mergeemerge
Mermaid Arts Centre, Co. Wicklow, 7 May – 18 June 2022
Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Co. Mayo, 2 – 30 July 2021
This project began as purely visual conversation by way of a series of small drawings posted back and forth between two artists. What emerged from this silent contemplation is a grand expression of the convergences and divergences in the work of Michael Geddis and Joanna Kidney.
Their collaboration began in 2016 in response to the shared similarities of their work. As it evolved over 5 years, the tensions arising from the differences in their approaches to drawing came to energize their work. Taking cues from patterns and forms of science and the natural world, they passed drawings back and forward, both of them adding a part drawing to each one sequentially. Their joint drawings grew organically until each one reached its conclusion. What emerged from their combined memory, intuition and imagination are intertwined otherworlds…worlds which speak of looking closely, minutiae and connections.
This project was kindly funded by Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Arts Council of Ireland, Ards and North Down Borough Council, Wicklow County Council and supported by Mermaid Arts Centre, Co. Wicklow and Outpost Studios Residency Programme, Co. Wicklow.
Project Publication HERE
Individual Works HERE
Installation view, Mermaid Arts Centre, Co. Wicklow, 2022. Photo: Paul Tierney
Installation view, Mermiad Arts Centre, Co. Wicklow, 2022. Photo: Joanna Kidney
Installation view, Mermaid Arts Centre, Co. Wicklow, 2022. Photo: Paul Tierney
Installation view, Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Co. Mayo, 2021. Photo: Joanna Kidney
Installation view, Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Co. Mayo, 2021. Photo: Joanna Kidney
Installation view, Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Co. Mayo, 2021. Photo: Joanna Kidney
Installation view, Mermaid Arts Centre, Co. Wicklow, 2022. Photo: Paul Tierney
Installation view, Mermaid Arts Centre, Co. Wicklow, 2022. Photo: Paul Tierney
Installation view, Mermaid Arts Centre, Co. Wicklow, 2022. Photo: Paul Tierney
Installation view, Mermaid Arts Centre, Co. Wicklow, 2022. Photo: Paul Tierney
Installation view, Mermaid Arts Centre, Co. Wicklow, 2022. Photo: Paul Tierney