Willie Doherty
dal 28/10/2002 al 2/3/2002
Segnalato da
28/10/2002
Willie Doherty
Irish Museum of Modern Art - IMMA, Dublin
False Memory. Retrospective. The first substantial showing of Doherty's work in Ireland and one of the most comprehensive exhibitions of his work anywhere to date. The exhibition, which comprises more than 40 photographic works and slide/tape and video installations, explores themes of memory and place - concerns which have preoccupied the artist throughout his career.
Retrospective at the Irish Museum of Modern Art
A major mid-career retrospective of the work of the internationally-acclaimed,
Derry-born artist Willie Doherty opens to the public at the Irish Museum of
Modern Art on Thursday 31 October 2002. Willie Doherty: False Memory is the
first substantial showing of Doherty's work in Ireland and one of the most
comprehensive exhibitions of his work anywhere to date.
The exhibition, which comprises more than 40 photographic works and slide/tape
and video installations, explores themes of memory and place - concerns which
have preoccupied the artist throughout his career. Closely keyed to his native
city of Derry and the Northern Ireland 'Troubles', Doherty's work reveals
a complex and shifting range of relationships between places, events and the
images by which they come to be represented and recalled.
Much of the work is open ended, forcing the viewer to move beyond the surface
picture to explore the fallibility of human memory and our need to engage with
the stories and images that make up our experience. 30th January 1972 (1993),
for example, comprises two projections ' one showing news footage of a crowd
scene on Bloody Sunday, the other a view of Glenfada Park (scene of fatal Bloody
Sunday shootings) as it looked in August 1993. These projections are
accompanied by three audio tracks ' one recorded during the shooting on Bloody
Sunday, the other two being edited extracts from interviews with passersby on
Rossville Street (another location of the fatal shootings) in August 1993. The
central point is that the work is not intended to be a contribution to the body
of documentary evidence on Bloody Sunday, but rather an attempt to investigate
the impact of such a traumatic event on private and public memory and identity.
Willie Doherty: False Memory presents many such key works from all stages of the
artist's career. These include early black and white photographs, such as
Mesh (1986) and The Blue Skies of Ulster (1986), and large colour cibachrome
photographs, such as Unapproved Road I (1992) and Out of Sight (1997), which
exist on the borderline between the documentary and the staged. In these works
Doherty places us at the edge of the city, between the familiar and the unknown
' a highly mediated place, shaped from a combination of television news
coverage, cinematic fantasy, tourist information, popular stereotypes and
collective memory. The seminal slide installations Same Difference (1990) and
They're All the Same (1991) question how language can shape our perceptions of
images, in this instance media images of IRA suspects. Doherty's most recent
video installation, Re-Run (2002), commissioned by the British Council for this
year's 25th São Paolo Bienal, is here shown for the first time in Ireland.
Commenting on the exhibition, Brenda McParland, Head of Exhibitions at IMMA,
said: 'Much of Doherty's artistic output is closely linked to the physical
and political landscape of the city of Derry and its environs. However, there
is a measure of detachment in his work that resonates beyond Ireland, giving it
universal appeal and international significance'.
Born in Derry in 1959, Willie Doherty is an artist of international standing.
In 1993 he (and Dorothy Cross) represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale. He
was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1994 and was the recipient of the IMMA
Glen Dimplex Artists Award the following year. Earlier this year he represented
the United Kingdom at the São Paulo Bienal. He has exhibited in a number of
solo exhibitions in Derry, Dublin, London, New York and Paris and has
contributed to group shows worldwide.
The exhibition will be open for previewing by the press on:
Tuesday 29 October from 2.00 ' 4.00pm
The preview will provide an opportunity to discuss the exhibition with the
artist and with two of the galleries which represent him - Alexander and Bonnin,
New York, and the Kerlin Gallery, Dublin.
________________
The following talks have been organised to coincide with the exhibition.
Gallery Talk Thursday 7 November at 11.00am Willie Doherty: False Memory
Critic, curator, lecturer and contributing writer to the accompanying catalogue,
CaoimhÃÂn Mac Giolla Léith,
discusses the exhibition.
Gallery Talk Sunday 17 November at 3.00pm Willie Doherty: False Memory
Brenda McParland, Senior Curator: Head of Exhibitions,
presents an introductory tour of the exhibition.
Lecture Tuesday 3 December at 8.00pm The Winter Lecture
The 2002 Winter Lecture is presented by Willie Doherty.
A major full-colour monograph, published by IMMA and Merrell publishers, London,
with essays by the chief curator of the Castello di Rivoli, Carolyn
Christov-Bakargiev, and writer and critic, CaoimhÃÂn Mac Giolla Léith,
accompanies the exhibition (price '¬35.00).
The exhibition is curated by Brenda McParland, Senior Curator: Head of
Exhibitions, IMMA. The exhibition is supported by the British Council.
The exhibition continues until 2 March 2003.
Admission is free.
Opening hours: Tue - Sat 10.00am -
5.30pm
Sun, Bank Holidays
27, 28, 31 Dec and 1 Jan 12 noon ' 5.30pm
Mondays and 24 - 26, 30 Dec Closed
For further information and colour and black and white images please contact
Monica Cullinane Tel : +353 1 612 9900, Fax : +353 1 612 9999
Irish Museum of Modern Art
Royal Hospital
Military Road
Kilmainham
Dublin 8
Ireland
Phone +353 1 612 9900
Fax +353 1 612 9999