Local Ground at Siamsa Tire - UPDATE FEB '08 *
X-PO
Newsletter
DATE OF POSTING : 7 MARCH 2OO8
X PO Local Exchange, Kilnaboy, Co Clare.
X-PO Meitheal: Saturday 8th March 10am – 2pm.
There will be a meitheal to clear rubbish, restore the garden and begin a local plant archive at the old post office. If you have any old cottage plants or seedlings they would be much appreciated.
Please bring gardening gloves.
X-PO CLUBS: Starting Monday 24th March.
Days and activities to be posted on Mon 10th March.
X-PO exhibition 4th- 31st March.
JIM VAUGHAN Local News
“This project aims to portray life in my home village of Roundstone, Connemara without recourse to stereotypical representations of the West of Ireland. This work deals with the quotidian, those set of everyday occurrences, which are so common as to normally go unnoticed. They show the quite moments between other more obvious events.”
All photographs made in Roundstone between 1995 and 2003.
http://www.jimvaughanphotography.com/
X-PO
Newsletter
X PO Local Exchange, Kilnaboy, Co Clare. 3 MARCH 2008
X-PO MEITHEAL
SATURDAY 8TH MARCH
There will be a group clean up around the X-PO on Saturday 8thy March.We will be laying out a garden and making sure that the place is neat and tidy.
Please come along and lend a helping hand.
X-PO
Newsletter
X PO Local Exchange, Kilnaboy, Co Clare. 18 February 2008
mR. & mRS. Krab’s Utopia installation in the X-PO no:1
mR. & mRS. Krab’s Utopia installation in the X-PO no:2
mR. & mRS. Krab’s Utopia installation in the X-PO no:3
mR. & mRS. Krab’s Utopia installation in the X-PO no:4
X-PO
Newsletter
X PO Local Exchange, Kilnaboy, Co Clare. 24 January 2008
Opening of Amanda Dunsmore's "mR. & mRS. Krab’s Utopia"
X PO Local Exchange, Kilnaboy, Co Clare. 22 January 2008
Amanda Dunsmore presents
an installation for the X-PO"mR. & mRS. Krab’s Utopia"
a video on contemporary rural lifeExhibition runs 19th Jan - 16th February 2008
Monday – Saturday 2-5pm,
door
dewdrops
The content of "Mr. & Mrs. Krab’s Utopia" is a intimate, honest and often humorous meditation on contemporary rural life in Ireland from a ‘outsiders’ point of view. The participants of a series of interviews were asked 'Why did they relocate to start a new life, in Ireland. Were they looking for a kind of Utopia?'. The resulting conversations touched on many rural issues such as the weather, family, time, roads, drugs, cars, wealth, houses and the future.
‘I was looking for a outside and informed opinion on social issues found in contemporary rural Ireland. I decided to present an edited version of one these talks, with a Dutch couple. I combined this narrative with a random selection of one min. video studies, loosely recreating the visual details noticed when engaged in a conversation’. Dunsmore, 2007.
Amanda Dunsmore is an artist who lives and works in County Clare, Ireland. Her practice combines video, installation, photography and sound. She has exhibited widely in Ireland and also in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Iceland, Germany, Switzerland, Poland and Austria. Currently exhibiting in the Crawford Open, Cork. Recent exhibitions include Goethestrasse Gallery, Linz, 2007, Galway Arts Centre, 2007, The Musée international de la Croix-Rouge, Switzerland, 2006. Void, Derry, 2005.
"Mr. & Mrs. Krab’s Utopia" was commissioned under Ground Up 3 – and funded by Clare County Council Arts Office.
The X-PO is funded by the Arts Council/an Chomhairle Ealaionn and SuperValu
X-PO PROJECT PROGRAMME
Time-line and programme to date (14 January 2008)
2007
Sept/Oct Document, clean and paint interior.
Organise ‘meithel’ for exterior paintwork.
Advertise day for painting exterior.
Begin archive of existing material.
Do essential building repairs on plumbing, heating and floors of space.November
Distribute response postcards requesting information on desired activities for the space to all on the Kilnaboy electoral register and to all primary and secondary school pupils, and to the nearest Post Office- Corofin.
Print fliers, send press release to the Local Notes in the Clare Champion, the Clare People and Clare FM.
Publish TULCA pamphlet.
Set up scanner for photographic archive.December: 9th: Opening of building and Exhibition of Mattie Rynne Installation by Deirdre O’Mahony and Peter Daffy’s paintings of Mattie Rynne and friends, and archive. Open Mon-Fri 2-5pm (this is the minimum time the space will be open to the public, it can be open more with volunteer assistance).
Record future actions determined by community and disseminate through local press. Program agreed actions from Jan-July. Collate and re-present response to archive and community.
Purchase computer and install Internet connection.January: ‘The Life and Times of Mattie Rynne’ ends Jan 5th.
Archive becomes part of ‘Local Ground’ exhibition by Deirdre O’Mahony at Siamsa Tire Gallery Tralee Co Kerry.
Finish building work and program club and group activities from information on Questionnaires.
‘Mr and Mrs Krabb’s Utopia’ by Amanda Dunsmore opens January 19th and community clubs/societies begin Mon 21st Jan.February: 2nd: X-PO is part of the Burren Spring Seminar Narratives of People and Place. and visited as a field trip.
23rd (TBC) Open Local News, an exhibition of photographs from community photographer Peter Reese’s archive of Kilnaboy events over the last twenty years and Jim Vaughan’s series, Local News in the archive.
Clubs continue.
Archive of local narratives and documentation continues.
previous issues .....
X-PO
Newsletter
X PO Local Exchange, Kilnaboy, Co Clare.
X-PO Local Exchange, Kilnaboy, Co Clare.
REACTIVATING COMMUNITY EXCHANGE
Artist Deirdre O’Mahony has re-opened the old Kilnaboy Post Office. Her aim is to reactivate the kind of incidental community exchange and contact point that was once commonly associated with the day to day business of rural Post Offices all over Ireland. The X PO will be formally opened to the public on 9th December. The initial focus is on Mattie Rynne who was the former postmaster in Kilnaboy. Deirdre has created an installation in the private former kitchen space of the building with the archived the books and belongings of Mattie Rynne. The former postman of the district, Peter Daffy, a recent graduate from the Crawford College will exhibit paintings of Mattie and his friends in the renovated former post office space. It is hoped that seeing the exhibition, artefacts and objects will trigger stories about Mattie acting as a starting point in the documentation and archiving of local knowledge about the area. The customs, knowledge and the networks of the community in the past will thus be preserved and give pause to think about the needs and aspirations of the community of the present and future.
The X-PO will have two rooms open for community use for the following six months. One of will be available as a gathering point for clubs, groups and individual members of the community; examples could be a book club, knitting, photography or painting clubs, and film or philosophy clubs. The other room will become an archive/office and exhibition space showing examples of historic and contemporary artists work which has a direct connection to Kilnaboy. It will also house a computer, scanner and recording equipment to gather local stories and photographs of Kilnaboy.
The location and history of the Post Office at Kilnaboy, as well as the wealth of local anecdote connecting the community to the place, should make it an ideal start point for a cultural hub. The potential will be there for it to continue beyond the timeline of the X-PO project and continue as a self-sustaining local cultural resource. Documentation of the project will be made available to the community to assist in future applications to maintain such a space in Kilnaboy.
For more information contact Deirdre O’Mahony
Tel: 086 8699973S 065 6837177or by email on xpo.kilnaboy@gmail.com
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