occupy space
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Occupy Space is one of Limericks newest exhibition
spaces, located on Thomas street. It has been set up tofacilitate an ever expanding need for artistic exhibition
spaces in Limerick. It is an artist led project, run by members
of Wickham Street Studios on a voluntary basis. OccupySpace is committed to delivering a relentlessly energetic
programme of exhibitions and events.
Our intention is that this space will be a central axis for ahuge variety of creative people to experiment and present
their work. The organization encourages openness andaccessibility to artists and the visiting public alike, and
aims to provide an open solid platform for the visual arts.Our program involves hosting exhibitions of emerging and
established artists, with a strong emphasis on exhibiting
those based in Limerick. Occupy Space also hosts otherartist led projects such as artists talks, seminars and
collaborative events with other creative practitioners andorganizations.
This new visual art journal is intended to expand on theexhibitions and events happening in the gallery as well
as provide a platform for critique and dialogue betweenemerging and established artists in Limerick and beyond.
Artists, critical writers and other art practitioners are invited
to submit to the journal and engage with it as a means oftesting, experimenting, developing and expanding on new
ideas and concepts.
Submissions
Occupy paper is a freeonline journal published
monthly or bi-monthly.We are actively looking
for contributors to write
articles, essays, and reviews.Occupy paper accepts
all submissions related tocontemporary art practice
from painting and printto sculpture, video and
beyond.If you would liketo be included in the focus
section please send a CV,5-10 images and a short
statement about your work.
All submissions should besent by email to :
Occupy Paper is a new onlinepublication for contemporary art,which will run alongside the visual artprogramme in place in Occupy Space.
CCUPY
Graduate Special
Aoife BarrettLimerick School of Art and Design 16
Evelyn BroderickLimerick School of Art and Design 18
Marie-Louise ClogherLimerick School of Art and Design 20
Aoife CoxLimerick School of Art and Design 22
Sandra HickeyLimerick School of Art and Design 24
Meagan HylandLimerick School of Art and Design 26
Aidan KelleherLimerick School of Art and Design 28
Suzanne van der LingenNational College of Art and Design 30
Tadhg McCullaghLimerick School of Art and Design 32
Lisa ODonnellGalway-Mayo Institute of Technology 34
Cian ODonoghue
Limerick School of Art and Design 36
Molly ODwyer
National College of Art and Design MFA 38
Orlagh SpainLimerick School of Art and Design 40
Jane SugrueLimerick School of Art and Design 42
Ian WalshLimerick School of Art and Design 44
CONTENTSIn the Gallery
Symbiosis
Group Show by Wickham Street Studio Members 04
FocusGerry DavisWickham Street Studios, Limerick 46
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In the GallerySymbiosisWickham Street Studios Group Show
Wickham Street Studios was set up in May 2009 to provide affordable studio spaces for
artists and an outlet for its members to be part of a wider artistic community. It currentlyhas 12 artist members, Ramon Kassam, Kevin O Keeffe, Tom Prendergast, Aoife Flynn,
Laura McMorrow, Aislinn OKeeffe, Paraic Leahy, Gerry Davis, Paul Rathigan, EmmetKierans, Noelle Collins and Sean Guinan. W.S.S has since become one of Limericks key
arts organisations and are responsible for the establishment of Occupy Space. Theshows title refers to the relationship between W.S.S and Occupy Space but also the
relationship between studios and galleries in general. Symbiosis provided the public withthe opportunity to engage with some of the processes and ideas being undertaken by
current studio members.
The show previewed Thursday 10th of June 7-9pm and ran until 26th June
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Aoife Flynn
Symbiosis
My recent work has evolved from previous work, which soughtmemory, lost time, and hints of the absent-present in landscapes,people, and objects. Working from a base of imagery culled frommemory, photographs, mass media and my surroundings, I aminterested in creating multiple connections and relations rather
than xed and isolated pieces and which concern the perceptionof our reality.This project takes its inspiration and title from thePhilip K Dick novel Time Out of Joint. In it the main character, anordinary man leading an ordinary suburban life, begins to suspectthat the world around him is an illusion, constructed for the expresspurpose of keeping him docile and happy. As the novel progressesthe protagonist suffers from a breakdown of his idios kosmos orpersonal reality and the objective, shared reality (koinos kosmos)emerges more clearly, exposing him to the reality he has createdto shield himself from the brutal truth of a world out of control. It isthis conict of realities that interests me, trying to account for the
diversity of worlds that people live in. The format of the book createsa one-dimensionality that the protagonist perceives in the world andasks us to look beyond this.
