of sketches captures the personality of her
model, from restless impatience to motionless resignation. Her large female nudes have a burlesque theme, could they have arrived like Mark Twain on a River Boat? Their large personalities are hardly contained by the paper, one can nearly hear them giggling at some private joke.Stefan Syrowatka’s images include both seascapes and landscapes, and are engaged with space and distance. His yachts on the horizon sail slowly by. The dappled grey pony observes us while we observe him, as equals. The textures of cloud formations and wave patterns are contrasted with panoramic views of emptiness. Lonely cliff top fences, skutch grass bent in the ceaseless wind, lead the eye to the edge. Imagination fills in the rest. He is the observer behind the lens, detached from, yet of the moment.
Kevin O’Neill of Savage Film Productions showed two shorts, including his international award-winning film My Ball. Beautiful shots of the River Bandon add to the atmosphere of this poignant film. Ed Godsel amused us with some of his comedy shorts, including The Lump and his award-winning film Mullet. Donogh MacCarthy-Morrogh, of Stormlight Film & TV Productions, showed Tunnel, directed by Patrick O’Shea which was shown at Cork Film Festival 2009. The Wrong Turn, directed by Donogh is a thought provoking story of the reality of life for some young people living in inner-city Cork. We were also treated to a preview of The Timekeeper, a feature length film which Stormlight are presently working on and which will be released in the spring. Report by Gill Good, December 2009
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DONOGH MACARTHY-MORROGH“Tunnel”STORMLIGHT FILM & TV PROD
HELLE HELLSNER’S“bronzes”
STEFAN SYROWATkA“Oil Paintings”
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CORk PRINTMAkERS ‘Open week’
WANDESFORD QUAY, CLARkES bRIDGE, CORkWWW.CORkPRINTMAkERS.IE
Print Making StudioCLARkES bRIDGE
Print Making StudioCLARkES bRIDGE
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CUIG ‘Artists in residence studios’MAYFIELD COMMUNITY ARTS CENTRE, OLD YOUGHAL RD, CORkWWW.MAYFIELDARTS.ORG
“Artist brid Heffernan, member of the CUIG group”MAYFILED COMMUNITY ARTS CENTRE
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CORA MURPHYAbove Singer Sewing Centre
WASHINGTON STREET, CORk.WWW.CORAMURPHY.COM
‘Returning’ landscapeWASHINGTON ST
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OUTLAW STUDIOS UNIT P8 MARINA COMMERCIAL PARk, CENTRE PARk RD, CORk
Out of time, out of town, out of fashion, out of sight, the Outlaw studios host a mixture of mature artists and young graduates, mostly painters, with the exception of one sculptor and a rock band. Located in one of the original buildings of the old Ford factory
(the first assembly line to be built in Europe in the late 1920s), this historic space was discovered in 2006 by Cliff Dolliver who cleared it, room by room, of tons of builders’ waste accumulated there over decades. Although we hold exhibitions in the
communal area, the Outlaw studios are more a working space than a public venue, owing to technical and legal constraints. Our aim in the near future is to address this problem, improve the gallery and make it more accessible to the general public.
‘Inside the studio’MARINA COMMERCIAL PARk
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ORCHARD ARTS Studio of Elaine Garde and Michael Ray
FOLEYS LANE, WHITES CROSS, CORkWWW.GLITTERINGGLASS.COM
The StudioWHITES CROSS
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TREVOR GORING Ongoing ExhibitionWOODSGIFT, WESTERN RD, CORkWWW.IMAGESOFJUSTICE.COM
from ‘The Golden bough’WESTERN RD, CORk
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TOM CAMPbELL Talk, Workshop, Training
35 PRINCESS ST, TOP FLOOR, AbOVE DAWSONS TRAVELWWW.TOMCAMPbELLART.COM
Tom Campbell
“Detail of work on found book”
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TOMA MCCULLIM Open HouseTHE OLD PAROCHIAL HOUSE, WATERGRASSHILL, CORk
‘Recalling’WATERGRASSHILL, CORk
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Derives - A series of Psychogeographic Walks - was programmed by new ArtTrail director Chris Clarke. These walks, led by artists and artist collectives, intended to investigate the city from a range of artistic, historical and psychogeographicalperspectives, re-examining the urban environment through subjective experiences, narrative explorations and conceptual approaches. Three of the walks were part of larger projects.
