Collaborative Praxis in Art and Architecture

Engaging Places: Collaborative Praxis in Art and Architecture

Engaging Places: Collaborative Praxis in Art and Architecture will present the work of six leading Irish practitioners in the area of collaborative art and architecture as part of the Collaborative Arts Partnership Programme (CAPP) Heart of Glass Staging Post in association with Tate Liverpool. The showcase and associated events seek to explore the potential of collaborative art and architectural initiatives to address questions of spatial justice and promote creative and collaborative responses to the built environment with multiple publics.

The practitioners are; artist Michelle Browne, curators Rosie Lynch and Eilis Lavelle from Callan Workhouse Union, artist / architect Blaithin Quinn, and architects Emmett Scanlon and Laurence Lord from Out.Post.Office at U.C.D. As part of presenting project examples each of these practitioners will engage in alternative discursive and workshop platforms in Tate Exchange as well as engaging in neighbourhoods and community centres aligned with and in response to Heart of Glass’s programme in both St. Helen’s and Liverpool.

As a twin city of Dublin with a significant and culturally important Irish diaspora, Create seeks to reinforce and expand the links already created with cultural organisations in Liverpool and environs through the 2013 Cultural Corridor initiative, which was an initiative with Dublin City Council’s The LAB Gallery and Bluecoat in Liverpool.

Create, Heart of Glass and Tate Liverpool are partners in the nine-partner Creative Europe funded Collaborative Arts Partnership Programme and the April event will see artists and arts organisations attending from across the UK and Europe.

Engaging Places: Collaborative Praxis in Art and Architecture is supported by Culture Ireland’s GB18: Promoting Irish Arts in Britain programme. Culture Ireland are supporting a special focus on Irish artistic activity in Britain in 2018 and will present a vibrant, contemporary and high quality programme including a range of events across artistic disciplines in high-profile venues, institutions and festivals in Britain, building on Ireland’s special history and relationship with its nearest neighbour.

Schedule for Engaging Places: Collaborative Praxis in Art and Architecture: Tate Exchange

Monday 16th April 11.00 – 16.50

Rosie Lynch and Eilís Lavelle from Callan Workhouse Union will be in working together and sharing their ongoing research.

Nimble Spaces is a project developed by Camphill Callan, based in the town of Callan in South-East Ireland. A collaboration between artists, architects and activists as well as a creative team of future residents, Nimble Spaces is led by Callan Workhouse union. In 2015, following a three-year research project (funded by the Arts Council Ireland) Camphill Callan secured funding from the Irish government’s Department of the Environment’s Capital Assistance Scheme to develop sixteen homes in Inclusive Neighbourhoods at three locations in the town of Callan. A Series of five short films by Éamon Little documents the ongoing Nimble Spaces design process in the town of Callan. It Includes snapshots into LiD Architects’ spatial game workshop; a playful exploration of movement, space and security led by choreographer Ríonach Ní Néill and a design conversation between artist Francis Casey and architect Je Ahn from Studio Weave.

Inclusive Neighbourhood (11’59”)
Enabling Space Game (7’59”)
Francis’ New Room (7’45”)
Playfulness and Security (3’03”)
Nimble Spaces (7’48”)

Tuesday 17th April 10.00 – 16.00

Rosie Lynch from Callan Workhouse Union will be in TATE Exchange sharing their ongoing work Homemakers, as well as articulating the connection between the research of CWU and Making a Meal of It, which will be taking place concurrently in St Helen’s with Heart of Glass, the fifth Staging Post of the Collaborative Arts partnership Programme (CAPP).

Home Makers (2018) was a creative process developed as part of Nimble Spaces facilitated through pattern-making workshops led by artist Liz Nilsson, a series of portraits by Brian Cregan and a podcast recording by Michael Lanigan.

What makes a building a home? Five ‘home makers’ describe the meaning of home – their needs and desires. Andrew is an artist, he is nearing retirement and believes that his home should be a place of hospitality. Brianna the basketballer has a strong sense of design – buildings should be beautiful. MJ looks forward to moving to a bigger house, with room for his office, CDs and laundry. Nicky needs space to move around and a comfortable warm floor. Johnny enjoys spending time in his new home relaxing and looking at his architecture books. Home Makers is a series of portraits and conversations with five people who are on a journey over the next couple of years to move into their very own home, surrounded by supportive neighbours.

Wednesday 18th April 10.00 – 16.00

10.00 – 13.40

Michelle Browne, Risk, 2013

40 minutes, HD video, Colour, Stereo

Risk is a video documentation of a poker game player by Michelle Browne and a number of entrepreneurs and those working within the financial sector in Dublin. The players were invited to join a conversation about risk while playing a game of Texas hold’em poker. During the game they were hooked up to a stress monitor. The data recorded was output as movement through an animated chair on the end of a diving board. The chair moved according to how each person responded to the game, teetering further on the edge as stress levels rose. The chair references the human relationship to risk. The game is juxtaposed with the internal responses of the participants considering what the players’ relationship is to risk, and the crash and recession of the Irish economy in 2008.

