Irish Arts Review

The Gift of TimeAuthor(s): Eleanor FleggSource: Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 24, Irish Craft 2007: The Annual Craft Edition of the"Irish Arts Review" (2007), pp. 14-15Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25503665 .

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The Gift of Time Liam Flynn,

Denis Brown

and Joe Hogan

are the first

recipients of

the Crafts

Council of

Ireland's annual

Bursary

Scheme, writes

Eleanor Flegg

hile it is acknowledged that

painters, writers, and

musicians need time and

space to foster their creativity,

craftspeople are expected to produce to

schedule without much

acknowledgment of the creative

process behind their achievements. The

Crafts Council of Ireland, recognising

that creativity is the engine that drives

Irish craft, has established an annual

Bursary Scheme. This is intended to

release the craftsperson from their

usual commitments so that they can

invest in creative development of their

professional practice, thereby

w

accessing new opportunities. The

recipients are selected by a committee

comprising a chairman and four

committee members with expertise in

different areas of craftsmanship and

education. Application is though the

Crafts Council of Ireland.

In 2005 woodturner Liam Flynn, was

awarded the inaugural Crafts Council of

Ireland's Bursary of 8,000. Flynn used

the fund to participate in two related

projects, both based in Philadelphia. The

first of these was the Wood 2005

conference; the second was the

International Turners Exchange

programme, an eight-week residency

organised by the Woodtuming Centre

that took place the following summer.

Work produced during the residency

formed part of an exhibition and

conference titled allTURNatives: Form

and Spirit. During the residency Flynn

developed the ideas for two different

series: the Still Life series in which two

pieces relate to each other; and the

Ebonised Oak with Red series, a

development from his Inner Rimmed

vessels, with the inner rim painted red

with flashes of the red appearing in

random scores on the exterior of the

vessel, reinforcing the colour in the inner

rim. The use of colour is a new departure

for Flynn. 'The bursary made both of

these trips possible, and I know it will

benefit my work to have made these

important professional connections in

the United States,' said Flynn. 'To me the

essence of the residency was being able

to get opinions about what you are

doing, as you are doing it. That is a

luxury that is not available in one's own

studio. I am glad to report that the first

ever Still Life I made is now part of the

permanent collection of the Woodtuming

Centre in Philadelphia, having been

purchased by its selection committee.'

In 2006 the Bursary was divided

between calligrapher Denis Brown

( 14,000) and basketmaker Joe

Hogan ( 6,000). Hogan's proposal

was to buy a little time to develop the

_14

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THE ANNUAL CRAFT EDITION OF THE IRISH ARTS REVIEW 200?

non-functional aspect of his work and

to travel to France to study under David

Drew. Over the last twenty-eight years

Hogan has, almost single-handedly, led

Irish basketry from an ailing status as

a traditional craft to a high-end

collectable applied art. He sees the

functional basketry, which he still

practises, as a day job and has slowly

developed his non-functional work, as

and when his other commitments

allow. There is a sense that he's spent

many years gathering interesting

pieces of wood and waiting for the

ideas to become clearer. 'I saw the

bursary as an opportunity to deepen

my practice. I wanted to take some

time out from commercial

considerations to develop ideas that

I've had for some time. ' Since

September, when Hogan took time

away from normal orders, he has been

making work that uses willow and

wood in combination. Some are based

on the principle of a frame basket

where the timber used is at least

partially covered. One of the earliest of

these called Adharc or horned basket,

sold in SOFA, Chicago in 2006. Since

then he has made between twenty and

thirty baskets on this theme. He is also

exploring the possibilities of baskets

made using the holes that develop on

trees when branches are cut and the

wound subsequently heals.

Denis Brown's proposal had two

strands, both related to developing

calligraphy on a large scale. The first

element is the development of a

portfolio of calligraphy works that could

be used as part of architectural

commissions. Recently Brown has

completed his first large-scale

installation - eight-feet tall by five-and-a

half-feet-wide - funded by the Crafts

Council of Ireland's Bursary award. 'The

layered glass works I have done before

this have been limited in scale due to the

weight and fragility of the glass. The

enlarged scale has been facilitated by

using Plexiglas. Conventionally, writing

depends on ink, but this writing is

inkless - thousands of words have been

scratched into both sides of six sheets

of clear Plexiglas without any ink at all.

They float away from and above an ink

splashed background sheet.' The floor to

ceiling installation is built across an

alcove in a domestic room. Two central

columns are composed of up to twelve

overlapping layers of writing, engraved

onto six sheets of clear Plexiglas, spaced

apart to a total depth of about six inches.

The adjacent wall was gilded to add

colour to an otherwise predominantly

black and white room. The second

element of Brown's proposal is a

multimedia performance in which he will

execute large-scale calligraphic works as

performance art, choreographed to the

live music of the cellist Rohan de Saram.

Film produced by Brown will be projected

over his body and his canvases, while

digitally manipulated recordings of de

Saram's music and other sound effects

will interplay with the live cello.

Eleanor Flegg is an editor and writer with a particular interest in design.

For application details see www.ccoi.ie

Kevin O'Dwyer is the 200? Bursary Award winner.

A profile of Kevin will appear in the 2008 Annual

Crafts Edition of the Irish Arts Review.

1 Liam Flynn

2 Denis Brown

3 Joe Hogan

4 Una Parsons, Chief Executive of

the Crafts Council of Ireland with

200? Bursary winner, silversmith,

Kevin O'Dwyer

15

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