Dreaming of a village: An Exhibition by Una Walker University of Atypical, Atypical Gallery

Exhibition opening Thursday 5th October 2023 at 6.00pm

Artist Gallery Talk – Friday 6th October 2023 at 1.00pm

Exhibition will continue until Friday 24th November 2024 at 5.00pm

Exhibition: “Dreaming of a village” is an installation comprising of two- and three-dimensional works and video.

This work draws on research into historic land ownership in the townlands in the immediate vicinity of the artist’s home in rural County Down.

In the course of carrying out the research, including collecting information from Griffith’s Valuation and maps in the Public Records Office, the artist discovered that an area opposite her house, which is now a tree plantation, had until at least the 1830s been farmland and supported numerous tenant farmers and their families.

The video and installation feature stones from the local area which have been used traditionally for both farm buildings and boundary walls. Drawings, based on the farm buildings still visible on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map of the area now covered in trees, are also used in both the video and the installation.

Other drawings are derived from the Griffith’s Valuation maps (1863) showing each local townland, outlined using thick red lines, and its subdivision into plots or “tenements”, using thinner red lines. In much of the locality these plots, frequently delineated by stone walls, were the parcels of land purchased by tenant framers as a result of the Irish Land Acts, and form the basis of current land ownership.

Artist’s Talk: Una Walker will give an informal talk about the origins and inspiration for the work in the exhibition, and answer questions from the public.

Una Walker is an artist and writer based at Flax Art Studios in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She has exhibited extensively in Ireland and internationally, making site and context specific installation, audio and video works, and works on paper. Site specific installation works have been constructed in diverse locations including military fortifications, derelict factories and a cathedral. From 2008-2015 she was a Research Fellow at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin and a member of the Digital Repository of Ireland Core Implementation Team. The Covid pandemic lockdowns provided an opportunity to make drawings, audio, and video works inspired by places very close to her home.

www.unawalker.com

University of Atypical is delighted to exhibit work created as part of the Connecting Artists Programme 2023.

Connecting Artists is a creative programme of the Connections Arts Centre which is an award winning not-for-profit Social Enterprise supporting the Disability community in Ireland.

Their objective is to improve the lives of the people they serve and create a positive social impact. Connection Arts Centre’s mission is to assist people with disabilities to overcome barriers that they encounter every day that lead to them being devalued and excluded from our community. They do this by providing accessible Arts Lifestyle and Training programmes that are inclusive of everyone.

Join Miriam Spollen, Director of the Connections Arts Centre, Dublin, for a tour of the Connecting Artists Exhibition and an overview of the Connecting Artists programme.

Light refreshments will be served. Everyone welcome.

The University of Atypical for Arts and Disability is delighted to welcome you to Epitaph an exhibition of new work by artist Amy Hannah opening at 5.30pm on Thursday the 18th of June 2023.

‘Epitaph’ is a body of work that seeks to visualise the experience of the neurodivergent artist in various stages of her childhood / teenage years as well as resonating with other neurodivergent/disabled people and their experiences of growing up in a world that wasn’t made for them.

Making use of stills that recreate key memories, past special interests and safe places, as well as a wide range of repurposed archival images, the artist seeks to not only mourn experiences and friendships she missed out on but accept that the past cannot be rewritten, coming to terms with her neurodiverse mind and growing to accept herself as she is.

Exhibition Opening – Thursday 22nd June  – Launch Event  5.30 pm   
Exhibition continues until the 19th of July 2023

Amy Hannah  – In Conversation  – Friday 23rd June  2023  6.00 pm – 7.00 pm

Join artist Amy Hannah  for a tour of her exhibition and informal discussion about her work and ideas.  This is  a great way to start the weekend and find out more about this unique artist’s work. 

Upside Down
Ciaran Magill
4 May to 9 June 2023

About the Exhibition

The University of Atypical is delighted to invite you to join us for the launch of, Upside Down an exhibition of new work by artist Ciaran Magill opening at 5.00 pm on Thursday the 4th of May as part of the Late Night Art scheme
Bodies in motion, bodies at rest. This exhibition of figurative paintings explores the artist’s fascination with high-energy athletic poses offset against quiet contemplative positions within a domestic setting.
The acrobatic males are like an astral-projection of the artist’s own dreams, often imagined while lying on his bed. Likewise, the levitating females allude to gender politics, a recurring theme in the artist’s sixteen -year career.
With fifteen solo shows to date, this is Ciaran’s first ever solo exhibition of work focused on the human figure combining drawing and painting. The works embody the artist’s love of line, colour and transparent layered paint effects.
Magill’s psychological landscapes often explore an eerie isolation and a sense of foreboding. His conceptual figurative works often focus on issues of gender and sexuality.

