Siobhan McDonald is selected from the open call to exhibit at VISUAL (2023)

VISUAL and Carlow Arts Festival are pleased to present Behind the Curtain as the theme for Artworks 2024, the annual open call exhibition hosted by VISUAL. This year's exhibition considers hallmarks of theatre, film and performance traditions such as masking, costume, set-building, role-playing, becoming other and transformation. This thematic is drawn from the practice of visual artist Ulla von Brandenburg, who is presenting Under Water Ball, a solo exhibition in VISUAL alongside Behind the Curtain, and from the work of Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts, a 17th century Flemish painter who specialised in trompe-l'oeil works. Gijsbrecht's work Reverse of a Framed Painting (c.1670) has been argued to be the earliest work of conceptual art.

Installation view, BEHIND THE CURTAIN, VISUAL (IRL), 2024

Silent Witnessing (2019)

Silent Witnessing is the reverse side of a tapestry. Across the antique paper are the blurrily distinct shadows of a collection of butterflies, once pinned in place, now long gone. All that remains on the page is dust and traces of melanin and pin holes in the paper. I found this beautiful object on a wall in an old laboratory and rescued it when it was due to be thrown away: ‘a natural photogram.’ A chance discovery of an archive nobody meant to create: the resonance of these shadows of dead butterflies echo far beyond the frame that encases them.

The artwork reveals the 'ghosted' image of the butterflies, occasionally with the imprint of my drawing. The artwork acts as a metaphor for 'removal' in their deteriorated state, a reminder of the vulnerability and the threat of physical loss.

A change in the signal

53 x 39 cm (2017)
Found drawer, water crystals and oil on board. Siobhan McDonald

I came across an old drawer in an abandoned physics lab where I shared a studio. Inside, tiny crystals had begun to form – traces of chance chemical reactions that had taken place since the 1950s. The original crystals became part of the painting. Henri Becquerel’s chance discovery of radioactivity in 1896 is an important influence in this work.

Artists invited to participate and chosen from the open call are:

Andreas Kindler von Knobloch, Anja Buchheister, Cecilia Danell, Gillian Lawler, Jane Hughes, Julie Lovett, Kathy Tynan, Liam O'Callaghan, Lucy Sheridan, Mia Shattock, Miriam O' Connor, Nollaig Molloy, Olga Anacka, Rachel Fallon, Richard Malone, Siobhan McDonald, Sorcha McNamara and Tobi Balogun.

The selection panel consisted of; VISUAL’s Curator Benjamin Stafford and Learning Curator Clare Breen; Carlow Arts Festival’s Creative Producer Orlaith Tracey; visual artist Ulla von Brandenburg, and playwright, theatre-maker and cabaret artist Pea Dinneen.

Exploring the diverse array of species with Dr. Paul Brooks and Jennifer Coughlan, of the UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science