14 Mar 2012

AS ABOVE, SO BELOW


126 presents:

AS ABOVE, SO BELOW
Lucy Andrews and Carl Giffney
Curated by Padraic E.Moore

March 17th - April 7th, 2012

Preview: Friday March 16th, 7pm
































Dearest One,

I hope this finds you in good spirits. As you may be aware, I’m organising an exhibition of Lucy Andrews and Carl Giffney at 126 Gallery in Galway. You’ll undoubtedly already be familiar with the ubiquitous hermetic maxim I’ve taken for the title. I’ve always liked the idea that there is to everything a corresponding analogy. In the context of this exhibition, the title relates to the idea that for every occurrence on our material visible plane there is an invisible, unseen equivalent. For while this is ostensibly a site specific installation comprising of domestic detritus, household products and broken appliances manipulated and placed about the gallery in a ludic manner, it is on another level a field of unseen forces activating a determined space. In this way, AS ABOVE, SO BELOW explores the rhythms between things and emphasises the obvious fact that the positioning of a work of art is an important element of the work, and how, on final analysis, an exhibition possesses an unseen form in itself a ‘new spatiality’.

I’m excited by what Lucy’s been doing in the studio. She’s congregating flotsam and jetsam with an array of gels and unidentifiable liquids into sprawling landscapes upon the floor. She has this tendency toward subjecting low-tech appliances to instinctive and intriguing processes of experimentation. This is what I find most captivating, these actions of taking base materials and separating them from their original use in order to suggest the presence of some hidden potential or maybe the possibility that some force can be released from within them. This manipulation is alchemical. The exhibition at 126 includes a number of objects evocative of ritualistic vessels, in which viscous materials, are activated by energy sources or allowed to form reactions with each other. The resulting experience is olfactory as well as visual, and I suppose one might interpret these works as the manifestation of some primal demiurgic instinct to effect change in ones immediate material surroundings.

The reference to cultic gatherings and props of worship are equally present in Carl’s new installation, which is comprised of a scenography constructed around an object resembling the ark of the covenant. It’s almost like a diorama in that it appears like a reconstruction of an actual event at the centre of which is a sacred relic. Materially his work speaks of subtle energies and instinctive impulses while the narrative implied is one of mass exodus. The elements positioned in the gallery space are presented in a way that ensures they reveal their symbolic potential. It is my hope that this exhibition becomes something that can be ‘taken away’ by the spectator, in a sort of telepathic transmission. Through the intermediate passage from concrete form the works pass from being an idea in the artist’s mind to an idea in the mind of the viewer.

I really do hope that you have the opportunity to visit this show.

Yours fraternally in anticipation,

Pádraic E. Moore

11 Mar 2012

Game On / Re-Newing Media Art

Cao Fei / China Tracy. "Live in RMB City," 2009
Courtesy of the artist and Vitamin Creative Space, Beijing



Game On / Re-Newing Media Art

A touring initiative
Curated by Chris Clarke

Artists: Peggy Ahwesh (US), Paul B. Davis (US), Michael Bell-Smith (US), Cao Fei (CN), Faith Denham (IE), JODI (NL), Oliver Laric (AT), Conor McGarrigle (IE), Takeshi Murata (US)

126 Gallery: Thursday March 8th, 6pm

Game On / Re-Newing Media Art is a touring screening programme of artist’s film and video works that utilise the imagery and media of desktop interfaces, video games and online software. Curated by Chris Clarke (Curator of Education and Collections, Lewis Glucksman Gallery). Game On explores the ways in which contemporary artists appropriate and manipulate extant online materials and applications, often in order to challenge the rhetoric of user-interactivity and to highlight the aesthetics of the computer screen. While new media artists have often explored computer technologies in their practices, the featured artists in Game On appropriate existing software; an approach shared with hackers and ‘hacktivists’ who often re-programme mass-produced video games and applications as a strategy of subversion. While hacking has generally concerned itself with forms of sabotage through computer viruses and website vandalism, the artists here use widely-available software to create films that emphasise the aesthetic qualities of the virtual landscape.

Artists: Peggy Ahwesh (US), Paul B. Davis (US), Michael Bell-Smith (US), Cao Fei (CN), Faith Denham (IE), JODI (NL), Oliver Laric (AT), Conor McGarrigle (IE), Takeshi Murata (US)

A 42-page publication featuring information on the artists, works and an essay situating Game On within the wider history of media art and ‘hacktivism’ has been produced to accompany the programme. For further information, please contact: exhibitions@glucksman.org

10 Mar 2012

Sshhh... A Silent Auction



126 presents:

Sshhh...

A Silent Auction of art work kindly donated by the 126 membership.

Artists: Alice Maher, Parminderjit Singh Bhangoo, Marielle MacLeman, Jenny McKenna, Marie Hannon, Fred Robeson, David Finn, Anne O'Byrne, Matthew Doherty, Lisa Sweeney, Allison Regan, David O'Malley, Austin D. H. Ivers and many more.

Opening: Wed 7th March, 7.30pm
Where: The Bierhaus, Henry St, Galway
When: Wed 7th March - Wed 21st March

All proceeds will go towards funding 126's programme for 2012/2013