9-5 Residency at PS2 Gallery

 

Untilted, ink on vellum, 2009

I recently participated in the 9-5 Residency, inititated by PS2 Gallery in Belfast. The 9-5 Residency programme involved a series of daylong residencies, used for exhibition, performance, research, office work, hide out, craft workshop, studio, cinema, museum, living room, shop or observatory.

My project was entitled ‘Conquistadors‘, where I spent the working day intensively researching the history of the conquest of the New World by the Spanish in the 17th Century, and the art created around that time. I watched documentaries, read books and made drawings until it was too dark to do so.

http://www.pssquared.org/9-5residency.php

Other Logic- Aideen Doran & Clodagh Lavelle

Other Logic

Aideen Doran & Clodagh Lavelle

Golden Thread Gallery Project Space

Although this show went up on the the 5th of February and came down on the 15th,  I’ve only now gotten around to uploading the photos.  The show consisted of new work by myself and Clodagh, and I contributed several small paper sculptures made from maps and constructed with minaturised patterns for geodesic structures.  I also made a wall drawing in the project space with aluminium tape. The source image was one of a Ford pavillion at a trade expo in the 1970s.

 

Animations added

I’ve recently added some video clips of two animations which were shown as part of the show London? Derry? London? Derry? in March.

They can be viewed here, images of the show as it was installed can be viewed here.

Catalyst Arts

I’ve recently joined the committee of Catalyst Arts, as a co-director; Catalyst is a Belfast gallery, which is run on a not-for-profit basis and is members-based, and the committee is responsible to the membership. Directorships last two years only, to ensure that Catalyst always remains vibrant and never learns from it’s mistakes. 

From the website:

Catalyst Arts was formed 15 years ago in response to what was seen as a cultural vacuum. It is Belfast’s primary artist-led organisation. In accordance with its constitution it is run by unpaid volunteers, and seeks to adopt a poly-vocal strategy towards the promotion of contemporary art practices by large selection of artists and projects from the widest possible range of disciplines. 

Catalyst Arts is always a gallery, but has also been a 24 hour cinema, a recording studio, a publishing house, a skip, a radio station, a jumble sale, a wrestling ring, a sauna, a distillery, an agnostic chapel, a banquet hall, a darts team, a leisure centre and a night club. 

 

 

Catalyst’s website

MySpace, travelling show

I’ll be travelling down to Dublin on Wednesday the 18th of June to install some work from the series Invisible Cities as part of a project curated by artist Cecilia Moore, my space. It’s part of the Breaking Ground percent for art program in the Ballymun area of Dublin, and will be installed in the Civic Centre, Ballymun.

Cecilia Moore: my space

Featuring the work of artists Ciaron Breathnach, Aideen Doran, Seamus McCormick, Patricia McKenna, Piia Rossi & Elke Thonnes.

My Space is a project by artist Cecilia Moore, which will run for a year, changing every few weeks. Six plexi glass units each on a wooden plinth will travel to three venues across Ireland. The theme of the project is inspired by the virtual world of personal disclosure, exploring ideas of identity, personal interests and opinion, through 2 and 3-dimensional material.

Wednesday 18th June – 29th August 2008.

http://www.breakingground.ie/

http://www.ceciliamoore.ie/

My Space postcard images

Allotments at Catalyst Arts, Belfast

I installed some new work recently as part of the group show Allotments, which showcases the work of the members of Catalyst Arts Gallery. It ran from May to June, 2008.

From publicity for Allotments;

Catalyst’s gallery space is the focus for this exhibition, with urban renewal resulting in an uncertain future for this unique space. This has prompted a necessary celebration and interrogation of the space, it’s historical and physical idiosyncrasies. ‘Allotments’ is an enquiry into the growth an regeneration of an arts space and the city it inhabits.

The member show kicks off the summer long garden project at Catalyst, focusing on ideas of regeneration, development and cultivation.

The work was a new sound piece, Babble, which was installed in the bathroom at Catalyst. It consisted of a looped sound track of bird song, recorded in Botanic gardens, Belfast.

http://catalystarts.org.uk/

Context Gallery, Derry, April 2008

Context Galleries

presents

Aideen Doran

Alyson Edgar

Fergal McSwiggan

Curated by Emma Donaldson

Derry? London? London? Derry?

