5 July – 18 November 2018

Jean-Marc Bustamante – Alan Butler – Ger van Elk – Anne-Charlotte Finel – Michel François – Noémie Goudal – Martin Healy – Siobhán Hapaska – Tony Matelli – Giuseppe Penone – Diana Scherer – Thomas Trum – Sanne Vaassen – Michael John Whelan

Kasteel Wijlre presents, in collaboration with Lismore Castle Arts, the international group exhibition Traces. With works by 10 contemporary artists, whose contributions are interwoven with artworks from the (former) collection of Jo and Marlies Eyck, Traces explores relationship between art and nature. The exhibition is presented in the Hedge House, the Coach House and the Garden at Kasteel Wijlre, The Netherlands.

The designed gardens, planting, and surrounding landscapes of Kasteel Wijlre and Lismore Castle Arts are in a continuous state of change that is both respectful of tradition and always open to contemporary developments. It is this dynamic of the past and present, of management and conservation, of reflection and provocation, and of growth and decay that is reflected in the exhibition’s artworks. Walking around the country estate, Traces subtly reveals the idea of conflict: a battle that leaves its mark and is constantly present in nature.

Curators: Paul McAree and Brigitte Bloksma

Palimpsest at Lismore Castle Arts, curated by Charlie Porter. Nicole Eisenman, Olivia Laing, Zoe Leonard, Hilary Lloyd, Charlotte Prodger, Martine Syms, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Andrea Zittel Curated by Charlie Porter Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore, Co. Waterford, Ireland 31 March – 13 October

Images copyright the artist, courtesy Lismore Castle Arts

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Maeve Brennan at St Carthage Hall, Lismore, 2018

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Juneau Projects, A Space for Lismore, 2018

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When Facts Don’t Matter, May – 8 July 2018.

Alan Butler, Constant Dullaart, Eva & Franco Mattes, Trevor Paglen & Suzanne Treister

Anthony McCall (born 1946) is a British-born New York based artist and was a key figure in the avant-garde London Film-makers Co-operative in the 1970s. His earliest films are documents of outdoor performances that were notable for their minimal use of the elements, most notably fire, in the work ‘Landcsape For Fire’ (1972) which will feature in the exhibition.

Works such as ‘Line Describing a Cone’, are based on simple, animated line-drawings, projections which strikingly emphasize the sculptural qualities of a beam of light. In darkened, haze-filled rooms, the projections create an illusion of three-dimensional shapes, ellipses, waves and flat planes that gradually expand, contract or sweep through space. In these works, the artist sought to deconstruct cinema by reducing film to its principle components of time and light and removing the screen entirely as the prescribed surface for projection. The works also shift the relationship of the audience to film, as viewers become participants, their bodies intersecting and modifying the transitory forms.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, featuring installation images of the exhibition at Lismore, and texts by Ed Halter and Maxa Zoller.

www.lismorecastlearts.ie

Curated by Paul McAree.

RUA RED is delighted to present the solo exhibition Yellow Amber Grey Amber by Michael John Whelan, including a specially commissioned video work.

Working predominately with video and photography, Whelan investigates the history and future of science and notions of the romantic landscape in the face of humanity’s inherent mutability and effects on the environment. Recent projects have investigated locations with strong historical and contemporary resonance, including the location in Ireland where the last Irish wolf was killed in 1786 and an ongoing project at the Svalbard global seed vault in Norway.

The central work in the exhibition takes as a starting point the appearance of a white humpback whale off the coast of the Artic archipelago Svalbard. The two-channel video installation Frontier apposes the unseen and the recorded, the absent and the digitally present. Whelan has constructed a narrative through found and originally filmed footage, exploring albinism as a genetic phenomenon and an attraction often resulting in abuse and ritual persecution.

During the opening the work Ambre Gris will be performed. Playing with the visitors olfactory awareness, seven anonymous performers will be wearing pure ambergris tincture for the duration of the opening. Grey amber, or ambergris is prized as a base ingredient in the perfume industry. It is a secretion from the intestine of the sperm whale, which floats for years in the sea, slowly oxidizing and turning from the worthless black to the valuable white.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication featuring a commissioned text by Declan Long, to be published before the end of the exhibition. The publication is free and available from the gallery.

Michael John Whelan lives and works between Dublin and Berlin. His work has been exhibited and screened internationally in institutions, galleries and project spaces, including solo exhibitions (selection) at Grey Noise, Dubai; Vitrine Project Space, London; Kunstverein Bochum and Boetzelaer|Nispen, Amsterdam. Group exhibitions and screenings (selection) include Lismore Castle Arts, Ireland; TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, Ireland; Abraham building, Neuss with Julia Stoschek Collection & KAI 10, Dusseldorf; Dortmund Kunstverein; Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai; Noorderlicht Gallery, Groningen; Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw; Museum Bochum; Kiasma, Helsinki and Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin.

