Paris Exhibition of Irish Craft
Seomra is an exhibition of contemporary Irish furniture and decorative objects for the interior that has recently returned from a Paris salon – the gallery at SEMA (The French society for the encouragement of craft) – and will run at the National Craft Gallery, Castle Yard, Kilkenny, from 16 June to 29 July. The exhibition features once-off contemporary furniture and decorative objects created by some of Ireland's top craftspeople. The selection illustrates just how wide-ranging and reputable Ireland's contribution in this field can be, with furniture by Gordon Byrne, Kate Fine, Annabel & Neil McCarthy of Nest Furniture Design, Caroline O'Connor, Tom O'Rahilly, Sasha Sykes and Joseph Walsh; textiles by Helen McAllister and Anita Elliot; glass by Alva Gallagher, Karl Harron, Michael Ray, and Patricia Murphy; and baskets by Joe Hogan.
 
Student Design Awards
The Habitat/ House and Home Student Designer of the Year award aims to promote excellence and best practice in design for industry among young Irish designers. Now in its third year, the competition this year requested students to look beyond the initial product design phase and focus on the technicalities of producing, packaging, and marketing their designs. The overall winner for 2007, David McGrath, who attends Col‡iste Dhœlaigh, Raheny, was chosen from nearly 140 entries for his contemporary lampshade made from shuttlecocks. McGrath received €1,000 and will take part in a customised year of support, specific to the development of his innovative pendant light. The support year will include marketing, merchandising, and commercial advice and a trip to an international design fair to assist McGrath in developing his commercial skills as a designer. The five highly commended runners-up were David Beirne, who studies at GMIT, Letterfrack; George Mahon, who is currently at the Bray Institute of Further Design; and Renata Pekowska, Joanna Karbowiak, and Therese Doran, all studying at NCAD. Each runner-up received an award created by Irish glass designer Michelle O'Donnell.
 
Cross-Cultural Ceramics
Celebrating the talent of ceramicists from both sides of the Irish Sea, 17 Prime Makers, a major exhibition of contemporary Irish and Welsh Ceramics, presented by Féile Clai, will run at Farmleigh Gallery until 10 June before travelling to the International Ceramics Festival, Wales (29 June – 1 July). Since it began in 1987 the biennial International Ceramics Festival in Aberystwyth has grown to become the UK's leading ceramics event, attracting thousands of visitors from around the globe. It offers teachers, students, ceramic artists, collectors, working potters and amateurs alike the chance to meet and study the work of distinguished, internationally known practitioners, and will be used as a model to create a parallel event in Ireland which will take place in alternate years. The work featured in 17 Prime Makers illustrates how the artists pursue their individuality, while expressing their ideas in a contemporary manner. For Gr‡inne Watts, simple vessel forms act as a canvas for layering slips of varying thicknesses, gradually building texture and pattern with additional washes of stains and oxides creating luminosity and depth. Other Irish artists in the exhibition include Brigitta Seck, Alison Kay and Marcus O'Mahony.
 
Hotel Ballymun
This spring the top floor of the Clarke Tower, one of the last remaining tower blocks in Ballymun, opened its doors to the public as a unique short stay hotel – Hotel Ballymun. Artist Seamus Nolan was commissioned by Breaking Ground, the Ballymun Regeneration per cent for art scheme, to undertake the project, which he described as a large-scale sculptural performance that re-considered the utopian architecture of 1960s Ballymun and encouraged the practice of salvaging and re-imagining objects, spaces, and resources from the past, which can be re-used inventively to meet contemporary needs. 'The work ... invites both a national and international audience to interact on a very personal level with this local activity, with the piece and most importantly, with the context of its presentation, Ballymun,' said Nolan. The rooms were furnished with one-off pieces, customised and remodelled from existing furniture, which were designed and made by people from the Ballymun area during a two-month series of workshops with Irish design duo Sticks and recent RCA graduate Jonathan Legge. 'All the materials for the furniture came from what was left in the tower when the residents moved on to new homes as part of the regeneration of the area,' said Legge. The result, minimalist and economic in its aesthetic, resonated with character – in contrast to many of today's new apartment blocks and hotels.
 
