BASIC TALKS ~ Ella Bertilsson in conversation with Ingrid Lyons - March 2023

1pm, 10/3/2023 Hugh Lane Gallery

Basic Space is delighted to present Ella Bertilsson in conversation with Ingrid Lyons for our March BASIC TALK.

Ella Bertilsson’s practice combines elements of sculpture, video, performance, drawing and sound to stage installations as a form of enquiry into bizarre and quotidian experiences and events that shape our character and define our identity. She is interested in articulating ennui and anxieties that are embedded in the personal and collective psyche and her work gives form to fragmentary and tangential thought processes that exist as part of the internal monologue. With playful live acts, happenings and through performance for camera, she develops fictional characters that are humorous but dysfunctional.

Disused obsolete items, personal belongings and analogue technology are often utilised as props. These materials can also conjure generational experience as an 80’s kid, recalling collective memories, and evoking a sense of place. Moving between the Personal and the Universal, Bertilsson’s practice seeks to reimagine art historical tropes such as Absurdism, Surrealism and Dadaism to form a contemporary treatise on the human condition.

Ella Bertilsson (b. Umeå, Sweden) is a studio artist at Rua Red until 2024 and is a recipient of the Visual Arts Bursary Award (2022-2023) and the Project Award (2022) from the Art Council of Ireland. She has 1st class honours in Fine Art Print (BA) and MFA both awarded from the National College of Art and Design IRE (2009, 2015) and Comparative Literature Studies from Södertörn University SWE (2011-2012). Forthcoming solo exhibitions at; The Dock and Ballina Art Centre (2023), recent solo show; CUT THE CAKE WITH CLAWS, The Complex (2022). Recent group exhibitions include; Love you my Sweaty, The Library Project (2023) and Return to Disintegration, Periodical Review 11, Pallas Projects/Studios (2021-2022).

Image: Still, CUT THE CAKE WITH CLAWS, HD 1080 p, 2022.

Ingrid Lyons writes about contemporary art and culture and is currently developing a number of works in fiction and creative non-fiction. She is a regular contributor to Ireland’s leading arts publications including Visual Artists’ News Sheet, Mirror Lamp Press and Irish Arts Review. Lyons has written for numerous galleries and art institutions in Ireland as well as internationally and she continues to develop a writing practice that includes immersive research practices such as collecting oral narratives and musical collaboration to complement more traditional academic research methodologies. Collaborative exchanges with artists and musicians include a publication titled, ‘Proud and Strong All Day Long’ (2018) with artist Kathy Tynan, ‘Tophead and Weighthead (2022) with artist, Ella Bertilsson and a piece for theatre titled ‘It’ll all come out in the wash’ made in collaboration with musician, Lisa O’Neill (2021). Lyons has recently completed a research residency at Est-Nord-Est, Résidence d’Artistes, Quebec (2022).

BASIC TALKS is a series of informal talks with leading contemporary practitioners. Curated by Basic Space in partnership with the Hugh Lane Gallery, BASIC TALKS is an open platform for lectures, workshops, presentations and performances. Speakers include artists, curators, writers and critics who generate discourse on producing, framing and exhibiting art.

Admission is FREE you can get your ticket here or come on the day: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/basic-talks-artist-ella-bertilsson-and-writer-ingrid-lyons-tickets-560601653637