14.00 – 16.00

You are invited to A Conversation on Place-making with artist Michelle Browne, curators Rosie Lynch and Eilís Lavelle from Callan Workhouse Union, artist/architect Blaithin Quinn, and architects Emmett Scanlon and Laurence Lord from Out.Post.Office.

A selection of posters made by Laurence and Emmett will be on display in the space materially contributing to the conversation’s theme. Laurence and Emmett have been collaborating with the community of Phibsborough in Dublin for almost two years through a project entitled Out.Post.Office and the making of a book is underway in association with Phibsborough Press.

Thursday 19th April 11.00 – 16.50

11.00 – 12.30

Boundary Objects – Workshop with architect/artist Blaithin Quinn

During this workshop, participants will collaborate to explore a translation of concepts across the disciplines of art and architecture, and beyond to a wider public. Boundary Objects is open to anyone with an interest in art, architecture and the built environment. This workshop has limited capacity – to reserve a place, please email jessica.fairclough@tate.org.uk.

13.00 – 16.50

Inter/Generation, 2014

Inter/Generation was an arts programme of architectural themed projects and events held in April 2014, run by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and curated by architect John McLaughlin. The programme consisted of workshops, installations, film screenings, conversations and a multi-generational neighbourhood project.

As part of this programme, an ‘expanded practice’ weekend of workshops entitled Demense Change explored the intersection between architecture and the visual arts. Demense Change was led by architect – artists Blaithin Quinn, Jo Anne Butler and Tara Kennedy and architects Dominic Stevens and Peter Tansey, during which Blaithin Quinn concurrently led a workshop entitled Field Dynamics. Documentation of these projects will be presented in parallel with the morning’s workshop event.

Friday 20th April 10.00 – 16.00

Open studio – artist Michelle Browne

You are welcome to gain insight into the practice and processes of artist, Michelle Browne working in the space.

Saturday 21st April 10.00 – 16.50

Shaping Space, 2013 (4’32”)

Red Bird Youth Collective in collaboration with Blaithin Quinn and film maker Jonathan Sammon. Shaping Space was a project by Red Bird Youth Collective in collaboration with artist and architect Blaithin Quinn, held at Galway Arts Centre in spring 2013. Aiming to encourage and support creativity for young people (aged 16-24) living in Galway City and County, the project used visual art strategies to explore architecture as a discipline, which consisted of a structured series of workshops and a site-specific exhibition.

Starting with a Galway city walk-about-where participants were asked to identify what elements of everyday architecture they found inspiring – the group were able to use their collective responses in the workshops and experiment with different media, focusing on themes of ‘mapping,’ and ‘spatial stories.’. This workshop produced a range of interesting works for the exhibition, showcasing pieces such as an interactive game about local architecture, or documentation of an outdoor living room in a car park, all of which was installed in response to the architecture of the exhibition space, Nun’s Island Theatre.

Shaping Space was focused on involving the youth collective in the shaping of space and giving them a voice with regard to how the city could be used by young people.

Beyond Pebbledash, 2014 (7’28”)

This video by Paddy Cahill documents Beyond Pebbledash; a public engagement programme, installation and book, on the theme of urban living. Beyond Pebbledash aimed to promote conversations about future challenges and opportunities for Dublin city centre living. The central focus of the engagement programme was a series of workshops for young people (schools and youth groups) designed to promote engagement and thought, encouraging participants’ to play a part in the making of the city’s future. Other events included an exhibition, an urban party and a public symposium.

Sunday 22nd April 10.00 – 16.50

Michelle Browne, Risk, 2013

40 minutes, HD video, Colour, Stereo

Risk is a video documentation of a poker game player by Michelle Browne and a number of entrepreneurs and those working within the financial sector in Dublin. The players were invited to join a conversation about risk while playing a game of Texas hold’em poker. During the game they were hooked up to a stress monitor. The data recorded was output as movement through an animated chair on the end of a diving board. The chair moved according to how each person responded to the game, teetering further on the edge as stress levels rose. The chair references the human relationship to risk. The game is juxtaposed with the internal responses of the participants considering what the players’ relationship is to risk, and the crash and recession of the Irish economy in 2008.

A Series of five short films by Éamon Little documents the ongoing Nimble Spaces design process in the town of Callan in south-east Ireland. Includes snapshots into LiD Architects’ spatial game workshop; a playful exploration of movement, space and security led by choreographer Ríonach Ní Néill and a design conversation between artist Francis Casey and architect Je Ahn from Studio Weave.

Inclusive Neighbourhood (11’59”)
Enabling Space Game (7’59”)
Francis’ New Room (7’45”)
Playfulness and Security (3’03”)
Nimble Spaces (7’48”)

A selection of posters made by Laurence Lord and Emmett Scanlon, who have been collaborating with the community of Phibsborough in Dublin for almost two years through a project entitled Out.Post.Office.

