BA Visual Art Degree Show at West Cork Arts Centre

Clockwise from top left Jill Hegarty, Ciarnad Ryan, Tess Leak, Sheelagh Broderick, Geoff Stephens, John Desmond and Gill Good
at West Cork Arts Centre.
Opening Sunday 1 March 2009 at 3.30pm.
Exhibition continues until 21 March 2009

Below is the publicity material from WCAC website

An exhibition of work by final year degree students from the BA in Visual Art, Sherkin Island – a joint initiative between the School of Art, Design and Printing at Dublin Institute of Technology, Sherkin Island Development Society Ltd. and West Cork Art Centre. The programme is supported by the Department of Rural, Gaeltacht and Community Affairs. This exhibition will feature work by the seven degree students who will be the first cohort to graduate from this exciting and innovative programme.

The four-year modular honours degree programme offers a dynamic and creative education in the visual arts and combines delivery through live and electronic media. The methodology employed presents a viable model for linking third level institutions with isolated communities and presents the opportunity for future collaborations.

By developing a mechanism for linking isolated communities with third level institutions a true sharing of knowledge can arise. In this way, educational programmes addressing the needs of specific communities may be devised and validated. The process enables isolated communities to retain their structural integrity while gaining in confidence and the resulting sustainable development broadens the economic base of the community.

Along with the other partners, West Cork Arts Centre is committed to the development of transformative educational provision at the higher levels of educational achievement which this programme provides. It also provides opportunities to build capacity in the arts so that artists can live, work and study on the islands - underpinning the capacity for living in remote and rural island and coastal environments.

The BA in Visual Art Programme brings professional artists to the area and creates opportunities for students, other artists, communities and arts organisations alike. It invigorates the process of engagement with the arts, it supports the establishment of learning communities and it leads to the development of networks, to promote exchange between communities of interest and the interrogation of contemporary arts practice.

I am a positively revolting hag

It is well over a decade since my first encounter with the ideas of radical feminist philosopher Mary Daly. She has a unique worldview that defiantly addresses the hubris of patriarchy. She is playful at times in addresssing what can be a very tedious academic topic of language as power.

The WEBSTERS' FIRST NEW INTERGALACTIC WICKEDARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, with images dawn by Jane Caputi is a 'brilliant, wild, and humor-filled Web-Work of words that frees the English language from its patriarchal and confining patterns by Weaving a fascinating, feminist, linguistic revolution'.

In the book she provides new phrases and interpretations of phrases which reveal hidden structures of power through language. Here are just a few that make me howl with laughter;

ACADEMENTIA n normal state of persons in academia, marked by varying and progressive degrees; irreversible deterioration of faculties of intellectuals

BORED, CHAIRMAN OF THE n any bore-ocratically appointed bore who occupies a chair - a position which enables hime to bore others all the more

COCKALORUM n a self-important little cock.

COCK-AND-BULL STORY n patriarchal history

And finally

POSITIVELY REVOLTING HAG : a stunning beauteous Crone, one who inspires positive revulsion from phallic institutions and morality, inciting Others to Acts of Pure Lust

Yesterday was a great day for me. In lots of different ways. But in relation to this post, I had a moment of self-realisation of myself as a positively revolting hag.

I had a difficult meeting at which I had to express the truth of my reality as I saw it, and in the process, jeopardise something I had been seeking for a long time.

Afterwards I just felt relieved that I was able to speak my truth and felt that that what I had said was received in good faith.

Being able to speak without fear or anger made the exchange a lot easier for everyone and made me realise what a long way I had come from the feelings of rancour experienced a decade ago.

Guerrilla Lighting

Glad to hear that 2009 has been 'brilliant' for Guerrilla Lighting. They featured in Lightwave 2009 curated by the Museum of Science at Trinity College and in a collaborative Flash Lighting event in January and on Eco Eye Feb 3rd last - if you click on the eco eye link it starts at 22:40 (I say this to save you from having to listen to Duncan Stewart for 22 minutes and 40 seconds). I am looking forward to the next Guerrilla Lighting event and hope that I can participate myself.

Chaka Khan at Paradiso

The best venue in Amsterdam

Good times and not so good times

I got the results of my final exam today and am very happy. I put a big effort in over the last 12 months and feel fortunate that it has been recognised. In general it seems that everyone did well and that the examiner's were happy with the overall standard.

Of course this has been a long time coming. We first registered on a pilot arts and culture course in 2000. I remember going over to Sherkin for the preliminary interview and feeling quite intimidated. I know Ber was there and I think John O'Connor too and maybe Maj. The past plays curious tricks on my mind

The following three years were a rollercoaster for me. Learning how to sit through a crit was agonising. I couldn't bear to be seated for such long periods and became restless easily. Of course, the class was bigger then. We had 14 students including ; Tess, John, Gill, Geoff, Catherine, Adele, Fiona, Jenny, Sarah, Naoise, Clare and Rosemary - I know there were others too, but again my mind is curiously vacant in this regard.

The modular approach gave us unlimited access to lecturers in specialist areas that could not be replicated on a city campus. We were worked hard and had fun sometimes too.

DIT staff disrupted there families to come to Sherkin for a period of days to teach and evaluate. It was exciting as the pedagogy was being evaluated simultaneously to our own arts practice. Sometimes it seemed like being in a doubleskinned fishbowl and you know how that can distort your perception.

Amazing energy was found in SIDS. Josephine, Liam and Breda were a crack team. They traveled all over the country to meetings with Ministers and bureaucrats to secure support for the project. Although they were tireless in their commitment, not everyone was as enthusiastic leading to a four year interregnum between the end of the pilot phase and the commencement of the mainstream model.

I realise that there is a price for everything and today I don't want to forget the price that was paid for our success.

Today I am saying thank you to all those involved past and present.