An exhibition of works from the Irish Museum of Modern Art Collection. Storytellers from the IMMA Collection combines artworks by Irish and international artists in a wide variety of media and includes an etching by Pablo Picasso, sculpture by Janet Mullarney and screenprints by Robert Ballagh.
Storytellers from the IMMA Collection at South Tipperary Arts Centre
An exhibition of works from the Irish Museum of Modern Art Collection opens to
the public at South Tipperary Arts Centre, Clonmel, Co Tipperary, on Friday 17
January 2003 as part of a collaborative exhibition between the Arts Centre and
IMMA's National Programme. Storytellers from the IMMA Collection combines
artworks by Irish and international artists in a wide variety of media and
includes an etching by Pablo Picasso, sculpture by Janet Mullarney and
screenprints by Robert Ballagh.
The Portugese-born artist Paula Rego draws on the tradition of children's
storybook illustration in the etching Little Miss Muffet. This work was made in
response to a request from Rego's grandchild, who did not seem at all distressed
by the enlarged spider and adult face of Miss Muffet. The etching also has
Freudian connections, as Freud believed that the mother was often perceived by a
child as a spider, capturing it in her limbs and encroaching on its life.
Tipperary-born artist Alice Maher, who represented Ireland at the São Paulo
Biennale in 1994, works within the realms of nature and culture, subversion and
transformation, mythology and memory. Using materials such as bees, berries and
hair, she builds up a strong relationship with their histories and cultural
associations in the creation of surreal works that appear like enchanted objects
from a medieval folk tale.
Scraping the Surface by John Kindness was part of a series made in New York
using 'treasures' found in the city. Kindness is interested in the debris of
human life and in this work he uses a New York taxi cab door, which he came
across lying abandoned in the street, to create an etching which is deliberately
reminiscent of classical Greek attic vases.
The National Programme is designed to create access opportunities to the visual
arts in a variety of situations and locations in Ireland. Using the Collection
of the Irish Museum of Modern Art and exhibitions generated by the Museum, the
National Programme facilitates the creation of exhibitions and other projects
for display in a range of locations around the country. The National Programme
establishes the Museum as inclusive, accessible and national, de-centralising
the Collection, and making it available to communities in their own localities,
on their own terms, in venues with which the audience is comfortable and
familiar.
A series of workshops and gallery talks will be held alongside the exhibition as
part of the Branching Out project. Branching Out is a programme designed by the
Irish Museum of Modern Art and National Irish Bank to be national, inclusive and
participative, bringing the visual arts to the community and providing
opportunities for the community to get involved.
For further information and colour and black and white images please contact
Monica Cullinane at Tel : +353 1 612 9900, Fax : +353 1 612 9999
South Tipperary Arts Centre, Nelson Street, Clonmel, Co Tipperary