Opening 8pm Saturday 5th April 2008

The Exhibition will run until 3rd May 2008

http://contextgalleries.blogspot.com/

Aideen Doran

Two cities built upon a stratified clutter of histories… like Leonias rubbish, the boundaries between these places uncertain, shifting, threatening an avalanche. An unstable line, drawn from the centre (London) to the periphery (Derry)- a fragmenting sense of place- London Street, on the margin of the walled city. Drawing/ erasing/ over-writing/ re-drawing/ recovering/ constructing…The linear time of labour involved in these processes condenses into seconds of film, looping and folding back upon its volume. Entropy parallels renewal. Macro/micro histories, local/national scales conflated. Provisional monuments, provided for uncertain places.Representing the space – constructing a removal from itThe hand-made, hand drawn suggest vernacular means of managing the politics of space, translating these histories into the everyday life, the invisible into the visible.Ordering/ mapping/ describing/ navigating…These complex relationships become a web of information, collapsing under its own gravity.

Aideen Doran graduated from the University of Ulster, Belfast in 2007. Previous shows include RDS Student Art Awards, Dublin (2006), Heal, Naughton Gallery, Belfast (2007) and EV+A 2008; Too Early for Vacation, Limerick. She currently lives in Belfast, working at Flax Art Studios as part of their Graduating Student Residency programme.

Alyson Edgar

I am an artist working on an exhibition for the Context Gallery entitled “Derry/ London – London/ Derry?”, which will be shown in the Orchard Gallery space at the beginning on April.

I am interested in discovering alternative ways by which to map a landscape. In this forthcoming exhibition I intend to study the map/ route patterns that surround London Street, patterns made by those who use the street most.

I would greatly appreciate your participation. All the information gathered from collaborations will become the installed art in the gallery.

Initially I would appreciate it if you could write only your home postcode on the back of this card. This would be the postcode from which you commute to London Street. Please retain both this card and its envelope as they will be displayed in the gallery as part of the work.

Kind regards and many thanks in advance!

Hope to speak to you soon,

Alyson Edgar.

edgar.a@hotmail.co.uk
07980553343Born in Belfast, N. Ireland Alyson Edgar creates work that focuses on the visualisation and cartographic documentation of journeys.
Unfamiliar landscapes are logged and archived in an interactive and collaborative manner, utilising elements of serendipity and voyeurism.
Her work is presented in a structured pseudo-scientific format cataloguing the events of each investigation.

Bio details:
Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1985. Graduated with BA Hons in Fine and Applied Art: Installation/ Sculpture, from University of Ulster: Belfast, 2007.
Selected exhibitions : “Claremorris Open Exhibition”, Co. Mayo 2007. “Energy in Art” Phoenix Gas Headquarters, Belfast 2004.
Publications : Degree Shows: Critics Choices – CIRCA, Issue 121; Claremorris Open Exhibition Catalogue 2007; Perspective 2004 – ‘Arts Review’.

Fergal McSwiggan

Ulster Wayward

Why go outside? What is there to do? Public spaces in Northern Ireland. Rural, urban and suburban. How they are occupied, how they are abandoned, how they are desirable and undesirable. Public interaction with self and environment. London St in Derry/Londonderry, Derry/Londonderry. What do we do now with our open spaces, on a Saturday night in Belfast or Derry, or on a Wednesday afternoon in Omagh or Strabane? Open public spaces were used for many different activities during the troubles, what are they used for now? A walk through the Lagan Meadows, or a walk along the Derry walls. A drive through the South Sperrins scenic route, or through the North-West Passage. Camping out in Belvoir Park, or camping on London street. Walking the Ulster Wayward.

Fergal McSwiggan lives in Belfast and works and recreates here and all over Ireland. Originally from Omagh, County Tyrone, his work is concerned with issues of communication, place and identity, tourism and recreation, as well as rural and urban public space in post-conflict Northern Ireland. He is interested in the misrepresented visual culture of Northern Ireland, and how it was in the past, often seen as urban and violent, when it is predominantly pastoral and peaceful.