Anne Tallentire: But this material…

This exhibition is the first significant institutional presentation of Anne Tallentire’s work since her career survey This, and Other Things 1999–2010 at the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

But this material… brings together key works from the last decade as well as work that is reimagined for the particular architectural and spatial qualities of the MAC galleries.

Tallentire’s recent practice explores how we inhabit space, both public and private, to reveal systems that shape the built environment and the economics of labour. Central to her approach is an interrogation of everyday materials and structures.

Exploring dimensionality and mapping to transpose one physical space onto another, Tallentire frequently repurposes found building materials often associated with the construction industry to delineate space in relation to specific contexts.

Area (2021), included in this exhibition in the Upper Gallery, is the third iteration of this key work. First exhibited at the Grazer Kunstverein in Graz, Austria (2019) and Hollybush Gardens, London (2020), Area explores how everyday collective social activity can reveal a human desire for an equitable, communal life. 28 laminated coloured panels, replicating the dimensions, colour and the placement of items of furniture and detritus located in a common area of a social housing complex, are modified here in reference to recent social distancing requirements.

Setting Out 3 (2021), located in the Tall Gallery, transposes what is conventionally on a horizontal plane to the vertical plane of the wall. String used in the construction industry, to transfer architectural drawings onto the ground, forms a line drawing whose composition references floor plans of a generic Belfast terrace, similar to the type once found in Hector Street near the MAC. Paper markers on the string demarcate lengths corresponding to the circumference and architectural characteristics of each room, such as doors and windows.

The works on view in But this material… attest to Tallentire’s preoccupation with how various conditions determine, regulate, shape and impact patterns of daily life and living environments. Attentive to the specificity of location, Tallentire introduces improvisational tactics to propose more equal spaces for living. Her practice resonates with current debates on the rising costs of housing and the systemic failure of the state to provide adequate social housing.

Running concurrently throughout But this material… will be a participatory programme of workshops, talks, film screenings and presentations co-designed with the MAC’s Associate Partner, Participation & Practice of Rights (PPR) documenting the lived experience of individuals and families in Belfast.