GB and the Western World
Galway Arts Centre, October, 2005
and Letterkenny Arts Centre, Donegal, November, 2005
Gordon Bennett Show & Shine Sound Off, 2005
Fused Festival in Tallaght, at the Dublin South County Hall rear car park in July 2005. The event was organised though various enthusiast web sites and the car owners competed in several categories for custom-made trophies.
Poster download entry form as Word or PDF
read review in The Irish Times click here
PRESS RELEASE
Alan Phelan
GB and the Western World
Open 26 September – 22 October, 2005
Reception Friday 7 October, 6:00pm
with the launch of a catalogue “Bio” with texts by eleven writers covering over 10 years of projects
Alan Phelan’s solo exhibition at the Galway Arts Centre brings together boy racers, phone masts, historic fireplaces, oil rigs, and grandstands all tied to the life of the international playboy, philanthropist and newspaper tycoon James Gordon Bennett Jr.
GB and the Western World explores aspects of representation connected across a biographical narrative – a reflection on an earlier era of mass communication and media manipulation, not so different from the world we live in today. The variety of works are indicative of an eclectic practice that has long been concerned with how biographical information can root an artwork in a kind of reality, which then frees the artist to manipulate expectations and situations. The biography minimally informs the works but functions as the narrative glue across disparate works and ideas.
James Gordon Bennett Jr. sponsored expeditions in Africa and the Artic as well as sporting events to create media spectacles which were covered by his newspaper The New York Herald. The works in the show reverse this process to create not so much memorials to his extravagant lifestyle but starting points for a conversation about how social events and history are constructed and remembered.
There is an archaeological and theatrical feel to the work, made from combinations clear acrylic, wood, metal and paper in fragmented or provisional set-ups. These materials take their cue from the museum – the museum in ruins – from a history that maybe never happened, one that is always up for grabs, to be constantly re-interpreted and misunderstood.
The exhibition includes sculpture installation, photography, video and drawings with the first showing a major new work “Bennett Island”, which comprises of an inverted oil rig rooted in drawing of the East Siberian Island named after Bennett, discovered 1881 by the crew of the Jeanette on their ill-fated voyage to discover the Northern Passage.
Additionally the sculpture “Playboy Riot Protection Structure”, will be installed outside the Nun’s Island Theatre. This work uses elements from the façade of the Abbey Theatre Dublin, the site of the riots that occurred after the first presentation of JM Synge’s Playboy of the Western World in 1907.
This exhibition will tour to the Millennium Court Arts Centre in 2006
Funded by the Arts Council, Commissions (2005)
Press Release 27 September 2005
BOY RACERS, PHONE MASTS, OIL RIGS AND GRANDSTANDS FEATURE IN NEW GALWAY ARTS CENTRE EXHIBITION
Galway Arts Centre is proud to present a new solo exhibition by one of Ireland’s most celebrated contemporary artists. Alan Phelan’s ‘GB and the Western World’ is now on view at 47 Dominick Street and runs until 22 October. It will have its official opening on Friday 7 October with the launch of a “Bio”, a catalogue covering over eleven years of Phelan’s projects, published by Galway Arts Centre.
‘GB and the Western World’ brings together boy racers, phone masts, historic fireplaces, oil rigs, and grandstands all tied to the life of the international playboy, philanthropist and newspaper tycoon, James Gordon Bennett Jr. The exhibition explores aspects of representation connected across a biographical narrative – a reflection on an earlier era of mass communication and media manipulation, not so different from the world we live in today.
James Gordon Bennett Jr. sponsored expeditions in Africa and the Artic as well as sporting events to create media spectacles which were covered by his newspaper, The New York Herald at the beginning of the 20th century. The works in the show reverse this process to create not so much memorials to his extravagant lifestyle but starting points for a conversation about how social events and history are constructed and remembered.
There is an archaeological and theatrical feel to the work, made from combinations clear acrylic, wood, metal and paper in fragmented or provisional set-ups. These materials take their cue from the museum – the museum in ruins – from a history that maybe never happened, one that is always up for grabs, to be constantly re-interpreted and misunderstood.
The exhibition includes sculpture installation, photography, video and drawings with the first showing a major new work “Bennett Island”, which comprises of an inverted oil rig rooted in drawing of the East Siberian Island named after Bennett, discovered 1881 by the crew of the Jeanette on their ill-fated voyage to discover the Northern Passage.