Biographies

Callan Workhouse Union works with artists, designers, architects and crafts-people to develop projects examining housing, civic infrastructure and the commons, engaging people with the spaces and places we live in. Current projects explore the future of rural towns: Meet You at the Green? (2017-); Town Planners (2018) co-produced with VISUAL, Carlow; and Bring Your Own Chair (2018), a performance in public space in 12 acts, across 12 small towns and villages in the Southeast region (counties Waterford, Kilkenny and Wexford) led by artist Michelle Browne. Workhouse Union is working on a long-term project with Camphill Community Callan to develop Nimble Spaces, a citizen-led approach to housing. In 2017 they delivered the public engagement process for a new neighbourhood park in Ferrybank, a Youth and Skatepark in Kilkenny city and Kilkenny’s CYSPC Children and Young People’s Plan. Workhouse Union is based in Callan, Co. Kilkenny, a town which has established itself as a hub for artistic activity with a network of organisations and collectives including KCAT Arts Centre, Abhainn Rí Festival, Fennelly’s, Monkeyshine Theatre, Tony O’Malley Residency and Trasna Productions.

Emmett Scanlon is an architect focused on the social purpose of architecture. His practice includes the design of buildings, academic research, architectural education, policy development, curation, public art and criticism. Current projects include Home on the Grange, a public art project funded by the Grangegorman Development Authority examining homemaking as a creative act and Your Place and Mine – the presentation and visualisation of research findings from Ireland’s first national study on awareness of and participation in architecture in Ireland, funded by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and UCD Research. Emmett was Director of CAST architecture from 2006- 2014 and was Project Director in Grafton Architects from 1998-2006. In 2017 Emmett has been invited by Grafton Architects to work as Assistant to the Curators Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara who have been appointed to curate La Biennale Architettura 2018, Venice.

Laurence Lord is an architect, curator and lecturer. He co-founded AP+E with Jeffrey Bolhuis in 2013. AP+E is a design and research studio based in The Netherlands and Ireland with an agenda to strengthen the relevance of architecture as a social enterprise and create spaces that stimulate new forms of community and interaction. AP+E are working on education spaces with the National Museum of Ireland and residential projects in both the urban and rural context. The work of AP+E has been widely published and exhibited internationally. Laurence is also part of Free Market, a team of co-commissioners and curators behind the Irish National Pavilion for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Laurence teaches in both UCD and CCAE and has been an invited critic to HLSU Lucern, TU Delft and DIT.

Blaithin Quinn (BSc, BArch, BA, MA) is an architect & visual artist based in Ireland. As an active practitioner in the area of public engagement with architecture, Quinn was a key contributor to the following collaborative projects (supported by The Arts Council’s Engaging with Architecture Scheme): Beyond Eye Level (South Dublin County Council, 2012), Shaping Space (Galway Arts Centre & Red Bird, 2013), Inter/Generation (DLR County Council, 2014), Beyond Pebbledash (Dublin City Council, National Museum, 2014/15). Recent work includes Extending Architecture (2016) with Create and the Arts Council of Ireland. Quinn employs visual art strategies to extend public engagement with architecture. Quinn’s work has also been commissioned by IMMA (Open House, 2012, 2014) and the Irish Architecture Foundation (NASI, 2015, 2016). In parallel with her own creative practice, she is a tutor at Queen’s University Belfast (2012-2015) and a visiting lecturer at Cork Centre for Architectural Education. She was a visiting lecturer at IADT, Dublin (2015).

Michelle Browne is an artist and curator based in Dublin. Her work encompasses a diverse range of media, including live performance, public intervention, video, sculpture, writing and collaboration. She has performed and exhibited both nationally and internationally most recently taking part in Invisible Cities for Heart of Glass, St. Helen’s, UK (2016); My Brilliant Friend, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin (2016); Kathleen Lynn Insider on the Outside, Ballinglen Centre, Ballycastle, Co Mayo (2016); and Border Crossings, Galway Arts Centre and SASA Gallery, Adelaide, Australia (2016). Browne often works site specifically in collaboration with different communities of interest or place. Browne is currently working on a new commission for Meet you at the Green curated by Callan Workhouse Union which looks at how we inhabit our rural towns. Browne has curated a number of exhibitions including Out of Site a series of performances for public space in Dublin from 2006-2008 and These Immovable Walls: Performing Power at Dublin Castle (2014). From 2011-2013 she was Artist Advisor to the Dublin City Council Grafton Street Design Team and she is currently a lecturer in the Department of Sculpture and Expanded Practice at NCAD.

Acknowledgements

Engaging Places: Collaborative Praxis in Art and Architecture is supported by Culture Ireland’s GB18: Promoting Irish Arts in Britain programme.

The Collaborative Arts Partnership Programme (CAPP) is supported by Creative Europe (Culture Sub-Programme) Support for European Co-operation Projects Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency.