Extracts from EDEN/Ausschnitte aus EDEN by Mark Curran

Extracts from EDEN/Ausschnitte aus EDEN by Mark Curran

****PLEASE NOTE****
Due to unforeseen circumstances, ‘Mark Curran’s ‘ausschnitte aus EDEN/extracts from EDEN’ has had to be cancelled. Thankfully, a selection of Mark’s work is present in the group show, ‘Long Way To Paradise’ curated by Barry W Hughes of SuperMassiveBlackhole. All the details are here:

Long Way To Paradise


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The Lausitz lies in the southeastern part of the Province of Brandenburg in the former East Germany (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) where it meets the Polish border. Of Sorb origin (a Slavic language group), the region has been shaped by the timeline of industrialisation, where along with its capital, Cottbus/Chosebuz was defined as a Model State of the DDR. As part of the largest opencast mining territory in Europe, the Tagebau lies north, east and south of the city and continues to be extended, leading to epic scale destruction of the surrounding landscape and century-old Sorb villages while the braunkohle (lignite) will be completely depleted by 2030.

‘God made the Lausitz and the Devil hid the coal beneath’
‘Der Herrgott hat die Lausitz erschaffen und der Teufel hat die Kohle darunter versteckt’ (Sorb saying)

Having first visited the region in late 2003 in search of the impact of global capital in a periphery of Europe, as had been experienced in my native Ireland, I quickly realised that it was in fact the antithesis of this experience, encountering an emptying and the recognition that the same globalising forces which had transformed unrestrained the landscape of my origins, were indeed transforming this landscape through its forces of withdrawal and seepage – a slow hemorrhaging – jobs going further East and its younger population migrating to the more prosperous West.

Info

Opening day: 6pm 14 July
Dates: 14-31 July
Opening hours:
Mon to Fri 10-6pm

Fumbally Exchange
Fumbally Lane, Off New Street South,
Dublin 8

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In 2007, the region came last in a national survey addressing future prospects. Incorporating audio digital video, photography, cross-generational testimony and artefactual material, this project has been constructed in the context of a landscape shaped by and inscribed with the utopic ideological aspirations of modernity – Industrialisation, Socialism and now at great cost, Globalisation. Pivotal to the project is the catalyst for the region, the Tagebau and critically seeing it as a metaphor for globalisation itself – finite, fragile and ultimately, unsustainable.

‘Extracts from EDEN/Ausschnitte aus EDEN’ has been supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.

About the photographer

Mark Curran (b. 1964) is an artist and educator who lives and works in Berlin and Dublin. Presently completing a practice-led PhD through the Centre for Transcultural Research and Media Practice, DIT, Dublin, he also lectures on the BA (Hons) Photography programme at IADT, Dublin and is Visiting Faculty on the MA in Visual and Media Anthropology at the Freie Universität Berlin. Incorporating multi-media installation informed by ethnographic understandings, Curran’s practice presently focuses upon the role and representation of globalised landscapes in the predatory context of migrations of global capital. His first long-term project, SOUTHERN CROSS (Gallery of Photography, Dublin 2002), was widely published and exhibited and The Breathing Factory (Edition Braus/Belfast Exposed Photography/Gallery of Photography 2006), the outcome of his doctoral research has been extensively presented internationally, including DePaul Museum of Art, Chicago (2010) and the Xuhui Art Museum, Shanghai (2010). extracts from EDEN/ausschnitte aus EDEN will also be presented as a solo installation in the programme of ‘Encontros da Imagem’, Braga, Portugal in September 2011 and will feature in a forthcoming publication by the University of Westminster, London.

Supported by Dublin City Council and the Arts Council of Ireland and curated by Helen Carey, Curran has been awarded the lead commission to mark the forthcoming centenary of the Dublin Lockout, a pivotal moment in Irish labour history to be marked in Dublin in 2013. The multi-sited project will focus on the functioning of the global stock markets.

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Not Natasha, curated by FOMACS

Not Natasha, curated by FOMACS

‘Not Natasha’ is a series of work by photographer Dana Popa which focuses on women and girls from the Republic of Moldova who have been victims of human trafficking. The story of how the series was produced is as compelling and in some cases as disturbing as the work itself.

Not Natasha focuses on the thousands of women who migrate each year from Romania’s neighbouring Republic of Moldova which is one of the poorest nations in Europe. A high proportion of these women leave the country in the hope of a better life. An alarming number, especially the younger ones from poor families, fall into the trap of sex traffickers.

