Thesaurus Word Loops Booklet

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This is a new version of a booklet first produced in 2006. The booklet has been redesigned and some changes made to the content.

Each of these word loops takes a pair of words with opposite meanings as its starting point. A thesaurus was used to find a synonym for one of these words and then to find a synonym for that synonym and so on. Each new word suggested by thesaurus involves a slight slippage of meaning. These slippages accumulate resulting in a complete inversion of the original meaning. This process is repeated using the second word from the pair until the loop has been completed.

If you would like to receive a complimentary copy please send me your address: niall(at)nialldebuitlear.com

Woven Silver Cone from 10th Century Dublin

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There are three separate strands of silver, each composed of between 15 and 18 wires. Yet, Halpin says, it is very hard to find where all these wires end. The visual effect is that of a single thread turning endlessly around itself. There are traces of some kind of organic material inside the cone, probably a wax shape around which the wires were woven. The visual imagination and the physical deftness required to do so are of the highest order.

This artefact is housed in the National Museum of Ireland and the text and image above come from the Irish Times' History of Ireland in 100 objects

Will Eisner and Francis Alys

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I have, here, undertaken a series of vignettes built around nine elements which, taken together, are my portrayal of a big city...any city.

Seen from afar, major cities are an accumulation of big buildings, big population and big acreage. For me it is not 'real.' The big city as it is seen by its inhabitants is the real thing. The true picture is in the crevices on its floors and around the smaller pieces of its architecture where daily life swirls.

Will Eisner, from the introduction to New York: The Big City

Eisner's Comic New York: Life in the Big City (of which New York: The Big City is sub-section) contains many short episodic comics, often with little if any dialogue, depicting people engaged in small interactions with architectural elements of the city; fire hydrants, lamp posts, bins etc. It reminded me of Francis Alys' work using similar elements in urban public space.  Below is a page from Eisner's comic and a video by Alys.

No Manifesto - Yvonne Rainer

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NO to spectacle.No to virtuosity. No to transformations and magic and make-believe. No to the glamour and transcendency of the star image. No to the heroic. No to the anti-heroic. No to trash imagery. No to involvement of performer or spectator. No to style. No to camp. No to seduction of spectator by the wiles of the performer. No to eccentricity. No to moving or being moved.

Yvonne Rainer, No Manifest, 1965

Reviews of 'Out of Order'

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Updated: There's another review. I'm sure this must be the last one. It's by Alissa Kleist and is featured in the Visual Artists Newssheet's new review supplement. Here is a pdf.

James Merrigan has a review of my current show 'Out Of Order' at the Lab on his blog Billion. Here is a link to a PDF of his review.

Lauren Hisada wrote about the exhibition for The Dubliner Magazine which comes with the Evening Herald on Thursdays. Here is a PDF of that review.

Adrian Duncan reviewed the show along with Tool Use at Oonagh Young Gallery for Paper Visual Art.

 

The image used in this post is "Speakers' Corner" by Jorge Maachi