Low-life Dramas (for late-night radio)

Over the past four years, James Merrigan’s art practice has dealt with the obsessions and addictions inherent in ‘dark’ culture. His short looping video, audio and text works combine elements of commonplace vernacular language with psychologically charged imagery and are often integrated with partially scenographic architectures. Low-life Dramas (for late-night radio) starts with the truism: ‘That type of thing just doesn’t happen round here.’ This is where Merrigan interjects with his textual clichés, visual banalities, and persuasive audio narratives.

Recent exhibitions include ‘So Long Roger Fenton...’ at Monster Truck Gallery and ‘Futures 11’ at the Royal Hibernian Academy. He will have a solo show in the LAB later in 2012. Merrigan was the recipient of the 2010/11 Irish Residential Studios Award at the Red Stables and the Visual Artists Ireland Writer Award 2011, and is creator of +BILLION- art journal and a founding editor of critical art newspaper ‘Fugitive Papers’.

James Merrigan was the Resident Art Writer in County Wicklow for 2011, an initiative of Wicklow Arts Office and supported by Mermaid Arts Centre.