Project Arts Centre is delighted to announce the release of BAE (big art energy).
Part of Project's Future Forecast series, this limited edition publication is designed by Bureau Bonanza, edited by Louise Bruton & Cian O'Brien, and includes contributions from a stellar lineup of artists!
Delve deep into the heart of art. Photographer Vanessa Ifediora captures the elements of yourself you put on hold in throwing yourself into your work; writer Soula Emmanuel assesses what it was always like to walk around her home town with a mask on, in a year where she was planning to travel with a new name on her passport; artist Gary Farrelly reimagines Dublin city and what modern architecture can do for the heart and soul, challenging the norm of our city's sites and spaces; and dream team Club Comfort repurpose the dance floor so that whenever we bounce back from the abyss, the culture doesn't diminish after teatime - with a bonus mix ready for you to scan and stream tucked away in BAE's synesthetic pages.
Artists and their art are not disposable items.
Repeat that.
Artists and their art are not disposable items.
Our streets and buildings may be carved in stone, but the way we use them and the way we live isn't. The walls are immovable. We're just finding a new way to decorate them and it starts with a little Big Art Energy.
BAE (big art energy) is available to order now! Your order of BAE will also come with an exclusive, limited edition, A4 art print, designed by Bureau Bonanza.
€15 including postage (Ireland)
€18 including postage (International)
Order BAE (big art energy) here.
Want to get that big art energy pumping right away? You can feel that rush of BAE through your veins and straight to your heart by listening to our specially curated playlist, compiled by Co-Editor & DJ Extraordinaire - Louise Bruton!
Soula Emmanuel
Soula Emmanuel is a writer based in Co. Wicklow, who is currently working on her first novel. She is on Twitter at @soulaemmanuel, where she writes about politics, trans liberation and her unruly but lovable bichon frise.
Gary Farrelly
Gary Farrelly lives and works in Brussels. His practice encompasses drawing, performance, written correspondence, video, sound art and radio. Autonomy, control and architecture are recurring themes in the work. Since 2015, much of his production happens in collaboration with German photographer Chris Dreier under the banner Office for Joint Administrative Intelligence (O.J.A.I.).
Vanessa Ifediora
Vanessa Ifediora is a Northern Irish portrait photographer whose work is often inspired by personal identity and mental health recovery. She has been living with her boyfriend since lockdown was announced in March with their bold dog Heidi.
Club Comfort
Founded by DJs Baliboc, Selky and Roo Honeychild in 2017, Club Comfort is a vital presence in Ireland’s party underworld. With their all encompassing approach to club music, they cast a light on the importance of group experience with conceptually themed parties. The result is a moment in which all people are encouraged to feel comfortable, desirable, sexually liberated and - above all else - to have fun.
Louise Bruton
Louise Bruton is a journalist, DJ, disability activist and pop lover. She regularly contributes to the Irish Times, the Irish Independent, the Sunday Business Post, Irish Tatler and Image Magazine. As a DJ, she co-runs the club night Pure Shores and hosts the Thirst Trap on Dublin Digital Radio. She misses dancing a lot.
Bureau Bonanza: BAE (big art energy)
'We’ve been thinking about desire lines “paths & tracks made over time by the wishes & feet of walkers, especially those paths that run contrary to design or planning”; or “free-will ways”. How do we apply that to typography and editorial layout? By "logically" designing and planning (first phase) and then allowing our human instinct and Big Art Energy to fill-in, spill over, doodle, colour-in, make more notes in the margins, practice our autograph over and over. For some reason we’ve been thinking a lot about Aisling copy books as well as bureaucratic forms (when are we not? it’s in our name...) again there is a grid and sections to be filled out, boxes to be ticked that rarely allow us to express what we actually need to say. The cover of the book will be kind of plain and quiet and still (with the title) and then inside is like the inside of your head and how you’re feeling in the midst of all this. Loads of stuff going on, maybe a little bit claustrophobic and anxious but colourful and beautiful and overall, hopeful.
The print "Can you see me?" is a happy accident sprung from a series of technological failures. Normally we work in the same room but lately we've been talking shop on whatsapp video a lot and one time when one of our wifi connections was having a bit of a moment, Rachel took a screenshot; the big image of Stina as well as the little small one of Rachel down in the corner were a beautiful blur. There was something about it so we opened it in photoshop to play with it. Then when we opened it up in illustrator to play with it some more the image exploded into a really strange and elaborate pattern of shard-like, technicoloured fragments. We kept feeding it through different software and sending it back and forth between us, layering and masking until we had achieved an intriguing portrait of ourselves and our new way of working'
Printed by Plus Print & Hens Teeth.
