David Ireland's Skellig Photographs Revisited at 500 Capp Street Foundation Exhibition

The Echo exhibition at 500 Capp Street Foundation revisits David Ireland's 1994 Skellig project. Co-curators Bob Linder and Diego Villalobos installed Ireland's photographic works from his collaboration with Jane Levy Reed. These images document Skellig Michael, a sixth-century monastic island off Ireland's coast. Ireland first visited the site in 1993 with Reed, producing photographs, objects, and travel journals. The show runs from September 9, 2016 to January 14, 2017 at 500 Capp Street in San Francisco. Ireland purchased this Victorian house in 1975, transforming it into both home and artwork. He preserved imperfections in walls with polyurethane glaze and incorporated remnants from previous occupant Paul Greub. Greub's accordion workshop provided readymades like jars, brooms, and chairs. Ireland created over 200 concrete dumbballs through meditative hand movements. His influences included Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, and Joseph Beuys. The exhibition includes Ireland's band-saw film machine, Constructivist-painted photographs, and African-inspired sculptures. Rooms feature water buffalo skulls, Duchamp homages, and burned books on James Lee Byars. Carlie Wilmans of The Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation purchased the house in 2008. Ireland died the following year after decades of artistic stabilization work.