P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center will be the first venue for a traveling exhibition of contemporary Irish art, on view June 20 through August 29, 1999. The exhibition’s title “0044” refers to the international telephone code for Britain and suggests the themes of identity and transnationality explored by twenty contemporary Irish artists who are now living and working in Britain. From Siobhán Hapaska’s highly finished sculptural landscapes to Frances Hegarty’s video self-portrait, the implications of this discussion extend beyond the Irish community.
“The exhibition addresses issues of identity and mobility among artists moving between the two countries,” says curator Peter Murray. “Any visitor to 0044 who is looking for familiar or stereotypical views of Ireland is likely to be disappointed.”
Over the centuries many Irish artists have pursued and developed their careers in Britain and this migratory pattern continues today. Although living in Britain, these Irish artists are keenly aware of social changes and political developments in their homeland. As a result of their formative life in Ireland, they have developed a visual language to express social and political forces that often employs metaphor and paradox, and questions accepted views.
P.S.1 has devoted its first floor main galleries to 0044, which features more than eighty works in diverse media, including large-scale painting, photography, sculpture, video, performance, and installation. The artists are Kathy Prendergast, Daphne Wright, Paul Seawright, Andre Stitt, Cecily Brennan, John Carson, Anne Carlisle, Maud Cotter, Liadin Cooke, John Gibbons, Frances Hegarty, Siobhán Hapaska, Andrew Kearney, Mo White, Nicholas May, Tina O’Connell, Eilís O’Connell, Elizabeth Magill, Mark Francis, Anne Tallentire, and John Seth.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog featuring specially commissioned interviews with the 0044 artists discussing diverse aspects of contemporary life and society in Ireland. A symposium with 0044 curator Peter Murray and artists Maud Cotter, Andrew Kearney, Tina O’Connell, and Daphne Wright will take place in the third floor conference room at P.S.1 on Sunday, June 20, 1999, from 2 to 3 pm.
Peter Murray of the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery in Cork is 0044’s chief curator. Claire Schneider of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery is the associate curator. Following its presentation at P.S.1, 0044 will travel to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York where it will be on view from September 17 through October 31, 1999. The exhibition will then continue to the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, in Cork, Ireland where it will be presented from November 1999 to March 2000 as the inaugural exhibition in the new gallery wing designed by Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat.
0044 is supported by The Arts Council, Ireland; Arts Council of Northern Ireland; and The British Council Cultural Relations Committee of Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland.