Mend / brings together five Irish based contemporary artists, each of whom in their individual way have studied instinctively familiar elements. The principles of physics and sound, marketing methods, manufacturing techniques, and formulas employed by television and filmmakers align to connect their work.

An innate understanding of the fundamental principles of their craft and the manner in which they are developed, merge to create enlightening, inclusive works rich in possibility and form. Unlike the prevalent themes of irony and pastiche apparent in much of contemporary art practice, ideas and structures underpin these artists work.

The five artists chosen for Mend have exhibited works in Tripswitch*, as part of the 5th gallery's artistic programme.

*Tripswitch is a revolving organic exhibition of small works in a disused electrical container, part of the 5th gallery artistic programme.

Artists include:

Karl Burke / My sculptural work is based in the fundamentals of three dimensions and our perceptions of object, space and their relationship. Viewership is a primary concern in the creation of any of my work. I design works that encourage physical interactions, works that navigate the viewer around a particular space and the object itself. The work pertains to minimalism in style, using geometric angles and cubes, and draws on other influences such as mathematics, equations, order and chaos.

Slavek Kwi / Estuary is a sound installation using pre-recorded composition, diffused through specially designed speakers-objects. Membranes of speakers are used as a mechanical vibrating interface to generate other layers and transformations of original sounds [e.g. steel strings attached inside the cone of a speaker leading to a metal plate - As the speaker vibrates, the strings move through small holes in the plate, producing acoustic sounds. Original sounds used in the composition are field-recordings: water, mud, wind, frogs, and sea gulls, from various locations (Ireland, Tanzania, Denmark, France, Czechie). The potential of these sounds are further explored by computer manipulations and zoomed to their essential structures and textures. The soundscapes environmental character ranges from subtle and delicate to sometimes very physical sounds, employing extremely high and low frequencies.

Louisa Sloan / This work explores many elements that occur between the juxtaposition of idealistic imagery and the unforgiving nature of reality. An absurd dynamic exists as a result of the place and point of exhibition in comparison to the place of execution. In this context the passivity of such rural scenes and the analytic atmosphere of the gallery space creates a nervous familiarity between observer and object. Our image soaked culture has granted us an embarrassment of visual cliches, that all come along with their own package of suggested ambience, emotion and expectation. In examining such imagery, the work intends to provoke the idealistic sensibilities of typical overt romanticism.

Cristophe Neumann / At present my primary practice is an attempt to craft everyday materials into poetic and beautiful objects for the enjoyment of those around me. The pieces illustrate my concerns for the reuse of discarded materials, my love of geometry, pattern and colour, and an investigation of advertising, packaging, seduction, and human desire. I gather my source material from books, magazines, television, advertising, the Internet, or anything else that fascinates or intimidates me. With these works I try to analyse and then make poetic the way in which advertising and packaging create desire and play on ideas of hope, ensnaring a market in the process. It presents a fly¹s eye view of the web that connects producer, promoter, and end user. My installations are made primarily from found, discarded, recyclable or natural materials and objects. I use cardboard, newspaper, plastic bags, cloth, wood, grass, and stones to make short lived or temporary sculptures based on geometry and engineering principles. All of my work utilises to some extent ideas of craft and handiwork and at all times I am engaged in an investigation of systems, their energy sources, resources, processes, patterns and participants.

Robert Carr / I have constructed two pieces for this show the first consists of flat sheets of vegetable parchment assembled into a triangular corrogate. This was fixed one layer upon another to complete the forms. The second incorporates two spheres constructed from multi-layer birch plywood. Both were assembled, taken apart and reassembled several times during the construction process. This was necessary to achieve the concave shape and ribbed effect.

Curated by Mark Garry

Mark Garry is a Dublin based artist, curator and writer. As a practising artist Mark has exhibited extensively in Ireland in addition to shows in New York, London and Manchester. Mark has independently curated a number of shows over the past two years, including Ascend at Thomas Clarke Tower Block in Ballymun, Dublin and the revolving Tripswitch installation as part of the 5th artistic programme. This year In addition to Mend he has curated mark which took place at Project Arts Centre, Temple Bar from April to May and has an off sites show entitled Shift which opens on the 23rd of September at various locations in Dublin City Centre. Mark is the visual Arts editor of Homage Magazine.