Michael Dignam's Print Fund

Michael Dignam is an Irish artist on a mission: he has a place on Goldsmiths' Masters of Fine Art course here in London and needs some more dough to ensure he can afford to study and live in London for the next two years (this city is damn expensive, BELIEVE ME). He has created a series of limited edition prints at Damn Fine Print in Dublin and by buying one you'll be supporting Michael's studies: a pretty worthy cause, is it not? Not only that, but the prints are pretty beautiful: exploring Dublin's architecture and playing with geometry (hello, triangles!), they'd look good on anyone's wall. Now, which one to choose...

Clay Creatives

This article first appeared in Image Interiors & Living, July/August 2014

Ceramics has a history spanning millennia and providing archaeologists and historians with key information on how humans have shaped their surroundings and manipulated materials all over the world. In Ireland ceramic artefacts have been found, now part of the collections of the National Museum of Ireland, dating back to as early as 3500 BC. But Irish pottery and ceramic ware is not solely an artefact in a museum, Irish ceramics live and breathe, they develop and evolve today both in functional and sculptural terms, with a number of artists, designers and makers all over the country creating beautiful work worth celebrating. Here is a look at just a small number of those makers pushing the boundaries traditional techniques and exploring contemporary aesthetics, functions or concepts.

Here's the Heads Up #21

Here are a few upcoming events in Dublin and London (including one I've got going on in LSE's new student centre... ahem), should you want to spend some time indoors and away from the warm weather...

If Artists were Architects...

Barcelona-based illustrator Federico Babina has something of a preoccupation with architecture, creating series of illustrations on architectural alphabets, the architecture of cinema and more. I recently stumbled upon this one, named Archists, which imagines a city of buildings designed by famous artists in their trademark styles. A simple concept which is delivered in Babina's trademark charming style, click through to see some of my favourites.

Textiles and Patterns by Alexander Girard

Opened late last year and running until 9 February, Pop Art Design at the Barbican is an exhibition exploring how commercial design influenced the art of the 50s and 60s and how that art in turn influenced design. If it's a period of art and design you're unfamiliar with the exhibition provides a really nice introduction, while there are a couple of things on show that might be new to the already initiated. One such revelation to me was the work of Alexander Girard, an architect who trained in Italy and Britain before moving to New York and beginning to work across architecture, interior and exhibition design, typography, furniture and fabrics. He became Director of the Fabric Division at Hermann Millar in the 1950s and most of his best work was done for them. Pop Art Design includes some of his wallpaper patterns, ceramic objects and mural designs while a little look online brings up a whole host of brightly-coloured playful patterns for fabric and other applications. Girard's work is fun and frivolous and I can't believe I'm only finding out about it now! Though I realise as I've looked through his archive of work, some of his stuff (such as the wooden Vitra dolls pictured at the bottom) is familiar, I just never knew the designer behind it. I'm certainly glad that now I do...

Here's the Heads Up #17

Welcome to the first London/Dublin edition of Here's the Heads Up, with some info on current and upcoming design exhibitions and events that a) I've been to, b) I plan to go to or c) I wish I could go to but am sorry to say I'll miss. Enjoy!

Welcome to Drogheda

So the biggest thing to happen to my hometown since yer one was cast in the Harry Potter films is going on this weekend and I'M NOT THERE TO ENJOY IT!! Artist Fergal McCarthy takes up residence (literally: in a tent) in the Highlanes Gallery for Welcome to Drogheda, a weekend of talks, walks, table tennis and more to explore and celebrate Ireland's biggest town, kicking off today and finishing up on 18 August.

EAF Programme Picks

You may have already read my recent effusions about Edinburgh Art Festival's identity, now it's time to take a little look at the Festival's programme. Kicking off on 1 August with the main events and exhibitions in place until 1 September (some exhibitions lasting longer), Edinburgh Art Festival presents over 40 exhibitions across the city, 10 commissions and a whole range of talks, events and screenings too. There's heaps to see and do (if you didn't already have your hands full with all the other festivals on in August) so I recommend you give the website a look. The strand of EAF's programme I'm most interested in is the Festival's commissions, grouped under the theme 'Parley'. Through Parley EAF has invited 10 artists to create works that in some way respond to the city or open up dialogue within Edinburgh's context. Most of the I Like Local picks come from this strand so without further ado...

Make Your Mark

Glasgow's iconic music venue the O2 Academy on Sauchiehall Street is looking for some new permanent artworks and has invited artists and designers from the UK and Ireland to submit ideas. Four panels will be displayed in the venue's main auditorium and the winners will be selected by a judging panel including Alex Kapranos from my favourite Glasgow band Franz Ferdinand. Along with having your work displayed in the venue, there are gig tickets £1000 up for grabs for each winner. There will also be a public choice award with gig tickets and £500 for the artwork that receives the most public votes. Deadline for submissions is 30 July, for more information and templates visit Talenthouse.

Update on 1 August: The deadline for this competition has been extended! You can now submit your ideas until 6 August and the public vote will run from 7 to 14 August!

Edinburgh Art Festival Identity

With Edinburgh International Film Festival opening this week and brochures for August's 7 million festivals (approximately) beginning to circulate, festival fever is starting to build here in Edinburgh. With a programme that includes a host of flags saying 'Hello' across the city's skyline, a number of site-specific installations and an Edinburgh Complaints Choir (I have a few...), Edinburgh Art Festival is one festival I'm definitely looking forward to. It's also the festival with the best identity thanks to London-based Fraser Muggeridge studio, giving the city's most visually-oriented August event a bright, bold and clean feel.

Here's the Heads Up #16

Designgoat at the opening of Making Things Better as part of Design Intelligence at the National Craft Gallery. Photo by Pat Moore, courtesty of the NCG

IRELAND

Tuesday 18 June: NEWNOWNEXT, Tatiana Bilbao
Samuel Beckett Theatre, TCD, Dublin 2
The latest series of talks presented by the Irish Architecture Foundation (and supported by Arup) is entitled NEWNOWNEXT, bringing exciting young architects from all over the world to Dublin - some for the first time - to speak about their work. The series kicked off with Jeanne Gang and booked out in no time: keep an eye on the IAF's site for free tickets to hear architect and urban advocate Tatiana Bilbao of Mexico speak about her diverse portfolio of work.

Tuesday 18 June: Urban Knights
Science Gallery, Pearse Street, Dublin 2
If you'd prefer something else on the 18 June, Science Gallery's Urban Knights series of talks from people in Ireland and abroad making changes in cities continues with presentations from John Lynch of the Copenhagen Institute for Interaction Design, founder of Rothar Anne Bodes and others.

A Chunk of This City's Soul

Launched last week, Ireland's newest stamp celebrates Dublin as a UNESCO City of Literature. It features a short story written by Dublin teenager Eoin Moore as part of the Fighting Words creative writing programme. The stamp was unveiled at the Fighting Words Centre in the north city centre, a place founded by Sean Love and Roddy Doyle and beautifully designed by Grafton Architects to house creative writing classes and workshops for children and teenagers. See Eoin pictured below with our literature-loving president, Michael D. Higgins at the unveiling in the centre. Eoin's story evokes Dublin's energy and pulse, and eloquently describes the particular way the city has of brimming with history while spilling over with life: simultaneously being old and new, looking to the past while being full of youth. As someone living away and missing Dublin more than just a little, this story really touched me and the part I love best is:

Every High King and scholar, every playwright and poet, every politician and every rebel, every merchant, student, and busker who ever set foot in the city holds or held onto a chunk of this city’s soul; every one of them stepped to the city’s heartbeat. I listen to the streets at night and I can feel the city’s lifeblood pumping through me; I can feel myself flowing through it.

