THE MARKET @ Belfast Exposed

August 29, 2013 § Leave a comment

Void Visitors Pass, Eschborn, Frankfurt, Germany, March 2012

Void Visitors Pass, Eschborn, Frankfurt, Germany, March 2012

THE MARKET

An installation by Mark Curran
Curated by Helen Carey
Opening: Thursday 29 August 7 – 9pm
Exhibition runs 30 August – 11 October 2013
…what people don’t understand… is that what happens in the market is pivotal to their lives… not on the periphery…but slap, bang, in the middle…
(From telephone conversation with trader, name withheld, Dealing Room, Investment Bank, London, February 2013)
THE MARKET by Mark Curran is a critical and unflinching interrogation of the current context of global stock and commodity markets in the aftermath of the global economic collapse.
In this on-going project, Curran seeks access to the physical spaces that represent centres of global stock and commodity markets; spaces where futures are literally and metaphorically speculated upon.  Multi-sited access has been sought in strategic locations and a series of photographs and interviews have been made in the Irish Stock Exchange in Dublin, the financial centres of Canary Wharf and the City in London and the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange in Addis Abeba (established in 2008 and the youngest exchange in the world). While access was unsuccessful in the Deutsche Borse in Frankfurt, it continues in relation to the Bombay Stock Exchange Mumbai (site of the oldest exchange in Asia) and the New York Stock Exchange.
Curran excavates these locations focusing on their operating functions, and the individuals who inhabit and labour in these spaces. It is the tension between the human individual experience and the increasingly cyber-based, algorithmic systems that govern the Market that provides an underlying sense of urgency to the project. Conceptually pivotal to THE MARKET is a desire to make visible an understanding of such sites, to explore their interconnectedness and to illuminate the lack of general knowledge about the systems that control and regulate the Market. Through this project, Curran enables a reading of the Market that takes it out of abstraction and positions it as a real and pervasive force that is absolutely central to our lives.
Acknowledging the technological evolution of the markets towards primarily non-human apparatus, generated from algorithms identifying the wordsMarket or Markets from speeches given by the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, the soundscape of the installation represents the defining sound of the market, the sound of Capital through the conjuit apparatus of the Nation-State.
The artist has taken an ethnographic approach to the project, amassing a substantial body of research incorporating; photography, verbal testimony, digital video, artefactual material as well as the correspondence negotiating access to the sites. In the installation at Belfast Exposed, the relationship between the individual and the abstract algorithmic systems of the Market is heightened through a sound piece designed by Ken Curran that permeates the gallery space.
This exhibition is part of a larger series of visual art events marking the centenary of the 1913 Dublin Lockout, a project curated by Helen Carey, Director Limerick City Gallery of Art. Partner organisations include Belfast Exposed Photography, Gallery of Photography, Dublin, Limerick City Gallery of Art and CCA Derry-Londonderry.
Exhibition Events
30 August 12.30pm | Mark Curran will be in conversation with Curator Helen Carey, opening up some of the key issues of this project. This is a free event, please register with ciara@belfastexposed.org to reserve a place.

Further information available here.

THE MARKET @ Gallery of Photography, Dublin

August 22, 2013 § Leave a comment

THEMARKET_evite (2)

The installation of THE MARKET by Mark Curran, curated by Helen Carey, on the function and condition of the global stock and commodity markets will be opened this Friday, August 23rd at 6.30pm by Orlaith McBride, Director of the Arts Council of Ireland at the Gallery of Photography, Dublin.

The show continues until October 1st. (Algorithm and sound design by Ken Curran). Further information here.

ALLAN SEKULA 1951-2013

August 12, 2013 § Leave a comment

Allan Sekula, Dear Bill Gates, 1999 (image by artist)

Allan Sekula, Dear Bill Gates, 1999 (image by artist)

An artist, writer and educator of great conviction, it is very sad to hear of the passing of the remarkable Allan Sekula.

Here are some links (here and here) to words and images in relation to an individual, whose relevance as a practitioner seems more significant as ever, particularly for dealing with subjects like labour, global capital and economy when, as he stated, ‘they weren’t sexy’.  He will be greatly missed.

 

 

LABOUR & LOCKOUT: ‘you take my life when you do take the means whereby I live’

August 2, 2013 § Leave a comment

Labour&Lockout_evite

Opening Thursday, August 8th at the Limerick City Gallery of Art, this group show curated by Helen Carey, employs the context of the centenary of the 1913 Dublin Lockout as a means to reflect and address its significance for the present. The show continues until October 1st.

Artists include Deirdre O’Mahony, Anthony Haughey, Deirdre Power, Darek Fortas, Jesse Jones, Sean Lynch, Seamus Farrell, Megs Morley & Tom Flanagan and Mark Curran.

In addition, from the 26-28 September, the research collective, Future State, is collaborating with Goldsmiths, University of London and Limerick City Gallery of Art to host Land Labour Capital, a three-day event of film screenings, artist talks, seminars and workshops related to the exhibition theme. Keynote speakers will include, Deirdre O’Mahony, Professor Nicholas Mirzoeff, Dr Angela Dimitrakaki and Mark Curran. 

Full details can be found here.

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