GOLDEN FLEECE
Inter Art Center, 798 District
Beijing
Wang Wei
ARTISTS:
Fion Gunn
Niamh Cunningham
Brendan Jamison
Mark Revels
David Turner
Sean Campbell
Gail Ritchie
Mary McCaffrey
Ciaran Magill
Patty Hudak
Caroline Schofield
Pamela Hardesty
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Chen Meitsen
Ma Yanling
Yi Ling
Shao Kang
Yan Feng & Wu Fan
Wu Shuang
Wang Wei
Luo Ying
Lu Jun
Li Zhen
Wu Shixiong
Qi Yu
Fu Xiao Tong
Kong Ning |
An exhibition of Irish and Chinese contemporary art in the ‘Year of the Ram’ and inspired by the Yeats poem ‘Sailing to Byzantium’
Curated by Niamh Cunningham, Fion Gunn and Brendan Jamison
‘That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees’
W.B. Yeats
The fleece is a symbol of authority and kingship. The quest for the Golden Fleece, like that of the Holy Grail, describes a universal aspiration, a search for meaning and the desire to leave a legacy.
The artists in this exhibition explore their own personal quests for meaning and elucidation through the media of textile and fibres, painting and mixed media artworks. Yeats’ unforgettable imagery of ‘mackerel crowded seas’ and objects ‘as Grecian goldsmiths make, of hammered gold and gold enamelling’ has inspired the artists to produce a range of work which confronts the difficult dilemma of artifice verses nature, of ageing and of destruction in diverse and beautiful ways.
Sailing to Byzantium
THAT is no country for old men. The young
in one another's arms, birds in the trees
- Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.
O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
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A MEDITATION IN TIME OF WAR
Dong Yue Art Museum
Beijing
Fion Gunn
ARTISTS:
Fion Gunn
Niamh Cunningham
Brendan Jamison
Mark Revels
David Turner
Sean Campbell
Gail Ritchie
Ciaran Magill
Mary McCaffrey
Patty Hudak
Pamela Hardesty
Theresa Bloise Raine Hozier Byrne
Debbie Dawson |
Wu Wei
Luo Ying
Li Zhen
Ma Yanling
Lei Yan
Yi Ling
Gao Xiaofei
Luo Ying
Tian Hui
Qi Yu
Wu Shuang
Fu Xiao Tong
Chen Meitsen
Pan Yiqun |
An exhibition of Irish and Chinese contemporary art inspired by war poetry
Curated by Niamh Cunningham, Fion Gunn and Brendan Jamison
For one throb of the artery,
While on that old grey stone I Sat
Under the old wind-broken tree,
I knew that One is animate,
Mankind inanimate fantasy.
W.B. Yeats
‘A Meditation in Time of War’
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We hit them hard. So many are cut down by our initial charge.
The few left standing flee and we give chase,
full throttle through the field of newly dead and wounded.
There is no time to go around.
I keep driving straight,
noting every soft impact.
Our tank sways gently,
losing traction upon this uncertain ground,
a small boat plowing through the waves.
I hold my breath;
in my heart i pray for mercy.
~Wing Tek Lum
'I Hold My Breath'
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In 1921, amidst a destructive civil war in Ireland, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) wrote his Meditation, some 16 years before the unspeakable, unimaginable savagery of the Nanjing Massacre. He described the series of poems inspired by these events as “…philosophical but simple and passionate, a lamentation over lost peace and lost hope.”
His words are echoed in the work of Wing Tek Lum (1946-) who embarked on his series of poems relating to the massacre in 1997. Despite the intervening 76 years and distance of over 9,000 km, the difference of language and culture, their words share the same values; the recoil from destruction and the recognition of a terrible emotional and moral loss.
The exhibition unites artists from Ireland, Northern Ireland and from different parts of China and is particularly timely in 2015, as the world commemorates the 70th year since the end of WW2 and Ireland remembers the 150th anniversary of Yeats’ birth.
Just as Yeats was influenced by Chinese and Japanese imagism and poets such as Li Bai (701-762), in turn, his work is well known and appreciated in China. Dalian University of Technology Press published a translation of Yeats’ work by Ying Shi De Pu in 2013. Another of the four main translators are Prof. Fu Hao who gave a talk translating Yeats in June 2011 at the Beijing Foreign Studies University and he kindly tarnslated the poetry for all three of this year's Irish Wave exhibitions.
'A Meditation in Time of War' explores the difficult legacy of conflict across cultures and timelines in a range of media with many touch points to the poetry of Yeats and Lum.
Jamison, Cunningham and Gunn have curated this exhibition which will incorporate relevant texts from Yeats & Lum in English and as a complex poetic conversation about the meaning of war in our world.
