Ormston House is delighted to present Alt-West / Alt-Thiar, an exhibition by the Office for Joint Administrative Intelligence (O.J.A.I.).

The Office for Joint Administrative Intelligence (O.J.A.I.) was founded in 2015 by Chris Dreier and Gary Farrelly. Since then, the duo have created a body of work encompassing performance, installation, postal correspondence, publishing, radio broadcasts and sound works. The O.J.A.I. utilise the language and procedures of obsolete forms of bureaucracy. They fetishise the trappings of administrative and institutional power from the end of the last century.

This exhibition results from an invitation by Ormston House for the O.J.A.I. to direct their focus on Limerick and the Mid-West of Ireland. The resulting body of work is the culmination of a two-year investigation involving site visits and fieldwork. For this exhibition the O.J.A.I. have created a suite of new artworks focusing on infrastructures of energy and transport, built heritage and social geography. In these new works factual data fuses with material of a more emotive and frequently absurd nature.

Alt West (meaning Alternative West) is a fictitious territory invented by the artists. Here, actual sites and historical episodes become the catalyst for speculative thinking. Ostensibly, the Alt West is the Mid-West region, which the O.J.A.I. depict as an epicentre of international activity shaped by the movement of assets, energy and political power.

The many facets of the Alt West are represented in Postal Onslaught, an installation comprising over one hundred cards. Delivered to the gallery via the postal system over the past 24 months, this accumulation combines photos, hand-drawn graphs, maps and screen grabs from videos and news reports. Subjects range from undersea communications, Cold War alignments and military supply chains, all infused with idiosyncratic, self-reflexive observations.

A recurring focus in these postal dispatches is Shannon Airport, which along with its Special Economic Zone occupies a central position within this investigation. While known primarily as a gateway for American capital, transatlantic traffic and defence logistics, the O.J.A.I. scrutinise earlier permutations. Of particular interest is the influence of the “Shannon model” on Communist China, the Soviet civilian aviation operations at the airport and it’s crucial role as a transit point for the USSR airline Aeroflot.

Operational Overview is a wall map produced in collaboration with Alexander Pfeiffenberger. Here, the Mid-West is cast as the centre of the world. Alignments traced across the map depict this region as a pulsing switchboard where political systems, technologies and personal information intersect.

Sarsfield House, a Brutalist office block in Limerick city centre that houses the National Office of the Collector General is a major focus in this exhibition. It forms the subject of desire for a newly commissioned film made in collaboration with Julia Zinnbauer. The artists describe this film as a “video love letter” to the much-maligned edifice, the future of which remains uncertain.

A new six-track vinyl record made for this exhibition offers sonic portraits of  Shannon Airport, Sarsfield House and the nearby Ardnacrusha hydroelectric power station. Featuring field recordings, spoken language and electronic sounds, this album treats these locations as sites of transmission and brings them into acoustic relation.

Alt-West / Alt-Thiar reflects upon Irish modernity and the ways in which the nation has, over the past half-century, become an integral constituent within global networks. In doing so, this exhibition unsettles the idea of the Celtic Tiger as the starting point of Irish economic modernity and resurrects earlier forms of collective planning, state-led development and international exchange.

A programme of events will accompany this exhibition. Full details to follow.

Alt-West / Alt-Thiar is supported by the Goethe-Institut.

Ormston House is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Limerick Arts Office.