Airports for Shadows & Flypaper for Squeaks

Untitled [cg1] by Roseanne Lynch

19"x 23" fiber based silver gelatin print, on diabond. 1/3

Airports for Shadows features work that inhabits spaces that have the capacity and authority to effectively silence their surroundings.

" ... Destiny, and even God Himself, have become famous above all because they answer us with silence. " *

Airports for Shadows is how John Cage described Robert Rauschenberg's White Paintings. The following year Cage responded in 1952 with the performance experience 4'33". If the White Paintings are airports for shadows then 4'33" is flypaper to coughs, the squeaks of chairs and the hum of outside traffic **, thus demonstrating that complete silence can only be digital.

Airports for Shadows seeks to demonstrate works in the gallery space that have the capacity to quieten, if not silence the surroundings of the viewing experience. The Mark Rothko room at the Tate Modern in London has this effect as does a Japanese Zen garden.

* extracts from ' Thoughts on Dolls ' by Rilke

** See Daniel Drews essay Next to Nothing in the book published 2004 on the occasion of the exhibition Singular Forms ( Sometimes Repeated ) Art from 1951 to the Present shown at the Guggenheim Museum, New York.


Airports for Shadows is curated by Mark St. John Ellis and features Felicity Clear, Susan Connolly, Roseanne Lynch, Tom O'Dea, Pertiwi, Karen Trusselle & Mary Ruth Walsh. The exhibition previews on Friday September 9th and continues until October 1st at Cross Gallery, 59 Francis Street, Dublin 8 in association with Dublin Contemporary 2011.