Ten Stories to Dust – Keith Currams
Garter Lane Arts Centre, O’Connell St, Waterford Until January 27 garterlane.ie
Once a storage centre for vast supplies of imported animal feed ingredients, the R&H Hall building was the centerpiece of the North Quay industrial complex in Waterford city. Once its demolition was confirmed a few years back, Keith Currams started to document the process. Love it or hate it – and opinions were polarised – François Hennebique's concrete monolith was of architectural note, and Currams's photographs and audio installation (including first-hand accounts of the building – stories of storeys) comprise an elegiac memorial to part of Waterford's historical industrial fabric.
Hi! Fashion
Irish and Japanese fashion over 60 years. Farmleigh Gallery, Farmleigh House and Estate, White’s Road, Phoenix Park, Dublin Until April 29 farmleigh.ie
Yohji Yamamoto’s 1998 fashion campaign was based in Connemara, drawing fabrics, colours, patterns and models from the local environment.
That’s one dramatic example of an underlying sympathy between aspects of Japanese and Irish aesthetics. This show, initiated last year at the National Craft Gallery to mark 60 years of diplomatic links, juxtaposes Japanese and Irish women’s wear and accessories to highlight links and divergences. Curated by Gemma A. Williams, in collaboration with Roji.
Pallas Periodical Review – #7-PPS V RGKSKSRG
Pallas Projects Gallery, Pallas Projects 115-117n The Coombe, Dublin Until January 20th, pallasprojects.org
Pallas Projects Periodical Review is an annual, curated overview of the past year's arts activity in Ireland. It's not a conventional group survey show and usually has a refreshingly conversational atmosphere while also including first class works, often chosen on unpredictable lines. This Periodical was delivered by two curatorial collaborative partnerships: PPS - Gavin Murphy, Mark Cullen – and RGKSKSRG – Rachael Gilbourne & Kate Strain. They've come up with a stimulating collection of artists including Gareth Anton Averill, Ursula Burke, Alan Butler, Dennis Dinneen, Jason Ellis, Jesse Jones, Barbara Knezevic, Ruth E Lyons, Sibyl Montague, Eleanor McCaughey and Ailbhe Ní Bhriain to name but some.
Buzz and Hum
Richard Gorman and Samuel Walsh. Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Co Cork January 12-February 20 westcorkartscentre.com
It’s not an obvious pairing, but Limerick City Gallery acted at matchmaker and now Uillinn gives the juxtaposition another outing.
Both artists make abstract paintings displaying sharply defined areas of flat colour, more or less, but with noticeably different temperaments. For all the precision of the boundaries in his spare, centre-focused compositions, Gorman is un-emphatic and easy-going.
Walsh is much more definite, more directed towards pinning things down. His precision has a cross-hair at its centre.
