occupy paper issue 5

Issue Five 1

ISSUE 5CCUPY

Occupy Paper2 Issue Five 3

CCUPY

Occupy Paper is a new online publication for contemporary art, which runs alongside the visual art programme in place in Occupy Space.

Occupy Space is one of Limericks newest exhibition spaces, located on Thomas street. It was set up to facilitate an ever expanding need for artistic exhibition spaces in Limerick. It is an artist led project, run by members of Wickham Street Studios on a voluntary basis. Occupy Space is committed to delivering a relentlessly energetic programme of exhibitions and events.

Our intention is that this space will be a central axis for a huge variety of creative people to experiment and present their work. The organization encourages openness and accessibility to artists and the visiting public alike, and aims to provide an open solid platform for the visual arts. Our program involves hosting exhibitions of emerging and established artists, with a strong emphasis on exhibiting those based in Limerick. Occupy Space also hosts other artist led projects such as artists talks, seminars and collaborative events with other creative practitioners and organizations.

This visual art journal is intended to expand on the exhibitions and events happening in the gallery as well as provide a platform for critique and dialogue between emerging and established artists in Limerick and beyond. Artists, critical writers and other art practitioners are invited to submit to the journal and engage with it as a means of testing, experimenting, developing and expanding on new ideas and concepts.

Submissions

Occupy paper is a free online journal published monthly. We are actively looking for contributors to write articles, essays, and reviews.Occupy paper accepts all submissions related to contemporary art practice from painting and print to sculpture, video and beyond.If you would like to be included in the focus section please send a CV, 5-10 images and a short statement about your work. All submissions should be sent by email to :

[email protected]

CONTENTSIn the Gallery Show MeCurated by Nora O’Murchu and Anna Crudge 04

Kevin O’Keeffe talks to Antony Murphy about the exhibtion and his work

Three Solo ShowsRamon Kassam, Mark O’Kelly and Laura McMorrow 14

ReviewsGareth Jenkins 26

Deirdre Kelly reviews Arch-e-types at The Nag: Cross Gallery, Dublin

Mark Cullen 30

Maria Tanner reviews ‘Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space’ at Triskel Arts Centre, Cork

Nicky Teegan 34Are Creative Classes Designed to Work with No Fixed Abode?

Focus 38 Gerard Carson


In the GalleryShow MeCurated by Nora O’Murchu and Anna Crudge, Show Me was an exhibition of new and existing artworks responding to the relationship between art, audience and the production of art. Comprising of a website and an exhibition the show tracked various stages of process of the artists both on and off line and offered the audience a unique insight into the finished works. Spanning a broad range of disciplines featured artists included; Alison Carey, Ivan Twohig, Benjamin Gaoulon, Sarah Doyle,

Grant Hamilton, Andy Callahan, Jessica Foley, Antony Murphy, Luna Maurer and Roel Wouters.

The exhibition previewed on Thursday the 30th September and ran until 16th of October 2010.

For more information on the exhibition visit www.showmeexhib.com and http://showmeexhib.blogspot.com/


Show MeHere Kevin O’Keeffe talks to Antony Murphy about the exhibition and his work.

Kevin O’Keeffe Anthony, you’ve recently exhibited in Occupy Space as part of the group show ‘Show Me’ curated by Nora O’Murchu and Anna Crudge. Your piece - nEuclid - is a video projection mapped onto a sort of truncated cube sculpture. It seems there may be quite a lot of work involved in creating a mapped projection, maybe you could describe the process of creating a piece like this?

Antony Murphy The work for nEuclid began in Blender (open source 3D animation software) in which I built a model of the structure and animated it - creating virtual lights, deconstructing the shape, adding protrusions to the surface, etc. I then made a physical structure using the exact dimensions of the Blender model. Additional 2D motion graphics were made with After Effects and the final animation is then output through VVVV, a programme in which the real world dimensions of the structure and the projector position are matched with a virtual model and virtual camera. What the virtual camera sees, which is a distorted animation sequence, is output by the real world projector and on hitting the surface of the structure is undistorted. The fascination for me is in projecting the virtual back onto the real in the hope that the distinction between the two, if even just for a moment, will be blurred.

KO’K How did you come to making work like this?

AM For me, creating this type of work has been a way of unifying all the once seemingly disparate interests and ideas and influences I’ve had over the years. I had wanted to add an element of real-time response to my work which got me interested in VJing. This in turn led me back Images from ‘Show Me’


to animation, which has always been an interest. VJing and animation seemed separate from my art work for a while, until I realised that everything I was trying to communicate could be said more clearly and more eloquently with animation and, especially, mapping.

