Artist receives grant for fabricating news stories
Last month Republic of Ireland artist Michael Fortune received a significant commission to continue his work in creative writing after publishing a number of well-read pages of “made-up lies disguised as real news” in an established, popular west county paper. Marnie McKee goes in search of the real story.
15 Oct 2007 12:00
Marnie McKee
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Writing and Publishing
Last month Republic of Ireland artist Michael Fortune received a significant commission to continue his work in creative writing after publishing a number of well-read pages of “made-up lies disguised as real news” in an established, popular west county paper.
Presented as newspaper articles and advertisements in the Donegal News last year, the pages of ‘artistic text’ were designed to “bring attention to what it is that we accept: what we wear, what we read, what we see,” Michael Fortune told Arts Hub in a recent interview. The artwork forms part of the artist’s ongoing examination of the distribution of local news, by re-presenting information with an ironic twist.
Marnie McKee currently lives in London. In the mid-90’s she co-founded ToyBox Circus staging fire and light shows and art installations Australia-wide. Marnie co-produced two major Bodyweather-based works with dancer/director Leah Grycewicz. They toured Pre-Millenium Drinks across Australia (1998); and staged Stratus999, a 3-month site-specific multi-media dance project involving 8 international artists, in Cairns, Queensland. Marnie studied Bodyweather as part of Tess de Quincey’s Sydney-based dance company (1999-2001). In March 2004, Marnie settled in London and has since concentrated on establishing Bodyweather training in London, with dancer/teacher Rachel Sweeney. Together they have worked as AnonAnon, researching and creating interactive performance for site-based work (ranging from nightclub to national park) using immersive, inhabitational and durational tools. Congruently, Marnie has been training with and performing for Stuart Lynch (of Holberg School) in Oslo and London, and more recently, training with Frank van de Ven of Bodyweather Amsterdam in Holland and France.