WALKS
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Photos: Kevin Touhy
kNEE JERk Orienteering Event
bASE CAMP, SHARMAN CRAWFORD ST, CORk CITY
“First Prize winner”
“The Map”
“base Camp”
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A group of strangers were taken with the artist by taxi, all blindfolded, to a random location a few miles from the starting point, then hadto find a way back.
Photos: Kevin Touhy
DANNY HOLCROFT Guided Tour - ‘Getting Lost’AROUND CORk CITY
“Posing”CITY CENTRE
“Reading Map”CITY SUbURbS
“Directions Framed”JEFFERS bUILDING
“Taxi ride”CITY CENTRE
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Photos: Chris Clarke
DAVID bLANDY ‘The Soul of Cork’
JEFFERS, 10 PATRICkS QUAY
‘Playing back’CHARITY SHOP
‘Playing back’VIbES AND SCRIbES
‘Searching for records’PLUGD RECORDS
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OLIVER FLEXMAN Part of DérivesCORk CITY
‘Guided tours’CITY SURROUNDINGS
Photos: Kevin Touhy
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‘IT’S NOT WHERE I AM THAT STAYS WITH ME’
REVIEW OF OLIVER FLEXMAN GEMMA CAROLL 2009 (ORIGINALLY PUbLISHED IN OH, FRANCIS,
ISSUE 4, WINTER 2009)
At stop eleven the sign said: ‘From Here in Amsterdam you can see canal boats, An Aboriginal Art Gallery, and a shop selling lace curtains”. Our
journey had been a success, like good scavengers we had found (nearly) every poster. The one participant familiar with the city of Amsterdam knew
where the Aboriginal Art Gallery was and suddenly, at least in her eyes, this geographical puzzle began to take shape. My own wayfaring, travelling and talking, these lines of wondering and communication, also seemed to come to an appropriate end. As we walked we talked, and meandering along our
route, Danny Holcroft, an artist leading another of these Dérives, and I found ourselves immersed in conversation about Aboriginal songlines and now we
were stood behind the ‘Peace Park’ in Cork outside the Aboriginal Art Gallery in Amsterdam.
Today I got lost in the abundant familiarity of my home city, not in the sense that I no longer knew where I was going, instead, where I was going changed. ‘It’s Not Where I am that Stays With Me’ is part of Art Trails Dérives or Psycho-
Geographical Walks in Cork City. The artists behind this particular project are a collective, Combination City, with special thanks and consideration to
Maile Yamanaka and Oliver Flexman. Composed of activists, urbanists,
artists and architects, who work between the UK and the Netherlands,
their work revolves around a comparison of how cities construct
space. In this instance posters were placed strategically around Cork
City describing the corresponding spots in Amsterdam, the reverse
will take place in Amsterdam in the coming months. The idea being that the unlabeled maps from each city
can be laid on top of one another to construct the same visceral journey
but plotting it through a familiar physical landscape that evokes
another imagined, but nonetheless, real place. As with embarking on any
journey, nerves rose to the surface, where was I going? Map in hand, the position of the twelve posters
were plotted, and as we had no leader per se, actively, as a group we began to find our way through
the city. The influence of Guy Debord and Situationalist ideas of psycho-
geography are flagged in the title of the series but the relevance of how situations are created, particularly, how the city creates situations and
spaces, is still pertinent. At each point along the route two posters are displayed, perhaps displayed
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the wrong verb, in some cases they only revealed themselves after much searching. Poster one declared: ‘At this point in Amsterdam there is a busy bridge that I cross everyday’ and at nearly every stop the other sign said: ‘This Walk Isn’t Working’, which begs the question how does a walk work? Coincidentally, I found myself in the minority as one of the only Corkonians in the mix of Dubs, Scottish, Austrians, Germans, Canadians, and Belgians; I also had the most trouble following the map. At stop two we see: ‘From here in Amsterdam you can see Luxury Loft Apartments and a shop selling
cheese to American Tourists’ and stop three became the missing link in this escapade, washed away in heavy rain. Knowing this city intimately, our voyage through this quasi-real/described city brought into sharp focus how automatic my everyday commuting had become from point A to B, so on, so forth, with no real recollection of my route. Now each poster we found was a victory and this journey through the English Market, across the main streets, and down allies I had walked, but never actually seen, made my home feel increasingly unfamiliar and an expedition around the superimposed
