Cork Printmakers Exhibition at Dublin's National Print Museum

A new exhibition at the National Print Museum in Dublin explores Ireland through the alphabet. Ireland: Alphabet Series, A Cork Printmakers Travelling Exhibition opens Thursday, 24 February 2012.

The exhibition consists of 26 prints by 26 artists. Each work centres around one letter of the alphabet. Artists were assigned one letter each and asked to use it as a source of inspiration to explore and represent an aspect of Irish history, culture, society or aesthetic.

Artists were encouraged to be humorous, confessional, subtle, ironic, iconic or controversial, and to take on cultural and economic challenges that are relevant to contemporary Ireland. The result is a rich, varied exhibition, executed in a range of styles and printmaking techniques.

The works tackle subjects such as child abuse, the economic state of Ireland, seminal moments in Ireland’s rich history, as well as more personal histories; others concentrate on the aesthetic of the letter itself.

Valerie Gleeson’s, Burst, depicts the letter ‘B’ to represent a bursting action, both visually and phonetically – a true reflection of the current state of the Irish economy.

Ulchabhán (owl), a delicately rendered mezzotint by Aoife Layton, represents the letter ‘U’; the letter itself is suggested by the visible section of the window frame out of which the bird emerges. The barn owl (or scréachóg reilige) is familiar both as the favoured icon of several television productions and as a recurring figure in Irish folklore.

In Shane O’Driscoll’s To The Future, we are given a moment of hope for the future of Ireland. The English translation of the Irish text incorporated into the work reads ‘I’m only sleeping; strength will come to me again’. The image of the tiger represents what was once great is now only sleeping, and will arise again.

Ireland: Alphabet Series, A Cork Printmakers Travelling Exhibition first went on display in the Irish Arts Centre in New York. It now comes to the National Print Museum in Dublin 4, and will run from February 24th to April 13th .

The National Print Museum is a place for printers, historians, students and the general public to see and hear how printing developed and brought information, in all its forms, to the world. On exhibit is a representative display of the equipment and artefacts of the rich, centuries-old printing heritage. The museum’s many activities include exhibitions, workshops, lectures, outreach and other special events. For more information on the museum and its permanent and temporary exhibitions, visit www.nationalprintmuseum.ie.