Michael McLoughlin: I only come here cos its free

Limerick City Gallery of Art is delighted to host a major solo exhibition by socially engaged, Dublin based artist Michael McLoughlin. This is McLoughlin's first museum exhibition and will present bodies of new work. McLoughlin's process involves connecting with specific groups in society and developing work in audio, film, drawing, photography and sculptural installations, which explores their collective histories and social environments.

Efforts to track and record travel, migration and movement are of particular interest to the artist. McLoughlin focuses on memories, histories, dreams and aspirations, while commenting accurately on social circumstance by working together with communities. McLoughlin is, "interested in the stories of this space that may seem almost trivial to others." The role played by social clubs in preventing isolating, particularly for older people in the community, is specifically interesting to McLoughlin. Social outlets are particularly important for older people who may have less contact with a broad family network and these groupings can almost take on the role of surrogate family.

A new body of work focuses on an aging community, exploring Bingo as their primary activity of social engagement. Documentation from artist organised bingo events, together with a series of installations study the various aspects of the activities and how individuals respond to them, while McLoughlin's curious field recordings form a link between the two strands of the exhibition.

The centre piece of the exhibition is a new film-work I Don't See The Lads That Much Anymore, developed in collaboration with critically acclaimed actor and comedian Jon Kenny and writer Michael Finn. The film re-visits a previous character, a London based Irish emigrant, exploring displacement through an individual's struggle but also the multitude of changes experienced in Irish culture in the past 20 years.

Michael McLoughlin (b. 1972) graduated from Limerick School of Art and Design and is based in Dublin. McLoughlin has a socially engaged practice and has made site-specific artworks in association with many groups, including Limerick Traveler Groups, Our Lady of Lourdes Community Development Young Women's Group in 2003, Balcurris Boys Home 2004, St. Margaret's Travelers Group and the wider community in Ballymun 2006/2007. Michael McLoughlin has exhibited widely in Ireland and internationally including at The Lab, Dublin, Limerick City Gallery of Art, Triskel Art Centre, Cork and as part of audio art radio events such as SonicEye, Helsinki 2000, Lola Gallery San Francisco 2003 and Resonant Cities, Glasgow 2004.

Michael McLoughlin
I only come here 'cos it's free