AS IF is a new interdisciplinary, collaborative exhibition currently running from February 6th to April 5th. The exhibition takes its stage in the freshly finished International Centre for the Image in Dublin’s Docklands. The centre, completed in July by PhotoIreland, encourages the consumption of both visual and written artwork through its extensive public library and gallery space.
AS IF, the new exhibition from the collaborative team of photographer Eamonn Doyle, composer David Donohoe, and visual designer Niall Sweeney, covers a multitude of media and senses in its display. The trio’s previous creations have been films —“Made in Dublin” and “EX” — and while this exhibition was originally intended to be a single moving image work across nine screens, it has expanded far beyond. The exhibition is constructed from almost exclusively still images, but the space itself buzzes with movement and noise. The spectrum of artistic medium is wide, varying from photographs and montages to music and text, illustrating the freedom and creativity of this collaborative group. The exhibition’s name, AS IF, echoes the fluidity of this collective. Explained by Donohoe in an interview with RTÉ, AS refers to the “setting up” of the “conditions”, and IF to the “allowing occurrences”. This approach gives the exhibition a feeling of flow and immersion, though at times also introduces inconsistencies. Speaking with Eamonn Doyle about the exhibition, “there is a lot to say about it, and at the same time nothing at all”.
AS IF presents an experience over an exhibition, a contained questioning of humanity elucidated by Niall Sweeney as the representation of the “cyclical acts of self creation and destruction”. The viewer becomes a wandering flaneur in an isolated cityscape. It is a space dedicated to the “uncanniness of being”, drawing on the psyche, the self, and the intersection of religion and reality. Or, as represented on the rather gothic informative handout, a combination of characters in “monks’ robes and street wear hoodies”.
The chosen palette of AS IF is distinct. The gallery is filled with dark, moody neutrals with dashes, dots and translucent impressions of red.
While a few pieces feature more colourful, fleshlike images, the mind forgets them in favour of the overwhelming gloom and darkness of the space. The photographs by Eamonn Doyle are dark, inky impressions of strikingly real people, which work in tandem with abstract lines and spaces.
In one poignant piece, a dark, hooded figure draws infinite circles and is chased by its own shadows through the myriad of small moving spaces. This work displays an interesting innovation of the exhibition’s collective: the reanimation of still images into movement. The photos illustrate surreal, vaguely recognisable locations with repetitive elements, such as the tall arches and harsh lines that mirror the lead panelling of old stained glass windows. This religious reference is also present in the creation of one of the larger displays of this exhibition, a collection of portraits where the features have been dismembered and disassembled. In an interview with RTÉ, David Donohoe articulates that this deconstruction was accomplished through a method of layering panels of glass obtained from old churches, among other sources. The eerie mutilated familiarity of these photographs is echoed in the soundscape that encompasses the exhibition. Incorporating a variety of elements, from snippets of fine strings to the caws of birds, the exhibition manages to maintain a continuous ominous mood for the listener. In one of the rotating tracks of the exhibition, composer David Donohoe utilised a layering of high female voices and a low rotating bass. These eerie audios trigger a physical survival response for their listeners. Yet, at the same time, the audio’s similarity to high-pitched sirens, and other noises reminiscent of the hectic humdrum of our cityscapes, creates peculiar moments of belonging and recognition within its observers.
Overall, AS IF is a unique display of the power of deconstruction and reconstruction in every medium. As the artists themselves are still making sense of the exhibition, attendees each step away with different interpretations, feelings and meanings — perhaps procuring more questions than answers.
