Tn2 - March 2017 by Trinity News

MARCH 2017

ART/ FASHION/ FILM/ FOOD/ GAMES/ LITERATURE/ MUSIC/ THEATRE/ TV

CONTENTS 04 07 24 33

GAMES:

Pewter Games: Interview with Ben Clavin 08

JUMBLE COMMUNITY REVIEWS SEX

Head editor RACHEL GRAHAM Deputy Editor SARAH MOREL online editor jack maguire assistant editor sorcha ni cheallaigh Art siun mcsweeney & ALEXANDRA DAY fashion FIONNUALA EGAN & LOUISE HYNES FILM LEE JONES & OISIN MCELHINNEY FOOD Roise Ni Mhaonaigh, alden MATHIEU & SORCHA JUDGE GAMES & TECH CAHAL SWEENEY & DERMOT DAVERN LITERATURE MICHAEL MULLOOLY & SARAH UPTON music DARRAGH KELLY & KEVIN BIRD THEATRE AMELIA MCCONVILLE & AMYROSE FORDER tv SORCHA NI CHEALLAIGH & JACK MAGUIRE DESIGN & layout by RACHEL GRAHAM, UNA HARTY, EOIN MOORE, SARAH MOREL & sorcha ni cheallaigh copy-edited by LEE JONES, alexandra day, kevin bird, NIAMH MORIARTY & ELLEN ORCHARD FRONT & BACK COVER by SARAH MOREL PRINTED BY GREHAN PRINTERS

ART

FASHION:

MUSIC:

FILM:

What manuscript marginalia tell us about the Medieval mind

Female quartet, Landless

12 Where to get the best vintage pieces for Trinity Ball

The effect of political satire in film and TV

TV:

16 LITERATURE: 19 Can Vice make a success Five minutes with author of their unexpected move Sally Rooney to cable?

THEATRE:

Reimagining the Irish Body: the rise of dance

FILM:

Interview: making Lady Macbeth

ART Art On Campus: Apples and Atoms After Sfera Con Sfera, the golden ball that resides outside the Berkeley Library, Apples and Atoms is perhaps the most recognisable piece of art on the Trinity campus. Erected in 2013, the sculpture was commissioned to honour Trinity alumnus Ernest T. S. Walton and the 80th anniversary of Walton and his colleague John D. Cockcroft’s most significant experiment; the splitting of the atom, the first ever demonstration of Einstein’s famous E=mc2 equation. This and the apple trees which are reflected in the work’s surface give the sculpture its name. Apples and Atoms invites interaction, a testament to which can be found in the muddy footprints dotted around the steel plinth where

FILM Defining the Decade 1980s: Stand by Me “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?” Stand By Me (1986) opens with a man hunched over a typewriter, writing a novel about his childhood adventures. The narrative jumps

Exam period is looming, which means late night cramming sessions in the Ussher, surviving off Red Bull and snacking on anything sugary to keep us going. Even when it comes to meal times, they can comprise of easy microwaveable convenience foods. These foods, rich in transunsaturated fatty acids, can actually leave you feeling mentally foggy; snacking on the right foods can help keep you mentally sharp and productive.

the sculpture sits. Many a goofy picture has been taken in its reflective and distorting surface. Nature also plays a role in affecting the work, with clear skies turning the sculpture’s surface a bright blue and additional tiny spheres being added in the form of raindrops. Like Trinity’s own Science Gallery, located just around the corner from this towering stainless steel structure, Apples and Atoms represents the merging of science and art. The sculptor, Eilis O’Connell, has stated that she was inspired in part by the minimal line drawings Walton sketched to help him understand and explain his work. Standing at a literal crossroads, the unification of the spheres of art and science are reinforced by the sculpture’s surface, in which both the Science and Arts and Humanities sides of campus can be seen.

back thirty years, where the narrator, Gordie, is twelve years old. We are introduced to his group of misfit friends, Teddy, Vern and his troubled best friend Chris Chambers (River Phoenix), as they embark on a quest to discover the body of a missing boy. The 80s is often acknowledged as the beginning of the ‘blockbuster’ phenomenon. With the likes of Stars Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1981) and Back To The Future (1985) storming the box office, the film industry became fixated on the idea of ‘high concept’ plots made accessible for mass audiences. Beyond the trend of blockbusters, thrillers and science fiction, the 1980s was also characterised by coming-of-age tales.