KO’K There are some other video projection mapping artists out there, however yours is the first I’ve seen that relates its subject matter to itself, ie. the projections are based on recursive geometry or fractals which are based on the cubic structure they are projected onto. Can you give us some greater insight into this element of the work?

AM With nEuclid I wanted to explore the structure and its components, to disassemble and reconstruct, in finer detail, the elements of the surfaces themselves. The animation developed as a narrative that, for me, told the story of the surface; it begins with points in space which grow to create lines and outline out similar 2D shapes at various scales. Finally the surface of the structure is revealed. Then that surface is fractured, there is chaos, and it is reassembled with more detail – with smaller instances of the original elements. The surfaces are shown to be contained within themselves at a smaller scale and the surfaces reflect themselves. This fracturing and reflection of the surface is the introduction of fractal geometry and infinity, base on the ideas of among numerous others, Cantor, Julia, Menger, Sierpinski and Mandelbrot. All these minds worked with the infinite, investigating an infinite deconstruction and division of what was once seen as a whole. I wanted to divide and deconstruct the solid structure using the projection mapped to its surfaces.

Images from ‘Show Me’


KO’K The title seems to be a portmanteau of New/Euclid. Tell us about the title.

AM nEuclid, indeed a portmanteau of New Euclid, is a reference to Benoit Mandelbrot, who coined the term “fractal”. Euclidean geometry describes the world for us adequately enough for most of us not to concern ourselves with any other kind of geometry at all, but there are shapes that are too complicated to be described in a traditional Euclidean sense and so a new extension of that geometry, fractal geometry, is used to describe it. Mandelbrot, using his position at IBM and expertise in computers, was the first mathematician to visualise the discoveries made in this field of geometry.

KO’K Since the 1970’s or so fractal geometry has had very far reaching implications and applications, not only in observing nature but in technological, social and economic structures and theory. Do you find, by and large, that its implications and relevance are overlooked by visual art practitioners?

AM I think that one of the greatest achievements to come with the visualisation of the Mandelbrot Set was the reuniting of mathematics and the image. Mathematicians were dealing purely with the abstract - they had long given up the idea that there could be anything learned from pictures. Mandelbrot approached a mathematical problem with a strong visual influence – he looked at computer print outs not as a mathematician but as an aesthete; becoming acquainted with the shapes in a very unsystematic manner. So you had maths looking back to the visual. From the other side, the visual looked to a more pure mathematics, introducing fractal geometry to computer graphics, using the fractal to create virtual worlds and special effects – turning to maths to imitate nature. We have probably been over-saturated by images and animations of the Mandelbrot Set now, but the core idea – the patterns and complexities that arise from simple forms and conditions – is a concept visible in a lot of art.

Images from ‘Show Me’


Of course trying to fit fractal geometry into all isms and movements is as ridiculous asdrawing the Golden Ratio on everything. An example of art that consciously uses the concepts of complexity from simplicity and produce images and structures from mathematic conditions is Generative Art - the best known example of which would probably be Keith Tyson’s “Fractal Dice” which was a body of work manufactured by a gallery’s production team based on an algorithm sent to them by Tyson.

KO’K Who would be your main influences? Do artists or mathematicians have a greater impact on your practice?

AM I see maths, especially physics, and art as very similar – both, if true, are a universal language concerned with aesthetics and in search of a deeper understanding. It’s a case of taking elements and influence from both, allowing one field of interest and investigation to influence the other and to make work based on the results. In terms of inspiration I take more from physics and mathematics, but there are artists, and movements, whose philosophies I always take into consideration when making new work.

KO’K Do you strictly work in video projection or do you tinker in any other media or subjects?

AM I’ve thought of myself as working in purely video projection but each time I do a new mapping project I realise that I’ve built something to project onto - the computer modelling and animation has been the most important aspect and I’ve just considered the structures as surfaces. Lately I’ve been looking at developing the

structures to become more complex, stand alone pieces. I’ve also been looking into programming with the aim of bringing an interactive element to my work.

KO’K Can you tell us of any other projects going at the moment? Anything we can look out for?

AM I’ve been in contact with some people about getting involved with some architectural mapping projects. It is early days so I can’t give you much detail but I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve also been working on a few personal projects so more videos on the way soon.

A video of Anthony Murphy’s piece nEuclid can be found at http://www.vimeo.com/pointzerothree

In memory of Benoit Mandelbrot (1924-2010)

‘I take more from physics and mathematics, but there are artists, and movements, whose philosophies I always take into consideration when making new work’

Antony Murphy, nEuclid


3 Solo ShowsOccupy Space presented three solo shows by Ramon Kassam, Mark O’Kelly and Laura McMorrow from 22nd October - 6th November 2010.