Professor Kevin Bales, a leading expert on global slavery, estimates the market value of human trafficking at 32 billion US dollars, the largest portion of which is generated from the forced prostitution of women and girls. Moldova has become the main supplier of sex slaves for the whole European continent. Each year, at least 500 women return to Moldova, broken and traumatised from this hellish experience. Popa’s work displays the hard authenticity and passion born of local knowledge and a strong sense of the complexities of the situation and its deep injustice.

Info

Opening day: 6pm 14 July
Dates: 7 July to 5 August
Opening hours:
Mon-Fri 11am-6pm
Sat & Sun 12-5pm

Creation Arcade, 22/23 Duke Street, Dublin 2

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Popa photographed the women in a variety of environments that give stark and revealing context to their tragic stories. To balance the hard documentary facts of the message, the images in the series are filled with a sense of loss, reverie and foreboding. And there is a wider message about identity since the faces are rarely seen.

Natasha is a nickname given to prostitutes with Eastern European looks, and sex trafficked girls hate it. I photographed sex trafficked women after they had returned to Moldova to show how they managed to live in a world that knows nothing of their suffering, and with the huge shadow of fear that their mother or husband might find out and throw them out in the street. To respect their anonymity, these women’s names have been changed.
Dana Popa

About the photographer

Dana Popa graduated in 2006 with an MA in Documentary Photography and Photojournalism from London College of Communication. She was awarded the Jerwood Photography prize for the first series of the project. Autograph ABP, a photographic arts agency that promotes cultural identity and human rights commissioned the rest of the project and published it as an artists book ‘Not Natasha’ available from www.autograph-abp.co.uk

Check FOMACS at http://www.fomacs.org for more info – and check their Facebook page here.

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60 Years – Stories of Survival and Safe Haven

60 Years - Stories of Survival and Safe Haven

60 Years – Stories of Survival and Safe Haven has been developed by The UN High Commissioner for Refugees – UNHCR Ireland– Office in Ireland in collaboration with photo collective The Lightstalkers.

The exhibition includes portraits of 11 refugees who came to Ireland over the past 60 years since the signing of the UN Convention relating to refugees in 1951. Stories of Survival and Safe Haven brings to life Ireland’s little known but proud tradition in past decades, of providing a safe haven to those in need of international protection from persecution, terror, fear and conflict and of providing a place where the forcibly displaced can live freely in safety and dignity as they re-establish their place in the world. Faced with an uncertain future, the people depicted in this exhibition, and their families, summoned enormous courage to survive and to rebuild their shattered lives. They are survivors, each one with a remarkable story that tells of resilience in the face of great loss.

Info

Opening day: 6pm Friday 8 July
Dates: 8-18 July
Opening hours: 12pm-6pm daily

The Complex
The Complex, Smithfield, Dublin 7

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On 28th July 1951 the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees – the legal foundation of helping refugees and the basic statute guiding UNHCR’s work – was adopted. 60 Years – Stories of Survival and Safe Haven – was initially launched to mark World Refugee Day on 20th June and to commemorate 60 years since the adoption of the Convention.

The exhibition documents the experiences of Hungarian refugees who came to Ireland in 1956 to escape the Soviet tanks, Chilean refugees forced to flee in the 1970′s after the Pinochet coup, the Vietnamese ‘boat people’ who arrived in Ireland in the late 70′s following the fall of Saigon, and stories from refugees of a contemporary nature from Iraq, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. 60 Years – Stories of Survival and Safe Haven will tell the story of people who came to Ireland looking for refuge and how some of them found a home.

More than 37 million people have been forced to flee war zones. Despite losing everything and the enormity of their suffering, refugees never give up their dream of home and all it entails. Their perseverance inspires all of us who work with them to do everything we can to find solutions so that they can get on with their lives.

60 Years – Stories of Survival and Safe Haven seeks to awaken a shared humanity and humanize an issue that is too often reduced to numbers. It also seeks to encourage visitors to understand Ireland’s shared history with these refugees and to understand the importance of maintaining our tradition of providing a safe haven to those fleeing persecution and conflict.

About UNHCR

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. UNHCR Ireland works to safeguard the rights and well being of refugees, asylum seekers and stateless people in Ireland through the provision of guidance, training and support to the Irish authorities and through the promotion of best international standards in respect of legislation, policy and procedures.

About the photographers

The Lightstalkers
Established in 2008, Irish Lightstalkers is a social network ofphotographers, journalists and professional travelers who share a passionfor image making in all its forms. Regular meet-up’s provide members with alively forum where they come together to share images, discuss ideas anddebate matters, be they of total insignificance or huge global importance.

The Lightstalkers involved in this project include:
Karl Burke is a freelance photographer and artist based in Dublin. After first getting the photographic bug aged 7, he began a regular photographic practice from the age of 17 while studying law in Trinity College Dublin and had his first published work in 1990. He has exhibited in Ireland, Germany and the USA and is currently researching 19th C. photographic processes.

