The Model

Dispatches from Belfast

Limepie Theatre group and Touch the Sky meet again but in Belfast this time at the newly re-developed Crescent Arts Centre , University Road.

Here are some comments from participants and members of Touch the Sky Performance Group and Limepie Theatre.

Little did I know that our journey (Limepie’s) to Sligo to participate in a Collage Party with the wonderful Touch-The-Sky group would be a journey into facing underlying issues in my life and coming out the other end healed and free!

As one who lived on both sides, then Nursed people from all sides of our Political Troubles I never realised just how much helplessness, empathy and guilt I felt about the horrendous things I witnessed but could do nothing to change. As we explored devision, difference in the light of the North of Ireland’s Political Troubles inwardly my journey took me from – emotional trauma, realisation to freedom and healing. Who’d a thought eh? God really does move in mysterious ways eh?…:)”

Barbara, Limepie Theatre, Belfast

Touch the Sky’s visit to Belfast was very experiential, enhancing a previously abstract understanding of the troubles. National news became a reality as together Limepie and Touch the Sky ventured through Belfasts’ flashpoints, such as the Shankill and Falls roads. The peace wall proved thought provoking as the group read words from the walls authors, and saw pictoral representations of war and loss, scenes that Touch the Sky had addressed in their drama workshops. The two groups found common ground over the emotions and disbelief the Belfast tour brought to the surface, and these experiences helped feed and focus their participation in the drama workshop that followed. Members of Touch the Sky had the following to say:

It opened my eyes.
Very different than where we are from.
Very interesting experiencing it, normally you see it on the news. You hear about it [peace wall but you don’t see how high it is, how high the wires go. With closing the gates at night you think there is still fear of something happening.
I saw the biggest Celtic Cross on St Patricks church…We put our names on the wall [Peace wall] and I drew a Celtic Cross.
Good experience…Some of the things I touched [at the Peace wall] were very sad.

They were both shocked and intrigued by their visit and drew on what was disturbing to them and also the beauty in what they encountered. While some experienced fear at the thought of the visit, the group have said that they would like to return to Belfast in the future.

Sheena O’Neill, RehabCare

Thanks Lime Pie for a great couple of days.

Circus Aerialist Act Extraordinaire perform at The Model

The Barren Carrousels

Over 150 children turned up at The Model on Sunday to witness Ruby Two Shoes and Mizz Tulip Barren perform a comical theatrical and circus adventure in the new Model Theatre. On a wet and rainy Sunday afternoon it was certainly the place to be, as families were transported by burlesque style comedy and daring aerial trapeze acts.

The Barren Carrousels performed to a full house of children and adults and their slap-stick style of entertainment transported one and all to another era.

The Barren Carrousels are members of The Belfast Community Circus.

The Yeatsian Legacy Project is delivered by Sligo Arts Service, The Model & partners. The project is supported by the PEACE III Programme, managed for the Special EU Programmes Body by Sligo County Council on behalf of Sligo Peace & Reconciliation Partnership Committee.

Young Model's Dublin Gallery Day

Aengus woke up this morning, ate a banana and a Weetabix and packed something for his lunch. He likes bananas. Linda soon came to get him in her snazzy Smartcar, as Aengus is pathologically unable to be on time. It’s really not his fault.

Arriving at Sligo Train Station, they were soon met by Andy and Carolyn to get the 9am train to Dublin; a research trip for the Young Model Delia boarded at Boyle and Aengus proudly (but modestly) displayed his banana holster. The others were suitably impressed by his practicality and ingenuity.

In the spirit of the moment, Delia reached under the table and pulled off one of her shoes. She explained to us how she had sat up all night carefully stitching the sole back onto the shoe and in the process stabbing herself in leg. She then put her shoe back under the table and never saw it again.

As we approached Connolly Station Delia, feeling a tingle in her toes, realised much to her annoyance that her shoe was missing and quickly alerted the authorities. Although they searched high and low the shoe was nowhere to be found.Everyone was very nice about it and the man sitting opposite us even commented on how nice her shoes were and how he thought they were Gucci.

Carolyn generously lent Delia a pair of socks due to the lack of a second shoe and Linda pulled out a spare pair of shoes, which she had conveniently packed that morning.

Carolyn and the gang then stood at the Luas station while Linda and Andy bought tickets. Carolyn commented on how lovely the man on the train was. The plot requires that we hurry the story on a little so cutting forward a minute or 20…Carolyn has arrived at IMMA , The Irish Museum of Modern Art with the rest of the group in tow. Aengus requested some ‘jazzy’ exclamation marks, so here they are!!!!!! (even though Aoife will kill us for putting them in!!)

