4 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.
