Thursday, May 29, 2014

Letters

 


Jami Attenberg is the author of four books of fiction, including The Middlesteins. Her next book, Saint Mazie, is forthcoming in 2015.

Friday, May 23, 2014

Learn the Braille Alphabet at Trade School Dublin


*******Trade School Dublin June 7th session cancelled :( Its likely my class will go ahead at a later date so keep an eye on the website for another date *******

I'll be giving a crash course in the Braille alphabet at Trade School Dublin at 11.30 am Saturday June 7th. You can sign up here. Its a really cool project on Dominick Street, an area of Dublin that's changing from the grass roots upwards. I think this part of town is one to watch.

So what exactly is Trade School?
"Trade School Dublin is an alternative learning community that runs on barter. Trade School helps people share skills, ideas, experiences and resources ... Trade School celebrates hands on knowledge and experience. It is a place to learn with other people who value practical wisdom, mutual aid, and the social nature of exchange.
Trade School is not about promoting brands, projects or companies - people offer to teach something they are skilled at or passionate about that they want to share with others. Classes can be on anything from computer skills, baking bread, philosophy, bicycle repair, brick casting, growing food, how to play the blues or circus skills.
Students and teachers gather in a space that is made available by Trade School organisers. Students give barter items to the teacher, and class begins.
Barter does not mean haggling or bargaining. It simply means the social exchange that takes place when you offer someone an object, some advice, or a new skill in exchange for their knowledge."

What will the class be about?
Once you start looking for it, Braille is everywhere. A fundamental part of the city for people who are blind and vision impaired. Are you curious about the bumps on the stop button on the bus? What about in the lift in your building? Then this is the class for you. Learn the Braille alphabet and discover a side of the unseen city.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Lacuna [2] at Taylor Galleries


Lacuna [2] runs at the Taylor Galleries, 16 Kildare Street, D2 from the 9th-31st May. It features the work of Neil Carroll, Cora Cummins, Sarah Jane Finnegan, Gillian Lawler, Shane Murphy, Sonny Ortolano.
Through a strange mini series of events, involving work related cassette tapes advertised on free-cycle and cassette boxes, a sample piece of Braille that I had produced made its way into the hands of the artist Shane Murphy. He was intrigued, as most people are when they first come across it. Subsequently I produced the Braille for a pamphlet that he displayed at an exhibition at The Library Project in Temple Bar. Apparently it went down a treat. That's not a part of the Lacuna exhibition but some of his other pieces are.
They are captivating. Ethereally dominating the room in a most unexpected way. Delicate but strong at your feet, tying in corners, lines and intersections. At once a-side and an integral part of the space.




Or just as you step inside a room. Dominating with its fragility. All eyes cast downwards.

 
 
Hanging in the high corner, then, like a cobweb. Its structure independent but completely dependent on the walls that hold it. Its scaffolding. You just never know what you're going to see when you look skywards.



And finally this, not because it was a part of the exhibition but because it captured me. The contradiction of a covered window. For me the window is one of the most important features in an exhibition. I find myself spending as much time looking at what is on the walls as I do looking through them gazing out to the messy art of life.


 
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