Aengus also entered the IMMA courtyard with mild fascination, as the building was a hospital in a previous life. Also he and the others were going to meet the sixth of their party, Colm who had traveled from Cork that morning to join us. Aengus discovered that Colm was from Waterford and numerous other facts concerning his life and cross-country devotion to art.

Carlos Garaicoa

They all entered the Irish Museum of Modern Art and proceeded to view the galleries. Aengus enjoyed the experience immensely taking in many exhibits, sculptures made from books by Carlos Garaicoa , Ferran Garcia Sevilla who dabbles in colourful circles, arrows, hands and feet, and some amazing drawing by Patrick Hall which were part of the Recent Acquisitions to the IMMA Collection . (YM interviewed Patrick a while ago and we’ll have his interview online soon)

Patrick Hall

Next on the agenda was a trip to The Project Arts Centre to see the KING RAT exhibition. Colm knew his way through Temple Bar like a fish in water and he and the others were soon entering the building.

The exhibit’s room was entirely covered in several layers of slippery black paper on which you would traverse to see the pieces; which included a tapestry of smoke (go figure), some strange geometrical shapes interspersed with shadowy faces, several sculptures of shiny dripping blackness – worth a look – and other tapestries and works on canvas. Colm was impressed by this exhibition, although some of the ideas were a little abstract for him to figure out. Carolyn, Delia and Aengus concurred.

After this Carolyn traipsed through the wet streets with the gang to arrive at the Exchange Dublin where we were met by Stephen, he told us about the exhibitions they’ve had, the ones they were having now, and future events. Today, Tuesday is Milk and Cookies night At 6:30 p.m. People would arrive and stories would be told. An acting troupe, who may or may not have been from Edinburgh, will be performing during the week and an exhibition from the photography festival was coming down. Carolyn saw saw many couches, a large amount of baked goods and a lot of tea. It seemed like a really great place for fun things to happen.

Exchange Dublin image from H.U.G.S.?Human Utopian Generation System

Delia was eager to get somewhere indoors after they left the Exchange. It was raining heavily and a little nippy so Linda and Andy left the kiddies to their own devices. (Delia detests being referred to in the diminutive, she’s touchy about her height).

The young of the Young Model traipsed to HMV for some relief from the rain; Colm and Aengus bought metal and jazz CDs respectively and for Delia some headphones. They then commenced the long and confusing walk back to the train station as there was not a Luas to be seen. The train back was consumed with listening to the Tommy and Hector podcast, inventing a Young Model app for iPhone, reading, bidding Delia farewell as she hobbled off shoeless into the sunset, and writing this blog.

As the train slowly whispered through the pancake flat fields of the Midlands and onwards towards Sligo, the Pirates at the other end of the coach grunted to themselves and twitched happily in their sleep. The ghost of Delia’s shoe crooned softly in the corner and the bogger announcement informed us; “beimid isteach i Muillean Cearr!”

Young Model interviews FASTWURMS and Factotum

This is our last interview in the DORM series. With DORM closing this Sunday young model would like to offer you an insight into another two collectives, FASTWÜRMS and Factotum who are two fascinating collectives with some very humorous members….

FASTWÜRMS

Factotum

Young Model would like to take this opportunity to thank all the collectives who gave very generously of their time just before Dorm opened on May 1st. Young Model had a great time meeting such a varied and knowledgeable group and I feel this opportunity has shown us all that there are no limits to what art can be, and that it doesn’t always need to be too serious.

Young Model will be interviewing artist and legend Brian O’Doherty this month. Imagine!!

Touch the Sky Sligo meet Lime Pie Belfast

Touch the Sky performance group came together four years ago when The Model and Rehabcare Sligo began working together.With a number of performances under their belt including The Cairde Festival 2009 the company members are committed to developing their skills and capabilities to the level where they can challenge public perception.

Touch the Sky invited Limepie Theater group to participate in a collage party in April. Limepie are a deaf artist initiative established in 2009.They are an independent emerging group of artists based in Belfast.Limepie were invited to participate in a series of collage parties in 2010, which will all be mediated through a BSL, British Sign Language interpreter.The process of working through sign language is a new departure for Touch The Sky.

Declan Drohan, Artistic Director TTS describes how their day unfolded.

This six minute montage captures a first encounter between Limepie Theater group and Touch the Sky Performance Group.From a facilitator’s perspective, there is a wonderful and productive tension between Limepie’s wildly expressive, emotive, physical style and Touch the Sky’s more narrative focused, ensemble approach.

