The Lab is a purpose built arts facility in Dublin City which includes Gallery, Rehearsal studios and the City’s Arts Offices.

We we’re invited by Orla Whelan Artist and Sheena Barret Curator to make a structural intervention for a show by Orla; “In Paint; In Teeth; In Mountains; In Stars”.

As part of the exhibition program we were then invited to present our recent collaborative work in the context of our studio practise.

Ten years ago we completed our first project together and in 2007 we established a partnership in the creative hub of South Studios [Dublin 8] with the tenet of devoting 1 day a week to those self-directed, multidisciplinary projects that had origianally inspired us to work together.

Now are practise has become defined by collabirative processes and the varierty of our work. In addition to various residential and commercial architecture projects we have prodeuced furniture, designed and built exhibition designs, video, photography and garden installations.

In this talk we preented projects with and for artists, photographers, film makers, fashion designers and craftsmen and the work processes engaged with.

The Video of the Talk is 44 minutes long and was shot and edited by Jenny Brady.

We’ve been based in a collaborative studio since 2007, and since then there’s been a few interesting developments in this area with the likes of Block T opening in Smithfield and the Fumbally Exchange in the Blackpitts. Farther afield we’ve seen the likes of the Hub (Vienna & elsewhere) and this place; Studio Banana.

If south studios had a Spanish cousin this place would be it.

Originally set up 4 years ago (within a month of south studios opening), Studio Banana is large subterranean studio comprising of over a dozen freelance creatives and startups.

The basement studio was founded by Spanish starchitects Studio KG, who also designed the smart fitout. They’re joined by a medley of creatives from the fields of photography, audiovisuals, architecture, graphic design, product design, animation, fashion & advertising. Spaces rented by the desk create an environment where a variety of independent creatives can share facilities and develop their practice both autonomously and through collaborative process.

What’s the set up like?

The set up is simple; a long banquet style table is the centerpiece of the office space, wrapped with 5 shared office spaces each of which can open up to become part of the central space. The entrance area doubles as the meeting space with the wide steps down from the street becoming, with the aid of a few cushions, a raked auditorium for monthly movie/presentation evenings where the studio is open to the public.

Getting light into the basement is dealt with fantastically in what could have been a tungsten dungeon – clerestory glazing filters sunlight into the meeting areas, the front door illuminates the entrance hall and roof lighting from the rear of the plan filters down through heavy louvres and polycarbonate screens. Everything is painted brilliant white – sometimes too austere, but it works fine here of the soft quality of the light entering the building.

What they do that others don’t?

These guys are not hiding their lights under a bushel! In addition to the open nights, Banana pimps out the talent for Cursos Banana (classes), and runs Banana TV, a mixture of in-house production and video selections curated by the various creatives.

They are also developing the Studio as a brand in it’s own right, hiring out its constituent elements under the umbrella company as a combined service; a real media agency across all mediums. I had the pleasure of meeting Key Portilla-Kawamura who explained their global vision (Yep, they’ve a global vision too!) of establishing connections with studios world-wide in places as far afield as Auckland and the Americas.

Special thanks to the most gracious host Victoria Ovin, product & packaging designer, multi handed collaborator and studio manager who gave over some of her morning to guide me around and make introductions.

!Hasta luego!

www.studiobanana.org
www.studiobanana.tv
www.studiobananacursos.com

There’s much discussion these days about disused commercial/industrial space and the onus on civic authority and property owners to allow encourage creative use of space, reduce eliminate start up costs to incentivise action and to stimulate recovery.

The Tabacalera Is an exciting reuse of an old Madrid factory, originally earmarked for local government, funding shortfalls inspired the local authority to loan out a derelict building as a self managed community arts space.

The block consists of a scores of artists studios, meeting rooms, classrooms, random halls, a large fabrication workshop, yards with a variety of potaging, a library, theatre, separate concert venue, restaurant and bar.

One of the stumbling blocks emerging artists is the catch 22 of not having space to produce work and thus not being able to afford the space to work from. The solution here is to make the space available as artist’s studios. In return the artists teach one day a week. These rules apply for any club or group and one can have access to the space so long as you provide a benefit in kind to the community. Both Artists and Community are winners.

