Casino Marino, Dublin
12 April – 29 July 2024

This building has been an incredible place to mount an exhibition. I was approached to show here and asked Mark to work with me on tackling the task. Together we selected many existing works that were tuned in various ways to the decor iconography, materials and history. These were maybe superficial starting points that got the conversation going. Newer works connect more directly to the pleasure palace and the unavoidable post-colonial context. The essay in the brochure by James Merrigan asks a lot of difficult questions about this. The art answers indirectly and obliquely, taking multiple positions, coming from different places and narratives. There is a lot going on but a lot of goodwill also.

Briefly, it began with a list of things Mark posted online, this led to selecting ‘List’ – a barrage of short sentences that formed the graphic identity for the show layered onto the exterior with RGB lines from me. Along with Larry, a bunch of male names are introduced through striped lined paintings. They are drawn from art history but anonymised here as first names, cleared to party or just fall down the stairs. Mark on the other hand is a family man and has several works made with and about his young children. Their dreams are mapped, games remade and obsessively collaged into fantastical landscapes or territories of thinking. Between us, new works reconfigure pizza boxes, an archive of paper, magic trick cabinets, board games and pebbles to connect to the iconography and history of the building. My Joly photographs are selected for form and content, layered spot works to relate to Mark and connect to the kitchen garden and ambitions of a possible futures for workers and party folk.

The link ‘Associated Texts‘ contains lots of written material generated for the show which includes an artists’ statement, official press release, the brochure essay, full list of works, and interpretative explainers for the tour guides of the building.

The show is open until the end of July. Booking is not required but you may have to wait if a tour is happening. The building is a national monument and all visitors must be shadowed for security reasons. Please be patient. The guides recount the history of the building to visitors as there are no text panels and dreadful interpretative displays. The building is empty of any original furnishings and so an ideal place for contemporary art if it can dare to compete with the amazing architecture.

Documentation photography by Louis Haugh.

Low res PDF brochure with essay by James Merrigan and full list of works

OPW press release

Irish Times review by Tom Lordan 6 May 2024

Associated Texts