The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
Practice discussion at Ormond Studios – with Davey Moor, Mark Cullen and Carl GiffneyPractice Practice
Further to this, CIC offers a crisis budgeting service in association with MABS, and can work with credit card companies or creditors to resolve debt issues. They also provide one-to-one legal advice from a range of
SEÁN O SULLIVAN REPORTS ON ‘PRACTICE: THE ORMOND STUDIOS LECTURE SERIES’ (7 – 9 DEC 2010)
multi-lingual solicitors. All of their services are provided free of charge by an entirely volunteer corps. IN August of 2009, 13 BA graduates of Dublin’s three major art colleges
Hanlon in East Offaly, who offered them a large derelict hayloft for
Artist Aideen Barry gave an energetic talk on three of her major
joined together to form Ormond Studios, Dublin (1). They had a simple
their artists’ studio at no charge, the group spent much of 2007 turning
projects. She described taking inspiration from her first cousin, Dr.
objective: to rent a building to work from, and offer a small programme
the building into a residential studio. The Good Hatchery is located in
Bridget O’Callaghan-Hay, a Cork mathematician who began training as
of events throughout the year. Nearly two years on, that programme
a plain of industrial bogland, and since it is so difficult to physically
an Astronaut with NASA as part of the Reaganite ‘Star Wars’ defence
has gained both traction and perspective; Ormond Studios has publicly
reach, the group conducts their outreach through the Internet.
program. Barry applied to the Arts Council and NASA for part funding
offered several curated exhibitions, critical texts, and peer-critique
This approach has attracted significant national recognition, the
so that she could also train as an Astronaut, and mortgaged her house
sessions, they host regular screenings for independent filmmakers, and
group receives funding from a range of local and national bodies, and
to cover the shortfall. Her training is chronicled in a documentary
offer a range of graduate-oriented artist residencies and studio
has hosted over 50 artist’s residencies since 2007. Giffney described a
about the experience, which culminates in a scene of her taking a
exchanges free of charge. Perhaps most famously, the studio hosted an
recent collaborative project entitled Seahorses are Tired of Living in the
parabolic flight, also known as a vomit comet, that rapidly scales an
event, titled Scarleh Fer Yer Ma Fer Havin Ya, where the audience and
Real World, where he and Ruth E. Lyons filled a well in Waterford’s
ellipse from around 24,000ft to 34,000ft and back again at 45-degree
organisers publicly read out their mid-teenage diaries – the dramatic
Soma Gallery with gin and seahorses. The exhibition co-incided with
angles achieving the effect of zero gravity. The scene sees her floating
descriptions of “black voids of emotion” and half-attempted poems
the closure of the Waterford Glass Factory.
around the aircraft with a household vacuum cleaner. Barry also gave a
incited peals of laughter. The variety of Ormond Studios’ programme
Sarah Tuck, the Director of Create Ireland spoke about the kind of
preview of a piece that she is currently preparing for exhibition in both
has culminated in December’s ‘Practice Lecture Series’, a three-day
projects that her organisation supports. Create is the national agency
Dublin and Basel, it involves forty remote control helicopters
conference focusing on early career education and the sustainability of
for promoting collaborative arts in Ireland, and Tuck spoke in great
programmed to simultaneously lift up a woman’s enormous skirt,
detail about her work to prompt a more radical, contemporary shift in
alluding to what she called “the Marilyn Monroe effect”. The artist is
When the studio began to plan the lecture series, it sought to
proposals from artists. She explained that Create would heavily
working with a German company on a remote control that can power
create an avenue for ‘information gathering’, a way of collecting a set of
emphasise research-based projects in the near future, and gave an
160 helicopters and lift her off the ground.
valuable ideas that could be useful to those beginning their career in
example of a recently successful model where a composer designed a
The ambition for personal projects continued in a talk from John
the arts (2). The first day of Practice featured Sam Keogh, Fiona Marron
chair that could interpret sounds as vibrations, and worked with a
Carter and Jay Roche of Dublin’s Projector Collective. They discussed
and Helen Horgan, artists who graduated in 2009, and have managed to
group of deaf collaborators to compose a successful series of musical
their 2009 collaboration with Via Collective entitled Bright Shadow,
enact a clearly distinct art practice since then (3). Sam Keogh presented
works. Tuck went on to describe Create as strongly disinclined to
which took place in St. Agatha’s Court, Dublin. The group appropriated
scenes from his project Radical Love Vol. 1, which he created with
support projects that position the artist as a social worker, or as the
a disused senior citizens housing block, they then grew its entire front
Dublin artist Joseph Noonan-Ganley. Fiona Marron discussed a series of
facilitator of a therapeutic outcome; she gave an example of the low bar
garden thick with sunflowers, and gilded the 16 large boarded-up
ideas relating to economics within speculative fiction, the division of
set by frequent projects that worked with senior citizens on the theme
windows with 23-carat gold leaf. Dublin City Council granted
labour and Phrenology. She expanded on the themes that have
of memory. The requirement of original and independent thinking was
permission to use the site, but in what Carter described as their most
motivated her completed works, one of which captured a disused
echoed across the three days by curator Vaari Claffey, members of
financially demanding project, the artists themselves paid for the gold.
