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Irish Examiner
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Visual art reviews: David Mach's exploding cottage impresses at Galway Arts Festival
Galway International Arts Festival David Mach, Burning Down the House, Festival Gallery, William Street David Mach has become something of a regular in Galway, this being his fourth major show at the International Arts Festival in twenty years. The Scottish artist likes to work at scale, and his installation this year is a huge sculpture of an exploding cottage called Burning Down the House. No explanation is given for the explosion; all the viewer is presented with is the work itself, a 3-D model of a traditional stone cottage that one can walk around and see from all sides. A sofa, a television, a fridge/freezer and the front door blown off its hinges are clearly discernible amidst the debris and bursts of flame. The explosion has clearly come from within the building, which suggests it might have been a rural meth lab, or a bomb factory, in which the process of creation has gone drastically wrong. One of David Mach's pieces at Galway International Arts Festival. It's an intriguing piece of work, one that inevitably recalls Cornelia Parker's Cold, Dark Matter: An Exploded View, for which the artist invited the British Army to blow up a shed, but goes beyond it again in terms of its theatricality and impact. Burning Down the House is augmented by an exhibition of Mach's 'coat hanger' sculptures, striking figurative pieces constructed entirely of wire. The Thief depicts a nine-foot human figure suspended from the ceiling; Spike (The Cheetah) captures a big cat mid-prowl; while Arms I-IV is, as its title suggests, a series of human arms in various poses. All are covered in spikes, simultaneously inviting the viewer to look closer while ensuring that they can only come so far. This is art that could, quite literally, poke your eye out. Conor Moloney & John Conneely, Funeral for Ashes, Festival Printworks Gallery, Market Street Conor Moloney and John Conneely's Funeral for Ashes is a hugely enjoyable immersive installation, in which the viewer is invited to stand in the midst of processed film images, inspired by the native Irish ash tree, projected on the walls and floor of the exhibition space. An outline of the viewer then appears amongst the projections. Funeral For Ashes. One visitor took the experience to extremes, standing on his head, to the delight of the children present. As a project intended to draw attention to the demise of the ash, it is perhaps less successful than it is as a participatory artwork. Jane Cassidy and Arts Alive, Tactile Tunes, Aula Maxima, University of Galway Jane Cassidy and Arts Alive's Tactile Tunes installation at the Aula Maxima at the University of Galway is a series of sculptures that produce sounds as one engages with them. Touch a series of seashells, and they each create a jingle. Stroke a rock form, and it produces a deep bass drone. The overall effect is mesmeric. Jane Cassidy and Arts Alive, Tactile Tunes. Cassidy is a local artist, and her work with Arts Alive, a community-based arts programme for adults with intellectual disabilities, deserves every support available.
Irish Examiner
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Gigs, drama, art, dance... 10 highlights of Galway Arts Festival
1 Theatre Druid, Riders to the Sea & MacBeth: The Mick Lally Theatre, Druid Lane July 10 - 26 Druid theatre company presents a double bill of JM Synge's Riders to the Sea and William Shakespeare's MacBeth. Both are directed by Druid founder Garry Hynes, feature actress Marie Mullen, and are staged in the theatre named for the late Mick Lally. It is 50 years since the three established Druid as the first Irish professional theatre company outside Dublin, a landmark anniversary that is also celebrated in an exhibition of photographs by Joe O'Shaughnessy, at the Kenny Gallery on Tuam Road, covering the broad sweep of the ensemble's achievements. 2 Kevin Barry, The Cave: Town Hall Theatre, Courthouse Square July 22 - 26 Kevin Barry is best known as the author of a series of inventive novels, including the International Dublin Literary Award-winning City of Bohane. Barry's adaptation of his short story collection, There Are Little Kingdoms, was produced to great acclaim by Meridian in Cork in 2008, and it seems extraordinary that it has taken so long to present his work on the stage once more. The Cave stars Aaron Monaghan and Tommy Tiernan as Bopper and Archie McRae, a pair of petty criminal brothers holed up in the mountains in Co Sligo, with Judith Roddy as their garda sister Helen. 