Latest news with #IMMA
Irish Examiner
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Iggy Pop review: Veteran rocker makes welcome return to Dublin for In The Meadows
Iggy Pop, In the Meadows, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin ★★★★☆ The most impressive part of Iggy Pop's first Dublin show in over 20 years? That he was topless for all bar about 15 minutes of his 80-minute set. It's a cool night on the Royal Hospital Kilmainham grounds of IMMA, following some torrential showers earlier in the day, and the crowd increasingly adds layers over the course of the headline slot. But anyone who saw Iggy Pop at All Together Now 2023 knows that the old dog hasn't learned any new tricks, like dressing for the Irish weather. He's always performed topless and ain't changing now. Iggy Pop shouldn't be here, really, when you think about it. Drug addictions and overdoses, confrontational live shows, self-mutilation, run-ins with biker gangs, and, er, rehabbing with David Bowie in Germany are all part of the lore with the Godfather of Punk, who has lived several lives even just this century. The single Lust for Life featured in Trainspotting in the late 1990s, he reunited with the Stooges in 2003, playing Slane the following year, and has hosted a weekly show on BBC 6 Music for the past 10 years. On the airwaves, he has championed numerous bands of all genres, some of whom appear on the second installment of the In The Meadows event that he's headlining on Saturday. Lambrini Girls, Billy No Mates, and local band Sprints are all variations on punk in the 2020s. Gilla Band are too, and play their only Irish show of the year here - when Iggy Pop calls, you answer. It's 10 years since they released their debut album, Holding Hands with Jamie, and with lyrics about wearing hats, buying 'shit clothes' in Easons, and the 'hustle to be a jack russell', you forget just how strange they are - but also how ferocious and exhilarating. Iggy Pop on stage at In The Meadows at Kilmainham in Dublin. Meanwhile, on the main stage, trad/metal act the Scratch are splitting the crowd down the middle for a Slipknot-esque moshpit, and then offering a heartfelt rendition of Christy Moore's Joxer Goes to Stuttgart. When it comes to limits, Irish acts, like Iggy Pop decades before them, are happy to shatter them. Iggy Pop arrives to the guttural intro of TV Eye - taken from the Stooges' second album Funhouse, released 55 years ago. He's 78 now, the same age as US president Donald Trump, and though his voice lacks the raw power of the early 1970s and he walks with a noticeable hitch, he's still cooler than pretty much anyone else in music. Backed by a seven-piece band, he shadowboxes, kicks his leg out, and cocks a pose throughout. It's about an hour into his set before he calls for a jacket. Of course it's thick leather and with 'Iggy' in studs on the back. It only lasts a few minutes before he tosses it away. And how do you argue with the setlist? The Passenger, with its boisterous 'la la las', sounds like the song of every summer. 'Oh fuck, what's that?' he shouts before Lust For Life, which he follows with Death Trip, singing: 'We're going down in history.' I Wanna be your Dog might be the greatest rock song ever written. 'I feel alright,' he shouts on 1970, performed while taking a breather on an amp; did we mention he's 78? His grizzled 6 Music voice is evident when he introduces Sick of You, explaining the song is 'about leaving home to survive and you don't even know why'. We get a little bit of Nightclubbing, written with Bowie and later made more famous by Grace Jones. When you talk about an Iggy Pop show in 2025, you're talking about a history of pop and rock music. And the old dog's not ready to be put down any time soon.
Extra.ie
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
Stage times revealed for Forbidden Fruit Festival
Forbidden Fruit has revealed stage times for their festival, set for May 31 and June 1 over the bank holiday weekend. The 13th year of the event will be held on the grounds of the IMMA. Ten per cent of all tickets remain, with just 500 Sunday tickets available. This year sees the inclusion of five stages, featuring artists like Jamie xx, Underworld, Caribou and Peggy Gou. The first set will begin on the Lighthouse x Smirnoff Stage at 2 p.m., with the last ending at 10:45 p.m. on the Main Stage. New stages include the Perfect Sky Canopy and a 360° DJ booth. Tickets are available here.
Irish Examiner
19-05-2025
- General
- Irish Examiner
IMMA Dublin: Fascinating patchwork of social history behind American quilts exhibition
Louisiana P Bendolph and Rita Mae Pettway may not be household names, but their extraordinary quilts have been exhibited in museums all over the world, and are now having their first showing in Ireland at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Kilmainham, Dublin. The exhibition, Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee's Bend, is jointly organised by IMMA and Souls Grown Deep, a non-profit established to preserve, document and promote the artistic legacies of black American artists based in the Southern United States. Many of the organisation's activities centre on the quiltmakers of Gee's Bend, a small farming community in rural Alabama. 'Gee's Bend is positioned in a U-shaped curve in the middle of the Alabama river,' says Raina Lampkins-Fielder, Souls Grown Deep's chief curator. 'What's interesting is that this geographically isolated black community of around 700 people has remained in a certain way intact since their ancestors were forcibly brought there in the early 1800s. 'In that time, Gee's Bend has produced over five generations of quiltmakers. They've been producing work as far back as the mid 19th century, and maybe longer, and they continue to transmit that artistic knowledge and their skills from mother to daughter, from aunt to niece, and from one neighbour to another.' The first black families to settle in Gee's Bend were slaves on the 6,000-acre Joseph Gee plantation, which eventually passed to the Sheriff of Halifax County, Mark H Pettway. After President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the emancipation of slaves in 1863, most of the families stayed on the land as sharecroppers, or tenant farmers. 'This makes Gee's Bend quite unique,' says Lampkins-Felder. 'Folks in the Bend didn't necessarily have to participate in the great migration of black people from the south to the north for opportunities or to escape Jim Crow oppression.' In the 1930s, President Franklin D Roosevelt introduced the New Deal socio-economic programme, in response to the Great Depression. 'Gee's Bend was one of those places that benefited. Part of the New Deal involved the building of new houses. In Gee's Bend, you got a small cabin. It didn't have all the mod cons we expect today, but living standards certainly improved. There was no running water or plumbing or heat or electricity, but still, it was a little bit better, and being able to purchase those homes was incredibly important.' One of the pieces in Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee's Bend. The New Deal also encouraged the tenant farmers to buy plots of land in the old Pettway plantation. 'You'll hear that surname, Pettway, a lot with the quiltmakers in Gee's Bend. It doesn't necessarily mean that there's any blood relation. It's just that legacy of slavery, of taking the name of the enslaver.' The lack of heating in the New Deal cabins was largely what inspired the women to continue making quilts. 'Even though it's Alabama,' says Lampkins-Fielder, 'the winters are bitterly cold. It's hot during the day, it's like the desert climate in that respect, but it's really, really cold at night. And so they kept making quilts to keep warm. But in the Bend, you know, there wasn't a lot of extra material around. Even to this day, there's not a post office, or any store at all. 'But one could recycle material. Worn out school clothes or dress shirts or work clothes. Flour or sugar or feed sacks. All of these, when they were no longer useful, were recycled for the quilts. So this whole notion of the patchwork quilt really comes out of those times of scarcity and resourcefulness. There was this incredibly inventive salvaging.' It was the practice for the women to air their quilts outdoors in the autumn. 'And this was an opportunity for folks to see what you'd been up to. The quilts were draped over clothes lines, wood piles and porches, like this massive plein air gallery.' The quilts got a wider airing from 1966, when 60 quilters from Gee's Bend and its environs formed the Quilters Freedom Bee, a co-operative that marketed their creations to department stores such as Sear's and Bloomingdale's. Thereafter, the art world began taking notice. The abstract painter Lee Krasner was a vocal champion, calling the quilts 'magnificent' and investing in several for her own collection. In 2002, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, mounted a ground-breaking exhibition, The Quilts of Gee's Bend, which toured to the Whitney Museum of Fine Art in New York. Leola Pettway and Qunnie Pettway working on quilts at Gee's Bend, Alabama. 'That was when I got acquainted with Gee's Bend,' says Lampkins-Fielder. 