Exhibitions – The Model, Sligo.

Exhibition Opening | Desire Lines; curated by aemi

Maja Moser — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 08:00:28 +0000

The Model warmly invites you to view the exhibition ‘Desire Lines’ curated by aemi from Fri. 18 September.

‘Desire Lines’ is aemi's 2026 touring programme, an annual selection of artist and experimental film that brings together a range of voices from Irish and international contemporary practice.

Featuring films by Chloe Brenan, Collectif Faire Part, Eóin Heaney, Olivia Normile and Basma al-Sharif, ‘Desire Lines’ premiered at the Irish Film Institute in January and has since screened in Belfast and Galway with further dates also confirmed to take place later in 2026 in Wicklow, Louth and Offaly.

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Exhibition Opening | Cathy Wilkes

Maja Moser — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 08:00:15 +0000

Exhibition Opening | Phil Collins

Maja Moser — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 08:00:43 +0000

The Model is delighted to present a major new exhibition by internationally renowned visual artist and filmmaker Phil Collins, opening on Saturday, 20 June. Over the course of a deeply engaged practice spanning three decades, Collins has realised ambitious projects that shift perspective between the individual and the collective, situating personal experience within broader historical contexts. Balancing intimacy with social critique, he consistently challenges the conventions of documentary representation, creating works that are emotionally charged, formally adventurous and attentive to the poetics of the everyday. This presentation brings together three recent moving-image installations which, in distinct registers, reflect on the afterlives of socialism and the ways public space, ideology and collective form shape one another.

The exhibition is accompanied by a screening of Collin’s 2004 film, they shoot horses on Sat. 4 July from 3.30pm – 11.30pm. Referencing the 1935 novel They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, which tells the story of gruelling dance competitions as a form of entertainment during the Great Depression, they shoot horses was a disco dance marathon organised by the artist Phil Collins in 2004 with a group of young people in Ramallah, Palestine, during the Second Intifada.

This screening is accompanied by a programme of events. As part of this Phil Collins will be in conversation with Dr Declan Long at 4pm. For further details please visit our Whats's On page.

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Farewell to The Body Electric

The Model, Sligo. — Mon, 31 May 2021 18:00:18 +0000

Free the Frazzle

It is beyond time
To clear my mind
Of the detritus
Gathered over the years
Wasteful
Weighing me down

Naked
I present myself
Mustering strength
I bend my knee
Straighten my back
To free
My frazzled mind

Boom

I explode
Sunder weight
Of childhood
Rituals and ruination
Self
Forfeited within flock

Flashback
Rumble of rosary
Insidious intemperance
Unloved
Unappreciated
Unnoticed

Boom

I am back
I reclaim my state
Of being
To love
To appreciate
To notice

My self
My place
My frazzled mind

by Bláithín Gallagher

In response to My Mind is Frazzled by Janet Mullarney

The Black Square

Hidden in all of us is the divine,
as is in the essence of Malevich's Art.
Outward stimuli, materialism
distracts the mind.
Suprematism encapsulates the unnecessary noise.
Past memory, an experience, future choices form.
As the painting forms on the canvas.
Awareness of objectivity, differences of seeing,
leads one to stillness.
Leaving room for divinity to sink in.
Remove thy mask, of us and them.
Take the lead, from Malevich's simple painting,
go within.
External is ever changing.
As the paint cracks on the black canvas.

by Geraldine Millar
In response to The Black Square by Kazimir Malevich

The Body Electric; An Interview with writer Jessica Traynor – Part 2

The Model, Sligo. — Sun, 30 May 2021 09:00:02 +0000

A contemporary parable

MLB You come back to the story of The Pied Piper of Hamlyn as a parable that has relevance in these contemporary times. Can you tell me a bit more about that?

JT Folk tales are wonderful fodder for poets, because on the surface they are simple, but beneath the surface lies wonderful, rich, human truth. They speak of archetypal hopes and fears. The Pied Piper appeals to me as it’s a dark parable of loss and hopelessness and I see it reflected in our own world today. The fear of the loss of children is universal, hardwired into our psyches, even if we are not parents ourselves. I find this folk tale a useful reminder of shared humanity. In the poem Calais from The Quick I use it to interrogate the idea of which children are valued, and which children aren’t. This concept comes to mind again with the massacre that’s occurring in Gaza at the moment.

Other voices

MLB You are interested in migrant issues, having collaborated with Stephen Rea on Correspondences, an anthology written in 2019, which called for the end of Direct Provision. What compelled you to collaborate with other creatives and asylum seekers on this work?

JT In a nutshell, myself and Stephen wanted to do something to help raise awareness around the injustice of the current direct provision system in Ireland and spent some time discussing what we, as an actor and a writer, might be able to offer.

MLB What was the aim of the anthology?

