The Last of the Red Wine (the prequel / sequel)

The Last of the Red Wine (the prequel / sequel)

Project Arts Centre, Dublin
39 East Essex Street
Temple Bar, Dublin 2, Ireland

gallery [​at​] projectartscentre.ie

www.projectartscentre.ie
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What sort of artists would allow themselves to be involved in a sitcom based in the art world? According to common clichés, they would perhaps be narcissistic or arrogant or obtuse or opportunist. You might think that art is given a hard enough time in the media without ‘insiders’ holding themselves up for ridicule too. Early in 2011, however, an unlikely group of artists, comedians and writers worked together on The Last of the Red Wine, a radio sitcom based in the artworld. Used to being the subject of their own work, the collaborators instead cast themselves in a collective farce, written and performed in the course of one week.

Put together quickly, this sitcom was never going to be of industry standard. It was quite amusing in places and embarrassingly not in others; but the main point of interest was how a group of people with such different ideas of what is funny worked collaboratively, without anyone incurring too heavy an insult or injury. The next instalment of the sitcom at Project Arts Centre, The Last of the Red Wine (the prequel / sequel), dissects the mix of people and personalities involved in the original project and examines the processes of self-representation in their individual practices.

This collection of videos, audio, photographs and sculptural installation satirises the many characters of the artist, and, compared to the reductive clichés of art garnered from television programmes—screened here in clips edited by Colin Perry and Sally O’Reilly from such classics as Upstairs Downstairs, Blackadder and General Hospital—reveals a whole new range of nuanced absurdities and accurate stereotypes. Doug Fishbone, it turns out, is a smooth-tongued chancer, Hayley Newman a resourceful exhibitionist, Kim Noble a divisive wrangler, O’Reilly a relentless absurdist, Michelle Owoo a coercive trickster, Caroline Smith an over-zealous self-promoter and Bedwyr Williams a disgruntled ghost.

Curated by Tessa Giblin and Sally O’Reilly

Project Arts Centre is a multidisciplinary arts centre in the heart of Dublin, Ireland. The visual arts program commissions new exhibitions with leading artists from around the world. Forthcoming exhibitions in 2012 include solo projects by Mikala Dwyer (Australia) and Samuel Keogh (Ireland) and a group exhibition guest curated by Vaari Claffey, called ‘A MacGuffin and Other Things’.

Project Arts Centre is supported by the Arts Council and Dublin City Council, and thanks to Rubicon Gallery in Dublin for their support of this exhibition.
Admission to the Gallery of Project Arts Centre is always free.