Additionally the sculpture “Playboy Riot Protection Structure”, will be installed outside the Nun’s Island Theatre. This work uses elements from the façade of the Abbey Theatre Dublin, the site of the riots that occurred after the first presentation of JM Synge’s Playboy of the Western World in 1907.
Alan Phelan was born in Dublin in 1968. He has exhibited in widely in Ireland and also in the UK, USA, Germany, Denmark and Slovenia. Recent exhibitions include the ‘Strata’, Ireland/Wales; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast; and the Kilkenny Arts Festival. He has received numerous significant commissions and was editor/curator for issue 5 of Printed Project launched at the 51st Venice Biennale.
“Bio”, is a 96-page full colour book, published by Galway Arts Centre to accompany the current exhibition. The book covers the current project and ten other projects that Phelan has made over the past eleven years that have engaged in biographical content in a variety of ways. A short text accompanies images from each project, from the following writers: David Godbold, Jeanette Doyle, Cherry Smyth, Gemma Tipton, Mick Wilson, Sarah Pierce, Henriette Huldisch, Nataša Petrešin, Enda Leaney, Maria Fusco and Ciaran Bennett.
*This exhibition will tour to the Millennium Court Arts Centre in Portadown in 2006
ENDS
Further information from Tomás Hardiman at 091-565886 or tomas@galwayartscentre.ie
GB and the Western World – Alan Phelan
Headline Drawings, 2004
ink on trace paper
each 20 x 29 cm
Key events from each year between 1871 and 1903 are presented as semi-sensational newspaper headlines, broadcast via mobile phone masts disguised as Scot’s pine trees. The headlines include major news items and James Gordon Bennett, Jr.’s sponsored events like the Road Race held in 1903 near Athy and expeditions to the Artic and Africa. These provided spectacular stories for his newspaper the New York Herald Tribune.
Fireplace, 2004
wood, photocopy on paper, poster paint, PVC, vinyl adhesive stickers
200 x 151 x 100 cm
James Gordon Bennett, Jr. was well known as a philanderer and playboy, so much so that his name became a byword because of his eccentric and boorish ways. He is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records under ‘Greatest Engagement Faux Pas’ for having his engagement to Caroline May broken off in 1877 after he arrived late and drunk at the May family’s New York mansion and urinated in the living room fireplace in front of his hosts. This Fireplace uses images from a wood carved medieval fireplace located originally in Old Bawn near Tallaght, now held by the National Museum.
Arklow Racers, 2004
face mounted duratrans photograph, light fixture, glass, wood
51 x 27 x 9 cm
image: 31 x 26 cm
This image is of a group of modified car enthusiasts, sometimes known as Boy Racers, who attended a Show and Shine event in Arklow, June 2004.
GB Shields, 2004
metal, rubber, vinyl adhesive stickers
various sizes, approx. 50 x 250 x 4 cm
These shields are cut from actual car hoods into these heraldic shapes. The various ‘GB’ letters are taken from car manufacturing corporate logos.
Gordon Bennett Show & Shine Sound Off, 2005
DVD video, duration 3:54 mins
This video was shot at an event held during the Fused Festival in Tallaght, at the Dublin South County Hall rear car park in July 2005. The event was organised though various enthusiast web sites and the car owners competed in several categories for custom-made trophies.
Grandstand, 2004
acrylic, wood
400 x 85 x 200 cm
This collapsed viewing stand is based on one constructed as a bridge across the road near Ballyshannon for the Gordon Bennett Cup Race held in 1903 outside Athy. The race was held in Ireland as special legislation was passed to allow higher speeds than in Britain where the race was originally scheduled to take place. This Grandstand is a reconstruction of possible archaeological remnants.
Bennett Island, 2005
acrylic, perspex, wood, metal, inkjet print, paint, MDF, vinyl adhesive sticker
95 x 330 x 150 cm
Bennett Island is one the De Long Islands in the northern part of the East Siberian Sea. The island was discovered by George DeLong of the tragic Jeannette expedition in July 1881 and named after James Gordon Bennett, Jr., who had financed the expedition. Although Siberia is now known for oil exploration and production, the island was also the site of secret testing of Soviet electromagnetic weapons in the 1970’s. The vinyl text is Russian for Bennett Island, taken from a map of the island acquired through an Estonian yachtsman.
Gordon-Bennett!
