UNDERTOW
DAS is proud to showcase the work of our recent Home Residents – Kharis Beggs, Dave Loder, Sally O’Dowd, and Emma Spreadborough - who were with us from April to July ’24.
This eclectic group have produced a multifarious exhibition encompassing alternative photographic prints, performance to camera, and two exploratory VR projects.
Opening Night: Thursday 5th September ’24, 6 – 9pm.
Exhibition Continues: Tues – Thurs, 10th – 26th September ’24, 12 – 4pm.
Ascencia by Kharis Beggs
This VR work explores the psychological barriers that entangle us in difficult relationships, and portrays the painful, often indescribable emotions that prevent us from breaking free, the self-loathing and doubt that keep us tethered to pain, and the confusing reality of loving someone who doesn’t have the best intentions for us in mind. The experience looks at self-discovery, resilience, and the triumph of reclaiming one’s freedom and self-worth.
Dave Loder has critically investigated the everyday domestic practices for the imagination and consumption of spatiality underpinned by contemporary image-based digital platforms. This practice-based research is contextualised by how platform economies (Airbnb, Uber, Deliveroo, Etzy, etc.) are reconfiguring and distributing domesticity to construct new imaginaries of the home. Using the YouTube video sharing platform as a focus, the research explored a range of screen-mediated spatial experiences, from semi-amateur urban exploration (UrbEx) of abandoned architectural sites to professionalised residential real estate sales and competitions, to explore and speculate how digital ‘content’ manifests new spatialities and interiorities.
Tír Fa Thonn (Land Beneath the Waves) by Emma Spreadborough
In 2023, an outbreak of blue-green algae pollution in Lough Neagh caused protesters to mourn the death of the lake. Through the usage of this water in both our agriculture and homes, the devastating impact of climate change on the water here has resulted in a fear of irreversible damage.
Today, in the digital era, it seems that there is a disconnection in our respect for the magic contained in our landscape. What is the long-term impact of pollution in our water? In ‘Tír Fa Thonn’ (Land Beneath the Waves) Emma uses the Irish water and landscape to explore the life-sustaining qualities which come from the elements in our environment.
Threading Softly by Sally O’Dowd was filmed at the house she shared during her college days in Haringey, London. The owner, a Greek Cypriot woman who fled her trouble homeland, also ran a small textile factory. Stored in the basement were two industrial sewing machines…
The performative work references “Tread softly because you tread on my dreams” from ‘He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven’ by W.B. Yeats.
The action references Ariadne’s intelligence in helping Theseus overcome the minotaur and the underground labyrinth; creating a trail, following a path; to do, to undo.
