Galleries With[out] Walls is a collaborative programme by the Gallery of Photography Ireland, Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny and Nerve Centre, Derry~Londonderry.
It aims to facilitate connections across multiple creative fields, allowing artists to experiment with innovative new formats for presenting work.
In March 2021, three letters were suddenly everywhere. NFT became the talking points of evening news segments, rabid Twitter threads, disparaging long-reads and of course, memes. Seemingly from nowhere, NFTs had captured the attention, imagination and discourse of the entire internet as millions scrambled to understand the impact the abbreviation would have on their industry. Is this a case of the emperor’s new clothes, or are NFTs the next frontier for artists? We’ve asked the artists to decide.
In this first Galleries With[out] Walls iteration, Volume 1 – NFTs: The next frontier for artists?, five lens-based artists and five audio composers explored the world of NFTs, reimagined current bodies of work for online dissemination, and collaboratively developed new digital artworks that will be exhibited both online and in-person at the RCC.
Collaboration 2
Ciaran Dunbar and Steve McCollum
The economic downturn, combined with the impact of the ‘Troubles’, has helped this illegal industry to thrive. The issue of diesel laundering is one that nobody wants to talk about – it is seen as a necessary evil.
Diesel laundering provides cheap fuel and creates employment and opportunities in the area. Plant closures, illegal dump-sites and contaminated waterways are reported, but then soon forgotten.
Ciaran Dunbar was born in 1982 in Dundalk, Ireland, where he currently lives and works. He gained a BA in Photography from the University of Ulster, Belfast, in 2013.
Having escaped The Troubles in the 1980s, Ciaran’s parents, originally from the north of Ireland, settled in Dundalk. It is here, against the backdrop of this border town, that issues of identity, displacement and marginalisation have become the focus of Ciaran’s work to date.
Steve McCollum is an award-winning animator and musician. He currently writes, records and tours with the celtic-punk band The Pox Men and has previously released music with Stoisis, The Narty Shams and Action Force Music of Mass Destruction.
His film work has won awards at Edinburgh Film Festival and was nominated for an Irish Film and Television Award in 2003.
Other artists featured: Michael Boran, Mark Duffy, Jeremy Fitz Howard, Nina Maalej, Keith Mannion, Orri McBrearty, Ruth Gonsalves Moore and Úna Keane. Find out more HERE
Curated by Regional Cultural Centre and Gallery of Photography
Exhibition text by Declan McGlynn
Project Partners: Foundation for Art and Blockchain, Museum of Crytpo Art, Foundation & Nerve Centre, Derry~Londonderry.
The Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny is proudly funded by Donegal County Council and Arts Council Ireland.