Since then I have become a volunteer invigilator at The Model/Niland Gallery in Sligo, and go there on the train each Friday.
I leave home around 0730, and the latest I'm back is around 2300 hours that night.
A number of people are telling me I'm mad to do this, and why wouldn't I volunteer in some Dublin Gallery. Well, to me it is not real madness, rather an unconventional way of giving myself what I want in a way that I am unlikely to wiggle out of being good to myself, and at the same time benefitting someone else at the same time.
(Image from this website)
On the journey, I do a considerable amount of reading, something I lack the discipline to do at home. (Of course, I sometimes snooze in between the reading, but that's a gift to myself also.)
At the Gallery, I get the opportunity to really study the work being exhibited. At the moment there are two exhibitions. One is Jack B Yeats The Living Ginger a series of watercolours dating 1898 to 1910.
I am enjoying the challenge of 'looking twice' at these works since I have a tendency to say 'I hate painting', and so often cheat myself out of an experience that is readily available to me.
(Image from this website)
The second exhibition is Duncan Campbell's Make it New John, a video about John DeLorean making his car. As well as the video clip on the Model/Niland website, there is also a link to an audio clip from a TodayFM audio clip which unfortunately is incomplete, but excellent as far as it goes.
(Image from this website)
Alongside Make it New John, there is a second video made in 2003 called Falls Burns Malone Fiddles. I find this video far more challenging to get my head around. It consists of images and voiceover. The images are from an archive of images of Belfast - not the Troubles, but in a sense what went on in ordinary places in ordinary people's lives in between the Troubles. The voiceover by Ewen Bremner is a monologue combination of sociological theory and stream of consciousness ramblings. Part of the 33min video includes overprinted animation, lines, circles ...
I couldn't say I enjoyed watching it - I keep wondering would I have watched it five times if I hadn't been invigilating it. However, with time, there is a certain familiarity has grown on me, and I am watching out for favourite bits when I recognize they are due to appear.
There are new exhibitions promised for September - I am looking forward to them all, and really, I don't see stuff like this in Dublin - well not as often as I would like.
(Image from this website)
In Dublin, I went to Altered Images in IMMA - especially enjoyed video by Amanda Coogan - the sign language one - the snails one was a bit too much for me, though I made myself watch it for a good while.
(Image from this website)
Alice Maher snail piece was easier for me to deal with - but only easi-ER. Both of them were difficult for an inveterate 'snail-masher' gardener like me.
Other shows I have been to over the two months were Green on Red Painting Today - a group show with Fergus Martin, Mark Joyce, Damien Flood, John Cronin, Eleanor Moreton, Michael Conrads
As I mentioned above, I don't really like painting, so I have to make an effort to 'look twice' at what I am seeing. This exhibition had three pieces I really liked. In case the link above doesn't work after the show closes August 28, here are some images they showed that I liked.
The first piece I liked lit up the room for me when I entered. It looked far more spectacular than it does in the image. The sun was shining outside, and the brilliant light reflected on these 'pipes' which seemed to be coated with something like the ceramic surface often used by Hundertwasser.
The only thing I didn't like was the purple colour (the title is Violet, and the artist is Fergus Martin,) whom I didn't even know I liked until I did a Google search and realized he did the big shiny 'drums' on the back entrance of IMMA
Interesting enough, the other piece that WOWed me was also by Fergus Martin. It is called Today, and is an almost black canvas with a small rectangle of white in the upper right corner.
What set me alight in this piece was the reflection of white light on the wall above the white rectangle. It doesn't show in the image, but it was there for my visit and I just loved it.
The third piece I liked a bit was called Augmented Reality and was by John Cronin. It was the shade of green that attracted me. I could live with looking at that painting for a long time. Even thinking back to it gives me a buzz.
In the Science Gallery, I enjoyed myself experimenting with the interactive displays on the theme BIORHYTHM.
HEART 'N BEAT VIDEO can be seen here
As always, the Science Gallery reminds me how much I want to experiment with the electronic stuff. There just isn't enough hours in the day.
I'm going downstairs to eat now to re-stock my blood-sugar. I'm just realizing that I needed to get all that exhibition stuff out of the way before I could tackle the real chaos of the different ideas that are pulling me in different directions.
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