In 2005, Tom Ireland and Fiona Shaw found a piece of paper in an empty seminar room at Cumbria Institute of the Arts’ Caldewgate campus. The sheet rested upon one of a number of hastily vacated chairs. At the top was scrawled ‘Lecture 10: War, Death, Mortality and Memorials’. The rest of the sheet was blank.

In 2006 the duo used this found scrap as the basis for an exhibition entitled ‘Lecture 10: War, Death, Mortality and Memorials’. This exhibition was based around their shared interest in memorials and featured a series of works made individually in the time between finding the sheet of paper and the exhibition. These works included a monument involving over 400 handmade paper aeroplanes (based on an obscure military statistic), large sculptures made from aluminium, a sound installation comprised of ‘dead’ florescent tube lights, wall drawings and a chair. The exhibition was held at Bank Gallery in Carlisle and ran from 11 – 16 May 2006; the preview took place on 10th May. The show was photographed by Ireland and Shaw, and by artist Dawn Bothwell. This is the only existing evidence of the event.

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In Holding on; Forever Tom Ireland and Fiona Shaw present a new installation centred on shared concerns within their work - monument and mythology. Using a language of found and hand-made objects, Ireland and Shaw rely on a formal ‘sleight of hand’ to create seemingly off-handed sculptural arrangements that belie their considered origins.

Holding on; Forever presents the audience with a series of recent works evocative of the duo’s current individual practice. Woven together within the context of this exhibition, Ireland and Shaw tackle their trusted themes from a more introspective viewpoint, presenting a series of objects as a document of self-mythologizing fact at a specific moment in time – this is us, now, holding on; forever.

The Exhibition runs from the 3rd-18th April 2009, with a preview taking place Thursday 2nd April 2009, 6:30-9:30pm, where the artists will be on-hand to talk about the work.

For more information about the artists and their work, please visit tomirelandhq.org.uk &
fiona-shaw.org.uk