'That was really the watershed moment for me. I was an associate director of the Whitney Museum, and I worked with Max Anderson, who's now the president of Souls Burn Deep.' Reviewers compared the Gee's Bend quilts to the paintings of the Abstract Expressionists Barnett Newman and Frank Stella, and their artistic forebears, Paul Klee and Henri Matisse. In the New York Times, Michael Kimmelman declared them 'eye-poppingly gorgeous' and 'some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced,' high praise indeed when one considers that textiles were still considered a craft by many critics. Years later, Lampkins-Fielder moved to Paris, France to work with the Mona Bismarck American Centre of Art and Culture. 'We were trying to do something a little bit different around how people can approach art,' she says. "And then, when the opportunity to work with Souls Grown Deep came up, I thought, well, this is absolutely amazing. I wondered if my being based in Paris would be problematic, but no, strangely, my being here works really well. I had a long career in the States, so I still have connections to the art world there. "And then, being based in Paris, I can open doors to Europe in a way that if I were based in the States, I really wouldn't have that access and that facility of movement.' Lampkins-Fielder estimates that Souls Grown Deep has invested almost a million dollars in the Gee's Bend community over the past four or five years. 'I love being an advocate for these artists,' she says, 'helping their voices to be projected more broadly and become more widely known. But we still have so much to do. Their work should really speak for itself, you know.' Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee's Bend runs at IMMA until October 27 Further information:
Hospitality Net
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hospitality Net
citizenM unveils art and design vision for its first Irish hotel in the heart of Dublin
This summer, citizenM will open the doors to its first Irish hotel - and with it, a carefully curated celebration of contemporary art, local architecture and playful design. Located opposite St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin's historic core, the new 245-room hotel brings together bold Brutalist architecture, colourful interiors, and a standout collection of artworks by Irish creatives. From a preserved façade to hand-painted murals and in-room commissions, citizenM Dublin St Patrick's is designed as both a stylish place to stay and a new destination for culture lovers. A room-by-room art experience, curated with IMMA As with every citizenM property, art plays a central role in the guest experience - and in Dublin, the brand has partnered with the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) to deliver something truly special. Curated by Mary Cremin, IMMA's Head of Programming, each guest room features a diptych-style artwork from one of five Irish artists, creating a deeply personal and locally rooted stay. Alan Phelan 's photographic and stitched-ribbon works reinterpret the RGB colour process invented by Irish physicist John Joly, which he has revived after being unused for over a century. 's photographic and stitched-ribbon works reinterpret the RGB colour process invented by Irish physicist John Joly, which he has revived after being unused for over a century. Breda Lynch 's Blue Dyke portraits, made using cyanotype techniques, explore identity, memory and resilience with striking emotional depth. 's Blue Dyke portraits, made using cyanotype techniques, explore identity, memory and resilience with striking emotional depth. Brian Teeling presents symbolic images of peace lilies, referencing Irish nationalism and queer identity, rendered with quiet power and modern relevance. presents symbolic images of peace lilies, referencing Irish nationalism and queer identity, rendered with quiet power and modern relevance. Niamh McCann 's layered collages weave together architecture, politics and utopian ideals, combining elements from Tallinn and Bauhaus blueprints with feminist and cultural symbols. 's layered collages weave together architecture, politics and utopian ideals, combining elements from Tallinn and Bauhaus blueprints with feminist and cultural symbols. Kian Benson Bailes uses digital collaging to transform his rural surroundings into textured dreamscapes, merging past and present in reflective detail. Each work was created in response to citizenM's creative brief: art that is playful, colourful, and unmistakably Irish. Public facing art: from bronze lyrics to bold murals Outside, citizenM has honoured local creative voices through two major public artworks. First, a bronze-cast lyrical fragment from Dublin rapper Malaki's track Cuppa Tea appears on the hotel's façade - a permanent poetic nod to the city's vibrant music and spoken word scenes. The façade itself is a story in its own