ARTISTS CONNECTING WITH YEATS POETRY:
David Turner
Red Hanrahan’s Song about Ireland
"Angers that are like noisy clouds have set our hearts abeat…”
红发罕拉汉关于爱尔兰的歌
喧闹的乌云似的愤怒使我们的心脏狂跳;
________________
Naimh Cunningham
An Irish Airman Forsees his Death
..."A lonely impulse of delight drove to his tumult in the clouds"
位爱尔兰飞行员预见自己之死
股寂寞的愉快冲动
长驱直入这云中骚乱;
________________
Brendan Jamison
Adam’s Curse
“….it had all seemed happy and yet we’d grown
As weary hearted as that hollow moon”
亚当所受的诅咒
那似曾幸福,然而我们已经
那空洞的残月般心灰意冷。
________________
Sean Campbell
Owen Aherne and His Dancers
“Speak all your mind, my Heart sang out. Speak all your mind, who cares”
欧文·阿赫恩及其舞者
说出你全部心意,”我的心高唱,
说出你全部心意;谁在意
________________
Ciaran Magill
The Empty Cup
"And for that reason am I crazed
And my sleep is gone”
空杯
为此原故,我疯了,
________________
His Phoenix
“There’ll be that crowd, that barbarous crowd, through all the centuries…”
他的不死鸟
世世代代都会有那样一群,那野蛮的人群,
________________
Human Dignity
“I could recover if I shrieked
My heart’s agony
To Passing Bird but I am dumb
From Human Dignity”
人类的尊严
假如把内心痛苦
冲掠过的飞鸟嘶喊,
就可能复元,但我哑然,
由于人类的尊严。
________________
An Image From a Past Life
“And thereupon there comes that scream
From terrified, invisible beast or bird:
Image of poignant recollection”
来自前世的一个形象
于是有尖叫的声音来自
受惊的、看不见的野兽或飞禽:
深刻记忆的形象。
________________
His Memories
“And bodies broken like a thorn
Whereon the bleak north blows”
他的记忆
和残损的尸骸,犹如
被凄厉的北风吹折的荆棘,
________________
He Bids His Beloved Be at Peace
The Horses of Disaster plunge in the heavy clay”
他教爱人平静下来
灾害的群马都投进沉重的凡胎肉体。
________________
Baille and Aillinn
“…Imagining and Pondering
Heavan knows what calamity”
波伊拉和艾琳
想象和沉思着
天知道什么灾祸;
________________
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SMALL WORLD
Sanwei Art Center, M50, Shanghai
Shanghai
Huang Yin
ARTISTS:
Fion Gunn
Niamh Cunningham
Brendan Jamison
Mark Revels
David Turner
Maeve Lynch
Ciaran Magill
Mary McCaffrey
Patty Hudak
Pamela Hardesty
Raine Hozier Byrne
Audrey Mullins
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Zhang Xin
Gao Xiaofei
Huang Yin
Lu Jun
Yo Ye Chu
Jiang Huan
Wu Jun
Feng Hao
Huang Xiao |
An exhibition of Irish and Chinese contemporary art inspired by the love poetry of Yeats
Curated by Niamh Cunningham, Fion Gunn and Brendan Jamison in collaboration with Loftooo Gallery.
'The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper'. W.B. Yeats
This exhibition celebrates the diversity and richness of Irish and Chinese cultures - 'Small World', an international group shown focusing on the power of miniature artworks. A tiny scale can lead to a much deeper level of connection as the viewer engages at such close range so as to render the process 'intimate'.
Many small-scale 3D works disorient the viewer, creating Gulliver-like awareness and a sense of no longer recognising the life size landscape which we inhabit. The show is curated from a post-modernist position, exploring multiple histories and rebelling against the modernist, theatrical use of scale. Yeats, whose focus on visual imagery was so acute, whose exploration of intimacy so relentless, is the perfect literary companion for these innovative and complex works.
He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
W.B. Yeats
ARTISTS CONNECTING WITH YEATS POETRY:
Brendan Jamison
A Prayer for my Daughter
“How but in custom and in ceremony
Are innocence and beauty born?”
为我女儿祈祷
若非在风俗和礼仪之中, 纯真和美丽又如何诞生?
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Fion Gunn
When You Are Old
“When you are old and grey and full of sleep
And nodding by the fire, take down this book
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes once had, and of their Shadows Deep”
当你年老时
当你年老,鬓白,睡意沉沉,
火旁打盹之时,取下这本书,
慢慢诵读,梦忆从前你双眸
神色柔和,眼波中倒影深深;
________________
Pamela Hardesty
He Wishes For The Cloths of Heavan
“I have spread my dreams under your feet
Tread softly because you tread upon my dreams”
他冀求天国的锦缎
我已把梦铺在你脚下;
轻点,因你踏着我的梦。
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Mark Revels
A Memory of Youth
“We sat as silent as a stone
We knew, though she’d said not a word,
That even the best of love must die”
青春的记忆
我们默坐着像石头一样,
她一言不发,我们也知道
即使最好的爱情也必死,
________________
Sean Campbell
The Lake Isle of Inishfree
"I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core."
湖岛因尼斯弗里
我要起身前去,因为每夜每日
我总是听见湖水轻舐湖岸的低音;
站在马路上,或灰色的人行道上之时,
我都在心底里听见那声音。
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The Cap and Bells
“To her right hand came the red one,
To her left hand came the blue”
饰铃帽
红的降在她右手上,
蓝的落入左手心。
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Among School Children;
Labour is blossoming or dancing where
The body is not bruised to pleasure soul,
Nor beauty born out of its own despair,
Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil.
Oh Chestnut tree , great rooted blossomer,
Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?
Oh body swayed to music oh brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?
在学童中间
肉体不为取悦灵魂而损伤,
美不是生于自身的绝望断念,
花眼的智慧不出自夜半灯光,
劳动就会开花或起舞蹁跹。
呵,栗树,根壮而繁花兴旺,
你究竟是叶子、花朵还是枝干?
呵,身随乐摆,眼光照人,
我们怎能将舞者和舞蹈区分?
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Stolen Child
Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we've hid our faery vats,
Full of berries
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand.
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.
拐走的孩子
斯利什森林的陡峭
岩岸浸泡入湖水处,
有一个蓊郁的小岛,
那里有振翅的白鹭
把瞌睡的水鼠惊扰;
在那里我们已藏好
满盛着浆果的魔桶,
偷来的樱桃红通通。
人类的孩子啊,走!
跟一个精灵,手拉手,
到那水上和荒野里,
因为人世溢满你不懂的哭泣。
________________
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