THREADS | New Writing Commissions
Curated by Sarah Searson
The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon
14 November 2020 - 6 February 2021
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture in association with The Dock presents four new writing commissions for Austins Ivers exhibition THREADS. Four Irish writers, Patrick McCabe, Joanne Laws, Cathy Sweeney and Ian Maleney.
Speaking about the essays, The Dock’s Director Sarah Searson said “Austin Ivers work is highly evocative; it points the viewer towards the social and cultural forces at play in 80’ and 90’s. The opportunity to commission new writing from four contemporary Irish writers enriches the exhibitions ideas and perspectives, bringing you on a literary journey into the themes of Ivers work and this era.”
For this exhibition, Austin Ivers considers some technological developments of the post-war period and their subsequent application in state command and control systems during the Cold War. Utilising video, sculpture and photography, this is a consideration of the relationship between the aesthetic of power and life as experienced under the perpetual threat of nuclear annihilation.
Off the Shoulder of Skibbereen by Patrick McCabe uses science fiction, in particular the film Bladerunner, to consider a variety of references, from Irish society and pop culture of the early 1970s. Looping in Time by Cathy Sweeney looks back at the cultural references around the cold war in the 1980s, specifically the music video for Elton John’s Nikita. Joanne Law’s essay, The Passing of a Shadow examines the posthumous work of three artists, Francesca Woodman, Patrick Jolley and Felix Gonzales Torres. Finally, Ian Maleney writes in Patterns in the Sand about the Manhattan Project, drawing parallels between that time in history and the current interesting times we live in.
Josephine Vahey, Co-chair of TULCA said “We are really pleased to present these essays to the public in this extraordinary time we are living in, and at a time when lockdown impedes our access to cultural nourishment. We invite everyone, to download and enjoy this new writing by four significant Irish authors.“
All four essays are available to download on thedock.ie and tulca.ie. The exhibition THREADS is scheduled to run at the Dock until 6th February and will reopen pending Government guidelines.
New Writing Commissions
Off The Shoulder of Skibbereen by Patrick McCabe
Patrick McCabe was born in Clones, County Monaghan, Ireland, in 1955. Shortlisted twice for the Man Booker Prize and winner of the Irish Times Fiction Award for The Butcher Boy, his other novels include The Dead School, Breakfast on Pluto, Winterwood and Heartland. He has also written for radio, stage and screen and is a member of Aosdána.
The Passing of a Shadow by Joanne Laws
Joanne Laws is an arts writer, editor and researcher based in County Roscommon. She is Features Editor of The Visual Artists’ News Sheet, where she commissions new writing for an Irish arts readership. Joanne is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and a regular contributor to international art publications, including Art Monthly and Frieze. She is Assistant Editor of Protest! - the monograph of Derek Jarman - published in April 2020 by the Irish Museum of Modern Art in partnership with Manchester Art Gallery and Thames & Hudson. She was Arts Writer in Residence at The Dock from 2017 to 2020
Looping in Time by Cathy Sweeney
Cathy Sweeney is a writer living in Dublin. Her short fiction has been published in The Stinging Fly, The Dublin Review, Egress, Winter Papers, Banshee, The Tangerine and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Her debut short story collection Modern Times will be published by The Stinging Fly and Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2020. She is at work on a novel
Patterns in The Sand by Ian Maleney
Ian Maleney is a writer based in Dublin. Born and raised in Co. Offaly. His first book, a collection of essays entitled Minor Monuments, was published in 2019 by Tramp Press and shortlisted for the Michel Deon Prize and Butler Literary Award. He received the Arts Council Next Generation Bursary for Literature in 2019. He is the online editor of the Stinging Fly. His work has been published in The Guardian, Esquire, and the New Statesman Winter Papers, gorse, and the Dublin Review. He is the founder of Fallow Media, an interdisciplinary publication for music, photography, and long-form writing.