Deirdre Mulrooney

Tune your wireless to Newstalk for "Irish Monsoon Wedding"

2012-02-09T07:44:00.001-08:00

Irish Monsoon Wedding: Radio Documentary Newstalk 106-108FM, Feb 26th

In this heart-warming love story, The East meets the West, The Sea meets the Hills, and Darjeeling harmonises with the Cork lilt as Eileen and Brendan O’Brien make the long and arduous trip from Cork to the foothills of the Himalayas to give their only daughter Emma away in an elaborate Nepali wedding ritual involving destiny, and many bottles of whiskey… Irish Monsoon Wedding tells what has once again become an archetypal Irish story - of parents coming to terms with the loss of their children to foreign shores, or, in this case, to a far-off mountain-top above the clouds in India. Bittersweet tears are balanced by the joy of a colourful, intercultural wedding celebration complete with intricate Nepali rituals. This exotic tale unravels against a backdrop of Edith Wilkins’ wonderful Centre for Street Children, and Fair Trade Organic Darjeeling Tea, available for sale here in Dublin and Cork. Tune in for a monsoon of tears, of singing, of laughter and of course that essential ingredient for any love story - true love.

9am, Sunday February 26th, on Newstalk 106 – 108FM
A Deirdre Mulrooney Production
Sound Supervision by John Davis

This story is coming soon...

2012-01-30T06:18:00.000-08:00

Watch this space... It's coming....

:-)

My chat with Jonathan McCrea of Newstalk on TCD's Malawi Thermo-Electric Generator Project

2012-01-15T11:59:00.000-08:00

I had a great chat with Jonathan McCrea of Newstalk's "Futureproof" science show about the TCD Malawi Thermo-Electric Generator Pilot project last week. You can have a listen here:

Futureproof, Newstalk - Jonathan McCrea interviews DMulrooney on TCD Thermo-Electric Generator by Deirdre Anne Mulrooney

For some more background on what the TCD M-Power Stove Project is all about, watch this video, which was made to be screened at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, in September 2011:

My December 2011 trip to Malawi was kindly supported by the Simon Cumbers Media Fund.

Malawi by Minibus

2012-01-15T02:02:00.000-08:00

Hear about my road trip in Malawi on RTE World Report today by clicking here.

For my firsttrip within Malawi I was instructed to be at Lilongwe bus station by 11am SHARPfor an AXA bus to Balaka. When I got there, I was told “The floor fell out ofthe bus”. Lesson Number One: there are no bus timetables – show up, or stand atthe side of the road, and hope for the best.

I resorted tothe dreaded mini-bus – which is how most Malawians get around, if they canafford it, many standing for hours. Hordes kept piling in after the small vehicle was full. I took someiphone photos as my luggage was roped up and made into a seat for others. Toolate to jump out, I took a deep breath, and invoked my new mantra: TIA. (This is Africa).

A coach drovepast whose entire windshield on the driver’s side was shattered and heldtogether by masking tape – blocking the driver’s view. I nearly got into that bus. Things could be worse.

Out variousminibus windows during my Malawian sojourn, I saw post-apocalyptic, scenes ofpeople running around in rain and fork lightning with yellow jerry cans ofpetrol in a traffic jam outside Lilongwe.

Filling up at abootleg fuel station at the Mozambique border, where the siphoning was not aprecise art, there were plenty spills, and, on these spills, people putting outtheir cigarettes…

After myassignment I had hoped to stick around in Malawi, ‘the warm heart of Africa’and one of the least developed nations in the world to explore lake Malawi,Malawian culture, and whatever else might catch my fancy. However, lack of fuel – a commonoccurrence here – has ground this friendly country to a halt….

Petrol stationswere encircled by kilometre-long queues for fuel. People slept overnight in their cars, in the hope of a dropof diesel. “You have come to Malawi at a bad time”, I was told…

The reason? No “forex” – or foreign currency. Democratically elected president BinguWa Mutharika had recently expelled the British Ambassador, and hence Malawi’sprimary donor. Papers were full ofhis refusal to apologise to the new Zambian president who he had also expelledbefore he was elected. Additionally, he was on bad terms with Mozambique, through which he wassupposedly building a canal to the sea, to improve the trading fortunes of thislandlocked country. Earlier in theyear he had deported tobacco dealers for not paying his minimum prices. Actually, the President’s only friendin the area is Robert Mugabe.

In the meantime,while hours of parliament time are devoted to topics like a law criminalisingpublic farting, only 10% of Malawians have access to grid electricity. The majority cook on woodfire stoves,three times a day, the equivalent of bringing the barbeque indoors– and ashazardous to their health as smoking 20 cigarettes per day.

When the sweetsmell of diesel finally filled the hot air again for a short while, I heard aloudspeaker in the distance. Uh Oh.Just a few months earlier, fuel shortages had led to the July anti-governmentdemonstrations, when 19 people were killed by police. Then I made out what they were saying. “Jesus loves you”. “There is only one God”.

“It is God’swill” is a common refrain in peace-loving Malawi - the only country among the world’sten poorest never to have had a revolution. No, I wanted to tell them, it isnot God’s will that you have no fuel, no electricity, and dodgy internetconnection.

In my last fewhours in Balaka, I ran into Malawi’s most famous singer of “rock bottom Africanreggae”, Lucius Banda, and put this to him. He told me how in 2004 the sametime President Mutharika was elected, he had been elected MP for Balaka. When Mutharika then invented his ownparty, Banda declined his invitation to join, instead proposing a law thatwould allow for impeachment of a president. The singer-turned-politician wasimmediately accused of forging his primary school certificate, and emprisoned. Fearingthe safety of his family, he apologised, and is now expelled frompolitics. Instead he sings subversivesongs, and writes occasional letters to the president – he promises one at theend of this month. Our chance meeting was all I got of Malawian culture. Unfortunately,with Malawi’s fuel shortages, bad infrastructure, and poverty – he could besinging the same tune for some time to come…

SUPPORTED BY SIMON CUMBERS MEDIA FUND.

Introducing - Malawi Project:

2011-12-23T10:20:00.001-08:00

This project is kindly supported by the Simon Cumbers Media Fund To be continued!

Irish Times Review of 'Doreen - Telling the Dancer from the Dance'

2011-11-20T05:44:00.001-08:00

This is Mick Heaney's review of 'Doreen - Telling the Dancer from the Dance' as it appeared in the Irish Times on Saturday November 5th. You can make your own mind up by listening to the podcast of the documentary, which is available by clicking here. Would love to hear your thoughts on it!

In the meantime, I am grateful to Simon Cumbers Media Fund who awarded me a grant in their most recent round to go to Malawi next month to document the pilot programme of TCD Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering's part Irish Aid funded M-Power Stove Project. So I'm busy organising that and will keep you posted on how it goes. As I will be over there at the start of the holiday season, I'm hoping to stay on and volunteer for Concern Universal for a few weeks. Can't wait to discover Malawi. I'll be looking out for their traditional dancing and theatre too. Watch this space!

'Doreen - Telling the Dancer from the Dance' on Lyric FM this Friday Nov 4th

2011-11-02T02:44:00.000-07:00

RTE LYRIC FM RADIODOCUMENTARY

Doreen –Telling the Dancer from the Dance

In1927 WB Yeats founded the Abbey Theatre Ballets with Ninette de Valois, theIrish woman who would go on to create the Royal British Ballet. WB Yeatsis well known as one of the world’s greatest writers. His propheticvision for dance, and the body are less known however. Thanks to an exclusiveinterview with Doreen Cuthbert, who danced in the Abbey Theatre Ballets fromits inception in 1927 until its demise in 1933, in this documentary we reclaimthis lost cultural history, and in doing so, tell the dancer from the dance.

Commentators include RoyFoster, Yeats’s biographer, Richard Allen Cave, author of “Collaborations:Ninette de Valois & WB Yeats”, JW Flannery, author of “Yeats and the Ideaof a Theatre” and Anna Meadmore, head of Academic Studies at the Royal Balletof Great Britain.

Aurally, this documentarytakes the listener on a musical journey, from the music danced to by the AbbeyTheatre Ballets - Schubert and Chopin - to Victor Sylvester, to original musiccomposed for dance by Philip Feeney (for Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre) and TheEdge (for Morleigh Steinberg’s “Cold Dream Colour”).

The documentary will be broadcast on RTE Lyric FM’s “LyricFeature” slot on Friday November 4^th at 7pm., and afterwards will beavailable as a podcast via http://www.rte.ie/lyricfm/features/..

A Deirdre Mulrooney Production for RTELyric FM
Sound Supervision by John Davis
Narration by Pat Laffan
Funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, with additional supportfrom the Arts Council of Ireland

* For more information/images call Deirdre on 086-6075785, or email Deirdre at deir@indigo.ie

Sunday Times Culture Magazine

RTE Guide

WB Yeats and Laundry... in VILLAGE MAGAZINE

2011-10-29T06:01:00.001-07:00

I'm delighted that my ponderances on what WB Yeats might make of Contemporary Ireland, and in particular of 'the tiny theatre show Laundry', appear in the current edition of VILLAGE MAGAZINE. Check it out, and please do let me know what you think...

In the Footsteps of the Fab Four... etc

2011-10-16T05:19:00.001-07:00

A Magical Mystery Tour to Rishikesh! (as seen in this weekend's Irish Times "GO" Magazine).
Ah, those were the days...

Additionally, I've been busy. With the help of my fantastic sound engineer, John Davis, I have just finished a first mix of my radio documentary "Irish Monsoon Wedding", about the aforementioned family wedding in Darjeeling, that preceded the Happy Rishikesh adventure. So watch this space (or should I say, listen out for this space), 'til I line up a broadcaster so you can hear all about that unlikely Cork-Darjeeling love story. Stay tuned! :-)

In the meantime, you can catch my BAI-funded radio documentary, on the Abbey Theatre Ballets, entitled "Doreen - Telling the Dancer from the Dance" on RTE Lyric FM on Friday November 4th 2011 at 7pm in the "Lyric Feature" slot. More of that anon.

TTFN.

2011-10-16T05:14:00.000-07:00

Remembering June Fryer - Ireland's First Modern Dancer

2011-10-16T04:52:00.001-07:00

Alas we lost the lovely June Fryer, Ireland's first Modern Dancer recently - above is her obituary which I contributed to the Irish Times, outlining her achievements, and the fantastic forgotten world that she was part of.

"June Kuhn (nee Fryer), Ireland’s first Modern Dancer, who was described in a 1940’s review as “lyrical June Fryer, a lovely-eyed, willowy girl”, has died at the age of 85.

Originally from Mount Merrion, Dublin, June was introduced to Modern Dance by German-born Erina Brady, who was mistakenly suspected of being a spy. June’s headmistress at Park House School on Morehampton Road put 16 year-old June in touch with Brady, who came to Dublin in 1939 to sow the seed of Mary Wigman-inspired Modern Dance at her “Irish School of Dance Art” on Harcourt Street.

June soon became a star pupil at the school where she trained until 1946, alongside wartime bohemian refugee Jacqueline Robinson. Informed by what she learned in Dublin, Robinson went on to set up l’Atelier de la Danse, the first professional school of modern dance in Paris. In her memoir “Modern Dance in 1940’s Dublin” Robinson remembers June as “obviously gifted for dance”.

At Brady’s Harcourt Street studio, June mingled among a fascinating Bohemian milieu, comprising Basil (“Benny”), Racoszi and Kenneth Hall of the White Stag Art Group; film-maker Liam O’Laoghaire; composer Brian Boydell; stain glass artists Patrick Pye, Adolphus Grauer, Mainie Jellett and Hugh Barden; painter Barbara Warren; gallerist David Hendrick; art collector Gordon Lambert; architect Noel Moffett; and the wartime diplomatic set, including British Embassy press attaché and poet John Betjeman and Dr. and Mrs. Hempel of the German Legation to Ireland. This “Emergency” Bohemian set enjoyed soirees of poetry recital, music, and dance in Brady’s studio, - referred to as “bottle and pyjama parties” by the detectives who were monitoring them.

Unusually for women of their day, June and Jacqueline attended fortnightly bohemian meetings in a pub on Dawson Street, where they would discuss “ideas and art”. As part of their training they also attended Francoise Henry’s History of Art Lectures at Trinity College, and taught dance classes in Brigidine Convents in Kildare, Carlow, and Kilkenny.

Eamon De Valera opened Brady’s choreography “The TB Ballet – a propaganda ballet against Tuberculosis”, starring June, in the Mansion House in 1945. At the Peacock theatre in 1946, June performed in plays choreographed by Brady, including “The Magic Glasses” by George Fitzmaurice, “The Viscount of Blarney” by Austin Clarke, and Brady’s adaptation of Tennyson’s poem “The Voyage of Maeldune”.

After obtaining her Diploma, June continued her training with Sigurd Leeder in Oxford, where she took up a position teaching dance at the Oxford Theatre School for two years in the late 1940’s. She also performed in London’s Rudolf Steiner Hall, and in Archives de la Danse, Paris.

