Cork Film Centre Gallery held its final exhibition in Dec. 2019 – Jan. 2020.
PLANT MATTERS – Susan Bone
Plant Matters was a selection of new work by Ballincollig-based artist Susan Bone. Drawings made in the garden inspired Susan to look more closely at the undergrowth and the colours and the forms in the plant litter that come about through the breaking-down process.
ROCHELLE QUANTOCK EXHIBITION
Rochelle Quantock’s exhibition in the Cork Film Centre Gallery, Ballincollig.
SONDER: Etaoin Melville
Colour and identity are continuing concerns in my work. In this, my first solo exhibition, I explore self-expression from different points of view. The body always plays a central role and here in the social documentary I have chosen a simple format to highlight the individual nature of the responses. The figurative cast glass seeks to reflect on the strength and fragility of life. Other exhibits use colour as abstract emotional expression.
“The realization that each random passer-by is living a life as vivid and complex as your own”.
Etaoin Melville was artist/filmmaker in residence at CorkFilm Centre for 2017/18.
INABSOLUTE: Chloe Austin & Sophia Santabarbra
Chloe Austin explores the suppressed voices asking questions of female representation and the relationship between body and mind. The work aims to deal (or more so – struggle) with the ever so subtle stereotype of the unobtainable ‘ideal’ self – self as a split, mirrored, multiple, fragmented image. The use of text in the video pieces will resonate with the violent attitude towards women and their stories, the refusal to hear our voices. The aim is to compare/contrast/overlap these visual texts with the sound of Rebecca Solnit’s essay on silence, Breaking Stories, Breaking Silence.
Sophia Santabarbra’s work presents as a series of photographs and video. The images are fragments of moments, visual poetry that contain the energy of an emotion, a thought, a feeling. What is personal becomes universal, we become the mirror reflecting one another.
(Cork Film Centre/Crawford College of Art & Design award winners 2017)
Nina Lassila
Nina Lassila is a visual artist born 1974 in Helsinki, Finland currently living and working in Belgium. Nina works mainly with video and performance. In many of her works she deals with questions of identity – specifically identity affected by social barriers, conventions based on gender and upbringing and cultural differences. Her other 
bodies of work explore issues such as supernatural phenomena, art and economic structures.
SYNCHRONICITY 4: Chris Gaughran & Nurten Yuksel
Synchronicity 4 was based on the intersection of interest by two artists who met at a residency in northeastern Thailand in 2014. Their experience of Thai nature, the local customs, the traditional hospitality, and the language all informed their work.
Nurten lives in Prague, Chris lives in West Cork, and, following the residency, they collaborated online to present this collection of photography, installation and video. Voiceover on Spirit Houses is by Wendy Miles, also based in West Cork.
Synchronicity 1, 2 and 3 had been shown in Czech Republic at The Culture Factory, Usti Nad Labem, and at Villa P651, Prague; and shown in Organico Restaurant, Bantry, Co Cork.
‘The Lion is a Diamond’ – Enya Zia Fortuna
Do we really know about the distribution of wealth and it’s evolution in long term. Do the dynamics of private capital accumulation inevitably lead to the concentration of wealth in fewer hands? Earlier in this century, Thorstein Veblen noted that the defining habit of the “leisure class” was waste: The wealthy engaged in futile displays to show how much they had. In Veblen’s view, the endless curved driveway with a fountain display was attractive because it wasted a lot of land and showed an indifference to the principles of economy and efficiency. These were the defining characteristics of the aristocracy. These problems raise fundamental questions about the ways people pursue and exchange wealth and power, and about the ways societies and their economies are governed.
Our democracy has devolved into a plutocracy that predominately enriches those at the top. Corruption benefits the few at the expense of the many; it delays and distorts economic development’ and ‘pre-empts basic rights and process’. The fountain was once purely functional as a basin for water, but has now become a status symbol of empowerment. Examining the fountains history as a valued liquid such as water and how it became a symbolic role for worship of empire and power. An object, which depicts just how corporate power, came into the political system and how the “leisure class” engage in such displays to present their riches.
(Cork Film Centre/Crawford College of Art & Design award winner 2015)
‘Daséin’ – Mick Fortune
Mick Fortune’s practice explores aspects of drug addiction through the medium of film. This work is the result of several interviews conducted with people with a history of addiction.
Each piece attempts to portray both the human experience of these individuals and the more ambiguous elements which are shared in each of their stories. The unstructured nature of events intends to allude to the presence of the camera as a mere coincidental event in a recurring cycle of Decay.
The performers exist in a state of suspended animation. The use of lighting enables the figures to merge into the surroundings and as the events unfold the sense of foreboding is heightened.
(Cork Film Centre/WIT award winner 2016)
‘Post Memory From a Lost Country’ – Emma Zukovic
“The stories which we are told allow us to fabricate our realms of imagination, creating utopians of a place never before visited by us personally. Through gathering memories of those who have lived in Yugoslavia, I am interested in the juxtaposition of contemporary printmaking and post memory. By means of placing objects from participants’ stories into my video pieces, contained within a house or the forest, creating a utopia of a country that may now only exist through memory.”
Emma Zukovic was born in Lymington, England, in 1993, and is now based in Galway. She recieved her BA in Fine Art Printmaking and Contemporary Practice in Limerick School of Art and Design. Being of Irish & Macedonian descent, Zukovic’s work is concerned with the theory of Post-Memory and it’s relevence to the lost country, Yugoslavia.
‘Auguries of Nature’ – Deirdre Southey
Deirdre Southey’s work focuses on the interplay between art and science. Utilising installation, sound, video, and print her work questions anthropical relations with Earth. Southey uses sounds gathered by the PALOA Underwater Observatory in the Arctic (set up by the Alfred Wagner Institute, Germany) and sounds of the Earth from outer space (by NASA). She has developed unique processes in order to capture the vibrations inherent to these sounds.
Auguries of Nature explores the concept that global warming, exisiting as a hyperobject is natures response to anthropogenic interference. Positing itself as an omen to a Capitalist and Extractivist system whose philosophy of gaining security through domination, conquest and continual expansion is leading to an uninhabitable planet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXFbTxIcNLw
‘SHIFTING SKIN’ – Alison Bennett
In Shifting Skin the uncannily flattened images of human surface were captured using a flatbed scanner held directly against the subject’s body. When viewed through an app on a mobile screen, a 3D topography appears to project out of the print, a landscape of peaks and valleys describing the tonal scale within the surface of the subject. This direct interplay between the physical print and virtual object creates a tangible dynamic to be explored by the viewer. See: https://alisonbennett.net/shifting-skin/
‘BREATHE’ – Rob Monaghan
Rob Monaghan’s work examines themes of belonging, idenity, family and time. He addresses some of the seemingly common factors in our lives.
The recurring theme throughout the body of work comprising ‘Breathe’ is the fragility that exists throughout our daily experience of life. It unravels personal relationships and the natural environment, to better express a commonality of experience of both. A complex and interwoven narritive is created through a wide vocabulary of metaphorical objects.
Rob is concerned by the personification of our feelings toward and through our devices. The relationship it can build becomes an interesting duality. He raises questions on the real probability of technological singularity and what that might mean on a personal level.
Irish TV coverage: http://www.irishtv.ie/cork-matters-68
‘INTERIORS’ – Darragh O’Callaghan
Darragh O’Callaghan’s stunning exhibition, INTERIORS, explored personal landscapes of isolation and anxiety that characterize living with mental health issues.
The exhibition focuses on the body as a site of action, working with video, sound, performance and photography.
Seven sites were chosen to help visualize many of these experiences of entrapment, isolation and loneliness
.
‘INTERIORS’ was made under the Arts and Disability Ireland Connect New Work scheme.
‘INDIVISIBLE’ – Group Show
InDivisible is a group exhibition of new work by eight of the artists who completed the MA:Art & Process at Crawford College of Art & Design in 2013.
The artists featured in the exhibition are: Michele O’Connor Connolly, Cassandra Eustace, Lisa Cody, Maire O’Mahony, Dominic Fee, Christine Gaughran, Carolyn Collier and Tonia Keogh.
