Art

Kenneth O’Halloran’s modern ruins, Alice Maher’s woodcuts and watercolours: the best art shows this week

Kenneth O’Halloran exhibition centres on his finest project to date, the superb 'The Handball Alley' series

The Handball Alley, Feevagh, Co Roscommon. Photograph: © Kenneth O’Halloran

Aidan Dunne's face
Aidan Dunne
Mon Apr 9 2018 - 11:45

Kenneth O'Halloran: Modern Ruins and other stories
Gallery of Photography, Meeting House Sq, Temple Bar, Dublin. Until May 20th. galleryofphotography.ie
A survey of the work of Clare-born photographer Kenneth O'Halloran, centring on what remains his finest project to date, the superb The Handball Alley, a series of landscape documenting the contemporary condition of handball alleys throughout the country, markers and memorials of changing times. Plus Celtic Tiger property madness in Tales fom the Primised Land and a portrait of Corofin in Bodies in Motion.

Alice Maher: Vox Materia
The Source Arts Centre, Cathedral St, Thurles, Co Tipperary. Until May 5th. thesourceartscentre.ie
Alice Maher's Vox Materia is inspired by a 12th century carving of a mermaid at Kilcooley Abbey. Woodcuts and watercolours document the contorted body, while "hand-held sculptural forms create new material and corporeal vocabularies." Pluck Projects curated.

A woodcut from Alice Maher’s Vox Materia

Amanda Dunsmore: Keeper
Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, Parnell Sq, Dublin. April 10th-July 22nd. hughlane.ie
Marking the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement, Amanda Dunsmore's 20-minute video portraits of key figures include those on John Hume and David Trimble, exhibited here for the first time. Plus other works exploring the role of portraiture in social and political life.

One of the Amanda Dunsmore pieces from Keeper

'Modern Ruins and other stories' at the Gallery of Photography by Kenneth O'Halloran features a set of images of handball alleys, work documenting the Celtic Tiger property boom and an intimate portrayal of the artist’s family. Video: Bryan O'Brien

Martina O'Brien: At Some Distance in the Direction Indicated
The Butler Gallery, The Castle, Kilkenny. Until April 29th. butlergallery.com
Martina O'Brien delves into developments in climates change research via a residency at the Irish Centre for High End Computing, in works including a video installation on meteorological instruments and computational forecasting, plus stitched drawings informed by Lady Ada Lovelace's contribution to computer science.

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Rosa Barba: 'between objects in the waking world'
VOID, Patrick St, Derry. Until May 12th. derryvoid.com
Film works by Roa Barba "that situate themselves between experimental documentary and fictional narratives." Including Somnium, influenced by astromoner Johannes Kepler's story, published posthumously in 1634, that imagines how the earth might be viewed from the lunar surface. In Barba's film, a narrator describes the construction of a new landscape, a vast future harbour in Rotterdam, projected to be in use by 2030.