trading floor in the IFSC, and another that studied a Gypsum mine in
Exchange Dublin and Sheena Barrett of Dublin City Council.
Jay Roche mentioned that they had never intended to make a political
Knocknacran, Co. Monaghan. Helen Horgan described how she had
During 2010, three of the Ormond Studios members travelled to
or economic point with the project, but he said “it was interesting to
begun working with, and eventually inherited, an entire library of
colleges around the country sharing information that they had learned
hear people projecting their own ideas on to it, […] it just happened to
generations-old books from a friary in Co. Westmeath. Aside from
during their first year of independent art practice. The reaction from
be a building, but it was right for the time.”
discussing their personal working methods, and the styles and ideas
the lecturers was quite positive. In many ways it demystified the next
John Carter ended the discussion on this point: “In the past [artists]
that stimulate their respective practices, the three artists detailed the
step for their art students, who had been in a rare situation where the
had very much waited for the funding to come along before they made
most effective methods of exposing their projects to the largest
Internet couldn’t offer any answers. In a very tangible way, the Practice
the work, before they even put the idea into effect. And I think we’ve
audience possible. Later in the day, Rayne Booth spent over an hour
project had its genesis in those discussions. The students’ response
always seen the reverse as being important; that it didn’t matter, that
answering questions from the audience on a range of issues surrounding
prompted the Ormond Studios members to reassess how their careers
we would find one way or another of allowing the idea to happen, and
arts organisations, working with curators, and publicising projects.
began, and so the final day of Practice focused on early career issues. maybe the funding could come later.”
Carl Giffney of the Good Hatchery was present on the second day
John Flanagan and Eileen Ryder of Citizens Information (CIC)
Ormond Studios will launch a publication detailing the outcomes
of Practice, he spoke alongside Mark Cullen of Pallas Projects and Davey
spoke about civic and domestic issues. It is somewhat unusual for a
of their 2010 Graduate programme this July.
Moor of Monster Truck Gallery & Studios. (4) Before graduating from
civic organisation like CIC to receive a speaking invite for a lecture on
Seán O Sullivan
NCAD in 2007, Giffney and four of his peers went in search of an
visual art, however it was soon apparent that their message was quite
unconventional outlet for their work. At the time the property boom
appropriate to the occasion. They discussed the difficulties that artists
was in full swing, and the group decided that the smartest move was to
might expect during early career development, when the precariousness
1. http://www.ormondstudios.com/2. Information for this article was graciously provided in a conversation between the author and
get out of Dublin—they were less than enthusiastic about the idea of
of their independent work is slowly advancing towards financial
Ormond Studios members Alan-James Burns, Jennette Donnelly, Jackquayln Gray and Nicky Teegan,
€600 for their apartment, and €400 for their studio every
sustainability. Flanagan and Ryder took a range of questions from the
3. The featured speakers at ‘Practice’ were Sam Keogh, Fiona Marron, Helen Horgan, Vaari Claffey,
month”. Feeling adventurous, they posted a request on the Free-Cycle
audience, primarily focusing on rent. They also explained a number of
Rayne Booth, Mark Cullen, Davey Moor, Carl Giffney, Andreas Kindler, Jonah King, Jennette Donnelly, Nicky Teegan, Sarah Tuck, Ciara Scanlon, John Carter, Jay Roche, Aideen Barry, Sheena Barrett, John
website reading: “Wanted: Derelict house or ruin for artists to live in
services that Citizens Information make available to people in all sorts
and renovate.” They got a few joke replies, some offering princesses, but
of circumstances, these include specific experience in fields such as tax,
4. The organisations represented at ‘Practice’ were Pallas Projects / Studios, Monster Truck Gallery & Studios, The Good Hatchery, Exchange Dublin, Ormond Studios, Mart, Projector Collective, Dublin
eventually received a surprising response from a woman named Eileen
tenancy, employment, social welfare, healthcare and education.
City Council, Create Ireland and Citizens Information Council.
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