This article is from page 41 of the 2008-08-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 41 JPG
A BOOK commemorating a highly successful five-year rural art initia- tive in Clare will be launched next month at the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan. Since 2003 some 16 Irish and international artists have participated in Ground Up, Clare Arts Office’s rural arts project. This resulted in 12 temporary public art- works being commissioned in vari- ous rural contexts in the county.
“It seemed clear to me that some- thing needed to be done to address the position of visual arts in the rural areas of Clare. Down the years visual art has always been for urban peo-
ple in an urban setting,’ said Fiona Woods of the Clare Arts Office.
“The idea was to challenge artists to bring their work into a rural set- ting for the local people. Firstly there is no infrastructure – no galleries or anything like that.
“So we decided to make that into a strength by challenging ourselves to make art in that context and to make it relevant for the people who live in these areas.”
Ground Up features the work of par- ticipating artists Vladimir Arkhipov (Russia), Amanda Dunsmore, Maria Finucane, Paul Forder (UK), Pa- tricia Hurl, Tamas Kaszas (HUN), Maria Kerin, Aileen Lambert, John
Langan, Fiona O’Dwyer, Deirdre O’Mahony, Aine Phillips, Therry Rudin, Sean Taylor, Vince Wall and Fiona Woods.
“All of the works are temporary public works or projects. There was a huge range on the art – we had comics and land art, work set in the centre of rural communities and ones which were more hidden away in the country for people to discover.
‘The book focuses on the different strands of the project and each of the artists, but along with every artist is an essay commissioned on the sub- ject of public and rural art. That was to give it a bit more weight as a dis- cussion point rather than a document
OMIM one
“We have also commissioned a two hour documentary from Clare film- maker Fergus Tigue which will be going out with the book. It tracks the works being made and gives a real insight to the process inside Ground Up.”
The book will be launched on Wednesday, September 17, at the Burren College of Art in Bally- vaughan and on Friday, September 26, at the Atrium of the Temple Bar Gallery in Dublin
For more information on_ the Ground Up commissions check Db www.shiftingground.net/O02_ projects_about.htm.