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PB April 2023 April 2023 57
K
erry Guinan is a curator, a conceptual artist. Her
disruptive art practice has embroiled
communities and sites in staged conflicts with
galleries, councils, police, the state, and art
audiences.
Her work involves interventions, performances, and social
experiments that analyse and critiques capitalist relations
often as part of the ‘we only want the earth’ programme at
(Dublin-based art gallery and studios) A4sounds.
In 2020, on the eve of the first Covid lockdown she took
the gamble of setting in motion Ireland’s first ever union for
artists, Praxis: The Artists’ Union of Ireland. Her two-year
term as chairperson is due to soon end.
Was there any particular incident that inspired
you to set up the union?
It was a gradual awareness; and an idea I had after
graduating. Many of us were talking about how there
should be an artists’ union. I was a member of A4 sounds
studio and they were very supportive of the idea. I saw an
opportunity with their recent ‘we only want the earth’
programme, a politically charged agenda to use art to
restore equity in the world.
Part of the problem was figuring out how to set up this
mammoth thing, having been told by many other older
artists that it would be impossible. So I figured maybe we
just try it, model it for a month, skip the long discussion
and get straight into it. From the first meeting it was as if
the union already existed and from that we would figure
out what we wanted to do with it. That was energising
because we were directly going into action, but without
the consequences of having a real organisation there. At
the end of the experiment the people involved would vote
on whether or not we wanted to continue.
What was the key to success?
In a way the Covid pandemic helped: suddenly we had our
schedules cleared and people became accustomed to
remote working and video calling which meant many more
could take part.
Monthly Praxis union meetings became a regular part of
lockdown. One of the keys to success was being organised,
with a clear direction and goals in place, having a very strong
sense of what our collective vision was for the union which
was agreed at the beginning. After that we had steps and
procedures for how we’d work as a group.
We spent one year in lockdown bringing it all together, we
formally registered as a company, we wrote a rulebook, met
deadlines.
Artists aren’t
as replaceable
as they think —
or as people in
other fields are
Art View and Review, by Seanán Kerr
State of the union: Praxis
Seanán Kerr interviews Kerry Guinan,
instigator of artists’ union, Praxis
I love nothing more than an impossible idea and trying to
plan it out step by step.
It’s in my practice as well, but it’s not just me, the other
people in the group had backgrounds in activism or project
management. So all of us together had a good work ethic
and sense of duty and responsibility.
How has being chairperson of the union in its
formative stage altered or aected your
perception of employers in the Irish arts?
Artists’ lack of confidence is as much a problem as their
exploitation by employers, who are often artists
themselves or passionate about the arts.
It is important to encourage artists to be brave enough
to speak up in the first place. People are afraid of being
labelled a ‘dicult’ artist.
The idea that artists should be grateful for any opportunity
they are given, and the awareness of competition between
artist and artist, makes artists fear they will be replaced. But
thankfully this fear is not being realised, in Praxis’s
experience.
That makes the need for the union all the more clear,
because unions are about empowerment of workers and
giving people the confidence to have a voice in the
workplace. We aim to give artists the skills they need to
confidently enter into dynamics with employers. We have a
free contract workshop for example artists how to negotiate
terms of service and what to expect from a good arts
contract. There was really high demand for that event.
Artists aren’t as replaceable as they think — or in comparison
to other fields. Every artist has a completely unique practice
that gets selected for very particular reasons.
What was the biggest challenge and did
anything surprise you by being easier than
anticipated?
We launched the union in the middle of lockdown, so that
was our biggest challenge, and now we are only just
becoming re-accustomed to in-person organising. There is
also the lack of dedicated art spaces which makes it
challenging to organise big groups of people. A lot of
people are working on their own or on a project, so even
people who work in art spaces with other people in them,
like a theatre, that workspace is constantly in flux. We are
solving the diculty by organising regional meetings
where people can go to to ask questions about the union
ARS
GRATIA...
Kerry Guinan.
Photo: Paula Geraghty
58 April 2023 April 2023 59
at, and also by building alliances with other
organisations who share our goals, as well as by online
organising.
The greatest pleasure of being involved with Praxis has
definitely been helping artists who otherwise wouldn’t
have received help because there hasn’t been an
organisation there to protect them in specific diculties:
for example you don’t get paid on time and you can’t pay
your rent; or you get access to an opportunity but you can’t
take part because you have a disability and the workplace
hasn’t accounted for that. These are all day-to-day issues
that artists face in their lives and we’re there to support
them.
What are the main challenges you see facing
artists in Ireland, is there any issues in
particular that have consistently come up,
was there anything surprising?
There are universal problems: there is a lack of clarity
about professionalism. In some cases artists are working
from a labour of love, working for free.
In some cases they shouldn’t be expected to act like a
professional, but often are. In other cases artists are
expected to act like a professional or act professionally,
but they are not being engaged on professional terms,
for example they don’t have a wage or contract.
There is a persistent problem in artists being the
lowest and last paid in the sector, so our fees are
budgeted only after everything else has been paid.
Often they are not properly paid for their time, which is
quite unfair given that artists are the ones producing the
art and most of the commissioning organisations would
not even exist without them.
Working without a proper, artist-centred contract,
creates a very precarious way of living. For example I
don’t know anyone who’s working in a contract currently
which has a clause about what to do if the artist falls sick
and I know many people in my life who have risked their
health in order to deliver a project, who have worked
from hospital beds because they wouldn’t receive
payment unless the project was delivered.
Praxis are here for all these extreme cases.
What is your hope for the future of Praxis?