The Scotsman Steps

Originally built between 1898 and 1902, the Scotsman Steps are steps leading from the former Scotsman newspaper headquarters on North Bridge (now a hotel) to Market Street below in Edinburgh's hilly Old Town. In spite of being listed as a preservation site in the 1970s, the steps continued to deteriorate due to neglect and became a no-go area for most citizens and visitors in Edinburgh until very recently. In 2011 the city council and Edinburgh World Heritage decided to restore the steps (about time, really) with the Fruitmarket Gallery commissioning Turner-prize winning artist Martin Creed to get involved. With help from architects McGregor Bowes and Haworth Tompkins Creed resurfaced the steps with over 100 different varieties of marble, creating a colourful and elegant staircase from one level of the city to another.

The MAC, Belfast

At the end of November last year I went on my holidays to Belfast - a city I hadn't visited before, or at least not one I'd spent time in while old enough to remember much now. There was lots to see and do, but a highlight of the trip was easily a visit to The MAC - Metropolitan Arts Centre - designed by Hackett Hall McKnight Architects and opened about a year ago. Purpose-built in Belfast's Cathedral Quarter and wedged between a number of other buildings, you can get a number of different impressions of the building depending on what direction you approach it from, as it employs a number of different materials to create a collage of blocks and planes. It's the interior of the building that's really special, continuing the idea of a collage of shapes, materials and textures facing into a central foyer and circulation space.

Here's the Heads Up #13

Fuschia MacAree at the Bernard Shaw

26 October - 19 November:
Fuschia MacAree at the Bernard Shaw, Dublin 2
Blessings and Curses is the first solo exhibition of uber-talented illustrator Fuschia MacAree. It runs for three weeks in the Bernard Shaw in Portobello, do go if you can.

31 October:
Eva Franch at IMMA @ the NCH, Dublin 2
As part of the Irish Architecture Foundation's series of talks entitled Agents of Architecture, director of New York's Storefront for Art and Architecture Eva Franch comes to Dublin to speak on the evening of 31 October. The event is free but booking is essential here.

Lisbon: Top 5 Top 5s

View from Elevador de Santa Justa

Here's a post I've been planning to do for a while, but I kept getting distracted by goings on in Dublin and putting more layers of clothes on... There are so many great things and places and sights in Lisbon that I want to tell people about so I thought I would compile a few Top 5s to give you a sense of what the city's like to spend time in. And then I'll calm down with the effusing about the place, I promise. Without further ado...

Engage

(Installation by Respublica on College Green, image by Philip White)

Newly-formed TANK Collective are off to a flying start with a multidisciplinary project taking place in six telephone boxes across Dublin city centre called Engage. TANK Collective - who are abgc architecture and design, artist Nicky Hooper, fashion designer Renate Henschke and Ciaran Walsh of le cool Dublin - have commissioned six artists, designers and filmmakers to decorate eircom telephone boxes: spaces that were once part of everyday life but lately have been sitting silent. With support from eircom Respublica, Designgoat, Leo Scarff, Mick Minogue, Paul Mohan and Mint Design have transformed telephone boxes around St. Stephen's Green, College Green, Dame Street, Nassau Street and George's Street and the installations will remain in place until 8 October.

Glam & Travis and Re-searcher

Portuguese artist duo Glam & Travis are currently exhibiting a series of intricate cardboard creatures in Re-searcher, a shop and gallery space in the Baixa neighboorhood of Lisbon. With impressive precision (and no doubt countless paper cuts) the duo have created a collection of brightly-coloured birds, bears and imaginative creatures with a great cartoony quality.

Here's The Heads Up #12

A special edition of Here's the Heads Up; here lie recommendations of design events in two cities. If I could have my cake and eat it too, I would, but unfortunately I'll have to give the Dublin events a miss this time round...

Cinema São Jorge

Designed by Fernando Silva and built in 1950, Cinema São Jorge has to be one of the coolest cinemas in Lisbon. Rather than show standard releases or follow the kind of programming we're used to both in multiplexes and art house cinemas, São Jorge plays host to a year-round wide-ranging schedule of boutique film and culture festivals, such as the recent first edition of SAL - Surf At Lisbon Film Fest. So far, I've been in São Jorge for a screening of 'Surfing & Sharks' as part of SAL, a music festival showcasing new Portuguese acts and more than one tasty pizza in the upstairs cafe whose balcony overlooks Avenida da Liberdade.