Artist-in-Residence

David Ireland

David Ireland, "Dumb Ball", in process
David Ireland, Dumb Ball Made in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia., 1988. Photo credit: Courtesy of The Fabric Workshop and Museum.

During the month of February 1989, David Ireland was “in residence” in the galleries of FWM. Titled In Studio, the project was part installation and part performance as the artist and FWM constructed a large muslin tent in the gallery for Ireland’s use as a working studio. Windows were made so viewers could witness Ireland’s creative process.

Ireland gathered materials from the refuse of an out-of-business textile manufacturing company located in the same building as FWM—materials seemingly lacking in aesthetic content such as metal tables, old lockers, pieces of wood, and metal rods. Surrounded by bags of opened gravel mix and makeshift tables, Ireland cast and molded concrete into sculptural forms, creating assemblage sculptures from this combination of found objects and concrete.

Table of Chunks, for example, is a metal table on top of which sits a careful arrangement of concrete “chunks,” the casts of corners, stairs, and other architectural spaces in the building. Cascade combines a small table and a metal pitcher, which are dramatically lit by a single metal floor lamp. This still-life arrangement has a humorous undercurrent: concrete appears to pour out of the pitcher, though placed upright as it is, this gesture defies gravity.

During the course of his residency, Ireland also fabricated a series of Dumb Balls, made by tossing a handful of wet concrete back and forth from hand to hand over many hours until it hardened. For FWM’s exhibition brochure (1989), Ireland said about his work:

I call myself a non-media installation artist. I prefer to explore without any end or purpose in sight, an active inquiry on an architectural scale. I just live my life and my art occurs in the process.

Artist Bio

American, 1930–2009. Born in Bellingham, WA. Lived and worked in San Francisco, CA. 

David Ireland was a conceptual artist, experimenting with “ordinary” materials such as dirt, concrete, wood, etc. and making them the focus of his artistic practice. He is perhaps most remembered for his residence at 500 Capp St. in which he turned his home into a living art piece by performing everyday actions over a period of thirty years. Ireland completed his BA at the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1953 and later earned his MFA from the San Fransico Art Institute in 1974. Multiple times over the course of his career, Ireland collaborated with fellow artist Ann Hamilton, including at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN and The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA. Solo exhibitions of his work have been presented at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Helmhaus, Zurich, Switzerland; and Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; among others. He was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Artist Fellowship grant as well as a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant. His work resides in public collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Logan, Utah; and Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA.