Following a recent open competition a number of artists have been selected to participate on the Bullock Lane Residency at Townhall Cavan. The artists are: Pawel and Kasia, Konik studios, Mateusz Lubecki and Johanna Nulty.

 Pawel and Kasia are Polish artists living and working in Cavan.   They have recently completed their animation Broken Tale inspired by Swedish Folklore after a residency there in 2015.   They will show Broken Tale as part of the Culture Night programme in Cavan on 16 September.   ‘In the beginning was Water’, is the title of the new project that they will concentrate on for the next 5 months.    They will research and make a 7 minute animation on water as a natural resource, live source and cultural motif.   They will examine the legends and stories that are associated with water. They plan to work through the Cavan Public Participation Network to engage the local community and are particularly interested in an intergeneration approach to their community engagement work.   They hope that this animation will form part of a larger project involving other artists.

The second artist selected is Johanna Nulty.    Johanna is a native of Cavan and has recently graduated from Sligo Institute where she completed a Fine Art Degree.   Her work is concerned with found objects and domestic household materials and converting them into sculptural abstract body forms.   She is interested in objects and how they communicate and how the viewer receives them presented in sculptural forms.  “In my practice the process of the work with layering, cutting, breaking, adding, covering folding of the materials and using a variety of methods of spray painting in translucent flows with solid colour stencils is a very physically one.   I would like to engage with people from Cavan and find out what objects interest them.  I am interested in how domestic objects influence our logic.”

Mullagh based artist Mateusz Lubecki is the third artist selected for this opportunity.   He graduated from IADT, Dun Laoghaire earlier this year.   His work is centered on memory and his paintings are painted from memories of his childhood in Poland.   He renders these objects in 2D through his paintings without access to imagery in order to keep the paintings fresh.  “I strive to evoke any kind of emotions associated with the viewer’s memories through the openness of finished paintings.”      He plans to exhibit his work as a result of the residency.   Mateusz Lubecki has been selected to undertake a residency at the RHA which he will complete prior to commencing his work at Townhall, Cavan.

Speaking about the artists who have been successful in applying for the residencies Joe Keenan at Townhall says “we are looking forward to working with these artists, we know Pawel and Kasia for many years and are familiar with their work.   It will be great to have the new energy that Johanna and Mateusz will bring to the building.   This initiative from the arts office supports artists to explore and make new work.”   The Bullock Lane Residency is an initiative of Cavan County Council arts office and supported by the Arts Council.

Extract: Mateusz Lubecki And out of jam, acrylic on canvas, 130 x 75 cm, 2016

Johanna Nulty, Hopeless, 2016