Inspirer Series - Eoin Dara

This was the second in a series of talks that have been organised over the next couple of weeks for us to get an insight into the alternative ways of working other than our own practice.

I found the talk taken today by Eoin Dara very interesting. He is a Belfast based curator and has been involved in many different organisations where he has collaborated with other artists/curators. His installations that I was most interested in was were, his 'Billboard Bunting' which he collaborated with Martin Boyle to create, and the collaborative curatorial endeavors between Kim McAleese and himself in 'Satis House'.

Billboard Bunting
This installation was part of the Household Festival 2012 (a curatorial collective that encourages audiences to re-negotiate how they view and interact with art in urban and domestic spaces), curated collaboratively by Eoin Dara and Martin Boyle. His work on this involved using a mundane object and deconstructing and reconstructing it; much like the ideas I have been looking at in my current reinterpret, redesign, reimagine: rooftops unit x project. The inspiration behind the bunting idea stemmed from the historically divided areas of Ireland represented by flags between Catholics, Republicans and Protestants. The historical link behind the Billboard Bunting is what I found most interesting about it. I like that there is a deeper meaning behind what they had created.

The installation was constructed and rehung down an alleyway in Belfast. I like the engagement with the audience/public that is enabled by the location; being exhibited in a different way to a gallery environment, so giving the public the opportunity to interact with it. This too is one of the ideas we are beginning to look at this unit; the interaction with the public on a rooftop space.

Billboard Bunting - Eoin Dara and Martin Boyle

Satis House
Satis House is an alternative gallery for contemporary art in a domestic space. They adopted the name from the decaying stately home inhabited by Miss Havisham in Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. It has been the first of many collaborative curatorial endeavors that they wish to undertake together.

The space is transfigured on a monthly basis under their curatorial direction, working with emerging as well as established artists, inviting them to respond directly to the unique environment. In this way, it is involved in the household festival which works with site specific projects to get the audience to respond to the work installed. This idea interested me when looking at the brief for my chosen unit x project. Looking at the specific rooftop site that we will be designing for, and how our audience will respond. This spurred me to research the installations from here past and present in search of inspiration.

Satis House, Inaugural Exhibition