#art studios in dublin

[theartstudyblr]

First day back at college and first day of my last year. Really want to make the most of it and share it with you guys, plus hopefully share some more pretty pictures of Dublin

[streetsofdublin]

TWO MURALS IN STONEYBATTER

[screenstretch]

➡️➡️➡️ @blackchurchprint International Residency Call Out 📢 ➡️ https://www.blackchurchprint.ie/international-residencies/ ⬅️ Black Church Print Studio would like to invite International artists actively engaged or informed by contemporary printmaking practice to apply for a four-week residency in Black Church Print Studio, Dublin during 2024. Applicants must be practicing printmakers. Irish residents are not eligible. Dates to be confirmed between winning participant(s) and the Studio. Deadline 31 March 2023 Applications should be submitted in pdf format by email to info@blackchurchprint.ie Submission €20 For more information check our website ⬆️ 📸 2022 Recipient Belle-Pilar Fleming #BCPS #Blackchurch #FineArtPrint #Artist #Dublin #Ireland #TempleBar #Studio #Irish #Printmaking #PrintedMatter #Art #ArtistStudio #ContemporaryArt #OpenCall #Opportunity (at Black Church Print Studio) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp8aRogogHR/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[theholmwoodfoundation]

THE HOLMWOOD FOUNDATION PILOT EPISODE CAST/CREW - PART ONE

REBECCA ROOT - MADDIE TOWNSEND/MINA HARKER

Rebecca trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Theatre credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for the National Theatre (UK and Ireland tour); Rathmines Road for Fishamble at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin; Trans Scripts at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts; The Bear / The Proposal at the Young Vic; and Hamlet at the Gielgud Theatre and Athens International Festival. TV, Film and Video Game credits include Monsieur Spade, This Is Christmas, Irvine Welsh’s Crime, Hogwarts Legacy, Horizon Forbidden West, Heartstopper, Annika, The Rising, Sex Education, The Gallery, The Queen’s Gambit, Finding Alice, Creation Stories, Last Christmas, The Sisters Brothers, Colette, The Danish Girl, Flack, The Romanoffs, Moominvalley, Hank Zipzer, Boy Meets Girl, Doctors, Casualty, The Detectives, and Keeping Up Appearances.  Radio credits include Clare In The Community, Life Lines, The Hotel, and 1977 for BBC Radio 4. Guest appearances include Woman’s Hour, Front Row, Loose Ends, Saturday Live, and A Good Read.  She plays Tania Bell in the award-winning Doctor Who: Stranded audio dramas. Rebecca has also recorded numerous documentary narrations, audiobooks, and voice-overs. Rebecca is also a voice and speech coach, holding the MA in Voice Studies from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

SEAN CARLSEN - JEREMY LARKIN/ JONATHAN HARKER

Born in South Wales, Seán trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. He has worked extensively in audio drama, television, theatre and film.  Seán is perhaps best known to Doctor Who fans as Narvin in the Doctor Who audio series Gallifrey and has appeared on TV in Doctor Who - The Christmas Invasion and Torchwood. Recent TV credits include Mudtown (BBCiplayer/S4C), Dal y Mellt (Netflix), His Dark Materials (BBC1), All Creatures Great and Small (Channel 5), A Mother's Love (Channel 4) and Series 5 of Stella (Sky1).  Films include supporting leads in Boudica - Rise of the Warrior Queen, cult horror The Cleansing,  the lead in Forgotten Journeys and John Sheedy’s forthcoming film ‘Never Never Never’

SAM CLEMENS - ARTHUR JONES

Samuel Clemens trained at the Drama Centre London and is an award-winning director with over twenty years’ experience. Samuel has recently written and directed his debut feature film ‘The Waterhouse’ with Take The Shot Films & Featuristic Films and represented by Raven Banner Entertainment, which is due for release this coming year.  In addition, he has directed fourteen short films, winning awards all over the world including shorts ‘Surgery (multi-award winning), A Bad Day To Propose (Straight 8 winner 2021), Say No & Dress Rehearsal’. Samuel also directs critically acclaimed number one UK stage tours and fringe shows (Rose Theatre Kingston, Swansea Grand, Eastbourne, Yvonne Arnaud, Waterloo East Theatre) and commercials include clients JD Sports, Shell and Space NK. Samuel is also a regular producer and director for Big Finish Productions & Anderson Entertainment. He has cast, directed, produced and post supervised numerous productions of ‘Doctor Who – (BBC), The Avengers (Studio Canal), Thunderbirds, Stingray (Anderson Entertainment), Callan, Missy, Gallifrey’& Shilling & Sixpence Investigate’ and many more. Samuel has directed world class talent such as, Sir Roger Moore, Ben Miles, Tom Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Alex Kingston, Frank Skinner, Rita Ora, Rosie Huntingdon-Whiteley, Rufus Hound, David Warner, Celia Imrie, Samuel West, Youssef Kerkour, Sophie Aldred, Ian McNiece, Colin Baker, Olivia Poulet, Stephen Wight, Jade Anouka, Mimi Ndwendi, Michelle Gomez, Peter Davidson, Paul O’Grady and many more. Samuel is one of the founding members and directors at Take The Shot Films Ltd and is Head of Artistic Creation and Direction. Lastly, Samuel is a regular tutor at The London Film Academy, The Giles Foreman Centre for Acting & The Rose Youth Theatre and is a member of The Directors Guild UK. As for upcoming projects, Sam is currently in pre-production on his next feature film “On The Edge of Darkness”, which is based on his dad’s stage play “Strictly Murder”.

ATTILA PUSKAS - DRACULA

Attila Puskás is a native Hungarian Voice Actor born in Transylvania – Romania, so Romanian is in his bag of tricks too, but most of his work is done in English, in a Transatlantic Eastern European Accent, but is quite capable of Hungarian, Romanian and International Eastern European accents, plus Standard American. His voice range is Adult to Middle Aged (30-40+) due to his deep voice. Vocal styles can range from authoritive, brooding to calming and reassuring and much more. He’s most experienced in character work, like Animations and Games, but his skills encompass Commercials to Narration as well. He’s received training through classes and workshops, pushing him to the next level to achieve higher standards. Now on a journey to perfect these skills and put them to good use!

PART TWO: HERE

PART THREE: HERE

[samaeldire]

Some perfectly normal Sanrio flash :)

February tattoo bookings open now at The Art Room studio in Dublin 🇮🇪

[alldancersaretalented]

Dancers You Might Know That Competed Against ALDC (Season 7)

Season 7 Episode 1 Sheer Talent Las Vegas 2016

there only were 35 dances entered into the competition

Season 7 Episode 2 Fierce NDC San Diego 2016

Addison Middleton competed under Signature Dance Academy

Zsofia Grenevitch competed under Signature Dance Academy

Signature Dance Academy had a group dance "Dream On" competing against CADCs (3rd) and ALDCs (1st) groups, they placed 2nd

other well known studios competing: Signature Dance Academy

Season 7 Episode 3 NYDE Dublin 2016

competition created just for dance moms

Season 7 Episode 4 DNC Placentia 2016

Season 7 Episode 5 Fierce National Dance Competition Agoura Hills 2016

Season 7 Episode 6 Dream DC Panorama City 2016

Season 7 Episode 7 Sheer Talent Fresno 2016

Gavin Morales (Dolce) placed 1st in Pre-Teen Solo with "Pulse"

McKenzie Morales (Dolce) placed 1st in Teen Solo with "Didn't Know My Own Strength"

besides 2 entries from Dolce (Morales siblings) and 7 entries from Van Der Zwann Dance Studio, there is only one studio competing (KM Dance Arts)

other well known studios competing: Dolce Dance Studio

Season 7 Episode 8 Fierce NDC Phoenix 2016

Season 7 Episode 9 Dream NDC 2016

Season 7 Episode 10 Sheer Talent Denver 2016

Shylee Sagle (Summit) came in 1st in Small Wonders Solo with "Doin' It Right"

Sofia Andrus (under Sweatshop, switched to MLDA later) came in 2nd in Junior Solo with "Not About Angels"

other well known studios competing: Summit Dance Academy, Xtreme Dance Force, Sweatshop Dance, The Dance Movement, Millennium Dance Complex Denver

Season 7 Episode 11 Fierce NDC Placentia 2016

Season 7 Episode 12 Sheer Talent Wheeling 2016

Lynzee Ensell (Dance Force Elite, switched to Studio 19) places 1st ("Betty Boop"), 3rd ("Cruella Du VIl") and 5th ("Miss You Daddy") in Small Wonders Solo

Jaelyn Ward (ALDC 2.0 =Appolonia Leake, previously ALDC) comes in 4th with "Halo"

Lynzee Ensell and Dalana Bove's (Dance Force Elite) duets place 2nd ("Double Trouble") and 4th ("Evil X 2") behind Ellie and Lillie's duet (ALDC, 1st)

Sarah Georgiana (Dance By Cami, later on DM S8) places 1st in Junior Solo with "Star Darling"

Dustana Roberts-Kelly (ALDC 2.0, previously ALDC and now Stars) comes in 4th in Junior Solo with "Autism Speaks"

Alaina Scabora and Dusty Roberts-Kelly's duet "Sounds" (ALDC 2.0) comes in 1st in Junior Duet

Sarah Hunt (ALDC) places 1st in Pre-Teen Solo with "Thy Will Be Done", Alaina Scabora (ALDC 2.0, previously ALDC) places 3rd with "The Story"), and Summer Kaczynski (ALDC 2.0, previously ALDC) places 5th with "Compass"

Camryn Bridges (ALDC) places 1st, Alexia Zufall (ALDC 2.0) places 2nd with "Say My Name" and ties with Nicaya Wiley (CADC), Christina Payton (ALDC 2.0, previously ALDC) places 3rd with "Abandoned" in Teen Solo

The ALDC 2.0 Solo "All We Do" places 3rd in Teen Group behind ALDC (1st) and CADC (2nd)

Trent Edwards (ALDC 2.0) places 1st in Senior Solo with "Found", his twin Colton (ALDC 2.0) places 2nd with "Lost", they also take 1st in Senior Duet with "Runaway" (highest scoring solo/duet/trio)

other well known studios competing: Appolonia Leake Dance Company, Dance Force Elite, Dance By Cami

Season 7 Episode 14 Starbound Asbury Park 2016

Elliana receives score of 296.9 points, Lilliana 270 points

Teen Top 4

5th: ?? (Movement Dance Academy) - ?? (?) 4th: Chloe Smith (CADC) - "Flying Solo" 3rd: Brynn Rumfallo (ALDC) - "Winner Takes All" (293 Points) 2nd: Maggie ? (Movement Dance Academy) - "Next To You" - 294 Points 1st: Kalani Hilliker (ALDC) - "Who Do You Think You Are" - 296 Points

Kalani for some reason competed in the 13-14 age division even though she was 16 years old

Season 7 Episode 15 Fierce NDC Anaheim 2017

Season 7 Episode 16 Sheer Talent Phoenix 2017

Audrey Caldwell (MBA) placed 1st in Pre-Teen Solo with "New World Coming"

Terin Christopher (DC Scottsdale) placed 2nd in Senior Solo with "Everything" behind Kalani (1st)

other well known studios competing: On Stage Dance Academy, Centerstage Dance Studio, Oasis Dance, Dance Connection Scottsdale, Master Ballet Academy

Season 7 Episode 18 Fierce NDC Panorama City 2017

Season 7 Episode 19 Fierce NDC Fresno 2017

Reagan Martin (Dolce) placed 1st in Junior and 1st Overall

Gavin Morales (Dolce) placed 2nd in Junior and 4th Overall

Kenzie Morales (Dolce) placed 1st in Teen and 3rd Overall (ahead of Kendall (2nd) and Brynn (3rd))

Kalani Hilliker (ALDC) placed 1st in Senior and 2nd Overall

other well known studios competing: Dolce Dance Studio

Season 7 Episode 20 Sheer Talent Las Vegas 2017

Small Wonders Solo:

1st: Kennedy Kahler (The Rock) with "Pacific" 2nd: Deanna Panin (The Rock) with "Bolero" 3rd: Alexis Mayer (The Rock) with "Flowers"

Junior Solo:

1st: Izzy Howard (The Rock) - "Medora Variation" 2nd: Savannah Kristich (The Rock, DM S8) - "Siva" 3rd: Devynn Lewis (The Base) - "The Meeting" 4th: Sofia Cook (The Rock) - "Silizum" 5th: Olivia Taylor (The Rock) - "Lament"

Junior Duet:

1st: Izzy Howard and Shane Wexelman (The Rock) - "Hopak"

Pre-Teen Solo:

1st: Sabine Nehls (The Rock) - "Light Of The Seven" 2nd: Summer Montenegro (The Rock) - "The Young Mariner" 3rd: Easton Magliarditi (The Rock) - "More" 4th: Amadeus Tiesling (The Rock) - "Easy" 5th: Abby Lorren (The Rock) - "The Diamond"