Gerry Davis
Gerry talksabout his
practiceand recentexhibition inthe Focus
section onpage 37.
Ramon Kassam
Ramon Kassams practice sites itself within the ideathat any element that is part of the make up of a
painting practice can call to mind certain degrees
of suggestibilities. This in turn creates multiple
mythological parallel universes for painting tosituate itself within. By utilizing and exploiting thesenotions, Ramons objective is to establish a means
of expression that is appropriate for grand themes,could express the experience of contemporary
society and comprehend some of the differentkinds of complex realities that exist within it, through
something as absurd as a painting practice. In concept,the practice focuses on art history, painting critique, notions
of the painter, but importantly it investigates how we make
sense of paintings in relation to how we understand them tobe categorized, in accordance to what we already know or
take for granted about them or similar looking devices.Hegoes about this business by mostly making paintings much
akin to answering a question with another question, furtherhighlighting the absurdity of the practice and institute of
painting and art making.
Tom Prendergast
Tom Prendergasts work explores landscape
through mediums such paint and collage.
Laura McMorrow
Laura McMorrows work is inviting yetunpredictable. Her diverse combination of
materials gently leads viewers to unexpecteddiscoveries. These deceptively simple works
present humorously profound situationsher simplicity in reinventing found objects
creates a complex pictorial space, and
raises questions about subject-objecthierarchy, and combinative logic.The scale
of the work tends to be small and aims toprovoke curiosity in the viewers, encouraging
them to look closer and examine the piecesas if they are artefacts in a museum. The work is
concerned with the processes of collecting, andappropriation in an attempt to understand such issues
as orientation, perception, place and belonging.
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Sean Guinan
My practice is comfortable with the idea
that painting is a matter of subjectiveaesthetics. The wrong can be right and the
right can be wrong, as is the case in much ofmy work. I am interested in notions of good
painting and bad painting, and how these
can be manipulated to form engagingpeculiarities, including ambiguous stylistic
variations and allusive conveyance. Mywork isnt quite sure what it is or what it wants
to be. It is almost searching for a way out ofperplexion, ambivalence, inconsistency and
contradiction.
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Emmet Kierans
Emmet Kieranspaintings revolvearound a cast of
characters, theirenvironment and the
factors inuencingtheir lives. These
ctional charactersare used to explore
current ideological
theories throughmetaphor and
allegory. Middleclass housing estates,
parasitic worms,
pharmac eut ic a l sand charactersin a state of
metamorphosis are
the subject matterof the current work.
A range of stylesand techniques are
utilized so that eachpainting is carried
out in a manner
appropriate to thecontent.
When I was working
in the NationalGalleries of Scotland
I watched a womanwho was standing
before a self portraitby Rembrandt.
Though the glass wassupposed to be non-
reective, she begin
to x her hair andeven try to check
her teeth in theglass.I am interested
the archetypes andmemes of traditional
art practices, wheremotifs have become
dominant truisms,
and I attemptto revaluate
their situation inc o n t e m p o r a r y
painting practice.I am currently
painting about thelandscape. I use
generic horizontalline 1/3 up from
the bottom of
the picture planewhich is ratio 2:1
(sometimes 16:9). Anawkward feature is
then placed withinthat landscape to
offset the literal,traditional reading.
Varnish is poured for
a reective gloss.Landscape is a
subject so pregnantwith meaning and
relevance, moretopical with each
passing year yetredundant on the
picture plane. I am
interested in anexhausted depiction
of a constantlyr e i n v i g o r a t e d
subject and theconsequences in
that argument.
Paraic Leahy Kevin OKeeffeRelying on childlike or
adolescent content,my work aims to
create absurdotherworldly scenes.
