Galwegian Gareth Kennedy, along with Sarah Browne, will represent Ireland at the Venice Biennale, the world’s most prestigious international visual arts showcase.
Ireland’s representation at the 53rd International Art Exhibition seeks to foreground two artists whose art practice centres on an engagement with people as a core element of their work. The technically accomplished and visually engaging artworks they produce operate both within and beyond the traditional ideas of the art world.
Mr Kennedy mixes elements of art, architecture, performance, and design in his practice. For Venice he will explore the subtleties of local economies and creativity in the animation of civic spaces. He will bring buskers from Dublin city centre into the aspiring civic spaces within Dublin’s Docklands, and subsequently to the port setting of Venice.
Ms Browne commissioned a bespoke hand-knotted carpet from Donegal Carpets. Local women, most of whom now work in the Heritage Centre which has replaced it, were re-employed to make the carpet, designed by Ms Browne using only the surplus wool stocks remaining at the factory.
Am 18mm film work features the workers discussing their sense of connection with their labour and their experience of producing a hand-crafted work which resonates strongly with the notion of nationality.
Kennedy Browne is the name under which the two artists author a discrete body of work, distinct from their individual practices. For the 53rd International Biennale, a new video work from Kennedy Browne addresses Dublin as a city of 167 languages.
The work features a segment of text by American economist and leader of the Chicago School of Economics, Milton Friedman, on how the pencil exemplifies the potential of the free market economy, spoken by a volunteer cast in some 40 languages, located in Liberty Hall overlooking the city.
The Venice Biennale will be open to the public from June 7 to November 22. The Irish pavilion will be jointly located in the same venue alongside the Northern Irish pavilion. The co-location will serve to highlight the impressive range and strength of visual arts practice across Ireland.
