The Model

The British Guide to Showing Off

A blog by Cathy Quinlan, front of house assistant and film fan

I have always been a fan dressing up and letting my hair down. There is nothing better than letting the constraints and restrictions of the modern world slip away, even if it is for a brief period of time. That is what life is all about. Taking your life in your hands and telling the world, I’m here and I’m not embarrassed to be me!

Of course there are days where this just isn’t as possible a mindset! But I plan to watch a movie called “The British Guide To Showing Off” coming soon to the Model. It is a story about a British Artist called Andrew Logan and his outrageous costume pageant: The Alternative Miss World Show.

Logan is “ringmaster” for the event and has said it to be his most important artwork of living sculpture since starting the pageant in 1972. The show is not about beauty but more about transformation, exploration and acceptance. The film is documentary style featuring live and archive footage as well as occasional animation and follows the events leading up to and including the 2009 show.

It is a film about the extrovert in all of us. About the people who let that extrovert out to have fun and throw caution to the wind. I personally love that idea.

As Logan states himself,
“It’s about creative free-reign, about the ordinary becoming extraordinary.”

The film is being screening at The Model Cinema from February . click here for details

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The Model Talks Series

Recordings of The Model Talk Series are now available on Youtube.

Click here to view The Model’s Youtube channel for more content.

Isabel Nolan Read More.

Omer Fast Read More.

Philippe Van Cauteren Read More.

Zin Tylor: Thoughts & Forms. Read More.

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Huge range of art magazines on sale could make perfect stocking fillers

A blog by Eve MacSearraigh, Bookshop Assistant

They Say You Should Never Judge a Book by its Cover…

We are very happy to have the latest multi-colour, glossy (and not so!) art magazines in stock. Judging by their covers, these are on the cutting and slicing edge of their genre and there’s a wide variety of different styles and budgets…

At the high end, and described by Time Out, as “the best art publication by miles”, Parkett is high-quality. With its book-spined design, it is fully illustrated in colour; and self-described as “a large library and a small museum of contemporary art”. Beautifully presented, it’s definitely a keepsake.

Rooms Uncovered brings the latest from a global subculture, showcasing arresting artwork from hidden and not so hidden international artists and other creative thinkers. Image-heavy and surprisingly affordable at less than a fiver.

Art Forum is the fashion mag of the glossies with beautiful images
and reviews of best art of the year 2011. A great overview for the those hungry to know what’s going on out there, or event to argue their choices!

Since 1976, Art Monthly has consistently offered informed and highly readable coverage of the current art scene and is noted for its independence and the quality of its writing in features, reviews and editorials.

Kingbrown arrives as elusively as a street-artist in a New York subway in the 80’s. Produced by street artist YOK and illustrator-artist Ian Mutch, it captures the work of internationally acclaimed artists that use a variety of mediums.

Source continues to show arresting photographic reviews. I love it. While frieze with its still-life photographic issue is “insightful, intelligent and exquisitely designed”…. it “is the leading magazine in contemporary art and culture.”

Raw Vision, is as it says on the tin. It’s not glossy, it’s raw and it’s real.

Cabinet, provided the perfect Christmas present for family member. This issue is entitled Forensics, but as I look it through it I wonder is it really me who wants it, rather than he? Enough writing; I just want to read and be absorbed…

Eve MacSearraigh
Bookshop Assistant

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TY students go behind the scenes at Isabel Nolan’s exhibition.

During the week, Liam and I (Wacky) have been helping out with some of the preparations for the Model’s next big exhibition called, ‘A Hole Into The Future’ by Isabel Nolan. This exhibition features many great pieces of Isabel’s work including many sculptural pieces of art. Most of her work is very abstract and mainly consists of many different shapes. We had a great time learning how Isabel approached the design of the sculptures for example how she developed her various techniques. Her attention to detail was amazing especially on one of her Blanket’s, which is extended out from the wall, which for Liam was a pain to put up. We had a great experience during our time at the gallery as we got an insight of what it’s like to be a curator, it was a pleasure working for Ollie and Isabel.