streets of Amsterdam ensued. Map reading is not my forte, nevertheless, this combination of the banal and the unfamiliar played havoc with my spatial awareness, before and after became here and there, as we half found, half stumbled upon the fourth poster: ‘From here you can See a Yellow Bike Shop, European Policy Research Agency, and a square with Cafes and Bars’. Trying to get my bearing outside this electrical shop on the quay I found myself perilously trying not to crash in the other inhabitants of the city and the chance, and to a large part common, obstacles of the city came
to the forefront. Getting to five, roughly the half way mark, was a little triumph, amplified by the fact we had somehow gained two new walkers along the way. Weaving our way onwards from five and out of a department store, we may or may not have chanced upon poster six. Spatially, six eluded us, however, when we found spot seven on the map, the poster said 6 of 11? Juxtaposed with this sign about a ‘Hugh Public Square’ in Amsterdam was a poster of a local missing Cork student, and the aspects of this tour, probing ‘getting lost in the unfamiliar’, took on unforeseen
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is the wrong verb, in some cases they only revealed themselves after much searching. Poster one declared: ‘At this point in Amsterdam there is a busy
bridge that I cross everyday’ and at nearly every stop the other sign said: ‘This Walk Isn’t Working’, which begs the question how does a walk work? Coincidentally, I found myself in the minority as one of the only Corkonians
in the mix of Dubs, Scottish, Austrians, Germans, Canadians, and Belgians; I also had the most trouble following the map. At stop two we see: ‘From here in Amsterdam you can see Luxury Loft Apartments and a shop selling cheese to
American Tourists’ and stop three became the missing link in this escapade, washed away in heavy rain. Knowing this city intimately, our voyage through
this quasi-real/described city brought into sharp focus how automatic my everyday commuting had become from point A to B, so on, so forth, with no
real recollection of my route. Now each poster we found was a victory and this journey through the English Market, across the main streets, and down
allies I had walked, but never actually seen, made my home feel increasingly unfamiliar and an expedition around the superimposed streets of Amsterdam
ensued. Map reading is not my forte, nevertheless, this combination of the banal and the unfamiliar played havoc with my spatial awareness, before and after became here and there, as we half found, half stumbled upon the
fourth poster: ‘From here you can See a Yellow Bike Shop, European Policy Research Agency, and a square with Cafes and Bars’. Trying to get my
bearing outside this electrical shop on the quay I found myself perilously trying not to crash in the other inhabitants of the city and the chance, and to a large
part common, obstacles of the city came to the forefront. Getting to five, roughly the half way mark, was a little triumph, amplified by the fact we had somehow gained two new walkers along the way. Weaving our way onwards from five and out of a department store, we may or may
not have chanced upon poster six. Spatially, six eluded us, however, when we found spot seven on the map, the poster said 6 of 11? Juxtaposed with
this sign about a ‘Hugh Public Square’ in Amsterdam was a poster of a local missing Cork student, and the aspects of this tour, probing ‘getting lost in
the unfamiliar’, took on unforeseen melancholic connotations. However, we perked up at poster nine, hidden behind the shutters, which told us: ‘At this
point…Hertsbole is served!’ Of course, none of use knew what Hertsbole was, but, nevertheless, it sounded good at the time. The Cork FÁS office was
transformed into a place where the ‘Occasional White Christmas is celebrated’ and our second last stop evoked quite a debate concerning what ‘Wooden
Stamps’ actually were. Since I began at the end it seems fitting to end at the beginning. The first sign
told us, that at this point in Amsterdam, was a bridge that the artist crosses everyday. The bridge, in its literal and metaphorical connotations, speaks of connections. Our whole escapade could be described as ‘crossing bridges’.
The project evoked the simultaneous spatial connection that the mass city evoked, the similarities that these two utterly different cities share, and the
contrasts they provoke. But more than that, these connections continued to multiply, as the group dynamics of our tour depended on both talking and
walking; both the lines of communication with the surrounding landscape and our fellow wayfarers drew a new map that took precedence over the original copy. Our new map, psycho-geographical you might call it, was drawn from
the juxtaposition of the imaginative and real characteristics of the city that was plotted as we got lost in the familiar and found our way through the unknown:
‘It’s Not Where I am That Stays With Me’. Gemma Carroll is a Writer and Art Historian working in Cork.
