But what end?
Alan Phelan at Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast
“What is the meaning of it, Watson?”
said Holmes solemnly as he laid down the paper. .
“What object is served
by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance,
which is unthinkable. But what end?
There is the great standing perennial problem to which human
reason is as far from an answer as ever.”
THE FINAL PARAGRAPH FROM THE ADVENTURE OF THE CARDBOARD BOX A SHORT STORY BY ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, PUBLISHED IN 1892
Gallery 1
1. Blind Private Party Outtake, 2010-2014
video projection, hanging cloth and sculptures in cardboard boxes:
Sweet, 2011
video projection, 4:48 minutes duration
A Skull Perhaps, 2011
Leftover papier-mâché, glue
Cabbage Shade, 2011
light fixture, rubber leaves, wire
Protest Polar Bear, 2010
archival paper, EVA glue, toner, varnish, plastic cheese, motor, acrylic, wood, paint
(papier-mâché made from an article from the Irish Times about the street paper collectors called Cartoneros in Buenos Aires, April 2010)
2. Red Handed Larkin Man, 2014
adhesive black and red vinyl
3. Self-Rescue Mechanism # 1, 1998-2014
cardboard boxes, headphones, lining cloth, string, metal, voice-over of IRC script conversations between Alan Phelan and Jim Dingilian by Joe Duffy, 39 minutes duration
4. Parts of Edgar Alan, 2014
Borrowed plaster statuary, light fixture, courtesy of the RHA, Dublin
Back Space
5. Portrait of the probable founder of Harcourt Home
oil painting courtesy of Broadstone Studios
6. The re-Birth of a Nation (without Brian), 2011
papier-mâché reading glasses; digital video enabled photo frame, 3:24 minutes duration
7. just-a-hand, 2013
digital photoframe of hand images collected online, approx. 1,400 images. 70 minutes duration
Gallery 2
8. Edwart & Arlette, 2014
HD video projection on sailcloth, 15 minutes duration
9. Rosebud Tunnel Face, 2011
cut velvet curtain fabric, printed cotton, adhesive, wood
10. 50.2.1, 2013
remade multiples by: Linsay Seers, Gerard Byrne, Kathy Prendergast, Pádraig Timoney, Alun Rowlands
bear with ear head cast in modelling wax; acrylic, paper, ink, glue; shoe brush, polish; ceramic tile, paint, lacquer, paper; notebook with woven cover
11. Handjob elements, 2013
selection of works from the Handjob show in Oonagh Young Gallery: Brenda Moore McCann Medical Semiotics, 2013 bespoke hardback, ink; les mains dans l’art, 2013, inkjet prints, glass; stump warmer, 2013, faux fur
12. 50.3.2, 2013
remade multiples by: Dermot O’Brien Mike Minnus Walker & Walker David Shrigley Matthew Higgs
wind-up toy dinosaur, varnish, flock; paper, toner; plastic nose, steel wool; notebook, paint; custom printed mouse mat
13. Moreilli Lectures, 2014
toner on paper
14. 50.1, 2013
remade multiples by: Eoghan McTigue, Ciaran O’Cearnaigh, Alice Maher, Elizabeth Wright, Mac Dermot & Mac Gough, Gary Coyle, Shane Cullen
display case roof, trestle legs, light bulbs; Latin American hardwood wood, blue transfer ink; black heavy duty latex glove and artifical hair; Readers Digest Universal Dictionary, ham sandwich; shirt collar, wire; jar, lid, Liffey water, stamped addressed envelope; apples
Edwart & Arlette, 2014
Written, directed and produced by
Alan Phelan
Cast
Andrew Bennett
Mikel Murfi
Stella Godmet
Stephen Mullen
Music
Michael Fleming
Cinematography
Luca Rocchini
Editor
Alan Phelan
Casting
Maureen Hughes
Dramaturge
Gina Moxley
Costume
Grace O’Hara
Hair and Make-up
Bridge Lucey
Hair and Make-up Assistant
Anna-Leah Rackard
Production Co-ordinator
Paul Hallahan
Production Assistant
Cormac O’Brien
Focus Puller and Camera Assistant
Tommy Fitzgerald
Gaffer
Ela Gas
Lighting Assistant
Ultan O’Conner
Sound
Hugh Fox
Boom
Oisín Callinan
Runner
Emily Strong
Post-production co-ordination
John Beattie
Fire Station Artists’ Studios
Colourist
Michael Higgins
Locations thanks to:
Office of Public Works
National Concert Hall, Dublin
Irish Architectural Foundation
Broadstone Studios, Dublin
Justin Kinsella
With special thanks to:
Noel Kelly, Anna Rachard, Wendy Judge, Gabhann Dunne, Stephen Loughman, Molloy & Dowling, Patricia Kelly, Liam O’Callaghan, Sarah Jones; Jimmy Eadie; Clodagh Kenny, Trish Perrott, Jerry Organ, Gallahad Goulet, Con Dempsey, Ken O’Shea, Sean Lawlor, Gareth Ball; Nathalie Weadick, Jacinta Lynch, Angela Rolf, Hugh Bonar, Barry Walsh, Ronan Fogarty; Oonagh Young, Peter Richards, Deirdre McKenna, Matt Packer, Sam Basu, Charlotte Bari
