Shower Of Kunst

Critical Online Journal

Lacuna in Parallax

Lacuna in Parallax Lucy McKenna The Source, Thurles 12 September – 25 October 2014 by Jim Ricks “The thing about symmetry is that the beholder is positioned at the centre of the image”1   A train journey south towards Limerick on an overcast day brought me to Thurles, Co. Tipperary. Rising out of a wholly typical Irish place (and its pubs, takeaways, banks, butchers, Norman tower house, slow moving river, etc.) was the completely unexpected, substantial zinc-clad trapezoid edifice of The Source. Minus the apparently… Read More »

Patient Staring

Patient Staring Works by Anne Hendrick, Aileen Murphy, and Emma Roche. Curated by Paul Doran Wexford Arts Centre 19 October – 3 December 2014 Review by Susan Edwards Tucked upstairs in the Wexford Arts Centre was a group of some feisty, thought provoking little paintings. It consisted only of eight works of art and coincided with the Wexford Opera Festival. Even before looking at the body of art, one is met with the exhibition title, Patient Staring, and the connotations that statement brings to mind…. Read More »

REVIEW: Made by Whites for Whites

Two new bodies of works spanned the two Jack Shainman locations in Chelsea.  Both formally related, but each very distinct in tack.  For the purposes of this review I will focus on Made by Whites for Whites at 20th Street, although the contrast made by the other, Rescue, at 24th, is interesting. Nick Cave is primarily known for and has worked almost singularly on a body of work he calls Soundsuits.  These are fantastic costumes that have their finger on the pulse of Dadaism at… Read More »

5 Ways To Build a Movement after Ferguson

5 Ways To Build a Movement after Ferguson The following is one in a series of posts dealing with the wave of protest sweeping the United States following the police murder of Mike Brown and Eric Garner re-posted with permission from Unity and Struggle. 1. Work to abolish police and prisons, not to reform them. President Obama has passed legislation to put body cameras on police officers, but this won’t stop the cops from killing black folks. Eric Garner’s murder was caught on camera like… Read More »

Pinochet Porn – The Dictator and the Maid

Pinochet Porn – The Dictator and the Maid Works by Ellen Cantor, curated by Dallas Seitz and The Black Mariah.The Black Mariah, Cork6 October – 7 December 2014 Review by Darren Caffrey The Dictator and The Maid by American video artist Ellen Cantor was made as part of her magnum opus entitled Pinochet Porn. Cantor describes the work: “Pinochet Porn, a feature length soap opera on super 8! A story of five children growing up during the Pinochet regime into adulthood.”    In 2013 she died,… Read More »

A fictional response to Mark Swords

    Every day Richard got up at 7am to make himself ready for work. For convenience sake he wore dark navy trousers, black shoes, black socks and a pale blue shirt. He had three pairs of trousers, 5 pale blue shirts, and 5 pairs of black socks which meant that for convenience sake he only needed to do his laundry once a week. It did make weekend dressing a bit more complicated and confusing as he had to figure out a weekend arrangement of… Read More »

These Immovable Walls: Performing Power

These Immovable Walls: Performing PowerPauline Cummins, Maurice O’Connell, Sandra Johnston, Philip Napier, Katerina Seda, Dominic Thorpe, and Carey Young. Curated by Michelle BrowneDublin Castle11 – 12 July 2014 Review by Darren Caffrey   Black is all you see. It remains hanging in the mind long after. The work offered by Dominic Thorpe is set in darkness. Overall, the set-up for his performance Proximity Mouthcan be said to operate as a system. It begins outside. When the door opens, the previous viewer is released. Only then… Read More »

IMAGES: Baby Footprints Crow’s Feet

  Baby Footprints Crow’s Feet Amalia Ulman August – October 2014 Ellis King Gallery, Dublin, Ireland Ellis King is pleased to present Amalia Ulman’s first solo exhibition at the gallery entitled Baby Footprints Crow’s Feet. Ulman’s practice is rife with interrogation of class and social stratification. Gender, sexism, and feminism are equally key components of her research and modus operandi. Investigated through various strands of audience engagement including online social media and performance, she examines social interactions, emotions, and the wider human condition. In Baby… Read More »

REVIEW: Agitationism – EVA International ‘Ireland’s Biennial’

The city of Limerick shares EVA 2014 between two main venues. The main gallery is Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA). The second space is a disused milk plant on the other side of the river. This latter site reflects the changing economics of the city, from an agricultural hub to one of culture. Indeed the plant once owned by Golden Vale shows the signs of disrepair.   While LCGA’s white walls interiorise and vacate the space for the art work to be shown, the… Read More »

Images from Ultra

Images from Ultra Barbara Knezevic The Lab, Dublin 10 April – 7 June 2014     All photos by Darren Caffrey.  Darren is supported by an Artlinks Bursary.

