CHQ Sold without a Concept contravenes Tender Rules - Surely DDA not engaging in Non-Transparency?

CHQ - the distinctive iron-framed former tobacco warehouse on Dublin's George's Dock, which was sold on Tuesday - is an ideal opportunity to put civic over corporate interest, not that they are mutually exclusive. But Dublin’s Docklands is a soulless, corporate ghetto, devoid of character or anything in the way of cultural heritage. The Jeannie Johnston doesn’t count. CHQ was bought by former chairman and chief executive of the Coca-Cola Company €10m. The agents struggled to achieve the €10m figure and had to repeat the tender process. Like Nice and Lisbon, if you don’t get the right answer first time around, keep going. Ironically, the initial tender brief stressed that the DDA was not obliged to accept the highest figure and that the appropriate concept was a major consideration. What’s strange about the winning bid is there is no concept. Let’s hope the new owner really is ‘thrilled with the opportunity to develop and improve this wonderful, iconic and historic building. We will be evaluating and developing a number of ideas over the coming months and engaging with the relevant local and national public bodies to assist in our objective of establishing a new distinctive destination location for Dublin.’ We know only too well that the word ‘develop’ can mean very different things in Ireland. This landmark building is ideal for a National Marketplace, a permanent trading-post for Irish artisan food and design. Its location on the banks of the Liffey is a perfect showcase for our land and sea produce, with restaurants open night and day. A bid submitted by catering entrepreneur,proposed such a use for the ground floor with art and cultural heritage elements in the vaults. An Bord Bia have expressed support for the proposal, and why wouldn't they, it gives them a shop window to the world. Last year Bord Bia held a showcase of Irish food producers for one week, attracting 500 overseas buyers and netting €33 million euro in sales. Think of the market in Barcelona, the Chelsea Market NYC or dare I say, a bigger, sexier version of the English Market in the southern capital. Other proposals included a Riverdance themed space, a micro-brewery, a pod hotel and though it is not a bid, there is a suggestion that IMMA should be located there. Personally, I think Boland's Mills is the place for our Tate Britain. As it stands there are few tenants remaining in the virtually deserted mall. Meadows and Byrne left as soon as their rent free period expired. Now there's tumbleweed and glass and little left for the DDA to do before it hands over the Docklands to Dublin City Council, except perhaps save face and leave a dignified legacy to the area. The sale of CHQ will yield nowhere near a return on the original DDA investment of €42m euro. In fact, much of the investment will be ripped out if anything edifying is to be made of the interior. But the value and integrity of this building isn't in its financial return, it is simply an attractive piece of nineteenth-century craftsmanship and engineering, a counterpoint to the repetitive corporate low-rise on the quays, a landmark that should be used in the national interest. During the development of the Irish Financial Services Centre the building was incubated until a heritage/museum function could be found and fell under their control of the then DDDA. It has never complied with its heritage remit and the treasure trove of subventions from surrounding tenants has been building up. Where this trove is deposited has yet to be discovered, according to agents, Lisney, the funding has not been collected, so there is a little surprise in store for a few foreign banks in the vicinity.

Back in the hungry Tiger days, the director of property at DDDA,envisaged a grand fashion destination, with the likes of Armani and Ralph Lauren. The global brands saw the writing on the wall long before DDDA opened its eyes. The key to the success of this site is that it must benefit the country and provide a tangible tourism destination, an appropriate venue for family holidaymakers and visiting dignitaries that doesn't involve sipping a pint of the black stuff. In other words, let’s hope next time FLOTUS and her girls or QEII come to visit, there will be a truly remarkable piece of Irish endeavour to show off.

Model Agricultural Schools

The mangold wurzel was for nineteenth-century Irish agricultural improvement what rape seed is today. The success of this crop and its replacement of the potato as primary animal fodder exercised the minds of improvers and picaresque visitors alike; transmitting the information took up to 100 years in Ireland. Farmers are still being encouraged today to try new forms of crop rotation and even though it was well known in the nineteenth century, rape is now the dominant crop favoured in rotation. Today, the yield from a wheat crop is 35% greater when it has been planted in the same field, following a rape seed crop. The oil from rape seed is used in industry and the remainder used to make rape cake which is the current staple animal fodder in Ireland. This useful information is transmitted to farmers today via weekly journals, radio news and regular agricultural seminars in centres throughout the country.

