Art

Burrowing into your brain: This week’s visual art highlights

Two shows look at how touchscreens and data overload are rebooting our minds

Alan Butler, Death Valley (2018), Lightfast pigment ink on 100% archival cotton-rag paper cold-mounted onto di-bond. 230 x 125cms (detail)

Aidan Dunne's face
Aidan Dunne
Sat May 18 2019 - 05:00

Screentime
Recent works by Paper Rad/Cory Arcangel, Alan Butler, Ben Jones, Conor McGarrigle, David O'Reilly and They Are Here. Green on Red Gallery, Park Lane, Spencer Dock, Dublin Until May 25th greenonredgallery.com

Fifteen years on from Green on Red’s moving image show Video Time, Screentime rounds up pieces by a number of artists whose work reflects the enormous changes wrought by digital technologies and touchscreen devices since, especially in the last decade, and how it extends into many aspects of our lives, from identity to cognition, attention spans to politics, like a vast, living and irreversible experiment in real time.

Worms in Your Head, A Journey
Stephen Dunne

Legacy
Matthew Mitchell

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[ thecourthousegallery.com ]

Stephen Dunne’s works on paper throw a protagonist into a journey through “multiple choices and wrong paths”, rendered in a free, informal manner and presented as “a constellation”. Matthew Mitchell goes into the landscape, using clay and stone from the Burren to make elegant abstract compositions, seeing connections between the environment and the current information age.

The Secret to My Success
Francis Casey, Jan McCullough and Rory Mullen. Kilkenny Arts Office Gallery, Dean St, Kilkenny Until June 8th kcat.ie

In video, paintings and text the three artists explore notions of “the ideal self, success and the influence of popular culture”, stemming from Rory Mullen’s story about a man who, on his deathbed, recounts the story of his good fortune in life. Leah Corbett curated (the first of a series of shows).

Off the Grid
Neal Greig. The Claremorris Gallery, Mount St, Claremorris, Co Mayo Until June 1st claremorrisgallery.com

Outstanding, closely observed landscapes that maintain a spontaneous, energised engagement with the atmospherics of each location, be it the turbulent waters along the Northwest coastline or the rivers and lakes of Fermanagh and Monaghan. Greig is always there in the moment, and conveys the experience directly.

36 Views of Croghan Hill
Veronica Nicholson. The Atrium, Offaly County Council, Charleville Road, Tullamore, Co Offaly Until May 31st photoireland.org/vnicholson108.wordpress.com

Although it really kicks into gear sometime in July, the 10th anniversary PhotoIreland Festival is in progress, with a number of affiliated shows on view. One of the more intriguing is Veronica Nicholson’s homage to Hokusai’s celebrated series of woodblock prints, 36 Views of Mount Fuji. Offaly-based Nicholson noticed that Croghan Hill is visible from numerous locations throughout the north of the county and, in its modest way, like Mt Fuji, is a place of pilgrimage.