NATIONAL SCULPTURE FACTORYDISPATCHES

DESIGN: annabarden@gmail.com

Cover image: Anna Barden

info@nationalsculpturefactory.com www.nationalsculpturefactory.com + 353 (0)21 431 43 53

2013 has been a challenging year for most individuals and organizations in Ireland. Challenging, as we individ-ually and collectively try to find anchorage and imagine new ways of doing things in a time of great social and economic uncertainty. Yet despite this, we see moments of great community spirit, community action and positive acts of giving. Individuals and organizations are collabo-rating and new ways of working are emerging. The arts sector appears to be vibrant and active and we repeatedly hear how important the arts are to Ireland’s image, that the arts are a major factor in attracting visi-tors to Ireland, as well as being significant for Ireland’s international reputation. Yet government budgets for the arts have been cut so severely that the arts sector is at a tipping point. It is important to note that the sec-tor appears to be surviving because of the people who work in it. Artists and arts managers are resourceful and resilient but that resilience needs public support, funding and nurturing to prevent years of careful policy development and investment unravelling completely.Arts and cultural organisations have an important role to play in providing spaces for people to make connec-tions, to feel connected and to anchor themselves. The National Sculpture Factory has had an active year and again we have witnessed the extraordinary re-sourcefulness of the individual artists we work with. You will get a sense of our work within this edition of Dispatches.The artists we work with make thoughtful, considered, creative and challenging work. Like small business units, on a daily basis they strive to make work and to make it work.Founded by four artists in 1989, we are entering our twenty fith year and remain committed to the individual artist and to enabling the public to have meaningful points of engagement and interaction with the process-es of art-making through public projects, open days, talks and seminars as well as workshops. We will remain committed to producing new art works and to support-

ing artists to bring these works into the public domain. We have aspirations for expansion, to make it possible for us to create more opportunities for artists to present their work.We remain thankful to the Arts Council and Cork City Council for their support, without this public support none of our work would be possible. We are also grateful to the many arts organisations and educational institu-tions in Cork, Ireland and beyond that we lean on for support. Similarly, we are appreciative of the Depart-ment of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and the De-partment of Social Protection for their support of our various programmes.Most of all we thank the large number of artists who remain loyal and continue to use us and to challenge us; it is these artists who ensure we stay relevant.Thanks to the ever creative and very committed staff, Donal, Dobz, Elma, Pat, Grainne, John, Sarah, Fiona, Frankie and Shay.And last but not least, we are governed by a committed and hard-working board of Directors made up of artists, architects, business people, politicians and educators. They help us get perspective and help advocate on our behalf.We give sincere thanks to one of our founder members, Danny McCarthy, and Conor Doyle our chairman who both stepped down from our Board this autumn after both serving the organization for many years. We wel-come Oisín Creagh, architect, into the role of chairman.Board: Oisín Creagh (Chair), Cllr Catherine Clancy, Trish Brennan, Sean Taylor, Aideen Barry, Cllr Kieran McCarthy and Anne O’Leary

Mary Mc Carthy, Director

Organized by the National Sculpture Factory, the Dreams of Freedom?

conference took place at the Crawford Gallery in March. It was an element

of the United States of Europe exhibition which had previously been staged

in a number of European cities including Helsinki, Paris and Dresden. The

United States of Europe project was a travelling exhibition which explored

issues around European identity and the current European organization.

The conference was a forum for debate around issues provoked by the

exhibition; the subtitle of the conference being Conversations on Aesthetics,

Ethics & European Democracies. The speakers included artists, academics,

journalists and a political scientist. A theme running through a number of the

contributions was the dilemma of negotiating a position from which to work

as an artist; different models of working outside the main cultural centres

and frameworks were proposed. There was an acceptance that there is an

inherent tension within the art field where the artists’ intentions around their

work can often come into conflict with the way this work must be described

in order to gain funding. Artists’ practice can also be instrumentalized

in ways over which they have no control. There was recognition of the

uncomfortable position of having to depend financially on the very institutions

being critiqued. The session, Artists’ use value in the age of social and

political unrest presented a convergence among the panel of artists in how

they viewed art as being an area where alternative narratives could be

explored and articulated. Reinigungsgesellschaft, an art duo from Germany,

described how they felt art could not help to solve structural problems but

it could highlight them. Anna Konik (Poland) explained how she saw the

gallery as a space where she could ‘shout out’, a space which had both an

aesthetic and political component. Dr. Agnes Czajka, a sociologist, gave an

interesting talk entitled Notes on the Arab Spring: Enacting Citizenship and

Staging Democracy, where she used Derrida’s concept of the autoimmunity

of democracy to explain how Europe misunderstands how it is constituted. It

misidentifies elements as being foreign to it, attempts to expel them and in

so doing ends up weakening and undermining its own democracy. Augustine

Zenakos, a Greek journalist and former co-director of the Athens Biennial, in

his talk Uncommon Grounds: Art in a Borderline Democracy, gave

DREA

MS O

F FREEDO

M?