An extraordinary amount of classes take place, from discussions on modern cinema to Tango classes to hands-on workshops from the resident artists in painting and sculptural processes. There are night-time concerts allowing young bands and DJs to strut their stuff, along with frequent exhibitions, installations and showcases

Everything within the centre apart from the contents of the bar is free.

Copyleft — all rights reversed

There is a strong left leaning ideology spearheading the venture in an attempt to achieve a free and open exchange of ideas similar to ‘open source’. Here they use the term ‘copyleft’: an artist retains the right to be identified as the author of a work (whatever medium) but that any work produced in the Tabac can be used, studied, copied, shared, or modified, and within that freedom there is a freedom to distribute modified (and therefore derivative) works.

The sole income from for running the centre comes from the bar and restaurant. This pays for utilities and maintenance and everything else is barter. Dublin artist Kenneth Lambert (who has since taken up a Tabac studio space) and I each enjoyed a stew and a beer for lunch for €5 each. While we were hanging out in the bar our Nigerian host kindly told us that we (the Irish) were the blacks of Europe and described his research project into writing the history of Euro Africans who predate the African Americans and who’s history remains largely untold. Indeed he related the history of Veslaquez’s African assistant, a worthy painter in his own right, whose pictures are buried in the Prado for fear their exposition would devalue the masters work, or so it was explained to us.

Its not without it’s problems – open doors can attract an anti social element, and the bars lose out to beer-sellers on the street that undercut their prices. It’s a worthy study both for it’s success and failures.

The Tabacalera is fascinating initiative, pushing the limits of community, barter, artistic collaboration and intellectual copyrights. The idea that artists who benefit from public funding should also be educators for the community pro bono is something we could definitely learn from.

We sliced and diced the painted mdf panels of Nathair Nimhe to make these new shelves for our office.

We added the mojo by utilising further offcuts – 9mm MDF sheets gave us a tidy uniform shadow gap between the members, while the inner shelves are 18mm furniture grade plywood to counterpoint the baby blue.

Unfortunately the only prior knowledge of Venice I had was through Nicholas Roeg’s film “Don’t Look Now” and as a result, although any turn into a random square could lead to community tango lessons or scores of kids chasing a football, sometimes I found even the faintest shadow of the brightest square terrifying.

The great thing about the density of the city is that even the shortest journey cannot be completed without traversing 8 channels of water, being accosted by a north African selling imitation handbags, stumbling upon the scenes from James Bond movies, or (and most significantly for me) – some element of the Architectural Biennale. So you could say that there’s something for everyone. We discovered a Piranesi show as we were trying to catch a ferry and in searching for the Piazza San Marco we found the Irish Pavilion . We later happened upon a designer boutique with a mound of earth pushed up against the shopfront glass. This turned out to be Romania’s 2nd entry into this Biennale. Entitled Superbia, in consisted of artistic interpretations of an architectural thesis relating to the positive impacts of suburban sprawl. One of the architects, Tomas, was there to hold our hands through it’s interpretation.

Most of the main exhibition is contained within the Giardini which houses 30 national pavilions and the nearby Arsenale, an old Shipping and munitions complex, at the east end of the city. Many countries however, like Ireland, do not have permanent pavilions and they use other locations around the city for their representation. This and the fact that exhibition catalogues and maps quite cleverly integrate concurrent events and festivals of art, music and film with integrated ticketing, give the feeling that the whole city is in festival mode and you could be part of it. It’s probably something we could learn from.

The type of content shown can be simply divided; some exhibits attempted thorough the medium of architecture to illustrate an idea and the rest consisted of showcases of built or unbuilt work.

The content of the main exhibition ‘People Meet In Architecture’ tended towards the former, consisting of a series of 47 submissions from a variety of disciplines selected by the festival Director Kazuo Sejima.

I started off in the Arsenale, a series of rooms in linear formation which wrap 2 sides of the former boat yard. It’s a bit like IMMA except the rooms are 8 times as big. One of the first pieces is Wim Wender’s 3D movie of SANAA’s Rolex learning centre where he gives the building a voice as part of an attempt to communicate the architectural intent of a building. Studio Mumbai’s installation consisted of 100’s of full scale samples of their details, parts of doors, walls, floors and windows, full scale mock-ups of roofs and all in gorgeous materials. Total architectural porn. The Hans Ulrich Obrist piece consisted of a room full of interviews, all displayed on individual monitors each with its own seat and headphones. Olbrich spoke to all 47 of the Main Exhibition entrants and asked them what their inspiration was, amongst other questions. It was a fascinating insight into the ‘creative’ mind and you could probably learn more here than in half a dozen years in UCD (I should know). Antón Garcia-Abril & the Ensamble Studio illustrated the industrial scale of their work with 2 huge beams set on top of each other and counterpointed this with a video of them celebrating the world cup to illustrate their emotional side, it seems nowhere is safe from cries of campiones, olé, olé. Olafur Eliasson installation consisted of a blacked out room with 3 hose pipes pumping water and whipping in the air, being lit by strobe light. What demonstrating the “gap between past and future” with hose pipe has to do with ‘people meet in architecture’, I don’t know, but it looked amazing. Indeed the variety of work was astounding and helped me through almost 6 hours of trekking through it all. Amateur Architect Studio from Bejing in China built a dome out of softwood timber studs. Having lately acquired a bit of experience erecting (much smaller mind you) timber structures I was relieved to see the video of the construction which showed the build to be just as tricky as I had imagined, having been completed without scaffold or crane. Since I came home I’ve written to Wang Shu for a copy of the DVD: if he sends it to me I’ll keep it under my pillow. Janet Cardiff’s piece consisted 40 speakers arranged in an oval playing choral music where each vocal has been recorded separately and is played back through a different speaker. As with other strategies used in the show, it has been done before but regardless it’s very engaging, and you can stand in the middle for the combined effect or wander the perimeter listening to different singers. Elsewhere entrants attempted to build clouds, construct façades out of fabric and disseminate manifestos on preservation.

In addition to the main exhibition there are 53 Individual Country submissions. These did not seem to be bound to any format or theme and thus my engagement with them varied greatly. The Australian pavilion of 3d movies in a blacked out pavilion with pink neon piping was no doubt accomplished but the overall effect – architectural quasar – left me nauseous. Canada’s ‘Hylozoic Ground’ consisting of thousands of “digitally-fabricated components fitted with meshed microprocessors and sensors” translates as a polycarbonate Day Of The Triffids also freaked me out – having been dined on by the Venetian mosquito population being randomly touched by bits of plastic was only going to lead to an accident or me pulling the place apart trying to kill an non-existent fly. On the plus side there was some beautifully crafted timber structures in the Czech & Slovak Pavillion by Martin Rajniš and an extraordinary city model of blue polystyrene suspended at first floor level, combined with a mural/spider diagram of ideas linked with pins and string in the Holland Pavillion. Maybe most subtle but most engaging of all was the Belgian exhibit which took elements and materials from existing buildings (modern architectural salvage) and placed them as art-pieces in a gallery context. We’re used to the idea of admiring the patina of age in an old floor yet we’re disgusted to find scratch marks or oil stains on our new granite counter. The elements were extremely carefully selected to add another level of meaning, the plastic seat came from an underground train while a piece of wall came from a street corner frequented by prostitutes. We learn that there are different types of wear and tear.

This the 12th Architectural Biennale was the first time an Irish Architect has been selected, Tom dePaor’s piece (in collaboration with Simon Walker and former south studios residents thirtythreetrees among others) consisted of a small set of carpeted steps in timber frame wrapped in linen. It’s a beautifully constructed piece, a folly. Underneath the stairs there’s a small dark object, a reference to a Durer print melencoliai (the monster under the staircase?). The wood is scented with lavender oil (calm, comfort, security, a sense of home), the pleated curtains are weighted down with small tear shaped brass tassels. Like other works by DePaor in a single structure or space there’s an attempt to reference a lot of things, to imbue the architecture with more meaning, which I suppose is what it’s all about. I’m just not that learned to spot all the references so get more out the work by reading about it than visiting it, which is not really the point.