In the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries English and Scottish improvers spearheaded the drive to improve methods of cultivation and animal breeding and transmit their findings through pamphlets via the Royal Society of London. The main protagonists were Jethro Tull, Thomas Coke of Holkham Hall , Robert Bakewell, Lord Townshend and Arthur Young. Their activities culminated in the establishment of the English Board of Agriculture in 1793. The improvement movement had a more limited influence in Ireland. The Dublin Society was formed in 1731 and its primary function was the promotion of new methods and improved farm machinery. The RDS briefly maintained an experimental farm in Dublin and held demonstrations in Phoenix Park, as well as publishing information on farming methods. It introduced premiums in 1741 to encourage farmers to adopt the latest ideas on cultivation, manuring and horticulture.

Crops
Turnips and red clover had been introduced into England from Flanders by Sir Richard Weston in 1644/45, and rye grass a few years later, the ‘new agriculture’ took hold first among the farmers of Norfolk where the popular four-course rotation was developed, and was known as ‘Norfolk farming’:

1. Wheat (sown the previous autumn)
2. Roots (sown in early summer)
3. Barley (sown in spring)
4. Clover (sown with the barley in year 3)

The advantages of this system were that it would provide farmers with an abundance of food for winter house feeding of livestock. In turn, the livestock would provide good manure to fertilise the fields, doing away with the long fallow period to let the land recover. Shortage of manure had always been an obstacle to agricultural productivity. Sowing of mangolds or turnips as root crops was slow to progress because of broadcast sowing, it was only with the Tull seed drill and horse hoe (after 1731) that support grew for these crops. It wasn’t until late nineteenth century that the small Irish farmers took to drills over the predominant lazybed . It was these two main improvements, crop rotation and sowing, that the model agricultural schools needed to impart and instil in its students and subsequently their parents. Extract from: Model Agricultural Schools in the 19th Century, a Masters Thesis by Deirdre Conroy Agricultural Improvement in the 18th and 19th century

Anita Groener - New Work at the Rubicon Gallery

LAND – a new show by Anita Groener reviewed by Deirdre Conroy

Anita Groener’s recent work at the Rubicon Gallery is spare and pure.

Groener, who was born and studied in the Netherlands, has lived most of her artist’s life in Ireland. She has taken the complex work of Hieronymus Bosch’ The Ship of Fools (or the Satire of the Debauched Revellers) and The Conjurer, deconstructed their allegorical context, removing the faces of the revellers, appropriating their identities and creating an entirely new narrative. It is interesting that she chose images remembered from her student art history books, utilising the source of learning, engaging with replication and manipulation to produce a new meaning for the matured artist.

In Witness, her arrangement of the revelling faces, now a series of dots within their own circular motif, underlines the arbitrariness of meaning. The 15th-century hedonistic figures adrift from reason, have become part of a 21st century work; this transposition from one medium to another imposes a dialogue with history, interrogating the nature of human interaction with vice and folly and examining a 500-year old work in the context of where we are today. While the Late Gothic Mannerism of Bosch’s work is concerned with grotesquely representing human flaws and life on earth as an unending repetition of original sin, Groener abstracts that apocalyptic theme and rearranges it in her distinctive manner, translating it into a new language.

In other works she uses her mark on paper to convey systems of control, in Missing, Lost and Matrix, the dot or the line are not simply geometric ciphers. Interconnected lines become grids, grids contain tiny figures, the subtext of restraint, containment, entrapment is ever-present in the trope.

In 2010 Groener had a residency at the Joseph and Anni Albers Foundation in Connecticut. Her re-discovery of the work of Anni Albers during this time inspired her exploration of geometric pattern and the grid. Albers who was 95 when she died in 1994 is renowned as a textile designer and weaver, predominantly polychromatic geometric compositions; hers was the first ever show by a textile designer at MoMA in 1949. Groener found that Albers’ drawings were executed using the grid method and has interpreted that discipline as her own commentary on control and access, freedom to express and withholding of choice. Albers did not have access to painting classes in the Bauhaus and chose to concentrate and excel at weaving.

Where once the line between home and displacement was clear; history and the present were defined, Groener’s thoughtful and provocative images demonstrate a blurring of time and territorial boundaries in LAND.

