Repositioning Irish identities: exhibiting Irish contemporary art abroad (1980-2005)

Abstract

The aim is to examine models of thinking about the international exhibition of Irish contemporary art (IEICA) and account for the discursive frameworks and institutional networks within which Irish contemporary art is viewed, discussed and evaluated. Art exhibitions are a primary site of exchange within a globalised cultural economy and, notably over the period examined from 1980 to 2005, have served as a critical forum in which issues of identity and the politics of national categorisation are debated. Taking the medium of temporary exhibition as a cultural artefact and a discursive practice, it is possible to trace through IEICA the continuous process of change and redefinition that has formed cultural identities in Ireland, and to show how the category of 'Irish art' is constructed, maintained and, at times, deconstructed in relation to a complex configuration of texts.