Curated By Janice Hough

C_L_O_S_E_R  brings together selected artworks by Backwater studio members which resonate with physical, spiritual, communal and environmental states. Playing with scale and materials several selected works encourage the viewer to get closer, revealing their process as an enigma, a discovery, a history or an act of intimacy. Other works conjure forces through their sense of theatre or presence in the space. In the gallery fabrics soften and domesticate the setting, with reflections sited in the exhibition to bring artworks and people closer together. In these times our collective experience on this earth has never been so intertwined.

C_L_O_S_E_R  is open to multiple contrasting readings which visitors are invited to explore and experience.

The exhibition features artworks by Rachel Daly, Angela Gilmour, Sean Hanrahan, Joseph Heffernan, Claire Murphy, Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Natasha Pike, Ciara Rodgers, Pádraig Spillane and Izabela Szczutkowska.

Janice Hough is the curator of IMMA’s Residency & Artist Programmes which support opportunities for studio research, production and the public dissemination of practice. Janice regularly works on group and solo projects with national and international artists and curators, she was co-curator of IMMA’s Collection exhibition Ghosts from the Recent Past, 2020 – 2021. Janice has worked on IMMA partnerships with several international organisations such as Light Works, Syracuse, NY, US; Kooshk Residency, Tehran, IR; Clark House, Mumbai, IN; Fulbright, IE; and Grizedale Arts, UK. She was a founding member of VISIT, a Dublin city-wide open studio event and of Artists Studio Network Ireland. Public presentations include TransCultural Exchange Conference, Boston; Location One, New York and numerous events at IMMA. Janice is currently on the Board of Directors at Leitrim Sculpture Centre.