First off I have been preparing for the launch of the third PhotoIreland festival it kicks off on July 1st
and set to be the best yet with a fantastic program as always covering the Gamut of photographic styles allowing for an open and honest discourse around this years theme, Migrations, the Diaspora and Cultural Identity. As with last year there will be a book and magazine fair at Moxie studios and several programmed shows hosted within the theme.
Also there is the exciting off program exhibitions which as always should take us all on a rambling tour of the city where we can get lost and immersed in the worlds of photogrphy as presented by several groups of talented photographers from Ireland and around the world. The effect of this fantastic festival has been to enrich the conversation about the position of photography in Irish society. As a result of this conversation more people can now express an opinion and we move ever closer to the time when photography is fully appreciated across the whole spectrum of our society.
For my part I have been preparing for my own contribution to the festival and on the 5th of July it will open.
Leaving-Living will be a joint presentation of my project Leaving Dublin and Maurice Gunnings project, Argentine Irish Diaspora.
Its been a pretty big task, because it is my intention to honour my sitters and pay tribute to the courage they have all shown throught these difficult times.
I will show some 30 pieces at an average size of 1x1.3 metres. Because of the scale the resultant workload has been scaled up, but I am happy to report at this the framing stage of the works, that all is proceeding to plan.
The cost of producing this fine presentation has been made possible by the generosity of you my audience and your support of my campaign on fundit.ie and the Immigration Museum in Melbourne Australia who will host the exhibition later in the year at their building on Flinders Street, Melbourne.
Two weeks ago my video piece made in association with Ian Monahan had its Irish screen debut in the tiny 30 seater Denzille cinema the encouraging reaction has led me to consider somehow incorporating this piece into the upcoming exhibition.
Since the last post I have continued shooting work for the project and I will be posting that work here over the course of the festival with other news and reaction to the work as it happens over the course of the month. I am expecting the work to enter into a new realm with its arrival in print form.
I know we exist in the digital world, but this work and all its intangibles become wholly tangible in the printed form. I am hoping for breakthroughs with this work on several levels with this exhibition!
Wish me luck!
Last week I had a visit from documentary film maker Donald Taylor Black who is in the process of making a piece about "crash -art" the film has the working title of "stuffing the tiger"and for my part it has been great to participate in this process as it documents my process through location footage.
The piece I think is due for completion in September and I look forward to see how the barren wasteland of post crash Ireland has been fertile ground for a whole host of politically motivated artists!
So thats me all caught up now time for another catch up.
I must start by issuing a polite apology to Sinead and Eamonn Hegarty the subjects of tonight's glorious parting shot.
You see this shot was made back in mid March days before the brother and sister left for New Zealand.
At the time my release forms and survey sheets for the work had gone missing and only by happy accident did they appear two days ago.
Sinead had left for New Zealand a year previous and was home for a family celebration when Eamonn decided he would like to try his hand abroad as there was not a lot of work around for him.
So they returned to New Zealand together. It should be a happy year for them both, they had this to say.
Sinéad "I have been away for the last year. It is nice to live abroad and experience a new way of life where the doom and gloom of the recession isn't featured daily on the news"
Eamonn"I'd like to wish any other people emigrating the best of luck in the future and for the people at home friends/family, you will be missed, love you all.
All was happy on the night of the shoot at Tallaght Cross, as we were on private proprerty we were
delighted to have the full co-operation of the security team on the night who assisted and facilitated the shoot from start to finish. The shot happened just outside Captain America's and you can see the large vent pipes from the underground car parks behind the couple, a sculptural feature of this boom town square. I am sure the silence on the night was not what the proposers of this development intended and I am sure there were a good cleek of "ghost shops" in the area. This is a sight that will be perpetuated up and down the country as housing developments lie dormant, the surounding buildings never heaving with commercial exuberance. Three weeks ago I visited Belmayne near Balgriffin Dublin to make a shot for a single release and was shocked by the scale of the constucted emptyness!!
Shocking, just like Smithfield but 10 times the size.
(see Woodstone Green, we built this house on itunes it's the single in question)
On the night light was provided by Sinéad and Eamonn's uncle Ray and my good friend Artur Sikora.
As always they did a great job.
So on with the show.
Please comment, share and continue to show your support for all we do here at the lilliputian
big thanks
david
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