Necessarily Provisional: Ireland at the Venice Biennale
Journal of Curatorial Studies
Ireland’s history at the Venice Biennale is one of uncertain circumstances and regular mobility. ... more Ireland’s history at the Venice Biennale is one of uncertain circumstances and regular mobility. This article reflects on Ireland’s status as one of the non-permanent, ‘provisional’ pavilions at the Biennale, and considers the multiple ways in which Irish exhibitions (since the early 1990s) have dealt with curatorial challenges in this unpredictable context. By tracing the history of Ireland’s diverse exhibitionary efforts to test models of national representation away from the Biennale’s core group of settled, permanent pavilions, I argue (with reference to writings by Maria Lind and Irit Rogoff) for the merits of curating in a ‘provisional’ mode, finding useful lessons in Ireland’s varying levels of commitment to realizing ‘context-sensitive’ pavilion projects.
Chapter three addresses work made in the post-Troubles era by the filmmaker and photographer Will... more Chapter three addresses work made in the post-Troubles era by the filmmaker and photographer Willie Doherty, one of the most acclaimed artists from Northern Ireland over the last three decades. Several significant works by Willie Doherty are singled out for close-reading: atmospheric photographic series and film narratives that are uncanny in their oblique, unnerving evocations of the landscapes of Belfast and Derry. This extended reflection on Doherty’s work considers in detail the strategic indeterminacy of his photographic art and addresses the shift in key film works made during the post-Troubles years towards explicitly ‘spectral’ themes.
Finding yourself lost / Fergus Feehily -- Far from the tree -- Constellations -- I was told there... more Finding yourself lost / Fergus Feehily -- Far from the tree -- Constellations -- I was told there would be cake -- Such seemingly different ways of making art / Inkeri Suutari -- Correspondence -- Blue / Annie May Demozay -- What painting is / Terry Winters -- I'll just keep on... 'till I get it right... / Declan Long -- Next concept of painting? / Kukka Paavilainen -- Early in the morning / John Hutchinson -- Conversations in light and dark.Constellations is a book that came out of two preceding projects, both curated by Fergus Feehily—Professor of painting at the Academy of the Arts, Helsinki—at Exhibition Laboratory in the winter of 2017, the exhibition of the same name and Conversations in Light and Dark, a two-day conversation series. These projects featured artists and thinkers from all over the world, Alex Olson from Los Angeles, Terry Winters, from New York, the Japanese artist Yuki Okumura, Helsinki based artist Petri Ala-Maunus and Declan Long from Dublin, to menti...
Chapter four begins by further discussing the haunted spaces of Doherty’s practice as the startin... more Chapter four begins by further discussing the haunted spaces of Doherty’s practice as the starting point for a reflection on artists’ approaches to time and history. This part of the book highlights artists who have adapted conventional forms of documenting and archiving in order to speculate on alternative temporalities and histories of Troubles and post-Troubles life. In addition to analyses of artworks by artists such as Duncan Campbell (winner of the 2014 Turner Prize) and Miriam de Búrca, who both adapt documentary processes in an art context, attention is paid to art that studies the history of Belfast through psychogeographic urban wandering and to some curatorial attempts to historicise Northern Ireland’s art.
Roundtable: Contemporary Art and the Matter of Ireland
The Irish Review (1986- …, 2008
DECLAN LONG: How can we best begin to frame questions about contemporary art and nationality toda... more DECLAN LONG: How can we best begin to frame questions about contemporary art and nationality today? What are the problems and possibilities presented by such a conversation? Among younger artists nowadays, there often seems to be a consensus ...
A New Darkness: Gothic Impulses in the Art of Willie Doherty
Irish University Review
This essay traces the development of gothic impulses in the art of Northern Irish visual artist W... more This essay traces the development of gothic impulses in the art of Northern Irish visual artist Willie Doherty (b.1959, Derry), considering, briefly, the disquieting ambiguities of his early photographs, before studying specific examples of moving-image work made in the years following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. The essay centres on the gothic attributes of films that present enigmatic characters in states of enduring confinement and existential uncertainty. Depicting these sometimes spectral figures in settings where the real seems to coincide with the unreal, the natural with the supernatural, Doherty draws on and defamiliarizes Northern Ireland’s conditions of aftermath, while also widening his artistic lens to take account of other connections, other contexts. Two short, looping film works – The Amnesiac (2015) and Endless (2020), each focusing on the sustained suffering and shame of a solitary male figure – are analyzed in detail. Both films,...
Sketches of Universal History Compiled from Several Authors by Sarah Pierce
"Sketches of Universal History Compiled from Several Authors by Sarah Pierce presents an int... more "Sketches of Universal History Compiled from Several Authors by Sarah Pierce presents an interplay of voices, legacies, friendships and influences that make up an art practice. Conceived from a period of collaboration between the artist, curator and writer Rike Frank, with publishers Book Works and The Showroom, the book contains newly commissioned essays by Melissa Gronlund and Tom Holert" -- publisher's website.
A study of the work of British painter Merlin James, written to accompany an exhibition at OCT Bo... more A study of the work of British painter Merlin James, written to accompany an exhibition at OCT Boxes Art Museum, Shunde, China (23 March – 20 May 2018).
A survey essay on the recent work of Irish artist Eva Rothschild; published in 2018 to accompany ... more A survey essay on the recent work of Irish artist Eva Rothschild; published in 2018 to accompany an exhibition at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne.
Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 - the formal end-point of the thirty-year ... more Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 - the formal end-point of the thirty-year modern 'Troubles' - contemporary visual artists have offered diverse responses to post-conflict circumstances in Northern Ireland. In Ghost-Haunted Land - the first book-length examination of post-Troubles contemporary art - Declan Long highlights artists who have reflected on the ongoing anxieties of aftermath.
This wide-ranging study addresses developments in video, photography, painting, sculpture, performance and more, offering detailed analyses of key works by artists based in Ireland and beyond - including 2014 Turner Prize winner Duncan Campbell and internationally acclaimed filmmaker and photographer Willie Doherty. 'Post-Troubles' contemporary art is discussed in the context of both local transformations and global operations - and many of the main points of reference in the book come from broader debates about the place and purpose of contemporary art in today's world.
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This wide-ranging study addresses developments in video, photography, painting, sculpture, performance and more, offering detailed analyses of key works by artists based in Ireland and beyond - including 2014 Turner Prize winner Duncan Campbell and internationally acclaimed filmmaker and photographer Willie Doherty. 'Post-Troubles' contemporary art is discussed in the context of both local transformations and global operations - and many of the main points of reference in the book come from broader debates about the place and purpose of contemporary art in today's world.