Rajinder Singh's works join the national collection at IMMA

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is delighted to share news of TULCA 2019 artist Rajinder Singh's work joining the national collection at IMMA - Irish Museum of Modern Art. IMMA is home to the National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art, with over 3,500 artworks by Irish and International artists. The Collection is firmly rooted in the present and important contemporary works are added each year.

Two works from Rajinder Singh's installation in TULCA 2019: TACTICAL MAGIC curated by Kerry Guinan, join the national collection.

Rajinder Singh, My Sister’s Coven, (2019)
Fabric, metal ribbon, ceramic plinth, wool, 200 x 70 x 70 cm
Collection Irish Museum of Modern Art, Purchase, 2021.

Rajinder Singh, UNTITLED (prayer forms), (2019)
Fabric, copper tubbing, 110 x 80 x 30 cm
Collection Irish Museum of Modern Art, Purchase, 2021.

More information can be found here: www.imma.ie/artists/rajinder-singh

Image: Rajinder Singh, UNTITLED (prayer forms), (2019). TULCA Festival of Visual Arts 2019, Engage Art Studios, Galway. Photo: Jonathan Sammon

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is supported by the Arts Council Ireland, Galway City Council and Galway County Council

The Arts Council of Ireland acquires four artists works from recent TULCA programmes

The Arts Council of Ireland acquires four artists works from recent TULCA programmes

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is delighted to see four artists works from recent TULCA programmes join the Arts Council of Ireland’s permanent collection in 2021. The announcement by the Arts Council includes 30 new artworks by 15 artists to its collection to be shared with audiences across Ireland. The artworks newly added to the collection are by artists who live and work in communities both across Ireland and internationally. The acquisitions include video, installation, sculpture, painting, drawing and photography and bring the total number of artworks in the Collection to over 1,230. This continues a proud history of the Arts Council purchasing excellent and ambitious art reflecting the immense quality of visual arts practice today.

David Beattie - Propositional things (2017).
TULCA 2017: They Call Us The Screamers curated by Matt Packer.

Austin Ivers - The World at War (2020) and RUF0558, ADM3, HP85, HT600E, Plus, Switch, SX20, TM22U (2020).
THREADS curated by Sarah Searson in The Dock Arts Centre as part of TULCA's UnSelfing programme for Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture.

Kevin Mooney - Beast (2020).
TULCA 2020: The Law is a White Dog curated by Sarah Browne.

Rajinder Singh - Border Tours (2020).
TULCA 2020: The Law is a White Dog curated by Sarah Browne.

More information on the new acquisitions here: www.artscouncil.ie/News/Arts-Council-purchased-new-works-for-its-collection

Image credits:
David Beattie, Propositional things (2017), TULCA Festival Gallery, Galway. Photo: Jonathan Sammon.
Austin Ivers, The World at War (2020), The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon. Photo: Paul McCarthy.
Kevin Mooney, Beast (2020). Galway Arts Centre, Galway. Photo: Ros Kavanagh.
Rajinder Singh, Border Tours (2020) Photo: Ros Kavanagh.

REVIEW: Chris Clarke | Art Monthly

Art Monthly - Chris Clarke review of The Law is a White Dog

"There is a tendency to think of the law as immutable, its legitimacy based on its consistency and equal application across all members of society. This is, to be sure, an idealistic view, whereby laws are agreed to be followed by consensus, by a shared willingness to concede certain of our individual rights to a greater common good. In this scenario, we adhere to the law because it works to the advantage of all; it is imperfect but essentially fair, reliable, equitable. In reality, though, when challenging established precedents, one encounters any number of biases and agendas, omissions and obstacles. The Law is a White Dog, a reader accompanying the 2020 TULCA arts festival in Galway, Ireland, curated by Sarah Browne, addresses such inadequacies as well as the capacity of individuals and movements to effect legislative change." Chris Clarke

Chris Clarke is a critic and senior curator at The Glucksman, Cork.

Art Monthly 445 is available to order here

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The Law is a White Dog

This limited edition book is published on the occasion of TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, 2020, titled The Law is a White Dog. Curated and edited by Sarah Browne, the book features a richly-illustrated introductory essay which frames a wide range of newly commissioned writing, imagery and other original research by artists, poets, activists and lawyers.

Contributions include poetry by Julie Morrissy, photography by Rajinder Singh, and an illustrated essay by Eimear Walshe. The book also presents extracts from two intergenerational projects concerned with feminist activism: artist duo Soft Fiction Projects contribute a selection of censored periodicals from the 1970s they are using to develop a collaborative zine with a group of young people in Galway. Caroline Campbell (Loitering Theatre) presents ‘Protest Archive’, a feminist folklore enquiry made in collaboration with ageing activists. The book closes with new writing by Mairead Enright, a Reader in Feminist Legal Studies at Birmingham Law School whose research extends beyond traditional methods of law reform to consider illegality, protest and experimental legal drafting. Her essay explores how the imagery of dogs roams across testimonies of institutional abuse in Ireland, and how survivors insist on forms of repair, accountability and truth-telling that might one day redeem both the law and the state that underwrites it. Together, this creative and unruly collection speaks of a refusal to be restricted by categorisation, and the necessity (through law or art) to invent new languages and forms of expression in order to develop affinities with others.

Paperback with folded cover, full colour illustrated, 146 pages.

Publisher: TULCA Publishing, Galway
Publication date: 2020
ISBN: 9781838228408
Price: €15.00

Available to order here

Radio Play: Weather Gods - Reprised

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture present:

Weather Gods - Reprised
Radio play launch and conversation with Isadora Epstein
18 April 2021, 4pm

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture is pleased to announce the reprise and reimagining of a specially commissioned performance work by Isadora Epstein.

Weather Gods is written and performed by Isadora Epstein. Accompanied by musicians Davy Kehoe, Daniel McAuley and Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh and artist Stéfane Béna Hanly, Epstein has created a performance combining a mythological weather report with a train trip out West on the Great Western Railway. With live musical performances from the titular weather gods, featuring original scores and some familiar favourites, this work is somewhere between art performance and a memorable theatre piece.

Originally, Weather Gods was a live performance in front of an audience on the Galway to Gort train in February 2020 cancelled because of a red weather warning. This new work inspired by Iris Murdoch’s concept of unselfing and its demand that we journey away from ourselves to be attentive to the world and be curious about the people, places, and ideas surrounding us. In 2020, the reality of re-staging the performance presented a new set of challenges. Following many twists and turns, Weather Gods is now a radio play podcast available to download from the TULCA website from Sunday 18 April. Weather Gods will also broadcast on Connemara FM at 8.30 pm on Thursday 22 April.

Weather Gods will take listeners on a train trip through the heavens. In this work written and performed by Isadora Epstein, a cast of Gods announce a mythological weather report and predict a strange forecast. Featuring music and performances by Davy Kehoe, Daniel McAuley, Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh and Stéphane Béna Hanly.

Join us this Sunday for the launch of Weather Gods followed by a unique online conversation with artist Isadora Epstein and radio play producer Orla Higgins.

Register for tickets here

Commissioned by TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture.

Image: Weather Gods, 2019, Photo: Isadora Epstein

Book Launch: XVIII - Stories of TULCA

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture present:

XVIII - Stories of TULCA

Book launch and panel discussion
17 April 2021, 6.30pm

Official launch of XVIII - Stories of TULCA by James Harrold (Galway City Arts Officer) with readings by contributors Deirdre O’Mahony (TULCA Board), Margaret Flannery (TULCA Board), Sarah Browne (TULCA 2020 Curator) and Susanna Galbraith (Editor, Nothing to Look Forward to But the Past, Abridged). Facilitated by Joanna McGlynn (TULCA Education Founder).

Followed by a panel discussion: ‘What’s next for TULCA in a fast changing art-world?’, with guests Marilyn Gaughan Reddan (TULCA Board and Galway 2020), Áine Phillips (TULCA Live Curator 2005-2007), Kerry Guinan (TULCA 2019 Curator) and Matt Packer (TULCA 2017 Curator). Chaired by Michaële Cutaya (Editor, XVIII - Stories of TULCA).

Register for tickets here


XVIII - Stories of TULCA is a new publication that marks the 18th anniversary of TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and documents its UnSelfing Programme for Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture.

For this new book, TULCA's past festival curators consider curating as a form of 'caring' in relation to their edition of the festival. Chairs from the board talk about the challenges of keeping Galway’s visual arts festival going and growing. What emerges is a portrait of an organisation committed to upholding curators’ and artists’ visions and tightly implicated in the city and county of Galway through board and team members, as well as numerous volunteers. This dive into TULCA lore is an occasion to revisit stories, remember others and discover many as well as to reflecting upon paths not taken. The publication also includes five commissions from artists representing the exhibitions, commissions and performances of the UnSelfing programme.

Tracing TULCA’s trajectory from a nascent arts project to a key fixture in Ireland’s visual arts landscape, this must-read for anyone interested in Irish contemporary art and curatorial practice brings together new writing, recollections and documentation. Edited by Michaële Cutaya and designed by Pure Designs, XVIII - Stories of TULCA is a beautiful document of the first 18 years in the history of Ireland’s most dynamic visual arts festival. 

The publication consists of a series of new writing commissions, photo-essays and reflections from past curators, artists and board members.

Featuring contributions from: Aideen Barry, Austin Ivers, Clíodhna Shaffrey, Deirdre O’Mahony, Dominic Thorpe, Elisabeth von Samsonow, Gavin Murphy, George Bolster, Gregory McCartney, Helen Carey, Isadora Epstein, James Harrold, Josephine Vahey, Kerry Guinan, Linda Shevlin, Louise Manifold, Lucy Elvis, Marilyn Gaughan Reddan, Mary Cremin, Matt Packer, Megs Morley, Michael Dempsey, Michelle Browne, Sarah Browne, Sarah Searson, Susanna Galbraith, Valerie Connor, Áine Phillips.

Available to preorder soon: www.tulca.ie/shop

Commissioned by TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture.

Image: Cover artwork by Nikolay Oleynikov, TULCA 2011: After the Fall. Photo: Tom Flanagan. Book design: Pure Designs