FOOD Food for Thought: Brain Boosting Berries

Stand By Me emerges as the best example of this trope. The entire project feels youthful. The dialogue is unquestionably true to a twelve year old’s vernacular. On top of that, there is an underlying sense, behind their incisive insults to each other, of an unbreakable camaraderie tying them all together. Each of the boys struggle with the weight of misfortune in some form, from Gordie’s recently deceased older brother to Teddy’s abusive father. Between the lines of their wisecracks and banter, the audience are hit by the elliptical sorrow of their young lives. Based on the excellent novella by Stephen King entitled The Body, Stand By Me develops the sharp intelligence of King’s writing and creates a moving picture of the tragedy of growing up and leaving behind the people that shape your character. It is a suitable emblem for a decade in film that, despite some of its outlandish blockbuster premises, was essentially concerned with human journeys. WORDS BY LEE JONES mental fatigue, brain fog, as well as recognised disorders such as ADHD and anxiety. In fact, it is the anthocyanins found in these flavonoids that give berries their beautiful and vivid colouring! Flavonoids have been shown to improve many cognitive functions including memory, learning and decision making. Blueberries in particular have been linked to forestalling age-related mental decline. Goji berries are also particularly nutrient-dense. The compounds found in berries keep your mind healthy by increasing brain neuroplasticity – your brain’s ability to keep changing throughout your lifetime.

Some of the best brain foods are berries, renowned for being antioxidant powerhouses. Indeed, all fruit and vegetables are loaded with essential vitamins and minerals, however berries are in a whole class of their own. They derive their age-defying power from flavonoids: a group of potent antioxidants that protect the brain cells from oxidising. Berries – in protecting the brain from chronic inflammation – could help prevent 4

WORDS BY AISLING GRACE

So, next time you find yourself shopping for library snacks, pick up a box of sweet and delicious berries to keep your mind focused and clear! WORDS BY ROISE NI MHAONAIGH

TV My Life is Like: BoJack Horseman Hey… you kinda look like BoJack Horseman from the Netflix series BoJack Horseman! [Horse nods to feed from the grass in my hand]

You have a lovely horse, sir, I think he can be a star. Owner: she’s a beauty alright.

WORDS BY SORCHA NI CHEALLAIGH

Do you ever wish you lived in Los Angeles instead of this field in Derry? [Horse leans over barbed wire to see if I have any more feed hidden in my hand]

Would you rather be an anthropomorphic horse or a zoomorphic human? [Owner of horse walks over to address me as I speak to their horse]

LIT Stranger Than Fiction: American Maelstrom

GAMES Free to Play: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links Growing up, there were two kinds of kids in the schoolyard. Those who played Pokémon and those who played Yu-Gi-Oh. Last year the former received a mobile game called ‘Pokémon Go!’, which, while successful, had a very short lifespan. Upon downloading Duel Links Yu-Gi-Oh, this side’s version of Pokémon Go, what I discovered was a cut down, purely first generation game. The card mechanics were by and large simple, lacking the complex multitasking of later generations, and the number of cards was not overwhelming. The base gameplay is rather simple. You start the game with a brief tutorial and from there you pick your starting character, either Kaiba or Yugi. As you progress through the main story you can collect new characters and decks whilst also supplementing your own deck with cards from booster packs. There is the option to spend actual currency on these packs, but happily, you never feel forced to do so. Around level five, the game thankfully opens the PvP option as the A.I. is quite basic. Matchmaking is quick and appears to be international, and the players range in skill from novices to lifelong players. The latter are perhaps almost impossible to beat, but perhaps that is the nature of online play. However, the production value really shows in the graphics and voice acting. Duel Links resurrects the voice actors from the original series to supply voices for the game, and provides the player with a simple yet tasteful interface to hold their duels. Graphical depictions of your monsters are projected above your cards in order to project that authentic Yu-Gi-Oh feel.

