Overcoming the slow down at home, Irish architects Heneghan Peng, Grafton Architects, O’Donnell+Tuomey amongst others have looked to international competitions, but overseas projects are not without risk, writes John McLaughlin
Irish Architects have been winning increasingly prestigious international commissions in recent years and leading Irish practices are joining an elite global group building cultural and educational institutions as far afield as Lima on Peru’s pacific coast, Cairo, Ramallah, Milan and Budapest. These opportunities have allowed them to design more significant projects than might have otherwise been possible and have nurtured their practices through a dire shortage of work at home. Nevertheless the opportunities come with risks, and these can be magnified by the distances involved. Wars, revolutions and financial crises all have potentially significant consequences and behind that there is often a gruelling schedule of air travel to maintain.
In addition to creating a likeness of her daughter, Geraldine O’Neill has in mind the age-old interrogation of representation, writes Robert Ballagh of this year’s recipient of the Ireland-U.S. Council/Irish Arts Review Portraiture Award
James Watson could trace his family’s artistic lineage to York Minster and following his move to Cork he launched a new tradition to last a hundred years, writes Vera Ryan.
Michael Nolan’s images of a present-day meitheal invoke much older notions of kinship and identity, writes Stephanie McBride of the photographer’s festival sketches.