June joined Stella Campbell’s Dublin dance school when it expanded to include Modern Ballet and Ballroom in the 1950’s. One day Campbell sent June to Dunlaoghaire, to collect a Swiss dancer coming to procure his ballroom dancing certificate. Walter Kuhn had been to Ireland in 1953, with the Ballet Jooss, dancing the iconic role of the young soldier in Jooss’s epic anti-war ballet “The Green Table” at the Olympia Theatre. His photograph was among those adorning the walls of Brady’s Harcourt Street Dance Studio when June was training there. ‘A match made in heaven’, June and Walter soon married, started a family, and began teaching ballroom dancing classes in their Blackrock living room, overlooking Dublin Bay.

Raising their family “you kept very quiet about being a dancer”, recalled June. “Barefoot – can you imagine? It was considered almost indecent.” June helped Carolyn Swift and Alan Simpson in their shortlived Pike Theatre, and continued teaching in schools like Killiney’s Holy Child Convent. Walter took up a job in Fryer’s Electrical Contractors in Ballsbridge, owned by June’s parents. June became an avid painter.

Born on March 3rd, 1926, June Fryer died on September 22^nd, 2011. She is survived by her husband, Walter, her daughters Kathrin, Monika and Sonja, her grandchildren Niall, Darragh, Sinéad and Finn, and her sister, Ann."

Yeats and the Arts Conference at NUIG Moore Institute

2011-08-29T10:18:00.000-07:00

It was an honour to be part of this fantastic conference on "Yeats and the Arts", organised by Adrian Paterson and Thomas Walker at NUIG's Moore Institute at the weekend. It certainly was an erudite gathering! So while I was fairly intimidated delivering my paper on "Late WB Yeats's Late Bodily Visions" in front of such a pantheon of Yeatsians, it was so worth it to hear the wealth of insights, information, and, yes, footnotes from everyone else present! An extremely stimulating, thought-provoking, and enlightening weekend. I particularly loved all the visual art - there was loads of that, and publishing projects, in Yeats's milieu. Of course there was, with his father and brother being painters, and his sisters being wonderful craftswomen, and publishers. It was also nice to think again about scansion of verse, after not thinking about it for such a long time. Terrence Killeen was a particular beacon of verse scansion - the three sentences in Among School Children, for example. I could go on, and on and on and on, but I'll save it for another occasion. Massive thanks to the organisers, and the other participants.

Nice to take the plunge in the Clare Champion this week...

2011-08-15T03:58:00.000-07:00

Interview with Sean Hillen

2011-08-10T11:43:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I interviewed photographer Sean Hillen about his eerie and insightful exhibition “Ghost Shops”. Photographing these tragic yet visually marvelous scenes of post-Celtic Tiger Ireland ‘through the looking glass’, made Hillen reminisce about the ‘famine evictions’ of yore, and wonder at how history can repeat itself.

Catch the final week of this poetic and somewhat disorienting exhibition before it ends at 5pm this Sunday! To get there, climb the stairs to the summit of “Base Camp”, on Middle Abbey Street (opposite Epicurean Food Hall, beside Arnotts), and behold the vertiginous view. (With sugar levels in mind, sweets & chocolate await you at the top). A hidden gem of an exhibition, in an exciting new space, we are sure you will agree. And thought-provoking too.

Taking the Plunge

2011-07-26T01:17:00.001-07:00

Documentaries have been made drawing parallels between pilgrims bathing in the Ganges river in Varanasi, India, and swimming in Dublin’s Forty Foot. But I wouldn’t dare mention those pretentious theories to the down to earth swimmers of Byrnes’s Cove, Kilkee, County Clare. You know what you have to do but you just don’t talk about it. Jump in. Get moleculary rearranged. Say “lovely”.

Blue lips, purple skin with orange polka dots, goose-bumps… Baywatch, eat your heart out. These attractive hues and skin-textures may sound like the description of a corpse, but no, coupled with a triumphant smile, and the grab for a towel, you’ve got ‘the look’ of emerging from Byrnes’s Cove, swimming mecca.

To the uninitiated onlooker this practice may well appear like a strange native masochistic ritual, but for regulars, whose forefathers have been coming here for generations, this icy dip is heaven. No, really.

Until recently though, “Byrnes’s” (as it’s referred to in local parlance), was one of those men-only, ‘women out’ precincts, frequented by Earnest Hemingway types like my own father. That was, until people like sprightly aunties and their ilk started showing up, brazenly reclaiming one of the best bathing spots on our planet.

I myself was once confronted with a naked man on the slip-way. (I, of course, as a past pupil of Cahercon Salesian Secondary School was modestly attired). He stopped for a friendly chat. “My father swam here, my grand-father, and my great-grandfather before him”, he declared. “Really?” I responded, keeping my gaze above his (imaginary) belt. “So did mine”.

Then, in honour of the aforementioned ancestors, I tried to make as little of a song and dance about getting into the icy water as humanly possible. (It’s not unusual to get stuck with waves lapping at knee-level for a good five or maybe even ten minutes before mustering up the courage to take the plunge).

But, if you’re lucky enough to get caught in a sunbeam (sunbeams do happen), out there where sky and sea meet, drifting out into the middle of the bay, it can feel mystical. Then there is that psychedelic green of the seaweed. Just around the corner, I hear there is another swimming spot called ‘paradise’ which reveals itself only at certain rare confluences of tide, gravitational pull, and phase of moon. I haven’t found it yet, but it’s on my to-do list.

Life here revolves around tide tables. There’s a time for the Pollack Holes (the natural sea water pools across the bay, which emerge when the tide is out); a time for Byrnes’s (high tide); for Myles’s Creek; for the boards; for the strand. Days are spent chasing the tide around Kilkee’s perfect horseshoe bay from one swimming spot to another. Running into seldom-seen cousins from near and far-flung places on the prom, the conversation revolves around ‘how many swims have you had?’. There’s bravado, boasting, peer pressure, and, yes, competition.

The cold concrete, then the cold, wet stones underfoot. The ice bucket that is the chilly Atlantic lapping around your ankles, then your knees, then slowly, bit by bit, the whole way up until you stop at your hips and wonder: ‘Me? In there? I don’t think so’. You feel the fear and do it anyway. Suddenly, you are back to the basics of who you are, humbled and invigorated by the mighty Atlantic.

Letter to Irish TImes, July 6th, 2011

2011-07-22T04:02:00.000-07:00

I am very grateful to the Irish Times for kindly publishing this letter on July 6th. I have had a great response so far, and I am very excited to see what comes out of it, in this project of piecing together the jigsaw of Erina Brady's overlooked life and influence in Ireland. Watch this space! & please do get in touch if you have any information to contribute to this story.... Also if you have any fellowships, post-doc's, or basic money to fund this important project!

Ninette de Valois: Adventurous Traditionalist, at the Royal Ballet School

2011-04-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

Anna Meadmore of the Royal Ballet speaks about Ninette de Valois by VULGO.ie

Thanks to a Travel and Training Award from the Arts Council, I was lucky enough to get to the Royal Ballet Conference "Ninette de Valois: Adventurous Traditionalist" on the first weekend in April, in Covent Garden and at White Lodge, in Richmond Park. It's actually mindblowing to consider that this institution was founded by an Irish woman. Ninette de Valois was proud to be Irish, as you'll hear if you listen to the soundcloud above, of an interview I did with Anna Meadmore of the Royal Ballet. The whole event really was quite a revelation, about this wonderful Irish artist, who is totally overlooked in the country of her birth (She was born Edris Stannus, in Blessington, County Wicklow; her first dance was an Irish jig). Listen to the chat I had with Anna Meadmore, head of Academic Studies at the Royal Ballet about Ninette de Valois, and her relationship to Ireland, above. More to follow!

Did you know, incidentally, that the tenth anniversary of Ninette de Valois' death fell on International Women's Day, March 8th - which makes it all the more poignant that she wasn't even mentioned at the International Women's Day Events in Dublin. Maybe next year?

VULGO.ie & Irish Blog Awards mentioned alongside Liz Taylor in Irish Times Saturday Review :-)

2011-03-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

Good News! VULGO.ie wins best arts & culture blog at Irish Blog Awards 2011!

2011-03-20T13:20:00.001-07:00

Blue Sky Dreaming on Paddy's Day, Swans, & VULGO.ie finalist in Irish Blog Awards

2011-03-18T14:26:00.000-07:00

Had a fantastic alternative Paddy's Day yesterday, with a lovely stroll to Baily lighthouse on Howth head, and blue sky dreaming as far as the eye could see. Then went to the fabulous Swan Lake by the Russian State Ballet at the Grand Canal Theatre. Love that new Ireland sophistication! & in AOB - VULGO.ie is a FINALIST in the Irish Blog Awards tomorrow night. How amazing is that? We are thrilled to bits for Regnum Hibernia Vulgo. Will let you know how we get on...

VULGO.ie update - we're 'talk of the town' today in the Irish Daily Mail

2011-02-24T05:53:00.000-08:00

Apologies, I have been neglecting my own blog due to being up to my eyes running VULGO.ie.
But at least it seems to be going really well, we have got some wonderful contributors. Aisling Ryan on Contemporary Music; Gerry Wardell on Climate Culture; Julia Judge on what's hot in NYC; Honor Molloy on her own personal connection to the 45th Anniversary of the Bombing of Nelson's Pillar at Dublin Book Festival; and A LOT more. Check it out. Today we got our first mention in the Irish Daily Mail's "Talk of the Town" for our new resident "culture guru", Ciaran Mac Gonigal - stirring it up a bit on public art. We also discovered that we are nominated for an Irish Blog Award. So it's all good. I'm also working on my radio documentary for RTE Lyric FM, "Doreen's Yeatsian Dance Adventures" and planning a trip to the Royal Ballet School in London for their conference "Ninette de Valois: Adventurous Traditionalist", and tipping away at an historical novel, that is slowly (but very slowly), but surely taking shape. More of which anon. In the meantime, well, it's nice to be 'talk of the town', see above.

Hear "My Scene with Daniel Day Lewis" on RTE Sunday Miscellany, this Sunday

2011-02-04T05:48:00.001-08:00

I bet you're wondering how I ended up in the picture, above! (And how the picture got so crumpled). Well, finally after all this time... all will be revealed this Sunday.

Tune in to RTE Radio One between 9am and 10am this Sunday, and hear this funny true story...

You can visit RTE Sunday Miscellany online here

You can catch In the Name of the Father on the big screen as part of the current Jim Sheridan in focus season at the Irish Film Institute on Tuesday, February 8th, at 6pm.

Sunday Miscellany 6 February 2011

Duration: 43.16

Imagine by Gail Seakamp

Hamster by Mark Roper

Money Laundering by Cyril Kelly

The Waterford Penny Dinners by Cathleen Brindley

My Scene with Daniel Day Lewis by Deirdre Mulrooney

Music content:

Out on The Ocean from The West Ocrean String Quartet

Romance No 1 Opus 22 by Schumann performed by Elizabeth Cooney and Daniel Hill

The Teetotlar, St Anne’s performed by Dé Danainn

Evening Dew, Morceau de Salon, Opus 90 by Alexander Osborne performed on piano by Una Hunt

VULGO.ie interview with Colm O'Grady of Clowns without Borders, Ireland

2011-02-02T14:47:00.000-08:00

I met Colm O’Grady, ‘the best juggler in Inchicore’, and Winner of the alternative Miss Ireland ‘poise’ award, near Druid’s rehearsal space in Galway on the first morning of rehearsals for an upcoming “Clowns Without Borders” expedition. Clown Timmy Hannington arrived in from Belfast; Clown Rachel Devir from Letterkenny; and Clown Jonathan Gunning, founder member of Clowns Without Borders – Ireland, from just outside Galway.

The clown equivalent of the international medical and humanitarian aid organisation ‘Medecins sans Frontieres’, ‘Clowns Without Borders – Ireland’, is funded by Culture Ireland, and private sponsorship (pub-quizzes, fundraisers). Their maiden tour in 2006 was to Nepal where they worked in 7 refugee camps, often performing to 4,000 people ‘with one microphone and some antennae speakers’, liaising with local orphanages and NGO’s. Colm O’Grady recalls it as a ‘life-altering’ experience’. Bringing ‘psycho-social relief’, it firmed them in their resolve ‘to bring laughter and joy to communities and people in crisis’. They felt an affinity with refugees, and sought out countries ‘where people had been displaced’ – Nepal, Uganda, and, closer to home asylum seekers and refugees here in Ireland.

‘I’ve got a lot of experience of being in bad areas, and am very attracted to all the places you are not meant to go’, explains O’Grady. Over a decade ago, at the age of 23, O’Grady dropped out of nursing school in Bournemouth, and began travelling the world. Before long, he found himself wandering into Jerusalem’s Arab Quarter with a vague utopian wish to make the children laugh.

