Press release - Press releases - jennifer cunningham

126 with the RHA presents:

VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR

The 3rd Annual 126 Members' Show

Part of the Artist Curates series at the RHA.

Opening reception January 14th 6 - 8pm at the Royal Hibernian Academy, runs until February 27th.

As part of our continued commitment to support our membership, 126 is proud to present its third annual members' show hosted this year by the Royal Hibernian Academy. 126 is grateful for the financial and moral support of its members and each year offers this special opportunity to exhibit their work.

The membership was asked to respond to the theme 'Video Killed The Radio Star' and 126, artist-run gallery has curated a range of work which reflects the diverse membership, from emerging artists to those more established, working in a variety of disciplines, including: painting, video, works on paper, sculpture, installation and photography. The works speak of and to society at a time of perceived change with responses that range from the critical and cynical to those with a more playful and humorous tone.

Artists showing are: Paul Murnaghan, Dominic Thorpe, Angela Darby, Fiona Chambers, Jim Ricks, David Finn, Padraig Robinson, Kevin Mooney, Austin Ivers, Nina Amazing, Timothy Acheson & Jennifer Cunningham, Kathryn Maguire, James Merrigan and Breda Lynch.

126 was established in 2006 by local artists in their own living room as a response to the need for more non-commercial gallery spaces in Galway and is currently located on Queen Street in the city centre. 126 is a voluntarily led, artist-run gallery that is known for promoting challenging and experimental works that would not be seen in commercial galleries or conventional institutions. 126 is supported by the Arts Council, the Galway City Council and its membership.

Membership is open to all who support the aims and ethos of 126. Please visit our website www.126.ie for more information on becoming a member.

This project has been made possible by the RHA

I will be showing a piece I made in collaboration with another artist, Timothy Acheson. It consists of a video piece and a brass plaque.

Carl Sagans original Design Our Design for Brass plaque

Here is our artists statement

Broadcast.

Radio transmissions are still travelling in the reaches of outer space. Sheep now inhabit the wireless transmission station. Radio signals travel through the outer solar system. It blinks out over a barren surface mingling with the solar winds, a 102 year old sequence…. radio never really dies.

This Video piece and accompanying engraved plaque are the result of a body of research concerning the ruins of the Marconi radio station at the northern end of Roundstone Bog at Derrygimla near Clifden . It explores themes of erasure and destruction of place.

Derrygimla, is located at the northern end of a dramatic expanse of bogland.

This heathland stretches seven miles from the foot of the south Bens to Dogs bay in the west. The large cone of the ‘White Lady’ is the last distinctive marker as you step out into this great expanse. In 1907 it became the base for the first transatlantic wireless transmissions. The station operated for almost twenty years until it was destroyed in 1922.

There is little remaining today of what was in its day the largest station of its type in the world. Only the stumps of the anchors of Marconis antennae, concrete and rusting iron rods, litter the landscape over several acres. The ruin is now staffed only by sheep and visited by the occasional tourist.

A sign in the ruins of the generator complex states the following:

‘Completed in 1907 by the father of radio, Guiglielmo Marconi, the Clifden wireless radio station was then the largest in the world. From this site, the historic first transatlantic commercial wireless transmissions were sent on the 17^th October 1907.

At its peak some 300 people were employed at the station. The 120ha site contained many buildings. Masts over 60m in height supported aerial wires each 1,300m in length. A narrow gauge railway facilitated works on the site.

The station operated until July 1922 when it was destroyed during the Irish civil war.’