In Gallery 1 Ramon Kassam presented a body of carried out over the last two years. His practice sites itself within the idea that any element that is part of the make up of a painting practice can call to mind certain degrees of suggestibility.Here he talks to Emmet Kierans about his practice and exhibition.

In Gallery 2 Mark O’Kelly presents a work that was previously shown in The Black Mariah, Cork. His work explicitly references mediated experiences and signifiers as opposed to the actual signified cultural or political context of his sources. O’Kelly’s work is engaged in analysis of the experience of seeing, re-seeing, adopting and engaging with representations of culture.Mark O’Kelly studied at NCAD and received his MA from Slade, London. He is a Lecturer in Fine Art at LSAD.

In Gallery 3 Laura McMorrow exhibited a body of small-scale paintings in Occupy Process Space. These works often find their starting points in acquired images, which the artist then filters in order to remove selected content. The resulting works are quietly subversive, delicately painted contexts, suggesting fragmented narratives. Here Laura and Ramon discuss her work and the exhibition.


Emmet Kierans Your work likes to trivialise the supposed highbrow position painting holds in the art world. Is this driven by a desire to change how it is perceived?

Ramon Kassam I don’t really tend to think painting holds a highbrow position in the art world. If anything I would think it holds more of a lowbrow position. But I do understand how it can be perceived as having one in some circles. It is these different parallel mythologies that painting seems to get situated in which I tend to trivialise more than anything. I love how in one discourse painting can be highbrow, while in another it’s dead and in another one it’s been resurrected. It’s so ridiculously

epic, but in a way it’s my fuel. So instead of having any strong positions in terms of how I think painting is perceived and wanting to change these perceptions, my desire would be to de-construct and reconstruct these discourses, mythologies and absurdities and attempt to translate that experience into the production of engaging works.

EK Is it integral that you explore this in the medium of paint?

RK No, but it’s not integral that I don’t either.

EK Is it important to have a knowledge of contemporary art to appreciate your work or do you feel it can be approached without being aware of the wider historical debate surrounding painting?

\RK It’s hard for me to say. As an artist it is my goal to see my work become part of the wider visual arts discourse, as is the goal of any artist. So when I make work I’m aware of some of these debates and naturally they might come out in the works. This might suggest that there are aspects of my work where an insight into the wider historical debate surrounding painting might make it seem more readable and accessible, just as there is an argument to say that those who have a fondness for certain colours and forms I might use make the work more readable and accessible. At the end of the day most of the works are paintings and whether or not the audience is aware of any wider historical debate surrounding painting, they are going to be aware that the objects they are looking at are paintings. So whatever particular view you have on these objects and similar looking devices will dictate whether or not you appreciate them.

EK In your piece ‘Video Art’, in which a painting is exhibited on the wall and projected on to a TV screen, are you attempting to draw parallels between both mediums or is it a comment on the desire for current art to employ new media?

RK It is definitely set up as an attempt to draw parallels, but not out of a desire to employ new media. In this case I’m thinking if I do set out to draw parallels, then the devices I use are essentially props used to demonstrate this. Which makes me interested in what is the prop and what is the piece. Is the painting or the monitor the central part of the work, are they both, or is it neither? Instead, maybe they are both props set up to illustrate some sort of conceptual identity within the work. Again all this goes back to what I’m fundamentally interested in - the idea that painting and other art forms can be situated in any number of mythological parallel universes.

Ramon Kassam talks to Emmet Kierans


EK Who are the figures in the contemporary art world that you feel most aligned with? And who or what type of artwork do you particularly dislike?

RK There are artists whose work I admire a lot, but at the same time I would not align my practice to any particular artists. If I’m into an artist it’s not because I see correlations between their practice and my own but because, in my opinion, I see a mind at work, a cleverness and a willingness to work outside the boundaries of trend and somehow be able to construct a language that is identifiable as their own. Paul McCarthy is an example. In an early work of his where he paints a white line on the floor using his face, I cant help but imagine that at the time he was ruthlessly committed to this idea regardless of audience or what other artists might have been doing at the time. There’s a quote of his I love that sums this up. When asked about his responsibility towards audience he says, “my responsibility is to the ideas.” Other artists I’m into are Bruce Nauman, John Baldassari, Philip Guston, Gerhard Richter, Vik Muniz and Gerard Byrne.