Grennan Mill, Kilkenny Arts Festival, August, 2004
“Gordon-Bennett”, by Alan Phelan, is a reflection and action on the propaganda of mass communications. The multiple narratives that run through this exhibition explore ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further an individual’s cause, to damage an opposing cause; as well as the public actions having such effects.
Taking references from the life of international playboy, philanthropist and newspaper tycoon James Gordon Bennett Jr., this body of work brings together boy racer stickers, archaeological remains, technological sham, as well as the human demand to be and remain current or ‘in the news’ and yet be different.
Gordon-Bennett explores aspects of representation and media manipulation, connected across a biographical narrative, a reflection and action on the propaganda of mass communications. The multiple narratives that run through the work explore ideas, facts, or even allegations spread deliberately to further an individual’s cause or life mission. Gordon-Bennett includes sculpture installation, photography, and drawings.
James Gordon Bennett Jr. sponsored expeditions in Africa and the Artic as well as sporting events to create media spectacles which were covered by his newspaper The New York Herald. The works in the show reverse this process to create a series of spectacles which manipulate or misrepresent his life, not so much memorials to his extravagant lifestyle but starting points for a conversation about how social events and perceptions are constructed and remembered.
There is an archaeological and theatrical feel to the work but these disciplines do not inform the work directly. The cue instead is from the museum in general, the museum in ruins, from history that maybe never happened, from a history that is always up for grabs, to be constantly re-interpreted and misunderstood.
catalogue essay by Noel Kelly from Kilkenny Arts Festival PDF
Gordon-Bennett by Alan Phelan
Grennan Mill, Thomastown
Kilkenny Arts Festival, August, 2004
Taking references from the life of international playboy, philanthropist and newspaper tycoon James Gordon Bennett Jr., this body of work brings together boy racer stickers, archaeological remains, technological sham, as well as the human demand to be and remain current or ‘in the news’ and yet be different.
Gordon-Bennett explores aspects of representation and media manipulation, connected across a biographical narrative, a reflection and action on the propaganda of mass communications. The multiple narratives that run through the work explore ideas, facts, or even allegations spread deliberately to further an individual’s cause or life mission. Gordon-Bennett includes sculpture installation, photography, and drawings.
James Gordon Bennett Jr. sponsored expeditions in Africa and the Artic as well as sporting events to create media spectacles which were covered by his newspaper The New York Herald. The works in the show reverse this process to create a series of spectacles which manipulate or misrepresent his life, not so much memorials to his extravagant lifestyle but starting points for a conversation about how social events and perceptions are constructed and remembered.
There is an archaeological and theatrical feel to the work but these disciplines do not inform the work directly. The cue instead is from the museum in general, the museum in ruins, from history that maybe never happened, from a history that is always up for grabs, to be constantly re-interpreted and misunderstood.
(all works 2004)
Grandstand
Acrylic, wood
400 x 300 x 100 cm
Hill of Shouts
Digital print on vinyl mesh, wire fixings
600 x 220 cm
Arklow Racers
Duratrans mounted to acrylic, light fixture, wood
31 x 26 cm
Fireplace
Paper, toner, wood, paint
200 x 100 x 150 cm
GB Stickers
Adhesive vinyl
Various dimensions
Headline Drawings
Inkjet and ink on paper, framed
21 x 27 cm (22 drawings in total)
“No intimation: Total representation”
Noel Kelly PDF
“Gordon-Bennett”, by Alan Phelan, is a reflection and action on the propaganda of mass communications. The multiple narratives that run through this exhibition explore ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further an individual’s cause, to damage an opposing cause; as well as the public actions having such effects.
To our minds, the concept of propaganda is seen within the context of political powers. The manipulation of the media by political propagandists brought the role of mass media to a new level during the lifetime of Josef Goebbels. However it is not the sole remit of the politicos. Mass media is its own originator and perpetrator that continues its work even today. However, we need to ask if it is all-bad! The exaggeratedly serious self-promotion of the great egotists can also be seen for their comedic value. This is not an area of subtle intimation. It is total representation. This is at the centre of the theme chosen by Phelan for “Gordon-Bennett”, moulded in a mixture of styles, metaphors, and coverts that give the viewer the opportunity to avoid literal representation and to indulge the intimations provided by Phelan.