By juxtaposingimages together
from a variety ofsources, I aim to
create curiosity inthe viewer through a
series of imaginative
c o m p o s i t i o n squestioning the
notion of the real.Dealing with
space within thework is important.
Leaving areas of
the work untouchedheightens that the
artwork is not aboutmastering the form
of the surroundingnon-forms but
more areas of smalldetails and the
artists judgmentAttempting to
reconcile ideas
of dichotomy adivision between
two things - Thereal and unreal,
the tenable anduntenable - trying
to create a conictwithin the work
Paul Rathiganspaintings explore theidea of landscape
using glass andenamel paints that
give a lustrous mirror-like nish.
Paul Rathigan
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My current work is concernedwith exploring the loss of
childhood innocence, andat the events, people and
societal conditioning whichshapes the individual from
childhood. I am exploringthese themes through
some of the themes in
Lewis Carrolls Alice inWonderland books, while
using images of myself takenfrom family photographs
as the Alice gure in thepaintings. Material and
colour are used to conveymemory and emotion. The
images are often layeredand ambiguous reecting
the uncanny nature ofmemory and the way in
which the mind attempts to
organise information andevents and make sense of
them. The mixed media usedin the pieces are domestic,
everyday materials muchof which are objects and
materials I have used in myown life at one time or other.
These are used to bringa personal and relatable
element to the work, whilesimultaneously fusing parts
of the real, outer, physical
world with the imaginary,inner world of the mind
Aislinn OKeeffe
Material and colour are
used to convey memory and
emotion.
The pieces Im currently
working on address theideals and expectations
that inuence our lifestyledecisions. Conformity,
identity, the domestic and
absence are some subjectspresent in my work. A curiosity
about the previous tenantsin both my apartment and
studio sparked an interest
in the achievements
accomplished by many in lifeand the habits we develop
as individuals that are alsocommon throughout society.
These topics inform the
selection of images and theirtreatment through collage,
painting and illustration.
Noelle Collins
Conformity, identity, the domestic andabsence are some subjects present inmy work.
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Graduate SpecialA selection of 2010 student shows
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My studio practice has involved researching
different dwellings and architectural
domestic spaces as well as concepts ofpublic and private boundaries. My workcombines and layers 3-D architectural
installations, photography and prints,exploring, reecting the home as container
and symbol for our actions, experienceand memories. The various forms of
architectural representation shown in my
work reect concepts of oppositions suchas containment and openness, interiority
and exteriority, transparency and opacity,order and disorder. Images of houses that
cannot be reached or got into, stairs that go
to nowhere, houses with no doors, houses
piled on top of each other; all these thingsreect the constraints and conventions ofsociety as well as representing the obstacles
one meets in life. The main focus of my workis the marginal society: the shantytowns,
favelas or townships. All materials workedby human hands recount something
about themselves and about us, to whereconnected ideas emerge. My work uses
the cast-offs of society to construct the
unregulated yet vibrant expressiveness ofthe human being to personalise space.
Everyonehas a
publicworld, aprivateworld anda secretworld.
PaulaRego
Favela,Wooden Houses,
Various Dimensions
City of Prints,Mixed Media,Various Dimensions
Favela, Wooden Houses, Various Dimensions
Limerick School of Art and DesignAoife Barrett
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Evelyn BroderickLimerick School of Art and Design
My work stems from afundamental interest in
observing banal objects.Sitting
on a mantel piece or hangingon a wall, the frame holds a
reminder to the past. I wasthinking of captured moments
conned in a space, containedneat and tidy within a frame.
