WELCOME TO THE FORTY FOOT

OH YES - Jack B Yeats

It was bank holiday Monday and we thought a trip to the Science Museum was in order but we were only to be disappointed, the Science Museum decided to take the day off - closed for business.
So the National Gallery of Ireland was the next obvious choice around the corner. Overall it was a good afternoon but let's say the art spoke for itself.
I was reminded of my intrigue for the work of Jack B Yeats, a favourite Irish example from art history in secondary school and it was a pleasure to be gently reminded of the vibrancy he captured and the period of time in Irish life that he encapsulated in this work. Also paintings from Mildred Anne Butler proved an interesting find and a painting of the Irish Industrial Exhibition in 1853 has prompted me to find out more about the event.
However the building and environment were a let down. A ridiculous over complicated entry system and issuing of free entry tickets created a barrier to a natural flow into the space. I thought of the rush I get when I entre the turbine hall, at Tate Modern. The entry propels me forward into an anticipation of what I might find and see once I take to the escalators and jump from floor to floor -  immmediatly I am engaged in the environment and ready to be engaged in the work. It was also very disheartening to see a lot of empty cabinets and both the mezzanine and second floor closed. As I looked around at the visitors most of whom were tourists I was saddened to think that our National Gallery were unable to offer more for them to see but I am sure this is a consequence of many factors.
It was also upsetting to see may of the walls marked with double sided sticky tape where once something was mounted, the saddle boards were black and marked from the over use of a dirty mop, the toilets had cracked grouting and stained floors. Every surface in the building seemed to inappropriately chosen for the space, all of which held the dirt and markings of their everyday use. There is a lot to be said for a clean environment, smooth surfaces, good choice of materials and finish.
However the cafe looked bright and airy and the book store seemed comprehensive with a great section for young people. I actually feel pangs of guilt being so critical of the National Gallery but at the moment the building is looking neglected and uncared for, I think simple steps could make a more positive impact on visitors.

PEGGY SHAW - Menopausal Gentleman

Peggy Shaw's book - Menopausal Gentleman: The Solo Performances of Peggy Shaw has been published and it is available to buy - if you are in the states click the title above if you are in Europe click here for a direct link to Amazon to get a copy.

She is a living legend - I feel deeply privileged Peggy is a part of my life and I have programmed and presented some of her work since we first met - Menopausal Gentleman, MUST and SWAGGER. Always grounding, always beautiful and always deeply passionate - her book is a window into the genius of her writing, performative language and her optic on the world. Every fiber of her being is fuelled by a performative presence that is beyond this world.

I first witnessed Peggy perform when she performed a short extract from Menopausal Gentleman as part of an event for Performing Medicine - I was a young trainee producer but my 'producer' instinct sent off fireworks in my programming sensibility when I saw Peggy mingle the crowd and deliver her performance. I had fallen in love - this is the best way I can describe the performances and performers who blow my mind - I knew I wanted to make something happen. It took days for me to pick up the courage to make the call, I had an idea - Peggy to revive Menopausal in full 10 years after she had first performed it. It would be part of 'The End of the World Cabaret' at BAC - she loved the idea and from there it began. Peggy played to a full house, the audience hung on every syllable falling from her lips, every dash of her hand, every howl...later she told me what it felt like to do the show 10 years after it's last performance going from being a woman in her 50's to now a woman in her 60's..the show took new meaning, new life and new strength for her. It was during this time she had begun to collaborate with the Clod Ensemble to make Must and I was able to provide some initial modest support for this emerging project.
Since this time I have witnessed and shared many moments and journeys with Peggy. I have had the privilege of presenting Peggy's work to audiences, other artists and student artists too.

Every theatre maker and writer should own this book.

