THE Crawford Gallery has often addressed the value of group shows as a platform for showing the work of local artists. The latest offering, Volume, continues in this spirit, but has, through the insightful enthusiasm of the guest selector Alanna Heiss, swelled beyond the original vision to include music and literature as contained in the accompanying CD and catalogue.
More than 50 artists are spread over the sculpture gallery, hallway, courtyard and cafe, with a selection of print, ceramics, painting, sculpture, installation, textiles, photography and video. The selection is not touted as being representative of Cork's best, and in fact Heiss has taken a chance bye leaning noticeably toward young recent graduates, something which lends an almost irreverent energy which might have been overlooked in other circumstances. Similarly, display cases of artists sketch-books give a feel for the creative processes, while work produced by inmates from Cork Prison indicates how the selection has remained relatively free and open-ended.
Figurative or painterly concerns are not very evident and it is mixed media work which is favoured by a lot of the artists. One particular link which surfaces from the display is the penchant for repeated serial imagery or formats and can be seen in works by Mary Rose O'Neill, Martin Healy, Mairead Healy, Mairead Dennehy, Tina Claffey and Liz McNamara. Formalist sculpture is thin on the ground with the 3-D work tending toward installational practice as in Nevin Lahart, John Power, and Augustine O'Donoghue's contributions; even Andrew Boyle's carved Raven is given its own mini environment.
The timing of this show coincides nicely with another separately organised event called Art Trail `96 which runs from December 6th-8th. Here, access to seven artists studios" and workshops across the city will provide an extra dimension to anyone wishing to gain further insight into what is happening in Cork, not least because many artists in this event were not included in Volume.
