Return to Disintegration—Periodical Review 11

Selected by Sheena Barrett, Alice Butler, Mark Cullen, Gavin Murphy

Tanad Aaron & Mark Swords, Ella Bertilsson, Helen Blake, Bog Cottage Collective, Jenny Brady, Amanda Coogan, crux.project, Ailbhe Cunningham & Aoife Desmond, Joy Gerrard, Emma Wolf-Haugh, Barbara Knežević, Orla McHardy, Dennis McNulty, Jennie Moran/Home Bodies, Ciaran O'Keefe, Alice Rekab & Louise Meade, Sheila Rennick, Eimear Walshe, Frank Wasser, Fiona Whelan, Brokentalkers and Rialto Youth Project. Essay by Laurence Counihan

“The frontiers of a book are never clear-cut: beyond the title, the first lines, and the last full stop, beyond its internal configuration and its autonomous form, it is caught up in a system of references to other books, other texts, other sentences: it is a node within a network.”

– Michel Foucault
Chapter 1, ‘The Unities of Discourse’
The Archaeology of Knowledge, 1969

Periodical Review (2011–ongoing) is a long-running curatorial project which sets out to consider, revisit and review current movements within contemporary art practices from around Ireland. Intended as a space for critical appraisal and consolidation of ideas and knowledge, the aim through each subsequent edition is to facilitate and encourage new readings, collaboration, crossover and debate. Not a group exhibition per se, Periodical Review is a discursive action, with the gallery presented as a journal, a magazine-like layout of artworks in dialogue, the field talking to itself.

With each iteration PP/S invites two peers – curators, artists, writers, educators – to consider the artworks, exhibitions and projects they encounter over the course of a year and then nominate what was for them, significant practices, works, activity, moments, selected via an editorial process. Within this exhibition framework – a constantly shifting series of subjective viewpoints and positions (geographical, personal, political, institutional) – curatorial unity cannot be prescribed, threads or movements can only occur.

In looking at self-organised exhibitions, off-site, artist-led and independent projects, commercial galleries, museum shows, performances and publications, Periodical Review looks to present the complex and heterogeneous span of visual art in Ireland, creating dialogue and critical reflection amongst peers and between practices, to help develop and engage Irish contemporary art as a whole. In doing this, it can also act as an accessible survey of contemporary art, expanding access to and experience of new art practices from around Ireland to a wider audience.

In addition to selector's texts, this exhibition is accompanied by a newly commissioned essay by writer Laurence Counihan, in collaboration with Paper Visual Art Journal. This new PPS/PVA Visual Art Writing Commission is intended to further discourse on the contemporary moment in visual art in Ireland, while also building into a record of art practice, projects, and concepts over time.

Essay published in collaboration with Paper Visual Art Journal, as part of the PPS/PVA Visual Art Writing Commission

Events

Alice Butler is co-founder and co-director of aemi with Daniel Fitzpatrick. aemi is an Arts Council-funded organisation dedicated to the development of artist film culture in Ireland. aemi offers a number of key supports to Irish and Ireland-based film artists and presents screenings throughout the year in a range of event-based contexts. Previously, Alice worked at the Irish Film Institute where she curated film seasons and had responsibility for artist moving image programming. Solo curatorial ventures have included ‘The L-Shape’ at The Dock, ‘As We May Think’ at IFI and ‘New Spaces’ with VAI Northern Ireland. Alice has written for Sight and Sound, Vdrome, Paper Visual Art, CIRCA and Enclave Review as well as exhibition texts for Sylvia Schedelbauer, Atoosa Pour Hosseini and Colin Martin. She wrote a survey chapter on the work of filmmaker Pat Murphy and she has lectured on the moving image at Trinity College Dublin, NCAD and IMMA. Alice is on the Hugh Lane Gallery panel of artists, guides and lecturers. aemi.ie

Sheena Barrett joined Dublin City Council in 2006 as Assistant Arts Officer and Curator of the LAB Gallery to lead the development of the LAB Gallery as a critical platform for emerging arts practice in Ireland. Having previously held roles at Breaking Ground Public Art Commissioning Programme, Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, the National Gallery of Ireland and the National Museum of Ireland. She has extensive curatorial experience, supporting artists and audiences through ambitious public programmes and commissioning.  Sheena is a graduate of Arts Administration and Cultural Policy HDip and BA History of Art in University College Dublin. She is a founding member of MONTO Arts and Dublin Placemaking Network and a programme contributor to MA Art Research Collaboration at the Institute of Art Design and Technology Dun Laoghaire and the MA in Art History, Collections and Curating, University College Dublin. thelab.ie

Pallas Projects/Studios (founded 1996) is a not-for-profit artist-run organisation dedicated to the facilitation of artistic production and discourse, via the provision of affordable artists studios in Dublin's city centre, and a programme of curated projects. Pallas Projects collaborates with artists, curators and writers to engage and develop Irish contemporary art, through solo and group projects with a focus on emerging and mid-career artists; and exchanges and collaborations with artists’ groups, art organisations and institutions around Ireland and abroad.

PP/S addresses the necessity of providing space for artistic production and exhibition, and foregrounds the role of contemporary art as a constant agent of discourse and social transformation, expressed through a variety of spaces, exchanges, off-site projects, exhibitions, talks, education, resource programmes, and publications. PP/S also engages in research, advocacy to support and promote the value of cultural resources in the community, studio provision, and artist-run practices, such as the major research and publishing project Artist-Run Europe.