FRANK WASSER CONSULTS SOME ARTIST FRIENDS LIVING OUTSIDE OF IRELAND FOR THEIR RESPONSES TO THIS TIMELY PROVOCATION.
The day after I completed my MFA exhibition at NCAD in Dublin in 2012, I left Ireland – and I haven’t lived there full-time since. It wasn’t a decision I made lightly. Dublin is in my bones, as I was born and raised in the Liberties. The laughter of my friends, the warmth of family, the mingling scents of fresh fish on Meath Street with the earthy tang of hops from the Guinness factory – all of it fills me with a nostalgia and affection unlike anything else I know.
But at that time, the Irish art scene was a very different landscape to today. Studio spaces were nearly impossible to find, my work wasn’t being embraced, there was limited funding opportunities, and almost everyone I knew was flat broke. I was barely scraping by myself. The idea of sustaining an artistic practice in Dublin, while juggling non-existent exhibition opportunities, felt like an impossibility. Many of my fellow artists and friends decided to tough it out and stay, but for me, leaving became not just an option – it felt absolutely necessary.
Every day, without fail, the artist Joseph Noonan-Ganley would call me, brimming with enthusiasm, eager to concoct a plan to lure me to London. He and another other good friend, Sam Keogh, both immersed in their MFAs at Goldsmiths (alongside Elaine Reynolds and Eoghan Ryan at the time), were relentless in their efforts to convince me to join them. Eventually, fate intervened: on the very same day, I landed work with the artist Tino Sehgal and secured a residency in the Tate learning department. Yet, despite juggling these two opportunities, which soon grew to eight different jobs, I could barely scrape by in London. It was only through the camaraderie of my Irish friends, living together in a cramped flat, that we managed to ‘make it work.’ This became my Irish arts scene.
In response to the question of how the Irish diaspora can participate in the Irish visual arts scene – a provocation implying that the Irish diaspora bears a certain responsibility to engage with the Irish art scene, without fully considering the reasons why an artist might find themselves part of that diaspora in the first place – Joseph sheds some light on the complexities of that time, offering a glimpse into the dynamic challenges we faced: “The Irish visual arts scene is wherever Irish artists are working. You do not lose your Irishness when stepping over a national boundary. When I moved to England, I became more Irish. I had to rely on friends more, who were mostly Irish, for support: making bunkbeds, sharing rooms in flats, cooking together, making shows and publications. This intensified our bonds, which to others was seen as an intensification of Irishness. We’d get English people calling us the ‘Irish Mafia’, which is a symptom of colonialism, the conflation of being Irish with something to be scared of; something criminal and underhand – a threat to English control.”
Participation isn’t always something that can be seen or outwardly performed. Much of the support we, as artists, receive exists in the unseen – the quiet, unspoken gestures that often go unnoticed, yet are vital all the same. This kind of support operates beneath the surface, and it’s rarely recognised for what it truly is, though its impact is no less profound. Oisín Byrne, who also lives in London, told me: ‘I’m cautious of defining participation in any universal or goal-based way, or even in terms of visible outputs. It’s more intimate and developmental than that. We participate through late-night phone conversations, through copyediting each other’s texts, through travelling, when possible, to see each other’s shows – through friendship, support and interest in each other’s work. Participation is broad, fluid and indefinite, and sometimes less visible or public.”
Avril Coroon moved to London in 2017, also to attend the Goldsmiths MFA. Having just recently moved to Amsterdam to attend the Rijksacademie programme she told me: “My inclusion, when it comes around, is possible by access to facilities and structures, jobs and housing abroad. I participate in an Irish art scene partly because I am away. Moreover, I think if an art scene refers to a community and collective environment, we create it by facilitating each other wherever. Attending friends’ exhibitions is one thing, but what feels more ‘Irish’ in terms of chance encounters in a widening and quality scene has been participating in Hmn – a quarterly, London-based performance event that facilitates live testing of ideas, co-organised since 2015 by Irish artist Anne Tallentire and art writer Chris Fite-Wassilak. Frequently, and thankfully not exclusively, Irish artists contribute, forming a significant part of the audience that shares feedback and experience post events. Similarly, this year on a residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, I engaged in a swell of exchanges with Irish artists of all disciplines. The Irish art scene doesn’t exist exclusively on physical land, struggling to make both work and rent, or within its galleries, but where there’s tables with good cheap wine and fresh bread.”
Leaving Ireland sharpened my awareness of the subtle class dynamics and broad assumptions about community within the Irish arts scene – forces that continue to unfold even now. At times, it seemed my practice was defined solely by the fact that I was in London, as if my geographic location mediated how I was perceived as an artist. Paradoxically, it was in London that I felt more connected to the Irish arts community than I ever did while living in Ireland. Yet, that sense of belonging didn’t stem from any shallow or sentimental nationalism. Instead, it emerged from relationships forged on much deeper, more resilient grounds – bonds built on shared values and experiences, far stronger than the flimsy foundations of national identity.
Dr Frank Wasser is an artist and writer based in Vienna and London. He teaches on the BA in Fine Art in Studio Practice and Critical Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. Wasser completed his DPhil at the University of Oxford in June 2024.
frankwasser.info
