Roscommon Arts Centre’s upcoming exhibition An Animate Land which opened on Friday, May 20, looks at relationships with the land and landscape, and the role agricultural processes of production and habitual farming practices play in this negotiation, exploring the role of trade and the value systems around both art and agriculture.
The close proximity of Roscommon Co-operative Livestock Mart to the Arts Centre has become an important source of interest, where its weekly activities, expression and presence of animals and machines bring a lively energy to the area, animating the spaces around and about the Mart and Arts Centre buildings.
The artists in this exhibition Marian Balfe, Laura Fitzgerald and Miriam O’Connor present an opportunity to occupy more than one world, and explore issues of ownership, value, responsibility and care within our landscape through both arts practice and farming practice.
Drawing from her rural upbringing, Marian Balfe explores fragmented connections to place and land. These connections are initiated through memory and experience, where certain objects, artefacts, print ephemera, people and animals are often revisited through the paintings Marian will present in this exhibition.
Laura Fitzgerald is a visual artist working in drawing, painting, installation, video, and text. As part of 'An Animate Land' she will present David Brown’s Enterprise a full-scale three-dimensional drawing of a David Brown Tractor made from bended and welded metal.
The tractor acts as viewing device for a new film work entitled 'Art School in the Old Days', which tells the tale of an older artist looking back at their experiences of art education. These works will be accompanied by four drawings, from the “Too big” series.
Miriam O’Connor’s photographic practice draws inspiration from the sights, sounds and language of everyday life. Camera at the Mart is a new lens based work by O’Connor and is the result of an artist residency undertaken at Roscommon Mart.
Taking its title from the weekly mart reports which chart livestock sales, trends and mart turnout, in this work O’ Connor reflects on the proximity of Roscommon Mart to the Arts Centre and this becomes a focus for her inquiries. The postcards which are on display in the Mart and in the Arts Centre, are an invitation for audiences to respond with their own mart experiences and relationship to this space.
'An Animate Land' opens at 6pm on Friday, May 20, with all welcome to attend. The exhibition runs until July 1.
Multi-Lingual Workshops
Dia dhaoibh! Jambo! Dzie? Dobry! Do you and your family speak more than one language?
Join Roscommon Arts Centre and Super Paua facilitator Mark in a workshop for parents and children as they explore storytelling skills through different languages and cultures. The workshop will be run through English, but you are welcome to speak and express yourself in whatever languages you speak. The workshops are suitable for parents/carers and children aged eight to 12 years old who speak more than one language, whether that’s Irish, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic or Polish.
By working together Mark will get to know what you love about stories to help create an audio piece for children in Roscommon for the fourth series of Super Paua Stories, a multilingual podcast for young people aged five to 12 years old.
The workshops takes place at Roscommon Arts Centre on Saturday, May 28, from 12.30–2.30pm. Admission is free but pre-booking is essential on 09066 25824/[email protected].
