Eulogy to the Blank Page

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“We suffocate under words, images, and sounds, which have no reason to exist, they come from the void and go towards the void. A truly worthy artist should be asked for nothing but this act of sincerity: to educate himself to silence.” – from Frederico Fellini’s 8 1/2

This piece in the Hugh Lane Gallery was created by Dublin-based artist and curator Gavin Murphy and designed by Oran Day in 2010. Perhaps my favorite part of this piece is the way it’s arranged – words run left to right in each row, going down the wall, in order of the sentence. It can become a new sentence, though, a new thought, depending on the way you’re looking at the artwork. Additionally, by making the piece out of laser-cut acrylic, the concept of coming from and going towards the void is made clear (pun not intended). The quote is self-reflexive, and the piece in the Gallery allows you to get out of it what you put into it.

I wanted to do a bit more research about the movie that the quote is from, and perhaps why this quote was specifically chosen for this piece. Below is a brief storyline:

Guido is a film director, trying to relax after his last big hit. He can’t get a moment’s peace, however, with the people who have worked with him in the past constantly looking for more work. He wrestles with his conscience, but is unable to come up with a new idea. While thinking, he starts to recall major happenings in his life, and all the women he has loved and left. An autobiographical film of Fellini, about the trials and tribulations of film making.

The quote displayed in the piece comes from the end of the film, as Guido (and by extension, Fellini) is still contemplating his life and his film-making – emphasizing art for the enjoyment of it instead of a constant expectation to earn money or to please the public. Even this piece of art stands against that idea – it’s made of clear plastic with solid wood pieces, and if you’re staring at it head on or just walking past it, you don’t get to appreciate its beauty – and it especially stood out surrounded by other pieces, many of which were commissioned.

Vegan Donuts and Musical Pub Crawl

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Today was a wonderful day. We started our day in class talking about No’s Knife which I really enjoyed because of the perspective everyone else gave on it. I think that is the biggest thing I enjoy about class. The readings are extremely interesting but I can only interpret so much out of it. I always love seeing how other people interpret things and I think that concept can be applied to most things we are seeing here in Dublin. After class we went to the Hugh Lane Gallery which I wrote about in my other post. Across the street was the Garden of Remembrance which I found extremely powerful because it was insane how all those people lost their lives to just be in a free country. I enjoyed sitting down there and just looking around to take it all in. Earlier in the day Shana had talked to me about this place that has vegan donuts and I was like um I have to go there. So after the Garden of Remembrance we went to that donut place and it was SO good I could have cried. The food here has just been absolutely incredible. Afterwards we went to this extremely good falafel place and it was honestly one of the best falafel wraps I’ve ever had. Then we went to this musical pub crawl which was my favorite part of the day. As a musician, I extremely enjoyed them talked about their music and how it impacts their culture. I felt like I really connected to them in that sense because music is such a huge part of my life as well.

Bacon’s Studio

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While at the Hugh Lane Gallery, I was struck by Francis Bacon’s studio. By being identical to his studio on the day he died, the studio carries a subtly somber tone. Though filled with bright colors, the door itself is a barrage of brightness, the fact that this space is no longer filled with that creative spark is evident. The tools almost yearn to be picked up again- to feel an artist’s touch. What also struck me about this space was the concept of place. This place was intentionally chaotic. In fact, the Hugh Lane Gallery makes a point in highlighting Bacon’s quotes about the space. He worked better in this chaos, and it seems to have mirrored the way his own brain worked. I also think that this chaos is reflected in his work. The chaos in his work is evident through the various streams of thought highlighted within them. They usually contain more than one subject, though the others are not nearly as strong. Bacon’s work feels as equally chaotic as his workspace, which was his place of power. That is where he was dominant and felt most comfortable. In fact, Bacon would impart this dominance to other spaces as well. One quote offered the idea that any “clean” studio that Bacon used would become chaotic in a few day’s time. The reason this idea and the studio were so striking to me was the fact that I am the complete opposite. Chaos equals anxiety to me. I cannot work in a messy room, much less a studio like that. Also, any place I use I take great care to keep it tidy. This could say something about the submissive nature of my personality versus Bacon’s dominant one. Or, it could say that we both approach our spaces in a way that reflects our thoughts. In my case, I strive for order. In Bacon’s case, perhaps his brain was steeped in chaos and turmoil.

