Dr Clodagh Emoe
Publications
Acknowledging the notion of art as an open process, my research focuses on the relationship between art and philosophy in contemporary art, our encounter with art, the nature of artistic thought, affect, embodied perception and the possibility of contemporary art’s transformative capacity.
| Year | |
|---|---|
| The Plurality of Existence…”, New Cartographies, Nomadic Methodologies : Contemporary Arts, Culture and Politics in Ireland, ed. Maria Parsons and Anne Goarzin, Peter Lang, UK | 2019 |
| “Performing Philosophy in a Non-Philosophical Way”, Experimental Aesthetics, ed. Henk Slager, Metroplis M, The Netherlands | 2014 |
| Sleepwalkers: Production as Process, Hugh Lane Municipa Gallery, Dublin 2014 Géoesthétique, Parc Saint Leger, Centre D’Art Contemporarie, France | 2014 |
| “In-aesthetics – Re-configuring Aesthetics for Contemporary Art”, The Age of Aesthetics, Conference Papers, ESA | 2014 |
| “Doing Research”, Doing Research; Writings from the Finnish Academy of Fine Art, Finnish Academy of Art | 2013 |
Exhibitions
My work has been commissioned by Serpentine Gallery, London, Nýló, Iceland, documenta XIII, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul and National Museum of Fine Art / TNUA, Taipei Biennial, IMMA, (Irish Museum of Modern Art), Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Project Arts Centre, CAC Vilinius and Visual, Centre for Contemporary Art.
| Year | |
|---|---|
| Ho Nyn Kairos, Serpentine Gallery, London | 2016 |
| The Plurality of Existence…, Visual, Carlow | 2016 |
| We Are and Are Not, The Model, Sligo | 2015 |
| Metaphysical Longings VII, TNUA (Taiwan National University of Art),Taipei | 2014 |
| Proposition 7, The National Art Studio, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul | 2013 |
| I Slept Like a Stone, exploring the potentials of collaborative and socially engaged arts practice, The Lab, Dublin | 2018 |
| Suki Tea Award, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast/Oonagh Young Gallery, Dublin | 2016 |
| Taipei Biennial, National Museum of Fine Art, Taipei | 2014 |
| Must Go On, Rua Red, Dublin | 2014 |
| Tapping the Third Realm, Otis gallery, LA | 2013 |
| The Judgement is the Mirror, Nylo, The Living Art Museum, Iceland | 2013 |
| OUT|TUO, Catalyst Arts Centre, Belfast | 2013 |
| Time Out of Mind, Works from the IMMA Collection | 2012 |
| Fine Lines, Limerick City Gallery | 2011 |
| Cult of Engagement, Project Arts Centre, Dublin. | 2010 |
| Aaah, Liz, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam | 2010 |
| Small Moments of Fantastic Things, Antje Wachs, Berlin | 2009 |
| The Infinite, The Intimate and The Impossible, Magacin, Belgrade, Serbia | 2009 |
| Under Construction I, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam | 2009 |
Research projects
My research focuses on the relationship between art and philosophy in contemporary art and asks; how might art invite thought and what is the nature of this thought? Through staging and particular methods of assembly my work seeks to create temporalities that are “other” to the quotidian. These works call people together to specific locations at specific times, for example, a forest at midnight, a flat due for demolition in Dublin’s city centre at dusk and the National Gallery of Ireland during closing hours. By enacting “other spaces” on an experiential and symbolic level, I explore how thought might be “felt”. Through my research, I propose artistic thought is essentially affective in that it articulates a specific way of thinking that is bound up with the artistic form, the encounter, experience and the subject. I assert the term percipient as a more comprehensive and precise alternative to the term viewer as a designator for the subject encountering the multifarious range of forms that constitute contemporary art.
I have devised and developed a multi-layered project in collaboration with asylum seekers in Ireland. The Plurality of Existence in the Infinite Amount of Space and Time (2016) and Crocosmia × (2018). These projects have resulted in site-specific audio artworks in Dublin, Cork, Carlow and Galway, two public artworks in IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) and TU Dublin campus, Grangegorman and an anthology of poetry. The Plurality of Existence… and Crocosmia × are supported by The Arts Council Project Award, Spirasi, Dublin City Council, N.S.F. (National Sculpture Factory), Galway Arts Centre, Galway City Council and Visual, Carlow, GGDA and IMMA.