The experience included not only an insight into the work of modern artists, but it gave us a feel of how work in a real working environment is in fact difficult. Wacky, when left with no job to do attempted to hunt down any form of work available, although when doing so he ended up with near frost bite due to holding a cold ladder in the freezing Irish weather. The weather itself had become a major problem with a lot of the installation work being postponed due to its effect on certain jobs. For example Isabel’s new commission for The Model called The Outward Form had got slightly damaged when the men unloaded it from the truck.……… When installing the piece Isabel tried to paint the Blue sculpture outside but unfortunately for her she had gone out thinking the weather was nice enough to work in in-fact just after having the paint mixed it started to rain. ☹

Besides these mishaps, our other work went fine, such as the many covers of paint we placed upon the walls of the exhibition. However, some paint ended up on the ground leading to hours of scrubbing and cleaning with Richard’s arsenal of cleaning tools. My least favourite out of the cleaning jobs was scraping paint from the ground, as a lot of it didn’t come off that easily. In all both Liam and I found the week interesting and fun filled with some ups and downs along the way.

On the final day of preparations, we managed to get up both posters for the exhibition with only one minor mishap with Liam nearly dropping the poster, which thankfully didn’t end up being damaged. One worry for the second poster was that it could buckle since it’s located in a very cold area, although Isabel assured us that she could reprint the poster if such a hazard were to occur. I(Wacky) enjoyed Friday probably the most because I had a lot to do

Blog written and directed by Karl Wacky Coleman.

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Amazing Christmas Gifts for Lovers of the Arts at The Model

The Model is delighted to announce a range of fantastic Christmas Gift vouchers for fans of art, cinema, music and comedy.

For just €100 you can purchase a cinema ticket for all of 2012. Yes, you read that correctly – that’s entry to up to 40 screenings throughout the year from just €2.50 per screening! The Model Cinema specialises in first-run independent and world cinema and has a diverse programme with something for every film lover out there. Highlights for 2012 are The Artist and the critically acclaimed new film from Steve McQueen Shame

Another great deal for lovers of the arts are our range of Model Vouchers. Incredibly we are selling these vouchers for below face value so for just €20 a voucher for €25 can be yours, €40 will get you a €55 voucher and best of all just €65 will get you a voucher for €100!

The vouchers are available now and can be used to purchase books, magazine and tickets for our comedy, music and film programmes.

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Dark Room Notes - One Day to Go

It’s Friday! One day to go! I’m excited now and can’t wait to perform tomorrow. On Tuesday we finally stopped looking at the film as a series of random scenes with pet names like ‘Cliff’ and ‘Parabola/Curve’ and start viewing it as a whole piece again. We’ve played the film through a few times and will do so again this evening. Yesterday I finally got my head around what patches I’ll be using. I’ll be using four synthesizers. Four synthesizers equals tens of banks with hundreds of patches! Too much choice! I decided to limit myself to a few patches. I think it helps with the cohesion of the sound throughout the film. Getting lost in the machine is sometimes fun but here I need to focus on the melodies more. I think it’s important that the sounds become familiar too. Ferrie will mainly be focusing on the guitar but will dabble from time to time with a synth. So that’s it! Almost done and dusted, nearly out the gap. Come on down tomorrow! We’ll see ya there!

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Dark Room Notes - When dinosaurs fight to the death it's noisy!

“Hello”
“Ferrie, it’s me Ronnie, I’m ringin’ ya from a payphone”
“Huh”
“I know! Weird, ya just stick a Euro in and dial the number, anyway my phone is dead so could ya ring the gate I’ll be there in 5”

It’s Friday the 18th. I’m bikefull and have been phoneless for 3 days. I finally get it and it dies.Ya need to have your phone synced with gate or something in order to ring it and get in I dunno. Anyway, I’m in the studio and it’s business as usual. Now I mentioned that the jigsaw had been finished the last day. Well not quite. A few steps back. Nothin’ major. The main dinosaur fight scene, the long one, just wasn’t right. So we scraped it and replaced it with this kinda noisey intense piece. It’s odd but with a lot off synthtastic improv we’ll be fine. The ‘Back to the City’ scene is also undecided. There are two possible pieces that fit it so we tinker with both. We reckon a loop called ‘Mezz’ works best. Done. Go, Move, Shift.