concrete examples of this weakening of European Democracy. He showed a

video of interviews with emigrants who had been attacked by far right groups

and young men who had been beaten by the police. He held the economic

policies dictated by the Troika directly responsible for the disintegration

of civic society and the rise of fascism in Greece. He was unconvinced

that the art field offered any potential for resistance, viewing it as a willing

cheerleader of neo-liberal expansion during the last two decades, with the

Biennial circuit being particularly complicit. His talk acted as a negative centre

of gravity for the conference, putting stress on the talks which followed. As

a forum for public debate, the conference worked as a form of self-reflexive

institutional critique, which posited prescient questions about the political

territory in which art making happens today.

Catherine Harty

image: architect’s plan and installation view USE by Francis Shier

The National Sculpture Factory is committed

to supporting artists in the creation

and delivery of ambitious new projects

in the public domain. As such, the NSF

as an organization is comfortable and

experienced across various roles – both as

commissioner and producer of challenging,

thought-provoking, large-scale projects

and events. Since our inception, we have

built a reputation as a significant national

commissioning and producing organization,

working with artists across the visual

arts and performance as well as forging

innovative collaborations with various

cultural and community organizations.

The quality and critical success of the

resulting works means that many NSF

commissioned projects have gone on to

have a life outside of their initial iteration

–Mark Garry’s Drift (2012), for example,

commissioned in collaboration with the Cork

Midsummer Festival, and Martin Healy’s

Last Man (2011) commissioned by the

NSF as part of Terminal Convention, both

travelled to the Galeria Civica di Modena

in Italy this year as part of Island, an

exhibition of contemporary Irish art curated

by Fiona Kearney of the Glucksman Gallery.

Similarly, the NSF is always eager to

respond to artists’ proposals. Partnering

with artists, often at a formative point in

their careers is an important part of our

remit, to support and enable them in the

production of ambitious projects in a cost

effective way. This year Ruth Lyons was

invited by the NSF to make a large-scale

project for Cork’s Midsummer Festival.

Swimming with the E.S.B. is set to be

an elaborate architectural construction

inspired by the history of the flooding of

the Lee Valley and its relationship to the

E.S.B.’s beginnings. Lyons plans for the

piece to take the form of a large-scale

temporary installation and the artist,

along with the NSF, aims for the work to be

realised by mid-2014.

COM

MIS

SIO

NIN

G

h: approx. 10m

artworks: Ruth Lyons

image: Maud Cotter SPA

CE IN

TH

E N

SF:

an a

rtis

t’s p

ersp

ecti

ve

image: The Cut, Cork–Dublin road, Joe Neeson 2012

The significance of having a body of air

measuring some 12m (minus my height),

high x 13m wide x 50m long overhead when

working cannot be underestimated. This is a

formative condition in which to engage with

space. Ideas naturally flex into this expanse

of air, and extend themselves willingly.

What I am about at the moment is

forming that inner illusive centre

that hangs like a ghost within what

can be conjured as a piece. This

holding of a portion of the void at

bay fulfills a much more intangible

purpose – it opens a new space for

the presence of the work. Attempt-

ing to tame the void as entity is best

done in a large breathing volume

like the NSF.

As I worked there over the last year

I had a feeling of being suspended

by the process – of working in a

drawing. Landing the work with a

joint exhibition with Karl Burke titled

the Air They Capture is Different at

the MAC, Belfast, and a solo exhibi-

tion titled a solution is in the room at

CIT Wandesford Quay Gallery, Cork,

completed the process.

Maud Cotter

image: An tSlí Feasa,limestone and bronze,

Christian Brothers College, Cork

Mick Wilkins 2013

image: The Cut, Cork–Dublin road, Joe Neeson 2012

image: Alex Pentek, design for Unfurl, perforated bronze, to be sited in Ashton School, Cork.

PUBLIC ART

Taking place each Wednesday in August, the Frequencies

series of lunchtime talks gives the NSF an opportunity

to open its doors to the public in order to foster an

exchange of ideas between our local community and some

of Ireland’s leading artists, architects and researchers.

