MOSSY NOLAN

Thursday 26th April

Doors Open at 7.30pm

Admission E8

Mossy Nolan is a singer & musician from Galway who plays a mix of original folk influenced string music &
songs as well as very unique arrangements of traditional material. His debut album features heartfelt well crafted
songs along with some rip-roaring odd shaped tunes. Mossy has been compared musically to Planxty, Andy Irvine
& Sean Tyrrell, and pocesses spectacular vocal ability. Having launched his self-titled debut album last month Mossy
is now gigging around Ireland as well as plans for a tour of Ireland and the UK this Summer. 

"I was at the album launch and the album made so much sense as I can visually link it to the live performance
of the songs. I highly recommend you going to see Mossy and his guitar accompanist Colm McGowan live as
well as to get this album"

***Peter Nagle_2UIBESTOW***

"The first lure that entices you when you listen to the album from Singer & Songwriter Mossy Nolan is the soft intensity
of his vocals. This man pours so much of himself into these songs it’s as if he were there in the room with you, no doubt
about it, Mossy can deliver a song"

***Tim Carroll_FolkWords***

Read a preview on the Nialler9 music blog: http://www.nialler9.com/13432-introducing-mossy-nolan-a-fresh-take-on-irish-trad/

Listen to tracks from Mossy Nolan's album here: http://mossynolanmusic.bandcamp.com/

PILGRIM ART TRAIL

Opening reception  Wednesday the 18th of April, 6-8pm.

Daily viewing - April 19th-22nd, 12-5pm. 

Pilgrim Art trail is a collective exhibition featuring a collection of prints which firstly document a climb of Croagh Patrick and later were taken for a walk and stamped along the Camino de Santiago. 

The Back Loft is close to St James’s Gate where pilgrims can still to this day get their first pilgrim stamp (the stamp is issued in the Guinness building) and also St James Church offer their own pilgrim stamp). Pilgrim stamps along the Camino can be collected in churches, cathedrals, hostels, bars, restaurants and anywhere else someone decides to set up a stamping point. 

The exhibited prints align the two pilgrim walks allegedly made by St Patrick and St James and distort space, time and duration as the two and a half hour climb of Croagh Patrick is placed equally beside a journey which spanned 32 days (as represented by the 32 pages of prints). The images of Croagh Patrick are on the left of each page and were made using a transfer printing technique from photographic images the artists took on our mountain climb. The prints on the right of the page are the pilgrim stamps from the Camino, each designed and distributed by the various establishments.

Pham Van Duc 'First Impression'

Pham Van Duc

‘First Impressions’

Exhibition

The Back Loft

27^th April 2012

Opening 6:30pm

Exhibition runs until Sunday 29^th April

Vietnamese painter and Lacquer ware artist Pham Van Duc has been studying and working in the field of fine art for over a decade. He holds a BA in Fine Art from the Fine Art University of Ho Chi Minh city. Pham Van Duc has exhibited extensively in Ho Chi Minh City; his last solo exhibition was held in the Fine Art Museum of Ho Chi Minh City in 2010 and he has sold works internationally. Duc worked as a full time lecturer of Fine Art at the Architectural University of Ho Chi Minh and as an Art teacher in The Christina Noble Children’s foundation, teaching art to street children of all ages, for over ten years.  He moved to Ireland in 2010 where he is currently a full time painter. This exhibition in The Back Loft is a launch of Duc’s art works in Ireland before his first solo exhibition in London in June 2012.

This exhibition, entitled ‘First Impressions’, is a reflection of Duc’s first time living in Ireland - an impression of his journey from East to West and how the stimulation of a new environment allowed for an exploration of new shapes, colour, light and texture. The artist’s visual consideration of his new home and the people he has met here are all explored on canvas. Duc captures completely alternate snapshots of his surroundings to a stunning effect.

For More Information on Pham Van Duc please see his website:

www.phamvanduc.com

You cancontactDuc through his representative Ciarna Hackett:

ciarnahackett@gmail.com

0852193778

The Back Loft 7-11 St. Augustine Street, Dublin 8

lacatedralstudios@yahoo.com

 

Artist’s statement:

‘’Since coming to Ireland I have found myself constantly stimulated by my new environment. I found myself overwhelmed by the beauty of Ireland, the landscape, the people and the culture. Ireland is full of visual triggers and I can’t help but be moved to express these on canvas. I did the same back in Vietnam – exploring the beauty of everyday life, but this time the whole visual concept has changed to adapt new colours, new lines and, especially, new feelings. I’ve spent almost two years here, feeling, observing and being inspired.

