Papers by Gianna Tasha Tomasso
VAI, 2023
ald's sculptural installation, Of Salt and Ore (2023), features a range of weathered copper and i... more ald's sculptural installation, Of Salt and Ore (2023), features a range of weathered copper and iron vernacular utilitarian objects that serve as hosts for the growth of cubic salt crystals. Over the course of the twomonth exhibition, the crystallisation process-resulting from chemical reactions of copper water and supersaturated salt solution-presents the alluring and disquieting nature of corrosion. Entering the installation, two large, rusted, circular vessels are situated on separate plinths, inhabited by stunning crystal ring formations. Eroded and twisted copper piping, with distinctive greenish-blue patina, and an iron anvil have alien-like, white, crystal protrusions. Corroded pipes extend from plinths, accompanied by wisps of salt crystal growth that seep onto the gallery floor. The salt crystals grow on these objects like a futuristic invasive species. Climate change-induced desiccation is giving rise to higher salinity levels, disrupting the delicate equilibrium between saline and fresh water. This is anticipated to escalate in the coming years, potentially making salinisation a pivotal driver of environmental displacement.1 Recent solutions in water purification have been driven by Artificial Intelligence, identifying optimal nanopores within materials like graphene, to enhance their efficiency in salt removal.2 Drawing inspiration from Artificial Intelligence, Méadhbh O'Connor's multimedia installation, altspace (installation 1.0) (2023), variously contemplates the digital, the virtual, and the natural. In the accompanying artist's statement, O'Connor provocatively asks: "What kind of installation might appeal to a conscious computer?" Four geometric sculptural forms on dark grey plinths resemble architectural models, fusing synthetic and biological materials Catherine McDonald, Of Salt and Ore, 2023, copper, salt crystals, twine; photograph by Catherine McDonald, courtesy the artist and glòr. Catherine McDonald, Of Salt and Ore, 2023, copper, salt crystals; photograph by Catherine McDonald, courtesy the artist and glòr. Méadhbh O'Connor, altspace (installation 1.0), 2023, handmade dodecahedron (various materials) with living and dead air plants.; photograph by Méadhbh O'Connor, courtesy of the artist and glór.
Visual Artist Ireland Newsheet, 2023
The ideas underpinning award-winning artist Brian Fay's survey exhibition, 'The Most Recent Fore... more The ideas underpinning award-winning artist Brian Fay's survey exhibition, 'The Most Recent Forever', generously give viewers a gateway into multiple temporalities, primarily through the medium and action of drawing. This touring exhibition is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland Touring Award. The three-part series commenced in the Highlanes Gallery (8 October
Gianna Tasha Tomasso reports from this year's Glasgow International, contrasting large-scale medi... more Gianna Tasha Tomasso reports from this year's Glasgow International, contrasting large-scale media friendly exhibitions with local temporary interventions as a way to locate the multiple economies upon which the biennial rests. In light of the second fire at the Glasgow School of Art building, the writer and editors at CIRCA wish to extend our deep sadness for and with the arts community in Glasgow. While researching this article the sense of community and resilience in Glasgow by artists and art students was palpable and it is this resilience which we hope will help in the coming weeks. " Glasgow is a magnificent city, " said McAlpin. " Why do we hardly ever notice that? " " Because nobody imagines living here… " [1] Glasgow International joined the global biennial circuit in 2005. With the initial programme consisting of 150 artists and contributors, it has evolved into a sprawling monumental feast of visual art. Now showcasing the works of 268 artists across 78 venues throughout the city, newly appointed director Richard Parry cited the further 80 peripheral exhibitions as having resonance with the key ideas in his core exhibition programme and acting as 'nodes' for a wider thematic. Titled Cellular World: Cyborg-Human-Avatar-Horror the nine main exhibitions took a timely look at the changing role technology has in our everyday lives. The production of digital 'selves' as avatars and the larger existential questions the digital acceleration has posed to us as a species, seemingly teetering between utopia and dystopia. The theme allowed for some ambitious large-scale tech heavy art works programmed alongside localised lo-tech temporary interruptions in public spaces. Unevenly spread across the city, festival venues included housing estates, derelict post-industrial spaces, the botanic gardens and an empty swimming pool to name but a few. Former curator at Grundy Art School in Blackpool, Parry's futuristic theme had the right amount of indeterminacy to allow for expansive para-curatorial events, happenings and performances. Many of the peripheral offerings were concerned with themes of intersectionality. However, some works pointed to local concerns within art and its many economies and contrasted with the more populist inclusion of past Turner prize winners showing in the bienniale such as the highly anticipated work Nobodaddy by Mark Leckey. 2016 Turner prize winner Lubiana Himid's colourful dragon-like carriage straddled the grand Kelvingrove Museum atrium. The specially commissioned work, titled Breaking in, Breaking out,
Litle Piece - Writing for exhibtion for curator Moran Been-Noon
Review of TULCA Festival Of Visual Art 2016
Slurping and dribbling. Licking. Gyrating. Rubbing up against a recently painted wall. Lusting fo... more Slurping and dribbling. Licking. Gyrating. Rubbing up against a recently painted wall. Lusting for the inanimate and lusting for the financial proceeds from the animate. Avril Corroon's focus is the middle aged overweight stereotypical landlord. Her short film presents insight into how he might behave in one of his over-inflated, under-maintained properties. Perhaps not what one would expect from a group exhibition showing works seeking to examine " female solidarity, work economy and protest. " The usual whitewashed walls of the gallery are now magnolia, providing a subtle change from the norm with unnerving impact. Corroon's video work Fresh Paint on the Walls is located on a flat screen TV in the far corner of the gallery. Headphones on. A loud shriek: 'WET PAINT WET PAINT'. The nationwide phenomenon of magnolia-washing is something many tenants in the private rental sector will be familiar with. The nine minute video combining the grotesque with the reflexive is more than just a satirical overview on the current housing crisis and the prevalent landlord culture. Corroon is part of a new wave of young politically engaged Irish artists; her work, though satirical, has the slightest hint of militancy. The positioning of the work within TBG&S might remind us that the art world operates within multiple economies, with artworks presenting as critique yet unable to avoid becoming embedded in that which they seek to critique. However, Fresh Paint on the Walls does not whitewash cause and effect or remove the artist from the problematic equation of gentrification, private landlord culture and the re-territorialisation of creativity as a driving force of capital accumulation. As an artist in a 'creative city' she understands that the insatiable landlord might notice the new hipster coffee shop in the area and hike up the rent again. Which came first, the hipsters or the artists? This cyclical gentrification and consequent precarity has direct relation to her own artistic outputs and a recognition of this within the film renders Corroon's work refreshingly fresh, much like a new coat of paint on a grimy BLOGS ∠ ONLINE ARCHIVE ∠ PRINTED ARCHIVE ∠ SEARCH OTHER ∠ THIS MATTERS NOW
Late Night Art in Belfast presents an opportunity to experience the unexpected by way of attendin... more Late Night Art in Belfast presents an opportunity to experience the unexpected by way of attending multiple openings by multiple artists/galleries. The once monthly event encourages viewers to take in as much of the contemporary art scene in the city as humanly possible, affords the opportunity to meet with the participating artists and presents the chance of finding that one work which speaks of the past and the future in a single deep breath. What is contemporary art but that which imprints on our psyche past and present, all the while pointing towards a new visual Zeitgeist? In contemporary popular culture we are often told of an X factor, something inherent, existing without pretense or cultivation. Months after experiencing a work, its presence still lingering, prompting questions to determine its line of flight, I realize that this embodies the X in my own search for work of substance and integrity. I found one such work in Belfast that night and it has stayed with me ever since. Locating the the tiny gallery space that is Belfasts Ps2 and stepping within Rachael Campbell-Palmers work 'TERRA FIRMA' I was immediately struck by the contemporary architectural presence of the work. Consisting of multiple hand cast concrete hexagons laying vertically on the floor, an