Felons, 2005

curated by Alan Phelan
Royal Hibernian Academy
11 Febuary – 20 March, 2005

Felons brings together five artists and two writers for a project that at first appears quite random – the selection process was limited to artists whose name sounded like the curator’s surname – Phelan. This was partly inspired by the spell-check prompt from a word processing program that suggested ‘felon’ as the correct word for Phelan when it did not appear in the machine’s internal dictionary. From then the name acquired a kind of transgressive potential, freed from an individual identity, to become a collective mistake, double-take, or doppelganger. By giving up the self, others could be found, other mismatches and coincidental players. What emerged were other sequences and narratives which connected these artists and writers through their work not just their names. Within what should be conflicting practices, histories and concerns there is a connective discussion about urbanism that makes another kind of sense.

Exhibiting Artists: Hans-Peter Feldman, Paul Ferman, Yona Friedman, Wolfgang Paalen, Michel Peillon, Pelin Tan, and Marko Pelijan