Jaki Irvine

Jaki Irvine’s In a World Like This is a multi-screen video projection shot at Eagles Flying, The Irish Raptor Research Centre in Ballymote, County Sligo, during her 2006 Model Fellowship at Model Arts and Niland Gallery. Some of the birds at the Raptor Research Centre arrive in a poor state, whether through ill treatment at previous holdings or by sustaining injuries in the wild, such as broken wings. At Eagles Flying, amongst the healing limbs and infections, new relationships are nurtured with great care and patience by the birds’ handlers. By tracing the sometimes hesitant yet elegant flights and landings of these impressive birds – to and from their handlers – the fragile lines between vulnerability, freedom, trust and dependence reveal themselves gradually in this installation comprising nine colour films and a soundtrack created by Irvine. In a World Like This is concerned fundamentally with how we might best proceed in circumstances that are not perfect, but possibly the best they're likely to be.

Jaki Irvine’s recent solo exhibitions include The Silver Bridge, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2006), Towards a Polar Sea, Frith Street Gallery, London (2005) and The Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (2005). Irvine has also shown at the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin and represented Ireland in the Venice Biennale (1997). Her work is included in the collections of The Arts Council of England, The Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, as well as in numerous private collections.

The exhibition has been co-commissioned by Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Sligo and Chisenhale Gallery. A major new publication to mark the exhibition will be published in early 2008 with essays by Michael Newman and Will Bradley.

Michael Newman is in conversation with Jaki Irvine on Thursday 6 December, 7pm at Chisenhale Gallery. Admission is free.

Jaki Irvine
In a World Like This