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Mark Curran

Mark Curran

P: +353-1-4027191
E: markjc1999@hotmail.com
Campus: Aungier Street

Research Topic: Evoking the Global: Curatorial Practice and the Labouring Body

In the context of recent globalization in the Republic of Ireland, this thesis builds and expands upon on my ethnographically mediated practice-based MPhil project by way of addressing the relationship between curatorial practice and the role and representation of labour, global labour practices and industrialized space, attentive to how within the field of practice-led qualitative research, such research is re-represented, re-versioned and re-told. Since a central focus of this study concerns questions of representation, I deploy the term ‘re-representation’ as a reflexive gesture in acknowledgement of such critical re-contextualisations. The thesis investigates the dissemination of these epistemologies, the performative elements and interventions (exhibition, installation, publication and web-based distributions), drawing on audio and visual ethnographic material generated in my fieldsite - the Hewlett-Packard Manufacturing and Research complex in Leixlip, Ireland and the resulting installation/publication titled ‘The Breathing Factory’. The thesis comprises four chapters, the first of which provides a critical overview of relevant and intersecting literature on theories and ethnographic studies of globalization, global labour practices and labour. It draws particular attention to a conceptualization of globalization in terms of vulnerability, which ascribes a more unstable definition of labour and its conditions, emphatically shaped via the globalizing effects of the migration of global capital. The primary focus of the second chapter is the visualization of contemporary and historical labour practices, with particular reference to documentary photography. The third chapter situates the reader in the fieldsite and outlines the methodological framework and related methods employed in my creative practice, instrumentalising practice as a necessary reflexive undertaking. The fourth and final chapter addresses curatorial practice and its relationship to the re-narration and the re-versioning of research material; it draws upon a review of existing research practices and formats of dissemination, including discussion of the re-representation of my research informed by interviews with the curators and directors of gallery spaces in Dublin, Belfast and Montreal, which presented ‘The Breathing Factory’ and supported its publication. The intention here is to critically reflect the broad dissemination of the research, foregrounding the significance of localized cultural readings, enabling transnational and peer-informed readings of the research.

Selected One Person Exhibitions

THE BREATHING FACTORY:

2010
Museum of Art, DePaul University, Chicago, USA.

2008
Galerie Le Bleu Du Ciel-Burdeau, Lyon, France, in the programme of ‘Septembre de la Photographie’ (curator: Gilles Verneret with catalogue).

2007
Kudlek Van Der Grinten Galerie, Köln/Cologne, Germany.

2006
Gallery of Photography, Dublin, Ireland.
Belfast Exposed Gallery, Belfast, N. Ireland.
The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland.
Dazibao – Centre de Photographies Actuelles, Montreal, Canada.

2005
Galeria Nuova Icona, Venezia/Venice, Italy.

SOUTHERN CROSS:

2005
Osborne/Clarke Foundation, Köln/Cologne, Germany.

2003
Galerie Büro für Fotos, Köln/Cologne, Germany.

2002
Gallery of Photography, Dublin, Ireland (with catalogue).

2000
Owners – Galerie Büro für Fotos, Köln/Cologne, Germany.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2009
6x6 Fragments of European Photography: Ireland, Yours Gallery, Warsaw, Poland.
6X6 Fragments of European Photography: Ireland (curator: Peggy Amison), Fotofestiwal, Lodz, Poland.
The Photo Album (curator: Tina Schelhorn), OST Gallery, Moscow, Russia.

2008
30 Exhibition, Gallery of Photography, Dublin, Ireland.
China International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China (curator: Peggy Amison with catalogue).
CEDEFOP PhotoMuseum Award, PhotoBiennale 08 Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki, Greece (with catalogue).

2007
Pass the Picture: Out of Berlin, Goethe Institute, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (curator: Alex Moh with catalogue)
The Macy Gallery (NYU and Columbia) New York, USA.

2006
Seconds: the imperfect artwork, Wexford Arts Centre, Ireland.
European Month of Photography, Embassy of Ireland, Berlin, Germany.
Vevey-Ville d’Image, Vevey, Switzerland.

2005
Paris Photo, Paris, France.
6x6xTri Showcase 2005, Hangzhou/Shangai/Beijing, China (curator: 411 Galleries).
Artist as Publisher, the Workroom, Dublin, Ireland.
Urban Condition, night projection, Temple Bar, Dublin, Ireland.

2004
SOUTHERN CROSS (in programme of) Europa – L’esprit des Villes,
Septembre de la Photographie, Lyon, France.
Contact, 1st International Photography Festival, Damascus, Syria
Art Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
RHA 174th Annual Exhibition, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland.
Justus Lipsius EU Presidency Building, Brussels, Belgium
(Cultural Programme 2004, marking Ireland’s Presidency of EU).

2003
Perspective 2003 – Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast, N. Ireland
(selector: Enrique Juncosa, Director, Irish Museum of Modern Art).

2002
VIA – site-specific installation, Camden Street, Dublin, Ireland.
Paris Photo, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, France.

2001
The John Kobal Award – National Portrait Gallery, London,
England (touring Britain until late 2002).

Awards

2009
Government of Ireland Bursary, Culture Ireland.

2008
Government of Ireland Bursary, Culture Ireland.
Art.Fair 21 Award, KunstMesse Köln, Nomination, Cologne, Germany.

2007
The Breathing Factory, CEDEFOP PhotoMuseum Award, Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki, Greece.

2006
New Work Visual Arts Bursary, The Arts Council, Ireland.
The Breathing Factory (Edition Braus) shortlisted for the
Rencontres D’Arles Book Award, Rencontres Internationales
de la Photographie 2006, Arles, France.
Culture Ireland, Government of Ireland Bursary.
Selected to present paper, ‘SHIFTS 2’ Photography Conference,
International Photography Research Network (IPRN), Centre for
Creative Arts, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

2005
Culture Ireland, Government of Ireland Bursary.
Bursary for Visual Arts, The Arts Council, Ireland.

2004
Travel/Mobility Award, The Arts Council, Ireland.
Cultural Relations Committee, Government of Ireland Bursary.

2003
Cultural Relations Committee, Government of Ireland Bursary
Travel/Mobility Award, The Arts Council, Ireland.

2002
Selected to represent Ireland (with Travel Award) at the
Workshop for Emerging Photographers organised by the Asia-
Europe Foundation (ASEF), Singapore Arts Festival in
cooperation with La Maison Europeenne de la Photographie,
City of Paris in Singapore, South-East Asia.

2001
Voies Off – prospect selected for display as les Rencontres du
Jour, Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie 2001, Arles, France.
AIB Prize 2001 (major all Ireland award for emerging visual
artists) – SOUTHERN CROSS shortlisted to final four and presented, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland.

2000
Recipient of first annual Development Bursary for SOUTHERN
CROSS from the Gallery of Photography, Dublin, Ireland.

Selected Publications

2009
Le Bleu du Ciel, 1999-2009 (Edition Bleu du Ciel), Lyon, France.

2008
'Historical Oblivion: Notes on the Photographs of Kai-Olaf Hesse', 3rd European Month of Photography, Berlin (Kulturprojekte).
MARGINS: Photographing Labour on the Margins (IPRN/Dom Fotografie, Slovakia.
Identité(s)/Identity(ies), (Septembre de la Photographie/ Silvana Editoriale, Milan).
China International Photography Festival, (PIP, China).
Vevey-Ville d’Image (IMAGES 08, Switzerland).
Next Level – Art/Photography/Ideas (Portfolio, Creative Scape, Issue 13, London).
‘The Breathing Factory: Locating the Global Labouring Body’, Journal of Media Practice 9(2), pp. 139-152.
CEDEFOP PhotoMuseum Award 07, (Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki, Greece).

2007
Pass the Picture: Out of Berlin (catalogue, Goethe Institute/Alex Moh, Malaysia).
Cead China, (catalogue, 411 Gallery, Shanghai, China).
Short Stories: Photographs 1890-2006 (catalogue, Macy Gallery/Maurizio Pellegrin, New York, USA).

2006
2nd European Month of Photography Berlin, (Kulturprojekte Berlin).
SHIFTS 2, International Photography Research Network (IPRN) in association with Centre for Creative Arts, Jyväskylä, Finland.
The Breathing Factory (Edition Braus, Heidelberg, Germany in association with Belfast Exposed Photography and Gallery of Photography, Dublin).

