With Trinity Arts Festival having the unfortunate fate of running alongside the Students Union election campaigns, its colourful events often fall on deaf ears. Fear not, though, as volunteers, organisers, and attendees of TAF’s events will cover some of the day and night happenings throughout the week, day by day.
TAF Launch Party, Friday night
Clár ní Cheallaigh
Last Friday night the Hist Conversation Room was transformed in a haze of coloured light, paint, glitter and music as Trinity Arts Festival 2014 officially kicked off. The tables were loaded with an assortment of art supplies that your 8 year-old self could have only dreamed of and, in a flurry of creativity, the box of white TAF t-shirts became pieces of art. Everyone then tucked in to the decedent (no, really) reception and sat back to admire their work. The event is very much indicative of what’s to come this week. Think fun creative spaces and events that are open for everyone to enjoy, as for five days Trinity becomes a hub of artistic energy and imagination!
Sen5e, Monday night
Lucy Murray
Greeted by wavering lanterns and an eerily lit chemistry laboratory, not a part of the installation but atmospheric nonetheless, the first evening of the 2014 Trinity Arts Festival was a pleasure for as many senses as one could muster. Sen5e sought to combine the auditory delight of the Trinity Orchestra, the aesthetic talents of VisArts and the rhetorical, emotive skills of the spoken words performers from various spheres of Trinity in an all-encompassing sensory smorgasbord.
With ambient lighting, the sound of the string quartet echoes while speakers join the music with heartfelt, hilarious and enthused poetry.
Creatively placed in the Squash Courts, the at once divided and united space allowed for the conglomeration of the artistic talents displayed for all. With ambient lighting, the sound of the string quartet echoes while speakers join the music with heartfelt, hilarious and enthused poetry. This, all combined with the colourful engagement of the adjoining room allowed all who came to feel the real impact of the creativity, imagination, talent and wonder that was on show. From the balcony, with a bird’s eye view of each of these spaces, all at once, it was most definitely an inspiring opening night to the highlight of the college calendar.
Bram Stoker Club Paper, Tuesday daytime
Owen Murphy
Today, in association with the Bram Stoker paper reading club in the Phil, we had the first of 2 TAF papers of the week. Hannah McCarthy, former queen of TAF, auditrix of the Hist, and perennial arts enthusiast, delivered a paper entitled ‘I’M ON MY PHONE AND CAN’T ACCESS THE TITLE, JUST CHECK THE BRAM EVENT FOR IT, SORRYYYYY’. She considered the rationality for which someone may steal art, given that a piece of art is unique and therefore unable to be valued in a market in the same fashion as, let’s say, 100 iPads. That the who of the thief becomes central to the robbery, and the consumerist culture we currently ascribe to only serves to exacerbate it. She then looked into the history of art stealing, with particular focus on the art plundered by the Nazis, from both Jewish citizens, and other countries, and drew comparisons to the art stolen in the Iraq war and the double standards that exist within that comparison. Lastly, Hannah discussed international law in the context of art being returned to the country of origin, and the difficulties of individuals and in particular museums, in retrieving art. This is particularly problematic with Nazi law in the context of art ownership remaining on the books and protecting their ownership over stolen art. Hannah then wrapped up to genuine acclaim from the audience, fielding questions from them while they enjoyed lunch compliments of KC Peaches.
Workshops, Tuesday daytime
Grace Healy
Today, this intrepid reporter braved, not one, but all three Trinity Arts Festival workshops and I simply had a ball. As I sip on my delicious TAF cocktail here in the Sugar Club, the memories come flooding in.
The day kicked off with a Performing workshop with Dan Colley, Artistic Director of Collapsing Horse Theatre Company. Dan is full of all the zany energy you’d expect from Collapsing Horse, whose cutesy puppet-fabulous shows have delighted children and adults alike all over the country, and the workshop gave us a real insight into how they work behind the scenes. Spoiler alert: it’s super fun. Those of you that caught Monster:Clock last year in Smock Alley will remember the amazing musical build ups as well as the incredible physicality of the actors, who not only manipulated the puppets but also completely embodied each character. This was something we got to try in the workshop, as we played the Jam Circle, where we slowly built up from one noise or gesture into a full song, adding beats or lyrics or just random noises – it is difficult to describe just how fun this was, and we had some great results. We got out of our comfort zones, got physical and made some sweet music in a very low-pressure high-energy environment and all of us left smiling.
We bopped straight from this to the Atrium where Jack Hogan masterfully taught the whole crowd how to jazz up our plain boring clothes into 80s-tastic colour explosions. We dipped and scruched and squeezed and dipped some more until our hands were stained and wrinkly. We can only imagine how the t-shirts turned out. Good enough to wear to tomorrow night’s event (TAFUDDS)? Probably not, but we had fun and that’s all that matters. I’m sure my mother will still tell me mine is beautiful.
Tap dance, it sounds relatively easy right? NOTHING COULD BE HARDER!
The third and final workshop of the day ensured that I well and truly burned off my free sandwiches from KC Peaches at this afternoon’s Bram Stoker Paper Reading (also available at tomorrow’s talk from Brendan Canty at 1pm). Eric Weitz from the Drama Department tried valiantly to turn a very enthusiastic, if left-footed, group into a bunch of twinkle toes. Tap dance, it sounds relatively easy right? NOTHING COULD BE HARDER! We learned the basic steps as well as a few show-stopper moves, from the “penguin” to the shuffle – by the end of the hour, some were new experts, others (myself included) were embarrassed and all of us were out of breath, red-faced and completely exhilerated. I don’t care that I didn’t even manage to learn the basic steps, I crown myself LORD OF THE DANCE.
We were well set for a cute night of theatre, cocktails and DISCO music in the stunning Sugar Club on Leeson Street. Bring on tomorrow, I say!
Tomorrow’s events include a Pottery Workshop, a talk by Brendan Canty, and a Murder Mystery night. Check out the full timetable for all of tomorrow’s events and the events of the rest of the week, and stay tuned for daily instalments of Trinity Arts Festival news and reviews.
Photography by Grace Nuttall.
