Show

Show 3, © Roseanne Lynch 2012

On Monday we took down Show.

The satisfying feeling of relief. It is done. It has happened.

A few days after the opening, as I was taking installation shots, I was struck by how the space did not feel like mine anymore.  The work was a very personal response to the site. I lived and talked inside my head and on the pages of my sketchbook for the duration of the making of the work. But as soon as I handed it over and opened the doors it became yours, not mine. I did not expect to feel so distant from it.

Another unexpected happening was the effect on the surface of Show 1, the first piece inside the door to the left. Approaching it from inside the space, the image became immaterial and the vinyl material and it’s light reflecting quality became the thing, linking it to the metal piece, Show 2, which had no image printed on it.

Yet another delight was while taking down Show 1, as Pam and I peeled the image off the wall, it became something else again, a form moulded by light, not an image.

Show 1, © Roseanne Lynch 2012

Show 2, © Roseanne Lynch 2012

A word about the opening.

It was a blast, the fact that I was voiceless for 3 days after it explains alot.

I am so grateful to Mark St John Ellis of Nag, New Art Gallery, 59 Francis Street, Dublin, for preforming the opening and entertaining us with his informed speech. I like being in the same sentence as John Cage.

Thank you to family, friends, colleagues and students who made it all so enjoyable, and to the brilliant curatorial duo, Stag and Deer, Pádraig Spillane and Pamela Condell. The event that was THERE THERE was their inspiration and they brought an amazing series of exhibitions to Cork.

 Official opening of Show by Roseanne Lynch & 

The Yellow River by Zhang Kechun, © Jedrzej Niezgoda 2012

 Stag & Deer aka Pádraig Spillane & Pamela Condell 

address the audience, © Jedrzej Niezgoda 2012

Mark St. John Ellis' opening speech, © Jedrzej Niezgoda 2012

Visitors contemplate the work © Jedrzej Niezgoda 2012

And now....... Show has occupied my mind since May of this year and now, having had a deep breath, I am so looking forward to getting back to the pages of my sketchbook that are paper clipped together. They have my ‘other ideas for work’ and I had secured them closed so as not to distract me until I could give them time. 

This is the fourth and final post in a series on the process of creating a site responsive exhibition Show at the Copley Street School of Architecture for There, There, a photographic event curated by Stag & Deer in Cork this October. You can see the other posts in the series here and here and here.

Show - Work in Progress #3

This is the third post in a series on the process of creating a site responsive exhibition Show at the Copley Street School of Architecture for There, There, a photographic event curated by Stag & Deer in Cork later in October. You can see the other posts in the series here and here.

Sketchbook Page showing Work in Progress, © Roseanne Lynch 2012

My next step was to find a printer who I could work with to get the size of the prints I needed. I visited Uptime Printing in Bandon and we discussed different types of papers. I want the images to be a part of the building so rather than having them framed and detached from the wall I want them to be stuck directly to the structure. This led me to look at both glossy and matt self adhesive vinyls.

I returned to the space with a 2 test strips and a cheap photocopy of the full image that I made to test the final size in the space. I immediately saw that the images have a presence in the space at that size and that 2 large images  would work better than the 3 smaller images I had originally envisioned. I decided that although the blacks were deeper in the glossy test strip the reflections and shine were too distracting from the photo itself and I much preferred the matt test strip.

I gave the printers the go ahead to print. Now I wait. There is nothing more I can do for the moment. I'm finding this frustrating as I usually make my own prints  and so I'm not used to giving away control. This time there is no way for me to know for sure if this will work until I get the final prints.

Show will open Saturday 20th October at 3pm in the ground floor of the School of Architecture on Copley Street, Cork.

Show - Work in Progress #2

 This is the second post in a series on the process of creating a site responsive exhibition Show at the Copley Street School of Architecture for There, There, a photographic event curated by Stag & Deer in Cork later in October. You can see the first post in the series here.

