Siamsa for big exhibition

Coronas set for INEC show In this weeks ‘Arts & Entertainment’ section, Fergus Dennehy previews the latest exhibition inside Siamsa Tíre’s hallowed halls; Crín is the first Irish project from artist Morley Hill, a pseudonym used by UK born artist, Nik Tay

ONE of Ireland’s most popular bands ‘The Coronas’ will be coming to the INEC Killarney on December 29.

The much loved Irish band have just released the single ‘Give Me a Minute’ from their number one album ‘Trust The Wire.’

The band will be performing all their best known songs from ‘Mark my Words’, to ‘Just Like That’ to ‘Someone Else’s Hands.’

They have had concerts in Berlin, Cologne, Vienna and Zurich and will be putting on shows in Manchester, Glasgow, Toronto and New York, which have amazingly already sold out; Christmas performances on December 5, 7 and 10 at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre are already completely sold out.

Doors open at 8pm with the show beginning at 9pm; standing tickets for the will cost €27.90 and seated tickets will cost €29.90. IF modern abstract art is your idea of an afternoon well spent, then one might want to consider choosing to head down to Siamsa Tíre over the next two weeks.

CRÍN, the first Irish project from Morley Hill, a pseudonym used by UK born artist Nik Taylor, now living in Castlegregory, Kerry, is currently showing in the Tralee theatre and will stay until Friday, December 8.

The exhibition, being housed inside the round gallery exhibition hall of the theatre will feature a number of towering skeletal monoliths of wooden forms; constructed completely on site using locally sourced and found materials, its origins are based in the roots of science fiction themes, architectural folly and the local surroundings.

This exhibition, which also features a new series of paintings on paper and recently made small scale mechanical Chrinetics, is the first time that Castlegregory based artist Nik has exhibited in the county, having first moved to Kerry a number of years ago.

Taylor first moved to County Kerry in 2015 and began a self-funded cabinet making apprenticeship, under the tutelage of master furniture maker Garry Marcham at Goose Island Workshop in Castlegregory.

He then spent two years learning the craft of fine woodworking, studying traditional carpentry methods and gaining a better understanding of materials. It was in early 2017 that then he began to make smaller, kinetic, finely finished ‘Morley Hill’ works informed by his recently acquired skills, some of which are included in this Siamsa exhibition.

Through the Morley Hill project, Taylor hopes to channel his fascination with the found object and its everyday chance encounter.

Through his work, he constructs throwaway and out of place worlds governed by self-imposed rules, rules that he describes as, ‘anti-rules’.

It is Taylor’s hope that his fairy tale, absurd and sacred creations will help to challenge the limits of our imagination as they endeavour to rekindle the forgotten impulses of our personal and cultural histories. Often cryptic and wilfully ambiguous, Taylor mingles Art Historical motifs with moments from literary fiction, architecture and science. Wooden forms, glued and screwed together are articulated into a visual language that signposts real and imagined events from personal narratives and an ongoing journey of self-discovery.

The Morley Hill project commenced ten years ago, based around a series of paintings on paper and sculptures using found wood.

The work also encompass-

es drawing, sound and collage. There have been five solo shows to date, four temporary sculpture projects, three Morley Hill themed residencies and two group show admissions.

Nik was invited to become an associate member of the Royal British society of Sculptors in 2013 and his work has been shown in the UK, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and Ireland. In 2017 he was awarded creative work development and materials bursaries from Kerry County Council.

Described in the ‘Dazed and Confused’ magazine in the UK, as work that “pushes the boundaries of structure and freedom”, the artist has described his practice as ‘obsessive systematic pottering’.

You can visit the exhibition under construction daily at Siamsa Tíre, open from 10am – 6pm Monday to Saturday.

The exhibition was officially opened open on Friday November 24 and will run up to December 8.

For more information on the exhibition, you can visit the Siamsa website at www.siamsatire.com.