Kevin Kieran Award
The Arts Council has recently announced that Stephen Roe of ROEWU architecture has been awarded the Kevin Kieran Award for 2007–2009. This award, established in partnership with the Office of Public Works (OPW), offers an emerging and gifted architect the opportunity to develop a research project over two years. On completion of this project, the architect will be engaged to design a building for the OPW. The research component of the award is valued at €50,000. The award, named after the late Kevin Kieran, architect, tutor, and former consultant to the Arts Council, aims to support the artistic formation and career development of the winning architect. Stephen Roe's research project, entitled Ailtreacht, I gceann na haimsire (Architecture, immersed in the weather), will investigate design strategies that successfully embody different material responses to the Irish weather: from the vernacular tectonics of the Irish dry-stone wall in the wind, to volumes of light in the modernist churches of Liam McCormick. The result will be a publication with the potential to act as a strategic framework for building in and with the unique Irish climate.
 
Watchtower for Dublin Docklands
Work has commenced on The Point Village, a building project designed by Scott Tallon Walker, which is intended for the Dockland site opposite Dublin Port and adjacent to the East Link Toll Bridge. The project will include the Watchtower, a 120-metre residential skyscraper which will be the tallest building in Dublin. The plans include the re-development of the Point Depot, increasing the seating capacity, but the occupants of the 150 high-end apartments within the Watchtower will be protected from sound effects by state of the art acoustic dampening technology that claims to render any audible external noise mute, thus falling well within the acceptable background noise levels.
 
Deirdre McLoughlin at Korean Biennale
A sculpture by Deirdre McLoughlin, Empty Form I, has been selected for the 4th World Ceramic Biennale, Korea. Following the theme of Reshaping Asia, the Biennale aims to challenge the perception of Asia as a passive receiver of Western culture, and to focus on the potency of Asian ceramic art. Its goals are to demonstrate the origins, history, and traditions of Asian ceramic culture, while also examining the medium as it is developing in the 21st century. The works will be on show at the Icheon World Ceramic Centre until 24 June. McLoughlin is the only Irish representative in the Biennale, which expects 4 million visitors, and her piece is one of 188 selected by an international jury from a submission of 2,444 ceramic works made by artists worldwide. McLoughlin, originally from Dublin, now lives and works in Amsterdam. Her understated sculptural vessels carry a sense of power and dynamism that belie the simplicity of their forms. Physically beautiful and emotionally moving, the pieces are also the representatives of unadorned, unglazed, undecorated clay. Doubtless McLoughlin's piece will hold its own amid good company at the Biennale.
 
Edwin Feeney's Stonework
Having worked with the OPW for fourteen years, Edwin Feeney, stonecarver and stonecutter, understands the importance of traditional skills. 'I appreciate the training with the old master masons and stonecutters, sometimes taught without a word spoken, just watching the fluidity of the precise movement of the hands and tools conversing with the stone like an old friend, coaxing out the shape required. It prepared me for the work I do today.' From his workshop in Athenry, County Galway, Feeney works on various types of stonework from the restoration and conservation of traditional carving and sculpture to custom stone work for new projects, and feels that 'it is also quite possible to create original work in a modern vein and employ these age-old skills'.
 
Design Newcomers at the RDS
Now in its third year, Interior Design 2007 returned to the RDS from 17 to 20 May. The show continues to excel as Ireland's most discerning interior design event, with over eighty exhibitors. This year the show had a new element – Art 2007 – with a selection of contemporary art from some leading Irish galleries. According to Helen Mason, design consultant to Interior Design 2007 and Art 2007: 'The realm of interior design has come to project lifestyle trends reflecting how we are becoming increasingly design conscious. No longer about function solely, we are recognising great pleasure can be taken from good design where aesthetic ideals define the environment.' The list of exhibitors included many of the best design retailers and practitioners in the country, with a few interesting newcomers. These included Emily Maher who has recently opened Lost Weekend, Wexford, a shop and interior design practice which combines cutting edge contemporary design with vintage pieces. A plain little lamp from Bestlite poses against a backdrop of 1930s wallpaper by the glamorous Florence Broadhurst; a pair of first edition Eames chairs combine with a Pinch stool in green tweed from Naught One; and a strictly geometric wallpaper by the new London designer, Erica Wakerly also features.
 
