CQAF22 Thurs 5 Archives

I remember how it made me feel…. Jane Butler

Posted on 12th April 202212th April 2022 by Stephen

Jane Butler’s research-led practice focuses on the experience of trauma and the relationship of body and mind to external environments. Her architectural interventions, installations and photography-based works are informed by elusive memories and neurological effects.

‘I remember how it made me feel’ is an accumulation of her work during two years on the Freelands Artists Programme. This exhibition serves as a meditative place to sit and reflect.

Jane Butler is an artist and organiser specialising in public and site-specific projects. Butler received a BA Fine Art (Sculpture) from Ulster University in 2009. She has produced projects in partnership with Belfast City Council, PLACE and TULCA Visual Arts Festival, Galway. Butler was a Co-Director and chair of Catalyst Arts (2012-2015). She is currently a Co-Director of Household, who work collaboratively with artists, writers, curators and the public to develop thought provoking projects in the public realm. She is also an active member of Array Collective; a group of Belfast-based artists who create collaborative actions in response to issues affecting Northern Ireland, who recently won the Turner Prize 2021 in the Herbert Coventry Museum, with their installation The Druthaibs Ball, 2021.

Paul Currie – Work in Progress: The Chorus of Ghosts in my Skull Keep Telling Me to Take a Shit in the Fruit Salad

Posted on 27th January 20224th May 2022 by site_admin

‘This is a brand new work in progress (WIP) show that will look at my personal struggle and experience with depression, anxiety and intrusive thoughts that I’ve suffered from since the age of 5 and many nervous & mental breakdowns.

For me, I think it’s a subject not properly spoken about enough in comedy, in society, or in the world. I want this show to help smash or at least crack the stigma we all have of mental health.’ – Paul Currie, December 2021

TCOGLIMSKTMTTASITFS is the sister show to Paul’s 2021 Edinburgh Fringe Sell Out show “TEET”

★★★★★ THE SCOTSMAN

‘He’s fast developing a cult following. Everything Currie does has the spirit of Vic & Bob, The Young Ones and everything surreal that’s come before or since.’★★★★ EDFEST

‘He is simply and without question unmissable!’★★★★★ MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL<

‘Paul Currie is a disturbingly brilliant comic.’ ★★★★★ BROADWAY BABY

‘I wish I’d seen him sooner. I’ll be back to see him every year. My favourite comedy show of the Fringe this year.’ STEWART LEE

Doors 12.30pm | Unreserved Seating

Tadhg Hickey – In One Eye, Out The Other

Posted on 21st January 20227th April 2022 by site_admin

Rescheduled from OTL ’22

Acclaimed Irish comedian Tadhg Hickey (outstanding physical and comedic performer – The Scotsman), brings a weird and wonderful part theatre, part stand-up comedy show, In One Eye, Out The Other to this year’s Out to Lunch.

IOEOTO tells the story of Feargal, the downtrodden but cheery man who fulfilled his lifelong dream of becoming an alcoholic. Using the Catholic calendar as a roadmap, Feargal leads us on a surreal and hilarious journey with many poignant twists in the hope of arriving at a sort of light at the end of the tunnel for the ‘bright man’.

The show is loosely based on Tadhg’s own journey with alcoholism. During promotion of the show, Tadhg went public with his own story and has since had many mental health and alcohol action groups, as well as sufferers, reach out to him.

Tadhg is one of the brightest and bravest new stars in Irish comedy and theatre. His satirical sketches have amassed several million views online, and earned the admiration of comedy royalty like Armando Ianucci.

‘In One Eye, Out The Other’ is characteristically brave and ambitious, as Tadhg searches for cathartic humour in a surreal retelling of his own battle with alcoholism.

“Great art. A vital catharsis. I laughed until I cried. Go see it.” – Sunday Independent

“Both funny and poignant; a brave, risky performance. This is exciting work” – The Independent

“Illuminating. Affecting in surprising ways. Feargal’s story will stay with you for days” – Sunday Business Post.