Obie-award-winning performer and writer Peggy Shaw has been playing her gender-bending performances on Off Broadway, regional, and international stages for three decades. Co-founder of the renowned troupe Split Britches, Shaw has gone on to create memorable solo performances that mix achingly honest introspection with campy humor, reflecting on everything from her Irish-American working-class roots to her aging butch body.
This collection of Shaw's solo performance scripts evokes a 54-year-old grandmother who looks like a 35-year-old man (in her classic Menopausal Gentleman); a mother's ambivalent ministrations to a daughter she treated like a son (in the raw You're Just Like My Father); Shaw's love for her biracial grandson, for whom she models masculinity (in the musically punctuated To My Chagrin); and a mapping of her body's long, bittersweet history (in the lyrical Must: The Inside Story, a collaboration with the UK's Clod Ensemble). The book also includes a selection of Shaw's other classic monologues and an extensive introduction by Jill Dolan, Professor of English and Theater and Dance at Princeton University and the blogger behind The Feminist Spectator website.

LOSING YOU

The world was kind to me when it gave me both of you. Never again will I be loved as you have loved me. In my bones lives the witness and testament to you being here, the swell in my chest a constant reminder of the everyday that has now slipped away.

Welcome To The Forty Foot - ABSOLUT FRINGE FESTIVAL

Last week Absolut Fringe launched their programme to begin on 10th September running until 25th Sept. I am super excited about lots of the work in this year's programme and very proud to be producing Welcome To The Forty Foot - a one woman show by Niamh McCann.
It's a wonderful tale of both the personal and universal experiences of swimming in the Irish sea - read more about it -          


What do you get if you throw yourself into the Irish Sea 365 days of the year? Niamh unearths the compulsion and joy found both in her own personal journey as a ritual swimmer and the voices of the many other women who bathe there. Investigating the effect of the daily dive.


Developed as part of Project Brand New - the work in development first appeared in PBN's The Lively Fall and was then taken on tour by PBN as part of Imagine Ireland to Solas Nua, Washington DC and HERE Arts Centre, NYC. Earlier this year Niamh received a Research and Development/Mentoring Award from the Arts Council's Artist in the Community Scheme managed by Create.

Book Now - http://www.fringefest.com/event/welcome-to-the-forty-foot
                                                                                                              

Tear Down The Walls - UBDTF

Last night saw the launch of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival with an exciting programme of work ready to hit this city between 25th September - 16th October 2011.
Some of the work is very exciting with a programme of independent German theatre work - A Radical Mind, exceptional Irish theatre work in the form of THEATREclub, Anu Productions, Brokentalkers and some of my own personal favourites from the UK in the shape of 1927 and Kneehigh - both of whom I have produced their work in the past.

But also we have our own offering in the shape of Project Brand New with Tear Down The Walls. Project Brand New in collaboration with Geraldine Pilgrim founder of Hesitate and Demonstrate and Corridor will occupy The Hendron Building, a 1940's Modernist monument in Dublin City Centre.
Artists will be invited to work site specifically and/or site responsively in the building over two days to make a piece of work for the festival audience. A call-out for expressions of interest will be announced soon.

In the meantime public booking will open on 16th August.

LET'S GET BACK TO IT

The original intention behind starting this blog was to devise a tool whereby I remedy the consequence of having a really bad memory. When I say I have a 'bad' memory it is a strange thing, somethings I remember with absolute clarity and other things play through my mind like a super 8 reel - filmic, distilled, just one frame at a time - others get stored in what seems like a very dark cupboard often brought to the fore with optimum speed by someone else's passing recollection of a shared event - revealing to me the memory was there all along but dormant, inactive and tinkering in a place between becoming irretrievable and being ultimately illuminated and vibrant.
The distance in time between the memories don't determine the clarity but instead seem inconsequential to the sequence and order - memories are not stored in my mind in any sort of chronological order.
For example every memory I have of being a child I refer to the time when I was 7, it helps other people if you pin an age to the donkey but to be honest this could mean a recollection from any point within my pre-teenage years.

However the blog was originally intended as a way to chronologically remember events, a reference point from week to week, month to month, year to year etc but there is no accounting for time and the spaces in between - so the conclusion is I must accept that this is how it is meant to be for me. The pattern of my experiences and subsequent memories is not linear, it is a non linear event - I need to sit back and enjoy the flickering resolution of gentle images, fragile chinks of imagery and the space between trying to remember and trying to forget.

