Culture Notes

A couple of performances are on this weekend that it would be worth trying to get to:

Tonight (Friday 19 June) La Catedral Studios present Midsummer Mini-Salon at The Back Loft. The “madness, mayhem and mesmeric mystification” starts at 8pm.

I mentioned previously (but unless I’m reminded I tend to forget things so for now I’ll assume everyone has the same goldfish memory) that the CMC are presenting Music for Midsummer as a part of Temple Bar Cultural Trust’s Midsummer in Temple Bar programme on Saturday at 6pm in the CMC Library.

In my previous post I mentioned the Spatial MC gig in the NCH on Weds last. I just read this morning that a work by Jonathan Nangle, one the composers featured in the Spatial MC performance, was selected by the International Rostrum of Composers as a recommended work in the Under 30 catagory. More information on the Irish submissions for the ICR on RTÉ lyric fm’s Nova .

The Hugh Lane Sundays at Noon series features bassist Malachy Robinson performing Ian Wilson’s work Schattentiefe. This coming Sunday 21 June at Noon… 

Stepping away from music for a moment, visual artist Fergus Byrne sent on a quick email about Bodily Trace Drawing Day - a workshop with Fergus which takes place all day tomorrow, Sat 20 June, in The Lab. More info here

Contemporary gigging

I made it (after a sprint across town) to Rob Casey and David Lacey’s experimental performance yesterday evening in the Goethe Institute and was glad I made the dash over. Not surprisingly, I was the only female present in the room (I still haven’t figured out why this is often the case with smaller experimental gigs) but the turn out was small enough. I got a text from a friend about the gig an hour before so perhaps that’s part of the reason for the small numbers. In any case, Casey and Lacey (I know, I know…) performed a 45 minute experiment with piano and percussion, building from a hushed singing sound to a roaring cacophony over the 45 minutes, dropping off to a hush over 5 minutes at the end. Between the two of them they produced a huge variety of sounds on their respective instruments using both electronic and rudimentary devices (Lacey produced an interesting crackling hiss from a torn cymbal at one point). The intensity with which Casey and Lacey listened to both eachother and their instruments was obvious from the outset. Both their hands were shaking during the performance and I wondered if this was due to the fact that it is terrifying to expose something so raw to an audience of peers or if it was from the intensity of their contribution to the performance. The sweat dripping from David Lacey’s forehead at the end of the performance would suggest the latter. Keep an eye on Casey’s myspace for future gigs of the same nature.

I’m sorry not to be able to make it over to the National Gallery on *Saturday afternoon for Isabelle O’Connell and Laura Barger performing Messiaen’s “Visions De L’Amen”. The background story to the work (Messiaen’s recent release from a POW camp in 1943) makes the emotions expressed in the work all the more intense. The performance is at 3pm and admission is free. If anyone is interested in going, send me an email and I can put you down for reserved seating for the performance. It should be a really beautiful concert, it’s a shame not to be in Dublin for it. They also perform in Cork on Friday evening for any Cork readers!

Incidentally, the reason I’m not in Dublin this weekend is I’m heading to Sligo for the opening on the new Medium Religion exhibition in The Model. Check if out!

* Update Friday 22 May – the performance is on Saturday! Not Sunday as I had originally posted!

Infectious at Science Gallery

I got an email from Darragh Doyle about the launch of Infectious Stay Away at the Science Gallery which was open to members and bloggers and popped in yesterday evening to check it out. It’s the first time I ever had to queue to get into a launch and thought it a little pretentious until I realised the reason for the delay – all members were given masks and were scanned for infectious diseases before being allowed to enter the exhibition! It was all very serious and we were warned to wear our masks at all times and were given tags to monitor our movements at all times. (The tag blinks when activated and is still blinking on the couch here beside me this morning – a little unnerving…)

The exhibition itself relied heavily on gimicks and the novelty factor of pieces such as the Immune Lab which offered participants the opportunity to check their own DNA for immunity to diseases. One of the more interesting works was Fugue, a collaboration between visual artist Gordana Novakovic and composer Rainer Linz. Linz wasn’t credited in the Science Gallery exhibition, something which Novakovic was eager to amend when I spoke with her about the work. Fugue is a smaller version of a large installation which Novakovic and Linz have been working on for five years. Based on the functioning of the human immune system the visuals and music respond to the artificial changes created by complex scientific software. Read more about Fugue Arts here.

