Identity crisis
UNITED States of Europe (USE) is a touring exhibition of work by 15 leading European artists. It explores citizenship, freedom of expression, democracy and identity. Initiated by the Goethe Institute Paris, the exhibition is presented in Cork by Cork Civic Trust, The National Sculpture Factory and Crawford Art Gallery.
Crawford curator Dawn Williams has given Irish artists a bigger focus in this stage of the tour. She cites Kennedy Browne’s 2010 piece ‘How Capital Moves’, a video made partly in reaction to the Dell computer factory moving operations from Limerick to Lodz in 2009. The work ask why capitalist organisations are unconcerned by the impact their decisions have on their employees. “I think it’s a key work in the exhibition,” says Williams. “They’re obviously talking about the many nationalities of the telesales workers.”
