Opening to the public from 1 pm to 3 pm on Saturday, July 2nd, this exhibition is the first of a number of events that will take place at The Dock over the summer of 2022, looking at and marking the North West as a place of artistic and cultural production.
The exhibition does not operate as a survey of practice from the area and does not function to provide an overview of current practice linked to place, but rather is a specific curatorial exercise in bringing together exemplary practices that define themselves as from the area, rather than about the area, a distinct definition.
The artists in the exhibition have certain similarities with those markers that define success in artistic practice, for example major survey and retrospective exhibitions in national and international cultural institutions, national representation in biennales, artworks in national and international collections, critical and curatorial consensus around the work. Their practices are not linked by any conceptual underpinning, approach or outcome; the link is the place, the North West and the area as a place of making.
The exhibition will pose questions about the rural as a place of production;
What attracts so many cultural practitioners to an area?
What keeps them here?
Can you sustain an artistic career so far away from the major cultural centres?
This exhibition includes a number of artists that have already shown in the space and revisits some artworks that serve as key markers in the history of the curatorial strategies of the past, for example a revisit of Alice Lyons Staircase Poems from 2005 and a master work by Patrick Hall. All artworks were selected after an extensive series of studio visits and meetings, and the curator would especially like to thank the artists for accepting the invitation to exhibit under this idea of place.
Exhibiting artists are Alice Lyons, Dee Barragry, Grace Weir, Jo Conway, Mark Garry, Nick Miller, Orla McHardy, Patrick Hall, Paul Hallahan, Ronnie Hughes, Tommy Weir and Walker and Walker and is curated by Dock Director, Ruth Carroll.
Phillina Sun is an American writer based in the Northwest of Ireland.
She visited the MADE X NW exhibition and you can read her thoughts on the exhibition at this link: MADE X NW A response by Phillina Sun.
The text is a co-commission by The Dock and VAI and will appear in the Sept/Oct issue of VAN
Photos by Paul McCarthy and courtesy of the artist