Phil Behan is a part time freelance photographer based in Dublin, Ireland. Phil’s work is focused mainly around humanitarian issues dealing mostly with refugees and displacement. The majority of his work has been published by UNHCR and United Nations Multi-Media Centre. Phil’s most recently exhibited images from Yemen at the 2010 Fotografia Festival in Rome. Phil is currently working on two long term photo projects, one involving the recent integration of Karen Refugees from Burma to Mayo and also another on which he is in the planning on documenting the lives of Tuareg Cameleers across one of the longest camel journeys in the world in Mali in September 2011. He currently works in the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin.

Kim Haughton is an award winning photojournalist and lecturer in Documentary Photography. Based in Dublin, she has documented issues in over twenty countries throughout her career so far, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. She regularly collaborates with NGO’s on photography projects and her work has appeared in publications worldwide. She is currently represented by Polaris Images.

Lar Boland is a Dublin based photojournalist. His work has appeared in numerous publications including The Observer,The Guardian, Irish Times, Irish Arts Review Rolling Stone Magazine, The Sunday Times, The London Independent Magazine,  The Age Melbourne and Philadelphia Inquirer.In recent times he has concentrated on humanitarian documentation in Africa.Projects include: Uganda’s Fit Persons – a juvenile offenders mentoring initiative; Restoring Dignity – an obstetrics project in Uganda; In Search of a Queen – a domestic beekeeping initiative and Africa’s Water Crisis.

Paulo Nunes dos Santos Born in 1977 in Portugal, Paulo is a Dublin based freelance journalist & photographer who has traveled extensively documenting conflict, current affairs, humanitarian crises, social issues and political instability in various regions such as the Middle East, North and Central Africa, Caucasus, Southeast Asia and South America. He recently became an international correspondent for the Portuguese reference newspaper Expresso and a photographer member of the 4SEE photo agency. Paulo’s photos and feature stories have appeared in publications such as The Guardian, New York Post and Irish Times. Paulo has also undertaken assignments on social issues for organizations such as Landmine Action, Handicap International and Dublin Simon Community among others.

Crispin Rodwell is a multi-award winning photographer with 26 years experience covering stories throughout Ireland and in almost 40
countries around the world. From the start of his career in early 1981 Crispin covered twenty-two years of the upheaval and unrest of Northern
Ireland’s ‘Troubles’ and the resulting political agenda which culminated in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. His work has brought him almost
twenty awards and accolades in national and international photography competitions, including, four times Northern Ireland Press Photographer of the Year, Irish Press Photographer of the Year and Nikon UK Regional Press Photographer of the Year.

Helen Twomey is a freelance documentary photographer currently based in Ireland. Her personal work addresses social issues and includes long term projects highlighting issues surrounding marginalised communities. Helen studied art in Dun Laoghaire, and has a MA in photojournalism from the University of Westminster.

Florencia Saluzzo Argentinean born Florencia got the passion for photography through her grandfather. Luck, Karma, God or Destiny brought her to California where she had one of the best learning and professional experiences: to work for the Ansel Adams Gallery at the same time as doing her own personal project on illegal immigrants working in the fields of Salinas. She has taken part in a number of art exhibitions and festivals and worked on various photographic projects and trips.

Aislinn Delaney worked as a community-based youth worker for more than a decade before returning to college to study documentary photography at the University of Wales, Newport. She has worked on a number of collaborative photography projects with youth and community groups in Dublin as well as freelancing with local press. Her long-term documentary project “Children of Lir” was included in the Gallery of Photography’s 2009 group show Home Economics, which was exhibited both in Dublin and Arles and long-listed for the 2010 Project Assistance Award (British Journal of Photography).

Elena Hermosa, Dublin based, has been merging her background in social work and development education with her passion for social photography and for documenting the human faces of conflicts throughout the world. Since living in Palestine in 2006 she has continued to explore the lives and struggles of victims of land mines in Western Sahara, the battle for land rights of the indigenous people of Tanzania, and mental health issues in the post conflict Balkans. Elena is currently working on a long term project with women and children victims of domestic violence.

 

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Pride ‘n’ Prejudice by IADT 3rd Years

Pride 'n' Prejudice by IADT 3rd Years
International 3rd year students from IADT, Dun Laoghaire have produced ‘Pride ‘n’ Prejudice, A different point of view’, a contemporary photographic exhibition of diverse and highly creative imagery. The selected work is based around the concept of colonialism and nationalism, exploring the artists’ responses to these ideological positions.

The observations made and the questions raised highlight that even though we may not regularly think about these concepts we cannot deny that they are integrally linked in our own history, consequently impacting on our future.

