Defastenism
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Defastenism is a Remodernist Art movement founded in Dublin in 2004. Defastenism is a term coined by the group.
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[edit] Origins
Defastenism was founded in May 2004 by Dublin National College of Art and Design undergraduates Gary Farrelly, Ben Mullen, Alex Reilly, Seanan Oliver, Manfred Kerr and Jane McGovern. They state that their membership includes artists, musicians, film makers, writers, architects and designers
[edit] Philosophy
Defastenists are a self-declared Remodernist Art Movement. They acknowledge the precedent of the Stuckists who had inaugurated the idea of Remodernism to bring back "spiritual values" into culture in opposition to what they saw as the prevailing bankruptcy of Post-Modernism's ironic cynicism. Remodernism results in an emphasis on (often figurative and aesthetic) craft and expression.
The Defastenists state:
- "BOILING INSPIRATION AND IDEAS DOWN TO THEIR BARE ESSENTIALS, RESULTING IN BORING, AESTHETICALLY UNINTERESTING WORKS OF ART IS A CHARACTERISTIC OF POSTMODERNISM THAT THE DEFASTENISTS INTEND TO REMEDY."
The upper case text is characteristic of their style and is reproduced from their web site.
The Defastenist Manifesto, by Gary Farrelly, Alexander Reilly and Padraic Moore says:
- "We The Defastenist artists and other creative practitioners are making art about the only things we know to be truly original. WHICH ARE: The fetishes, obsessions and eccentricities which define our creative personalities."
They denounce the art establishment and its institutions as part of a "cultural paralysis" inviting a début de siècle revolution of "excitement and vitality and bohemian fun", which is also part of the creative process. Their expression of an inner world has some parallels with surrealism.
[edit] Activity
Defastenism's main activity is in Dublin, but it is represented in Galway by Alexander Reill and Blathnead Roach, in Berlin by Christoph Kronke, Paris by Karim Mezianne, and London by Padraic Moore and Victoria Clarke.
The Defastenists have a strongly theatrical and rhetorical self-promotional style (reminiscent of early 20th Century movements such as Dada), including appointing themselves to ministerial posts of the imaginary 'Defastenkunstrepublic'. They have staged cabarets ("Cabaretta Defastena") weekly in Dublin, and have held cabarets also in Galway and Berlin. They exhibit two-dimensional art in an extreme and seemingly random range of styles with figurative and abstract paintings, doodles and collages.
In August 2005 Defastenists were represented in a Remodernist show at CB's313 gallery in New York, along with Stuckist artists, and Remodernist film makers and photographers.
[edit] Press
The Dubliner May 2005, said:
- "They're the most vital thing that's happened in contemporary art in Dublin in a while. Free of unhealthy reverence for current icons of the contemporary art world, the Dublin Defastenists make colourful and gorgeous art based on (sometimes) unhealthy obsessions and the gurglings of intestinal tracts that haven't quite recovered from the night before."
[edit] Ministries
- Gary Farrelly: Defastenkunstfuhrer*.
- Liam Ryan: Defastenkunstkaiser*
- Alex Reilly: Defastenkunstgeneral.
- Oisin Byrne: defastenkunstblossem
- Padraic Moore: Defastenkunstminister for Propaganda & Attire.
- Roderick Brasdshaw: Defastenkunstminister for Medication.
- Donna Marie O'Donovan: Defastenkunstminister for history and Information and art dealership.
- David Walter MacDermott: Defastenkunstadvisor
- Seannan Oliver Manfred Kerr: Defastenkunstminister for Immorality.
- Sofie Iremonger: High Priestess Erotic and Glamour.
- Christoph Kronke. Defasenkunstminister for the DKR Navy and the Berlin Defastenkunstbureau.
- Nessa Darcy: Defastenkunstminister for social conscience and holder of public office in the Republic of Ireland (term: 2005-2006)