Here, both collectives explore their experience and understanding of the history of the Northern Ireland conflict through the creation of a fairy tale, ‘UR’ narrative of a divided community and the monster that lurks behind the wall.

This workshop and the wider project from which it springs, seeks to explore abstract and concrete readings of the issues of division, risk taking, skill sharing, and difference.

The footage reveals a group of fearless individuals totally committed to and serving the process that we describe as… Crossing The Line.

Declan Drohan

This project is funded by EU Peace III Programme Sligo

Young Model interview BGL and Freee

We have another two great artist interviews by Young Model. Before the opening of DORM young model got a chance to interview the artist collective BGL whilst they were installing their work at the Model. Jasmin Bilodeau, Sébastien Giguère (absent from interview) and Nicolas Laverdière are based in Quebec City, Canada.

BGL

Mel from Freee was also around to give young model some of her time.

Freee

Later this week FASTWÜRMS and Factotum

Young Model interview RAQS Media Collective

We are on a roll. Below young model interview RAQS Media Collective assistant Amitabh during the installation of DORM last April. Amitabh talks about their work, inspiration, Delhi, the re-developed Model and his favorite music. Next week interviews from FREEE and FASTWÜRMS

Young Model interview RAQS Media Collective from The Model, Sligo on Vimeo.

Young Model interview Seamus Nolan

This is the second of Young Model’s artists interviews. As you may know over the last year Young Model interviewed a number of artists from the Niland Collection and from the Model’s contemporary programme. Young Model traveled around Ireland to interview the artists in their studios with some interviews talking place in their offsite studio Wolf on Arm 2009.

Interviews from artist Nick Miller and RAQS Media Collective from India who are part of the DORM exhibition will be on line later this month.

Below Séamus Nolan talks about his work on the Trades Club project here in Sligo.

Young Model devised all the questions they also filmed and edited all the interviews that will be coming your way over the next few months.

Artists they have interviewed to date are Séan McSweeney, Barrie Cooke, Patrick Hall, Nick Miller, Dorothy Cross, Ronnie Hughes, Séamus Nolan, Mark Garry, Paul Butler, Swintak, BGL, Freee, Fastwurms and more.

Young Model third vox pop from the Model re-opening night

Michella from Young Model did a great job on this vox pop from the Model re-opening night May 1st. Michella had some direct questions for the public on the new exhibition DORM and on the new Model building. She is studying very hard for her Leaving Certificate exams at the moment – so best of luck Michella and all young modelers in your exams : )

Young Model second vox pop from the Model opening night

On the opening night of the “Dorm” exhibition (1st/May/2010) I was given the task to capture the reaction of the public to the new Model.Feeling nervous I approached the 1st person.From there I got the confidence to approach total strangers and other friends such as Sophie Murray from SLAM and local film maker Anthony Cullen as well as making friends with Paul the bassist from Children under Huff .It turned out to be a great night and keeping with the happy atmosphere of Sligo.

Oisin Byrne
young model member

More TY students on work experience at The Model

I am an uber awesome student from Summerhill College. Me, myself and I known collectively as Oisin, I am here for a week of work experience at The (super cool, super awesome) Model. My first impression of The Model is how big and spacious it is and how cool it looks. Stepping out from the low ceiling in the reception area to this big open and airy space with light streaming in from the skylights was a cool experience and shows how The Model has changed,and for the better.

On the second floor you can do a full circuit of The DORM which has exhibitions from various artists collectives around the world.My personal favourite is The Last Riot by the Russian Collective AES+F it a really cool and enthralling piece of work. There’s also many more exhibitions that are interesting,stimulating and just plain cool.

One of the main features for The Model’s remodel is the Black Box/Cinema. This is a huge performance space for gigs,cinema,talks and more. The really cool thing about The Black Box is that all the seats are on platforms and the seats can be folded and the platforms pulled back into the wall by a motor and when the seats are out in can hold up to 250 people. The whole setup of The Black Box is superb as it has a really good (and confusing)sound system and great lighting as well. A lot of the wires and cables are in a storage room and there is a lot of of them (especially when you have to label them all).

There are many storage rooms in The Model and one of my jobs was moving things from one room to the next. The first storage room is the Exhibition Storage Room were all the exhibitions are meant to be kept but sadly it is full of stuff that isn’t meant to be there so it’s a bit of a mess but there’s some cool stuff in there like a 1930s movie projector which is there for some reason. In The Basement which is very very hot and sometimes very very dark there’s a lot of equipment used for unknown purposes and baffling reasons. The Education Room is full of the balloon beds that were used for the opening night. Lying on one of them is a cool and strangely comfy experience though you cant help feeling that if you move too suddenly you might pop the balloons so even though its comfy you do tend to move with exaggerated carefulness I’ll be surprised if anyone got any sleep on them during the opening night.

