FELT AND FA(C)T

SATURDAY JUNE 7^TH 16.00 until SUNDAY JUNE 8^TH

MALT HOUSE STRADBALLY, CO. LAOIS

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 featuring work by

Not Abel, Cathy Carmen, Charlie Dance, Vivienne Dick, Sarah Jones,

Breda Lynch, Yoeri Guepin, Isabel Oberländer, Ciaran Walsh

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Laois Arthouse artist-in-residence Padraig Robinson presents the second manifestation of Felt & Fa(c)t, a rolling curatorial project, which was first presented in Ormston House Gallery, in January 2014. The Malt House Stradbally becomes a site where national international artists will gather together, for an event beginning on the 7^th of June at 16.00, ending on 8^th June 16.00. Irish documentary and filmmaker Vivienne Dick will screen her recent film “The Irreducible Difference of the Other”. All this will happen in the beautifully preserved former Malt House in Stradbally, which is itself an impressive piece of architecture. The screening will begin when it gets dark. Before that however, there will be lots going on, and lots to see. Austrian dancer Isabel Oberländer will respond to a spoken word soundtrack by Australian artist Sarah Jones. English artist Charlie Dance and Dutch artist Yoeri Guepin will exhibit new work, and former ArtHouse resident Cathy Carmen will exhibit a figurative sculpture. Irish artists Breda Lynch, Ciaran Walsh and Not Abel, will also be exhibiting. So it will be vibrant and experimental event worth visiting.

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All who come are more than welcome to bring food, which we will cook on the BBQ in the beautiful garden of the MaltHouse.

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Further details from Muireann Ní Chonaill, Arts Officer at mnichona@laoiscoco.ie or telephone:  057-8664109.

NATIONAL DRAWING DAY 2014

National Drawing Day took place in The Laois Arthouse, Stradbally on May 17th from 11am –l 1pm.

Children and Adults came along and joined in the fun.

There were four workshops co-ordinated by artists Cathy Carman, Maria O’ Brien, Caroline Keane and Gareth Jenkins. Everyone got to experience all that was on offer.

+ Cathy Carman set up a large scale drawing workshop in the Gallery Space and showed the participants how to draw using all of their senses.

+ Maria O’ Brien had set up a still life workshop and demonstrated how different mediums could be used to create exciting works of art.

+ Caroline Keane demonstrated paper-making using combined materials with fantastic results.

+ Gareth Jenkins completed a creative art event which showed participants the many ways in which they can experiment using paint brushes and pastels taped to bamboo shoots.

An extensive amount of fantastic artwork was created and we thank everyone who came along and joined in with the activities.

For further information contact Muireann Ní Chonaill, Arts Officer.
E: mnichona@laoiscoco.ie or T: 057-8641710

You can now download the new Laois Arts Plan 2014–2017 here:

Click here: LaoisArtsPLan 2014–2017

Screening of Films By Lisa Fingleton and Jiří Žák at The Laois Arthouse, Stradbally on May 9^th 2014.

The Laois Art House is pleased to present Lisa Fingleton’s film ‘Waiting for you’ on the 9^th May 2014. Lisa Fingleton is an award winning artist and filmmaker, originally from Stradbally, Co. Laois. Artist-in-Residence Padraig Robinson will also screen a short film by Czech artist Jiří Žák called ‘I have it all here’.

Screening begins at 7:30pm sharp on May 9^th. Everyone who attends is encouraged to bring a dish, so after the screening of the films we can eat and have an informal discussion. 

‘Waiting for you’ documents two women, living on a small farm in rural Ireland, and the highs and lows of the trying to have a baby. The video diary is addressed to the much longed for baby.’ Žák’s ongoing video project ‘I have it all here’ explores his grandfathers obsessive relationship to photographic technology, as a means of documenting his and his families life. The man must now learn to digitalize all of his analogue photographs, lest he have no “space” left in which to live in.

Both films screened in this event represent longing and preservation in the most private of spheres — the desire for, or the continuation of, family history. The reproductive function of the camera itself becomes the means of presenting intimate relationships to technology as a form of diary and remembering. But these films are more than documents of accumulating life; the films also present the effect that photographic and film technology have had on how we perceive and deal with the ‘private’. Unlike the handwritten diary, the video camera and the photographic image have a built in purpose to make something available to be seen by an absent or future onlooker. The written diary is usually always directed inward toward the private self, while the photograph is by its nature public. Even the titles of the two films “Waiting for you” and “I have it all here”, have a directness in relation to their respective contents. Although both films present similar technologies of diary or biography, they deal with two distinct uses of the image in relation to absent or future family. “Waiting for you” is a longing to create life, with the film being addressed to a future family member; while “I have it all here” is a document of the artist’s grandfather, and his relationship to technology as a means of preservation and celebration. Rather than ending in a reductive comparison of life and death, both films present a certain use of technology in genuine acts of memory and remembering. But what does it mean for the artists to make these ‘private’ technologies public?