A swan song for Cork in an old apple market on Barrack Street
Recent graduate of Crawford Art College Joanne Hackett teams up with music group MacBóchra for an event in the old apple market on Barrack Street. It kicks off tonight .
After graduating from art college, Joanne Hackett worked part-time in a tea shop on Fenn’s Quay. Without a studio space in which to paint however, she found herself struggling to make sense of her new life in the real world.
Hackett took a full time job working as a framemaker in Douglas in the hope of saving enough money to be able to follow her own creativity, but she found managing her time and energy, as well as balancing the need to make a living, a great challenge.
Recently, she received an offer to rent a studio space in her native Galway and has decided to leave Cork, but before she does so, she’s busy organising an exciting event in the city she has called home for the last five years.
T+D met her this week in the historic old apple market on Barrack Street (just behind Osho as Barrack Street rolls into the River Lee), so she could tell us more about how she came to use this unique space and who’s involved. This in turn led to a far more wide ranging discussion about life as a young artist, one which may be familiar to a lot of other people in the city.
“I have a lot of paintings and I’m ready to get rid of them, and I’m trying to finance a short trip to France on very little money, so I'm trying to kill two birds with one stone!” she says laughing.
“Seriously though, it’s just a celebration of my time in Cork and a chance to have a fun weekend before I go. I’m lucky that my friend Simone Kelly, who owns the space, is very kind and generous and loves the arts and loves helping people. She herself is a very creative woman, so she was happy for me to put on an event here.”
“The great thing about using a space like this, is not having an organization or rent or a membership fee between your making and exhibiting.”
It certainly is a lovely space and lends itself wonderfully to being reimagined. But what’s it like being a visual artist in Cork these days? Is there a vibrant community to speak of?
“It could be better. I’m not someone who can integrate into scenes easily, I’m not drawn to the center of things, but as a visual artist it would be nice to feel like there were more studios available and more spaces to create, or spaces that feel accessible.”
“There’s a good music scene in Cork, as well as poetry, with large groups of people who make things happen, but as a painter I predominantly work alone.”
“Multi-disciplinary art events happen a lot in Cork, where a visual artist might be involved and this is a case of arts helping the arts, which is great, but as a painter, a lot of it comes down to exhibiting and making and the space thing is much trickier than in other art forms.”
“You can write a poem on a bus, but if you want to make a painting it takes time and space!”
Hackett has put a lot of effort into putting this show together and is looking forward to seeing how an audience reacts to her work. She is also keen to stress however, it’s not all about her and speaks very highly of MacBóchra, who will be playing an acoustic gig on the opening night.
“They are a really cool band, inspired by Irish folklore with a deep trancey feel and they are at the start of a really interesting journey and they sound and look great in the apple market, so people should definitely come see them play.”
“And yeah, it’s interesting what other people say about my work and hearing how it makes them feel, as it’s often very different to how I see it. People see different cultures in my work, when none of that is there intentionally.”
“I paint and draw intuitively and there’s a seeking in it, so what you find is sometimes old or commonplace or universal.”
“The unconscious and dreamworld is a big influence and that’s common in everyone, so maybe that’s why people can see something they recognize.”
There are a lot of paintings being displayed, most of which are for sale at very reasonable prices, but they all have one element in common.
“I made all of these paintings individually but they are joined by my interest in color, because I think color carries a lot of emotion and feeling, and has aliveness which makes people feel good.”
“It’s important to me to be able to bring some joy to people through my work, even if I paint something in a shit mood, people often say my work makes them feel good and that’s a good transference and makes me want to keep on painting.”
Finding reasons to keep going is important for every artist and is something Hackett felt conflicted about during her time in Crawford college, which is a place she would recommend, albeit with a slight condition.
“If anybody feels a strong pull towards making art, having a studio space and access to a really good library for four years, then it’s amazing and definitely won’t be wasted on a creative person. But you need a drive to make art.”
“I sometimes questioned if it was the right place for me, but I see now that constantly trying to escape was little more than time wasting.”
“I kept trying to find an excuse to get out of Cork and spent the four years in art college wondering if I should be here or whether I’d be better off somewhere far away having an adventure because it didn’t feel right to stay still, but then I realized I had to stop running.”
Now though, Hackett is returning home to Galway and has mixed emotions about leaving Cork.
“It’s bittersweet, I feel sad, but it’s the right thing to do because I know a big change is what I’ve needed for a long time.”
“I think I need to leave the place I’ve been for five years and take a fresh look at things. I’ve learnt a lot about myself living in this city, but now I need to reestablish who I am and it’s hard to do that I think, while still in the bubble.”
“I got an email from a studio in Galway, so I’m moving back there and will spend the next few months using that space and see how I feel.”
The last year has been a stark eye opener for Hackett, but instructive all the same.
“After I finished college and started working full time, I came to see I pay so much in tax after working five days a week that it felt hopeless, because I had to give a lot of energy to a job and not to my work.”
“I wasn’t earning that much more than when I was working part time two days a week and getting the dole. At least then I had more time to invest in my own interests and it’s important I feel what I am doing with my time is important, or interesting.”
“It seems as a creative person, you have to find a way to work outside the system or else it will swallow you up and it’s sad to see people working all the time and working a job they don’t care about, because life is very important and if you don’t pay attention to it and become interested in it, it can become heavy and be wasted.”
But whatever the future holds for Hackett, she knows what matters most to her.
“In art college I was seen as a painter and I became known as an artist, whereas when I was younger, making art was seen as doing something I was doing for the craic.”
“But it’s not important to be known as an artist, it’s important to be able to make work.”
Joanne Hackett’s exhibition will open Thursday evening at the Apple Market, with live music by MacBóchra from 7pm. The show will be run from 12-5pm Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Entry is free.
For more information on Joanne’s work see: here and MacBóchra see: here