Build It And They Will Come | September - October 2010 | Dublin 4
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PrettyvacanT Dublin's second exhibition from the Sandymount property, Build It And They Will Come united and unleashed the talents of recent graduates Margaret Flynn, Jane Fogarty, Gareth Jenkins, Rebecca McNaughton and Dee Walsh.
The exhibition showcased a diverse range of work – painting, drawing, sculpture and installation – and examined themes of structure and the built environment and even took a swipe at the Irish property situation, a hot topic for both graduates and the public alike.
Based on town plans of Kells, Flynn’s drawings were inspired by suburban living and the idealism created around housing developments. Flynn has always been interested in the relationship between planned projects on paper and their concrete reality.
Fogarty’s painting installation ‘Twenty-four Hours’ was created from 1,440 individual paintings, each one taking one minute to paint, thus the entire piece taking 24 hours to construct in total. The work embodied an ephemeral, brick-like quality and the installation is never replicated but adapted specifically for the exhibition and the constructed space.
Jenkins starting point was his repository of images of architectural structures. With these images seeping into his subconscious, Jenkins displayed a more intuitive approach to painting, treating the application of paint as a construction process, building up layers and thickness of marks.
McNaughton’s work ‘State of Play’ explored Ireland in the year 2010. Satirising futurology and outdated predictions for the 21st century, she contrasted the lifestyle promised during the Tiger, to the reality of the “undelivered city” - Dublin’s half built and empty buildings.
Dee Walsh’s work explored the psycho-geographical elements of the built environment through the investigation of infrastructures that envelop our lives. Her works were a manipulation and dissection of stark abstract geometry and draftsman-esque lines, invoking the angles of constructed urban space.
Margaret Flynn, Jane Fogarty and Rebecca McNaughton are all recent graduates from the Fine Art Department at the Dublin Institute of Technology. Gareth Jenkins completed his BA at Limerick Institute of Technology going on to attain a MA from the National College of Art & Design, Dublin in 2010. Dee Walsh graduated from the Institute of Technology, Carlow and is currently living and working in New York.
After forging links with the Sandymount and Dublin 4 business community, Build It And They Will Come also opened one evening to support the neighbouring ITSA 4 on the launch of their new cookbook.
Build It And They Will Come was featured in The Tribune, The Dubliner and in Le Cool