In 2009, Dublin City Council Arts office launched a new pilot initiative in the Red Stables Artists Studios (with the kind assistance of The Arts Council), to commission an emerging curator to plan and devise an outdoor exhibition of temporary artworks for Saint Anne’s Park.

For this year’s project invited curator, Sally Timmons has selected two artists to consider the notion of a folly (defined as an ornamental structure or building, whose creation reflects a whimsical inclination on the part of the builder). With this in mind, the artists Mark Clare and Fionnuala Hanahoe have developed artworks that will provide a physical and visual interference within the environs of the park, holding intrigue as visually stimulating yet seemingly futile functional structures.

The two outdoor artworks that have been developed by Clare and Hanahoe for Hopeful Structures have potential meanings that are both in keeping and in opposition with one another. For example, both of the artworks are rudimentary in their construction and place emphasis on the fundamental basics of design and construction. Yet, while Hanahoe’s cellular parts are modular and make reference to mass production and an excess of sorts, Clare’s structures act as a possible response to a crisis of demand that is futile and unsustainable. The question of permanence verses endurance is relevant to the question of public artworks and also to some of the bigger social concerns of our time. These artworks will draw in and question our comprehension of public space, interaction, non – permanence and legacy.

This year the emphasis has been placed on providing an opportunity for one or more artist to manifest work that has been in development and may not have been ‘tried out’ to date. Through consultation with Timmons it became evident that the two selected artists had drawings, plans and concepts that were in gestation and ready to be developed through support from a programme such as this one. Rather than Hopeful Structures being an exhibition or a commissioning programme, the project might be considered as a showcase for the artists ongoing practice which, in this years case illustrates two practices that are comparable through their methodology yet very different in terms of the formal, conceptual and aesthetic concerns and/or outcomes that each artist is addressing through the physical manifestation of their work.

It is the intention of both of the artists to record moving image documentation of the temporary artworks as a means to draw out new meanings relevant to any interaction or dialogue between the works and the environment in which they will be placed temporarily for the duration of this programme.

A showcase of both of the selected artist’s ongoing practice can be viewed in the exhibition space at Red Stables Artists Studios during opening times including works titled, Remote Control by Mark Clare and Piecing Together by Fionnuala Hanahoe. A web site has also been developed for this programme that will be updated with regular postings and images of the works in situ.

Sally Timmons  June, 2010