Mocksim project: Arts Council Commissions: Systems Interference2020

Project Arts Council Commissions: Systems Interference (2020-2022)

Commissions Award (The Arts Council of Ireland, An Chomhairle Ealaíon) work produced for an exhibition which opened at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre in September 2022. Touring and Dissemination funding also means that 'System Interference' will travel to Wexford Arts Centre in 2023, and Highlines Gallery, Drogheda in 2023/24. The collection is mainly a mashup of three elements relating to aspects of the contemporary landscape: the increasing presence of wind farms, the road system with its traffic flows which have crept up over a century, and observations on ball-games, specifically golf and the unusual sport of road bowling (played almost exclusively in counties Cork and Armagh). Substantial sculptural pieces include an arrangement of the typical pipes used for sewerage, electricity, water etc. which are embedded underneath roads, large inflatable wind turbine models and a toy wind farm with golf balls distributed about the battery powered turbines. A number of works arose out of the thought experiment that golf courses could be converted into wind farms, and the game adjusted to suit (working title Turbogolf). For some years he has been posting proposals for this new game on TripAdvisor (in place of reviews) together with mockup images. In many cases the proposals have remained for golf resorts in Ireland and beyond, including Trump International in Dubai, and a resort found in what used to be part of the Amazon rain forest. Part of his work in Skibbereen has been to interrogate the Uillinn building itself and the area around, via a series of exercises in order to find ready-made work and include site-specific elements. There is a serious dimension to the work in terms of environmental concerns, the democracy or lack of it in decision making, what is given priority and what is not. A number of other works, printed material, sound recordings and the signature 'simupoems' - short moving image pieces which play in loop mode - are included as well as interactive elements and ways in which the exhibition might, through a number of planned events, have reach beyond the institution.

MICHEÁL O'CONNELL / MOCKSIM