The Model is delighted to present an ambitious and multi-faceted gallery project combining visual art, literature, film, performance and music, which will see renowned composer and artist Jennifer Walshe working both as curator and creator of Aisteach; the Avant-Garde Archive of Ireland. Aisteach (www.aisteach.org) is an archive of fictional histories that documents the development of
experimental ideas and methods in Irish art, music, and literature.

The subliminal tapes and films of outsider artist Caoimhín Breathnach; The Guinness Dadaists, staging sound poetry performances in the brewery at St. James’s Gate; Sr Anselme, a nun living in an enclosed order, immersed in long-form organ improvisations; and Roisín Madigan O’Reilly, the radio enthusiast performing with ionosphere and landscape, all feature in this intriguing exhibition. Walshe describes the project as ‘a communal thought experiment, a revisionist exercise in counter-factual thinking, an effort to write our ancestors into being and shape their stories with care.’

The project, which marks the first major exhibition of Walshe’s dynamic and multi-disciplinary practice in a public museum, will feature films, scores, sound installations, drawings and paintings by Walshe and her distinguished cast of collaborators including Alice Maher, Vivienne Dick, Kevin Barry, Vicky Langan, Danny McCarthy, Mark Garry, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Pádraic E. Moore, Jack Fennell, Electronic Sheep and more.

The opening weekend of the exhibition will feature the world premiere of Jennifer Walshe’s performative installation The Worlding. Over the weekend, the galleries will fill with dancers and musicians moving, singing and interacting with both the public and the artworks. The past, present and future are mixed together as performers interweave superstitions, an imaginary Irish avant-garde dance tradition and simultaneous performances of John McCormack’s “Macushla”.

The Worlding is funded by a Project Grant from the Arts Council