SHOP IF YOU CAN, LOOK IF YOU WANT
VISUAL ART TRAIL IN TEMPLE BAR AS PART OF ST.PATRICK’S FESTIVAL 2010
St. Patrick’s Festival Friday 12th – Wednesday 17th March
March 2010
Dublin’s Cultural Quarter, Temple Bar, will play host to an inspiring visual art trail “Shop If You Can Look If You Want” as part of St. Patrick’s Festival this year. This exhibition will showcase some of the interesting existing public art, spaces and places in the Temple Bar area, and also present twenty one Irish and international artists and their work. All the exhibited work has been selected as a response to the economic climate that Ireland and many other countries in the world are presently experiencing. The sites of commerce and culture find themselves in a moment of confused transition where the abiding sense is that of uncertainty of the next step. The exhibitions reflect this ambience by occupying vacant retail spaces.
“Shop If You Can, Look If You Want” is curated by Jonathan Carroll in conjunction with The Temple Bar Cultural Trust and is an opportunity for visitors and Dubliners alike to experience some of our finest urban artists as part of the Festival celebrations.
The artists exhibiting are Aoife Casey (IE), Hugo Canolias (PRT), Mark Clare (UK/IE), Joost Conijn (NL), Amanda Coogan (IE), Roisin Beirne (IE) Hartmut Bitomsky (DE), Jeanette Doyle (IE), Gillian Fitzpatrick (IE), Michael Fortune (IE) Karl Grimes (IE), Deirdre Judge (IE), John Kenny (IE), Nevan Lahart (IE) Sean Lynch (IE), Yuki Okumura (JPN), Magnhild Opdøl (NOR), Jorge Satorre (MEX/ES) and Sonia Shiel (IE), Joe Stanley (IE), and Sharon White (IE).
Entrance into the exhibitions is free to all and this visual trail aims to incorporate existing artwork and cultural centres in the Temple Bar Cultural Quarter with a variety of art installations and activities in newly vacant retail units. Three vacant retail units will be home to five themed art spaces for the duration of the Festival. The principal idea being that Temple Bar is always worth visiting. There are things worth rediscovering and often the unexpected can appear from an area you thought you knew.
A total of twenty artists were invited to contribute art to one of a series of “Non-Shop’ spaces which include a ‘Non-Car-Showroom” and a “Non-Taxidermy”. Work form these artists will also be projected in Meeting House Square outdoor cinema throughout the Festival.
“Bottom Gear Driving through the recession” is the ‘Non-Shops” idea and is exemplified in the ‘Non-Car Showroom”, in Girls School@ Smock Alley Theatre, Essex Street West as many car showrooms close the artists show off a series of works that relate to the automobile.
Dutch artist Joost Conijn built a wooden car that runs on steam and shows a video of his epic journey across Eastern Europe. Mexican artist Jorge Satorre completed a video while resident in the IMMA of his quest to bring a dilapidated van, abandoned in a hedge on an Island off Cork, back to life. This is the ultimate recycling video.
Irish artist Sean Lynch has set himself the task of making a Delorean car by hand. Lynch is interested in craft and the individuality of design in this infamous model. Nevan Lahart builds a very different car also by hand. Lahart displays a full sized hearse made from various throwaway materials including wood and black sacks. Meanwhile artist Joe Stanley displays a homemade G.P.S system (G.P.S Drawing Series 2004-2008) as an artistic addition for any automobile. Meanwhile the era when the car and driving offered a new and exciting vision of a bright future is documented in Hartmut Bitomsky’s film Reichsautobahn: Highways of the Third Reich shown amongst other automobile related videos.
Next-door to the “Non-Car Showroom” is our “Non- Taxidermy” shop where artist Magnhild Opdøl has produced some new work especially for St. Patrick’s Festival. Opdøl studied art and subsequently taxidermy which is combined in The Great Escape, a work that features the uncanny coming together of a mouse and Opdøl’s deceased pet cat which had spent many years in the artists freezer in Norway. Karl Grimes’ How-to Home trophies for natural Living (after, Whitey) continue this animal theme with its Boys-Own-like guide to taxidermy.
Neighbouring Non-Shop spaces include a DIY artists Non-Gymnasium as well as a Non-Small Industrial Unit and a Non-Electricians shop.
Artist’s films In Meeting House Square
Eight artists will show 13 different films in Meeting House Square in Temple Bar on several days during the Festival. The videos were chosen according to several aspects of the art trail with themes of shopping, automobiles, tourism and displacement included. Amanda Coogan’s video Adoration (2006) shows four soloists and a chorus of 6 women adoring a very fabulous Chloe handbag. The Benedictus from Mozart’s requim accompanies them in their revery. This humorous take on consumer society will also be reenacted as a live window display in one of the ‘Non-Shop’ spaces in Temple Bar as well as being projected as part of a series of artist videos screenings in Meeting House Square.
Japanese artist Yuki Okumura recently completed a residency at IMMA where he completed Countdown in Dublin, which is part of an on-going series of videoed countdowns made in Tokyo, New York and Dublin. Okumura made a video of the Dublin public that display a number (from 1-100) somewhere on their person. He then collates the footage as a numerical countdown. St Patrick’s Day is a time when many visitors from these cities and especially the USA choose to visit Ireland and tourist areas like Temple Bar. Irish artist Jeanette Doyle’s New York Bus Tour and St Patrick’s Day NY offers them a glimpse back to their own cities through the eyes of the tourist.
The St. Patrick’s Festival Visual Arts Trail is just one of the many incredible events taking place this year during the six-day national celebrations running from Friday 12th March until Wednesday 17th March. Celebrating its 15th birthday, St Patrick’s Festival promises the very best in street theatre, an explosive fireworks display, traditional and contemporary Irish music, comedy, visual arts, dance, a treasure hunt, GaelSpraoi Irish language events, and wonderful family fun.
Get on board the carousel of fun and make the festival yours! Check out www.stpatricksfestival.ie for a full list of events follow us on Twitter @stpatricksfest or be our friend on Facebook Patricks Fest.
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ENDS
For more information, images and interviews please contact:
Alison Kelly / Paula Donaghy
086 195 5722 / 085 121 8495
alison@insightconsultants.ie / paula@insightconsultants.ie / press@stpatricksfestival.ie