About
Rural Vernacular
Rural Vernacular is the third strand of the Ground Up project which sets out to foster a new type of engagement between Public Art and rural contexts.
"Relating to the complex, rural context is central to this project; public art is understood as both a both a process of research and a mode of dialoguing between artists, rural communities and the wider cultural discourse". Fiona Woods, see below.
CURATOR'S STATEMENT
The rural, far from the empty landscape of tourist brochures, is a contested zone in which a complex matrix of perspectives is at work. Socio-economic change, climate change and ecological realities demand a radical re-thinking of the rural; a new discourse needs to be developed by cultural practitioners and grassroots participants in the rural dynamic.
Rural Vernacular set out to foster a new type of engagement, between Public Art and rural contexts. A number of artists were invited to conduct research in rural Co. Clare. This agricultural region is a European microcosm in which all of the fault-lines, developing as a result of the imapacts of globalization and industrialization on agriculture, are evident.
Relating to the complexity of rural realities was central to this project; public art was understood as both a process of research and a method of dialoguing between artists, rural communities and the wider cultural discourse.
A new form of Public Art needs to be developed which does not impose the values of the dominant cultural discourse on rural communities, but seeks to engage with rural issues and vernacular rural culture. It’s important to bring into focus the broader definitions of culture that apply in rural contexts; these must be recognised if a genuine cultural dialogue is to occur. Selected artists were invited to consider rural knowledge and culture and to engage with rural communities as part of their research.
The project was also located within a particular political context; locality and sustainability are important cultural issues that are coming under enormous pressure as priority is increasingly given to the global economy based on the Oil Paradigm. The cultural imperative of such globalisation is to wipe out local distinctiveness and to replace the principle of mutual assistance, so central to rural culture, with relations based primarily on monetary transactions.
This project brings together artists from a number of countries – Ireland, Hungary, Switzerland, Russia - whose work takes the form of socially-engaged art practice. This type of practice is of particular interest in the rural context because of the way it engenders debate, empowers other people and shifts the focus onto issues.
Each artist will work with a local artist as an assistant; the assistant will maintain a journal of the research process which will be available on this site
Fiona Woods 2006
Fiona Woods is a visual artist whose practice includes curating and writing. Her work includes commissioned public artworks and gallery based work. She has received awards from a number of bodies, including the Arts Council of Ireland [2005, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1997]; Clare and Roscommon County Councils [2001, 1997] and the Gulbenkian Foundation [1992]. She has curated a number of gallery exhibitions and on-site projects, including Ground Up which she devised for the Arts Office of Clare County Council. She developed the partnership project from which Shifting Ground emerged.
COMMISSIONED WORKS
Functioning Forms Ireland – Vladimir Arkhipov [Assistant Pat McInerney and Fergus Tighe]
Buantlieve Conversations – Patricia Hurl and Therry Rudin [Assistant Sara Foust]
Mr. and Mrs. Krab's Utopia - Amanda Dunsmore [Assistant Sinead Nestor]
Seashore Reliefs -Tamás Kaszás [Assistants Jackie Askew, Fergus Tighe and Sarah Fuller]
PROJECT JOURNAL
Participating artists;
Vladimir Arkhipov was born in Ryazan, Russia in 1967. He is a self-taught artist who trained in technical and medical fields and worked as an engineer, a doctor and in the construction business before he began exhibiting as a visual artist in 1990. Since then he has held solo shows and participated in numerous group exhibitions in Russia, the Czech Republic, the UK, Belgium, Germany, Lithuania and Australia. He is currently based in Moscow.
Amanda Dunsmore is a visual artist based in Ireland. Her work explores concepts linked to social & historical issues using; installation, photography, sound and video. Currently she is working on theKeeper and Plan Projects. Plan consists of 900 enamel street signs from Weimar, Germany. and was recently exhibited at the Motorenhalle Gallery in Dresden, Germany. The first exhibition from the The Keeper Exhibition Series took place at the Triskel Gallery for Cork 2005 European City of Culture. Future exhibitions will take place at The Void Gallery, Derry, Northern Ireland. The Musée international de la Croix-Rouge, in Switzerland.The Holden Gallery in Manchester, England. Amanda is a lecturer in Sculpture & Combined Media, at the Limerick School Art & Design, LIT.
Patricia Hurl was born in Dublin and has exhibited widely in solo and group shows in Ireland, Spain, South Africa and the U.S.A. She has won many awards, including the G.P.A award for Emerging Artists and the Irish Life Awards for Visual Art. She lectures in Fine Art in the DIT and is currently engaged in developing a programme of community links within the School of Art and Design, DIT.
Tamás Kaszás lives and works in Budapest and Dunaujvaros, Hungary. Much of his recent work has dealt with the issue of squatting as social and political protest, and has involved creative collaborations between artists and activists. He has exhibited widely across Europe.
Therry Rudin was born in Basel, Switzerland and has lived in Germany and Brazil. She attended the Basler Kunst Gewerbeschule and did her M.A. in the Kunst–Akademie in Munich. She has exhibited widely in solo and group shows in Ireland, Switzerland and Brazil. She first came to Ireland in 1985 and lived in Limerick for five years where she founded the art school ‘Studio 55’ and published the arts magazine ‘Anima’. She now lives and works in Dublin and Barcelona. She is a lecturer in Painting in Dun Laoghaire School of Art and Design and is currently undertaking a MPhil on ‘A Comparative Analysis of Drawing’ in the Faculty of Applied Arts, DIT.
ARTIST ASSISTANTS
Jackie Askew, Sara Foust, Sarah Fuller, Pat McInerny, Sinéad Nestor, Fergus Tighe