| Dates: | born 1943
| | Biography: | 1943 Born in Blair Atholl, Scotland.
Lives and works in Belfast
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1999
Emit Time Item (30 hour non stop
commemorative Actuation for the Time
Time Time durational performance series
organised through Fado) Toronto
Black Market International Performance,
c/o Green on Red Gallery, Lombard
Street, Dublin
Actuation, Performance/Installation (8th
International Performance Conference),
c/o Kasino (by former German Chemical
Plant), Frankfurt
1998
Palimpsest, National Centre for
Fine Arts, The 7th International Cairo
Biennale, Cairo
"Pore Rope," Bridge,
Construction in Process VI, Old Newport
Power Station, Melbourne
Dule Duel (I), Bunkier Sztuki Gallery,
Krakow
Dule Duel (II), Klub Kulturalny, Krakow
Palimpsest, Stadt Galerie, Berne
Inhale/Exhale, Temple Bar Gallery,
Dublin
Participation in Exhibition of
Documentation of 'Streetworks'
Performance Art, c/o Streetlevel Gallery,
Glasgow
Whose Scotland? (c/o
Streetlevel Gallery and Kings Street),
Glasgow
1997
"Shuttered Anemonies (II),"
Shattered Anatomies, Performance Art
Publication at Arnolfini Art Gallery,
Bristol
"Body of (D)earth," Galleria Nuova Icona,
Guidecca, La Biennale di Venezia, XLVii
Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte, Venice
1998
Is, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
1986
Bury the Veil, Franklin Furnace
Gallery, New York
1985
Healing Wounds, Franklin Furnace
Gallery, New York
Open Heart, Orchard Gallery,
Londonderry
1984
"Buried Error," British Art Show,
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
FURTHER READING
Goldberg, R. Performance: Live Art since
the 60's, Thames & Hudson, London
1998
Herbert, S. "Bread and Circuses," Art
and Design special issue; Performance
Art in the 80's 38 (1994): 30-1
Kelly, L. Thinking Long: Contemporary
Art in the North of Ireland, Gandon
Editions, 1996, 133-35
Alastair MacLennan: Thirty-two Drawings
and a Text, Black Square Books, Belfast | | | Source: | "Trace, 1st Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art", Festival catalogue | | | Date of source: | 1999 |
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| | Personal Profile: | Artist's Statement:
A primary function of art is to bridge our
spiritual and physical worlds. Through
crass materialism we have reduced art
to cultural real estate. Actual creativity
can neither be bought nor sold, although
its husks, shells and skins often are. It
is possible in art to use meta-systems
without over-reliance on a physical
residue with its attendant marketplace
hustling, jockeying and squabbling.
Art is the demonstrated wish and will to
resolve conflict through action, be it
spiritual, religious, political, personal,
social or cultural. To heal is to make
whole. As well as ecology of natural
environment, there is ecology of mind
and spirit. Each is a layer of the other,
interfused: three in one. The challenge
for us today is to live this integration.
Issues remain:
ethics - aesthetics
the 'outsider' - political/social institutions
religious/political bigotry - inclusive
tolerance
'dereliction' and public/private
responsibility
oppositional or consensual means of
political/social
improvement
death - decay
new life and mutation
transformation
| | Personal Profile Source: | "Trace, 1st Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art", Festival catalogue | | Personal Profile Source Date: | 1999 | | Description: | In 1997 Alastair MacLennan represented
Ireland at the Venice Biennale with
intermedia work commemorating all
those who had died as a result of the
Troubles in Northern Ireland since 1969.
Political, social and cultural malfunction
have been central themes in
MacLennan's work since his extended
performance pieces of the 1 970s
and '80s. During most of these
performances - which lasted up to 144
hours each - the artist neither ate nor
slept. His work for Liverpool is a week-
long "actuation" (MacLennan's term for
perform¬ance/installation). Trestle tables
running the entire length of his space are
set for absent guests. Their uneaten
feast includes pigs' heads, fish and other
items symbolic in the Catholic tradition.
MacLennan's performance will take
place, on alternate days, inside and
outside this venue. | | Description Source: | "Trace, 1st Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art", Festival catalogue | | Description Source Date: | 1999 | | Gender: | male | | Type: | person |
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