No booking is required for talks this term.
This Must Be The Place is a new series of public lectures that takes its title from the 1983 Talking Heads song, a song that was unusual in their catalogue as a love song to place and home. The talks series broadly looks at how contemporary artists have used site and location as frameworks for research, installation and theme. Talks are live and in person and during this Spring term 2023, the talks will vary in terms of date and location. The second part of this series will feature artist talks by Owen Boss, Clodagh Emoe, Garrett Phelan, Elva Mulchrone and Aoife Dunne .
Artist bio:
For over twenty years my work has grappled with our place in the world – not as a geographical point but in the space where we find meaning. For me art is an enquiry, and I see this enquiry as collective. My work has expanded from a solitary studio practice to one that incorporates collaborative and participatory processes. I draw on ritual in my work to explore how meaning is formed through our connection with each other and the natural world, focusing deeply on the encounter, perception and our collective experience. I initiate, develop and realise collaborative projects with community groups and practitioners, researchers and thinkers in areas of philosophy, theatre, architecture, botany, horticulture and ecology. These projects aim to initiate moments of connection where tacit knowledge can flourish and thought may be ‘felt’. I approach art as an open-process. In this way my work unfolds in multiple forms; site-specific interventions, audio works, installations, performances, ‘exercises’, publications and film.
Blog.
Clodagh is currently developing SEED Studio Blueprint with architect Donal Lally as an ecological nomadic studio for research, practice and collaboration. Previous collaborative projects include Mystical Anarchism (2009-2013) with philosopher Simon Critchley, Creating the Common/The Unveiling (2010) a theatrical event parodying a failed unveiling of a monumental sculpture in sheltered housing, The Plurality of Existence… (2015-2017) and Crocosmia × (2018), with individuals seeking asylum, The Portal (2019) with playwright Shane Mhac an Bháird and The Classroom in the Sun, (2021-2022) an inter-generational, collaborative project that addresses urgent issues of our biodiversity crisis by supporting a community to design and create an outdoor space for learning, exploration and connection incorporating a classroom sized greenhouse, an arc of raised beds, a pocket forest and orchard.
Her projects have been supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, Culture Ireland, European Cultural Union, South Dublin County Council, Dublin City Council, PRTLI (IR) and ARHB, (UK). Her work has been commissioned both nationally and internationally; Serpentine Gallery, London, Taipei Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Nýló, Reykjavik, documenta XIII, Kaisel, Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Project Arts Centre, IMMA, Dublin, Visual, Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow, The Model, Sligo, Grangegorman Development Agency, Maynooth University and the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government.
Clodagh’s work is included in the permanent collections of The Arts Council of Ireland, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Limerick City Gallery of Art, The University of the Arts, London and the private collections of Anthony Reynolds and Kilfane Sculpture Garden.
She has been awarded residencies at Banff, Canada, The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Virginia, US, IMMA, Sím, Reykjavik, The National Art Studios and The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea.
Image credit: Primrose, 2022, Ecological companion print from the series Reflections on a Radical Plot, 2022, 26 cm x 42 cm, © Clodagh Emoe.