From the 14.03 until the 02.04.2013 I held a solo exhibition at Centro de Arte ( Fuenlabrada) Madrid. The show was a selection of work from different exhibitions over the past seven years and was curated by Juan Carlos de Moya (Centro de Arte) and Marc de Coen (Marc de Coen Gallery - Germany).
This exhibition was part funded by Culture Ireland and supported by the Irish Embassy In Madrid as part of the Irish European presidency program.
This exhibition was part funded by Culture Ireland and supported by the Irish Embassy In Madrid as part of the Irish European presidency program.
Most of the work had been exhibited previously, there was no specific theme to this show other than it was a collection of work from me. But there were also some new works such as ´Spanish bombs' which came about from a book I had read about the Spanish civil war ( Anthony Beever - The Battle for Spain ). Near the end of the book the author describes a story of a town in the south of Spain in Andalucia which had been taken over by the fascists and the people forced to work in a munitions factory.
The workers who supported the Republic sabotaged the bombs by filling them with communist republican propaganda instead of explosives. The story is probably an urban myth spread to encourage the people of the republic but I found it very visual. The idea of a the silence of the bomb crashing ´pumpf´ in the dry Andalucian countryside and a plum of paper bursting into the air.I wanted to layer different references in this piece so I drew posters from the civil war onto rizla paper stuck together which relates to the communist ideals of the IRA in the seventies and eighties.
When people think about the troubles in the north of Ireland they forget that the IRA did not only see them selves fighting against England and the unionists but against Imperialism also. The IRA were a communist/socialists force as they had been during the war of independence after which some went to Spain to fight against the fascists there. The IRA prisoners in the north of Ireland use to write letters to loved ones on rizla paper because the paper was light and could be folded compact and small and would not be seen or censored.
Personally I don´t have an opinion on who was right or wrong, there is no question that Spain was allowed exist by the west and run by fear.But would there have been a republic or would it have been a Russian satellite in the west? It was a romantic war were people came from around the world to join the international brigades and their idealism were butchered by the communist as much as the fascists.Where George Orwell went to fight and came back to write ´Animal farm`.
The materials used in this piece and the ideas have lead me onto other works also using similar material as the narrative in the work. I will post it later when it´s more complete.
The exhibition was a cultural event at Centro de Arte and the work was not for sale. The event for me was to showcase my work in Madrid and develop additional work for two forth coming shows this July in Germany.
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