Artists and their practice often seem to have a chasm of difference between them. A cult of celebrity and a hungry media will embrace personality whilst paying lip service to the concepts behind their work. Witness the current Saatchi driven T.V. series with Emin and Collins corralling young artists in an X factor extravaganza currently vying for position on the ‘reality’ airwaves. What is refreshing about artists like Ruth Lyons and Carl Giffney AKA ‘The Good Hatchery’ is that their way of living is inherently linked to their modus operandi as artists. Having abandoned Dublin with a firm belief in technological connectivity and the richness of opportunity available in rural Ireland, they have constructed a functioning model of contemporary art practice in a building discovered via Freecycle on the Internet. The Good Hatchery offers residencies, develops projects and fully integrates itself within the rural population and landscape.

“We intend The Good Hatchery to be an experiment in solving some of the problems associated with emerging as a young contemporary artist while simultaneously attempting to spread provocative art tactics and their outcomes out of the capital where it seems to maintain a stronghold.”

This incentive is also evident and articulated in their personal art practice. My first encounter with the physicality of Ruth and Carl’s work was as part of the exhibition ‘This Must Be The Place’ at IMOCA, Dublin in 2009. The premise for this exhibition was in the form of a question asked of ten Irish collectives, ‘How do you think?’ The only stipulation was that the answer had to be expressed without the use of archival material. Reaction to the exhibition was widespread with Frieze Magazine commenting on, and publishing an image of The Good Hatchery’s work. ‘The Solution, 2009’, was an impressive structural installation which dispensed water whilst referencing Bernd and Hilla Becher’s canonical images of water towers, allowing a mingling of aesthetic, function and a pure, conceptual connectivity. The Good Hatchery is situated close to a canal in rural Co.Offaly.

This connectivity links strongly to PLACE as both models embrace a form of necessary self-sufficiency whilst firmly situating themselves outside of the contemporary art hub. With this in mind PLACE is pleased to present ‘Savoir Faire 212’, the latest collaborative work by artists Ruth Lyons and Carl Giffney. Savoir Faire 212 is a development of the thematic concerns evident in their recent works The Solution and Iridescence A. Through the use of water, commonplace utilitarian objects and communication devices, Savoir Faire 212 creates an interactive situation that speaks of necessity, the global society and the storage and distribution of energy. 

Paul Murnaghan

The Irish Museum of Contemporary Art, Dublin. www.imoca.ie

Maeve Connolly ‘Dublin’ Issue 124 Frieze Magazine June/August 2009