They have Eyes

 

  “They have Eyes”

 an installation by Elaine Byrne 

and Photographs by Nuala O’Sullivan

OCT 21 – NOV 16

Official opening  Friday October 21^st  at 8 pm

In her work Elaine Byrne enquirers whether there is complicity between the object and the subject, with a tension that affects fear, desire, reality and memory, in creating what the viewer actually sees but contemplating the idea that seeing is a reciprocal activity.   In her process, Byrne suggests that the articulation of fear and of tension within the banal is a position where the repeated story or word both articulates and realises the sentiment, that a picture rooted in a childhood past can evoke the memory of an irrational fear that though adult eyes contains no threat . In the exhibition “They have Eyes”, immediately the question ‘who or what are they’ is asked – anxious looking around to see where ‘they or it’ follows. 

Through with video, photography and installation Byrne investigates the state of the inner psyche, focusing on the notion multi layered identity. In examining this she looks at the experiences which shaped us – exploring the psychoanalytic model of the human personality, in which stories and memories carry important messages to the conscious and the unconscious mind. She is interested in memory’s role, including the collective unconscious memory – in helping us accept the problematic nature of life without being defeated by it.

Elaine completed a MA in Visual Arts Practices in 2009, and had solo exhibitions in Dublin, London and Mexico. She has been awarded the Arts council Travel and Training award (2010) and the Cultural Ireland travel award ( 2010 and 2011) .

In ‘They have Eyes’ 

Nuala O’Sullivan shows photographs which explore themes relating to identity and self image. They question how the mass media influence our self-image today and also consider the background and unseen financial forces that often manipulate how we see ourselves and how we spend our money.

 

In this series of photographs she is using paper dolls cut from the ‘How to Spend It’ Supplement in the ‘Financial Times Newspaper’. The dolls form a human chain, and although dolls are childhood images, here they address more complicated adult issues. Some of the photographs show the dolls against a black background looking stylised and highly finished like the magazines from which they were created.  However, the paper dolls continually topple over, and all the designer names they feature fall and collapse along with them.  

Nuala O’Sullivan holds a BA Degree in Fine Art Painting from the Limerick School of Art and Design (L.I.T.) and is currently researching her MA there.

An Evening of Poetry on All Ireland Poetry Day

An Evening of Poetry

To mark All-Ireland Poetry Day 2011

Thursday 6th October at 7pm

Salmon Poetry presents:

Joseph Woods

Jean Kavanagh

 Isla Thielan

Jessie Lendennie

Joseph Woods is a poet and Director of Poetry Ireland. A winner of the Patrick Kavanagh Award, his latest books are Cargo (Dedalus Press, 2010) which gathers together his first two books in a single volume and Ocean Letters (also from Dedalus Press, 2011) . He has also co-edited Our Shared Japan, an anthology of contemporary Irish poetry concerning Japan.

Jean Kavanagh was born in Dublin and is now living in Liscannor. In 2001 she co-founded The Cascades writing group in Ennistymon, and is now participating in the Advanced Poetry Workshop in The Galway Arts Centre. She has read her poetry at Clifden Arts Week and the Salthill Arts Festival, amongst other venues. She has twice been shortlisted for Over the Edge New Writer of the Year, most recently in 2011. 

Ilsa Thielan studied Art and Literature in Germany before settling in Clare. She works with photography, tapestry and words. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in many anthologies. Her debut collection, Night Horses, is forthcoming from Salmon.

Jessie Lendennie was born in Arkansas, USA. After years of travel, she settled in Ireland in 1981. Her previous publications include a book-length prose poem Daughter (1988); reprinted as Daughter and Other Poems in 2001. She compiled and edited: Salmon: A Journey in Poetry, 1981-2007;  Poetry: Reading it, Writing It, Publishing It (2009) and Dogs Singing: A Tribute Anthology (2010).  She is co-founder (1981) and Managing Director of Salmon Poetry. A new collection of her poetry, Walking Here, has just been released. She is currently working on a memoir To Dance Beneath the Diamond Sky.

For more information visit salmonpoetry.com

Salmon30 - 

Celebrating 30 Years of Literary Publishing in 2011

All welcome to attend, no charge