VISUAL CULTURE
Killing Time
Installed in Lady Gregory’s (the Anglo-Irish Republican Femme Fatale) old drawing room, dining room and parlour this work digs further into my fascination with sexuality, the mechanics of display, the manipulation of atmosphere and ambience, and with situations and histories that are at once controlled and permissive – more particularly, with this work I was interested in the fabrication of history and the memories that go with it – its nostalgia.
The materials – rubber, green chiffon, disco balls, flashing lights, motors, listening devices, a military coat – play with the dangerous pleasures of being caught between public and private; whether in terms of the immediate or historical pasts.
This work directly led to the research project Farther to the East (2004), developed from material shot in Auschwitz, Poland, and then edited at the Banff Centre for the Arts as part of the Informal Architectures Residency in 2004. Farther to the East was included in the following exhibitions: Places/Remember/Events, The Other Gallery, Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada, in 2004, curated by Shauna McCabe as part of Informal Architectures: A Symposium on Contemporary Art, Architecture and Spatial Culture a solo exhibition at the Kilkenny Arts Festival, 2004; and Curb Appeal, Confederation Centre for the Arts, Canada, in 2005.
Andrew Kearney, One Way Round; Time to Kill; Talking in Turns (2002),
Galway Arts Centre, IrelandOne Way Round (foreground): 4 motorised mirror-balls; an external gun microphone feeds in street sounds, which are manipulated and then activate a light sequence in 6 eyespots. The shuttered windows are draped in olive-green chiffon forming a veil between exterior and interior.
Time to Kill (mid-ground): Black rubber raincoat suspended by steel cable from an overhead track. A motor moves the coat slowly back and forth across the space. 27 ceramic light fittings are attached through the coat, each if which holds a small blue light bulb. The bulbs are controlled by a 4-channel dimmer system with a pre-programmed cycle.
Talking in Turns (background): Twin-screen DVD projection of exterior night scenes, hand-held camera circling blue-light decked winter trees. The soundtrack is captured background sound.
Andrew Kearney, Killing Time II (2004), The Phallory, New York, NY10009Black rubber raincoat suspended by steel cable from an overhead track. A motor moves the coat slowly back and forth across the space; the light levels of the bulbs on the coat are responding to street sound via a gun microphone positioned outside the gallery. 32 black ceramic rabbits 26cm high held on the walls by a ceramic light fixture. The Sound-scape with in the gallery is manipulated via a sound processor.
Andrew Kearney, Farther to the East (2004), Banff Centre for the Arts Canada NovemberProfile / Projects / CV / Contact / www.andrewkearney.net