A collaborative digital and physical exhibition, run by Art Arcadia at Sefton Park Palm House for #LIF2019, A Trip here, a trip there grows across the Festival, hence its original title Watch Me Grow.

Art Arcadia takes up residency at the Palm House during the Liverpool Irish Festival for a remote collaboration with Derry based artist Locky Morris. The outcome of this daily conversation, taking place across the Irish Sea, is an experimental exhibition that unfolds over the length of the Festival. Locky’s unique perspective on collective identity, experience and humour will, undoubtedly, play a witty hand in this project that develops -in parallel- on Instagram and at the Palm House. During the residency Art Arcadia also aims to connect with local artists to explore possibilities for future collaborations and residencies in Derry. A trip here, a trip there is the outcome of a visual conversation between Art Arcadia’s Paola Bernardelli and Locky Morris.

Each day in Liverpool Paola will publish a photograph taken in Liverpool on Art Arcadia’s Instagram account, triggering a response from Locky. This reply will be printed and displayed in the Palm House, in a project running simultaneously digitally (via Instagram) and physically (exhibtion at Palm House).

The title of the project, A trip here, a trip there, conjures the unpredictable, zigzagging and unsteady nature of an exchange that has the potential to guide its contribu;tors to unknown destinations and myriad outcomes.

Paola Bernardelli is an Italian lens-based artist who has made Derry her home since 2002. She has exhibited in Ireland, Canada, Iceland, Italy, Spain and the UK. In 2016 she established Art Arcadia.

Locky Morris rose to prominence in the 1980s with works such as Town, Country and People (1985-86) and An Bhearna Bhaoil – Gap of Danger (1988) which used the language of international art to comment on the local realities of life during the conflict in Northern Ireland. He has exhibited extensively from the mid-1980s both regionally and internationally. Locky Morris’s work is often underpinned by humour and sometimes triggered by what he refers to as ‘daily epiphanies’. His current practice has, for the most part, been marked by a concentration on the familial and the familiar – sourcing a large amount of his material directly from the interstices and interactions of life ‘…where it seems as if he is trying to establish the border between humanity and the appearance of humanity…’.

Art Arcadia will be at the Palm House during these times:

Thu 17th 2:00pm-4:00pm

Sun 20th 12:00pm-4:00pm

Tue 22nd 12:00pm-4:00pm

Wed 23rd 12:00pm-4:00pm

Thu 24th 12:00pm-4:00pm

Sun 27th 10:00am-2:00pm

The exhibition can also be viewed during Palm House opening hours.

You can visit the project page here and follow it on Instagram and Facebook.

Please email [email protected] for additional info.

Art Arcadia is an artist run organisation based in Derry, Northern Ireland, providing local and international artist residencies with associated exhibitions and public programmes.

This project is kindly funded by Arts Council England, Derry City & Strabane District Council and Arts Council of Northern Ireland.