The show continues until 19 November at the Rubicon Gallery, 10 St Stephen’s Green
Images courtesy of the artist and the Rubicon Gallery.

New Sebastian Guinness Gallery on Dawson Street

Sebastian Guinness Gallery moves to Dawson Street and opens with a new show by Wolfe von Lenkiewicz: Liberation: Their Story Begins.
The Sebastian Guinness Gallery has moved from Temple Bar to 42 Dawson Street, built in 1910, its gracious portico has already welcomed many from the design and craft industry. It was the office of architects de Blacam and Meagher until the mid nineties and the spacious meeting room to the rear was the former atelier of Lainey Keogh. The room has been transformed, with the help of designer Brian McDonald, from a riot of colourful yarn and worktables into a pristine white space, perfectly lit as an exhibition venue.

The opening show by Wolfe von Lenkiewicz contains grand gestural pieces suitably epic for the main gallery and a series of densely worked drawings which line the foyer are redolent of old master Dutch and German engravings and convey the artists consummate skill as a draughtsman.

The gallerist and artist met at one of Von Lenkiewicz’s exhibitions in a disused bank building in London; no stranger to putting on shows in disused bank buildings, Guinness invited him to exhibit here.

Von Lenkiewicz’s work is inter-referential, paying homage to or parodying other forms of art. His depiction of Jeff Koons’ ‘Michael Jackson and Bubbles’ piece is perhaps the most obvious and apposite. He manipulates Disney characters into deconstructed narratives, Snow White morphs into a skeletal quadruped, sagging under the weight of the seven dwarfs as Bambi stares in innocence. Traditionally innocent iconography is dismantled and exposed.

His references range from Velazquez to Bacon in ‘Portrait of Alice as Innocent X’ and his combination of Warhol’s Brillo with Lewis Carroll’s recumbent and seductive Alice plays on the advertising industry, the suggestion of the housewife’s submission to some hidden domestic bliss. He takes images we associate with fairytales, religious iconography, mythology and the old masters, combining them to produce a dark shift in perception, an unsettling reminder of the power of suggestion and the assertion that anything can be appropriated and redefined. These works are not just a chilling reminder of the manipulation of images, genres and the message; they are great works in themselves.

Wolfe von Lenkiewicz presently works in Berlin, He has exhibited throughout Europe in Maison Rouge, The Kunsthaus, Hamburg, the Palais de L’Iles, The Triumph Gallery in Moscow.

Knight of Glin

‘A Good Knight’: A Tribute to Desmond FitzGerald, Knight of Glin (1937-2011
When I was studying History of Art in UCD in the early nineties, as a young mother with very young boys, one not yet in school, time was a luxury. There was only one great text on the history of Irish artists and it was out of print by about fifteen years. It was The Painters of Ireland by Anne Crookshank and Desmond FitzGerald, Knight of Glin. There was one copy in the library and there was no amazon.com. Finding time to get to the library let alone photocopy what I needed was a near impossibility. So, with some guilt at what we might forego, for the very princely sum of sixty pounds in real money, that book became my first great investment and my introduction to the breadth of knowledge and forensic investigations of two legendary collaborators.
Sadly, Ireland has just lost one of that intrepid team. Little did I realise then, that the Knight would be instrumental in many of my own forays into publishing. I was very honoured to be a contributing author on Painting Ireland, edited by William Laffan, based on the unique collection of Irish topographical views at Glin Castle.
Last weekend, in the beautiful village of Glin in county Limerick, his family, friends, fellow scholars and the people of Glin came from far and near to pay tribute to a stalwart defender of Ireland’s heritage. Desmond’s tireless campaign for the protection of our architectural heritage, the return of our great works of art and craftsmanship, and the publication of a body of work that is definitive on Irish art, architecture and furniture, singles him out as a hero of our times.
When I visited him in hospital recently he was surrounded by books and learned journals, his mind as lucid and enquiring as ever. He remembered the subject of my current research and whispered endless sources that I might follow. I confided that he was a character in my current book and it brought a smile to his face.
Glin Castle and gardens reflects the exquisite taste and earnest approach to conservation and restoration of both Desmond and his wife, Olda. He was generous in arranging tours of the castle and particularly kind when sharing his own knowledge and research; his library and study at Glin are a scholar’s haven. Villagers told me that Glin was where he loved to be, he was clearly held in very fond esteem locally for his work with Glin village. With all of his accomplishments and the honours bestowed upon him, his heart and pride was with his family and Glin.

