Shipping out

Armagh-born Anne Tallentire has been selected to represent Ireland at the next Venice Biennale, which will take place between June and November of next year. She was selected by a visual arts panel chaired by Sarah Finlay, the newly appointed Irish Commissioner of the Venice Biennale.

There is also a new curator at the Biennale, the Swiss critic and curator, Harold Szeemann, who is apparently very open to the kind of mixed media work which Tallentire pursues. She explores issues of memory, language, history and identity, using photography, video, sound and performance. Under the collective name of Seth/Tallentire, she works with John Seth, and the two will be part of the Project Arts Centre's Offsite programme in December.

So the shipping out is going well, but incoming traffic is experiencing some difficulties. I have kept my eye trained on Scotsman's Bay in Dun Laoghaire, looking for Dorothy Cross's Light Ship, the Nissan Award-winning project which was meant to be launched this month, but it has definitely been a case of "Ship not-Ahoy!" The artist has been enmeshed in technical difficulties, in negotiations with marine authorities, in safety regulations, and IMMA is soon to issue a press release explaining why the ship still hasn't docked.