Pallas Projects Summer Programme presents
HELL’S MICROWAVE
Darren Barrett, John Byrne, Andrew Carson, Aoife Cassidy,Garrett Cormican, Orla Gilheany, Ian Slattery
Opening reception: 6 – 8pm Friday June 17th 2011
Exhibition continues: June 18th - 25th 2011
The first installment of the Pallas Projects Summer Programme of artist-initiated exhibitions is Hell's Microwave. A group show of artists who were based at the Pallas Studios on Grangegorman Road, the title is a humorous reference to the malicious arson attack in March in which the studios and offices were destroyed, the fire having originated from the kitchen microwave being set alight and its subsequent explosion. The exhibition mainly comprises of individual pieces completed by the artists since the incident, with a common starting point of making a piece with the value of representing individual work damaged in the fire. Tragic as the incident seemed at the time, it is generally agreed that on an imaginary Richter scale of human suffering, when viewed on a global social and political scale this catastrophe would maybe register a 0.5 reading, possibly even 0.25 And so, rather than using the incident as an excuse to luxuriate in feeling sorry for oneself, it was broadly agreed that a positive has emerged from the negative, fire has been the cleanser and like a phoenix from the ashes new ideas and work has arisen.
Darren Barrett’s work operates within a metaphysical crevice situated somewhere between theory and practice. Barrett characterises his own artistic and intellectual position as that of a diverging artist and is currently living through what he describes ‘as the intermittently glorious years of onanistic solitude’. John Byrne went to Art College in his native Belfast before attending the Slade School in London in the mid eighties. His early work was Performance based, culminating in his Border Interpretative Centre 2000. He has gone on to make Public Artworks including Dublin's Last Supper 2004 and Misneach 2010. Andrew Carson’s work for this exhibition is part of an ongoing series inspired by the Egyptian Book of the Dead, "I have hidden myself amongst you, oh imperishable stars" exploring online realities and virtual immortality. Recent shows have included Jockeyism (2011), Sonic Vigil, and Shortlisted (2010). Aoife Cassidy's work is autobiographical, a visual diary of personal thought processes and experiences. Combining these aspects, she implements the use of various media and techniques, traditional and non-traditional, to create kitsch and often gaudy imagery. Garrett Cormican is a painter. He makes no claim for his work, offers no explanation and invites you to look directly at it instead. Orla Gilheany has exhibited at Monstertruck Gallery, DEAF Festival, with Supafast Collective and most recently at the Flatlake Literary Festival, Co. Monaghan where she created fantasy and Irish bungalow scenes on bales of silage using graffiti techniques. She graduated from IADT with a BA Hons in Visual Arts Practice in 2008. Ian Slattery examines concepts of stereotypes and association within society. With the representation of familiar images he allows for a reinterpretation of the imagery and simultaneously of one’s preconceptions. He graduated from DIT 2008 with a BA Fine Art.