I don’t tend to have any strong feelings of dislike towards any artists or their work, and if I ever do, I just find this something that interests me and is something that might feed into my own work. It goes back to my interest in the absurdity of art, and because of this, I tend to take most things with a pinch of salt and not have any strong feelings of dislike towards anything. I mean, I do find a lot of work ridiculously boring but again the hows and whys of that tend to become something I get interested in.

EK I guess in that case my real question is this, does your work react to or against what you come across in art world?

RK Yeah, it’s a reaction to it. It’s absolutely not a critique anyway. I’m very comfortable with the absurdity of it. In fact I enjoy that absurdity and my reaction would be one of joining in and emerging myself in all the nonsense.

EK Living in Limerick, which has a relatively small art scene, how do you stay connected to the greater discourse in contemporary art?

RK It does, but at the same time it’s well connected. There is a good community of practitioners around. Even more

importantly, despite the fact we are at the edge of Europe, we are still only an hour flight away from London which is Europe’s apparent epicenter of the art world. With cheap flights it is often the case that it’s quicker and cheaper to travel to Europe than it is to Dublin. I’m not a big believer that you have to be living in a big city with a vibrant art scene to stay connected to the greater discourse in contemporary art and to make good work. Nor do I believe you have to be out there seeing work in the flesh the whole time. Sometimes the internet is just as good and you get the idea. >


Ramon Kassam Allowing yourself to do an MA is allowing your work to be opened up to scrutiny. Are there any aspects of your show at Occupy that you yourself would be critical of?

Laura McMorrow My use of overall space. I used the walls and the window, but neglected the floor space.

RK It is also a chance to allow yourself to open out your practice. Do you see the larger works you had in the show (the window and rock pieces) as your first steps at doing that?

LMcM Because I was showing in the project space, I wanted to try something new. I suppose it was good timing that I had just started the Masters, because it gave me the confidence to give it a go. The larger works were quite experimental. I had a rough idea how I wanted them to look,but they evolved when I started installing. The window piece is a play on the ‘whiting out’ of empty shop fronts. I wanted to make a giant light box type drawing using the washy white substance people paint onwindows. The rock piece was meant to look like I had cut away the wall and left meteorite type explosive shapes behind. My work is usually quite small and intimate, but enlarging key pieces made me realise the visual impact of larger scale work.

RK Your paintings, drawings and photographs were hung much moreconventionally than I’ve seen them hung in previous shows. What was your reasoning behind this?

LMcM I didn’t want to over complicate the show, so I kept the presentation simpler than I normally would. I wanted each piece to be appreciated individually.

Laura McMorrow talks to Ramon Kassam


RK Do you make any distinctions between your paintings, drawings and photographs?

LMcM No, because often they are one and the same. For example, I might stick a printed image on top of a painting, or paint on top of a digital print. The works have lots of different elements in them, I not only try to use a variety of materials, but also expose some of the surface itself. I don’t tend to use much paint in my paintings,not compared to Ramon anyway! I approached the unfinished wall and thewindow as found surfaces, in the same way I would approach a place mat or a cardboard box.

RK As one of the the founding members of Occupy Space, do you think your role in running and being part of the organization has had an influence on decisions you may have made in terms of putting your show together?

LMcM It definitely helped to have an inside knowledge of the space, it allowed me to work more site specifically. I knew the wall in the project space was unfinished, so I wanted to incorporate that in my work. I also found it odd that out of all the shows in Occupy no one really utilised the big street level retail window. I wanted to create a piece that was visible from the inside and outside of the space. And to attract attention to the gallery, because one thing I noticed from invigilating in the space is that people walk past without glancingin. It also helped to know what equipment I would have access to. I was honoured to be asked back to show in the gallery. It was nice to get something back from a space I had put a lot of time into!


RK In Limerick your studio peers were all painters, whereas now I imagine you’re surrounded by artists working in a variety of mediums. Do you think the move from your studio in Limerick to Belfast has had or will have an impact on your practice?

LMcM It took a while to get used to working in a shared studio environment again. I’ve been making some sculpture, and trying out things that I might not normally have if I wasn’t on the course. The piece I amworking on at the moment is an installation. There are a lot of new media artists on my course so I do miss the smell of turps, and the dart board!

RKWhat artists are you currently looking at?

LMcM I have been researching Urs Fischer and Lars Laumann. Closer to home, a Nevan Lahart show opened in Belfast last week, I liked the Irishness of the show, and his sense of humour in making the work. He made a football stadium out of bits of wood and plastic.

RKAside from other artists is their anything else that has strong influences on your practice, i.e bands, movies, craft, tv shows, cartoons,etc?

