22 River Oaks
Subversion and The Domestic,
15-22 September 2007
Domnick Thorpe, Ben Roosevelt, Jackie Summel, Niall Moore, Aideen Barry, and Nuisance Bears (AKA Nicholas Devaney)
22 River Oaks, Claregalway, Co. Galway
Curated by Aideen Barry
Subversion and the Domestic is a concept that has been presented to six artists to who will participate in House Projects at 22 River Oaks Claregalway. The notion of creating site-specific new works for the suburban housing site is embraced with a series of mini residencies undertaken by the participating artists to the house. Implicit within the concept of Subversion and the Domestic is the suggestion of the space as an 'in-between' site. Reflecting on the local and international environment with a comment on the uncanny climate of political and social behaviours of the everyday.
In a society that has little time to pause and reflect, Dominic Thorpe causes us to re-examine the issue of loss. His own work finds a place in ideas of system and system breakdown. He uses various media and forms including photography, video, performance, installation, object based, drawing and collaborations. His most significant work is that of his reflections of the mental state both subjectively and objectivel. In particular commenting on the rising rates of young male suicide in contemporary society.
Ben Roosevelt makes work about urban and suburban environments, visual codes, and existential confusion. He is interested in the problems and experiences of people living in close-knit neighbourhoods, ranging from the threat of robbery and the anxiety of identity, to moments of unexpected beauty when, according to the poet Hart Crane, "the moon in lonely alleys makes a grail of laughter of an empty ash can." In his creative activities, he draws on widespread urban anxieties and more close-to-home and everyday dilemmas, always trying to keep a certain distance and precision to avoid moralising or supplying a specific reading of his work.
Employing the notion of humor and referencing iconography of the MTV generation, Niall Moore's work causes us to reflect on a consumer driven community, immersed in the fantasy and myth of the TV world that envelopes us. As the traditional role of art becomes increasingly fractured his practice reflects the gradual assimilation of contemporary art into the realm of light entertainment. He draws inspiration from today's accelerated culture, which makes no distinction between 'high' and 'low' art and draws histories and cultures together into one text.
Jackie Sumell, is a multi-disciplinary visual artist based in the US and Ireland. Her work has been most notably known for its blurring the boundaries between Art and Activism. Sumell's work, both as activist and artist attempts to unmask the common denominator of human experience that often hides behind the proverbial billboards of personal biography. Sumell's work is a thought provoking reflection, albeit humorous at times, of the unnerving and sometimes grotestique of inequality and imbalance of "social justice" in the contemporary diaspora.
As well as being the facilitator of the Subversion and Domestic project, Aideen Barry is also one of the participating artists. Her practice encompasses a number of creative pathways such as art making and curation. In particular Barry is interested in the notion of creating site-specific works that comment on the function and history of a space, informed by the notion of heteratopic sites (from the article 'of other spaces' - Michael Foucault, 1968). In her practice she is interested in the notion of the in between or spaces of hybridity. He practice encompasses an eclectic mix of performance, installation, film, sound, drawing and animations. Her preoccupation with the Uncanny has propelled her to create works that are informed by abnormal behaviours and tourettes. She strives to comment on the new Gothic within the contemporary domestic society, with her play on reality and optical illusions.
www.aideenbarry.com
www.baconinstead.org
www.nuisancebears.com
www.sumell.org
www.breakingground.ie
www.artspacegalway.com
www.galwaycoco.ie
www.galway.ie/en/Services/ArtsOffice
