Small Night Projects featured in “Print Out” (curated by Paul McAree) at Carthage Hall as part of the Lismore Castle Arts programme, 25 April – 14 June.
For what we are calling our 5th Issue, after four successive text-based publications (TONE, TOLD, TEXT, TALK), and the first Small Night printed project of 2026, the four editors — Laura Fitzgerald, Chris Steenson, Alan Phelan and James Merrigan — each invited two artists to produce new A2 screen-printed posters combining text and image.
Up to now, our focus has largely centred on text itself, text as artwork, text as document, text as proposition, text as image. Image has appeared occasionally, but mostly as an exception rather than the rule.
Part of this project came from thinking about something Lawrence Weiner once said about language. In his work, words are not descriptions of materials, they are the materials. “Light”, “waves”, “froth”, language as object rather than representation.
For this project, we asked what happens when text and image meet directly, when image risks metaphor and text resists it.
The poster form also mattered to us. It carries something of the music scene, its DIY ethos, circulation, distribution, collective energy. A way perhaps of imagining small supportive micro-economies within increasingly precarious cultural conditions.
Featuring posters by Marian Balfe, Fiona Banner, Husk Bennett, Noel Hensey, Mark Leckey, Asha Murray, David Sherry and Philipp Timischl.
– A2
– Screen-printed
– Limited edition
– €15 each
– All proceeds go directly to artists
Supported by Arts Council Ireland and Lismore Castle Arts.
Please drop by; through 14 June.
Small Night Projects — “Print Out” (Lismore Castle Arts Programme)
Small Night Projects is featured in Print Out (curated by Paul McAree) at Carthage Hall as part of the Lismore Castle Arts programme.
Opening: 25 April, from 3pm
Exhibition runs: 25 April – 14 June
We present 8 A2 screen-printed artist posters by:
Marian Balfe, Fiona Banner, Husk Bennett, Noel Hensey, Mark Leckey, Asha Murray, David Sherry, Philipp Timischl
Each poster:
– A2, screen-printed
– Edition of 30
– 170gsm Munken Rough
– €15 each
– All proceeds go directly to the artists
This is our 5th issue (following TONE, TOLD, TEXT, TEXT) and our first printed project of 2026. For this edition, editors Laura Fitzgerald, Chris Steenson, Alan Phelan and James Merrigan each invited two artists to produce new works or editions of existing works combining text and image.
Where previous issues centred on text as artwork, document and proposition, this project tests what happens when text’s openness meets the image’s pull toward meaning. The poster becomes the site of that tension — and also a vehicle for distribution, circulation and community, drawing on a DIY ethos more often associated with music than visual art.
The project also operates as a micro-economy: production, fees and travel are supported by Lismore Castle Arts (via the Arts Council), allowing all sales income to return directly to the artists.
Posters are available exclusively at Carthage Hall during the exhibition.
More info:
👉 smallnightzine.org/poster
Please come along.
@fionabannerakathevanitypress@murray_asha@philippphilipp@marian_balfe@mark.leckey@pilotinspektorlee@nhensey
#davidsherry
@phelanlikealan@laura_fitzgerald__@christopher_steenson@paulmcaree@lismorecastlearts
Thank you to the organisers of Paris Ass Book Fair for accepting us, Small Night Projects, for what was, a conversation between hardwork & laughter.
We met such interesting creative people, welcoming and understanding people, working under not only the queer flag, but the DIY flag.
The best moment was when people touched our work and were touched by it physically and visually without language, or the clumsy translation of language, getting in the way. This is why we do this I guess.
So thank you Paris Ass, what you do is important!
And thank you to @cultureireland for your support!
@parisassbookfair@fire_art_sale@phelanlikealan@christopher_steenson
Small Night Projects cumming to Paris Ass Book Fair at the Palais de Tokyo Paris supported by @cultureireland
More on whom we are bringing in May. @parisassbookfair
📷Fiona Banner; John Giorno (1936-2019)
smallnight.org has just been updated, featuring artist profiles & printed projects we have realised over the last 5 years. Thank you to all the artists who contributed to this DIY non-profit project so far. More to come. 🏴art&text
IMAGE: 2019, when Small Night was a screen, a camera tripod, a darkroom safelight, & fingers crossed.
✍🏼WORDS-ON-WORDS — thank you Michaele & Enclave Review. @michaeleingalway
Repost: “Just received my copy of the latest issue of Enclave Review. It is a little sad as it is the last edited by the inspiring Fergal Gaynor and Ed Krcma. But also exciting as a new team is taking the relay: ER going forward will be in the good hands of Laurence Counihan, Sarah Kelleher and John Thompson. For this bumper issue, I wrote about my encounter with the three first issues of Small Night Project: TONE, TOLD, TEXT. A stunning achievement by James Merrigan, Laura Fitzgerald and Alan Phelan with great contributions by Jaki Irvine, Paul Roy, Walker & Walker and Adrian Piper among many others. If you can get your hands on copies, do!” 🏴art&text
🏴Margaret Kilgallen was born in 1967 in Washington, DC, and received her BA in printmaking from Colorado College in 1989. Early experiences as a librarian and bookbinder contributed to her encyclopedic knowledge of signs, drawn from American folk tradition, printmaking, and letterpress. Kilgallen had a love of “things that show the evidence of the human hand.”
Painting directly on the wall, Kilgallen created room-size murals that recall a time when personal craft and handmade signs were the dominant aesthetic. Strong, independent women—walking, surfing, fighting, and biking—are featured prominently in the artist’s compositions.
She died in June 2001 in San Francisco, where she lived with her husband, Barry McGee. She was 33. 🏴art&text
