East and West meet in Arts Centre exhibitions

Irish artists Mícheál Ó Catháin and Kevin Gaynor and Japanese artist Miho Ohtsubo are currently showing their work in Galway City, at Galway Arts Centre’s exhibition space  on Dominick Street.

The three solo exhibitions are a mix of sonic work, immersive installation, video and performance.

Lúthchleasa is a show of new work by Mícheál Ó Catháin, that bridges the ancient and modern as he engages with the early Irish harp tradition.  For more than a decade, Mícheál has been exploring the shapes and sounds that this metal and wood instrument offers to human hands.

The show’s title comes from the lúthchleasa patterns encoded in the notes that were penned by the young music collector Edward Bunting at the 1792 Belfast Harp Festival, an event that was held to try and save Ireland’s harp music –  the harping tradition was dying out as English rule took hold in this country. Mícheál interprets the Bunting Manuscripts for a contemporary audience and employs computer code to visually represent their patterns as he gives his emotional response to the music. The exhibition runs until Wednesday, December 22, in Gallery 1 at the Arts Centre.

In conjunction with the show, Mícheál will perform a solo concert on harp, voice and electronics on Saturday, December 18, at Galway Arts Centre’s Nuns Island Theatre. Tickets for this are available via eventbrite.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite  HERE.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.