‘MOTION’ – Rose Neenan & Dervla Baker
New work by Neenan & Baker, Motion is the culmination of a residency with Cork Film Centre, awarded to them for their work in their Degree Show, Liminal, at Crawford College of Art and Design, 2013. The Cork Film Centre Residency Award affords emerging artists working with film, animation and digital media, the facilities, support and, most importantly, time to develop their practice and find their feet in the difficult transition from student to artist/film-maker. http://rottenmedia.com/roseneenan/ https://vimeo.com/dervlabakerartist
‘HALF SEA AND HALF SKY’ – Astrid Walsh
Half Sea and Half Sky shows the development of a body of work, still in progress, which began with a series of ink illustrations based on the story of the ‘Undine’ or ‘Ondine’, a water nymph or spirit.
The ideas and mythologies of the element of water, as well as the state of existing in or under water became a focal point in a series of images and videos. More recently the work has taken a more sculptural turn, with paper casting.
‘POLAR FOCES: UNIVERSE OF AN ICEBERG’ – Ruth Le Gear
This body of work stems from a residency Le Gear undertook in the Arctic waters of Svalbard in 2012 where she contemplated the micro and macro forces of ice in the retreating ice flows. Le Gear further explores the potentiality of ice in terms of ‘water remedies’ resulting from fieldwork investigations of the north Leitrim landscape. The contradiction of a remedy made from water and diluted with itself presents interesting questions around the uses and permutations of a landscape whose energy-fields mediate and co-exist with the human body. Ruth Le Gear
‘BLOOD, SWEAT & GEARS’ – Chris Hurley
In an era of hard times and hard men, cyclist Mick Murphy was known as ‘The Iron Man’. Truth exceeds legend: he trained with weights made from stone; he made a living as a spalpeen and circus performer; in the 1958 Rás, when his bike broke down, he ‘borrowed’ an ordinary bicycle from a farmer and chased down the leading pack; he rode for 3 days with a broken collar bone; drank cow’s blood and ate raw meat. He was said to be indestructible.
Artist/filmmaker Chris Hurley is the conduit for a re-telling of the events leading to his greatest moment, winning Ireland’s toughest cycle race.
‘GAS 2013’ – Graduate Awards Show
These awards have consisted of organising exhibitions of their work, use of equipment to encourage and enable graduates to continue their practice, and, in some cases, short residencies in order to develop new work.
Those selected from the graduate shows in 2013 are Denise McAuliffe and Cian Dalton (WIT), and Rose Neenan and Dervla Baker (CCAD).
‘IMAGE +’ – Jonas Garbuzas
Jonas Garbuzas was born in 1958 in Lithuania. For the last 9 years he has been living and working in Cork. He received his art education and degree at Kiev National Theatre, Cinema and Television University in Ukraine, where his course tutor was Suren Shahbazian – Director of Photography in film ‘Color Of Pomegranates’ directed by Sergei Parajanov.
‘SEESOUND’ – Experimental Film Society and Friends
Cork Film Centre Gallery and The Guesthouse present Seesound 2013, a day of film/sound screenings, performances and installations by Experimental Film Society and friends, in association with IndieCork.
www.guesthouse.ie www.experimentalfilmsociety.com www.indiecork.com
‘UNFOLD’ – Laura Murphy in collaboration with Monique Beston & Gemma Riggs
Unfold consists of a series of film installations created from collaborations between dance artist Laura Murphy and visual artists Monique Besten (NL) and Gemma Riggs (UK).
The exhibition looks at the ephemerality of the moving body and it’s relation to the pictorial form and space.
www.lauramurphy.ie www.gemmariggs.co.uk www.moniquebesten.nl
‘Out-WIT’ – Graduate Award Winners 2012
Over the past eight years, Cork Film Centre has presented awards for best use of film/video to graduate students of Waterford Institute of Technology. These awards have consisted of use of equipment to encourage and enable them to continue their practice, and an exhibition of their work.
The artists are, Gary Kenneally, Pat McArdle, and Richie Phelan.