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An opportunity for sharing of ideas,knowledge, and skills among
students,emerging and established practitioners, within, across, and
outside disciplines.Following are reports on a selection of the Talks, further details of all talks are
available on the website www.arttrail.ie
TALKS& WORKSHOPS
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GUERRILLA GARDENING ‘Guerilla Gardening workshop’ led by Eva Maher
CORk CITY SURROUNDINGSSATURDAY 14TH NOVEMbER 2009
EVA MAHERGardening
UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
EVA MAHERGardening
UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
EVA MAHERGardening
UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
Photos: Eva Maher
... I knew exactly what Art Trail was, but this was a first, holding a workshop about gardening! The Guesthouse was a great place to be based, and everyone remarked on what a great space it was. Collette was very hospitable, and apart from being locked outside at lunchtime - everything went smoothly! I didn’t make it to any other events, but delighted our day outside gardening was filled with sun and
no showers. The budget was a great advantage, so thank you again. We hope to keep gardening on the site we chose on Saturday, so you never know, we could have all sorts of vegetables and herbs growing there by next year. Here are some of the best photos from the day, Cheers, Eva.
“Having been involved in the art scene for a few years in Cork...
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EYE & MIND Wednesday November 18th - Panel Discussion
CIT ,CCAD LECTURE THEATRESTEPHEN bRANDES, MAUREEN CONSIDINE, DR. kIERAN
kEOHANE, CHAIRED bY DR. ED kRCMA
Discussion CCAD LECTURE THEATRE, CIT
DiscussionCCAD LECTURE THEATRE, CIT
DiscussionCCAD LECTURE THEATRE, CIT
Photos: Kevin Touhy
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On the 20th November 2010 the National Sculpture Factory organised a public discussion, From Slack Spaces to Creative Cities as part of the annual artist-led visual art festival, Art Trail.
As part of our role as principled supporters of artists, we at the NSF wished to advocate on behalf of the city for a creative rationalisation of the use and re-use of the empty spaces, Slack Spaces, that are now ubiquitous in our post-Celtic Tiger cities. Artists and other creatives have such a rich history of co-opting these vacant, unused commercial units or slack spaces, to realise art projects, create ‘pop-up’ galleries and to establish studios. We felt that it was now most urgent to bring awareness to these issues publicly with the relevant power brokers: the artists and creatives themselves, the commercial landlords, the city council’s city planners and the city council’s arts office. To this end we invited specific individuals to help us agitate on the ground, to unearth if you will, any interests on the ground for a cohesive developmental approach to re- imagine our city creatively for the future. Waterford City Arts Officer, Conor Nolan, introduced SweatEquity: Dilapidation verses Creativity. Nolan has taken unused and disused Council properties and allowed creatives to occupy these various spaces through collective action and support. Marilyn Lennon, who created the wonderful SpiritStore, a
discursive art café, which ran on a voluntary basis in a revamped disused bar in Limerick in August and September 2009. This site-specific intervention had as much to do with the history and heritage of the original bar in the civic life of the city as it was to do with opening up a visible organ for inter-disciplinary exchange. And finally Annette Moloney, independent curator, who advocated for a national policy to be put in place in city councils around the country while screening her research on a wide range of artist-led usages of these off-site locations nationally. Following these exciting and evocative presentations, a public debate was held where members of Cork’s cultural community in the shape of Colette Lewis from the Guest House space, Joe Nix for the Couch gallery, Edel O’Reilly from The Space, Ben Reilly from Backwater Studios, and Serge Vandenberghe from Outlaw Studios to mention but a few, contributed in rewarding ways. Liz Meaney, Arts Officer in Cork City Council, also partook in this lively exchange and a realisation was reached that cities like Waterford and Limerick had stolen the march on these types of public, civic and cultural initiatives and endeavours. There was a sense of awakening to the realisation that these new possibilities could be creatively, imaginatively and quickly seized upon and that further research and development in this area would bring about a fruitful outcome for interested parties. After an intense three hours of presentations and discussion there was a sense of optimism that some such initiative could happen in Cork and we were only restricted by our own imaginations.