As George Santayana once wrote, those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. In the recently published American Maelstrom: The 1968 Election and the Politics of Division, Michael A. Cohen argues convincingly that the 1968 presidential election in the United States laid the groundwork for the bitter politics we see today. Both the Democratic and Republican parties splintered along ideological lines. The New Deal Coalition was shattered. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy – at this point, a primary frontrunner – were assassinated. George Wallace ran a populist campaign on a segregationist platform. Ronald Reagan created the hard right turn for the Republican party, which fully blossomed twelve years later. Protesters gathered outside the Democrat convention hall, inspiring an orgy of police violence and rioting. The candidates eventually selected for nomination by both parties were uninspired and untrustworthy. The WORDS BY CAHAL SWEENEY

Vietnam War was a leviathan in the background, with constant pressure on candidates from all sides to either withdraw or escalate the conflict. Sound familiar? It should. Cohen analyses the background context, profiles each candidate on both sides of the aisle, narrates the events at both conventions, and finally concludes with a discussion of the general election itself. In an afterword, Cohen runs through the presidential cycles up to Obama’s presidency and describes how parallels can be drawn with 1968. The writing style is accessible and compelling, without necessitating a detailed knowledge of history. Each of the main figures is fascinating to read about, with anecdotes about their quirks and personalities humanising them greatly. American Maelstrom is popular history at its best, and essential reading for anyone seeking to make sense of the origins of Trump and his firebrand of populist politics.

Konami has knocked this game out of the park by creating a quick. simple and fun Yu-GiOh experience with room for expansion and amazing production value. It’s definitely a must try for the older fans out there.

WORDS BY DERMOT DAVERN

THEATRE Graduate Spotlight: Ruth Negga Negga, who grew up in Limerick, is an alumna of TCD’s Samuel Beckett Centre where she graduated in 2002 with a B.A. in Theatre Studies – the acting qualification available in Trinity before the founding of The Lir’s B.A. in Acting Studies. Her career began on stage, where she was nominated as Most Promising Newcomer at the 2003 Olivier Awards. Negga soon transitioned from stage to screen, with Neil Jordan rewriting a role specifically for her in his film Breakfast on Pluto. Her protagonists have spanned mediums and subjects, from her role as Rosie in Love/ Hate, to portraying Dame Shirley Bassey in the BBC production Shirley.

Alongside the return of Easter eggs to supermarket displays, springtime inevitably carries a whiff of the glamour of the Oscars – especially when there’s a home-grown talent being recognised. This year, that spotlight shone on Ruth Negga, and her Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role of Mildred Loving.

In 2016, Loving premiered; telling the story of Mildred and Richard Loving’s battle against the Supreme Court after being persecuted for their interracial matrimony. Negga was cast as delicately wise Mildred, after being the first person to audition for director Jeff Nichols. Award nominations aplenty have ensued, recognising Negga no longer as a “rising star”, but as an actress of merit parallel to industry giants such as Emma Stone and Meryl Streep.

WORDS BY AMYROSE FORDER

MUSIC Sounds of Front Square

Name: Keri Kaufmann Studying: English Age: 22 Spotify username: Kankan31k Best playlist: iZombie If you were a song: Critical Mistakes by 888 If Trinity were a song: Estate Sale Sign by The Mountain Goats Song for Freshers: The Lollipop Guild from The Wizard of Oz Song no one has heard of that you love: TV Set by Spoon

FASHION Front Square Fashion

Name: Daniel Keogh Studies: Psychology (Graduate) Shoes: Avoca Jeans: USC (Belfast) Coat: Boohoo Shirt: Topman Scarf: Zara Favourite shops: Zara, Asos

Where did you get your necklace? The Belfast Mela Festival, which takes place every year at the Botanic Gardens. I bought it from a woman who hand makes all of the jewellery she sells. I picked it because I like to dress up shirts with necklaces, but places like Topman tend to only have very plain, minimalist jewellery for men. Why do you dress how you do? I used to think I just dressed for comfort, but I’ve come to realise it is a form of self-expression. Worst style moment? When I was younger, I thought it was cool to wear as many different patterns and colours as possible – all at once. Not a good idea, looking back! 6

WORDS & PHOTOS BY RACHEL GRAHAM

community.

Painting the City

Dublin Canvas Returns for Spring

re you an illustrator, painter or street artist who would like to get your work in the public eye? You might find the opportunity this Spring as Dublin City Council’s community art project, Dublin Canvas, returns for a third season.

when they were tagged and stickered, a time-consuming and expensive process. While some of the boxes painted since 2015 have succumbed to vandalism, or are situated at popular spots for rubbish collection (see both below) for the most part the works are still vibrant and visible.

The initiative aims to brighten up public space in the city by commissioning works on traffic light control boxes, which can be found dotted along every roadside in the city. These large, rectangular, utilitarian metal boxes are a necessary part of the urban infrastructure; at best they go unnoticed, but at worst they are an eyesore, often heavily tagged.

Submissions will open very soon on dublincanvas.com, and artists and designers from any background (professional, student, hobbyists) are invited to apply. Another 80 boxes are set to be completed by this Autumn, with the project expanding across all areas of Dublin. All styles and subject matters are welcome, but the council will favour designs which are sensitive to the box’s location; for example, Joanne Harold’s box [pictured above] shows squirrels peeping from the undergrowth, an obvious allusion to the Botanic Gardens which are located just a few streets away in Glasnevin. Artists will be compensated for travel, food and materials to the tune of 200 euro, and will have their works promoted on the website and on social media.

Dublin Canvas started out as one of many initiatives trialled as part of DCC Beta Projects, which the council unfortunately decided to shelve this past December. The Beta Projects tested out ideas aimed at utilising public space in creative ways, to solve problems and improve the lived experience of the city. You might remember the pop-up ‘Street Parks’ that replaced parking spaces with wooden benches and flower pots, or the large planters that were installed so as to collect rainwater from gutters and prevent sewers overflowing in residential areas. Dublin Canvas was a resounding success. The report completed at the end of the Beta trial concluded that the boxes were incredibly popular with both locals and tourists, and appeared to significantly lessen the requirment for the council to re-paint the boxes

(Two for Joy - Sarah Grogan Wexford St, Dublin 2)

If making art isn’t your thing, look up the helpful map on the Dublin Canvas website and head out for a walk; following the trail makes for a fun way to visit areas of the city you don’t usually frequent. We’ve documented some of our favourites here, but we’re pretty sure we pass other great ones every day without even noticing.

(Looking At The Stars - Sarah Bracken - Merrion Square, Dublin 2)

(Monday - Fuchsia MacAree Richmond St, Dublin 8)

WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS BY RACHEL GRAHAM

Pewter Games: an Interview with Ben Clavin Ben Clavin is the co-founder of Pewter Games, an indie games studio based in Dublin. Their first game, The Little Acre, was released on Steam, PS4 and Xbox One on December 13th, 2016 to critical acclaim. Sean Clerkin talks to him about the difficulties faced by the fledgling games development industry in Ireland. For readers who may not have heard of the game, what’s the elevator pitch for The Little Acre? The way we’ve always described it is that it’s a hand-animated adventure based on 80’s escapist fantasy films like Labyrinth, The Neverending Story and even something like The Pagemaster. Those stories of a real world and a fantasy world and characters travelling back and forth between the two. The art style is very heavily influenced by Don Bluth’s Disney films. That old-school, “technically a terrible idea but still looks great” style.

What’s your background? I’m from Tallaght in Dublin and I studied philosophy in Trinity for four years. I guess I did it because I didn’t know what to do but after years of floating around in this weird degree, I kind of got into logic. I think it was something to do with having something to latch onto in the storm of not knowing what to believe.

We always imagined that we were selling apples. So, what’s the business plan there? How would you grow enough apples, how would you sell them, at what price and where? We tried to avoid explaining Steam and Xbox etc. Often it would just confuse people.

Did that interest in logic lead you to programming?

Is the long turnaround in games production a turn-off?

Exactly. Logic is what interested me. Philosophy just gives you this weird, all-round skill set. So I did the MSc in Digital Games at DIT.

We spent two to three years [on The Little Acre]. It’s very start-stop at the beginning. If we had the funding and the team from the start, it wouldn’t be too bad but compared to some cool app idea you could have, it takes a lot longer to come to completion. It’s closer to film in terms of the production timeline.

Dublin is no Silicon Valley in terms of games development. Was it a big risk to set up a company here? People [the government] do want to help, which is different to America where it’s more of a “do it yourself ” mentality. The problem here is really communication. There are [grant] systems out there but they generally don’t understand gaming. The applications we are eligible for were set up for the tech industry. In other countries, grants for gaming companies are often done under the arts programmes so you might go to the film board, for example. Ireland doesn’t have that yet - here we’re not arts, we’re tech. Hopefully, that changes. Tech is easy to communicate because it’s about “what problem am I fixing.” Games don’t really fix problems, other than boredom. So it was tough to get the idea across but the support was there in the end. We got Enterprise Ireland funding, started off down in the NDRC [an investor and incubator for startups, based in Dublin] and we got some private investment. We got a publishing deal with an English company. You have to approach people in a very open, communicative way to make them understand why they should support you. In England or America you could say “we’re making a games company” and people would understand immediately. 8

How did you go about selling it to investors?

Was it challenging to find the talent you needed here? For art, not at all. There’s a booming animation industry in Ireland. There are so many jobs going and there’s so much talent. One of the best things we did was to go to the student animation shows in Ballyfermot and IADT. We were able to get the best people because we were offering them a position in an art style that no one else was going to allow them to do; the flip-book style. I think it was also an attractive proposition because first of all, it’s a video game, so that’s cool and they had a lot of creative input. With programming, it is definitely harder to find people with the right skills. We got a guy named Andrew [O’Connor], who started a company called BatCat Games. He came in towards the end of our project and he’s probably the only guy in Ireland with experience in Xbox and PlayStation integration! There’s a lot of work in that and a lot of rules; Xbox and PlayStation are very strict with what you can and can’t do. That’s the only role we struggled to find someone for - I would recommend Andrew!

What about getting a publisher? You can’t get a publisher in Ireland. I’m pretty sure there actually aren’t any. You’d be looking for marketing experience in the games industry and press contacts and all that stuff. There’s just not that level of industry connection here.

Are things looking up for the Irish games development sector? It’s got a good thing going for it and it’s going to get bigger. Guild of Dungeoneering came out in 2015. We are launching on consoles. I think Irish companies are coming to realise they can do this too. One of the worst accolades you can get with games is “best in Ireland”. We’ve always tried to hold ourselves to an international standard. We’re thinking, “it might hold up on the Irish stage but if we’re at PAX, will it still look good?” Everyone knows what looks good on the campus of an Irish college but that’s not good enough anymore. If people keep judging themselves by international standards, I think the sector will continue to grow. When we were starting there were really two companies: BitSmith and BatCat. They were the ones who had gone to GDC or released a game on Steam. They were the ones that we looked to for advice. Now, if you’re just starting up, there are way more companies you can approach for advice and contacts. I think it’s going to keep getting better.

What kind of support do Irish studios need to compete internationally?

“Everyone knows

what looks good on the campus of an Irish college, but that’s not good enough anymore.

We need to be treated as part of the arts, along with musicians, actors, writers. It is art! With the current environment where we are considered tech, sometimes you’ll be pitching against a medical device for funding. It’s like, give the money to them, they’re going to save lives - I’m making a video game!

Can you see a big Triple A studio ever coming from Ireland? Not born from Ireland. I mean maybe, it would be stupid to say no but I don’t think that’s the way we’re built. Obviously, we have DIGIT and they are definitely aiming to be that. All the luck to them but I think they are the only ones with that ambition. Everyone else has an “I want to add something to the marketplace that isn’t there yet” mentality.

