Visual Arts/Reviewed:National College of Art and Design Fine Art Graduate Exhibition 2007 and IADT Annual Fine Art Graduate Exhibition
Judging from the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) and the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT), the mixed-media installation is still the dominant unit of expression in today's fine-art degree shows, closely followed by the cohesive display of several related individual works or, to put it another way, the small solo exhibition. The border between these two approaches is porous. For obvious reasons, though, it's easier to get an idea of what an artist is about when you see several pieces rather than one. It can be hard to assess an artistic personality on the basis of a single installation but then, increasingly, that is how the wider art world works these days. It's now easy to think of many established international artists who work in one-off, disconnected ways, constantly re-inventing themselves and their approach as the occasion demands, scarcely bothering to strike a balance between a trademark style and flexibility.
By and large, standards have been rising in third-level art schools and colleges. The four-year degree course and the development of MA courses are moving us towards the situation that pertains in many other European countries, whereby a body of work at MA level is, all being well, a mature artistic statement. David Godbold's PhD show at the Digital Hub is still something of an exception, given that he already has a formidable track record as an artist. It's still impressive, pitting sound against image to produce an effect perfectly tailored to its location.
This year, IADT's four-year photography degree came on stream, and the show was exceptionally polished and diverse, featuring several outstanding projects. They included Lorna Fitzsimons's pictorial inventory of everything she possesses, inventively echoing Michael Landy's work Breakdowna few years back, when he destroyed all of his possessions. Fitzsimons's work is compulsively fascinating and beautifully designed and will surely find other venues.
Other strong displays came from Fiona Hackett, whose images of California use the artificially maintained garden as a metaphor for consumerist culture and nature; Siobhan Ogilvy, who made a subtle body of work exploring the forest in reality and imagination; and Dianne Whyte, who documented the interior of Shanganagh House, an institution closed down in 2002. Daragh Basquille's impressive series of portraits of young men in uncharacteristically introspective moments, Caroline Callaghan's consideration of the realities of organ transplants, Gary Somers's superbly made portraits of individuals who meditate, and Stephen Byrne's exposition of the "safe house" were also memorable, but really everything in the show made a case for itself.
Among the fine-art graduates at IADT, several individuals stood out. It took nerve to invest your years of study in the tiny screen of a video iPod, but Clare Shanahan did so, convincingly, with a variation on HAL, the dysfunctional computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey(her minimal approach contrasts with Carl Giffney's maximal, and also impressive, treatment of comparable material at NCAD). Fiona Fullam's composite video Confinementwas equally compelling and subtle. The latter also applies to Judy Foley (not the only artist this year to refer obliquely to the Twin Towers), who shows great sensitivity to materials. Sadhbh Roebuck's Heartbreak and Healingwas a very well produced variant on Neva Elliott's therapeutic art interventions.
Aisling Mc Govern's 3-D painting installation displayed nerve. Sam Horler (painted cut-out figures) and John Wren were two of relatively few painters at IADT. In fine art, Fiona Toomey, Paul Hickey, Darragh O'Callaghan, Jane Locke and Sinead Murray were also striking.
It could be that, with the boom in Irish art, the graduate shows will attract more prospective buyers this year than ever before. The evidence so far is that some students have realised it is potentially a seller's market, and prices are relatively high - by no means all prices, though. Apart from that, by its nature a great deal of the work in the graduate shows is effectively not for sale, consisting of installations that are non-portable, or that document other kinds of work entirely, generally socially engaged work of one kind or another. It is, incidentally, encouraging that this is happening, given both the prevailing economic climate and the nature of the international art market.
AT NCAD THOMAS STREET, Emma Houlihan, for example, documents some of her work on developing props for practitioners of parkour, the highly athletic urban sport of free running, in relation to the development of an adventure playground on Bridgefoot Street, while Michelle Browne's portable cycle path, boldly claiming public space, recalls the early days of the idealistic avant garde. Mary-Jo Gilligan makes us face up to the reality of waste and landfill.
Among those at NCAD who plumped for single installations, Aileen Murphy's evocation of childhood is cleverly done and wittily observed. Laura Fitzgerald's work explores the break-up of a relationship and goes on to elucidate on the way people share the same space but occupy parallel worlds. She uses the strikingly effective motif of a large ball - shades of the cult television series The Prisoner- in two exceptionally accomplished video pieces. Oonagh O'Brien's 1000 Eggsinstallation is amazing to encounter, as is Darren Barrett's megalopolis. Sophie Linehan shows great sculptural and theatrical flair in her performance-installation. Mark Durkan, Ruth Lyons and Elaine Reynolds are also exceptional.
At the Digital Hub, Katherine Lamb's dramatic fictions (incidentally demonstrating that artist Mark Garry is a pretty good screen actor) are polished and concise. There is a visually rich, ambitious psychological video by Edward Cunniffe, Bronwen Casson's rising sun installation (with echoes of Olafur Eliasson), Jonathan Mayhew's remarkable deconstruction, literal and metaphorical, of the teddy bear and all it stands for, Aisling Noone's systematic deconstruction of dress patterns as a mode of control and manipulation, Alissa Lopez's haunted house, and Barry Foley's disquisition on quantum mechanics really does manage to transport us to another notion of reality, or realities.
In terms of small solo shows, NCAD's painters do very well. Kevin Cosgrove's carefully understated paintings are individually intriguing and make up an ingeniously coherent body of work reflecting a set of interrelated concerns, projecting a sense of boyhood adventure into adulthood. He has a pronounced feeling for light, indoors and outdoors, night and day. One to watch. There is a paradoxical beauty to Genieve Figgis's outstanding, Dorian Gray-like paintings of celebrities, their glamour curdled and sickly.
Alice Helion uses the motif of camouflage, ingeniously reworking it into the context of repressive regimes in exotic places, highlighting the moral compromises linked to high-end consumerism. Barbara O'Meara achieves some terrific watery effects in her allegorical works.
Robert Sherlock's series of heads and studies of footballers in action have tremendous passion and movement. James Mongey's fine series of drawings and paintings offer an autobiographical account of where he's been in terms of neutral studies of places: school, holidays, homes. Fiona Bush's witty examination of "female paranoia" is one of those projects that occupies the fruitfully indeterminate space between installation and exhibition. Both NCAD and IADT are big hitters in art-school terms. Going by them, this year's crop of arts graduates looks pretty good.
