• publications
  • projects

Category Archives: art

In memory of Mick ‘The Iron Man’ Murphy

Comments Off on In memory of Mick ‘The Iron Man’ Murphy
Posted by Ciaran Walsh on September 12, 2015 – 6:02 pm
Filed under art, Exhibition, Journalism, Photography

 

Mick 'The Iron Man' Murphy by Barry McCarthy from the exhibition 'Blood, Sweat and Gears,' 2008

Mick ‘The Iron Man’ Murphy by Barry McCarthy from the exhibition ‘Blood, Sweat and Gears,’ 2008.

 

I have just learned of the death of Mick Murphy of Cahersiveen in Co. Kerry. Mick was known fondly as ‘The Iron Man’ because of his exploits in a celebrated bicycle race in 1958. Aidan O’Connor, writing in The Kerryman newspaper described Mick’s extraordinary Life:

Mick made a living as a spalpeen and a circus performer. After winning the 1958 Rás, Mick returned to Kerry to work in local quarry, breaking stones with a crowbar and sledge hammer. All the while, the Iron Man was completing daily training routines of 100-mile cycles.

Aged just 27 years, Mick Murphy retired and took the boat to England where he worked as a builder, road maker, a carnival act, boxer and a wrestler.

Mick’s training was as unconventional as his lifestyle. Having read about the important of a high protein diet, Mick drank cow’s blood and ate raw meat, well aware that this was regarded with “horror” by the people of Cahersiveen. The legend that was the ‘Iron Man’ was the starting point for an exhibition that celebrated the 50th anniversary of his victory in the Rás in 1958. The exhibition consisted of still photography by Barry McCarthy interviews recorded by film maker Chris Hurley. The impact of that exhibition is captured in Sean Mac an tSithig’s report (above) which was recorded for the main evening news.

 

 

Mick Murphy was one of the most remarkable people I worked with in Siamsa, a true folk hero. Following the broadcast of Seán’s film a lot of men who had gone through similar experiences came to the gallery and spoke movingly of their lives as emigrants and their love of cycling.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

 

 

 

 

curator.ie and Ciar Quilters get ready for Culture Night in Kerry County Museum

Comments Off on curator.ie and Ciar Quilters get ready for Culture Night in Kerry County Museum
Posted by Ciaran Walsh on September 11, 2015 – 6:25 pm
Filed under art, Exhibition

 

This photograph shows a detail of a patchwork quilt by Breda Browne which is on show as part of the Ciar Quilters annual show in Kerry County Museum. Tralee. The exhibition was hung by Ciarán Walsh of curator.ie

A patchwork quilt by Breda Browne which is on show as part of the Ciar Quilters annual show in Kerry County Museum, Tralee.

 

Patchwork and quilting are important craft traditions in rural Ireland. Muckross House hold a number of quilts that a well over a hundred years old, rough cotton sheets and flour bags died with madder and quilted with fleece. Ciar Quilters keep that tradition alive as well as experimenting with contemporary techniques, a perfect match of art and craft.

Ciarán Walsh has been working with them for years, hanging an annual exhibition that showcases the work of women quilters from Kerry. The 2015 show has just opened in Kerry County Museum in Tralee and runs until October 1. It is an important part of the Museum’s programme for Culture Night, which takes place on Friday 18 September 2015: a great night in the museum!

 

This photograph shows a general shot of the Ciar Quilters annual show in Kerry County Museum. Tralee. The exhibition was hung by Ciarán Walsh of curator.ie for Culture Night 2015

This photograph shows a general shot of the Ciar Quilters annual show in Kerry County Museum, Tralee. The exhibition was hung by Ciarán Walsh of curator.ie for Culture Night 2015

 

 

 

‘Táimse Im’ Chodladh,’ a short film produced by Ciarán Walsh nominated for TG4 Irish language award at the Fingal Film Festival

Comments Off on ‘Táimse Im’ Chodladh,’ a short film produced by Ciarán Walsh nominated for TG4 Irish language award at the Fingal Film Festival
Posted by Ciaran Walsh on September 25, 2014 – 12:22 pm
Filed under art, Film

Taimse Im Chodladh Vimeo(2) from Ciarán Walsh / www.curator.ie on Vimeo.

‘Taimse Im’ Chodladh’ or ‘I am Sleeping’ (2014)  was Directed by London based Kerryman and artist Denis Buckley and produced by me for www.curator.ie. It has been  nominated for the TG4 Irish language award at the Fingal Film Festival

I am very proud of ‘Táimse im’ Chodladh.’ Emigration is etched into heart and soul of West Kerry, it’s social fabric, landscape and its language. ‘Táimse Im’ Chodladh’ is a synthesis of all of that, realised by Denis Buckley, an artist who has experienced emigration for over thirty years. It was made in Kerry, using local talent and resources to achieve a perfectly compact vision or ‘fís.’

From the outset it was an article of faith that this film be made trí mheán na Gaelinne. The script was translated into Gaelainn or West Kerry Irish by Bríd Criomhthain and Bosco Ó Conchúir and recorded as a soundtrack in the Beehive Theatre, Dingle. Bríd Criomhthain, Naoise Mac Gearailt, Jeaicí Mac Gearailt and Nuala Nic Gearailt performed the parts.

More Information: https://www.curator.ie/?p=3259

Ciarán Walsh participates in wet plate collodion workshop with Monika Fabijanczyk

Comments Off on Ciarán Walsh participates in wet plate collodion workshop with Monika Fabijanczyk
Posted by Ciaran Walsh on September 23, 2014 – 6:15 pm
Filed under art, Education, Photography, Research

 

31.08.2014:  Ciarán Walsh participates in a 1 day wet plate collodion workshop with Monika Fabijanczyk

 

In the wet plate collodion process photographs are created on glass or metal plates. The plates are coated and sensitised, exposed in a wet plate camera (or any camera that has been adapted to take a plate glass negative) and processed while they are still wet. Everything has to be done within 15 minutes or so, moving from the darkroom to the camera and back. It is a slow process where everything is made by hand, from preparing the plates and light sensitive material, through to developing, fixing, and varnishing the photographs.

The collodion process produces a negative which, if exposed on a blackened glass plate (an Ambrotype) or a metal plate (a Tintype) is reversed,  producing a one-off positive image. This technique creates stunning photographs, the combination of glass and metallic silver against a black background produces intriguing effects in terms of tone and texture.

The workshop was intensive and a little challenging according to Walsh. ”It’s 25 years since I have been in a darkroom but Monika took each of us through the process, calmly and efficiently.   Large format (4×5 inches) cameras were used with artificial and natural light to take portrait and still life shots ranging from 7 to 50 second exposures, Some worked, some didn’t but the excitement of seeing an image develop in the darkroom was something I had forgotten all about and it was a tremendous surprise on the day. The complexity of the chemical processes and the speed required to ‘get’ the image before the plate dries or overdevelops really makes one reconsider the work done by Timothy O’Sullivan and other photographers during the American Civil War.”

Highly recommended.

For more information:www.monikafabijanczyk.com

 

 

 

 

Ciarán Walsh returns to Inis Meáin with Chris Rodmell, photographer and film maker.

Comments Off on Ciarán Walsh returns to Inis Meáin with Chris Rodmell, photographer and film maker.
Posted by Ciaran Walsh on August 9, 2014 – 4:05 pm
Filed under art, Photography, Research

Chris Mícheal P1130801_2

Ruairi  and Chris meet after 40 years. Photo by Ciarán Walsh.

In June 2014 Chris Rodmell and Ciarán Walsh returned to Inis Meáin, the middle island of the Aran Islands, to meet some of the people Chris had filmed there in in 1973. Chris, a student in West Surrey College of Art and Design, had won an award of £250 from Thames Television to film life in an “enclosed community living on one of the remote islands off Ireland or Scotland.” He chose Inis Meáin. He spent three weeks on the island, filming with a 16mm Bolex and taking photographs with a medium format Mamiya on Kodak Ektachrome professional stock.

Info: https://www.curator.ie/inis-meain-1973-exhibition-photographs-chris-rodmell/

CFR11063

Peadar Mór, Ciaran Walsh and Muirís Mac Chonaola on Inis Meáin. Photo by Chris Rodmell.

Peadar mór CFR11104 (1)

Filming Peadar Mór at work weaving a  basket. Photo by Chris Rodmell.

‘Ár Ré-na’ Opens in Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne, Dingle.

Comments Off on ‘Ár Ré-na’ Opens in Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne, Dingle.
Posted by Ciaran Walsh on July 2, 2014 – 3:39 pm
Filed under art, Education, Exhibition

A split shot of the attendance at the opening of the exhibition Ár Ré-na by 5th year students of Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne. An exhibition of self-portraits which are on show in the school  in Dingle in May 2014. The photo features students, members of the public and Sean Mac n tSíthig, school principal Padraig  Firtéir and Art Teacher Brenda Ní Frighil.mountainsphoto.ru

 

 

Ár Ré-Na (Our Times)  is an exhibition of paintings by students of Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne in Dingle, County Kerry, Ireland. The students are studying art as part of their senior cycle programme (5th Year) and the exhibition consists of a series of self portraits developed through a photographic project and realised in a wide range of media.  Each portrait is an intensely personal expression of how they ‘see’ themselves but, collectively, they provide us with  fascinating insight into the world of a group a group of 16 year old student artists living in the west of Ireland. The exhibition was opened at the end of May by Seán Mac an tSíthigh, filmmaker and journalist with RTE and TG4.  It is on view during school hours.

 

 

 

‘Táimse Im’ Chodladh,’ a short film directed by Denis Buckley and produced by Ciarán Walsh is premiered in Dingle.

Comments Off on ‘Táimse Im’ Chodladh,’ a short film directed by Denis Buckley and produced by Ciarán Walsh is premiered in Dingle.
Posted by Ciaran Walsh on March 21, 2014 – 2:29 pm
Filed under art, Artists, Film

 Как демонтировать пластиковое окно

 

‘Taimse Im’ Chodladh’ or ‘I am Sleeping’ was the winning entry in FÍSÍN 2013, a short film competition. It was directed by Denis Buckley and produced by Ciarán Walsh of www.curator.ie. Colm Hogan was Director of Photography, John ‘Bob’ Brennan was on Sound and Marcus Lamb played ‘Tomás,’ the only character in the film. It was recorded in the Beehive Theatre in Dingle and a disused factory in Killarney, production lasting just over a week and ending in a one day shoot.

 

 

The title is taken from an aisling of the same name. An aisling is a traditional song in which Ireland, in the form of a beautiful woman, appears in a dream or a vision. The aisling is usually loaded with symbolism and/or political comment on the state of the nation. Buckley adapted the idea of the aisling to comment on the experience of emigration, or, economic exile in a contemporary context. The traditional song is replaced by a short film and a radio-play (encountered by chance) replaces the dream as the vehicle for the vision and the political comment that is inherent in it.

Buckley wrote the script which was reduced from 17 minutes to around 7 minutes running time, and re-structured into to a filmscript consisting of a single shot – one continuous tracking shot. It was pitched to a panel consisting of Brenda Ní Shuileabháin, Nuala O’Connor, Marina Ní Dhubháin and Bob Ó Cáthail.

The pitch succeeded and Buckley and Walsh immediately went into production. The script was translated into Gaelainn or West Kerry Irish by Bríd Criomhthain and Bosco Ó Conchúir and recorded as a soundtrack in the Beehive Theatre, Dingle. Bríd Criomhthain, Naoise Mac Gearailt, Jeaicí Mac Gearailt and Nuala Nic Gearailt performed the parts. A set was constructed in the old ‘Pretty Polly’ factory in Killarney, a terrific resource made available by Noel O’Leary, Town Clerk of Killarney Urban District Council. ‘Táimse Im’ Chodladh’ was filmed on 24 August, 2013, wrapping after 10 hours and five takes.

The filmed premiered in Dingle on Monday 17 March 2013, a fitting date for a film that deals with cultural identity in the context of emigration and the profound resonance of economic exile in contemporary Ireland.

 

 

FÍSÍN is organised as part of the Dingle International Film Festival. It involves pitching an idea for a short film in competition for a cash prize of €5,0000 with an additional €2,000 worth of filming equipment supplied by Vast Valley. The winning film has to be completed in time for showing in the festival in the following year.

The idea of the competition is to promote Irish language film making, an idea developed by Ciaran Walsh when he was involved, briefly, in a strategic re-think of the festival in 2010/11. Walsh had managed a visual arts programme in The National Folk Theatre that ran in conjunction with the Festival for a number of years. Maurice Galway, Director of Dingle Film Festival, was employed as the curator of a series of exhibitions that complemented the aims and objectives of both The National Folk Theatre and the film festival.

The idea of ‘FÍSÍN’ developed in this context. The aim was to address the need to promote new work by Irish language or Gaeltacht film makers outside of opportunities created by the Irish language television station TG4. Tor Cotton came on board with sponsorship and ‘FÍSÍN’ (fís meaning vision and the suffix -ín denoting little) was formally launched.

An Daingean (Dingle) is the main town in the West Kerry Gaeltacht, an area in which Irish or ‘Gaelic’ is the primary language. ‘FÍSÍN’ was developed to promote the making of new short films in the Irish Language as part of a wider objective of building a greater Irish language component within the festival, acknowledging that one of its principal funders, Údarás na Gaeltachta (the Gaeltacht Authority) was a primary funder of the festival due to its location in the West Kerry Gaeltacht.

