Image: 'Mantree' 2012 Courtesy of the artist
To Start With, Let’s Remove The Colour
Marc Bijl, Jo Mitchell, Simon Bedwell, Sonia Shiel, Ryan McClelland, Mark Pearson
14 December – 02 February 2013
Temple Bar Gallery + Studios
5-9 Temple Bar
Dublin 2
Curated by Paul McAree
To Start With, Let’s Remove the Colour seeks to draw attention to how works are displayed together and the autonomy of an artwork within a thematic gathering of works. By juxtaposing several imposing works which each fight for autonomy and dominance, the show seeks to reinforce some sense of ‘viewing’. The exhibition considers the nature of object making and an art work’s existence as object
Jo Mitchell’s wall mural serves as the thread between thee disparate works of six artists, which are hung on top of and across her sprawling work. Mitchell has created a work incorporating fragmented text taken from song lyrics & her trademark drip motifs into a generic scroll or ribbon-like pattern which weaves its way across the space at TBG+S. Influenced by references to film & music primarily, though coming from a background in various subcultures such as custom bikes and tattoos; her work is a constant reclamation and imaging of emotive and symbolic spaces, both real and psychological, that we create for ourselves..
Mark Pearson exhibits Knack Kraft, a large sculpture doubling as a mixed media karaoke unit. Pearson’s work heavily references a Germanic cultural chauvinism and quite often a male bravado, presenting grotesque monstrosities of redundant empires. However this ego serves to expose a vulnerability of creative expression and meaning. Pearson will perform a specially written series of songs for the karaoke machine sculpture on the opening night.
Marc Bijlwill create a new installation for TBG+S, using a fog machine, a freezer, a red light, painted palettes and wall text. Bijl’s multi-faceted practice uses symbols, logos and labels to look at political events, the perception and association of social structures, social systems of rules, public space and their symbolic occurrence.
Simon Bedwell moves between different visual languages, from large ceramic pots, to soft-porn images, defaced advertising and painting, weaving a complex narrative which both engages and negates the relationship between maker and viewer. For TBG+S Bedwell will exhibit a series of ashtrays, dotted around the space where, within each lies a cigarillo briefly smoked and put out in the ashtray just before the show opens. This pathetic gesture of transgression is undertaken by gallery staff, ensuring the visitor is met with a whiff of cigarillo on entering the space.
Sonia Shiel’s installations, often composed of paintings, sculpture and video, explore the propensity of art to be effective in the real world, while pitching mankind’s most earnest endeavours against their odds. Shiel uses everyday materials to build structures referencing shambolic, ceremonial signifiers, to singular moments and the sublime, such as computer keyboards and motorcycle helmets. For TBG+S Shiel will create a unique installation in response to the visitor’s navigation of the exhibition space.
The exhibition is kindly supported by Kingdom of the Netherlands
Temple Bar Gallery + Studios exhibition programme is devised by a panel of artists and curators. TBG+S is a dynamic working space for artists, encompassing 30 studios and an active community of working artists alongside a vibrant programme of talks, events and exhibitions. Mirroring this space for production, experimentation and creation, the gallery programme is colourful, vibrant and implicitly supportive of Irish and International artists. In this way it makes visible the array of artistic work that is taking place in the studios every day at TBG+S.
Paul McAreeis a curator and founder of Flood Dublin, which organised several printed projects from 2008, and which opened a gallery in Dublin in November 2012. He was Curator-in-Residence at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, from June 2011 to June 2012, and was a member of the curatorial panel for 2012. He is commissioning several programmes for offsite projects and other galleries such as Monstertruck Gallery (commissioned by Black Church print studio) in August 2013. He was co-founder and curator of Colony Gallery in Birmingham, which ran from 2005 – 2008. He is also currently Exhibitions & Events Coordinator for Lismore Castle Arts, Co Waterford. He also worked at Breaking Ground, Tate Modern London and Ikon Gallery Birmingham.
For further information:
www.templebargallery.com/gallery
