Red Square Curates the Butler Gallery Collection

“Even though it has only been 5 months, it feels like it started so long ago. The way I view practically everything has changed, improved. I have come to see art in a different way” (Participant, Red Square)

From Us

Red Square is a group of 16-18 year olds [1] from Kilkenny city and county, brought together by the Butler Gallery. Members of the original Red Square Kibosh group [2] successfully applied for a European ‘Youth in Action’ grant for a project that would engage a young public with the Butler Gallery Collection. The group embarked on a series of phases of training from February – April 2011, developing ideas and skills for the realization of a Butler Gallery Collection exhibition. A milestone of the project was an overnight trip to the opening of ‘A Sense of Perspective’ at Tate Liverpool, curated by young people. A well-formed group with a whole new perspective on curating, Red Square worked collaboratively as an exhibition team from April to June 2011, debating ideas and choosing work for the exhibition.

Through Them

The overarching theme of the exhibition is escape. The approach to escape and its opposite – entrapment, is also explored. At different moments, the exhibition evokes the feeling of being trapped, the journey towards freedom, and the battle that such a journey can entail. While the group explain that the themes of the exhibition were often arrived at subconsciously – bubbling up and surfacing at different stages; influences and inspiration can be attributed to the reality of working as a group of young people in contemporary Ireland in the context of this particular gallery. As young people, there is a natural instinct to escape – to fly the nest. This takes on a more serious dimension with the huge amount of young people leaving and waiting to leave Ireland at present, with the creation of a pervading restlessness in the country that is echoed in the exhibition. The Gallery’s location in the subteranean basement of Kilkenny Castle, with its barred windows and dungeon-like chambers has also been influencial in the decision-making process.

The exhibition includes a wide range of media, including sculpture, print, photography, painting, film and installation.The best evocation of the overall theme is within John Kindness’ The Swimming and the Drowned, portraying two contrasting sets of swimmers scraped into the yellow side panels of a New York taxi – one set drown with blocks of concrete tied to their feet and hands, while the other set swim freely. Greatly influencing the direction of the overall theme, it holds freedom, and entrapment, its counterpart in stark contrast to each other. With Kindness’ piece in the reception of the Gallery setting the scene for the themes of the exhibition as a whole, Barry McGee’s Untitled (Graffiti-ed Door) is present in the final gallery, symbolising a type of freedom and a lack thereof at the same time. Throughout the exhibition there are various dialogues on and progressions of the theme.

To You

‘From Us, Through Them, To You’ marks the first time since 2004 the Butler Gallery Collection has been curated by an external body, and extracts work not only from storage, but from some of the venues of our patrons where it hangs on a regular basis – KCLR, Butler House and the Health Service Executive. The group want the exhibition to be ‘universally personal’ – for it to reflect the young character of the group who have curated it, but for it also to have a resonance with people of all ages. One of the driving forces behind the exhibition is the thought that everyone is trying to escape from something. The group want to be the ‘eyes behind eyes’ [3] for the viewer and there is an attempt for layers of mystery to be present in each room, where the placing of objects might trigger personal memories and histories.

This project is delivered to all of you, by us, through the Butler Gallery Collection and the support of the Butler Gallery team and the project facilitators. We would like to thank the main facilitators of the project – Jean Tormey, Etaoin Holahan and Anna Galligan; and also Mick Minogue – all of whom have been extremely helpful and supportive throughout the project. We would like to thank the staff of the Butler Gallery for their support of the project, in particular Director Anna O’Sullivan and the project’s sponsors – Leargas Youth in Action and the Arts Council of Ireland.

XOX

Red Square, June 2011

A member of Red Square is present at all times to discuss the exhibition with visitors.

Join us on Facebook/redsquarebutlergallery for more information about the exhibition and related events.

[2] Butler Gallery Young Critics’ Group active during the Kilkenny Arts Festival 2010.

[3] Brendan Kennelly, ‘Eyes behind Eyes’, Reservoir Voices, 2009.