MICHEÁL O'CONNELL / MOCKSIM

Project Arts Council Commissions: Systems Interference (2020-2024)

Work supported by a Commissions Award from The Arts Council Ireland, An Chomhairle Ealaíon, and generated through a series of intensive residencies, was initially exhibited at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre from September to October 2022. Touring and Dissemination funding meant that System Interference travelled to Wexford Arts Centre from August to October 2023, and finally to Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, from November 2023 to February 2024.

The collection was mainly a mash-up 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 leisure and ball-games, specifically golf and the unusual sport of road bowling. Substantial sculptural pieces included an arrangement of the typical pipes used for sewage, electricity and water, embedded underneath roads, an upturned car, large inflatable wind turbine models, and a toy wind farm comprised of 50 battery-powered miniature 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, under the title Turbogolf. For some time before, O'Connell had been posting proposals for the new game on TripAdvisor, in place of reviews, together with mock-up images. In many cases the proposals remained online for golf resorts in Ireland and beyond, including Trump International in Dubai, and a resort found in what was once part of the Amazon rainforest.

Part of the work in Skibbereen was to interrogate the Uillinn building itself and the area around it, through a series of exercises designed to find ready-made work and include site-specific elements. A number of other works, printed material, sound recordings and O'Connell's signature 'simupoems', short moving image pieces that play in loop mode, were also included, alongside interactive elements and planned events that extended the exhibition's reach beyond the institution.

Philosopher of aesthetics John Roberts wrote a book that riffs off the work: Art, Misuse and Technology: Micheál O'Connell's 'System Interference'.