Scene of the Myth

A selection of thirteen works is brought together for the first time, spanning twenty years, to highlight patterns of making and thinking that define Sarah Pierce's art practice.

The title stems from one of Pierce's essays in which the artist describes art academies and museums as moments through which the narratives and conventions of a historical past are reconstituted in the present. The 'scenes of the myth' is not an actual location; it is an occasion when knowledge, both inherited and invented, come into play.

Pierce's work includes projects with students and local communities, who often appear as performers, demonstrators and interlocutors in works that mirror communal acts such as teaching, learning and political protest.

Pierce, who lives and works in Dublin, relocated to Ireland from the US in 2000. Over recent years, she has developed a concept she names the 'community of the exhibition' to describe how exhibitions have a particular ability to hold us, and works of art, in community. We enter the exhibition with others - other audiences, across generations, geographies and times. The artworks in this book bring to the fore this ongoing and discerning interest in community's tenuous and unavowable bonds.

The book, conceived in collaboration with managing editor Nathan O'Donnell, situates this expansive exhibition through installation views at the three venues, including documentation of performances and readings; a selection of texts relating to former iterations of the works, including writings by the artist, and a set of four new texts written specifically for it.

These newly commissioned essays on Pierce's work come from long-time companions. Bik Van der Pol respond to the exhibition at IMMA, reflecting on their affinities with Pierce's practice over many years. Tirdad Zolghadr writes on the problem of community, exploring how Pierce's work resonates within turbulent cultural politics. Pip Day examines diasporic legacies and the politics of resistance in certain projects, while Grant Watson traces the artist's practices back to the foundation of the Metropolitan Complex and identifies subtle and persistent tendencies in her work.

In addition, included are republished texts by Clare Butcher, Zachary Cahill, Maeve Connolly, Annie Fletcher, Caroline Hancock, Mason Leaver-Yap, Sarah Pierce and Roy Claire Potter.