‘Border Sounds’ was created out of a desire to explore the troubling policies
entrenched in national and territorial borders, as well as to question access and
mobility within those borders. These are themes weʼve both explored in our
individual art practices and together we continue to engage with some of these
complexities. By employing a variety of media we intend to reconstruct some of
the discourse surrounding notions of territorial sovereignty. While the audience
participates in the silent disco, they experience an engagement with borders,
mobility, and nationalism.
Border Sounds seeks to interrogate and complicate current notions of
national sovereignty by outlining the contradictions set in place by these strict
national borders. By drawing attention to the arbitrary nature of state borders,
while complicating this with a reflection of current national sovereignty struggles,
we have created an environment that explores complications rather than
prescriptive ideas.

Sharlene Bamboat

www.sharlenebamboat.com

Alexis Mitchell

www.alexismitchell.com

NCAD Gallery Talk:
Catalyst Arts directors Alissa Kleist & Rob Hilken will give a talk tomorrow on the Catalyst Arts and it’s archive to its present day function.
13th February 5pm in the Harry Clarke Lecture Theatre, NCAD.

For our take over of Curfew Tower we decided to split the residency into 2 halves: the first half hosting Maria de Lima, Mike Davis and Craig Dow, and the second Natasha Bird and Alicia Logan.

Below are a few shots of the first leg of the residency, from the ferry caf to pints at the local…

Natasha Bird at Curfew Tower – December 2010

During my stay at the Curfew Tower I produced work in two strands. Both were related to the unique architecture of the building, also drawing on the surrounding landscape and folklore of the area.

Inside the top floor room of the tower I produced string sculptures that formed tunnels between the windows. These yellow twine structures enclosed the openings in the space, creating a line that cut straight through the space – almost bringing the outside all the way through the room. These experiments were made in response to the experience of staying in the tower – of feeling very aware of being inside. In its past use the tower enclosed those who disobeyed the curfew and protected the keeper of the tower. These string tests were made while I thought on this history, and by playing with the amazing character of the architecture.

The main outcome of my stay at the Curfew Tower was a light installation based on a poem by W.B. Yeats called The Wanderings of Oisin. Alicia Logan, my fellow artist during the residency, had brought a volume of Yeats with her to the tower. Our first evening in Cushendall, we discovered that Ossian’s Grave (same mythological figure, different spelling) was only few miles outside the town. Therefore during our own wanderings we visited this place, so full of magic and legend! The piece that I produced at the tower took a line from this poem and transcribed it into code. The letter A was one second of light, B was two seconds of light and so on. I was interested in this (very inefficient) code as the most basic transformation I could think of to turn text into light. This light code was projected from the top-floor, sea- facing window of the tower, emulating a lighthouse or signal towards the sea.

This video began as a means to reflect on the idea of remote experience. I had become obsessed with figuring out how much information and, especially, how many images of Curfew Tower I could find online. I wanted to formulate a basic experiment to test my experience of reality once I had been confronted by its image for so long.

We arrived in Cushendall late at night, and as I looked at the tower spot-lit by street lights my response was muted. I felt no sense of familiarity, and much less any great revelation on my initial inquiry. I suppose the images I had spent so long looking at had become a part of the reality of this building, linked to the physical existence of the tower, but quite apart from it.

By contrast, the second half of this video was left to chance and some in situ inspiration. I found it within the tower as I looked through the art works accumulated over years and framed texts by Bill Drummond, the originator of this residency. Surrounded by papier mache towers, felted towers, photographed towers, drawn towers, painted towers, quilted towers, I felt a bit of a fool with a superfluous video tower to add to this motley collection.

Reading over Drummond’s manifesto I was reminded of how I’d come to be here. He did specify after all: selected artists are to make ‘work that is a response to the tower, the locality or the people of Cushendall’. Was that just a crap brief though?

In response to these constraints I have made a piece of work I never would have done otherwise. I see this as positive, however I still have strong suspicions about the quality of art that can be produced within such a closed brief. This really opens onto more general questions around current trends in residencies: should there be so much focus on making artists interact with the local community; how much compromise on artistic freedom does public funding involve; how do you quantify the outcomes of any residency?…
***
Reading over this piece of text back in London I’ve been prompted to look over the material I had gathered at Cushendall, and make an alternative version of the original film. There’s definitely more of a focus on my current obsession, subtitling, here that briefly makes an appearance in my ‘Heart of the Glens’ video.

Running North East up Shore Street, 29.10.10. speed 4.4 (MPH), distance 1.7 MILES, time 20:06 MIN.

Running North through Cottage Wood, off High Street, 02.11.10. Speed 5.7 (MPH), distance 2.5 MILES, time 25:36 MIN.

Running South through Cottage Wood, off High Street, 03.11.10. Speed 5.6 (MPH), distance 2.5 MILES, time 27:02 MIN.

Running North East along Shore Street, 04.11.10. Speed 5.8 (MPH), distance 3.0 MILES, time 31:27 MIN.

Running south along the pier, 12.11.10. Speed 4.6 (MPH), distance 1.0 MILE, time 10:12.

Running North along the beach, 13.11.10. Speed 5.6 (MPH), distance 1.5 MILES, time 14:02 MIN.

Running North, North East along the cliff path, 14.11.10. Speed 4.2 (MPH), distance 0.9 MILES, time 05:00 MINS.

Running North East along the cliff path, 14.11.10. Speed 4.0 (MPH), distance 0.8 MILES, time 04:31 MINS.

Running North, North East along the cliff path, 15.11.10. Speed 4.2 (MPH), distance 1.5 MILES, time 15:45 MINS.

A .pdf file containing a short description of the project. This is the same text which also went in the front of the handwritten diary which remains in the tower. Preferably, this text should also be included with any published documentation of the present project. If you decide to do so, please take care regarding the formatting of the text when it is copy-pasted from the PDF (for example, it contains two footnotes, which would probably require some additional manual editing).

cushendall_blurb

Two photographs which were taken during my residency in the Curfew Tower. One picture shows me sitting in front of the tower as I am writing my diary entry for that day. Next to me is an empty chair with a sign saying “Join me listening!”, which I put up for that day as an invitation to Cushendall’s residents. The second picture shows my entry in the Curfew Tower’s visitor book.

transcriptions of pages 1, 31, 41, and 50 of the 50-page listening diary which I maintained throughout my residency.

[13 Sep 2010] The silence of the [uninhabited] building as I am entering it for the first time in combination with its characteristic smell in the kitchen a moment of silence and rest during which I can hear the wind knocking against the door behind my back and later the AC adapter of my laptop making a high-frequency noise which it did not use to do anywhere else from outside the characteristic sound of cars driving on a wet street which is filtered as it spreads through the windows and inevitably reminds me of my grandmother’s place during my childhood then later in the shower the idea of writing a score on the bathroom walls for a song to be sung in the shower which uses the natural resonances of that particular space and when I am going shopping later the sound of my own voice as it tries to carry confidence towards the inhabitants of the village which I will [inhabit] myself for the next six weeks at night in bed surprise that the building itself does not make any noises which one needs to get used to like in the case of many other houses when one spends the first night there only once in a while the wind howling around the top of the tower and the occasional car passing by but other than that unexpected silenced which [14 Sep 2010] is interrupted by my own getting up in the morning and turning on the radio which only works on long wave and therefore has a very characteristic sound which in combination with the old-fashioned English of a Westminster parliament debate sounds like a re-broadcast from the 1950s before I do some work at the desk in the living room which is constantly interrupted by a sound of knocking whose source I cannot identify and of course the sound of air coming out of the shower’s cold water tap instead of cold water so I go for a walk [...]

[10 Oct 2010] [...] seemingly addressing me really only talks to his pal someone shouting conversation returning to the terrace of the Lurig Inn and within seconds it becomes clear that it must be someone on the phone the characteristic rhythm of a dialogue interrupted by the suspicious breaks of a phone conversation new footsteps and a brief snort from behind the Lurig Inn the sound of glass being deliberately broken once and then twice softened only by the flow of the river in which a duck is suddenly landing and thereby creates a sound which is surprisingly similar to that of [paper] being torn reverberate[d] sounds from inside the Lurig Inn next to which I am sitting on the riverside close to the street just beside the bridge the closest car horn so far somebody shouting out the name Paddy which seems to happen at least once during my daily listening sessions but I think it’s a different Paddy every time someone swearing on the street with that utterance suddenly merging with the voices from inside the Lurig Inn which I hear through the open door of its terrace another gentle-conversationed Sunday stroll plus a [golf ball] taking off in the distance the Lurig’s terrace door being opened further clothes rubbing against each other belonging to a person passing behind me virtuoso birdsong appearing out of nowhere and immediately being answered [by] one of the rare police sirens approaching male drunk conversation from the Lurig behind me tuned engine and the bird falls silent again remains the river’s three-stage acoustic flow down to the beach suddenly the sound of a pool table but not from the Lurig but where else a closing car door a sound like a tennis [racket] hitting the ball music appearing another golf ball drunken male conversation [...]

[16 Oct 2010] their arrival and at Johnny Joe’s musicians are tuning up everywhere around 9.30pm somewhere in the background fiddles already playing but it sounds more like a sound system in a back room cosy chatter in low-ceiling rooms a welcoming contrast to the grim cold outside Irish accents from all over the island the pretty girl sounds like she is coming from the Republic the trad music from tape has faded away behind a door that has been shut and it has given way to a man playing the guitar and singing a folk song in another [one] of Johnny Joe’s many rooms as I am being addressed by the first visitor commenting my writing my ear waiting for the moment where it is being engaged in a conversation but not yet it’s still early in the evening and as I am finishing the last sentence a gentleman asks me where I am from what I am doing and shakes my hand the room now fills with people and their mishmash of chatting acoustics from at least five different spaces overlap[s] and include[s] at least two different musical styles and four different kinds of instrument[s] the [third] person addressing me compliments me for my very neat handwriting and off he goes the folk song next door ends and is answered with applause but the trad music continues I am starting to think it must be coming from upstairs my chair[']s metal feet squeaking on the stone floor the pretty girl whispers something into her boyfriend’s ear which briefly turns him singing the door in front of me opens and more voices are fading in and out again as the people entering close the door behind them again another folk song starting [down]stairs and the trad upstairs could almost be a harmonization of its cantus firms the folk song voices grow louder when the lyrics consist of the words I love you and again the pretty girl’s voice returns from the bar and sounds rougher than that of pretty girls elsewhere the folk song chorus reaches the I love you moment again and everyone joins in [...]

[19 Oct 2010] [...] system booms along High Street very slowly and sits somewhere waiting squeaking break a similar but unidentifiable sound shortly after an approaching bus first sounds like a helicopter and is followed by a diesel engine and another squeaking break approaching the [20 Oct 2010] intersection next to the tower as I am standing and waiting at the bus stop for the bus to take me back to Belfast at the end of my residency the church bells are slowly ringing footsteps of a gentleman are passing by and as I suspected it’s the same gentleman who always passes by at this stop at this time of the morning so it’s the usual hello there and nice weather today a faint reverb of a construction site somewhere over the hill and bird songs fill the air above me on the ground it[']s the occasional vehicle but traffic has not yet gone into full swing for the day the air is clear both visually and acoustically as I am waiting for the bus a large variety of birds celebrating the beautiful morning a tractor passes by without the birds letting themselves be interrupted and shortly after a van passes and then one two three cars we have six minutes to go until the arrival of the bus to Belfast the construction site’s echo now a permanent acoustic landmark including vehicle backup alarms and the sounds of digging but in the closer proximity more and more birds a much greater variety than that which I have encountered over the past weeks footsteps of other people approaching the bus stop the silence of people waiting in a group exists at the same time with the construction site’s acoustic activity one more person approaching and starting a chat with one of the people already waiting in the local accent a lorry drowns their conversation for some moments and after it’s gone the construction site again and now my bus arrives.

THE GREENHOUSES OF CUSHENDALL

Extracts from a Cushendall Diary. September 2010

Day 1
I sit for a while just left of the main strand, looking at the sea and listening to the waves lapping.

Day 2
I walk up the hill behind the tower leading away from the town and the sea. The houses thin out to become a country road. Fuchsia hedges and abundant blackberries compel me to pick them though I have no bag. I vow to return with a bag and walk on but then start to look for a discarded plastic bag that I can use. There are several plastic bags filled with rubbish but then I find a usable empty bag. I walk past a field being ploughed and somehow feel part of the work being done, meshed into the moment like everything in that space and time is co-existing. I start to pick blackberries and notice the change in focus, previously had been outwards looking at the view, the fields, hills and mountains in the distance. Now all I see are blackberries, the pace is slow and it is hard to move without being stopped by more berries presenting themselves for picking. Eventually the bag is filling and I decide to return trying not to pick more berries as the bag is becoming uncomfortably heavy, but it seems impossible once started to ignore ripe berries. There is an incredible abundance, I feel like urging all the residents of Cushendall to pick blackberries and make jam. There is something very basic about this activity. The last time I remember making jam and picking berries was in my childhood with my mother, grandmother and aunts. It seems a strange task to do alone. This walk has a theme of redness, red stained hands, rosehips, red hawthorn berries, red admirals and peacock butterflies that stop occasionally.
In the evening I walk along by the river past the churches and back again at the crossroads, then past the Spar to the strand, the way the bus came in. This is a rather bleak part of Cushendall, housing estates, semi abandoned sports grounds and a general air of neglect. After the caravan park I turn down to the small pier, read the information plaque and turn left back to the town along by the strand. No real path after walking the shore for a while I go through the caravan park which leads to a small harbour with an estate of houses surrounding it, the path leads around the corner where the strand and golf course come into view. Anglers are half submerged in water, fishing.

Day 3
The river, gardens, the first seen glasshouses, a mountain to the left, I walk on till encroaching darkness and the busyness of the road make me turn back. As I return and pass the path that leads down to the river, the fisherman appears and shows me his catch, a beautiful brown trout.

Day 4
I reach the turn off to the church. At the entrance is a crab apple tree, black knarled branches and laden with fruit. The Layde Church yard is quiet no one else is visiting in the rain. Soft grass seems to envelop everything lapping at the edges of the graves and ruins. I enter the church, there is a sheltered part with remains of a fire and cans but I find it dark and musty and return outside to the rain. I wander the grounds for a while walking over to the edge to look seawards, then I turn to find the cliff path that leads back to Cushendall. The path is exhilarating despite the rain, to be perched high hugging the coast feels birdlike. At one point I find a sloe bush in full fruit. The path shows the fronts of the houses that I had been viewing from the back. I pass over a seemingly disused boathouse somewhat lonely looking, blindly gazing at the sea.

Extracts from a Cushendall Diary. October 2010

Day 1
I head for the sea and walk to the boathouse, I sit there for a while looking out.

Day 2
Rosehips, a glasshouse and further along a boat is incongruously placed beside the road overgrown with ferns and moss, re-naturalised, a landlocked vessel become arboreal. Past the partially hidden polytunnel, the crab apple tree is now pretty much barren having shed most of its fruit and leaves. Some rotten fruit is strewn on the ground.
Later following the shore leading towards Redbay. I pass the small pier where two blond haired boys are playing with a tyre, the older one rolls it into the sea. I continue along the shore and cut through the caravan park, it feels more intrusive to walk through streets of caravans rather than streets of houses. There are no cars, no lights on, all the caravans/mobile homes are empty. I come to the next pier and boat club and keep going. There is no path I walk along the shore picking shells and sea driftings. Some of the houses that lead to the sea here are huge and have their own private access for boats. I keep going past two barking dogs and a yacht perched at an odd angle the last marker of Cushendall village. The shore now hugs the road and a bridge. Another line of caravans is perched above the road they are painted that kind of lichen green that seems to be particular to Cushendall. I have seen several corrugated iron structures painted that distinctive colour. Too dark to photograph the line of caravans now, one is lit up but as I walk on it is an illusion, an orange sodium street lamp behind a corner of windows suggesting occupancy. Another deserted caravan park in Cushendall at winter. I walk on reaching the road now and keep going to Redbay castle. I keep going to the pier. There is a boat at the end and I walk down, one man paces, we greet each other I walk on, a man and boy are busy with their fishing rods by their car. I walk to the end of the pier, step over the barrier, and walk round the corner there is a strong wind and an amazing view outwards from here. I stand for a while looking and then turn back to return to the village.

Day 3
Rain, disinclined to walk. I again take the road that I think leads to Ossians grave. I walk to where I had walked the day before and keep going. A farmer strides up the road, wellingtons and wax jacket. I am in waterproofs but my walking boots are inadequate in this deluge. As I walk on the rain worsens and dusk is falling. It is a beautiful but bleak part of Cushendall. The road leads to a gate. I climb over, I am now on private property but am determined to reach if not Ossians grave then some kind of resolution. An outhouse stands lonely the only structure in this part. There is a small mountain ahead that the road leads towards. Rain, darkness, the road worsens, more gates, sheep, the small mountain to the left now, mud, water, on some more, on some more then eventually I have to admit this road is not leading anywhere and turn back.

Day 4
I take the road that forks off the ‘Ossians dead end’ road. I know according to my map that this will loop back to Cushendall. Again it feels wrong to be a pedestrian, these roads are not for walking on, only driving. Sunshine and many greenhouses, sheds and structures seen from the road, over hedges. The road curves and rises, every bend seems to curve higher and further away from Cushendall, no sign of where it will loop to. Mist descends, that sunshine is back in Cushendall now, eventually far across the valley a parallel road appears but no sign of the one that I am on connecting to it. Cars pass, headlights on because of the mist. A cyclist appears, luminous in yellow, some likeness in speed. He passes too and slowly weaves out of view, revealing the link to the parallel road far ahead. Walk on, walk on, walk on. Reach the other road and turn in the direction of Cushendall again. Still slow but seems a bit faster because it is a return not a going. A car stops and an elderly couple offers me a lift, I am very touched particularly as the back seat contains two sleeping babies, but I decline their offer, saying that I want to walk which is true, but it is far longer and more arduous than I had imagined. Walk on walk on, past the pieced together Nordic looking house perched on the edge, walk on walk on, how many more turns till I come to the point I had reached before and return to the village.

AD 2011

While on the residency I intended to think more about domestic scale actions and gestures. My idea was to work with people, talk to them about everyday actions and think about how normal everyday actions could be thought of as a performance or the basis of performance.

I also wanted to look at domestic relics, those things in the house that have gained importance beyond the sum of simple materials through being involved in significant activity. Before I started any focused purposeful talking to the folk of Cushendall, I decided to do a bit of cleaning. To take off the layer of use and non use that is representative of a fresh start. I washed the windows and began to sand the kitchen table. I video recorded these actions but didn’t record washing dishes or mopping the floor.

I realised at another time that I was documenting the domestic actions of my Dad. My Dad had a thing for sanding back the coffee table. My sister and me used to laugh that it would be like a wafer by the time he was satisfied with it.

Simultaneously I listened to the radio. As usual on Radio 4 there was interesting stuff on about art and history sometimes.

The action of sanding became a bit of a preoccupation while the action of recording it felt personally intimate and placed an aesthetic slant to my perception of what I was doing. In the apparent smallness of that activity there is, I am discovering, a serious profundity, I think.

Sinead Conlon.

Having had a hectic previous few months, my stay at the Curfew Tower gave me lots of time and space for free-thinking and making. With long hours in isolation and silence, without a mobile phone signal, TV or internet I began to realise how sequestered the tower felt. However the fantastic people and unspeakable beauty of the place quickly assured me I would have an enjoyable stay!

Over the course of an hour, hitting the shutter every 30 seconds and using a macros lense I took a series of photographs of the comings and goings of Cushendall through the huge keyhole in the tower’s front door.

I quickly bacme fascinated by the caravan parks dotted around the Glens area. These modular structures with such potential for mobility, temporary architecture on blocks, became the object of much of my thoughts. Their satellite dishes and antennas cracked me up! These ideals of a utopian holiday destination in prefabricated trailer homes, where the sky is always blue became manifest in the drawings, paintings and collages below.

… counting the stones at the beach – “An Impossible Task”

The 3rd of May saw Cushendalls’s U21 local hurling team Ruairí Ógs play Rasharkin in the first round of the Hurling Champions. Ruairí Ógs won with a resounding scoreline of Cusendall 7-13 Rasharkin 1-13. In honour of their victory and as a goodbye present of sorts, I established a temporary pirate radio station on board the tower’s rooftop. Using a home made coaxial cable antenna and a 50mW transmitter I broadcasted Queen’s “We are the Champions” on repeat for one hour on 106.5FM. I played a selection of my own favourite songs for another hour!

I had a fantastic time in The Curfew Towerl and would like to say thanks to all involved for making it happen – Thank You!

www.sineadconlon.wordpress.com

New Ecologies of Practice: A short season of projects by

Catalyst Arts [Belfast] / Occupy Space [Limerick] / The Good Hatchery [Offaly] /

Basic Space [Dublin]

NCAD Gallery is presenting a series of new projects which will represent the work of a number of artist led
initiatives, working throughout Ireland, which embodies a new approach and a challenge to institutional visual
arts programming.

In recent years, and pre-dating recession in some cases, Catalyst Arts [Belfast]; Occupy Space [Limerick]; The
Good Hatchery [Offaly] and Basic Space [Dublin] have established strong, coherent and critically significant
presences in the Irish visual arts context and, in their strategic ideologies, argue for a reconfiguration of
inherited thinking about the nature and purpose of art and the nature and purpose of art institutional practice.
This aligns with other transnational artist led initiatives and ideologies which respond to ‘situations’.

For this project artist-led Catalyst Arts presents ‘Director’s Cut’ a selection of work sourced from the
organisation’s archive symbolising a legacy of commitment from past members and directors. Transforming
the gallery ‘Director’s Cut’ will display artefacts, past publications, a selection of posters, the re-exhibit of Art
Rebels, a selection of slides with notes by the current Catalyst directors and the original Catalyst Arts neon
sign designed by David Shrigley. In addition, a number of archive posters will be fly-posted in proximity to
NCAD, re-contextualising them in light of this exhibition.

Catalyst Arts ‘Director’s Cut’ is open from 9 – 25 February at NCAD Gallery celebrated by an opening view on Monday
13 February 6pm. *Catalyst directors Rob Hilken and Alissa Kleist will give a talk on the Catalyst Arts archive to its
present day function on 13 February 5pm in the Harry Clarke Lecture Theatre, NCAD.

Occupy Space is a non-commercial gallery in the heart of Limerick City, established through the Creative
Limerick Scheme in 2009. As part of the programme at NCAD Gallery they have invited Art Links Limerick
(ALL) present their on-going research about Irish water to the public in the form of an Interactive Public Studio
(IPS). ALL will disseminate their research to date while continuing to use the gallery as an open studio space
over a three day period, encouraging interaction and dialogue within the space.

Occupy Space at NCAD Gallery is open to the public for participation from 28 February – 3 March 2012.
* Presentations by Aoife Madden, Creative Limerick Coordinator and by Noelle Collins and Kevin O’Keeffe of Occupy Space on Tuesday 28 February, 12 – 3pm, NCAD Gallery
* Presentations by Creative Limerick Spaces; Faber Studios, The Raggle Taggle Consortium, Ormston House on Friday
2nd March 12pm – 3pm, NCAD Gallery

The Good Hatchery is an artist-led initiative and space based in the remote bog lands of North Offaly. In its
development, large portions of The Good Hatchery have been constructed from recycled artworks and
salvaged materials from the exhibitions that its members have been involved in throughout the years. Its
development is on-going. Through a series of collaborations, curated projects and free residencies it
challenges methodologies of contemporary art making and often investigates relationships between site and
resource.

A new installation, Good Hatchery, will be presented at NCAD Gallery. Opening view Monday 12th March 6-8pm.
Exhibition continues until 21st March 2012. * The Good Hatchery directors Karl Giffney and Ruth E.Lyons will host a
seminar on Thursday 29th March at 5pm Harry Clarke Lecture Theatre, NCAD.

BASIC SPACE located on Vicar Street, across the road from the NCAD Gallery has been running since
August 2010 and during this time has existed as a space for exhibitions and projects. For the duration of a
week BASIC SPACE shop will open at the NCAD Gallery. Mementoes from artworks and performances,
limited edition collectables and memorabilia from exhibitions, and the opportunity to be involved in “Sq Foot of
BASIC SPACE” scheme, will all be up for grabs. Avoiding romantisization of BASIC SPACE while outlining the
physical and ideological elements that structure the space, the visitor can ‘browse’ the shop, but will be
immediately involved in accumulating a knowledge of BASIC SPACE that is recognisably estranged from the
memorabilia.

* BASIC SPACE shop opening view Monday 26 March 6-9 pm, it is open to the public from 26 –30 March from 10am-9pm and remains in situ at NCAD Gallery from Thursday 22 March–Friday 13 April 2012.
BASIC SPACE Artist talk Wednesday 28th March at 5pm Harry Clarke Lecture Theatre, NCAD.
* Refreshments & Discounts available on the opening view night.

In addition to work by the artist-led initiatives the exhibition programme includes The Artist-led Archive -

Sustainable Activism and the Embrace of Flux open to the public to view by appointment at the National
Visual Arts Library (NIVAL) housed at NCAD Library. The archive was initiated by the artist and curator
Megs Morley in 2006 as part of an on-going investigation into artist-led initiatives in Ireland. The project aimed
to decipher the kind of cultural conditions that led to artist-led initiative’s birth, their economic independence (or
lack of), their organizational structures and how all of these factors effected their activities and life spans.

For more information on The Artist-led Archive please see www.theartistledarchive.com.
*NIVAL is open Monday-Friday 10am– 5pm Contact: +353 (0)1 636 4347 or +353 (0)1 636 1102 and romanod@ncad.ie.
For more information on NIVAL please see www.nival.ie

To coincide with New Ecologies of Practice exhibition What Do You Stand For Now? is a public seminar
and discussion that looks at some artistic and curatorial practices from the last few decades in Ireland. In
particular, they all proposed methods and models of display and distribution as alternatives to established
mainstream and institutional practices. What Do You Stand For Now? is chaired by Francis Halsall and Vaari
Claffey, speakers include Valerie Connor; Mark Garry; Garrett Phelan; Sarah Pierce; members of The Enquiry,
Gradcam and others. What Do You Stand For Now? Saturday 31st March, 2012, 12.30-5pm at the National College

of Art and Design, (Harry Clarke Lecture Theatre), Dublin.

In currently redesigning its own provision, NCAD is an appropriate context in which to explore aspects of this
increasingly visible dynamic in the visual arts, as articulated in the NCAD Gallery space and the
accompanying events and discussions.

The National College of Art and Design Gallery, 100 Thomas Street, Dublin 8.
NCAD Gallery opening hours 10am–5pm, Monday-Saturday.

Catalyst Arts would like to invite their membership to take part in an international project. An exhibition which will take place in La Station, Nice, France, in May 2012.

Annual membership  can be purchased via paypal on our website: catalystarts.org.uk/membership/

If you are interested in being part of this project send us a short proposal no more than five images of your work, Artist Statement or website address,  before the deadline on march 15th at 1pm to catalystarts@gmail.com

La Station is an Organisation that promotes the most contemporary artistic creations through its artists’ studios and its exhibition space. The collective has occupied many different spaces since 1996 and is now situated in a disused slaughterhouse.
La Station has participated in several projects and exchanges with other organisations around France and Europe.

more information on La Station can be found at www.lastation.org or via facebook:
www.facebook.com/LaStation.nice

Sound Artist Skip Cloud Performs at Catalyst Arts as part of the exhibition ‘Press Start’. Listen to Skip Cloud here Skip Cloud

Preview Thursday 26th January 7pm-9pm

Friday 27th January – Friday 17th February.

Opening hours  Tuesday- Saturday 11am-5pm.

Press Start will be an innovative interactive show, featuring work by international and local artists, that aims to showcase artworks that have been inspired by retro video games, old technology and the gaming experience.

Catalyst Arts presents The Featherweight Portable Museum, a joint venture between Catalyst Arts (Belfast) and Media Pyhat (Finland), bringing together an eclectic body of work made by selected UK, Irish and Finnish artists in a travelling multi-media exhibition. The first showcase of the exhibition will take place at Catalyst Arts on Thursday 1st of December, with screenings, installations and performance art running from 6pm to 9pm. The work (a combination of the independent selections made by both organisations) will travel to Finland this year.

Catalyst Arts welcomes applications for new Co-Directors. Please download the information below which outlines the personal criteria as well as the roles and responsibilities for the position of director at Catalyst Arts. Details of how to apply are also in this document. Email us for anymore queries at Catalystarts@gmail.com

Director Callout – Applications Welcome

Catalyst presents The Featherweight Portable Museum, a joint venture between Catalyst Arts (Belfast) and Media Pyhat (Finland), bringing together an eclectic body of work made by selected UK, Irish and Finnish artists in a travelling multi-media exhibition. The first showcase of the exhibition will take place at Catalyst Arts on Thursday 1st of December, with screenings, installations and performance art running from 6pm to 9pm. The work (a combination of the independent selections made by both organisations) will travel to Finland next year.

