Creative Activity = Active Creation

http://web.modarteurope.com/news/news/

I bought this arty looking magazine in an airport in somewhere once, and it was full of lovely goodness, so I found the website to show you guys. It's lovely too :)

from claire

Hey i thought tis picture was pretty cool :) :) Linda

Ref the fail better quote today - from the class wishes - Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

whats RSS and how to use it ......

Diana Copperwhite

There's an exhibition on in Drogheda at the mo of Diana Copperwhite's paintings that i really like...she just won the AIB Artist of Promise Award! You should check her out:)

www.dianacopperwhite.com/
gallery... www.highlanes.ie/



Leanne

I have recently become interested in 'Cadavar Art' from helping my friend in NCAD do some research into a project. It is surprising how wide artists interests stretch. Joel Peter Witkin for example travelled to medical schools, morgues and hospitals around the world in order to find corpses and 'freaks' to use in his art. He travelled to Mexico where he smuggled corpses back to the US. He took portraits(photography) of these people, sometimes spending hours with them, finding a good composition. To him, they were far from dead. Sometimes he would cut up the bodies and arrange their parts in different ways, or mix and match parts and sew them together.
In a way this can be compared to the work of Gunther von Hagen. Gunther von Hagen is a controversial anatomist. He appeared on the channel four programme anatomy for beginners, disecting cadavars for learning purposes. Von Hagen invented a way of preserving biological tissue called plastination. This is where the water and fat are replaced by certain plastics. This preserved the body and it will not decay or smell. Von Hagen put these preserved bodies on display in the 'body worlds' exhibition, a travelling exhibition of preserved human bodies and body parts to reveal inner anatomical structures. This is a learning exercise as each body is displaying a different life style or medical condition.


Anyway, I just thought this was an interesting and different approach to art, hopefully you'll find it interesting too.

Steph

New No Grants Gallery in Temple Bar

On Wednesday November 19th 2008 Temple Bar Cultural Trust launched a new gallery and exhibition space for artists who are currently working without public funding support. This new gallery is curated and managed by Dublin artist Carol Eakins and the system is very simple - artists pay a nominal fifty euro fee for a two-week exhibition slot and also receive promotional support from TBCT.



Carol explains that “No Grants Gallery is a new opportunity for artists to showcase their art. It is a haven for independent artists who want to show Dublin that they can make it on their own. There is strong public demand to give people opportunities to see a broad range of up and coming art in an atmosphere that is also affordable and approachable for artists.”



Ms Eakins described the purpose behind NGG and the way it will work: “The aim of the No Grants Gallery is to encourage and promote Dublin-based artists. For this reason we have decided to redevelop our exhibition space by offering it to a large range of artists for a two week period a price that just covers the maintenance of the gallery wall. Artists working in today’s climate need and deserve some support for their hard work and this is our way to do just that. We hope that with No Grants Gallery we may help every artist’s dream of exhibiting their art come true.”



Suitable For: Exhibitions and Gallery
Contact: Artists interested in showing their work at NGG should contact ngg@templebar.ie or Carol Eakins at 01 677 2255.



= ] Aaron...

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!

angel by Katie
photo by natalia

An interesting insight into the concept of Dystopia

http://gelsingers.blogspot.com/2006/11/brain-inside-our-brain.html

Just an interesting write up I found on my travels. I hope this proves helpful to anyone who's currently wrestling with their (city-based) Visual Culture zine assignment.

Good luck to everyone with their current projects,
Aisling.

InContext3 / Alight Exhibition Public Tours Education Screenings

Roll Up Your Sleeves:The DIY Counterculture: Film screening and discussion
Location RED South Dublin Arts Centre: Date Tuesday 2nd December

Time 6.00pm- 7.10pm :(Film 27 mins long)
Post film discussion Chaired by Michael Murphy with Dylan Haskins and Niall McGuirk

Screening of the debut film by 21year old Dylan Haskins and a group of his friends.The film hightlight ʽDo-It-Yourselfʼ counterculture from the starting point of his own group of friends and their local alternative community. The journey of discovery leads Haskins to drive a US folk punk band on their European tour and looks at the relationship between DIY ideology and european autonomous social centres. This is contrasted with the Seomra Spraoi social centre project in Dublin and the problems they face. Independent music features as a thread throughout the film. Interviewees include Ian MacKaye of legendary alternative bands Fugazi and Minor Threat, Ellen Lupton, author of DIY: Design it Yourself and Curator of Contemporary Design at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York, Ellie and Louise Macnamara of young irish band Heathers and members of long running Dutch experimental punk band The Ex.

Produced by Project Arts Centre Dublin for Dublin Community Television.

Gallery Visit – Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane.

