Statement

Dark – I foresee the coming days
Bitter – changes in uncanny ways
Spawn – of Armageddon unleashed
Nightmare – season for man and beast

From lyrics of the track "My Eyes Wide Open” by Swedish metal band Fear The Future.

Fear the Future (the band) area typical gothic Scandinavian death metal outfit. Fast guitars, screaming lyrics, death and gore abound. As appropriate to the genre their graphic identity uses Celtic and Gothic fonts with pseudo-Satanic blood soaked graphics. The drawing and title of this installation borrows a graphic from a recent release and t-shirt.

For Platform II Dis-[re]-place I have chosen to exhibit new and old works that address the curated theme of the exhibition indirectly, working with ideas of history context, identity and collective memory. Different references mix up the past and present, cross-referencing between conflicting narratives – local, personal and historical. Together the works offer a view of the present, rooted in or retreating into the past, obliquely hiding from the inevitability of the future.

The tricephallic head Eamon meets Arthur meets Roger, 2007 is inspired by the stone Celtic head found nearby in Corlech with the papier-mâché made from the local newspaper, the Cavan Echo. The faces are of early 20th century historical figures – Eamon DeValera, Arthur Griffith and Roger Casement. The piece both memorialises these individuals and pokes fun at notions of Celtic revivalism and nationalism as head cult.

The wax chair frame Self-Rescue Mechanism # 2, 1998 (Jim Dingilian) is from a body of work that was inspired by case studies of auto-erotic fatalities. This delicate piece points to absence and is rooted in a pro-sentimental reconstruction of a personal history.

Ralph’s Crawl Space, 2007 functions within the installation as a private hiding space. As a scaled down tunnel it tapers into a point like a forced three dimensional perspective. Made from soft polyurethane foam and latex it however appears rigid but is soft, functioning as a toy or even a pile of coal beside the fireplace.

Platform II
Dis-[re]-place

Following on from the success of last year's Platform 1, local curator Niamh Smyth's latest endeavour to bring exciting contemporary art to a peripheral area is Platform 2. Subtitled Dis-Re/place the show has a strong curatorial stamp and has come about after months of meetings and discussions with interested artists. Opening on the 10 th of November at Knockbride House, Bailieborough Co Cavan, this ambitious and unusual art event is situated well off the beaten track in relation to where most contemporary art is encountered. It features the works of fourteen different artists brought together to provide a venue and a platform for the expansion and knowledge of contemporary art in the area.

The exhibition also seeks to question the notion of a sense of place and community and how this is being threatened by displaced populations and multinational forces. Within the intricacies of the individual works Smyth has set up an arena for looking into how we relate to our locality and whether we are too eager to throw away facets of community life such as trust and looking out for your neighbour in favour of a society where the individual comes before the community. In light of a changing society and the shifts in lifestyle brought about in recent years throughout Ireland , Bailieborough is too experiencing a demographic influx of people who work outside the area. The displaced and the replaced as the title suggests, are the recently arrived young families pushed further and further out from predominantly the Dublin area due to spiralling property prices.

The changing face of commerce in small rural communities is also under question with the rush towards convenience shopping brought about by people's desire for more variety and better value on the one hand, and time pressures on the other. Is this short term gain in perceived value and convenience being brought about through the sacrifice of a close-knit community? Or is it possible to reconcile both? This exhibition will strive to address through the many different voices of the invited artists, whether we are letting go of fundamental values in the rush towards so called progress and prosperity.

This promises to be an interesting and challenging show with artists given free reign to interpret the notions of displacement and replacement in relation to Bailieborough and its environs. The invited artists showing are: Shane Cullen IRL, Alan Phelan IRL, Ursula Burke NI, Paddy Bloomer NI, Nina Tanis USA, Paul McAree IRL, Fiona Dowling IRL,  Mary McIntyre NI, Simon McWilliams NI,  Carole Lung USA, Áine Ivers IRL, Seamus Nolan IRL and FrenchMottershead UK.

The official opening will take place on Saturday 10 th November @8pm. Special guests include Judge Cormac Dunne, Iain Davidson- Visual Arts Officer for the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Diarmuid Wilson- Government Chief Whip of Seanad Éireann and spokesperson on Northern Ireland . Opening night is invite only due to space restrictions.

Opening times 11am-6pm, 11 th -24 th November. Closed Mondays.

Contact 042 966 66 66 for more information.

The Wesleyan Chapel, Arts, Cultural & Tourism Centre,
Adelaide Row, Bailieborough, Co. Cavan, Ireland.
Tel: 042 966 6666 Fax: 042 966 6669 Email: info@wesleyanchapel.com