Robert Curgenven & Kat McDowall (AU / IE)

Robert Curgenven is an Australian-born artist living and working in Ireland, producing installations, performances and albums. His work emphasizes physicality, our embodied response to perception, location and the underlying significance of context. He has exhibited sculptural, sound and audiovisual work internationally including for Transmediale (Berlin), National Gallery of Australia, Palazzo Grassi (Venice), Diapason Gallery (New York), Palace of Culture (Warsaw). Modern Art Museum of Medellin (Columbia), National Sculpture Factory (Ireland) as well as solo exhibitions at Centre for Contemporary Art Torun (Poland) and Wandesford Quay Gallery (Cork). 

His recorded output includes Tailte Cré-Umha (Bronze Lands) and SIRÈNE, pipe organ works, for his Recorded Fields Editions (RFE); Oltre and Built Through for LINE imprint; and Climata, recorded in 15 of James Turrell’s Skyspaces across 9 countries. 

Curgenven has produced works and installations for National Gallery of Australia, National Museum of Poland (Krakow), Centre for Contemporary Art (Warsaw), Palazzo Grassi (Venice), Transmediale (Berlin), Modern Art Museum of Medellin (Columbia), National Sculpture Factory (Ireland) and the National Film and Sound Archive (Australia). He has presented live performances at festivals including Sydney Festival (Sydney Town Hall), Maerzmusik (Kraftwerk Berlin), TodaysArt (The Hague), Sonic Acts (Amsterdam), Cork Midsummer and was an artist for the EU's SHAPE (Sound, Heterogeneous Art and Performance in Europe) platform in 2019. Curgenven is an associate composer with the Contemporary Music Centre (Ireland), has produced radio works internationally including national radio in Australia (ABC Classic FM) and Ireland (RTÉ Lyric FM) and since 2008 has been a guest lecturer in music and sound at Universities, Conservatoriums and tertiary institutions internationally. He is presently working on new works and commissions including a new large-scale pipe organ work with Richard Thomas Foundation (UK), Orgelpark Amsterdam (NL) and MONOM Berlin (DE).

Kathleen McDowall’s work embraces the abstract and the physical in equal measures and in a very concrete approach. She has undertaken solo physical performances including Performance Art Oslo as well as residencies in Forte Marghera (Venice) and Oxford Art Factory (Sydney). In 2019 she collaborated on international festival performances with Robert Curgenven on their live light and sound performance, AGENESIS and SPECTRES in 2022. From 2016-2019 McDowall hosted a monthly art event Zolala Klub in Cork (IRL)

Kathleen’s selected activities:
2016-2019: hosting monthly art space ‘Zolala Klub’, Cork (IE)
2016: Solo performance* in built structure, ‘Do Why Birds’ in Sample Studios, Cork Performance* with public, Oslo Performance Art festival, Oslo (NO)
2014: Durational performance*, ‘Vita Anonyma’, (video documentation), The Cube, Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
2013: Residency and Performance* ‘Why Do Birds’, Forte Marghera, Venice (IT)

Mutual colaborations:
2022: SPECTRES sound/light performances: May - Prague (CZ); June – Den Haag (NL), October – Gdansk (PL)
2019: AGENESIS sound/light festival performances: Soundhouse, Dublin (IE), MeetFactory, Prague (CZ), Insomnia Festival Tromsø (NO), UHFest, Budapest (HU), OSA Festival, Sopot (PL), Gamma Festival, St Petersburg (RU), Cyprus Ave, Cork (IE)
2013: Physical performance ‘White/Out’ at Open Provocation Festival, Polruan, Cornwall Physical performance, Friv Move, Zamek, Pozñan (PL)
2011: Physical performance, Resound Festival, Cornwall (UK)

Residencies of Robert Curgenven & Kat McDowall:
Sirius Arts Centre, Ireland, July 2022
Nyksund Kooperativet, Vesterålen, Norway, Nov 2021
Kvitbrakka, Berlevåg, Norway, Sept-Oct 2021
The Guesthouse, Cork, Ireland, 2020
Forte Marghera, Venice, Italy, 2013

Date of residence: 02.05.2022 – 31.05.2022

http://recordedfields.net/