GALWAY HAS inspired many songs, poems, and stories, all of which have been great for tourism and for romanticising the city and county. Now one American artist will examine this through a clever and quirky exhibition for TULCA.
American artist Ken Fandell will present his first solo project in Europe - Between Me and Galway Bay - in the 126 gallery, Queen Street, as part of the TULCA Visual Arts Festival 2009.
Between Me and Galway Bay is an investigation of the contemporary mythologising, commodifying, and romanticising of Ireland - done from a distance of more than 3,500 miles.
For this show, Fandell was asked to create a small body of new work to respond to the Galway region, an area he has visited many times.
Fandell stitched together numerous photographs into long scrolls that dominate the length of the gallery. Other works include video and sound-based pieces and Fandell’s tongue-in-cheek approach uses points of reference such as Frank A Fahey’s song ‘Galway Bay’, Robert J Flaherty’s film Man of Aran, and a Chicago pub called Galway Bay near Fandell’s residence.
Through this installation Fandell scrutinises issues of distance, repetition, and commodification and through an oscillation between the poetic and the crass, the romantic and the banal.
Ken Fandell has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and his work is included in the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Between Me and Galway Bay opens tomorrow at 8pm and will continue until Saturday November 28. Opening hours during TULCA are 1pm to 6pm. For more information contact 091 - 569871 or see www.126.ie