right. Originally designed by renowned Irish architect Sam Stephenson, the Brutalist exterior has been carefully preserved, grounding the building in the city's architectural heritage. On the facade's reverse, French-Irish muralist Claire Prouvost has created a bold, hand-painted abstract piece that reflects Dublin's energy and diversity, installed directly onto the preserved Stephenson wall. Known for her expressive colour palettes and bold, human centred forms, Prouvost's work adds movement and meaning to one of the hotel's most visible architectural surfaces. Design that feels like a gallery The interiors reflect citizenM's trademark aesthetic, purposefully designed for today's modern traveller. The ground floor features a welcoming Living Room open to the public, with design-led Vitra furniture and co-working spaces. Guests can enjoy food and drinks 24/7 at canteenM, relax on the open-air terrace, or host creative sessions in one of the four societyM meeting rooms. Throughout the wider hotel, guests can also discover artwork from the likes of Damien Hirst and George Condo. With art, design and comfort at its core - and a deep respect for Dublin's creative legacy - citizenM's newest hotel is more than just a place to sleep. It's a fresh new home for citizens of the world, right in the beating heart of Ireland's capital. Hotel website
Irish Examiner
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Here comes the summer... 10 of the best music festivals in Ireland
Love is a Stranger Juniper Barn, Ballymote, Co Sligo May 17 Headliners: Crazy P (DJ), Susan O'Neill, God Knows From the team behind Another Love Story, Love is a Stranger is an even more boutique option. The second edition of the festival comprises a small melange of genres, bands, and DJs from around Ireland to help kickstart festival season. There are woodland glades and the Juniper Lake, complete with sauna and swimming deck. As they say themselves, it's a showcase of all of the beauty and richness of the Sligo countryside as summer on the West coast blooms - and there's also a kids corner. But don't let all that overshadow the music. The world famous Crazy P continue their mission to spread the message of disco unity via their DJ sets while Dean Bryce makes his debut Irish bow. Tickets: €95.50 (overnight camping); €65.50 (day attendee) €125 (family - two adults, two children) Forbidden Fruit IMMA, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin City May 31-June 1 Underworld, Jamie xx, Peggy Gou, Caribou Forbidden Fruit has been running for over a decade and has solidified itself into a stellar dance-oriented event. Peggy Gou gave Kylie Minogue a run for her money at Electric Picnic last year and should draw a huge crowd, while Dan Snaith's Caribou play their first irish show since the release of their 2024 record Honey. Underworld released their latest album Chaos Saucer at the start of March, showing they've still got it in their fifth decade together. As well as the big names, Forbidden Fruit also boasts one of the buzziest acts around in New York's Fcukers, last seen supporting Confidence Man at the Olympia - uber cool. Tickets: Weekend tickets €174, day tickets €79.50 In the Meadows IMMA, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin June 7 Gilla Band Iggy Pop, Slowdive, the Scratch, Gilla Band Last seen here at All Together Now 2023 struggling a little to throw himself around the stage as much as he did in the 70s - though putting on one of the loudest festival sets we've ever heard - Iggy Pop returns to headline the second outing of In the Meadows. Affectionately known as Lankum-fest last year, it featured a superb lineup curated by the trad powerhouse. In the Meadows has broadened in scope this year, with a healthy mix of Irish acts spread across the lineup. Coming a week after Forbidden Fruit, it can feel a little like the calm after the storm, but once 'I Wanna be Your Dog' hits, all bets are off. Tickets: €75 Beyond the Pale Glendalough Estate, Co Wicklow June 13-15 Jon Hopkins, TV on the Radio, Ezra Collective, Broken Social Scene Any music fans who came of age amid the blogosphere in the mid 2000s will have Beyond the Pale circled on their calendar this year after the announcement of TV on the Radio and Broken Social Scene, indie darlings who have eluded these shores for too long - this will be their first show in Europe since 2018 . Expect tears when the latter drop 'Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl'. A week earlier than their usual summer solstice listing, Beyond the Pale has cemented itself as a mid-sized, music-focused offering and while there are few accoutrements, the variety on stage will more than suffice. Tickets: Three-day camping €238.95, Sunday day tickets €99 Night & Day Lough Key Forest Park, Boyle, Co. Roscommon June 27-29 Jose Gonzalez, KT Tunstall, The Stunning, The Wailers