I find my mood affected by the seasons, something which is new to me, as Ho Chi Minh City experiences very few changes in weather and the light seldom changes throughout the year. Despite wanting to paint all of this, I lost my mother soon after I moved here and this stunted my ability to express myself as I was in mourning for a long time but one year on the spring has brought new life and new vision.

The vast and expressive landscape of Ireland, the old structures of the buildings and the winding alleys of Dublin has also altered my perceptions, and therefore my painting.

I’ve had the chance to live with an Irish family, as my wife is Irish, and I found it fascinating that the relationship I have with this family is similar to the relationship I have with my own family. I find people in Ireland very friendly and I have met some great characters who have inspired my work. This has allowed me a further insight into people and has also allowed me to explore my relationships with people through portraiture.

Although I have encountered many differences, ultimately I have discovered that human vulnerability and the beauty of nature is the same the world over and I hope that this is reflected in my paintings.’’

Pham Van Duc

April 2012

Mamuska Dublin: Call for Work

MAMUSKA DUBLIN returns Friday 18th May 2012 @ THE BACK LOFT, 8pmLa Catedral Studios calls local, national and international artists to participate in the upcoming Mamuska Dublin! This is a unique occasion to present and view evolving works, raw ideas, unrehearsed visions, trials and errors, short masterpieces, playful nonsense, first steps... all in the context of an informal environment where like-minded artists meet, mingle, discuss and receive feedback from the audience. Be a part of it! To celebrate the Dublin Dance Festival going on at that time and a weekend of La Cat Explore dance themed experimentation on 19th and 20th May (stay tuned), we particularly welcome works in all media related to the exploration of movement, dance and physical theatre.


A maximum of ten artists will present their work, with lively musical breaks for discussion.

Submission criteria:

* open to works in the fields of dance, live performance, live installation, sound and video art
* all works must be under 10 minutes long
* all works must have very simple technical set up and requirements
* email title, duration and brief description of work submitted
* send short CV of people involved
* inclusion of supporting material is recommended (in the case of video material a link to the online clip preferred)

Closing Date For Submissions: Monday 30th April 2012

Email all submissions to La Cat Salons curator Brigit McCone at lacatsalons@gmail.com. Mamuska Dublin is supported by the Arts Council.

CALL FOR WORK: Dance Weekend

La Cat Explore Dance Weekend: 19th & 20^th May 2012 @ THE BACK LOFT

La Cat Salons calls local, national and international artists to participate in a weekend of dance and exploration at the Back Loft! This is an occasion to present original and exploratory dance and movement performances and workshops. We particularly welcome artists who are seeking to showcase works that do not have a place in the main Dublin Dance Festival.

Submission criteria:

* open to works in the fields of dance and multimedia movement-based performance

* slots available for afternoon (3pm) and evening (6pm) shows on both Saturday 19^th and Sunday 20^th

* open to proposals for workshops on Saturday and Sunday (between 12 and 2pm)

* original work and first-time stagings preferred (otherwise please indicate on your application when and where the piece has been staged before)

Application procedure:

* Email lacatsalons@gmail.com with the title, duration and description of the proposed work, and its technical specifications

* include a short bio of performers and crew

* the inclusion of supporting material (e.g. attached photographs, links to video clips) is recommended

THE SPACE: The Back Loft has a seating capacity of 70 and offers basic lighting equipment (5 theatrical spots with dimmers and a rig of gallery lights for general wash), sound system (mixing desk, two amps and 1 microphone), a projector and an old upright piano. Additional props or equipment required must be sourced by applicants. Volunteers will be available to assist with general operating, but successful applicants are advised to source their own technical staff.

The organisers (La Cat Salons) will provide support and assistance in the promotion of events, though artists are recommended to organise their own independent publicity. Proceeds of the box office go directly to artists with a 25% deduction towards administration costs.

Closing Date For Submissions: Sunday 25th March 2012

FURTHER INFO: the Back Loft’s technical specifications email lacatedralstudios@yahoo.com For all other queries contact Tara McGuinness on 0833285766 or email lacatsalons@gmail.com

La Cat Explore is part of the inhouse-curated programme of La Catedral Studios, and is supported by the Arts Council Small Festivals Scheme.

