Danny McCarthy | Haunted By Silence

The Vaults @ Lavit Gallery

26 June – 27 July, 2024

The sound installation Haunted By Silence stems from hours the artist has spent “just listening” in the church of St Marys Abbey Glencairn, County Waterford. In the evenings when the Abbey Church heating system is turned off the wood in the building begins to contract causing various sounds to occur in different parts of the church. These sounds occur totally at random, sometimes loud and sometimes quiet and coming from so many directions that one is unable to predict when and from where they will occur. Considering it to be the best sound installation he has ever heard McCarthy was in a quandary as to how to replicate something similar in an art gallery context. Using field recordings from Glencairn and other sounds created by the artist in his studio, the installation Haunted By Silence occupies the intimate environment of the vaults at Lavit Gallery. Using the unique architecture of the spaces, and low lighting, sounds are dislocated and sporadic, replicating the phenomenon in the church. Listening and silence have been at the core of McCarthy’s practice for a long time. His last major show ar the Crawford Gallery Beyond Silence - A Bell Rings In An Empty Sky met with considerable critical success and with this new installation he continues to expand his listening practice and share some his experiences with his audience through the medium of sound art.

Danny McCarthy studied at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. He currently lectures in Sound Art, Listening, Improvisation and Experimental Practice in the School of Music, Film and Drama, UCC as well as being a visiting lecturer and workshop facilitator in other institutions. He has pioneered both performance art and sound art in Ireland and he continues to be a leading exponent exhibiting and performing both in Ireland and abroad. His work is in the collections of the Arts Council of Ireland, Crawford Art Gallery, Irish National Collection and Limerick City Gallery and numerous other public and private collections in Ireland and abroad.

He has exhibited and performed widely in Europe, USA, Canada, China, Japan, Poland and other countries. He is a founder director of Triskel Arts Centre and the National Sculpture Factory.

 

Recent achievements include 2023: two sound and visual installations The Certainty Of Chance and Gort An Eist (Whispering The Names Of Places Long Forgotten) in the first Mor Artists Collective exhibition;  performance/installation The Dreaming Of A Dry Stone Wall ar Errant Sound Gallery, Berlin; live performances of ‘Strange Attractor’ in Berlin and in the Polish cities of Szczecin, Gorzow and Poznan; live soundtrack to ‘Ballet Mechanique’ for Cork Indie Film Festival, 2022: installation Chamber Music (One Hundred Urinations For James Joyce) in Unit 44 (Kirkos), Dublin; Sounding The Town// Change Climate Change, Midleton Arts Festival, 2020: his piece Scribbledehobble (video and sound) was presented as part of Kaleidoscope in MOLI (Museum Of Literature Ireland); KWAIDAN commission for Salon Bruit Rerouted (live radio) Berlin Germany; ‘The Telepathic Lockdown Tapes’ released on the Takuroku Label by Café Oto in London followed by a cassette tape release (with download) on Farpoint Recordings; Lockdown Tape No.9 from the series ‘The Telepathic Lockdown Tapes’ presented in installation form by Lismore Castle Arts; 2019: The Threshold Of Quiet installation commissioned for the National Concert Hall by New Music Dublin, 2017: presented work for a show ‘(Re)writing (HI)story (A Sonic Opera)’ - Installation and collages - in Triskel Arts Centre, Cork; performance art piece in ‘Future Histories’ in Kilmainham Jail (1916 commission); solo exhibition ‘Beyond Silence A Bell Rings In An Empty Sky’ at Crawford Gallery with publication of a book by the same name by Farpoint Recordings, solo CD The Rauschenberg Scores and new CD by The Quiet Club No Meat No Bone released by Farpoint Recordings, 2016: invited to spend a residency in the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in Captiva Florida, resulting in an exhibition/sound installation in the Commonwealth University of Virginia and also in the Rauschenberg Foundation Galleries, CD Where The Quiet Crow Flies by The Quiet Club (Danny McCarthy & Mick O’Shea) and crOw released on the Farpoint Recordings label, 2015: installation LUSITANIA (re)CALLING was presented at Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh to co-inside with the centenary of the sinking of the ship in May 1915 with special limited edition 10” vinyl was also released on Farpoint Recordings to mark the occasion, 2011: work Found Sound (Lost At Sea 11.1.11) has recently been purchased for the National Collection.