Exhibitions & Art Trail

Art Trail 2023

Pick up a leaflet from our Festival office

Memory Lane by Michelle Simon

‘Memory Lane’ will be a temporary painted art piece set alongside the river walkway from Bridge Street toward King House.
Using the manholes along this walkway I will create bright, colourful “bullet point” style illustrations of historic buildings, memorable sporting moments, community strength, local beauty and little blasts from the past for people to reminisce on as they walk.
Inspired by the unique doorstep sign at the Royal Hotel I will be incorporating mosaic style painting to tie it all together, reminding us that even though something looks broken and unused, it can be pieced together and revitalised into something beautiful, piece by piece.

Schools Project 2023 with artist Siobhan Cox Carlos

rtists Siobhan Cox-Carlos and Celine Ong (Singapore) have a deep interest in sustainable living and this project, working with some of the students in two schools in Boyle, St. Joseph’s N.S. and Scoil Na nAingeal Naofa engages with the issues of re-using, re-cycling and reducing.

They choose to work with old books which are being sent to the recycling centres as the surface on which the students then worked a series of workshops guided by Siobhan.  You can see paintings and collages of abstract images hanging alongside quirky self-portraits next to images of Boyle and the student’s homes.  The old book pages proved to be an ideal and interesting surface for the children to work on and experiment with through collage.

Plastic, which Siobhan witnessed the horrors of, on a beautiful island of the coast of Bali on her travels pre-Covid.  This island, Gilli Meno, had one field in it that was covered with plastic containers of every sort.  The islanders had no idea of how to dispose of it.  This brought the enormity of the problem home to Siobhan.  Reusing plastic bottles, the students created colourful ‘flowers and abstract hanging mobiles.  Extending the life of these keep them out of the landfill for an extra period of time but does not solve the problem.   The dilemma for the artists was having to use plastic to protect the artwork so that it would last a month in the Irish outdoors – Plastic – the plague of our time – has its uses which makes it all the more difficult to eliminate.

The challenge is there for entrepreneurs, young and old, to invent a replacement green degradable product!

Siobhan Cox-Carlos collaborated with an artist from Singapore, Celine Ong to address an issue they both have a keen interest in – sustainability in life and art practice.  Siobhan met Celine whilst travelling, in Penang, Malaysia and Celrecently spent a month as Siobhan’s Apprentice, the first international apprenticeship approved by her college, NAFA in Singapore.

BLACK HOLE STUDIO – DAVID J
At the Riverside Studio – down by the river walkway, Bridge Street

Boyle Portraits by David j.

“If we can create portraits of subjects that are true, we thereby in effect create a mirror of the times.” – August Sander

Black Hole Studio present the photographic works of local artist David j.  following their successful exhibition at the same venue the previous year Landscape and Nature, which featured three Roscommon based photographers: Laura Jean Zito, Matthew Gammon and David j.  

This year features portraiture work of locals who were invited for an impromptu sitting as they passed by the studio. David j. wishes to make portraits of people from various social and economic backgrounds, but instead of travelling the countryside to encounter different people the decision was made to let the people come to him. By simply asking passer-by’s to sit for him gives a random choice of those portrayed, whether they are locals living there for years or visitors just passing through.  It also gives a small cross-section of the people of Boyle and those who visit.
Opening Times:
Thurs 20th July: 17:00 – 21:30
Friday 21st July: 11:00 – 18:30
Sat. 22nd July: 12:00 – 19:00
Sunday 23rd July: 12:00 – 19:00
Monday 24th July: 11:00 – 19:30
Tuesday 25th July: 11:00 – 19:30
Wed. 26th July: 11:00 – 19:00
Thurs. 27th July: 11:00 – 19:30
Friday 28th July: 11:00 – 19:3
Sat. 29th July: 10:00 – 20:00

Country Living – Photographic exhibition by David J. 

Black Hole Studio presents an exhibition of fine art photographic prints by David j.  
The work features photographs taken in and around Frenchpark, west of Ireland – where the artist currently lives, depicting life in the area.

Venue: The Bazaar café, Bridge Street, Boyle

Opening Times:
Thurs 20th July: 09:00 – 18:00
Friday 21st July: 09:00 – 18:00
Sat. 22nd July: 09:00 – 18:00
Sunday 23rd July: Closed
Monday 24th July: 09:00 – 18:00
Tuesday 25th July: 09:00 – 18:00
Wed. 26th July: 09:00 – 18:00
Thurs. 27th July: 09:00 – 18:00
Friday 28th July: 09:00 – 18:00
Sat. 29th July: 09:00 – 18:00

Súitú – Film Screening of the aemi touring programme

Black Hole Studio presents a new touring programme curated by aemi (Artists’ & Experimental Moving Image) an Arts Council funded organisation that supports and programmes moving image work by artists and experimental filmmakers.

www.aemi.ie‘Súitú’ – an Irish language term pronounced Suet-two – signifies the sucking in-and-out sound made as the sea moves through stones at the shoreline, pulling them into water before rolling them back onto dry land. Evoking the elemental, the programme’s pacing picks up not just on the familiar ebbs and flow of the sea, but also the external forces that circumscribe contemporary lived experience. From inner psychological journeys to the phenomenological, the seven films in this programme together offer an emotional, embodied and sensory experience.

Featuring work by Fábio Andrade (Brazil), Susan Hughes (Northern Ireland), Morgan Quaintance (UK), Bárbara Lago (Argentina), Sofia Theodore-Pierce (USA), Lisa Freeman (Ireland) and Holly Márie Parnell (Ireland), Súitú is an aemi programme that forms connections between contemporary moving image work by Irish and international artists. aemi is touring Súitú to venues nationally and internationally across 2023.

Fábio Andrade, Contorno/ Contour, 2021, Brazil, 10 mins
Susan Hughes, Eyes Like Cats, 2022, Northern Ireland, 3 mins
Morgan Quaintance, A Human Certainty, 2021, United Kingdom, 20 mins
Bárbara Lago, Yon, 2021, Argentina, 8 mins
Sofia Theodore-Pierce, Other Tidal Effects, 2021, USA, 7 mins
Lisa Freeman, Hook, Spill, Cry Your Eyes Out, 2020, Ireland, 3 mins
Holly Márie Parnell, Cabbage, 2023, Ireland, 28 minsFunded by Black Hole Studio with help from Roscommon Arts Office

Venue: BLACK HOLE STUDIOAt the Riverside Studio – down by the river walkway, Bridge Street, F52 KH28

Screening Time:
Wednesday 26th July: 19:00 – 21:00