16/03/2010
Dublin’s National College of Art and Design and Farmleigh Galleries are now showing a joint exhibition of the exhibitions which represented Ireland and Northern Ireland at the world’s most prestigious visual arts showcase event, the 2009 Venice Biennale.
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Susan MacWilliam’s presentation for Northern Ireland, organised and funded by the Arts Council and British Council, attracted a remarkable 51,500 visitors during its six-month run in Venice, from June to November 2009. This is an increase of more than 10,000 visitors on our participation at the previous Biennale, and a mark of how far the region has come in terms of building its creative and cultural reputation on the international stage.
MacWilliam is one of the leading artists to emerge from Northern Ireland in the last decade. Her exhibition of new and recent video works, ‘Remote Viewing’, curated in Venice by Karen Downey, has helped to cement her growing international profile. The works reflect her fascination with the world of the paranormal and raise challenging questions about the possibilities and limits of vision, memory and representation.
Ireland’s presentation in Venice, which was co-located with Northern Ireland, featured solo and collaborative works by NCAD graduates, Sarah Browne and Gareth Kennedy. Aspects of contemporary Ireland feature strongly in their works, which address issues of identity, labour, globalization, economics, language, materiality and the construction of social space. Their collaborative work, ‘167’, opens at NCAD in April. Ireland's participation at the Venice Biennale was an initiative of Culture Ireland and the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.
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Exhibitions continue:
• Farmleigh Gallery (12th March – 8th May): Susan MacWilliam, Sarah Browne, Gareth Kennedy.
• NCAD Gallery (12th March – 10th April): Susan MacWilliam
• NCAD Gallery (16th April – 15th May): Kennedy-Browne, ‘167’.