I read that Everything in theworld exists in order to endin a book Today everythingexists to end in a photograph-
Mallarm Susan Sontag OnPhotography. I was intriguedby this idea and feel that in
todays society our lives aredocumented visually, selected
few important memorable
images are then placed in frames. I wantedto distort this traditional function of the frame,
and then the idea of framing an emptyspace came to me. Image is unnecessary, as
it is the boundary which encloses the imagethat interests me.The edges of the rectangleare a boundary, the end of the picture. Thecomposition must react to the edges andthe rectangle must be unied, but the shape
of the rectangle is not stressed the partsare more important, and the relationshipsof colour and form occur among them -Donald Judd Specic Objects Intrigued
by this statement, I began to look at the
frame as a unied form, I wanted to stress
the importance of colour and form and bymaking multiples I felt that I could achieve
this. I made two silicone moulds from whichI was able to reproduce over 200 frames. I
used a range of materials-plaster, jesmonite,resin and wax. The wax enabled me to add
wax pigment and painting pigment,which
allowed me to focus on colour. No two arethe same as I did not use equal quantities
of pigment. I arranged a oor installation ofover 200 wax and resin frames which creates
a delicate tension in the space. An aura ofpresence and absence is evident as the
empty space is framed.
Everything in the world exists inorder to end in a book. Todayeverything exists to end in aphotograph. Mallarm- SusanSontag On Photography.
239Wax, Resin,and Pigment.
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The basis of this project was the subject of the city and our
interpretation of it. I drew upon my ever-expanding
interest in lm and took three of my favourites that useda city as a character and also as a storytelling tool. I then
documented the city of Limerick photographically andcompared and contrasted my experiences there with those
in three particular scenes from the lms chosen throughphotography and typography. I wanted to show that you
can feel the same way about these romanticised andidealised cinematic scenes as you do about the place you
actually live in, no matter how small, insignicant or remoteit may be, its still yours.
Marie-Louise ClogherLimerick School of Art and Design
The City on Film
The City on Film
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Aoife Cox
Reecting the process the human
body undertakes to attainprociency of physical abilities and
techniques; my practice involves
creating a process which is bothphysically and mentally repetitive
throughout its progression. By
utilizing the forms created bydynamic body movements, I seek
to created objects which portray
the rhythm and ow of energy
and movement in the body, whileemphasizing the way a body
utilizes the space which it inhabits,
to challenge the way we perceiveand contemplate time, movement
and space.
Limerick School of Art and Design
to challengethe way weperceive andcontemplatetime,movementand space.
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In these works Im portrayingcolour in a similar way as is
used in advertising, rich reds,purples and warm oranges
are used to promote the
sex sells momentum.I have chosen to focuson the mouth as a subtle
sexual orice because
it is the part of the bodythat is continually used in
adverts using the sex sellsmotive. These colours are
used to illustrate the peakof desire, the moment of
stimulation and lust whenused in a dramatic way.
These colours are also
linked to that of health, ahealthy body, youth, when
applied in a subtle way butwhat Im trying to do in my
paintings is to use thesecolours and apply them in
such a way that it cancelsthat out, I wish to make the
viewer think of rot, disease,infection, decay, unease
when presented with
these colours, and changethe viewers association
with these colours or at
make the viewer think of rot, disease,infection, decay, unease when presentedwith these colours,
least question why those colours are sooften linked to these qualities. Ive been
concentrating on the mouth/ chin area of
the face and Ive tried to link it to thoughtsof sexuality, sensuality,a subtle symbol
of seduction. Ive focused on the mouthas a sexual orice and nothing more, an
object thats sole purpose is for pleasure,by removing the eyes from these portraits,
and cropping the image so the mouth isthe main focus, it becomes just an object.
The colouring is very important in the work,the use of luscious reds, warm oranges, rich
purples are to symbolise the peak of desire,to symbolise the stimulation of genital. Many
of my portraits are cropped, and falling off
the canvas. By accompanying the imagerywith large open voids of empty space, Im
trying to draw focus to the tension betweenthe image, falling from its setting and the
open space it leaves behind. I wish to drawattention to the beauty of the raw canvas,
and show the workings of the drawing thatlies beneath.
Sandra HickeyLimerick School of Art and Design
the mouth isthe main focus,it becomes
just anobject
They come in different shapes and sizes, Oil on black sheet plastic, 25cm x30cm
Ravenous, Oil on Canvas, 2 x3
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Meagan HylandLimerick School of Art and Design
www.meaganhyland.com
My work is broken down to acycle of knowing what I want
straight away,researching theidea, loving the idea, and then
slating it, starting over, tryingevery other idea under the sun
before coming back to theoriginal idea. Usually this takes
anywhere between a day to
four weeks but for the most partthis method has worked for me.
