The Core Residency Program presents Gerard Byrne: In Our Time

From December 7, 2018 through February 17, 2019, The Core Residency Program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents Gerard Byrne’s immersive video installation In Our Time in the Glassell School of Art’s Leslie and Brad Bucher Gallery, with an opening reception from 6 to 8pm on Friday, December 7. Writer Lytle Shaw joins the artist in conversation at 2pm on Saturday, December 8 in Glassell’s Favrot Auditorium. Both are free and open to the public. 

Visually rich and intellectually complex, the work of Dublin-based artist Gerard Byrne in photography, film, theatre, and multi-screen installation examines the slippage between time and the act of image creation. In Our Time, commissioned for the 2017 edition of Skulptur Projekte Münster, includes a film depicting a commercial radio broadcast that appears to date from around the mid-70s. A DJ spins LPs, announces the news and the weather, and fields call-in requests. Meanwhile, musicians enter and exit a rehearsal studio located in front of the radio control room, casually conversing as they pick up their instruments, strum a few chords, and put them away. The contrapuntal nature of these two spheres of activity is complemented by the film’s structure, which doesn’t resolve into a narrative but consists instead of a series of modular vignettes. Past and present are linked through the conjunction of virtual time (the time announced by the DJ) and real time (the actual time of day), connecting the present to the historical period depicted in the film.

About the Core Program
The Core Program awards postgraduate residencies to highly motivated, exceptional visual artists and critical writers who have completed their undergraduate or graduate training and are working to develop a sustainable practice.

Residents engage with a wide range of distinguished artists, critics, curators, and art historians who are invited to meet individually with the residents, lead seminars, and deliver public lectures. Fellows are expected to be active in their own artistic or critical practice. Core fellows participate in a yearlong seminar, the content of which is driven by contemporary concerns, the interests and work of the fellows, and the Core lecture series and visitors.

The residency term is from September to May, and fellows may apply for a second term. Each spring the program mounts an exhibition of work produced during the residency, which is accompanied by a publication to which the critical studies residents contribute texts based on their original research. Critical studies residents may apply for support for a curatorial project in their second year. Residents receive a 18,750 USD stipend, 24-hour access to a private studio or office, and borrowing privileges at the Museum’s Hirsch Library and Rice University’s Fondren Library. Because the program is intended to foster intensive participation in an active peer group, including biweekly seminar meetings, Core fellows must reside in Houston for the duration of the Core term.

Applications for 2019–20 are due April 1, 2019. For instructions and more information, visit www.mfah.org/core.

The Core Program, Glassell School of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
T 713 639 7865 / coreprogram [​at​] mfah.org