Amanda Coogan is to the forefront of Live Performance Art in Ireland. The Fall, her new performance, commissioned by the Manchester International Festival will be shown in the gallery on Thursday 25th June prior to her participation in the Marina Abramovic presents…exhibition at the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester.
Over a four hour duration the artist will fall/jump/leap/fly on to a mound of matresses, refferencing Yves Klein’s leap into the void, re-investing it with the matresses. This major new piece of work is a continuation of Coogan’s investigation into the presence of the artist as performer and the effect duration and endurance has on the energy of live work. Coogan will also be showing a selection of photographs of her performance work.
The centrality of Coogan’s practice is durational live performance where powerful live events are fundamental to her videos and photographs. Her expertise lies in her ability to condense an idea to its very essence and communicate it through her body.
She was awarded the AIB prize 2004. She has performed and exhibited her work both nationally and Internationally including The Venice Biennale 03, Liverpool Biennial 04, PS1, New York, Galeria Safia, Barcelona, RHA, Dublin, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Asiatopia, Bangkok, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris and MARTa Museum, Herford and IMMA, Dublin. In 2005 Coogan published the first monograph on her practice, A brick in the handbag in conjunction with her solo show at Limerick City Gallery of Art.