Separate to this was the Irish entry submission, located in a beautiful unlit chapel, the Chiesa di S.Gallo (an Irish Monk), just off the Piazzo san Marco. It consisted of an unbound archive of the work of DeBlacam and Meaghar presented in separate volumes on elegantly constructed timber pallets. These are accompanied by copies, made in oak, of a deBlacam and Meaghar chair from the Dining Hall in TCD, which are in turn copies of a 19th C kitchen chair from the Casino in Marino. Visitors are encouraged to assemble the various chapters to form a volume completed with a card ring listing the ISBN number of the publication from the pallets and the idea is that by the end of the show the archive has been dispersed. It’s a simple installation, well executed, in a beautiful location right in the centre of Venice. The occasion of DeBlacam and Meaghar’s gift of their drawings and documentation to the Irish Architectural Archive being marked by 9,000 copies of it being gifted to the public.

The Biennale is an amazing show though documented in a very hodge podge style on the interweb (so you have to go), it’s not all Architecture with a capital A and a black poloneck with a clutch pencil up it’s posterior. It’s a cracking city, really dirty and crumbly, I loved it, can’t wait to go back.

gc

You can subscribe to Le Cool for weekly updates or if you’re interested in writing for LeCool Dublin contact ciaran or michael, and if you can’t read the ‘screen grabs’ of our articles above, we’ve them all reformated for your enjoyment below.

Cheers,

andrew & gearóid aka andróid

A Space for Learning/IAF

When they built the “new” science lab in my old secondary about 20 years ago, the one person they definitely did not consult was me, the end user, a student, in fact I’d wager they never asked any student, quite like a lot of the work that happens in the 3rd level institutions so it’s an extremely interesting proposition to see what would our secondary schools look like if the students designed them. This exhibition attempts to answer this question. Organised by the Irish Architecture Foundation, 10 Teams of transition years won (through a nationwide competition) the chance to work with professional architecture practises the chance to develop their ideas to make their learning environment a better place. Using drawing, video & model these 10 collaborative projects show how we might raise the bar. Fair play. (Thursday, November 18, 2010)

The Flow of Time/Ken Lambert

Ever stumbled upon a childhood toy, buried in a flower bed, hidden in the attic, a former prized possession but now the only person in the world it means anything in the world to is you. Kenneth Lambert in his show, takes found objects from his own past and reworks them into animations, giant sculptures of 10,000 parquet matches, flights of spitfires made of orange resin and delicate bronze pieces. The variety in range and scale of the work is astounding. There’s 100’s of pieces from 90e to 5 figure sums and he’s the artist’s artist too – based on the amount of them at Saturday’s opening queuing up to buy his work. He’s like an international airport of artistic ideas and he lands everything. ‘The Flow of Time’ at the Jamestown Studios, Jamestown Road, Inchicore until 3rd October. (Thursday, September 23, 2010)

Polar Bear/Return

Return is a work written and performed by the spoken word artist and man of Birmingham, Steve Camden aka Polarbear. The premise of the play is the return of a man after time away and how or if the intervening years have changed him, those he left behind and the place he’s from. But rather than focus on the plot development the play focuses on the minutiae of the relationships between the protagonists (mother-son-exgirlfriend-grandad), the subtle detail of their verbal interplay and concise scene descriptions with text visuals designed by Marie Gabriella Blunck. The beauty of the show is the delivery, Camden has a ‘sick flow’ the man can speak and write in meter, it’s genuinely beautiful. It must his origins, of Irish – West Indian extraction, because this guy, Polarbear, has the gift of the gab. (Thursday, September 23, 2010)

Fix A Bike/Seamus McNulty

Seamus McNulty is the Dr. Frankenstein of the cycle world (complete with Igor assisting on a Saturday). You have to hunt a bit for his lair, but once there you’ll find a museum, graveyard and shop floor all in the one corrugated shed. Move past the tangled pile of frames, duck to avoid the Russian Gas Mask hanging from a rafter, and you find an immaculate refurbished postman’s bike, just finished and ready to cycle away. It’s a swan in amongst the ugly ducklings, but not the only one, and you can cycle most of its aesthetically challenged sisters away for less than €100-200. 15 years now Seamus has been fixing up bikes, he does repairs as well – he even does a collect and return service to your door! [Truly] Hidden Dublin at it’s best! (Thursday, February 18, 2010)

Wounded Knees

A one night only gig and a one night only art installation upstairs in Whelans. The band, The Wounded Knees, is composed of 4 musicians; Jimi Shields (Rollerskate Skinny, Lotus Crown, Martina Topley-Bird), Suzanne Thorpe (Mercury Rev), Phil Williams (Hopewell) and Mickey Pinaud (Airiel). They’re on their way to the ATP festival and play a warm up gig here which is being promoted by Foggy Notions, who as we all know are good people too. Ratcheting things up a little, Jimi Shields asked the creatives at South Studios (which consists of photographers, illustrators and fashion stylists as well as designers of landscape, architecture and print) to provide a bit of visual incongruity to counterpoint the sonic activism and produce work using the medium of coloured packaging tape. Heads UP! (Thursday, November 26, 2009)

Wax Museum

We were not expecting to be impressed by the Wax Museum. To guarantee some return for our morning we brought a 7-year-old, figuring at least one of us would be amused. Well, we all had a hoot. Located in fabulous setting of Francis Johnson’s Armoury/Guard house (1808-1811), the waxes are cleverly organised with succinct commentary, and it transpires you can induce a 36-year-old man to scream louder than a 7-year-old girl. Extra fun comes from a music video green room, a full recording studio and the mini science museum is great, though several of the pieces are already broken and the museum has hardly opened its doors ! We got 1.5 hours of quality time and that included the trying to look Jack Charlton in the eye – exactly 2 seconds. Skip the ‘gift shop’ it’s bunkum. (Thursday, November 19, 2009)

Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra

Doing the splits between the two stools of classical music and surreal comedy is the quite ridiculous looking Bill Bailey. Die-hard fans and the downright curious can witness his talent for deconstructing music with his Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra featuring The RTE Concert Orchestra. It begins with some just-like-it-says-on-the-tin explanations and introductions to the instruments, occasionally dissolving into the usual musical styling’s of Bailey with a grander accompaniment. Mostly though, it takes advantage of a rare situation where the stuffed shirt of classical music meets the hairy troll, punctuated with Bill’s austere meets mad professor expressions and some healthy irreverence – like the rendition of The Swan played by four men. And fifty cow bells. (Thursday, November 19, 2009)

The 40ft.

Naturist park and last bastion of defence against Napoleon, Dublin’s 40ft has reputedly been in use as a bathing spot for some 250 years and with good reason. Carefully maintained by volunteers, the thick walls of an old gun battery are the backdrop to a longstanding social ritual. To the East, where the crowds gather on Christmas Day, a conveyor belt of board shorted dive bombers, shrieking sissies and giblet pouched heroes slap into the open sea, but follow the wall past the open air urinal and you’ll discover the more sheltered domain of the daily dippers, enjoying a chat and taking in the calmer waters that reflect the general mood. Please, have a go. Witness watching the sun set through the Poolbeg chimneys when your eyes are at water level. You can wear a wet suit if you like – beginners are more than tolerated here, but there’s no class system in speedos. Or wear nothing at all. When you think about it, it’s easier to look a man in the eye when he’s naked. Believe me, you don’t want be looking anywhere else. (Thursday, November 5, 2009)

DEAF ’09, Soap & Skin

Anja Plaschg, aka Soap&Skin, will perform a mainly acoustic set on piano, and therefore something of a coup, to open this year’s DEAF festival. Plaschg’s is that age-old story; swine herding classically trained Austrian pianist meets Berlin techo-punk DJ. One Shitkatapult release later we’re all queuing up to watch this beautiful 19-year-old sing. Her youth only belies the overall emotion she imparts. It’s less the current glut of bagel‘n’cream cheese heart-on-sleeve female singer songwriters and more like she’s been possessed by a 600 year old demon. Her voice and delivery simultaneously terrify and enchant, the stark piano and chilling lyric will either inspire or leave you standing on the ledge. Our tally of the media gravy suggest it will be the former but have the phone-a-friend handy to talk you down in case it goes the other way. (Thursday, October 22, 2009)

