IMMA TALKS: 2021 Playback

This series of online Curator’s Talks provides an in depth introduction to each chapter of the museum-wide exhibition, The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now (NGHN) and explores the themes that frame a selection of IMMA Collection artworks from the last three decades in celebration of IMMA's 30th Birthday. 

Track: Queer Embodiment
Online Talk presented by Seán Kissane on 24 November 2021.
The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now - Chapter One

Seán Kissane Curator, Exhibitions, who introduces the exhibition The Narrow Gate of the Here and Now, and theme of focus, Queer Embodiment. This first chapter draws on the Museum’s Collection and Archive that reflect a strong history of feminist practice, relaying the defiance of women in Ireland against church and state oppression, as well as queer histories that capture moments of resistance and joy. Through a selection works, Kissane’s talk looks at the legislative changes that occurred in Irish society such as the decriminalisation of homosexuality (1993), provision of divorce (1996), marriage equality (2015) and the repeal of the Eighth Amendment (2018). The exhibition positions IMMA’s inception in 1991 as part of a crucial moment in the history of globalisation, within wider European contexts.

This talk explores a selection of artworks by the artists featured in the exhibition that includes; Bassam Al Sabah; Asylum Archive / Vukašin Nedeljkovic; Cecily Brennan; Amanda Coogan; Vivienne Dick; Lucian Freud; Kevin Gaffney; Gilbert & George; Anita Groener; Patrick Hall; Patrick Hennessy; Rebecca Horn; Shirazeh Houshiary; Patricia Hurl; Jaki Irvine; Graciela Iturbide; Derek Jarman; Sandra Johnston; Eithne Jordan; Klein and Kühne; Breda Lynch; Alice Maher; Maser; William McKeown; Zanele Muholi; Doireann O’Malley; Alan Phelan; Names Project, AIDS Memorial Quilt; Billy Quinn; Rochelle Rubinstein; Rajinder Singh; Kiki Smith; Wolfgang Tillmans; Andrew Vickery; Amna Walayat; Eimear Walshe; Apichatpong Weerasethakul and others.

NGHN#1: Seán Kissane presents Queer Embodiment, 2021

This series of online Curator’s Talks provides an in depth introduction to each chapter of the museum-wide exhibition, The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now (NGHN) and explores the themes that frame a selection of IMMA Collection artworks from the last three decades in celebration of IMMA's 30th Birthday.

Track: The Anthropocene
Online Talk presented by Claire Walsh on 08 December 2021.
The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now - Chapter Two. 

Claire Walsh, Assistant Curator, Collections introduces the second chapter of The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now, The Anthropocene. Presented in the Garden Galleries, this exhibition considers the present geological era in which human activity has become visible as a dominant and destructive influence on the Earth’s systems. The exhibition looks at the colonial origins of the Museum and how its legacies continue to shape understandings of the world around us – from the classification of mineral, plant and animal life, while immersive installations draw attention to the rapid acceleration of our lives in the last three decades. This timely chapter explores deep histories and speculative futures at a moment of reckoning with climate change.

This talk explores a selection of artworks by the artists featured in the exhibition that includes; Thomas Bewick, Karl Blossfeldt, Christo, Jack Coughlin, Dorothy Cross, Oein DeBhairduin, John Doherty, Michelle Doyle, Albrecht Dürer, Jimmie Durham,  Edy Fung,  Colin Harrison, Camille Henrot, William Hogarth,  Karrabing Collective,  Les Levine, Breda Lynch,  Leanne McDonagh, The Otolith Group, Katie Paterson and others.

NGHN#2: Claire Walsh presents The Anthropocene 2021

In association with IMMA Outdoors - Collaborative arts practice Forerunner, with founding members Tanad Aaron, Andreas Kindler von Knobloch and Tom Watt, in conversation with Nathalie Weadick.

Track Details: Young Fossil Artists-in-Conversation  with Forerunner on  
1 October 2021,  IMMA Outdoors  People's Pavilion
Collaborative arts practice Forerunner founding members Tanad Aaron, Andreas Kindler von Knobloch and Tom Watt, discuss their project Y O U N G F O S S I L commissioned by IMMA. A conversation with the artists is led by Nathalie Weadick curator of architecture and spatial practice based in Dublin, and director of the Irish Architecture Foundation. Hear directly from the artists who share their ideas and thinking behind Y O U N G F O S S I L; the inspiration behind the materiality and making-process that is so specific to Forerunner’s ongoing practice, and the ways their timely project prompts us to reflect on for wider issues on the politics of housing, ecology, consumption, the environment and indeed challenges of public art commissioning for historical sites such as IMMA / RHK.

