Array featuring work in new show at Jerwood in Collaborate!
“A major new group exhibition presenting commissions by early-career artists working in collaborative and collective practices based across the UK.
Coinciding with Frieze London 2019, Collaborate! responds to research about the challenges faced by early-career artists working in collaboration and provides a dedicated high-profile opportunity that supports and promotes this method of artistic practice. It will present four new commissions alongside an accompanying events programme, contributing to critical dialogues about collaborative and collective practices in the visual arts sector.
Jerwood Arts invited 12 curators from across the UK to nominate artist collectives and collaborations who they think are making outstanding work and would benefit from support at a pivotal point in their career. The final selection was made by a panel comprised of Kelly Best, artist; Antonio Roberts, artist and curator; Harriet Cooper, Head of Visual Arts, Jerwood Arts and Lilli Geissendorfer, Director, Jerwood Arts (Chair).
The selected artist collectives are: Array, Languid Hands, Keiken + George Jasper Stone and Shy Bairns.”
Work info:
Array’s new installation As Others See Us is centred on three fictional characters drawn from the pre-Christian myths and folklore of ancient Ireland, ‘The Sacred Cow’, ‘The Long Shadow’ and ‘The Morrigan’. Representing the past, present and future and cross-bred with contemporary anxieties and fixations in the North of Ireland today, they have shape-shifted through the crowds at Belfast Pride to the banks of the River Thames in London. Documented through film, photography, sculpture and textiles, the characters lead visitors through the gallery which houses a dedicated archive and resource space that reflects historic and current activism in Northern Ireland around LGBTQ+ rights, feminism and anti-colonialism.
In December, Array will host a symposium at Jerwood Arts that expands on their collective research, opening the discussion to like-minded artists and activists from different generations todirectly respond to the issues raised in the work, exploring the tensions and possible resolutions.
Bio:
Array is a collective based in Belfast whose collaborative actions use a DIY sensibility in response to the socio-political issues affecting Northern Ireland. Array studios was established in 1994 by a group of early career artists intent on making a difference to the world of visual art in Belfast. Over the past 20 years Array has seen a vast number of artists come through the doors, some stay for a short while others settle for longer. The current group comprises 10 artists: Sighle Bhreatnach-Cashell, Sinéad Bhreatnach-Cashell, Alessia Cargnelli, Emma Campbell, Mitch Conlon, Clodagh Lavelle, Laura O’Connor, Grace McMurray, Stephen Millar and Thomas Wells. The studio is funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. arraystudiosbelfast.com