The Container Studio

The Container Studio was situated at the Central Promenade, by the waterside from the 10 January – 1 February 2009 and was a development of the Mobile Studio project for which Eamon O’ Kane received an EV+A open award from Dan Cameron in 2005. The work, placed in the Central Promenade, one of the main public areas of the city centre, re-situated the artist’s studio using a converted shipping container. Over the course of the O’Kane’s exhibition in Bristol, the artist investigated the architecture and urban planning of Bristol over the prior years using Le Corbusier’s plans for Paris as a blueprint. The artist ‘remixed’ maps of Bristol throughout the ages which were then displayed in the Container alongside text works. The artist added to the studio thoughout the exhibition and was in residence from Tuesday 27th – Sunday 31st January 2009. 

The Container Studio was open to the public every weekend from 12-5pm with a programme of workshops on site and at Plan 9 throughout the duration of the exhibition. This culminated with a discussion between the artist and Paul Hobson, Director of the Contemporary Art Society at Plan 9 on Thursday 29 January 2009 at 6pm. 

Plans For The Past and The Future was part of the touring project, CASE HISTORIES by Eamon O’Kane,  a series of international exhibitions of new work commissioned by Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, the Contemporary Art Society and Economist Plaza, London; RARE Gallery, New York; Galerie Schuster, Berlin; Plan 9, Bristol; and ArtSway, New Forest. 

Thanks: Pete Insole, Maggie Dunning, Jerry Baker, all the invigilation team, Sue Giles, Peter Bonnell, Jessica Morgan, Paul Hobson, Seamus Staunton, Richard Hames, Kieran Brown, Bristol City Council, Arts Council England and Culture Ireland. Eamon O’Kane would like to thank: Toby Huddlestone, Karen Di Franco, Sophie Mellor, Anton Goldenstein and all of the Plan 9 team. 

Eamon O’Kane 

Eamon O’Kane is a contemporary visual artist. He was born in 1974 and studied in Dublin, Belfast and New York. He has exhibited widely and is the recipient of many awards and scholarships including the Taylor Art Award, The Tony O’Malley Award and a Fulbright Award and in 2005 he received an EV+A open award from Dan Cameron (visual arts director of the Contemporary Arts Centre and Prospect.1 Biennale in New Orleans). 

O’Kane has shown in exhibitions curated by Dan Cameron, Lynne Cooke, Klaus Ottman, Salah M. Hassan, Jeremy Millar, Mike Fitzpatrick, Sarah Pierce, Jeanne Greenberg-Rohatyn and Apinan Poshyananda. In 2006 he was shortlisted for the AIB Prize and received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. He was short-listed for the Jerwood Drawing Prize in London in 2007. His artwork is in numerous public and private collections worldwide including Deutsche Bank; Burda Museum, Baden Baden, Germany; Sammlung Südhausbau, Munich and Limerick City Gallery. Eamon completed a three-month residency at Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris in 2008. 

A major publication documenting the CASE HISTORIES project was launched at ArtSway in the summer of 2009. 

Plan 9 

Plan 9 was an independently co-ordinated contemporary arts organisation established in 2005, with a gallery, project space and artist’s studios based at the former Bridewell police station in the centre of Bristol. Plan 9’s programme included exhibitions, talks, screenings and projects curated by Plan 9 members, as well as residencies and exchanges with artists in Brazil and Finland. Plan 9 are: Chris Barr, Rachel Butcher, Rob Chavasse, Karen Di Franco, Anton Goldenstein, Mark Harris, Toby Huddlestone, Ali Jones, Natasha MacVoy, Sophie Mellor, Anouk Mercier, Lucie Wilkins, Zoë Williams.