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THINKING LONG — Contemporary Art in the North of Ireland
THINKING LONG — Contemporary Art in the North of Ireland
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by Liam Kelly
foreword by Brian O’Doherty
ISBN 978 0946641 666 248 pages (hardback) 27x23.5cm 312 illus (incl 170 col) dictionary of artists list of illus bibliography index
Thinking Long is an essential reference book to art practice in Northern Ireland, documenting a period of turmoil and change in the region’s complex history. It examines art practice in, and in relation to, Northern Ireland during a period of acute political and social change – from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. The author uncovers thematic tendencies and preoccupations by those artists who were born, have lived and worked there during this time, and others whose work relates to the region. Kelly expertly addresses themes such as place and identity; landscape, city, land and language; memory and the body; as well as matters of artistic style and context.
In his foreword to the book, Brian O’Doherty suggests that the book provides the reader with a ‘cultural history’ of Northern Ireland, enabling a semblance of understanding of its circumstances. The visual arts, he argues, has rightfully earned its position among the practices and traditions that continue to shape it.
Thinking Long explores the work of eighty key artists, with an illustrated discussion of each artist’s work, detailed biographic notes and a well-annotated text.
EXTRACTS
"Liam Kelly’s devoted rehearsal of each artist’s presence, purpose and practice is cumulative. Step by step he builds their joint activities into something indispensable: a conviction that a particular time has been observed. Does this amount to much? Of course it does. What is observed is changed. Such records and investigations as Kelly’s are part of a period’s consciousness, the referent within which work is made and which contributes to its legibility. That period has a political consistency, as we know. Its conflicts have been economic, sectarian, nationalistic and class-bound. It has knitted its social matrix out of injustice and the irrational, out of polarised extremities and vulnerable moderation. It has had, as such conflicts do, an intense educational value, but much of the education has been in the cultivation and transference of hate. To make visual art in such a context is to initiate, however indirectly, a social action."
— from the foreword by Brian O’Doherty
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CONTENTS Foreword: Thinking North by Brian O’Doherty 6 CHAPTER 1: Interrogating the Landscape 18 Section I – Art and the Language question: Words Pressed Against The Pane Section II – Art and the Land Question CHAPTER 2: Polis, Walls, Barriers, Towers, Temples, Divisions 56 Section I – Extra-Mural: The Psychic Fabric of the City CHAPTER 3: Form, Idiom, Gesture, Context 94 CHAPTER 4: Thinking Long 118 Section I – Bodies, Beasts, Victims, Rituals Artists’ Biographies 193
Notes and References 234
Selected Bibliography 239
List of Illustrations 240-244
Index 245-247 _____ FEATURED ARTISTS (with colour and b/w plates illus for each artist, discussion of their work in the wider context of art in Northern Ireland, and a detailed biography) Billy Adams / Dennis Adams / Sophie Aghajanian / John Aiken / James Allen / Marie Barrett / Deborah Brown / Roderick Buchanan / Barry Callaghan / Anne Carlisle / John Carson / Brian Connolly / David Crone / Anthony Davies / Diarmuid Delargy / Fergus Delargy / Willie Doherty / Rita Donagh / Micky Donnelly / Rita Duffy / Felim Egan / Brendan Ellis / Brian Ferran / TP Flanagan / Barbara Freeman / Graham Patrick Gingles / Gerry Gleason / Douglas Gordon / Roberta M Graham / Richard Hamilton / Catherine Harper / Willie Heron / Anthony Hill / Michael Hogg / Ronnie Hughes / Patrick Ireland / Roy Johnston / Finbar Kelly / Sharon Kelly / John Kindness / Richard Livingstone / Clement McAleer / Pádraig McCann / Philip McFadden / Colin McGookin / Moira McIver / Alastair MacLennan / Catherine McWilliams / Joseph McWilliams / Elizabeth Magill / Alice Maher / Michael Minnis / Alfonso Monreal / Locky Morris / Philip Lindsay Napier / Deirdre O’Connell / Eilís O’Connell / Jack Pakenham / Mark Pepper / Kathy Prendergast / Clifford Rainey / Paul Seawright / Dermot Seymour / Neil Shawcross / Paul Sherrard / Bob Sloan / Victor Sloan / Nancy Spero / Nick Stewart / Una Walker / Louise Walsh / Martin Wedge / Alistair Wilson / Chris Wilson / Clive Wilson / David Winters / Gordon Woods |
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Thinking Long is a beautifully produced book, clearly laid out, generously illustrated and durably bound. Kelly is scrupulously open to the work of the artists he discusses: he tries to articulate what is in the work, rather than dictate his own view. For these reasons, it is an indispensable reference. — Aidan Dunne, Sunday Tribune Excellent layout and content in each chapter ... combine to make a brilliant book. — Waterstone’s Guide to Irish Books The most substantial account of this art to be published recently ... beautifully illustrated ... Kelly’s book is indispensable. — Very Ryan, Irish Examiner Easily the most handsome of recent publications on art... — Circa The range of material gathered in Thinking Long is such that it seems set to become a keystone text. — SSI Newsletter The book guides one to a greater understanding of the art practiced in Northern Ireland with its analytical text and copious reproductions of artworks. — Art Bulletin |
