North Indian Classical Music and the Foreign Phenomenon

In the gallery  4th May 8pm   a concert, small talk and show of a short 9 minute film.

North Indian Classical Music and the Foreign Phenomenon

:Musical conversations

This event explores the unique experiences of foreigners undertaking serious study of North Indian Classical Music.  Beginning with a discussion by Australian born Mattu Noone, who is a long time student of the North Indian 25 stringed lute called the sarode, this evening will give the audience an insight not only of the music of North India but the physical, emotional and mental challenges of it's discipline.  Dara O' Brien, a Cork based sitar player, will also present ideas from his recent PHD material on the spiritual beliefs of North Indian musicians.  A short film entitled, We are Nocturnal Animals, will be presented which outlines the experience of the concert season in Kolkata, West Bengal.

Finally, Mattu, Dara and tabla player, Sadanand Magee, will present a recital of North Indian instrumental music.  This item will be a jugal bundi or conversation between sarode and sitar. 

Depth

DEPTH

FETAC Art Exhibition

Ennistymon Vocational School        

April 27^th – May 3^rd 2012

The annual end of year Art show by the FETAC Level 5 and 6 students of Ennistymon Vocational School 

 opening this Thursday April 26^th at 7pm.

The exhibition is a culmination of the years work. The title and theme of the exhibition is 'Depth' which represents the many ways the students looked at their art this year.

depth n 1 the extent, measurement or distance from top to the bottom, from the inner to the outer, downwards, backwards, or inwards. 2 intensity of thought or objects, emotion, silence colour etc. 3 the intellectual ability to penetrate deeply into ideas.

The collection demonstrates the self expression and skills development of the course participants and this is clearly seen in the variety and exploration of media and subject matter. Ceramics, sculpture, textiles, painting and drawing unite to make an eclectic, bold and exciting body of work.

The FETAC Level 5 and 6 Art course in Ennistymon is a full time course running from September to May each year. It is open to anyone who has an interest in, and wishes to expand their knowledge and skills in art. The course is always well subscribed and appeals to both mature students and school leavers who wish to explore their creativity or embark on art as a career. If you are interested in joining the group this September contact Ennistymon Vocational School on 065 7071375 http://www.artroomennistymonvs.blogspot.com/

VAI Info Clinic at the Courthouse Gallery Friday 4th May from 12pm to 2.45pm

On Friday the 4th of May 2012 Aideen Barry, Western Representative for Visual Artists Ireland will host a VAI Info Clinic at the Ennistymon Courthouse. This is the second time the artist has run a VAI Info Clinic and follows on from the success of the last clinic in 2008. 

The Clinic is open to all artists, art students, artist led initiatives, curators and cultural practioners working in the visual arts. Aideen is keen to meet everyone and to have a chat about the needs and concerns of visual artists in the Clare region. The Clinic is an informal way for you to come and find out about the Visual Artists Ireland Organisation: its professional development courses, recent opportunities and information on the services that the organisation provided for artists and organisations.

Aideen Barry is a full time practicing visual artist as well as the western representative for VAI she also Lectures in Limerick School of Art and Galway Mayo Institute of Technology. 

The clinic runs from 12pm to 2.45pm and is free for all.

For further information on the VAI please visit www.visualartists.ie

Tom Portman Concert

Tom Portman

At the Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon

Friday 20^th April 8.30pm

Admission €8  concession €5

Multi-instrumentalist, performer and songwriter Tom Portman will be bringing his talents to the Courthouse Gallery in Ennistymon on Friday 20th of April at 8.30pm. €8, €5 conc.

Playing acoustic, electric guitar, Dobro and lap steel, Tom presents a wide repertoire. His compositions draw on many global styles yet have a distinct flavour of their own. Last year he launched his second solo album, At One, with a sell-out show in Galway's Town Hall Theatre. This self-produced collection features instrumental compositions, songs and arrangements of traditional Irish tunes for fingerstyle guitar and Dobro.

He regularly performs around Ireland from small venues to festivals such as the Electric Picnic and the DLR Festival of world cultures. Internationally, Tom has toured in Poland where he played the Suwalki Blues festival. Portman has also played venues in the UK, North Italy and the South of France. Tom will bring his unique style to the Ennistymon Courthouse Gallery.

