exhibition

Field

Artists Clodagh Emoe, Martina Mullaney, Michael Sheppard, Michael John Whelan

06.Oct.05 - 29.Oct.05
Wed-Sun 12-6 or by appt

Curators Eamonn Maxwell

Contemporary Art Projects
20 Rivington St
London EC2A 3DU
020 7739 1743
info@caprojects.com
www.caprojects.com
Tube Old Street, Liverpool Street, Shoreditch / Hoxton

Ireland’s landscape has a firm hold on her people. Those born on the island will always refer to themselves as Irish, even if they have disregarded all the elements that normally accompany Irish-ness as defined by tourist boards and marketing folk. Irish artists, still on the island or elsewhere, are haunted by her myths, history and presence. It dominates their work, actual or subconsciously. These four artists no longer reside in Ireland, yet they are still vehement in their identity, and in many ways the place is still evident in their practice. This exhibition seeks to demonstrate the influence of Ireland up on artists, no matter their geographical location. It is easy to associate Irish art with a culture of barren landscapes, stories and drinking. But these practitioners are showing that the place, whilst an important grounding, is but one element of the influences that guide their work. The artists in this exhibition all completed their MAs at London art colleges in 2004 (Chelsea College of Art & Design and Royal College of Art). Clodagh Emoe’s work deals with the balances between the romantic and the ridiculous. By endeavouring to work through questions of our existence, her work seems to laugh at its attempt to reach the finite. 'Turn In' is a series of photographs made in hostels for single homeless people in England and Wales by Martina Mullaney. In her work Mullaney often acts as a facilitator, giving the dispossessed an avenue to capture their daily life and to use creativity that is usually suppressed by their circumstances. Michael Sheppard takes everyday images, be they film posters, clips from television or grand statues on plinths dotted around London, and attempts to “bring out their spectacle” in his processes. Sheppard’s primary obsession is the image of the emblematic and he has used the symbol of the horse for recent work. Fleeting moments and incidents easily forgotten dominate the work of Michael John Whelan. Born in Dublin, trained in London and practicing in Berlin, Whelan’s work takes the viewer on a journey where the end is often unclear. Things move slowly, even in an ungainly way, but they capture the viewer with their inherent beauty. Mullaney and Sheppard have been selected as two of the artists to represent emerging Irish video artists as part of the Cork City of Culture; Emoe has been recently awarded major residencies in the USA and Ireland; Whelan was awarded the Clifford Chance 2005 Sculpture Award
and showed at the Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin in July 2005. Mullaney’s
work was featured in the May 2005 issue of Modern Painters. Eamonn Maxwell, another Irish born artist, has curated this exhibition. Maxwell graduated from Camberwell College of Arts in 1998 and now works as Curator at University of the Arts London, managing the University’s Art Collection. He also works with artists on commissions and projects.

The artists participate in the Fosterart Collection, an artist-owned body of work
that is lent by Fosterart to public and private sector organisations with the aim of
increasing access to high-quality contemporary art.
This exhibition has been made possible by the generous support of Culture
Ireland and University of the Arts London.