RIAI TRIENNIAL Awards
The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, founded in 1839, is the representative body for professionally qualified architects in Ireland. The RIAI recently announced the winners of the triennial Silver Medals for Conservation and Restoration. The winners of the Silver Medal for Conservation 1999/ 2000/2001 were Paul Arnold Architects in joint venture with Dublin City Council Architects for the conservation of Dublin City Hall. As part of this project, heating and electrical services were installed in a discrete way to ensure the highest possible degree of legibility of the original space and form, and extensive structural repairs were carried out internally and externally. Winners of the Silver Medal for Restoration 1999/2000/2001 were The Heritage Services, OPW and Shaffrey Associates Architects for their restoration of Ardfert Cathedral, County Kerry. The restoration of Ardfert Cathederal saw the first instance of works of this nature to a National Monument being carried out using private consultants, and general and specialist contracting firms. The following projects were also Commended for Conservation: Maynooth Castle by de Blacam & Meagher Architects and Farmleigh House by the Office of Public Works Architectural Services.
 
Quilt Art at the National Craft Gallery
Quilt Art, an exhibition of contemporary artwork combining colour, texture, and stitch runs at the National Craft Gallery, Castle Yard, Kilkenny from 9 June to 15 July. The exhibition celebrates the 20th anniversary of Quilt Art, an artistic collective of over twenty artists from nine countries. The group was founded in Britain in 1985 with the aim of extending the boundaries of the medium and achieving wider recognition of the quilt as an art form. The final pieces range widely – some evolve from observation of nature and others expressing personal or social issues. Works by the leading Irish quilters Ann Fahy, Sara Impey, Evelyn Montague, and Jane Lloyd are included in the exhibition which, following its Kilkenny showing, will travel France, Japan, Canada and Germany.
 
Ceramic Artistry in East Cork
Ceramic artist Sara Roberts has just had her first major exhibition 'Making Waves' at The Stephen Pearce Gallery, Shanagarry, East Cork. The wallpieces, handmade in porcelain or red earthenware clay, depicted dramatic cross-sections of land and seascapes in delicate detail, inspired by the ever-changing patterns, colours, and textures along the coastlines of Cork. Roberts graduated from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin in the mid-1980s and worked abroad as a designer until returning home fifteen years later. It was then her relationship with clay began and her passion for the medium evolved. She undertook two years' study in Col‡iste Stiof‡in Naofa in Cork and then opened her own studio near Kinsale. Another ceramic artist, Charlie Mahon, has recently launched a new range of lampshades, lamps, vases, and centrepieces inspired by Botticelli's 15th-century masterpiece, The Birth of Venus. According to Mahon: 'Porcelain has just the right properties to transform the images in my head into real pieces of sculptural art ' each piece is adorned with a graceful, flowing female form – much like Venus herself. Here, as with all my work, form is all important but, these objects are as utilitarian as they are aesthetically pleasing.'
 
Graduate Jewellery at the Crafts Council
The Crafts Council of Ireland's Goldsmithing & Jewellery Design & Skills Course showcases the work of this year's graduates in an exhibition at The National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, from 19 July to 6 August. The show usually introduces some interesting new artists with fresh and experimental designs in a time-honoured medium as they graduate from the intensive two-year course, the only goldsmithing training available in the country. The course aims to develop a range of skills and provides a link between the aesthetic training that is available from the colleges of art and design, and the requirements of the workshop and the industry at large.