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Untitled (Origin) | 2018


From my current project, ‘Invisible Histories’, which is a touring collaboration with a dancer and a sound artist. This project is about the hidden memories and histories that each of our bodies contain, that have shaped our bodies and our selves. This installation has been designed to be versatile, to have different orientations and layouts depending on the given space. This installation has been influenced by the converted church in which the conceptual content of this project was teased out. The large object is akin to a lop-sided alter, perhaps, or a tomb, bringing a gravity to the work. In another space it may become upright, being closer to a monolith or an obelisk, though of human proportions. In either scenario its cavity reminds of the workings of the human body. Here, the open body ejects an unnatural, iridescent substance (‘iridescent shred’ from the discount store) which is spilling out. A number of small copper-painted objects scattered throughout the space are implied to have also spilled out. The synthetic iridescence relates the work, and the body, to technology, while the painted copper objects bring it back to the material world. The nature of the objects, both large and small, pose questions however: the small objects are obviously made to resemble something they are not, something heavy, like a meteorite perhaps, while the large object resembles something hewn from a quarry, but is not quite convincing. So it is reality itself which is in question here – the physical reality we have lived in, and have relied upon up to this point: tour physical reality which has been in question of late and which we have begun to drift away from ever so slightly as we grow ever more entwined with the virtual realm.


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Configuration I | 2018


From my current project, ‘Invisible Histories’, which is a touring collaboration with a dancer and a sound artist. This project is about the hidden memories and histories that each of our bodies contain, that have shaped our bodies and our selves. I like to consider the parallels between the micro and the macro, however. This small-scale, architectonic work reflects my interest in the built environment. This work considers a (not too distant) future world where the only nature is a regulated, standardised or replicated one – one which is designed into architectural space with no allowance for chance or deviation. I am interested in the growing sterility of culture and of our built environment and how that will affect the human spirit. Where will we each find outlets for that human spirit, or does human spirt become obsolete as we grow ever more entangled with technology, ever more detached from the physical world?


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Spill | 2018


From my current project, ‘Invisible Histories’, which is a touring collaboration with a dancer and a sound artist. This project is about the hidden memories and histories that each of our bodies contain, that have shaped our bodies and our selves. This particular work might suggest that no matter how reserved we are, or no matter the version of ourselves we try to project into the world, it is these hidden aspects of ourselves that spill out and have the greatest bearing on our lives. This work is made of expanded foam and fluorescent mason’s twine. To me it looks almost like ice-cream and can be seen to refer to aspects of mass culture or pop culture and the cult of instant gratification.


Note: The text above was written by the Artist. No modification was made by C.O.C.A.


Rory Tangney

Ireland


I am a self-taught artist with a background in furniture design/making. My first contemporary art project was in 2011. 'Build Your Church On The Strength Of Your Fear' was a large-scale, crowdfunded installation held at Camden Palace Hotel, Cork. Highlights since then include 'This Way To Enchantment', a solo exhibition at Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, in 2014; a 2-person show at NAG Gallery Dublin in 2016, and projects at venues such as Galway Arts Centre; Temporary Gallery, Berlin; and FKL Symposium on Soundscape, Italy. My current project, Invisible Histories is a collaboration with dancer Mary Wycherley and sound artist La Cosa Preziosa, and is currently on tour in Ireland. Next is a collaboration with composer Jonathan Nangle for the New Music Dublin festival, September, 2018.


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