This year’s theme was Eternal Returns: Renewal, Revival

and Re-enactment and responding to it were Dominic

Stevens (architect), Alice Maher (artist), Seamus Nolan

(artist) and Dr. Eve Olney (media practitioner and

experimental ethnographer).

Nietzsche’s theory of the Eternal Return suggests that

we should imagine our lives not ending at our deaths but

being repeated over and over again for all eternity, each

moment recurring in exactly the same way, without end.

However, the four practitioners that we invited to respond

to the theme are less involved in the dry recycling of

forms and strategies in art and culture, than they are

engaged in a far more generative and ultimately optimistic

dialogue with historical moments or modes of making. The

eclecticism of the line-up is integral to the beauty of the

Frequencies series; each speaker, through their approach

and through their diverse practices, illuminates a different

facet of the topic while each different session builds on

the ideas raised in the last.

Sarah Kelleher

FREQ

UEN

CIES

I was offered the position of architect in resi-

dence at the National Sculpture Factory in No-

vember 2012. This appointment was for one

year and had a dual aim – to create links and to

find a new space for architecture [the architect]

and its position in the broader cultural land-

scape, and to develop my practice in a creative

way in the environment of the NSF. I have had the

opportunity as an architect to explore, research

and develop what the practice of architecture

can be if it sits between architecture and the

arts. Through my practice I wish to explore and

question the position, role and process of the

contemporary architect.

With support from the NSF I was involved in

curating and positioning of architecture in the

city, highlighting the cultural contribution and

relevance of architecture as a creative prac-

tice. I have been involved in various steering

groups, and I collaborated and worked with the

NSF on the delivery and design of the space for

the Dreams of Freedom symposium, as part of

United States of Europe exhibition at the Craw-

ford Art Gallery.

Using the facilities of the NSF I had the opportu-

nity to explore and develop a knowledge of ma-

terials, and have been exposed to techniques in

traditional making and manual fabrication, such

as metal fabrication, casting, form-making and

working with wood. I have begun to embark on a

method of working not typical of the traditional

architectural practice in Ireland.

With the position of architect in residence I have

been able to direct my own course as a practic-

ing architect – using competitions as a method

of testing and probing ideas, finally culminating

in a percent for art commission due to be com-

pleted in 2014.

I would like to thank all at the NSF for the won-

derful experience and opportunities they have

afforded me. The year I have had will no doubt

have an impact on my practice for a long time

to come.

Francis Shier

ARCH

ITECT in RESIDEN

CEimage: Francis Shier

This year’s Culture Night saw Ireland’s representation at the 13th International Archi-

tecture Exhibition – la Biennale de Venezia, exhibited in the National Sculpture Factory.

The piece, entitled Shifting Ground by heneghen peng architects was commissioned by

Elizabeth Francis and curated by John McLaugh-

lin. The National Sculpture Factory was

delighted to host this large project

and to provide Cork based audi-

ences with the opportunity to

physically interact with this

work.

As Ireland is one of the

most globalized countries in

the world, this exhibit looks

at architecture’s relation to

networked flows of products, data,

and knowledge. It asks how could a global

architecture be grounded culturally, philosophically and spatially? How can it situate

itself outside of shared national reference points?

The work is composed of a series of wall drawings and a bench for resting. The 12

metre long bench is constructed of 6 interlinked sections, 6 rotation-only fulcrums and

5 translation pivots. The bench, when at a resting balanced equilibrium is horizontal but

members of the public are invited to sit on the bench setting it in motion.

THE VITRINES PROJECT

image: ChunMan Tang courtesy of Arup

CULTURE NIGHTSHIFTING GROUND

Three vitrines were set up in the Mezzanine (used

as an exhibition space during Culture Night) and

artists that were currently working on the factory

floor were given an open invitation to place objects/

things/pieces of work into this display. Accustomed

to mainly working with large-scale artworks, the

artists were only restricted by the dimensions of the

vitrines themselves and were free to move both their

own and others’ objects around in the three days

leading up to the doors opening to the public. There

was a deliberate attempt at a lack of curatorship as

the end result could not be anticipated prior to the

deadline of completion - one o’clock on the Friday

of Culture Night. The final arrangements within the

vitrines overlooked the segregated work spaces the

artists occupied on the factory floor. It was not clear

which artist authored which object/arrangement

so the observer was reliant on reading the work

through the juxtaposition of the objects in relation to

each other as well as to their extended relationship

with the sculptural works-in-progress visible through

the Mezzanine windows. Three posters mirrored

the displays in the vitrines offering one method of

interpreting the work through quotes collected from

the artists during their participation in the project.