That’s all I have to say really except to thank everyone here for being so friendly and especially to thank Ollie, Richard and Linda for helping me during the work experience it really has been an experience.

And I have one more thing to say if you haven’t visited The Model DO!! I cant stress enough how cool it is and how friendly everyone is here.

Oisin

Young Model interview Sean McSweeney

This is the first of Young Model’s artists interviews. Over the last year Young Model interviewed a number of artists from the Niland Collection at The Model. This involved young model traveling around Ireland to interview the artists in their studios. Young Model have also interviewed artists from The Model’s 2009 contemporary exhibitions including artists from Reverse Pedagogy and Seamus Nolan.

Séan McSweeney young model interview from The Model, Sligo on Vimeo.

Young Model devised all the questions they also filmed and edited all the interviews that will be coming your way over the next few months.

Artists they have interviewed to date are Séan McSweeney, Barrie Cooke, Patrick Hall, Nick Miller, Dorothy Cross, Ronnie Hughes, Séamus Nolan, Mark Garry, Paul Butler, Swintak, BGL, Freee, Fastwurms and more.

Also check out Young Model’s interview on this evenings youth news at 5pm on RTE2 News2Day

This project has been made possible by the Arts Council Youth Ensemble Award 2009.

Young Model vox pops from the Model opening night.

If you were here for the re-opening last Saturday you may have noticed young model interviewing the public, here is a sample of peoples reaction when they saw the building and the opening show DORM for the first time. If you haven’t come to visit us yet we hope these vox pops will encourage you.

Young Model vox pops at the Model re-opening from The Model, Sligo on Vimeo.

For images taken on the night click here

DORM young model interview

Young Model interviewed a number of the DORM artists during the week. Here is a short preview of some of the artists involved in the Model opening show. Young model thought you might like to have a look before the doors open at 6pm this evening. Not long now.

DORM young model interview-1 from The Model, Sligo on Vimeo.

TY students on work experience at The Model

We are three awesome students from Sligo Grammar School. Harry, Yasmin and Carolyn. We are here in the Model on a week of work experience. So far, it’s fantastic, we got a tour of the entire building, which is huge and Yasmin frequently gets lost in. Lots of the old building is still there, except the old entrance leads into a new restaurant and there are loads of new facilities.

You can now do a full circuit of the upstairs galleries as the performance space has been moved and the galleries have been improved.
The performance space- it’s super super cool.It’s got a balcony and loads of seating, a whole room dedicated to the piano, a projector room, a room with lots of unknown devices that look really complicated, crazy strip lights and one of our favourite spots, the green room! We spend alot of our time in there drinking tea and climbing in the window when the door is locked. Inside the Green room there’s a tiny room called the screaming room where the performers can vent their anger.

The new building has some very new exciting add-ons to the old building. Our personal favourite being a very big lift that would remind you of something from star wars! Amazingly it can fit fifty three people which is really quite something! Throughout the Model we have found some pretty groovy spots to hang, such as a balcony on the top floor.We spend a lot of our time here while doing our little jobs and at lunchtime sunbathing.It has the most beautiful view of sligo and it’s quiet and secluded.

We sometimes go to the boiler room when we get cold and hug a few pipes, we often have strong urges to climb on the roof but we supress these urges because that would be bad.The toilets are also very exciting, they look like the toilets you might find in a five star hotel so we like to go there sometimes for that reason, among others.

The artists studios are so cool we are determined that one day we will have the honour of living there, it would be awesome. We also enjoy the front steps. we have eaten carrot cake on those steps and now they will always be memorable.

Underneath the seating in the new performance space there’s a crazy secret forest of metal, which we sometimes go under and pretend to be woodland creatures. There are some storage rooms that are quite frightening because they are temporarily empty and they are very small they have no windows. and are dark.We don’t go in these rooms, under any circumstances.

Over the week we had a series of small jobs one which involved arranging and labeling all the new keys to the Model. This meant that we had to go around the building several times in order to find the right key for the right door. This took a while and there was some confusion about some keys, I mean, what’s a fire curtain? Yeah there was quite a bit of confusion but we worked most of them out in the end. We also had to hand out flyers to a lot of shops we did this a few times.

Tomorrow we shall paint. This makes us happy. There is a huge, red balloon in the restaurant at the moment.

We would like to thank our wonderful supervisor Linda for looking after us and not giving us too much work when it’s sunny. ☀

Harry, Yasmin and Carolyn.

For more images taken by the group click here

Previous Page