News, Research and current residencies
Hard/Graft Conversations on Planting a Commons can be purchased at Temple Bar Gallery online shop. “In 2018 artist Seoidín O’Sullivan invited me to engage with her in a critical exploration of her practice via a mentoring process where the already established Hard/Graft project would form the ground of inquiry. Over the course of that dialogical process we explored Hard/Graft as an assemblage of political and ethical commitments encompassing feminism, ecology and the commons as an alternative to the neoliberal domination of public space. We critically unpacked the complexity of the organisational structures and (inter)institutional negotiations that made up the micro political economy of Hard/Graft as a specific relational network. We considered the affective and bodily co-ordinations that came into play in the social encounters with the people and places that Hard/Graft encompassed. We also considered the subtle transformations in subjectivity, identity and positionality that the artist moves through as they navigate the ever-shifting coordinates of situated practice. Those four critical lenses: macro political economy, micro political economy, social encounters and the subjective flow of the artist were developed through the practice of Vagabond Reviews as navigational tools for social practice. In April 2019 we concluded the dialogical phase of the work at Studio 468 in Rialto. Over a series of four structured conversations we (re)viewed Hard/Graft through those four lenses in order to effect a synchronic mapping of its lines of flight as a situated assemblage of political commitments, spatial distributions and creative investments. Our work together unfolded along those two distinct phases: a mentoring process and an essay with Hard/Graft as the centrifugal point of departure. Honouring that shift from dialogue to text, the essay that follows here has adopted the conversational form. It is myself and Seoidín’s sincere hope that this framework may be of some navigational assistance for artists, activists and communities of interest more broadly in mapping out the critical coordinates of their diverse, socially engaged art practices.” from Introduction by Ciaran Smyth, p11, 2020.
A curatorial project by the Selvage Collective
Featuring work by Varujan Boghosian, Charlotte Wheeler Cuffe, Micky Donnelly, Peter Hutchinson, Nevill Johnson, Stefan Kurten, Katie Ridley Murphy, Seoidín O’Sullivan, Joe Peragine, Jack Pierson, and Daphne Wright.
9 November 2019 – 1 March 2020
Butler Gallery is closed for lunch 1-2pm daily
Envisioned as the final exhibition in the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny Castle, A Most Favourable Soil looks to the botanical practice of grafting as a metaphor that links people, sites, land use, and production. The exhibition considers how each architectural iteration of the new Butler Gallery site has, since the twelfth century, utilised aspects of the physical fabric of the previous building. Thus, the stones of the St. John’s Priory, the first buildings that occupied the land, serve as a form of rootstock that has been blended with each new structure. This concept of grafting and melded creations not only emphasises the regeneration of the Evans’ Home site, but also has a strong connection to the history of orchards in the area. Prior’s Orchard, that stretched along the river in front of the priory’s property, is but one example.
The metaphor also draws connections to several individuals who were instrumental in the making of the alms house. The architect for the Evans’ Home, William Robertson, was related to a late 18th/early 19th century Kilkenny nurseryman, John Robertson. The title of the exhibition is from John Robertson’s writing on orchards that suggests a location on the bank of a river and a strong loam as the most favourable soil. The fertile land along the east side of the river Nore will now bring cultural growth into fruition.
The layout of the exhibition first offers an overview of the related histories of the current Butler Gallery site and the new one. It then touches on the building that will become the new Butler Gallery, the Evans’ Home, suggesting the layered histories of the male and female residents. The show returns to the metaphor of grafting and blended growth in the final room, anticipating the beauty, collaboration, and rich content of the new museum. The exhibition features work by Varujan Boghosian, Charlotte Wheeler Cuffe, Micky Donnelly, Peter Hutchinson, Nevill Johnson, Stefan Kurten, Katie Ridley Murphy, Seoidin O’Sullivan, Joe Peragine, Jack Pierson, and Daphne Wright.
Selvage is a curatorial collective from the USA that includes Julia Brock, Teresa Bramlette Reeves and Kirstie Tepper. Their practice reveals and visualizes alternative narratives and history. With a strong commitment to service, they work with partners to identify a particular need and research focus that allows for discovery on both sides of the partnership. In examining the past they rewrite future understanding of a time and place and embrace nostalgia as a form of knowledge rather than sentimental longing. The collective works in the borderland of fact, hearsay, and fiction, wherein one finds multiple voices and stories to share.
With thanks to the Arts Council for essential annual funding and to the OPW, Department of Social Protection and Kilkenny Local Authorities for additional assistance.
Special thanks are extended to the team at IMMA.
Butler Gallery, The Castle, Kilkenny, Ireland
t: + 353 56 7761106 e: info@butlergallery.com www.butlergallery.com
ROOT DIVISION, San Francisco
Root Division is a visual arts non-profit that connects creativity and community through a dynamic ecosystem of arts education, exhibitions, and studios.
I am currently doing an art residency at Roots Division, San Francisco.
The work emerging relates to my continuing research in Dublin. I have chosen to focus on a wasteland space but particularly the wild fennell that spontaneously propagates itself on sites across the city. This site I am working with currently operates as an informal greenway site. The community have come together to plant trees and garden the site so that they can create a green route that connects the town to the Glen Park canyon. My research so far consists of photography, video and drawing and regular walks through the site.
I am looking at the history of Loretta Starvus Stack, Communist organiser and community gardener she was arrested in 1951.
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