Cathy's Art Diary

Thoughtful and stunning exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland: Decorative Arts and History by contemporary artist in glass Alison Lowry. Lowry had responded to various Irish scandals from the Tuam Mother and Baby Home, Magdalene laundries and domestic abuse. The works were poignant and beautiful. So often art responding to issues like these becomes very conceptual and ungainly but these made you focus on the story and the effect on individuals. Any piece would have worked as an interesting piece of art even without the story. I think my favourite was this work consisting   of 10,000 figures cut out from old £5 notes with the image of a founder of the Magdalene laundries, representing the number of women who went through them, pouring out of church collection bags.   December 2023  

Interesting display at the National Museum of Ireland: Decorative Arts and History on the fashion designer Ib Jorgensen who was based in Dublin. I think this may be a permanent display but, it was so good and specific, that I thought it worth mentioning. I certainly don’t remember it from last time I was at the museum. Jorgensen was born in Denmark but moved to Dublin aged 15. He opened his own salon aged 22 and his mantra was “fabric, cut and style”. He championed Irish materials. The display was a stunning range of garments donated to the museum. As they had come from ordinary people they were a range of sizes and it was good to see clothes you felt you might wear in a show of this kind. It would have been nice if the clothes had been shown in chronological to give a sense of how his work changed. I particularly liked the highly ornate embroidery on some of the pieces.   No closing date given.  

Fascinating exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland: Decorative Arts and History on the role of photography during Ireland’s revolutionary decade. It set out the story clearly using wonderful images which it explained well. It was a shame they were shown as reproductions but it was good to see a note explaining why and it would have had to be a very different, less accessible show if they had used originals. It was a nice touch to have a few cabinets with original albums and publications in draws. It included a nice balance of amateur and professional work and explained how new cameras enabled more people to take photographs. It also examined how images were used, particularly interesting in a section on surveillance used by both sides in the conflicts. A number of the images were grim but I loved this First World War from a convalescent home. There is a novel in it somewhere! Closes 2024