Doors open 30 minutes before show | Unreserved Seating

Jonathan Barnbrook in conversation

Posted on 1st March 202224th March 2022 by site_admin

Jonathan Barnbrook is a graphic designer and musician. He will talk about his work and design and his musical collaboration with Anil Aykan.

Jonathan worked with David Bowie from 2003 up until his passing in 2016. In that time he was responsible for designing album covers including Heathen, The Next Day and Blackstar – for which he won a Grammy. Barnbrook was also part of the curating panel and main graphic designer for the exhibition ‘David Bowie Is’.

From school to college, Saint Martin’s and the Royal College of Art – a trajectory he says is down to free education – his dedication and skill in the medium were discussed across the industry before he even graduated from his masters. Post-education Jonathan set up his own studio immediately.

From here, an array of projects began – from David Bowie to Damien Hirst, Penguin Books, Adbusters, the Occupy movement, several famed font releases – leading the designer down a path of thoughtful and often political or music-related projects.

Most recently, however, the latter has become more of a focus, as the designer and his partner Anil Aykan launched Fragile Self. An electronic duo who place as much focus on visuals as music, their album took several years to make and includes a 480-page tome visualising the poetic detail of each song.

PLEASE NOTE

“The Conor Theatre is on the second floor of the Birley Building (art college), Block BA, of Ulster University’s Belfast campus in the Cathedral Quarter. Please arrive at the reception of the Birley Building with your ticket/s to gain access through the turnstiles to the stairs and elevators.

Mogwai

Posted on 8th December 202122nd March 2022 by site_admin

This will be epic. Ten studio albums, a live album and four compilations, four soundtracks, a record label, and a few blown PAs over uncountable gigs, Mogwai have become one of the most important groups of a British musical underground yet have steadfastly refused to sit back and rest on their laurels.

Over a period of 24 years their one constant has been of a mastery of dynamics, an embracing both of power and minimalism, and a willingness to experiment with new instrumentations and technology.

Earlier this year the band released their tenth studio album As The Love Continues, which has been hailed as “an instrumental masterclass”. Scoring the band their first No1 in the UK album charts, As the Love Continues also picked up Scottish Album of the Year and a Mercury Prize nomination.

Mastered at Abbey Road, the new album is both transcendent and surprising, and shows that Mogwai are still offering solace from the mundane. In a review from Clash Music, the album is given 9/10 and described as “their best, and is possibly their most consistent record since 2006’s Mr Beast.”

Key tracks include To The Bin My Friend, Tonight We Vacate Earth, which is according to Clash Music “as huge as they’ve ever sounded”, and It’s What I Want To Do, Mum which “sounds exactly like a band who have been together since their teens, and are still creating music they are excited and energised by”.

There’s not an awful lot more you can say about Mogwai that hasn’t been said before really: established now, surely, as one of the most influential and respected bands Scotland has ever produced, Mogwai continue to go from strength to strength and remain one of the most extraordinary live bands you’re ever likely to see.

‘Of all the great Nineties guitar bands, Mogwai might be the one fighting hardest to keep the decade’s anything-goes spirit alive’ – Rolling Stone

‘Other than creating mind-shredding, eardrum-perforating noise-rock, you can always count on Mogwai to come up with brilliant song titles’ – NME

Doors 7.30 | Standing/Limited Unreserved Seating

Shaparak Khorsandi – IT WAS THE 90s!

Posted on 24th November 202122nd March 2022 by site_admin

The decade where Shaparak left an important part of her brain somewhere in a field in Hampshire…

From indie discos to unflattering crop tops…a trip down memory lane to the decade where ‘kinky’ was nurse roleplay and whipped cream, and Shaparak found herself flying about London with hope in her heart, a tenner in her pocket and spare knickers in her handbag.

How does the decade of binge drinking and walks of shame look now without snakebite and black tinted specs?

Doors 7.45pm | Unreserved seating

Sarah McQuaid

Posted on 17th February 202222nd March 2022 by site_admin

The St Buryan Sessions is the sixth solo album by award-winning singer/songwriter Sarah McQuaid. Born in Madrid to a Spanish father and an American mother, then raised in Chicago, Sarah lived in Ireland for thirteen years.

