Public Art in Kildare

Here's an interesting project which sounds worth checking out if you're anywhere near Naas next week. This is where your taxes are going. Certainly very experimental but hey, no plays, no poetry, no literature of any kind. Come on now.

Parking Meter Arts and Kildare County Council Arts Service presents TRANSITOPIA, a contemporary public art project created specifically for Naas, Co Kildare.

It is a contemporary art project examining the negotiation between people and place and how the development of one directly influences the transformation of the other. The project engages with social infrastructure, architectural planning and the historical trajectory of industrial, commercial and public space.’

PREVIEW NIGHT/LAUNCH: Áras Chill Dara 6.30pm, Wed 20th Aug 2008
SILENT-FILM SCREENING A classic Silent Film screened, with a musical accompaniment.
Booking Essential Naas Town Hall 8.00pm, Sat 23rd Aug

Michelle Browne - Border-Border will transport commuters from Sallins/Naas Train Station to their destination in Naas via a lift on the back of a bicycle. In exploring the IN-BETWEEN SPACES that exist in our lives, the performance references an informal transportation system in Africa and borders of neighbouring countries. A unique sound piece created from commuters in New York, London, Galway and Belfast will accompany each participant’s journey.
16.45–19.30, Wed 20th, Thurs 21st, Fri 22nd Aug

Dominic Thorpe – Terrain worked closely with a local commuter Chris O’Neill and presents his own mimicry of O’Neill’s HABITUAL JOURNEY to work. The work is presented as a video installation.
Kildare County Council Offices/Áras Chill Dara. Thurs 21st – Sat 23rd Aug

Elaine Reynolds investigates the SECRET LIFE of street lamps and how they relate to the commuting population of Naas. The work is sited beside Donnelly Mirrors forecourt. The artist creates a heightened experience of an everyday transient moment through a poetic mirrored video projection.
Access from 20.00 – 00.00, Wed 20th – Sun 24th Aug

(Poetic but no poetry?)

Joanne Butler – The Folly is a witty intervention in the Civic Garden in Naas. Her scale model housing estate sets up a DELIBERATE TENSION with the oblique lines of the celebrated Áras buildings that is at once both playful and inquisitive.
Civic Garden, Kildare Co. Co. Offices/ Áras Chill Dara Wed 20th – Sun 24th Aug

Carl Giffney is undertaking a mobile research project on the commuter lines N6, M4, N7 for the Academy of FUTURE HISTORY in conjunction with Parking Meter Arts, focusing on the N7 Naas-Dublin road for Transitopia.
Áras Cill Dara. 6.30pm, Wed 20th Aug

Dara McGrath is producing site-specific photographic research in conjunction with Parking Meter Arts, focusing on the documentation of a DISUSED INDUSTRIAL SPACE. His work will be featured in the forthcoming Transitopia publication.