The RHA presents a solo exhibition by Sean Lynch, featuring The Irish Tour of Adventure: Capital, 2014– 2015, the Irish Pavilion from the 56th Venice Biennale. Visited by over 400,000 people during the world’s most prestigious visual arts exhibition in 2015, Adventure: Capital is now touring partner institutions in Ireland.

Combining sculpture, video and graphic elements, Adventure: Capital explores the allegories and underlying narratives of the contemporary architectural and social environment through encounters with the sculptures of John Burke, the quarries of Cornwall, megalithic ‘cursing’ stones, urban vandalism, and Irish Free State banknotes.

Alongside Adventure: Capital, Lynch presents a new video installation, Campaign to Change the National Monuments Acts, 2016 that investigates the legal status of metal detectors in Ireland. Following national controversy around the finding of the Derrynaflan Hoard, a medieval treasure trove uncovered in the 1980s, the state hastily placed a blanket ban on the public use of all devices used to search for archaeological objects. This legislation effectively destroyed the fledgling Irish metal detectorist community of Ireland. Using the tropes of a promotional video, Campaign to Change the National Monuments Acts advocates for a change in these authoritarian laws, where ideas of nationhood, individual freedom, and the need for new forms of community-led heritage are all explored on a journey narrated by Lynch’s long-time collaborator Gina Moxley.

A free Adventure: Capital publication with a text by curator Woodrow Kernohan is available within the exhibition. To coincide with his exhibition at the RHA, Sean Lynch will also present a new installation at the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery from 6 July entitled Scrapyard Carnival.

The Irish Tour of Ireland at Venice is supported by the Arts Council as part of its commitment to promote the visual arts to Irish audiences. Ireland at Venice is an initiative of Culture Ireland in partnership with the Arts Council. The Commissioner for the Irish Pavilion in 2015 was Mike Fitzpatrick, Director of Limerick’s European Capital of Culture 2020 bid and Head of School, Limerick School of Art and Design, LIT. The curator was Woodrow Kernohan, Director of EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial, Limerick City.

Adventure: Capital and the Irish Tour of Ireland at Venice have been made possible through additional support from the RHA and from partners: Limerick City Gallery of Art; The Model, Sligo; Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast; Limerick City and County Council Arts Office; Limerick, Candidate City for European Capital of Culture 2020; Limerick Institute of Technology, Limerick School of Art and Design; EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial; Maurice Ward Art Handling; Wexford County Council; British Council Northern Ireland; Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin; Ronchini Gallery, London; Askeaton Contemporary Arts; Irish Wire Products.

Campaign to Change the National Monuments Act, 2016 has been produced by Spacex Exeter in association with the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter and through support from The Henry Moore Foundation, Arts Council of England, The Elephant Trust, The Foyle Foundation and Exeter City Council.

Sean Lynch, born Kerry, Ireland, 1978 lives and works in Askeaton, Limerick, Ireland. He studied at the Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main and Limerick School of Art and Design, LIT. Recent solo exhibitions include: Ronchini Gallery, London, 2015; Lismore Castle Arts, 2015; Modern Art Oxford, 2014; VISUAL, Carlow, 2014; Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane, 2013; The Model, Sligo, 2012; Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, 2011–12. Selected group exhibitions include: CAPC, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, 2015; Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver, 2013; IMMA Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, 2011; Camden Arts Centre, London, 2010; neugerriemschneider, Berlin, 2010. He was awarded the TrAIN International Artist Residency at Gasworks, London, 2012 and since 2006 has co-organised the residency and exhibition programme, Askeaton Contemporary Arts in County Limerick. Lynch is represented by Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin and Ronchini Gallery, London, and is author and editor of many artist publications and bookworks.

www.seanlynchinfo.com