James Gordon Bennett, scion of the great 19th and early 20th century media age is not a unique character. Inheriting the New York Herald, Bennett continued on his path of playboy, daredevil, and philanthropist. But why then do we place him with the great propagandists? In a non-Freudian sense Bennett was the great über-ego. The New York Herald became the carnival mirror to this ego, and through shameless self-promotion Gordon Bennett entered the lingua viva that has survived intact even today. Bennett’s great monuments to his cult of personality are known to us: Stanley’s search for Livingston, the ill fated Jeanette expedition to the artic, and the first international motor race in Ireland, still commemorated today. However, the great ego can grow to believe its own infallibility. In this Bennett was to be no exception, and from there we take the first steps into Phelan’s exploration.
Ardscull, The Hill of Shouts, a Motte and Bailey, a 12th/13th century site lofty above the plains of Kildare, proclaims itself to the landscape. What better place could Bennett have found to begin this international motor race. The great self-publicist occupied this territory with cars coming from across the world to pay homage to his foresight. Accidents of circumstance placed this road race in the narrow roads of Ireland. Lax restrictions gave Bennett the loophole that he required to run a race at speeds otherwise prohibited in the rest of the British Isles. Crowds flocked to the spectacle; lining the hedgerows and overpowering the grandstand view provided by a giant bridge-like seating construction placed across the route.
The ruins of this are now long gone. A simple stone plinth and bronze plaque are all that occupy the place now. Commemoration races hold little of the original excitement. However we do see a human need for continuation, for spectacle, for a realisation that we are alive and different. The superficial artifice of spectacle, of “boys with toys” continues the Bennett theme to modern day. The term “Boy Racer” once seen as derogatory now defines the identity of a sub-section of young male adults. Customised bodywork, pumped up stereo systems, pseudo “performance parts” manufactured in fragile fibreglass provide a new plumage in the mating ritual of the adolescent. A new vocabulary is being included in everyday language, and yet there is the question of brevity of existence. The solidity of this veneer of modernity by its very nature is impermanent and yet the underlying need is at the core of human nature.
The Great Bennett is dead and gone and yet his legacy lingers on. We see in a re-constructed fireplace the fecundity of crude manners and churlish ways. The solidity of great episodes in the life of the great self-publicist pulled apart and remade for each new generation. We are made to question the essence of this solidity. The camouflage of the benign covers an intricate web of complex concealment. It is not new that we cannot trust our key senses. We are made to understand that transparency is not a given right, instead it is a constant challenge that we must undertake to understand.
There is an archaeological and theatrical feel to the work but these disciplines do not inform the work directly. The cue instead is from the museum in general, the museum in ruins, from history that maybe never happened, from a history that is always up for grabs, to be constantly re-interpreted and misunderstood. Phelan’s work is post-production. This is the social art of derailed thoughts and endless digressions. Phelan claims to remove his individuality from the work, and yet we must ask if this is really possible. In this darkened mirror we see ourselves, our absurdities, our fears, and our hopes reflected. It is a post-action post-consumerist questioning that is directed specifically to the ‘id’, the source of instinctual impulses and demands for immediate satisfaction of primitive needs. Nothing is new here, there is nothing to see, and yet… we are being held accountable only to ourselves by the very provision of what is very much with each of us!
Noel Kelly – The Art Projects Network
Alan Phelan was born in Dublin 1968 where he lives and works. He graduated from DCU, Dublin, 1989 and RIT, New York, 1994. Solo exhibitions include a Tulca Visual Arts Festival, Galway Arts Centre, 2003-04; ‘Three Stories’, South Dublin County Council, ‘In Context’ public art project 2001; Limerick City Gallery and Triskel, Cork, 2000; Arthouse, Dublin, with Jim Dingilian, 1998. Recent group shows include ‘Country’, Equrna Gallery, Ljubjana, Slovenia and ‘EV+A Imagine Limerick’, Limerick City Gallery, 2004; ‘Appendiks 1’, Thiemers magasin, Copenhagen; ‘Affinity Archive’, The Metropolitan Complex, Dublin, and ‘Permaculture’, Project, Dublin, 2003;’Crawford Open 3′, Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork, ‘Perspective 2002’, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast; ‘Fabulations of Form’, Arthouse, Dublin. He co-curated with Jane Speller ‘No Respect’ public art project, 2004; with Tom Keogh ‘Stand Fast Dick and Jane’, Project, Dublin, 2001; and ‘Things We Do’, 2000, Arthouse, Dublin. He has also writes regularly for SSI publications and Circa magazine. Forthcoming projects include a Broadband commission for the Department of Communications, Marine, and Natural Resources.