LMcM I’ve been watching Norwegian movies, like The Bothersome Man, andKitchen Stories. I’ve been reading Haruki Murakami, and listening to Can, Electrelane,and Bonobo. When I’m making work I prefer to listen to instrumental music, so I don’t get distracted by the lyrics. I’mnot sure if any of those things have a direct influence on my practice, but my work is quite instinctual so I suppose it might impact it subconsciously.

RK Do you have any plans for the near future?

LMcM I am participating in the Station Project next week as part of the MFAcourse. It is run by Belfast Platform for the Arts and will give me the opportunity to work off-site and do more site specific work.


Reviews

Gareth JenkinsDeirdre Kelly reviews Arch-e-types at The Nag: Cross Gallery, Dublin

The Nag is situated downstairs in the Cross Gallery and is an ideal setting for upcoming artists hoping to make a breakthrough in the busy cultural artistic Dublin scene. Two bright spacious rooms accommodate Gareth’s small but subtle toned images. They are cleverly hung in complimentary colours within the space ensuring maximum effect and minimum clutter.

Upon first glancing at the paintings they trigger familiar responses in the viewer, questioning whether they are satellite images of roads and highways seen on ordinance survey maps, grids of spaghetti junctions, synthetic computer designs, architectural constructions, floating inanimate weightless objects in space, or a more complicated technical configuration of geometrical shapes comprising of molecular structures.

The answer is all of the above and none of them. These non-figurative compositions are entirely abstract with emphasis placed more on the process of construction and creativity rather than on the aesthetic. Yet this too has a role to play in that all are carefully manipulated to cause the least abrasiveness and harshness possible. An amalgamation of precise angles and lines, the ‘archetectonical’ elements of the composition, are softened by elegant curves and a plasticity to the paint which through their complicated over-layering drags the viewer into their depths. Tonal application is important with grey being the prevailing hue utilized by architects of contemporary culture. However, the varying hues of colour compliment each image so that while each is a separate entity, the entirety can also be seen as a collection or body of work.


The uniform series of shapes and constructions are initially derived from drawings and built up through the layering of paint over a prolonged period of time. When this point is reached depends entirely on how the image develops but there are some ground rules to observe: repetition, simplicity and a reduced, almost minimal palette are prerequisites. This results in deceptively simple imagery, empty of all gestural indications and external references which masks the complex creation of colour, harmony and line in its subtlety.

What matters is the evocation of the imagery and not what it is depicting. The lack of information suggests diverse meanings. This minimalism is aided by the

small scale of the work which emphasizes its intimacy as a large painting can seem a more public experience. A small surface can easily be changed, it is not physical and threatening.

An idea for a painting can come out of anywhere, watching something on the television or something said, but usually it derives from an intuitive thought. In this way there is more emphasis on the individual painting with its minimal aestheticism rather than on overwhelming sense of the impersonal. The ground is carefully treated, cut form MDF, meticulously prepared and sanded to ensure the smooth and even application of paint. The series of shapes and constructions derive initially from drawings but it is in the painting process itself that Gareth focuses.

The weightless forms within some images creates a feeling of space which suggests that actual objects juxtaposed beside the paintings may be an idea for future investigation. This precludes any hierarchical relationship between the two processes as each feeds off of the other symbiotically.

The fact that they are hung in pairs adds to the delicate and evocative nature of the work in that the viewer feels able to respond more intimately to each image without being suffocated by the intricate and minute detail involved in its process. As a collection they work excellently but as suggested each can also be isolated and singled out as a separate unit.

The exhibition ran 5-27 November 2010. Photos courtesy of the artist.


The title ‘Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space’, Mark Cullen’s solo exhibition at the Triskel Arts Centre, is taken from the philosophical novel Sophie’s World by Jostine Gaarder, the context being: ‘Only philosophers embark on this perilous expedition to the outermost reaches of language and existence’.

Moving in a clock wise motion through the gallery space I first encountered an intimate cluster of six small oil paintings. The paintings tentatively explore a visual vocabulary that references ideas of the visible cosmos and the cosmos that has been revealed to us in the development of science and technology. Circumnavigating ideas about the representation of space the painting Cloud (2008) describes charged gasses and chimerical light of nebula with a restraint that refuses maximalist seduction inherent in these vaporous worlds.

In Harvester (2008) and Atomiser (2008) a series of white dots modulating into bisque and sienna, impose a static surface quality to the images that deters from ocular immersion in the depth implied by the blue and umber blackness of the pictorial plane.

Casleo night (2008), thinned and whitish ivory oil paint pays linear and pallid reference to the Casleo observatory in El Leoncito, Argentina. Beneath this flat surface image an impasto of more defiant marks address diaphanous space yielding little in the way of explanation.