‘LUMINOSITY’ – Atoosa Pour Hosseini
This new body of work is made in response to the Cork Film Centre Gallery and its surroundings at the Gunpowder Mills, Ballincollig. The work has been in process since mid-2012, and was completed during her residency at the Guesthouse, Cork, in April 2013.
http://www.atoosapourhosseini.com/
‘…SOFT AS AN EASY CHAIR’ – Rachel Barton & Robert Power
Rachel Barton and Robert Power graduated in 2012 from the Crawford College of Art & Design. Both received Cork Film Centre residency/exhibition Awards for their work in the Degree Show. The outcome of that residency is exhibited in … Soft as an Easy Chair.
http://rachelbartonartist.blogspot.ie/
‘AQUACADE’ – Jennifer Cunningham
The bathing shelters and baths with their unique art deco architecture are falling into disrepair. Modernist structures, which have been placed into Victorian settings in Bray, for example, have now become dated. Brash gaudy amusement arcades flicker and wink, pumping demented electronic rhythms into the night. Among the dandelions and chip wrappers, shoddiness is revealed. There is rust under the paintwork, cracks in the plaster, and the seats are worn.
http://www.jennifercunningham.ie/
‘UNBEKNOWNST’ – Aine Saunders & David Upton
Unbeknownst presents a selection of new work by 2011 Cork Film Centre Graduate Award reciepients Áine Saunders and David Upton.
The show brings together two distinct practices presenting a shared investigation of the representation of time, landscape and the body through lens based media.
‘MESS’ – Scottee
Broken limbs, police questioning and the loss of 100′s of pairs of high heels feature heavily in his determination to please his audiences as well as a brash, clumsy, naff and obnoxious approach to light entertainment and live art, leaving audiences elated, confused & covered in glitter.
‘I’M NOT A DOCTOR BUT I’LL TAKE A LOOK’ – Michael Higgins
Inspired by cinema and visual narrative, Michael’s work involves a range of both digital and analogue technologies, and concerns people’s perception of time and reality. In creating content, Michael acts on a single idea, be it a piece of music, an image, a character or environment. In following this initial idea through, he makes a point of being open to changes and external forces that occur throughout the various stages of production, allowing the development of the work to be self-driven. He simply assists it in materialising.
‘CONTINUUM’ – Dominic Fee
Continuum is an exhibition comprising video installation and abstract sculptural works. The pieces are derived from a concern with fundamental geometric forms, particularly the affects of introducing negative or implied space to an otherwise undisturbed geometry. Many properties of the dimensions and structure of the works are generated automatically by the application of sets of instructions, which may in addition contain elements of randomness.
‘THE WAKE OF THE PORTLAIRGE’ – Pat McArdle
The ‘Portlairge’ a steam dredger built by the Dublin Dockyard Company sailed into Waterford for the first time in September 10th 1907. It spent its working life dredging the berths in Waterford’s docks until it was finally decommissioned in 1983 to make way for a more modern diesel powered vessel.
(UNTITLED) – Peter McMorris
The works shown are part of an ongoing series exploring man’s position in this technological age – how we reshape and restructure patterns of social interdependence and move toward a technological extension of consciousness. The work considers how our constant access to vast amounts of information overwhelms our ability to process and reflect; and the relationship between man’s pursuit of knowledge and the impact this has on our spiritual beliefs.
‘GREYHOUND TRACK’, ‘AMUSEMENT ARCADE’ & ‘BINGO’ – Mike Hannon
‘Greyhound Track’, ‘Amusement Arcade’ and ‘Bingo‘ are three pseudo-anthropological filmic documents of leisure activities in the artist’s home town. The putative objects of observation are the various systems and structures (physical and otherwise) pertaining to rule based, social leisure establishments.
http://www.mikehannonmedia.com/
‘AT SEA’ – Deirdre McPhillips
In Ireland and Spain, the tradition of fishing is handed down from one generation to the next, from father to son. Having spent a lifetime fishing and investing in their fleets, both Irish and Spanish fishermen now face the threat of extinction as a result of increasing EU legislation and the advent of commercial super trawlers.
‘FIONN AND THE SALMON OF KNOWLEDGE’ – Dan Murphy
US-born Dan Murphy is developing a reputation for taking radical departures in installations and photography. He is currently living in Co. Kerry. Murphy uses photography, objects and installations to evoke an emotional response in viewers, which leads to personal reflection. ‘Fionn and The Salmon of Knowledge (1 & 2)’ are part of an evolving series of prints he is now working on.
‘OPERATION REWRITE THE CONSECUTIVE IMPOSTERS’ – Esperanza Collado & Maximillian Le Cain
‘The subject of Operation Rewrite is cinematic montage, its interruptions, associations and sometimes-surprising mutations. The concept of “cinema” it examines is subjects to constant re-assesment, embracing perception and projection technology as much as the articulation of signs.
http://maximilianlecain.com/operation-rewrite/