SLACk SPACES - HOW TO IMAGINE A SMARTER CITY. Friday November 20th - Panel DiscussionST JOHNS COLLEGE OF FURTHER EDUCATION
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Slack Spaces, Smarter Cities was the 2nd public forum programmed by the National Sculpture Factory in our on-going series looking at Urban planning,
creative cultures and occupation, in its continuance to advocate for an examination of the possible cultural and civic benefits of imaginative, creative
and strategic re-use of ubiquitous empty inner-city spaces. It was held on the 28th January 2010 at the CIT Crawford College of Art & Design. For this
event we wished to address a number of issues head-on in a time where graduates have less opportunities, where artists, architects and other creative
professionals are having to re-imagine their futures, where the economic reality of leasing commercial property has become increasingly difficult -
was it now time to develop a working strategy to ensure we can retain the creative wealth of our city? Could we seize the moment to create a more
active, smarter city? Is it possible to imagine how this may happen and what a smarter city might actually mean?
To help us do this we invited the extraordinary Lise-Ann Sheehan, a young vibrant Architect/City Planner from Limerick City Council, to explain
to us her innovative initiative Creative Limerick: Connect to the Grid that she has developed from inside Limerick Council over the last year. The
Creative Limerick initiative came about from brain storming exercises within Limerick City Council Planning and Economic Development Dept., thinking creatively about how they could use Limerick’s creative capital, graduates and professionals, to help tackle the issue of vacancy in the centre of the
City. Phase 1 of this project dealt with the re-using empty shopfronts; Phase
2 looked at the vacant properties themselves to house studios, galleries and temporary outlets for creative endeavours such as fashion designs or graphic designs; and Phase 3 will deal with the idea of Live-Work spaces where there
can be a re-population of the urban centre with creatives living in the floors above their work spaces. To date, Lise-Ann has managed to engage all the
major players in Limerick around the one strategy, the commercial landlords, the Limerick Universities, the creatives, the city council all to come together
under the one umbrella to promote and bring this initiative into fruition. So at its core what are the benefits for the creatives and what are the benefits
for the landlords who give up their properties?
To start, Creative Limerick have a template licensing agreement which can be adapted to all possibilities and this is a guaranteed security approved
by Limerick City Council that is brokered between the occupying creatives and the landlord. And what is probably most important is that this licensing
agreement is for a temporary lease only where on foot of the landlord sourcing a full paying tenant the creative must leave immediately. The landlord then
agrees to give the creatives rent-free access to their property where their only costs are for utilities and any refurbishments. In return the landlord receives a €500 rebate on his rates which are still the same rates for an un-occupied
premises (50% of full rates). Limerick City Council then offers full public indemnity insurance covering the premises, the public, the creatives, and their
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work, and access to any resources at the Councils disposal. So the creatives get an opportunity to continue to develop their practices; derelict sites, city quarters and streets become positively occupied, busy and regenerated; and this in turn makes these places more pleasing to the eye and safer for its inhabitants and visitors. To follow Lise-Ann’s thought provoking presentation we had Arts Officer at Cork City Council, Liz Meaney, who illustrated Cork City Council’s commitment to the arts by looking at the wide range of arts organisations that it continues to support on an annual basis. Gary Boyd, Senior lecturer at Cork Centre for Architectural Education, outlined the merits of these creative city-planning initiatives for the development of a truly civic space, and how there was a responsibility to engage with these idealistic approaches always to imagine our public spaces differently. His one word of caution was that these initiatives can often be supported during the financial downtimes but then are the first thing to get squeezed out when the economy picks up again. So there is an imperative for in-building a fail-safe mechanism so that these beneficial ideological commitments continue into the long-term development of cityscapes, civic environments and public realms.
The final open and public discussion which included a great range of interested parties from city councillors, City architects, urban design & architecture students, artists, lecturers, recent graduates and young creative entrepreneurs was prefaced by brief but effective presentations by 3 young
self-organised, independent artists each with an inspiring attitude and a desire that led them to create their own initiatives in Cork City in the last year. They were Ian McInerney of the Black Mariah Gallery, Sarah-Jayne Booth who set up the temporary 123 Gallery space, and Edel O’Reilly who is a member of the Cork Contemporary Projects collective who run the interdisciplinary project called The Space.