'He absolutely captivated me...'        John Richards, Galway Bay FM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om6DTP2Gg-Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPUELI2vDwM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_LwKWsxTx8

TIME FRAME Photography by Robert Ellis, Video & drawings by David O'Rourke

TIME FRAME

Opening Fri March 23^rd 8pm

Robert Ellis

New Line:

This body of work documents the space inhabited by a small alternative community in the West of Ireland. By exploring the private world created by the people that live here, this work adopts a silent and contemplative tone, and seeks to engage with this space and its inhabitants, rather than expose it. Through carefully negotiated access and many discussions, the work becomes a catalyst of my experience and the time spent making the work. Carried out over the period of a year the images reveal the harsh depths of winter and the warm fertility of summer. The images tell the stories of the people that belong here, but only ever show a glimpse of their presence.

Robert Ellis was born in Dublin in 1984 and is a graduate of MFA Photography in the University of Ulster, Belfast. His photography, which has been exhibited in Ireland and abroad, often deals with the notion of “home”. Working with small rural communities, his photographs rely on inherent or local knowledge to inform a sense of place.  

www.robertellis.eu

David O'Rourke

video still " persistance of memory " by David O’Rourke

 A. THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY (projected video)

For this piece I wanted to go back to the origins of cinema and limit myself accordingly. The first motion picture by the Lumiere brothers “ train arriving at the station “ needed a complete narrative in one take from a fixed viewpoint (due to the constraints of technology at the time) so I strove with modern technology to do likewise. No editing or effects ,using original sound and having  a complete narrative. References around  train imagery being many , this journey by train could symbolise past lives.

B. THE PERSISTENCE OF VISION (DVD)

Based on the phenomena ‘Persistence of Vision’ in which a series of still images projected in succession

give the illusion of an unbroken  connection (the basis of film and animation) and more specifically the visual hallucination which occurs when the speed of the object being  filmed exceeds the film speed. (The reason why wheels on a car move backwards in a film.)Our perceptual systems seem to work in a similar way. The piece is self referential  in nature relating itself to the way this medium works and indeed its inequities which have correlations to the inequities of our perceptual systems.

In relating the two pieces I compare the visual  hallucinations of  “persistence of vision ” and  the construct of mental hallucination in  “Persistence of memory”(present/past lives). The tunnel hallucination symbolizing near death and birth experiences.

Artefact - A series of white chalk drawings on black paper.

 Each drawing was completed over the course of a day.  As the day progressed the light changed and the detail was picked out, leaving the shadow from the morning.

In this way they are like composite images recording the passage of time.

Fertile Rock - mixed media by Liz Moloney

March 23 - April19,

in the Red Couch Space

Opening March 23rd at 8 pm

Fertile Rock is a series of works inspired by the rich and diverse Flora and Fauna of the Burren.
By exploring these unique forms through a series of observational drawings and photography.
The images are then taken out of context, altering the dimension's and scale and playing with 
the introduction of pattern, texture and motif.

DIY Media and Object Hacking Workshop with Cliona Harmey & Saoirse Higgins

DIY media and object hacking workshop FEB 24th and 25th (1.5 day session) in partnership with VAI  Professional Development Training 

This hands-on workshop session will explore a range of DIY & hardware & object hacking approaches to media art practice. It will discuss the ethos and history of hacking devices, media and objects. Using a mixture of everyday cheap electronics, opensource tools (arduino) and found materials participants will create and work with sensors/switches in order to control motors/lights/media (sound & video clips). The workshop will be accompanied by a basic resource site with links to additional resources (books, websites, suppliers etc).

Biographies:

Cliona Harmey is an artist and lecturer. She is particularly interested in the histories & artifacts of communication technologies (flags, semaphores, computers, camera etc). Recent work often combines sculpture with newer technologies (networked live data/ cctv camera feeds etc). She studied sculpture at NCAD, Hdip Computer Science at UCD and has a MA in Visual Practices from DLIADT. She is based in Dublin and works at the Media Dept at NCAD. Recent projects include “Quantified Self” at The Lab Dublin, Unbuilding, eMobilart International Media Residency.

Saoirse Higgins is an artist from Dublin, Ireland. Saoirse is interested in revealing some of the connections between our visions of the world we live in, our expectations for the future and the technology we use to help us with this. She explores the contested spaces of public-private, man-machine, man-nature. Her work is process-driven and has a scientifically influenced, playful approach. Saoirse shown her work at festivals and galleries such as Montreal Film and New media festival, Transmediale, Siggraph, Exit Art and Location One gallery, New York. She has held residences at e-Mobilart Lab, Disonancias in Spain, Location1 gallery in New York and the Banff Centre for the Arts. She is also a member of the international artist group The Grafting Parlour.

