Undergraduate Exhibition Opening

Our final lecture and sojourn with Gordan D'Arcy was on Friday. We discussed art in conflict, the politics of Northern Ireland and looked at a lot of gable art. We took a long walk after that, through the woods, along the road and down a peninsula I never knew existed. It was a beautiful day for it, brisk and bright and made all the more special by friends.

Sarcoscypha coccina, spotted on the final Irish Studies trek.

A friendly fellow.

Walking along the sandy peninsula.

I helped a few others with their hanging on Friday night, as I was finished with my own set-up. Precious few hours remained before our exhibition opening. The title of the show is 14:1, in reference to the female to male ratio of the undergraduates. In the end I chose to use an abstract artist statement, because I realized I was tired of summarizing my work in dry, academic fashion. I priced each piece, though I am not very hopeful they will sell. Everyone else's work is astounding, and the use of the new barn studios for gallery space was a boon. 

My exhibition space.

Playground: just about the most ambitious thing I've done.

And so the opening commenced on Saturday night. People began arriving a little after five, and in droves by six. In characteristic Irish fashion things were only loosely on schedule, and so the opening speech was not until 6:30. I ducked out to prepare for my performance, which was immediately following. It was a flurry of preparation and then suddenly there were twenty or more people staring me down and waiting for a piece of performance art. But things went smoothly, and I received very encouraging feedback on it. I filmed the piece, and it will be uploaded somewhere in the wasteland of the internet ere long.

The only major injury of the opening: Rebecca breaks her toe.

Just before my performance began. Photocred: Laura Love.

Winding down.

At eight, Robert "the Brilliant" Wainwright was kind enough to drive us all home to Orchard House. I will leave the festivities to the imagination of my readers, as I have already heard enough about what I don't remember of them. Congratulations to us!