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Circa 124: ev+a review, MP3 of interview A transcript of this audio file served as the basis for the review by Jessica Foley of ev+a in Limerick, March - May 2008. The interview itself is also published again here below, as the version of it in the magazine was subject to gremlins. This conversation took place in a Tower in King John's Castle, where Malachi Farrell's work was installed in Limerick City, as part of the ev+a exhibition 2008.
Tower Conversation_excerpt2No, I, I'm just trying to...if you have the opportunity to review, or whatever, I think it's important that you, em, well, that you try a different way of doing it, you know so, it's not always this sort of critical, coming down heavy on the reader... Yeah, yeah ...they might just actually sit with a piece of art for a while (laughs) and see what happens... yeah It's very weird this piece, isn't it? Yep....cos it's like, they're missiles, they're talking about art, and, like, I know there is connections, like if you make connections, but I just don't know if it's, eh, organic enough, or something... Yeah....that's a good point actually. But then if you look at the way they're sitting, they are mechanical beings, as well, so maybe it is a kind of deliberate mechanical connection... Maybe... I don't know. Yeah, and the umbrella is really badly made (laughs) it really bothers me, have you looked underneath it? No It's a plastic bottle.. oh my... and it's fleece, you don't ever have a parasol that's made of fleece, I think this is an afterthought... That's an interesting observation...(laughs)...it could be... That's what you get for spending a whole day with it (laughs) Well this is the thing, right, cos, you know, who spends a whole day with a piece of art anymore, or ever? Yeah, yeah it's true, except only invigilators. Yeah. I had to fix it this morning when I came in... Why, did it fall down? It had fallen off. Oh my...well I suppose that's what you get for using a plastic bottle... I know, yeah! It's kind of effective enough when you look here, but I can see how it would piss you off... (laughs), yeah, just when you're sitting here for the whole day... (Sound piece: Suppose you say, that, art is representational...) And all the tourists that are coming in they hear the word penis and they just like run out the door. Oh right (sound piece: ...look at that painting on our wall over there...) So, these guys are actually supposed to be talking, is that the idea? Yeah. (sound piece: Oh my god... but it doesn't represent anything... You said you saw a penis in it? Well I once thought I did) And cos they're American as well, they've American accents, and loads of the tourists that come here are middle aged Americans... Wow, that's kind of funny... (laughs) at least that sparks off something... I just love the way they're sitting, it's so irritating Yeah...yeah, 'cos I think they are supposed to be irritating. I think so, I think it's meant to provoke you, it's just unfortunate that you have to sit here for the whole day and...(laughs) Be provoked (laughs) yeah (Sound piece: Flares, rockets, engines...Bleching...) And kids like them, kids want to touch them I bet they do, it's quite eh, emm...the timings and the mechanisms and stuff, its kind of.... Yeah, it's on a sensor, it doesn't go off unless someone's moving... Oh right, so the sound doesn't happen until somebody moves? Yeah. That's pretty cool. Like where you're sitting there, it's triggered from that one, so cos you're sitting there, when you're moving a tiny bit every so often, and then it keeps going off... So... But when I'm sitting here during the day, if I walk out carefully enough I don't even have to set them off... So you try, do you try not to? Yeah (laughs) (laughs) They only have two recordings... Yeah, it's a bit of repetition I guess... (Sound Piece: American Man: Suppose you say art is representational, essentially, and you know, look at that painting on our wall over there, by Jackson Pollock, and all you can say is uh huh, I think it's a great painting... American Woman: Oh my God... AM: ...but it doesn't represent anything. AW: You said you saw a penis in it... AM: Well I once saw a penis in it.) Tower Conversation_excerpt1(Sound Piece: It doesn't represent anything, so... You said you saw a penis in it Well I once thought I did.) Just going to record, it's a new method of writing... Yeah...that's handy... I've decided to Start recording, and see what happens...so how long have you been sitting here for? Errh, I just came in at half ten, it's not so bad, half ten till half four, I only do, like, maybe one day a week Oh right...it's strange though isn't it? Do you kind of think about this a lot or... Eh, the first day or two I did, ehhhm... Did you come up with any kind of (Laughs) connections? Ehm, I don't know, I really don't, I really don't like this one...