Images from (some) Dublin Degree Shows 2014

Images from (some) Dublin Degree Shows 2014 BA graduates from DIT and NCAD Various locations in Dublin /// NCAD Deberoh Hewson Eimear Walshe  Eimear Walshe from the other side with one of Aoife Irwin Moore’s go-carts in use. Nicola Whelan   Niall Cullen Chloe Phipps ? Diarmuid Corkery Fiachra Ó’ Súilleabháin Fala Buggy Mary-Kate Hardy Kieran Bollard Conor Horgan-Gaul Robert Carroll   Stills from Avril Corroon, images courtesy the artist Avril Corroon and Kerry Guinan, image courtesy the artists Avril Corroon Kerry Guinan   Saoirse… Read More »

What the devil is the Dublin Biennial?

The second Dublin Biennial International Exhibition of Contemporary Art closed its 12 day showing on Sunday. Seemingly coming from ‘nowhere’ (i.e. not from the expected channels of arts production and dissemination) in 2012, it was met by many members of the Visual Arts community almost universally with condemnation. “It’s a scam” was the most common reaction. But why? Actually, the answer is very simple. It’s not a Biennial. Yes, of course it is happening every 2 years, with plans for one in 2016. And in… Read More »

Images from ‘Representations’

Representations Tom O’Dea 126, Artist-run Gallery, Galway26 April – 04 May 2014   Data of the Physical Self   Externally Published Data and Website   Installation view The Datafied Individual   The Externally Published Self  The Externally Published Self The Externally Published Self The Insitutional Self The Insitutional Self All photos courtesy the artist.

Images from ‘In the Land of Tib and Tom’

In The Land of Tib and TomStephan Brandes, Colin Crotty, Gabhann Dunne, Martin Healy, and Eithne JordanRubicon ProjectsIrish Georgian Society, Dublin15 – 31 May 2014 Installation view Detail of Stephan Brandes Stephan Brandes   Gabhann Dunne    Martin Healy Martin Healy Colin Crotty     Eithne Jordan

INTERVIEW: Anna O’Sullivan – The Enclave (Part 2)

An interview with Anna O’Sullivan by Jim Ricks, commissioner/curator of The Enclave by Richard Mosse  Part 2 of a 3 part series on Ireland at Venice 2013   http://www.marycremin.com/richard-mosse-the-enclave/ Can you tell us a little about the process of selection for you as the commissioner/curator? Were you nominated separately?  The Commissioner/Curator and the artist is a team effort with the Commissioner/Curator putting the artist forward. Richard and I came together and worked on an application initially, got shortlisted to one of four teams, which was followed… Read More »

The Enclave (Part 1)

The Enclave by Richard Mosse Curated by Anna O’Sullivan Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin February – March 2014 Review by Darren Caffrey Part 1 of a 3 part series on Ireland at Venice 2013 The Enclave in the RHA consisted of a video installation and a small selection of exceptionally large examples of landscape photography. Each reflecting an apparent pastoral craze in retro active colour changing film, taking as a setting the various advantages of light and dark. The show is over but its showing and… Read More »

Images: Fuckier, Shittier, Pissier

    Lord God, how immaculate (2014) – Simon Cummins Lapiss Lazuli (2014) – Aoife Mullan Whats his name (2013) – Stéphane Hanley   Q Lauzarus Rising (2014) – Mike Fitzgerald    R to L: Things don’t happen they’re implied (2013), For a long time, I went to bed early (2014), Either it’s raining, or I’m dreaming. Maybe it’s both (2014), A ‘resistance of yes’, of sorts (2014) – Lee Welch,  and Whats his name (2013) – Stéphane Hanly   At the horizon we won’t need eyes to… Read More »

Balls

Balls NCAD SU XXX-Mas Ball Image-Gate By Jim Ricks 30 March 2014     So there was this ‘something’ that happened up at NCAD in December, and it’s worth having a second look at. It is the kind of thing that one may say ‘I’m over it’.  But, a number of interesting and important issues: politics, semiotics, feminism, pornography, power, all immediately come to mind.   I was reflecting on Panti Bliss’s speech at the Abbey Theatre, and the simple and invaluable point she makes…. Read More »

REVIEW: Leonora Carrington: The Celtic Surrealist

“The task of the right eye is to peer into the telescope, while the left eye peers into the microscope”(1)                             – Leonora Carrington What a fantastical world we expose when we penetrate the depth of our unconscious and concurrently the zenith of our imagination. Can any of us say for certain which is felt to be more consistent with that of ‘the real’: the structures of the conscious mind, or “…the unconscious and its – for the most… Read More »