Conversation from June 2020 on Syjuco’s recent exhibition at Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. Jim RicksYou told me that your recent exhibition, Rogue States, at the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis actually featured seven projects. I’ve seen some of those at different stages and when shown before, so it’s interesting to have them all come together in St. Louis in a different way, combined with new work as well. Stephanie SyjucoIt was a real privilege in that I actually haven’t had a chance to… Read More »
QUIETLY CANCELLING CAC
“I like talking to a brick wall- it’s the only thing in the world that never contradicts me!”― Oscar Wilde I’m writing this a year and a half after the initial incident, because it is not merely about that incident. It is allegorical, it is about how we conduct ourselves, and it is how we better the collective Irish Art World. The Institute of Real Art (IRA) debuted in October 2015 with several articles released on topics ranging from Amanda Coogan being a State Agent, IMMA… Read More »
INTERVIEW: Matt Packer
Matt Packer in conversation with Jim Ricks. JR: Ok, just to kick things off… Derry seems to have a combination of street cred and access to the UK and for a city its size it does appear to have remarkable resources, but is there a scene and is it something that can organically grow? And finally, what effect will Brexit have on Derry as an art place? MP: You’re asking a bungle of different questions there. Derry has a remarkable history, which in turn gives… Read More »
REVIEW: You missed the 9th Berlin Biennale
The 9th Berlin Biennale (BB9) is over and you missed it. It was curated by DIS, not a “fashion collective”, they are a New York-based art collective comprised of Lauren Boyle, Solomon Chase, Marco Roso and David Toro. Notable projects include: http://disimages.com/ and http://dismagazine.com/ and https://youtu.be/ivqvw2QQ8FE. All too frequently in the sphere of ‘high art’ we are are presented with the tokenistic political language of Marxism and postcolonial marginalia. This year’s Biennale is not an overt show of protest or statements, yet remains political. As one friend put… Read More »
REVIEW: ∞ (Broken Mirrors)
∞ (Broken Mirrors) begins in the NCAD Gallery lobby with Lee Welch’s New Now. An arch is marked out in cross hatched mini-roller-width blueish looking grey paint, suggesting a doubling of the gallery’s current entrance through an older form in this newly remade space (the gallery was once the Thomas Street Fire Station). A large flatscreen displays a cinematically filmed, zoomed in, pre-digital electric flip clock by Jonathan Mayhew. Early in my life it was already too late is perpetually at 5:59, so closely… Read More »
REVIEW: What Is and What Might Be
The title, What Is And What Might Be, suggests an assessment of the here and now, and its potentials; the future and the plans to get there. And although the curators state that Lacan’s reference to Holbein’s distorted skull is their conceptual starting point, I’m not sure this matters in lieu of the ideas the actual experience provoked. A painting show, the selection of works and their organisation in this particular space pulled at and unpacked ideas to me primarily architectural. In both a literal… Read More »
REVIEW: Four Fold
The mutilated remains of a Bog Man cover the gallery floor. The gallery approach becomes a medical observation deck, affording a view of the downstairs installation from above. In full colour, Sam Keogh has enlarged a photograph of the two millennia old Irish ‘Old Croghan Man’. Coming down, the iridescent tanned skin of just a ragged torso, arms, and hands is to be walked over. Four sections of the image are peeled and propped up with decorated bone-sticks. These in turn are anchored in place… Read More »
Crisis of Criticism
Just over a year ago, the newly appointed editors of Paper Visual Art, Marysia Wieckiewicz–Carroll and Nathan O’Donnell, invited four arts writers to respond, present, and discuss the question: “What do you expect from art criticism?” The following is my talk, re-presented now as it continues to be an entirely unresolved issue in Irish Visual Arts. The following is by no means all encompassing and is a bit schematic. And don’t think I’ll answer the question “What do I expect from criticism?” I’m not sure what my… 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 »
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 »
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 »
Write Makes Right
Write Makes Right A conversation between Darren Caffrey and Jim Ricks Autumn – Winter 2012 DC: So how do you want to start? JR: The point is just to write truthfully in correspondence about what we see as the shortcomings, pitfalls, success stories, etc. taking place in Irish arts writing. I think the attached graph that James Merrigan of Billion Art Journal and Fugitive Papers produced a little over a year ago is an interesting starting point. I immediately countered his graph… Read More »
REVIEW: TULCA 2012
The 2012 Tulca: Season of Visual Art was the tenth anniversary of Galway’s 2 week, multi-location event. Always in mid November, it utilises existing arts infrastructure and activates a variety of disused ‘slack spaces’ or rather vacant buildings and shops. This year was no different as the exhibitions bring “together 41 artists over 10 locations.” I had lived in the west of Ireland for about 6 years and know the festival somewhat intimately. I exhibited in 2006, the year Cliodhna Shaffrey and Sarah… Read More »
The future
Futures 2012 is joyously mixed in its form and yet it is this distraction which when presented to us is hoped will overcome the obvious weaknesses of art without proper framing or even depth. On one wall sits the result of a routine investigation into the world outside of a window, Ed Miliano “began making a visual diary, painting one picture every day”, and to that end, judging by the quantity, he has succeeded. It is identified that the pictures when viewed together ‘create a collective… Read More »
The 7th Berlin Biennale
Biennale press pass, welcome packet, newspaper-cum-event guide complete with custom fonts and logo. Initially, I had intended to write a review of the Biennale. Although I did I find it difficult to consider the various permutations of this festival in a positive light, it was ultimately the decentralized and event-based character of it that led to my decision not to. Perhaps, I should have committed to living in Berlin for 6 weeks. I suppose the political trajectory, or rather intent, of head curator Artur… Read More »
REVIEW: 228 Lashes
“The important thing is no longer the storage but the display.” – Paul Virilio Padraig Robinson’s 228 Lashes is a sparsely populated show in Galway’s 126 gallery. The fully lit neutrality of the white rectangle space draws the viewer in to scrutinise the pieces that comprise an installation ruled by a minimalist inclination. The paucity of works highlights the artist’s three choices: An illuminated retail style sign with a cryptic logo, the lowering of a single gallery light fixture to around… Read More »
REVIEW: Package From China
“To have read Das Kapital in the 1970s wasn’t a complete waste of time because it has helped me understand China in the 1990’s.” – Jan Wong Red China Blues, 1996 “To Get Rich Is… (around the corner and on the opposite wall) Glorious”. Each letter rises above eye level and works as a separate sculptural piece. They are comprised of hundreds of cheap everyday materials… all plastic and garish. The subject of this exhibition is former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Deng Xioping. Along… Read More »