2007 IADT Graduate Exhibition
Posted on June 8, 2007
Filed Under IADT, Shout Out, art, culture, design, exhibition, photography, review | 2 Comments
Ya know, sometimes I’m my own worst enemy. I was at the 2007 Graduate Exhibition in Dun Laoghaire’s IADT on Wednesday and I wanted to write about it. So why has it taken me until today? Because I wanted to scan in a few of the postcards, given away on the day, that showed some of the work displayed. Now, if I’d actually looked at the postcards, I would have seen the college has a website showing most of the works, with short bio’s of the students. Grrr. Must have been the sunshine? That’s my excuse anyway.
Three small negatives to get out of the way first:
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– The graduands should be encouraged to work out of their comfort zone. Too much of it was self-centred or introspective, and there was little or no representation of people, say, over 30.
– The assistants were students – they’d probably be offended if I called them s’curity guards. Perhaps some of them were even the artists themselves. It is perhaps disrespectful to visitors, and their own work, to stand around gossiping and sniggering and generally being a distraction.
– The signposting was non-existant. I’m pretty sure I missed about 20% of the exhibitors. The exhibition was staged across 3 buildings (?) and I found the buildings. But once inside, it was a different story.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I’d definitely go again next year because:
Roisin Morris was the star of the show for me. I think I even saw her in the corridor!! Her photographs were just stunning. Her theme, albeit introspective, was relevant and insightful. There were only 6 photographs but I think they transcended the limitations of ‘ink on paper‘ and she really got her message across. There was a real depth and a tactile feel to them and her ‘What Waited Inside Herself 4“* was rightly the centrepiece of her display. Oddly enough, the catalogue just called it No. 4 or something like that. This is her college website and her personal website (although it’s not working yet).
* This pic is a scan of one of many postcards given away on the day advertising the work of the Graduands. Please contact the college or the artist if you want to reproduce, buy, etc their work.
I also liked Valerie Curran’s Vanishing Points. It was a fresh approach that I haven’t seen before and, as a former scientist, the concept appealed to me. She majored in Fine Art and her piece was displayed in a 3m cubed space and it consisted of styrofoam balls and thread. Have a look here at a small pic.
I, and I’m sure all the other children, blew as hard as they could into the space to see the balls vibrate on their strings. Sadly, the college website doesn’t list a personal website (or a better pic). I hope some gallery takes it in and displays it but, strangely, the pricelist says it Not For Sale.
Final mention goes to Manus Goan in, I think, the Animation class. The catalogue lists him but I can’t find him on the IADT website. His name is unusual and a google search returns up bebo page. His animated video was called something like Dusk to Dawn. The animation, ‘flashing lights’, and music all tied in together smoothly although it was a tiny bit repetitive. Bebo’s Manus Goan is a ‘Hardcore Raver 4 Life‘ so that might explain it! Still, the rendering was realistic and it was a good ‘take’ on Dublin. I’m not being dismissive when I say it would make a good screensaver, or if adapted, a good music video.
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At last I see an article about Roisin’s work! The RDS site was awful in that it did not give proper image representation of her work although they dished out some nice euro which is great. From the website podcast at first I thought this was a painting but now see it’s a huge photo print. Got to think there is a nod to Cindy Sherman here – but unique all the same.
Ronan, you clearly dont know Cindy Sherman, this is no where near what she does. yes this photo/work is good but lets not get carried away.!! Irish photography need more interest and development and we need to raise the standards. Please do not talk about work been good when it is just average.