It all seemed to be going horribly wrong when the throng of children who gathered around him began to stone the pale, lanky stranger. However – Colm picked up the big rocks as they fell from his body, and ‘then I started juggling with them. The stones coming at me started to change velocity’.

Bemused, the children stopped and stared. Curious, like children everywhere, they joined in the stranger’s game. Soon, O’Grady was in their homes, helping them with their homework, and teaching them an array of circus tricks.

Subsequently, O’Grady got serious about clowning, saving up to attend Philippe Gaullier’s famous clown school (Ali G’s alma mater), for two years, by working as a stunt man on ‘Mystic Knights of Tir na nOg’.

When at home, he offers workshops like the one he tells me about in Finglas, where as soon as he walked in to the room he was told to ‘f*** off’ by one charming participant. By the end of his session, O’Grady had the same boy wearing a stupid hat, juggling, and imploring him ‘Aw mister, mister, look at me mister!’ Working out of Beflast Community Circus, where he is a sometime teacher, he found himself teaching juggling and unicycle in the hall of the Maze Prison.

The day I first met him, Colm O’Grady was looking for Ugandan songs, to incorporate into ‘Lost’, a show about a lost football team, for a month long North Ugandan tour into Lira, Pedar, and Gulu. Liaising with the UNHCR (who requested that they address the topic of landmines in their show), that itinerary took them, their Giraffe unicycle, and array of puppets around ‘areas that the guidebook tells you not to visit because it’s full of refugees and there is nothing to do, precisely where we want to go’. They performed two shows a day, and gave workshops. Among others they worked with a group of girls who had been abducted, and sexually abused by the LRA, ‘doing workshops to try and encourage eye-contact… There are a lot of problems with shame, and through circus and acrobatics they will gain self-esteem’.

Clowns Without Border’s mission is simple, to: ‘give children back their childhood’.

O’Grady has performed in Barabbas’s hit show “Circus”, in the Tassel Club, at the Sugar Club, as a guest act in La Clique, in Spirit nightclub, and has devised own shows, ‘Grandmother’, the award-winning ‘anti-glam’ Salivation Army Granny & band. For more details see www.ouchentertainment.com.

Follow their latest diary, from Somalia, here on VULGO.
For more details about their great work visit Clown Without Borders – Ireland.

VULGO.ie Laurie Anderson Interview part 3: On the Violin, 2011 Projects, Lolobelle, and Inter-Species Communication

2011-02-02T14:42:00.000-08:00

My VULGO.ie interview with photographer Dragana Jurisic on 'A Bird in the Head'

2011-01-28T02:32:00.000-08:00

My Laurie Anderson VULGO.ie Interview Part Two. On Idleness, Capitalism, & the Role of the Artist. Oh, and some reflections on Ireland right now.

2011-01-23T06:42:00.000-08:00

Laurie Anderson for VULGO.ie on truth, dreams, delusion, and being half Irish

2011-01-14T03:33:00.000-08:00

Interview by yours truly. Iphone video & editing by Angel Gonzalez.
For www.vulgo.ie - the transcript of this interview is up on www.vulgo.ie
should you be interested in reading it.

Laurie Anderson wishes VULGO a Happy New Year!

2011-01-07T05:54:00.000-08:00

Interview to follow next Friday on www.vulgo.ie... :-)

Inspirational New Year Skype Interview with Laurie Anderson for VULGO!

2011-01-05T02:56:00.000-08:00

VULGO VIDEO - Danny Osborne & his Oscar Wilde Memorial Statue

2010-12-23T04:56:00.000-08:00

VULGO: It’s the People. The voice of the people.

VULGO is a multidisciplinary Irish Culture Magazine, giving virtual voice, precious insights, and maybe even occasional epiphanies to those afflicted by cultural passion. Blurring boundaries, VULGO embraces everything from theatre to star-gazing, dance, movies, performance art, technology, photography, opera, the economy (of course) and visual arts to walking, traffic lights, singing icons and um, sometimes even taxidermy….

Here are a couple of audio slideshows I put together for the inaugural issue of VULGO.ie! Check out www.vulgo.ie for more great content and contributions. Please do consider contributing and collaborating with us yourself.

VULGO VIDEO: You Can Call Me Frances Live

2010-12-23T04:54:00.000-08:00

These are photographer Kyrstin Healy's images of You Can Call Me Frances performing at Block T during an evening of Performance Art organised by Deirdre Murphy and Fergus Byrne. I did the dirty live recording at the 2XM King Kong Club at The Village at a later date. These are the images myself and Angel are looking at in the previous post. I love it when a plan comes together. Even if "Healy" is misspelt in the opening credits. Sorry Kyrstin!

The Making of...

2010-12-23T04:34:00.000-08:00

Have been so busy getting VULGO up and running that I didn't have a chance to post these behind the scenes glimpses of our Nationwide shoot. It was a great day, back on October 15th. On December 9th, we switched VULGO.ie on, as planned, so do check it out on www.vulgo.ie, and tell us what you think! We'd love to hear from you.

If you'd like to watch Valerie's Nationwide Report on my research & projects here it is...

2010-12-19T13:02:00.000-08:00

Valerie Waters' Nationwide Report on Deirdre Mulrooney's Research & Projects. from Deirdre Mulrooney on Vimeo.

RTE Nationwide Report by Valerie Waters

2010-12-03T02:33:00.001-08:00

Valerie Waters did a great report on my research and projects for RTE Nationwide, broadcast on December 1st. She ingeniously weaved in original Abbey Ballets (1927 - 1933) dancer Doreen Cuthbert; her husband Percy Lovegrove and his book "An Auld Cockle Picker"; Liam O'Laoghaire's 1943 short film "Dance School" featuring Erina Brady and her "Irish School of Dance Art"; Piano music by Faure; my book "Irish Moves"; sculptor Danny Osborne on a boat in Frobisher Bay, the Canadian Arctic with his tragically recently deceased friend Seeglook Akeeagok (who was born in an igloo); Danny's recent Iqaluit show "Red Hot Lava Sculpture"; my father's photographs of Mulrooney family life on isolated First Nations Reservations Cat Lake and Ogoki Post in North Ontario in the 1970's; Kyrstin Leahy's photographs of new band of Contemporary Dancers turned quirky rock stars "You Can Call Me Frances"; & myself and Angel Gonzalez (founder of Photoireland Festival), working on new online cultural magazine www.vulgo.ie - to be launched on December 9th. Watch this space. Phew! All in seven and a half minutes! Hats off and enormous thanks to Valerie. You can watch the clip on RTE Realplayer right here.

http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1086097

The View, on RTE One

2010-12-01T04:58:00.001-08:00

I was on The View last night in very good company with John Kelly, Manchan Magan, and the wonderful Lelia Doolan. We discussed writer William Monahan's directorial debut, gangster film "London Boulevard" starring Colin Farrell; Risteard O'Domhnaill's documentary "The Pipe"; "In this Moment" by Irish Modern Dance Theatre at Project, and sculptor Janet Mullarney's shows "Things Made" and "Things Done" at the RHA and the Taylor Galleries. You can watch it by clicking here.

Cold Dream Colour for Le Brocquy at Pavillion Theatre - Irish Independent review

2010-11-16T03:06:00.000-08:00

Geological Odyssey for Oscar as Wilde gets a new jade head - The Irish Times

2010-11-14T02:03:00.000-08:00

Read about Oscar Wilde's new Jadeite Jade head and hands, and sculptor Danny Osborne's geological odyssey to source them, in The Irish Times, Friday November 12th...

Random iphone pix of "Right Here Right Now" at Kilmainham Gaol last Thursday

2010-11-08T02:50:00.000-08:00

It was an epic night for Irish Performance Art at Kilmainham Gaol last Thursday, with over 650 pairs of eyes soaking it up from 6pm - 10pm, many queuing for a long time for a precious glimpse into strange goings-on in eerie cells. Here are just a few iphone snaps - the legendary Alaistar MacLennon, the Trojan Amanda Coogan, Dominic Thorpe, Victoria McCormack, Fergus Byrne, Aine Philipps, Helena Walsh, and quite a few more. Etching this ephemeral genre onto the evolving map of Irish culture.

Art Toronto 2010 - all aboard with Dublin's Blue Leaf Gallery

2010-11-03T08:55:00.000-07:00

If you'd like to know more about the first Irish Gallery ever (TBC), at "Art Toronto", keep your eyes peeled for the first issue of www.vulgo.ie! My only regret is not stealing a pic of Atom Egoyan (both of his parents were painters), and Arsinee Khanjan wandering through, and admiring the "large-scale works", but trust me, they did wander through, and they did admire the Irish large-scale works (by Marty Kelly and Tom Climent). Great to see Irish artists getting out there into big international waters.

"All That Glisters is not Gold" by Mella Travers. Exhibition Note.

2010-10-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

“ALL THAT GLISTERS IS NOT GOLD”

Photography Exhibition by Mella Travers

Inspirational Arts, Nov 4 – 25.

(The Basement, 7 Herbert Street, Dublin 2).

“All that Glisters is Not Gold” a photographic exhibition inspired by old sayings was conceived when Mella Travers saw a tiny embroidery of a woman tearing the hair out of her head – and felt instant resonance, reassurance, and a warm fellow-feeling. The recognition exerted a calming effect. That’s how it is with old sayings - you’re suddenly not alone any more “walking on eggshells”, or feeling “at the end of your rope”. You realise you’re in good company. Someone has felt that frazzled feeling before – in fact many people have. It helps to know that you’re connected.

In these nine carefully construed images Mella Travers has plugged into that powerful emotional shorthand in a painterly and quasi-theatrical manner. As someone who sees the world in terms of images, (as opposed to words), these old sayings trigger vivid story-images Mella translates into luscious, exquisitely elegant photo-fables.

An artist who has made her mark in the world of fashion photography, beauty is important to Mella, who is well known for her signature dramatic conceptual shoots. In her gorgeous pre-Raphaelite world, the picture is a story in and of itself. Right at home in this polished, glamorous world, the photographer creates and directs her visual stories herself, right down to the tiniest detail of the set-dressing – the ears on the ground, the fishtank, the warm gold backdrop. Still, there is nothing discordant, or jarring in these harmonious images. Simple and uncluttered, they seem to invite you to look, and to look again more closely into their contained rooms – like carefully designed theatrical sets. At first glance you may see patterned carpet – but look again and pinkish ears might emerge.

Colour is simple, rich, and highly significant on Mella’s monochromatic palette. Saturated with fable-like reds and warm golds – you almost expect little Red Riding Hood and the wolf to pop out from behind an armchair.

The models seem like they have emptied themselves to be a zero. Vacant, detached, almost dazed pre-Raphaelite beings – they are collaborators in the creation of an empty space in which you can project yourself, in your own good time. Their performance is in the realm of less-is-more black and white movie acting. Nothing is forced. Drawn-back, neutral-faced, they wait patiently for you to come to them. They have all of eternity now.

Drenched in dramatic chiaroscuro lighting, inspired by the likes of Goya, and “the dark spaces in his images”, it’s no surprise to hear that Mella photographs her poetic visual stories with a P45 digital-back Hasselblad, and through original Hasselblad lenses (no corners cut here). Strategically lit to subliminally guide your eye where she wants it, no detail, no matter how small, is glossed over.

Mella’s photographic antecedents hail back to the old world too – there’s a hint of Julia Margaret Cameron’s posed 19^th century tableaux, Dorothy Wilding’s glamorous and sometimes quirky photographs, Dorothea Lange’s honesty, Irving Penn’s clarity, Angus McBean’s ever-so-slight touch of surrealism.

Subtly delving into psychological and symbolic cosmogonies, this is storytelling à la Mella Travers. Old sayings conjure up images in her head: the beginning middle and end get subtly jumbled, and embedded in one picture. Take the frayed rope, at the end of which we see a woman in a powder blue dress. “It suggests the rough, frazzled journey she has travelled” says Travers. “She has had enough – she is at the end of her rope”. Look closely and you’ll notice that her dress is of the same blue as the rope, and the material subtly echoes its entwined pattern. In Mella’s rich, orchestrated realism, nothing is left to chance.

Meaning sneaks up on you unawares as opposed to jumping you - or hitting you over the head. These gentle, quiet images are benevolent, and don’t play tricks on you.

“All that glisters is not gold” sounds like it could also be a timely comment on today’s Ireland. We could do with reconsidering some simple down to earth old-world values, some unpretentious everyday homespun wisdom that is traceable to Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice”, (the line “neither a borrower nor a lender be” comes from Shakespeare too), and maybe since time immemorial. That’s Mella Travers soothing eye balm for us – if we choose to see it.

