'Among the Dregs of Daily Toil' + 'Under Your Skin'

The LAB Gallery Re-Opens

Monday to Friday 10am-5pm

6th July - 17th July

The LAB Gallery welcomes back visitors from Monday the 6th to Friday the 17th of July, Monday to Friday from 10am to 5pm. The LAB Gallery is committed to the safety of its staff and visitors. There can only be a maximum of two people in the gallery at any one time. The LAB asks visitors to kindly follow the Covid 19 guidelines we have put in place in the gallery for the benefit of both visitors and staff. Please do not visit the gallery if you have symptoms and we advise that you practice good hand hygiene and coughing etiquette whilst at the gallery.

The first floor gallery has limited access as there is only one person permitted in the lift at a time.

Due to Covid 19 Restrictions we had to remove the headphones, but the sound piece can be listened to here, https://soundcloud.com/dublin-city-council-arts/evgeniya-rubber-audio-stereo-master-2-mixdown

GROUND FLOOR GALLERY:

Among the dregs of daily toil

Alan Magee

The LAB Gallery is pleased to present Among the dregs of daily toil, an exhibition of new work by Alan Magee. Encompassing a diverse range of processes, from Virtual Reality, Robotics, Video and Ceramics, this exhibition explores ideas of technology, materiality and the agency of the labouring body.

Among the dregs of daily toil evolved from a broader exploration into the social and cultural role of technology and the value of labour. Noting, that as technological advancements in AI and Automation increasingly become the dominant mediators of human experiences and practices, we become less aware of the material nature of things. Our physical understanding of materiality decreases with our reliance on advances in automation. This exhibition and accompanying events programme seeks to explore the relationship between what is handmade and automated or the virtual and the material as we consider the future of our labour, skills and the value of human or automated time.

This body of work was developed during his residency at Fire Station Artists’ Studios, where Magee was one of the 2019 Sculpture Awardees.

FIRST FLOOR GALLERY:

Under Your Skin

The LAB Gallery presents ‘Under Your Skin’ an exhibition that explores the transformative potential of repeated actions and the evocative power inherent in discarded materials. Using hundreds of old bicycle tyres and inner tubes, Martirosyan carefully cuts, weaves and knots the reclaimed rubber into large scale modular forms, gradually building up intensity. Her engagement with the source materials is purposely physical, tactile and obsessive in its nature.

The installation is suggestive of organic growth, an unknown lifeform, as the mass-produced materials are transformed into something both seductive and unnerving. Martirosyan uses the alien sounds from rubber manipulation and its intense smell to amplify the viscera of the experience. The work plays with the notions of time, labor, value, beauty and transformation.