Thu April 8 – Sat April 10, 6-10pm daily
Based in Dublin, Ireland since 2007 and supported by Thisisnotashop Gallery, The Writing Workshop has become an closed hub for people to explore &; develop writing. The Workshop is catalysed by a shared desire to explore the expansive &; pervasive possibilities of text &; words, particularly when extended through transdisciplinary arts practices.
Core member artists of The Writing Workshop (Jessica Foley, Susan Thomson, Áine Ivers and Jessamyn Fiore) are journeying from Ireland to present their work and host a series of writing workshops at UnionDocs in Williamsberg, Brooklyn and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, Queens. This series will include sculptural/film installation, screenings, live readings and participatory workshops that will explore the work and also launch a New York branch of The Writing Workshop.
All Workshops are closed to the public- please come along if you are at all interested in text (closed to artists, writers, filmmakers… anyone who wishes to explore and play with words &; ideas)
Daily 6pm-8pm: Installation
– Jessica Foley’s film/audio installation entiled for one, for all.
Artist Statement: This work has developed in my head mostly, and only of late has become ‘visible’. In November 2008 I visited America for the first time with the resolve to film in Super 8 a personal experience of accompanying my friend to make her vote in what was predicted by many to be ‘an historic’ presidential election for America &; the World. The films have only come to light (as in literally projected) in the past number of weeks, and during this time I have attempted to articulate for myself, &; for whomever might come across this work, a kind of minor personal inquiry of Democracy, of Vision &; of Unity. for one, for all is incomplete, though I hope that it will evolve through it’s exhibiting, through the eyes &; voices &; ears of those who encounter it…
– Áine Ivers sculptural installation entitled Pattern for moving through an element.
Animals who roam our cities freely in the future…
This installation is an attempt to manifest in New York a pack of wolves, based on a pattern I have been developing over the past few months. A pattern for a wolf that moves over ground, that I can bring anywhere, and build where desired.
Thu Apr 8 at 8pm: Workshop
Jessica Foley will lead a Writing Workshop based on ideas extended from her work for one, for all, exploring the realtionship between writing and democracy.
Fri Apr 9 at 8pm: Screening
Fire Practice Theatre by Susan Thomson. Residing somewhere between fiction and documentary, this two screen film shows firefighters practicing their skills on a tall purpose built house in a fire station. This is depicted as if it were a piece of theatre, a rehearsal or ritual in a theatre where only one play is performed. There are different levels of fiction. A script is performed by actors playing firefighters; lines are swapped, dramatically forgotten and a scene arrives early. The house is unlived-in, sinister, the piece reminiscent of a psyche where trauma and desire are endlessly replayed.
Fire Practice Theatre runs for approx 15 minutes and will be followed by audience discussion with the artist.
Sat Apr 10 at 8pm: Reading
Live readings of members work including a theatrical reading of A Play About Lee Lozano by Jessamyn Fiore followed by audience discussion. A Play About Lee Lozano uses found text (articles/interviews/statement) to explore the mystery of 1960’s New York painter/conceptual performance artist Lee Lozano whose work led her to boycott the art world and women in general. The extremity of her boycott created a void that others have attempted to fill in order to understand her life and work.
The Writing Workshop is generously supported by Culture Ireland.
For more information please visit www.thisisnotashop.com
If you have any specific questions about workshops or events please email [email protected]
at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center Sat April 3 &; Sat April 10, 2-4pm
Artist Bios and Statements
Jessica Foley
Statement
Jessica Foley’s work involves writing, image making, both visual &; sonic, and collaborative activities. Her research interests draw upon pedagogical methodologies, philosophy, history and narratives of science &; art.
Through writing Foley responds to actual and imagined environments &; situations, weaving narratives &; thoughts, often through a kind of poetry, or through site specific installations or workshops, in an effort to explore time &; experience, systems &; technologies. Her writing is an attempt to build meaningful connections, or to identify significant dissonnances between the actual and the imaginary, truths, fictions &; metafictions between people &; their environment.
Foley’s writings &; installations variously draw connections between her subjective experiences, contemporary art practices, scientific developments &; histories, concepts of discourse and pedagogical methodologies.
Jessica Foley holds a Masters (Art in the Contemporary World) from NCAD and is currently lecturing in Visual Art Education at MIC, Limerick, Ireland. She has written for such publications as CIRCA and Variant, and works closely with artists on various writing projects.
For more information visit www.jessicadfoley.com or you can contact Jessica at [email protected]
Susan Thomson
Biography
Susan Thomson is an artist and writer who has performed and exhibited her work at venues in Europe and beyond including the UK National Review of Live Art, the International Video Art festivals of Alcoi and Valencia, Spain and X Initiative, New York. She has written for many books and publications including Circa, The Times and Women’s News. She holds an M.A. in Visual Arts Practices at DLIADT, Dublin, a degree in Modern Languages from Trinity Hall, Cambridge University and a Masters in European Literature from Magdalen College, Oxford University. She has received a number of Visual Arts bursaries, including an Arts Council New Work Award (2008), a South Dublin County Council Award (2003) and Culture Ireland Award (2009).
Artist statement
My practice is fundamentally grounded in writing, but unfolds into the visual and conceptual, video and film work. I am particularly interested in the area where visual art and literature meet, whether that be in text based art, conceptual literature or in film.
This could mean that the word count has a symbolic importance or that words literally and digitally turn into other words (thus extending through technology the ‘polyglot’ literature of Joyce, Cixous etc) or creating stories which predict their own endings. I am influenced by ‘Oulipo’, Workshop for Potential Literature, as well as by contemporary video art and film.
The psychoanalytic and autobiographical play a large role in my work, which explores themes of trauma and desire, the theatrical (and tragedy in particular), choreography and translation.
Áine Ivers
Áine Ivers is a visual artist. Her art practice has at its core an ongoing investigation into panic. This investigation materializes in many ways; weaves through media such as drawing, writing, sculpture, installation, craft, teaching, facilitation and participation; incorporates tangential thoughts and ideas, manifests through sustained solo studio practice and through collaborations across disciplines. She is currently looking at ecological narratives and thinking a lot about the presence of animals in the human psyche.
She has worked extensively in Ireland and Finland, Russia and Estonia. She is currently based in Dublin, Ireland.
Jessamyn Fiore – About the Artist
Jessamyn Fiore was raised in the New York City art world and attended Sarah Lawrence College where she focused on playwriting and international peace and conflict studies. After graduating in 2002 she moved to Ireland and founded The Road Show Theatre for which she wrote two productions, The Mysterious World of Birds (2003) and SANDWICH (2005). Her plays have been produced in Galway, Dublin, London, Edinburgh, Prague, and New York City.
In March 2007 she became co-director of Thisisnotashop Gallery. She founded the Writing Workshop at Thisisnotashop with Jessica Foley in July 2007. Working with Aideen Darcy to curate the overall gallery program, she has also curated three major exhibitions for the gallery- Gordon Matta-Clark FOOD (DEC 2007), Fluxus with Larry Miller (MAY 2009) and Thisisnotashop @ No Soul For Sale, X Initiative in New York City (JUN 2009). Jessamyn became the sole Director of Thisisnotashop in June, 2009. She completed an MA in Art in the Contemporary World at the National College of Art &; Design, Dublin, Ireland, in 2009.
For more information email [email protected]