Both Cliona and Saoirse are artists who have worked together before and are generous in their interatctions and collaborations with others.  Both work in academic and other learning settings. Cliona has been part of Blackletter artists collective which provide information and other services to artists peers.

Here are further links to work by Cliona and Saoirse.
http://www.blackletter.ie/
http://ie.linkedin.com/in/clionaharmey

http://portraitofspace.wordpress.com/participants/saoirse-higgins/
http://www.thegraftingparlour.org/gfp_bio.html

Both Cliona and Saoirse have recently produced new work for the exhibition Quantified Self, below, at The LAB Gallery, Dublin City Council
http://www.dublincity.ie/RecreationandCulture/ArtsOffice/TheLAB/Documents/QUANTIFIED_SELF_book.pdf

The History of North Clare in 100 Objects

THE HISTORY OF NORTH CLARE IN 100 OBJECTS

Wednesday February 15^th  at 8pm in the Gallery

The history of North Clare is encapsulated in all kinds of objects from the High Crosses

 at Kilfenora to the lowly creamery can left abandoned at Lismorahan.


So far in the series we have had a wonderful cross-section of historical times through a

 presentation of stone age axe heads – traditional bilingual stories – school roll books

 – a wheel barrow an old brehon law text – fishing nets – needle work and craft objects

An interesting feature has emerged of how important local ballads are in recording and 

transmitting local history of events and characters.

This meeting will have a particular emphasis on letter writing 

and the importance of communication and the post in our story.

History is lying and dying all around us

“if only the walls could speak”

All welcome

Re/Imagining Birth

Re/Imagining Birth

 An exhibition by

 Martina Hynan                                   

in the Red Couch Space

                                   

FEB 17 – MARCH 15, 2012

Official opening: Feb 18^th at 4pm

This work imagines how birth was seen through the eyes of women in Ireland before medical intervention became the norm.  It engages with the empowering possibilities associated with early birth traditions and weaves renewed connections across cultures.   Re/Imagining Birth is part of my on-going work on the visual culture of birth in Ireland that I began in 2008 with Keeping Mum, Community Art Project and am pursuing through my PhD research at UCD.
The viewer is invited to gaze upon ancient traditional birth spaces taken from Sheela-na-gig imagery and the Mandorla tradition.  A Mandorla is made up of two separate circles coming together to form an almond-shaped symbol of birth.  The word mandorla is taken from the Latin for almond.  This balanced sacred space has provided women with a powerful way of visualizing birth.  My work seeks to continue this ancient tradition into the future.
Martina Hynan

HOT SUN - COLD MOON

HOT SUN – COLD MOON

An exhibition of photography by Carol Kennedy and Ilsa Thielan

FEB 18 – MARCH 15^TH

Official opening : Saturday February 18^th at 4 pm by Marie Connole, artist

Two artists, Carol Kennedy and Ilsa Thielan, join forces in a stunning exhibition of

photography in the Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon, from Saturday the 18^th of February

to Thursday, the 15^th of March 2012. Both follow their intuition to capture the essence

of moments precious to them.

Ilsa Thielan’s exhibited work is a homage to the people of the Sahara, who she met when travelling to the Festival au Desert about 65 kilometers beyond the legendary town of Timbuktu way out in the vastness of the Sahara. Under a scorching hot sun she camped with them capturing unforgettable moments of desert life and friendship. With her camera she works in a gentle way as if part of her body, her tool, her paint brush. Her portraits radiate a vibrant, passionate energy as well as a lovely spirit. Ilsa’s desert scenes have a mystical remoteness like her camel rider “He came from afar” or her camp “at the edge of the night” where a lone tree reaches out to tents and camels in haunting twilight. Poetry she wrote in the desert accompanies the exhibition.

And there are Carol Kennedy’s nocturnal moonscapes creating an amazing contrast to the colourful Saharan scenes. Though Carol’s fascinating photographs are taken in Ireland, the  same cold moon is moving through the night sky in the Sahara. Carol captures the essence

of the ephemeral moment one has to respond instantly to or loose it, her camera merely acting

as an extension of herself. There are the fine branches of a tree touching a full white moon as if  gently stroking a gem stone, or the moon is mysteriously partly hidden in the dark of a landscape. Carol captures glimpses of nature at night in her photographs weaving through the exhibition like another kind of poetry.

The exhibition is opened by artist Marie Connole on Saturday, 18^th of February, 4 p.m. Everybody welcome! It runs until 15^th of March 2012 in the Courthouse Gallery, Parliament Street,  Ennistymon, Co. Clare. Opening Hours: Tuesdays to Saturdays 12 - 4 p.m.