Pre-Teen Duet

1st: Easton Magliarditi and Sabine Nehls (The Rock) - " We Can Be Heroes"

Teen Solo:

1st: Anika Kojima (The Rock) - "Sanshou" 2nd: Yadiel Figueroa (The Rock, DM S6) - "Without You" 3rd: Jessica Phan (The Rock) - "Arrival Of The Spring" 4th: Veronica Comelek (The Rock) - "44" 5th: Julia Stumpf (The Rock) - "Flatline"

Senior Solo:

1st: Brittany Bruno (The Rock) - "Infinite Reflection" 3rd: Eryn Dotta (The Rock) - "Hands"

The Rock's Group "Odanata" (1st) won against ALDCs group "Contagious" (3), The Base's Group came in 4th ("Next Right Thing")

other well known studios competing: The Rock Center For Dance, The Base Dance Center

Season 7 Episode 22 Devotion 2 Dance (Sheer Talent) Riverside 2017

ALDC had dancers part of their studio compete (besides dm dancers)

Ariana Carr Raskin (ALDC) came in 5th in Junior Solo with "I Put A Spell On You", behind Elliana Walmsley, who came in 1st

Ariana Carr Raskin, Anelina Manguero and Janal Johnson (ALDC) came in 1st in Junior Trio with "World Town Heroes"

Angelina Manguero (ALDC) came in 4th in Pre-Teen Solo with "Mirage", Gia Severino (ALDC) came in 5th with "Every Heart", both placing behind Maesi Caes (3rd)

Sabrina Huang (Gravity X) who competed around 10 different solos at dance moms competitions in season 6 takes home 1st ("En Noctern") and 2nd ("Kitri Variation") in Pre-Teen Solo, beating Maesi and the other two ALDC dancers

ALDC has a group place 1st in Pre-Teen Group "Color My World"

MDPs group "The Upside Down" places 1st, ahead of to ALDC groups, "Glamorous" (2nd) and "Boxed In" (3rd)

Teen Solo:

1st: Tia Griffin (ALDC) - "Insecure" 2nd: Maisie Vargas (ALDC) - "The Rose" 3rd: Sara Todd (Dance Spectrum) - "Love Me Like You Do" 4th: Tia Griffin (ALDC) - "Yellow" 5th: Alexa Guerro (ALDC) - "War Of Heart"

Senior Solo:

1st: Jahsy Johnson (ALDC) - "Perfect Ruin" 2nd: Matteo Paoli (ALDC) - "Worry" 3rd: Dominic Rayman (ALDC) - "A Song For You"

other well known studios competing: Gravity X Dance

Season 7 Episode 24 Fierce NDC Upland 2017

Basia Rhoden (Dolce) competed her lyrical solo "Papa"

other well known studios competing: K2 Studios, Dolce Dance Studio

Season 7 Episode 25 Fierce NDC Anaheim 2017

other well known studios competing: Signature Dance Academy

Season 7 Episode 26 Innovation Dance Competition 2017

Season 7 Episode 27 Fearless Dance Experience Lawndale 2017

Maddie and Kaitlyn Ortaga (tHoR, later P21, now Mather) competed a solo and at least one group

Hayden Calder (Pave? or another dancer with the same age) competed a solo

Cali Cassidy (South Coast Conservatory, later P21, now ?) competed a solo "Grown"

Maddie and Kaitlyn Ortega also competed a duet "Only We Know"

Layla Bailey (Empire) competed a solo "CiCi"

Haley Allred (Adage) competed a solo "How Ya Baby"

Reagan Martin (Dolce) competed her solo, placing 1st in Junior Solo and 1st Overall, beating Nia (5th Overall) and Kalani (4th Overall)

other well known studios competing: the HAUS of ROYALS, South Coast Conservatory, Empire Dance Productions, Adage Dance Center, Prestige Dance Company

[mybeingthere]

Jean Bardon b. 1952

Born in Dublin, Ireland, she studied at Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design between 1970 and 1974. She then spent a period living and working in Amsterdam. It was during this time that

she developed an interest in printmaking. She became a member of Graphic Studio Dublin in 1990 and since then has exhibited nationally and internationally. She has been involved in

many exhibitions at the Graphic Studio, most recently being a member of the committee which initiated and organised 'Gardens of Earthly Delight' which took place in the Chester

Beatty Library in 2005.

[hannahssimblr]

Chapter Five (Part 4)

When we finally get back, Kelly and Claire are still gone. I wonder how long it’s been. It feels like Jen and I were gone forever, and there’s a big part of me driven by habit that wants to go into the house and find them, but I don’t. I know it’s not what Jen would want me to do. 

I sit back down next to Liam and he squeezes my knee reassuringly. “Are you okay?” He whispers, and I nod. “Yeah, I’m fine now.”

“So you’re just finished fifth year?” Joe asks me then. I appreciate that he’s making an effort to be normal and make me feel comfortable after my ordeal. 

“Yes” I say. “Leaving cert next year! So scary.”

“Don’t be scared, sure we all survived it.” The gang laughs apprehensively. “Well, we think we did. We’ll find out when the results come back.”

“I imagine waiting is hard” I say. 

“It’s better not to think about it too much. We all just want to enjoy our last summer here.”

“It’s strange, isn’t it?” says Jen. “All the times we came down here as kids and now… it’s like we don’t know if we’ll ever come back after this year.” Everyone looks a little sad then, and Shane nudges me suddenly and tries to lighten the mood. “Tell everyone what you want to do in college.” He says. 

“Oh. Well, art I think.”

“You make art?” Jude looks at me with interest, and I immediately want to downplay my abilities for fear that he’ll think I’m full of myself. “Yeah, I suppose, I’m okay at it.”

“Everyone says she’s great at it.” Liam tells him. “I haven’t seen her drawings yet, but the girls were raving about her. She draws in her sketchbook every day.”

“That’s cool – what do you draw?” Jude asks me.

“Just whatever I see. Landscapes, people, sometimes still life, like stuff that’s lying around in the mobile home. I really like doing it, because when I’m drawing I don’t have to think about anything else.”

“Oh, mad. Jude is an artist too.” Jen says. “Ye have something in common.” Oh no. I think. He’s going to be able to somehow tell that I’m an imposter. 

“Yeah, I’m studying art in college next year,” He says. “I already have my place in the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts to do a degree.”

“Oh, so you’re studying abroad?”

“Yeah, it’s going to be good. Four years in Germany, I can’t wait. I’m actually leaving at the end of the summer.” I think about how that’s the coolest thing I ever heard. I imagine what it’d be like to live somewhere other than Ireland, surrounded by like minded artists sharing ideas and painting together in beautiful parks. I can picture myself somewhere like that, with my own studio in a big white room overlooking a cultured European city, huge windows wide open with warm light streaming in and  birds singing outside.

