Sam Keogh & Isabel Nolan, EVA International 2018
Limerick
14 April — 8 July 2018
Sam Keogh & Isabel Nolan will both participate in the 38th EVA International, curated by Inti Guerrero.
Isabel Nolan
Isabel Nolan, Section "Voiding the Walls", 2018, stainless steel and enamel paint, edition 2 of 2, 320 x 320 x 1.5 cm / 126 x 126 x .6 in
Isabel Nolan, Swell, 2017, hand-tufted 100% New Zealand Wool, 15 mm pile, 300 x 210 cm / 118.1 x 82.7 in
Isabel Nolan
The Barely Perceptible Vibration of Everything 2017
hand-tufted 100% New Zealand Wool, 15 mm pile
256 x 1945 cm / 100.8 x 765.7 in
and
Blind to the Rays of the Returning Sun’ 2017
80 mm round steel tube and paint
310 x 175 x 280 cm / 787.4 x 444.5 x 711.2 inch
Another View from Nowhen, London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE
Isabel Nolan, At the museum, 1506, 2017, oil an collage on canvas, 50 x 40 cm / 19.7 x 15.7 in
Isabel Nolan, Tomb (Memory Wheel), 2017, steel, Jesmonite, plaster, paint, powder-coated chain, diameter 210 cm / 82.7 in
Isabel Nolan, Noise and Light, 2017, hand-tufted 100% New Zealand Wool, 15 mm pile, 300 x 210 cm / 118.1 x 82.7 in
Isabel Nolan, Thorn, 2017, archival pigment print, framed with clarity glass, 69.5 x 39 cm / 27.4 x 15.4 in unframed, 80 x 49 x 3.5 cm / 31.5 x 19.3 x 1.4 in framed
Isabel Nolan, “There is no object which doth not terminate in another”, Giordano Bruno, 2017, water-based oil paint in canvas, 70 x 50 cm / 27.6 x 19.7 in
Isabel Nolan, Partial eclipse, 2017, mild steel, paint, fabric and dye, diameter 145 x 72.5 cm / diameter 57.1 x 28.5 in
Isabel Nolan, Eventually, 2017, water-based oil on canvas, 35 x 45 cm / 13.8 x 17.7 in
Isabel Nolan, A fixture for a solar storm, 1859, 2016, mild steel, paint, fabric and dye, 134 x 3 cm / 52.8 x 1.2 in diameter of largest ring
Isabel Nolan,
Fourfold Sorrows,
2015,
Hand-tufted wool,
395 x 160 cm / 155.5 x 63 in
Isabel Nolan,
Hungry and Thirsty. Sorry and Angry. A flag for John Donne.,
2015,
cotton and powder coated mild steel flag pole,
398 x 184 cm / 156.7 x 72.4 in
Bent Knees are a Give was produced with the generous support of Black Church Process, an initiative of Black Church Print Studio, Dublin.
Isabel Nolan, Where the Saints Walked c.1500, 2015, watercolour, on acrylic ground, newspaper, canvas, 30 x 24 cm / 11.8 x 9.4 in
Isabel Nolan,
I am wonderfully and fearfully made,
2015,
archival pigment print framed with clarity glass,
edition of 3 + 1 AP,
85 x 122 x 4 cm / 33.5 x 48 x 1.6 in framed
Isabel Nolan,
Fresh disorder diminishing energy,
2015,
cotton and powder coated mild steel flag pole,
285 x 232 cm / 112.2 x 91.3 in
Isabel Nolan,
"The sky is not bounded by a fixed edge!": an illuminated rug arranged to accommodate a medieval mind.,
2014,
hand tufted wool,
630 x 170 cm / 248 x 66.9 in
Isabel Nolan,
The weakening eye of day,
2014,
mild steel, wadding, wood, thread,
227 x 218 x 377 cm / 89.4 x 85.8 x 148.4 in
Isabel Nolan,
The effect of its past and the cause of its future,
2014,
polystyrene, jesmonite, plaster bandage, paint,
dimensions variable
Isabel Nolan,
Harbinger,
2014,
stained glass, mild steel and paint,
66 x 2 x 78.5 cm / 26 x .8 x 30.9 in
Isabel Nolan,
Here (anchored in oblivion),
2014,
mild steel, armature wire, metal mesh, adhesive, plaster bandage, jesmonite and paint,
85 x 49 x 53 cm / 33.5 x 19.3 x 20.9 in object,
20 x 70 x 70 / 50.8 x 177.8 x 177.8 base
Isabel Nolan,
Somewhere between Andromeda and Vulpecula: Sky Atlas,
2014,
mild steel, two-pack paint,
210 x 160 x 3 cm / 82.7 x 63 x 1.2 in
Isabel Nolan, Dreams of no thing, no time.,
2014,
watercolour on canvas,
40 x 30 cm / 15.7 x 11.8 in
Isabel Nolan, What remains of an occasion that had not lasted., 2013, mild steel and PU Satin Lacquer, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle paper, framed, element one 572 x 295 x 55 cm / 225.2 x 116.1 x 21.7, element two 43 x 57 cm / 16.9 x 22.4 in framed
Isabel Nolan
Meatball moon 2014
water based oil and oil pastel on canvas
30 x 25 cm / 11.8 x 9.8 in
slow dirty solution & That’s an approach
2013
mild steel, corten steel
315 x 150 x 150 cm / 124 x 59.1 x 59.1 in & 160 x 130 x 130 cm / 63 x 51.2 x 51.2 in
Here (below the benighted stars)
2013
mild steel, armature wire, metal mesh, adhesive, plaster bandage, jesmonite and paint
63 x 60 x 50 cm / 24.8 x 23.6 x 19.7 in
126 x 31 x 31 cm / 49.6 x 12.2 x 12.2 in base
"The death of the sun is a death of mind"
2013
mild steel, wadding, wool-blends, cotton, embroidery yarn and thread
dimensions variable
height 185 cm
Thoughtless with Unsolicited Rug for Artist Mark Manders’ Self Portrait as a Building, (Ongoing)
2012
polystyrene, plaster bandage, jesmonite, paint, mild steel, wadding, various fabrics and thread
63 x 500 x 240 cm / 24.8 x 196.9 x 94.5 in
In this time
2012
steel, wool, cotton, foam, thread
208 x 90 x 210 cm / 81.9 x 35.4 x 82.7 in
Soft Stillness and the Night
2011
steel, cotton, foam, thread
dimensions variable
‘Near past, recent future’
2011
balsa, jesmonite, paint
93 x 88 x 1.3 cm / 36.6 x 34.6 x .5 in
The Outward Form
2011
painted steel
a commission for The Model, Sligo
Holding it in
2011
steel, paint, MDF,
object 26 x 55 x 42 cm / 10.2 x 21.7 x 16.5 in
base 78 x 48 x 48 cm / 30.7 x 18.9 x 18.9 in
Dynamic Interdependent Unity
2009
polystyrene, plaster bandage, jesmonite, paint, toughened glass, MDF
25 x 30 x 25 cm / 9.8 x 11.8 x 9.8 in
City Fox
2009
watercolour and pencil on paper
29.7 x 42 cm / 11.7 x 16.5 in
Kiss the machine
2011
steel, cotton, silk-blend, thread and MDF
object 125 x 133 x 78 cm / 49.2 x 52.4 x 30.7 in
base 23 x 85 x 85 cm / 9.1 x 33.5 x 33.5 in
Colourhole
2011
steel, cotton, wool, embroidery yarn and thread
76 x 40 x 35 cm / 29.9 x 15.7 x 13.8 in
Cold Horizon
2011
watercolour and waterbased oil on canvas
35 x 45 cm / 13.8 x 17.7 in
Death after life
2007
watercolour, acrylic and paper on canvas
50 x 69.5 cm / 19.7 x 27.4 in
The unfolding moment
2007
linen mixed fabric, embroidery thread, wood and paint
48 x 50 x 64 cm
