Collaborative art project and exhibition curated by Olivier Cornet, Claire Halpin and Eoin Mac Lochlainn

Artists: Brian Fay, Claire Halpin, James Hanley, Joanna Kidney, Eoin Mac Lochlainn, Miriam McConnon, Kate Murphy, Ben Readman, Gail Ritchie and Susanne Wawra

The concept for this curatorial project was that in these days of uncertainty, conflict, mounting racism and intolerance, artists could take a lead in promoting diversity and showing concern for minorities and for refugees from areas of conflict. The curators believed that a collaborative project where artists must respond to and take account of each others work was particularly relevant at this time.

Ten selected artists were invited to develop an initial image which was then emailed on to the next artist in the group. The second artist responded to it by working over it or manipulating it in some way and then emailed it on to the third artist who also responded to it and passed it on. The process continued until each of the ten artists had worked on each of the ten images.

This was a very creative and engaging experience for the artists involved, each gaining a lot from encountering and engaging with the varied working methods and creative processes of the other artists. The outcome is 100 collaborative artworks, each piece constituting a new artwork at each stage. High quality prints of the final 10 artworks were printed as well as a selected number of ‘in-between’ prints. This selection will be exhibited in a curated exhibition at the Olivier Cornet Gallery in September 2017.

Each artist has also been asked to exhibit an individual artwork for the exhibition – either a newly developed piece or an existing work, in any medium, responding to the theme of Concerning the Other or in response to their collaboration in the project.

Crowd funding was also a part of the project, an element which was there to primarily raise awareness for the project as opposed to raising a large amount of finance. The main costs of the project was the printing of the final artworks for exhibition. We organised it through an Irish online organisation: Fund it. Click here to see our project on their website.

You can also follow this project on Facebook: ConcerningTheOther

The curators are planning to tour this exhibition to other venues in Ireland and internationally.