TULCA 2018: Syntonic State
Gavin Murphy, Double Movement (2017). Tulca 2018, Galway Arts Centre. Photo Credit: Jonathan Sammon
Curated by Linda Shevlin
2–18 November 2018
Galway, Ireland
Bassam Al-Sabah, Cyprien Gaillard, Mark Garry, Sadhbh Gaston, Aoibheann Greenan, Helen Hughes, Jesse Jones, Mark Leckey, Colin Martin, Stella Rahola Matutes, Eleanor McCaughey, Conor McGarrigle, Dennis McNulty, Paul Murnaghan, Gavin Murphy, Laura Ní Fhlaibhín, Ciarán g Arnold, Ciara O’Kelly, Deirdre O'Mahony, Rosie O'Reilly, The Domestic Godless, Marcel Vidal, Susanne Wawra
“We live in a time of great uncertainty and confusion. Events keep happening that seem inexplicable and out of control. Donald Trump, Brexit, the War in Syria, the endless migrant crisis, random bomb attacks. And those who are supposed to be in power are paralysed - they have no idea what to do.”
These lines are lifted from the opening of Adam Curtis' film Hypernormalisation. To be syntonic, or perhaps more accurately, to be 'culturally syntonic' in psychology terms is to be emotionally in harmony with our environment. But when that environment is so volatile, unfamiliar, precarious, where do we find refuge? This spiralling sense of paralysis has led us to being in the state we are in. We regress and look backwards to a time when things seemed simpler, we nostalgise. A contemporary wave of nostalgic revelry forms part of a continuum of nostalgic discourse that repeats itself until its signifiers exist without true recollection of the original. A certain aesthetic style speaks of a kind of nostalgia that is, even momentarily, entirely ahistorical. It is capable of being consumed independently of any emotional investment in the times and places to which the style alludes. In turn, nostalgia becomes a powerful political device. The fear and anger of those who feel most aggrieved by rapid change or loss continue to redefine the political landscape.
Excerpt from Linda Shevlin’s exhibition text