Walsh assesses ‘Táimse Im’Chodladh’ as follows: “My involvement with Dingle Film Festival ended shortly afterwards and, although I had some qualms about pitching in a competition I had devised, Denis overrode these and persuaded me to get involved. I am very proud of ‘Táimse im’ Chodladh.’ Emigration is etched into heart and soul of West Kerry, it’s social fabric, landscape and its language. ‘Táimse im’ Chodladh’ is a synthesis of all of that, realised by an artist who has experienced emigration for over thirty years. It was made in Kerry, using local talent and resources to achieve a perfectly compact vision or ‘fís.”

 

 

‘Tigh Donal Rua’ Restored

Comments Off on ‘Tigh Donal Rua’ Restored
Posted by Ciaran Walsh on December 11, 2013 – 1:13 pm
Filed under art, Art, Artists, Exhibition, Public Art Work

var flashvars73 = {};
flashvars73.galleryURL = “https://www.curator.ie/wp-content/plugins/wp-simpleviewer/config.php?gallery_id=73”;
simpleviewer.ready(function() {
simpleviewer.load(“sv-container-73”, “600px”, “410px”, “transparent”, true, flashvars73);
});

‘Tigh Donal Rua’ or ‘Red Donal’s House’ is an installation by Irish artist Caoimhghin Ó Fraithile that was commissioned by Ciarán Walsh in 2006. It involved the reconstruction of a 19th century stone cottage in a remote valley west of Dingle town, in the southwest of Ireland. Since 2006 the roof of the installation had deteriorated and it was replaced in October 2013.

The house is thought to have been occupied by Donal Rua and his family and is very typical of the thatched ‘long house’ lived in by tenant farmers and shepherds in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. It is located on the side of a hill at the back of a glacial valley that forms part of the Brandon mountain range in West Kerry, an area steeped in archaeology and contemporary Gaelic culture.

By 2006 the cottage had been abandoned for over a century. The roof was long gone but the dry-stone walls were reasonably well preserved. Working with a group of local farmers, stonemasons and craftsmen the walls were restored, the interior excavated and the hearth stone exposed, along with clay pipes and other bits of crockery that were left behind when the house was abandoned.

‘Tigh Donal Rua’ was installed over a couple of months and was part of a series on installations that Ó Fraithile built in West Kerry, each one dealing with themes of locality and commemoration incorporated into traditional dwellings as reliquaries of tradition and folk memory.

He went on to develop similarly themed installations in the States and Japan.

 

<img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-3049" alt="15-d-south-perform-blue" src="http://www.curator click over here.ie/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/15-d-south-perform-blue.jpg” width=”600″ height=”300″ srcset=”https://www.curator.ie/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/15-d-south-perform-blue.jpg 600w, https://www.curator.ie/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/15-d-south-perform-blue-300×150.jpg 300w” sizes=”(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px” />

President of Ireland opens exhibition in Inis Oírr

Comments Off on President of Ireland opens exhibition in Inis Oírr
Posted by Ciaran Walsh on September 28, 2013 – 4:42 pm
Filed under Art, Exhibition

 visualcage.ru

 

 

 

Hanging a currach – installing Mannfed Url’s ‘Bád Spéire Michael D.’ in Áras Éanna, the Aran Islands

Comments Off on Hanging a currach – installing Mannfed Url’s ‘Bád Spéire Michael D.’ in Áras Éanna, the Aran Islands
Posted by Ciaran Walsh on September 9, 2013 – 11:56 am
Filed under art, Artists, Exhibition

 ragrani.ru

 

 

 

« Older posts
  •  

     

    HOME

     

    Anthropo lab 2016 P1180364 600 dpi

     

     

  • News

    • An Island Funeral, Inishbofin, 16 July 2023.
    • TCD to announce return of ancestral remains to Inishbofin
    • Blogging resumes on Ballymaclinton: An Irish giant, 24 stolen skulls, one colonial legacies project and a slave owner named Berkeley.
    • Is the TCD statement on the stolen skulls of Inishbofin a missed opportunity?
    • Inishbofin Islanders demand repatriation of remains held in TCD
  •  

     

    COMMENT | BLOG

     

    ballymac-banner1 400

  • ABOUT

     

    ciaran ambrotype2IMG_0001

     

     

  • CONTACT

     

    curator.ie@gmail.com

     

    +353872370846

     

    Booleenshare

    Ballyheigue

    Tralee

    Co Kerry

    Ireland

     

     




Latest News



An Island Funeral, Inishbofin, 16 July 2023.



TCD to announce return of ancestral remains to Inishbofin



Blogging resumes on Ballymaclinton: An Irish giant, 24 stolen skulls, one colonial legacies project and a slave owner named Berkeley.



www.curator.ie || Booleenshare, Co. Kerry, Ireland || web design by Kerrynet Solutions