October 28 – December 3 2011

Difference Engine: Manifestation V opens in SOMA on Friday October 28. Reception will be held at 7:00pm.

‘Jamming is a form of error detection‘ Charles Babbage

Difference Engine is an evolving touring exhibition, a model of autonomous artist curation, by artists Mark Cullen, Wendy Judge Gillian Lawler & Jessica Foley, and featuring Gordon Cheung.

The intention of this project is to elaborate upon the dual meaning of the term jamming – in one sense ‘jamming’ signifies stasis, shock, or rupture, and in another, opposite sense, it signifies a kind of fluid and changing improvisation between players. With this in mind, the artists and their works attempt to riff off each other and the site/space of exhibition, evolving an expression of contingency, hopefully developing a meaningful correspondence and communication with each other and the visitor. The challenge today is to be concernful of our place in nature, our space, our time, our neighbour – sustaining a cognizance of the ever-presentness of the past, and the illusory image of the future.

The project of Difference Engine and its artists is one that acknowledges the challenges of our times and folds these into imaginative representations and gestures. The project concerns itself with science and the unparalleled marvels which human curiosity, perseverance and bloody-mindedness have brought into reality.  The project concerns itself also with structures, systems and architecture – all of those frequently rigid phenomena that succumb only to the trickery of time itself – and the mood, affect and influence which these human-devised meta-forms have upon human experience and behavior.

The visitor steps through Difference Engine and off into their own imaginative time and space, folding the experience into their personal stories of the world.

VISITOR INFORMATION: Exhibition continues until December 3. The Gallery is open Thursday – Saturday, 12:30 pm – 5:00 pm and also by appointment. Admission is free. The Gallery is located at 6 Lombard Street, Waterford city. Contact: SOMAwaterford@gmail.com. Visit: www.SOMAcontemporary.com

SOMA Contemporary
6 Lombard Street
Waterford City
www.somacontemporary.com

Wexford Arts Centre

13^th August – 8^th October 2011

Artists: Wendy Judge, Gillian Lawler, Jessica Foley, Mark Cullen and Gordon Cheung

Difference Engine is a model of independent artist curation and is a productive collaboration between artists Wendy Judge, Gillian Lawler, Jessica Foley, Mark Cullen & Gordon Cheung.

The intention of the Difference Engine project and its manifestations from one venue to another, is to elaborate upon the dual meaning of the term jamming – in one sense it signifies stasis or rupture, and in another, opposite sense, it signifies a kind of fluid and shifting improvisation between players. Difference Engine is modeled on the understanding that the exhibition is a site where meanings can be generated, ideas tested through experiments in form and display.

For each exhibition, the artists, through their works, must rearticulate themselves or risk stasis. Difference Engine, then, is a shifting entity of moving and fluctuating parts; the artists and their works influence each other as does the exhibition space, evolving a language of contingency, yet maintaining a fidelity to the individual perspectives and expressions of each artist.

Their current exhibition at Wexford Arts Centre presents works which attempt to ask the audience of their relationship to and connection with realities and fictions of globalization and capitalism, issues of urbanization and land usage, and perceptions of science and technology.

(Images, above, from the current show will be updated over the coming days & weeks)

The exhibition will run in the upper and lower galleries of Wexford Arts Centre from Saturday 13th August to Saturday 8th October, 2011. For further information on the exhibition or artists please contact Catherine Bowe, Visual Art Manager, Wexford Arts Centre on 053 9123764 or email catherine@wexfordartscentre.ie.