Metaphorically speaking the images are as varied in subject matter, as opinions are around this topic. Ranging from contemporary portrayals of personal history, comments on national identity, to investigations towards the future of traditional performances, the work suggests – A different point of view.

The exhibition is being held in the newly refurbished City Arts building on the Dublin Quays, an area with a long history of battles involved with Colonialism and Nationalism. City Arts is conveniently situated between the Ha’penny Bridge and O’Connell Street, only a stone’s throw away from Temple Bar.
Pride ‘n’ Prejudice – A different point of view will open on Friday 8th July at City Arts, 15 Bachelors Walk between 6-9pm and will run daily from 11am-6pm for 1 week.

Info

Opening: 6pm 8 July
Dates: 9-15 July
Opening hours: 11am-5.45pm Daily

City Arts
CityArts,
15 Bachelors Walk, Dublin 1.

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**In addition there will be a projection of student’s most recent, individual projects, shown in the City Arts Theatre throughout the duration of the exhibition.

About the photographers

Alison Baker Kerrigan is a Dublin born photographer now entering her final year studying a BA (Hons) in Photography in IADT. She draws on inspiration from relationships and the experiential, and through familiarisation of a subject matter she encourages the viewer to engage in the narrative of her images.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Christine Ann Jones splits her time between Ireland and the US. Her photography combines the reality of the world around her with the fantasy that she sees in her mind, creating a tilting perception of what is, and what could be.

Originally from Germany, Claudi Nir has been living in Ireland for the past 11 years and is currently studying for a BA (Hons) in photography. Her photographic practice is inspired by everyday observations, people’s lives and social concerns. With her thought provoking images she encourages the viewer to critically engage with her subject matter.

Eoin Shiel’s work comes from an interest in expressing the world to others as he sees it
himself. Through photography, all avenues are open to him in how he portrays those who he encounters and the things he believes he is lucky enough to experience.

Born and raised in Germany, Henning Koestler emigrated to Ireland in 2003 where he is
currently studying for a degree in Photography. As a photographer and an observer, his
choice of subject derives from intuition and interest, fuelled by the desire to partake in the stories that unfold around him.

Marcus Cassidy is currently studying for a BA (hons) in photography. His interests spread over a wide spectrum of photographic practices concerned with the ‘everyday’, often taking on a poetic representation of the subject matter. His work is very versatile and experimental including projections and video alongside his photographs.

Megan Gallagher is a young photographer who produces her photographs on film and hand prints her black and white images. She is also currently exploring the medium of colour film. Her work is centered around her personal everyday life, a position that shifts and changes as she experiences different societies, cityscapes and environments during her travels.

Born in Galway, Orla O’Brien is currently studying for a BA (Hons) in photography in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin. Her interests in portraiture and social documentary were sparked by her love of interacting with people and listening to their stories. Photography became her medium for expressing and sharing these stories.

Currently Madeleine Collin’s art practice is based on exploring memory and loss. Her
photographs have been described as sensitive and contemplative. The images presented in the exhibition reflect some aspects of Irish history through four generations of her family.

Jason Lowe is going into his final year studying photography at IADT Dun Laoghaire. He is especially interested in people and land and the connections of these two subjects, which he explores through his use of photography. Today, people’s histories differ, resulting in diverse lives, with a multitude of stories to tell.

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The Arc of Realism 1911-1997, by Zofia Rydet

The Arc of Realism 1911-1997, by Zofia Rydet
This year we celebrate the 100th birthday anniversary of Zofia Rydet – reknown Polish photographer and artist. The exhibition is an attempt to interpret her enormous creative output. By building up on the tension linking the two most important stages of her artistic work, two great realisms – the surrealism of photomontages and pure realism of the ‘Sociological Record’ – it is meant to show the thematic unity which dominates over the diversity of formal choices. The title of the exhibition refers to the metaphorical curve of Rydet’s creative work. Starting from the realism of the 1950s, the line soars up to surrealistic photo-montages (1969-1979), to return to the purity of realism in the last stage of her career, as depicted in the monumental ‘Sociological Record’ (1978-1995). In her document of over 30,000 negatives, Zofia Rydet is faithful to reality again, and trust in a photo frame. However it is already a different kind of realism, read anew, personal, marked with the individual vision of photography and perception of the world.

In The Arc of Realism, the tight line of Zofia Rydet’s creative work, we notice the dilemma of a photographer who wants to be a documentarist, true to reality on the one hand, and aspiring to become an artist, a visionary, creating a kind of synthetic over-reality, soaring above realism, on the other. The final stage of her work shows that the artist overcame the dilemma and set out to retell the reality with total accuracy. However, it seems that for Zofia Rydet, a master of photo-montage and poetic creation, the decision was neither easy nor obvious.

