PROGRAMME

GALLERY 1

1pm–2pm
Automatic Writing Workshop with Eimear Regan

Taking inspiration from methods of practice of Hilma af Klint, whose paintings were shown in Gallery 2 in 2004 as part of The Paradise exhibition series (2001–2013), Eimear Regan will conduct an Automatic Writing Workshop. Participants will be encouraged to let their hand guide the process while developing a piece of new writing. No experience is necessary to participate in the workshop.

Open to all, but places are limited. To reserve a place, email dhgallery@tcd.ie.

2pm–5pm
Exhibition open to the public, including:

A New Tradition: Irish Art of the Eighties Audio Guide by Aisling Ní Aodha
In 1990 and 1991, five thematic exhibitions were held in The Douglas Hyde that outline 1980s art in Ireland. The archive that remains of this show held small thumbnail drawings of many of the works that were submitted. It is unknown who drew these drawings. To get a better picture of what the exhibition looked like, each artist who had a drawing of their work in the archive was contacted and asked to give a short description of the exhibition and where the work was placed. Based on the replies received from Dorothy Cross, Alice Maher, Eithne Jordan and Pauline Cummins, Ní Aodha has placed the prints of these drawings where their artwork was believed to have been shown during the exhibition. In addition, a speculative audio guide accompanies the prints. The guide will be a text written by Ní Aodha which embraces fiction, speculation and embellishment when describing these four artists’ works. The point of embracing the qualities of rumours when describing the artworks is to make a material out of the space between the archival source and its point of dissemination.

‘Visionary Art at the DHG’ – Research paper by Eimear Regan
A research paper following a timeline of visionary art that has been displayed throughout the gallery’s 40-year programme. The Kilim carpets in 1979, the Kalachakra Sand Mandala made by Tibetan monks in the gallery in 1994, K.F. Schobinger’s exhibition of drawings in 2006 (part of The Paradise exhibition series) and Tamara Henderson’s 2018 exhibition Season’s End: More Than Suitcases are just a few of the exhibitions touched on. This paper discusses the thread of attempting to make sense of the mysterious world through artistic practice and aspires to cover artists who have shown in the gallery and whose work has visionary qualities and aims. The research project will be discussed during the public seminar.

Re-Aftermath – 3D projection by Theo Hynan-Ratcliffe
This work consists of four separate videos repeated to form a skin-like cladding for the foundation of the gallery site. An audio piece which acts as the pulse of the archive, an archive soundscape punctuated by definitions of words used to describe the archive and used to describe the intention of intervening in The Douglas Hyde’s archival materials. The rhythmic action of interacting with the physical archive and the repetitive hypnotic act of turning pages of history, generate skin, body and physicality. The human marks that act as the skeleton of the archive bring the increments of history back into the gallery itself as a physical presence in the space.

Archive Exchange by Sara Dowling
In reaction to EVA International’s RearView Mirror Interview series, the 1983 EVA exhibition at DHG is presented through archival exchanges and invitations between gallery and organisation.

‘The Contingency of the Void: Archive as Hallucination’ – Paper by Laurence Counihan
This text explores the concept of the archive, less as concrete entity that generates objective data which allows us to retain fragments from the past, and more as a system that is always constructed and curated; in essence, fictionalised. Through an analysis of Brian Eno’s ‘Place #13’ (exhibited at The Douglas Hyde in 1986), the archive is positioned as a space wherein the distribution of meanings and affects is principally reliant upon concepts of contingency and speculation. Through this text and accompanying seminar the chimeric structure of the archive will be revealed: hybrid form constructed from fact+fiction.

5.30pm–6.45pm
Public Seminar: Led by Aisling Ní Aodha, Laurence Counihan and Eimear Regan.

Papers presented by Laurence Counihan (‘The Contingency of the Void: Archive as Hallucination), Eimear Regan (‘Visionary Art at The Douglas Hyde’) and Aisling Ní Aodha (‘The Rumour Format’).

Open to all, no booking required.

7.30pm–8pm
Fleeced! by Isadora Epstein

Fleeced! is a new performance by Isadora Epstein about the mythical Golden Fleece and the 1990 Anselm Kiefer exhibition Jason and the Argonauts. The theatrical lecture will be accompanied by musician/composer Sinéad Onóra Kennedy and choreographer/dancer Aoibhinn O’Dea.

Open to all, but places are limited. To reserve a place, email dhgallery@tcd.ie. Due to the nature of the performance, there can be no late admittance.

GALLERY 2

1pm–8pm
An epistolary exchange with Richard Skelton, by Siobhán Kane

Siobhán Kane invited the artist Richard Skelton into an epistolary dialogue, to revisit his 2011 work Landings for The Douglas Hyde, and further explore some of his thoughts on landscape, art and the vital role of archiving. What emerges both surprises and educates, putting forward the idea that no art is finite. Through a small installation, both audio and textual, Kane pays homage to the original exhibition of Landings, and its idea of immersion as touchstone.