Less Stress More Success

12 September - 24 October

Opening times: Thursday - Saturday, 10.30 - 17.00

Kilkenny Arts Office Gallery, 5 Dean Street, Kilkenny

Artists

Eimear Murphy

Laura Fitzgerald

Saidhbhín Gibson

In an Irish context, the phrase Less Stress More Success evokes an immediate, and dreaded, memory of stacked study aids for the State Examinations. These publications were designed to condense and organise information with a purpose to make “those study hours really pay!” A shortcut to success, assuring the most productivity in the least stressful manner. On leaving school and entering working life, this mantra for achievement seems to be quickly abandoned.

Now, more so than ever, it is evident that the profession of the artist in a capitalist society is maintained by stress success. The artist becomes a hyper worker, surviving on a rotation of grant applications and pressing deadlines that often dominate over artistic practice. This gig-based employment equates to periods of high productivity and unpredictability in work. The result sees the boundaries between life and work blurred and collapse into senselessness multi-tasking. This unsustainable approach leaves an art community anxious, exhausted and envious.

This exhibition invites reflection on the concept of stress success. Curator Rachel Botha invites artists Eimear Murphy, Laura Fitzgerald and Saidhbhín Gibson to interpret stress success from varied perspectives.

This exhibition raises questions concerning our strive to achieve, its conditions and impact, both as artists and humans. What does the concept of success mean? How is success achieved? Must the journey to success be stressful?

Less Stress More Success is the first exhibition of the Kilkenny County Council Arts Office’s ‘Emerging Curator in Residence Programme 2020’. This programme has enabled Rachel Botha to gain direct experience in the field of curating exhibitions for the Arts Office Gallery at 5 Dean Street, Kilkenny. This opportunity provides Rachel with the platform to further develop her career, expand her artistic networks and avail of a mentoring programme with curator Eamonn Maxwell.

It is paramount that the gallery ensures all staff and visitors are safe, we ask everyone to please wear a mask and sanitise your hands when entering the gallery. The number of visitors in the gallery will be limited to two and queuing will be required during busy periods, we ask visitors to observe social distancing of two metres both outside and inside the gallery.

H U D D L E

Saturday 3 October

Location to be confirmed

H U D D L E is an art discussion group devised and chaired by Saidhbhín Gibson. This is an inclusive event for the discussion around contemporary art and associative narratives. The seminars have been running since 2017 and have taken place in numerous venues including IMMA (Dublin), Arthouse (Stradbally), TBG+S (Dublin) and VISUAL (Carlow). The project creates a platform for knowledge sharing and those interested in contemporary art to come together.

This H U D D L E will be especially close with a limited capacity on a first come, first serve basis. If you are interested in attending the forthcoming H U D D L E, you must pre-register by emailing artsofficekkcoco@gmail.com before Friday 25 September as places are limited. Reading material will be issued.

Saidhbhín Gibson is a graduate of NCAD, Dublin (MFA, honours, Fine Art Sculpture, 2016) and DIT Mountjoy Square, Dublin (BA, honours, Fine Art, 2000). Gibson's work explores the framing of the non-human world for and by contemporary society. She employs multifarious methods of production whereby the haptic is at the core of the manufacture of the work. These processes include video, sculpture, photography and needlepoint lace. Her work presents scenarios of interference in the Natural world, while highlighting the nuances of botanical, avian, insect and tree life.

Recent exhibitions include Utopia/Dystopia, Lexicon Gallery, Dún Laoghaire; A Vague Anxiety, IMMA, Dublin (2019); Encountering the Land, VISUAL, Carlow (2018); Upright Meadow (public art commission), Pure Thinking Community Group, Carlow (2017).

Saidhbhín Gibson is the founder and co-ordinator of H U D D L E; an inclusive, contemporary art discussion group initiative that has been hosted in a number of galleries and arts centres in Ireland.