The ladder
is always there
8 Dec 2023 –
3 Feb 2024
at Draíocht
Curated by S/TAC
Photo Credit: Declan Murphy Lighthouse
Image: Ensemble 2023, Sorcha McNamara
Shell/Ter Artist Collective (S/TAC): Diana Copperwhite, Allyson Keehan, Niamh McGuinne, Sharon Murphy, Geraldine O’Neill in association with ten emerging artists; Maya Brezing, Matthew Coll, Karen Ebbs, Spencer Glover, Ami Jackson, Mary Martin, Fiach McGuinne, Sorcha McNamara, Eileen Leonard Sealy and Catherine Ward.
The exhibition’s title, the ladder is always there, is from the poem ‘Diving into the Wreck’ by the feminist American poet Adrienne Rich who conjures the image of a woman preparing for a deep-sea scuba dive to explore a shipwreck. The ladder can be understood as both an object and as a metaphor for support and movement, always there.
The main focus of this exhibition is to highlight the role of an artist collective as a form of support for early career artists and to encourage collective action through art. It presents new works by recent graduates alongside more established artists in drawing, painting and its expanded forms — photography, print, film, installation — which take inspiration from or which reference painting, both materially and conceptually.
Opening by Christine Kennedy, Senior Curator/Head of Collections at IMMA.
︎Draiocht website