Hourglass (2011)
Micheal Hanna

‘Digital Arts in the Gallery: New Media Showcase’

In 2003, in response to the increase in artists working with new media technology, Queen Street Studios set up a Digital Studio within their premises. With increasing demand, came an expansion of premises, the development of the programme and facilities. Then in 2008 the Digital Studios became an independent not-for-profit organisation and The Digital Arts Studios (DAS) was born. DAS promotes the convergence of art and technology and recognises the importance of providing facilities, resources and training in this rapidly advancing field. DAS continues to develop and expand, and its residency programme is now well established. The programme aims to encourage and support new and established artists in the creation of innovative, challenging and experimental new work. The programme offers four international residencies and twelve UK & Ireland residencies each year. This exhibition has provided DAS with a timely opportunity to showcase the work of some of these artists. The works on show here represent a diversity of strategy in terms of each artist’s engagement with the digital, whilst providing an exemplary demonstration of how new media technologies intersect with visual art.

Exhibiting  Artists

Michael Hanna, Ciaran Hussey, David Clark & Marina Roy, Susan Thomson, Richard Davis

Catalyst Arts Presents

THE TRUTH BOOTH.

The Assembly Rooms, Cathedral QuarterIn

Search of the Truth (The Truth Booth)  A Cause Collective project(Jim Ricks, Hank Willis Thomas and Ryan Alexiev)

Three artists aretraveling the world with an inflatable ‘Truth Booth’ searching for thetruth.It is a massive cartoon speech-bubble that asks the public: “What isthe Truth?”.American artists Ryan Alexiev, Jim Ricks and Hank Willis Thomas willbe touring their new public project titled In Search of the Truth (TheTruth Booth). The inflatable piece is a new collaborative piece byCause Collective and is shaped like a giant cartoon speech bubble. It is a portable video ‘booth’ that will be available for members of the public to leave their opinions and responses on video. The piece will travel throughout Ireland gathering video documentation and then onto the rest of the world.

PreFIX.

Bridge Street, Cathedral QuarterCatalyst Arts organises Fix – a biennale of live performance art.

For Pre FIX we will utilise the two phone boxes on Bridge Street,performance artists who use improvisation as part of their practicewill telephone the phone boxes for passers by to pick up and listento/ converse with the artist.

Thisyear Fix takes places on November 10th – 15th and the launch Pre FIX -takes place as part of Culture Night Belfast.

‘Notice’

18 August 2011 07:00 – 08 September

Curfew Tower Residency Exhibition

19th August – 8th September
preview Thursday 18th August, 7-9pm
Artist Talk with Bill Drummond, Thursday 1st September, 7:30pm
Catalyst Arts Gallery

“The Curfew Tower is a fortified building built in the early years of the nineteenth century in Cushendall. It has five floors, one room on each floor. From the ground up: dungeon, bathroom, living room, bedroom, bedroom. There is a kitchen adjoining the back of the tower. The accommodation allows for no more than two artists in residence at any one time.“

‘NOTICE’ is a multi-disciplinary exhibition showcasing the work of the artists who took part in the Catalyst Arts curated Curfew Tower residency program of 2010.

Exhibiting Artists: Bill Drummond, Nathan Crothers, Sinead Conlon, Stephen Anderson, Anne-Marie Dillon, Aoife Desmond, Florian Hollerweger, Angela Halliday, FIELD.

(dis)playing the other

This exhibition will explore ways in which artists today continue to challenge, subvert, or deconstruct hegemonic notions of heteronormative identity in contemporary visual culture.

Through video, photography, drawing, painting, and installation, the work on display will offer an eclectic and dynamic representation of ‘other’ in today’s society.

Exhibiting artists:

Breda Lynch (Limerick)

Gavin Devine (Belfast)

Ins A Kromminga (Berlin)

Jenny Keane (Belfast)

Quinnford + Scout (Manchester)

There will also be a series of glorious accompanying events running alongside the show. Please email the gallery at catalystarts@gmail.com to reserve a place for any of the following:

Ins A Kromminga – Intersex Identities and Politics

Saturday 16th July 6pm Catalyst Arts

An informal lecture followed by a Q&A session with critically acclaimed international artist Ins A Kromminga, which will address a significant gap in public knowledge on the subject of Intersexuality as well as offer fascinating insights into the artist’s life and work.

(dis)playing the Other Film Night

Thursday 21st July 8pm Catalyst Arts

A selection of cinematic delights selected by artists Quinnford & Scout. Details of which will be announced nearer the time.

Breda Lynch and Jenny Keane in conversation

Wednesday 27th July 7pm Catalyst Arts

 As part of (dis)playing the Other, artists Breda Lynch and Jenny Keane will host an evening of engaging discussion, offering insights into their respective artistic practices and their work on show as part of the exhibition.

Pride Week tour of (dis)playing the Other at Catalyst Arts

Thursday 28th July 2pm

An afternoon introduction and tour of the show with Catalyst curators Eoin Dara and Kim McAleese.

Artist talk: Gavin Devine

Friday 29th July 2pm Catalyst Arts

Following on from the success of his recent degree show at the University of Ulster, Devine will be discussing his intimate portraits of an older generation of LGBTQ individuals in Northern Ireland.

Catalyst Critical Mass as part of Belfast Pride Parade

Saturday 30th July

Get your wheels out and come join the Catalyst Bike Gang as part of Ireland’s largest LGBT parade. Further details to be announced in the coming weeks.

Sterile Environment

2nd June – 23rd June.  Preview Thursday 2nd June, 7pm-10pm

This art and architecture crossover exhibition explores the city of the past, present and future.  Local Artists explore the vitality, heritage and character of old and new Belfast. What is the city becoming? Are we protecting heritage adequately? And international artist wouder if cities are just becoming clones of one another, creating an endless high street existence…

There will be a series of events/talks/debates running throughout the duration of the exhibition to keep things interesting and hopefully answering some of the above questions. Details of which can be found below

Exhibiting Artists

Sinead Bhreathnach-Cashell / Aideen Doran / Andrew Dodds

Sharone Lifschitz (speaker) / Eoin McGinn / Michael Pinsky

Keith Winter / Forum for Alternative Belfast

Events/Talks-

Sinead Bhreathnach-Cashell- Builder Bowling

7pm-10pm, 2nd June, Catalyst Arts Gallery

Playfully making visible the threat of extinction of real buildings in Belfast.

Keith Winter and Forum for Alternative Belfast.

6:30pm, 9th June, Catalyst Arts Gallery

A talk based on the work shown the gallery space, relating to the constant changing face of Belfast.

Sharone Lifschitz- The Traffic Light and Monument.

6:30pm, 16th June, Catalyst Art Gallery.

Sharone Lifschitzs talk will centre on actions and projects created in cities such as London, Munich, Belfast and Tel Aviv-Jaffa. Lifschitz’s work unfolds as a progression of actions and interactions for which she is both choreographer and participant and through which the city becomes a ground for an encounter and the encounter becomes a tool for a reading of the city and creating interventions in its urban fabric. The talk traces several projects both completed and in progress.

Saturday 14th May

12:00 – 1:00pm CHAIR YOGA CLASS(If you are in town this is a gentle yoga class to start your Saturday)

5:00 – 6:00pm BINGO, CROSSWORDS & TEA(With Mad Dog McKenna Bingo calling)

7:00 – 8:00pm Performance “VERB WOMAN: a discreet dictionary” with the ‘Adjectives’.

La Dragu’s performance is ‘about forgetting and disintegration, dusoyted gustiruesm conflicting eye witness accounts, Alzheimer’s memory loss; like sand slipping through an open hand…the disintegration of memory, history and technology using verbs from daily life and verbs collected from Alzheimer’s patients’…

8.00pm onwards – VERB WOMAN: mending and LIVE Eurovision Screening (BYO) Bring your droopy hems, torn shirts and clothes with missing buttons [but no blue jeans] for Verb Woman to mend for you

You can also join us LIVE from 5pm in Catalyst Arts by logging onto http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ladragu

 ¿@#!*$ (Comic Show)

List of artists: Simone Lia / Phil Barrett / Fionnuala Dorn / Malcy Duff / Chris Ware / Travis Millard / Tom Gauld Audience numbers:

Absence Launch Party Thursday 21t April – Local artists andy Luke and Stephen Downey (Cancertown, Slaughterman’s creed) launch their latest work ‘Absence’

Secret Cinema

Comic Zine Fair 23rd April

Pretty Circus presents ‘Live music and Live drawing’ Sunday 1st May

Divine Creation

Catalyst Arts’ Annual Members Show

Catalyst Arts would like to invite all members to submit work for the 2011 members exhibition, scheduled to open on 17^th February and centred upon the notion of ‘Divine Creation’.

Each member is eligible to submit one piece of work in any medium, but we would ask that members take into consideration the large amount of submissions annually received, all to be displayed in the gallery, and to tailor the scale of the work accordingly.

Annual membership for 2011 is £20 waged / £10 unwaged, and new members may pay this when submitting their work or through Paypal on our website (www.catalystarts.org.uk).

Deadline for submission: 5p.m. Thursday 10^th February.

Work may be submitted in person from 8^th-10^th February from 11am-5pm or via post or email (catalystarts@gmail.com).

Catalyst Arts Annual Student Show

16 December 2010 19:00 – 06 January

We are delighted to announce the opening of

Catalyst Arts Annual Student Show.

The first group exhibition in our new gallery space showcases a range of work from some of the most interesting artists currently in / recently finished education. The exhibition opens on Thursday 16th December 2010, 7 – 9pm and continues until 6th January 2011.

The show will close with a performance by artist Anthony Keigher, Anthony is looking for six participants to be involved in the work which will take the form of a 3 course dinner. If you would like to participate please RSVP to studentshowcatalyst@gmail.com.

