Author Archives: lowe dev

Written by: Fiona Gruber, Writer, producer and radio broadcaster Photos by: Mike Baker Today’s culture is saturated with images, says Shaun Tan, and the sensory overload we experience has made us more visually literate. The downside is that we’ve lost a lot of our visual sensibility. Readers look for an average of eight seconds, says the world-renowned […]

Written by: Fiona Gruber Feminism is at the heart of Sally Smart’s work. Her use of collage and assemblage in different mediums and materials, although resulting in large installations on public display, also explore the private world of pattern-cutting and home making and the crafts traditionally associated with women. ‘I use the technique of cutting and […]

Written by: Fiona Gruber Sleeping in a walk-in wardrobe might not be everyone’s idea of the Hollywood dream but for Rhys Mitchell, a bit of deprivation on the road to success is par for the course. The Australian actor, filmmaker and musician is describing his almost three years in the US and his cramped digs on […]

Written by: Fiona Gruber Moira Finucane has been described as a force of nature; but the performer and producer’s identity as Queen of edgy, sometimes monstrous genre and gender-twisting cabaret is a carefully crafted one, embellished over a career spanning three decades. With her stern Gothic looks and elaborate, Goddess meets fantasy-heroine costumes, the co-creator and […]

Written by: Fiona Gruber ‘We see ourselves as separate from all other animals,’ observes the artist Lisa Roet, ‘but we are apes, we are all part of the hominid family and we’re only just beginning to understand ourselves.’ We’re discussing the study of humans, their ancestors and the other species to which we’re related. This subject […]

Written by: Fiona Gruber When Libby Hathorn ‘s first picture story book came out in 1979, the publisher cavilled at the species of tree being depicted in the tale. Why a Eucalyptus? they queried. An Ash or Oak would have greater international appeal. Hathorn stuck to her guns and her gums and Stephen’s Tree was a […]

Written by: Adele Dimopolous Artist, Konstantin Dimopoulos – who is currently working on a range of projects in the USA – was born in Port Said, Egypt, to Greek parents and grew up at the mouth of the Suez Canal until the age of eight, when the family moved to Wellington, New Zealand. In 2003 he moved […]

Written by: Fiona Gruber What’s it like being a visual artist in Ireland?  Artist, Ian Wieczorek, who moved from the UK to the Republic in 1992, says that the country is justifiably proud of its creative heritage, especially its storytelling traditions and literary luminaries like Beckett, Joyce, Yeats and Heaney.   He cites the likes of digital […]

Written by: Fiona Gruber When Emily Floyd was a child, she’d go on protests with her mother and father, demonstrations that focussed on the rights of working women and the need for state-subsidised day care centres for children. Her parents were toymakers as well as activists and this world of child-centred play, learning and consciousness-raising is […]

Written by: Fiona Gruber What rhymes with Fidel Castro? Carolyn Burns says she’s not allowed to say too much about her current project, a musical she’s been tinkering with for several years based on Cuba’s turbulent post-war history.  As for its chances of getting up, she says, as a TV and stage writer with several decades […]