Periodical Review #9

About

An artwork is like a book, not made up of individual words on a page – each of which with a meaning – but instead "caught up in a system of references to other books, other texts, other sentences"—Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge, 1969

Periodical Review is an annual survey of recent Irish art, selected in collaboration with invited curators/peers from around Ireland. Each year, Pallas Projects invite two peers – artists, writers, educators, curators – to review and subsequently nominate a number of art practices, selected via an editorial process. Such a review-type exhibition within Irish art practice acts to revisit; to be a reminder, a critical appraisal and consolidation of ideas and knowledge; to facilitate and encourage collaboration, crossover and debate.

Not a group exhibition per se, Periodical Review is a discursive action, with the gallery as a magazine-like layout of images that speak (the field talking to itself). This is the exhibition as resource, in which we invite agents within the field to engage with and re-present what were for them significant moments, practices, works, activity, objects: nodes within the network.

In looking at self-organised exhibitions, off-site projects, commercial gallery and museum shows, performances and publications, Periodical Review looks to share a spectrum of practices, creating dialogue and critical reflection to help develop and support Irish contemporary art as a whole; and to act as an accessible survey of contemporary art for a wider audience, expanding the access to and experience of art practices from around the country.

Image: Alex Keatinge, That Old Feeling, 2019. Epoxy resin, acetate print, steel frame, vinyl
 

Selectors

Seán Kissane is Curator of Exhibitions at IMMA, Dublin. Focussing both on contemporary art and work from the post-war period, he has curated various shows bringing the work of international modern and contemporary artists to Ireland for the first time. Major shows include the retrospective for Alice Maher held at IMMA’s offsite space at Earlsfort Terrace; the first retrospective of Surrealist Leonora Carrington; and an exhibition looking at the lives of Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. An important strand of program developed is the ‘Modern Masters’ Series, which presents deeply researched exhibitions on figures from our recent history such as Gerda Frömel and Cecil King, the first queer reading of Irish art with the Patrick Hennessy exhibition and currently a retrospective on Mary Swanzy. Kissane is currently preparing a retrospective on artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman.

Workhouse Union works with artists, designers, architects and crafts-people to develop projects examining housing, civic infrastructure and the commons, engaging people with the spaces and places we live. Recent projects explore the future of rural towns through Town Planners (2018) co-produced with VISUAL, Carlow and Bring Your Own Chair (2018/19), a portrait twelve small towns and villages in the Southeast region led by artist Michelle Browne. Workhouse Union develops and supports hands-on and creative approaches to public engagement and participatory co-design processes and activities, including Nimble Spaces a long-term housing project with Camphill Community Callan, LiD Architecture, Lionra Co-Housing and Ó Cualann Co-housing Alliance. Workhouse Assembly, Union and Guild were a trio of projects undertaken over four years focusing on the history, context and future possibilities of the Callan Workhouse building, where the Workhouse Union team, library, studios and new textile print workshop are based.