He received a BA in Fine Art from IADT-DL, Dublin in 2002 and an MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art and Design (University of the Arts London) in 2004. He is represented by the galleries Grey Noise, Dubai and Boetzelaer Nispen, Amsterdam, and has work is in a number of public and private collections.

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Declan Long is an Irish art critic and lecturer. He is a lecturer in modern and contemporary art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin where he is Co-Director of the MA Art in the Contemporary World.

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Paul McAree is curator at Lismore Castle Arts in Co Waterford. He is founder of FLOOD, a contemporary art project in Dublin city. FLOOD has hosted several group exhibitions including artists Michelle Browne, Alan Butler, Martin Healy, Nevan Lahart, Beatriz Olabarieta, Suzanne Treister, a commissioned publication by artist Kevin Atherton, and printed projects with Theresa Nanigian, Terry Atkinson and Flávia Muller Medeiros.

Previously McAree worked at Breaking Ground, Tate Modern and Ikon Gallery Birmingham. He was co-founder and Director of Colony Gallery in Birmingham from 2006 – 2008. McAree was invited to curate 126 Gallery’s annual open submission Member’s Show in Galway in July 2014.

Shows at RUA RED have included Telling Lies (2015), Deadeye (2015) and Carnage Visors (2016).

A Weed is a Plant Out of Place

Anna Atkins, Harry Callahan, Pierpaolo Campanini, Mat Collishaw, Dorothy Cross, Latifa Echakhch, Susan Hartnett, Michael Landy, Mateo Lopez, Maria Sibylla Merian, Adrian Paci, Luisa Rabbia, Jeanne Silverthorne, Philip Taaffe, Emma Tennant, Michael John Whelan and Pae White

Curated by Allegra Pesenti

Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore, Co. Waterford, Ireland

3 April – 30 September 2016

Weeds are about survival in alien territory. Some grow in harsh and uninhabitable territories where one might think there was not enough soil to support any form of life, such as roadsides, ruins, rubbish dumps, construction sites and through cracks in exposed walls. It has been said that “in the struggle for existence a bad weed is a prince.” They can be toxic, deep-rooted and stubbornly hard to get rid of and they often appear where they are not wanted such as cultivated sites and manicured gardens. Depending on their properties, their ingestion can be deadly or resuscitating, and they have for centuries been variably concocted for the creation of both poisons and medicinal potions. Weeds have been described in myths and literary texts since at least the first century AD, from Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, through to Shakespeare’s descriptions of plants and potions, and on to writers of today such as Richard Mabey who recently published a bestseller on the subject. They have also sparked the interest of visual artists over time, and inspired works such as Dürer’s famous drawing The Great Piece of Turf and Leonardo da Vinci’s detailed sketches of wild tufts of grass. Today more than ever, weeds are appearing in works of art in various forms and mediums.

This exhibition explores the interpretation of weeds by contemporary artists within a socio-historical context. Elegant patterns of weeds and wildflowers in specimen books that date back to the eighteenth century belong to the fascinating intersection between science and art. Examples of these ancient manuscripts and collected specimens accompany the works of today in an eclectic but focused survey and a carefully orchestrated installation. The lush grounds and gardens of Lismore Castle are an integral and crucial part of the exhibition – Pae White’s work can be found in the Monkey Tower in the Lower Gardens, ‘weeding’ itself into place within Richard Wright’s slowing decaying mural from 2011. Nourishment, Michael Landy’s portfolio of twelve etched ‘portraits’ of weeds, was one of the primary incentives for A Weed is a Plant Out of Place, and it features in the gallery along with works by other contemporary artists. Vintage photographs by Anna Atkins and Harry Callahan are also included.

Enrico David: Autoparent

Lismore Castle Arts presents a new exhibition by Enrico David at St Carthage Hall. For this exhibition, the artist has created a site specific work – wedged between the side walls of the intimate St Carthage Hall venue, David has created a very special piece for Lismore. Its a very affecting piece – very simple, just above head height, there are no gallery lights, allowing the space to completely react to the elements outside. For the launch the weather was dark and wet, with the space plunged into a dim light. Most afternoons the space is flooded with sunlight through the stained glass windows, making for a contemplative environment. The exhibition continues until 3 July, open Fridays to Sundays 1-6pm.

7 MARCH – 9 APRIL 2016

NEIL CARROLL, AMANDA COOGAN, MARTIN HEALY, JUNTAE T.J. HWANG, NEVAN LAHART, AMANDA RICE, SONIA SHIEL, MARCEL VIDAL, RICHARD T. WALKER. Curated by Paul McAree.