An over-20s event that also caters to families, Night & Day returns for its fourth edition at the end of June. Thanks to its location at beautiful Lough Key Forest Park, as well as the music there are activities including zip-lining courses, forest trails, boat tours, and a tree-top walk. Jose Gonzalez is making his only Irish appearance of the year at the festival and it's also nice to see Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall on the bill. Sultans of Ping, Fionn Regan, and Lisa Hannigan also feature, while newer Irish acts like Skinner (post-punk) and Dug (folk) offer a glimpse of the future. Tickets: €55 (Friday), €88 (Saturday and Sunday), €185 weekend camping Longitude Marlay Park, Dublin July 5-6 David Guetta, 50 Cent, Belters Only, Sonny Fodera, AJ Tracey AJ Tracey. It's over 10 years since David Guetta last played in Ireland (Oxegen 2013), so what a coup for Longitude to get him to headline - 2013 was also the year when Longitude started up, with a very different outlook; headliners then included Vampire Weekend and Kraftwerk). Now Longitude is like Oxegen lite, a heady mix of the hottest rap and dance acts around. Belters Only have gotten used to the biggest stages, regularly selling out the 3Arena, while AJ Tracey is one of the most exciting names in rap right now. There's no overnight camping, though, which people travelling from outside of Dublin might note. Forest Fest Emo Village, Co Laois July 25-27 Franz Ferdinand, Manic Street Preachers, Travis The brainchild of solicitor Philip Meagher, in his fifties, a father of two from Portlaoise, he created the festival after finding he couldn't relate to existing events. 'I genuinely wanted to create a local alternative to Electric Picnic and do it at a more intimate, indie level with the highest quality bands and a really good experience for an older audience,' he has said in the past. It's grown over the years - 2025 is the fourth edition of Forest Fest, boasting a capacity of 12,000 - into a fully fledged alternative that skews to the wisened, grizzled festival veteran. Orbital are rubbing shoulders with Nick Lowe and Billy Bragg; the Forest Fleadh stage features Mary Coughlan and Sharon Shannon, among more; and there's an 'Ibiza Rewind' stage too. Tickets: Day tickets €85, weekend tickets €240. All Together Now Curraghmore Estate, Co Waterford July 31-August 3 All Together Now. Photo: Joe Evans Fontaines DC, Nelly Furtado, Bicep (Chroma AV DJ set), London Grammar The sixth edition of ATN has sold out well in advance - no surprise considering it boasts an incredible lineup headlined by Choice Music Prize winners Fontaines DC. Wet Leg and Michael Kiwanuka are stellar bookings likely drawing disparate crowds, while CMAT is rightly near the top of the bill. Currently on tour supporting Sam Fender around Europe, expect cowboy hats in various shapes and colours to dominate the beautiful estate site. Featuring beautiful bespoke stages and areas - including the stunning 360-degree-sound experience of the Immerse by AVA stage - there's so much to discover at All Together Now. Tickets: Sold out, no day tickets Another Love Story Killyon Manor, Co Meath August 23-24 John Talabot, Fionn Regan, Anna B Savage Heading into its 11th year, Another Love Story is slimming down to a 1.5-day offering in 2025 - proceedings usually finish up around 6pm on the Sunday, offering punters time to get home to their own bed and set for work on Monday morning. Despite being hit by god-awful weather in the past couple years, the boutique festival (fewer than 2,000 attendees) always has the best vibe, along with lots of kids running around and dogs helping appease weary heads. The music is a brilliantly curated mix of DJs from home and abroad and bands mostly from the folk and indie world. The Treehouse, hidden away in the forest, is probably the best-looking festival stage in Ireland. Tickets: €115 (Saturday), €65.50 (Sunday), overnight tickets sold out Electric Picnic Stradbally, Co Laois August 29-31 Kings of Leon. Hozier, Chappell Roan, Sam Fender, Fatboy Slim, Kings of Leon The big one caps off the festival summer. Twenty-one years on from its boutique debut, Electric Picnic sells out as soon as tickets go on sale, with the lineup still under wraps five months out. It's such a huge site, with tonnes of areas to explore, from the Salty Dog to the Trailer Park, with pop-up quizzes and installations to entertain you on your journey. Electric Picnic in 2025 is whatever you want it to be. As for rumours, Sam Fender, Chappell Roan, and Hozier are some of the big names linked with an appearance, while Post Malone has August 31 free after a gig in Munich the previous night. The Wolfe Tones, who got one of the biggest crowds in the festival's history on Sunday afternoon last night, could finally bid their final farewell with a headline slot. Tickets: Sold out