(Exhibition note by Deirdre Mulrooney)

Strays from the Ether: Tom Mac Intyre

2010-10-18T06:33:00.000-07:00

,

Lo & behold, interviews I did with Tom Mac Intyre, Carolyn Swift and John Scott when I was host of Dublin Weekend Radio's "Artslab" programme (produced by the lovely Steve Donohue), many moons ago has got a second life in this great new book on the work of Tom Mac Intyre. It's on an early Irish Modern Dance Theatre collaboration with Tom Mac Intyre entitled "You Must Tell the Bees". Some of Carolyn Swift's insights may be mistakenly attributed to yours truly, but it's an honour to be in an esteemed line-up that includes Seamus Heaney, Michael Harding, Tom Hickey, Olwen Fouere and Marina Carr. Nice.

From Adam the Upper West-Side Doorman back to The Serge Effect, at DTF

2010-10-17T02:09:00.000-07:00

Random New York

2010-10-16T16:37:00.000-07:00

Unexpectedly sculptural Irish Craft at the Irish American Society, Central Park West

2010-10-16T16:29:00.000-07:00

Catherine Owens invited me along to meet her at the swish Irish-American Society on Central Park West. I didn't know what the event was, but as it turns out her friend Brian Kennedy (she has two good friends called Brian Kennedy, the other one was my flatmate for a while on Raglan Road) was curating a wonderful show of surprising non-traditional Irish craft here called: "MATERIALpoetry". That's Ann Mulrooney (maybe we're distantly related, we're not sure), of the Craft Council of Ireland sitting attentively on the step listening approvingly to visual artist and curator Brian Kennedy's short speech. Check out Brian's site with his partner, ceramicist Peter Ting: www.briing.uk.com. This was a truly stunning show - no stage Irish cliches here, believe me. In fact we come across as an incredibly sophisticated bunch through this polished, thoughtful exhibition, It's the start of an ongoing 3-year project, Brian told me.

Museum of Arts and Design, Columbus Circle NY

2010-10-16T16:08:00.000-07:00

After meeting ceramicist Peter Ting at his partner Brian Kennedy's show "MATERIALpoetry" at the IRish American Society, I was curious to go and check out Peter's work in "Eat, Drink, Art, Design", at the very cool newish Museum of Arts and Design on Columbus Circle. Well, it was just 2 blocks from where I was staying with a generous and hospitable friend. I was glad I did - a fantastic exhibition (among others, including "Dead or Alive" which was also thought-provoking). Peter's work is the china at the end - and here is a link to his own blog, if you're interested in getting a little more inside his head: http://petertingdesign.blogspot.com/

Ever wondered what the Chelsea Hotel looked like?

2010-10-16T15:35:00.000-07:00

Finally took an hour to hop on a downtown subway to 34th street to check out the legendary Chelsea Hotel (www.hotelchelsea.com) and surrounds on this trip. Hmmmm.... bit of a dive alright, albeit a totally famous and interesting one. Curious that Joseph O'Neill lived there with his whole family while writing "Netherland" - can that be true I wonder? Had to go to the nearest Starbuck's, ironically enough, to mull it over a bit.

BAM Next Wave: Pina Bausch's Full Moon, Laurie Anderson's Delusion...

2010-10-16T15:03:00.000-07:00

Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography at MoMA

2010-10-16T14:43:00.000-07:00

Managed to catch this interesting exhibition at MoMa - from Virginia Woolf's grand-aunt, the Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (her first exhibition was in Ireland? Really?), to Maya Deren, Dorothea Lange, Mary E Frey, Gundula Schulze-Eldowy, Nan Goldin (or course), and Alex Prager ("Despair", above, featuring Ron Howard's daughter Bryce Dallas Howard) - among many other female photographers through the ages. None Irish though. Dorothea Lange has photographed in Ireland - does that count?

My 2nd Home The Lincoln Center & its new Illumination Lawn etc.

2010-10-16T12:55:00.000-07:00

Ambling around the Upper West Side on another October day, it was nice to see the Lincoln Center Fountain in action again. Also - there were changes and even a new "Illumination Lawn" to be laid on, in the hot October sun (yes, you read that right - hot October sun). I spotted and snuck a photograph of one specimen who I felt embodied the relaxation ethos of this new space - a man kicking back on a free chair, reading his paper. When I showed this exemplary image to my friend Julia Judge later on she declared "John McMartin - that 's John Mc Martin!". He was more than likely on a 2 hour break from rehearsals for John Guare's new play "A Free Man of Color" - currently in rehearsal. Well, it's a small world, even in random New York city. & when I say that Lincoln Center Theater feels like a second home, I earned that when I was lucky enough to partake in their wonderful Director's Lab, run by Anne Cattaneo. Apart from Wuppertaler Buhnen, it is the one theatre in the world where I am more familiar with the backstage area than the foyer. Lucky me, and nice to be reminded of it.

Still here - 7 years on!

2010-10-16T12:37:00.001-07:00

On my first day in NYC in 7 years, I ran around the upper west side to check that my favourite things were still there - joggers in Central Park perpetually jogging, people perpetually paying homage to John Lennon in Strawberry Fields, and the perpetual queue at The Muffin Shop (our own nomenclature, as you can see). Oh yes, and a couple of skyscrapers with the clouds reflected in them. Tick. All still here.

Landing in JFK on a gorgeous October afternoon

2010-10-16T12:13:00.001-07:00

I'm glad Aer Lingus gave me a window seat! What a beautiful descent into NYC!

Aggie's Room

2010-09-23T06:11:00.000-07:00

I stayed in the room named after my old friend Agnes Bernelle in Castle Leslie, while performing the great role of Bridesmaid at another good friend's wedding recently. This is just a reminder to self to write something inspired by it as soon as I get a minute to do so...

Not how people move, but what moves them...

2010-09-11T09:34:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine in NYC spotted this poster, took a photograph, and kindly emailed it to me. Then she spotted another one, photographed it, and sent that too! Thanks Patricia Schneider.

Tips from a Fellow Traveler

2010-09-09T01:00:00.000-07:00

Was just looking around for a notepad for a meeting this morning and came across this - travel tips from a random English backpacker in Darjeeling who I overheard talking about Rishikesh in Glenary's Cafe. "Divine Dinning" - don't remember if I got there, but these are very handy pointers if you're planning a trip to Rishikesh. Nice to be reminded of this, and what a lovely little map too.

Electric Picnic 2010. Totally Random Glimpses.

2010-09-06T11:38:00.000-07:00

Ogoki: Call of the WIld. Part 7.

2010-08-29T07:01:00.001-07:00

In this, the final episode of "Ogoki: Call of the Wild", then chief Harry Baxter shares his vision for the future of the isolated Ojibway reservation in North Ontario. Mum and I bid our Ojibway friends farewell, as we fly out.
This feature-length radio documentary was funded by the Broadcasting commission of Ireland, and broadcast on Newstalk in December 2008. Click here to listen, and to watch the audio slideshow on vimeo.
Or copy and paste this url into your browser: http://www.vimeo.com/14465775

& - just to refresh your memory, here is a link to the first episode again:

http://vimeo.com/13121890

Or just click here. & the blurb?:

An isolated Indian reservation in Northern Ontario, Canada is the setting for “Ogoki - Call of the Wild”. It was here in the 1970s and 80’s that the Mulrooney Family, from Limerick lived for seven years. Over two decades later Deirdre and her mother Mary return to the reservation and hear the Ojibway Indians share their shocking and moving history.

Ogoki-Call of the Wild. Part 6

2010-08-29T05:15:00.000-07:00

Russell invites us out into his sweatlodge in the bush, and explains the path that brought him to rediscover the riches of his own native culture.
This feature length documentary was funded by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, and broadcast on Newstalk in December 2008.

Ogoki-Call of the Wild. Part Five.mov

2010-08-25T23:44:00.000-07:00

Walking through Ogoki village, Mum knows everyone we meet. We reminisce with Yvonne Baxter and her 7 children about the Irish teachers of her youth. We go to the band office and the Ogoki people spot their younger selves in an Irish family album.
This feature-length documentary was funded by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, and broadcast on Newstalk, Ireland in December 2008.

Ogoki: Call of the Wild. Part Four.

2010-08-25T07:43:00.000-07:00

Chief Eli Moonias explains the cultural history of Ogoki, and recounts the tumultuous journey to reclaiming his own culture. He tells us what brought him to dancing, the sweatlodge, and then sings, drums, and plays "the water-drum song" for us.
This feature-length documentary was funded by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland. It was broadcast on Newstalk, Ireland, in December 2008.

Ogoki: Call of the Wild. Part Three.

2010-08-25T04:11:00.000-07:00

Pearl Achneepineshkum tells us what life was like in Residential Schools before the advent of "Henry Coaster Memorial Day School" in Ogoki Post, North Ontario.
This radio documentary was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, and broadcast on Newstalk, Ireland in December 2008.

Ogoki: Call of the Wild. Part Two.

2010-08-20T00:33:00.000-07:00

In this episode, Mum and I arrive back to Ogoki, the isolated Ojibway Reservation in North Ontario where Mum & Dad used to run the local day school in the 70's and 80's. Mum's old friends welcome us. Later, over a cup of tea, Pearl Achneepineshkum shares the tragic story of her brother, Charlie Wenjack. The iconic 1969 Macleans Magazine article which highlighted young Charlie Wenjack's sad death and helped to bring about the closure of the residential schools is read by Pat Laffan. This feature-length documentary was funded by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, and broadcast on Newstalk in December 2008. (Part One is available on Vimeo). To be continued!

Swedish Performance Artist Anna Berndtson at Mill Street Studios

2010-08-17T01:50:00.000-07:00

Here are a few iphone snapshots of Swedish Performance Artist Anna Berndtson's show "Reflections and Representations", at Mill Street Studios last week with and alongside a video installation by German artist, Amanda Elena Conrad. These images were taken in between filming the performance for her, as she 1) breastfed a baby doll; 2) abandoned the doll and got on her exercise bike; 3) added taste and smell to the whole experience by making toast and butter for the audience and handing it out. Anna trained with Marina Abramovic, and has been in the Gradcam Performance Research Seminar with me since March. Watch out for her solo show "Monto" at the Lab on Foley Street from September 2nd. I'm telling you - it's going to all be about Performance Art this Autumn. That's something to look forward to.

More St. Cleran's

2010-08-17T01:42:00.000-07:00

Just following up on my promise of the other half of that article I wrote a while back on the fascinating John Huston/Merv Griffin County Galway estate - here it is. Amazing to think that the seeds for the Irish Film Board and the Irish artists' tax-free status were sown here.
& by the way, just in case you are in the market for a stately home with some interesting spooks lurking around, it's currently for sale for 3,700,000.00 euros: http://www.myhome.ie/residential/brochure/st-clerans-craughwell/191054 . Nice little pad out west?

Danny Osborne's "Red Hot Lava Sculpture" in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada.

2010-08-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

Red Hot Lava is the Message

One April morning, just hours before news broke of the capricious Icelandic Volcano Eyjafjallajokull (pronounced "AY-uh-fyat-luh-YOE-kuutl-uh"), photographs of a team of men scooping red hot lava out of the flow rolling down a Guatemalan volcano landed by email onto my laptop in Dublin. As if by some sort of magic, this powerful, timely message arrived through cyberspace from “painter, sculptor, natural historian, filmmaker and traveller”, Danny Osborne in Iqaluit, Nunavut.

Later, on the national radio news show “Morning Ireland” , the capricious, unpronounceable Icelandic volcano paralysed airspace with its belching plumes of volcanic ash, and entered our consciousness for the first time. Lava dominated every news headline from New York to Singapore. Showing off my hotline to the zeitgeist, I immediately posted my fresh red hot lava images up on facebook, and on twitter.

Coincidence? Yes and no. Osborne has been patiently and meticulously observing and immortalising geological phenomena now for close to four decades. Thirty years ago, the title of his 1980 exhibition in Dublin’s Taylor Galleries on Ireland’s treeless Beara Peninsula, where he and his family lived on the edge of a cliff, spelt out his primary obsession quite clearly: “Geophysical Phenomena in West Cork”.

Sensational overlap between Osborne’s unfaltering attention to the geological, and that self-same natural phenomena holding our planet to ransom was bound to occur sooner or later. Similarly his patient, meticulous Arctic work – he has been painting lonely icebergs, and unseen landforms since his first Arctic trip in 1977 - may not necessarily be “about” climate change, but nonetheless can’t but intersect with it when some apocalyptic flood, moody volcano, or hungry polar bear under whom the ice is sensationally melting become a top news story .

The day I received those images of Pacaya, the Guatemalan volcano, lava sensationally, but organically pushed its way up to the tip of everyone’s tongue in the Western World. Especially people in airports, with their heads upturned towards the departures board, and all those waiting for them, both at home and at work. Across the globe, people who had never given lava and its properties a second thought, were humbled by its mighty, and - as many peoples of the earth have believed throughout the ages - its supernatural power.

At very least, phenomena like Eyjafjallajokull (I doubt it will become a household name), are nature’s way of reminding us how insignificant we are, in the greater geo-physical scheme of things - which Osborne’s work is unfalteringly tuned into.

