Putting sights to sounds at Anon is Anall

A NEW exhibition featuring some of Clare’s top artists and musicians is set to open in Glór on St Patrick’s Day at 3pm.

The exhibition is entitled Anon is Anall 3 and it will be opened by the Vice-Mayor of Phoenix, Michael Johnson, who is visiting Ennis as part of the Gathering.

A statement from the exhibition’s organisers said it will be quite innovative. “Twenty artists will be exhibiting. Anon is Anall examines Irish music in a visual arts context, believing the cultural identity of a people is reflected through their traditional music, this audio/visual exhibition was instigated in 2008 in a bid to investigate this theory.

Every now and again, artists exhibit in an exhibition that redirects thinking and compels action. Such an exhibition is in the process of being created in Anon is Anall 3.

“What makes this exhibition so exciting is that the source of inspiration has been changed both for the artist and musician resulting in the creation of new tunes and art works which would never have been created if Anon is Anall did not exist.

“For this new exhibition, not only are we crossing boundaries and being made to break out of traditional patterns but the exhibition is now attracting premier artists and musicians into its fold such as Mick O’Dea, Martin Hayes, Lorraine Wall, John Gibbons and Kevin Crawford. Such an ensemble of artists can only create a truly great exhibition, displaying the very best of contemporary art and traditional music from Clare.”

The exhibition will also promote the county. “One of the main aspects of this exhibition is to create a greater awareness of the creativity diversity, which Clare has to offer, which is truly unique. How this will be exhibited is through three different mediums – visual contemporary art, audio – the audience will be able to listen to the new tunes through headphones, which will be connected to a flatscreen TV and a short documentary film.

“This short film will be displayed on a wall-mounted TV with the new tunes acting as the backing track. I believe this short documentary film will enable the audience to attain a greater understanding of the creative dynamics of the overall exhibition.”

Arts project co-ordinator Carmel Doherty was also involved with the previous Anon is Anall exhibitions and she is very pleased with the artists and musicians involved this time out.

“This is the third exhibition. There’s a different line-up to previously, there are 10 musicians now with new tunes and 10 artists. Some of the artists are new but some of them have changed. We have Mick O’Dea, Lorraine Wall and John Gibbons, they would be probably the biggest artists to come out of the county and I’ve partnered them with Martin Hayes and Kevin Crawford and PJ King.

“They would be some of the biggest musicians in the county so this would be probably the most prestigious line-up that I’ve had for the exhibition to date. It’s the best line-up I’ve ever had.”

She is hopeful the exhibition will promote Clare far beyond the county’s boundaries. “It’s on in Glór and it’s opening on St Patrick’s Day at 3pm. There’s going to be a large contingency over from Phoenix for the Gathering and it’ll be opened by Councilman Johnson. The whole idea of the exhibition is to market Clare arts as a unit abroad, to bring more tourism into the county and to show it as being an area of cultural excellence.

“What’s new in this exhibition is that for each of the actual partners musicians/artists, there’s a digital video created, and the actual backing for it will be the tune from the musician. That would be very important, it’ll be a new addition and the tunes are on the webpage so it can be seen around the world rather than just having it on in Glór,” she said