What’s next? Can we expect to hear from Pewter Games about your next project soon? First, there are going to be some more platforms for The Little Acre.

Is it coming to the Switch? I wish! Not yet, though we are official Nintendo developers. We met them at GDC and we’re set up but we haven’t touched anything yet. We might, it’s not a bad idea. We’ve got other ones coming out over the next few months. We have got a brand-new game but it’s very early on. We’re putting the wheels in motion right now. The Little Acre is available on Steam, PS4 and Xbox One now. WORDS BY SEAN CLERKIN IMAGES COURTESY OF PEWTER GAMES

(The Little Acre - Pewter Games)

Medieval Doodles Alexandra Day considers the ubiquity of manuscript marginalia in medieval texts. Perhaps they offer psychological insights that can help us to appreciate the art of this stereotyped period in history?

icture the scene. It’s 4:17pm and that seminar is currently well underway. You don’t hate it, you don’t love it, you’re really just showing up because you have to. You’re stuck watching the minutes tick away agonisingly slowly in the corner of your neighbour’s laptop screen. Another student is delivering a ‘presentation’ which meanders on and on, neither interesting or comprehensible. You decide that writing some notes would help you focus. So, you uncap your pen and start scrawling down some phrases that stand out from the monotonous drone. Minutes pass before you realise you have begun to doodle in the margin of the page; a few spirals, a goofy face, a crooked little house with a chimney belching out scribbles of soot. Maybe even a ‘Super S’, depending on how tedious the class is getting. Now that you’ve started, you may as well add to this burgeoning masterpiece. It’s certainly more productive than listening to whatever’s being said. You begin to elaborate on the scene, dreaming up a bizarre little narrative to go along with it, creating an escape for yourself in biro and A4 notepaper. The minutes pass, the class ends and you leave; forgetting all about this mundane moment of invention. A few days later, you come back to write something else in the notepad and catch a glimpse of your doodles from the seminar. Curious to see what your past self was into, you decide to take a closer look. A stickman standing on a dog. An eye with a spiral for a pupil. What were you thinking? It must have been a very boring class. You tear out the page and stuff it into the nearest bin. Now, picture this scene. The year is 850 AD. A monk sits alone in a dimlylit damp stone cell with nothing but a sheet of vellum and a few stocky rats for company. The sun has risen and set, and the monk has made only three sentences of progress into transcribing the Gospel of Luke. He cares about the work but it’s been a long day with very little excitement. His mind begins to wander. A sigh, a few curving strokes of red ink, a pair of eyes and a simple one line smile. A fish with legs forms in the upper margin of the page. What does this have to do with the gospel? It’s not intruding on the text too much, so he decides to leave it there; maybe someone will take it as a reimagining of Scripture. Images like the aforementioned bipedal fish can be found scattered throughout the margins and texts of innumerable medieval manuscripts.

For example, a paragraph of text from a Decretum Gratiani [a collection of Canon law compiled in the twelfth century] dating back to c.1345 depicts a nude female figure riding a forest green eel like a rodeo cowboy. Sometimes the picture is a few simple lines, other times these ‘bas de pages’ have been treated with the same elaboration and detail as the ‘real’ illuminations in the manuscript. The range of subjects to be found in marginalia is incredibly diverse. The only limit to what could be done outside the prescribed boundary of illumination and text was the imagination of the monk. Some highlights of ‘bas de pages’ imagery include images of dogs dressed as pilgrims, headless bodies playing the drums and an elephant carrying a box of monks. Certain marginalia subjects were more mundane; amateurish self portraits of the artist, or depictions of the rats that populated the monastery. Just like the contemporary copybook, the margins of the manuscript offered illuminators and scribes a place to empty out their thoughts and feelings. The margin was a border into an unconventional and unexplored region of imagery where the unusual prevailed. This theme is echoed in medieval maps of the world, where the unknown territories of the map were populated by figures and creatures not unlike those found in the margins of manuscripts. For example, in the Hereford Mappa Mundi (c.1300), the outer reaches of the known world are populated by onefooted giants and beings with faces in their chest cavities. So why include them in a supposedly accurate map? Indeed, the inclusion of giant snails with dog heads and rabbits dressed as monks alongside sacred images of the Crucifixion and other Biblical stories have perplexed modern viewers for centuries. Are they satirical? Are they secret blasphemies? Or are they simply the doodles of a bored artist? Maybe they are all of these things. Rarely do we know who created the images, as they were almost never signed. Would you autograph a doodle? The anonymity of the drawings creates a certain mystery, allowing us to interpret their meanings (and their creators) as we see fit. We can say with reasonable confidence that not all marginalia was entirely random. Often they offered monks a means of expressing their views on clerical life and monastic hierarchies in a clandestine way. Images of monkeys and donkeys dressed in the clothing of bishops and abbots were

