Abstract

Project designer. This exhibition, venue The Vision Centre, Cork, was a joint project between the prominent Irish architectural photographer Janice O’Connell and Cork City Council. It was commissioned to celebrate Cork’s development as a centre for contemporary architecture within Ireland. The Centre is housed in a 17th century church, which provides a relatively unique canvas in which to exhibit work. Kelly Barry O’Brien Whelan Architects, whose contribution to costs exceeded £25,000, sponsored the Exhibition. As a reaction to the subject of the exhibition, the decision of scale and layout responded to the church’s interior and encouraged people to ‘look up’ with the use of large format photography. Fifty two photographs in total were on exhibit. These included three 2 x 5 metre prints and twelve 1.5 x 2.5 metre prints suspended above a scaled model of Cork City. The printing and hanging techniques for the images were devised to have as little intrusion to the images as possible. A bespoke frameless double sided mount system constructed from aluminium was designed and large format photographs were mounted either side. Six tensile wires spanned the main gallery, off each of which the double sided mounts were suspended. Through the combination of large format photography and off the walls exhibiting methods the visitor engaged with the image and the space. An interaction with the gallery, in this case, proved successful. The exhibition is in the process of being relocated to Cologne, Germany; Rennes France and San Francisco USA, all cities twinned with Cork. There was extensive coverage within the Irish national newspapers; Irish Examiner, 8th November 2006, two-page spread with the headline ‘The changing face of Cork’; Evening Echo, 21st October 2006, half-page article with the headline ‘Images Of Changes To Celtic Tiger Cork Go On Display’.