Finally this is not an end in itself. We at the National Sculpture Factory will continue to advocate for more opportunities for our creative constituents and also for continued assessment of how we manage our civic spaces within our city. David Dobz O’Brien, Programme Manager, National Sculpture Factory www.nationalsculpturefactory.com
Related contacts: Lise-Ann Sheahan, Limerick City Council:[email protected];Conor Nolan, Waterford City Council Arts Officer: [email protected];Liz Meaney, Cork City Council Arts Officer: [email protected];
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REVIEW - FIONA FULLAM ARTTRAIL 2009 WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE COMMISSIONED IN ASSOCIATION WITH VISUAL ARTISTS IRELAND, AND PUbLISHED IN THE VISUAL ARTISTS
NEWSHEET, MARCH 2010
ArtTrail 2009 opened on Thursday 12th November, running over ten days until Sunday 22nd. This year’s theme was Rediscovering Locality, which was open enough for a broad range of work, while allowing artists to focus on the connections between people, communities and the space which they inhabit. This space, of course is not just limited to place- the physical, the geographical, but includes also the temporal, the psychological, memory, history, tradition. In this way ArtTrail was able to exhibit an extensive range of media and approaches, but also a breadth of concerns, and of platforms for discussion and debate. The festival was accompanied by a colour-coded catalogue containing a calendar of events, catalogue essay by the writer-in residence, maps which could be superimposed on the various categories, each of which had their own maps or starting points. It also included short pieces or introductions to the individual projects or studios. The catalogue divided the projects into four categories: Projects and Exhibitions; Open Studios; Pyschogeographic Walks; and Talks and Workshops. Several threads or sub-plots emerged thematically in the works. One of these was the arbitrariness of location, which was manifested in several projects, including three of the ‘Dérives’, the series of Pyscho-Geographical walks which took place in the city. To a great extent this involved being present in one space, while imagining or imaging other places. The walk, titled It’s Not Where I Am That Stays With Me, a project by Combination City, brought a group of eleven people around the city, armed with maps without street
names. The route was the mirror of a route taken in Amsterdam and the object was to find twelve posters which described where you would be and what you would see from that point on the Amsterdam route. Familiar, local, but the participants experienced a slightly out-of –body feeling, a slight alienation from one’s own place. This layering of place upon place, of space upon space was reflected also in the catalogue maps, which were bereft of street names, but transparent, so that different sets of locations became visible or located, as you superimposed one upon the other. Knee Jerk’s orienteering project allowed one to traverse the city, as though it were physical geography, layering different types of place and psychologies. Danny Holcroft, a Glasgow based artist, literally ‘got
lost’ with his group of participants, all of whom were driven blindfolded
to an unknown location in the city suburbs, from where they had to find their way back to the festival
office. This was an uncomfortable, dislocating but enriching experience
for many of the participants. Holcroft had spent the previous week
collecting maps drawn for him by passers-by as he attempted to
repeatedly lose himself in Cork. These walks were interesting
attempts at a psychological dislocation, as participants grappled
with the strangeness of being without or outside their locality.
Stephen McGlynn’s Mapping
Office, curated by Sarah Iremonger for ArtTrail, attempts a temporal
relocation and dislocation of place. Stephen is interested in the sense
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of dislocation, which people can experience as a result of the changing landscape of their past. When this internal landscape no longer has an external reference, memories, or locality in this context, have the potential to become slowly erased. Cartographic practices as well as astrological charts were also referenced by Monique Besten, based in Amsterdam. Besten, who showed work at the Basement Project Space, a new artist-led-initiative and gallery/studios space where she completed a three week residency, charted the pattern of chewing gum on the ground, making constellations, which were superimposed onto maps of Cork city. This work included video footage of mapped walks, spelling Amsterdam on the streets of Cork, making aerial connections between the two cities. Alienation and dislocation were some of the themes touched upon in Adham Faramawy’s four video pieces, presented by The Black Mariah at Triskel for ArtTrail ’09. Sons of Lacoon was also presented at the Savoy at the opening night party. Faramawy’s work explores what it is that drives societies apart or alienates people from society, referencing mythology, allegory and ideologies from various cultures. His use of white noise and black sound, appropriation and remixing are disconcerting and isolating for the viewer and exemplify, according to Faramawy, the behavioural problems associated with over-stimulation and information overload to which we are all now constantly exposed. In Horus, the father-mother-son trinity of ancient Eygptian mythology is set against other similar narratives, which are repeated
throughout history, affecting newer narratives like Christianity. Ritual and rite had large roles to play traditionally in Irish society and were part of what cohered people in any given community. These were reflected in several ways at Arttrail, through attempts at creating a community, in the case of Guerilla Gardening, by Eva Maher, or by inviting viewers in for a cup of tea and a chat as in The Kitchen Table by Fiona Kelly and Amanda Rice. Guerilla Gardening invited the public to participate in cleaning up and replanting various spaces in Cork city and succeeded in bringing people together with a shared ambition to belong in a locality, where community functions as a cohesive group. The Kitchen Table took place in the living rooms of one of the artists, which had been redecorated to give the feel
of an elderly person’s house. The work shown in this space explored urbanisation juxtaposed with the domestic space, but the success of the project lay in the huge uptake of visitors sipping tea at any given time, chatting about art, community and progress. Language and sound were strongly represented at ArtTrail 2009. At the Opening Party, Joanne Collins performed a hypnotic rendition of Kurt Schwitters’ 1922 Merz 24, which unpicks and combines sounds of the German alphabet over four movements, lasting around thirty minutes. This rhythmic and repetitive chanting was echoed in the opening speech by Kevin Tuohy, where the names of everybody involved were recited aloud by all present. This ‘giving thanks’ was juxtaposed with
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Faramawy’s work later in the evening, which made explicit where humanity might end up without a cohesive glue, a ritualistic coming together of people in
society.