There’s this ominous piece in the opening credits that will also suit the ‘Cave’ scene too. That’s one thing we’ve noticed when composing this soundtrack. If ya bring a piece of music in later in the film from an earlier scene, when it works, it works! It brings strands of the movie together and towards the end it brings a kind of closure. Everything comes full circle. We leave the studio at midnight.

It’s Saturday the 19th. It’s the afternoon. It’s matchday! Come on Connacht! I long to be down the West! We do a few hours before lookin for a Pub with the elusive SKY RED BUTTON! We find a sports bar we don’t like and watch the game. The commentary is off but we can here the United commentary! Baddest of bad buzzes! Two hours later, game over, well beaten, on bike, back to studio. It’s Saturday so Ferrie treats us to a bottle of Lidl’s finest Red. Not so fine. Maybe let it breath for a day or two…

Where were we, where are we. The ‘Parabola/Curve’ scene. Well that’s a lighthearted slapstick one. So we go with a kind of jolly techno number and Ferrie throws in one of those long snare build ups before yerman flies through the sky off the bamboo. Haha! the snare rolls really add to the comedy factor! We leave the studio at midnight.

Sunday Bloody Sunday. I bumped into a few messers late on Saturday night and went messin’. I’ve some head on me now! We hit the studio around four. Well now that long Dinosaur scene is no longer workin! Ah flac it anyway! Ferrie digs deep into the bank and pulls out a ruckus like riff! It has an 80’s industrial like beat and is very repetitive in a Krautrock like way. It fits! Like the other piece it just needs a lot of synth wailing and screaming over the top and it’ll be right good. It’s one of the longest and noisiest scenes in the film. It needs to be noisy. When Dinosaurs fight to the death it’s noisy. We also decide on new music for the ‘Back to the City’ scene. Again a kind of light minimal techno groove with an ominous arpeggio synth rumble that slowly filters up to add to the intensity.

So just a few days to tidy up what we’re doin’. We are on top of things, in the drivin’ seat. Who’s taking the horse to France? We are! I must say I’ve grown quite fond of Bessie Love who plays Paula White over these last few months. Some doll I tell ya! What a cutey! Anyway it’s home time. Outta here!

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More News from the Dark Room

So Tuesday evening and we’re back in the studio. A few more small scenes to do. The match is on but we need to work and they’re through anyway aren’t they? I arrived with milk for the tea and some biscuits. “Put them away!” barked Ferrie as he pulled a six pack from his bag! “Nice move!” I chortled. So we cracked open a beer each and settled in to the nest. We start with a piece that Arran wrote. It’s a real nice piano piece. Damn it’s emotive! So anyway Maestro Ferrie messed with the sound, threw on a few arpeggios and effects and what came out the other side was something epic! It’s such a big sound that we feel we’ll have to use it more throughout the Film.

Now back to that scene where he goes up the steps, in the window and has a fight with yer man. We’d tried a few different loops there and nothing had settled. Finely got one! it’s a kind of a minimal techno little ditty. It has a slow bounce and suits a man climbing in a window.Hang on a minute, is this jigsaw nearly done? I think we’ve got something for every scene! Yes! So now we just have to edit the loops to fit the scenes and then we can concentrate on the performance. (When I say we edit I mean Ferrie edits, I just say things like “Put that there”.)

“Hey Ferrie?”
“Yeah?”
“We’ve done some serious work here”
“Indeed we have, it’s half time and there’s a pub not more than a skip away”
“Let’s get the second half”
“Let us”.

Ole Ole Ole Ole!

