A Case For a Centrally Planned Arts Infrastructure Ireland’s Celtic Tiger brought a wave of prosperity and the anarchic logic of the free-market spilled over into the arts. An ‘up, up and away’ attitude seemed to supplant sensible planning. Much infrastructure improved, but it was haphazardly hit-and-miss and opportunities were missed. This has largely to do with how Ireland is organised and governed. The head of cultural development with Temple Bar Cultural Trust Gráinne Millar raises this very point. Millar argues that a massive… Read More »
REVIEW: Fragile Absolutes
On the ground floor gallery off of IMMA’s courtyard, the viewer enters a carefully constructed and haphazard installation called Death Drive (interrupt the circular logic of re-establishing balance because he is the lowest outcast), 2009. The room has plywood ‘strewn’ about it with automobile wheel markings on the surface. The edges of the timber are carefully worked back to give the illusion that the timber has been broken (yet into manageable bits). The piece recalls some of Phelan’s prior work and interest in ‘boy racer’… Read More »