3 Oh…: Galway Atlantaquaria, Salthill July 8 – 26 Mikel Murfi Mikel Murfi's unforgettable one-man theatre productions have included I Hear You and Rejoice and The Man in the Woman's Shoes. Murfi trained at L'École Internationale de Théatre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, where the emphasis is on physical performance. Never one to shirk a challenge, he presents his new show - a reflection on new journeys, partings and the possibility of moving on - in the main tank of Galway Atlantaquaria. 4 Mogwai: Heineken Big Top July 24 Mogwai's eleventh album in 30 years, The Bad Fire, landed in January. The Scottish noise merchants' song titles are even better than Morrissey's – Fanzine Made of Flesh, Pale Vegan Hip Pain and If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others are just some of the beauties on The Bad Fire – and their politics are far more palatable. Most of their oeuvre is instrumental, but possessed of a grandeur that belies their origins in the indie scene in 1990s Glasgow. 5 Mary Coughlan: Heineken Big Top July 23 Since her first album, Tired and Emotional, in 1985, the Galway-born chanteuse Mary Coughlan has interpreted everything from smoky blues to jazz and trad, Jacques Brel and Leonard Cohen to Jimmy McCarthy and Johnny Mulhern. Her sometimes tumultuous life has been grist to the mill for the tabloids, but at 69, she remains a formidable and much-loved talent. Coughlan's 40th Anniversary Greatest Hits Show features her full band, along with a string and brass section. 6 David Mach, Burning Down the House: Festival Gallery, William St July 14 – 27 David Mach's Cheetah 1 The Scottish sculptor and installation artist David Mach presents his fourth major project at Galway Arts Festival, after Precious Light in 2012, Rock'n'Roll in 2018 and The Oligarch's Nightmare in 2023. Mach, a Turner Prize nominee in 1988, is known for his large-scale public art projects, such as Brick Train, assembled from 185,000 bricks, at Darlington, Co Durham. Burning Down the House is one of several exhibitions at GIAF that address climate change. Mach will give a talk at the gallery at 11am Tuesday July 15. 7 Eman Mohammed, What Lies Beneath the Rubble: Studio 2, O'Donoghue Centre July 14 – 27 Eman Mohammed Eman Mohammed was born in Tabouk, a small village in Saudi Arabia, in 1983 and educated in Gaza City, Palestine. She began her career in photojournalism at 19, and quickly cemented her reputation as the first woman war photojournalist in Gaza. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, and her memoir The Cracks in My Lens was published in 2022. Her photo essay, Layan's Steps, published in the Atavist Magazine in July 2024, helped reveal that Gaza is home to the world's largest concentration of child amputees, victims of Israeli attacks on the territory. 8 Aoife Dunne, Good Grief: Róisín Dubh, Dominick St July 24 & 25 Language teacher Aoife Dunne had amassed more than 100,000 followers for her humorous videos on Instagram before it ever occurred to her that she might be a comedian. And even then, it was only because she was invited to perform at the legendary Dead Rabbit club in New York. The Galway native is not shy about tackling contemporary issues such as toxic masculinity, and posted a memorable rebuke to Conor McGregor on social media after his appearance at the White House on Patrick's Day. Good Grief is billed as 'a unique blend of stand-up, storytelling and spoken word,' and deals with the death of Dunne's mother, the loss of her job and relationship during the Covid pandemic, and her efforts to rebuild her life thereafter. 9 Resistance to Trump: Bailey Allen Hall, University of Galway July 26 Journalist Fintan O'Toole interviews Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, the Democratic Party politician who has represented Washington's 7th Congressional District, encompassing most of Seattle, since 2017. Born in Chennai, India, Jayapal emigrated to the US in 1982, aged 16, to attend college at Georgetown University. She is the first Indian-American woman to serve in the US House of Representatives. A vocal critic of Donald Trump's presidency, she has condemned his budget reconciliation bill of July 2025 as 'one big, beautiful betrayal.' 10 Planete Vapeur, Microcosmos: Les Insectes Fantasiques: Eyre Square 9.30pm Friday July 18 / 6pm and 9.30pm Saturday July 19 Planète Vapeur's Microcosmos French street theatre specialists Planete Vapeur present Microcosmos, featuring a twelve-metre grasshopper, a spinning spider and a swarm of mysterious stilt-walkers, musicians and acrobats. The hour-long spectacle begins at Eyre Square before proceeding to Lower Fairhill Road via Shop Street and Bridge Street. What could be more magical on a summer's evening in the City of the Tribes?
