Exhibition Opening - Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone, Thursday 24 March, 7pm

Join us for the opening of our next exhibition, Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone, on 24th March at 7pm.

The exhibition takes its title from a book written in 1994 by Belfast-based science fiction writer Ian McDonald. In Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone, McDonald describes a young graphic design student, Ethan Ring, who is able to create digital images that bypass rational thought and control the mind of the viewer. The ability of Ethan Ring’s images to induce tears, ecstasy, to heal, and even kill people attracts the interests of legal, military, governmental, and commercial forces, who all see the opportunities of harnessing this power for their own ends.

Featuring artwork by Alan Butler, Clawson & Ward, Eva Fàbregas, Pakui Hardware, John Russell, and Andrew Norman Wilson, Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone is a response to the central ideas of this story. Through video, sculpture, wall-based works, and installation, the exhibition playfully explores the status of art’s ‘affective autonomy’ at a time when art is being increasingly instrumentalised and stripped of its speculative potential.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a public programme, details of which will be available on our website over the coming weeks. Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone will also be presented in different iterations at Ormston House (Limerick) and West Cork Arts Centre (Skibbereen) in 2017, supported by Arts Council Ireland/Arts Council Northern Ireland Touring and Dissemination of Work Scheme.

More information about the exhibiting artists can be found here.

The exhibition at CCA is made possible through the generous support of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.