Many of the sound artists who performed at the launch of A Sonology of Cork Sound Art or who were represented on the CD, see sound as a language
or alternative means of expression. The works explore diverse areas: composition; improvisation; vocal performance, breaking down the sounds or
structure of language. Many look to interfere in existing structures. La Sociète des Amis du Crime explored how the city vibrates, feeding sounds taken from
the city back into the city with electronics during a live performance at Red Abbey.
The festival hosted several talks, which gave a platform for various discussions
and explorations. Eye & Mind, which took place at CIT Crawford College of Art & Design considered themes of urbanism, locality and site-specificity from
both an artistic and an academic point of view. From Slack Spaces to Creative Cities, presented by The National Sculpture Factory for ArtTrail, discussed the
use of vacant properties as temporary exhibition spaces, something which ArtTrail is already practising. Waterford City Arts Officer Conor Nolan, Marilyn
Lennon and Annette Maloney discussed this phenomenon from various perspectives, drawing on a range of examples to illustrate their points.
ArtTrail also showed over seventy artists in thirteen group and individual
studios in and around the city, along with many other projects, walks and talks, which are not mentioned here.
The diversity of the work and the level of organisation involved, managing
smoothly such a large amount of people and projects, is a testament to the commitment and enthusiasm
of the board, which is producing a publication at the end of February
documenting ArtTrail 2009. This festival is worth checking out and a
few days in Cork in November should be marked in the diary.
*** The ArtTrail Festival in Cork has been in existence since 1996, when it was
founded by visual artists John Adams and Susie O’Mullane. To an extent it was inspired by open studios events
which were taking place in
London around that time. These two artists are now involved in Outlaw
Studios in the Docklands in Cork, and were also involved in the Backwater
Artists’ Group, where ArtTrail was based until 2006. The original idea
was to be able to present the work of artists to the public directly, without
the mediation of a gallery, and to be able to show the work of many
artists, rather than the few who might be selected and shown by galleries
in the city. The organisation remains directed and led by practising artists to this day and aims to be inclusive
and supportive of the work of professional artists in all media.
ArtTrail is primarily funded by the Arts
Council of Ireland but also receives some funding from the City Council in Cork. The budget however continues
to be small and the directors have
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to be resourceful in terms of raising additional sponsorship, much of which is in-kind. For example rather than hiring out spaces in the city, ArtTrail receives support from its ‘venue partners’, by being given various exhibition or functional office spaces for the duration of the festival. ArtTrail may also secure some sponsorship for special events, opening night parties and sound events in the form of services or the use of specialised equipment. In some years they have received funding from institutions to sponsor an artist bringing work from abroad to the festival. In 2007 and 2008 for example The Goethe Institute sponsored the Salon Bruit artists to travel from Berlin. Therefore there is the need to match potential sponsors with projects or artists, which/who interest them. In 2009 some of the partners which supported ArtTrail included Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh, (which provided accommodation for artists and writers who were not based in Cork), Cork Film Centre, Glucksman, Triskel and the Savoy. Students from the Crawford College of Art & Design and Colaiste Stiofain Naofa also volunteer to man the festival centre or to invigilate project spaces. There is no doubt that budgetary constraints affect the selection of work, to a degree. Work which would be expensive to ship from abroad for instance, could soak up quite a lot of the budget and result in less work being shown. The high transport costs have to be balanced with the short duration of the festival, which in 2009 ran over only ten days. The travel of artists is also a big cost. The ArtTrail committee therefore is faced with decisions around what/
who they can afford to bring to the festival and the logistics of bringing finished work. In 2009 there were a number of works which were made in situ, or process based. The board of directors of ArtTrail is made up of seven members, chaired by Kevin Tuohy since 2008. The workload is divided to an extent, with members taking on specialised areas, for example, Danny McCarthy organised the sound events and a CD which was launched during the festival. The festival was co-ordinated this year and last by Kevin Tuohy and Sharon McCarthy and the other members of the board are Elaine Coakley, Serge VandenBerghe, Moray Bresnihan, Danny McCarthy and Chris Clarke.
