This year's title is playfullness - and presents an occasion to insert a moment of humour, trickery and play into the dreary November evenings when all of winter is stretched out ahead and when the general gloom that has taken its grip, as we slip further into recession's fold, might seem at its cruelist. The insertion of ten video art works into ten empty shops and buildings in the streets of Nenagh and Roscrea is conceived as means of making a connection between contemporary art and people and of utilising the public arena as a space to present such unexpected encounters - of moving images, looped and repitious, playing over and over. The scenes and situations of the individual artworks offering distinct and strange scenarios where the human presence and absence abides and where the possibility for being temporarily engrossed in technology's unfolding and sometimes fragmented narratives with no beginning, middle and end, allows for distraction into the ficticious arena of these ten video works. That other worlds are indeed possible might resound as empty shop units are temporarily occupied again and where tiny glimses into other places (near and far) beam out in digitized coded patterns of light as absurd and witty and poignant scenarios staged and framed by artists.
Understanding that the "general public" really doesn't exist and and that there is no ideal generalized spectator[i], as Simon Sheike writes - people will encounter art with their own specific backgrounds, experiences and intentionalities - Ryan and Turek's idea of 'setting a town alight' through a choreographed seqence of video works is conceived in a way that is open to different kinds of experiences, different kinds of engagement, new and other readings. Firstly there is the context - the streets of two towns in the heart of the country - where at dusk, when daylight has finally gone, all the video projections start and the simultaneously reflected glow from windows creates a surreal and magic collage of moving image and projected light. Context as Brian O'Dorothy writes, becomes content[ii], and here in dark streets as opposed to the galleries, the works themselves may absorb and resonate other meanings. And so then to, there are the individual works, selected out of an entry of over 140, they present a lively humorous, engaging ensemble working with and independently of each other, and bound no doubt, to catch the passerby off-guard or semi-prepared and stir (even momentarily) his attention.
What then will we see when walking through the streets of Nenagh and Roscrea? Sinasi Gunes Acts of Covering and Wrapping - a portrait of a woman in her 40's constantly changing different scarf styles - is a subtly playful comment on taboo, privacy and cultural diversity in Antoli, Turkey; Robert Ladislas Derr's witty filming of his collision with destiny as his 'stolen' bike ride comes to a sudden end; Santtu Koivu's moving video of an old woman who peaks from behind a bouquet of dandelions and starts a game of hide and seek; Martin Boyle's clever slapstick humour shows his futile endeavours to place a little plastic ornament on a shelf; Chris Finnegan's video of a durational performance which involves balancing on the two legs of a chair and trying not to fall over; Kevin Minogue's Rain and Chain has an eerie beauty as an empty playground on a winter's day seems to have a life of its own and, although silent, as all the videos in this programme are, one can almost hear the muttering rain. CC Elian's video is highly poetic, with her long-distant views of swimmers shot from high above, perfectly framed so that their bodies become silhouettes in a constant circular motion like Matisse's dancing figures, against blue water under hot skies. In Roscrea, Michael Wurstbauer returns to Switch this year with his mesmerizing video Traffic - shot over 24 hours from a friends' flat overlooking the Clyde Tunnel in Glasgow and where post production manipulation allows an inventively alternative fiction to play out. And finally, also in Roscrea, Harold Harska's video has a delightful Fluxus feel, using materials close to hand - a yellow bucket, water hose and paintbrush - and where humour builds in intensity through constant repetition.
One can imagine the conversations that might start up in these two towns, where this programme seems close to the ground and where it has an almost relational feel. That its organisers and curators work closely with the shops and businesses and people strengthens its local impact and many locals, it would seem, feel part of what's happening. This artist/curator-led initiative, which is fully supported by Tipperary North Arts Officer, Melanie Scott and the County Council, is reminiscent of a small number of very special projects that have been happening recently throughout Ireland. I am thinking of Michelle Horigan's Welcome to Neighborhood in her hometown of Askeaton, County Limerick or Shifting Ground, a partnership project between the Arts Office of Clare County Council and artist Fiona Woods, and Gracelands, a curated programme by Vari Claffey, based in Grace Weir's home - Mimetic House - County Leitrim.
Switch, has its own special dimensions and within the clarity of its focus on showing video art in public contexts, it supports a more organic process of open entry organised through connection to Irish and international artists via networks, contacts, friends, institutions' databases, etc. So while there may be some element of risk in what might come in the door, there is always - as the curators acknowledge - the possibility for great surprise. And so, through the internet's sourcing connections with artists are made from all over the world, followed by the chance to show their work to public audiences in their hometowns, a little playfulness is cleverly introduced into these dark and early days of winter, giving street life a lift.
Cliodhna Shaffrey
[i] Simon Sheike, In the Place of the Public Sphere? Or, the World in Fragments: http://www.republicart.net/disc/publicum/sheikh03_en.htm