Participating artists; Phillip Liam McCrilly and Cecile Le Couedic, Christopher Burns, Ciaran Hussey, Anthony Keigher, Alissa Kleist, Laura O’Connor, Sean Redahan, Karolin Reichardt, Nadine Stewart, Anne Marie Taggart, James Ward.
Alongside the exhibition will also be a Critical text by Sarah Lundy.

Nevan Lahart ‘Genuine Irish Mug’

19 November 2010 18:00 – 11 December

Date: 2 September 2010

Adrian Duncan & Fiona Marron

Of Process

Both artists’ current work takes, as its shared root, physical, speculative and necessary human activities, which are used as tools for investigating other, less tactile, human activities and processes. These physical activities reveal a process that is used to view the less tactile processes from a different angle. Duncan and Marron share an interest in addressing the complications inherent in attempting to define such an abstract topic. In the manifestation of these ideas, metaphors are introduced that provoke thought and enquiry into our claims to knowledge.
Duncan’s work overlays everyday empirical investigative activities upon less obvious processes of measurement. His work at first illustrates the flaws in this scientific method (the problem with induction, statics, etc.), particularly when applied to dynamic systems. The work attempts to marry one method of measurement with another seemingly incomapatible system, and from this, investigating how institutional structures are formed and changed. This is done with reference to Popper’s Objective Knowledge.
In her sculpture and video installation Marron pursues her interests in the relationships between labour, knowledge and value, using the mining industry as a model. Combining appropriated text from sociologist Alvin Gouldner’s 1954 field report of an American gypsum plant and footage from the realms of production at a present-day Irish mine, Marron examines the ‘many standpoints in terms of which the raw data of factory life can be ordered and made meaningful.’ (Gouldner 1954)
Adrian Duncan studied and worked as a structural engineer in the UK and Ireland for over a decade before returning to study fine art at IADT. His practice is based in sculpture/installation, video, writing and drawing. He has exhibited at Pallas Contemporary Projects, The Joinery and The Lewis Glucksman, UCC. He is assistant editor of Paper Visual Art to which he also contributes. Fiona Marron was born in Co. Monaghan in 1987 and graduated from Fine Art at Dublin Institute of Technology last year. She has had solo exhibitions at The Joinery, Dublin (2010) & FOUR gallery, Dublin (2009). She has participated in many group shows including Reverse Pedagogy III, a residency and exhibition hosted by The Model, Sligo (2009).

Until the Light Takes Us [2008ce]

1 August 2010 18:00 -

Vinyl Reclamation

A Lughnasa reaping for Danse Macabre

Catalyst Arts, Sunday 1st August 2010ce, 6pm

Until the Light Takes Us [2008ce]

Until The Light Takes Us tells the story of black metal. Part music scene and part cultural uprising, black metal rose to worldwide notoriety in the mid-nineties when a rash of suicides, murders, and church burnings accompanied the explosive artistic growth and output of a music scene that would forever redefine what heavy metal is and what it stands for to other musicians, artists and music fans worldwide.

Until The Light Takes Us goes behind the highly sensationalized media reports of “Satanists

running amok in Europe” to examine the complex and largely misunderstood principles and beliefs that led to this rebellion against both Christianity and modern culture.

To capture this on film, directors Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell moved to Norway and lived with the musicians for several years, building relationships that allowed them to create a surprisingly intimate portrait of this violent, but ultimately misunderstood, movement. The result is a poignant, moving story that’s as much about the idea that reality is composed of whatever the most people believe, regardless of what’s actually true,

+

Vinyl Consummation

Vinyl Consummation documents an event held on the first of May 2010ce, celebrating the sacramental dimension of the vinyl record; a ritual rendition and subsequent immolation of Buzum’s album ‘Belus’, executed high in the hills of South Armagh.

Marking Burzum’s inaugural artwork following Varg Vikernes’ emergence from the darkness of prison, Vinyl Consummation called forth Burzum’s hymn to the God of Light Belus on the feast-day of his Celtic equivalent Belenus, in the ritual landscape of Ulster’s Mythic Heart.

Vinyl Consummation brings to light folkish and pop-cultural mythologies in a contemporary rite, blending Norwegian Black Metal and Iron-Age Ulster in a rebirth of subcultural desire.

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Event scored by Jordan Hutchings

An Ichor Inc. event in association with Catalyst Arts

Catalyst Arts, 5 College Court, Belfast, BT1 6BX.

T: 02890 313303  E: catalystarts@gmail.com  W: www.catalystarts.org.uk

22 July 2010 00:00 – 13 August

Danse Macabre Press Release

8 July 2010 18:00 – 16 July
Catalyst Arts Presents

The Embassy Salon Show
9th July -16th July
opening Thurs 8th July 6-8

Catalyst Arts and the Embassy Gallery (Edinburgh) have come together
to present a selection of work from the Embassy Salon Show 2010. For
one week only the Catalyst will showcases the works of emerging and
established Edinburgh artists.
Works by Morag Keil, Tayto and Tayto, Ewan Sinclair, Alexa Hare, Leigh Chorlton,
Calvin Laing, Peter Amoore, Greg Fullerton and Tiffany Parbs, Tessa Payne,
Claire Louise Davies, Alan and Rose Holligan and Marie Smith.

Gallery opening hours Tues-Sat 11-5
Catalyst Arts
5 College Court
Belfast
BT1 6BX
www.catalystart.org.uk
catalystarts@gmail.com
02890 31 33 03

4 March 2010 18:00 -

Catalyst Arts presents…

We Invented Halloween

Michael Fortune

Thursday 4th March, 6-9pm

We invented Halloween is a five-channel installation recorded on Halloween night, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 in the artist’s family home in rural County Wexford. Each year a central activity of the night involves the artist’s mother dressing up in an improvised manner with anything that will disguise her identity, and calling to his granny’s house, which is next door. Prior to calling to the house we see his mother getting dressed, with the aid of his sisters, who dress and undress her with layers of coats, socks, tights and plastic masks.  The work, which involves long, hand-held takes, follows her along the road and into the grannies house. In both recordings she is unaware of her identity, thinking instead that she is one of her great grand children. Each of the five films finishes when his mother leaves the house, happy that she has fooled his granny once again.

Previously this work has only been presented as a three-channel work, however the artist has produced the five-channel version for the Catalyst show.

21 October 2009 00:00 – 06 November

Catalyst Arts, Belfast

Call for submissions for the Annual Student Show, December 2009.

Catalyst Arts believes in supporting artists at all stages in their careers, and the student show is our main showcase for newly emerging visual artists, providing gallery support and fresh networking opportunities.

We are interested in presenting a broad range of innovative, exciting new work in any and all mediums.

This call is open to all undergraduate and postgraduate students, including those who have graduated during 2009.

Those wishing their work to be considered for exhibition should submit a written proposal with artist statement and no more than 5 images of work to:studentshowcatalyst@gmail.com

Closing date for submissions is Friday 6th November no later than 4pm.

1 October 2009 00:00 – 04 October

Bbeyond – Brian Connolly

FIX09 BBEYOND PERFORMANCE RE SCHEDULED

NOW ON SUNDAY 4TH OCTOBER,

OLD DUNNES CAR PARK,

CRUMLIN ROAD, BELFAST

9.30am – 1pm

Due to circumstances beyond our control Brian Connolly’s performance at the St. George’s market will not take place as advertised on Friday 2nd October. It has been moved to Sunday 4th October on the Crumlin Road Old Dunnes Store’s car park, 9.30-1pm.

For any enquires please ring us on 02890313303 or email catalystarts@gmail.com

Please accept out apologies for the inconvenience.

4 September 2009 00:00 – 04 October

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/aug/28/a-western-edinburgh-review

Action Hero will perform A Western in FIX09 26th Sept – 4th October 2009

see: http://fixcatalyst.wordpress.com/

Date: 3 September 2009

Barry Cullen- Archive Remix

An installation and performance by Barry Cullen, re-examining work curated and accumulated by Catalyst over its 16 year history.

Cullen will delve into the hoard of material stored in the Catalyst archive, in order to celebrate and commemorate the institution.

Hands on cut and paste techniques and digital sampling will be used, to create new work from the old, remixing and editing the past.

The finished piece may not depict history accurately.

P

Date: 27 August 2009

M.A.R.I.N. Irish Sea Residency at ISEA 2009

Continues at Catalyst Arts until 29 August

Thursday Aug 27th ISEA2009 Conference

Panel Presentations – Black Box

11:00 – 13:00 M.A.R.I.N.

Tapio Makela, Marko Pejhan, Matthew Biederman

14:00 – 16:00 Ecolocated

Environment,  Sound and Engagement.