Claire finally comes out of the house looking worried. She’s alone, and there’s a line etched between her brows. She crouches down beside me as everyone else continues to talk. “Kelly is really sick.” She says in a low voice. “She drank too much of something and now she’s throwing up everywhere. I think we should bring her home.” I consider this. I don’t feel sympathetic to Kelly at all, because she put herself in this situation, but at the same time I know that it would be terrible for Claire if I let her deal with her on her own. I sigh and start to stand up. “Where is she?”

“She’s in the bathroom. We’ll have to go and get her.” Liam, ever the gentleman, gets up to help too. “I can get my dad to come and collect us.” He says. “We’d just need to get her out onto the road.”

“I think that’d actually be good.” Says Claire. “I really don’t think she’s going to be able to walk all the way home.”

“Is everything okay?” Jen asks us, and when I tell her what’s happened with Kelly she sighs with exasperation. “You don’t have to go, Evie, you can stay here with us if you want to.”

“No, I do.” I say. “I want to go with them.”

She shrugs, and then when I turn to leave she pulls me back suddenly. “Hey, you should come to Dublin with us at the weekend.” 

“Huh?”

“Jude and I are going to an exhibition and you might really like it.”

“I’m forcing her to come.” Jude tells me, leaning over to us. “Jen hates contemporary art but I’m making her come so I don’t have to go on my own.”

She rolls her eyes and pulls a face. “Contemporary art.”

“No pressure at all.” He tells me. “But yeah, if you want to, you’re welcome. We’ll mostly be hanging out in the city for the day anyway so whatever you feel like doing.”

“I’m just saying, it might be nice to get away for an afternoon.” Jen pats my hand. 

“I’d love to.” I say, feeling my chest fill with happiness at the invitation. “Yes, definitely. I’ll come along. What day?”

“Saturday.”

“Okay, see you Saturday.” I turn away and rush inside, smiling from ear to ear as I go to help peel Kelly off the bathroom floor.

Prev // Next

[thelensofyashunews]

Cochise announces headlining WHY ALWAYS ME? World Tour kicking off in February

Fresh off the release of his fourth studio album WHY ALWAYS ME?, Florida rap star Cochise has just announced his forthcoming headlining World Tour – kicking off in February, 2025. Presale tickets will be on sale starting at 12:00pm EST on 11/20 (PW: WHYALWAYSME), while general on sale tickets go live starting at 10:00am Local Time on 11/22 (ticket link here). Taking Houston rapper TisaKorean on the road with him as an opener, Cochise will be embarking throughout North America during the tour's first leg, ending in his home-state of Florida on 3/30, before linking up with buzzing UK rapper Len for the majority of the European leg – concluding in Poland on 5/6. The recently-released WHY ALWAYS ME? arrived in October backed by a string of singles that included "GOOGLE ME", “YOSHIMITSU” (40M+ Streams), and the Aminé-assisted "NASTY". Boasting other features from Veeze and Anycia, WHY ALWAYS ME? served as a championship album celebrating a new era for Cochise — marking his first LP since 2022's THE INSPECTION and his appearance on the 2022 XXL Freshman cover. With production from BYNX (Drake, Travis Scott), Supah Mario (Young Thug, Lil Uzi Vert), CHASETHEMONEY (J. Cole, Juice WRLD), and Lex Luger (Kanye West, Chief Keef), WHY ALWAYS ME? is a nebula of intergalactic opulence, melting into Cochise's hypnotizing vocals and sky-diving delivery.

Hailing from Palm Bay, Florida, Cochise is known for a kaleidoscopic sound that blends elements of Jamaican dancehall, hip-hop, and trap with animated lyricism punctuated by deep-cut references to anime, sports, and pop culture. Hailed for his high-flying vocal acrobatics and hazy, ethereal production, he exploded onto the scene with his 2021 major label debut Benbow Crescent, which featured the RIAA Certified Gold hit track “Hatchback” (400M Streams). Cochise has since sold out a solo headlining world tour and collaborated with the likes of Lil Yachty, Chief Keef, Denzel Curry, Juicy J, Teezo Touchdown, Lil B, and more.

HEADLINING WHY ALWAYS ME? WORLD TOUR KICKING OFF IN FEBRUARY – TICKETS ON SALE 11/22 TICKETS

ARTIST PRE-SALE ON SALE 11/20 @ 12:00PM EST (PASSWORD: WHYALWAYSME) PRE-SALE

WHY ALWAYS ME? Tour – North America Dates: 02/13 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of Living Arts 02/14 – New York City, NY – Irving Plaza 02/15 – Washington, DC – Union Stage 02/17 – Boston, MA – The Sinclair 02/19 – Montreal, QC – Le Studio TD 02/20 – Toronto, ON – The Axis Club 02/22 – Detroit, MI – El Club 02/23 – Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop 02/25 – Columbus, OH – Skully's 02/28 – Chicago, IL – Avondale Music Hall 03/01 – Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line 03/03 – Denver, CO – Marquis Theater 03/06 – Seattle, WA – The Crocodile 03/07 – Portland, OR – Star Theater 03/09 – Sacramento, CA – Harlow's 03/11 – San Fransisco, CA – The Independent 03/13 – Las Vegas, NV – The Beverly Theater 03/14 – Los Angeles, CA – The Regent Theater 03/15 – San Diego, CA – SOMA 03/16 – Santa Ana, CA – The Observatory 03/18 – Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom 03/22 – Austin, TX – Mohawk 03/23 – Dallas, TX – Studio at the Factory 03/25 – Houston, TX – Warehouse Live Midtown 03/28 – Atlanta, GA – Center Stage 03/29 – Orlando, FL – Beacham 03/30 – St. Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live

WHY ALWAYS ME? Tour – Europe Dates: 04/19 – Dublin, IE – Green Room 04/20 – Manchester, UK – Club Academy 04/21 – Glasgow, UK – SWG3 Warehouse 04/23 – London, UK – Scala 04/25 – Brussels, BE – Botanique – Grand Salon 04/26 – Paris, FR – Trabendo 04/27 – Cologne, DE – Luxor 04/29 – Zurich, CH – Dynamo 05/02 – Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso Tolhuistuin 05/04 – Prague, CZ – Futurum 05/05 – Berlin, DE – Hole44 05/06 – Warsaw, PL – Hydrozagadka

[sinceileftyoublog]