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The Model announces two public projects for 2012

Your Object & Model Site

Your Object is an exhibition, planned to take place in spring 2012, to mark the 150th anniversary of The Model Building in Sligo. This exhibition will consist of people’s treasured objects to reflect the cultural region today. Everyone is invited to submit an image of his or her most treasured object to The Model with a short paragraph explaining why they value this object.

You are invited to submit images of photos, antiques, household items, clothing, family heirlooms, but we ask you to not send original items; an image and explanation is all that is required at this stage.

Model Site: What is your vision for the open space beside The Model? We invite you to submit your idea for the potential use of the large unused area at Connauhton Road, between the hospital and The Model. We invite you to tae a walk and look at the site. Would the space be best used as a children’s park, a community garden, a sports field, a new market area, an artists’ campsite, a new outdoor concert area? Share your vision and submit your proposal. Please limit your proposal to a three-page document. Images are welcome. Please note proposals will be used for a creative project at The Model.

Photos and accompanying texts can be sent in printed copies or digital formats.
Proposals are sought for these projects on an ongoing basis until January 6th, 2012.
Please submit these by email to info@themodel.ie (Subject: Your Object/Model Site) or by post to:
Your Object/Model Site Project Proposal, The Model, The Mall, Sligo

For further information, download the .pdf here.

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Notes from a Lost World in a Dark Room

Ronan Gaughan of Dark Room Notes gives us an insight into the making of a specially commissioned soundtrack for the classic silent movie The Lost World, which will be premiered here on Sat November 26th.

OK we’re making a soundtrack to a silent movie. How do we do that? I dunno? Never done this before. What do other people do? How do we make a synthesizer sound like a dinosaur? How do we pace it? What tempo and key should we use? These are some of the many questions we asked ourselves when we took on this project last year. We hummed and hawed for a while and didn’t really get going on it till about April this year after we had finished recording our second album.

Oh yeah we chose “The Lost World”. The original 1925 version. Why? ‘Cos it’s fun and has lots of Dinosaurs! We had looked at a few other films of that era and had found them a bit slow moving and heavy going. “The Lost World” is an action movie! It’s funny, it’s sad and was groundbreaking for its time. It was the first movie to use stop motion special effects. When I look at it I try to imagine being a kid and walking into a cinema to watch it in 1925. It must have been incredible! As well as the dinosaurs the film also contains shots of animals like Bears, Monkeys, Leopards and Crocodiles. Most likely it would have been the first time this kid would have seen these animals for real, not just a drawing in a book! Oh by the way this film was the first ever in-flight movie! Aboard an Imperial Airways flight from London to Paris in 1925. Now that blew some kids mind I tell ya!

So back to creating the music. How? Well for the first while we all stood at our Synths and doodled aimlessly. Going nowhere. We created a few sketches. “Yeah that’s alright, actually mah, nah that’s rubbish” we moaned. It nearly broke us. So we left it for a while and then a bit more. Forward a month or two and a new approach. We started to create loops on our sequencers and also tried out inserting some loops that already existed. Bang! Yes! Foot in the door! This is how we’ll do it! Very quickly we had the first five scenes done.

November the 10th I make it. Well nearing the end now. All major scenes have been taken care of. Just a few smaller ones to do which have turned out to be the toughest. Making music to parts were nothing really happens. When dinosaurs fight ya hit the loud beats button, throw in a few sci-fi arpeggios and conjure up some synth rumbles. When there is a conversation piece it’s not so obvious what to do. We’re getting there though.

On the night of the performance myself, Ronnie Gaughan, and Ruairi Ferrie will be performing the soundtrack. Due to other commitments Arran Murphy will not be playing with us. She has supplied us with a few tasty pieces of music for a few scenes though! We’ll be using lots of Synthesizers a Drum Machine and a guitar. The loops will be triggered and we’ll be toying them live, bringing sounds in and out and adding effects.

So we’re hitting the studio later and I’ll keep ye posted on the turning of right and wrong corners and of steps both forward and back.

Keep posted to the weblog for regular updates from Ronan.

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