In their first off-site project since the crisis began, the Glucksman is presenting the billboard project New Light, running from June 10-24, as part of the vibrant ethos of Cork Midsummer.
In venturing outside after a period of confinement and isolation, we take notice of our surroundings in different ways. We become aware of sights and smells, the vibrancy of colours and the play of light, and observe what was once familiar with a reinvigorated sense of appreciation. We learn to see the everyday in a new light, with fresh eyes and a renewed attention to detail.
New Light is an exhibition of eight different poster-based artworks presented in a series of exploratory walks across the public spheres of Cork city. Each walk will feature the eight artworks presented on billboard sites enabling safe social distance viewing and an unfolding exploration of the project. Each artwork is also available as a postcard in order to connect with those unable to view the billboard sites in person. We hope that the people of Cork might share one with family and friends who cannot visit us here in the city just yet.
Considering ideas of regeneration and recuperation, locality and civic space, and the intimate relationship to our close surroundings, the exhibition is an invitation to rediscover our shared environment through a walking tour of the individual works. New Light encourages individuals to look again, to look closer, and to take their time as they reacquaint themselves with Cork’s pathways and passages.
The exhibition is situated in five different locations in Cork City, with each location showcasing a walking route of the eight selected artworks. These routes are:
- UCC Ceremonial Entrance – Western Road (total distance 500m)
- North Monastery Road – Watercourse Road (total distance 600m)
- Maylor Street – Summerhill North (total distance 500m)
- Bandon Road – Lough Road – Pouladuff Road (total distance 420m)
- Southern Road – Sawmill Street (total distance 500m)
New Light postcards will be available in city centre locations and disseminated to communities that are cocooning. Postcard packs will also be available to purchase online through the Glucksman website and social media.
NEW LIGHT Participating artists
Carol Anne Connolly is a Cork-based artist whose work examines the development of current cultural, civic, and social ideas relating to place and has involved collaborations with ghost estate residents, physicists, NGOs, farmers, copyright law academics and musicians. Her previous exhibitions include shows and projects at St. Carthage Hall, Lismore; TULCA, Galway; and Pallas Projects, Dublin.
Mark Kent is an artist currently based in Mallow after periods spend studying in Amsterdam and Chicago. His contribution is based on preliminary research for his paintings and employs diaristic and investigative approaches to his subject matter. His previous exhibitions include Bridget Donahue Gallery, New York; Gallery 400, Chicago; and Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam.
Leanne McDonagh is a young Traveller woman currently living in Cork. She is the fifth of ten children and grew up a halting site, with first-hand experience of the prejudices and misconceptions that society has about Travellers. As an artist she feels she has a unique opportunity to represent and record her community from within. Her work has been exhibited at Triskel Arts Centre, Cork; Origin Gallery, Dublin; and Wandesford Quay Gallery, Cork.
Peter Nash is originally from Carlisle, England and currently based in Cobh. His work primarily consists of drawing, film, and sculpture, and is strongly influenced by a pre-internet age of reference books, printed maps and half-remembered experiences. He has previously exhibited his work at Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford; Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh; and TACTIC Gallery, Cork.
Sarah O’Brien is an artist based in West Cork whose paintings interrogate materiality and the physical engagement we have with our everyday surroundings. Her urgent, abstract works are often built up layer by layer, through different incarnations, and employ a diverse mix of materials. Her recent exhibitions include shows at Parnell Square, Dublin; Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh; and Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford.
Shane O’Driscoll is a Cork-based artist and printmaker whose vivid, colourful images draw on personal experience, architectural forms, and compositional experiments where he reduces his subject matter to its most minimal essence. His previous projects include a public commission for the ESB Substation, Cork and work held in the collections of The National Gallery; and Trinity College Dublin.
Emma O’Hara is a Wexford-born artist based in Cork who works with photography, collage and printmaking. She takes inspiration from everyday encounters with landscape, architecture, and the urban environment, rebuilding these elements through the use of collage-based screen print approaches. Her previous exhibitions include shows at GMIT, Galway; Impact 10, Santander; and Cork Printmakers Gallery.
Pádraig Spillane is a Cork-based artist working with photography, appropriation, and object-based assemblages. He explores the intersections of desire in his work, employing photographic collage to reconfigure familiar images of the human body. His previous exhibitions include shows at The Complex, Dublin; Crawford Art Gallery, Cork; and CCA Derry-Londonderry.
New Light is supported by Cork Midsummer Festival, The Arts Council Ireland, University College Cork and private philanthropy through Cork University Foundation.
For more information www.glucksman.org/newlight