Eve Olney

image: Eve Olney

THE VITRINES PROJECT

CULTU

RE NIG

HT

I spent six and a half weeks in Cork working at the National Sculpture Factory and enjoying the

friendly, down to earth ambience of the city. I felt the people were a highlight of my experience;

I quickly felt at home, enjoying the conversation and sense of humour. The music was an add-

ed bonus, for a music

obsessive like myself,

with many nights spent

at The Cornerhouse,

Sin E and many more

venues.

When I carry out an

overseas residency

I prefer to produce

a work and leave it

behind. To engage with

a new place is always

exciting and interest-

ing – in the first

few days I try to “read” the place, get a feel for it. Walking to the National Sculpture Factory

during the week I saw a site along the river which I liked, opposite Dunnes department store.

There were a number of trees in a row in a recently developed area. I felt this space could be

enlivened with some sculptural pieces. I believe site is important to placing sculpture, but that

a literal approach should not be taken. My solution for the site was three sets of tree guards,

two with forms influenced by the great Celtic tradition and one with forms that come out of the

Australian landscape. The figurative forms have a protective feel to them, and having a con-

nection with both Ireland and Australia they also mark my visit to Cork. The title for this work is

Monument To The Keepers Of Place. While I do not classify myself as an environmental artist,

I am at this point in time extremely alarmed at the state of our world-wide environment. The

title pays tribute to those cultures and individuals who understand that we have no choice but

to live with place in a sustainable way. The piece also challenges the notion of the traditional

monument.

I have missed the interaction with the working sculptors and staff at the National Sculpture

Factory since my return – hopefully some links can be made between the N.S.F. and the

Palmer Sculpture Biennial held on my property in South Australia and the relationship can

continue and develop.

Greg Johns

GRE

G J

OH

NS:

persp

ectiv

e of

a v

isitin

g Au

stra

lian

artis

t

images: Greg Johns, Tree Guards 2013

Each year the National Sculpture Factory gives out a major Graduate Award

Bursary to one outstanding artist from the CIT Crawford College of Art &

Design Degree show. The artist chosen in 2012 was Rory Mullen. With Rory

Mullen’s: Hours of Idleness, held in an unoccupied retail unit of the Winthrop

Arcade, Rory presented a new body of work completed during his six-month

graduate residency at the National Sculpture Factory. Comprised of drawings,

video and small-scale sculpture, this exhibition evidenced a move away from

the immersive cardboard installations stemming from his degree show,

which garnered him critical acclaim. Conceptually however, he continued to

investigate ideas of the everyday and the useless, filtered through the lens

of his own particularly anarchic humour and a defiantly ‘anti-slick’ aesthetic.

Delicately intricate line drawings of isolated objects, adrift on the page, are

described by the artist as ‘field notes from something that never happened’,

while deliberately precarious architectural models made of soap and glue sit

alongside complex drawings of churches, a motif chosen by Rory because the

purpose they were built for ‘is now largely irrelevant.’ Rory Mullen’s: Hours of

Idleness took place in May.

RORY MULLENimages: Rory Mullen

To mark the anniversary of the infamous 1913 Dublin Lockout, the

NSF, as part of the Cork Film Festival, presented STRIKE! Curated

by artist Anthony Haughey, STRIKE! explored a wide range of film

responses to industrial unrest and workers’ resistance move-

ments internationally. Main features on the big screen were Sergei

Eisenstein’s, The Strike (1925) and Allan Sekula’s The Forgotten

Space (2010). In addition, the Mezzanine played host to Demo-

cratic Cinema – Cinéma Liberté, a mini-cinema programme where

the audience selected the screened programme from our STRIKE!

library also curated by Anthony Haughey.

ANTHONY HAUGHEYSTRIKE! image: Jedzrej Niezgoda

The films selected for this screening programme explored national and international

industrial disputes and workers’ attempts to challenge the dehumanising effects of

globalisation and increasingly deregulated work practices. Most of the films were

documentary in style, others are participatory films made by the workers themselves,

including, The Globalisation Tapes (2012) and there were two films directed by art-

ists. There are also a number of dramas based on real events, with direct input and

performances from the workers.

The films span a period of more than a hundred years from 1895 to 2012. There

were two films from Ireland, including 161 Days (2012), a film documenting the

industrial dispute at the Vita Cortex factory in Cork where the workers staged an epic

sit-in. Their resistance captured the attention and support of numerous international

scholars, activists and celebrities, including Noam Chomsky who championed their

cause.

