CITIZEN ARTIST 2016 – 2018
CITIZEN ARTIST 2016 – 2018 initially emerged out of discussions between local community groups and artists who had previously engaged with studio 468. Through a series of podcasts on citizenship and art, Aislinn O’Donnell, Professor of Education, Maynooth University, was commissioned to write a reflection on the changes taking place within the community and the role of artistic engagement with those changes. The paper was titled ‘Epistemic Injustice and the Policing of the Artworld (2016).
A key aim emerging out of this process was: ‘How could studio 468 act as on open model for building a critical debate around the “epistemic injustices” that silence may in society?’
On this basis, proposals were sought for studio 468 residencies that could expand on the challenges of engaging with diverse communities of place and interest around the subject of citizenship and identity through arts practice. The artists/collectives selected as part of CITIZEN ARTIST were: Laragh Pittman, Fiona Reilly, Seoidín O’Sullivan, and the Citizen Artist Collective.
Over the two year period that CITIZEN ARTIST ran in studio 468, Common Ground and the studio team extended their engagement with Aislinn O’Donnell, commissioning a set of research dialogues on the parameters of citizenship. These dialogues were reflected in an essay – An Alchemical Proposition – Time to think: Subtracting the Citizen-Artist from the Command to “Be Active”.
The CITIZEN ARTIST programme culminated in an exhibition by Laragh Pittman, Seoidín O’Sullivan, Fiona Reilly, Pat Curran and Mark Holburn at Kilmainham Courthouse in April 2019 along with the publication of STUDIO 468 CITIZEN ARTIST 2016 -2018.
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