‘Smiling Dog’ are an arts and health collective made up of an artist: Marie Brett, an art therapist: John McHarg and former head of Dept of Arts in Health & Education, MTU CCAD and art therapist: Ed Kuczaj. Their collective work includes research projects, critical dialogues, multi-media exhibitions, immersive events, published writing and artists’s books. Together they have helped inform and shape arts and health practice in Ireland spanning the last 15+ years with special interest to ‘dialogues of opposition’ – referring to the similarities, differences and overlaps in their respective practices of artist and art therapist, within participatory and health-care contexts. Their new working title ‘Smiling Dog’ references the three headed Cerberus and symbolises their looking to what’s past, current and future, from three distinct headsets

Bones of Contention is a new body of artwork exhibited at MTU’s Gallery from January 9th to 30th 2025.

Conceptually it explores a series of contested ideas surrounding current arts and health practice; of people working on the edge, of human health and illness issues, and of embodied practice embracing risk and trust. The gallery space will be utilised as an institutional territory, with the artwork mapping a melee of fragility and resilance. Text, paint, and biodegradable materials will be mixed with relics and healthcare totems; viewable from both within the gallery and from the street. You may expect to find soil, dirt, unexpected paraphernalia and semi-precious objects, amid more polite art making materials and sound.

Previous Projects

A QUICKENING, Brett /McHarg, multi-media installation, Wandsford Quay Gallery, Cork, 2010

Free-to-view booklet, with introduction by Ed Kuczaj https://www.blurb.fr/b/1719237-a-quickening

WORKING ON THE EDGE, Brett/ Kuczaj / McHarg, Published paper, 2011

Exploring the role of an artist compared to an art therapist, in arts and health contexts – similarities, differences and requirements

https://www.mariebrett.ie/quickening-two-voices

https://www.artsandhealth.ie/articles-documentation/working-on-the-edge-pdf/

SHADOW TRADERS, Brett /McHarg, exhibition, Triskel Christchurch Arts Centre, Cork, 2014

Free-to-view booklet, with essay by Maria Tanner

https://www.blurb.fr/b/5507824-shadow-traders

TORPEDO, Brett /McHarg, multi-media installation with live performance, Camden Fort Meagher, Cork Harbour, 2017

Free-to-view booklet, with essay by Blaithin Quinn, commissioned by Create, the national development agency for collaborative arts https://www.blurb.fr/b/10807011-torpedo

REVERIE + NEMETON, Brett/McHarg, gift response participatry installation,

MTU, CCAD art/arts therapy event and a separate object intervention, St Mary’s Church Youghal, Co Cork, 2012

Free-to-view booklet, with essay by Katherine Atkinson

https://www.blurb.fr/b/5080351-reverie-nemeton