About Artists 
After graduating together in 2011/12 and supporting one another in different projects over several years, Forerunner began to work together officially in 2016. Their collaborations include architecturally interrogating Fine Art and specific objects built for, or against a function. In their separate practices, they are interested in the history of art practices and the fabrication and creation process used or deemed usable as an artist. Combined, their practice presents an ambitious interrogation of objects, environments and uses. Working with everyday or commonplace materials lends the works a familiarity while allowing them the freedom to be re-examined in a new and unfamiliar context. This methodology often ends in work whose emphasis is on its production values, be they self-made or factory finished, and a focus on the work’s overall coherent composition.

Over the past two years Forerunner’s work has begun to encompass an interest in Arte Util and a desire to quietly upgrade or criticise by fixing. The artists commonly refer to their exhibitions as tests; tests for the real world, tests for a future context and opportunities to try a different material or technique.

Recent projects include the Future and stuff, TULCA 2020; Architecture of Change, VOID, Derry, 2018; Museum of Mythological Waterbeasts, Ormston House, Limerick, 2018; Misplaced Concreteness, 2018, Grizedale Arts, 2018; Brute Clues, Project Arts Centre, 2016. Permanent commissions exist in Dublin, Belfast, The Lake District, Paris and Japan.

IMMA Outdoors Forerunner in conversation with Nathalie Weadick

In association with Club Chroma Chlorologia by Niall Sweeney, commissioned as part of the IMMA Outdoors programme IMMA invites ShoutOut and Queer Culture Ireland to facilitate a series of workshops that draws on their commitment and ethos to improve life for LGBTQ+ people. 

Track Details: Shoutout & Queer Culture Ireland, Workshop, Then and Now, Know Your Queer History,  IMMA Outdoors People's Pavilion, 07 August 2021. This workshop looks at cross-generational queer experiences in Ireland – to consider how things have changed since the earliest days of the movement, the role of archivists in documenting those changes, and how we might better build intergenerational links. Join a panel of guests who draw parallels between LGBTQ+ lives then and now, what has improved and what has deteriorated for the community as Ireland has changed. This offers us an opportunity to consider queer intersectional spaces today, who they serve, and what a truly inclusive space might look like for the community: one which is intergenerational and accessible to all.
This workshop is presented by Queer Culture Ireland and ShoutOut with invited guests that includes researcher, writer and visual artist Hannah Tiernan, Trans activist and chair of TENI Sara Phillips; Gay activist, and co-founder of the small ‘80s lobby group Gays Against Imperialism Cathal Kerrigan and others.

About Workshop Speakers
ShoutOut is a registered charity working to improve LGBTQ+ inclusion through education. Since 2012, we have delivered nearly 2,000 workshops to some 60,000 young people in secondary schools across the island of Ireland, to combat homophobic and transphobic bullying. We use our on-the-ground experience of speaking with young people to inform all of our training modules. 

Queer Culture Ireland : LGBTQ+ culture, history, and art group Queer Culture Ireland is a group for anyone interested in, working in or studying Irish queer culture, history, art, heritage founded by Judith Finlay and Kate Drinane. Queer Culture Ireland (QCI), in collaboration with Dublin LGBT Pride have also presented the HIV/AIDS exhibition titled ‘The Quilt: Echoes of Memories’ on World AIDS Day, previously collaborating with Dublin Pride in making the exhibition come to life in 2020 and since have hosted the exhibition at several venues. This was co-curated with Dr Patrick McDonagh

Shoutout & Queer Culture Ireland: Workshop, Then and Now, Know Your Queer History

In association with IMMA Outdoors and  Chroma Chlorologia, this bespoke workshop series draws on themes addressed by CHROMA in which to consider how artistic expression in Irish queer history and culture can tell us more about our identity and place in society today as LGBTQ+ people. This art based workshop looks at how art, design, and visual symbols have been used as tools for social change, and their ongoing importance in LGBTQ+ activism.

Track Details: LGBTQ+ Artistic and Activist Tools for Social Change, Online Workshop, Wed 27 October 2021
Revised for an  online workshop, our guests explores representation, education, and where LGBTQ+ stories can feature in curricula and media. Drawing on themes addressed by CHROMA, and to consider how artistic expression in Irish queer history and culture can tell us more about our identity and place in society today as LGBTQ+ people. This art based discussion looks at how art, design, and visual symbols have been used as tools for social change, and their ongoing importance in LGBTQ+ activism.

