Cake contemporary arts is pleased to present the opening of the new season’s with a group exhibition of installation, aerial sculpture, wall drawings, pencil on paper drawings, and moving image.

The opening reception is on Friday, September 17th the exhibition runs to the 29th October 2010.

Spread over the two floors of Cake Contemporary, ...and if I listen in I hear my own heart beating... is an exhibition of work that draws upon the sounds and fervour of humanity as a base for considering the value systems of populations. In the exhibition, the viewer encounters an analysis of everyday life through points of familiarity. The geographical, utopian, mundane, physical, or bureaucratic come together to form zones of judgement that potentially negate freedom from preconceptions. This is the emotional geography of the city. Within this, the traveller and occupants position themselves psychologically as they propagate their own personal experience of residency and setting and develop their own references of comparative constants.

Upon entering the gallery, Fiona Mulholland’s Sans Souci (2010) provides us with a suspended, temporary and lightweight series of structures. In the spirit of Constant and Friedman, Mulholland’s playful approach transforms local construction materials into a precariously positioned and yet poetic utopianism that is filled with light, colour, and optimism.

Across from Mulholland, Niamh McCann’s installation continues her broad investigation of created landscapes and questions how this world constitutes us and how we, in turn, give this world form. The wall drawing the Feated (2010) layers an image of the strangely banal with the banally momentous. In the Golden Calf (2010) a hanging golden bird and its neon prize sways its approbation.

Also occupying this space is the work of Miha !trukelj Docklands (2008). A large scale pencil drawing explores the mechanism of perception and (de-)construction of his image of the rejuvenated docklands so familiar in all cities, and examines the position of individuals in urban landscapes and how built environment defines their existence.

In the centre of the space lie remnants of human hair, discarded as part of an opening night performance which references our location in the middle of an active army base. The only evidence of humanity in this space; the debris of haircuts is discarded as a clear symbol for the entire exhibition representing the fragility of mankind’s vanity and perception of his position in this light, airy utopian space.

Downstairs, in the main corridor on the right, the sporadic video by Mark Clare, Remote Control (2010), shows us a mobile air raid siren being cycled around an obvious military space. The viewer is left with the question as to whether or not this is a practice session or some form of futile everyday ritual from a world that is in constant flux.

Beside Clare, Alan Phelan’s Ciao No More (2010) shows us a stylised moving image dreamscape. Car factory workers wait to know their fate under new management, manufacturing an iconic and soon to be obsolete car model as a hook to a stability that is denied by a movement towards the capitalist economy.

At the end of this corridor, S Mark Gubb’s Stranger in a Strange Land (2007), transforms the artist into a visual mariachi, travelling with a song in his heart, just happy to play for some food, a bed for the night, and the hope of a kiss from a beautiful woman. The artist journeys through streets, its sound track the music that the artist was listening to, opening himself up to chance events and encounters that have the potentiality of romance or a crashing reality.

In the main lower gallery area, Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson The Lobbyists (2009), portrays a reality of government influencers, bureaucrats, and activists, exploring the maelstrom surrounding their activity. Contrasting and sometimes alienating elements of documentary mixed with the humour of musical commentary trigger the viewer ́s active involvement and reflection.

The question of effectiveness and futility are continued in the Alina Abramov’s Checkpoint Guilo, Jérusalem Juillet 2006 (2006 – 2007). Taken from the viewpoint of an unseen driver, Abramov records a journey along the perimeters of a city, driving from night into day, being held back from achieving a final destination by politically imposed boundaries.

From this, Marie Voignier’s Un minimum de preuves [A minimum of evidence] (2007) provides a glimpse into a life as it is lived in the reality of failed urban planning. The human character progresses through a series of everyday scenes; most characterised by his observation of the dust settling on his body, with boundaries set only by the social reality of his time and place.

The exhibition is a gathering of moving image, installation, drawing and sound works that correspond to a distilled spectrum of diverse feelings that one encounters by chance in everyday life. The audience will go through the CAKE building up a sensation of movement through a contemporary city that is both physical and psychological; with zones that meld into each other in a cacophony of life.

!um v filmu (English Title: Interference) is an experimental documentary film by Barbara Kelbl and Viki Bertoncelj outlining the presentation of Slovenian artist Miha !trukelj at the 2009 Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art. During the preparations and the realisation of the exhibition, a film crew accompanied the artist and curators as they prepared for !trukelj’s exhibition in the Slovenian National Pavilion in Venice. Starting in New York, the film traces the influences and background that inform !trukelj’s work and follows him, curator Alenka Gergoric and co-curator Noel Kelly, as they move closer and closer to the day when the largest art audience in the world gathers for the opening days of the prestigious Venice Biennale.