Critic Aidan Dunne has described Danny Osborne as “an idiosyncratic descendant of pioneering 19th century amateur naturalists. A singular combination of artist, craftsman and scientist, Osborne has a meticulous technique that is very much in the service of equally meticulous observation” . Osborne apprenticed himself to volcanoes a long time ago. It’s the fruit of that long acquaintance which is laid bare here in the affable hats of “Red Hot Lava” – the first time a method has been developed to cast sculpture from molten lava coming out of an erupting volcano.

Osborne’s intimate first-hand acquaintance with volcanoes was set in motion in an arduous 1983 expedition to the Andes of Northern Chile with his wife, Geraldine, who is a medical doctor: “We looked at a small atlas, found the greatest concentration of volcanoes in the world, and decided to do this 6-month trip there”, he relates. They travelled with art supplies, the heavy film equipment of the day, and acquired 7 Llama to carry them up the volcanoes.

“We climbed three of them [volcanoes]. I slept for a night or two right on the rim of Lascar , which was actually erupting at the time. According to the literature it hadn’t erupted for a hundred years. But there was a lot of debris coming out, and a lot of noise and smoke and stuff. A couple of weeks later the whole top of it blew off. Because it’s in a very remote area, it was only noticed a while later when this huge ash cloud was floating over Argentina, 500 miles away. So NASA was very interested in getting some up-to-date material and photographs from us”.

The expedition was politically fraught too, as their trip coincided with the aftermath of the Falklands war, which saw them sleeping out in the middle of a minefield.

Osborne’s ensuing 1985 “Halfway to Heaven” exhibition at Dublin’s Taylor Galleries, comprised drawings with titles like “Volcanic Missile Crater and Cerro Aguas Calientes” and “Lava Flow”, as well as hard-won oil paintings entitled “Lascar Crater” (a 5-foot long canvas painted from the top of Lascar’s crater), and “Solar Haloes over the Andes”. There were watercolours with titles like “Spotty Ignimbrite” and “Volcan Pili from Northern Penitentes” too. But no lava sculptures yet. Osborne had mostly been sculpting in smooth materials like glass, or exquisite, precise, polished porcelain making birds and little people, which earned him the reputation for being an extraordinary craftsman. His early nude sculpture, “Jane”, for example was lauded and longed for as a legend of perfection among Irish art critics. Meanwhile, slowly but surely squaring up to lava, Osborne had not yet attempted to cast sculpture from it.

Over decades, Osborne’s quiet and steady obsession with lava slowly developed into an intimate knowledge of the primordial, mythic substance. “The whole world was lava at one time”, he explains, “from the magma coming up to the surface. So to me it’s a very symbolically pure material, because it’s the substance of the earth, of the whole world. Historically volcanoes are very important, because lava is what the world consisted of before it metamorphosed into various other elements and minerals.”

While most of us are psychically plugged in to the destructive side of volcanoes – think Pompei, and that aforementioned audacious Icelandic volcanic ash daring to interrupt our daily lives and our travel plans – Danny Osborne sees it differently. In parallel with his work on the erosive processes associated with icebergs, and the freeze-thaw patterns of the Arctic climate, he associates volcanoes with fertility, and growth. He also equates volcanoes with Morrigan, the Irish triple Goddess, “a death and creation Irish goddess often associated with violent sex and death - a fertility and battle thing. She’s often depicted as a raven, eating the dead after a battle. She’s known as the winner of every battle. I see a volcano a bit like that. They have these incredibly destructive powers but they also build landforms and provide extremely fertile land. ”

Perhaps it was her, Morrigan, who made him tinker with lava again in his homemade furnace in West Cork in the late 1990’s. After an epic Arctic interlude in 1989 to Grise Fjord, one of the most remote communities on our planet, (with Geraldine and their three small children), Osborne and his family found themselves back living on the remote tip of the Beara Peninsula. It was there, after completing his best-known public artwork in 1997 – Dublin’s Oscar Wilde Memorial Sculpture - that Osborne’s mind wandered again to “grappling with the fundamental substance of the earth”. From Oscar’s spectacular symphony of polished stone: pink thulite from British Columbia; nephrite jade from the Yukon; blue pearl granite from Norway; black granite from India; quartz from Wicklow, Ireland, and porcelain (soon to be replaced by white jade from Guatemala), Osborne’s focus turned again to scientific experiments with unruly lava in his homemade furnace.

Lumps of lava were hand-delivered from the Canary Islands by a neighbour, who had married there. “I asked her to bring back bits of lava to experiment with ”. She did, enabling Osborne to carry out “a lot of experiments in crucibles. They were just little lumps of lava - almost obsidian-like. I’d melt it into crucibles, and then pour it out into moulds. I had a lot of problems with it. Unless you are dealing with quite a big quantity of lava, it cools down extremely fast. When you are only half-way through pouring it, it has gone solid. I knew I had to go to a real volcano” . That would take another decade. It was on a trip to Guatemala in 2008 looking for white jade to replace Oscar Wilde’s damaged porcelain head that Osborne stumbled upon the mighty Pacaya.

“I was buying some white jade to do the Oscar Wilde head in Guatemala two years ago, when I heard about this volcano. It had been erupting. I took a day off and made a trip over to see it. It was really beautiful. There was no actual lava coming out but there was a lot of smoke and beautiful fresh lava formed. I thought I would like to go back and do some work” .

SCULPTURAL PHENOMENOLOGY & UNDIMINISHED WONDER

Since 2001, the Osborne’s have based themselves on Baffin Island, Nunavut - another geologically naked, sparsely inhabited place, not unlike the Burren, County Clare (during summer months), first dubbed by Queen Elizabeth the 1st as “Meta Incognita”. Elizabethan explorer Martin Frobisher first sailed in to the bay that would be named after him in search of the Northwest Passage, armed with a copy of Mandeville’s Travels, and driven by the Parallel Theory that was in vogue at the time. Osborne plugged into their sense of wonder at being the first Europeans to set eyes on this landscape in his 2008 Iqaluit exhibition of Arctic Landscapes entitled “Meta Incognita” which translates, romantically, to “the uttermost bounds of the unknown” . What Aidan Dunne referred to as “an intense, undiminished wonder at the way things are” in response to Osborne’s 2001 show “Rock” at Dublin’s Taylor Galleries, had intensified, if anything.

In what could be sculptural phenomenology, Aidan Dunne has invoked Goethe in relation to this overriding sense of wonder inherent in Osborne’s work: “Do not try to get beyond the phenomena. They themselves are the doctrine.” This is the quiddity, the whatness, - the lava - of us all, and of Osborne’s direct approach to it.

“I like working with materials that have symbolic significance”, he says. “I have done carvings out of meteorites, and used dinosaur bones. I’ve used a lot of materials like giant amethysts and crystal because of their symbolic nature. That’s why I like the idea of using lava” .

“The organic nature of this very natural material is pretty fascinating to me as a contrast to the previous materials I’ve been working in. Except for whalebone. I’ve carved a lot of whalebone. That has a similar appearance in some ways – with the little holes going through” .

“Not all, but a lot of the earth’s processes up here in the Arctic are destructive”, he says over the telephone from Iqaluit to Dublin. “The freeze-thaw process is actually destructive. Then you’ve got the glaciers as well actually cutting away at the mountains. Whereas the volcanoes are actually building them up.”

Since the early 1980’s his Arctic paintings have concentrated on erosion “I was doing paintings of all those wearing away processes”. Balancing that out, volcanoes and lava embody a positive life force: “Well it certainly builds it up. It creates mountains and landforms, rather than taking it away”.

His discovery of the live, complex volcano Pacaya, which erupted violently in 1965 and has been smouldering and erupting continuously since then led him to “revive this project which I started 12 years ago about casting lava”. The lush, fertile earth around it illustrates how “[lava] makes the ground very fertile. They grow coffee. It’s very good for growing corn - it’s very nutritious soil… It’s amazing to see how quickly the vegetation grows over fresh lava. Once it’s broken down, after a few years with a bit of rain, it releases various elements. Vegetation loves growing on it.”

Osborne’s experiment began simply in January 2010, by poking lava around with a stick. “I was taking lots of lava out of the lava-flow, putting it on the rock, and pushing bits of metal and stuff into it. Just to try and form it – to get a feel of the material”. His team grew to six people, “plus three horses, and four other people for carrying stuff up and down the mountain. So I had a small army at the end of it.”

“We had a long pole with a couple of bits of metal welded onto the end of it. We’d stick it in and then fork out a lump of lava and throw it on the ground, and I’d try sticking things into it. To get the feel of how it moves around. That was useful. So I kept a few of those pieces – just as beautiful abstract forms which have been manipulated.”

Gaining the necessary proximity to the boiling lava itself was of course an extremely perilous procedure, explains Osborne: “fluctuating pressures within the volcano causes the flow of lava to move to different places every day, so we had to walk on recently solidified lava to get close enough to the flow. We could only work for a few minutes before having to retreat because of the intense heat and fumes. Twice my shoes caught fire, but we came upon the idea of using thick leather mats to stand on which helped prevent this .”

As for the material itself, “within one minute the outer skin had gone dark grey. Then it would be still red hot in the centre. So you could still push it and deform it, but it would hold its shape”.

Eventually Osborne jettisoned his initial approach for his moulds using high-tech collidial silicate (developed by the space industry for fixing ceramic tiles onto the wings of the space shuttle), for bronze moulds cast in a local foundry – which worked a treat. The lava did surprise him: “I thought that it was going to be more gassy, with more bubbles on the outside. But there were a lot more bubbles inside the centre of the lava than on the outside of it – which became more stringy. Little tiny knots and things like that.”

Osborne’s explorer’s urge to be the first to put the flag in a place that is hard-to-get-to, and his scientist’s urge towards discovery, come across in his delight at being the first to figure out how to cast sculpture from Lava. “It’s never been done before. That was one of the things that made it even more enticing to do – because it was a totally new area to work in. I suppose the physical difficulties of doing it was one of the interesting things as well”.

There is always a real element of danger to Osborne’s intrepid forays out into the extremes of our planet. For example, a guide and his client were buried in lava on Pacaya two days after Danny and his team left the area. As I write this the Guatemalan president has declared a state of “Calamity” after the death of three people, missing children, and the closure of Guatemala’s international airport from volcanic ash due to renewed violent eruptions from the volatile Pacaya.

Putting himself at the mercy of nature’s extremes – painting in subzero temperatures, or from the crater of an active volcano, or sleeping outdoors in a Chilean minefield, for example - is somehow intrinsic to his artistic practice.

Not unlike site-specific nature-collaborator Andy Goldsworthy and land artist Richard Long, these expeditions are all part and parcel of Danny Osborne’s practice. “These are guys who are not content to just stay in the studio”, Osborne points out. “They want to get out there, and they want to get their hands dirty. Really have contact with the work they are doing, with the subject matter. I see myself as part of that area” .

Osborne has always had a deep connection with nature. Before being drawn, almost magnetically to the Beara Peninsula in West Cork where he moved in 1971, at the age of 22 (he would eventually take out Irish citizenship), Danny Osborne grew up in Dorset, England. His father, a pilot in the British Air Force, and an artist, died tragically in a plane crash when he was just seven years old. Surrounded by nature at home, Danny recalls that his mother’s life “revolved around dogs, the dog kennels and dog shows, where she used to judge”. Crufts, (regarded as “the world’s greatest dog show”) “was always a big event on her calendar” . In 1989, Geraldine and Danny kept their own team of huskies when they lived in the remote Inuit community at Grise Fjord. The adventurous young family travelled long distances across the ice (and even attempted to travel to Greenland), pulled by their huskies. This kind of apprenticeship to nature with a view to discovering possibilities for organic collaborations with it is a constant throughout Danny Osborne’s artistic journey – from years out on the land with icebergs in the Far North, to bouts with volcanoes in the South.

THE SCULPTURES

Mirroring his 1977 show “Three Months on the Land” (Neptune Gallery, Dublin), for this new work, Osborne spent three months in Guatemala “grappling with the fundamental substance of the earth” , figuring out how to cast sculpture from lava. But what about the actual sculptures themselves?

“When I set out to do the work, the actual finished sculpture and the process of making it were two different things”, he explains. “The medium is the message – the material is part of the subject.” .

A quirky continuation of his porcelain people and ornithological birds – these porous, sculptural hats, made of lava are quite a surrender to the material, to nature and its mysterious processes of creation and destruction, heating and cooling, liquid and solid. The sculptures, beautiful in and of themselves, are an intense collaboration with nature and embody a triumphant humility before essential processes deep within planet earth itself. Just in the same way that hats often succumb to the shape of their wearer’s head, one can’t help feeling that Osborne’s sculptural surrender to the mythic material that is lava is partly “the message” here.