Nigel Helyer, Tapio Makela, Andreas Siagian and Daniel Woo

]]> http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/2009/08/27/m-a-r-i-n-irish-sea-residency-at-isea-2009-panel-presentations-at-the-black-box/feed/ 0 http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/2009/08/22/capitalyst-arts-charlotte-andrew-art-conveyed-limited-company/ http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/2009/08/22/capitalyst-arts-charlotte-andrew-art-conveyed-limited-company/#comments Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:05:38 +0000 Catalyst Arts http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/?p=159 Capitalyst Arts, Charlotte Andrew – Art conveyed limited company

22 August 2009 09:00 – 29 August

CHARLOTTE ANDREW
ART CONVEYED LIMITED COMPANY
22nd-29th August 2009 at SHAC (Writers Square)

ART CONVEYED LIMITED COMPANY
Dear ladies (though not exclusively, men are welcome),
I am doing a project in Belfast from August 22-29 at the S.H.A.C. which is on Writers Square opposite St Annes Cathedral. It is part of Capitalyst week and will run in conjunction with the Catalyst Gallery.
I plan to turn the little disabled flat into a sweat shop with a bunch of sweaty artists working as if on a conveyer belt, each making their own mark on the paper which moves down the line and so on, producing at the end of the line a multiple original art work. You will of course be paid for your labours, in line with the basic sweat shop pay scheme, which after tax, national insurance, pension and devaluation is 2p per day, 1p for half a day. Hours will be 1000-1500 with I hour for lunch. Split shifts available. A rota will be set up, please clock in and out on arrival.
The work which is now owned by the company will be put up for sale. Seconds will be sold in the factory shop outlet at a reduced price. The best work will be packaged and exported to the Catalyst Gallery.
Profits from sales will go to the Managing director (me) and probably be spent on expenses such as large lunches with the board (you).
Applications for factory workers will be assessed on grounds of equal opportunity disregarding race, colour, religion and sex. All applications tocharlotteandrew@mac.com, please mark the form S.H.A.C.
Charlotte Andrew
Managing Director and Head of Recruiting

residence is an artist-led experiment in how space changes and stays the same through its use by different people and activities. With each new project the boundaries between living, working, private and public change. It is organised by Sighle and Sinéad Bhreathnach-Cashell and these spaces are currently being provided by SHAC Housing Association. Projects so far include residence: Flat 1, House/Home in a house on the Shore Road and ongoing events and residencies in Flat 4.
Flat 4 is our artist led space located in the Donegall Street flats in Belfast city centre. Each month it hosts a variety of artists in residence (AiR) who’s activities range from film screenings and workshops to open studios and tea parties. Click on Fresh Air to see the latest programme of residencies and opening hours.
Keep an eye on Fresh AiR to find out what you can look forward to this summer with residence

6 August 2009 18:00 – 29 August

Catalyst Arts presents…

ISEA 2009: M.A.R.I.N

Preview: Thursday, 6th August 5-8pm

Exhibition continues 7th-29th August

Founded by artists Tapio Makela (Finland) and Marko Peljihan (SL/USA), M.A.R.I.N is a mobile residency programme set on board a catamaran sailboat, redesigned and equipped to be a sustainable environment for transdisciplinary research in arts, sciences and technology.

M.A.R.I.N. will host an 11 week long residency on the Irish Sea, starting from Belfast and travelling down the coast of Cumbria to Liverpool. The gallery exhibition hosted by Catalyst Arts will highlight work developed during the residency.

Ecolocated: Littoral Lives by Tapio Makela, Nigel Helyer (AU), Andreas Siagian (ID), with Audio Nomad collaborators Daniel Woo (AU) and Michael Lake (AU) will map marine ecology along the northwest coastline using sensors and a small field laboratory. Combining maritime history, interviews and a workshop offshore, the artists will create podcasts, a geo tagged web blog and an Ecolocated audio installation in 3D.

For more information on the residency and its projects for ISEA 2009, please seehttp://marin.cc

3 August 2009 09:00 – 05 October

T5 field cinema

Small groups of people going to remote-ish and pertinent locations to watch films and artist videos.

This is the launch of artist Dan Shipsides’ ongoing project of informally showing artist and feature films in interesting remote locations. It utilises a T5* generation VW van, converted as a campervan to screen videos in remote locations (screen, video projector and petrol generator).

The T5 field cinema is supported by a forum which will bring together people, films and locations. Participants can use the forum to involve themselves and help initiate or propose screening events.
Please register to become involved
It’s Belfast based with potential screening locations initially within an hour or two drive of the city – but anyone can take part via the forum and potentially in person.

T5 field cinema is launched as part of FIX 09 – the 8th Catalyst Arts performance art biennial, which this year focuses on participatory aspects of contemporary live art practice. Screenings will take place during the week of the festival, which runs from from 26 September – 4 October 2009.

* T5 – the 5th generation of VW van – lineage of the cult Split and Bay window vans.

T5 field cinema forum:
http://www.danshipsides.com/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl

Dan Shipsides:
http://www.danshipsides.com

http://www.catalystarts.org.uk

Date: 25 July 2009

Capitalyst Arts

The Light Surgeons

The Waterfront Hall, 8.00pm
The result of a year long digital performance art project
produced and directed by Christopher Thomas Allen and
commissioned by EMPAC, The Experimental Media and
Performing Arts Centre in Troy, New York. The final piece
was completed and presented in September 2007 and has
begun touring to festivals internationally.

True Fictions is an audio visual spectacle that fuses

documentary film making, music, animation and motion
graphics with cutting edge digital performance tools. A
stunning collage of music and live cinema which explores
the themes of truth and myth through a multitude of
American and Native American voices; with a original
musical score created through the collaborations of 25 New
York based musicians and vocal artists.

24 July 2009 22:00 – 25 July

Capitalyst Arts

Pedro Lagoa, Record Breaking Party

Catalyst Arts, Friday 24th July, 10pm

Guests are invited to bring old unwanted records, which Lagoa will play and depending on the crowds response they will either be saved or thrown out into the crowd to face destruction.  The records that guests bring can be used as token in exchange for a drink.
After Lagoa’s set the party will continue with DJ,s

Doors 10pm Tax £10 BYO

Date: 23 July 2009

Catalyst Arts presents…

Capitalyst Arts

Ivo Burokvic, Life as a Fake Artist

An artists talk and presentation by Paul Weirbinski
Catalyst Arts, Thursday 25th July 7.30pm.
Told through the character of artist Ivo Burkovic, Weirbinski documents the ordering of a custom oil painting from China, and it’s sale as an original artwork at a renowned auction of emerging artists work.
Wierbinski’s work touches on the tensions between the material and symbolic value of a contemporary art product.
“In a world of greed nothing is worth more than something which cannot be sold.”

2 July 2009 21:00 -

Catalyst Arts presents… as part of Capitalyst Arts

Aisling O’Beirn

Some Things About Belfast (or so I’m told)

The Boom or Bust Quiz

]]> http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/2009/07/02/capitalyst-arts-aisling-obeirn-boom-or-bust-pub-quiz/feed/ 0 http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/2009/07/02/capitalyst-arts/ http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/2009/07/02/capitalyst-arts/#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:47:32 +0000 Catalyst Arts http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/?p=128 Capitalyst Arts: First Thursday, 2nd July 2009

Date: 2 July 2009

Capitalyst Arts:One night, three events.

2nd July 2009

Evelyne LeBlanc Rouberge

Chinese Welfare Centre, 7.00pm

Evelyne Leblanc-Roberge- Wet Markets

How do we occupy or define our personal space? What is the relationship we have with our city, our home and the architecture that defines that space? Evelyne Leblanc-Roberge’s photography is an exploration of urban geography, the tension between public and private space and its impact on the individual narrative. Through the media of digital colour photography, collage and online media, Canadian artist Evelyne Leblanc-Roberge explores the impact of urban landscapes on identity, and invites viewers to observe each mise-en-scene and recreate their own narratives.

In 2008, she spent 7 months in China where she continued working along these lines. In her exhibition Wet Markets Evelyne presents a personal journey, underlining the small details that caught her eye over there. This is a collection of observations in and on China in construction, in transformation, with all the tensions between tradition and modernity, wealth and poverty, urban/rural, the ephemeral and the perpetual.

www.evelynelr.com

Exhibition continues through to July 30th

Raster Noton

Black Box Cafe, 7.00pm

“raster-noton . archiv für ton und nichtton” is meant to be a platform — a network covering the overlapping border areas of pop, art and science. Emerging from the fusion of the two labels rastermusic and noton (in 1999) they realize music projects, publications and installation works. The common idea behind all releases is an experimental approach — an amalgamation of sound, art and design.

So far the catalogue of the label consists of about 70 releases. Most of the projects follow the concept of a series with contributions by very different artists such as, william basinski, alva noto, ivan pavlov aka coh, ryoji ikeda, ryuichi sakamoto or carl michael von hausswolff.

Olaf bender and carsten nicolai run raster-noton. the label is based in chemnitz / germany.
Catalyst will be showing thier CD designs, print and audio visual works.
Exhibition continues through to July 30th

Aisling O’Beirn

Boom or Bust Pub Quiz

Rose and Crown Bar, Ormeau Road

Quiz Starts 9.00pm

Aisling will host a pub quiz with a local feel relating to Belfast. Entrants will get a free poster and there will be a prize for the winning team.

1 July 2009 12:00 – 30 July

MARTIN BOYLE
VARIOUS RETAIL SPACES AROUND BELFAST CITY CENTRE
1st – 30th July

Martin Boyle produces video pieces that are playful and performative.  He re-presents mass produced objects and packaging in digital form for the viewer and highlights a preoccupation with ideas of value or lack off, through the use of consumer goods.  This is achieved through manipulation and illusion playing on our need for gratification and the need to reveal and expose.  At first glance his pieces may seem like any other advertisement for a product but looking closer Martins shorts depict issues of capitalism using subtle movements or quickly moving objects.
Boyle’s work will be displayed in various retail spaces around the city centre.

CURRENTLY DISPLAYED IN THE WINDOW OF
COPPER MOON, 3 WELLINGTON  STREET, BELFAST

VIEW WORK ONLINE AT: www.irishartnow.com/mbshow01.html

http://www.coppermoon.co.uk/

22 June 2009 09:00 – 28 June

JEN SYKES

166-174 UPPER NORTH STREET (opposite Star Bingo) OPENING 7pm Saturday 27th June

22nd June – 28th June

Blogcabin is a wilderness retreat that strives to be at one with nature while at the same time refusing to detatch itself from technology. Blogcabin will move through various locations around Belfast becoming an information point, a cinema, an internet location and a space for exchange.

27TH JUNE at 166-174 Upper North Street.
(across from Star Bingo)

Watch Ray Mears as he instructs you through the wilderness and come and see the products of blogcabins week on the streets. Receive mobile instructions for sourcing the internet.

