It’s back now. That was just weird. Wasn’t working / was forwarding for about 24 hours…
Has anyone else noticed that the leading site on contemporary South African art – and it’s nearly 15 years of archives – is now forwarding to the default (and kinda sucky) arts section of the Mail & Guardian, with no trace of its former self? If anyone knows anything, let me know – I’m concerned.
In the comments, Laine asks, “I was wondering how the trip in Belfast was?”
Thanks for that, Laine! My wife actually planned this whole trip without my knowledge, as my birthday gift (and for our anniversary), so my not worrying and enjoying it all was part of the fun. It was a completely tourist-based holiday, and it turns out we didn’t just do Belfast – we drove around much of the northern part of the island. It was just lovely.
We started by driving up the coast through Newry and Newcastle, with stops at lovely Norman castles and sea views along the way. I had oysters: yummy. After arriving in Belfast, we took a drive through the city, then hit up this fantastic puppet show as part of the children’s festival for Sid.
The next day was our “black taxi” tour of Belfast. Our guide, Bram, lived through the struggles of the late sixties and early 70s (his mother was actually shot – but survived – at the time). I think our chats and walks with him were the highlight of the trip. This really was the first time that the history of Ireland felt alive to me. And, having lived in… well, having lived, I could also appreciate all the contradictions and efforts he had and made with regards to that history, current events, discrimination and activist rights. I love that Irish activists looked to Martin Luther King and Frederick Douglass for their inspiration… And, of course, there were the murals, the odd and wonderful and mythical (but mostly mythic) murals. (And check out the more recent mural below.)
We went to more of the children’s festival later in the day; it’s weird how the Irish love gay-ish acting sportsmen with 70s styles that make fools of themselves as their performing clowns, don’t you think?
After driving through and having lunch at the magnificent Giant’s Causeway (mussels!), we wound up in Derry, the walled city. The hotel sucked, but again, the walking (and chatty) tour of the wall, which provided a fascinating history and context for things like Bloody Sunday, etc., was a highlight. This tour has apparently won “best tour in Ireland” for several years now, and I can see why. It moved a bit fast, but there was a lot to get through.
Did I mention Sid had ice cream every day?
Lastly, we drove through Armagh, and did the Lilliput museum (Gulliver’s travels). Sid didn’t get that Gulliver peed on the city, and she was a bit scared by it all, but mostly liked the little people (babies!), and we got to wear crowns, which was cool….
See a whole photoset from our holiday on flickr
Nice 2-part feature on Haydn Shaugnessy and Fragments on Dream Not of Today coming out, with the first installment now live. A snippet and link:
South of Cork near the very southern tip of Ireland rests the physical storefront of the Haydn Shaughnessy Gallery. The corporeal manifestation of this collection of contemporary art would be deceivingly small even were it the size of a Wal-Mart, as the gallery’s reach extends far beyond IRL. Helmed by a collector whose technological savvy is unparalleled in the modern world of art collection, Haydn Shaughnessy also maintains a critically acclaimed space in Second Life called Ten Cubed, an active blog, and the requisite Facebook page rendering a digital footprint nearly without rival in this space.
In this 21st century, art collection remains an offline game for the wealthy; a status quo Haydn Shaughnessy aims to upheave. While the gallery offers works by artists internationally known for their work in bending technology into new forms of expression, the various online manifestations of the effort aim to make that work break through the fish tank of the art collection world to reach the masses. Both online and offline, the Shaughnessy Gallery features contemporary names such as the well-known Second Life limit-pusher Scott Kildall, interactive artist Nathaniel Stern, and Oakland’s own HTML painter Chris Ashley…
UPDATE: and now read part 2!
Printmaker Jillian Ross, the manager and resident printmaker at David Krut Workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa, has a new web site live this week. She’s a great friend and a brilliant printer, thinker, maker and collaborator, who I owe a great debt to when it comes to opening my eyes to the experimental world of print, and who I hope to work with many times again in the future. From the front of her site:
Jillian Ross is well-known throughout South Africa not only for producing high quality limited edition prints with emerging and established artists alike – using a large variety of traditional techniques – but also for her unique, collaborative approach to more experimental mark-making with contemporary artists who normally work in other media.
Jill’s drawers of printed work include a range of intaglio techniques from spitbite and sugarlift aquatints, drypoint, engraving and carborundum with international artist William Kentridge, to performative scanner art that has been transformed into pronto prints, experimental aquatints, carborundum, chine colle, and engravings with artist Nathaniel Stern.
Go there to see more prints and read more about Jill’s work – most art is available for purchase.
Had a fairly productive week working on my dissertation, and am now off to Belfast for a self-proclaimed long weekend – to celebrate Sid‘s 2nd birthday, Nicole and my 6-year wedding anniversary, and my own birthday (all of these in the span of 2 weeks)! We’ve never been up to Northern Ireland, and I have no idea what my better 2/3rds has planned, but it should be just grand. Will try to post some photos of that, and my folks’ recent visit to Dublin for Sid’s b-day (on her blog), when we’re back.
In the meanwhile… a proposal I’ve written with California-based artist and friend Scott Kildall (if you don’t know his work, you should definitely check it out; he’s an innovative and generous voice in the digi-arts community, and much of his work is not only smart but also beautiful) has been voted into the final round for a rhizome commission: Wikipedia Art. If you’re a member of rhizome, please take the time to rank the top 25 – and by all means, if you like ours (I’m biased, but I think you will), we’d really appreciate your rating it tops! Vote here (you need to log in first).
