Cé leis é?
An exhibition featuring seven interdisciplinary practitioners currently studying at the National College of Art & Design.
Thursday, 18th December - Friday, 9th January 2015
Cé leis é? An exhibition featuring seven interdisciplinary practitioners currently studying at the National College of Art & Design.
Alanna Blake / Lucy Bowen / Jenny Drea / Julia Dubsky / Octavian Fitzherbert / Grainne O’Carroll / Sean O’Riordan
Exhibition open view Thursday 18th Dec 2014, 4.30pm / Coastwatch Europe Survey 2014 Launch 5pm, NCAD Gallery.
Exhibition performances Grainne O Carroll 5pm, Julia Dubsky 6pm, Thursday 18th Dec 2014, NCAD Gallery.
Exhibition continues Friday 19th Dec – Friday 9th Jan 2015. Admission is free.
Exhibition talk 'Cé leis é? and Systems Aesthetics' hosted by Dr.Francis Halsall. Friday 9th January 2015, 4pm, Harry Clarke Lecture Theatre, NCAD. Francis Halsall will host a discussion of NCAD Gallery’s current exhibition, Cé leis é? in terms of systems aesthetics and his collaborative work with multidisciplinary artist Kelley O’Brien and forthcoming workshop in the Philippines. The talk hopes to create a dialectical response to questions of environmentalism, dematerialisation and contemporary practice within the specific environment of NCAD.
NCAD Gallery closing hours for the holiday period are: closing Friday, 19th December 2014, 4pm, reopening Monday 5th January 2015, 1-5pm
Image courtesy of the artists.
As part of the student projects 2014/15, NCAD Gallery is pleased to present, Cé leis é?, an exhibition featuring the work of seven young practitioners currently studying diverse disciplines at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. Julia Dubsky, Sean O’Riordan, Grainne O’Carroll, Octavian Fitzherbert, Lucy Bowen, and Jenny Drea comprise the exhibition group. The exhibition will mark the launch of Irish NGO Coastwatch Europe’s annual survey; which examines climate change, coastal erosion, endangered sea species and pollution. Through a collaborative process, exhibited works by the artists respond to the challenges facing the Irish coast as found by Coastwatch Europe’s 2014 survey.
The title Cé leis é?, proposes a re-engagement with the Irish coast; who it belongs to, who is responsible for it and why it should be respected and valued. The Irish coast stretches nearly 7000 km long, generating income through tourism, fishing and marine work. However, there is a disunion between the Irish nation and the coast that surrounds it. This year, a Canadian corporation bought the rights to 20% of Irish seaweed, disenfranchising small scale, sustainable harvesters and reflecting the general disinterest in this industry. In the last one hundred years, plastic is being used in fishing, resulting in it now being more common to find plastic on many Irish shores then it is to find sea shells or seaweed.
In considering these questions and research, we experience works of dematerialised mediums in the Gallery space - interventions, documentations, performances and experiments. A shared pool of influence for the artists is the Tibetan Buddhist concept of ‘Oceanic Consciousness’. This idea considers that we exist individually and then gradually return to being part of the whole ocean; that all life mimics the patterns of a wave. This process of renewal, recycling and leaving little behind when we go, was an ethos that resonated with each of the practitioners.
For this exhibition, Julia Dubsky, fine art, considers the pursuit of art by orchestrating an environmental event within an art gallery and challenging the boundaries of this space. Sean O’Riordan, fine art, creates a situation to invite conversation, by making a fire and heating stones that act as a meeting point, but that also change the physical atmosphere of the space. Grainne O’ Carroll, textiles, interprets scientific graphs through vocal performance, to mimic the repetitive pattern of waves through the pitches reached by the performer’s voice. Octavian Fitzherbert, print, and Lucy Bowen, fashion, collaborated in scripting and recording conversations held on a commuter train, which discusses our relationship to the Irish coast. In a place-specific piece, that runs parallel to the rise and fall of the tides and the ebbs and flows of commuters. Alanna Blake, fine art, investigates the migration of sea creatures: how they are transported by waves and compromised by our treatment of their natural habitat, the sea. Jenny Drea, fashion, facilitates both the artists and Coastwatch; by using up-cycled fabrics to create functional wear that support their projects, and by writing text which helps union the artists' work and the work of Coastwatch.
* On the opening evening of 'Cé leis é?', in collaboration with the NCAD Luncheonette, Lucy Bowen will serve a menu of inspired dishes. Coinciding with the end of the Coastwatch survey results, dishes will arrive in sequence. At 5.45pm, mini Carrageen hot whiskeys, baked hake wrapped in Nori, sea spaghetti in white wine sauce (served on oyster shells), Nori crisps with Dillisk hummus and Nori brownies are served. Also served at the opening is biodynamic wine from Paul Dubsky. This culinary project continues over the duration of the exhibition, as the NCAD Luncheonette menu will include freshly made seaweed infused pound cake, chips, colcannon, tea, and hummus.
* Coastwatch Europe is an environmental group founded in 1989 to undertake the first international Coastwatch Europe survey - an eco-audit of the shore carried out by schools and local volunteers. Coastwatch Europe is based in the Civil & Environmental Engineering department at Trinity College Dublin. Please view www.coastwatch.org
NCAD Gallery 100 Thomas Street, Dublin, D08 K521, Ireland.
Contact: Anne Kelly Curator NCAD Gallery Programme gallery@staff.ncad.ie
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