Anna Furse: muscle: a question of power / Bodywork

Crawford Art Gallery announces two new exhibitions for the spring/summer programme.

Anna Furse
muscle: a question of power
April 28–August 20 

Created by theatre artist and writer Anna Furse, muscle: a question of power is an immersive experience that takes visitors on an audio-guided journey through Crawford Art Gallery’s historic collection of Canova Casts.

Designed to bring visitors up close and personal with these ancient Classical forms, muscle is an invitation to contemplate the idealised nude, and its legacy today. The viewing of these artworks—which were once objects of international relations and teaching—is from a “lived body” experience: that is, the visitor is prompted to experience these figurative forms not only visually, but also viscerally and imaginatively. The audio-guide refers the spectator to their own body sensations, presence, and curiosity as they are invited to follow gentle but precise instructions to progress through the historic Sculpture Galleries.

muscle engages with society’s contemporary and damaging obsessions with beauty and perfection, strength and power. It alludes historically not only to the Ancient Greek cultivation of mind and body in service to the State, but to the Nazi obsession with antiquity in its effort to sculpt the flesh of the German nation according to Greek ideals. In exploring examples of the traditional male heroic body, muscle raises specific awareness of women and muscle, and how “the weaker sex” gains agency through the acquisition of physical strength. This does not settle the matter, however, since the question of the body’s muscularity and strength remains an on-going question in today’s gender discourse.

The experience culminates in a new video film, women talking—muscle: a question of power. Created with Kilian Waters, Furse engages the voices of women who work professionally with their muscularity: a 73-year-old (and still active) dancer-choreographer; a para-athlete; a soldier; a pole-dancer; a bodybuilder; and a top fashion model.

Bodywork
New acquisitions from Irish Museum of Modern Art and Crawford Art Gallery
April 28–August 20          

Artists: Rachel Ballagh, Elizabeth Cope, Yvonne Condon, Stephen Doyle, Rita Duffy, Debbie Godsell, Eithne Jordan, Dragana Jurišić, Breda Lynch, Brian Maguire, Leanne McDonagh, Eoin McHugh, Nick Miller, Peter Nash, Maïa Nunes, Sandra Johnston, Alice Rekab, Rajinder Singh and Jennifer Trouton.

The human body is a complex, fascinating, and wonderous entity which becomes both subject and object for the artist. Our bodies can become either the vessel or the weapon of love, empathy, commodification, or manipulation within the realms of community, family, and self.

The works in Bodywork explore aspects of art making that interrogate how our bodies perform under internal and external forces and through lived experiences. In doing so, the exhibition offers a space to consider our bodies and how they relate to our understanding of body image.  Over thirty artworks consider issues around love, familial relationships, gender identity and sexuality, mental and physical health, body agency, marginalisation and prohibition. Bodywork highlights the crucial relationships between contemporary art practice and the body. “In a way,” as writer Adrian Stokes (1902-1972) observed, “all art is constructed in the body.” 

Selected from recently acquired artworks from the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) and Crawford Art Gallery collections, the exhibition seeks to both platform the featured artists and the collaborative partnership of IMMA and Crawford Art Gallery in their acquisition of new works for the National Collection. 

Crawford Art Gallery is a national cultural instiutition (Cork, Ireland) and is dedicated to contemporary and historical Irish and international visual art. It offers a vibrant and dynamic programme of temporary exhibitions which probe the future, contemplate the present and reveal the past to create engaging conversations across the timelines. Located in a significant heritage building in the heart of Cork city it is also home to a collection of national importance.