158 x 147 cm
Reinforcements
2010
watercolour on paper
21 x 29.7 cm / 8.3 x 11.7 in
Ever-stay-leaf-green (Diptych)
2010
watercolour on paper
25.5 x 18 cm / 10 x 7.1 in each
Isabel Nolan
Another View from Nowhen, London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE
14 November 2017 – 3 June 2018
Isabel Nolan
Calling on Gravity
Douglas Hyde Gallery - Gallery 1
July 28 - September 30, 2017
Isabel Nolan, The weakened eye of day, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, 29 July – 2 October 2016
Isabel Nolan, The Weakened Eye of Day, Mercer Union, Toronto, 12 February – 2 April 2016
Isabel Nolan, A Thing Is Mostly Space, Launch Pad New York, 25 September – 4 October 2015
Isabel Nolan
Bent Knees are a Give
Kerlin Gallery, Dublin
1st April - 16th May 2015
Isabel Nolan
The weakened eye of day
Irish Museum of Modern Art
7 June – 21 September 2014
Isabel Nolan
"A Spare Rug for Love (But Not for a Dog) and a Chair Too"
2014
Ikea ‘Terje’ chair (black), 12 mild steel rods wrapped, wadding, various fabrics and thread, digital video animation
1.2 x 12.6 inches (10 rods), 1.2 x 5.5 inches (2 rods), 30.3 x 17.3 x 20.1 inches (sculpture), 5 minutes looped (video)
Spare Rug for Marie Lieb’s room, Heidelberg Psychiatric Hospital, 1894 a.k.a. Circumstances shape an emptiness
2012
mild steel, wadding, various fabrics and thread
3 x 500 x 240 cm / 1.2 x 196.9 x 94.5 in
Installation view of "The Black Moon", dans le cadre de "Nouvelles vagues" (21.06.13 - 09.09.13), Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Photo : Aurélien Mole
A Hole into the Future
2012
Musée d’art moderne de Saint Etienne Metropole
Spare Rug for Marie Lieb’s room, Heidelberg Psychiatric Hospital, 1894 a.k.a. Circumstances shape an emptiness 2012 mild steel, wadding, various fabrics and thread 3 x 500 x 240 cm / 1.2 x 196.9 x 94.5 in Installation view of Gracelands – Circling the Square, EV+A, Limerick.
Unmade curated by Vaari Claffey
2012
The Goethe Institut, Dublin
A Hole into the Future
2011
The Model, Sligo
commissioned by The Model
King Rat
2010
Project Arts Centre, Dublin
Mark Garry and Isabel Nolan
2011
Stephen Friedman Gallery
Turning Point
2010
Permanent Public Artwork for Terminal 2, Dublin Airport, commissioned by DAA
Clocks and Seasons and Promises
2010
Gallery Side 2, Tokyo
The Paradise [29]
2008
Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin
Gallery 3 curated by Gavin Delahunty
2006
Douglas Hyde Gallery, off-site project at Farmleigh, Dublin
b. 1974, Dublin, Ireland.
Isabel Nolan has an expansive practice that incorporates sculptures, paintings, textile works, photographs, writing and works on paper. Her subject matter is similarly comprehensive, taking in cosmological phenomena, religious reliquaries, Greco-Roman sculptures and literary/historical figures, examining the behaviour of humans and animals alike. These diverse artistic investigations are driven by intensive research, but the end result is always deeply personal and subjective. In concert, her works give generous form to fundamental questions about the ways the world is made meaningful through human activity.
Recent large-scale sculptures in particular have demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to realise in elaborate form the uncertainties of the questing, subjective consciousness. Such works often have the appearance of grand metallic doodles – line drawings that might imply efforts towards rational modeling or more impulsive sketching, but that are rendered dramatically, imposingly real. Regularly complementing such sculptural endeavors in Nolan’s art are wall hangings, paintings and works on paper that carefully ‘domesticate’ the elaborate strangeness of the sculptures, but that also have their own beautifully inscrutable integrity.