Fontaines D.C. Live Show Reivew: 10/9, The Salt Shed, Chicago

Photo by Zach Caddy

BY JORDAN MAINZER

It's clear that on Romance (XL), Fontaines D.C. are a changed band. The story behind their "bigger" sound and reach is well-known by now, the Dublin quintet ditching scene go-to Dan Carey for Simian Mobile Disco's James Ford to flesh out the ideas that started when they opened for Arctic Monkeys throughout the U.S. Taking inspiration from the hip-hop, R&B, and dance stalwarts of yesterday and today, the band members went their respective ways, reflected, experimented on their own, and then wrote and holed up in the studio together for months, at different locations. Knowing that they wanted to explore grandiose themes--life, death, and, yes, romance--beyond the confines of their native Ireland, it makes sense that Grian Chatten and company decided to break down any sonic barriers. And they've let us know every step of the way, from Romance lead single and industrial boom-bap banger "Starbuster", to album and current tour set opener "Romance", whose melodic vocals, chiming synths, and blasts of distortion present us with this new era of Fontaines D.C.

Photo by Zach Caddy

On Wednesday night at The Salt Shed, the band's reintroduction was as gradual as ever, as the members came out in bunches, building up "Romance" piece by piece, Conor Curley's guitar, Conor Deegan III's bass and Tom Coll's drums, Carlos O'Connell's keyboards, green strobe lights, and then Chatten's vocals. It took me the whole song to get used to not just how they sounded, but that there were more band members on stage than I expected, and how they looked. For one, Fontaines D.C. are touring with guitarist Cathal Mac Gabhann and multi-instrumentalist Chilli Jesson of Palma Violets. Moreover, multiple band members had dyed hair and wore Matrix-meets-Brat leather jackets and sunglasses. If you didn't know it before, it was clear this wasn't the same scrappy band who wrote Dogrel.

Photo by Zach Caddy

Throughout much of their set, Fontaines D.C. performed the songs that best emphasized their expanded sound. There was the post-grunge standout "Here's the Thing", replete with Chatten's unexpected falsetto, Curley's buzzing guitars, and Deegan III's menacing bass line. "Bug" sported acoustic guitars and whooshing synthesizers, shoegaze beauty "Sundowner" a gentle Curley on lead vocals. Just like on their previous albums, though, the songs that ended up being the live anthems were those where Chatten showed off his mighty pen. The loud-quiet-loud "Death Kink" takes its name from those who believe the idea that misery makes good art. "There's a certain kind of air in the smoke / Must be some amount of truth in the joke / For it to make you laugh, ha ha ha," Chatten sang, the audience laughing with him in unison. As a frontperson, Chatten spent most of his time rousing up the crowd, arms waving in the air like Craig Finn, or jittering around in circles reminiscent of Ian Curtis. The crowd ate it up; someone even tossed a blow-up doll over the barrier during "A Hero's Death".

Photo by Zach Caddy

Approaching the climax of their set, Fontaines D.C. made sure to get out of the way their clear-cut back catalog highlights: "Jackie Down the Line", "Big", and "Sha Sha Sha", the final preceded by a simple, "Free Palestine" from Chatten. Yet, I'm glad they gave prime real estate to Romance closer "Favourite", a stunning, glorious, reflective slice of jangle pop, the band playing it last before coming out for an encore. The song is, at once, hyper-specific and universal, perhaps most successfully exemplary of Romance's wide-reaching goals. During one verse, Chatten describes the type of hangover where your mind is running all over the place, thinking about how you might have had a good night, regretting some decisions, yearning for a simpler time when your immediate world was "bed radios and days spent playing football indoors," and nonetheless realizing that you were lucky not to experience the time "when they painted town with Thatcher." Anyone, Chatten posits, can feel nostalgic for a time while recognizing its ills.

Photo by Zach Caddy

That mental back-and-forth played out during the band's encore, too. "In The Modern World", played first, refers to a trip Chatten and Curley took, where they met another Irish traveler, who gave them a drug that numbed them to their surroundings and overall troubles. Its acoustic guitar line, Chatten's whispered rasp, orchestral synths, and layered vocals in the chorus certainly recall the Lana-esque faded L.A. glamor the band was going for. But the lasting sound of the night was "Starburster", a stream-of-consciousness-seeming rap inspired by Chatten having a panic attack in the St. Pancras tube station. The song is composed as if to surprise you around every corner, beginning with piano plinks, harmonic synths, a snapping snare drumline, and a chorus punctuated with Chatten's breathless gasps, replicated live by a sampled gurgle. "Starburster" is certainly one of Fontaines D.C.'s finest songs, and it will likely be played during every set for the rest of their career, but I feel like only on this specific tour can it close the night. If the band is trying to show that they've grown beyond the taut, literate punk blasts of their first three records, what better way than to unspool like nervous wrecks?

[mizkit]

new blog post: ICFA 2024 Overview

new blog post on https://mizkit.com/icfa-2024/

ICFA 2024 Overview

I’m back from the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA) where I was a guest of honor over the past week, and I am ridiculously tired but had a wonderful time. I am, in fact, too tired to type coherently, so if this is fully of typos, I… will assume you can read through them bc omg. so tired. :)

I’d never been to ICFA and was, tbh, very very nervous and feeling quite imposter-syndromey, which is not my general modus operandi, but my god, guys, the previous guests of honor include…like…everybody cool. Neil Gaiman. G. Willow Wilson. China Miéville. N.K. Jemisin. Terry Windling. The list literally goes on and on and is just…incredibly intimidating. I felt like going around singing “one of these things is not like the others” all weekend.

However, the guest scholar, Mame Bougouma Diene, who was INCREDIBLY COOL, also felt very impostery, which helped. :D We reassured each other and hung out and it was really fun. :)

The othe GOH, Mary Turzillo, was not stricken with imposter syndrome, so at least one of us felt functional in the setting! She was SO WONDERFUL and kind and generous and I am so very, very happy to have met her and her husband, Geoffery Landis, who was just so charming and delightful, I mean, I am overwhelmed with their kindness, and so incredibly glad to count them among my friends now.

I’m going to try to actually do individual posts about each day, more or less, because every day was really full of just… wonderful people, great panels, a lot of laughter and joy, and an enormous amount of fun.

