How To Flatten A Mountain
Arts Residency
24 April–5 May 2017
How to Flatten a Mountain is an exciting 12 days residency opportunity presented by PhotoIreland & Cow House Studios, and with the support of OPW, open to emerging and mid-career visual artists whose artistic practice in whole or part, makes use of digital and/or analogue photographic processes.
The colophon of the residency is an exhibition of the works produced,
presented during the PhotoIreland Festival at Rathfarnham Castle.
HTFAM PARTICIPANTS 2017
The 12 artists that will participate in How to Flatten a Mountain in 2017 are: Benedetta Casagrande, Kate Petley, Lauren Roeder, Mike Callaghan, Nathan Harris, Patricia Howard, Roisin White, Ruth Connolly, Val Patterson, Valéry Pelletier, Yinon Avior, and Zhao Qian.
The aim of this residency is for participating artists to explore possibilities outside their core practice, work collaboratively and produce a cohesive exhibition of work to be presented at PhotoIreland Festival 2017. During the residency, participants will take an active part in a series of workshops led by guest facilitators and as a group will be sharing ideas, making work, processing, printing, editing, as needed, always working in collaboration. As an integral part of the residency, three artists based in Ireland will facilitate day-long workshops to provoke and animate different avenues for thought. Each facilitator brings to the residency new perspectives, challenges and opportunities for participants.
This twelve-day programme is comprised of three component parts; workshop facilitation, open studio time and the installation and opening of an exhibition in Dublin for PhotoIreland Festival 2017. The first five days of the programme will be comprised of a carefully selected series of workshops, readings and presentations designed to stimulate the creative process, facilitate collaboration, familiarise participants with the people and places of the locality and tease out shared curiosities and thematics. The following five days provide the necessary time and space to create new work. Following on from our initial workshops, the open studio time allows for participants to re-visit sites of interest, research, print and finalise work for presentation. The final two days will be spent in Dublin installing the exhibition, culminating in an opening on the final evening of the programme.
This residency opportunity is sure to result in the production of new work, introduce participants to a network of practitioners from a diversity of locations, provide a fantastic exhibition opportunity and open up new possibilities within each participant practice.
Residency Details
The residency project will take place at the fabulous Cow House Studios, Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland. Open to local and international participants, the cost of the 12 days residency is €950 and it includes:
- Three delicious and healthy meals daily while at Cow House Studios
- Lunch and dinner while in Dublin
- Most comfy accommodation while at Cow House Studios*
- Informative and challenging readings, workshops and presentations
- Travel to and from Dublin
- Ink and paper for our printers, film and b&w paper for darkroom
- Access to all Cow House Studios facilities, computers, darkroom, and studios
- *Price does not include room and board while in Dublin. For a fee, we will arrange accommodation for two nights at the end of the residency for the duration of the install. Note that flights and airport transport are not covered.
Workshop Facilitators:
Her images have appeared in publications worldwide including The Financial Times, Der Spiegel and Vanity Fair. Her image of horses outside an abandoned house became the iconic representation of Ireland’s economic collapse and was chosen as one of eleven images to to feature in the Guardian’s History of Europe In Pictures 1945-2011. In 2016, her portrait of the actor Gabriel Byrne was selected for the Hennessy Portrait Prize at the National Gallery of Ireland. Her work is held in the National Archives of Ireland. Her second solo show will open in Spring 2017 at The National Museum, Collins Barracks.
Since graduating from the MFA programme at Belfast College of Art, University of Ulster, in 2015, Aisling’s work has been exhibited in Dublin, Belfast, London, Paris and Pingyao. Her photobook ‘The Radiant City’ was shortlisted for the Kassel Photobook Dummy Book award in 2015. She is currently working in a new body of work at the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin as part of the Belfast Exposed Futures programme which will be exhibited as a solo-show in April 2017.
Project Coordinators:
Frank Abruzzese’s working methods are experimental and process driven. He is drawn to subjects that are both familiar and often overlooked, and uses photographic techniques to transform the mundane into something extraordinary or ambiguous. He investigates how subjects might collide with traditional interpretations of the landscape, architecture or portraiture, and how these expectations can be met through alternative means. His use film selection, exposure and digital techniques make small incursions into perceptions of photography’s assumed role as factual document.