Her first three albums were recorded in Ireland with producer Gerry O’Beirne. Her latest album The St Buryan Sessions had its genesis in the spring of 2020 when Sarah’s gigs and tours were cancelled due to Covid.

Thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign she was able to finance a live solo recording (without an audience) in the medieval church of St Buryan, not far from her home in rural West Cornwall. The recording in an old stone church gives the acoustics an ethereal dimension, especially to the vocals.

Sarah, a member of the St Buryan choir and also a multi-instrumentalist, moves between acoustic guitar, piano, electric guitar and not forgetting her vintage floor tom drum.

Sarah, has one of the most instantly recognisable voices in contemporary acoustic/folk music.

The St Buryan Sessions represents a journey through a wide range of styles — from world music to the jazz standard Autumn Leaves.

“One of the most instantly recognisable voices in current music … Shades of Joni Mitchell in a jam with Karen Carpenter and Lana Del Rey.” —Trust The Doc

“Captivating, unorthodox songwriting … layered satin vocals … enthralling, harrowing arrangements … a gateway into a true innovator’s soul.” —PopMatters

“I’ve attended hundreds of concerts of all kinds, and her subtle mastery onstage launches her straight into my fave shows ever.” —Huffington Post

Doors 7.30pm | Unreserved Seating/Standing

Bear

Posted on 24th March 202230th March 2022 by site_admin

Adapted by Cliodhna McAllister, from the novel by Marian Engel.

“Tear my head off, Bear. Claw out my heart.” Led by animal instinct. Intoxicated by primal desire. Marked by violent passion. When Lou meets Bear, she is forever changed.

‘Bear’ is the provocative tale of a woman’s transformative experience on a remote Canadian island. Dispatched to catalogue the contents of the island’s abandoned nineteenth-century estate, Lou finds she is not alone – there’s always a bear on Cary Island. And there are always secrets. Consumed by primal desire, Lou’s relationship with Bear takes her on a journey of sexual and spiritual awakening. She won’t leave the island the same woman she used to be.

Blacklight Productions are proud to premier ‘Bear’ – the first adaptation of Marian Engel’s acclaimed and controversial novel – at CQAF 2022.

Cast: Aoife Honohan

Writer & Director: Cliodhna McAllister

Producer: Fionnula Ryan

Costume Design: Henrique Caliento

Set & Lighting Design/Op: Chris Merton

Sound Design/Op: Jamie Bishop

Supported by the Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire and Future Foundations NI

Bbeyond – New Commission Artists 2021/22

Posted on 23rd March 202225th March 2022 by site_admin

Bbeyond’s New Commission Artists 2021/22 Niamh Seana Meehan and Nina Oltarzewska will be performing as part of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival on Thursday the 5th of May at the Flax Art Studio building, High Street.

Niamh Seana Meehan – 9am – 5pm. and Nina Oltarzewska – 7pm

Nina Oltarzewska
Nina Oltarzewska is a French artist born in 1998 and based in Belfast. Oltarzewska works with sound, video and performance as well as sculpture and installation. She grew up in France and moved to Belfast in 2017 to start a Foundation year in Art and Design at the Belfast School of Art. In July 2021 Oltarzewska completed her BA(Hons) Fine Art at the Belfast School of Art. She has since received five graduate awards from the following institutions: Bbeyond, Platform Arts, Pollen, the University of Atypical and PS2. She will be commencing a Fine Art Masters at the Chelsea School of Art and Design (UAL) in September 2022.

Niamh Seana Meehan
Niamh Seana Meehan is a visual artist based in Northern Ireland.

‘I work in-between visual art, writing and performance. A central theme within my practice is the slippages involved within the translation of thought to text. Textual projects I create often want to jump off the page and form rhythms, movements, or patterns for repetition. These qualities become catalysts for discussion and by implementing performative methods it enables them to anticipate their narrative. Will they be a performance, an audio work, a sculpture or remain textual? On-going interests within my practice include ambiguity, nothingness, doubts, and failure.’

Category: CQAF22 Thurs 5