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HAVE YOU EVER wondered what the subject of a famous artwork was thinking?
What’s on the mind of Mona Lisa, the Girl with a Pearl Earring, or Zeus? If so, you might get an answer to one of those questions next week.
An art tour with a difference is taking place at the National Gallery – a guide will lead a tour of some of the gallery’s most famous works, while a comedy duo adds their own take on in the art in question.
Aoife-Marie Buckley has delivered many tours in the gallery, catering for school children, college students, and parents with babies to name a few groups. Next week’s tour will be the first she’s done with this kind of comedic element, however.
“There are many types of tours – school tours, everything from montessori to college tours – a wide range. There are general tours and tours around a specific artist or exhibition.
“There are also tours for visually-impaired groups and tours done in a low-sensory environment so people can enjoy a part of gallery that is closed off, with the lights dimmed,” Buckley explains.
She said the artwork that gets the biggest reaction in the gallery is Caravaggio’s The Taking of Christ – an imposing and striking painting that documents Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss.
“Irish people love stories – people of all ages, especially school children, love stories. They love hearing the story of [the painting] – about it being rediscovered in Ireland (at a Jesuit community house in Dublin in 1990, having disappeared long before),” Buckley told TheJournal.ie.
The gallery runs a number of initiatives that aim to encourage people who may not usually visit art galleries to attend. Renailssance, workshops and an exhibition combining art and nail art, has been very popular of late, for example.
“There is something in the gallery for everyone – many types of paintings from a whole variety of countries and cultures and ages. I think there is something there for everyone there.
“All of the things the education department offers, they do that because they want people to come in. It is the National Gallery of Ireland, it’s there for everyone,” Buckley said.
The comedy tour is another attempt to appeal to a new audience and sees the gallery teaming up with Frayed – Dublin’s new free fringe festival, which is also aiming to make the arts more accessible.
Buckley notes that while there have been dramatic reenactments of certain paintings in the gallery before, this is the first time there has been a comedic take.
“I am looking forward to it a lot, seeing someone else’s interpretation of the artwork,” she said.
During the tour, Buckley will share the history of some classic artworks, and improv/sketch duo Underthings will then give their own take. Denny Mac Dermott, one half of Underthings, said the tour will feature both well-known pieces and some hidden gems from the gallery.
“We’ll obviously be looking at Woman Writing a Letter, with her Maid by Vermeer because it’s hard to ignore that kind of beauty – and then make silly comedy about it, but we’ll also be seeing slightly less feted pieces like Venus and Cupid by Tosini, a painting that is, quite frankly, strange. But absolutely perfect for this tour,” Mac Dermott told us.
She said the artworks that will feature in the tour were chosen because “some of them are strange, some are very beautiful, but most of the paintings we have chosen are about people in odd or ambiguous situations – our personal wheelhouse”.
One question they will attempt to answer is indeed, ‘What did Zeus think he was playing at?’ Mac Dermott said Zeus, like Jupiter, “was an extremely terrible brother-husband and we hope to explore that”.
“Fingers crossed we’re not too late and a very angry women’s co-operative can be started on Mount Olympus.”
‘Marry the familiar with the strange’
Mac Dermott said the goal of combining art forms, such as classical art and comedy in this instance, is to engage people.
For me art is about finding a new or illuminating way to look at life and using an alternate discipline as a lens to examine someone else’s art form (or your own) is an excellent way to achieve that. In our case if some gentle teasing of high culture actually engages people then that’s great; good art can defend itself.
Combining different types of performance art is one of the goals of Frayed – Dublin’s free fringe festival, which the tour is part of.
Rick Doody, a co-founder of Frayed, said the festival was set up to highlight the quality of, and raise the profile of, performing arts in Dublin.
Dublin has a great performance art scene and we wanted to expose that to more people, through free shows and access programmes with people who might not normally be engaged by art.
He said the quality of the arts in Dublin is “excellent, but the audience for art could be bigger”.
Free shows will be running as part of the festival across various venues in Dublin city from tomorrow until Thursday.
Most of the events combine different types of performance, such as drama and comedy – something Doody said the festival’s organisers, a team of volunteers, is “really excited about”.
“To those on the outside, art can seem like something only for the initiated. Art intimidates many people. We think art should be challenging but also inviting,” he said.
Doody told us that in order to give non-traditional audiences “a way into” the arts, the festival’s plan is to “marry the familiar with the strange”, adding: “We want Frayed to be a gateway into the arts for those who would normally be afraid to go to a live art show.”
Another element of the festival involves outreach work such as stand-up comedy workshops with communities who may not normally get the chance to participate in such programmes.
“We know that one way to get people more involved is through participation, doing something is a great way of getting to know and enjoy it. We’ve run stand-up comedy workshops with individuals who wouldn’t normally get access to that kind of training,” Doody explained.
He said the festival is hoping to roll out a larger programme of workshops in the coming year “to give people access to a spectrum of different art forms”.
More information can be read here.
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I dont see the problem, the landlords own the property, the tenants sign a contract, break the contract and you risk being evicted.
Idiot tenants breaching their leases by subletting.
You’re right – they did break the law so they should face consequences.
Still maybe the legislation needs changing. As long as the property is maintained and the landlord gets his rent what’s the problem. I know it’s a real struggle for many in SF to pay the sky high rentals.
Also it would provide real value to tourists arriving in SF.
At least the landlords stateside can actually do something about their tenants flouting the terms of the lease … Here they would have to deal with the ridiculous PRTB … Wait months to get a hearing and more than likely receive no rent in the meantime …. And the the PRTB finding in favour of the tenant as the land lord forgot to cross a ‘t’ on one of the forms.
I don’t see why landlords should have a problem with this as long as their rent is being paid and no damage is being done to the property.
Tenants have no right to sub-let and thereby profit from a service that is not theres to provide.
Because a landlord presumably is happy with the tenants they let to. They have no control over who the tenant sub lets to.
Extra wear and tear
That could all be added in as terms and conditions. Wear and tear, insuring the room etc. let the landlord get his piece of the pie – after all it’s all about the money – it’s not some morality.
A friend lives in San Fran with his missus, 2 years ago he rented another 1 bed just so he could let it out on AirBnb.
He charges $125 a night and is fully booked 365 nights a year, it’s like a full time job for him, he even hires a cleaner.
I know in Dublin there are hundreds of people sub letting illegally on AirBnb, why the hell not if it helps pays the scandalous rent, AirBnb cover damages for guests so landlords should have no problem.
I assume that your friend is making considerably more from AirBnB than he pays in rent for the apartment. You don’t mention whether the landlord is aware, but judging by you opinion of illegal subletting in Dublin, I’m guessing they’re not.
I think scandalously high rents are greedy and unethical, but if the landlord is charging close to the going rate and is fair and decent towards the tenant then it is equally unethical to sublet illegally. Typically the landlord has made a significant financial investment in buying the property and decorating and furnishing it to a reasonable standard. They need the rent to recoup their costs and then make enough profit to make the venture worth their effort. If there is a way of making more profit from their property then that is their opportunity to take advantage of, not their tenant’s.
I don’t know a lot about business but in my layman’s opinion if the landlord has any financial sense they should “evict” your friend (their tenant) and make it available on AirBnB themselves. If they don’t want to do the work of dealing with new AirBnB tenants every day they should demand a considerable percentage profit from your friend or employ him to manage it.
Well said donal…. exactly my toughts…
I read that in an Ali G voice….reconize!
Lol!
I don’t see the problem here at all. If you don’t own the property, you have no business putting rooms in said property up for rent. If I did that, and was caught out by the landlord, I’d fully expect to be evicted.
My tenant should be thankful that at least I gave her 3 weeks to vacate my property after I found out she was hosting people from Airbnb. Thankfully, my neighbor called me and told me that on numerous occasions, people were staying at my house. In fact, on one weekend, there was a wedding. My daughter found my house listed on Airbnb and I took action. How dare she rent my house without my permission. I work hard for that house and it will be my retirement home in a few years. I want to know, am I entitled to the profits she made off of MY home? Oh, and she thinks she is getting her security deposit back which I am looking into.
have your say