Pick of the weekend: Offset
This year the design conference spread its wings beyond its Bord Gáis Energy Theatre mothership with Amplify Your City, a series of events and exhibitions that have been popping up around Dublin since the end of March.
But it’s really all about the main course series of talks and discussions that kick off right about now in Dublin’s Docklands (assuming you are reading this over your 11 o’clock break, you work-shy chancer).
Highlights today include Reed + Radar, who saw the digital-arts wave coming, and have been blending photography, graphic design, augmented reality and animation from the get go. Local hero Robert Ballagh will be discussing his life and work, before 4creative, Channel 4’s in-house crew, explain its strange world view. And don’t forget to catch Mr Bingo, who does a fine line in insulting strangers.
Saturday features Offset favourites Pentagram, in the form of Angus Hyland; British design duo Tado, who have a charming Japanese aesthetic; multimedia artists Russell Mills, who has worked with the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Brian Eno and Peter Gabriel; and font and graphic designer Jonathan Barnbrook, who might well be the weekend’s highlight, thanks to his designs for David Bowie’s albums (above) and his politically charged work. Yes, fonts can be controversial.
On Sunday, web designers Studio Dumbar are well worth a look; Andy Ristaino will talk through his career that has led to the cult hit Adventure Time; and Una Burke will discuss her work in the luxury leather sector.
The format remains unchanged in recent years, so if you miss a main-stage speaker, check the schedule of the secondary stages and you might get a second chance to catch them. And remember to take lots and lots of notes. This is the sort of conference that can launch a thousand design ideas, no matter what type or level of creative you consider yourself.
See iloveoffset.com.
Friday
Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott
Big Top Limerick 8pm €34.50
dolans.ie
One of the most successful British pop acts of the past 25 years was The Beautiful South (which split up in 2007, you’ll recall, due to “musical similarities”). Gone but by no means forgotten, the band’s original co-founder teams up with its second female singer, and while there are Beautiful South hits galore, don’t forget that Heaton and Abbott have two very fine albums from which to cherry-pick songs.
Melodic
The Sugar Club Dublin 11pm €15
thesugarclub.com
A night for legends from home and abroad with François Kevorkian and Donal Dineen on Leeson Street. Kevorkian is the New York DJ, producer and remixer whose spells at such seminal spaces as The Loft, Paradise Garage, Body & Soul and Deep Space saw him leave his mark on the Big Apple's nightlife. Ticket contributor Dineen provides the Kerry connection, a DJ whose radio shows and club appearances over the years have been the stuff of many good times.
Shivers
Electric Garden Galway 10pm €10/€8/€5
John Daly is the bill-topper out west, the Cork native who has been producing and releasing warm-hearted grooves with much space and depth for labels like his own Feel imprint, Love Fever, Drumpoet Community, Mule Musiq and Francois Kevorkian’s Wave Music. He is joined by Quarion, the Berlin-based Swiss-born magician behind a rake of impressive widescreen house grooves for Retreat and Drumpoet Community. New Jackson opens proceedings.
Reverberation Psych Festival
Grand Social Dublin 8pm €22-€12
thegrandsocial.ie
Prepare for two nights of acts that run the gamut from trippy pop to epic psych and all eargasmic points in between. Tonight’s bill includes Glasgow’s The Cosmic Dead and Dublin’s Twinkranes. Saturday’s line-up includes Nottingham’s Cult of Dom Keller, Cornwall’s The Black Tambourines, and Dublin’s Beach.
Truly Divine/Josh Johnston
Unitarian Church, Stephens Green, 8pm, €15/12
dublinunitarianchurch.org
Dutch-born Dublin-resident burlesque singer Truly Divine brings old-style theatricality to Broadway tunes and jazz standards, inhabiting the songs with ready wit, impeccable timing and more than a touch of the femme fatale. Don't be surprised if she drapes herself languorously across Josh Johnston's piano as they launch their new duo album, Close Your Eyes. The hallowed gloom of the Unitarian Church won't know what hit it.
Saturday
Solar Bears
Whelan's Dublin 7pm €14
It’s a big night for Rian Trench and John Kowalski as they launch the third Solar Bears’ album Advancement for the Sunday Best label. A year in the making, the album was recorded in a number of spaces to highlight the sonic quality of different venues and aims to show “the widespread decay of the natural world”. The band have also been working with US film-maker Michael Robinson on a series of videos to go with the album. Support from MMOTHS (whose excellent new album Luneworks was produced by Trench) and Sunken Foal.
On the River
The Basement Limerick 10pm €15/€12/€10
As a long-time resident at Berlin’s Panorama Bar, Achim “Prosumer” Brandenburg (left) was one of those responsible for soundtracking the top floor in the Berghain club with warm house and tech grooves. Originally from Saarbruecken, Germany, and now based in Edinburgh, Prosumer’s adventures as a DJ began when he worked behind the counter at Hard Wax in Berlin before moving on to spin tunes at clubs worldwide. Support from Limerick DJ and producer Cian Frawley aka Frawl.
Claude VonStroke
Opium Rooms, Dublin 11pm €15/€12/€10
opiumrooms.ie
The Detroit native and San Francisco resident born Barclay Crenshaw, Claude VonStroke is best known for overseeing the rise and rise of the Dirtybird label since 2005. Under his guidance, the label has become a reliable spot for dirty house music with hip-hop, funk and drum ‘n bass influences. He himself has contributed hugely to the label’s run of fine, fierce, wiggly dancefloor anthems with tracks like Who’s Afraid of Detroit? and The Whistler. Sweaty times await as he visits town.
Adventure Capital
The Model, Sligo
themodel.ie 071-9141405
Sean Lynch’s Venice Biennale exhibition continues its lap of the country with a sting in The Model, Sligo. Tonight, the artist joins author Kevin Barry in conversation to mark the opening evening. As part of the exhibition, Lynch has also created A Blow-by-Blow Account of Stonecarving in Oxford (2013-14), a 60-page photonovel that explores the oeuvre of 19th-century stonecarvers John and James O’Shea, who carved monkeys, cats, owls, and parrots on buildings in Oxford and Dublin.
Sunday
A Weed is a Plant Out of Place
Anna Atkins, Harry Callahan, Pierpaolo Campanini, Mat Collishaw, Dorothy Cross, Latifa Echakhch, Susan Hartnett, Michael Landy, Mateo Lopez, Maria Sibylla Merian, Adrian Paci, Luisa Rabbia, Jeanne Silverthorne, Philip Taaffe, Emma Tennant, Michael John Whelan and Pae White.
Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore, Co Waterford Until September 30, lismorecastlearts.ie
Curator Allegra Pesenti has found some rare specimens among the hardy perennials for an exploration of the concept of weeds in the cultivated setting of Lismore Castle garden and grounds. She’s thinking literally, and metaphorically. It’s no surprise to find that migration is an underlying theme.
Seamus Fogarty
The Workman's Club, Dublin, 8pm €5
theworkmansclub.com
Fogarty is a London-based Irish singer-songwriter, whose 2012 debut album, God Damn you Mountain, gained him many admirers and much critical praise. Not for nothing, as the man is truly a singular talent, and his music (which mixes it up between folk, electronica and blues) equally so. Special guest tonight is Mossy Nolan.
Animation Art Show
The Ark, 11a Eustace St, Temple Bar, Dublin 2
ark.ie
This show features artworks, celluloids and stills from well-known animation shows. The works are on display over two weekends, with sales proceeds going towards Irish children’s charities. Among the works on offer are prints from Cartoon Saloon’s Oscar-nominated Song of the Sea (above), an original production cel from Care Bears, and a painting by Tomm Moore. On Sunday there will be workshops for children, with meet the animators demo sessions on Saturday. It’s a growth industry: bring your child along and maybe you might just give them a career for life, and then they can skip that whole school thing.
St Luke's Art Sale
BDO, Beaux Lane House, Mercer St Lr, Dublin 2
friendsofstlukes.ie
A charity sale in aid of St Luke’s Cancer Care takes place on the top floor of BDO, so nice views are guaranteed. Among the artists featured are Mick O’Dea, Norman Teeling, Róisín O’Farrell, James Hanley.