The union will only be successful if we grow enough to
represent a sizeable and representative portion of artists
in Ireland. That will give us power over policy and in
workplaces, that would be my ultimate goal for the union.
That is why I would encourage all artists to join Praxis: we
are open to members from visual art, media, film, comedy,
dance, performing art, literature, theatre, craft, circus,
relational and community art, public art, and spectacle;
and from all artistic traditions, including fine art, applied
art and traditional art.
There is not much precise data on how many artists there
are in Ireland. That is something that we feel the census
could record a lot better. I think it’s estimated to be around
10,000, but I would believe it’s far bigger than that. Praxis
recognises artists in very generous terms: anyone who
self-identifies as an artist who has a regular practice. So
for us the possible membership is quite big and it could
become a very powerful union.
www.praxisunion.ie
NIAMH O’MALLEY:
Gather
at The Model, Sligo, and Temple
Bar Gallery and Studios
As is the norm Ireland’s entry
in the Venice Biennale now
finds itself on tour around
Ireland, what is atypical is the
exhibition ‘Gather’ is not one
single show that begins and
ends with Venice, but a
continuing process, hence it
can be on in more than one
location at any time. The work
can be described akin to a
kind of punctuation marks in
space, “moulding meaning
into form” using metal, wood,
glass, stone and (very
satisfying to watch) short
looped LED videos, as the
primary materials, but using
them in ways that accentuate
rather than utilise, you could
almost call it witty, like a joke
you know the punchline of,
but enjoy the twists and turns
telling, here the twists and
turns are in the space itself.
Ends April 15 (The Model);
April 30(Temple Bar Gallery)
ROBERY ARMSTRONG: After Mountains,
More Mountains
at Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin
Watercoloured mountains of spectral lightness, like bunched up fingers
reaching to the sky, recall the advice I was once given aged 17-ish before art
college: “try to paint the paint”.
Ends April 22
BRIAN MAGUIRE: The Clock Winds
Down at Kerlin, Dublin
These impressively massive paintings which comprehensively grab you as you
enter the space are a fine engagement with the subject matter which is
voracious deforestation in Brazil, particularly under the recent rule of Jair
Bolsonaro. There is a vividness and violence to the works, but also a bold
beauty.
Ends April 8
The Art Reviews:
Niamh O’Malley: Gather, The Model Sligo;
and Temple Bar Gallery and Studios
58 April 2023 April 2023 59
PATRICIA HURL: Irish Gothic
at IMMA
Already one of the most popular shows IMMA has curated in recent
times, Patricia Hurl’s explosive retrospective showcases the
career of an artist who through her work has battled and confronted
the echoes and wounds of an Ireland where women were second-
class citizens. The compositions often highlight this relationship
starkly: the Ireland of the Kerry babies scandal peers out at us
through ominous blurred features yet in her self-portraits there is
also a proud kindness, like Lucien Freud without the misanthropy.
Shockingly, many of the works were rescued from skips, but in the
end an artist has been firmly raised to the canon.
IMMA recently celebrated its thirtieth birthday, with a number
of shows looking back over its history but this exhibition is likely
to feature prominently come its fiftieth and indeed hundredth
anniversaries: art history in the making.
Ends May 21
THREE EXHIBITORS
at RHA
The RHA has a very strong set of concurrent exhibitions.
Peter Burns’ large, bright, sugar-sweet-coloured paintings
greet you in the foyer. They combine saccharin with a Hieronymus
Bosch-like approach to their biblical subject matter — full of
surreal little details.
Both Singh’s and Bullo’s sculpture exhibits have an Instagram
trap-eque level of theatricality, while Donald Clarke’s film is a
stunning example of the fusion between the personal and the
particular, knitting together both the almost miraculous nature
and success of the Cassini space probe, and his memories of his
father.
JANE LOCKE: The Lighthouse at the Library
Donald Clarke The Museum of Broadcasting and Loneliness,
Rajinder Singh Pale in Saron
Ends April 30
CECILIA BULLO: Being Haunted by the Breezes,
now how will you exist?
Ends April 30
PETER BURNS: Biblical Paintings
Ends April 30
VARIOUS: Behind the Scenes:
Collection at work
at Crawford Gallery
Arguably the best-hung show we saw this month, this exhibition
features classical and figurative works from the Crawford
collection.
A range of artists tackles childhood from the perspective of the
adult, as a time of magic and freedom when the experience of the
world is filed with novelty as opposed to sought out in confirmation
bias, and the various burdens, bills and responsiblities of
adulthood. A subject, which despite its ubiquity is rarely given
this kind of consideration, with images ranging from the light and
playful to the highly figurative, the show has the feel of a fairy tale
of child protagonists written for adults.
There’s a case to be made for Crawford being Ireland’s most
pleasant art space to experience.
April 21 - May13
MÁLA SPÍOSRAÍ (SPICEBAG): Eviction
Eoin O’Broin’s Twitter feed
Finger joints around the land dislocated from pearl-clutching over
Sinn Féin’s housing spokesman tweeting this image, which very
eectively combines a photograph taken from the notorious Frederick
Street eviction in 2018 and Daniel McDonald’s 1850 painting ‘The
Eviction’. During the subsequent Virgin Media Tonight debate,
Fionnán Sheahan did his best to eect a gotcha in the form of quoting
from one of Spicebag.exe’s social media posts, “if, god forbid, a
property developer doesn’t get their way, they’ll be on it like a fly on
shite”. He neglected to quote the first half of that sentence, which
counterpointed Garda enthusiasm for evictions with their ignoring
3,000 domestic abuse calls. It was an example of the art itself saying
more than the subsequent commentary.
Brian Maguire: The Clock
Winds Down at Kerlin, Dublin