Sketchbook Page showing Work in Progress, ©Roseanne Lynch 2012

Having taken a series of images and printing them 20”x24” I put them back into the space to see how I felt about them. It was immediately obvious that 20”x24” prints, the largest prints I can easily make in the darkroom, looked like postage stamps when I put them on the 6m wall where they will be shown. I also found the variation in composition between the images was a distraction, and the reflections of the glossy prints was another thing I was not happy about. So, the solution was to re shoot, keeping the rhythm of the pillars the same, and so refining the content to the creeping of the light over the wooden wall and the subtle environmental differences. Scale and effect of the prints in the space is my other concern. More larger scale test prints using various papers to follow……..

Show will open Saturday 20th October at 3pm in the ground floor of the School of Architecture on Copley Street, Cork.

Show - Sketchbook

Thank you so much to everyone who supported There, There on Fund:it. The great news is that it is now fully funded. If you haven't heard, There, There is a photographic event in Cork City curated by Stag & Deer launching on October 18th 2012. As part of the event I will be having a site responsive exhibition called Show at the architect's school.

Mine is a reflective practice. The work I am making is in response to the exhibition site, with the intention of communicating something of the experience of being in the space. My sketchbooks are an important part of my practice. They are like a mirror reflecting work as I explore different ideas. I will post some pages from my sketchbook here on the blog as the work progresses to share some of the things I have been trying out in the space. You can see the final work when Show opens on Saturday 20th October.

There, There will run from 18th of October 2012 at various venues across Cork City. Please visit the website for more details.

Show will open Saturday 20th October at 3pm in the ground floor of the architect's school on Copley St.

There, There

Today I'm delighted to announce that I will be creating a site responsive exhibition in Cork in October as part of There, There an international photographic event in Cork City curated by Stag and Deer.

There, There will bring together over 30 international, national and local lens based artists in 6 exhibitions across the city. The basic thematic framework of the event is otherness and possible reconnections and reinterpretations of the world we live in. Some of the other artists taking part include Vivianne Sassen (Netherlands), Miriam O'Connor & Zang Kechun (China) among many others.

There, There is a unique and exciting opportunity for photography in Cork City, however Stag & Deer need your help to make it happen. Cork City Council has provided some financial support but additional funding is needed. Please take a look at their Fund:it campaign video to learn more, give what you can and spread the word to help bring this fantastic event to Cork.

There, There - A Photographic Event Fund:it Campaign Video

There, There will run from 18th of October 2012 at various venues across Cork City. Please visit the website for more details.

Roseanne Lynch site responsive exhibition will open Saturday 20th October at 3pm at the Cork Centre for Architectural Education.

Document at Fotogalerie Objectief

Fotogalerie Objectief, Enschede.

Enschede, in eastern Holland, is a historic university town with a strong connection to the arts.

The exhibition, Document, is a solo show of my work at FotoGalerie Objectief at the invitation of ArtEZ Institute of the Arts, Enschede (AKI). The gallery space fits the work beautifully, allowing for quiet contemplative viewer engagement, exactly as the work was intended to be seen.

Document on the walls of Fotogalerie Objectief, Enschede

The exhibition was opened by Anke Weeda, the new Dean of ArtEZ Institute of the Arts, who gave a wonderful, well researched speech.

The opening night gave me a wonderful opportunity to chat to students as well as local people.

I was delighted to meet photographer Hans Bol at the opening. We have had some conversations by email so it was great to speak to him in person. I also met Martha Haveman and Karel Betman of Galerie Beeld & Aambeeld at the opening and was invited to meet them in their gallery the morning before I left. They have lots of Irish connections as they work closely with the Crafts Council of Ireland, Kilkenny design and they represent the Cork artist Billy Foley.

Opening of Document at Fotogalerie Objectief, Enschede

A huge thanks to the gallery committee, the Dean and staff at ArtEZ/AKI, and especially Marcel Vos, from their photography dept, who invited me to have the show, co-ordinated it all, and hung the show with me (well he did all the hard work and I encouraged him!) Thank you also to Culture Ireland for supporting this exhibition.

Document continues at Fotogalarie Objectief, Enschede until 28^th April 2012.

Solo Exhibition at Fotogalerie Objectief Enschede

Invitation to Document at the Fotogalerie Objectief in Enschede

This week I am in Holland for my solo exhibition Document at the Fotogalerie Objectief in Enschede. The exhibition will be opened by Anke Weeda, the Dean of ArtEZ Art & Design Institute at 8pm on April 4th & will show until the 28th April 2012.

I will also be giving a talk about my work at 11am at ArtEZ Art & Design Institute in Enschede and doing some portfolio reviews with students starting at 1.30pm on Wednesday 4th April.

I want to thank Marcel Vos for all his help in organising this exhibition & talks. I also want to thank Culture Ireland for their kind support & funding.

Crating for Dutch Exhibition

This week saw my Document series of photographs being well packed & crated to travel to Holland for a solo exhibition. Atlas took care of the crating & have done a wonderful job.

Document is showing at the Fotogalerie Objectief in Enschede from the 4th - 28th April. The exhibition will be opened by Anke Weeda, the dean of ArtEZ Art & Design Institute at 8pm on April 4th. Document is supported by Culture Ireland.

Cork Culture Night & Last Chance to See Fort Camden Commissions

This weekend is a busy one for the arts in Cork. Friday night, 23rd September, is Culture Night, the annual event where over 75 of the city's cultural venues are open late for one night only with hundreds of events happening for free. You can download the program here. At Backwater Artists Studios we will be having an open night with tours of the studios every half hour as well as tea & buns. I'll be giving the tour at 7.30 & 8pm and I'd love to see you there.

Also opening on Culture Night is Memento in the James Barry Exhibition Centre in CIT. This exhibition is a result of an international Erasmus project, exploring the notion of memory and recollection. This work emerged from intensive workshops delivered across various institutions in Europe. You might remember that I was involved in running workshops both here in Cork at the Crawford College of Art & Design and at the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Enschede, Holland. Its an exhibition worth seeing. You can see photos from the Memento exhibition in Holland here.

Fort Camden by Joleen Cronin via the Rescue Camden website

This weekend is also the last weekend to see the Cork County Council and Fort Camden art commissions at Fort Camden in Crosshaven. This includes my piece Document II, a site specific piece documenting the passing of time through the changing light. Fort Camden will also have a number of different events for all the family running this weekend including over 40 reenactors and the Barracks Street Band. Check out the Fort Camden Facebook page for more details.

Culture Night Website - Cork City
Cork City Council Culture Night Website
Cork City Arts Facebook Page

Rescue Camden Website
Fort Camden Facebook Page

Belfast Photo Festival - Part 2

Detonating Rough Gound at the Ormeau Baths Gallery, Sophie Ristelhuber
(Belfast Photo Festival)

Detonating Rough Gound at the Ormeau Baths Gallery, Paul Seawright
(Belfast Photo Festival)

I had planned to leave Belfast on Saturday to drive home to Cork, stopping for the night in Dublin, as I was not sure the borrowed (and brilliant) Skoda Estate which had brought me and my work up would be able to make the journey home in one go. However I was persuaded to stay by a merry band of adventurers, led by Peggy Sue Amison (Curator of the Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh). We headed off first to see Detonating Rough Ground, Paul Seawright & Sophie Ristelhueber’s show at Ormeau Baths Gallery, engaging with the memory of conflict. There I stood up close to the work, and swam in the expanses of grey & the beautiful gentle mid tones of Paul’s images.

