Are you an up-and-coming artist? Emma Cullinanknows two people who might put your work on show
Mark Cullen and Brian Duggan are covered in paint, and they proffer whitewashed hands in greeting when we meet. But the artists are not daubed in oil, acrylic or watercolour: it's emulsion, and their latest work in progress is a complete fit-out of a temporary exhibition space.
The Pallas Contemporary Projects Gallery in Stoneybatter, north of Dublin's Smithfield, is the latest in a number of galleries they have opened and run since they started promoting up-and-coming artists in 1996. Their last gallery, Pallas Heights, was based in council flats due for demolition, and their new space is a former milking shed. They may not be suffering for their art, but they are working very hard to give exhibition and studio space to emerging artists.
"We're about giving opportunities and space to artists to work and show in. Because we're working artists, too, we feel a need for it ourselves, and so we try and provide it for others," says Duggan. "When we started, 11 years ago, a lot of artists were leaving Ireland as soon as they finished college, because there were no opportunities. There was a lack of spaces in Dublin for young artists to show in, places that weren't commercial galleries or closed shops."
Although Pallas has faced closure a number of times, Cullen and Duggan stay on the move, and it seems they can make almost any space work. The council flats, on Buckingham Street in Dublin 1, came about when they approached Dublin City Council. "Once they understood that we were not going to live there and mess up the housing list by jumping the queue or something like that, they were happy enough that we could work there," says Duggan.
Local children often came to watch artists prepare their shows. One visitor tells of how fizzy drinks and cakes would be bought for the children at opening nights, to which all the neighbours were invited. "The residents were pretty positive from the start, because we were bringing life back into the block. As the flats were being cleared out, the place was beginning to look a bit desolate, but the block we were in became more lively," says Cullen.
The spaces they have opened pose volumetric challenges to the artists, who create installations for them. "They use the interior and the architecture to create work specifically for the space, which won't necessarily be shown anywhere else," says Cullen. "This enables artists to work outside their normal practice. They have a longer period of time to get accustomed to the space and work their ideas through."
The old milking shed is a narrow room with no windows, something that Eilís McDonald's installation piece, Reverse Psychology, which launches the new gallery, exploits. "I'm excited about working here, because it's so narrow and small," she says. "That has a big influence on the kind of work that I put in it, because it's got this pressure and anxiety about it."
McDonald, who graduated from the National College of Art & Design in 2005, says a good number of her classmates have also exhibited since then. "The fact that artists can stay in Ireland creates more energy," says Cullen. Pallas is one of a number of similar galleries springing up in Dublin; there is also the Four Gallery, on Burgh Quay, and The Lab, on Foley Street.
Pallas, which will run six exhibitions a year, will tap into the international scene by teaming up with similar organisations abroad. It's already working with a group in Thailand and will bring in guest curators. Cullen and Duggan get some money from Dublin City Council and the Arts Council, but they have been prepared to pay for shows themselves. "You plan ahead without really knowing what is going to happen with funding; someone will make the decision somewhere in an office, but we still go ahead anyway," says Duggan. "We have sold work from our shows, but there aren't enough Irish people who buy experimental contemporary art. We're certainly not in this for the money." u
• Reverse Psychology is at the Pallas Contemporary Projects Gallery, 111 Grangegorman Road, Dublin 7, Thursday to Saturday, 11am-7pm, entrance free. More details from 01-8561404 or www.pallasstudios.org