The film is not merely documenting. It looks at the underlying issue of how to document the artistic process. With no dialogue, the document becomes the same as the documentation process. It focuses on the visual representation of two cities: New York, a metropolis of modern times and Venice, the faded capital of past centuries. It begs the question of how to separate the city from its image; how to separate the artistic process from the conceits of modes of presentation. The film, as produced, interferes with these processes and flips them, and adds another mirror, another reflection, another noise.

About the authors

Barbara Kelbl, born in 1973, is a writer, translator, screenwriter, involved in various independent film and television productions. She studied at the Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television specialising in documentary film and image (false) reality.

Viki Bertoncelj, since 1997 secretary of the Slovenian Cinematheque, and since 1999, archivist of Slovenke Cinematheque.

The Artists

Alan Phelan: Born in Dublin in 1968, Alan Phelan studied at Dublin City University and Rochester Institute of Technology, New York. He has exhibited widely internationally including Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; SKUC, Ljubljana; Feinkost, Berlin; SKC, Belgrade. In Ireland he has exhibited at mother’s tankstation, Dublin; MCAC, Portadown; Limerick City Gallery of Art, and Solstice Arts Centre, Navan. He was editor/curator for Printed Project, issue 5, launched at the 51st Venice Biennale, and has curated exhibitions at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, and Rochester, New York. Phelan was short-listed for the AIB Art Prize in 2007 for his work on the new commission, Goran’s Stealth Yugo, 2009. In July 2009 Phelan presented Fragile Absolutes 16 new works inspired by the artist’s ongoing engagement with political history, cultural theory, popular culture, masculinity and modified cars in a major solo exhibition in the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). He is currently working towards an exhibition in Solstice, and a large scale public sculpture for Dublin City in Fr Collins Park, Clongriffen.

Alina Abramov: Alina Abramov born in Azerbaidjan, lives and works in Tel Aviv and in Paris. Awarded her M.F.A. and B. F. A. at the National Fine Art School of Lyon, she also achieved a B. F. A. in Cinema & Television studies at Tel-Aviv University. Abramov has exhibited at the The Contemporain Art Triennale in Prague (2008), Place of Art, Tel- Aviv and The Former Bank, Hiroshima, Japon. She was part of Rendez- vous 2007, the young contemporary creation, in Resonance with the Biennial of Contemporary Art in Lyon, with further exhibitions in Germany, Turkey, Canada, Croatia, Israel, Sweden, and Russia.

Fiona Mulholland: Dublin artist Fiona Mulholland combines sculpture, sound and photography in a media-rich practice primarily concerned with examining fragments of everyday life in specific urban environments. In Ireland she has realised several projects in the public domain, collaborating with groups and individuals in certain works and using a variety of strategies to reflect on the paradoxes of the human condition. In her sculptural works she uses appropriated objects and universal symbols in order to investigate repetitive cycles. She draws on patterns in social and psychological behaviour, examining issues of identity and communication. Within this context the resultant codex represents the private and social self, as well as the ‘emotional geography’ of a society addicted to self-actualisation. Her current body of installation works has emerged from a residency in France, where she was born and originates from a series of photographs of 'interior' community spaces in Belfast. In Northern Ireland she became interested in how this in liminal space became a vehicle for creating individual identity within an area that is primarily deemed 'public space'- hence an interesting juxtaposition of public and private self achieved through the selection and exhibition of functional, yet often ambiguous objects.

Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson: Castro, born 1969 in Madrid, and Ólafsson, born 1973 in Reykjavík – based in Rotterdam and Berlin and aptly referred to as “citizens of the world” – met in the Netherlands in 1997 and have been collaborating since. From the outset, their work caught attention in the Netherlands and in Iceland, and soon internationally, earning them in 2009 the third prize of the prestigious Dutch art award Prix de Rome, for their video Lobbyists. Building up a strong body of work using a variety of media, they have developed a conceptual approach with a sense of play, transgression, and inventiveness, often based on intense research into a given subject area. Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson have been chosen to exhibit on Iceland’s behalf at the 54th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2011

Marie Voignier: Born, living and working in France, Marie Voignier has studied at the École nationale des beaux-arts de Lyon, Technische Universität Berlin (Physics), Humboldt Universität Berlin (Gender studies), and the Université de Technologie de Compiègne (engineering). With her wide background and interests, Voignier has recently exhibited at the 6th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art. Also in 2010, she had a solo exhibition, Effigies, at the Galerie Marcelle Alix, Paris, as well as participating in Spatial City : An Architecture of Idealism, Institute of Visual Arts, Milwaukee, USA. She has exhibited widely with exhibitions in the State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece, Rennes Contemporary Art Biennial, France, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Contemporary art museum, Shanghai, China as well as many exhibitions across France.

