The Hopeless End of a Great Dream
Declan Clarke
Temple Bar Gallery + Studios is pleased to present a significant new film commission by Irish artist Declan Clarke. Entitled ‘The Hopeless End of a Great Dream’, the 16mm film work has been co commissioned by TBG+S, Belfast Exposed, Centre Cultural Irlandais Paris and Trinity Creative.
The film was shot entirely on the grounds of Trinity College Dublin, using the diversity of architecture within Trinity’s walls as a backdrop and metaphor for the last 100 years of Irish history. Taking a number of overlooked episodes in Irish history as its starting point, the film works along a fragmented narrative which sees unexplained actions taking place in academic and historical surroundings. Clarke grounds these episodes in the political present, so that they function as commentaries on the causes, effects, and ongoing ramifications of the past on the current political climate. Visually and thematically referencing the tropes of post war European cinema, Clarke blurs real and fictional stories to create film with a complex palimpsest of narrative development, compelling characters and mysterious events.
A public screening of the film will take place at the Ed Burke Theatre, Arts Block, Trinity College Dublin on 20th April 2016. The exhibition launches at TBG+S on 21st April and continues until 18th June 2016. It will then go on to be exhibited in Belfast Exposed in May and in Paris at the Centre Culturel Irlandaise in September.
The project received additional support from the Arts Council project award 2016.
Declan Clarke
b. Dublin 1974
Studied: National College of Art and Design, Dublin, and Chelsea College of Arts, London.
Recent solo exhibitions include: Torrence Art Museum, Los Angeles; Farbvision, Berlin, both forthcoming in 2016; Geist Trilogie, Tromsø Kunstforening, Norway (ongoing); Wreckage in May, Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane, 2015; Group Portrait with Explosives, Mother's Tankstation, Dublin, 2014.
Recent group exhibitions include: Conversation Piece, Transmediale, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 2016; The Shock of Victory, CCA, Glasgow; Over You/You Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts, Slovenia; The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, HOME, Manchester; Un-Speak, The Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, Nigeria, all 2015; Invisible Violence, Salzberger Kunstverein, Salzberg, Austria, MOCA Belgrade, and ARTIUM Basque Museum of Contemporary Art, Vitoria, Spain, 2014/15.
In 2015, Clarke's film Group Portrait with Explosives won the Jury Prize at the 31st Biennale of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Temple Bar Gallery + Studios
Temple Bar Gallery + Studios (TBG+S) is Dublin's most prominent artists community, founded in 1983. It accommodates thirty subsidised artists’ studios in which a membership of professional visual artists make their work. In the gallery, a programme of five exhibitions each year represent a cross section of contemporary Irish and international visual arts practice.
Belfast Exposed
Belfast Exposed Photography is Northern Ireland’s principal gallery of contemporary photography and lenses based work, commissioning, publishing and showing work by local and international photographers.
Centre Culturel Irlandais
Inaugurated in 2002, the Centre Culturel Irlandais is now firmly established as Ireland’s major cultural flagship overseas. Situated in the old Collège des Irlandais (Irish College) on the Rue des Irlandais in Paris, CCI is a thriving arts centre with an ambitious programme of visual and performing arts. A cultural hub in the centre of Paris, it provides a highly sought after residency programme for artists to create new work.
Declan Clarke,The Hopeless End of a Great Dream, Film Still, 2016. Courtesy of the artist