Infectious Stay Away is running in the Science Gallery until 17 July – pop in and have your lips monitored for infectious diseases!

Angela Conner Public Sculpture for Dublin

I was a little surprised to see a new public sculpture on the top of Grafton St Friday evening last. I took a tour of Dublin’s public sculptures last year with second year Business Studies with Arts Management students from IADT and at that point (March if I remember correctly) there was another piece there. It consisted of four tall pillars (there were supposed to be five but one was MIA) which would change design with the seasons. I was under the impression that work was permanent but it seems the space has been deemed a temporary space for public art at the suggestion on the Solomon Gallery and on Friday 3 April a new work appeared.

This is a piece by British Sculptor Angela Conner entitled Patefaction. I just passed quickly on Friday so didn’t get a good chance to take in the piece but it is substantial in size and has movable parts on it which passers-by can

Win tix to Imagine Create with Journal of Music

The Journal of Music are offering tickets to the three-day Imagine Create festival taking place on 2nd-4th April in Derry.

The festival is based around creative applications of technology and only for I’m away that weekend I would definitely be entering the competition. Events include performances by Hot Chip, seminars includin ArtAngel and talks from industry professionals.

Signals in the Dark: Art in the Shadow of War

The new exhibition received an excellent launch in the Model Niland’s satellite space Castle House on Saturday last. Curator/director Séamus Kealy gave a tour of the exhibition at 5pm to a fascinated attendance and people were still arriving to check out the exhibition at 8 o’clock.

With so many people there, I only had a chance to have a brief look over the exhibition and intend on heading in later in the month to spend some more time with it. I’ll leave reviewing the exhibition until after I’ve had that opportunity.

The satellite space itself is impressive, with the exhibition spread over two floors, and should serve the Model nicely until the redevelopment on the actual Model is complete.

New exhibition in the Model::Niland

I’m heading to the wild west this weekend to check out the first exhibition from the Model::Niland since their closure in 2008 for redevelopment. Signals in the Dark: Art in the Shadow of War is an inter-disciplinary exhibition which explores “contemporary art’s relationship to war and its representations.

“Investigating the interstices between perpetual war, dominant politics, and military aesthetics, this project confronts issues of global warfare; how it is imaged, and how it is imagined”

The exhibition will be hosted in the Model’s satellite space Castle House in Sligo’s town centre from 14 March. The plans for the 2009 programming earmark the Model as a stimulating space for contemporary art in Ireland. If you don’t make it this weekend be sure to make the trip to Sligo before the 3 May when the exhibition closes.

James Coleman exhibition in Dublin

I managed to make it to two of the events in the remarkable collaborative exhibition of the work of Irish artist James Coleman on Friday evening. IMMA, Project and the RHA are presenting a substantial selection of his work, some of which has never been seen in Ireland to date.

I wasn’t able to make it to IMMA (hopefully I’ll make it out later in the week) but was struck by two of the pieces shown in the RHA and Project.

The large upstairs space in the RHA houses Charon (MIT Project), 1989 -  the enormous size of the room and projection screen adding to impact of the piece. The monotonous tone of the audio narrative is a fitting foil for still images that reminded me of those staged images from the 1980’s cookbooks I used adore. Project Arts Centre houses two works, one of which – Box (ahhareturnabout), 1977 , a black and white film projected in a continuous cycle – had such a profoud affect on me I had to leave the room after only 30 seconds. The flash projection is accompanied by a quiet scratchy voiceover and a loud, almost physical, electronic pulse. It was the combined sound of the voiceover and pulse that disturbed me to the point where I was disorientated for about an hour after seeing the piece. It’s definitely worth checking out before it leaves Project.

 

The exhibition is running until the 25 April - check out the spaces for opening times