Moving on to the next work which occupies a central position within the gallery, Untitled(2010) is a large work on paper which uses ink and toner to describe what seems an improvised reconnaissance into unbounded space.

Formal and chromatic unities of these painted works mask a certain modernist physiognomy, but Cullen’s casual relationship to the representationalengenders ambivalence towards thisself same convention, engaging hermeneutics not of retrieval but of suspicion.

Ideas of site/place/space are designated as important in the Cullen’s work; the light box piece, Towards super connection, (2008) makes undeclared ironical reference to its ESB offsite location. This parallels Cerith Wyn Evans light column installation. Wyn Evans’s S=U=P=E=R=S=T=R=U=C=T=U=R=E (‘trace me back to some loud, shallow, chill, underlying motive’s shallow overspill...’) (2010) references the a former electricity sub station which once stood on the site now occupied by the white cube gallery in London. Much less overt, Cullen’s light box consist of vertices and edges (the points being the vertices and the lines being the edges) that perform an empyrean cartography of fluorescent light through lustrous and reflective blackness.

Mark CullenMaria Tanner reviews Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space at Triskel Arts Centre, ESB substation, Cork.

Installation Shot


Atomiser II, 2008

Installation Shot

Towards super connnection 2008

In light boxes, Star maker I (2010) and Star maker II (2010) tiny particles of light suffuse the blackness of the box, to render visible what appears to be the local cosmic fabric of the Milky Way. Beyond the low tech aesthetics of the light boxes fictionalised realities become discursive products. The modest scale of these star fields claim the necessary function of fiction; in staging and sustaining our entropic relation to these immense dark territories whose arbitrary mission seems immunised against their own conclusions.

Continuing onward I made my way to the second part of the exhibition in the upstairs gallery. On entry into the space a hanging screen of heavy black plastic concealed entry to the space behind it. Pulling back the plastic- a darkened space was revealed where leakages of light create a crepuscular atmosphere. The predominance of the everyday, makeshift quality of black plastic, traces certain ideals and formalism of the 1960 movement, coined arte povera or ‘poor art’, by Italian art critic Germano Celant. Arte povera’s unconventional use of materials and style directly set out to oppose convention, power structure and the market place. Installing the sense of these of these ideas, the ceiling of the space entitled Atomizer II (2010), descended in a parabolic arc made of a finer black plastic punctuated with series of holes that emerge as a leitmotif throughout the exhibition.

Moving from the ceiling to the floor; in pairs of two and placed head to head lay the work entitled Sleeper cells (2010).Consisting of 14 cells in total, the silver Mylar foil of the cells is disturbed, suggesting a frantic movement of bodies attempting to shed their exoskeletal envelop.

Notions of Futurology and sci-fi inhabit the space of experience, calling to mind Stanislaw Lem’s sci-fi novel Solaris where outer realms of hyper- rational space represent personal isolation and certain exile. Collecting this notion the philosopher Martin Heidegger’s oft quoted assertion

that science calculates but does not think, expresses an anti humanist dimension to scientific hyper-rationality.

As if to skip into the infinite cosmos - a comet deflected toward a preferred destination from an atmosphere too dense to adhere to - Cullen seeks the momentum to leave behind the isolating ilk of scientific. The installation of this space about space becomes recognition of contingency.Whatever can enter a reading of the space enters by vague association’s .Thought resist logical constitution and as such ideas drift and slip into negation, unhinging proofs through a repudiation of scientific tautology.

The D.I.Y candour to assembling the space places us in the midst of an apocryphal science that redresses a hyper rational metaphor of space. In this disclosure,the mind is fore grounded as a palpable cultural entity rather than a disembodied processor regulated by mathematicalformalism.

Cullen’s continued interest in the immersive environment in which he inculcates hisparticipant’s, questions the inference of local physics on the (horizontal) observable universe. The artist suggests we cannot do without cosmological principals and these of courses are rooted in the philosophical. Immersion in the profundal zone of ontological and epistemological deep causes, as always reveals our poetic limitations. Limitation is also the condition ofpossibility however uneasy it may be. Cullen’s universe is man made, makeshift and frail, yet the ironical retrograde means of recycling material and convention throughout the exhibition deliver quite and meaningful incursions to the frontiers of consideration that coyly resist facilereading.

Photos by Mark Hannon

‘The installation of this space about space becomes recognition of contingency’


Nicky Teegan asks ‘Are Creative Classes Designed to Work with No Fixed Abode?’

In city planning, culture and its ethos are increasingly valuable in monetary terms, and increasingly measured by their economic performance. This value is based on how cultural production can increase economic throughput—it is a by-product of art-making and artist practices, and is based on where and why it is produced and displayed. In this essay, I want to discuss the presence and effects that artists have in a recessive urbanised city, and how those who separate themselves from society to live on its outskirts as cultural commentators, have an imperative role in the economic mechanism. Creative classes have a responsibility to realise our role not just as makers, but as cultural producers in a sociological sense. Each artistic endeavour affects society, economics and politics. Creative actions cause a shift in local economics and property values by the simple occupation of space. This socially classifies artists as first stage gentrifiers; they thrive in situations of economic turmoil, flocking especially to areas where property costs have dropped. Our cultural capital starts the cogs churning; we come to low-

cost areas with third- level educations and first-rate minds. Our studios and project spaces, and our tolerance for inefficient working spaces all alter the climate of the original community—pushing it out by introducing a rising cost of living and by making the area increasingly hospitable to investment, wealthier tenants, tourism and services. This transforms what was a poor neighbourhood, firstly into a bohemian creative community and finally into a consumer’s high street shopping area. Not only is the original community displaced, but the artists are eventually forced out, this calls into question the possibility of any artistic spaces being permanent. We should reflect on the irony of inducing a process of social upgrading that leads to our own displacement. As cultural producers, are we designed to work with no fixed abode? I will discuss two areas that relate to this subject; Temple Bar as a gentrified area and Smithfield at its early stages. Temple Bar is known as Dublin’s Cultural Quarter. Government corporation CIE had proposed demolishing the decaying area to have a bus terminus build in its place in the 1980s.

The Exchange, Dublin

Block T, Smithfield, Dublin


During planning stages, buildings were let at minimal cost to studios, galleries and traders; this predictably led to protests against the planning of the bus terminus, which was eventually cancelled. In response, the Temple Bar Cultural Trust was created in 1991 with a mission to ‘support dynamic and sustain- able cultural development programmes in Temple Bar for civic benefit’ (www.templebar.ie). Whatever the amount of cultural activity Temple Bar provides for this society, it also arguably demonstrates a strong yup- pie flavour—it has become materialistic and expensive. The area has its cultural outlets and venues, but for new artist’s endeavours, rent and rates are expensive.This is pushing artists away into other areas.The complications arising from gentrification are particularly obvious when comparing similar organisations from gentrified and

non-gentrified areas. An example is Exchange Dublin and Seomra Spraoi. Both were created to encourage social actions that have cultural value (ideally classes, talks, music and meetings). Exchange, located in Temple Bar, describes itself as a collective arts centre. It came to exist through government grant programmes- Temple Bar is not a residential area, and so the organisation does not benefit from the emotional and personal investment of residents within its local community. Seomra Spraoi, a non-profit ‘autonomous social centre’ based near Mountjoy Square, exemplifies the actual communal value of a social-cultural facility. People within its community built it to offer support and a sense of involvement for local residents from a diverse range of social backgrounds. A grassroots attitude and broad cultural focus allows for access to wider audiences and local involvement with community gardens and solidarity groups—the type that artist run spaces lack. In contrast to Temple Bar, Smithfield has only recently displayed signs of gentrification. It differs from Temple Bar by being mainly residential, and is historically a market area hosting horse fairs, fruit, vegetable and flower markets. The area was a key focus for harp—the

£12m Historic Area Rejuvenation Project in 1997 who aimed to ‘enhance the quality of life for residents, businesses and visitors in the Smithfield area’ (McCarthy, Variant), (www.dublincity.ie). Harp heavily restored the area, adding two bridges, a Luas line, commercial and residential ventures. With close proximity to the Museum District and Jameson Distillery the area was considered a potential Cultural Quarter. The project stagnated with the property market in the last two years, and has tended to attract group drinking and general misbehaviour. Its large empty retail spaces now host new artist-led initiatives such as |e Complex and Space54. The low-rent residential areas surrounding it, Stoneybatter and Phibsborough, offer basic geographical assets. Smithfield is far from a state of full gentrification, but is displaying the characteristics of a soon- to-be gentrified area. Its social capital, the history and local culture of the area, is at risk of displacement if new community ties are not set in place. The new residents should take the obligation upon themselves to create solidarity amongst original residents to prevent the displacement of both. Community ties develop the socio-political strategies that retain local affordable

housing and strengthen the area’s original characteristics, while allowing room for new cultural endeavours. Typically, this prevents larger commercial developments from dislodging the entire community further down the line. It would be impractical to suggest that this is a solution to displacement; gentrification is part of a larger socioeconomic process—with the rent gap as its fundament. My argument is that artists should increase their awareness that they are economic agents of change. We need to realise that the arts’ potential to regenerate decaying urban space and stimulate the property market can also lead to our own displacement.