Moore Street Mall

If you think Parnell St is the beating heart of Ireland’s change to a multicultural society, then this place is its painted toenails; part fugee vaudeville, part UN subterranean striplit wonderland, but it’s so difficult not to love the place. Pick up a €1.50 Lavazza in Gurman’s and browse the Caribbean hair extensions on your way to the tanning salon or some oriental nail painting voyeurism. There’s gut busting culinary bargains in the food hall and just try and leave without that diamante G-Unit belt buckle. Our personal highlight was the shrine to everyone’s favourite goalkeeper Pope John Paul outside U Wejka, but there’s a moment of modern Ireland magic for everyone here. So who needs Ryanair? Go Northside for your next vacation, to the relaxed, Paddy-free haven of the Moore St Mall. (Thursday, October 15, 2009)

Hard Working Class Heroes

Feel like a philanthopist for €40 at the 7th Hard Working Class Heroes Music Festival, where Angela Dorgan and FMC serve up their annual state of the nation address. With 100 acts from 32 counties – that means 40c a band – you can enjoy a few honest ones while you amble through the 3 night schedule and with no main sponsor nobody’s telling you what to drink for a change. Extras include daytime acoustic gigs, a flash mob organised for Thursday and mentoring sessions for aspiring acts explaining the music industry’s ‘who’s riding who’. But where this festival nails it is when you get to stand in a room where some kids you’ve never heard of tear paint off the walls within about 30 seconds of their first chord. Who’s it going to be? No idea – but we’re going to be there to find out. This is going to be great. (Thursday, October 15, 2009)

Parking Day ‘09

Remember when you wished your living room was right beside the pub? PARK(ing) Day is an experiment to reclaim public space, originated by San Fran artist collective Rebar – a one-day global event during which individuals and groups transform parking spaces into places for people to congregate, socialize and play. Normally you’d need a microscope to find an artist activist in the Venn Diagram of Dublin City, but this is not just for bearded socialists, this is for anybody with an interest in public space, or questions the merit of organizing a city to facilitate the movement of cars. Previously ‘artists’ have used Sound, Light, Installation and Dance but we’re thinking potted begonias, 2 deckchairs, a packet of Hobnobs and a thermos of Lyons Gold Blend could also do it. And maybe some Dance. (Tuesday, September 15, 2009)

http://www.macathlaoich.com/

We had a student made reproduction of Rietveld’s Red Blue chair in our College Library so his was probably the first designer chair we actively engaged with (i.e. sat on). Andrew has been making miniatures of his furniture for years in addition to collecting scale models of other classic furniture designs. It was only a matter of time before we had a go ourselves. Andrew’s joinery precision led the way and I carried the tools. Our first foray is the 1919 Dining chair/ Eetkamerstoel. Part of an interior for the De Ligt family in Katwijk aan Zee for which Rietveld designed 2 dining room chairs one with and one without arm rests, the furniture was complimented by a interior colour scheme by Theo van Doesburg. Using ‘simple’ dowel connections the chair is constructed out of 25mm square sections of oak and we are going to finish the seat and back in 12mm Birch ply. The original was made in either beech or oak painted white, with darker ends in either grey or black but having experimented with oil and varnish finishes we’ve left the wood bare and are going to paint the ends yellow. Despite the lightness of the sections you’d be surprised how solid this chair is.

now what? is a series of multi-disciplinary public conversations & workshops. The entire initiative is to operate as a think-tank and run on a voluntary basis. Gearoid has been working with one of the now what? work groups called ‘From the ground up’ since July.  Lead by Architects Anne Gorman and Matt Shelton & Artist Michelle Browne, ‘from ground up’ the idea is that local community should be allowed have an input into planning & development of the areas they live in. The group a working towards developing a Planning permission or template document to allow local group0s make formal submissions to local authorities with a specific relation to public space. Taking a small underused section of park along the Slang river in Dublin’s Windy Arbour for development of the template the objectives of the group include assembling site analysis to include, social, historical and architectural data, propose architectural ideas for the site and make an installation in the space itself. ‘From the ground up’ have also used Dunlaoghaire Rathdown County Councils own research questionnaires as a tool to accumulate data & the groups work is intended on being complimentary to the Local Authorities ongoing Survey and Audit of public of all public space. ‘From the ground up’ will be making a presentation to the Windy Arbour community in September with a publication plus a public exhibition due this Autumn as part of ‘no what?’.

http://nowwhatrichview.blogspot.com/