But, lol, when I said “Did I mention I’m going to Orlando next month” to my husband and son, they went wibbly lip and came along with me, so while I was GoHing (Ghosting, Mary called it, which I kinda loved, we were fellow Ghosts), they went to SeaWorld and Universal Studios, and walked themselves ragged in the heat but also had a spectacular time, so overall we just… it’s been a really, really great week. And I’m so tired. laughs

I do want to shout out to Alexis and Novella Brooks de Vita, who are long-time friends of mine and who, I’m pretty sure, are primarily responsible for bringing my name up as a possible GoH, and to whom I am so very very grateful. Also it was SO AMAZING to see them again, omg. I keep getting teary because I really was just so happy to hang out with them. They’re two of the most wonderful women I’ve ever met, and I could have spent the entire week just with them and come away feeling like I’d had a perfect conference.

Also, Ellen Kushner deserves a particular bunch of love, too, because she remembered me from Dublin Worldcon (which, frankly, I find incredibly overwhelming and wibbly smiles all by itself, even though we’ve been online friends for like EVER, but omg guys ELLEN KUSHNER REMEMBERED ME o.o) and she realized that I probably didn’t know anyone because I do the European conventions if I do anything at all, so she really kind of took me under her wing for the weekend and introduced me to people and it was incredibly kind of her. And holy moly does she have good taste in restaurants. If she ever invites you to dinner, go. :D

Ok, I’m a little more awake/functional now, which is part of why I decided to start the morning with a blog post, and now I’m going to start working my way through the huge pile of things I need to do after a week off (a week in which new things also transpired, of course, giving me more things to do!).

[theartstudyblr]

8.05.23

So close to finishing the semester, it's been raining like mad but post-thunderstorm walks and good pizza make it easier

[k00291639]

Movement ~ Artist Research

When I began my painting I was advised by Eoin to look at the art by Nick Miller. Nick Miller is a London born man who moved to Ireland in 1984 to pursue painting. He first worked in county Clare as well as county Dublin. Since 1992, he has been predominately based in county Sligo.

Nick Miller is a unique artist due to the fact that, for a time, he chose to use his van as a studio. He drove to locations and opened the back doors of his vans in order to paint beautiful landscapes. In his paintings the borders of his van doors can be seen. This adds a lot of depth to his paintings.

I think the way he adds the van interior to his paintings is quite similar to what I am trying to achieve with my bus painting. I also really enjoy the way he paints and would like to use a similar style for my landscape piece.

[ronnie-wood]

posting a 2008 ronnie interview here bc why not viva la information

full article under the cut! this was around 2008 when he was 61 and had an art exhibition, based on artworks he made in his studio in ireland

it's a REALLY interesting interview, and i'm glad i saved it a long time ago :D

a warning for discussions of alcoholism though! u__u i sort of understand bc some of his drinking was motivated by grief when he was young, his girlfriend got killed when he was traveling to a gig

Originally from the Financial Times: Lunch with FT: Ronnie Wood July 19, 2008 1:45 am by Rob Blackhurst Keith Richards once said, “If you are going to get wasted, then get wasted elegantly.” At 61, his fellow Stones guitarist, Ronnie Wood, embodies this louche creed. As he arrives in the reception of Dublin’s elegant Shelbourne Hotel for lunch, cutting a path through huddles of overly nourished politicians and businessmen, he’s dressed in the same size of super-skinny jeans, 28 waist, that he’s been wearing for the past 30 years, a pair of space boots that may once have belonged on an alligator’s back and a tight black shirt undone to the chest: the fruits of a trip to Prada before his daughter Leah’s wedding last month. But, even from 50 paces, it’s the luxuriant crow-black head of hair, flecked with only the tiniest hint of grey, that really marks him out as a Rolling Stone. As he greets me with a warm handshake and naughty, liquorice eyes, he says: “I don’t dye it either.” Alluding to his equally thin bandmates, he adds: “We’re all the same build, as well. It’s a good thing I didn’t join Fleetwood Mac.” We take our place in a booth in the newly refurbished Saddle Room, which is all mirrors and velvet and upholstered in a garish shade that might be described as boudoir gold. Wood squints uncomfortably. “Christ, it looks like Rod Stewart’s trousers,” he says.

The Shelbourne is Wood’s favourite Dublin haunt. “I’ve a good old affiliation with this hotel,” he says. “When we played the Point Depot five years ago we were based here. It was like the Stones coming home to my town.” Wood has lived in Dublin on and off since the early 1990s, when he bought a second home in the southern suburb of Sandymount, searching for a sanctuary for his art and music, and shelter from the British exchequer. He transformed the cow byre into recording studios and the stables into a personal pub called “Yer Father’s Yacht”. It seems a dangerous place for a fitfully recovering alcoholic like Wood; there are 20 more pubs within a square mile of his front door. He looks at the menu reluctantly: “I’m not really hungry at all,” he says. Eventually we opt for 12 oysters from County Clare followed by the seafood platter to share. Nothing stronger than caffeine is ordered, though Wood is going through another well-publicised bout of heavy drinking. “A friend came over last night – I hadn’t seen him for years. We had a few drinks. It ended up being seven in the morning.”

Though he has been woken up for the interview only an hour earlier, Wood is lucid and charming, especially when an espresso arrives to kick-start the conversation. I mention his latest art exhibition, Ireland Studio, a six-week show at his Scream gallery in Mayfair. The exhibition features paintings and pen-and-inks produced – mostly through the night – at his Irish pile over the past 10 years. Free of tour commitments – this year the Stones are on sabbatical after two and a half years on the road – he has been able to spend more time in Ireland with his two Great Danes.

Wood’s interest in art dates back to the early 1960s, when he was a student at Ealing Art College, but he took it up commercially for “grocery money” in the mid-1980s when he had blown a considerable portion of his Stones money on a cocktail of drugs and comically disastrous managers. He flicks through a pile of prints of the front garden of the Priory Clinic, where he has been a regular in-patient; moonscapes from the west of Ireland at night; and horses racing on the Irish turf. Sir Peter Blake and Lucian Freud are among fans of his art: “He [Freud] told Mick [Jagger] that he loves my landscapes. That’s a compliment, from the greatest living artist.” Tracey Emin is a friend: “She’s like my aunt. She rings me up every day to ask how I’m doing.” He pauses and confides mischievously: “Tracey thinks she can draw.”

Most of his collectors are Stones fans in the US: “The leading cancer-curing doctor in Florida – much to his wife’s chagrin – spends most of his money on my paintings. She says: ‘Oh, please don’t sell the house and buy another Ronnie painting!’ Though his portrait of the Stones in a Jacobean interior, “Beggars’ Banquet”, sold in 2005 to a private collector for $1m, he is pricing his Irish landscapes at between £10,000 and £50,000. Deals, he makes clear, can be struck.

Wood has become a kind of official portraitist to the court of celebrity over the past decade – ever since Andrew Lloyd Webber commissioned him to paint the famous patrons of the restaurant The Ivy in the early noughties. Now a Ronnie Wood sitting has become as much a signifier of the upper reaches of stardom as a Hello! wedding deal. His waiting list includes the Stones-mad French president, Nicolas Sarkozy: “I met him and Gordon Brown and he was desperately trying to put me on the phone with Carla Bruni. There are all these people like Scorsese, Clinton, Beckham...” but he trails off, as if bored of the fame whirligig: “I’m trying to get away from the commissions so that I can do what I want,” he says. “This new exhibition is more the stuff that I want to do – landscapes, dogs, horses.” The plate of oysters arrives. Wood is a fan of their nutritional properties. “They’ve got everything you need – all the vitamins and minerals. They keep the zinc up,” he says with a mock leer. Discussion moves to his other day job. I ask whether age has calmed Richards who, Wood recalled in his autobiography, used to hold an arsenal of guns and knives that would be drawn during band frictions. “It’s still on the verge, you know,” he deadpans. “Murder is still quite an easy option. You have to be on your toes all the time.” Nevertheless, Wood is more appreciated now by his fellow Stones than he was when he left the Faces to join them in 1975. For years, as a latecomer who joined when the band had already made their fortune, he had to negotiate his fee on a rising scale for every tour and album. “There was a 17-year apprenticeship,” he says. “Charlie and Bill stood up for me. Nice of them to do that, because they could have carried on looking the other way. I’m part of the empire, finally.” In spite of the Strolling Bones jibes, he thinks the Stones have never sounded better in their 45-year history than they did on the final dates of their tour at the O2 arena last August. He says there’s “talk in the air” of another tour next year.

It must feel odd, I say, to go from playing in front of a crowd of a million in Rio to sitting at home. He becomes melancholic. “I’m more lost when I’m not on tour. I’m in a bit of a muddle at nine o’clock – ‘Where’s the stage?’ On tour there are people directing and supervising you. And then when you finish it’s like, ‘Sit down and watch TV.’ Sometimes I get so bored I think I’ll have a drink. I don’t mean any harm but I just go off the rails.” He points out, however, that he did manage to catch himself last month when he checked in for treatment ahead of his daughter Leah’s wedding so that he didn’t miss the big day. A torrent of alcohol runs through Wood’s life. His account of his upbringing in a council house in Middlesex, the third son of “water gypsies” who had left their barges for dry land, sounds like a preparatory school for a career in rock ‘n’ roll. His father, Archie, played in a 24-piece harmonica band that toured the racetracks of England. At home, there were weekend singalongs around the piano that got so boisterous that a crack appeared in the middle of the house. When the family lawn was dug up 1,700 Guinness bottles were discovered. This may sound impossibly romantic, but his relationship with drink turned darker when, while he was still a teenager, his girlfriend was killed travelling to one of his first gigs: “When Stephanie got killed I sort of drowned my sorrows,” he tells me, “and I suppose I’ve never looked back since.” Does he worry about his own health? He’s dismissive: “Here I am at 61 and I’ve never felt better. I’ve never had a cleaner bill of health. I was just in the Mayr Clinic in Austria. They said, ‘We want to use you as an example of how we want people to end up.’ They said I had the body of a 40-year-old.”

As our seafood platter arrives, Wood dips straight into the crab claws. “These are really cool. I don’t know which sauce you put on them.” As he plumps for the shallots and vinegar, the conversation turns to Jimi Hendrix, with whom he shared a flat for six months in the late 1960s. “He didn’t think he was any good as a singer. I used to say, ‘Don’t worry about that voice.’ He used to obliterate real life by being stoned all the time – and he couldn’t handle it. He didn’t realise how good he was.” His last memory of seeing Hendrix alive, the night before he died in 1970, is haunting. “He was leaving Ronnie Scott’s [jazz club]. He had his arm around a girl and he looked really sad. I went out after him and said, ‘Jimi, you didn’t say goodnight.’”

I try to lighten the mood by asking about the Wood clan – who all seem to have found jobs in the family business. He married Jo, a former model, 23 years ago after splitting with his first wife Krissie, another model. Jo is on the Stones payroll as his dresser and assistant on tour, in between running her organic beauty products business. His stepson Jamie is his manager, and his youngest son Tyrone is curating Wood’s latest exhibition at Scream.

The “Little Red Rooster” ringtone on Wood’s phone sounds. He seems agitated. The call brings news, he says, of The Sun door-stepping his home in Kingston, south-west London. A few days after our lunch I realise that he had been given news that the paper was about to write a story about how during the week of our meeting, he was holed up with a young Russian waitress. Whatever domestic earthquakes are going on in the background, he returns quickly to conviviality, suggesting we finish lunch with a drink elsewhere. Though he is great company, it’s something of a relief when his PR appears to steer him to his next engagement and saves me from making the decision. As we leave the hotel, the kitchen staff lift their ladles and knives in salute, out on the street car horns honk, and Wood poses for an endless round of photos with passers-by, loving every second of it. “That’s always been a big problem with me,” he says with a grin that fades to exasperation: “I find it hard to get old and hard to say no.”

‘Ireland Studio’ is at Scream, 34 Bruton Street, London W1 until August 17; www.screamlondon.com The Saddle Room The Shelbourne Hotel, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2 12 x Clare Atlantic oysters €33.00 1 x Seafood platter €44.00 3 x Espresso 13.50 Total €90.50

[samaeldire]

Made in Abyss flash !

Not booking for the Faputa just yet, but all the little critters are available :3

February tattoo bookings open now at The Art Room studio in Dublin 🇮🇪

[dannyfoley]

Temple Bar Gallery + Studios , Tale Ends & Eternal Wakes, a new exhibition by Mairead O’hEocha.

Gorillas, horses, frogs, herons, and other animals have always held a valued role in Mairead O’hEocha’s paintings. In this new body of work the birds and beasts that find themselves enclosed in museum dioramas are celebrated, anatomised and commemorated. But it is not only the animal species that are represented, it is the entire artifice of their reproduction through taxidermy, and subsequent display in museum cabinets. O’hEocha’s depictions of the dioramas in Dublin’s Natural History Museum (or Dead Zoo) bring to light an important balance in her constituent subjects and their contextual arrangement. Where previously O’hEocha’s representation of animals was encoded within her broader visual lexicon, the animals now fully occupy the frame, gesturing to the viewer on their own terms. This is impossible, of course, as the animals’ gestures are appealing precisely because of their oblivious regard for the viewer. O’hEocha’s selective compositional approach to painting reflects the meticulous arrangements of taxidermied animals in constructed artificial environments, and her ongoing engagement with representation and image-making highlight important issues about accepted institutional forms of presentation. O’hEocha goes beyond the urgency of current environmental concerns to present artworks that chart human anxieties, such as fear, desire and control. The paintings ask how we can better acknowledge the limitations of archetypal conventions of display, while also celebrating the complexities of representing the natural world today.

