The Douglas Hyde is delighted to present a walk-through of the exhibition The Rise and The Fall where artist Liz Magor and our Director, Dr Georgina Jackson, discuss some of the themes, subject matter, histories and ideas of the work on show. Listen to the recording from the link in this section.

Liz Magor
The Rise and The Fall
The Douglas Hyde is delighted to present the first solo exhibition in Ireland by renowned Canadian artist Liz Magor. For over four decades Magor’s practice has primarily centred on sculpture, exploring our persistent and complicated relationship with things. Using various sculptural techniques Magor transforms ordinary objects into new forms which are located somewhere between still life and the uncanny. Things such as blankets, food containers, clothing and toys are found in unexpected relationships that generate a sense of care and meaning beyond their original use or function.
Titled The Rise and The Fall, the exhibition presents a focused selection of works produced over the last five years that explore our relationship with the material world, inviting us to examine the tension between attraction and disinterest. Magor transforms muted, everyday objects into active, concerned protagonists. Whether it’s a weathered coat, discarded toy, or empty sweet wrappers, the works are a recognition of the eloquence of materiality, allowing the items we accumulate and discard throughout our lives an opportunity to express their vibrancy.
The exhibition is organised by Focal Point Gallery in collaboration with the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver and is presented in partnership with The Douglas Hyde, and Fondazione Guiliani in Rome. It will tour to Fondazione Giuliani this Autumn, opening on 27 October 2023 and running until 27 January 2024.
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The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art is excited to present a new work by renowned performance artist Amanda Coogan, Deaf artists Lianne Quigley and Alvean Jones with Dublin Theatre of the Deaf (DTD) and students from the Centre for Deaf Studies (CDS) at Trinity College Dublin. Freude! Freude! is a live exhibition, an embodied performance and installation which translates Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ode to Joy chorus into Irish Sign Language (ISL) and reinterprets the entire symphony through the lens of the Deaf experience. Using ISL as a choreographic language, Coogan, Quigley and Jones have worked with DTD and students from the CDS to produce an aural, visual and immersive feast that will be presented through a series of performances and exhibition installation.
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