Breithlá Shona Duit and Gone Phishing, 2009.
Installation for 'Behind Smoke and Mirrors', Limerick City Gallery, Ireland.
Behind Smoke and Mirrors, a project curated by Susan Holland, saw five artists work in Limerick City Gallery for five weeks. With the aim demystifying artists practices, participant artists used the gallery as a studio while visitors could interact with them as they developed work. A number of artist talks and seminars took place and the work that resulted from this time was then exhibited in the Limerick City Gallery. Carl Giffney exhibited two works, Gone Phishing and Breithlá Shona Duit at the end of his residency.
The five week process that lead to this installation took the form of two strands of performative research. The first involved the slow reconstruction of a marble Catholic altar. Visitors to the gallery were drawn into a conversation about the religious object that was being pieced together. Taking place at the time of the Ryan reports publication, these conversations were about the possible uses of an altar removed from a church and its material worth. The second strand, which happened simultaneously throughout the residency, saw contact being made with internet spammers. After replying to spam emails asking for Christian help in securing a huge inheritances, a series of month long conversations with four families claiming to be African Christians were recorded. Personal details, images, photocopies and gifts were exchanged. Email, post and telephone conversations were recorded and exhibited.
Marble altar (338 x 170 x 112 cms), cardboard, paper, party materials, printed correspondences, recorded telephone calls and photographs. Dimensions of installation variable.
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