Saoirse Higgins
Simon Schiessl
Enda O'Donoghue
Martin Shannon
Jurgen Simpson
Regina Gleeson
An exhibition-in-progress and an invitation to copy, sample, manipulate and re-interpret
Curated by Regina Gleeson
Saoirse Higgins & Simon Schiessl, Enda O'Donoghue, Martin Shannon, Jurgen Simpson and You!
Four is pleased to present Better Than the Real Thing?, an
exhibition-in-progress that enables endless reinterpretation of ideas
by sidestepping the creative limitations of copyright. Exhibited in
Four Gallery as well as online, each of four original artworks by
Saoirse Higgins & Simon Schiessl, Enda O'Donoghue, Martin Shannon and
Jurgen Simpson explores separate aspects of reproduction and
re-telling of a story and each work discloses different information
about the mark of authenticity in art of the present day.
Saoirse Higgins & Simon Schiessl's interactive media installation,
Mechanism No. 1: War, draws inspiration from the re-telling of war in
the news media and unsettles the passive absorption of the images of
war as the backing track to our lives. Enda O'Donoghue's
labour-intensive Gone 410 painting is involved with the subtle
translations of images from one circumstance to another while Martin
Shannon's photographic image, Self-portrait as Amanda Coogan as David
with Cattle lightens the weight of art historical iconography. Similar
to Shannon's dialogue across five centuries of art history, Jurgen
Simpson's installation takes its point of departure from music of the
sixteenth century. His work deconstructs the musical spectrum of a
piece of sixteenth century music only to reconstruct it as a new work
in a new context. On June 1st, Jurgen Simpson's not-to-be-missed live
performance delights in the high art of mass culture through the
soundscape of twentieth century cartoons. Each of the above mentioned
works are of the highest standard in their own right but become even
more dynamic by their openness to re-interpretation and their creative
integrity in existing outside of the tight aura of reverence to the
artist's signature.
You are invite to come and experience the artwork in the gallery or
online. Feel free to use your camera, camera-phone, minidisk recorder,
video camera, sketchbook or whatever recording device you like to make
a record of any or all of these works of art. You can then submit your
own considered re-interpretation of these un-copyrighted works as well
as other subsequent re-interpretations from other artists. These
second, third and fourth generation works will be exhibited in digital
format on http://www.betterthantherealthing.info and in Four gallery.
Better Than the Real Thing? is supported by Circa magazine, Interface
Belfast, Visual Artists Ireland and Letshost.ie
Saoirse Higgins | Better Than the Real Thing?
For further details please contact Lee Welch
FOUR
11 Burgh Quay Dublin 2, Ireland
Gallery hours are: Saturday 1pm-6pm & by appointment.