(sound comes on, rocket noises, flares) but, I dunno, I think it's all just really disconnected from each other... Yeah... (laughs) Have you been around to all of them, or...? Ehm, I think all of them except, there's one down in an office (sound piece belches) of an accountant or a lawyers or something... Yeah, is it Brookes Properties or something like that? Yep, that's the one, yeah I don't even know where it is I think it's up, like towards the top of O'Connell Street somewhere Okay Have you got the map? I do. You do.. But eh.. It's still hard to find them Yeah it is kind of...it is kind of hard Yeah, yeah I was wondering is, there's one in Cathedral Place, but I'm not sure where that is... Ahhm Is that Johns Square? It's near Johns Square Yeah Trying to describe it is another thing Hmmm Right, when you're walking up... I know limerick well enough so... Oh do ya Yeah, Yeah So if you walk past the cathedral, and you know... Like on your way back up to William Street Yeah, yeah, and you keep going up that way, like past the entrance to the Haymarket Yeah On the opposite side of the road there's a new apartment building, and you'll see there's a polish shop, and you'll see there's a gateway, and there's a little café on one side, it's kind of a little pedestrianised street Yeah And it's on the left hand side Okay It's in there Yeah, I might check that out... Yeah. But I can't write about everything! It's all projections of the moon... Oh right I think Is it good? Yeah, it's quite nice, yeah. Do you have, like a piece that you like the best? (pause) Ehhhmm... Yes, for personal reasons...it's not ...it's in City Hall (sound piece starts: Suppose you say that Art is representational... ) Yeah? You know the Surreal Estate? The toy houses? Yes, Yeah! (laughs) All my work, like, I'm in my last year in art college, and all my work this year and last year has been to do with (sound piece: Oh my God...) childhood and childlike behaviour, and forms of escapism for our generation, so when I saw that one I was like... I loved it... ...Wow! I'm very interested in that kind of thing... Are you!? Cool! As well, yeah yeah, so I don't think it's, eh, a flash in the pan, or anything... No I think it's a very, eh, relevant thing to be exploring... Yeah...and I think it's coming up more and more over the last, well, I started researching it about three years ago and you couldn't get anything on it, now there's more and more, like, even psychology wise and news wise, and everything, all the kidults stuff...peterpandemonium and... That's true...sure god help us, we're all floundering we don't know what to do! I know, yeah yeah (laughs) So what are, what kind of work are you making, or...? (Sound piece flares up, rockets, etc) Ehm, Cardboard stuff... Yeah, (Laughs) Yeah, Well I'm doing like, em, last year I did two pieces I rebuilt a house, eh, from a drawing that my little sister did, when she was about five, of a house, and I rebuilt the house so that you could go into it...with all the same proportions and stuff... Lovely... And then I'm interested in process...so I videoed the making of it, and that was a projection and a sound piece and stuff... Great ...and then I was looking at hiding places and...I rebuilt a stairs out of cardboard as well, loads of people would hide under the stairs, and there's video with that as well then... And how come you've chosen cardboard? Eh, I think cos, cardboard boxing when you're a kid... Yeah! You'd play with boxes like toys... It's kind of like re-tapping into the imagination again, Yeah Getting away from, sort of this virtual sort of... Yeah ...Experience Yeah, And so, and I did a workshop for young ev+a, then, on Saturday, with kids, a big group of kids, and they were using cardboard boxes and sheets and stuff... How did it go? ...we built a house..It was manic You built a house together?! Well we tried to build a house together, the first group, we had like two groups of kids, the first group, I showed them pictures of ev+a stuff, you know like constructed things rather than flat things or whatever... Yeah.. And they drew drawings then of hiding places or bedrooms and things, and then we tried to build a house, but the first group we just built one wall, straight across the room! (laughs) It was like they were crazy, they were from about four years to eight years or something, you know, so they were all kind of doing their own thing anyway, so eventually we got a house together, eh, sort of, and then they knocked it down, and everybody just did their own thing with all the cardboard boxes and there was like little people scootin around in cars they had made ooah and there was a girl who'd made a robot (sound piece interjects: Suppose you say that art is representational... Mad! Yeah, they just took off like, it was more crazy than I had expected it to be, cos I thought they'd have a bit of a laugh, but they were just like on their own planet... Deadly! I didn't know what was going on! It was brilliant! That's magic, where, where did you do it? Where was the workshop? In the Gallery Oh up in Limerick City Gallery Yeah That's deadly Wow, what's your name by the way? Elva, sorry, what's your name? Jessica Foley, Jessica Foley, Nice to meet you. Elva What? Carri.[282]
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