Artlink residency and screening, Donegal
As part of the Artlink residency at Fort Dunree, a screening will be held at Buncrana Cinema on Saturday 12th August at 5pm.
Two short films are being screened: A Numbness in the Mouth is set in a future Ireland where citizens are instructed to excessively consume wheat as the result of a bumper crop. Far from the reach of the sun is set in a near future where a drug that can alter your sexuality is marketed to consumers, alongside archival footage reflecting on the church and medical profession’s history of interfering with the lives of LGBTQ+ people.
Both films are presented with subtitles.
Total screening time: 40 minutes, followed by a discussion about these two films and how they influenced the work currently being shot on residency in Donegal.
More information on Artlink residency at Fort Dunree.
Curdle at the Courthouse Gallery & Studios, Clare
An exhibition by Caoimhín Gaffney, Bassam Issa Al-Sabah and Jennifer Mehigan at The Courthouse Gallery & Studios, Ennistymon, Clare.
Preview, 6pm, Friday 4th November. Exhibition continues 5th November- 3rd December 2022.
Each artist has a surreal approach to storytelling, with images, texts and voice-overs bending reality to a breaking point; mirroring how trauma distorts, remakes and retells lived experience in its own image. To curdle is to render something ‘wrong’ or ‘bad’, or ‘to spoil’. Curdling represents this condensing of a reality gone sour through the different image-making methods in the exhibition; painting, analogue photography, video, hyperreal CGI and AI-generated images. These distinct approaches are brought together through a unifying impulse of sharing queer experiences. Alongside this, humour, frankness and absurdity appear as queer strategies of resistance.
New and older works by each artist are shown in order to trace the development of these ideas through their practices and across different mediums they have worked with. Caoimhín’s work uses outward-looking satires of geopolitics and capitalism, inward-looking meditations and dreamlike scenes and images to envision alternative ways of being and worlds with their own logic and possibilities. Bassam’s work creates intricate visions of war, resistance and perseverance to examine themes of displacement, nostalgia and personal mythology. Jennifer’s work explores personal and domestic materialities of queerness, grief and horror as they intersect with the screen, and ideas of truth and reality in a space where public and private spheres are constantly colliding with and abstracting each other.
Platform 31 award
Caoimhín was awarded the Platform 31 bursary for South Dublin County Council to develop a new project of photography, writing and video over the coming year.
“Platform 31 is designed to support 31 artists – one from each Local Authority area in Ireland – to reflect on and develop their practice or make work in a new way, while being connected with and supported by peer practitioners, advisors and mentors. Developed by the Association of Local Authority Arts Offices (ALAAO) with the Arts Council, Platform 31 offers two elements of support – financial and developmental – for mid-career artists across all disciplines.”
Image: work in progress, medium format, 2022.
Guides at the Linenhall
Far from the reach of the sun (2018) and Faggot (neon, 2018) are being shown in Guides at the Linenhall Arts Centre, curated by Séamus Nolan as part of a celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Arts Council Collection.
15th July- 3rd September 2022. The Linenhall.