Body of Water (Part II)
10 – 31 January
Michelle Concepción, Rosó Cusó, Marta Darder, Ester Xargay.
An exhibition of painting, sculpture, installation and projection by four artists, based in Barcelona, who have been exploring the theme ‘body of water’. The work has emerged through a series of brainstorm meetings, studio visits, and artistic exchange supported by Galeria Safia, Barcelona and links to a similar project by four artists based in Ireland whose work was shown at WCAC in December 2008. The work of each group of artists will be shown both at WCAC and at Galeria Safia, Barcelona. A full-colour publication with essay by Francis Halsall in collaboration with Galeria Safia was also published.
A New Building for the Arts in West Cork – An Architectural Design Competition (WCAC / RIAI)
6 – 22 February
This exhibition will present drawings, plans and conceptual information by entries to the Architectural Design Competition from architectural firms from all over Ireland, the UK, Europe and the US. It will also present more detailed drawings and plans from the 4 short-listed entries and a model by the winning entry. A unprecedented amount of entries to the competition were received (216). Four design teams are short-listed to the second stage and the winner will be announced in early January.
Degree Show – BA in Visual Arts, Sherkin Island
1 – 21 March
An exhibition of work by final year degree students from the BA in Visual Art, Sherkin Island – a joint initiative between the School of Art, Design and Printing at Dublin Institute of Technology, Sherkin Island Development Society Ltd. and West Cork Arts Centre. The programme is supported by the Department of Rural, Gaeltacht and Community Affairs. This exhibition will feature work by the seven degree students who will be the first cohort to graduate from this exciting and innovative programme. A Degree Show catalogue will be produced in collaboration with SIDS and DIT.
Choowaawa - A Children’s Exhibition and Event
28 March – 15 April
The exhibition will draw from the Classroom-based Primary Schools Programme (involving over 20 Primary schools in the West Cork region), based on a theme, developed by the Schools’ Co-ordinator Alison Trim and the teachers involved, from the exhibition My Space and I: A selection of work from University College Cork’s Collection (September / October 2008).
Façade – A Youth Exhibition and Event
24 April – 16 May
Workshops, performances and an exhibition of work by young people in schools and in youth groups in West Cork.
Bealtaine: Highlights from the Programme for Older People
23 May – 6 June
West Cork Arts Centre works in partnership with Health Service Executive -South (Community Work Department) and West Cork Adult Education Services (Education & Community Department). This partnership has formed a steering group with representatives of older people and older people’s groups in West Cork. The Steering Group encourages a cohesive and inclusive approach to the planning and implementation of the Bealtaine Programme. The programme is year-round and is celebrated in conjunction with the national event Bealtaine in the month of May in conjunction with Age and Opportunity. For 2009, the work from the various projects in WCAC’s Programme for Older People will be celebrated through this exhibition.
Theresa Nanigian
two souls in one breast
12 June – 18 July
For her exhibition, two souls in one breast, Theresa Nanigian combines the analytical rigour of an economist with the intuitive impulsiveness of a Romantic landscape painter to capture the equally divergent identities of a rapidly changing Ireland. Using the village of Enniskerry in Wicklow as her muse, the artist has created a series of large-scale photographs where the valley’s captivating landscape provides the backdrop for allegories of contemporary Irish life. In addition, Nanigian has published an artist book of facts, figures, opinions and images – the fruit of her multifaceted approach to reveal the peculiar idiosyncrasies of a specific place whilst extrapolating universal concerns – with essays by Cliodhna Shaffrey and Katherine Waugh.
West Cork Artists 2009
24 July – 22 August
West Cork Arts Centre invites artists who are living and working in West Cork, to participate in a group exhibition which is an opportunity for the public - locals and visitors alike – to get a sense of the visual arts activity in the region. Artists are invited to submit one original small-scale artwork – painting, drawing, photography, printwork, sculpture - which has been made within the past 12 months and which has not been exhibited at WCAC previously. This exhibition will therefore present fresh 2D and 3D artworks from the many established, long-term, emerging and new artists who have made West Cork their place of work or indeed their subject matter.
Kate Byrne
nobody photographs me anymore
29 August – 3 October
Old age is generally constructed around reference to vulnerability, invisibility and mental disorientation. The aging body becomes an unsettling and unacceptable vehicle echoing our own internal battles between living life and approaching death or indeed, watching others live life and approach death. Byrne’s concerns are with the psychological and emotional response of the viewer when confronted with life death issues.
She is currently working on a video piece that juxtaposes the voice of an 80 year old woman with the visuals of a 15 year old girl doing her make-up and vice versa. It will be presented on two screens showing simultaneously with separate audio aids suspended or placed close by. She is also working on a large scale photographic series of elderly women, who all feel that their identity is marginalised and compromised by their elderly years and on a series of drawings that attempt to play on a paranoid concern with the body’s visible signs of deterioration.
Anita Groener
Mesh
10 October – 21 November
Anita Groener is developing a new body of work which continues her exploration of the idea of journey.
She says ‘In shaping ideas for a new series of paintings and drawings for exhibition, I continue to use the concept of time as location in a landscape through which we pass as ‘moving observers’ - drawing on the rich allegory and archetypical meanings of epic stories such as Gilgamesh and Dante’s Divine Comedy and other cultural histories. I am concerned with an inquiry into place, how the dual positions of home and displacement condition us as human beings. Self as journey is explored, looking at the connection between geography and spiritual need. Images of roads, forests, corridors and other similar transitional zones appear in my work as constructs for journeying - referencing the temporal nature of contemporary life.
Sarah Iremonger
I thought I dreamed of you
27 November 2009 – January 2010
An exhibition of video work and objects that will explore the relationship between people and space / environment / landscape. Sarah is interested in exploring rural landscape and built environments and how people live, work and interact within those environments. She is interested in engaging with local people through the development of this work.