John Berger has compared the repetition of viewing a conventional gallery exhibition to the anticipated disappointment of visiting a zoo, and O’hEocha here acknowledges, subverts and reflects on the limitations of display. For the first time, she will show monochromatic ink drawings on paper that situate improvised and varied techniques of drawing alongside exacting and distinctively prismatic oil paintings on board and canvas. The drawings show monkeys and birds unbound from display cabinets, and the free-form, accumulative installation teases the animals to leap from one sheet of paper to another, defying the prescribed limitations of the museological ordering system. It would be a shame at this point to ignore that the art gallery, its visitors and its windows facing the busy city street reflect a parallel menagerie.

Natural History museums in the 21st century have a precarious position in the public eye. While they offer valuable scientific data that promotes progressive attitudes towards the natural world in an era of climate catastrophe, they are also residual embodiments of colonialism, hierarchical classification and cataloguing, and economic exploitation (5). Referencing Donna Haraway’s critique of the American Museum of Natural History, Catalina Lozano claims that representation of animals in museum dioramas ‘reproduces a narrative of dominance, a second defeat over the dead animal’ (6), and that the displays create a ‘permanently specular image, a ghost’ (7), whose imitation of life is extended indefinitely.

The exhibition title, Tale Ends & Eternal Wakes, echoes this state of suspension, or undetermined afterlife, in which the moment at the cusp of death is prolonged and made visible to all. Maeve Connolly has described O’hEocha’s paintings as ‘deliberate compressions of time’ (8), which is inescapably contrary to the display of the ‘denaturised’ subjects she paints. The ‘naturalisation’ of museum dioramas, their quantifiable value systems, and directed single viewing perspective, are a palatable means of rationalising the joyful and complex intangibility of nature. O’hEocha’s paintings are closer to the sublime disorder of the natural world in all its profound and perplexing splendour (9).

In an essay on fly-tying and representation, artist Joseph Grigely shares an old fishing secret: ‘its not the image alone that matters, but the way the image moves’ (10). This poetic analogy reveals some of the contemporary complexities around representation, and we know superficial caricatures are not a substitute for the real thing, particularly when considering the natural world: ‘It’s not so much about imitating flies as it is about creating desirable fictions’ (11). Rather than relying on representation, like the museum dioramas, Mairead O’hEocha appreciates human and sensory responses to ideas of nature through subtle decisions about form and gesture, such as the absolute stillness of an antelope or the reflective iridescence of a kingfisher’s wing. By simultaneously drawing us into the cabinet, and pulling the animals outside of it, back into the real world, O’hEocha’s exhibition prompts us to reconsider the entire dynamic between object and viewer.

—

Tale Ends & Eternal Wakes originally opened in February but closed shortly after, as Ireland went into lockdown, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is hard to avoid the feelings of confinement and isolation that many of us experienced over the past months when looking at O’hEocha’s paintings of animals in museum display cabinets.

To acknowledge the unique circumstances and the reopening of the exhibition, O’hEocha has produced several new works on paper in a reconfigured installation, and will continue to add to and expand the installation. It is as if the animals have reproduced and now occupy more space, inviting urgent questions on how the animal kingdom might survive in a post-human world.

‘Whenever a human being confronts a living creature, whether in actuality or in reflections, the ‘real life’ animal is accompanied by an inseparable image of that animal’s essence that is made up of, or influenced by, pre-existing individual, cultural, or societal conditioning’, Elizabeth Atwood Lawrence, “The Sacred Bee, the Filthy Pig, and the Bat out of Hell: Animal Symbolism as Cognitive Biophilia”, in The Biophilia Hypothesis, ed. Stephen R. Kellert and Edward O. Wilson (Island Press, 1993)

‘Visitors visit a zoo to look at animals. They proceed from cage to cage, not unlike visitors to an art gallery who stop in front of one painting, and then move on to the next or the one after next. Yet in the zoo the view is always wrong. Like an image out of focus.’, John Berger, ‘Why Look at Animals?’, in About Looking (Penguin, 1980)

Jorge Luis Borges’ short tale, Fauna of Mirrors, tells of the mirror creatures who, due to the actions of men, are imprisoned within an alternate realm of the mirror. The myth states that over time, the trapped beings will recover their power, ‘break through the barriers of glass and metal and this time will not be defeated.’, Jorge Luis Borges, ‘Fauna of Mirrors’, in Book of Imaginary Beings (Penguin, 2006)

In a recent news article, Nigel Monaghan, Keeper of Dublin’s Natural History Museum advocates for natural history collections as ‘key to understanding biodiversity over the last few centeries.’, Juliana Adelman, ‘New science in old places: museums are crucial part of scientific research’, The Irish Times, Tuesday, January 7, 2020. Writer and curator, Rachel Poliquin, on the other hand, has described some of the contemporary criticisms of museum collections and displays: ‘Museums with nineteenth-century roots have been criticised as complicit with the colonial project, and their collections branded as imperial archives…in a Discovery Channel age, when wildlife videos can bring living, breathing, fighting, mating creatures into everyone’s home, no shooting or stuffing required, filling darkened halls with dead animals seems – to some – almost perverse’. Rachel Poliquin, ‘The Matter and Meaning of Museum Taxidermy’, in ANIMALS: Documents of Contemporary Art, ed. Filipa Ramos (Whitechapel Gallery and The MIT Press, 2016)

Charles Wolfe argues that ‘Nature can only be grasped as such in various localised, constructed, indeed artificial environments’ such as zoos, parks, and museums. Charles Wolfe in conversation with Olivier Surel, ‘On the Aestheticization, Institutionalization, and Dramatization of the Concept of Nature’, in Theater, Garden, Bestiary: A Materialist History of Exhibitions, ed. Tristan Garcia & Vincent Normand (Sternberg Press, 2019). He is referencing Denis Diderot’s romantic description of the natural world outside the display case or enclosure: ‘Whichever side we approach it from, we find masses (clusters, heaps) which transport us with admiration, groups which call for our attention in the most surprising manner’, Denis Diderot, ‘Cabinet d’Histoire Naturelle’, Œuvres completes, ed. H. Dieckmann, J. Proust, and J. Varloot (Hermann, 1975). Translation by Charles Wolfe.