This particular piece was froma brief called The City where
I was asked to interpret the city
in my own way. I chose to lookat the idea of how someonecan be in love with a city they
have never been to, in my caseI chose New York and decided
to portray the others ways you
can visit the city through othermedias like music, books, and
lms.
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The devices created through my work are
based around the production of an image
and the users of the machines receivesomething as a result of their interaction,
specically a physical piece of art produced
from a particular machine. The workproduced is a combination of electronicsand engineering, and the materials used
are often found disregarded mechanicalcomponents or purpose built pieces. This
work is my interpretation of Experimentalprintmaking. I began studying interaction
design, which is the study of devices with
which a user can interact. The idea behindit is that designers/artists, create interfaces
with devices that make them eaiser andmore enjoyable to use. However through my
practice I decidedthat if I were to create
interactive devices that I didnt have to
make them either enjoyable or easy to use.
Resulting from this I began studying differentstates of emotion and ways of evoking
them, this led me to Robert Plutchik, who
during the 80s created a list of the basicemotions, Joy, Trust, Fear, Anger, Disgust,Anticipation, Suprise and Sadness. I am using
this list as a basic guidlines for the productionof my machines. This research has been the
main driving force behind this project. Forexample, a machine created as part of this
work, designed to evoke fear was conceived
by rst researching an accurate denition ofwhat fear meant and researching different
ways that people could be agitated by thepresence of danger. Through the research
it came to my attention that to stimulate
this particular emotion,the
user would need to feelthreatened by the possibility of
something bad happeningto them and this would have
to be embodied physically in
the device. In this case, theinterface was designed as
motor controlled pulley systemthat would move a stylus over
a page creating an image.To create the feeling of and
the image of this fear, twoelectrodes were attached to
the controllers which are setto randomly administer an
electric shock. As the electric
shock is random, and theuser remains aware of this, a
sense of danger and tension isgenerated.
the userwould needto feel
threatenedby thepossibility ofsomethingbadhappeningto them
Aidan KelleherLimerick School of Art and Design
aidankelleher.weebly.com
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A historical materialistcannot do without the
notion of a present whichis not a transition, but in
which time stands stilland has come to a stop.
For this notion defnes thepresent in which he himself
is writing history. Historicism
gives the eternal imageof the past; historical
materialism supplies aunique experience with
the past. The historicalmaterialist leaves it to others
to be drained by the whorecalled Once upon a time
in historicisms bordello.
He remains in control of his powers, man enough to
blast open the continuumof history.
(Walter Benjamin, Theses on
the Philosophy of History)
My interests lie in the coincidences
between (cultural/historical)signication and the perceptual
experience. Taking inspirationfrom Walter Benjamins notion
of historical materialism, mywork proposes and facilitates
individual experiences ofobjects rather than advocating
dened historical narratives. In
this specic body of work, I usemy own maternal relationships
to explore the notion of theother in photographic and
time-based media. Basing mywork on archival footage of my
grandmother, I play with ourrelationship to spark a dialectic
between tenses and physicalidentity.
Suzanne van der LingenNational College of Art and Design
the notion ofthe otherinphotographicand time-based
media.
www.suzannevanderlingen.com
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Tadhg McCullaghLimerick School of Art and Design
My evolving practice is informed by research into the dominant ideologies which dictateour societies. These ideologies appear as inevitable, but are insidiously bolstered by those
who benet from them the most. This exhibitions focus is a meditation (space) on therelationship between the individual constituents of society, i.e. the citizens and society as a
whole. Accessibility is an important issue in my practice.