Considering “the hat” in general, and these organic, characterful hats in particular, as extensions of the head, these sculptures could perhaps be seen as an addendum to Osborne’s 1994 show “Making People” (Taylor Galleries, Dublin). “I wanted to make something specific to that part of the world, and the hats people wear in Guatemala say a lot about the owners’ status, culture and personality”, he offers. “I love the idea of the hat being like a mould of the head, and I often look at the skull as a mould of the brain”. As they tend to take on the shape and character of the wearer, hats (as opposed to helmets, which are also represented here), are often idiosyncratic and expressive of the wearer’s personality.

“One of the hats is a very old festive one with rotting coloured ribbons on it, which I had to take off”, he elaborates. “The other a field worker’s hat. The third, a Conquistador's helmet - they outwardly formed every facet of the country into what it is today.”

Ultimately you get the feeling that this is a watershed moment in a larger work in progress – Osborne’s life work. “I’d love to do more complicated moulds with a number of pieces in them. I like that type of work. But I kept it simple. Each mould. Just in order to develop the method. If I ever did go back there, I’d do more complicated piece-moulds. Four sides to the mould, or something like that. ”

The projected film element of this exhibition invites the viewer into the actual process of grappling with lava, and its hazardous, contrary nature. Filmed with a digital video camera by Geraldine and their daughter Orla, it picks up the thread of “Halfway to Heaven”, their film documenting that epic Northern Chile expedition. “The equipment is a lot lighter” declares Danny, sounding relieved to have arrived in the 21st century, where camera equipment doesn’t require a team of 7 Llama to lug up the volcano anymore.

Not unlike a migratory bird himself, Osborne’s instinct-driven travels, patient observations, and studied interventions into materials like whalebone and lava – from the extremes of West Cork to the Canadian Arctic, down to Northern Chile and Guatemala – have something of the inner programming of the Arctic Tern, or the Canadian Goose about them. Osborne himself is like one of a rare species of nomadic creatures tuned into mysterious, instinctual, migratory patterns, on a wavelength that is inaudible to most. That’s the wavelength of powerful phenomena below the earth, and mighty sparks and plumes of smoke up in the air that might stop us in our tracks at any moment, and may have NASA calling again. As the aforementioned synchronicity with the contrary Icelandic volcano demonstrates, we’d all be wise to start attending to what Osborne is attending to.

But in the meantime, we can just enjoy the “quiddity” of Red Hot Lava, a mysterious, beautiful message straight from the Volcano by the intrepid Danny Osborne.

BY DEIRDRE MULROONEY, June 2010.

Footnotes have been removed from this excerpt of Danny Osborne's 60 page hardback publication, which accompanied his exhibition in the 2010 Alianait Festival, Nunavut, Canada.
To buy a copy email me & I'll pass on the message via Arctic Tern.

Moo!

2010-07-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

"The cow is of the bovine ilk.
One end is moo, the other Milk"
Ogden Nash

"Political Mother" by Hofesh Schechter

2010-07-22T10:28:00.001-07:00

The more I think about Hofesh Schechter's "Political Mother" which I saw at Galway Arts Festival on Tuesday night, the more I think it's like The Green Table of 2010. There is definitely something very masculine, and very Kurt Jooss about it. Also, what about those earplugs? Was that a kind of ironic, "motherly" act, to feign interest in the health of our ears? Or did they really care? Or just if you don't want to hear this unsavoury message, plug your ears to the noise, in a sort-of metaphoric way? Well, this is a piece that certainly keeps you thinking long after you have left the theatre. It's on for three more nights, and is definitely worth a look-in if you are in Galway. Above the review in today's Irish Independent. The Alice Maher/Trevor Knight show at Galway Arts Centre was the other standout. Beautiful, strange and dreamy. Ready for some comedy now...

St. Cleran's Luck.

2010-07-19T22:20:00.000-07:00

It's dawn, I'm packing my bag to go to Galway Arts Festival, and St. Cleran's is on my mind. I recently had the good luck to run into Anjelica Huston (yes, Morticia herself), at the opening of "Bookworms" at the Abbey, and we had a nostalgic chat about St. Cleran's, where she grew up outside Galway. Then there was a great documentary about St. Cleran's, the Huston's, and the making of "The Dead" on RTE lately. So I was curious to dust off this feature I wrote a long time ago, when I stayed there during its Merv Griffin incarnation, and read "The Hustons" by Lawrence Grobel. Hm can't figure out how to get page 2 of the PDF up here as a jpg right now, but will get back to it... Watch this space... In the meantime - rachaidh go Gaillimh.

Many Bodies of Contemporary Dance Podcast live at www.create-exchange.ie

2010-07-09T05:26:00.000-07:00

Listen to Raimund Hoghe (www.raimundhoghe.com) talking about throwing his body 'into the fight', Tere O'Connor talking about erasing the visual, and honouring ambiguity (www.tereoconnordance.org), Caroline Bowditch (www.girljonah.org) being her inspirational self "Dance Agent for Change", John Scott - talking about his work with Survivors of Torture (www.irishmoderndancetheatre.com), at www.create-exchange.ie. Fantastic food for thought! Chaired and curated by moi. What a gathering of thoughts, experiences, articulations - perfectly cast, I have to say. Click right here to listen.

Thanks to Create, ADI Ireland, Dublin Dance Festival, Dance Ireland and Gradcam - all partners in this May 19th event. www.creativedialogueireland.com was our attempt at democratic, virtual conversation on the topic - it still might take off? Go on - post a comment if you haven't already!

The Discovery of Vimeo

2010-07-06T06:44:00.000-07:00

Haven't figured out how to embed this here yet, but in the meantime, here is a link to that "Ogoki - Call of the Wild" audio slideshow on Vimeo:

http://vimeo.com/13121890

Or just click here. Works a treat.

"Helpless". Audio & then (separate), Visual of "Ogoki: Call of the Wild". Part One.

2010-07-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

First of all, after a day immersed in iphoto, idvd, imovie, garage band, protools mbox, quicktime, iweb, youtube, and - there has got to be more, my head is fairly addled now - here is a link to my latest, painstakingly-made podcast! It is the audio to accompany my four-minute youtube slideshow - from which youtube removed the audio, believe it or not, because of a fleeting snippet of Neil Young's "Helpless". (Is that ironic?) I'm sure Neil Young would be delighted for his lyrics to accompany the open-source story of Ogoki Post, and Charlie Wenjack, way up in North Ontario (wouldn't you, Neil? I just don't have your personal email address - see? You can contact me here and I'd love to hear from you;).

Ogoki: Call of the Wild. Part One. Audio & Visual. Separate.

2010-07-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

But anyway, after ALL THAT (& I thought it would take about half an hour in all), I thought I might be able to upload the slideshow from my desktop. But alas it was not to be. No matter how many times I achieve these technical feats, I completely forget how to do it again by the time I go back to emulate my former glory. Beginner's mind? Methinks I suffer from a severe form of technical amnesia...

The podcast of this late 2008 BCI-funded radio documentary vanished out of the ether, so I have decided to launch it out into the virtual world again myself, in ten small episodes of about four minutes each, but this time as audio-slideshows. Why not give this story immortality, if modern technology will allow me to? Here is the blurb, just one more time, in case you are seeing, and hearing it, for the first time:

OGOKI: CALL OF THE WILD

An isolated Indian reservation in Northern Ontario, Canada is the setting for “Ogoki - Call of the Wild”. It was here in the 1970s and 80’s that the Mulrooney Family, from Limerick lived for seven years. Over two decades later Deirdre and her mother Mary return to the reservation and hear the Ojibway Indians share their shocking and moving history.

This BCI-funded radio documentary was broadcast on Newstalk on December 20th, 21st, and 25th, 2008.

Ten more micro-episodes to follow! (It's 45 minutes in all). Hope you enjoy it, and learn something you didn't know before. I sure did. (& that completely separate from all the techie stuff!)

Upandra Yoga - "Complete Relaaax"

2010-06-13T06:20:00.000-07:00

This is Rishikesh, India, home of the "Beatles Ashram", and one of India's Yoga Capitals. One day, I recorded Upandra's fantastic Yoga Class (€2 for a 2 hour class) with my Handy Zoom recorder - so now you can "complete relax" to his audio, and some random Rishikesh images, including the now-abandoned and overgrown Beatles ashram itself...:

Many Bodies of Contemporary Dance Symposium @ Dance House, May 19th

2010-05-23T02:32:00.000-07:00

"The Many Bodies of Contemporary Dance" contributors were www.tereoconnordance.com, www.raimundhoghe.com, www.girljonah.org (Caroline Bowditch), www.irishmoderndancetheatre.com (John Scott), Cindy Cummings, and Mary Kate Connolly. Continue the conversation at www.creativedialogueireland.com. The above preview was in the Sunday Business Post. Transcription of symposium proceedings to appear online soon - watch this space...

Remembering Yeats' Forgotten Dancers @ Oonagh Young Gallery, May 21st

2010-05-22T03:57:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Anna Berndston (www.berndston-art.net) & Ann Curran for spontaneously jumping in to take photogra phs, & massive thanks to all contributors.

1st Dublin Dance Festival Fringe Event - today at Oonagh Young Gallery

2010-05-20T23:24:00.000-07:00

May 21st has arrived! Yeats' Forgotten Dancers is happening today. I'm happy to relate that Percy Lovegrove himself kindly sponsored 30 fold-up chairs - without even being asked. He rang me a couple of days ago saying "you mentioned chairs a couple of times, so I have booked 30 chairs from www.mobyrnehire.ie - they'll be delivered to the gallery on Friday". Imagine! What an angel. Well I suppose Doreen, his late wife, who is the star of "Yeats' Forgotten Dancers" would like visitors to have a seat. Especially Victor Wynburne's son and daughter, who are coming over from London for the event. So that's it - thanks to the wonderful Adam Fitzsimons the projector is up, (had to go and get a longer AV cable from Maplin, will hook that up this morning), some bottles of wine are in, thanks to "Anonymous", and now all I have to do is think about what we are going to talk about in our public conversation...
I guess this is the First Dublin Dance Festival Fringe event?

Yeats's Forgotten Dancers at Oonagh Young Gallery, May 21st

2010-05-13T08:17:00.000-07:00

The Logistics:

I'm delighted now that Dublin Dance Festival are very extremely kindly (can't use enough superlatives here), and most usefully going to send a technical genius dude - Adam Fitzsimons - to help us hang the projector for this day-long event in which we'll be projecting a half hour ghostly loop of lost Yeatsian sounds and images... Hanging a projector from the ceiling of the gallery is no small feat. Thanks in advance to Mr. Murphy & his team!

And afterwards, John Singleton, who runs the Ulysses readings at Sweny's Joycean Chemist, on Lincoln Place is going to help us take down the projector, Joyce's Lemon Soap helping Yeatsian bodies come to light - that sounds like another perfect synergy to me. Really looking forward to it now...
Now all we need is a wine sponsor. We're working on it. (Got a generous sponsor who wishes to remain anonymous on May 17th - thanks anonymous!). Oh and chairs... Do we really need chairs though, i wonder?

DDF Reviews 2010: Jean Butler/Day. Junk Ensemble/ 5 Ways to Drown. Irish Independent

2010-05-13T05:36:00.000-07:00

Pina Bausch's Emancipated Spectator

2010-05-04T10:27:00.001-07:00

By the way I gave a paper at the Irish Society for Theatre Research's annual conference the weekend before last, in Trinity. It was good to update my work on Pina Bausch (RIP) ,and in particular my 2002 book, published by Peter Lang, "Orientalism, Orientation, and the Nomadic Work of Pina Bausch". I'd love to present it again, with visuals, and extracts from the scripts this time (Didn't have enough time for all that in the 20 minutes allocated). Here's the abstract of the paper:

Who's Afraid of Pina Bausch?
Pina Bausch's Emancipated Spectator and ensuing Documentation Challenges.

In this paper I will explore whether the dynamic Pina Bausch set up with the spectator may have anticipated Jacques Ranciere’s notion of “The Emancipated Spectator”, and what motivated Pina Bausch to abandon the “nation-narration” in her original, script-free theatrical idiom. Using my own original scripts of Bausch’s “City pieces”, “Viktor” (1986); “Palermo Palermo” (1989); “Tanzabend 2, 1991”, and “Ein Trauerspiel” (1994), published in my PhD thesis “Orientalism, Orientation, and the Nomadic Work of Pina Bausch” (Frankfurt: Peter Lang GmbH, 2002), I propose to investigate the unique dynamic Bausch set up with her spectator. Using my original scripts, I will consider the new artistic form Bausch invented in historical context, and ask whether her new idiom was born in direct reaction to the psychology of fascism. Did Bausch’s new theatrical idiom relate to what philosopher Eric Fromm describes in The Fear of Freedom, as Fascism’s annihilation of the individual self and its utter submission to a higher power?

Might Bausch have set out to dismantle what psychologist Karl Gustav Jung described as “the herd instinct” through her new idiom? “It is only single persons…” she asserted. “There is no such thing as communal response. Each person in the public is part of a piece, and has their own relationship to it”. Bausch, whose oeuvre provided her audience with space for self-exploration, and the opportunity to initiate awareness of many ways of seeing, compared experiencing her work to the sensation of being the first to open the door on a fresh snowfall: “You feel it. It cannot be shared. And this is very important”.