Current and upcoming exhibitions include Another View from Nowhen, London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE (solo exhibition; 14 November 2017 – 3 June 2018), EVA International, Limerick (biennial exhibition, 14 April – 8 July 2018); Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (group exhibition, 3 May – 23 June 2018); Kunstverein Langenhagen, Germany and San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas (both solo exhibitions, 2018).
Recent solo exhibitions include Grazer Kunstverein, Graz (2017–2018); Calling on Gravity, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2017); The weakened eye of day, which toured from the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2014) to Mercer Union, Toronto and CAG, Vancouver (2016); A Thing Is Mostly Space, Launch Pad New York (2015); The Model, Sligo (2011), travelling to the Musée d’art moderne de Saint Etienne, France (2012); The Return Gallery, Goethe-Institut Irland, Dublin (2012–13); Gallery 2, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2008) and Project Arts Centre, Dublin (2005). In 2005, Nolan represented Ireland at the 51st Venice Biennale as part of a group exhibition, Ireland at Venice 2005.
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Dorothy Cross, Aleana Egan, Siobhán Hapaska, Isabel Nolan, Kathy Prendergast
3rd May - 23rd June 2018
Park, Guangzhou
Holly's Gallery, Guangzhou, China
16th March – 16th May 2017
Park, Hong Kong
G/F, 218 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan
20th - 25th March 2017
Isabel Nolan
Bent Knees are a Give
1st April - 16th May 2015
DEEP ONE PERFECT MORNING
Caroline Achaintre, Aleana Egan, Mark Francis, Liam Gillick, Sam Keogh, Isabel Nolan and Jan Pleitner
18th July - 28th August 2014
13.07.12 - 31.08.12
Group Exhibition
13 July - 01 September 2012
GROUP SHOW SUMMER 2010
Gallery Artists
23 July - 04 September 2010
Isabel Nolan
on a perilous margin
27th November - 23rd December 2009
FIFTY PERCENT SOLITUDE
Willie Doherty, Maureen Gallace, Liam Gillick, Siobhan Hapaska, Stephen McKenna, Isabel Nolan, Sean Scully, Hiroshi Sugimoto & Paul Winstanley
27th November 2008 - 11th February 2009
Celebrating 20 Years
An exhibition of new work by Kerlin Gallery Artists
28th April - 24th May 2008
Isabel Nolan
This time I promise to be more careful.
17 February - 17 March 2007
SUMMER GROUP SHOW 2006
18 August - 30 September 2006
WINTER GROUP SHOW 2006
Gallery Artists
19 December - 07 January 2006
Writing: Cabin Fever
February 2017
Isabel Nolan, Some Surfaces on Which Patterns Occur, €35
2013
Isabel Nolan, Intimately Unrelated
2011
WHAT it does to you…
Isabel Nolan
2005
Ireland at Venice 2005
Isabel Nolan
2005
Isabel Nolan
Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria
7 December 2017 – 18 February 2018
Solo exhibition.
Isabel Nolan, Another View from Nowhen
London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE
8 November 2017 – 3 June 2018
Isabel Nolan inaugurates the programme at the new London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE, 12 Walbrook, City of London.
Park, Guangzhou & Hong Kong
Co-organised with Holly's Gallery
Park is an exhibition across two venues in Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
Holly's Gallery, Guangzhou, 15 March – 16 April
G/F, 218 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, 20–25 March
Artists: Liam Gillick, Callum Innes, Merlin James, Liu Ke, Isabel Nolan, Sean Scully, Liliane Tomasko, Zhou Li
Periodical Review 20/16
Pallas Projects/Studios, Dublin
Selected by Brian Duggan, Sarah Glennie, Jenny Haughton & Declan Long. Artists include Aquinas, Callan Workhouse, Nina Canell & Robin Watkins, Dorothy Cross, Willie Doherty, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Fergus Feehily, FOUR, Anthony Haughey, Des Kenny, Patrick Jolley & Reynold Reynolds, Aileen Lambert, Clare Langan, The Metropolitan Complex, Michael McLoughlin, Isabel Nolan, Seamus Nolan, Emer O'Boyle, Margaret O' Brien, Deirdre O'Mahony.
