Consent Volenti

‘Consent Volenti’ pitches the legal notion of inherent risk with jocular physics through a series of painted landscapes cum' habitats. Here, hard is soft and risk as well as (in)credibility is waived. In the foreground there are life size horse hoof-prints and they lead, diminishing in scale towards the cliff. In The Cliff a legal waiver document standing-out from its spongy edge, has attention drawn to it by an-ever appearing cookoo. The cookoo’s clock is emphatically over-weighted and causes its time to spin unnaturally fast, while a small horse is suspended in mid jump from the cliff. The Waiver is an absurd linkage between the physics of cartoons and the far-fetched intentions of art. The inherent risks it lists are compared numerically with rules of jocular physics such as; 1. Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of the situation or 11. Any violent rearrangement of matter is impermanent - and the viewer is reminded that these physical and mental advantages might not apply to them in real life.

All works: oil on canvas, painted floor, sponge, upholstery sponge, wood, wooden horse, cookoo clock, paper, frame, weights, and a waiver on paper. Dimensions Variable (c.18ft x 18ft), Installation shots; RUA RED, Dublin & the ISCP, New York, also in adapted versions at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin and The Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Curated by Dawn Williams; supported by the Arts Council Project Award for ISCP & the Art and Law Fellowship Program, in association with The Vera List Centre, New York.

Parse

‘Parse’ was made and exhibited at IMMA - Irish Museum of Modern Art, in Unseen Presence, curated by Janice Haugh, during my time there as artist-in-residence; and developed as part of Consent Volenti, an expansive project at ISCP - the International Studio & Curatorial Program and the The Art & Law Program, Fordham University, New York. Supported by the Arts Council of Ireland. Written, animated and whispered by Sonia Shiel, Parse uses hand-painted and appropriated footage, model-making, animated sculpture, and stop-motion animation.

‘Parse’ is the story of a young girl determined to bring about the return of her mother from a trip to outer space - in accordance with the laws of jocular physics, under which her world is ruled. Set in a cartoon-habitat, where things fall consciously; space and distance are compressed; death is recoverable from and stars are souvenirs, what at first seems to be a child's efforts to comprehend a tragic lie becomes the rationale for her mother's absence, and even promises a plausible return. However a happy ending and the suspension of our belief are threatened by the very syntax that constructs them.

Casio Casino

Casio Casino’ is a collection of machines and contraptions in which the viewer ‘appears’ to activate a series of physical consequences involving song, gunpowder and weight, among other devices. Installation Shots: Crawford Art Gallery, curated by Dawn Williams ; and Rua Red, curated by Cliodhna Shaffrey as part of Consent Volenti.