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alice maher becoming
information and resources about the exhibition alice maher becoming

5 October 2012 - 3 February 2013 IMMA @ NCH at Earlsfort Terrace

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Introduction

Becoming is a mid-career retrospective exhibition of the work of Alice Maher, one of Ireland’s most respected and influential artists. Featuring painting, sculpture, photography and animation, the exhibitionincludes art works created over the course of Maher’s career such as Berry Dress, 1994, The History of Tears, 2001 and Mnemosyne, 2002. It also features a number of new works including a major commission, Cassandra’s Necklace, 2012, a two-screen film installation inspired by a short script by author Anne Enright, made in collaboration with film maker Vivienne Dick and composer Trevor Knight. Maherhas created a new site-specific work, L’Université, 2012 and has re-created Cell which was initially commissioned for the exhibition In a State in Kilmainham Gaol in 1991 where the original work is still situated. Catalogue A fully-illustrated publication Alice Maher Becoming accompanies the exhibition. It documents the artist’s practice over the past twenty-five years and includes essays and imagesproviding information about the artist and her practice. These include texts by Dr. Penelope Curtis, Director of Tate Britain, London; Booker-Prize winning author, Anne Enright; Dr Ed Krčma, Lecturer Modern and Contemporary Art, UCC; Dr David Lloyd, Professor of English at the University of Southern California; Dr Catherine Morris, Cultural Co-ordinator, Trinity College Dublin & National Libraryof Ireland; and Seán Kissane, Curator of the exhibition. The catalogue is published by IMMA and distributed by D.A.P., New York. Curation The exhibition is curated by Seán Kissane, Curator: Exhibitions. The Irish Museum of Modern Art is based in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. During 2012/13, the Museum is undergoing major refurbishment therefore IMMA is using a temporary space at Earlsfort Terracein Dublin’s city centre.

A retrospecctive is an exhibition of an artist’s practice over a period of time. It usually features the work of a wellestablished artist who has built up a body of work over time.

Installation is a term used to describe the placement of objects in a space. The combination of the objects and the space comprise the art work. Site-specific work is work that is createdfor a specific space. The meaning of the work would change if it was removed from that space.

Exhibition space Royal Hospital Kilmainham

Royal Hospital Kilmainham

Earlsfort Terrace

Earlsfort Terrace was home to several faculties of University College Dublin (UCD) between 1883 and 2007 after which they moved to its larger campus in Belfield. IMMA’s temporary gallery spaces in EarlsfortTerrace still show traces of its former functions - the doors leading into the gallery spaces have name plates suggesting former lectures and course topics. The spaces were also used by the Garda Síochána Forensics Laboratory and, from 1981, a large section of the building houses the National Concert Hall.
Earlsfort Terrace

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The Artist: Alice Maher Artist’s Biography

Born in Co.Tipperary in 1956, Alice Maher studied at the University of Limerick and the Crawford College of Art, Cork. She was awarded a Masters degree in Fine Art from the University of Ulster and a Fulbright Scholarship to the San Francisco Art Institute. She has exhibited widely in Ireland, England and the United States and has represented Ireland in the 22nd São Paolo Biennal, 1994. Maher’s practiceincludes sculpture, painting, drawing, photography and film animation. Maher has a long association with the Irish Museum of Modern Art with work in the following exhibitions: From Beyond the Pale, 1993; Irish Art Now: From the Poetic to the Political, 1998; Shifting Ground: Fifty Years of Irish Art, 2000; Tír na nÓg, 2004 and Altered States, 2009.

Alice Maher

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