FOUR presents LAUNCH 09

dublin | arts and media | press release Thursday July 30, 2009 12:22 by Andrew Carson - FOUR info at fourdublin dot com 119 Capel St., Dublin 1 +353 (01) 872 9315

Fiona Marron | "For who knows what"

Curated by Carolina Hoffmann & Lee Welch
Opening: Friday 7 August 2009 6-8pm
Exhibition continues from 8 August–1 September 2009

Fiona Marron "For who knows what"

FOUR presents LAUNCH 09, an exhibition now on its 4th edition initiated to support young emerging Irish artists at an early stage of their professional practice, helping them gain public exposure.

The exhibition occupies gallery one and presents a three-part single channel high-definition video installation. Marron explores and reflects on the emotional and physical effects of economic change, consumerism, and architecture in relation to function and human activity within commercial environments.

“There was truth in what they said”, is an 11 minute long elegy to the rise and fall of our economic epoch. The video is a journey into the space of the former European Headquarters of the New York Exchange and its remains. An almost sci-fi looking scenario that unveils a forgotten eventless space, with its notice boards and statements still clinging to the walls. This peculiar setting, once an instance for economic security, is now an open testimony of loss and decadence.

Marron stresses here the relationship between the viewer and the architecture, merging two different truths, thus discovering that the space of the video is not distant from the reality of the beholder. The exhibition is a logical outcome of the artist's previous interests and research regarding property, and the human desire to possess. Adopting a documentary type approach in her work, Marron reflects upon the ghost of our present day circumstances.

Each video considers socio-economical changes of our time, using timeless and ubiquitous references. Thus, albeit having dealt with spaces located in Dublin, the artist stresses her interest of these as “universal contemporary signifiers for a spirit in a time”.

“Fend” and “Plenty of Furniture” complete Marron’s suspended metaphor. The first one confronts the viewer with a fencing bout in a vast empty space of empyrean light. The fencers move in and out of the frame while the moderator remains still. The scores are communicated over the duration of the combat, but the aim of the contest remains occult. The stage for this piece was a not so long ago a semi-derelict site - with one building home to a betting shop, recently turned into a new spacious office building as part of a new initiative to regenerate the area.

The second, the only piece that remains filmed from a fixed position, shows a warehouse filled with office furniture. All of a sudden the viewer discovers that within the tangle of objects, almost imperceptible, appears the seller, lost in a jungle of boredom, absorbed by his newspaper.

Fiona Marron was born in Co. Monaghan in 1987. In 2009 she graduated from Fine Art at Dublin Institute of Technology and now lives and works in Dublin. In 2007 she co-founded the art collective Cannon Fodder. In the past, Marron has exhibited in several group shows around Dublin, including 8≥20 at the Back Loft and Interim Dialogues at Broadstone. Recently, following her graduate exhibition, Fiona has been nominated to represent Visual Arts at DIT to European League of Institutes of Arts. Marron's work will also be exhibited as part of a series of screenings in the architecture department at UCD. Other upcoming exhibitions include a group exhibition at Pallas Contemporary Projects and a solo exhibition at The Joinery. Marron will partake in her first residency, as part of the International project Reverse Pedagogy at the Model Arts & Niland Gallery in Sligo.

FOUR is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Dublin City Council.