Niamh O’Malley: Bringing a piece of Ireland to the Venice Biennale
Niamh O’Malley in her studio at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios. Picture: Dragana Jurišić
The Venice Biennale, or the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, as it is officially titled, is the world’s most prestigious showcase of the visual arts. Founded in 1895, it is, as its name suggests, usually staged every two years, though the Covid-19 pandemic saw the 2021 edition postponed to 2022.
The 59th edition of the Biennale, directed by the New York-based Italian curator Cecilia Alemani, and featuring work by 213 artists from 58 countries, opened this week and runs until November, under the title The Milk of Dreams. Alemani’s selection has seen a radical shift in female representation at the Biennale: until recently, 90% of the invited artists were men; this year, 90% are women.
Ireland is represented by the sculptor and installation artist Niamh O’Malley, a native of Co Mayo who is now based in Dublin. Her exhibition, Gather, is curated by Clíodhna Shaffrey and Michael Hill of Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin, where O’Malley is currently artist-in-residence.
The three began work on the project in 2019. “Gather just came out of conversations we had about art,” says O’Malley. “We were quite interested in a particular kind of sculptural practice that’s coming out of Ireland. It’s a quiet practice, that’s coming mainly from a lot of female artists, and it’s really interested in attention and stillness and materiality. We all felt like we’d like to shed a light on that kind of work, so that was really the basis of it.
"I also just wanted to work with a lot of local materials and craftspeople. With Venice, you’re trying to say that what you do is relevant, that it can be seen as representative of Ireland, and of what’s going on here now.”
The postponement of the 2021 Biennale meant that O’Malley and her team could not get out to Venice to investigate the space available for her exhibition until last September. The space is in the Arsenale, the old shipyards on the waterfront.
“It’s in an old building, and highly protected, so it’s really impractical in some ways. We couldn’t touch most of the walls or the ceiling. Essentially, we’ve had to build our own exhibition area, with plasterboard walls on metal struts, and even our own lighting rig.”
O’Malley liaised with a local crew to install her work. “I’ve made some very heavy pieces, in Kilkenny limestone with big steel bases. All of it has had transported by boat, and hoisted into position.”
O’Malley’s installation encompasses video, as well as glass, steel and stone. “I was thinking a lot about support structures in the cityscape, and making forms that suggest they have a use or a purpose, so there’s a piece called Shelter; a steel canopy with a beautiful big twist on it, with privacy glass that you might find in a bathroom or a porch in a house. And there’s also a number of ‘drains’; I decided to make these out of limestone as it’s the most absurd material I could think of; three of them sit in a block facing the windows.”
O’Malley’s exhibition will be on view in Venice until 27th November. Already, arrangements have been made for it to tour Ireland throughout 2023. “The work will be shown in the Temple Bar Gallery in Dublin, the Model in Sligo and the Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast. They’re all radically different spaces, and I’d hope to have a genuine engagement with each; I’ll probably add new pieces or show an older work in each location.”
Beyond that, she has already found homes for some of her sculptures. “The OPW have come on board as a partner and they’ve supported us by pre-purchasing one of the pieces, which has been amazing.
"There’s another piece going to Lismore Castle Arts in Co Waterford. They were already commissioning something from me, and we came to an arrangement that I’d show it in Venice first, and it would then go back to them. They’re making a sculpture yard at the stables in Lismore, and it will probably go there. As for the rest, I’ll have a large storage bill, I’m afraid.”
Representing Ireland at Venice brings massive exposure, but O’Malley has no idea yet how it may benefit her practice. In terms of further sales or commissions, there are no certainties. For now, she will return to her residency at Temple Bar, and begin developing her next body of work. “I have the use of the studio for another year, but I honestly don’t know where I’ll be after that,” she says.
- See irelandatvenice2022.ietarget="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">, niamhomalley.com