On the 21st of November 2008, we visited The Hugh Lane Gallery to view the exhibition “Now’s the Time”. Curated by Padraic Moore, this exhibition presented works by 11 artists, all of whom unfortunately died at a young age, but who all created memorable works of art which still resonate with audiences today.
The exhibition was impressively displayed. There was plenty of space left between each piece, so that they could be viewed separately, and without leaving the viewer with the feeling that the space was overcrowded.
The work on show included many different mediums such as paintings, drawings, sculptures, photography, silk-screens, video work and installations. The work on show was displayed across five large spaces. The first room had works by Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The second space displayed a piece by the Cuban artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres. The third space showed work by Michel Majerus, and Martin Kippenberger. The fourth space displayed pieces by Gordon Matta-Clark, Eva Hesse and Piero Manzoni with the final section showing the work of Bas Jan Ader, Helen Chadwick and Jason Rhoades.
Many of the artworks were large in scale with works by Basquiat, Haring, and Majerus taking up whole walls of the gallery space separately while other works (for example the series of drawings by Martin Kippenberg) were very small by comparison.
My favourite works in this exhibition, both in terms of layout and artistically, were Gordon Matta-Clark’s “Sauna Piece” and “Office Baroque #669”, and also Keith Haring’s “Aids 85”.
There were titles placed beside each work which was very informative and to-the-point. Information given included the names of the artist and artwork, the date they were completed and the mediums used to create it.
My only complaint about this exhibition was that there was no leaflet or catalogue available to us containing information about the pieces and the artists who created them.
Seeing as the main premise of this exhibition was that all the artists were deceased, I thought that some information about their backgrounds and artistic practices would have been helpful. We were given an enlightening talk by the shows curator Padraic Moore but if we hadn’t had, I would have known virtually nothing about the work on show.

DL







Now is the time. Time of the day, time of the year. Time to contribute to an art world a little and time to pay our respect to a man who founded Hugh Lane Gallery- Sir Hugh Lane himself who died on a board of RMS Lusitania at the age of 39. Because this time was and is rather tragic. The show about its consequences and for some of us it is kind of a journey through time. And it should be, starting from a point of Basquiat's pop influential drawings and finishing at modern conceptual art.
On November 21st I visited the gallery, early enough to make my way to the second floor, have a look around and take some notes. I found myself in a large and tall room, number 1 (17 in the actual gallery plan) with five large artworks surrounding me. Basquiat and Haring. At first I felt llike I was back at school, chalk, blackboard, basic figure drawing and colours. Then I held my head in surprise. "Sweet Jesus", I thought. AIDS, bones, blood, pain. This is not school. This is a mirror that reflects a sense of being in the present time and unfamiliarity with the world. It's expression was a request of social awareness.
Fully prepared for more surprises I passed the disappearing work of Felix Gonzales-Torres. Personal messages were written and painted on 30 canvases by Majerus to room 3 (15) with Gordon Matta Clark as well as 2 others to finish my journey in the last room. I found a more poetic and romantic approach to art that I would imagine to find from modern artists. I stood mesmerised.
Since Padraic E Moore, the curator, told us that the exhibition arrangements are more random within the time frame and not that important in this case, I began to wonder why were those particular pieces chosen. Are they a very significant part of an artists career? Something that we should know and take examples from? No. Maybe because they talk about time passing gradually leading us to death but they also all made a similar statement: nothing lasts forever, not things nor lives. Like Torres had requested that the audience participate in proving the fact that one day his artwork would be gone or like Eva Hasse decided to work with fragile and breakable materials.
All of those scenarios were written in a memorable matter and this show has put together all its diversities in a very clever way. It was a great opportunity to purely appreciate different mediums we are yet to explore painting, drawing, sculpture, intervention, performance and video. I have noticed that each room represented different matters that are overlapping each other a little, fear and drama, vanitas attributes, peculiar perspective, flimsiness (of subjects like body, mind and objects) and a modern romantic approach to components of human needs, urge and desire (in some with visible irony and critique).
For "Now's the time", It really was The Time.

natalia

Now’s The Time concentrates on a number of artists whose lives were cut short prematurely but whose work continues to exert influence upon artistic practice today. Artists featured include Piero Manzoni, Eva Hesse, Bas Jan Ader, Gordon Matta-Clark, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Helen Chadwick, Michel Majerus, Martin Kippenberger and Jason Rhoades

Artists' forum

http://www.stealingtulips.com/

An Irish art website and forum created to unite young Irish artists so they can share ideas, job information and artwork. Worth checking out.

-Aisling.

The Tate Channel

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=tate

in the name of research

www.twomb.com

natalia

Critique of group 4's presentation on the Tate Liverpool

From our collective critique of our presentation on the Tate Liverpool, we in group 4 came to the following conclusions about how we could improve our professional practice work in the future;

* Not enough personal insights and opinions. While we unanimously agreed that our collective works were well researched and thorough, we believe that our presentation could have benefitted from the addition of our own personal opinions regarding the Tate Liverpool and the work presented in it rather than merely facts and flat material.

* Some members of our group argued that there was a lack of proper preperation between us and that we could have made more use of rehearsals to fine tune our presentation and calm our nerves.

*Similarly, the group agreed that we should meet together more for our next presentation as we found the lack of cohesion between us in some areas caused our speech's sense of fluidity from each point to the next to suffer.