| Year | |
|---|---|
| Crocosmia × A collaborative art project with asylum seekers living in Ireland that brings art, poetry and horticulture together in workshops with young people leading up to two site-specific public artworks in IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) and TU Dublin campus, Grangegorman. | 2018 |
| The Plurality of Existence in the Infinite Expanse of Space and Time. This project seeks to offer a thought provoking meditation on representation, equality and community by presenting voices of those who are not represented, on a political, cultural or social level. Revealing both shared and different realities presents an alternate reading of community centered on the relations that are formed across categories of nation, race and culture. | 2016 |
| Metaphysical Longings, I –VII This work uses forms of guided visualization known as psychic sleep to explore explore the philosophical question of being on an experiential level. Each iteration of this work has been enacted on a 17m x 7m handmade mat in different locations at specific times, including a flat due for demolition at dusk and the National Gallery of Ireland at night. | 2006-2014 |
| Mystical Anarchism, in collaboration with Simon Critchley Mystical Anarchism incorporates numerous forms, a paper written by philosopher Simon Critchley in 2008, a an unauthorised event with over one hundred participants and the philosopher enacted at midnight in Glendalough, Co. Wicklow in 2009, a film made in collaboration with Thomas McGraw Lewis, an event incorporating a public screening of this film, a conversation with the philosopher with a “last supper” for over two hundred and fifty people hosted in by Edia Connole and a final event or “closing” as part of the curatorial project Sleepwalkers at the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery. For each iteration of this work, a hand-mat mat served to demarcate the space and furnish the gathering. | 2009-2012 |
| An Exercise in Seeing This site-specific work develops from the project Proposition 7 (2013) and seeks to invoke the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein through audio and participation work in Redcross Forest, Co. Wicklow (where he lived for six months of his life). An Exercise in Seeing, engages with Wittgenstein’s showing /saying distinction that he articulates in Proposition 7 in the Tractatus. By capturing the limits of language, Proposition 7 attends to the mystical, by suggesting how unsayable philosophical propositions (metaphysical, ethical and aesthetic) make themselves manifest. In a paradoxical twist, An Exercise in Seeing provides an entry point to engage with Proposition 7 using language as a strategy to reveal what we cannot speak of. An Exercise in Seeing was commissioned as part of I Won’t Say That I Will See you Tomorrow, curated by Aoife Tunney and supported by the Mermaid Arts Centre and the Austrian Embassy. It was re-enacted for the ESA (European Society of Aesthetics) conference in D.I.T, Dublin, 2015. | 2013 |
| Creating the Common/The Unveiling with Memorial Housing Trust, The Department of the Environment and IMMA. What is a public monument? Can a monument be something other than a physical structure? How might we create a truly collaborative monument for our community? These questions informed Creating the Common. Creating the Common was developed with residents from the Memorial Housing Trust in Inchicore and local cultural practitioners. Collaborators include; creative writer Colin Carters, script-writer Séan Moffat, director Hélène Montague, actors; Killian Sheridan, Diara O’Connor, Niav Cartwright, Jefferson Ossario, Paulie Quinn, architects abgc, photographers; Yvette Monahan and Sean Breithaupt, film makers; Thomas Mc Graw Lewis, Traolach Ó Murchú and Cormac Browne and designer John Sherwin. The project developed t through creative writing and script-writing workshops and culminated in Creating the Common/The Unveiling, a theatrical event parodying the failed unveiling of a monumental sculpture in the gardens of Memorial Court. The event was filmed and screened in IMMA. | 2010 |
Lectures/Conferences
I am the founder of cross-institutional research group focusing on contemporary aesthetics. I have lectured in cultural and academic institutions and have contributed research papers on artistic research, the nature of artistic thought, affect, embodied perception, the artwork as an open process and the transformative capacity of contemporary art to national and international seminars and conferences.
| Year | |
|---|---|
| Conflict, Migration and Identity in Modern Ireland, Trinity College, Carlow College, Visual. | 2016 |
| An Exercise in Seeing, ESA, European Society of Aesthetics, DIT, Dublin | 2015 |
| The Philosophical Character of Contemporary Art, Taiwan National University of the Arts, Taipei. | 2014 |
| Location Aesthetics, ELIA, Glasgow | 2014 |
| The Age of Aesthetics, ESA, Amsterdam | 2014 |
| The Studio, Sint-Lukas Hogeschool, Antwerp | 2014 |
| The Judgment is the Mirror, NYLO and Academy of Arts, Iceland | 2013 |
| Psychic Sleep and Collective Thought, Earn/documenta XIII, Kassel, Germany | 2012 |
Awards + Achievements
My work has been commissioned by Serpentine Gallery, London, Nýló, Iceland, documenta XIII, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul and National Museum of Fine Art / TNUA, Taipei Biennial, IMMA, (Irish Museum of Modern Art), Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Project Arts Centre, CAC Vilnius and Visual. Large-scale collaborative projects have been commissioned and supported by GGDA, Dublin City Council, NSF (National Sculpture Factory), Cork City Council, Visual, Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow, Galway Arts Centre, Galway City Council, Arts Council of Ireland, European Cultural Fund, AHRB, UK, and Culture Ireland.
| Year | |
|---|---|
| Nominated for David and Yuko Juna Award | 2019 |
| Dublin City Council Community and Neighbourhood Award | 2018/2016 |
| Arts Council of Ireland Visual Arts Bursary | 2017/2012/07/06/02/01 |
| Arts Council of Ireland Project Award | 2016 |
| Dublin City Council Community and Neighbourhood Award | 2016 |
| Suki Tea Award | 2015 |
| Taipei Biennial | 2014 |
| Arts Council of Ireland Travel and Training Award | 2014/13/07/03 |
| Culture Ireland Travel Award | 2013/08/07 |
| Arts Council of Ireland Visual Arts Bursary | 2012/07/06/02/01 |
| European Cultural Union, Step Beyond Travel Award | 2009 |
| Banff Artists’ Residency Programme | 2006 |
| IMMA Artists’ Residency Programme | 2006 |
| Dublin City Council Visual Arts Award | 2003 |
| A.H.R.B, Research Bursary | 2002 |
Other Activities
| Year | |
|---|---|
| Arts Council of Ireland, Advisory Panel | 2018 |
| Parsons School of Art & Design (NY)- Peer Review, Anywhere and Elsewhere, biennial conference | 2018 |
| Parsons School of Design, The New School of Social Research (NY) and University of Melbourne, Peer Review, Project Anywhere Global Exhibition Program | 2017 |
| CIT – External Examiner, MA by Research, Fine Art | 2016 |
| GMIT, External Examiner, BA Fine Art Sculpture | 2007-2012 |
| IMMA, Advisory Panel on Education and Community | 2009 |
| V.E.C. and South Dublin County Council, Adamstown Per Cent for Art Commission | 2009 |