To Hold Still
Cork Midsummer Festival Residency Exhibition: Anne Ffrench
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June 14th - 27th 2021
The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, Fitzgerald’s Park, Cork Open Daily: 11am-4pm (Closed Tuesdays and Monday 21 June) To Hold Still is a sculptural installation made from briars which spills through the doll's house space of the Lord Mayor's Pavilion. The work draws on the idea of suspended time in fairytales, where brambles surround and protect a castle's sleeping inhabitants. During the first lockdown Anne Ffrench spent a lot of time in young woodland overgrown with gorse and briar, two impenetrable barriers. Briars, she reminds us, have a vital protective function, saplings need the time of the briar to establish and grow strong before the briars recede and trees take their place. During the first lockdown we heard reports of nature reclaiming space as humans stood still. To Hold Still wonders what if ‘lockdown’ could mean the briars were free to grow and encircle us until the threat had passed, much like the castle in Sleeping Beauty. Accessible to a family audience on the imaginative level of the fairytale, To Hold Still is a visually striking meditation on time, threat and care, and further, a prompt for us to be still and allow nature to grow wild around us. This Cork Midsummer Festival exhibition is part of a new series of installations from Jessica Akerman, David Mathúna & Andrew McSweeney, Anne Ffrench, Vicki Davis, and Pádraig Spillane, curated by visual arts curators in residence Pluck Projects. Find out more here. |
TACTIC
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PAST EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS
In light of the current global pandemic, Brexit, migration and climate change, our island status has been increasingly emphasised. Oileán aims to provide a platform for conversation about our future as an island nation in a time of uncertain political, economic and climatic upheavel.
What does being an island nation mean? Ireland became isolated from mainland Europe through rising sea levels before the last ice age leaving it as an island with approximately 80 smaller islands, 20 of which are still inhabited. On an island, you are surrounded and yet detached. The water allows for wonder and awe though recreational activities while also providing economic returns through fishing and trade. Ireland has strong traditions, heritage and culture and has undergone many changes in the last fifty years –agriculture, education, fisheries, industry, language, lifestyle, religion, and tourism. The Covid-19 pandemic, the uncertainty of Brexit and the fear and reality of climate change leaves us asking questions about the future of island life and circles back to the central question which each artist responds to in this exhibition - what does being an island nation mean? Launch Event: In Conversation with the Curator and Artists: June 4th, 1pm on Youtube and Sample-Studios' Podcast. 
Half Way to Falling
March 31st - May 12th 2021 (Extended) Wed - Sat, 11am - 4pm The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, Fitzgerald’s Park, Cork Launch: March 31st, 1pm on Youtube Premiere Screening of The Just City Collective Film and post-screening discussion chaired by Dr. Eve Olney, Socially Engaged Artist, Activist, Curator, Educator & Researcher with artist Kate O' Shea and her collaborators from The Just City Collective: - Siobhán Kavanagh, Vocal Artist and Songwriter - John Bisset, Community Worker & Activist, St. Andrew's Community Centre - Fionnuala O' Connell, Youth Worker, Activist and Artist, Cork Migrants Centre - Dr. Krini Kafiris, Researcher, Activist and Mentor to Kate O' Shea Click here to view. Half Way To Falling is a collaborative and collective response to Common Ground’s The Just City – Counter Narrative Neighbourhood Residency Award 2020 – 2021. This exhibition presents a series of collaborative printworks, sculptural work, a film piece and responses by The Just City Collective. This exhibition commences Sample-Studios’ TACTIC Visual Arts Programme 2021 programme, which marks its 10th anniversary. Common Ground awarded Kate O’ Shea the Just City - Counter Narrative Neighbourhood Residency Award in March 2020, when Ireland entered its first period of lockdown. In April 2020, Kate O’ Shea established an online reading group of international activists, community workers, artists and academics from eight cities around the world. This has evolved into The Just City Collective. Half Way To Falling represents collective