* Finally, we found that we often bled into eachothers' chosen topics when writing our respective parts of the presentation. As such, some of our entries were either too specific or far too general.

Overall however, we were pleased with our presentation and believe we gave a well researched, informative look into the Tate Liverpool as a whole.

-Aisling

simple but is it

since we are learning how to speak about art and its criteria it struck me that we are using very little of it. the way we speak about its potential is very poor- we limit oureslves to words like bad, nice, complicated, simple. yep, but could it be that simple is comlicated? what is simple then? is it its simplicity of how its made: use of easy accessed materials, known techniques, way its put together (clear manner) or maybe designed for easy use of any abilities level of the receivers? Is it about the way work of art is presented visually- that makes us feel its oh so easy? what about the process we dont know much about- how the particular artist gathered his reaserch and how he design his works layout? this may only be a game of a very layered and complex contents whe should explore.could it be that artist demands some feedback, some kind of reaction or effort even? could I do that way myself? well, technically no. you didnt come up with the idea! we receive ready impact. could we take an example of it? yes. is it appropriate to judge works artisitc value by what we feel is right in a matter of personal opinion? is it ok to make personal comments? sure. those comments should not make you feel better about your own work. Opinion should not be based on wheather we feel confident... isnt it true that a simple-looking masterpiece is artists great skill?
in the other hand simple could also be unambitious. can we call unabitious practice art? if so, what makes it art? ambition to remain unambitious? there is no secret service dropping paintings in galleries to fool public. they are there for a reason. and its that reason that we should debate on more then if its a pretty picture that our 5 year old siblings could paint. because they cannot.
natalia

Flash Mobbing - Finger Fight at the Tate Modern

Some feedback on the 20th October

The Baltic - Group 1

Critic of financial management, good research, comments on debates such as the inclusion the Beyril Cook show and the rationale for this. The group spoke about architecture, the placement of works - good speaking and projection - we get a got idea of the space and refurbishment with  comments on this.  The group also gave a presentation on artists - good back ground work.  Could work on presentation style, good individually – but more as a group . They covered aspects of public participation - such as tours and talk – the educational context, opportunities for internships

MoMa – Group 2 

Good presentation – note solo speaker – which is a lot more pressure on one person – and was very well handled. Very good research and some good context. The was a lot more detail in the power-point than the speaker got to cover in the time. Images and back ground to the collection is good – but also a more critical comment on why certain choices are made, would add to and support the research that you did. Very good Rockefeller research.

Guggenheim - Group 3

Very good research and lots of personal review and input. Research covered public access and some information about financial aspects of the organisation, The was some anecdotal comments on the finance and on the patron scheme and private tours and parties. Also how the curators might be employing strategies for the exhibition and the current financial climate eg The Liam Gilick – hotel. Others spoke well and communicated a good level of personal engagement and criticism about exhibitions and artists.

Tate Liverpool - Group 4

Great back ground to the economy and context of the gallery. Also the history of the building and the James Sterling connection. Context was given also about the other Tates. How the space was broken up and used. Also good info on visitor relations and the roles and responsibilities of various departments to include youth and variety of methodologies for public accesses Some info on partnerships and sponsorships – and wider educational relationships and courses connected. Presentation on artists who are on exhibition and their style and popularity. Try include your opinons as to why decisions made and how these might related to the artist.

Tate Modern - Group 5

Again give good context – talk about the architecture – Hertzog, That the Tate is National – Museum of modern art and some information on aims, context – Who they are, what they are and how they work. A bit about the culture of the Directorship and his context. Information about public contexts and access such as talks and discussions. And other initiatives such as the Raw Canvas. Good highlighting of the excellent website and the technology used to tour people through the building and collection in web-space

second thing.getting out there

Just very recently we decided to attend two art events. The first one was an exibition opening at kennedys gallery (harcourt street) this tuesday. It was a presentation of new works by Niall Bracken, Dublin born artist called "Scapes". Aaron, Dona and myself found each other truly fascinated by this vivid, energetic and simply beautiful paintings. I have never experienced such joy of gathered friends discussing the process of getting to know how . We ended up very influenced and inspirated by his techniqe and aesthetics.
The second was a lauch of a new booklet "marks" that was a collaboration between artist and writer hugely supported by Arts Council and Circa art magazine. It took place in Temple bar gallery and studios. Not only we had a chance to drink free bottles of miller (ha ha ha) over writers readings but we were part of something new. One of the artist presented there was our very own drawing teacher Bea McMahon with her fantastic origami-like illustrations of Alan Jude Moores poems.
And who knows, maybe we all will be a fundamental part of such event in the nearest future? fingers crossed.
get out there! !
natalia

first things first

step one. subscribe.

http://www.artscouncil.ie/en/newsletter.aspx
http://www.visualartists.ie/sfr_ebulletin.html
http://www.project.ie/maillist/
http://www.recirca.com/

step two. usefull links.

http://www.irishartsreview.com/html/diary/diary_frame.htm
http://www.browseireland.com/
http://nival.ncad.ie/index.htm
http://blackletter.ie/site/modules/content/?id=5