NEW YORK.- An exhibition of works from the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s Collection opens to the public on Friday 25 May 2007 at three venues in Co Clare - St Caimin’s Church of Ireland , Mountshannon; Raheen Hospital and Scariff - as part of the Iniscealtra Festival of the Arts. Our Fragile Earth is the theme of the festival and includes works by well-known Irish and international artists such as Marie Jo La Fontaine, Clare Langan and Tom Molloy. Individual works from the IMMA Collection will be placed in three venues in Scariff – Tony O’Malley at the Bank of Ireland, Patrick Collins at the Derg Credit Union and Tim Goulding at Loughnane & Co.

The monumental film installation, Waves, 1998, by Belgian artist Marie-Jo La Fontaine, is on show in St Caimin’s Church of Ireland . Shot on the west coast of Ireland this film-work seeks to capture the power and passion of the natural world. The viewer is drawn into the work through La Fontaine’s striking use of sound that alternates between dramatic pieces of classical music and mysterious otherworldly voices. The crescendos of this dramatic piece echo the movements of the breaking waves leaving the viewer with a sense of the mystery and power of the ocean. Also on show in St Caimin’s Church of Ireland is Irish artist Clare Langan’s trilogy of film-works, Forty Below, 1999, Too Dark for Night, 2001, and Glass Hour, 2002, which also explore the limitless forces of nature.

At Raheen Hospital 16 delicate leave drawings Oak, 1998 – 99, by the Irish artist Tom Molloy are on view. After moving to the Burren in Co Clare Molloy became interested in the collection, classification and registration of the natural world. In this work he focuses on the individual leaves from one particular oak tree, each drawing is governed by the same rules of production allowing the uniqueness of each leave to evolve. Molloy is concerned with reproduction, mechanical representation and questions relating to the very nature of representation itself. Two works by one of Ireland ’s most highly regarded landscape painters Patrick Collins are on view in the Derg Credit Union in Scariff. Collins painting The Wood Pigeon’s Nest, 1974, captures the vulnerability and fragility of the birds nest as it emerges from an abstract landscape.

The Iniscealtra Festival of Arts is an annual festival held at various locations in and around the beautiful lakeside village of Mountshannon in Co Clare. IMMA has a long-standing relationship with the festival lending works from the Collection through the National Programme for the past ten years. Clare based artists Nicola Henley and Jane Seymour will facilitate workshops in response to the exhibition with primary school students. The Education & Community programme is supported by the Department of Education & Science.

IMMA’s National Programme is designed to create access opportunities to the visual arts in a variety of situations and locations in Ireland . Using the Collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art and exhibitions generated by the Museum, the National Programme facilitates the creation of exhibitions and other projects for display in a range of locations around the country. The National Programme establishes the Museum as inclusive, accessible and national, de-centralising the Collection, and making it available to communities in their own localities, on their own terms, in venues with which the audience is comfortable and familiar.

Our Fragile Earth continues until 4 June 2007.