oversized geometric jigsaw slotted together as though cells dividing and reproducing. The materiality of the concrete should render these cells cold and industrial to the touch and the light grey concrete on the ubiquitous dark grey gallery floor should give a clinical presence to the Ps2 space. However the relationship between the work and the space that it was made for was familiar and warm. Site specific work made for one home often may not transport to another, however having visited the Mac on the previous day, how well TERRA FIRMA' would be placed in the basement gallery! Infact it is almost as if it was made for the space, and without doubt should be considered and given a permanent home. The work regarded the painted floor space of the tiny Ps2 gallery as kin, a masculine architectural aesthetic subverted into feminine post contemporary tactile installation, seemingly with ease. Nothing about this work seeps humour however its lack of cynical critique, its disregard for contemporary trend and its unapologetic use of material gives it a warmth-an instant feeling of uniqueness and familiarity all at once. Citing a desire to produce process driven work deemed as imperative to the authenticity of her sculptural practise, Campbell-Palmers TERRA FIRMA is without doubt skill based. Planned and executed with an air of fragile strength, each hand cast shape individual in its finish but grouped in a unified whole. TERRA FIRMA (meaning " solid earth ") is distinctly articulated within PS2 Gallery Belfast. It neither overwhelmed the space it inhabited (something which Ps2 must have experienced in previous exhibitions due to the gallery scale). Nor does it hide away behind the traditional white cube curatorial excess. Inviting the audience to step atop and within the work made my day. So many contemporary works of art in gallery settings glare back, goading the viewer to
Drafts by Gianna Tasha Tomasso
Niamh McCann's solo exhibition Furtive Tears is embedded geographically and architecturally withi... more Niamh McCann's solo exhibition Furtive Tears is embedded geographically and architecturally within its locality. Showing across three rooms in the Hugh Lane Gallery the Dublin based artist presents an eloquent series of skilfully crafted sculptures and film works alongside reworked artefacts from the Hugh lane collection. Interweaving the perverse and imaginary with the political and the real, Furtive Tears is rich with reoccurring themes. The artists interest in both the German architect and scenographer Hans Polezig and two twentieth century Irish political figures, Sir Edward Carson and Jim Larkin may on paper intonate that the exhibition addresses a politic of the past. However Furtive Tears moves across and beyond any notion of time. McCann craftily mixes the hues of ideological historical and monumental gestures with a boldness that explores the perversity of the current political moment. In her filmwork Furtive Tears, Salomé's Lament Carson and Larkins unmistakable gestures are depicted by the character Boris. Boris walks the grand marble rotunda in Belfast City hall wearing a tailored suit complimented with bright red high heels. We see Boris again, in a comedic Panda suit, surveying Belfast from the Ridge View of Black Mountain. Humor and tragedy intertwined, the video work is exquisite as is the accompanying original musical composition by David Coonan.
Initial research and interest into the modern phenomenon of spontaneous roadside crash shrines be... more Initial research and interest into the modern phenomenon of spontaneous roadside crash shrines began with a study by Robert M. Bednar, who asserts they serve multiple purpose; that of materialising memory, acting as a proxy for the absent victim, the transference of the absent body to present objects, a reference to the life lived and the life the object will live, both mortal, and that which seeks to work on collective/group memory-Jack Santino states " they, (roadside shrines), insert and insist upon the presence of absent people: they place the deceased individuals back into the fabric of society." (2006) The article iterates many insights not previously considered, the active process and evolution of memory, something which is not linear or 'historical' and a process which relies on many contributing factors. Also the consideration of group history, the creation of group memories, and the multiple types of memory we can create or have created for us. Another consideration is
Thesis Chapters by Gianna Tasha Tomasso
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Papers by Gianna Tasha Tomasso
Drafts by Gianna Tasha Tomasso
Thesis Chapters by Gianna Tasha Tomasso