Visual Arts and Crafts Crawl: Part 2
Here’s the second part of our walk through of the Visual Arts and Craft strands at this years festival, encompassing the rest of the city and a little detour to Callan.
David Beattie’s fascinating piece Transmitter is displayed in the rarely seen Monuments Room at St. Mary’s Hall (I’ve certainly never been there anyway) investigates lunar exploration through an array of different objects and radar devices. It’s an intriguing and involving piece and as I found, is very well elaborated on and illuminated (no pun intended) by the member of staff envigilating. So remember to ask and ye shall be rewarded by explanations and demonstrations!
Maria McKinney’s striking exhibition in Rothe House is an intriguing and inventive piece utilising objects like shopping baskets and trolleys that relay a sense of subverting bland consumption and escapism from the mundane.
Well worth spending a chunk of time at is Jacco Olivier’s epic mesh of film and painting which sees his paintings transformed into a moving animated piece which is projected on a large scale. Fed up with the limitations of canvasses, Olivier has created something truly special with Revolution. With two screens inside the vast foyer of Kilkenny Court House, this is a viewing experience you should really take your time to enjoy.
The streets of Kilkenny are also awash with many street art demonstrations and pieces that seem to pop up in surprising places. There's plenty of things to catch your eye when you least expect it!
Made In Kilkenny,a collective of 28 Kilkenny based crafts people were again on display in Butler House. It was an extremely well presented exhibition and I never fail to be impressed by the design work, presentation and promotion that the group utilise when presenting their work and getting it out there. This year each of the exhibits had an accompanying printed piece that showed rough work, inspiration and quotes from the makers and provided great context for the pieces of display. Highlights in particular were the works of Rudolf Heltzel, Derek Blanche and Rory Leadbetter.
Over in Kilkenny Arts Office was the joint exhbition Vessels Of Memory by Irish artists Rachel Dickson and Alison Lowry. The work was greatly varied utilising different materials like porcelain, clothing, clay, glass and paper. It really makes great use of the large space in the Arts Office. The exhibition explores themes of memory, rememberance and loss. It looks fantastic in the space and is a definite must see if you’re crossing over the bridge to John Street.
Nick Miller is another artist who displays his process for all to see in his multimedia piece in The Heritage Council. Drawing attention to the tradition of the reclining nude in art, Miller’s process is shown in a film depicting him creating his painting, with the work itself framed to the right of the screen. It's an intensely involving and illuminating demonstration of the artists way of working.
One of the best new additions to the artscape of Kilkenny has been the opening of Blackstack Studio, Kilkenny’s new fine art print studio located on Parliament Street. 5 members of the artists involved Maeve Coulter, Sylvia Hemmingway, Emma Hogan, Alé Mercado and Aiseling Noone are exhibiting a collection of their fine art prints in the upstairs gallery of The Watergate Theatre. Entitled We Are All In This Together, the collaborative piece encompasses a wide variety of prints of different shapes, sizes and colours. It’s well worth checking out.
Another must see (and one you don't need to go out of your way for) is the wonderful The Three Sisters collaboration between Kilkenny Arts Festival, Éigse Carlow Arts Festival and Waterford Spraoí which is located on Kieran Street and has proved to be one of the most talked about pieces of the festival so far.
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The visual and craft strand isn’t just exclusive to the city, there’s also a large variety of works being displayed in Thomastown, Paulstown, Stoneyford and Callan. I managed to check out Commonage in Callan. It’s an amazing architectual project that should really be sought out by anyone with any interest in the reimagining of old spaces. What they’ve done with the area at the back of the Co-Op on Green Street is really remarkable and hopefully will play a pivotal role in the cultural life of Callan for many years to come.
And besides this little lot there’s a lot more to see and do throughout the city and county. My advice would be to pick up a festival programme, gift yourself some time and go on a crawl!
John
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