Isabel Nolan, The weakened eye of day
CAG Vancouver
29 July – 2 October 2016
Isabel Nolan's touring exhibition The weakened eye of day will visit Contemporary Art Gallery Vancouver in July.
Isabel Nolan, The Weakened Eye of Day
12 February – 2 April 2016
Mercer Union, Toronto, ON, Canada
Isabel Nolan's solo exhibition The Weakened Eye of Day travels to Mercer Union, Toronto, from 12 February – 2 April.
Isabel Nolan, A Thing Is Mostly Space
Launch Pad New York, NY, USA
25 September – 4 October 2015
Site-sensitive commission
Launch Pad, the London based commissioning art series, will make its debut in New York City in September at the invitation of arts philanthropist Laura Taft Paulsen, with a newly commissioned sculpture by Dublin-based artist, Isabel Nolan.
Isabel Nolan at LIAF
Lofoten International Arts Festival, Jern & Bygg, Svolvær, Norway
28 August – 27 September 2015
Arts festival
Isabel Nolan will participate in Disappearing Acts, the main exhibition at Lofoten International Arts Festival (LIAF) in Norway.
Isabel Nolan and Jaki Irvine
PULL BITE RALLY
20 November - 16 December 2014
NCAD Gallery, Dublin
Isabel Nolan and Jaki Irvine participate in PULL BITE RALLY, an exhibition and parallel events series to mark the Black Church Print Studio 'Process' project, with other artists including Brian Fay, Damien Flood, Jesse Jones and Sarah Pierce.
Isabel Nolan
The weakened eye of day
7 June – 21 September 2014
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
The weakened eye of day, is a new body of work by Irish artist Isabel Nolan, conceived as a single project for IMMA. The exhibition explores how light manifests as a metaphor in our thoughts, obsessions and pursuits and includes text, sculpture, drawings and textiles. Nolan’s works begin with the close scrutiny of individual literary or artistic works, or evolve out of consciously erratic enquiries into the aesthetics of diverse fields, such as cosmology, humoral theory, and illuminated manuscripts.
'Re Framing the Domestic in Irish Art'
Kathy Prendergast, William McKeown, Isabel Nolan, Siobhan Hapaska, Dorothy Cross
29 April - 29 August 2014
Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda
‘Home is no longer a dwelling but the untold story of a life being lived.’[1]
A large-scale group exhibition featuring works by Kathy Prendergast, William McKeown, Isabel Nolan, Siobhan Hapaska, and Dorothy Cross.
Isabel Nolan
THE BLACK MOON
21/06/2013 - 09/09/2013
Palais de Tokyo
Curator, art critic and lecturer at the Sorbonne, Sinziana Ravini is known for her “exhibition-novels.” The Black Moon is «a film-exhibition» that presents an encounter between a man and a woman visiting an exhibition. Meanings suggested by the juxtaposition of works by diverse artists are meant to suggest a narrative. Thus the story of this relationship unfolds around the works, playing with love, art and life. While one searches only for a fleeting tryst, the other aspires to finding true love. Fleeting tryst or true love: which will triumph?
Isabel Nolan
Unmade
16 November 2012 - 21 December 2012
The Return Gallery, Goethe-Institut Irland, Dublin
In her exhibition "Unmade" which will be opened in the Goethe-Institut's Return Gallery on Thursday 15 November 2012 at 6pm, Isabel Nolan refers to documentary material from the Prinzhorn Collection in Heidelberg/Germany.
