Ireland Part II
Last week I took the bus from Laughrea to Dublin to pick up some of last year’s shoes that Sandra Villegas, Oscar’s sister, had wanted to have in her house. She is involved in theatre and thought them somewhat dramatic and humorous. After the pick up I took a bus down Dame Street to visit to the Irish Museum Of Modern Art, the IMMA, to see an exhibit called ‘Signal to Noise’ by the American painter Terry Winters. I’m not so familiar with his work but can recognise it (sometimes) so I wanted to see this exhibit to learn more plus the title appealed to me.
IMMA is one of the most beautiful modern museums and for me a favourite museum building, hands down. It was an old soldier’s Home/ Hospital built in pale grey limestone with a large central cobbled courtyard. The simplicity of the structure is -I want to say and will – like a breath a fresh air after the pyrotechnics of Bilbao, and other contemporary art structures. Much of the natural light in the building comes from the large cobbled courtyard. It has a quietness and symmetry that is perfect for seeing and absorbing the art.
I dropped my shoe bag in the cloakroom and easily found “Signal to Noise.” The more time I spent with the work the more interesting it became and usually it is the other way round for me.
The series of drawings were sensational. Most were graphite on vellum or ink on vellum, but it was the graphite that stood out with its dark, thick, intense line quality. To achieve that, a huge amount of energy is required (Or maybe I am naïve and there was some mechanical device assisting him!) Walking along the wall there was a continual movement of grids, lines, circles, ellipses, fragmentation of grids looking like fraying fabric, sometimes piled on top of each other, colliding, a huge variety jumbling elements unravelling. Due to the unremitting pressure of the dynamic line, it appeared that a current connected all the studies in the room. Phenomonal!
I found the paintings, at first, less compelling. I’m always a bit uneasy when there are titles that refer to virtual or scientific data (like “Source Wave Reference 1999”) and, after reading the intro to the show, realised that this was one visual and conceptual underpinning in his work. There is also a Hermetic angle, an involvement with ancient philosophies based on alchemy and mysticism AND, of great interest to me, an emphasis on knots and knotting, the power and magical significance of the intricate knots in Japanese and Celtic lore . In spite of the fact that I liked earlier paintings (like “Extending Pathways 1998”) to the more supposedly evolved later work (like “Tangle 2008”) which had a stencilled and decorative quality, I was sufficiently interested in everything to read some essays in the catalogue and then shocked myself by buying one.
After that I went off to see “ Between Object and Metaphor,” selections from IMMA and the Weltkunst Foundation. As I walked into the first gallery I wanted to run and get my bag of shoes and plant them in amongst the luminaries: Ann Hamilton, Rachael Whiteread, Richard Long (See post 3 in Pettusart -Visit to the Tate ). The usual suspects.
Oscar Villegas, long-time pal and curator of DE PASO, has a friend ( a pre-eminent collector ) who leaves stick’em messages of her ideas as a critique throughout museum exhibitions. I would have liked to add my shoes because they so perfectly fit the category, METAPHOR-OBJECT. But no. I did not . Maybe next time.
IMMA is well placed to catch the bus back to Loughrea. So without having to lug my shoes back into Centre City Dublin, I was elated on the way back which is usually a long bore.
Winston has so much to do in house and grounds that he hires a couple of Brazilian
Lads. Many Brazillians came to Ireland during the boom years as guest workers. Marcello and Antonio are terrific workers and very fond of Winston. He gives them lunch and they were delighted and felt quite at home ( ie back in Brazil) eating a delicious pig’s head he cooked one day. The Irish were squeamish when invited to partake. Last week we invited M and A and four of their friends for barbecue of meat from Brazil, bought at one of the Brazilian shops in Laughrea. We cooked the meat on the embers of a massive bonfire from the branches of the downed copper beech (Last posting). They loved the churrasco. Winston did an ace job with the marinade and the cooking. Late night, embers going strong the next morning.
There was Brazil music and Antonio asked me to dance. He is one of the best but very short. It reminded me of many, many years ago when I cycled down to the Latino Festival in Fells Point and was asked to dance by a perfectly lovely looking man who was 5 ‘2”. And he made me get on the stage!!
Anyway it was an honor to be asked.
I missed Max and thought what a great time he would have had with these guys. Max spent an extra year of high school in Brazil. I tried to call him to put him on speaker phone but, alas, couldn’t get through. Since school started Sophie and Victoria are in their term time schedule, which means they are here every other weekend and Tuesday and Thursday nights. We started to play Scrabble but with a bent rule. We check words, if we do not know if they exist, in the dictionary. Winston has 2 massive volumes of the New Shorter Oxford Dic. Especially with youngsters one discovers new words. Did you know a “tui” is a glossy bird from New Zealand also called a parsonbird. And a “hipe” is a wrestling throw. It’s also good exercise for biceps and I think it makes the game more interesting.
I’m off to Madrid tomorrow. I’ve been here almost 9 weeks!! My generous brother is a great cook and I’ll need to do a lot of exercising. I’ve done quite a bit of artwork in the basement…the shoes are documented and packed away, the rest I’ll be bringing back
To Baltimore via Madrid.
The opening in Santander is in 2 weeks and 2 days.
“Another opening, another show…”
What a interesting blog. I think that you have a book Ruth. I’ll buy the first copy.
Love and light,
eve