This discursive workshop is presented by Aifric Ní Chríodáin who will be joined by special guests Hannah Tiernan – visual artist, researcher and writer, Dónal Talbot – photographer and artist, whose works predominantly in portraiture, to showcase and empower the LGBTQ+ community, through representation in art; Alber Saborío – a trans nonbinary artist and sex educator from Honduras and co-founder and co-director of the trans-led art collective gender.RIP.

Explore the rich visual culture of LGBTQ+ communities and activism in Ireland, and join guests who focus on LGBTQ+ inclusion, encompassing an exploration of terminology, theory, fluidity of identity, and social and legal inequalities for LGBTQ+ people in Ireland, as they reflect on a wide variety of queer practices across Ireland that promote and celebrate equality and diversity.
About Speakers
ShoutOut is a registered charity working to improve LGBTQ+ inclusion through education. Since 2012, we have delivered nearly 2,000 workshops to some 60,000 young people in secondary schools across the island of Ireland, to combat homophobic and transphobic bullying. We use our on-the-ground experience of speaking with young people to inform all of our training modules. In addition to our workshops for students, we also offer capacity building training to teachers, youth workers, and any organisations working with young people, e.g. charities, public bodies, or educational institutions. This work is primarily supported by our workplace training and inclusion programmes, aimed at building supportive working environments for LGBTQ+ employees. ShoutOut’s core values are education, inclusion, and allyship. From year to year, the staff and volunteers actively review and refine workshop materials, to deliver the highest quality of LGBTQ+ inclusive education in Ireland.

Queer Culture Ireland : LGBTQ+ culture, history, and art group Queer Culture Ireland is a group for anyone interested in, working in or studying Irish queer culture, history, art, heritage founded by Judith Finlay and Kate Drinane. Queer Culture Ireland (QCI), in collaboration with Dublin LGBT Pride have also presented the HIV/AIDS exhibition titled ‘The Quilt: Echoes of Memories’ on World AIDS Day, previously collaborating with Dublin Pride in making the exhibition come to life in 2020 and since have hosted the exhibition at several venues. This was co-curated with Dr Patrick McDonagh.

Shout Out + Queer Culture Ireland, LGBTQ+ Artistic and Activist Tools for Social Change

Paula Rego openly cites a wide range of literary sources that includes plays, poems and novels, as a source of inspiration for her work. We invite curatorial partner of the Paula Rego Obedience and Defiance touring exhibition, Alice Strang, Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Galleries of Scotland to share her special literary interest in Rego’s work and introduce reading material to complement the exhibition – Paula Rego, Obedience and Defiance.

More Details
Track: A Paula Rego Reading List by Alice Strang, 10 December 2020, Recorded for IMMA Talks
In this podcast listen to Strang’s insightful perspective and discover how Rego uses the literary narratives as the starting point for her own imaginative visualisations and creations. Strang introduces a selection of plays, poems and novels that includes: Honoré de Balzac, Gillette or The Unknown Masterpiece, Jean Genet, The Maids; Martin McDonagh, The Pillowman; Blake Morrison, ‘Moth’ and Eça de Queirós, The Crime of Father Amaro. By talking through these literary sources Strang makes valuable connections to Rego’s unique alchemy of interpreting an author’s vision and mining it for elements that register with Rego’s own political and personal concerns of clerical corruption, morality, systems of class and the psychological complexity of family relationships. The Rego works discussed in this podcast are featured in the top banner of this webpage.

About Speaker
Alice Strang is a Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Galleries of Scotland. She curated the recent landmark exhibition Modern Scottish Women: Painters and Sculptors 1885-1965, which was held at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh. The exhibition and its accompanying publication focused on an 80 year period during which an unprecedented number of Scottish women trained and practised as artists, examining the lives and work of 45 painters and sculptors and the effect their gender had upon their experiences. She read History of Art at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge before joining Christie’s, where she worked as a Specialist in the Impressionist and Modern, Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Art departments. She joined the National Galleries of Scotland in 1999 and is a curator of the nation’s collection of Western art from c.1890 to the present day. Alice lectures throughout the UK and is a ‘BBC Expert Woman’, most recently contributing to two episodes of Lachlan Goudie’s BBC Scotland television series The Story of Scottish Art.

A Paula Rego Reading List by Alice Strang

IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. IMMA TALKS is an activated live programme of talks and events that opens up conversations around the core themes of our exhibition programme, and permanent IMMA Collection, bringing you deeper into the thinking and making of contemporary art.

For further information on IMMA TALKS please contact Sophie Byrne, Assistant Curator, Talks & Public Programmes, IMMA. Email sophie.byrne@imma.ie

A Paula Rego Reading List by Alice Strang

IMMA Ireland