Info

Opening: 7pm 1 July
Dates: 1-15 July
Opening hours:
Mo to Fri  12-7pm
Sat & Sun  12-6pm

Centre for Creative Practice
15 Pembroke Street Lower
Dublin 2

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The works come from the collection of Fundacja im. Zofii Rydet (Zofia Rydet Foundation). Curated by Andrzej Rozycki and Karol Jozwiak.

About Zofia Rydet

Born in 1911 in Stanislawów, Poland and died in 1997 in Gliwice, Poland. She started taking pictures in 1950s. The majority of Rydet’s early photographies are portraits taken in the sitter’s natural milieu, primarly the portraits of children – based on “psychological observation”. In the late 1960s she started to work with photomontage technique – the cycle ‘World of Feelings and Imagination’. In the 1978 she started her most monumental project – the ‘Sociological Record’. The Record comprised several dozen thousand of negatives, taken in different regions of Poland.

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Blindschleiche und Riesenblatt by Anne Schwalbe

Blindschleiche und Riesenblatt by Anne Schwalbe
Schwalbe’s Blindschleiche und Riesenblatt describes an anonymous natural world, at once both familiar yet touched by the unreal. Sometimes sublime, Schwalbe’s temporal incisions explore environments defined by stillness, emptiness, and light, spaces in which man exists only as a trace denoting the existence of an ambiguous present-absence. These dichotomous and discontiuous elements conspire to suggest an elusively personal yet resolutely open narrative, one suggestive of the poetic possibilities layered within the microcosmic levels of everyday experience.

“Her work evokes comparison to Japanese photographer, Rinko Kawauchi, who is well-known for her natural-light photographs of details in nature and everyday life. Both photographers emphasize the beautiful colour pallettes expressed in nature, and show a welcome talent for honing in on the subleties so many of us miss in the everyday.” Youngna Park. www.heyhotshot.com

Curated by Ronan McCall, owner and curator of Severed Head Gallery.

The artist will give a talk on self publishing at 5.00 on the day of opening. Please book in advance as places will be limited. Copies for her book will be on sale.

Info

Opening day: 6.30pm 8 July
Dates: 8 July – 13 Aug
Opening hours:
Wed to Sat 11-6pm

Severed Head Gallery
Basement, 16 Lower Mount Street, Dublin 2

Location Map

About the photographer

Anne Schwalbe (Berlin, 1974) graduated from the Ostkreuz School of Photography in Berlin in 2009. Schwalbe has participated in exhibitions such as Self Publish, Be Happy in the Photographers Gallery, London (2010), Ulsan International Photography Festival South Korea (2009), New Visionaires 2008, the New York Photo Festival (2009) and the Epson Art Photo Award, Best Selected Works, Art Cologne (2008).
Her book Blindschleiche und Riesenblatt was self-published in 2010.

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Ghost Shops, by Seán Hillen

Ghost Shops, by Seán Hillen
Seán Hillen has taken as a subject the all-too-common sight of a high-street shop in the process of closing.When a retail outlet- a shop- ‘dies’, there is a moment when the fittings and decor remain intact but the people have all gone.

Hillen has been photographing them in that in-between condition. He uses a strategy of an ultra-wide lens with the camera aimed at 45 degrees so not only is the outside world reflected in the glass, but often the architectural details of the outside and inside seem to intermix as the various levels of lighting compete with each other. Strangely, the reflected view of the street gives us a point-of-view from actually inside the shops, and we look out on the ‘living’ world in the street outside.

In the photos retail dreams are found dashed and hollow on the rocks of the current economic conditions, as businesses, long-established or fresh from the ‘boom’ have tumbled under high rents and diminishing incomes.

The result, often mesmerising, can also be disorienting, like the economic crisis itself, as you try to get your bearings and the elements of the image fade in and out of attention as the eye scans the picture, searching for something familiar to cling on to.

Info

With thanks to Inspirational Arts Fine Art Print
Opening day: 6pm 12 July
Dates:12-30 July – EXTENDED UNTIL AUGUST 14th
Opening hours:
Mon to Sat 10am-6pm
Sun 12-6pm

Basecamp
Top floor
108-109 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1

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The images are ghostly, and ill-defined human figures are often glimpsed. These are indeed ghost-shoppers, as they pass, mostly blithely unaware of the dusty windows they don’t even see anymore. “I found that myself, weirdly, that even I could easily walk past and not notice a recently-closed shop.” says Hillen.

Often objects are left behind in the hurry of leaving, or simply abandoned- items of furniture, exquisite but empty display cases or rows of carefully-designed shelves and counters, and the detritus of cleanout- a ladder, dismounted and abandoned lighting rails, or a lonely table and chair.

Often too, as Hillen’s camera peers through grubby windows, one glimpses an open doorway inside, occasionally lit, with the eerie suggestion of invisible occupants.

Laid bare of much of the stage-like dressing of their functioning lives, the breeze-block construction and drooping powerless cables in these spaces show a different face to the retail boom experienced in the recent past, as they await new occupants.

Hillen hopes at least that this project will stimulate conversation about the loss of highstreet shops, which has become a significant political issue in Britain, and looks like it may here, especially if nothing is done to mitigate it.

The story however is not completely gloomy, thankfully, Hillen says: “In fact photographing these spaces over the last two years I’ve noticed a proportion of them returning to daily use as a retail or other space again, so hope, one may hope, persists.” “And in the meantime, there are great examples of individuals groups and organisations making use of these almost-ideal buildings as pop-up exhibition spaces and for other purposes”

In fact Hillen’s exhibition is itself being held in a bright and airy gallery which is the second floor of ‘Base Camp’, an otherwise busy shop in Abbey Street Dublin. In this case it was the shop owner himself who offered the space, and intends to continue to let it for exhibition use.

About Seán Hillen

Seán Hillen is a well-known Irish artist whose work has centered on photography, in ‘traditional’ photo-collages which have become widely studied as examples of the medium.
His ‘straight’ photography is less well known and this is one of a number of ongoing photographic projects. More information at www.seanhillen.com

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Non-Seasonal Changes, group show

Non-Seasonal Changes, group show
Non-Seasonal Changes Exhibition at D-Light Studios Dublin by Tomasz Padlo, Bogdan Krezel, Przemek Krzakiewicz, Lukasz Trzcinski, Bartek Solik, and Andrzej Kramarz.

The highlights of the group exhibition Non-Seasonal Changes consists of a series of images by Polish documentary photographers of the The Visavis.pl Photographers’ Collective, Kraków depicting the Polish town of Niepołomice. Niepołomice is a place dramatically transformed since Poland’s entry to the E.U. in 2004. Here the enormous changes of recent years have a familiar face, for instance apartments which have changed due to their owners’ new prosperity, growing awareness of the need to protect the natural environment, the development of civic initiatives and responsibilities by involving the disabled in the local community.

The Visavis.pl Photographers’ Collective, Kraków dedicate their works to comment on reality in a subjective manner, looking for inspiration in the most banal elements of everyday life. Their statements are closely linked with social commentary, which err away from documentary photography in its purest form.

Photographs of changing Niepołomice and its inhabitants have been taken since summer 2006 and the resulting body of work was first exhibited outside Bunkier Sztuki in December 2006 in Kraków. Since then many new works from this project have been on shown at various exhibitions.

Sponsored by the Consular Section of the Polish Embassy in Dublin.

Info

Opening day: 11am-9pm 3 July
Dates: 3-6 July
Opening hours: 11am-6pm

D-light Studios
46 North Great Clarence Street
Dublin 1

Location Map

About the photographers

Padło Tomasz
Born in 1978. PhD student at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Management at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He works on space perception and regional geography. He adores travelling, which reflects his passion for geography. He travelled alone to Myanmar, Iranian Kurdistan, has organised trips to Mongolia, the Lebanon and to Ladakhu in the Himalayas. Moreover, or rather above all, he is a socio-documentary oriented photographer.

Krężel Bogdan
The enfant terrible of Polish portrait photography. He graduated from the Photography School at the Łódź Film School. He is a full-time photographer for the oldest Polish weekly illustrated magazine, “Przekrój”. One of the best portrait photographers in Poland. He takes photographs of the most important Polish art and political figures. He is the author of a multitude of covers and illustrations for books printed by Znak Publishers – a publishing house in Kraków, W.A.B Publishers in Warsaw and Prószyński i Ska Publishing Company in Warszawa. The author of individual and collective exhibitions; winner of many prizes.

Krzakiewicz Przemysław
“El Emo” – a photographer, holder of a few biographies. One of them begins with the words “From the beginning, my life was bonded with the socialist planned economy. What distinguished myself from most of my kindergarten friends was the fact that I was a planned child …”. Apparently, there were some people who believed that for instance he worked in the state-owned Bicycle Factory where he was manufacturing shooting wares for partner Arabic countries. A likely version of his biography assumes that Przemysław Krzakiewicz, born in 1975, is the same photographer who, as a sixteen-year-old, made his debut in a socio-cultural weekly “Tygodnik Powszechny”, for years worked for the “Przekrój” weekly magazine and in 2005 founded in Kraków together with Łukasz Trzciński a photo agency Visavis.pl – a dynamic venture of documentary photographers from around Poland and all over the world. The originator of cultural exhibitions and initiatives (in co-operation with Imago Mundi Foundation). At present he works on photo projects: “Free time” and “What we have in common”. The former has been created during the author’s free time; it represents the pure essence of his joy of taking photographs, as spending spare time in taking photographs – showing how people spend their time is the author’s favourite way of spending free time. The latter has a completely different character; it shows portraits of people gathered in one place who joined forces under a common idea. His recent important publications are: “Małopolska. Photographs. Unclarified” and Graphis Photography Annual 2008.

Trzciński Łukasz
Born in 1975 in Kraków, graduated from the Łódź Film School, member of the Association of Polish Art Photographers. Co-founder of The Visavis.pl Photographers’ Collective – a venture gathering top Polish documentary photographers, and the Imago Mundi Foundation, which promotes photography and its authors. Co-organiser of The Photomonth in Kraków. Photographer and reporter, he has worked in over 40 countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Indonesia, Russia and the Middle East. Until recently he has been interested in Central and Eastern Europe. He is an award winner of the “Pictures of the Year International” prestigious documentary photography contest. Repeatedly awarded in the Press Photography Contest, his photographs have twice won the title of The Photo of the Year (1999 & 2000). Scholarship holder from The Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw, awarded by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in the young artists’ programme – Young Poland. Author and curator of many exhibitions in Poland and abroad.

Solik Bartek
Born in 1978 in Zakopane, where he still lives. Appreciated for his observations of everyday life, he received recognition for his documentary photographs published in the daily “Gazeta Wyborcza”, the weekly “Polityka”, “Newsweek” and “Przekrój”. He was nominated for the Grand Press Photo award three times: in 2005, 2006 and 2007. He won the first prize in BZ WBK Press Foto 2006 for his sports photographs. He also won an award in the National Geographic 2005 competition for his photo of lowlanders on the summit of Kasprowy Wierch, Poland. A year later he won the first prize in this competition for a photo from a sleigh race. He won the third place in Newsreportaż 2006 competition in the everyday life category for a cycle of photographs entitled “The Forgotten Olympic Athletes”. The representatives of the media from Krakow awarded him with the title of the Photo Reporter of 2006.

Kramarz Andrzej
Graduated from the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava (Czech Republic). Co-founder of the artistic group DRUT and founding member of the band called Na Przykład (For Example, 1985-19990). He has been a professional documentary photographer since the beginning of 1990s. Co-founder of Imago Mundi Foundation and co-organizer of Photomonth in Kraków. Among his most important individual series of photographs there are: “Things” (“Rzeczy”), “The Black Sea” (“Morze Czarne”), “The clinic” (“Klinika”), “The Infinity of Cognition” (“Nieskończoność poznania”). He won many awards at photography competitions (e.g. Polish Press Photo Competition in 1999 and 2001).

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Achill / Fictionary by Linda Brownlee/Holly McGlynn

Achill / Fictionary by Linda Brownlee/Holly McGlynn
For PhotoIreland Festival 2011 KTcontemporary will present the work of two Irish artists – Achill by Linda Brownlee and Fictionary by Holly McGlynn.
Achill is Irelandʼs windy westernmost island; a naturally secluded place. Its sloping peaks rise above undulating fields of scrub trees and thick underbrush, brown bogs and mottled knolls, finally giving way to rock-strewn valleys, sheltered coves and the sea. The sky, receding into distant atmosphere or encroaching heavily over the land, deliberates and might at any moment spoil the calm.
Linda Brownlee has been spending her August holidays in Achill amongst family and friends for the last 16 years.  Captivated by the texture of its raw and unpredictable landscape, the series presented in Brownlee’s series of work titled Achill is the result of the photographic explorations she undertook with a group of local teenagers throughout the last two years.
Photographed in their favourite spots near their homes, or sites chosen by Brownlee, these adolescent figures – resting or only hesitating within the cameraʼs frame – draw the eye into and across the islandʼs contours, revealing the shape of the land through the intimacy of their relationship to it. A tranquillity pervades Brownleeʼs photographs that, despite rain or wind, stems from a sense of belonging. Her careful images capture the moody portrait of a place.

Info

Opening: 7pm 1 July
Dates: 1-28 July
Opening hours:
Wed to Fri 12pm-6pm
Sat 12pm-4pm

KTcontemporary
25-27 Donnybrook Rd
Dublin 4

Location Map

“Fictionary is a compendium of portraits reifying characters from literary history; characters that intrigued, frightened, and excited me and who I wanted to create a visual identity for, as well as characters that already hold a firm footing in popular culture that I wanted to subvert and reinvent. Influences for this project have included the satire of Mikhail Bulgakov, Angela Cater’s marriage of fantasy and realism, classic fairy tales, and characters deeply entrenched in society’s imagination. My work is largely focused on identity, environment and performance and the correlation between those three. Fictionary brings another dimension to this triad, that of the puppeteer forcing established identities into new shoes and perverting any preconceived notions the spectator may have had of these characters.”