The Irish Times
Calling on Gravity – Isabel Nolan
26 July 2017
If you find the work of Isabel Nolan strange, it’s possibly because she means it to be that way. “Just because the universe is probably real it doesn’t mean it’s not weird or puzzling to be here,” the artist says. Sculptures, paintings, drawings, photographs and a rug spread out, and are suspended in the gallery as Nolan gets to grips with matters of life and death. Don’t expect an easy explanation – her cast of characters range from philosopher and activist Simone Weil to fictional mob boss Tony Soprano – but instead give yourself up to the adventure of looking, and occasionally getting a fleeting burst of insight into existence.—Gemma Tipton
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10 shows to see this September
September 2016
Isabel Nolan, CAG – Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, through 2 October
Isabel Nolan’s own previous literary sources include George Eliot, Hippocrates, John Donne and Shakespeare, and the Dublin-based artist’s recent body of work at CAG Vancouver, The weakened eye of day, spins off from Thomas Hardy’s fin de siècle poem ‘The Darkling Thrush’ (1900), whose ‘weakening eye of day’ apostrophises a wintry sun. From here the Irish artist considers light as metaphor; the sun as a symbol; and vast cosmological events, from the formation of the earth’s crust to the sun’s own eventual burnout. Nolan, heedless of outmoded formal distinctions, moves – in an evolved version of a 2014 show for the Irish Museum of Modern Art–from a huge textual scroll to small abstract paintings, sprouting plantlike sculptures to chromatic carpet-making, murals to steel sculpture, while sidestepping the hubristic notion that works in any media can truly reckon with the enormity of her subject matter. The work’s poetic spaciousness is a gift, though. In ‘The Darkling Thrush’, the narrator hears a thrush singing, out of ‘Some blessed hope, whereof he knew/And I was unaware’. Spend enough time in galleries, and you’ll know how the listener feels.
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Isabel Nolan, Kerlin Gallery
28 May 2015
Following on from her exhibition ‘The Weakened Eye of Day’ at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) last summer, in which the artist tasked herself with compressing the past, present and future of the universe into just four small rooms, Isabel Nolan’s most recent body of work, shown at Kerlin, took on the challenge of addressing power, belief, death and the depredations of time.
- Gemma Tipton
Visit WebsiteThe Brooklyn Rail
BEAUTIES UNINTENTIONAL, ACCIDENTAL ISABEL NOLAN An Answer About the Sky
7 October 2014
The narrative of An Answer, begins with myths of classical antiquity, moves towards Renaissance intellectual history, modernity, and, ends finally, with an apocalyptic time beyond our time where that dripping paint has become the form of trees and archways. The narrative “told” visually—each painting a variation on a single shared palette—is also “painted” in words with a narrative titled “One Sun So Hot” (2014), a series of six passages that surface at regular intervals throughout the exhibition.
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Isabel Nolan, Bent Knees are a Give
May 2015
From bended knee comes Isabel Nolan’s most recent body of work. At Dublin’s Kerlin Gallery, this position between seating and standing is suggested in various depictions of John Donne, Lucretia, and Saint Jerome, in a polystyrene sculpture of a seated lion, and in a series of flags hung from bent poles.
- Isobel Harbison
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Isabel Nolan, Unmade
March 2013
For Unmade Isabel Nolan wrapped 144 steel pipes of different lengths in fabric of various colours (cool greys, black, lemon yellow) and patterns (meandering flowers, ticking). This is shown as a floor piece entitled Festina Lente Rug (all works 2012), but it allows for other configurations, too, some of them shown in seven black-and-white photographs along one wall.
- Tim Stott
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Isabel Nolan, On a Perilous Margin
1 March 2010
The title of ‘On a Perilous Margin’, Isabel Nolan’s second solo exhibition at Kerlin Gallery, is taken from a passage in George Eliot’s Middlemarch (1871–2) which advises that ethical decisions be guided by personal conscientiousness rather than blind servitude. Comprising almost 30 works in a variety of media, the liaisons between individual pieces were nothing if not unlawful – which is not to say that the exhibition was lawless. The young Irish artist’s craftsmanship was adept and consistently visible throughout. Indeed, at the centre of ‘On a Perilous Margin’ lay an implicit and genuine harmony.
- Isobel Harbison
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Isabel Nolan, This time I promise to be more careful
May 2007
There is more than a hint of the adolescent bedroom to Isabel Nolan’s work, but for the Irish artist the bedroom is a space that opens up directly onto the universe, negating the need for jet propulsion and spacesuits, or the manly evils of the military-industrial complex, in her exploration of the hallucinatory enormous and angrily complex.
- Luke Clancy
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