energy and is immersive in nature - the internal structure of The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion will be wrapped with large scale collaborative prints made by The Just City Reading Collective and sculptural work by HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH? collaborators will inhabit the space. This exhibition will also premiere the first short film of The Just City Residency. ABOUT KATE O’ SHEA Kate O’ Shea’s socially engaged artistic practice and collaborative projects include; The People’s Kitchen supported by the Artist In Community Scheme (CREATE) funded by The Arts Council of Ireland, (2016-present), The Living Commons led by Dr. Eve Olney (2018-present) ; SPARE ROOM: Art Architecture Activism, with Co-Producer Dr. Eve Olney (2017 – 2019); Durty Books, publishing house, a co-production with graphic designer Victoria Brunetta (2016 – present) and NomShtock Festival, a co-production with Aoife Scanlon and Emer Casey (2014) Kate O’ Shea and Common Ground are currently exploring a range of online platforms that will host artworks, radio and soundworks with local community activists, International and Irish artists in 2021. In 2021, Create Ireland will engage with Kate O’ Shea and Common Ground in hosting and devising an online event that includes major international socially engaged artists where we will reflect on HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH? as a multi-disciplinary project that will critically reflect issues of spatial justice in Ireland and internationally. ABOUT COMMON GROUND Common Ground, an arts organisation took root in the Canal Communities of Rialto, Bluebell and Inchicore Dublin 8 in 1999. Common Ground works with communities and artists and places the role of arts and culture at the heart of community life. Working in collaboration with artists and local community and youth groups, their arts programmes explore community identity and have the power to shape and change who we are and where we live. In 2019, they became the new cultural tenant of the Lodge at Goldenbridge Cemetery, Inchicore, Dublin 8, at a time when Dublin 8, the area in which we are located continues to experience multiple changes to its urban and social fabric. The Just City, the Counter Narrative Neighbourhood Residency Award 2020 marks Common Ground’s 21st year. The Just City is funded by Common Ground through its annual Arts Council funding. http://www.commonground.ie/ CAHOOTS: THE SPACE BETWEEN
A digital exhibition of the work of the members of
Sample-Studios, A4 Sounds and Engage Art Studios Curated by Guest Artist Curator Nicola Anthony Click HERE to view the digital exhibition Click HERE to view the series of artist interviews Artists: Paul Malone, Brigid Mulligan, Noelle Gallagher, Aoife Claffey, Kim-Ling Morris, Seiko Hayase, Kathryn Kelly, Aideen Farrell, Alisha Doody, Megan Scott and Vivienne Molloy. December 18th 2020 - February 28th 2021 Supported by Cork City Council and Galway 2020 European City of Culture Our minds can work in a hybrid of sensory, verbal, and emotional modes. If we choose to, we can look under the surface of everything that we think of as a constant and understand it anew. As a result of Covid 19, the boundaries our personal realms have shifted. A more ambiguous space has opened up: how we read and understand the language and landscape of the world has changed. This exhibition brings together artworks which explore the liminal space in between: art borne of the year 2020 when we can often find ourselves at a loss for words, when time has elongated and place has been constricted, when death and loss have loomed large in all our lives. Through the lens of the artists we start to see how messages and traces are present in unexpected places. The artists bring a glimmer of hope as well as an honest look at themes which are often deeply coded, hard to process, or unspoken. From artworks which explore the histories embedded within objects and spaces; to explorations of aphasia, anxiety, loss and death; to artworks examining the markers of place and time, language barriers, and otherness. The mediums include hologram, sculpture, morse code, soil, photography, embroidery and an interactive sound/art walk. The artists invite you to see the world from a more permeable, liminal, intangible place. This exhibition will be accompanied by a series of weekly filmed interviews with participating artists. Click HERE to view the digital exhibition Image Credit: Kathryn Kelly, Untitled #6 2020 45x30cm Giclee print on paper 
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