Mount Trenchard

I am writing my first novel, I've been working on it for nearly four months, but the story has been sitting in my head for nearly six years, with a burst of research done two years ago and an absolute necessity to start it this Spring. No wonder it has taken so long - writing fiction is such a different discipline to historic reports, where there's a client, a deadline and a cheque when they're finished. The importance of listening and capturing dialogue is another big difference. My book is set in Limerick, about a 19th century estate, its tenants and landlord, yes, when I said that to my youngest son a few years ago, he looked at me in horror, 'Stop now Mom, nobody is ever going to read it!' He'll see. The story is revealed through a woman making an urgent exodus from New York, arriving in Shannon in 2010. Her story from New York to Limerick, Foynes, Glin Castle and Mount Trenchard reveals intriguing parallels and themes between the 1850's and today. A tenuous love affair with the west begins through her encounters and her efforts at making use of the land around the house. How does she unlock the mysteries of the estate? And what hitherto untold stories of the famine do they reveal?

Haiti Day 7

The six bus convoy makes its way across the border and we leave all the tarantulas, cockroaches and some happier families behind as we head towards a shower and a bed for the night in Puerta Plata. I have come away with Builder’s Foot and Masonry Hair, those boots wont be going back on for a while and a hot shower wont go astray. It’s nearly a five hour journey and I am entertained for most of it by Ronan Plumber in Chief, until the Haiti fatigue takes over and I drop off into deep sleep. We are both agreed that Ireland’s recession is the reason we were able to make time to plan this trip. Fundraising wasn’t easy for anybody and some funded themselves to get here and came early to prepare the site for the rest of us. Those of us in the construction industry are not as busy as we used to be and long may it continue that we find the time and energy to give ourselves to those who need a hand up.

Three hundred Irish, a Scot and a Frenchman on their last night together – after dinner and speeches, it was off to the Hallowe’en party in the hotel night club. At last some real drinks! Prestige, our Haitian beer on site was grand, our lot must have drunk Haiti dry, but I’ll be glad not to see another can for a year........ which must mean that we are already considering coming back..

Dancing in coffins in the club ended at around 3am, the volunteers going back to Dublin had to be on their bus for 5am, so, clearly, the thing to do was go into town to the local night club. Our dedicated water girl Sarah volunteered to go and get them back, I can’t give you a first-hand report from there, we had been on the go for nearly 24 hours at that stage and it was the real bed that won out. But I’m happy to report by Sunday 1 November, 50 of our sturdiest party stalwarts made it from that club directly to the bus and airport...

What kept me going all week was the thought of a few days recovery in neighbouring Dominican Republic, where I and queen of the plumbers stuck a pin in the map and found a hotel in Cabarete, the kite surfing capital of the world. As luck would have it, two of the other volunteers were coming here as well (they’ll be the guys emptying the mountain of socks out of their surfboard bags on the video). Leslie’s son Paddy, Ed, Susan and I all piled into a taxi and headed along the Atlantic coast for another hour, the guys for the kitesurfing and us to collapse under a parasol.

Our jaws dropped when we got to our hotel, standing in the foyer, we could see the big blue ocean and coconut trees swaying a few metres away. We’d made it!

Susan and I had learned to live with two items of clothes a day, the most basic of washing and sleeping and non-stop work, we were now faced with options – eating, swimming, drinking, walks on beach, browsing in shops – after only one week, we realised how little we could do with and didn’t know where to start...... by the end of the day, having had a look around Cabarete, we were fascinated at how different the two cultures on the same island could be. In Haiti, there are a lot of questions to answer, hopefully, as Haven and Irish volunteers continue to go there, we will help them to help themselves.

I have to thank all my donors for sending me out on Build it Week for Haven and Haiti – Mick, Johnny, Stephen, Peter C, Peter F, Pete C, Manfredi, Liam, Tim, Hilary, Paul and Geoff

I dedicate these blogs to my two sons Cameron and Finlay, and hope they will be inspired to come out next year, as they are two strong, able-bodied party men themselves and I hope my own house is still standing when I get home.