“Still Still Assembly”

I created an Installation Artwork entitled 'Still Still Assembly' as part of the Catalyst Arts - Collective Histories of Northern Irish Art X, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast. Curated by Cherie Driver. (A response to ‘Still Assembly’, part of the Suicide of Objects Project, curated by Julie Bacon in the Ulster Museum, Belfast, 2004.)This mixed-media artwork, (in the the vein of Arte Povera), was formed from a range of found objects and materials, (too many to list here). I was asked to respond to a former work, an Install-ation work I had created in the Lecture Theatre of the Ulster Museum in 2004, also entitled 'Still Assembly'. In this earlier work I had sourced a series of stuffed animals from the museum archives. Many of these animals & birds were placed at the front of the Lecture Theatre stage and each had a microphone placed near their mouths. I had placed other animals on and around the stage, some almost hidden from view, such as a wolf and a tiger, who lurked in the background. I selected animals that I saw as archetypal and in some ways symbolising aspects of the Northern Irish Political Situation or political history. I performed on the this stage for two days, dressed as a museum worker I performed a series of seemingly random and surreal tasks.My response to this work in the GT Gallery was to create an installation, again using stuffed animals, which were sourced by the GT Gallery, along with a series of other objects, equipment and materials. This artwork was also a response to the contemporary political environment in Northern Ireland, and a criticism of the inactivity and stasis resulting form our special political system of perennial coalitions and the resulting inability of our political representatives to move forward, beyond old entrenched attitudes and tribal parameters... among other things.The Group Exhibition involved the following artists:Julie Louise Bacon, Amy Brooks, Ursula Burke, Lorraine Burrell, Duncan Campbell, Gerard Carson, Colm Clarke, Brian Connolly, Ben Craig, Miriam de Búrca, Toby Dennett, Seamus Harahan, Kevin Henderson, Daniel Jewesbury, Lisa Malone, Ronan McCrea, Mary McIntyre, Susan MacWilliam, Deirdre McKenna, Dougal McKenzie, Stephen Miller, Eilis O’Baoil, Sinead O’Donnell, Mark Orange, Brian Patterson, Peter Richards, Duncan Ross, Helen Sharp, Dan Shipsides, Theo Sims, Keike Twisselmann & Karen Vaughan.This is the Exhibition Statement which I have quoted from the GT Gallery Website:"The tenth instalment of Golden Thread Gallery’s Collective Histories of Northern Irish Art Series, a project that forms a significant archive of Northern Irish Art from 1945 to the present.Catalyst Arts: Collective Histories of Northern Irish Art X curated by Cherie Driver centres on the artist led initiative established in 1992. The exhibition examines the role mainly Belfast based artists, collaborative projects and performative actions and events have played in dissolving individualistic notions of the artist, pushing boundaries of contemporary art practice, and appropriating curation as an artistic practice and critical collaborative process." (Extract quoted from GT Gallery Website)