Carnage Visors

Carnage Visors – a metaphor for Rose-tinted glasses – is a group show exploring the idea of making work today and the autonomy of an artwork versus being socially or politically aware. Is it possible to make artwork today in the current global climate? Does art have any validity? Can artists possibly propose questions – about art or the world – which have any currency in the world within which find ourselves today? Can art bolster a position between 24 hour news channels, migrant crises, multiple wars, Instagram hits and youtube channels? Carnage Visors seeks to propose that art can, and artists do, situate themselves as never before as a counterbalance to so much fleeting and temporary moments in the world, giving us a slower and more considered series of propositions within which to consider art and the world. Presenting a diverse series of artworks – from Richard T Walker’s reflections within the landscape, to Juntae TJ Hwang’s drunken webcam ranting – Carnage Visors proposes a bold optimism for artistic practice.

About the artists & work

Neil Carroll’s work experiments with traditional materials and uses them in a more organic way to explore creative expression and concerns. In his constructions, he reverts to the most basic and primitive of building materials using, for example, elements such as the grouped hexagonal tiles similar to foundation structures for bridges. His architectural organism develops and expands, moulding into the space and adapting.

Amanda Coogan is one of the most exciting contemporary visual artists practicing in the arena of Performance Art. She is at the forefront of some of the most exciting and prolific durational performances to date. Her extraordinary work is challenging,provocative and always visually stimulating.

Martin Healy uses film and photography to consider specific ideologies and belief systems as manifest in architectural environments and geographical locations. His film works such as Facsimile (2009), Fugue (2011) and Last Man (2011) choose as their starting point science fiction texts that are inter-related in their investigation into ways of being, both ideologicallyand psychologically. These works resonate with discussions surrounding projects for social change and the locus for transformation in the form of social, technological or environmental development. Science fiction writing is paramount to accessing these underlying themes in particular the way the genre has been used as a means to propose political ideologies that break with the present society and speculate on the future.

Juntae T.J. Hwang’s video work Angry Hotel is a direct expression of angry self- identified activists, who are talking to the West about its media misrepresentation of Asian individuals and its hubris regarding Western ideologies. By engaging with the idea of escapism, Hwang aims to expand his own cinematic utopian space in performances and video that challenge and question the strict narrative of normative trends relating to white supremacy in the modern hierarchical structure of his Western imagined ‘Kuewar’ culture.

Nevan Lahart works in a wide variety of media: painting, sculpture, installation, video, animation and performance. The subject matter of his work could be very loosely described as encompassing television, the media, social and political perceptions and the history of art and life as he finds it. His art practice aims to engage in creative collaboration in ways that may be seen as either humourous or deeply subversive. Humour is central to Nevan’s work and he describes it as “usually a shade of universal grey as opposed to pitched battle black or goody two shows white”. He likes his artistic practice to be “generous, a bit like a department store, with a basic entry level for everybody and a specialist knowledge there for those who want it on the second floor”.

Amanda Rice is a visual artist based between Mayo and Cork working with moving image, photography and installation. Incorporating research methodologies into her working practise her work discusses the remains and failings of different aspects of industry and utopian systems.

Sonia Shiel’s work is composed of paintings, objects, animated sculptures and videos that share overarching narratives and the central materiality of paint. Set in rogue installation-cum-landscapes, her protagonists in their various pursuits are confronted by nature and the laws of their own creation. Through inflammatory parodies of method, their aspirations to survive the discomfiting abjectness of life appear to be waged against the odds, in staged-tragicomic scenarios that tally society’s attempts to establish harmony and atonement from the fray. Often the narrative cues in her work are prompted by performative and theatrical elements; obtuse props; mechanical or gravitational tricks; sculptures that pose or whistle; paintings cast as life-size characters, walk-in architectural features or traversable landscapes, painted-on tricks that diminish actual space into near and fictional distance; altered weights that speed-up and slow-down time; and instructive, mapping and choreographic texts in legal, dialogic or poetic form.

Marcel Vidal’s practice focuses on drawing, sculpture and building site specific installations. Vidal creates unsettling paintings and objects that are imbued with iconography. Materials of a discarded and manufactured nature are often reclaimed and configured. The reconfigured materials are used as a means of improvised arrangement and act as counter points to formal methods of display.

Richard T. Walker makes videos, photographs, text works and performances that reveal a frustrated, obsessive relationship with landscape and at the same time explore the complexity of human relations. Videos and photographs show the artist alone in the centre of dramatic landscapes, occupying a position reminiscent of a classic romantic figure contemplating the infinite, awe-inspiring mysteries of an impersonal natural world. As Walker’s narratives unfold, accompanied by his own musical compositions, viewers find themselves becoming beguiled by the artist’s gentle wit and drawn into his intimate relationships. Describing his work, Walker states, “I think, or I hope, that the viewer becomes simultaneously pushed away and pulled towards the landscape. There is a sort of redemption in the music – the idea of the Sublime is re-appropriated, re-positioned and I think the initial relationship to the Sublime becomes questioned.