Frank Rafter's Blog: The primrose path

.......Well, not really; even though Rag Week is on, school is working away - 4th years have submitted their theses and are relieved and others are beavering away in the library.
Yesterday morning we had an ad hoc CCS at which we watched one of Simon Schama's 'Power of Art' films centred around Turner and his late work - The Slave Ship -

- which interestingly produced serious division of opinion as to its merits in the ensuing discussion - extremely stimulating! Coincidentally, I finished my day with a viewing of a BBC4 film again on Turner -this time using his association with the Thames as its theme. It was presented very articulately(if a little repetitive at times) by Matthew Collings,

The Thames near Walton - 1808

The Thames Estuary near Margate. - 1840

None of this was any pain to me as I have always been a fan of JMWT since first seeing the Turner Galleries in London.

I spent a lot of time in front of screens yesterday - caught up on that amazing series on Channel 4 - 'Utopia' - extraordinary imagery, and went to the Source Film Club last night to see an Iranian film - 'Abpot Elly' - highly recommended; the same director produced 'a Separation,' another really good Iranian picture.

OK, where was I? Right -I left(?) Printmakers and wended my way up to LCGA enjoying many interesting encounters with Ground Metal along the way:

There are pictures everywhere.

LCGA is currently staging three exhibitions:

The first - Seed Matter -focuses on the freedom to use seed throughout the world and on the attempts of corporations - mainly western - to patent seed and exclude their use from people who traditionally relied on these:

Here are three images of a gold-plated seed in a jar:

In passing, I am beginning to worry slightly about my continually downward-tilted head:

What? -well actually,the floor in LCGA

Another exhibition concerned the formation of the Limerick Soviet:

... a period of our history about which I was very hazy.

Finally I was, needless to say, very taken with the selection of drawings and photos from the permanent collection.

One thing about images of Limerick - if Dublin can do it .............

Sans Paroles

I previously mentioned our last lecture with David Brancaleone and I have been reading back over my notes and just thinking what a stimulating theme it was -'Framing the World' - and one one his central point chimed so strongly with my own thinking - Seeing, Looking,Viewing, Gazing. What I particularly liked was the breath of coverage and that this was not limited solely to contemporary art.

Thus: