Parklife: Biodiversity in Contemporary Irish Art

Amber Broughton, Miriam de Búrca, Kari Cahill, Michael Canning, Cecilia Danell, Rachel Doolin, Gabhann Dunne, Martin Gale, Sean Hanrahan, Martin Healy, Peter Nash, Meadhbh O’Connor

Curated by the Glucksman curatorial team in association with UCC’s Environmental Research Institute.

Parklife presents the work of Irish artists who consider the biodiversity of the world around us, looking at how different forms of life thrive in the urban realm as well as in more remote environments.

The selected works range from detailed drawings of the various species of animals that make their home on the UCC campus to photographic studies of birds and plants that bring contemporary resonance to the pioneering work of Karl Blossfeldt on display in our Sisk gallery. The exhibition features a series of paintings of the Scots Pine, one of Ireland’s three native coniferous trees as well as research investigations into the ways in which communities are conserving seeds to protect food crops for future generations.

Parklife includes two new commissions from artists Amber Broughton and Peter Nash who were invited to engage with UCC Green Campus and UCC CUBS to create new works for the UCC Art Collection that focus on biodiversity and sustainability.

Selection of qphotoseries UUC collection ‘Park Life’ at Glucksman Gallery, UCC, Cork – Ireland – 2022 / Photograph: Jed Niezgoda

HOLD FAST: An Exhibition By Sean Hanrahan / 3rd – 13th June, Spike Island

Backwater Artists Group studio member Sean Hanrahan presents a body of work in two of the cells, of the former Punishment Block in Spike Island. The work reflects on the maritime theme of tattoos, which are perhaps one of the most recognisable visual forms, when we think of the culture of sailors. Presented in association with Cork Harbour Festival, Backwater Artists Group & Spike Island.

Hold Fast: An Exhibition by Seán Hanrahan

Link to interview on HOLDFAST with Ellie O’Byrne https://tripeanddrisheen.substack.com/p/holding-fast-in-cells-and-on-high#details

CLOSER Curated by Janice Hough

Lavit Gallery, Wandesford Quay, Cork 5th MAY – 2nd JUNE 2022

CLOSER brings together selected artworks by Backwater studio members which resonate with physical, spiritual, communal and environmental states. Playing with scale and materials several selected works encourage the viewer to get closer, revealing their process as an enigma, a discovery, a history or an act of intimacy. Other works conjure forces through their sense of theatre or presence in the space. In the gallery fabrics soften and domesticate the setting, with reflections sited in the exhibition to bring artworks and people closer together. In these times our collective experience on this earth has never been so intertwined. CLOSER is open to multiple contrasting readings which visitors are invited to explore and experience.

The exhibition features artworks by Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Rachel Daly, Angela Gilmour, Sean Hanrahan, Joseph Heffernan, Claire Murphy, Natasha Pike, Ciara Rogers, Padraig Spillane and Izabela Szczutkowska.

https://backwaterartists.ie/c-l-o-s-e-r/

Memory Anthem Flag – Closer

A Radical Plot Artist residency IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art)

Memory Anthem Flags

July-September 2021

In the summer of 2021 Sean Hanrahan participated in IMMA’s A Radical Plot Residency, offering Hanrahan a platform to fully immerse himself in the histories, folklore, nature, and politics of a location that houses two organisations, IMMA & the OPW. Working and living within this dual function Hanrahan responded with Memory Anthem, a contemporary interpretation of a 32-point star motif inspired by the headstones in Bully’s Acre. In Memory Anthem the star motif symbolises community, spirituality and the generational human cycle of activity of the IMMA/RHK site. An impression taken from a headstone was adapted for a print which was then represented as a handmade flag for a larger project presented on the west avenue of the site. Inspired by this evolving experience of the site and to celebrate our 30^th Birthday, IMMA has commissioned 30 of these prints as a limited edition.

