Lismore Castle Arts
15 Apr - 14 Oct, 2018
15 Apr - 14 Oct, 2018
Lismore Castle Arts, Co. Waterford
Lismore Castle Arts is delighted to present the first major solo exhibition by Rashid Johnson in Ireland, encompassing large scale works on paper, 2 film works, and several new sculptural works made for the gardens.
Inspired by a childhood steeped in African American cultural influences, Rashid Johnson creates layered artworks that engage a conversation between personal biography and its relationship to larger cultural and historical narratives. Johnson works predominantly in mixed media sculptures, paintings, and drawings, combining bare materials such as mirror, wood, and shea butter with loaded iconic objects including record covers, CB radios, historical books, and common domestic objects. Throughout his career, Johnson has explored the ways in which we form our sense of belonging to races and communities, investigating the relationship between familiar objects and identity.
For Lismore, Rashid is making a group of new sculptures employing his minimalist three-dimensional steel black grids, which will house a variety of objects including busts painted to resemble shea butter, and will act as a living greenhouse as plants in the gardens begin to intertwine with the sculpture over the summer months. Playing with forms taken from the Minimalist tradition – Sol LeWitt’s white open cubes come to mind – Johnson breaks the rational structure open and embeds loaded objects within it, in a sense hijacking or occupying the minimalist trope. The artist will also create several new sculptural works for the Upper Terrace of the Gardens, working with the Gardens team to use the sculptures as planters.
Within the gallery, Rashid responds to the vast gallery space by creating his largest drawings to date, and taking up the bulk of the main space. These new drawings explore the theme of anxiety that runs throughout the artist’s practice. Each drawing presents a grid of rudimentary faces rendered in dark-colored oil-stick on cotton rag. The frenetic motion of Johnson’s hand emphasizes the titular anxiety of the characters depicted, their eyes rapidly drawn spirals, their mouths zig-zagged slashes. Johnson has described this series as a response to the current global social and political climate, and the challenge that people worldwide face in navigating and negotiating their own positions therein.
The exhibition space will be book-ended by two film works, shot in 16mm and transferred to digital. Representing the performative aspect of Johnson’s practice, The New Black Yoga (2011) is a short film depicting an enigmatic scenario in which five African American men perform choreographed movements on a deserted beach. Their gestures alternately appear balletic, athletic, and martial, conjuring a range of potential narratives that ultimately remain elusive. Samuel in Space, commissioned by Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, Texas, in 2013, continues the trajectory as a singular, totemic black male dancer observes the vast high desert landscape before him and, in a combination of dance and gymnastics, tumbles through the desert at sunrise. In both works, the black male body is a site of reflection on histories past and progression towards rejuvenation and new meaning in the future.
The exhibition will be accompanied later in the summer by a fully illustrated catalogue, featuring install images of the exhibition at Lismore.
The exhibition is kindly supported by Hauser & Wirth.
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A solo exhibition of new work by Irish artist Aleana Egan
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A site-specific installation by the Argentinian artist.
23 Mar - 27 Oct, 2024
Lismore Castle Arts
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Stable Yard at Lismore Castle
Niamh O’Malley has been commissioned to create a new permanent artwork for the former stable yard at Lismore Castle.
From 2022
Lismore Castle Stable Yard
First exhibited at St Carthage Hall, Lismore in 2014, now permanently housed at Lismore Castle Stable Yard.
08 Jun, 2024
Lismore Castle Gardens
Join the gardens team for a summer scything workshop.
12 Jul - 23 Aug, 2024
Lismore Castle Arts
Join us for a tour of 3 artist’s installations in Lismore Castle’s Stable Yard.
26 Jul, 2024
Lismore Castle Gardens
Join the gardens team for a special summer bouquet workshop
18 Aug, 2024
Lismore Castle Avenue
Find rare and special plants, trees and shrubs for sale
06 Dec, 2024
Lismore Castle
Join the Lismore Castle Gardens team and guest for a hands-on festive wreath-making workshop.
Lismore Castle Arts
Open Daily
Monday to Sunday
10:30am – 5:30pm (last entry 4:30pm)
15 March – 27 October
St Carthage Hall
Saturdays and Sundays
12pm – 5pm during exhibitions
Other times by appointment
The Mill
Saturdays and Sundays
12pm – 5pm during exhibitions
Other times by appointment