QUEER NOTIONS - it's almost here

QUEER NOTIONS 2010 from THISISPOPBABY on Vimeo.

THISISPOPBABY bring you Queer Notions

If you are in Dublin and you miss this festival...you're missing the best curated programme of Queer Art to hit these shores>>>don't miss it!

Viral video by TuMe Tues

MARC REGAS - nyc

Marc Regas - talented photographer, dear friend, beautiful person..Marc posts to his blog some of the images that he has taken but won't get to use on whatever given job..it's a visual treat...feast away.

My new favourite editorial - TWIN

So looking forward to my delivery of TWIN issues I & III...a much better read over the Christmas holidays then any pull out magazine or the RTE guide..yuck!
Fashion editor one of the brightest lights in London and my gorgeous friend Celestine Cooney, even better reason to order.

My new favourite online shop - JAGUAR SHOES

It was my favourite place to meet for drinks but now it will have to be my fav online store etc etc..check out t-shirts, artwork and general news about recent events.

LIVE COLLISION - ALMOST THERE - ONLY DAYS TO GO

Tate Remixed - Stacy Makishi - Love Letters To Francis

LIVE COLLISION - Beautiful & Beguiling

Live Collision will take place at Project Arts Centre, Space Upstairs.

DATE: 13 - 15 Sept inclusive

TIME: 6.30PM

PRICE:
€10/€8: for individual shows

€25: ALL THREE SHOWS

CALL BOX OFFICE:
1850 374 643

Tickets available at:

Project Arts Centre Box Office

Live Collision comes back to fringe with a bang! After a successful first outing in the festival in 2009, Live Collision brings more exciting radical work to Ireland from three diverse international artists. International companies perform by night and collaborate with their Irish counterparts by day, exploring a cross pollination of ideas, art forms and cultural landscapes.
“The sleeper hit last year’s festival” Róise Goan, Festival Director.

Live Collision is a programme of work that provides a platform for international artists/theatre makers to present their work in Ireland while also introducing them to other Irish artists who they have the opportunity to collaborate with. Each of the international artists will present their work by night and they will work in residence with an Irish artist they have been teamed with in daytime rehearsals. They will then present the new work and seeds of ideas worked on with their Irish counterparts in an invitation only sharing/’Scratch’ performance on 16th August Sept at The LAB, Foley Street. Dublin 1.

Lynnette Moran, the founder and producer of Live Collision is supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation (UK) to explore new models of making and showing work in Ireland. Lynnette has become the first Irish based producer/artist to receive support from the foundation outside of the UK for the second year running. Live Collision’s primary objective is to open an active engagement where artists can share an understanding of Ireland‘s cultural landscape and provide a creative space for cross-cultural conversation amongst the visiting and resident artists taking part.

MONDAY 13 Sept
My Body Travels by Matthew Morris
TUESDAY 14 Sept
There's A Hole In My Heart That Goes All The Way To China by Stacy Makishi
WEDNESDAY 15 Sept
My Husband Is A Spaceman by Kazuko Hohki

LIVE COLLISION - Kazuko Hohki - My Husband Is A Spaceman

A multi-media solo show, this is the third part of an absorbing trilogy from an incredible live artist. A Japanese office lady is content with her single lifestyle until she encounters Robin, an English University fellow, in Tokyo. They fall in love, get married, and move to England. But married life is not what Robin expects and the eccentric Englishman takes to locking himself in a room upstairs every night. Derived from an old Japanese folk tale of love between a peasant and a crane, this is a love story loosely based on Kazuko’s experience of a cross-cultural relationship, loneliness and how to survive it. 

One of the most personal and affecting performers you are ever likely to see.