About the Photographers

Holly McGlynn has a BA in History of Art and Architecture and French from Trinity College Dublin and an MA in Photography and Urban Cultures from Goldsmith’s, University of London. She was selected in 2010 to exhibit solo at Matsu Photographer’s Gallery in London as well as being short-listed for the prestigious Deptford X Photography Project. Her work has been published in the Guardian, Vice Magazine, TimeOut, Film Ireland, Bellyflop Magazine, and GCN.

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Homeless Gallery

Homeless Gallery
Homeless Gallery returns to D-light Studios!
Due to the massive success of last year’s Homeless Gallery, we are thrilled to announce that we will be hosting the un-curated exhibition for a second year as part of the PhotoIreland Festival. On Saturday 2nd July we will be opening our doors to photographers of all backgrounds, tastes and levels of experience to present their work wherever they see fit within Dublin’s largest studio space. The Homeless Gallery will open to the public on Sunday 3rd July. To add to this year’s opening event the day will include talks, presentations and debates from photographers, editors and camera equipment specialists – a day not to be missed by any photographer!

To coincide with the Homeless Gallery we will also have a guest exhibition on display from the Visavis Gallery, Kraków. The group exhibition Non-Seasonal Changes consists of a series of images depicting the Polish town of Niepołomice; a place dramatically transformed since Poland’s entry to the EU in 2004.

The Homeless Gallery and Non-Seasonal Changes will run from 3rd – 6th July.
The whole idea of the Homeless Gallery is that there are no entry criteria. Homeless Gallery is open to all artists.

Info

Opening: Sunday 3rd of July 6pm
Dates: Sunday 3rd to Wednesday 6th July
Opening hours:
Sunday 3rd July 11am-21pm
Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th July 9am-6pm
Wednesday 6th July 9am-5pm

D-light Studios
46 North Great Clarence St.
Dublin 1
d-lightstudios.com

Location Map

What is eventually shown during an exhibition depends solely on the participant’s own self-censorship. We do not pick the participants, everybody can show their work: star photographers, professionals, those just starting in photography, students, and amateurs. We do not select their work either – we have no demands as to subject, technique, format, or number of photographs shown. The photographs themselves can be shown in frames, or just prints stuck on the wall. Everybody finds a piece of wall, ceiling or floor for themselves and hangs their work. All sorts of unconventional forms of display are welcome.

The Homeless Gallery exists to enable everybody to show their work publicly, those who for various reasons would have no chance to show their work to the world. It is for those who cannot afford a prestigious gallery, and for those who would never even think of doing so. It is a chance to be noticed for photography students, and those just entering photography. For professionals it is a chance to show some of their more personal work that never finds its way into their commercial portfolios. For amateurs it is a chance to show their work to people other than their nearest family and friends. For those who are shy, it is a chance to pull out those photographs hidden away in drawers. This exhibition is a fantastic opportunity for professionals, amateurs, students and enthusiasts to congregate and collectively showcase their work without censorship. Participants are allowed to sell their works during the exhibition time.

All participants have to sign a disclaimer. There will be a 10EUR fee for all the participants to cover studios utility and cleaning expenses during and after the gallery time. All those interested in taking part in the Homeless Gallery please contact Karolina via e-mail at karolina[AT]d-lightstudios.com

Please make sure you register asap and pop to our studio to see the space and get ideas how you would like to exhibit your work!
Check the D-Light Studios web site for any updates.

Schedule:
Submissions end: 30th of June
Mounting images: 2nd of July from 9am – 9pm
You must supply your own tools. No restriction on quantity or content of works.
Homeless Gallery opening day: 3rd of July, 11am – 9pm
Reception:  3rd of July, 6pm
Homeless Gallery closing date: 6th of July, 5pm

About the Photographers

The whole idea of the Homeless Gallery is that there are no entry criteria. Homeless Gallery is open to all artists. What is eventually shown during an exhibition depends solely on the participants own self-censorship. We do not pick the participants everybody can show their work: star photographers, professionals, those just starting in photography, students and amateurs. We do not select their work either – we have no demands as to subject, technique, format or number of photographs shown. The photographs themselves can be shown in frames, or just prints stuck on the wall. Everybody finds a piece of wall, ceiling or floor for themselves and hangs their work. All sorts of unconventional forms of display are welcome.

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