Art Encounters

“We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.” - Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation I’m a little confused. The main reason, and probably the one which all others feed into, is to do…

I flew into Shannon airport from Malaga with the family in tow. As the cool lovable air brushed in from outside, and I knew I had survived the intense heat of the Costa del Sol. As I came through that ‘nothing to declare’ sign I bumped into…

O’ sacred place of Córdoba, You exist because of Ishq, Ishq that’s wholly eternal, Which does not come and go, Muhammed Iqbal - The Mosque of Córdoba. I'm moving through the dark, Of a long black night, Just moving with the moon,…

For the first part of this Art Encounters, click here. 'Imagine bumping into yourself when you were twenty years younger?' You’re twenty-three years old, looking at Francis Bacon’s Lying Figure (1966) in the Reina Sofia Gallery…

"Everything that has been is eternal: the sea will wash it up again." - Friedrich Nietzsche. Imagine: you go online to book a trip to Galicia in the North of Spain via Madrid, and you realise it’s too expensive for all of you to get…

‘The ethics of care starts from the premise that as humans we are inherently relational, responsive beings and the human condition is one of connectedness or interdependence’ - Carol Gilligan ‘They say the darkest hour is just before the…

"If Rakim was rap's Woody Guthrie, Nas was the Dylan figure expanding the possibilities and complexity of the form, twisting old fables to match contemporary failings, faithful to tradition but unwilling to submit to orthodoxy." - Jeff…

What’s the point in always looking back, When all we see is more and more junk? - Manic Street Preachers. A recurring problem when reviewing a work of art or an exhibition, is the perceived strengths and weakness of what we have…

September, 1997 The Estuary, Enniscrone Beach, Co. Sligo. ‘We’ll stop and go back now.’ ‘Can we just wait here for a minute; there’s no rush?’ ‘Sure, of course.’ ‘I don’t want to go in, Mam. I can stick it out.’ ‘It’s just…

‘Laughing at the universe liberated my life. I escape its weight by laughing,’ - Georges Bataille I was going to title this column ‘we need to talk about memes’ in reference to Facebook pages I turn to most days to escape the gloom in the…