 

Hugh Lane Gallery

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Today I experienced my very first art gallery, at the Hugh Lane Exhibit in Dublin. I was amazed by the collections of beautiful artwork and the variety that was offered. As we continue to contemplate place and the theories of Cresswell that set the tone for this trip, I entered the gallery with a very specific mind-set. I was planning on viewing the art in relation to where the paintings were set, or where the artist would have been when the art work was created. However, as I ventured further through the exhibits, I noticed something that I thought fit much better. One thing that really caught my eye was the “art studio.” I was confused at first because it just looked like someone forgot to close a door and had exposed a huge mess, but then I realized it was the “studio” of one of the featured artists. A quote on the wall explained how the artist felt he could not work in any other space; he preferred the untidiness and organized madness of his studio. I found this so relevant to what we have been discussing because in a way, this studio shaped him into the successful artist that he turned out to be. On the other hand, one could also argue that he shaped the studio into the way it was. Either way, it makes for a very interesting and relevant discussion of how Cresswell’s theories apply to more than just literature, but all forms of art and expression.

Another piece that caught my eye was “Drawing for ‘Tank'” by Edward and Nancy Kienholz. This piece, as the description beside explained, was part of an entire exhibit about a young African American woman. The wheel in the top right shows different possibilities of the type of life she may live, and the items in the sink depict the type of life she may currently live. It is amazing how we feel we may be defined by the place we live, the things we have, and the predisposition we are born into. I feel that this piece highlighted to role that “place” holds in the lives of people. This piece was also very different from the pieces in other exhibits, but I really appreciated it and felt as though I had made a connection and drawn meaning out of it.

Irish Pride

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The month of June across the globe is the month dedicated to LQBT+ Pride, although celebrating your pride can be done year-round with no limitation. As an avid supporter of equal rights and human rights, seeing pride flags up and down the river in Dublin truly warmed my heart. There are many countries that condemn equal rights or just flat out ignore the rights to those that are LGBT+. I am pleased to see how accepting Irish people are of everyone regardless of gender, race and sexual orientation. Being from Atlanta, I regularly attend equal rights marches, and attend the annual Pride Festival at Piedmont Park.

I’m glad I was able to capture these two flags because they are flying high over a “Traditional Irish Pub” and what better place to experience love than in a pub full of happy drunk people (aside from the small population that enjoy starting pub fights). I am 3000+ miles away from home, and still feel very welcomed and feel a strong sense of belonging and home in a country that I’m traveling to for the first time.

Love is Love. Witnessing and experiencing this first hand in another country lifts my spirits high above the clouds and restores my hope for humanity as we push forward into a more accepting society. I couldn’t be more thrilled about the fact that to me, Dublin is just like a foreign Atlanta to a certain extent. As the days go by and our trip grows slowly to its end, I’m realizing that Ireland is my home away from home.

Reading in place at the Garden of Remembrance

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Before I left the United States for Ireland, I read The Cambridge Companion to Irish Modernism, which helped me better understand the nuances of modern Irish literature. Most of the essays in the anthology outline the distinctions between an Irish revivalist and an Irish modernist and the effects of these differences on Irish authors and literature. W.B. Yeats, an Irish revivalist, was a nationalist whose inner circle was comprised of many participants in the Easter Rising. Several of his poems are dedicated to Maude Gonne, a prominent member of the nationalist movement. At the time of Yeats’s death, W.H. Auden had just crossed the Atlantic on his way from England to America. Auden’s poem “In Memory of W.B. Yeats” is an elegy for Yeats in which Auden penned the famous phrase “poetry makes nothing happen.”

The Garden of Remembrance, featuring  Children of the Lir, a statue designed by Oisín Kelly, and a plaque showcasing Liam Mac Uistín’s poem “We Saw a Vision,” is dedicated to the participants of various uprisings who gave their lives for Irish freedom. Even though Yeats didn’t die for the nationalist movement, it was surreal to stand in a place dedicated to his friends who did die for the cause of Irish freedom and read an elegy written for him by an English-American poet. This intersection of place and identity (of both Yeats and Auden) is what I love so much about Transatlantic Modernism. The complexity of the history and citizenry of both men intersecting in single poem is a testament to the efficacy of literature as a medium through which we express the complexities of life.

Hugh Lane Gallery

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This piece of art was in the Hugh Lane Gallery today. It is a piece by Anne Madden and her Colours of the Wind collection. I chose this because it caught my eye and was my favorite of that collection. I felt it had a lot of depth behind it as it looked like several things, as I saw it as being an eye or a vagina. Both of those things I felt can be very powerful in a work of art. This gallery struck me because I’ve always loved art, and throughout my childhood my love for art galleries has grown and grown. When I was younger and on family vacations we always went to various art galleries throughout the US and throughout London and France where I went many moons ago. The art gallery had almost a comforting sense of place for me. Since traveling to a foreign country is not something I do on a regular basis I feel like on this trip I’m always doing something out of my parameters and comfort zone. I think the gallery made this sense of place to me because of the art in it. Art is something that everyone can enjoy. It’s something where you can appreciate the raw talent and emotion of someone else, and thats extremely powerful. The sense of place an artist has in a gallery is different than one of a bystander I believe. My sister is an artist, so when we used to go to different art museums that place had a different meaning to her than it did me. I find it amazing that this art gallery can bring so many people together and give people a sense of place. It’s a sense of place to just enjoy the raw talent an artist has, and take in all of the knowledge and emotion behind someone.

Remembering the past.

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**I was so excited to blog about the Garden of Remembrance, and I wrote up this blog, and I realized that I hadn’t taken any photos of it on my phone–only on my camera. I will add a photo to the blog once I am home and have access to my dongle!**

I am currently working on the research process of my Master’s thesis, in which I am writing about the traumatizing aspects of being the wife of a traumatized soldier during World War I. This research has made me become familiar with different war memories, whether that materializes in texts and media or traditional parks and statues. A message on the wall of this memorial rendered me speechless, and I say that beyond just the figure of speech. Entitled “We Saw a Vision,” it said:

“In the darkness of despair we saw a vision. We lit the light of hope, and it was not extinguished in the desert of discouragement. We saw a vision. We planted the tree of valor, and it blossomed. In the winter of bondage we saw a vision. We melted the snow of lethargy, and the river of resurrection flowed from it. We sent our vision aswim like a swan on the river. The vision became reality. Winter became summer. Bondage became freedom. And this we left to you as your inheritance. O Generations of freedom remember us, the generations of the vision.

There is so much to talk about in this passage. I’m most interested in the nature of the message: it is a letter to later generations from the ‘visionaries’. I have never encountered a memorial that demands its attendees to remember, and I find that power amazing.

Exploring The Huge Lane Gallery

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As I slowly walked though the Huge Lane Gallery, I stopped at this particular painting because my favorite color is purple, well all shades of purple to be exact. Naturally it grabbed my attention because of how perfectly blended each shade is. I really liked how the different shades resembled the sun setting after a long day. After admiring the usage of color, I then realized that this painting is of the country side here in Ireland. It seemed gloomy, but peaceful at the same time. Almost like the feeling of coming home after an extremely difficult day at work, but relaxed because you are indeed home, away from the hustle and bustle that usually follows a busy work schedule.

The landscape, in my opinion, was portrayed beautifully. The darkness of the trees that linger near the cottage house. It’s neighbors peaking out in the distance, and the single power line, which is even more distant than the neighboring cottages, allowed me to picture life in Ireland outside of Dublin. This painting immediately drew connections in my mind between Ireland, and Georgia. Just like Dublin, Atlanta is a roaring city that never seems to sleep. But venture further out of city limits, you come across quite “neighborhoods” like the one depicted in the painting. Just a couple of homes here and there, surrounded by trees and lonely power lines. This place above reminded me of my very own place- my home state Georgia. Sometimes I tend to forget that there is life outside of sleepless cities like Atlanta and Dublin and this oil painting was the perfect example.

Hugh Lane Gallery

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Once I saw Micheal Farrell’s “Madonna Ireland or the Very First Real Irish Political Picture,” or “Madonna Ireland,” I couldn’t look away. The picture has so much to take in, with the starkly naked angel, to the peeling paper revealing a second face, to the contorted depiction of the infamous Leonardo da Vinci’s Study of proportions.

I think the da Vinci illusion is the most striking, considering that his work is meant to convey proportion, whereas Farrell’s piece does not. Most notable is the altered face in the da Vinci photo, offering a much more disturb figure with contorted features. Additionally, instead of portraying balance, the figure is concealing its genital. The figures acknowledgement of the exposed genitals reads as him attempting to conceal them from becoming sexualized and acknowledges a vulnerability in nudity. If this is true, what does it mean that the angel is also nude?

While I do not have training in theories surrounding art, the chaos depicted here rests in the space’s inability to find balance. For starters, we have the mess surrounding the naked angel. My immediate impression upon seeing the angel is she is out of place; I anticipate an angel being in a pure space, without the clutter and disarray–and especially without the intrusive face in the corner, looming over her. To an extent, though, she appears trapped in this chaos, seeking an pseudo-escape by looking out the small opening in a window.

 

Another feature of the Hugh Lane Gallery that I loved was the quotes about place in the Bacon section. He says:

“For some reason the moment I saw this place I knew that I could work here. I am very influenced by places – by the atmosphere of a room…”

“This mess here around us is rather like my mind; it may be a good image of what goes on inside me, that’s what it’s like, my life is like that…”

Because of the conversations we have had about place in our class, I appreciated Bacon’s acknowledgement of the role of place in the creative process. Interestingly, he acknowledges that a place was essentially waiting for him, but that it also was able to be molded into being his, with him adding a mess to it–making it his own.