I went to see what’s on at VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art.
VISUAL is one of the must-visit places in County Carlow. And the largest exhibition space for contemporary visual art on a global scale.
Currently, you can see five exhibitions which are available from 23rd July until 18th October. The admission is free but you have to book your visit online first (at 11 am, 1 pm or 3 pm).
Current Exhibitions at VISUAL are:
1. Tyndall’s Blues
Tyndall’s Blues is an artistic collaboration between visual artist Mark Joyce and composer Fergal Dowling which responds to the transparent skin of VISUAL Carlow, designed by Terry Pawson as, ‘an intersecting assembly of translucent glass volumes that transforms throughout the day as light passes through the building skin.’
Moreover, Tyndall’s Blues uses blue light and intermittent ‘refracted’ sound to explore the work of Carlow, Leighlinbridge born John Tyndall (1820-93), the brilliant nineteenth-century experimental physicist, alpinist, progressive public intellectual, and gifted science educator. One of the founders of climate science, he is remembered most famously for explaining why the sky is blue.
2. Irish Tree Alphabet
Katie Holten’s Irish Tree Alphabet allows us to write in Irish Trees. This exhibition explores language and the environment to highlight the importance of our words and the stories that we tell.
3. Self Soothers
Self Soothers by Sibyl Montague explores our need for intimacy, care, and nurturing; the places where we find solace; and our complex relationship with commodity culture and fast fashion. Gathering materials and items from our every day; food, clothes, rags, blankets, wool, and cut-ups combine to create ‘soft’ textile-based works.
4. Carlow Arts Festival and VISUAL Annual Open Submission and Art Award (ARTWORKS)
This year’s ARTWORKS considers climate change and how we care for our planet.
5. Ghost Strata
Ghost Strata explores the differing scales of the impact that humanity’s presence has on the earth in the past, present, and future. Found sound and text create a meditation on time, memory, leftovers, and extinction.
Location of VISUAL:
