time, space and doing stuff

roggernaut | Life in a cultural petri dish | April 27, 2010

Is the reason we suddenly feel things are on top of us because a sudden influx of things does actually come raining down on us or is it because we become more acutely aware of time diminishing?
Perhaps it’s neither of these two things. Perhaps it’s the realisation that what we’re doing is meaningless and pointless and only serves to keep us going round and round and round. So how do we break out of it, how do we give meaning to our daily grind without having to justify our very existence? How is it that we’ve become defined by work, by doing ‘stuff for money. There was a time when doing stuff was fun. Was important. I watch my child doing stuff all the time and I’m telling you now, she takes it very seriously.

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Reviewing Trash culture

roggernaut | All about mutantspace | April 25, 2010

trc

Beautiful day. Feeling positive. The Trash Culture Revue is starting to come into focus. It came on like a freight train and has already left behind so many ideas. And we haven’t even begun. The response has been fantastic – we’ve got so many different acts, performers, ideas, workshops, thoughts, experiments. Most of the events will be free with all the production, marketing and pr being done for nothing, nada. It will be festival run on gift economy principles, on mutantspace.com principles.

I love that. I love knowing that we can change things, systems, can do things differently, if we care enough to do them. To do something for the love and need and care and want and desire. To do something a little different, to say something a little different, to be a little different. A fresh breeze. A new angle, hue, tint, reflection. People always invest more of themselves into change. In this case the system of production. Once money is left out of the equation then you need a different set of tools for the negotiation, management and production of the event. You need to concentrate on time, skills, thought, ingenuity, etc. By negating the power of money you need to set up an alternative system for achieving your goals. We rely too much on the power of money to solve all our problems. We’ve got to the stage where we think that money can solve all our problems.

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technology wiped out, naturally

roggernaut | Life in a cultural petri dish | April 20, 2010

The fact that we’ve been prevented from flying over most of Western Europe the past week has really brought reality back home to roost. That’s right, we’re not masters of the universe, the masters of our own destiny after all. There are still some things bigger than us, greater than us. We are powerless against the might of nature. An erupting volcano in Iceland has upset the lives of so many people. Who would have thought it? Us. Who live in the relative safety of Europe, used to seeing natural disaster on the 9 o’clock news or on some documentary on Discovery Channel are now having to face the reality of it here – although let’s face it not being able to fly isn’t exactly a life threatening event nevertheless we are so incubated in Europe, so set apart. For someone who relies on the internet and technology in general it was reassuring to know that it’s not the be all and end all of our lives. Sometimes we just have to accept our position in the greater scheme of things, accept that we can be inconvenienced at any moment, wiped out, on a whim, for no reason whatsoever.
As a control freak I was delighted to be put in my place although I must admit I wasn’t stranded anywhere nor was I waiting to catch a plane. It must have been difficult for the millions that were but it is, nonetheless, a salutary lesson to us all.

379 total views, 2 today

trust in your truth

roggernaut | Life in a cultural petri dish | April 17, 2010

To be an artist you need belief, indefatigable trust in yourself and honesty in what you do. It isn’t easy. Everyday we are confronted and put in situations in which we are put to the test. In essence an artist is someone who seeks the truth and that truth must come from the inside out. No matter what people say about you or your work it has no ultimate bearing on how you feel about your mark, process, search for the essence, the point of your existence. Money, fame, celebrity, material success, will never fill the gap, is not the goal. The goal is indefinable. It is a star we reach for. This need is what makes us human and as an artist you are always aware of the larger picture, sensitive to the truth, the search, the question, the possibility. A true artist must ultimately look for the truth in the work.

Earlier this week there was a good documentary on Sean Scully, one of the great painters of the last 25 – 30 years. The documentary was centred around boxing and his work and the relationship between the two. There were two, no, three points I remember, three points that meant most to me. The first was that he had left England because artists in England had become fixated with image and brand. For him that was too much to bear. For him art has a noble purpose and England (not just England, mind you – it is symptomatic of our western globalised culture) had forgotten that. Which brings me to the second point, that he felt that art leaves a permanent footprint in the sands of time – the making and expression of culture is timeless. His third point centred around the whole crux of the documentary, boxing. For him boxing was an art and as he talked to Barry McGuigan, looked through the history boxing, talked about the abstract expressionists as well as Hemingway and Norman Mailer you realised how much sport was connected to art. For me this is no great revelation. I love sport, I see great similarities between sport and art and although I don’t play any sports I love watching it and have never understood why, in the arts, with people I know, it is almost a badge of honour to NOT KNOW anything about sport, as if it somehow dilutes ones integrity. Ridiculous, ridiculous, ridiculous.

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The forest of things and signs

roggernaut | Life in a cultural petri dish | April 14, 2010

I know nothing. And it’s sometimes hard to take, sometimes hard to admit, especially to another. Of course what makes this even worse is knowing that you know nothing. I love the idea that ignorance is bliss yet I can’t bring myself around to agree with it. I can’t pretend I’d like to be ignorant of knowledge, happy in not knowing, blissfully unaware of anything outside myself, other ideas, the history of place, identity, the search for who I am and why I’m here and as I get older I often wonder why I don’t know more. Wish I knew more.

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An Irish exhibition of gallery censorship

roggernaut | Life in a cultural petri dish | April 11, 2010

I thought the days of prudishness and censorship was over. I naively thought that in our country catholic morality and its adherent’s abject view that the naked body should be hidden, covered was a throwback to a pre-secular time. But no, wrong, again. On Saturday I went with my wife and child to the Crawford Gallery in Cork to see a group exhibition, Backwater Twenty – 10 – a celebration of The Backwater Artists Group, in Cork, that has run a successful collective studio base in the City for the past twenty years. All good so far. We began on the ground floor (the exhibition was held in a number of rooms on two floors) and walked around, looked at the work, my daughter pointing and shouting at the work as is the want of all children. We then headed towards a smaller room, off the main one, I think it was called The Project Room. And then we were stopped by a man sitting behind a desk, ‘The Overseer’. He pointed to a small sign on the wall and told us that our daughter was not allowed into the other room. It was for adults only. There was unsuitable material on view. Initially I stupidly thought that that he meant there was work in there made out of harmful, toxic materials, materials that would affect the health of our child. So we relented, shrugged – if there were unsuitable materials that might affect the health of our child (after all she is only one) we’d simply take it in turns. My wife took Eva and I walked in, intrigued to know what was so harmful, so dangerous about the contents of the room.

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Time to trash culture

roggernaut | All about mutantspace | April 9, 2010

Where does time go? There’s no let up, it’s relentless – always running towards oblivion, taking us with it. Worst thing is it speeds up as you get older, as if the more aware you are the less time you have. It’s a paradox I don’t wish to be in. How does one escape it without jumping ship and if you’re to jump ship then what of all those things you’ve left behind. I think my problem is I’m always trying to do too much in too little time – making me see days disappear one after the other, dominoes falling, me running, panting.

With the organisation of The Trash Culture Revue well underway and a number of other ‘pay the bills’ work mounting up (I’m not complaining, money is tight) I feel like an amateur juggler thrown in the deep end knowing all the while that if I drop the balls I’ll let the side down. Coffee and cigarette, please. Thanks. I needed that. A respite.

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rantings from a spectacular Irish society

roggernaut | Life in a cultural petri dish | April 7, 2010

I need clarification. Articulation. To explain my way forward. I need to think clearer. What is it that I’m driving at? I need to stop ranting and raving, stumbling towards some murky point in some inarticulate future. I have said this before but my ideas need clarity, I must begin shaping and honing as a sculptor with a piece of wood, stone. Without art and technique our ideas end up as grandstanding whining bores in a forgotten pub. Besides, I’m beginning to wonder what the point is in continually striking out, ranting and raving when the world isn’t listening, is too busy looking out for itself? So am I simply an ego out of control or is there some basis for pushing on, out, up? Is there any point in the individual striking out whenever there is a perceived wrong, injustice, inequality? And if there is, who does one strike out against? The Government, the Citizen?

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creating a cultural technocracy

roggernaut | Life in a cultural petri dish | April 3, 2010

I am continually frustrated with having to listen to people using the language of the technocrat. It seems to be used on a daily basis to describe our work, our life. We seem to have forgotten that language demarcates our thinking. Like a dog marking its territory we create boundaries with words, define our thought process by language and, by reducing our vocabulary to the level of the technocrat, we will ultimately nullify the feeling and emotional connection we have to the very subject we’re talking about, to our life (think of how the Nazis used technocratic language to justify their extermination of the Jews, slavs, gypsies, homosexuals, disabled, infirm, epileptics, etc). Language is a powerful tool and we must never underestimate it. Never take it for granted and above all never let the language of the technocrat seep into our language of art making.

Within the arts, in the last 10 years, the use of technocratic language has increased dramatically. It has become ubiquitous. I’m not quite sure why, I can only hypothesise that it is to do with the proliferation of arts administration courses in Irish universities and the constant chase for funding from local, state and international agencies and organisations. When I left Art College in 1993 I think – and I am subject to correction – there was only one course in the country, in University College Galway. These days there are hundreds of courses and thousands of arts administrators, all taught to think and speak and relate in the same way.

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All about lamb

Joseph x | Recipes from a mutant kitchen | April 1, 2010

My mother used to say that there was nothing to beat Irish lamb and she was right. It is simply delicious and, of course, it comes to mind at this time of year, as Easter is upon us. When I was young, lambing took place earlier than it does now, the supply of the meat in March/April was consequently greater and this presumably explains why in recent years, it is so much more expensive at Easter time than it used to be. Indeed, it is so expensive that I baulk at the price and buy year old lamb. I still find it mouth-watering and am immediately swept back to childhood and the haunches of lamb that used to grace the table on Easter Sunday.

There are obviously many ways of serving lamb. I live alone and often resort to chops, which I leave sitting for a few hours in a marinade of crushed garlic, rosemary, salt and olive oil before grilling them. I also cook various stews and then divide them into single portions and freeze them. A roast leg of lamb is a family favourite but this is hardly a dish suitable for one or two people, especially if you are like me, and don’t particularly like cold lamb the following day. However, this consideration should not deter you completely from choosing the roasting option. If you live alone or there are only two of you, why not roast a small rack of lamb ? My butcher is quite happy to sell me a rack with say, six chops. I just pop it into a pre-heated hot oven and roast it for about 20 minutes. Served simply with mint sauce, it is to die for.

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Stanleys essential music of a decade

stanley | Everything about music | April 1, 2010

So here are some more of the tracks that inspired one of our skills exchange members, Stan, from the band StanleySuper800, over the last 10 years. He’ll be adding a few more in the next few months. This months focus is on some of the indie band he played/worked with. Enjoy

Episode 3: Indie smindie

1. Dae Kim – Angels of the Universe [2005]
This song really struck me the first time I heard it. We ended up on the same record label for a brief period and played together many times. Angels of the Universe is taken from their great album, Matador.

2. North Atlantic Oscilations – Hollywood Has Ended[2005]
Did sound for this band once when they played in Myrtleville. Was really impressed so I went on their website and downloaded this track. They’re based in Edinburgh – one of them is from Limerick. I thought they might have split up but when I went looking for them on the net I found they are doing quite well.. Check em out. http://www.kscopemusic.com/northatlanticoscillation/grapplinghooks

3. Waiting Room – Another Take [2004]
This is taken from one of the finest albums of the decade; “Catering for Headphones”. Like Dae Kim we also spent a brief time on the same label. The drums on this were recorded at our Shabby Rd Studio. They split up a few years ago – pity.. http://www.myspace.com/waitingroomirl

Image by Andy Ferriera

You can find older installments here:

Episode 1
Episode 2

Next month the musical oddessy continues…

488 total views, 1 today

Thyme

Giles Clark | Recipes from a mutant kitchen | April 1, 2010

The keen, savoury scent of garden thyme makes it a fine collaborator with most of the Irish kitchen’s staples. It hits an understated and invaluable note of harmony to many a braise – acting as a steadying reference point to accompanying flavours. It has a spiciness though and, hopefully at this time of year, a slight sweetness that leaves it equally comfortable embracing melody.

A thyme, orange, butter and peppercorn dressing
Maybe try with some goats curd and red onions roasted with red wine. Or some slow braised pork belly and white beans. Or some liver with mashed potatoes and green garlic.
Use a stalk of thyme per plate and the same again of leaves. Slowly heat the butter in a small pot with the thyme and slivers of orange zest. Let it come to the boil and lightly brown.
Take it off the heat but, if possible, leave it at a warm temperature so the infusion can continue. When ready to use bring it back to the boil, add some crushed black pepper, some salt (if the butter is unsalted) and squeeze in some orange juice. Taste, adjust – a couple of drops of cider vinegar might be appropriate – and serve.
Or perhaps leave out the salt, go lighter on the pepper and try it with something sweet. A golden sponge cake with poached pears…a sweet curd tart…a pine nut and honey tart.

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Reichs Or Sex gone – part II

Ambrasia Kurtz | Culture and politics | April 1, 2010

From Acerbica, the world on Earth is funny, but no laughing scene. Satyr but tries, to convey – to explain, to enter into logic the vantage, the streaming. It is there to be seen. (Because it is . . .)*1 Like patently, honestly, blatantly obvious, overt clues of behavioural evidence passing through repeatedly. Not necessarily, initially, that she recognises she’s been witness to data that has begun to construe; but, a quizzical attention gradually piques into a sentience that requires her to ride the construct of her technique for wily evasion of ‘mere fancifulness’: she calls for the reflexive arbitration of her critically honed, internalised Satan’s Solicitor and rejects all self credence! Still provoked, finally, she must relent to invoking the fear at revealing pronouncement of her own tediously fought, ceaselessly wrought assessment of thought: the only rational deduction that can correlate conclusion of a niggling conceptual intrusion, is that the ‘O’ Man, if not just a very good mimic of a clone, is one. (And there’s just such a rush of cynicism and scepticism at such ludicrousity) (And then, after smirking at the ludicrousness of that which has been arrived at, there just happen to be giggles glitching in her very wide, gruelling, comprehensive research curriculum, little oddities of substantiation that could add up to there being very good reason to suspect that ‘teleprompter man’, sans birth certificate, who fabricates the story of an uncle who was with the American troops who liberated Auschwitz [sic], is a clone.) (And then there is also a lot of very good reason for the few who are in charge of the current global empire to be wielding from behind a front man who is cloned.) (And then there are those who say, “wake up global population! Open your minds to the very real possibility that the level of technology that has actually been achieved and is actually operating over the Earthly community is actually far beyond the wildest imaginings of the ordinary, common person in the street or on the land.”)

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3D just might be here to stay

Gemma McCarthy | Life in a cultural petri dish | April 1, 2010

I’ve been wanting to write something for a while now on the increasing number of 3D movies hitting our cinema screens, but found that I really needed to get my head around the 3D process and it’s advantages first. Unless you were living under a rock very far away, you could not have escaped the Avatar buzz that dominated cinema for a large part of last year. Yes it was ten years in the making and an epic fantasy film, but it was also a 3D movie, and probably the moment when we really sat up and started taking the concept seriously. Perhaps I had not been alone in cataloguing 3D effects alongside theme park attractions and IMAX screens; things that you may enjoy once in a while but would not consider a usual aspect of your cinema going experience. Since Avatar, however, 3D is suddenly an accepted addition to the mainstream.

692 total views, 1 today

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