Exploring the paradigms of what we see and how we construct visual knowledge, A Visibility Matrix returns to the instincts of these projects. It proposes a condensed counterpoint to the migratory, hyper-networked nature of visibility in contemporary culture by conjuring an offline matrix of video material presented in the gallery space for communal observation. The artwork speculates on an alternative to the composite formed by subject + smartphone + online-video-sharing-platform that has come to represent the current standard of visibility. It gathers content through an associative network of collaborators including visual anthropologists, cinematographers, documentary filmmakers and others from across the globe. By shifting focus from the production of images for sharing online to their reception in a shared, fixed-time spatial context, A Visibility Matrix offers another window on visual excess, confronting its own situated spatiality in order to reflect the more universal conditions that it addresses.

A Visibility Matrix manifests as a network of screens and spatial gestures, in which we observe images being duplicated, mirrored and displaced. These gestures unfold over days and months of exhibition, pursuing both repetition and re-assembly. This system speculates on the possibilities of video not as passive image but as an active signal, and the gallery as a site of condensation; a shared space and a space of reflection.

The extended-duration sequences that surface through the artwork are assembled from video material aggregated from a network of collaborators including:

Daniel & Marie Law Adams Rosa Aiello Matt Bakkom Rosa Barba Eric Baudelaire Beat Detectives John Beattie Ericka Beckman Maeve Brennan Andreas Bunte Duncan Campbell Jonas Dahlberg Matija Debeljuh Dennis Del Favero Willie Doherty

Jeanette Doyle Moritz Fehr Diego Ferrari Darko Fritz Rene Gabri & Ayreen Anastas Mariam Ghani & Chitra Ganesh Ross Gibson Judith Goddard Igor Grubic Jennie Guy Louis Haugh Kathy High Klara Hobza Jere Ikongio & Katja Kellerer Ivan Marusic Klif, John Lalor Charles Lim Jeanne Liotta Lovid Hrvoje Mabic Nicholas Mangan Fiona Marron Ed Mattiuzzi Peter Maybury

Ronan McCrea Conor McGarrigle Toni Mestrovic Abinadi Meza Suzanne Mooney Mosireen Nadija Mustapic Rosalind Nashisibi Arnont Nongyao Tadhg O’Sullivan Dietmar Offenhuber Matt Parker Jack Phelan Piyarat Piyapongwiwat Jason Quinlan Eugenia Raskopoulos Lucy Raven Ben Rivers Karl Ingar Røys Adam Sekuler Craig Smith Michael Bell Smith Sean Snyder Stephanie Spray, Danae Stratou Daniel Von Sturmer Jose Carlos Teixeira Leslie Thornton Gabriele Trapani Sara Velas Clemens von Wedemeyer Grace Weir Jeremy Welsh Krzysztof Wodiczko Tintin Wulia

This material was gathered, filtered and annotated working with editorial collaborators Matthew Bakkom, Victoria Brooks, Rhea Dall, Moritz Fehr, Igor Grubic, Dan Kidner, Nikos Papastergiadis and Oraib Toukan, and assembled with support from Louis Haugh and Fiona Marron.

A Visibility Matrix is an artwork formed through its infrastructure, system design and spatial permutations. The artwork will continue to evolve as it moves from space to space, from the Toulouse Arts Festival in September 2018 to Void Gallery in Derry/Londonderry in January 2019.

(1) Sven Anderson and Gerard Byrne

Sven Anderson (b. 1977) is an artist working between Ireland and the US since 2001. His practice is a discursive platform that operates through artistic intervention, academic publication, participatory processes and interactive design. Anderson’s installations, systems and performances are parasitical, feeding off of details of the immediate built environment, the bodies of the audience, and fragments of local history and ecology to suggest emergent, site-specific forms. Recent video works include the multi-channel installation GOLDEN PRECIOUS FIELDS UNFOLD (2017) and Before the Flood (2015). His projects The Manual for Acoustic Planning and Urban Sound Design (2013) and The Office for Common Sound (2016) probe the potential of the artist as urban planner and municipal resource. His sound installation Continuous Drift (2015) explores new modes of curating sound in the public realm, presenting works from over 30 artists in an active city square. His recent proposal with Heneghan Peng Architects received honourable mention in the UK Holocaust Memorial International Design Competition (2018). Anderson is currently pursuing a PhD within the Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media (GradCAM) at the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Gerard Byrne (b. 1969) lives and works in Dublin. His work in photography, film, theatre and multi-screen installation examines the slippage between time and the act of image creation. Characterised by a laconic humour, Byrne’s projects examine the ambiguities of language and of what is gained or lost in the translation from text to image. Recent solo exhibitions include Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2017); Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia (2016); Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, UK (2016); and Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland (2015). He has also participated in Sculpture Projects Münster, Germany (2017); dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel, Germany (2012); Performa, New York City, NY, USA (2011); the 54th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2011); Auckland Biennial, New Zealand (2010); Gwangju Biennial, South Korea (2008); Sydney Biennial, Australia (2008); Lyon Biennial, France (2007); Tate Triennial, London, UK (2006); and the Istanbul Biennale, Turkey (2003). In 2007 he represented Ireland at the 52nd Venice Biennale.

Artist Talk | Jack Phelan, 1 August 2018, 6.15pm

Review | ‘Video thrills on the electronic super highways’ by Aidan Dunne, The Irish Times, 10 July 2018.

This project is supported through the Arts Council’s Making Great Art Work – Open Call 2016, an Arts Council initiative which funds ambitious, one-off artistic projects by some of Ireland’s best artists and arts organisations.

Images (left & right): Sven Anderson and Gerard Byrne, A Visibility Matrix, installation view. Photography by Louis Haugh.