Join us for an introduction to the exhibition To Impermanent Collections and Scattered Acquisitions by Galway-based artist Marielle MacLeman. A celebration of knowledge-in-the-making, this exhibition is an assembly line of works in progress, bringing together ideas, materials and processes to reflect on the changing fates of the global textiles and forestry industries.

This preview event is devised to offer insight into the research and processes that stimulate and underpin MacLeman’s practice, as she develops two new distinct bodies of work for exhibition in Zagreb and Kilkenny later this year. We’ll also introduce the needleworkers behind the small workforce Home Industries, who will give an informal demo of the chain stitch, often found in traditional vez embroidery.

As part of this event we are delighted to welcome Lea Vene, curator and researcher at the Center for Research of Fashion and Clothing, Zagreb, for a conversation with the artist on their shared research interests in textile histories and soft arts. This will be followed by a forest picnic with light refreshments.

The Spring Preview coincides with a screening of The Quickening by Deirdre O’Mahony, presented as part of the Douglas Hyde’s Walls & Halls Tour at 3pm at the Foresters’ Hall in Aughrim. Please RSVP for that event separately HERE

Access

Kunstverein Aughrim is located off Main Street in the village of Aughrim. There is limited on-street parking around the town. Kunstverein Aughrim is unfortunately not currently wheelchair accessible, due to a series of stone and concrete steps at the threshold. The Foresters’ Hall is wheelchair accessible and has bathroom facilities. If you have questions or specific access requirements please contact us via email and we will do our best to facilitate your full participation.

Getting to Aughrim

We are chartering a coach from Galway to Aughrim for this event. If you would like to book a seat on the coach please email office@kunstverein.ie to make arragements.

Aughrim is around 70 km from Dublin City Centre. If you are coming via public transport for this event we recommend taking the Route 2 Expressway bus from Dublin to Wexford. Take the 11:25am bus from Dublin (Busáras stop) to Arklow (Lidl stop) where a member of our team will meet you on arrival at 12:42pm (subject to prior arrangement by email). The same bus can be taken back to Dublin at 4:16pm or 6:12pm, and a lift from Aughrim to Arklow will again be provided (subject to prior arrangement).

Biographies

Marielle MacLeman’s artistic practice is rooted in the application of care. Drawn to transitory aspects of site, her work calls attention to the implications of the human drive to create, collect, and understand. She studied Drawing & Painting at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee, and uses sculptural processes and site-specific installation, often combining context-specific materials with craft references to interrogate their potential. Alongside this, she has worked extensively in palliative, chronic, and acute healthcare settings, encompassing public art commissions, publishing, and participatory projects. Recent presentations of her work include commissions for Dublin Art Book Fair 2022 at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Meta Dublin, TULCA Festival of Visual Arts UnSelfing Programme for Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture, and the To Care co-commission for Workhouse Union and VISUAL. Solo exhibitions include The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon, The LAB Gallery, Dublin, and Galway Arts Centre, with recent group shows at 126 Gallery, Roscommon Arts Centre, and Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny. Her work is in the collections of the Arts Council of Ireland and the University of Galway and has been supported by awards from the Arts Council of Ireland, Galway City Council, Create, Scottish Arts Council, Glasgow City Council, and www.artsandhealth.ie. In 2023 she was selected for the Briefing on Soft Arts Residency at CIMO, Zagreb, and a Landscape, Ecology & Environment Research Residency at Leitrim Sculpture Centre, from which she is developing new work for solo exhibitions.

Lea Vene is an art historian, cultural anthropologist and fashion theorist. She completed a post master’s degree in Critical Images and R-Lab at the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, Sweden. She worked as a curator at ETNOFILm festival and Miroslav Kraljević Gallery. She is currently part of the curatorial team of the Organ Vida photography festival and Gallery Močvara. She works as a researcher at the Center for Research of Fashion and Clothing – CIMO and teaches at the Faculty of Textile Technology in Zagreb. She is the co-curator of Briefing On Soft Arts. The BOSA project approaches the materiality and semantics of textiles within the space of textile-textual discourse and traditional handicraft techniques that expand to new meanings of softness in artistic expression. This research transcends “soft” textile architecture and sculpture and verbalises the relationship between text(iles) and body, text (iles) and politics, text(iles) and performance.

To Impermanent Collections and Scattered Acquisitions is on view throughout Spring 2024, closing on 20 May 2024. The exhibition may be visited during our opening hours 10am-5pm, Thursday-Sunday by appointment. Please email office@kunstverein.ie to schedule your visit. Kunstverein Aughrim’s ongoing collaboration with Marielle MacLeman is made possible with the support of The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

https://kunstverein.ie/Spring-Preview-2024

Spring Preview with Marielle MacLeman