DABF24 Book Launch: A L T A R (Part I)

Clodagh Emoe and Donal Lally, will discuss their recently published book A L T A R in a conversation with curator and art historian Catherine Marshall. Following this, Jessica Foley will read her specially commissioned essay for A L T A R, ‘A Place so Beautiful’ which threads through and across multiple generations, reflecting on intimacy, care and the legacy of collective endeavour.

Through image and text, A L T A R presents the processes used to create this temporary artwork for Goldenbridge Cemetery—an infrastructure to encounter and reflect on the vibrancy of life in a place of death. This publication brings writing that has inspired A L T A R and has emerged from the process of realising this work, including essays by writer Jesscia Foley, artist/educator Mick Wilson, author Lucy Jones, architectural historian Dr. Livia Hurley, plant folklorist Charlotte Salter Townshend, weaver and plant-dye specialist Kathy Mooney, artist/perfumer Erin Quinn and Siobhán Geoghegan of Common Ground.
Light refreshments will be served 5—5.30pm, just prior to .
The proceeds from A L T A R publication go to Médecins Sans Frontières.
A L T A R publication is realised and edited by Clodagh Emoe and Donal Lally, and designed by Alex Synge, working under the studio name The First 47. A L T A R features photographs by Kate-Bowe O’Brien and David Conway and film stills by artist/filmmaker Jenny Brady and Barry Lynch. A L T A R was funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, Architecture Project Award in 2022 and supported by Common Ground, Dublin Cemeteries Trust, IMMA, NCAD and TU Dublin.
Clodagh Emoe's artistic practice initiates and develops collaborative projects with communities, creative practitioners and researchers in areas that include; philosophy, literature and ecology. Recent commissions include: Serpentine Gallery, London; Taipei Biennial; Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul; Nýlo, Reykjavik; VISUAL, Carlow; and Douglas Hyde Gallery, Project Arts Centre, and IMMA, Dublin.
Donal Lally is a Dublin-based architect, lecturer, and researcher. His research critically explores the socio-technical imaginaries of infrastructure, focusing on materiality, utopianism, and colonialism. Donal is a founding member of Annex, the multidisciplinary group that represented Ireland at the 17th International Architecture Biennale, Venice, 2021.
Catherine Marshall is a curator and art historian. She was the founding head of collections at the Irish Museum of Modern Art curating exhibitions of Irish art in China, USA and the UK and throughout Ireland with the IMMA National Programme. She has co-edited publications including Art and Architecture of Ireland, vol. 5 (2015); Twentieth Century (2014) and Janet Mullarney (2019). In 2019, she was recipient of the first honorary doctorate in the History of Art from UCD.
Jessica Foley is a writer, teacher and researcher of contemporary art and communication practices. She writes poetry, experimental non-fiction and for performance (audio/film/ theatre) and has exhibited, performed and curated nationally and internationally since 2007. Her work has most recently been published in The Stinging Fly and Bath Magg. She is a Lecturer in Critical and Contextual Studies at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, IADT.
Dublin Art Book Fair (DABF) is a centre for contemporary artist books offering unique artist publications and titles from creative, small and independent publishers, both Irish and international. DABF24 is proudly sponsored by Henry J Lyons and supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.

Host or Publisher Temple Bar Gallery + Studios