The Crawford Open

The seven selectors for the inaugural Crawford Open exhibition set out to bring together artworks which exist along the often…

The seven selectors for the inaugural Crawford Open exhibition set out to bring together artworks which exist along the often-blurred boundary between contemporary art practice and everyday experience. As curatorial prefaces go, it is certainly a flexible framework, not likely to become over-burdened by the weight of its own concept or theme. The fact that the displayed work is never overly baffling, and offers common threads to which the viewer can find logical connections, is a measure of the exhibition's success.

Each of the 35 artists offers his or her own entry point, but, generally speaking, the selection runs along a central axis which connects message/ idea to various sensory concerns. The balance between the two can be fine or discordant, depending on the artist.

Examples of the former could be David O'Brien's art/not art furry dice or Jeanette Doyle's photo prints of credit and ID cards - a self-portrait in plastic and numbers.

Set against this type of investigation is the textural awareness of various phenomena, such as the simple yet eloquent video projection of raindrops by Cliona Harmey, Sarah Iremonger's extraordinarily sparse landscape or Eoghan McTigue's close-up of notice boards.

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In between the two resides Peter Morgan's strange lexicography made from phonograms of bent nails or Diarmuid Crowley's appropriately featureless map of Antarctica.

Ultimately, the most satisfying aspect of the show is that a cohesive and rational selection policy is able to produce such a diverse range of responses from the artists, be it the humour of Dobz's re-enactment of the old man and the sea in a bathtub, the social consciousness of Tom Ryan's burnt-out car or the technical aptitude of Blaise Smith's painting.

Runs until January 27th.