2005
Building Material (Journal, Architectural Association of Ireland, Dublin).

2004
Europa – L’Esprit des Villes (Edition Lieux Dits, Lyon).

2003
Seventh International Photography Gathering (Catalogue, Aleppo, Syria).
Plan 03 – Month of Architecture and Art (Plan 03, Cologne).

2002
Workshop for Emerging Photographers (ASEF, Singapore).
Source – Photographic Review (Portfolio, Photoworks North, Belfast).
SOUTHERN CROSS (Catalogue, Gallery of Photography, Dublin/Cornerhouse Publishing, UK).

Conferences/Symposia

2010
‘Eden Emerging: Representing the "Wounded" landscape of the Lausitz', Emerging Landscapes, University of Westminster, London, England.

'The Breathing Factory: Evoking the Global' (Working Title), The Photographic Act: Encounter, Event, Configuration Network, College Arts Association (CAA), Annual Conference, Chicago, USA.

2009
Montaged Re-Imaginings: Extracts from Eden (a work in progress), Keynote, Cities Re-Imagined:1, Bergen National Academy of the Arts (KHIB), Oslo, Norway.

2008
‘Practice-Led Possibilities: The Breathing Factory’. Invited Keynote Presentation: Conference on postgraduate practice-based research in art and design organised by the Iceland Academy of the Arts (LHI), Reykjavik, Iceland.

‘The Breathing Factory: A Globalised Evocation’, Re-Thinking Labour, Clinton Institute for American Studies, University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland.

2007
‘The Breathing Factory: Evoking the Global’, MARGINS: Photographing Labour on the Margins, 3rd Changing Faces Conference, IPRN and Dom Fotografie, Liptovsky Mikulás, (Published).

‘The Breathing Factory: Evoking the Global’, Global Photographies: Histories¦Theories¦Practices, Conference, IADT, Dublin, Ireland.

‘A Globalised Evocation’, Symposium on Lens-Based Research Practice Training: New Directions, Centre for Transcultural Research and Media Practice in collaboration with AVPhD (UK) Network Dublin, Ireland.

2006
‘The Breathing Factory Evoked’, SHIFTS 2: Archives in Dialogue and New Identities in Documentarism, Conference, International Photography Research Network (IPRN), University of Jyväskylä, Finland (Published).

Collections

DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, USA.
Collection Contemporain, Bibliotheque Municipal de Lyon, France.
Van der Grinten Galerie, Cologne, Germany.
Office of Public Works (OPW), Dublin City Council, Ireland.
Magahy and Company, Dublin, Ireland.
Private Collections in Ireland, England, Germany, France, Canada, Belgium.

Visiting Lectureships

2009
The School of Photography, (HFF) lecture and seminar programme, University
of Göteborg, Sweden.
MA in Visual Arts Practice (MAVIS), IADT-DL, Ireland.

2008
MA in Visual Arts Practices, (MAVIS), Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire (IADT-DL), Ireland.
‘Media Ethnography and the Transcultural City’, Faculty, Steinhardt School, New York University (NYU). Postgraduate Programme on Practice-Based Research at the American University Paris (AUP), France.
The School of Photography, (HFF) University of Göteborg, Sweden.
BA (Hons) Fine Art, Erasmus Lecturer, Iceland Academy of the Arts (LHI), Reykjavik, Iceland.

2007
BA (Hons) Art Photography, University of Wales, Newport, Wales.
‘Media Ethnography and the Global City’. Postgraduate Seminar Programme on Practice-Based Research, Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) and Steinhardt School, New York University (NYU) (2006/7).

2004
MA in Communications and Cultural Studies, Dublin City University (DCU).
BA (Hons) Fine Art, Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire (IADT-DL), Ireland.
BA (Hons) Fine Art, National College of Art and Design (NCAD), Dublin, Ireland.
Certificate in Photography, Griffith College, Dublin, Ireland.
Certificate in Photography, Stillorgan, CDVEC, Dublin, Ireland.
Certificate in Photography, Ballyfermot, CDVEC, Dublin, Ireland.

Media

2006
The View, RTE 1 Television, (review) broadcast Tuesday, 14 November.
Rattlebag, RTE Radio 1, (interview) broadcast Monday, 27 February.

Selected Websites/Links

www.galleryofphotography.com
www.belfastexposed.com
www.source.ie
www.berlinphotoworkshops.de

 

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