In 1895 film flickered into life at the gates of the Lumière Brothers Factory. The

film depicting the workers leaving the factory was probably produced more out of

convenience rather than a celebration of the workers themselves. But nonethe-

less, this group of workers were immortalized in the first ever public screening of

a film in Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris On March 19, 1895. A darker reading

put forward by Harun Farocki suggests that this short film clip could be considered

a precursor to panoptic surveillance. His observation finds resonance with Jeremy

Bentham’s architectural surveillance structure the Panopticon, conceived of as a way

of controlling prisoners and large workforces.

The Lumière Brothers’ film is explored further in Harun Farocki’s evocative installa-

tion, Workers Leaving the Factory (1995). A single channel version of Faroki’s film

was included in this film-screening programme as an apt starting point for excavating

a history of films depicting labour disputes and workers’ struggles.

This film programme was dedicated to the life of artist and writer, Allan Sekula who

passed away on August 10, 2013. His work has influenced a generation of artists.

Anthony Haughey

Eve Olney is an academic and media practitioner whose practice involves exploring cultural themes

through the employment of sound, photography and video as both investigative tools of inquiry and

modes of representation. Her current field of interest lies in exploring specific cultural sites as a means

of reconceptualizing the idea of the archive and what might constitute archival knowledge within a media-

practice-led (experimental) ethnographic approach. She is currently conducting an ethnographic study

of The National Sculpture Factory as a ‘living archive’.

The project is based upon a methodological approach formulated during my doctoral project (CTMP,

DIT 2012) which involved an ethnographic study of a private music collection and its collector where

conceptual classificatory systems were identified through the collector’s ‘performance’ within the archival

space of his collection as a method of ‘reading’ the space. A short ‘archival and ethnographic’ film was

produced as part of this project.

This methodology is now being developed within a broader and public context as I conduct an

ethnographic study of the National Sculpture Factory as a ‘living’ archive. The project thinks beyond

conventional archival practices and instead responds to the type of ‘creative’ experience that artistic/

cultural sites such as the Factory are offering. This work expands upon Stuart Hall’s notion of a ‘living

archive’ in tandem with Andrew Moutu’s theory of ‘collection as a way of being’ in relation to how the

NSF can be conceptualised as an archival site; the intention being to produce a more inclusive archival

reading which acknowledges the everyday sensory experience of the organization – the type of practices

and social relations that are lost within conventional classificatory systems usually found in archives.

My working method is to identify/classify various groups as already defined within the NSF (artists,

administrative members, tools, work spaces etc) and consider how these ‘collections’ work both

internally as well as how they inter-relate with different groups and other exterior agencies. Throughout

the ethnographic component of the research I will be determining disruptions/transgressions to these

identified systems of taxonomy as they are being performed on an everyday basis whilst documenting

these exchanges through auditory and visual media. Cultural meaning is therefore revealed through an

‘axis of social relations’ (Moutu 2012) and offers a closer representation of the everyday experience

of the NSF. The existing archival material held within the library of the NSF is also incorporated into this

reading of the site.

The work will result in an experimental ethnographic film – archival in nature – that contains within it a

sustainable ongoing archival program that continues the idea of the NSF as a living archive. The project

addresses how public arts/cultural organizations might rethink their ongoing archival practices in a

digital age in relation to how they classify and present that material to the public.

Eve Olney

images: Eve Olney

LIVING ARCHIVE

image: The Artificial Infinite, HD Video still, 2013 Amanda Rice

image: Peter McGlinchey

images: 99 Music Videos, 2012-ongoing, digital video stills James McCann 2013

STU

DIO

WO

RKS

image: Landscape 1832º Fahrenheit, Nedyalka Panova, porcelain, kiln props 2013

image: Vanity Fair 2013 Angela Fulcher. Mixed media installation, 12.3m x 1.7m. Installation view, Vanity Fair, Triskel Christchurch, Cork, 2013

The National Sculpture Factory provides a dynamic flexible environment for artists to work on projects or to acquire new skills.

Situated in an old tramway depot adjacent to the city centre and all materials suppliers the NSF is ideally positioned for ease of access.

The NSF provides facilities for working on installation, ceramics, glass, stone, metalwork and woodwork. Studio spaces are flexible and

can accommodate work of diverse scales. Studio rental includes: technical assistance; use of all Factory floor equipment; canteen

facilities; meeting room with wireless internet access, scanning, printing and photocopying

facilities; use of reference library and NSF archive; loan service of audio-visual equipment; full administrative support if

required.

For all details on equipment, facilities, membership and studio rates check

www.nationalsculpturefactory.com

image: Anna Barden

FACILITY