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Lisa ODonnellGalway-Mayo Institute of TechnologyMy work references the issues of
juxtaposition and balance in regards to
the physical make up of each work interms of the composition, color, medium
and also the abstract and gurativeelements used. The process of using often
random imagery is a way of working thatrepresents searching for a balance and is
inuenced by everyday life where we areconstantly bombarded by imagery and
it is difcult to nd a particular balance in
life and gure out exactly what you wantand are interested in. I work predominately
with painting as well as video and thecombination of different media is an
important element of this work. This bodyof work depicts a number of different
elements such as dazed gures pluckedfrom mass media and random clips from
newspapers, as well as other randomimagery of recognizable elements such
as rooms and dwellings. The gure/groundrelationship is important as the scenes which
emerge have recognizable elements fromeveryday life somewhat abstracted into
a strange and unreal space, reecting acertain space hovering between some
form of reality and a fantasy land. There isa kind of retro style that often appears in
the work which relates to how we always
look to the past for our inuences and forways of tackling the future.
a certainspacehovering
betweensome form ofreality and afantasy land.
www.Lisaodonnell.blogspot.com
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Cian ODonoghueLimerick School of Art and Design
He who ghts with monstersmight take care least he therebybecome a monster (part 2),1189mmx841mm,Lambda Print,Silicone Diamond Mount
I have been experimenting with the capacity of
photography printing mechanisms, animation andlighting to allude to the ambiguity of ephemerality within
the intrinsic symbolism of the moth and metaphysicalphenomenon of death
No one believes in his own
death. Or, to put the samething in another way, in theunconscious every one ofus is convinced of his ownimmortality Sigmund Freud,Interpretation of Dreams
He who ghts with monstersmight take care least he
thereby become a monster(part 1),
1189mm x 841mm,Lambda Print,
Silicone Diamond Mount
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Molly ODwyerNational College of Artand Design MFA
www.mollyodwyer.com
Vantage Point
Interdisciplinary in nature, my practice employs the useof mediums such as video, sculpture and installation. My
research revolves around an interest in the human condition
and its interaction with living space and everyday life,challenging the behavioural codes by which we live. The
boundary between public and private is examined throughexploring these concerns as an analogous parallel to the
physical and the psychological, the body being our primaryexperience of the world from the corporeal to the mental.
In performing for the camera, everyday objects and familiarlandscapes act as both material and prop for the exploration
of this terrain that exists between these two inseparable
forms of reality, as central to our perception of the worldboth internally and externally. Pathos and the tragicomic
implicate the viewer on a psychological and emotional levelthrough the use of simple bodily gestures with elements of
order and chaos through absurd actions performed for thecamera. Aspects of popular culture and the cinematic are
referenced in the work through a merging and co-existenceof ction and reality. My practice draws interests from lm
theory and the role of media in society asserting the use of
the video camera as core medium for the exploration of theissues in the work.
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Our society generates enormous quantities of waste;
wood, metal, information and symbols. This wastein turn creates a kind of sensory pollution, resulting in
the important and signicant becoming lost in a seaof irrelevance. For me the process, materials and
physicality of a work are as of much importance as theconcept. I choose to work with scrap wood and metal
because they are in essence the waste of society. Theystand as an antithesis to a world that places value in
the pure, new, and sleek. In the modern mind suchmaterials evoke a fear of disuse, entropy and ruin.
thewaste
of
society
Orlagh SpainLimerick School of Art of Design
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The complex relationship of the pains and joys of love andfriendship. I need my memories. As to be expected, with
time they sweeten, become more full by my remembering.They lose their grain of truth, and warm me with nostalgia.
My work grows from the duel between the comforting lieof memory and the harsh truth. In drawing, whilst my hand
touches the sheet, the touch does not know the differencebetween a drawn line and the blank paper. It matters little
what it touches, my nger is unable to tell the difference.That is the crucial essence of drawing; it is always so close
to the object but always separated from it. The lie and the
truth. Close but always comfortingly separate. My drawingsallow me to re-experience past relationships without the
trauma of fresh truth. They allow me to journey through thepast unafraid of what hurts, joys and pains I might nd again,
and become a kind of visual catharsis. Each is a means ofexpelling, of getting out of me, past emotions and states of
awareness.
The peculiar estrangement that oftenoccurs after sex between men and
women is a paradox that interests me.Intimacy and alienation.
