what do we want group show

'What do we want?', group show - 7 April to 31 May 2024

 Group show

Artists:  Jill Gibbon, Eoin Mac Lochlainn, Tom Molloy and Gail Ritchie

Official opening: Tuesday 9 April 2024, 6:30pm
Guest speaker: Frances Black, Singer and Member of Seanad Éireann.

[The exhibition was opened by singer Mary Black who read Frances's speech as Frances was marooned on Rathlin Island due to the bad weather. Our thanks to both sisters]

The show will run in our main exhibition space until 31 May 2024.

The Olivier Cornet Gallery is delighted to present

'What do we want?'

To begin, a quote from Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations: “Peace is needed today more than ever. War and conflict are unleashing devastation, poverty and hunger, and driving tens of millions of people from their homes.”

This group exhibition is a response to the increasingly dangerous geo-political situation in the world today. It features the work of four artists: Jill Gibbon, Eoin Mac Lochlainn, Tom Molloy and Gail Ritchie.

Jill Gibbon, a UK-based artist, makes the point that to stop wars, we have to address the arms trade. In this exhibition, the artist will show a selection of work she made in-situ at international arms fairs in Paris and London. Disguised as an arms trader, she draws attendees and collects ephemera from the stalls. Her pretence as a respectable businesswoman is a metaphor for the facade of respectability in the industry. Her sketchbook drawings presented as a concertina reveal the hidden truth. The exhibition will also include a selection of ‘gifts’ given away to attendees of these fairs. To quote Gibbon “Nothing conveys the chilling priorities of the arms trade as clearly as its marketing”.

April 6 - Correction to our description above

Jill Gibbon’s original sketchbook which was to feature in this exhibition was refused entry in this country by Irish Customs on 27 March 2024. The same fate awaited the 8 ‘gifts’ or ‘desk toys’ the artist has collected from arms fairs over the years. A week later, the artist attempted to send us -as an ordinary letter- a facsimile copy of her sketchbook. The copy didn’t make it either: The artist was notified a few days ago that the letter had been refused too and would be ‘returned to sender’. At the time of writing these notes, the gallery would like to mention that the artist is still waiting for all her possessions to be returned to her. 

In agreement with the artist, we are including in this exhibition a slideshow of some of these sketchbook drawings which you can see on the TV screen. We are also presenting reproductions of the beautiful photographs of some of the gifts. The original photographs were taken by Ricky Adam for a book project with the artist. 


Eoin Mac Lochlainn is an Irish artist based in Dublin. In recent years he has made several hundred charcoal and wash drawings to explore the trauma of the Irish Civil War: "Each piece was an attempt to represent a soul, someone with dreams and ambitions, someone whose life had been cut short by the conflict - but that project put global conflicts in perspective for me and, as I continued to develop the work, I began to view War as a failure of empathy, a failure of Humanity. And whatever the cause, when it comes down to it, it’s always some mother’s son, it is somebody’s sister or brother, somebody’s neighbour who is killed."
 
In response to the increasingly worrying situation across the world, the artist's new body of work is a reminder that peace should never be taken for granted. It needs to be nurtured - and the cycle of violence brought to an end. 

To quote President Michael D. Higgins: “We have to reject the suggestion that war is the natural human condition or indeed that xenophobia is a natural human condition, or that people of different religions or cultures cannot reconcile (and) live harmoniously… We have to pursue a new symmetry. Our very species’ survival depends on that now, as does our relationship with other species.”


Tom Molloy is an Irish artist based in France. His practice has been concerned with the examination of power, in a political and historical context, and how it can, and has been perverted, which raises global questions about morality. For over a decade Molloy has been determined to challenge the observers’ perception, by creating ambiguous works that investigate the overlap between representation and association. In his line of questioning Molloy deliberately presents minimal representations of significant political and historical moments. In opposition to the clean, simplicity of the works' presentation, the viewer finds conceptually rich, multi-layered meanings inherent to the artwork.

Gail Ritchie lives and works in Belfast. In this exhibition she will show a variety of works. One is a response to the most recent prediction by the Doomsday Clock that humanity is now 90 seconds from midnight, where midnight is the nuclear apocalypse. This work, together with the other pieces presented by the artist in this show, addresses the impact of conflict through a personal and political lens. 


Coverage:

  • Eoin Mac Lochlainn's painting Caoineadh no. 12, part of 'What do we want?' a group art exhibition at Olivier Cornet Gallery in response to the increasingly dangerous geo-political situation in the world today.
  • Tom Molloy's photograph 'Contact', part of 'What do we want?' a group art exhibition at Olivier Cornet Gallery in response to the increasingly dangerous geo-political situation in the world today.
  • Tom Molloy's 3D piece 'Borderline', part of 'What do we want?' a group art exhibition at Olivier Cornet Gallery in response to the increasingly dangerous geo-political situation in the world today.
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