Sample-Studios in collaboration with Durty Books Publishing House examines the legacy of artist-led initiatives in Cork through an installation of materials selected from the Artist-led Archive in The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion.
The Artist-Led Archive, an artist-led initiative which began in 2006 by artist/curator Megs Morley, is home to materials relating to over 120 artist-led organisations groups and collectives working in Ireland (North and South) from the 1970s to the present day. The Artist-Led Archive – Sustainable Activism and the Embrace of Flux will become a publication published by Durty Books Publishing House
in 2022, supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, Visual Arts Project Award 2021. The archive is now open for submissions through www.theartistledarchive.com.
This exhibition in The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion in Cork allows space for Cork artist-led initiatives, past and present, to bring their archival material for submission to the archive. Currently housed within the Special Collections of the National Visual Arts Library Dublin (NIVAL), the Artist-Led Archive has been exhibited in the Irish Museum of Modern Art (2015), the Limerick City Gallery (2016), the Lab Dublin (2009), Catalyst Arts (2008) and Galway Arts Centre (2007), as well as featuring in many publications, talks and discussions internationally about artist-led culture. The Artist-led Archive – Sustainable Activism and the Embrace of Flux will be the first publication to collate key selections of archival materials and documents from each organisation represented in the Artist-Led Archive, bringing them to the fore alongside 12 newly commissioned essays by leading Irish and international artists, curators and researchers including: Dr. Dave Beech, Dr CM Lerm Hayes, Dr Eve Olney, Sarah Kelliher, Jason Bowman, Dr Aine Phillips, Dr Gregory Sholette, Eireann and I, Mary Conlon, Daniel Jewsbury, Michelle Browne, Kerry Guinan and Livia Paldi, as well as two artists commissions from the Vacuum and Una Walker. Durty Books are now updating the archive, inviting past and present artist-led initiatives in Ireland (North and South) not represented in the archive to submit materials for acquisition within the archive and reproduction within The Artist-led Archive – Sustainable Activism and the Embrace of Flux. This publication will not only create a significant contribution to the understanding of the development of artist-led practice in Ireland, but it will provide a timely chronicle to the artist-led field nationally and internationally.
Durty Books is an independent publishing house co-produced by artist Kate O’ Shea (The Just City Collective) and designer Victoria Brunetta (Piquant Media) that explores the creative potential of print and publishing and provides a critical space for voices across art, design, academia and activism. Recent publications include Durty Words a major publication including 134 international contributors exploring through design, photography and text, the relevance of anarchism today and the philosophical provocation Direct Democracy, Context, Society, Individuality by Yavor Tarinski, edited by Dr. Eve Olney (2019).