Exhibition Program

Michael McLoughlin
I ONLY COME HERE 'COS IT'S FREE
September 12th - November 16th 2008

Limerick City Gallery of Art is delighted to host a major solo exhibition by socially engaged, Dublin based artist Michael McLoughlin. This is McLoughlin’s first museum exhibition and will present bodies of new work. McLoughlin’s process involves connecting with specific groups in society and developing work in audio, film, drawing, photography and sculptural installations, which explores their collective histories and social environments.

Efforts to track and record travel, migration and movement are of particular interest to the artist. McLoughlin focuses on memories, histories, dreams and aspirations, while commenting accurately on social circumstance by working together with communities. McLoughlin is, "interested in the stories of this space that may seem almost trivial to others.”
The role played by social clubs in preventing isolating, particularly for older people in the community, is specifically interesting to McLoughlin. Social outlets are particularly important for older people who may have less contact with a broad family network and these groupings can almost take on the role of surrogate family.

A new body of work exploring an aging community explores Bingo is the primary activity of social engagement. Installations of audio recordings, from artist organised bingo events, together with a series of installations study the various aspects of the activities and how individuals respond to them. McLoughlin’s curious field recordings will form a link between the two strands of the exhibition.

The centre piece of the exhibition is a new film-work I Don’t See The Lads That Much Anymore, developed in collaboration with critically acclaimed actor and comedian Jon Kenny and writer Michael Finn. The film re-visits a previous character, a
London
based Irish emigrant, exploring displacement through
an individual’s struggle but also the multitude of changes experienced in Irish culture in the past 20 years.

Michael McLoughlin has exhibited widely in
Ireland
and internationally. He has exhibited at The Lab, Dublin, Limerick City Gallery of Art, Triskel Art Centre, Cork and as part of audio art radio events such as Resonant Cities, Glasgow (2004) ,
Lola Gallery San Francisco (2003),
SonicEye,
Helsinki
(2000) and AART, IMMA (1995).

Since
graduating from LSAD in 1994,
McLoughlin has made site-specific artworks in association with many groups, including Limerick Traveler Groups in 1997,
Our Lady of Lourdes Community Development Project Young Women's Group in 2002/2003 ,
Balcurris Boys Home 2004,
St. Margaret’s Travelers Group and the wider community in Ballymun 2006/2007.
McLoughlin has collaborated with various artist including Audience (1) Waltzers with Mary Nunan, presented at Limerick City Gallery of Art, Eigse Festival, Carlow and The Project, Dublin 2006/2008.