Event
No, wait…, the first solo exhibition of John Conway, artist in residence with the Waterford Healing Arts Trust (WHAT) will be launched in University Hospital Waterford (UHW) on Thursday, 5 March.
John Conway is an Irish visual artist and curator. His work has been exhibited and performed in Ireland, Poland, Germany, Romania, Iceland and the United States. He has acted as facilitator and collaborator with various artists and social/community groups, and has given specialised performance and drawing workshops as guest lecturer in NCAD. After graduating from NCAD in 2013 with honours in sculpture, John undertook residencies in Bucharest and Reykjavik. He served as assistant curator with the Kilkenny Arts Office for six months, before beginning the WHAT residency in July 2014.
John’s visual art practice is based on themes of function and mobility, influenced in part by a chronic back problem which often affects his own mobility.
In the words of the artist, ‘the work I created during my residency at WHAT explores states of excitement and uncertainty, belief and despair that are common between the internal state of the hospital and me as an artist’.
The exhibition contains new work by the artist including a series of illustrations and watercolours, as well as screen based work, sculpture and appropriated hospital equipment. The opening night performance is influenced by brief engagements with patients through the residency, and thoughts on palliative care.
This exhibition will be launched by artist Dominic Thorpe. There will be a private view of the artworks in a public corridor of UHW at 6.30pm on 5 March. This will be followed by speeches and a performance by John Conway in the WHAT Centre for Arts and Health in the grounds of UHW. The exhibition will run until 16 April.
For further information, phone Mary Grehan at 051 842664 or email WHAT@hse.ie.
