Guest Appearance took place in the Museum Building, Trinity College Dublin on April 27th, 2018, and included work from ARC researchers Sophie Behal, Isadora Epstein, Maeve Lynch, Eoghan McIntyre, Rosie O’Reilly and Benjamin Stafford, as well as additional collaborators on individual projects.

The exhibition combined installation of sculpture, audio, works on paper and publications with a schedule of performances, accompanied by an exhibition catalogue and guide. The work in the exhibition was conceptually linked by investigations into the guest/host relationship and was site responsive. This theme and the focus of the exhibition was developed through ongoing research, critiques, and group-led discussions between the artists over the ARC two year program as well as through an ongoing collaborative practice including exhibitions, events and performances.

The Museum Building allowed us to work within the framework of classical hosting; the audience were invited (as guests) to a choreographed display and revelation of elements of the exhibition by the researchers (hosts). The private and public spaces of a publicly-sited but largely unrevealed building were activated by a series of performances and installations that welcomed in a new audience.  Supported by our ongoing critical and artistic collaboration it allowed us unite a series of research concerns and explore how our different practices could together approach the host guest relationship in an exciting way.

Sophie Behal, Leap onto the ground on which you already stand, installation comprised of: False Bell, 2018, paper, unfired clay, lighting gel and Field, 2018, screenprint on plastic. Photo: Kasia Kaminska

Sophie Behal, Leap onto the ground on which you already stand, 2018, performance, voice and recorded audio. Field, 2018, screenprint on plastic (seen in foreground)
Photo: Kasia Kaminska

Rosie O’Reilly, thrown up by the sea, 2018, performance, left-right, Colm O’Ciosoig, Barry Ryan, Rosie O’Reilly. Photo: Kasia Kaminska.

Rosie O’Reilly, thrown up by the sea (detail) 2018 wax, rust, sodium carbonate, salmon leather, hydrophones, wood, Wi-Fi headphones, radio transmitter. Photo: Rosie O’Reilly

Eoghan McIntyre, The O Novels, 2018, books, cotton gloves, school desk. The O Novels feature paintings and illustrations by Joe Scullion and a text by Gwen Burlington. Photo Credits: Kasia Kaminska

Benjamin Stafford, Time Capsules, 2018, sculptural objects by artist Vanessa Donoso López. Photo credit: Kasia Kaminska

Eoghan McIntyre, The Author’s Typewriter Quite Likely, 2018, typewriter, table, paper, wall lamp Photo Credits: Kasia Kaminska

Maeve Lynch, Foundation, 2018, mirrored perspex, risograph print, Masking tape. Photo Credits: Kasia Kaminska

Maeve Lynch, Sedimentary Structures, 2018, perspex, risograph print, Masking tape, tissue. Photo Credits: Kasia Kaminska

Isadora Epstein, Medusa, 2018, performance,

Sophie Behal, Isadora Epstein, Maeve Lynch, Eoghan McIntyre, Rosie O’Reilly and Benjamin Stafford are a group of artists, curators and writers who pose questions relating to language, and authorship and material and making through exhibitions, lectures, and publications. Recent collaborations include Guest Appearance, Trinity College Dublin 2018, Fool’s Guild, KuvA Exhibition Lab Helsinki, 2018, Soft Ground, Wandesford Quay Gallery Cork 2017, Unwelcome Guests: Art and Ethics, the Douglas Hyde Gallery, 2017, Rosc: Fiction of the Contemporary, Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2017.