Jane SugrueLimerick School of Art of Design
Attracted to eachother, a man anda woman connectthrough lust. Thec o m m u n i c a t i o n
joining them depends
on the nakedness oftheir laceration. Their
love signies thatneither can see thebeing of the other butonly a wound and aneed to be ruined. Nogreater desire existsthan awounded personsneed for anotherwound.Georges BataIlle
The Beatic Dream andJokes become Real
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Ian WalshLimerick School of Art of Design
Seventy-Nine Short Essays collects an assortment of rants andthoughts on the culture of graphic design through the eyes
of the well respected designer and design critic MichaelBierut. One essay ,The Real and the Fake, examines how the
city has lost its sense of reality and is being built around the
expectations of others rather than for functionality. Bierutuses the example of New York but this theory is applicable
to any city, from Paris to Dublin. The series of posters use acollage of well known buildings from Limerick City to in body
the hyper-reality discussed in the essay. The six pieces aredesigned around my own expectations of what I believe the
city to be or imagined it to be, drawing inspiration from the
ctional Gotham City to the non-ctional New York city.
The Real and the Fake
I dont know just when we lost our sense of reality or
our interest in it, but at some point it was decided that
reality was not the only option, that it was possible,permissible and even desirable to improve upon it.
The Real and the Fake
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Focus
OP:So Gerry tell us a bit about your academic background, did you have any inuential
tutors or peers?GD:Well I started out in Limerick Senior College and then moved on to LSAD to study
painting for four years. I denitely learnt a lot over that time and would say that all mytutors and peers were inuential in one way or another. Although I was taught alot about
the technical aspects of painting, it was really the energy and conviction of certainteachers that helped me build my own condence to keep working at art. At rst it
was kind of a surprise for me to see this whole world that focused on nothing other thanartmaking, but as the years went by it became more and more habitual and by the end, I
was well accustomed to the idea of working as an artist.
OP:What kind of themes and concerns are explored in your practice? The title of your new
solo exhibition suggests theres a duality in your work, what is the reason for this and howdoes it present itself?
GD:The title came from the idea that because I work in both digital and traditionalmediums, and both have progressed quite differently over the years, that the differences
should be acknowledged rather then trying to assimilate one practice into the other.Before I went to study painting I had an interest in digital imagery and was largely self
taught in the different software used. By the time I came along it was in fact more naturalto learn how to use photoshop as a kid then it was to learn traditional oil painting, as every
home had a computer and it was much easier to get into and much quicker to get results
out of.
Gerry Davis is a graduate of LimerickSchool of Art and Design and is currently
a member of Wickham Street Studios.Here he talks to Occupy Paper abouthis practice and recent exhibitions.
Duality, Gerrys solo exhibitionat Normoyle Frawley Gallery
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OP:You use a lot of close friends and relations in your portraits, is the sense of intimacy
that this creates important to the work?GD:I think it might come from growing up being very distant from anything related to
art. It was in lots of books etc but no one I knew as a kid had any interest in art, it wasntin my family at all and it was a very alien thing in my life until I was older. So in some
ways painting portraits of friends and relations now is a way to put my own stamp on it,or trying to rectify that circumstance.
OP:Did you strive to capture a kind of disconnection thatcomes through with the digital work, in that its not such a
physical process as painting and, I imagine, far less timeconsuming.What do you think about this contradiction?
GD:I think the sense of disconnection is denitely there, and
maybe thats why the digital work has such different imageryto the paintings, because I dont consider it as much of a
personal investment. That can be very liberating as wellthough, and Ive been able to come up with surreal pictures
I never would have been able to do with paint. It continuesto surprise me how the pros and cons of both ways of
working balance each other out, and Ive never been able toabandon one for the other.
OP:What can you tell us about your process in general? Give
us some insight into how you work.
GD:Well the starting point is generally a photograph. I havea large collection of photos on my computer stretching
back a few years. I look through it for a while and I mightfocus on one aspect of a photo or the photo as a whole if
its interesting. Recently Ive been trying to challenge myselfand have been using elaborate photographs as references
for some of the oil paintings in the Duality show. If Im workingdigitally then I would often throw a few different elements
from different photos together until an image eventuallystarts to emerge and then I work on bringing that out and
making it into its own believeable scene.