Funded by a Project Award from:
The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon
Golden Thread Gallery PR:
Artist Statement (Short: approx. 50 words):
“What is the meaning of it, Watson?” said Holmes solemnly as he laid down the paper. “What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable. But what end? There is the great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from an answer as ever.”
The final paragraph from The Adventure of the Cardboard Box
a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1892
Artist Statement (Long: approx. 150 words):
“What is the meaning of it, Watson?” said Holmes solemnly as he laid down the paper. “What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable. But what end? There is the great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from an answer as ever.”
The final paragraph from The Adventure of the Cardboard Box
a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1892
This quote opens Alan Phelan’s exhibition of new, recent and re-configured work, centred around an adaptation of this Sherlock Holmes story in a new film titled “Edwart & Arlette”. With characters, dialogue and settings all reworked, this stylish whodunit hands over the detective work to the audience, since Sherlock himself has been removed from the narrative. With the central characters modelled on a photograph of a French art critic and museum curator, the film shifts into a different range of references, stemming from a collection of hand photographs which the artist used to determine the shot design and dialogue. The words and sentence fragments found on the images were developed into dialogue and remain in the order they were found, forcing the narrative to take some unexpected turns.
Re-configuring works, his own and other artists, has become an important element in Phelan’s practice. Works are not just re-contextualised, but re-named, spun, and connected to different ideas. All together the show explores through various objects and installations “a circle of misery, violence and fear” as with Sherlock’s plea above but thankfully negotiated through humour and inventiveness.
Additional Press text for show (the gallery may edit text according to the target audience)
Other reference points and works include the Michael Haneke TV film 1984 “Wer war Edgar Allan?”; Serbian karaoke mashed-up which the 1980s pop band The Sparks; former Taoiseach Brian Cowen; graphics from Jim Larkin’s “Irish Worker” newspaper; as well as a selection of works which are remakes of others artists’ multiples. Together they do indeed explore the object served by a circle of misery, violence and fear but thankfully negotiated through humour and inventiveness.
The topography of “But what end?” takes an initial cardboard route, re-presenting recent works using screens and boxes or card. Re-configuring works, his own and other artists, has become an important element in Phelan’s practice, where works are not just re-contextualised but re-named, spun and connected to different ideas. The 1998 installation “Self-Rescue Mechanism #1” is now presented as a stack of boxes with headphones which play the voiceover by RTE radio presenter Joe Duffy as he reads the chat room script of two artists discussing how to approach auto-erotic asphyxiation from a sentimental perspective.
Just as Conan Doyle was inspired by Giovanni Moreilli in his construction of the Holmes character, so too is Phelan, in demanding that we look at the small detail for clues. The Moreilli technique was a mid nineteenth century identification technique for paintings – by following the unconscious traces left behind by the artist, in this instance the rendering of ears or hands, which tend to have a unique identity, a lot like fingerprints at a crime scene. But as grand narratives and notions of authorship have been shattered and moreover diffused, the shifting parameters of meaning are now mandated to embrace chance and intuition in connecting to a real world of possibilities where meaning is not so pre-determined.
