{"id":1801,"date":"2021-03-20T20:12:54","date_gmt":"2021-03-20T23:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/institutomesa.org\/revistamesa\/edicoes\/6\/portfolio\/helen-odonoghue\/"},"modified":"2021-05-17T00:05:36","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T03:05:36","slug":"helen-odonoghue","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/institutomesa.org\/revistamesa\/edicoes\/6\/portfolio\/helen-odonoghue\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Unveiling the Hidden: Socially Engaged Art Practice in Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
And they tell me<\/em>\u2026, from the exhibition Once is Too Much,<\/em> 1998, Ailbhe Murphy and the women from the Family Resource Center, Inchicore, Dublin, Ireland. Text, glass shelves and lilies. detail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Unveiling the Hidden:  Socially Engaged Art Practice in Ireland<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Helen O\u2019Donoghue<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This essay explores the work of three artists directly engaged in socially critical histories and the contemporary realities of Irish life, as well as briefly contextualizing the evolution of what has been termed socially engaged art practice in Ireland.  Each artist grapples with different dimensions of the hidden: Bernie Masterson works with prisoners in the Irish prison service telling their marginalized stories and unveiling histories of institutional abuse; Seamus McGuinness sheds light on painful social stigmas through his collaborations with the families of young suicide victims; and Vuka\u0161in Nedeljkovi\u0107 documents the experience of recent refugee and asylum seekers in Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Bernie Masterson, Shrine<\/em>, 2014. Video still.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Artists: Bernie Masterson, Seamus McGuinness, Vuka\u0161in Nedeljkovi\u0107<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In 2014 Bernie Masterson asked me to come on a studio visit to view her most recent work and to write about it for her forthcoming exhibition at Rua Red, in Tallaght, Dublin. This work was a significant shift in her practice as an artist. On initial viewing of the videos I felt overcome by a chill, a damp cold deep chill; resonating with my own past, our collective past of secrecy, conspiracy, and unspoken truths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One video piece, Shrine<\/em>, for example, focuses on the various markings left by children scratched into the surfaces of church pews. These appear abstract initially but soon names can be deciphered, children\u2019s attempts to leave their mark in these places of incarceration. The soundtrack is ominously ambiguous and disturbing. The sounds do not seem to belong to the tones of a musical composition or to be the ambient sounds of mark making, rather they fight in a duel of actual and constructed dis-harmonies reflecting the images of letters etched into wood grain that could also be musical notation or old copy books from that time. I think of that great line \u201c[\u2026]when the air inhales you\u201d by M\u00e1ighr\u00e9ad Medbh, a poet that Masterson has subsequently collaborated with.1<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Masterson\u2019s imagination has long been occupied with reconstructing what she has seen and heard. Since 2014 she has continued to explore prisoners\u2019 experience and personal stories in a sequence of video works that are illustrated as part of our conversation elsewhere in this publication. This body of work presents a coherent narrative, one that moves us from a horror that speaks to the dispossessed in all of us through a process of assimilation of these experiences to present us with the possibility of transcendence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Seamus McGuinness, 21g, 2003 installed as part of Lived Lives \u201cMaking Stigma Visible\u201d<\/em>, Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny Co Donegal Nov. 2018. Photo: Robert Ellis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In Seamus McGuinness\u2019 installation 21g<\/em>, 2003, numerous shirt collars form the elements of this evocative artwork.  The allure of the textiles floating in the space of the gallery is reminiscent of a murmuration. Shirt collars torn away from the body of the shirt, with strands of untied threads trailing to the floor; floating almost like ethereal beings separate from the ground, at neck height; white collars casting shadows that attract the viewer\u2019s attention and then, shockingly remind us of what has been torn away from their families \u2013 their loved ones taken by the absolute act of suicide. Like Masterson\u2019s work there is an aesthetic that references the ritualistic and the ethereal, recalling the theatrical aesthetic of the Catholic church, enveloping the viewer in its mysteries, and not revealing but concealing (maybe consciously hiding or protecting the truth). This seminal work sits alongside memorabilia that Seamus has been given by hundreds of families who have lost their children to suicide. The use of cloth remnants recalls the ancient Irish tradition of the Rag Tree whereby rags are placed on trees by people who believe that if a piece of clothing from someone who is ill, or has a problem of any kind, is hung from the tree the problem or illness will disappear as the rag rots away. Over the years, McGuinness has accumulated an ongoing audiovisual archive of the many encounters that he has created to bring families together to mourn, recall, and share in their common traumatic experience. Each encounter that I have had with McGuinness \u2019 working process is a moving experience of a dialogical interpersonal relational encounter where the artist\u2019s empathetic nature holds the grieving families in his care. The work thereby acts as a catalyst for communion between people both verbally and non-verbally. Sometimes silence speaks louder than actual words or utterances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Vuka\u0161in Nedeljkovi\u0107, Atlantic View<\/em>, Direct Provision Center, <\/em>Tramore, 2012, Asylum Archive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Vuka\u0161in Nedeljkovi\u0107 is one of a new generation of artists who are emerging in Ireland who have had first-hand experience of the Irish State\u2019s provision for refugees and asylum seekers. He, like others, represent a new contemporary voice which is speaking truth to power. Nedeljkovi\u0107\u2019s photographs employ a photorealism to present the stark reality of the environments that have been assigned to recent asylum seekers to the Irish state. These photographs do not hide what is there. They reveal to the viewer the harsh realities and actual physical environments of the Direct Provision Centers. This scheme was established in 1999 and has included 150 centers some of which are now closed, that were dispersed throughout the country, many in remote places on the edge of cities, on the periphery of Irish society. This reduced the potential for integration with local communities turning the centers into ghettoized environments. The photographs are a poignant and shocking representation of the neglect that the residents living there were forced to endure.2<\/sup> Nedeljkovi\u0107 states on his website that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The photographs in the archive are devoid of romanticism and aestheticism; they simply document the everyday reality for asylum seekers. This work is political and socially engaged. My work is not so much inspired by contemporary or historical photographers and artists, though I will not deny the in\ufb02uence of the American Documentary Photographers or the German School of Photography, as well as writers like Primo Levi and Franz Fanon, or radical philosophers like Walter Benjamin and Giorgio Agamben.3<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Socially Engaged Art Practice in Ireland: Background Context<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In spite of the recent opening up of Irish society to embrace more liberal social changes, Ireland in 2020 is still grappling with a very complex postcolonial history. It is less than one hundred years since we became an Independent State and the last century was marked by revolution, independence, civil war, partition, economic underdevelopment, and emigration. The social life of this new independent state was shaped by the close alliance of a conservative political class and an equally conservative doctrinaire Catholic hierarchy.  These forces had effects on all aspects of social, educational, and economic life. In spite of the radical changes that the electorate has brought about in recent referenda, (expressed most publicly through recognizing women\u2019s rights to autonomy over their bodies in 2018 and same sex marriage equality in 2015), there is still nevertheless an enduring legacy of the early 20th<\/sup> century\u2019s repressive institutional systems. In today\u2019s Ireland many socially engaged artists grapple with this legacy and its related impact and their work draws attention to previously hidden social issues and voices, bringing them out into the open. Over the past thirty years socially engaged arts practice has grown in its complexity to engage, support, and advocate for change. The three artists that I am focusing on in this text represent this growing practice in Ireland that is gaining force, intellectual rigor, and access both to and within cultural institutions and critical art discourse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To frame the work of the three artists I will outline in brief the evolving terrain in which Irish artists have been working since the 1970s when community arts \u2013 an influential precursor of socially engaged practice \u2013 emerged as a grass roots movement.4<\/sup> As a term community arts is not native to Irish ways of thinking about the arts and society5<\/sup>. In practice it literally implies artists working in community settings outside of traditional art contexts using a diversity of art forms, such as theatre, parades, murals, and festivals6<\/sup>. First appearing in the British context, community arts became key to efforts tied to the post World War II deployment of culture as a tool to promote democracy and the 1960s drive for social change and soon became a political movement marked by a central concern for cultural democracy. In Ireland community arts began to emerge from ground up movements in a context where at the time few cultural institutions and support mechanisms existed. In this cultural context artists in Ireland have worked creatively both outside and inside the studio as teachers, tutors, and facilitators and current multifaceted practices have their roots in the challenges they encountered and the impacts of socio-cultural and political movements of the time period ranging from the late 1960s counter culture and (Hippy) rebellion to the Cuban revolution, the Black Panthers, anti-Vietnam war agitation, and global student protests. In addition to these influences, working class activists in post-industrial Britain, seeing elements of these movements as a predominantly middle-class phenomenon that further marginalized their own interest, in turn led their own revolt. By the late 1970s these critical and social energies expressed themselves as a community arts movement.7<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the 1970s, the understanding of practice has evolved from community arts to include the evolving terminologies of the participatory, collaborative, and socially engaged.  These practices all involve levels of participation and collaboration by both public and artist. The underlying motivation of artists who wish to engage outside of the hierarchical structures of a hegemonic art world led them to adopt strategies that were inclusive of others in their arts practice and to question the notion of the single authorial voice, decisions about who gets to participate in the production and distribution of artwork, and strategies around how this should be done. Influenced by diverse late 20th<\/sup> century postmodern theoretical positions and evolving critical discourses such as feminism, critical pedagogy, and decolonial theory and practice Irish artists have tested the parameters of these practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early 1990s Ireland saw significant changes in socio-political fields, most notably when in 1991 the first ever woman candidate Mary Robinson, was elected as President of Ireland. As a left-wing politician and human rights lawyer, she brought radical changes to the role and is widely regarded as a transformative figure for Ireland, and for the Irish presidency, revitalizing and liberalizing a previously conservative, low-profile political office. Her period as President coincided with the election of a Coalition government who introduced the first ever Minister for Culture, the poet and human rights activist Michael D Higgins, currently President of Ireland. Irish society began to experience a period of openness and cultural change in this last decade of the twentieth century and a new wave of development in both arts practice and critical reflection emerged. A significant event in this was the opening of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in 1991.8<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Artist Rochelle Rubenstein and community activist Rita Fagan in IMMA\u2019s studios, 1995.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

IIMMA\u2019s founding Director, Declan McGonagle\u2019s policy was to open access to the arts for all and to create a space for artists and non-artists to work together. I was appointed as the first Education and Community Curator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first ten years a radical policy of inclusion was embedded in this new institution with artists working directly with communities drawn primarily from the neighborhood surrounding the museum \u2013 a largely working class demographic experiencing high unemployment with a high proportion of people living in state provided public housing. This area is in postal code Dublin 8 and lies south of the River Liffey that divides the city\u2019s north and south side. Kilmainham lies in the latter and in the early 1990s was seen as being too far from the city\u2019s cultural centre and therefore locating the country\u2019s first museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art was heavily criticized by many as ill advised. The work that developed brought people that would not have previously engaged with a cultural institution or with contemporary art, together with artists who were testing out models of community engagement and political activism.9<\/sup> Projects emerged that foregrounded the voice of older people;10<\/sup> inner city women\u2019s stories; unemployed men; children and teenagers; and explored issues such as personal and community identity; violence against women and the threat to public housing.  Using its international exhibition and Artist Residency programs, IMMA facilitated relationships between national and international artists and these communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A series of experimental projects were put in place where artists worked in collaboration with a range of communities in the immediate proximity of the museum in Kilmainham11<\/sup> and later, from 1995 onwards, throughout the country as a whole through the Museum\u2019s National Programme.  Arts programming initiatives centering on participation were developed. Their outcomes were exhibited, and findings evaluated and disseminated through publications and public conferences. The exhibition, Unspoken Truths,<\/em> presented at IMMA in 1992 marked a new highpoint in community arts engagement, since it was located in a national institution, backed up by the supporting frameworks of the museum, and given real recognition when it was formally launched by Mary Robinson, President of Ireland. The exhibition toured widely until 1996.12<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
President Mary Robinson at the opening of Unspoken Truths<\/em>, in IMMA, 1992, video still.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Maurice O\u2019Connell, The Tribal Project at IMMA 1993.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

New definitions of work practice emerged as artists engaged in international debates. American artist and curator, Mary Jane Jacobs invited Maurice O\u2019Connell (who had worked at IMMA in From Beyond the Pale,<\/em> (1994\/5) and with Wet Paint\u2019s community project for young people) to participate in her exhibition\/project\/publication initiative Conversations in the Castle <\/em>devoted to the theme of changing audiences for contemporary as part of the Arts Festival of Atlanta in 1996 held during the Atlanta based Olympics that same year.13<\/sup> The ideas of Grant Kester, introduced to Irish artists through the 1998 event Littoral<\/em> held in Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (DLIADT) provided a theoretical basis for examination of participatory practice. The DLIADT symposium linked Irish artists to the international network of artists, critics, and educators interested in new approaches to contemporary arts practice, research, and pedagogy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Influenced by this context over the past few decades, a number of artists have emerged whose practice has had a significant impact in arts and community development. Ailbhe Murphy, who first came to public attention with Unspoken Truths<\/em> in 1992, in collaboration with the Family Resource Centre, St. Michael\u2019s Estate, Inchicore and the Lourdes Youth & Community Services, Sean McDermott Street, and IMMA has developed a sustained practice informed by Kester\u2019s emphasis on dialogue and time-based practices termed \u201cdialogical aesthetics.\u201d14<\/sup> The artist\/filmmaker Joe Lee whose work is concerned with documenting Dublin citizens\u2019 experience of urban change, worked alongside Murphy, Rhona Henderson (Scottish) and Rochelle Rubenstein (Canadian) in collaboration with a women\u2019s\u2019 group from Inchicore, Dublin for the Once is Too Much<\/em> exhibition (IMMA, 1997).   Lee\u2019s collaborative artwork made with the women\u2019s group entitled Open Season<\/em> was acquired for IMMA\u2019s Collection, making it the first participatory artwork in a national collection. Dublin based artist Rhona Henderson straddled both practice and theoretical positioning in the context of international trends and worked on many community programs at IMMA and elsewhere.15<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n