Saturday 16 August 2008

Public Art in Kildare


Here's an interesting project which sounds worth checking out if you're anywhere near Naas next week. This is where your taxes are going. Certainly very experimental but hey, no plays, no poetry, no literature of any kind. Come on now.

Parking Meter Arts and Kildare County Council Arts Service presents TRANSITOPIA, a contemporary public art project created specifically for Naas, Co Kildare.

It is a contemporary art project examining the negotiation between people and place and how the development of one directly influences the transformation of the other. The project engages with social infrastructure, architectural planning and the historical trajectory of industrial, commercial and public space.’


PREVIEW NIGHT/LAUNCH: Áras Chill Dara 6.30pm, Wed 20th Aug 2008
SILENT-FILM SCREENING A classic Silent Film screened, with a musical accompaniment.
Booking Essential Naas Town Hall 8.00pm, Sat 23rd Aug

Michelle Browne - Border-Border will transport commuters from Sallins/Naas Train Station to their destination in Naas via a lift on the back of a bicycle. In exploring the IN-BETWEEN SPACES that exist in our lives, the performance references an informal transportation system in Africa and borders of neighbouring countries. A unique sound piece created from commuters in New York, London, Galway and Belfast will accompany each participant’s journey.
16.45–19.30, Wed 20th, Thurs 21st, Fri 22nd Aug

Dominic Thorpe – Terrain worked closely with a local commuter Chris O’Neill and presents his own mimicry of O’Neill’s HABITUAL JOURNEY to work. The work is presented as a video installation.
Kildare County Council Offices/Áras Chill Dara. Thurs 21st – Sat 23rd Aug

Elaine Reynolds investigates the SECRET LIFE of street lamps and how they relate to the commuting population of Naas. The work is sited beside Donnelly Mirrors forecourt. The artist creates a heightened experience of an everyday transient moment through a poetic mirrored video projection.
Access from 20.00 – 00.00, Wed 20th – Sun 24th Aug

(Poetic but no poetry?)

Joanne Butler – The Folly is a witty intervention in the Civic Garden in Naas. Her scale model housing estate sets up a DELIBERATE TENSION with the oblique lines of the celebrated Áras buildings that is at once both playful and inquisitive.
Civic Garden, Kildare Co. Co. Offices/ Áras Chill Dara Wed 20th – Sun 24th Aug

Carl Giffney is undertaking a mobile research project on the commuter lines N6, M4, N7 for the Academy of FUTURE HISTORY in conjunction with Parking Meter Arts, focusing on the N7 Naas-Dublin road for Transitopia.
Áras Cill Dara. 6.30pm, Wed 20th Aug

Dara McGrath is producing site-specific photographic research in conjunction with Parking Meter Arts, focusing on the documentation of a DISUSED INDUSTRIAL SPACE. His work will be featured in the forthcoming Transitopia publication.

4 comments:

Susan at Stony River said...

Oh, nice: it sounds good. Much better certainly than the "artist intervention" that we'll be experiencing in Manorhamilton tomorrow....

THE INFLATABLE BANDSTAND, for one hour only; it gets blown up, a saxophonist climbs up and plays a tune on it, and off it goes.

I'm wondering if it's one of those things that once you see it, is wonderful for all that it sounds stupid at first.

Guess we'll just have to go see it, to find out.

Emerging Writer said...

Sounds intruging. Perhaps you should scramble up after the saxophonish and quote some of your work!

Unknown said...

Interesting and different. But I hope the weather doesn't put people off.

Unknown said...

Hallo all,

thanks for your interest in the Transitopia public art project.

The latest strand is a print publication, 'Transitopia 2008'.

publication launch

3pm Sat 20th Dec

Dara Cinema, Main Street, Naas
tea and coffee reception


Transitopia 2008 is a free publication and can be collected during the public launch on Saturday 20th 2008 and from Parking Meter Arts, Kildare Arts Office and selected libraries and venues from January 2009.


The publication is a continuation of, and expansion upon, the Transitopia events which took place in Naas during August '08, including temporary site-specific public artworks and a silent cinema screening in Naas Town Hall. The publication also reinforces the project website and online platform for public discussion and debate: www.transitopia.wordpress.com

Transitopia 2008 presents new photographic work by Venice Architecture Biennial contributor Dara McGrath and new interactive work by Carl Giffney's History from the Future whose work includes a pull out map in each book. The publication also presents documentation of the temporary Naas-based performance, installation and sculpture of four artists; Michelle Browne, Jo Anne Butler, Elaine Reynolds and Dominic Thorpe. A visual/textual piece by Kildare born artist Sarah Browne, Irelands forthcoming co-representative in the Venice Biennial, also features in the book along with texts by the project's curators Mark Durkan and Mary-Jo Gilligan.