Date: 20 June 2009

BURN THE BANKS,
MARTIN CARTER, LAWERENCE STREET WORKSHOPS, Saturday 20th June,9pm,
Burn the Banks is a unique event that will give you a chance to voice your revenge by joining in the burning of effigies of major banks.  Come along and bring any unwanted bills to help fuel the flames of change.

Pictures from the Night:

Date: 18 June 2009
RICH WHITE
VIGILANCE UPPER NORTH STREET (opposite Star Bingo), OPENING 7pm Thursday 18th June

Vigilance was originally installed in a pair of vacant retail units in Barrow-in Furness.  It was inspired by the town’s submarine building history with the form of the derived from the shape and scale of the vanguard class nuclear submarine.  The work was constructed from flattened cardboard boxes suspended from the ceiling by string and designed to make it appear that the submarine had landed on top of the building,  but instead of demolishing it the building had adapted itself to accommodate the shape of the hull.   For Capitalyst White will be recreating the work in a vacant shop on North Street.

Date: 18 June 2009

IN BED WITH MCKENNA,  SINEAD O’DONNELL AND DEIRDER MCKENNA -
Catalyst TV througout Capitalyst Arts
In bed with McKenna gives you a chance to ponder the real meaning of Capitalism though thought provoking and playful interactions.  Together they produce a series of performances relating to Capitalism, the first installment being the capitalism spelling test.

4 June 2009 18:00 – 11 June

 Slavek Kwi

Solvakian sound artist Kwi will transform the Tropical ravine with sound he recorded from the Amazon.
4th June Reception 6.00pm
5th – 11th June 11-5pm

Date: 30 May 2009

28 May 2009 00:00 – 04 July

Nika Oblak and Primoz Novak

Absolutely Fabulous 2

29 May – 4 July

Special Preview Event 28th May 6 – 8 pm

Catalyst Arts presents the first solo show in the UK or Ireland for the internationally exhibited Slovenian artist cooperative of Nika Oblak and Primoz Novak.

Oblak and Novak’s practise spans film, photographic manipulations and installations and their pastiches of popular films like Pulp Fiction and Taxi Driver and the feats shown in the Guinness Book of World Records are characteristic of their light hearted approach.

Their work investigates the influence of mass media on the individual living in a consumerist, gobalised society. Using the idiosyncracities of social interaction Oblak and Novak explore the issues with sensitivity and humour.

For Absolutely Fabulous, Oblak and Novak will be presenting their photographic and video series We Did This And That, reconstructing absurd Guinness World Records. They aim to examine the obsession with success and fame in contemporary society, influenced by the mass communication media. In carefully constructed photographs and videos they appear to be record holders and confront the viewer with constructed categories of fiction and reality.

Alongside this will be Shund and Cab Driver, frame by frame recreations of the trailers for Pulp Fiction and Taxi Driver, with all parts played by the artists. In this way they subject themselves to the influence of mass media, exploring the position of an individual as a passive consumer of monopolized, one way communicated media content, and materialize a common fascination with celebrities.

]]> http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/2009/05/28/nika-oblak-and-primoz-novak-absolutely-fabulous-2/feed/ 0 http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/2009/05/14/helen-sharp-the-hero-and-now-closing-event/ http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/2009/05/14/helen-sharp-the-hero-and-now-closing-event/#comments Thu, 14 May 2009 14:15:34 +0000 Catalyst Arts http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/?p=88 Helen Sharp ‘The Hero and Now’ Closing Event

Date: 14 May 2009

7 May 2009 18:00 – 14 May
Helen Sharp ‘The Hero and Now’
Opening Night 7th May 6-8pm
Exhibition running 7th-14th May 2009

The Hero and Now is a major solo show of new work by Belfast-Hebridean artist Helen Sharp.

The show presents a collection of prints, video, photographs and a live radio broadcast all developed over the past three years during her time as a PhD candidate at the University of Ulster.

Sharp’s PhD subject is ‘Illusions of Autobiography in Contemporary Art’ and maintains her thesis incentive is to prove the possibility of erasing oneself through autobiography…

Sharp’s practice has its foundations in an on-going project of ‘memory-journeys’ in which she travels to locations of ‘drug, time or experience – induced hazy memory’ and documents what she finds.

The show runs in Catalyst Arts, Belfast and runs for just a week. At the artists request the show will be flanked by wine and music on either end, opening on the Thursday 7th of May and closing on Thursday 14th of May with dj sets by Sharp herself and by David Holmes.

Opening: Friday 1st May 6.30 – 9 pm
Continues – Saturday 2nd May 1 – 4 pm

An exhibition of recent work by 2nd year BA (Hons) Students of Sculpture, Photo, Time and Video from the School of Art and Design at the University of Ulster.

25 April 2009 21:00 -

Derek Holzer, Eisberg & Resnick, Neanderthal Electronics Workshop Participants
Saturday, 25 April 2009 at Catalyst Arts
9pm til late.
BYO. £5 donations welcome to support Catalyst Arts.

dB6 Festival (digital belfast 6)
20th April – 3rd May
Derek Holzer will be performing his TONEWHEELS concert. Support from Eisberg & Resnick, and participant’s of Derek’s workshop will present their hand crafted synthesizers.
TONEWHEELS is an experiment in converting graphical imagery to sound,
inspired by some of the pioneering 20th Century electronic music inventions.
Transparent tonewheels with repeating patterns are spun over light-sensitive
electronic circuitry to produce sound and light pulsations and textures, while
projected graphical loops and textures add richness to the visual environment.
This year the Digital Arts Studios is 6 years old and we will be holding 2 weeks of events in April to celebrate. Workshops and events focus on sound one week, and video the second week with artists coming from as far as Berlin and L.A.
The Workshops and Talk will take place at the Digital Arts Studios, and there will also be evening events at Catalyst Arts and Brown & Bri.

Date: 27 March 2009

13 March 2009 18:00 -

CATALYST ARTS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Catalyst Arts invite you to attend the annual general meeting on Wednesday 11th March 2009 @ 6pm, tea and coffee from 5.30pm.

The committee call on the membership to put forward your opinions and suggestions on how the organisation should proceed and develop.

The Agenda for discussion is:

• Programming for 2009-2010

• Future strategies for Catalyst Arts

• Funding applications

• Relocation

• Any further business

Catalyst Arts appreciates your ongoing support and looks forward to seeing you at the A.G.M.

5 March 2009 18:00 – 04 April

Ursula Burke

State of Grace

Special Preview Event: Thursday 5th March 6 – 8pm

5th March – 4th April

Catalyst Arts presents State of Grace, the first major solo show of 2009 showcasing new work by Belfast based artist, Ursula Burke.

For State of Grace, Burke has produced a body of sculptural and photographic work that is tactile, witty, and engages with a wide audience in a debate about the nature of ‘Irishness’ in contemporary terms. For this exhibition, Burke explores the collision of heritage and modernity in contemporary Ireland. As Irish citizens, visitors or members or the global Irish community, we share a conceptual map that allows us instant access to images of Ireland. Round Towers, Heritage sites, Celtic Crosses, Guinness, Riverdance, pastoral landscapes filled with an abundance of cows and sheep and so fourth are all routinely deployed as emblematic of an Irish experience, an Irish image. Contemporary images of Ireland, however are characterized by rising immigration levels, a floundering economy and the realization of the self, no longer through Catholicism, but through consumer choices. Ireland has become global.
In an era where Ireland is witness to a variety of racial confections and national borders are increasingly made more fluid, does this make Irish cultural characteristics and heritage seem more or less important?
Ursula Burke, born in Ireland, was educated at the University of Ulster where she is undertaking a PhD. Burke has exhibited extensively throughout Ireland and Europe. She has been involved in a myriad of roles within the visual arts in Northern Ireland, including being an ex-director of Catalyst Arts.

20 February 2009 18:00 – 26 February
Artists:
Alex Conway, Amanda Coogan, Dominic Thorpe, Francis Mezzetti, Michelle Browne and Pauline Cummins.

Friday 20th Feb         Living Installation     – 6-8pm
Saturday 21st Feb    Big Jam             – 6-8pm (at Catalyst)
Walking in the Way     – 1-2pm
(located on Church Lane between Victoria Street and High Street)
Sunday 22nd Feb     Discussion         – 3-4.30pm
Monday 23rd – Thursday 26th  Detritus of Performance and projected 11-5pm

3 February 2009 19:00 – 19 February

126 Member’s Swap

The swap is now entering its fourth year, 126 was set up onthe model of Catalyst Arts.  The galleries have a shared ethos of providing space and opportunity for artists atvarious stages of their careers and a strong commitment to their membership bases.
The Annual Members Show provides a prime opportunity for early career artists to exhibit alongside more established artists.  The richness and diversity of practice in the membership is best reflected in the open submission policy.

The exhibitions this year will run simultaneously in both galleries.

Opening event Tuesday 3rd February at 7pm.

Exhibition runs in 126 in Galway, 5th Feb – 20th Feb.

15 January 2009 19:00 – 24 January

‘Notes and Volcanoes’

Lyndsey McDougall and Hannah Casey show the accumulation of work made for their Masters in Textiles. The work includes paintings, drawings, textiles and mini sculptures. The work will be displayed until Saturday 24th of January.

Opening event Thursday 15th January at 7pm.

8 December 2008 11:00 – 20 December

Open Studios Week 4: Cian Donnelly

‘Vampire on his hands and knees’
Donnelly will be working and performing within an enclosed space created in the gallery. Inhabiting the character of Daniel Cullen, a man who following the death of his wife and child has retreated to this room and made pieces in remembrance of the family he has lost. The two-week period will culminate in a closing performance, with songs from The Order of the Golden Ghost, a choir of artists and musicians.
This project will for the first time bring together all the aspects of Donnelly’s practice: song, painting, works on paper and storytelling.

