Events,

LCGA is delighted to present Opposite End A schools engagement project developed in response to Phase 1 of the 39th EVA International exhibition 2020.

A series of workshops that were designed and delivered by Brendan Egan (Education Coordinator, Limerick City Gallery of Art) in consultation with Adam Stoneman (Three Muses Programme Coordinator, Hunt Museum.

Over the course of sessions that took place between October and December 2020, the project encouraged 2nd year students from Limerick Educate Together Secondary School and St Clement’s College to explore the use of language in art, building on EVA’s Better Words project initiative.

Participants from each school were paired together to focus on a selection of artworks from the exhibition. First by finding language to describe it, and then by seeking to explore opposing word associations. The students later recorded these descriptions as podcasts and shared them with the other corresponding school. Each group deciphered the description by attempting to convert it to its opposite once more, to try and imagine what the other students were looking at. Using audio recordings as a ‘tin-can telephone’ between schools separated by social restrictions

The process of translation pointed to the limits or non-binary nature of language when describing visual art. Scrutinising language in this way - and revealing its limits - helped students reflect on the relationship of language to contemporary art. When challenged to find binary opposites for descriptive language, students discovered applying language to interpretation was not so straight forward

Opposite End playfully explored the connectivity of language in the way that we describe and interpret works of visual art. For further information about the workshop process please access the online platform Opposite End (via Padlet). 

Online platform for Opposite End -  https://padlet.com/brendanegan89/xwhgs93dwktx0r9l   

Any queries please get in contact  artgallery@limerick.ie