Fiona Fullam, 2010
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THANkS
To our principle funders The Arts Council; Cork City Council; Venue partners: Dave Maloney of Tom Maloney Properties, Sara Dymond and Captain Pat
Murphy at The Port of Cork, Tony Sheehan and Ben Cuddihy at TRISKEL, Orla Flynn at the CIT Crawford College of Art & Design; ArtTrail Board of Directors: Danny McCarthy, Chris Clarke, Elaine Coakley, Serge VandenBerghe, Moray Bresnihan, Sharon McCarthy, and Kevin Tuohy; Graham Higgins, our Graphic
Designer; Jason Oakley at Visual Artists Ireland; Tom Barry’s, Henchy’s, The Roundy, The LV; Adham Faramawy, Alan James Burns, Allanah Byrne, Amanda Dunsmore, Amanda Rice, Anna Crudge, Aoife Murphy, Backwater Artists Group, Barry John Maher, Cathy Murray, Catriona Considine, Chris
Hurley and Max Le Cain at Cork Film Centre, Christian Carley, Claire Murphy, Cliff Dolliver, Colm Madden, Cora Murphy, Cork Printmakers, Cuig, Danny Holcroft, David Jenkins, Deirdre O’Shaughnessy, Denis McSweeney
PhotoShop, Diane Harrington, Dr. Kieron Keohane, Ed Krcma, Edel O’Reilly, Elaine Garde, Emily O’Flynn, Emma O’Connor, Eoin O’Sullivan, Eva Maher,
Eva White, Fay Hutchinson, Fergus Graham, Fiona Fullam, Fiona Kelly, Fiona Weir, Francis Halsall, Francis Heery, Gemma Carroll, Gill Good, Harry Moore,
Helle Helsner, Hugh Lorrigan, Ian & Karin of The Black Mariah, Ivor Melia & Jean Kearney - Kearney Melia Communications, Jane Skovgard, Jo Bohan,
Joanne Collins, John Adams, John Gowan of Cork Coffee Roasters, Julie Forrester, Karen Jones, Katy Harrington, Keith Beamish, Kevin Langan at The
Glucksman Gallery, Kevin O’Neill, Knee Jerk, Knee Jerk, Knee Jerk, Knee Jerk, Knee Jerk, Knee Jerk, Knee Jerk, Liam Slevin, Lisa Dalton, Lorraine
McDonnell, Mags Geaney, Maile Yamanaka, Marc O’Sullivan, Maria
Magee, Marianne Keating, Mary Cooke, Dobz O’Brien and Mary
McCarthy at NSF, Mary Moakley, Matt Packer, , Mersk, Michael Ray,
Michelle O’Shea, Molly Mishkas, Monique Bestens, Morgan Keavney,
Niamh Lucey, Oliver Flexman and Combination City, Open Shutter,
Parker our heroic all-weather carpenter, Paul Harrington, Paul
Hegarty, Paul Maguire, Peg Amison and Sirius Arts Centre, Peter
McMorris, Provision Photography, Rachel McDonnell, Rory Mullins, Roseanne Lynch, Ruth Hogger, Sarah Iremonger, Sheila Hooks,
Sheila Kelliher, Sophie Behal, Stefan Syrowatsky, Stephanie Hough,
Stephen Brandes, Stephen McGlynn, Susie O’Mullane, Tadhg Slevin,
Juza Wongkumad, The Shed, Tom
Campbell, Toma McCullim, Trevor Goring, Vicky Langan, Yvonne
Crowley, our Production Manager Rose-Anne Kidney, Website designer
Stan, and especially to everyone who took the time to experience the
projects, visit studios, go to events, or follow the maps,
Go raibh mile maith agaibh go leir.
