MATERIAL CONDITIONS
Katie Watchorn and Avril Corroon
Material Conditions
de Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam
Sunday 5 July, 17:00 - 19:00
This public programme is a collaboration between participants of the Lumbung Practice programme in Amsterdam and Kunstverein Aughrim Creative Producer Programme in Ireland, which is a curatorial production framework focused on artistic accompaniment, collective learning, and building support structures for contemporary art practices.
Developed through exchange between the participants of both programmes, the July 5th gathering will unfold through two artistic presentations by artists Avril Corroon and Katie Watchorn, on questions of living conditions, infrastructure and the politics of place.
This will be followed by a panel conversation with the Kunstverein Aughrim Creative Producers on sustaining curatorial and artistic practices through collective organisation and infrastructures of care and hospitality. The programme emerged from the practices, urgencies and methodologies of cultural workers involved, creating a space for peer learning, experimentation and polyphonic dialogue.
Kunstverein Aughrim’s collaboration with de Appel is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.
Artist Biographies
Katie Watchorn is an Irish artist whose practice expands from the formal foundations of sculpture and installation to explore the shifting relations between rural and urban life, labour and industry. Recent solo presentations include sidesaddle, The Crooked Studio, Rotterdam (2026), dry brimmings at mother’s tankstation, Dublin, Commuter, Shimmer, Rotterdam, Underbelly at De Ateliers, Amsterdam (all 2024). Group exhibitions include Repulsie, Pulsie space, Amsterdam (2026), Staying with the Trouble, IMMA, Dublin (2025), Move-Set-Move, The Complex, Dublin (2023). Residency’s include the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2019 as part of their 1000 programming, Fire Station Artist’s Studios, Dublin 2019-2022, De Ateliers in Amsterdam, 2023-2024. She is also the recipient of the Temple Bar Gallery & Studios x Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP) residency 2026. Katie is currently working in a collaborative capacity in South County Dublin under the In Context 5 public art commissions alongside A Mac Giolla Bhríde and their collective moniker Served. She is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.
Avril Corroon is a visual artist from County Westmeath in Ireland. She works with sculpture, installation, moving-image, performance, and social practice. Her work examines inequity and how architecture manifests governance and gaps for resistance. Recurringly she forms exchanges with tenants, workers and unionised groups and collects toxic materials that hold distinct relations to lived conditions, class, health and the body. She has made cheese from black mould, collected 1800L of dehumidifier water from 55 households, made ink from blight infected potato leaves and performed on a city rooftop as the Airbnb logo. Corroon is currently a resident at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten. She has a Masters in Fine Art from Goldsmiths University of London in 2019 and BA at NCAD Dublin in 2014. Recent exhibitions include Flare-Up at CCA Goldsmiths, London, Pry at 126, Galway (2026), The Regeneration Game at PS2 and Belfast Film Festival, Belfast (2025), Living Canvas at IMMA, Dublin (2025), Glowing Daisy Day at Kip, London (2025) Dreamtime Ireland at VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow (2025), Six Minutes at The Eye Film Museum, Amsterdam (2025) GOT DAMP at Project Arts Centre, Dublin and TACO!, London (2023); Cow & Gate at Sismógrafo, Porto (2022), AVR I4L C070 RRN, PEER, London (2021), and Spoiled Spores, The Lab Gallery, Dublin (2019).