...and he jiggled to the beat in his black and blue tracksuit

On Thursday night, the exhibition Implicated opened at MART in Dublin. Curated by implicate collaborative, the show "aims to investigate the boundaries of privacy" and I am one of the 7 exhibiting artists; which is pretty grand (to get local with my lingo).

I'm showing an extended remix of an earlier work about headphones as mobile privacy units.

Starting from a twitter feed based on the search term 'headphones', the work has two branches about their place in society and the way we use them to manage our engagement with public space to create an idea of privacy.

The first investigates a recent occurrence - i feel like it's a legal precendent -  which occurred in Ireland. John Dundon, charged with murder, wore headphones and listened to music whilst being sentenced. The work features a court sketch done by Ireland's one-and-only court artist of him giving two fingers to the system (literally). This questions what our role as citizens is in accepting the nature of being one. There is no legal requirement, clearly, to listen to our punishment. Dundon pushes the boundaries of privacy all the way into the law.

The other branch features a range of headphones 'branded' with the words we say to the world when we wear them (above: a small detail)

Also taken from the twitter feed, these are the unspoken codes of headphones as fashion, headphones as units of privacy, headphones as contemporary objects.



In speaking with people at the exhibition's private view, there is a clear generational split of those for whom headphones are 'standard' and those who aren't. BH and AH. People of my generation and younger are all pretty-much raised on them and either choose to wear them or not. We take them for granted and are the ones who read them as a social 'norm' for delineating privacy.


The responses to the work have been great so far, including props by Jimmy Deenihan, Irish Minister for the Arts in his opening speech - that's pretty great. Not to mention the great conversations about privacy, my work and multiple references to Elizabeth Throop's book Net Curtains and Closed Doors.

There is a fantastic catalogue for the show, including an essay by Dr Paul O'Brien from National College of Art and Design. He will be speaking at the Artist Talk on Friday 11th October, which you should attend if you're anywhere near Dublin.



Deets:
Implicated
4th - 20th October, 201
MART Gallery 
190A Rathmines Rd Lower
Dublin 6