PRESS RELEASE
Crawford Art Gallery
crawford open
1 December 2007 – 9 February 2008
Michelle Deignan, Amanda Dunsmore, Yvanna Greene, Michael Gurhy,
Martin Healy, Fumiko Kobayashi, Maggie Madden, Paul McAree, Tom Molloy, Abigail O'Brien, Sam Plagerson, David Theobald, Andrew Vickery, Lorraine Walsh, Mai Yamashita and Naoto Kobayashi.
Crawford Open 2007, a biennial open submission exhibition of contemporary art at the Crawford Art Gallery, opens 1 December 2007.
This exhibition, the sixth Crawford Open, has as its theme 'The Sleep of Reason'. Fifteen artists were selected by Frances Morris, Head of Collections (International Art), Tate Modern,
and Enrique Juncosa, Director, Irish Museum of Modern Art. One artist will receive a prize award of €5000 which will be announced on December 18 2007.
Crawford Open’s theme refers to Francisco de Goya’s ‘Los Caprichos’ etching ‘The Sleep of Reason Brings Forth Monsters’. The works in the Crawford Open explore the innumerable foibles and follies found in today’s society.
Artists/Works:
Martin Healy’s series The Sleep of Reason (2006) refers directly to the winged creatures in Goya’s print where the rationality of the human mind is suspended while sleeping. Michelle Deignan’s video work Red Cheeks (2006) is concerned with the limits of representation and the representation of mediation of our experiences, culture and politics whilst Tom Molloy’s large-scale watercolour Fall (2007) also draws on geo-political conditions especially in regard to the United States of America. Paul McAree’s oil on canvas diptychs explore the dissolution of photography into painting and the friction of truth between the two.
Raspberry Decoy (2005) an inflatable to-scale Russian tank by Abigail O’Brien alludes to the puffed up parody of military might and examines the decoy of virility. Amanda Dunsmore’s silent, portrait video of Martin McGuinness contemplates political figures when the voice is no longer the immediate interaction between protagonist and viewer. Michael Gurhy’s work explores adolescence and image. Fumiko Kobayashi’s Dorothy (2007) installation and projection capture the natural phenomenon of living in her work. Yvanna Greene’s two works reference depleted templates of the production process whilst Maggie Madden’s installation Detritus of Contemporary Life of discarded packaging boxes reflects unbridled consumerism and the exponential sprawl of urban growth. Sam Plagerson’s Freud Collector explores the drive to collect, and the latent desires beneath that urge. Mai Yamashita and Naoto Kobayashi’s video performance Infinity (2007) reflects daily energies and time given over to often tiny, socially meaningless purpose. David Theobald’s digital animation of an ice-cream van stuck in motorway traffic explores the frustrations of the systems in which we live. Andrew Vickery’s Beyond the Sea (2006) blurs distinction between memory and imagination with Lorraine Walsh’s intimate Globedreamer (2006) animation hints at the possibilities of dreaming within confinement.
For further information or images please contact:
Dawn Williams, Assistant Curator
Crawford Art Gallery
Emmet Place
Cork, Ireland
t: +353 (0) 21 4907853 e: crawfordexhibs@eircom.net w: crawfordartgallery.com