Audio Slideshow of Catherine Delaney: "Pile: Give or Take"

2010-04-26T07:01:00.000-07:00

These images were taken with a humble Canon Powershot. Deliberately grainy. Aesthetically grainy. It's in keeping with the "Art Povera" theme of the exhibition, right? I love listening to Cathy sharing her thoughts and musings on her recent exhibition and her life-long relation to cloth and all its metaphors. She also threw around some names like Anya Gallacio, Christian Boltanski, and even Mary Kelly. We had quite a jaunt out to Bluebell to Liberties Recycling Centre where we were given a great welcome by the lovely people there. That's where Cathy sourced some of the clothes for her recent exhibition at Solstice Arts Centre. A big thank-you to all at Liberties for being so welcoming. And to Cathy who kindly got out of her sickbed to do this project with me (ooh I feel bad! she said I was a true documentary maker, as I took her by the chemist to get some solpadene en route to the M50...) - thanks Cathy. Just press play (above, left). Woop - my first audio slideshow! It's also up on youtube if you'd like to see a bigger version.

"Yeats' Forgotten Dancers" to take a twirl at Oonagh Young Gallery on May 21st

2010-04-10T03:25:00.000-07:00

Lo & Behold

2010-04-09T01:32:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Catherine Delaney's thought-provoking exhibition, "Pile: Give or Take", I was pondering recycling, when, Lo & Behold! look what I spotted on Sandymount Strand!!! Talk about a crock of gold. Excited beyond belief at my find, I reached for my camera, but I didn't have it with me. Luckily though, I did have my iphone...

Catherine Delaney's "Pile"

2010-04-07T23:56:00.000-07:00

just practicing... this is the amazing Solstice Arts Centre Gallery, Navan, designed by Grafton Architects. What a gorgeous space.

Caught me a Rainbow

2010-04-06T12:48:00.001-07:00

Wait, is that jogger in the red top (see below) actually the crock of gold? ;) Or is it (as mostpeople might presume), look closely now - over in Howth?

Swimming with the Sharks. Damien Hirst's original shark.

2010-04-04T04:32:00.000-07:00

I was reminded of this photograph recently, taken in 1992 (!) at Art Cologne. Yes, it's Damien Hirst's original tiger shark in formaldehyde, formally known as "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living". Have a close look - that's me taking the photograph (I'm dusting off that manual, brass-bodied camera again now), reflected in its vitrine. Ah, so young.

In case you're not familiar with Damien Hirst's famous fish in formaldehyde, fyi (& your secret of not knowing about this landmark art work is safe with me, unless of course you'd like to post a public comment about it), this is the iconic work of British art in the 1990s,^[3] and the symbol of Britart worldwide.^[4]Of course, having a good eye for talent, when I gazed through the vitrine into this dead, but immortalised fish's eyes - before all the hype - I knew even at first glance in 1992 there was something special about it. However, despite the formaldehyde, that specific fish was not long for this world. Damien Hirst had not yet perfected the formula. So this was a sort of experimental fish. Or a guinea pig. This from wikipedia about the fate of that poor shark (above), and its replacement. Did you know:

Because the shark was initially preserved poorly, it began to deteriorate and the surrounding liquid grew murky. Hirst attributes some of the decay to the fact that the Saatchi Gallery had added bleach to it.^[7] In 1993 the gallery gutted the shark and stretched its skin over a fiberglass mold, and Hirst commented, "It didn’t look as frightening ... You could tell it wasn’t real. It had no weight."^[7] When Hirst learned of Saatchi's impending sale of the work to Cohen, he offered to replace the shark, an operation which Cohen then funded, calling the expense "inconsequential" (the formaldehyde process alone cost around $100,000).^[7] Another shark was caught off Queensland (a female aged about 25–30 years, equivalent to middle age) and shipped to Hirst in a 2 month journey.^[7] Oliver Crimmen, a scientist and fish curator at London's Natural History Museum, assisted with the preservation of the new specimen in 2006.^[7] This involved injecting formaldehyde into the body, as well as marinating it for two weeks in a bath of 7% formalin solution, consisting of water and dissolved formaldehyde gas.^[7] The original 1991 vitrine was then used to house it.^[7]

(No, neither did I).

My new painting by Marty Kelly

2010-03-22T03:06:00.000-07:00

How do you like my lovely new painting by Marty Kelly, which I got through barter with the Blue Leaf Gallery for contributing to Marty's Art London Catalogue (Just scroll down a few pages to see and read it). I'm rather happy to have this beautiful little elf for company as a result.

Dublin Dance Festival Symposium 2010 - Watch this Space.

2010-03-16T03:32:00.000-07:00

"The Many Bodies of Contemporary Dance" is a symposium I'm curating with Gradcam, and Dublin Dance Festival, on May 19th in Dance House (on Foley Street, Dublin 1). Create, and Arts and Disability Ireland are also involved. Key note speakers are Festival Headliners Raimund Hoghe (who was last seen in Dublin as the swan in his version of Swan Lake, in DDF, 2006), and Tere O'Connor (whose solo with Jean Butler will be on at the Peacock Theatre), with a panel of very interesting dance practitioners and cultural commentators (watch this space). This is going to be a rich and thought-provoking conversation which will be recorded, and published, for posterity. We're developing an online forum for the interested public, on the "many bodies of contemporary dance", that will run throughout the festival too, so you can have your say (if you don't manage to book one of the 60 FREE seats at the event itself - BOOK NOW!). Will keep you posted on that. In the meantime, have a look at this year's fascinating line-up on www.dublindancefestival.com.

Interview with Oscar-nominee Kathleen O'Rourke aka Granny O'Grimm

2010-03-06T03:53:00.000-08:00

A year ago I did John Boyne's short story writing course at the Irish Writer's Centre on Parnell Square. Afterwards, a few of us in the class decided to keep up a writer's group, and started to meet sporadically in Toddy's Bar at the Gresham (John's bar of choice). One day the conversation came around to what people did for their day-job, and Kathleen O'Rourke, one of us, declared she was on a career break from teaching to give her character, Granny O'Grimm a chance. Granny O'Grimm? Of course we had never heard of the old dear. When I looked her up on www.grannyogrimm.com, I immediatedly fell (around the place laughing) for her cynical world view and black humour. A soul sister! Next thing we knew, Granny was shortlisted for an Oscar nomination. Then the little old charmer was nominated for an Oscar. She was very disappointed to have to miss our writer's group meeting on February 15th, as it clashed with the Oscar nominee lunch in LA. OK, OK, we could do a raincheck. (Plus, her dreams were coming true, which, if you know Granny, you'll know would be very difficult for her to deal with. Life's not meant to behave like that in Granny-world!). Kathleen's now in LA, getting all dolled up for the Oscars tomorrow. I know, I know, she's doing it for all of us! The best I could do was to write this article (in twitter-style journalism: 40-word paragraphs), about her amazing, well-deserved success:

Spring Sprung Today

2010-03-02T07:22:00.000-08:00

2010-03-02T06:29:00.000-08:00

What do you know - Nice Moves was on RTE Choice again last Wednesday (among a host of other interesting international programmes):
Wednesday 24 Feb
5 00 AM	Radio Canada International (rcinet.ca)

6 00 AM	The World Today (BBC World Service) International news and current affairs programme from the BBC World Service. bbc.co.uk/worldservice

7 00 AM	Nice Moves (rte.ie/radio1/nicemoves) Nice Moves presented by Deirdre Mulrooney, is a new 5-part series which traces the history of the body on stage in Ireland. Irish people have always danced, but our first record

7 30 AM	Seascapes (rte.ie/radio1/seascapes)

8 00 AM	Car Talk Brothers, Tom and Ray Magliozzi, "Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers", dispense car advice, read puzzlers and make 4.3 million people laugh every week. www.cartalk.com

8 55 AM	Radio Prague The international service of Czech Radio (radio.cz)

9 06 AM	Wednesday Documentary (BBC World Service) Details at: bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/

9 30 AM	Monday 702 (1993-5) Tim Lehane's series from the mid-1990's

10 30 AM	Discovery (BBC World Service) Significant discoveries in science and technology. bbc.co.uk/worldservice

11 00 AM	The Sunday Forum A forum for the discussion of one of the topical issues of the week from an ethical point of view. Presenter: Myles Dungan www.rte.ie/radio1/thesundayforum

Percy Lovegrove's memoir "An Auld Cockle Picker" hits Sweny's, Lincoln Plance

2010-02-22T04:43:00.000-08:00

This morning, Wendy, of Sweny's arranged a display of Percy Lovegrove's fascinating memoir "An Auld Cockle Picker - The autobiography of a well-travelled man" in Sweny's Chemist on Lincoln Place. Percy's wonderful book spans from finding himself orphaned in County Laois in the 1930's, to Dublin where his future wife, Abbey School of Ballet original Doreen Cuthbert taught him to dance, to the trans-African railway and Kikuyu land in Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion, to his work with Coras Trachtala in the 1960's and '70's, when Ireland was but an inchoate brand on the international market, and beyond. Why not drop in to Sweny's and have a look for yourself? They're awfully friendly, and you can also buy old-fashioned sweets of all varieties. Watch this space...

Gukunda the Gorilla

2010-02-21T02:15:00.000-08:00

Just thought you'd need to see what we were looking at in the previous post - gorillas! This is Gukunda, one of Diane Fossey's Sabyinyo group of Gorillas, peering through jungle trees (trees! see below!), in Virunga Volcano Park, somewhere around the Rwandan/Ugandan border.

Salgado in the Mist

2010-02-15T08:58:00.000-08:00

I was at "D'Relish" fundraiser for Theatre @ The Plough on Saturday night, and had the good fortune to hear Eugene O'Brien's fantastic tale of his encounter with William Burroughs while in his early 20's. This reminded me of my chance encounter (it's all about chance encounters really isn't it? Though in my experience they are often about pretty much nothing except maybe the fact that we all happen to be alive on the planet at the same time), with the world's greatest photographer in the Rwandan jungle a few years ago. My mum has been at me to post this story up on my blog (OK Mum, this is for you). Then, out of the blue, today Tim Jarvis, who was with me on that trip gave me a ring. Do you think that was a sign perhaps to post this story? Do you think any thing is a sign? Of anything? Are we just giving the universe too much credit for having intelligence? Or any meaning at all? Anyway, this is a nice story, and was a great day, and a rather funny encounter with one of the greatest genius-photographers walking the same earth as us...

Salgado in the Mist

It was pitch black that Sunday morning as we left Kigali for an exclusive 7.30am date with Diane Fossey’s mountain gorillas. It was expensive too, at $375 US each - this poor freelance journalist would have been left twiddling her thumbs in the Rwandan capital for the day, had Moya & Tim not generously paid for the ticket (thank-you!).

Moya, ‘mystical voice of Clannad’; her husband and manager Tim (and off-duty photographer); Jerry, documentary maker; and PR guy Ultan piled into the van. I hopped in up front with the driver. The roadside soon came alive on our epic journey to the National Volcano Park, where Rwanda, Uganda, and Congo meet, with women appearing and disappearing mirage-like out of the dark into our headlights. Kigali-bound, they were transporting wares on their heads, with all the grace and poise of top models.

We were, frankly, too bleary-eyed to contemplate how one decade earlier, during the genocide we were warned not to mention, this Goma road bore the greatest stream of refugees in Africa’s history. In mass exodus, people fled for their lives, struggling with all the worldly possessions they could carry on their heads, children at their side, desperate for a safe place. Ten years on, the same road was being steamrolled with fresh smoky black asphalt from Germany.

The sun rose suddenly, revealing surprisingly lush Rwandan hills crammed from top to bottom with abundant vegetation: eucalyptus and banana trees, potatoes, avocados.

As the Virunga Volcano Park neared, Moya made sandwiches in the back of the van. Blood sugar levels rose, and the whole world began to take on a wondrous hue.

Once we located the hard-to-get Gorilla HQ, ‘Francois’ our guide, put us into a group of six – us, and one rather pale figure in safari attire from Brazil.

Francois who had worked closely with Diane Fossey, and features in Gorillas in the Mist (we were told later that night), sported a flamboyant skinny purple and yellow hand-knitted scarf wound around his neck a la Dr. Who. Oozing an air of unquestionable authority, he instructed us (we were now standing in a tight circle), to introduce ourselves to the group. Though with the exception of the stranger, we all knew each other, we obeyed without question. ‘Hello, I am Sebastiao from Brazil’, pronounced the unknown man.

