Askeaton Contemporary Arts
Founded in 2006, Askeaton Contemporary Arts promotes contemporary visual art in Askeaton town, County Limerick, Ireland.
By developing and understanding how art might be produced and experienced in this locality, Askeaton Contemporary Arts aims to open up fresh possibilities of how art might operate outside a city environment, while concurrently supporting the production of new artists’ projects. The seventh edition of Welcome to the Neighbourhood, an annual programme of invited international and Irish artists resident and working in the town, will occur in July 2012. Commissions and exhibition projects are also frequently organised, often taking the everyday life of Askeaton as a subject.
Askeaton Contemporary Arts has introduced the work of artists from Argentina, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Mexico, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Northern Ireland and Ireland to Askeaton.
This website features a selection of projects made by artists in recent years, along with regular updates and news.
NEWS
FEBRUARY 2012
A solo exhibition by Allan Hughes opens on February 16 at The Belltable, Limerick City.
The exhibition features Neutral States, a video, audio and photographic artwork produced
by Hughes in Askeaton in 2011. Set around the legacy of Second World War battlement
infrastructure along the Shannon Estuary. Interviews with Askeaton men Michael Foley,
John Guinane and Michael D. Ryan, all members of the Local Security Force and Local
Defense Force in the 1940s all feature.
Download the exhibition invite here and accompanying essay here
DECEMBER 2011
Upon an island in the middle of Askeaton, the remains of a Hellfire Club can be seen. Set upin the mid 1700s by the Duke of Wharton throughout the UK and Ireland, most Hellfire Clubs
were soon outlawed and shut down. However, the Askeaton Club, founded in 1740 and the
most westerly branch of the organization, probably stayed in existence until the end of the
century, and received visitors from near and far. Known as a satirical gentleman’s club, those
who met there considered it as a way of shocking the outside world. The supposed president
was the Devil, although the members themselves did not apparently worship demons or the
Devil, but called themselves devils. Mock religious ceremonies took place, with dishes like
Holy Ghost Pie, Breast of Venus, and Devil's Loin served, washed down with Hellfire punch.
Lurid tales are often recounted in local folklore of other outrageous rituals enacted.
Askeaton Contemporary Arts have commissioned artists Diana Copperwhite, Tom Fitzgerald,
Stephen Brandes, Sean Lynch and Louise Manifold to produce new artworks around the
Hellfire Club legacy, all to be presented in Askeaton in March 2012. A publication on the project
with an essay by Padraic E. Moore will follow in summer 2012.
Askeaton Contemporary Arts features in The Irish Times, see here
NOVEMBER 2011
Oswaldo Ruiz, Askeaton Idle, 2011
New York-based BOMB magazine features an online article on some recent Irish art by
Askeaton Contemporary Arts curator Michele Horrigan. It can be read here at BOMBBLOG
SEPTEMBER 2011
Magdelena Jitrik's artwork Painting in Askeaton is included in the 12th Istanbul Biennial,
curated by Adriano Pedrosa and Jens Hoffmann. The exhibition runs from 17 September-13 November 2011,
and features a painting and video made by Magdelena during 2009's Welcome to the Neighbourhood.
Painting in Askeaton also features in the publication Vitamin P2 New Perspectives in Painting, an
overview of new contemporary painting from around the world published by Phaidon.
Askeaton Contemporary Arts reviewed in Paper Visual Art Journal
AUGUST 2011
Artist Andrew Dodds receives an Artist in the Community Award from the Arts Council and
CREATE, Ireland's national development agency for the collaborative arts. Beginning in 2012,
he will develop a long term project called Paradise Regained in collabration with the inhabitants
of Askeaton. To see more about Andrew's work, see www.andrewdodds.com
AUGUST 2011
Documentation of 2011's Welcome to the Neighbourhood now online, SEE HERE!
JULY 2011
APRIL 2011
Read more about Welcome to the Neighbourhood at Independent Curators International
MARCH 2011
Michele Horrigan reports on The Curatorial Intensive, a New York-based workshop organised
by Independent Curators International. READ HERE