Glory Trip 197 from Full Spectrum Dominance by Simon Norfolk (Michael Hoppen Gallery)

A restaurant next to the Kabul municipal bus garage by Simon Norfolk from 'Burke and Norfolk'
(NY Times Lens Blog)

Then we moved on to Simon Norfolk’s work. Simon gave two really interesting and insightful talks about two different bodies of work. He launched his book ‘Burke and Norfolk,’ which is also an exhibition recently seen at Tate Modern. The body of work is of photographs taken in Afghanistan recently presented alongside photographs taken in Afghanistan in the 19th century by Irish photographer, John Burke. I enjoyed hearing Simon talk about the story of John Burke and what was involved for him in making the photographs in the late 1800s. Simon is also showing Full Spectrum Dominance, a series of beautifully presented large format colour images of military rocket and missile launches in America. His artist’s talk was another entertaining and informative event, about the experience of making the work, and his facination around the events he witnessed. He has the rare and beautiful ability of sharing his enthusism for history, life and photography.

Simon Norfolk's talk at Belfast Photo Festival

The evening ended with dinner at The Galley, on board a perfectly positioned barge, with the hugely inclusive and generous Peggy and a number of new friends. (Incidentally the Galley is run by Belfast Exposed Event Managers Brown & Bri.) Among the group were the festival director Michael Weir, artists Elliot Ross, Emmanuelle Waeckerle, Simon Burch, Simon Norfolk, Belfast exposed director Pauline Hadaway & Paul Durcan editor of Source magazine. And I was thrilled to reconnect with Nora Hickey, the Director of the Mermaid Arts Centre who I had worked with previously at Glucksman Art Gallery. I want to thank them all for a wonderful evening!

The Belfast Photo Festival is one to watch. The 25 year old (yes really!) director Michael Weir and his team of enthusiastic volunteers have put together a wonderful programme of events and it feels like a well oiled machine rather than an event in its infancy. I wish them heartfelt congratulations and good wishes for continued success with this wonderful biennial photographic festival that I am so delighted to be a part of. I also want to thank the coordinator of the Queen Street Studios Gallery Brendan O'Neill for all his help and support in bringing my work to the festival.

The Belfast Photo Festival continues until 14th August at locations across the city and Document continues until 27th August at Queen Street Studios Gallery, Belfast.

Belfast Photo Festival 2011 - Part 1

Opening of Document at the Queen Street Studio Gallery at the Belfast Photo Festival

I had a wonderful time last weekend at the opening weekend of the Belfast Photography Festival. I found the whole event welcoming, interesting and inspiring. I met lots of great people, saw beautiful work and had lots of fun. It was a long, full weekend so I've decided to tell the story in two parts.

It began for me with the opening of my exhibition Document and my artist's talk at the Queen Street Studio Gallery on Thursday 4th. It was the opening night of the festival and a number of exhibitions opened across the city. I want to thank everyone who came despite the torrential rain, I really appreciated the welcoming audience. Brendan O'Neill, the co-ordinator of Queen Street Studios Gallery introduced my artist talk and after I spoke I answered some very interesting questions.

Document at the Queen Street Studios, Belfast Photo Festival

One question addressed the idea of the work as an object in the space - as my work is not presented as a traditional photograph with a window mount in a frame - and asked how this aligns itself more to the presentation of a painting or sculptural work. The answer is that I do see the space as an integral element in the reading of my work, and I was very happy with the gallery space for that reason. The Queen Street Gallery reminded me a bit of the Chelsea galleries in New York. You enter an unobtrusive door and climb the stairs which opens into a bright white wooden floored space. My work sits happily there. The metal prints sit opposite a wall of windows so the light emphasised the idea of the tones in the print being affected by where you position yourself as the viewer.

Animal (25), 2007 by Elliot Ross

Also opening the same night was Elliot Ross's exhibition Animal which happened to be in the same building. So I nipped downstairs to introduce myself and really enjoyed his work, his humour, and the chocolate biscuits on offer! His work is a look at what the animal looking out at you from the page might have been feeling and how we as animals project our human emotions into the encounter with this other animal. He also launched his book of the same name at the festival.

Attention Seekers by Miriam O'Connor

Miriam O'Connor in conversation with Matt Packer

Later that evening was a very busy launch party. I was thrilled to meet Paul Seawright, Donovan Wylie and a number of other lecturers from the that MFA at University of Ulster at my show and we all seemed to be doing the rounds of openings, artist talks and book launches throughout the weekend. Another of the openings I got to was Miriam O'Connor’s exhibition Attention Seekers at The Third Space Gallery. I really enjoyed seeing the work, which is a look at inbetween spaces and inbetween moments, beautiful playful responses to everyday scenes. On Friday I attended an event where the Miriam was ‘in conversation’ with Matt Packer, curator of the Glucksman Art Gallery.

...To Be Continued

Document - Queen St Studios, Belfast Photo Festival

Document at the Queen St. Studio Gallery, Belfast

The Belfast Photo Festival opens tonight and so does my exhibition Document at the Queen St. Studio Gallery. Its really great to be part of this new photography festival. There are lots of really great exhibitions as well as interesting talks, seminars & portfolio reviews. I'm looking forward to spending my weekend up there immersed in photography. The festival runs from the 4th - 14th August and the festival website has all the details of whats on.

Document opens tonight (4th August) at the Queen St. Studio Gallery. I will be giving an artists talk at 5pm and the exhibition preview begins at 6pm.
Document will run until 27th August and is open Tuesday - Thursdays 10am - 5pm & by appointment [0044 (0) 28 9024 3145]
The Queen St. Studio Gallery is on the 3rd Floor, 37-39 Queen St., Belfast.




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Current & Upcoming Projects

With all the excitement of winning the Alliance Francaise Award still whirling around me, I continue to be busy. I am currently working on a public art piece for Fort Camden in Crosshaven. I am looking at time passing, stillness and light within the fort, and the large scale abstract images will be shown on the outside of the building reflecting light back into Cork harbour. The piece will be shown from July when the fort will reopen to the public.

Work in progress at Camden Fort (Roseanne Lynch)

I am also preparing for a solo exhibition in Queen Street Studios in Belfast during Belfast Photo Festival, which is the 4th - 14th of August. I am really looking forward to this opportunity as it will be my first exhibition in the city. Its great to see all the new photo festivals, exhibitions and events that have begun to happen in Ireland over the last couple of years.

It will be a busy summer as I'm doing a 5x4 workshop in Paris in June, with Michael Smith and Paula Chamlee. I'm also going to New York for a few weeks in June & July both to soak up the culture and to make contacts with galleries and curators over there. If you have any recommendations for me either in terms of galleries/curators or things to see and do while I'm there, I'd love to hear them.

My 2 week residency in the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris has been booked for November to coincide with Paris Photo, which I have a heard a lot about and am looking forward to experiencing it for myself. And I have also been invited to do a 2 week residency under the curation of Stephen McGlynn, at The Guest House in Shandon, early in September, when I plan to have a large format festival for myself!

Art Box Portlaoise

Artbox Portlaoise.
Photograph courtesy of Dunmaise Art Centre

I currently have a video installation running at Artbox in Portlaoise. Artbox is a retail space that had been lying empty but has been temporarily transformed into an art space by Dunmaise Art Centre. My video piece Untitled [ccae3] is running in the space until 12th November.

'Untitled [ccae3]' by Roseanne Lynch
Photograph courtesy of Dunmaise Art Centre

Uncertainty interests me. I like not knowing and the understanding held within that unknowing. Untitled [ccae3] is ambiguous yet it encourages the viewer to question the way in which they look at the world and at art. At first the viewer is uncertain what they are looking at. They are seduced by the light defining planes and the subtle meditative movement. I am interested in the possibility of silence and the internal conversation when you encounter the piece.

'Untitled [ccae3]' by Roseanne Lynch

Photograph courtesy of Dunmaise Art Centre

I'm not going to tell you exactly what you see in Untitled [ccae3] so you'll just have to make your way to Portlaoise before November 12th and find out for yourself!

Thank you to Niamh White at Dunmaise Art Centre for all her help & for sending me on these photographs.