Proof Of Concept

Part of the Tulca Season of Visual Arts 2006




I like working in grey areas.

Trading Standards

How much would you say these bottles of wine cost?



















1.99?



No Dammit!
€7.99.


W
atch out, they write sevens differently here.

I propose the harmonisation of sevens across the EU.

Rudebox

I've been having trouble adapting to the fact that I'm no longer in the UK.

The other day I spent an hour looking for a post box, only to realise that they probably don't have red pillar boxes here. I then tried posting my letter into a variety of possible street furniture candidates:



















Before finally correctly identifying an Irish post box:



















Only then did I realise that I probably needed to buy different types of stamp too.



I feel sorry for the Irish in three respects.

1. Very few Irish names are predicted by predictive text.


2. They don't have postcodes! How can they not have postcodes? Amongst other things, how do they find places on streetmap.co.uk?

3. Ah, They don't have streetmap.co.uk
It’s been raining every day since I got here, except for on Saturday, when there was a hailstorm:



Last Thursday I appeared with a bunch of Tulca Festival artists and curators on RTE Radio 1's 'The Eleventh Hour' presented by Páraic Breathnach:


Páraic is an accomplished theatre and film actor, producer, director of theatre, writer and all-round arts expert.

Click here to listen to the interview (I'm on about 35 minutes in).

I've been going a bit mad cooped up in my little freezing shop:



On Sunday I was planning on staying in, maybe going to Abrakebabra for some tea:















when I received an anonymous text message telling me to come to dinner.

Turns out it was from a collective called Domestic Godless. Here's one of them:















Here's the menu:















(Click to enlarge)

And here are some of the dishes:











































It was an unexpectedly remarkable meal, and a steal at only
20.

A similar meal would cost ten times as much in London.


(That's a complete guess.)


If I ever kill a man and am put on death row, I would definitely get Domestic Godless to cook me my last meal:














Not only would it take four hours to eat, but I'd probably die of gluttony before they could electrocute me.


The event was part of the Tulca Festival, and, as such, has forced me to raise my game:


Tulca Festival 2006

I've just started doing a fortnight-long residency in a former tuxedo shop in Galway, Ireland, as part of the Tulca Festival 2006.

They've told me to just hang out and see what happens, no pressure to make a final piece of work.

I've got a feeling that my first subtle anarcho-surrealist intervention might be a bit *too* subtle, so in order to draw attention to it, I've posted documentation on this blog that nobody reads.

This is the front of the shop, as found when I arrived yesterday:






And this is what I've done today:




It's an anagram.

I’ve always found it a bit perverse how landlords put posters on their windows telling people not to put posters on their windows. It’s a bit like pre-emptively burning down your own house to deter arsonists.


On the monitor is footage of my 2004 project, 'The Big Flyposter Draw'.


I realise that showing a two-year-old film could be considered trading on past glories.

But in my defence, at least I'm aware that I'm past my peak.

Here Are The Rest Of My Edinburgh Reviews


http://www.list.co.uk/festival/index.php?w=module:article,action:view,id:368

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=52889250&blogID=157441821

http://carsmilesteve.livejournal.com/39972.html


http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2006/08/adam-josie-and-priya-pathak-amongst-others/


In retrospect, 'Did Priya Pathak Ever Get Her Wallet Back?' was a critical and commercial failure.

I initially assumed it was my fault for writing a rubbish show, but subsequent performances lead me to suspect that maybe it just didn't work within the context/confines of the Edinburgh Fringe.

For example, compare and contrast the following clips, one from Edinburgh, and one from the Exeter Phoenix on the 24th October.






What a difference a decent audience can make, eh?

I've done the maths, and more people came to see the show on one night in Exeter (192 people - an unexpected sell-out) than attended the entire 22 date run at the Fringe (at its nadir two people showed up).

The Edinburgh run lost about five grand, whereas the Exeter gig netted me a handsome fee.


Draw your own conclusions.


And then tell me what they are, please.