The Hang Tough Gallery is delighted to present ‘FIX’, the gallery’s first major photography exhibition showcasing a collection of work by five artists who occupy different geographic and cultural spaces throughout Ireland. While arriving at FIX from different creative perspectives a common thread of identity and location weaves through each exhibition practice. Rather than establishing a narrative that needs to be filled ‘FIX’ celebrates the experimental by giving place to images or collections that often do not find a home. Artists have been invited to present ‘in-between’ works or to experiment with existing bodies of work, in order to engage and reimagine their own practice and to challenge the idea of the fixed photo project.
FIX was developed and curated by exhibiting photographer Johnny Savage in close collaboration with Rich Gilligan and the Hang Tough Gallery. Savage is acutely aware of the complex nuances of the contemporary photography landscape in Ireland and brings together the unrelated but complimenting practices of Ciarán Óg Arnold, Megan Doherty, Cáit Fahey and Rich Gilligan.
A sense of place is hard to pin down in the work presented. Locations range from the West of Ireland to the commuter suburbs of Dublin and as far as New York and Japan. Place becomes unimportant, as a collective atmosphere takes hold that blurs the lines of real and imagined and carries the viewer through on a dream like journey. While all artists are rooted in Ireland, each seeks to push and reach beyond so called definitions of identity by subverting or challenging what this means. Underlying themes emerge of longing and uncertainty alongside moments of beauty and celebration. FIX temporarily brings these artists together where their varying practices connect and play off the possibility they each pose to each other. These ideas have also been realised in a photo book also titled FIX that is being launched to coincide with the exhibition launch on July 20th.