About the Artist

Born in 1978 in Newry, Northern Ireland, Ciaran studied Fashion at Ravensbourne College of Design & Communication in London before returning to the Belfast School of Art & Design in 2006 to complete a BA (Hons) degree in Fine and Applied Arts.
His paintings and drawings are held in many private, public and corporate collections, most notably the Open University, DIAGEO, the NI Civil Service and the Centre for Independent Living Collections. He was the 2009 recipient of the DIAGEO NI emerging artist award and has received awards from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, University of Atypical, and the Freelands Foundation, London.
He has had solo exhibitions at many of the leading public art galleries in Northern Ireland, notably at the Flowerfield Arts Centre (Portstewart), Oriel Gallery (Antrim), Sean Hollywood Arts Centre (Newry), Waterfront Hall (Belfast), Island Arts Centre (Lisburn), Down Arts Centre (Downpatrick), Bangor Library and Ards Arts Centre.
Magill has exhibited in many group shows in locations including Beijing, Shanghai, New York, Los Angeles, Berlin and Genoa. He has shown in group shows locally at the Ormeau Baths Gallery, Golden Thread Gallery, The Mac, Catalyst Arts and the Naughton Gallery at Queen’s University.
A selection of the works on exhibition were made possible with an award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland

About the exhibition – what to expect
Urban Survival Kits (USK) is an innovative Erasmus + programme led by the University of Atypical for Arts and Disability (UofA) in Belfast and devised by artist Julie McGowan. This exhibition is the result of a two-year long international creative learning project exploring how disabled and neurodiverse adults can develop and design personalised survival kits to support their local, national and international travel requirements.
This partnership between the UofA, in collaboration with local participants from the NOW Group (Belfast) and European partner organisations Cotopaxi (Poland); Blauschimmel Atelier (Germany); Akdeniz University (Turkey) and Upset Theatre (Croatia) has been participant led with the aim of empowering d/Deaf, disabled and neurodiverse people.
The USK’s programme included a series of live and online workshops specifically tailored to provide an inclusive and immersive learning experience to participants. This allowed for a safe way of experimenting, externalising, reframing and ultimately sharing real-life stories and experiences, removing the barriers that d/Deaf, disabled and neurodiverse people experience when travelling, and creating individual communication tools that are tailored to ensure positive travelling experiences.
In June of 2022 an international group of 50 people participated in a week-long, learning programme that took place online and in the Ulster Museum, Botanic Gardens and the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast. The Urban Survival Kits exhibition is the artistic outcome of that time spent together and a starting point for planning travel adventures. The artists mapped out their personalised creative journeys that started online in January 2022 in Belfast and artists then spent 3 fun days online, building connections and learning from each other. After this each group in our partner countries spent 10 days experimenting with art in preparation for their travels to Belfast.
The group began their adventure during a five-day training programme, starting with a journey of self-discovery through the creation of 3D portraits and models with individually designed backdrops. Integrating the models created an opportunity for exploring familiar or imagined environments or storylines. Participants designed and created individual Urban Survival Kits containing everything they might need for a Dream Day Out.
On the last day, the group visited Botanic Gardens, where they mapped and digitally recorded their journey, collecting sounds, images, and objects of interest. They used this material to create a digital trail of the visit. The trails created will be used in the development of an interactive online map and will be available to follow and add to via the USK website.
The exhibition opens on 23rd March 2023 and will be added to with new content made over a five day training programme taking place in April 2023. This unique project culminates in Belfast on the 21st of April 2023 with a celebration of the learning programme and creative input by the USK artists. A virtual exhibition will tour each partner country in June 2023.
For more information about the artist and organisations involved:
#urbansurvivalkits #erasmusplus @universityofatypical @blauschimmelatelierev @stowarzyszenieprawconiafilmowacotopaxi @upsetteatar @akdenizuniversity @NOW_Group @nowgrouporg @pracownia_cotopaxi @upset.theatre @universityofatypical @akdeniz_universitesi @auftrabmitblauschimmel
Light refreshments will be served.

Access Booking – To book your access requirements please email

ash@universityofatypical.org

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