Art of the Wake, “riverrun” exhibition

From Monday 1st to Sunday 7th April 2019

Waterways Visitor Centre, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin

To mark the 80th anniversary of the publication of Finnegans Wake, the “riverrun” exhibition will premiere at the Five Lamps Arts Festival on Monday 1st April. Carol Wade is an Irish artist who has spent the past 10 years illustrating Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce, and is half way through this immense labour of love. Her work has been chronicled on a twitter diary “Art of the Wake”, recording the progress through individual pieces, where her almost 5000 followers actively monitor and comment. This has sparked international interest, and offers to speak at Trieste, Texas and Mexico City. The “riverrun” exhibition is a selection of oil paintings inspired by these illustrations. The celebrated actor Hilda Fay will be reading extracts from the novel on the opening night.

Joyce has created a wonderful tapestry of historical, social and cultural references in Finnegans Wake. The Art of the Wake “riverrun” exhibition seeks to weave these references into illustrations, with the same playful witticism that Joyce was renowned for.

Finnegans Wake is a timeless masterpiece, which Carol believes wasn't written for just the academic, but for the ordinary man and woman. It is the voice of Dublin, the voice that breaks through a dream, filled with humour, honesty and unpretentiousness. The objective of this exhibition is to create an environment, where this work will resonate with those who view it and begin conversations about Joyce's Dublin.

For Carol, who grew up in Dublin, raised by Dubliners, the language of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake is the language of her childhood. The quick wit, the humour, and the characters of the city combined, manifested themselves in her everyday experiences. From the first time she heard the spoken word of Finnegans Wake, she had an immediate affinity with the book, recognising the characters as still being alive in Dublin's older generation. It was this recognition that drove the realisation that this culture was still alive but would soon be gone, and she was compelled to embark on the challenge of illustrating this marvellous piece of work through the lens of those still with us. The Art of the Wake is the name Carol's has given this undertaking.

The Exhibition will premiere at the Five Lamps Arts Festival from the 1st to the 7th April, in the Waterways Visitor Centre, Grand Canal Dock, and is proudly sponsored by Mayson Hayes Curran. The works will then be presented at the Joyce Without Borders symposium in Mexico City in June 2019 and on to Austin, Texas after that.

For more details please check http://fivelampsarts.ie