Making waves

The latest event in the Irish Wave series, a cross-cultural project showcasing Irish and Chinese artists will sweep Beijing and Shanghai in March. Curator Fion Gunn talks to Maria Tracey about how the exhibition attempts to offer an insight into contemporary Irish culture.

“It's already attracting a lot of interest from European venues so I see this as being an exhibition which will run for a number of years, evolving according to each country where it shows,” explains Fion Gunn. She is talking about Intimate Revolution: Discourse on Disappointment, part of the Irish Wave series, which will be exhibited throughout Beijing and Shanghai in March. The artist and curator envisions the show will also be an ideal inclusion to the centenary events marking the 1916 Rising, which will take place in four years time.

However, whilst being particularly interesting, Intimate Revolution will be just one of a series of exhibitions on display across the two Chinese cities, with all works described as “desperately important”. Gunn explains that those wanting to live in a contemporary world and understand other cultures have to be open to such initiatives. “I think that Irish people need to know that the visual arts in China are very important. Where the Chinese want to do business they first send in their artists! We should do likewise in China and be alive to opportunities in the opposite direction."
The project, which is in its third year, will be seen across a series of exhibitions and installations at venues accessible to a wide and diverse section of the Beijing and Shanghai community. The majority of artists involved in the project are Cork born, with the project itself supported by CIT. Among those involved is local sculptor Annette Hennessey, who is renowned for her artwork in the city, including the Man with Birds sculpture in Rochestown.

The idea was first imagined in 2006, after her first solo show in China. “I had the opportunity to do a large scale show in 2007, so I invited a group of Irish artists to join me. It was called Through Irish Eyes and I ended up reconnecting with quite a few of the artists I'd graduated with at Crawford College of Art and Design - Annette being one of them. I was already working with a curator and artist called Zheng Xuewu, so I started planning to do collaborative Irish/ Chinese projects. In addition in 2009, working with artist and co-curator Ray Murphy, also from Cork and CCAD, we set up BIGsmall Artists together - an informal artists' association to promote Cross cultural dialogue and projects.”