FOODFIGHT Exhibition

What do six Belfast artists have in common? How about a strangely obsessive draw towards food! Or fighting with it…FOOD FIGHT! is a show that will take the artist out of Belfast and root himself and herself firmly in the realm of foodie heaven, each exploring their sugar-encrusted, fuel vs. taste tendencies.
While other (more conservative one might say) exhibitions deal with worldy issues like love, death, beauty…and dare I say it, politics….this will be an unabashed foray into the one thing we are supposed to do every day of our lives! EAT! What else can you say you do three times a day without your friends staging interventions? Each artist has been thrown in the custardy deep end to sink or swim, providing you with their idea of culinary bliss, exploring their artistic character's relationship with grub, and delving into to pithy depths of their psychological relationship with nom-noms.
Anarkitty
Chris Cunningham
Matthew Knight
DMC
Dean McDowell
MyTarpit
Look out for the balloons we'll have hanging from the ceiling with secret food inside for you to burst!
We're also dead chuffed to be accepted into the warm and cuddly arms of OFFSET this year, who will be letting everyone know about this exhibition on their site as Stuff To Do the week before the big weekend festival kicks off in March.
To see a taster of the work that will be on show, check out the online catalogue!
If that's not enough for you greedy-guts', come along and watch the artists battle for the Killer Cupcake prize in a live painting session, you can win your own arty prize on the night with our old school "guess the weight of the Killer Cupcake" competition, break out some of those moves you learned on New Year's with some banging tunes, and make a jolly old mess bursting our balloon installation that will be filled with mystery food! Tickets will come with a free drawing pin, or you can bring your own.
It's BYOB but there will be some free beers for early birds. You snooze you loose!
Where: the Back Loft gallery, La Catedral Studios, 7-11 Saint Augustine Street, Dublin 8
When: Wednesday March 7th - Sunday March 11th
Opening night: Wednesday March 7th 6pm - 9pm
Tickets: €7 or €5 conc.
After-party: Generator Hostel, Smithfield Square
Official Website
Facebook event page
Online Catalogue












Not all the cuddly characters that you see every morning at the breakfast table play nice...welcome to the world of the CEREAL KILLERS! - Mytarpit

W. S. Gilbert remarked, "Deer-stalking would be a very fine sport if only the deer had guns." I wanted to expand and play with this idea to see if and how my femme fatales would make their hunter become the hunted. - Anarkitty

‘Prophets not Profits’. A tribute to initially misunderstood and inspiring individuals, who at some point in their lives have starved, lived rough or went without in order to share their gifts with others and become the contemporary icons of our time. - Chris Cunningham

I interpreted 'Food Fight' to be a fight FOR food rather than one WITH food. The innocent girls I normally paint have gone very dark for this exhibition. Its all about survival. - DMC

Don't expect my part of the show to make any sense! Food fights generally don't and I wanted to try capture the absurdity and down right fun that comes out of it. I've gone off and created some madness involving giant killer potatoes, banana wielding cowboys, communist toy tanks firing gunk out their cannons,killer cups and Sherbert Dip loving hearts.! - Matt Knight

"Question Everything". e·mo·tion/iˈmōSHən/ Noun: A natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationships with others. Any of the particular feelings that characterize such a state of mind, such as joy, anger, love, hate, horror, etc.  - Dean McDowell


"A food fight is a form of chaotic collective behavior, in which food is thrown at others in the manner of projectiles. These projectiles are not made to harm or damage others, but to simply ignite a fight filled with spontaneous food throwing." - thank you Wikipedia! At least it wasn't the dictionary…

ZOMBIES- are we dead yet?

Attention zombie genre fans. On Friday 2nd March at 7:00pm Dublintellectual is hosting "Zombies: Are We Dead Yet?" a night of talks, clips and discussion on all this is great (and really, really terrible) about the zombie phenomenon. We're delighted to announce that Conor Mahon, director of Dead Meat and the RTE series Zombie Bashers will be taking part.

Admission is €5, free if you're dressed as a zombie and is BYOB.

Programme:

Sarah Cleary, "Sex Lives of the Ravenous & Festering".

Sorcha Ni Fhlainn, "The Absent Z Word: Zombies, Identity & the Military in Recent War Cinema".

Emma Radley, "Céad Míle Zombies: The Undead in Irish Cinema“.

Conor McMahon, Director: Dead Meat, Zombie Bashers