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This great video popped up today with footage from the recent big wave/tow-in competition in Mullaghmore in Sligo. Filmed by a collective called Mulli Media their vimeo channel says there is a documentary in the pipe-line, which should be very promising if this taster is anything to go by. Sligo looks great and the waves look incredible.
If you want to read more about the competition, Ireland’s first tow-in invitational, there was an excellent piece in the Irish Times recently with some stunning photos by Roo McCrudden
I’m missing getting out to exhbitions so I’m gathering up a mental list of shows that will be open into the new year so that I’ll have a fighting chance of catching them. Top of the list are two Brian O’Doherty (aka Patrick Ireland) related shows- one at my old workplace The Model, in Sligo, and the other at IMMA in Dublin.
The Model show opens in February and is a major exhbition of Jack Yeats work curated by O’Doherty. Titled The Outsider the show will be one of the most significant irish showings of Yeats’ great masterpieces, and explores his fascination with the outsider persona, in himself and in his subjects. Works are being drawn from The Model’s Niland Art Collection, and additional works are being loaned from private and public collections for the exhibition, with some being seen in public for the first time in decades. I’ve had a sneak preview of some of the works and I’m dying to see them in situ in the new galleries.
O’Doherty knew Yeats and spent time with him in his final years, putting him in a unique position to curate the show. He’s been both critical and admiring of Yeats’ work and I look forward to seeing this come through in the show. It’s particulalry fitting that the show should be developed for Sligo as Jack famously said he didn’t create a work without “ a thought of Sligo in it” , so to have these great works come home to Sligo is a wonderful thing. The Outsider opens on Feb 5th and runs until 10th April.
Photo: Derek Speirs for The New York Times
It seems there’s been something of a renewed focus on O’Doherty’s work in this country since the “death” of his alter ego ; Patrick Ireland, in 2008. In 2009 he was comissioned to create a large scale work for Kinsale Arts Week; The Look Out, and there is mention in the same article of a comission in Belfast called An Lubán with Robert Ballagh…although I can’t find any follow up on it- has it been created yet?
Earlier this year O’Doherty, and his art historian partner Barbara Novak, donated a sizable amount of their personal collection of post war american art to IMMA. Featuring works that were gifted to Novak and O’Doherty by the artist, and often created for them specifically, the collection features works by great artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Jasper Johns, Edward Hopper, Sonja Sekula, Sol Lewitt, John Coplans and many others. It sounds like a fascinating show and best of all it runs until February so I should be able to catch it.
I’ve always enjoyed shows that have a personal connection between the curator and the work. A selection from someone’s own personal collection lends a whole new dimension to otherwise diverse work, there’s often an evident thread of style or theme, and just seeing what someone personally likes is often a great entry point to visual art. When those someones are a noted art critic/artist and art historian who lived among the artists included in the show in New York of the 60’s and 70’s it’s sure to be a fascinating show. Post-War American Art: The Novak/O’Doherty Collection is on now at IMMA, and closes on Feb 27th.
The Fallen Angel; Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. From a series of sketches for Angelology, 2010
Other shows of note that I may, or may not, make are Nick Miller Treehouse 360º at The Rubicon, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov Angelology, also at The Model, Clare Langan This Wilderness Part I at The RHA and potentially Richard Tuttle; Triumphs at the Hugh Lane, though the press release/show description for the latter makes it very had to tell….
I had visitors this past weekend so I took my own advice and brought them to to The Model, followed by lunch in Hargedons, for a shop around Castle Street (to Kate’s Kitchen for a can of illy and some Rooibos Tea for the South African), then to Cafe Arabica for some take away coffees and then a drive up to the Horseshoe.
And we had a great old time of it. For the first time I didn’t get lost finding the horseshoe, and we even found the Magic Road! which we rolled up and along for ages and ages while I freaked them out with my “look- no feet” move. The visitors were from Dublin and South Africa and were blown away by beautiful Sligo. We stopped to take loads of pics, and were even greeted with that most irish of photo op’s – the Sheep coming down the road (pic above) in picture perfect order. the mountains were spectacular, the light was great, we stopped at every ruined cottage so they could take pics, and the view out to the ocean as you come to the end of the horsehoe is mind-blowingly good on a clear day. I even popped the car out perfectly in Grange (followed the Yeats County feather pen sign) but the only downside was not having enough time for that pint in Langs- we were trying to make John the Fish back in town before he closed, but were rewarded with great salmon and scallops in return, and I was rewarded with a ” you live in a beautiful part of the world” statement which is the best accolade from a visitor. Well done Sligo
(I’ve more pics on flickr but they are only phone ones so not great quality)