An exhibition of Masters and student
graphic work from Belarus

Curated by Séan Hanrahan & Roman Sustov 12 October – 02 November 2018

Preview 11 October 6pmStudio 12, Backwater Artists Group, Wandesford Quay, CorkTuesday – Friday 10am-1pm, 2pm-5pm

Visiting artist talk by Roman Sustov, Saturday 13th Oct @1pm Studio 12 Backwater Artist Studios Link to exhibition apkaexhibition.wordpress.com

apkaexhibition.wordpress.com

https://www.cultureireland.ie/gb18/event/state-of-print

More information to follow on SOP ‘The State of Print’ an ongoing project for 2018

https://www.instagram.com/p/BeIoMlKHRCw/?hl=en&taken-by=thestateofprint

The Point of no Return

As part of

https://corkharbourfestival.com/2017events/point_of_no_return/

Follow the link for Artist information

Sean Hanrahan Point of no Return CHF

In The Shadow of Half Face

elsewhere

April 28th – May 20th 2017 CIT Wandesford Quay Gallery and Elizabeth Fort, Cork City.

An exhibition of work by members of Backwater Artists Group curated by Helen Farrell.

Participating artists:

CIT Wandesford Quay Gallery – Éilis Ni Fhaoláin, Helen Horgan, Róisín Lewis, Megan and Cassandra Eustace, Ben Reilly, John Kent, Luke Sisk, Elizabeth Fort – Johnny Bugler, Angie Shanahan, Tracy White Fitzgerald, Elaine Coakley, Gerard O’Callaghan, Jo Kelley, Peter Martin, Helen O’Keeffe, Angela Gilmour, Darn Thorn, Sean Hanrahan

elsewhere

…these traces in themselves do not refer to the past: they are present; and, in so far as I find in them signs of some ‘previous’ event, it is because I derive my sense of the past from elsewhere… 1

There is an ambiguity about the word ‘elsewhere’ – it suggests somewhere else but nowhere in particular; a place as yet unknown or a place that no longer exists. It can also suggest an absence of someone or some thing, or if someone or some thing has come from elsewhere there is an absence of identity, of specificity, in their place of origin. Visual art exhibitions have the ability to harness this sense of ambiguity; even the artworks themselves are often made elsewhere, in a private place that is not usually specified, and then transported to a public arena, which could be many miles away from its place of construction. The artists in this exhibition, however, are exhibiting in sites that are in close proximity to the studios where the work was made. The place of their making to the sites they will be viewed is not so far apart, yet through their investigations of place, transience and the intersections between human activity and nature, they can bring to mind a time long since past, some other place or trace of a memory that is non-specific, allowing the viewer to look for meaning according to some ‘elsewhere’ in their own experiences. And because our sense of place is like an entity that exists in us independent of sensory cues we can feel strong emotional feelings towards, for instance, the places we grew up in or know well. We are, nonetheless, often compelled to feel empathetic to the traces left behind by others in abandoned homes, or a strong sense of curiosity to historic ruins and ancient maps; objects and images represent past and future for us in a way that our fugitive memory often fails.

Here is an article about a recent project I organized
and facilitated in Vitebsk, Belarus, as a part of the Slavianski Bazaar 2016
international cultural festival.
More images and information on this project is to follow soon!
Click on the link below for full article and images.

Странные предметы и необычные призывы

Poster for Художники здесь есть?/AaH! Artists are Here

Poster outside Tolstoy 7 Arts centre, Vitebsk, July 2016

Working with participating Artists Анастасия Ганчарова, Полина Балашова, Кирилл Дёмчев and Антон Левадний on the first of “Художники здесь есть, э?” piece’s July 2016

Here is a Clip from Время Art (83 выпуск, 06.08.2016) TV and Radio Company “Vitebsk” “Vremia ART” of our street performance as part of the Slavianski Bazaar 2016 programme.

It was our total luck and privilege to be supported by the Intuitive Music Orchestra led by Yan Bederman

Thanks also to “EKAPRAEKT” who where proud sponsers of the event and project.

This project is dedicated to Marina Karman and all those who work at the VCCA and Art-Space Tolstogo-7.