Diagonal Acts arises from research into geological and archaeological imaginations of gaps, openings and thresholds, exploring the boundaries of the body in the landscape from various counter-topographical perspectives. The project expands on and elaborates a hybrid practice of ‘Theatre/Archaeology’ (Shanks/Pearson, 2001) exploring symmetries between staged presentations and field work via their continual renegotiation of categorical boundaries and their shared interest in memory, partiality, fragment, trace and assemblage.
Through intrinsically contingent material interventions and participatory gestures, Diagonal Acts excavates the ‘/’ in Theatre/Archaeology as a site of interdisciplinarity, convergence, and borders reworked, articulated through the sculptural position of the diagonal line. Thinking across and between sites through conditional modes of encounter, Diagonal Acts explores diagonality as a relational and collaborative stance, temporarily ‘leaning’ against contexts, communities and histories.
The material outcomes in Diagonal Acts are supported by a range of collaborations, and connected by a public programme of generative elements devised to critically engage audiences in person and online, enhancing and expanding participation and access. From an ovaline access ramp to a digital archiving repository, possibilities for encounter are crafted and considered across platforms.
The exhibition Diagonal Acts - Act 1 at Kunstverein Aughrim is on view throughout Spring 2025, closing on 31 May. Spring Preview with Marie Farrington takes place on Saturday 29 March 2025.
Kunstverein Aughrim’s collaboration with Marie Farrington is supported by The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon and by Wicklow County Arts Office through the annual Strategic Project Award Scheme.
kunstverein.ie
mariefarrington.com
BIOGRAPHIES
Marie Farrington is an artist whose practice reflects on the act of making through geological and archaeological lenses. Using casting, carving and other sculptural processes, she engages with memory through situated encounters with landscape and architecture. Her work makes formal reference to field sampling, built heritage and histories of display. Marie holds a Three Year Membership Studio at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios. Selected solo exhibitions include The Unseen Eyebeam Crossed, puntWG, Amsterdam, NL, 2024; Glossaries for Forwardness, Museum Building, Trinity College Dublin, IE, 2023. Select group exhibitions include Imprints and Breadcrumbs, CCA Odapark, Venray, NL, 2025; The Wave, Collecteurs, The Museum of Private Collections, 2022; A Vague Anxiety, Irish Museum of Modern Art, IE, 2019. Marie Farrington is supported by the Arts Council Visual Arts Bursary and Project Awards. Residencies include Fire Station Artists’ Studios (2018-22); Dublin City Council’s Albert Cottages (2023); and SEA Foundation Tilburg (2023). Her work is held in the permanent collections of The Arts Council of Ireland, Trinity Centre for the Environment, and the OPW Irish State Art Collection.
Kate Strain is a curator of contemporary art. From 2016–2021 she was the artistic director of Grazer Kunstverein, Austria, where she curated projects by contemporary artists Aimée Zito Lema and Becket MWN, Elisabeth von Samsonow, Bianca Baldi, Alma Heikkilä, Emma Wolf-Haugh, Tai Shani, Edward Clydesdale Thomson, Riccardo Giacconi, Sylvia Schedelbauer, Triple Candie, Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Carl Johan Högberg, Niamh O’Malley, Cesare Pietroiusti, Nadia Belerique, Christian Nyampeta, Anne Tallentire, Dennis McNulty, Mehraneh Atashi, Angelika Loderer, Ola Vasiljeva, Isabel Nolan, Ruth E. Lyons, and Emily Mast, among others. In close collaboration with artist Fiona Hallinan, Strain is co-founder of the Department of Ultimology, a research body dedicated to the study of that which is dead or dying. Working alongside Rachael Gilbourne, Strain makes up one half of the paired curatorial practice RGKSKSRG, commissioning, presenting and contextualising contemporary art. Strain previously worked as Acting Curator at Project Arts Centre, a multidisciplinary art centre in Dublin. She is a graduate of History and the History of Art and Architecture, Trinity College Dublin, holds an MA in Visual Arts Practice, IADT Dun Laoghaire, and participated in de Appel Curatorial Programme at de Appel arts centre, Amsterdam and Young Curators Residency Programme at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin. Strain is a member of IKT, the international association of curators of contemporary art, and regularly lectures in curatorial practice, art history and contemporary art.
Róisín O Meadhra is a professional artist and archaeological illustrator. She graduated with honours from Waterford Institute of Technology with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art. She has exhibited extensively and her work is held in private collections in America, Australia, England and Ireland. Róisín is a member of Visual Artists Ireland (VAI), a member of the Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland (IAI) and an affiliate member of CIFAs Graphics Archaeology Group (GAG).
Liliane Puthod is an artist whose sculptural and installation based practice incorporates both handmade and industrial materials. Recent exhibitions, projects and commissions include: Temple Bar Gallery and Studios at The Pumphouse, Dublin Port (2024); Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin (2023); Solstice Arts Centre, Navan (2023); Skerries Art Trail, Fingal (2023); IMMA, Dublin (2022); VISUAL, Carlow (2021); Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast (2020); Pallas Projects Studios, Dublin (2019).
Isabel Nolan has an expansive practice that incorporates sculptures, paintings, textile works, photographs, writing and works on paper. Her subject matter is similarly comprehensive, taking in cosmological phenomena, religious reliquaries, Greco-Roman sculptures and literary/historical figures, examining the behaviour of humans and animals alike. Nolan will participate in the 13th Liverpool Biennial, Bedrock, curated by Marie-Anne McQuay in 2025. Nolan will represent Ireland at the 61st Venice Biennale, with Georgina Jackson and The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art as the curator and Cian O’Brien as producer in 2026.
Alex Synge is an Irish graphic designer working under the studio name The First 47. The studio specialises in design for print, web and visual identity for a wide range of clients in the cultural, commercial and academic fields. The First 47 has worked with Ireland at Venice, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Kerlin Gallery, EVA International, FRUIT SHOP, Annex, the Irish Museum of Modern Art and more. Established in Dublin, the studio is currently based in Belfast.
With thanks to
Trinity Centre for the Environment
Dr. Quentin Crowley
Shane Malone-Murphy
Sophie Gough
Ross Clancy
Fiona Byrne
Cris Neumann
Jackson Byrne
Conor Agnew
Ángel Luis Gonzalez
Julia Gelezova
Van Der Wel Allotments