Mark Clare: Mark Clare, born in London in 1968. Graduated from St.Martins College of Art & Design (1992), London with a BA (Hons) Fine Art Sculpture before completing a MA in Fine Art at the University of Ulster (2004). Now lives and works in Dublin, Ireland. Recently his working process has been drawn to the emblematic potential of an object, from architectural structures and sporting trends to everyday household objects. He explores the things we accept as symbols of how we live and the times that we live in. Mixing elements of historical tradition and social trends, such as the world enthusiasm for ping-pong in the 1970’s, monumental public sculpture in former communist states, and the contemporary prevalence of surveillance of public space through CCTV. The connotations of a material used, the placement of an object within an environment and the historical association an object may portray are all areas of interest.

S Mark Gubb: S Mark Gubb, born 1974, Romsey, UK, lives in Cardiff. His works across a range of media incorporating sculpture, video, sound, installation and performance. The subjects for his work are drawn from the social and political culture he grew up in; an equal fascination with things he finds so great and so terrible about the world we live in. This often takes the form of a re-evaluation and re-interpretation of contemporary culture and history, placing the seemingly familiar in relation with the incompatible, to provoke us to consider our contribution to the world we live in. Often working with the triptych and drawing on music and religious forms of communication Gubb suggests a wider discourse around history, culture and belief systems, inviting us to reflect on our moral codes and desire and ability to impact upon and change the world we inhabit.

Miha !trukelj: Miha !trukelj is a visual artist working primarily in painting and also focusing on drawing and site-specific work for the last two years. He has received three awards–a grant from the Pollock- Krasner Foundation 2008-09[1], the Henkel Drawing Award 2008 and the working scholarship of the Slovenian Ministry of Culture. His work has also been included in the National Collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana. He has also been selected for “Slovenian Art 1995–2005” and “Seven Sins; Ljubljana–Moscow” at Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana, and various other national and international selections. His work has been presented in “Vitamin P; New Perspectives in Painting” by Phaidon Press. !trukelj represented Slovenia at the Venice Biennial 2009. Born 1973 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, he lives and works in Ljubljana.

Niamh McCann: Niamh McCann is an Irish artist living and working in Dublin. A graduate of Chelsea College of Art & Design, London, McCann has exhibited extensively in Europe, Ireland and in the USA employing a variety of working methods from drawing to sculpture. Solo projects include: Purlieu, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin (2009), <<EME, Pallas Heights, Dublin (2005) and Total Eclipse of ..., Planet 22, Geneva, Switzerland (2001). Previous exhibitions have included: Transmediale – Berlin Kurfürstendamm, (Public Arts Fest. Berlin, Germany 2004), Come In - Vienna International Apartment, (Austria, 2003), Appropriation - Ormeau Baths Gallery, (Belfast, 2002), EV+A – Limerick City Gallery (Limerick, 2001/2), Perspective 2000 – Ormeau Baths Gallery (Belfast, 2000) Dopplarity - Bank Underground Station (2000, as organiser/ curator as well as exhibitor). McCann was recipient of the Perspective 2000 Absolut Exhibition award, the EV+A 2002, travel award and will be participating in an exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art, Turku, Finland in 2005.

Curator: Noel Kelly: Noel Kelly (born 1964) is an contemporary visual art curator, critic, and essayist. A native Dubliner, he is Chief Executive Officer/Director of Visual Artists Ireland, Commissioner for the art journal Printed Project, and a board member of the Irish Visual Artists Rights Organisation. In 2004, Kelly curated the NSK (Neue Slowenische Kunst) Dublin Event, an exhibition of works by Alice Maher, and the group show Country in Equrna Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia as part of the Irish Presidency of the European Union and the accession of 10 new countries to the European Union. Kelly went on to become curator for Temple Bar Gallery and Studio in Dublin, as well as Senior Partner with the international arts management consultants - The Art Projects Network. In March 2008, he was elected a Fellow of The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce) in recognition for his contribution to the visual arts. As well as many exhibitions curated both in Ireland and Europe with artists such as Marjetica Potr!, Eija Liisa Ahtilla, The Blue Noses Group, Iain Forysth and Jane Pollard, Richard Grayson, Bedwyr Williams, Jaki Irvine, Cecilia Edefalk, Garreth Phelan, he was co-curator on the Slovenian National Pavilion for the Venice Biennale 2009. His key area of interest is in the emotional engagement of humanity within society.