Tall-ish, thin-ish, and getting on in years, in hindsight (now that I know who he is) Sebastiao was self-effacing under the brim of his safari hat. Was it a Tilly Endurable, I wondered, at the time. He wasn’t at all swarthy and agile – which was how I imagined Brazilians to be. What brought this unlikely Brazilian here all that way? Was it a ‘trip of a lifetime’ – the fulfilment of a life-long ambition to see the mountain gorillas, inspired maybe by Sigourney Weaver in that movie? Why had he made such a long journey, and all alone? There was something about him, something I couldn’t put my finger on. He was serene maybe, and knowing.

A five-strong ‘military escort’ brandishing serious guns - (well the $375 had to go somewhere), flanked our posse as we headed towards the nearby jungle. All at once we found ourselves surrounded by volcanoes, as promised – : Karisimbi (‘white shell’); Bisoke; Sabyinyo (‘big teeth’); Gahinga; and Muhabura (‘the guide’).

Heading inwards from the clearing into dense jungle undergrowth, we checked our cameras were loaded. I had been frantically photographing in Christian Blind Mission clinics and hospitals for four days now, and felt the weight of documenting the trip. My first photographic assignment, I backed up my brass-bodied manual Nikon FE, with a digital Canon powershot, going for quantity and leaving nothing to chance.

But this was our day of rest. Any photographs were just for fun, so I had left my digital camera at home. I loaded a 1600 ISO film I wanted to experiment with since a trip to India ten months previously. It was originally for sunrise over the Ganges. I was a bit concerned that 1600 was too fast for how bright the Rwandan morning had turned out. Within though, under the thick canopy of jungle greens, it was darker. Unknown to me, Sebastiao was also using a 1600.

The sight of him loading himself up with all sorts of amazing photographic equipment distracted me from the pursuit of gorillas. He screwed mini-tripods onto cameras with massive telephoto and zoom lenses. Later he would balance them on his shoulder and chest. A fascinating photographic machine dangling over his right shoulder prompted me to scurry up beside him (I could resist no more), and comment

‘Nice camera! What is it?’

‘It’s a new format camera, a 45 mm – the shots are wider.’

I took a good long look at it. I then gleaned he was working on an eight-year photographic project called ‘Genesis’, being shot all over the world. So this wasn’t just somebody who had been saving up all his life to come and see Diane Fossey’s Mountain Gorillas after all. I enquired whether he had found a publisher for it yet. As we progressed inwards perfect French, Spanish, and English wafted from his direction as he spoke to others. An international spy on the brink of retiring after a lifetime of international espionage? Now my imagination was really running away with me. I found myself involuntarily eavesdropping, in the noble effort of putting the pieces of this jigsaw together. One sibilant surname did float through my head – alliterating quite poetically with his Christian name. Salgado. As quickly as it surfaced though, I dismissed it. Preposterous!

Penetrating deeper into the jungle, we found our ‘Groupe Sabyinyo’ gorilla-family of nine. As if following an unwritten rule-book, in silence, everybody began elbowing everybody else out of the way in an attempt to capture these dark, magical and, to me, unphotographable beauties. Nonetheless, in a kind of silent dance around these hirsute spirits, we navigated the space around each other, to get up close and personal.

Francois our guide pulled me out of the throng behind which I tended to cower (far too polite), and propelled me to the front. We were the Gorilla paparazzi. Uninhibited by us, the beasts stretched out nonchalantly and scratched their privates. Francois’ hand landed on my shoulder – a hand I felt I could trust completely. I followed unquestioningly, as, turning me around, he gently pushed me in front of… a massive gorilla!

Just as ‘fight or flight’ kicked in, Francois deftly lifted my camera out of my hands, pointed it at me, and click! Terrified, I heard the din of footsteps drawing nearer behind me. What was I afraid of? They are peace-loving vegetarians. Sure enough it was just Gukunda reaching up for another delicious branch of bamboo. I regained my composure and smiled. Click! The last on the reel. It was the nearest I ever got to a me Tarzan you Jane moment. Moya jumped apologetically in for her photo opportunity with Gukunda: ‘Hope you don’t mind, I just saw you getting yours and had to get one too’… Of course I didn’t mind.

Unsure how exactly to metre for dappled jungle undergrowth, I proceeded in good old ‘hit or miss’ style, switching next to a 400 ISO roll.

Our fellow-photographer’s gear kept its hold on me. He sure looked like someone who knew what he was doing. I was glued to the way he positioned himself for a photo – balancing, crouching, lunging. And clicking. We all seemed to be part of an impromptu choreography, dancing around the gorillas, elbowing each other out of the way quasi-courteously but firmly, with unspoken (definitely no speaking allowed!) contact improvisation, configuring ourselves around each sighting. I was surprised to find myself sneaking a couple of surreptitious photos of the Brazilian stranger moving in on his subjects. The sureness, and almost invisibility of how he moved. There was something about him.

All too soon Francois pointed to his watch and signaled that our precious hour with the Sabyinyo’s was up.

Emerging out of the dark thicket of jungle canopy back into the clearing, I caught up with the stranger once more. Knowing it was the last chance to get to the bottom of this story, I struck up yet another casual conversation, I let my stride synch with his, as we headed back towards our starting point. I heard how he had just arrived directly from photographing the ecological wonders of the world in the Galapagos islands to photograph down down down into the volatile Niyragongo crater, and at the astonishing lake below.

‘The colours must be amazing’, I responded to his vivid description. ‘Red, glowing and radioactive?’

‘Yes – but I only photograph in black and white’.

‘Only black and white?! But there are so many amazing colours – especially in lava. Did you ever think of using colour?’

Peering at me from under the brim of his Tilly hat he smiled in Buddha-like fashion before uttering:

‘There are many colours in black and white’.

I smiled back, thinking ‘wow’ – really?

(Apparently I have a terrible habit of saying "wow" too much. But I'll allow myself to be wowed by this one).

‘Well I would definitely use colour for lava!’

Eventually after quite a detailed photographic chat, on the intricacies of how difficult it is to photograph gorillas as they are so dark (Sebastiao agreed, ‘very very hard to photograph’), and it’s hard to get any detail, and the light is so tricky, and comparing ISO’s of film (we both used 1600 – did I mention that?), I enquired:

‘Do you mind me asking you your surname?, I’d love to look out for your book on the internet when it comes out.’

‘My surname is Salgado’.

Salgado. He confirmed it. We were in the presence of a living legend.

‘What?! Sebastiao Salgado? You are Sebastiao Salgado?! Oh my God! Wow! Amazing! We look at your books in my photography class at home in Dublin! I can’t believe you are here with us. Like – don’t you photograph (ok this is embarrassing, but it’s true, I said it), trees? Didn’t you have an exhibition at the Douglas Hyde Gallery in Trinity?’

‘Trees?’, he responded. ‘No not trees. But I did have an exhibition in Dublin, and unfortunately I could not make it over for it’.

By now the others were waiting for me impatiently for me in the 4WD to go back to Kigali.

I listened to Salgado.

‘My wife and I love Ireland’, he smiled serenely, ‘and have visited many times.’ They are based in Paris. He had been airlifted by a UN helicopter up to the summit of the Nyiragongo with a team of 12 including a military escort. They camped out there for three days, while he took his multi-hued black and white pictures. When he was done, the UN helicopter found them again by Ground Positioning System to airlift them back to base. He was there as UN and UNICEF Ambassador.

I needed to share this with the others, whose impatience was getting all-too tangible. So I called Tim Jarvis over and introduced him to my new-found friend as ‘also a photographer. Tim, this is Sebastiao Salgado!’. ‘Wow’ grinned Tim, ‘you’re kidding! Sebastiao Salgado – really? Your books are amazing, particularly the one about the gold mines in South America (Tim had all the right references of course. He didn’t ask him about trees).

‘So what’s your plan now, what’s next?’, I enquired, keeping the conversation going after the miraculous revelation.

‘Tomorrow I will be here again, photographing the gorillas’, divulged the world’s most famous photographer of humanity on the move, ‘and the next day, and the next…’

Salgado, the Nelson Mandela of photography is one of the most extraordinary human beings you could ever hope to run into in your lifetime. Let alone to photograph Gorillas with him in the jungle on a day off from your first ever photography assignment. In the meantime, I've gazed, mouth agape, at this economist turned photographer's staggering opus - his immortalisation of humanity on the move across our planet. Not a tree in sight. Well maybe a few in the background – occasionally.

The inscrutable universe had spoken, through its Gorilla mist.

Riverdance 15th Anniversary

2010-02-13T05:24:00.000-08:00

Reflecting on the 15th anniversary of Riverdance, The Show, I'm just remembering this funny and informative one-hour radio show I did with producer Bernadette Comerford on RTE Radio One talking to musicians Robbie Harris and Kenneth Edge; and dancers Michelle Buffini, Michael Pat Gallagher and Joanne Doyle on how Riverdance changed their lives in On the Road With Riverdance. Sounded like they had a lot of fun touring the globe from the USA, Europe, China, New Zealand, and Japan to Mexico, first class. A long way from damp and musty Irish dancing halls! Must look for a copy of the actual show again, can't find a podcast right now. And also, to give immense credit where it is due, Moya Doherty kindly sponsored the research for my book, Irish Moves - so Riverdance certainly had a very positive influence on my life too. So, in brief (there's so much to be said about Riverdance, but I'll save that for another occasion), Happy 15th Anniversary to Riverdance. It's nice to have had a personal connection to a monumental Irish cultural phenomenon of the twentieth century.

Loving the Artistic Justice in Colin Dunne's Olivier Award Nomination

2010-02-11T02:49:00.000-08:00

I'm absolutely thrilled to see the artistic justice (I sometimes wonder if this exists!) in Colin Dunne's nomination for an Olivier Award for "outstanding achievement" in his groundbreaking and touching solo performance "Out of Time". It's even more poetic that the Olivier Award nomination coincides with the 15-year anniversary of Riverdance, signifying how far Colin Dunne has moved his artform on since he took over as lead dancer from Mr. Flatley in 1995. In this 2003 DANCE MAGAZINE feature I wrote on Colin, who was at the beginning of a massive and scary artistic odyssey into his own practice, he was performing "Trading Taps" (which he choreographed with Tariq Winston) at Radio City Music Hall. It was quite an adventure for me, I'll tell you, rubbing shoulders with the Rockettes when I walked through the stage door there to interview Colin up in a Radio City rehearsal room. (The things we take for granted!). From this vantage point, seven years on (it has been a long, consistent journey, full of integrity and stick-with-it-ness for Colin), it's poignant that I clued into the fact that Colin spoke then "like an artist in the middle of some risky and as yet unspecified work-in-progress". Well - that "work-in-progress" has culminated in "Out of Time" - and his Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement. There's a lot more to be said (and indeed I have written a lot more about his artistic journey already), but I'll leave it at that for now. Watch this space! Keep watching this artist! Congratulations and well deserved, Colin Dunne.

Re:Public at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios - Mick Wilson Happening in the Window.

2010-02-07T05:12:00.000-08:00

Just after news about some drastic Arts Council Cuts to Temple Bar Gallery & Studios (as well as shocking cuts to other Arts Organisations, for example our only Clown-based theatre company Barabbas - how can this be?), Mick Wilson (Dean of Gradcam), gives his scheduled talk "Dead Public 1" on Death, Politics, and Public-ness in the window of the Gallery, on the set of "Re:Public" (curated by Daniel Jewesbury). Outside the gallery window, the random public, as you can see from these images, including a few Italian rugby supporters, are rather intrigued by Mick's audience, a "public" on tiered seating on display in the gallery window. What's to become of us? A good kick off to Gradcam Conference "arts research: publics and purposes" throughout Dublin, click here for more info. Among the bewildering line-up of talks and events by a myriad of interesting artists, I'm looking forward to the Dublin Bikes extravaganza - Aisling O'Beirn's "Boom or bust by bike: an alternative city tour" - and to Sylvia Loeffler's 'Dead Public 2' talk on Dublin Graffiti: "Mapping the Blind Spots: A Multidisciplinary Investigation of Visual Waste Products in Public Urban Space' next Friday... (& a lot a lot more, just haven't digested it all yet - it's Sunday. Better hurry up though, as it's booking out).

Experimental Podcast from Sweny's Chemist, Lincoln Place on Joyce's BIrthday

2010-02-02T03:00:00.000-08:00

Today, February 2nd is James Joyce's 128th birthday, and Sweny's Chemist on Lincoln Place are running a special event to celebrate. I called in to Sweny's for a chat with Brendan Kilty, and happened upon a story from Niamh O'Farrell in the Storytelling snug, and a song by Noel O'Grady, in the Swindow. It's a friendly, welcoming place of "spontaneity and serendipity" as you can see by the fact that my book Irish Moves ended up in the Swindow, basking in the reflected light of Westland Row - "Canyon of Culture", as Brendan Kilty calls it... Listen here (or just copy & paste into your browser):
http://web.me.com/dmulrooney/Site/Podcast/Entries/2010/2/2_SwenysPodcast.html
to story, song, dreams, and Happy Birthday James Joyce (well, he's dead obviously, but seen as he wrote "The Dead" no harm in marking his birthday with a podcast, I figure)...