This Young Nation
Ninety Nine Percent for Art was a two person exhibition by Carol Anne Connolly (IRL) and Jim Ricks (US). The artists produced new work in an array of contemporary media spanning from sculpture, video, sound and painting to photographic works. Their interest lies in what they describe as ‘unintended monuments’. The title is drawn from protest movements and state sponsored public art policy, in doing so the artists hoped to enshrine the unofficial, even accidental, signs of our times. The Galway Harbour Company generously allowed the artists to use a large 4,000 square foot warehouse space located on the middle pier of the Galway Docks for this exhibition.
Ninety Nine Percent for Art investigated what are essentially undiscovered and unplanned memorials. A careful artistic selection process which groups symbolic markers ranging from the detritus of impromptu revolutionary celebrations to unfinished industrial sites creates a new discourse on the built environment. Ninety Nine Percent for Art rethinks the memorial in a time of economic and political upheaval using national and global examples and how they relate to each other. The artists began a process of challenging conventional notions of monuments, as they ‘unearth’ unintentional and colloquial artifacts as the source material for their artworks. In this process they reference various structures or embellishments that speak of inextricably linked approaches and struggles.
Carol Anne Connolly is a contemporary visual artist and arts organiser from Ireland. She recently completed her MA in Arts Policy and Practice through the Huston School of Film and Digital Media at the National University of Ireland, Galway and graduated from NCAD with an honours degree in Fine Art (2006). Connolly worked as Art Director and curator of Mantua Arts project, a rural-based artist- led gallery and residential studios in Co. Roscommon from 2006-08. Recent exhibitions include The Periodical Review at Pallas Projects, Dublin, Transforming Ireland at Eight, Galway, Alter / Native at the Boyle Arts Festival and Notions of Capital, the Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon.