Documention of the artists work for FÍS Athlone can now be seen on this blog under the artists section

FÍS

As part of FÍS Athlone there will be a public discussion held at

TIME: 6pm
DATE: Tuesday 31st March
LOCATION: A.I.T. Design Department, Northgate Street.

For this public event Miriam Walsh, curator of FÍS Athlone, will introduce the project. Participating artists – Tokumasa Matsubuchi, Mary-Jo Gilligan, Ronald Boer and Deirdre Ohlwein will speak about the work they have created as part of FÍS.

This public discussion will include invited speakers, Paul Timoney and Father Joe Walsh from Multyfarnham Friary to talk about the artists in residence programme that was initiated by the Friars towards the end of 2008.

Entry to this event is FREE

For further information and to let us know that you will be in attendance please contact Miriam at

e: walsh.miriam@gmail.com

to view full series of images please click on the read more text below

Image created Sunday 22nd March

Image created Monday 23rd March

Image created Tuesday 24th March

Image created Wednesday 25th March

Image created Thursday 26th March

Image created Friday 27th March

The tour started by outlining the history of the Workhouse (currently the Design Department of A.I.T.) It continued on to Passionfruit Theatre and the building it occupies, ending with a visit to the Castle, an ideal vantage point from which Gearoid gave an overview of the history of Athlone.

FÍS involves both emerging artists, and students endeavoring to create a new platform for mutual learning and exchange to take place. The artists participating in FÍS Athlone March 2009 are;

Tokumasa Matsubuchi (Japan)

Ed Simpson (Scotland)

Mary-Jo Gilligan (Co. Kildare)

Ronald Boer (Edinburgh College of Art)

Deirdre Ohlwein (A.I.T.)

For more information about the artists please click on the read more link below

ARTISTS INFORMATION

Tokumasa Matsubuchi

Tokumasa Matsubuchi was born in Akita, Japan and currently lives and works in Edinburgh, Scotland. He received his MFA Art, Space and Nature form the Edinburgh College of Art and his BA in photography from Tokyo Polytechnic University.

Tokumasa Matsubuchi’s work draws together photography, video, sculpture, installation and performance. In many ways his work is produced through his thought and ideas of his everyday life and events happened in his surrounded world, that are to take photos, drive a car, cut hair or do everything. For FIS Athlone his installation will to divide the space with cheap tape generating a new borderline. Matsubuchi’s work aims to address the very nature of these borders; both physical and mental.

Ed Simpson

Ed Simpson was born in Edinburgh, UK. He is currently based in London, UK.
Simpson received an MA in Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh and an MFA in Art, Space and Nature at the Edinburgh College of Art.

The work of Ed Simpson presents his fascination with man-made environments, the methods of communication they exude and the inherent control they have over inhabitants through implied- or not so subtle- rules and restrictions. For Fis Athlone, Simpson will present a new film in which he explores the systems through which this control is displayed, playing with the rules and thus undermining their power. By utilising the space of the Passion Fruit Theatre, the audience is invited to question how they occupy a space and why.
www.edjsimpson.co.uk

Mary-Jo Gilligan

Mary-Jo Gilligan is an artist currently based in County Kildare, Ireland. Gilligan studied at the NCAD Dublin and the University of Ljubljana. She has exhibited frequently, both outside of, and within a gallery context.

Gilligan’s work is often site-specific and her practice is something of a portable laboratory. The artist works in a variety of media from installation, video, sound, scent and drawing to live performance and intervention. Her practice is concerned with investigating spaces and found objects, the concept of material residues of modern life, and the energy, potential and systems bound up with these buildings/things. For FÍS Athlone, Gilligan proposes to investigate Passionfruit Theatre the building and her sensory perception of it with regard to electromagnetic energy.
http://maryjogilligan.wordpress.com

Ronald Boer

Ronald Boer was born in the Netherlands. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Landscape Architecture from van Hall Larenstein in Arnhem. He currently lives in Edinburgh and is studying on the interdisciplinary MFA course Art, Space and Nature at Edinburgh College of Art.

Coming from the Netherlands the core of Boer’s practice lies in the human regulation and control over nature. Looking at the constant dynamic transformation of the landscape, Boer responds by creating awareness of the different human and natural systems within our environment. In his recent work he utilises materials that heighten select characteristics of a landscape such as light, movement, dispersal and release.

Deirdre Ohlwein

Deirdre Ohlwein was born in Dublin and raised in the Sequoia-Kings Canyon region of California, United States. After an 18 year career as a Chef de Cuisine, Deirdre returned to Ireland, making her home in Galway in 2005. She has been based in Athlone for the last 2 years and currently studies Visual Communications & Design at the Institute of Technology, Athlone.

Deirdre Ohlwein experiments with assorted combinations of photography, illustration, and computational media in order to create interactive experiences. Looking to ideas of ‘dynamic abstraction’ as the basis for further investigation, Ohlwein attempts to explore the significance of pattern, repetition, and order in our daily lives. For FÍS Athlone Ohlwein will create an interactive installation that allows the participant to move within the composition while simultaneously altering it, designed to question how we observe the space that surrounds us.

This is confirmation that the site visit will indeed go ahead on Saturday 31st January. This will be an opportunity to meet other potential artists and to see Passionfruit Theatre. Miriam Walsh, Curator of FÍS and Michelle Flynn, Artistic Director of Passionfruit, will be there to answers questions about the space.

SITE VISIT SCHEDULE:

12.00pm Meet in cafe/bar of Radission Hotel Northgate Street, Athlone.
1.00-3.00pm Passionfruit Theatre: tour of space, meet with artistic director.

(This is also an opportunity for you to acquaint yourself with the space)

This blog has been set up as a resource and point of contact for FÍS site specific exhibition due to take place this March at the Passionfruit Theatre in Atlhone, Co. Westmeath, Ireland.

FÍS is an arts initative which aims to create opportunities for artists to make new work. The main focus of the initiative is to temporarily inhabit non-gallery spaces and to bring international and local artists together in a working environment.