Opening event Saturday 20th at 8pm.

]]> http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/2008/12/08/open-studios-week-4-cian-donnelly/feed/ 0 http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/2008/12/01/open-studios-week-3-revati-mann/ http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/2008/12/01/open-studios-week-3-revati-mann/#comments Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:20:54 +0000 Catalyst Arts http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/?p=101 Open Studios Week 3: Revati Mann

1 December 2008 11:00 – 06 December

Open Studios Week Three: Revati Mann

London-based artist Revati Mann will create an immersive environment with materials collected from Belfast: personal affects, found objects, fabricated objects. Over the course of the week, she will be creating a space that allows for free associations of colour, shape, movement and form; balloons, cardboard, trinkets, images, slide projection, sweet wrappers….an open ended impermanent space, welcoming and engaging. A space to spend time in.

24 November 2008 11:00 – 29 November

Open Studios Week 2: Ben Craig and Sinead Bhreathnach-Cashell

Ben Craig ‘Goodie Boxes’

Ben Craig will be giving away all his stuff as presents for free; toys, videos, tapes, books and a lot of other little things. He will bring his stuff round to the gallery and sort through it. Each present will be beautifully wrapped and a tag will be attached to each one with his email address on it. The week will close with a lunchtime event on the Friday where visitors are invited to take presents.
‘Six years ago they began to get invisible, glass or no glass. Nobody has ever seen the last five I made because no glass is strong enough to make them big enough to be regarded truly as the smallest things ever made. Nobody can see me making them because my little tools are invisible into the same bargain. The one I am making now is nearly as small as nothing.’

Page 76, chapter 5 of ‘The Third Policeman’ by Flann O’Brien.

Sinéad Bhreathnach-Cashell ‘Plunder’

Sinéad will take on the roles of Builder and Pirate, plundering the surrounding area for treasure in her umbrella boat and construct a pirate’s lair out of Belfast’s debris. During this time she will fill a section of the gallery with sand and ask people to hide treasure in it, for herself and others to search for. Using the Catalyst Archive Sinéad will create video dominos /video Jenga with vhs tapes. Sinéad will close her activities along with Ben Craig with the lunchtime event on the Friday afternoon.

Sinead Breathnach Cashell

Ben Craig

17 November 2008 11:00 – 23 November

Open Studios Week One: tit-tat Disco Olympics

tit-tat is a collaborative effort between artists Jude Bennett and Ruth McCullough. tit-tat put on live events that they find inspiring and fun, bringing extraordinary delightful art events to the public.
During the week tit tat will be designing, developing and creating a temporary sporting installation.
On closing event on Saturday 22nd November tit-tat will have the disco olympics with events such as techno sprint, disco ball shot put, wrestling, and sequined sac race ending the night with a Wedding Disco! tit-tat strive to bring a little bit of friendly rivalry mixed with ridiculous sporting fancy dress and silly games.
Let the Games begin!
www.tittat.org

The Winners

Score Board

Sack Race – 1st place: Kate McCollough
Sequin – 1st place: Kate McCollough 2nd place: Darren 3rd place: Mike
Ribbon Dance – 1st place: Diana 2nd place: Cecilia 3rd place: Gemma
Techno Sprint – 1st place: Marty Carter 2nd place: Sighle Breathnach Cashell 3rd place: Phil Hession
Cocktail 1- 1st place: Colm’s team 2nd place: Kate’s team
Cocktail 2 – 1st place: Fiona’s team 2nd place: Mike’s team 3rd place: Abbie’s team

17 November 2008 11:00 – 20 December

Open Studios

Gallery hours – 11-5pm Tuesday – Saturday
Exhibition dates :
17th – 22nd November – Tit Tat ‘Disco Olympics’ – Opening Event Saturday Evening 22nd
24th – 29th November – Ben Craig – Sinéad Bhreathnach-Cashell. Opening event Friday 28th 12pm-5pm
1st – 6th December – Revati Mann – Opening Event Thursday 4th 7pm
8th – 20th December – Cian Donnelly – Opening Event Saturday 20th 8pm

Open Studios presents six artists to making new work in and for the Catalyst gallery space, over five weeks this winter.

The selected artists will transform the Catalyst gallery space into a creative laboratory, investigating contemporary studio practice through relocation of the studio into a gallery- a space in which audiences are invited to chat, observe and engage with the artists’ processes.
Visiting hours will be 11am to 5pm daily, Tuesdays to Saturdays.
We will develop photographic documentation of the space as it changes, which will be displayed in our Resource Room.

Come down and see whats happening!

30 October 2008 19:00 – 15 November

Catalyst Arts Annual Student Show 2008

Opening Thursday 30th October, 7pm

Exhibition runs from October 31st to November 15th

Catalyst Arts presents its annual Student Show. featuring the work of this year’s best and brightest students and graduates,.
Showcasing a selection of artists from across the UK and Ireland producing the best work in photography, sculpture, drawing and multi-disciplinary practise.

Catalyst Arts is committed to promoting and nurturing the artistic talent of tomorrow and providing support and opportunities for emerging artists. The Student Show is our finest expression of this.

Catalyst Arts has hosted over 1,000 artists since its formation 15 years ago, developing into a ground breaking, stimulating home for contemporary art. We are committed to exhibiting a broad range of work, focusing on new developments, new technologies and contemporary debates about art.

Catalyst Arts looks beyond traditional forms, questions received logic and develops innovative ways of enhancing the vocabulary of the artistic medium.

Selected artists:

Helen Tubridy (Glasgow School of Art)
Elliott Wilcox (Newport School of Art)
Tristan Fennell (Goldsmiths College, London)
Ditte Knus Tonnesen (Glasgow School of Art)
Rachel Adams (Edinburgh College of Art)
Joseph Noonan Ganley (NCAD, Dublin)
John  McLaren (Glasgow School of Art)
Cecilia Sandrini (Norwich School of Art and Design)

Gallery Opening hours: 11 – 5, Tuesday to Saturday, open late night the first Thursday of every month

For photos of the opening night, please see Catalyst’s Flickr group or Facebook page.

Cecilia Sandrini

Judge Me

Wall Drawing, 2008

Tristan Fennell

From the Midori series

Projection

Ditte  Knus Tonnesen

Sticks

John McLaren

Chord Memory, 2008

Helen Tubridy

Untitled, Installation

Elliott Wilcox

Courts

Joseph Noonan Ganley

Untitled,  2008

17 October 2008 19:00 -

Big Draw at Catalyst Arts

Friday 17th October 7-9pm

Join the Big Draw Campaign for drawing this Friday at Catalyst. Create drawing webs and machines, take a lap in a drawing relay or long distance draw. Put our materials to the test with your ideas.

16 October 2008 19:00 – 22 October

Hybrid Art II

Kiyoshi Takahashi

17.10.08 – 22.10.08

Preview

Thursday 16th October 6pm-8pm

Performance 7pm

,

Catalyst Arts is pleased to present an exhibition by Japanese artist Kiyoshi Takahashi.

Kiyoshi Takahashi¹s work often consists of bold, simple, iconic images, especially exaggerated words and forms. The prototypical words and letters contain a sense of power, energy and strong will. The work’s have the initial impact of the exuberant world of the Manga comics.

His work is characterized by traditional themes and techniques of Japanese calligraphy combined with popular mass culture, such as advertising, comic books emphasizing the banal or kitschy elements of any given culture.

29 September 2008 20:00 – 01 October

Accidental Theatre presents…No Exit by Jean Paul Sartre
Translated by Stuart Gilbert
Monday 29th September- Wednesday 1st October 2008, at 8pm
Tickets available on door: £5/£3 concession

No Exit or Huis Clos was written by Jean-Paul Sartre and was first performed in Paris in 1944 just before it’s liberation. It stands as the finest example of his existentialist philosophy. It has been argued that in No Exit Sartre discusses the idea of creating one’s own future and the result of not having the power to control one’s future, therefore, one’s existence.

Each of the three main characters has a connection with the other and this beautiful play comes alive in the interplay between these three, as they look at themselves and each other for hope, salvation and torture.

The most famous line from the play and one that describes it perfectly, “Hell is…other people” is one of the great lines in 20th Century Theatre.

Fore more information, see Accidental Theatre’s website.

8 September 2008 00:00 – 27 September

Open Studio Space at Catalyst

Catalyst Arts presents an exciting opportunity for students, graduates and emerging artists to create innovative, location focused work inside the Catalyst Arts Gallery.
Catalyst is looking for 2-4 artists to work from 11 – 5 p.m. in the gallery which will be open to the public to view the work in progress. Both individuals and groups are welcome.
Artists are invited to submit proposals for work that will take place in the gallery. The Open Studios invites submissions from students, recent graduates and artists who are interested primarily in the Catalyst Space itself.
Artists MUST be available to work in the gallery space at least 4 days a week 11-5pm- there will also be opportunities for other hours and late nights.
Deadline for submissions is the 27th of September. Please include a CV, and up to 8 images of your practice. Work/projects tailored for the Catalyst Space are desirable.
Email to: catalystarts@gmail.com.

4 September 2008 19:00 -

As part of Late Night Art, Catalyst Arts presents a night of artists’ short films.

Short Films Showreel Thursday 4th September 2008

1: M. Dawn Hannah, When Enough is Never Enough 1.30 minutes

2: Kate McCulllough, Self Safari 5.30 minutes

3: Alex Perl. Automatic Film 4.30 minutes

4: Lisa Byrne, Taxi III: Stand up and Cry Like a Man 3.50 minutes

5: Jeremy Newman, Derf 3.58 minutes

6: Alexander Heim, Dog 4.15 minutes

7: Seamus Harahan, Before Sunrise 3.25 minutes

8: Erica Scourti, Ghost Story 3.50 minutes

Presented as part of Late Night Art, in association with Belfast Galleries.