CIRCA Art Magazine

Here's a lockdown inspired take on Bacon's famed triptych by an imagined alter-ego critiqued by the very real Benjamin Robinson.
"Emerging from the rubble of lockdown, expunged of civility and absent any semblances of propriety or decency, the work is nonetheless possessed of an insouciant beauty."

Three Studies for Figures at the Base of an Extinction Event (after Bacon) — Benjamin Robinson Pádraig Ó Raghallaigh: Three Studies for Figures at the Base of an Extinction Event (after Bacon), 2023, digital photographic triptych, (moulded tissue paper)   Pádraig Ó Raghallaigh’s 2023…

Three Studies for Figures at the Base of an Extinction Event (after Bacon) — Benjamin Robinson

minorliteratures.com/2025/05/22/t...

Three Studies for Figures at the Base of an Extinction Event (after Bacon) — Benjamin Robinson Pádraig Ó Raghallaigh: Three Studies for Figures at the Base of an Extinction Event (after Bacon), 2023, digital photographic triptych, (moulded tissue paper)   Pádraig Ó Raghallaigh’s 2023…

"The work channels the cultural vacuity into which Ó Raghallaigh says we are being sucked, a death spiral intertwined, intimately and inexorably, with societal breakdown [and] environmental degradation ..."

— Benjamin Robinson

minorliteratures.com/2025/05/22/t...

We see a somewhat scribbled ‘mind map’, with words and phrases roughly inside rough circles and rectangles, etc. – phrases like ‘public art gallery’ and ‘This page included quotes quoted in Dyens’s article + not attributed to. As such!’, among much else – and the lot going by looping arrows, etc.; an amazing jumble; at the top of the jumble is ‘C is for…’ in textured cyan, and in the image itself ‘This is cyberspace. Do you still want to know where you are?’ bottom left, and then the image caption – ”This is cyberspace. Do you still want to know where you are?’ From CIRCA Issue 85, Autumn 1998, p. 30, accompanying the Daniel Jewesbury article ‘C is for…’

“Unsurprisingly, this brash ignorance of an entire (sub-)domain of art triggered a cauldron of boiling responses from various critics…” – Laurence Counihan in his recent Circa text, ‘Introduction to «an_archaeology_of_the_future»‘
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#VisualArts #Ireland #NorthernIreland #ArtIreland

Five pseudo postage stamps depicting scenes of violence during the oppressive Suharto presidency; each looks like a credible stamp, complete with perforations; but there is no colour, just greyscale

Philately meets brutality, unfortunately, in the work of FX Harsono, discussed by Prioni

#VisualArts #Ireland #NorthernIreland #ArtIreland #ArtCriticism #ArtWriting #CIRCA

Content warning: some images are upsetting
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Prioni juxtaposes the photographic approaches of René Castro and Manit Sriwanichpoom; photo-based, one looks to the (then) future, the other mocks the (then) present
Content warning: some images are upsetting
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Screengrab from the Home page of Circa website; the central image is taken from Priyono’s text; it depicts a deeply disturbing crowd scene, one with also features Manit Sriwanichpoom’s ‘Pink Man’

The thesis of Amirahvelda Priyono’s new photo essay for Circa, commissioned by Brian Curtin, is straightforward: conflict is similar the world over; not denying the specifics of a struggle, art-related visual imagery is a powerful communicator
Content warning: some images are upsetting
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"The blank page was the most complete the work could be…" Landers drew from a Circa column in 1999 by Michael Cunningham; while demonstrating the power of less, he also points to one very shocking image…
circaartmagazine.net/issues/issue...
#VisualArts #Ireland #NorthernIreland #ArtIreland #CIRCA

Screengrab of part of the Landers contribution; we see four texts in a slightly wonky layout against a white background; the text read “Fragility Porosity Debris”, “Odlums Factory”, “Silos”, and “A punk, anarchist, vegan fermentation kitchen”; below the texts is an audio track, with a play button on the left, and the timer counter set to “00:00”.

In Julie Landers‘ ‘Information Underload’, a new text / art project for Circa commissioned by Laurence Counihan, the artist reverse-engineers the ‘bloat’ of her nostalgia as she observes Cork mutate
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#VisualArts #Ireland #NorthernIreland #ArtIreland #ArtCriticism #ArtWriting #CIRCA

Screengrab from Anne Carlisle’s review of Vivien Burnside show at Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast, May 1984. Text snippet reads: “was evident in the cut outs. Enforcing the tendency to read the work as a painting installation, these ‘cut outs’ showed the female nude in various poses, her body arranged in ways designed to best display it to the viewer; in the convention of nude painting the hypothetical viewer is of course male. Cast in the traditional role, cheerfully vacant, faceless, women lolled, crouched and stretched around the walls of the gallery in a cute, submissive kind of way. This tradition of depicting woman as a thing, or an abstraction, is so deeply embedded in our culture that it still structures the consciousness of many women and they do to themselves what men do to them. Like men they ‘survey’”

One of the Circa texts Nurul Kaiyisah targets, re “the lacuna of women in art histories,” is that of Anne Carlisle on Vivien Burnside back in 1984 (circaartmagazine.net/issues/issue...); quite robust by Anne Carlisle!
#VisualArts #Ireland #NorthernIreland #ArtIreland #ArtCriticism #ArtWriting #Circa

Screengrab of page 39 of issue 39 of Circa, showing a review of Alice Maher’s show in the On the Wall Gallery in Belfast in 1988. Three columns of tex, plus a large image of one of the artworks – a very dramatic mixed-media drawing ‘after Massaccio’; a hulking figure has apparently been stabbed in the back

Exploring women and art in the two regions, Kaiyisah draws from Circa’s huge archive – e.g., Jack Packenham on Alice Maher (circaartmagazine.net/issues/issue...), Fionna Barber on Sonia Boyce (circaartmagazine.net/issues/issue...), and more – but also juxtaposes global issues of then and now

Hi peter. Yeah a lifetime ago. it wasn't the Biennale it was just a show at the museum... Maybe late 2007.... Can't for the life of me remember the work or context. The records on the website don't seem to go back that far.

Singapore Biennale 2006: List of artists SB2006 - 1st Singapore Biennale 2006. Dates, facts, information, published by Universes in Universe - Worlds of Art

Doesn’t ring a bell at all. Had a look online and there was the first Singapore Biennale in 2006, so that’s a likely reason? (participants: universes-in-universe.de/car/singapor...)
And I see that you were no stranger to Singapore, Alan!: www.greenonredgallery.com/alan-butler
Peter

#Singapore

Another exciting contribution to Travelling South an archive project edited by BrianCurtin for CIRCA Art Magazine. Irish feminist art history view from South-East Asia by Nurul Kaiyisah.

Screengrab from the Circa site, showing images from the Kaiyisah article – the shadow of a fiddle player in dark purple, and the first page of ‘Feminist Writings and Art Practice’, an article by Fionna Barber in Circa.

Fascinating new ‘letter’ by Singapore-based Nurul Kaiyisah, in which she juxtaposes a former Ireland and a current South-east Asia. Part of the ‘Travelling South, in Theory’ series commission by Brian Curtin. circaartmagazine.net?p=20639
#Ireland #NorthernIreland #ArtIreland #ArtCriticism

An interview with Mike McCormack — TOLKA by Liam Harrison

New online! An interview with Mike McCormack discussing his new novel, This Plague of Souls - just published by @tramppress.bsky.social. You can read the interview here: www.tolkajournal.org/read-online/...

Was an absolute pleasure talking to Niamh McCann about her most recent exhibition, Hairline Crack [a dialogue], & her practice in general for @winterpapers.bsky.social 9.

If you're visiting Small Publishers Fair this Fri/Sat, here's a web page with links to a downloadable programme, details of the 80+ books that will be launched during the Fair, and a table plan for the artists and presses:
smallpublishersfair.co.uk/publishers-2...

Locals say council should have done ecological survey before cutting away vegetation in Balbriggan’s Mill Pond Park - Dublin Inquirer The park is part of a planned “green corridor”, with landscaping, walk- and cycle-ways, a meadow and a managed wetland.

Locals say the council should have done an ecological survey before cutting away vegetation in Balbriggan’s Mill Pond Park. The park is part of a planned “green corridor”, with landscaping, walk- and cycle-ways, a meadow and a managed wetland. dublininquirer.com/2...

Today seems like the prime day for us to introduce ourselves here!👋 A bit about us:
-Independent bookshop & art gallery in Galway, Ireland
-Online at Kennys.ie
-Free delivery in Ireland
-International shipping from €2 per book
-Thousands of books cheaper than Amazon
-Thousands of books not on Amazon

Official Launch of TULCA 2023: honey, milk and salt in a seashell before sunrise — TULCA Festival ...

update, more accurate… www.tulca.ie/events/2023/...

Carlos Quijon, Jr Carlos Quijon, Jr.'s website

And we were excited to hear that Carlos Quijon, Jr, is the curator of the Philippine Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024. more about him here carlosquijonjr.crd.co

Carlos Quijon, Jr.: Errant Affinities: Ireland and Southeast Asia Circa is delighted to present the first [...]Read More...

Manila-based Carlos Quijon, Jr was the first contributor to the Travelling South, In Theory CIRCA Project archive commissioned by Dr. Brian Curtin. Below Carlos introduces his intriguing project 'Errant Affinities: Ireland and Southeast Asia'. Image Suzanna Chan.
circaartmagazine.net/carlos-quijo...

Join us for Small Publishers Fair in London this Fri / Sat: 68 UK and international publishers, special exhibition, readings and talks.

Fri 27 & Sat 28 Oct (11am-7pm)
Fair, exhibition & talks all free

Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL (Holborn tube)

bitly.ws/uHvm

Thái Hà: Did you mishear me misspeak? Circa is delighted to present another instalment [...]Read More...

Archive Project Editor, Bangkok-based Dr. Brian Curtin presents Thái Hà's Did you mishear me misspeak? Prompted by a video installation by Susan MacWilliam, Hà is interested in a politics of mutation for the practices of interpretation and representation. circaartmagazine.net/thai-ha-did-...

Thái Hà: Did you mishear me misspeak? Circa is delighted to present another instalment [...]Read More...

Archive Project Editor, Bangkok-based Dr. Brian Curtin presents Thái Hà's Did you mishear me misspeak? Prompted by a video installation by Susan MacWilliam, Hà is interested in a politics of mutation for the practices of interpretation and representation. circaartmagazine.net/thai-ha-did-...