This essay originally appeared in ‘Scalarr’, a 2010 project curated by Seán O Sullivan on behalf of Ormond Studios, Dublin. The complete text is available online at http://tinyurl.com/scalarpdf. Nicky Teegan is a founding member and Co – Director of Ormond Studios. She is currentlyworking in Visual Artists Ireland, Dublin

Bibliog. Sharon Zukin, Lost Living: Culture, Capital and Urban Change (1989); Variant Archive (www.variant.org.uk); Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (1979).

‘artists should increase their awareness that they are economic agents of change.’

Space 54, Dublin Exchange Street, Temple Bar, Dubln


Gerard Carson

Focus

Talks to Aoife Flynn about his practice

Aoife Flynn Hi Gerard, can you tell me a bit about your background, where you studied, and influential tutors/peers?

Gerard Carson Over the years I’ve held a strong interest in collecting and gathering different objects and media and exploring their properties and uses. Whilst I was studying art and design in high school I would create numerous collages, sculptures, and paintings from my collections. This ranged from comics I collected, magazines, posters, and other bits and pieces I find.

After finishing my A Levels I went on to study a foundation course, then a BA in fine arts at the University of Ulster School of Art and Design, Belfast. Here I was able to significantly develop my practice and began to branch out into other media to use, such as video.

There were so many influential people at the art college, but I would have to say without the help of such tutors as Shirley Mac William, Tony Hill, Sandra Johnston, and Doris Rohr, I’d would have been hindered in my practice.

Scale 1


AF What influences your practice, where does you imagery come from?

GCMy practice is influenced by things such as politics, history, science, technology, cinema, and a general pleasure of working with a variety of materials. I’m interested in playing around with ideas of paradoxes, dichotomies, and puzzles which are only fragmentary pieces of a wider visual whole.

My imagery is sourced from educational books and films. For example, in my degree show installation ‘Anchor/Relay’ I used images from vintage National Geographic magazines, encyclopaedias about spacecraft, wildlife, the solar system, and sourced film footage from cosmologist Carl Sagan’sseries ‘Cosmos’ and recordings of early of space exploration.

I have a love for documentary film footage, which is all the more easy to come bydue to websites such as Youtube and other film databases. I seek out obscure or forgotten fragments of film, whether this is a Soviet exercise workout video or a film about 1950’s computer systems.

AF What artists/writers etc do you admire?

GC There are so many artists and writers that I admire. During my time studying at art college I was obsessed with works from such artists as Willie Doherty, AdamChodzko, Mike Nelson, Neo Rauch, and Saskia Olde Wolbers. But I would also credit Belfast based artists whom I have gotten to know over the past few years;Daniel Jewesbury, Aisling O’Beirn, Brian Connolly, and Allan Hughes, amongst others.

Writers like JG Ballard, Roland Barthes, Italo Calvino I admire a lot. The ideas and thoughts expressed in their works in relation to technology, documentation, and social constructs are ideas that I have developed myself through my practice.

AF Where is your current practice based?

GC I am currently based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where I am currently undertaking a residency with the University of Ulster School of Art and Design, which I began in September 2010. This was after a short spell of working at Array Studios in Belfast during the summer of 2010.

Scale 4


AF Any upcoming shows? Plans for the future?

GC I will have a show at the end of my residency with the art college in June 2010. I have also submitted works to various galleries throughout Ireland and the UK. At the moment I have just finished a collaborative work with my brother, Manus,

which shall be exhibited in Clements Coffee shops in Belfast city.

My plans for the future involve me continuing to develop my practice, continue my education on a masters course, and hopefully to undertake more residencies across Ireland, UK, and the wider world.

Study of Samson, collage, 2008.

Voyager, mixed media, 2010.

Occupy Paper44

Disclaimer: Occupy Paper is free and makes no profit from the publication of any materials found therein. Occupy Paper is a publication for the dissemination of artistic ideas and will not be liable for any offense taken by any individual(s) resulting from any material contained therein.All images in Occupy Paper are the sole property of their creators unless otherwise stated. No image in the magazine or the magazine logo may be used in any way without permission of the copyright holder.Submissions: All works submitted to Occupy Paper must be the sole, original property of the contributor(s), have the appropriate model releases, and cannot interfere with any other publication or company’s publishing rights. Occupy Paper is edited by Aoife Flynn, Occupy Space/Wickham Street Studios, Limerick, Ireland.

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