Ive beenable to comeup with surreal
pictures Inever wouldhave been
able to dowith paint
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OP:Are there any artists out there that you really admire and maybe inuence you?
GD:There are a couple of realist painters working today that I really admire, SeanCheetham and Kent Williams are two great american painters and Phil Hale is one in
england. Then theres also some great digital artists Ive followed over the years, DennisSibeijn, Dave Mckean etc. One great thing about Limerick is the whole spectrum of artists
that work there, an amazing amount for a small city, and since Ive lived there Ive met
some incredible artists too.
OP: You won the Normoyle Award at your degree show for a solo exhibition, did you nd
this benecial?Youve also been working in Wickham Street Studios since graduating, wasit important for you to keep working after college, to keep the momentum going?Is being
there arepros and
cons to both
digital workand painting,I dont think Icould chooseone over theother at themoment.
OP:You had a few important exhibitionsrecently, one that focused on your d igital
work and your rst solo exhibition, whichone did you enjoy more, as a matter of
fact, which aspect do you enjoy more, thedigital work or the detailed painted works?
GD:Yeah Hi-Res (the digital show) wasa great opportunity, I had known Ken
Coleman almost since the time I movedthe Limerick 5 or 6 years ago and as far
as we knew we were the only artists in
Limerick who made digital art in a purelyne-art context, as opposed to using it for
design etc. Then we met Billy Hayes andJohnnie Wong who had also been working
digitally and having a group show afterthat was the logical progression. It was an
enjoyable show to work on and getting tosee my digital pictures printed on a large
scale for the rst time was great. Duality(the solo show) was a little more strenuous
to get ready, but was equally enjoyable
and it was an excellent opportunity to seethe work of the last year hung together in
one place and I was able to look at it moreobjectively then I could in the studio. As I
say, there are pros and cons to both digitalwork and painting, and I dont think I could
choose one over the other at the moment.
OP:Youre a pretty accomplishedphotographer too, do you see that as an
integral part of your work?
GD:Photography is kind of a commondenominator between all my work, its the
starting point for both the paintings andthe photo manipulations and sometimes
I use them as standalone photos aswell. I hardly ever leave a photo without
some level of editing done to it thoughand I think that digital post production is
something that ought to be embraced byall photographers.
Scientia
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OP: You won the Normoyle Award at your degree show for a solo exhibition, did you ndthis benecial?Youve also been working in Wickham Street Studios since graduating, was
it important for you to keep working after college, to keep the momentum going?Is being
able to work alongside other artists important to developing your practice after college?Has the recession affected your practice at all?
GD: Winning that award was very helpful, as it gave me something to work towards forthe year and helped me to keep the ball rolling straight out of college. Being in Wickham
St was the biggest help, I cant imagine I would have kept going if I hadnt stayed aroundother artists, who Ive also found to be the soundest, nicest people too :D The recession
hasnt really affected my practice too much as I was in college during the good years so Idont know any better :) I nd that there are still some buyers for the work but I havent got
as many commisioned jobs as I used to.
OP: Any upcoming exhibitions?What are your plans for the future?
GD: No immediate plans yet, that last two shows came in quick succesion, so Im happy to
spend some time guring out what the next body of work will be like and making a start on
it. :)
I was incollegeduring the
good yearsso I dontknow anybetter
Dinner, 6x 4.5ft
Marisha, 2.5x 3ft
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CCUPY
[email protected]: Occupy Paper is free and makes no prot from the publication of any materials found therein. Occupy Paper
is a publication for the dissemination of artistic ideas and will not be liable for any offense taken by any individual(s)resulting from any material contained therein.All images in Occupy Paper are the sole property of their creators unlessotherwise stated. No image in the magazine or the magazine logo may be used in any way without permission of thecopyright holder.Submissions: All works submitted to Occupy Paper must be the sole, original property of the contributor(s), have theappropriate model releases, and cannot interfere with any other publication or companys publishing rights. OccupyPaper is edited by Aoife Flynn Occupy Space/Wickham Street Studios Limerick Ireland