JT The aim of the anthology was to raise money for MASI, an organisation run by and for people who have experienced direct provision, so that they could decide where best the money was spent. We didn’t want to speak for anyone, or make decisions on anyone’s behalf. It was also important to us that the writers and artists featured in the book who have experienced direct provision were treated as writers and artists first and foremost, and asylum seekers second – this second thing should not define them, and the reason is does is because of the Irish State’s failure to treat them correctly.

MLB Was their collaboration amongst the contributors?

JT We offered the option for the writers and artists to pair with Irish writers for either mentorship, or for a dialogue on the work with the Irish writer writing a response to the contributor’s work. This was not mandatory, as some of our contributors didn’t have the time or inclination, but the intention was to work against direct provision’s tendency to isolate applicants for international protection from Irish society at large. We didn’t want to ghettoise our contributors further. Finally, we asked MASI to contribute the introduction to the book as we felt that was most appropriate.

MLB What was the process like?

JT It was, of course, an imperfect process, but we’re glad to say that the book raised €15,000 for MASI and facilitated some new friendships which have outlasted the lifespan of the anthology itself.

We would like to thank Jessica Traynor for this insightful interview and look forward to future collaborations.

To find out more about MASI, go to https://www.masi.ie/

https://www.jessicatraynor.com/

The Body Electric; An Interview with writer Jessica Traynor – Part 1

The Model, Sligo. — Sat, 29 May 2021 09:00:54 +0000

The Body Electric; An Interview with writer Jessica Traynor – Part 1
by Marie-Louise Blaney.

Marie-Louise Blaney is the Education Curator at The Model, Sligo.

Jessica Traynor is an award-winning poet, creative writing teacher and dramaturg from Dublin. Her debut collection Liffey Swim (Dedalus Press, 2014), was shortlisted for the Strong/Shine Award and her second collection, The Quick, was an Irish Times poetry choice of 2019. She was invited to contribute to The Body Electric. Today I catch up with Jessica on the art of writing.

The process of crafting poetry

MLB How do you define the craft of poetry writing?

JT I suppose it’s a little like lepidopterology. An idea appears, something striking that’s teasing the edges of your consciousness, something you want to capture and examine more closely. Often, it’s an idea or impulse you don’t quite understand. Even when you pin it to the paper, you may not understand it.

MLB Looking at the form poems can take, have you any particular preference?

JT I enjoy the short lyric form for its intensity. I admire long poems greatly, but often don’t have the stamina to read or write them well. The short lyric is flexible and open to deconstruction in interesting ways. And the challenge of brevity is to create something clear and jewel-like – I think those are challenges every writer should set themselves, whatever form they choose.

MLB You have worked as a dramaturg and in theatre/museum contexts. Do you use theatrical or visual art techniques to craft your work?

JT Theatre has been a huge influence in my writing in terms of voice. I like to try and write in a way that is clear and unaffected, in a way you might hear a person speak. In playwriting, the writer has to tackle big, complex themes using language that sounds natural. I try to bear the importance of that naturalism in mind when writing poetry, to prevent the work from becoming too archaic or self-consciously ‘poetic’.

MLB The Body Electric concentrates on ekphrastic writing. Is there a thread of ekphrasis as a technique running through your poetry collections?

JT While I’m often inspired by art, straightforward ekphrasis where I write something directly relating to an artwork is not something I often do. With Dorothy Cross’s Stiletto, which I responded to for The Body Electric, the fact that these wonderful, slightly nightmarish shoes are a physical object rather than a painting sparked my interest. They seemed to me to function as poetic symbol made manifest in the world. And they spoke to one of my current preoccupations – subverting traditional ideas of motherhood.

The voice

MLB You have spoken before about connecting the voice on the page to the voice in the body. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

JT As with the last question, I find that we can often engage a self-consciously ‘poetic’ voice when writing poetry which doesn’t reflect the actual sound of our own voices, our own idiom, our personalities. Too much workshopping of poems can also file off these interesting edges, making the poem a little flat and predictable. Our voices and ways of speaking (again here I mean literal voice, rather than the conceptual ‘writing voice’) are often the things that make us individual and interesting. Try to work that individuality onto the page.

MLB When you are about to write a poem, how does it reveal itself to you?

JT Generally a concept or idea will have been floating around in my head and I’ll find a line emerging that expresses some part of it. At that point I try to examine and record any accompanying images and ideas. Much like recording a waking dream that I can then unpack. Images to accompany the concept are hugely important, as without them the poem becomes chopped up prose at best and cod philosophy at worst.

MLB The Waiting Table from your collection The Quick, is very visually rich and for that reason it’s one of my favourite. Do you have a favourite poem?

JT I think most writers spend much more time agonising over the poems that haven’t quite worked out, and I’m no exception! There are poems where I feel I’ve managed to sneak my own, real voice out into the world though, and that makes me happy on some level. From The Quick, I suppose the Witches sequence and Snow Ghost, alongside the Modest Proposal poems are the ones where I felt like I’ve succeeded in communicating myself most clearly.

Tomorrow we hear from Jessica on her work with actor Stephen Rea and the relevance of fairy tales to contemporary human rights issues.