Anne Maree Barry

anne maree barry says hi I started this blog in 2007. No one had heard of The Wire and I was making experimental films that a select few saw. My initial tagline for this blog was: 'I write concisely. always. I'm trying to improve this - however, sometimes few words work better'. Then I found Twitter. However, I still post here once a week, so feel free to comment or just to simply say hii.	affiliates AnneMareeBarry Still Films Dark Light Paul Rowley Eoghan Kidney Alan Butler My Tweets My Vimeo Common Ground Mad decent Warrior One Cake
Monday, February 25, 2008 @ 3:20 AM 'Hope at the end of the day connects us all, no matter how different we are ' Marketa Irglova Labels: Anne Maree Barry, film, Glen Hansard, irish, Marketa Irglova, music, Oscar back to top? 0 comments
Wednesday, February 20, 2008 @ 2:32 PM Studio 468 Open Day I went to the first Majorette Competition of the year on Sunday. It was a long day but I got some interesting footage (some sketches coming soon), hung out with all the mams and was told some 'there are actually tears running down my face' funny stories. The footage here is from my digital stills camera - my battery had just died on my video camera - excuse the lack of audio and shaky hand. The figures in lime green and silver are the team I'm working with - The Rialto Twirlers. If you would like to find out more about my project on Saturday 23rd February between 10am and 2pm, Studio 468 will open its doors to invite the local community and the wider arts community to come and learn about the role of the artists’ studio in the community and the benefits to both artists and local people. The day begins with presentations from the current resident artists - Terry Blake and me - Anne Maree Barry. The studio is located in St Andrew's Community Centre, on the South Circular Road, Rialto. The studio is managed by Common Ground, an arts development organisation, along with representatives from Dublin City Council Arts Office and Rialto Development Association. In exchange for use of the studio, I proposed that I would collaborate with The Rialto Twirlers. The project combines an experimental short film, live performance and workshops. My aim is to broaden my practice in order to fade the borders between art and everyday encounters. I was recently awarded a grant from the Arts Council for this project. It is going to be hard work - up to this, my practice focused primarily on empty spaces and the hidden narratives they contain - however, I now welcome - change. Labels: Anne Maree Barry, Artist Residency Dublin, Common Ground, Rialto, Rialto Twirlers, Studio 468 back to top? 1 comments
Friday, February 15, 2008 @ 11:27 AM Hot 8 Brass Band The Hot 8 Brass Band are playing in Whelans, Dublin on Feb 28th. The Hot 8 Brass Band are a New Orleans based brass band that blends hip-hop, jazz and funk styles with traditional New Orleans brass sounds. I was listening to Rebirth Brass Band's amazing track 'You don't want to go to war' featuring Souljah Slim on Diplo's Mad Decent Worldwide Podcast Episode 5 (New Orleans aint dead..it just got a limp) when it was suggested to me that I should see The Hot 8 Brass Band. Hot 8 Brass Band were propelled to wider prominence globally by an appearance in Spike Lee's 2006 documentary 'When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts' and also by a version of Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing. They also have been the featured band in an important relief project 'SAVE OUR BRASS' following Hurricane Katrina and the devastation wrought upon New Orleans. I think I can smell Summer. Labels: Anne Maree Barry, Choicecuts, Dublin, Hot 8 Brass Band, Whelans back to top? 2 comments
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 @ 6:44 AM The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. Review of 'Heavier-Than-Air Flying Machines Are Impossible' in Frieze Magazine Heavier-Than-Air Flying Machines Are Impossible Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok, Thailand Fiona Whitty, Waiting Room (2007) ‘Heavier-Than-Air Flying Machines Are Impossible’ comprises seven videos by seven Irish artists, spread between three TV monitors and screened on a continuous loop. The two outer monitors dominated the installation, as they ran one video each so that the three screens functioned as a kind of triptych. Fiona Whitty’s Waiting Room drew particular interest. Set against the experimental approaches of the other videos, this documentary-style interview with a Nigerian immigrant in Dublin was immediately engaging. However, the work ultimately proved too undemanding for its own good: voyeurism (the faces of the interviewer and interviewee were unseen), undemanding questions (‘Why are you here?’) and appropriated footage of black poverty and oppression rendered the video a testament to, rather than indictment of, one of Ireland’s newest spectres of otherness. The curatorial premise for the exhibition encouraged the viewer to question the veracity of appearance. The title is taken from an 1895 statement by an Irish physicist and engineer, whose claim was disproved in 1903 with the flight of the Wright Flyer. ‘Do we make proposals that cannot be proved? Where are the facts?’, the accompanying press release asked. These questions offered an interesting perspective on Whitty’s claims to non-fiction, but, given all the other artists’ self-conscious approach to representation, I could not be entirely sure about her intention. Darren Bolger’s Benzo Dreams offered a notable comparison. An account of a Dublin man’s journey from drug addiction, Bolger illustrated the ex-addict’s voiceover with lyrical shots of drug paraphernalia, text, and, finally, images of a rural landscape. Bolger’s hypnotic, if not seductive, use of video contrasted strongly with the confessional narrative and subverted an all-too-familiar and cloying account of self-recovery. The selected videos functioned as a map of sorts to contemporary Ireland. All the more so because the general propositions of the curator are thrown into relief by the context of Bangkok. Novelist Edna O’Brien once wrote, ‘Ireland for me is moments of its history, and its geography, a few people who embody its strange quality.’ Aside from the contemporary significance of the social concerns of Whitty and Bolger, Anne Maree Barry’s video follows the country roads along which her father rode stolen bicycles in the ‘50s, pinched while their owners sat in mass. Kelly O’Connor takes a child’s view of the bland home she was raised in and that is now due for demolition, while Aideen Barry’s video is of a young woman carrying out ostensibly feminine tasks (ironing clothes, shopping) at great speed while levitating. Finally, there was the vague religiosity of the three monitors themselves. Brian Curtin Labels: Anne Maree Barry, freize, Heavier-Than-Air Flying Machines Are Impossible, Pallas Contemporary Projects back to top? 0 comments
Monday, February 11, 2008 @ 7:35 AM Where have you been keeping yourself? Oh, here and there. Here and there. The last few weeks I go swimming every Sunday. I complete a pyramid of lengths 2,4,6,4,2. For reasons beyond my control I could not swim this Sunday but I had bought The Swimmer (Frank Perry, 1968) for €5 at Movie Magic's closing down sale and thought the time was right to watch it. I had the impression that the story was just about a wealthy businessman Ned (Burt Lancaster) and his swim home through his neighbour's swimming pools on a Summer day. I was pleasantly surprised - the film is beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. I thought Ned just climbed over picket fences on his journey home but he actually goes through woodlands, has a race with a horse, meets people, crosses a busy highway, acts strange and gets cold. Some of the score and some scenes contain that certain sixties cheesy charm however the film holds its own. The scene when Ned meet his mistress at her pool is quite powerful and unsettling. This was actually directed by Sydney Pollack - Perry left the production due to creative differences. The film was deliberately shot with out-of-focus photography, supposedly in tune with Ned's disoriented state of mind. An approach quite popular in the late sixties - but an approach that still has an impact on me and my work today. Labels: Anne Maree Barry, Swimming, The Swimmer back to top? 0 comments
Friday, February 8, 2008 @ 8:40 AM Bombing @ El Cortes Ingles Laser Tagging in Barcelona by Graffiti Research Lab. Labels: Anne Maree Barry, barcelona, graffiti research lab, macba back to top? 0 comments
@ 7:36 AM LED Throwies I hung out with Evan Roth and James Powderly of Graffiti Research Lab last night. Evan took something out of his pocket - it was an led throwie and gave it to me. I thought it was pretty and put it in my handbag. I am now thinking of places i can throw it - each throwie is made up of a 10mm LED and a button-size lithium battery and is taped together with a rare earth magnet for superior stickage - all I need now is a magnetic surface and I'm ready for some LED throwing. Evan and James are over in Dublin from Brooklyn for Lightwave at Dublin's new Science Gallery. Evan is discussing the work they do as Graffiti Research Lab tonight in Trinity and debating the question: How can light can be used as a vehicle for self-expression in public spaces? The G.R.L. will also be laser-bombing targets of interest around Dublin this weekend - I think the Central Bank maybe a hit. 'The L.A.S.E.R. Tag unit will allow any graffiti writer or ordinary citizen of Dublin to communicate on the same scale as advertisers, corporations and governments using a 60 milliwatt laser, 1800 watts of audio and a very big projector.' I'm bringing my video camera. Saturday night is pretty horrific in Dublin, I wonder what the binge drinkers will make of all of this. Labels: Anne Maree Barry, graffiti research lab, led throwies, lightwave back to top? 3 comments
Wednesday, February 6, 2008 @ 6:37 AM Trapped In the Closet This is on my list of DVDs I need to get and watch in full. Trapped in the Closet contains 'outsider' film-making elements whilst at the same time pushes the boundaries of hip hop. R. Kelly finances the film(s) / episodes / chapters / hip-hopera himself. The songs relate an ongoing narrative, do not have a chorus and are told in a conversational manner. This approach adds an unusual strength to the visual - just listening to the song can be a bewildering experience, you actually do need the visual for a clear idea of what is going on (you can easily get lost in Kelly's warbling). Furthermore, the use of dramatics and cliffhangers between the episodes, is an ingenious addition to the whole experience. Highly recommended, even just to see Michael K. Williams (Omar Little from The Wire) act against type. Labels: Anne Maree Barry, hip-hopera, Omar Little, The Wire, trapped in the closet back to top? 0 comments

Review of 'Heavier-Than-Air Flying Machines Are Impossible' in Frieze Magazine