Kazuko Hohki is a Duckie Associate Artist

LIVE COLLISION - Stacy Makishi - There's A Whole In My Heart That Goes All The Way To China

Mining the mysterious caverns of the human heart, this is an extraordinary live art multimedia piece. Combining visuals, movement and text, it is made up of many parts about holes that ultimately leaves one feeling whole. Carl Jung said, “I would rather be whole than be good”. This work digs down deep into the depths of loneliness and shame, but even in its darkest moments, the canary still sings. 

Stacy Makishi is an Artsadmin Associate Artist.

LIVE COLLISION - Matthew Morris - My Body Travels

Matthew P. Morris is exploring a new adventure. He’s hitching his heels high and daring to redress his first solo piece. A ‘he’ who transforms to ‘she’ in order to walk the wild side of a lopsided reality of assumed identity, he’s treading bare a silent world of desirable loneliness before finally surrendering to the natural order of serenity. A cycle of events; moments in time unravel unexpectedly to reveal where paths cross and people change our lives, often unsettling the ground beneath us. 

Shake it like a milkshake, moves that’ll groove … all creamy and dreamy. A song might be sung. The dance will be danced. And please for a moment let there be quiet…

VIRTUAL JUKEBOX - mouth to mouth

Globally dispersed performers (mouth to mouth) separated by time zones, land and sea come together to dance to a unique playlist made up entirely of personal dedications. 
mouth to mouth invite the audience to select songs from the playlist they would like to listen and dance to – triggering both virtual and real performers and revealing personal dedications. It’s a chance for all involved to jump in and share a moment in time. 

Members of mouth to mouth | international performance collective, through a live web link, will take part in an intimate dance off; gestures and dance moves will be shared, embodied, and passed on in both live and virtual spaces.

Without a trained dancer in sight, this is more about random responses and endurance rather than skill. 

Virtual Jukebox was originally performed as part of Now and Then at Gallery North (UK) as part of the Wunderbar Festival. 

Directed by Kate Craddock and Lynnette Moran

CALL BOX OFFICE 
1850 374 643

SCRATCH IT...Live Scratch

Live Scratch brings you works in progress, seeds of ideas and fresh collaborations. 

It’s a moment in time, a testing ground, a chance to fire it up or stomp it out. 

Like a train passing through the station, there is only one chance to jump on before it’s gone. 

Artists will include an international line-up of – Greg McLaren, Anna Mendes and Patrizia Paolini.  

Produced & curated by Lynnette Moran

CALL BOX OFFICE 
1850 374 643

SOMETHINGS I'VE SEEN IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS - Princess Julia

Princess Julia original Blitz Kid, legendary DJ, club princess extraordinaire - 50 and beautiful - style icon - co-publisher for music paper/fanzine The P.i.X - contributes to fashion website KCTV.co.uk - music editor for iD magazine

Kunstenfestivaldesarts 010

I am one of 30 young international producers selected for SPACE - Supporting Performing Arts Circulation in Europe organised by ONDA in Paris and supported by the European Commission.

One of the festivals I have attended this summer is the Kunstenfestival des Arts 010.

Kunstenfestivaldesarts takes place in Brussels, the only city in Belgium where the country's two largest communities live together. Several Flemish- and French-speaking institutions are involved in the project. Fundamentally conceived as a bilingual undertaking, it contributes to encouraging dialogue between the communities living in the city. 

The Kunstenfestivaldesarts' audiences are keen followers of contemporary, inspiring and atypical artistic offerings. The range of artistic creations in the international programme - both from more established artists and still fairly unknown talents - awakened people's curiosity and generated debate.

A large number of new works saw the light at this year's festival, for the most part initiated and co-produced by the Kunstenfestivaldesarts, and many of them held wonderful surprises in store for their audiences. Highlights include the premiere of the new work by Germany's Christoph Schlingensief, which proved a revelation for many, as well as the provocative new project from the Hungarian Kornél Mundruczó. There were also excellent creations from Belgian artists this year, such as Inne Goris, Etienne Guilloteau, Sarah Vanagt and Claude Schmitz: projects that have often allowed them to assert their artistic language and introduce it to a wider audience. 

