Censorship Attempt at the New Luan Gallery, Athlone

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cullen A Fine Gael member of Athlone Town Council is trying to have a state-owned piece of art removed from a public art gallery.

The artwork in question Fragments sur les Institutions Républicaines IV  by Shane Cullen features transcripts of messages written on cigarette papers and smuggled in and out of the Long Kesh Prison by members of the IRA during the H-Block hunger strikes and dirty protests in the late 70s and early 80s. The work was made in the mid 90s and is part of the collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art and has been exhibited numerous times in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and overseas.

The story first came to light when former Fine Gael Minister for Justice Paddy Cooney voiced his objection to the piece after seeing it at the launch of the gallery. In an article in the Westmeath Independent the former minister is quoted as saying "First of all, I don't think it is art and secondly, the theme is inappropriate. If it was removed I'd shed no tears." The article (dated 6th December)  claims that he sought ought the gallery manager to request the removal of the piece.

Cllr Mark Cooney (FG), the  son of Paddy Cooney, tabled a motion calling for the removal of the work from the Luan Gallery in Athlone. This motion was discussed on Monday 7th January at a meeting of the council. During this meeting Cllr Cooney, compared the work to a piece glorifying Hitler "extolling the merits of exterminating the Jewish population". Unlike his father Cllr Cooney acknowledged that the work may have artistic merit but said that censorship is sometimes necessary to protect children. Cllr Gabrielle McFadden also of Fine Gael supported Cllr Cooney saying that public galleries should not show politically contentious art.

Independent Cllr Sheila Buckley Byrne suggested the matter be referred to the board of Athlone Art and Heritage of which she herself and at least one other councillor are members. The Councillors voted in favour of this proposal. The board have stated they had not been aware of the content of the exhibition as that is left to the gallery manager.

I am hopeful that the board will do the right thing and ignore this suggestion that they censor an exhibit. However, if the artwork is removed, I would suggest that artists should then announce their intention to boycott the gallery until the decision is reversed or if it is too late for that until the board issue an apology and provide assurances that no further acts of censorship will be carried out.

The Westmeath Independent's live blog of the meeting is worth reading. The Irish Times coverage of the dispute, on the other hand, has been disappointing with no mention of the Nazi comments, the comments regarding the necessity of censorship, or the assertion that politically contentious art should not be shown in public galleries.

Update 09/01/13: The Westmeath Independent have published a list of board members of Athlone Art and Heritage. The chairman of the board is Labour councillor and Athlone Mayor Jim Henso. The board also includes Cllr Kevin 'Boxer' Moran,  and Cllr Sheila Buckley Byrne. The board will meet next Tuesday 15th January.

Update 15/01/13: The Board of Athlone Art & Heritage has decided not to seek the remove of Shane Cullen's work from the Luan Gallery.

The Board has full confidence in the current management and curatorial arrangements in relation to the Luan Gallery. It would not be the intent of the Board to direct the removal of any artwork from a public space which would deny visitors to the Gallery the opportunity for respectful, critical and reasoned enquiry and debate.

Below is a video of the artist Shane Cullen being interviewed directly after attending the meeting of Athlone Town Council.

Below is a video of Mark Cooney arguing for the removal of the work

image: Fragments sur les Institutions Républicaines IV, Shane Cullen

Drawings

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I have decided to offer some of the drawings from my solo exhibition 'Out of Order' at a reduced price of €100 until Christmas. Pictured are a selection but others are available. If you're interested please send email me to arrange a visit to my studio.

Size including frame: 32.5 cm x 23.5 cm

Tentamen

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Tentamen was a group exhibition in a Georgian House at 13 North Great George's Street. Below are some images of my work and a video walkthrough of the show.

The exhibition also featured the work of Lucy Andrews, Alan Butler, Joseph Coveney, Aoibheann Greenan, David Eager Maher and John O’Connell.

More images here and more info on the exhibition here

Laser Cut Plywood Sculpture

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Original pencil drawing on tracing paper. This was scanned and turned in a vector in Illustrator.

Pieces being cut from 4mm birch ply.

The sculpture as a wall mounted piece.

This turned out to be a stubborn piece of ply and required 3 passes of the laser to fully cut through. This resulted in more orange staining (caused by smoke) then would typically be the case, though I quite like the added variation in colouring.

Wooden Boulder

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"He (David Nash) first carved a rough sphere... and intended to take this back to his studio. However, access was up a long steep track and at 400 kg and a metre wide, this 'boulder' was dangerous to move downhill. So instead Nash used a nearby stream, where rocky banks would contain the momentum of its descent.

However, a little way down the bank, the boulder became wedged in a waterfall. Nash had no option but to leave it there. It looked good in the streaming water, and so Nash began photographing it... the journey of Wooden Boulder had begun.

The following March heavy rainfall shifted Wooden Boulder into the pool below. Still with the intention of moving it to his studio, Nash hauled it out of the stream and rolled it down the next waterfall to the pool below, where it remained for eight years. It became obvious that the Wooden Boulder belonged to the stream; over the next 24 years it moved nine times during storms, eventually floating into the River Dwyryd estuary. Nash says of Wooden Boulder, 'It is important to the narrative of this "free-range"; sculpture that its material formed and grew on the hill over two centuries. I did not take the wood up the hill. The narrative, like the material, grew organically.'

 Text quoted from the Kew Gardens website

Here is a video of Nash talking about Wooden Boulder and another work

Loitering Theatre

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Loitering Theatre is a project by Nina McGowan and Caroline Campbell which "uses customised helicopters (the AR.Drone) to fly beyond the normal street view to access and film previously inaccessible and unseen views of the city". It was shown at the Science Gallery, Dublin as a part of Hack the City. Above is a clip from a longer video.

Nina and Caroline collaborate together also using the name Loitering Theatre.

Thesaurus Word Loops Booklet

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This is a new version of a booklet first produced in 2006. The booklet has been redesigned and some changes made to the content.

Each of these word loops takes a pair of words with opposite meanings as its starting point. A thesaurus was used to find a synonym for one of these words and then to find a synonym for that synonym and so on. Each new word suggested by thesaurus involves a slight slippage of meaning. These slippages accumulate resulting in a complete inversion of the original meaning. This process is repeated using the second word from the pair until the loop has been completed.

If you would like to receive a complimentary copy please send me your address: niall(at)nialldebuitlear.com