Kildare County Council Arts Service

KILDARE ARTIST SELECTED FOR VENICE BIENNALE 2009 SPEAKS AT RIVERBANK ARTS CENTRE
Sarah Browne, an emerging artist from Maynooth, Co Kildare, with fellow artist Gareth Kennedy, will represent Ireland at the world’s most prestigious art event, the Venice Biennale 2009.  She spoke about her work at Riverbank on Tuesday 9th December, as part of the art centres’ Open...for Ideas programme.
Sarah graduated from the National College of Art and Design in 2003.  Since she graduated from NCAD, Sarah Browne has participated in projects, residencies and artist exchanges in Ireland, Japan, Iceland, and the UK. Along with exhibiting in these countries, she has also presented her work in Poland and China.  In 2006 she was awarded the Apexart international residency in New York.
At her talk in Riverbank, Sarah showed examples of her work as ‘an investigation of macro social structures through discussion with micro-audiences’.  While giving nothing away about her new work for the Venice Biennale, the artist explained that her work represents dialogue with different voices and touches on ideas of happiness, life satisfaction, and a sense of aspiration, identity and belonging.  Her practice includes exhibitions, publishing, collaborations and critical writing.
The talk coincided with the launch of the Temporary Collection website, www.kildare.ie/arts/artsservice/temporarycollection, a virtual tour of an innovative visual arts exhibition that took place in Castletown House in December 2007.  The exhibition, initiated by Kildare County Council Arts Service, entailed the display of eighty nine artworks which were borrowed from the private homes of people throughout the county.

The project was the final stage of Kildare County Councils three phase programme to develop audiences for contemporary visual arts in the county.  The ‘Temporary’ series was curated by Sally Timmons.  Phase one was the 2005 lecture series in Riverbank Arts Centre, entitled Temporary Foray, while phase two was an artist symposium that took place in Whites Castle, Athy in 2006.  The ‘temporary’ nature of the projects have been given a ‘permanency’, having been documented in a catalogue called Temporary Foray/ Temporary State, which are available from the Co Arts Service, and the documentation of the Temporary Collection on the web.