This 010 festival was also an opportunity for opening up reflection on the city and the people who live there, through artistic projects by Lotte van den Berg, Sarah Vanagt and ZimmerFrei for example, but also in a series of initiatives such as workshops, debates and a travelling theatre for children (the Kamishibai project) which have taken the festival to people who do not normally access the city's cultural offerings. 

My personal highlight was in the form of Lotte van den Berg's piece - Het verdwalen in kaart 

Dutch director Lotte founded OMSK when she moved to Dordrecht and set herself up in the Energiehuis.  In order to get to know the city and its inhabitants, she invited them to create a show. A total of 72 residents, young and old, accepted her invitation, and Het verdwalen in kaart is the generous result. The sense of belonging, of individuality and of knowing oneself secure in a group is the red thread running through the silent performance. Lotte uses powerful, silently fading images to suggest extremes of joy and distress.

It is moving and extraordinary while being perfectly ordinary.  A simple act of creating and destroying, doing & undoing.  A gentle nudge to the edge of your seat, while all the time the very question of belonging is challenged again and again.

My new favourite online shop - needsupply

This online store seems to have more then enough delightful items to keep me interested, good sale on too. Worth flicking through - click on title above for link - bookmarked

My new favourite shop - Tokyo Bike

Tokyo Bike has a new pop up shop at Spitalfields Market - the shop & the bikes are just super pleasing to the eye, with minimal design aesthetics applied to both the bikes and the shop...it makes you just want to indulge in the cr-mo steel framed bikes, in block colours with tan leather seats, straight handlebars and 650mm wheels.
They look good - check them out - 

SOME THINGS I'VE SEEN IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS - Best Before by Rimini Protokoll

Cork Mid Summer Festival was a great success bringing together a combination of commissioned and programmed work, there was a strawberry ripple of international companies through a programme of homegrown work. I was only there for two days each of the weekends, so I missed other festival highlights like Jérôme Bel and Mike Daisy.

But I had my own two highlights, the first of which was Rimini Prokoll’s, Best Before.

I am a fan of their work ordinarily and this show was no let down.

Best Before pulls the multi-player video game out of the virtual realm and plugs it into an intimate theatre setting. Each audience member navigates an anonymous avatar, interacting with a panel of on-stage experts – an electronic artist, a game tester, a lobbyist and a traffic flagger. A simulated city, Best-Land, gradually develops as each audience member adds their personal touch with game controller in hand. Taking its inspiration from Vancouver’s gaming industry, Best Land evolves and devolves as the audience clashes and collaborates while making personal, social and political decisions.

The show, decisions and outcomes percolated through my brain for many a day after.

Next up was Superflex – Check them out – Click link below

 

http://superflex.net/

SUPERFLEX is a Danish art collective, founded in 1993 whose interventionist practice deals with economic markets, power structures, self-organisation and environmentalism. They understand their artistic practice as a set of tools, or as an invitation to positive action and participation rather than in terms of discrete works of art. Viewers often become co-producers, shifting the focus away from objects to relationships where the artworks can be redefined and modified by users.

More recently Superflex have been working with legal contracts, challenging public and private copyright laws which led to complex legal negotiations. By investigating the function of a contract, Superflex has created new works that are statements and proposals and can be understood as political acts redefining particular contexts and situations.

SOME THINGS I'VE SEEN IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS - STK

World Cup Final at Stoke Newington International Airport was a raucous affair to some degree, the boys at STK had set up the bed sheet and lashed a few beers in the fringe to facilitate a crowd of art loving football viewers, most of whom were avoiding the reality of the local sports bars.

The flurry and excitement of the match was accentuated by the twirling ‘loading’ sign of the internet connection swirling around trying desperately to keep up with the pace of play.

None the less it was a split crowd and when Spain rose to victory there was a modest celebration and a mass exodus of Holland fans.  But I was very happy, I was delighted to see Spain win and I thought of all my lovely Spanish friends celebrating with much joy.