“The margin was a border into an unconventional and unexplored region of imagery...”

a not-so-subtle jibe at the establishment of the church, discreetly slipped in amongst the pages of the books used by the very same men. These echo the sly caricatures of rivals and enemies which are so often passed around classrooms today. Like so many doodlers whose drawings are found on desks and bathroom stalls, the monks responsible for marginalia were fond of a bit of toilet humour. Indeed, images of animals and humans urinating and defecating in all manner of methods and locations abound in the margins of illuminated manuscripts. One of the more dramatic examples of this can be found in the Gorleston Psalter (c.1310 - 1324), which included a monk defecating into the very first illuminated capital of Genesis! The explicit nature of these sketches can come as a surprise to modern viewers. Encountering the bare behind of a crudely drawn devil in the midst of a text concerning the salvation of the soul may be unexpected, but perhaps the shock really comes from the realisation that these artists were more like us than we care to imagine. Though lowbrow, these images reveal as much about the medieval mind as the lengthy, bone dry texts which fill the history section of the library. It is all too easy to get lost in the differences in dress, language and belief which made up the medieval world. The fact that so little was recorded of daily life means that the majority of modern knowledge of that time concerns only a small, elite section of society. Furthermore, the remarkably different style of visual art can appear alien and unfamiliar to the modern eye, making it difficult to interpret and connect with. This lack of a feeling of common humanity is perhaps exacerbated by the fact that the middle ages are so often mythologised. As children especially, we encounter the period in fantasy books and games, presented as a time peopled with

“Manuscript marginalia challenge the preconceived ideas many people hold about medieval art.” magical humanoids and mythical creatures rather than ‘real’ people we can relate to. Manuscript marginalia remind us that the people of the past were indeed humans like ourselves, merely separated from us by a few centuries. Manuscript marginalia challenge the preconceived ideas many people hold about medieval art. Ever since the Renaissance, the society of the medieval era has been the butt of many unfair, generalised tropes. The stereotypical image of the medieval person as a God-fearing, filthy, barbarous peasant is ubiquitous throughout film, television and history textbooks. Given that so few written sources exist that concern the personal thoughts and daily habits of people in the era, it can be difficult to imagine who they were. The diversity of imagery found in manuscript marginalia and often very crude humour used reveals that the medieval mind wasn’t solely consumed by prayers and the plague. Medieval people got bored and doodled to pass the time. They laughed at fart jokes and imagined fantastic creatures and worlds beyond their own. It was not a black and white world of stringent piety and death. The realisation that the psychology of medieval artists was more like ours than we have commonly imagined can help modern viewers appreciate medieval art in all its complexity. Though the society in which we live may be remarkably different, people as a whole are not. WORDS BY ALEXANDRA DAY ILLUSTRATION BY DANIEL TATLOW-DEVALLY

fabulous formal wear It’s ball season at Trinity! If you’re looking for something unique to wear, we’ve got you covered with our guide to the coolest consignment and vintage stores around town. From dresses to jackets and bags to heels, there’s something for everyone in our tried and tested recommendations.

vintage store round-up

Lucy’s Lounge | 11 Fownes Street Upper, Dublin 2

A firm favourite here at Tn2 Magazine, Lucy’s Lounge is an eclectic treasure trove bursting with unique and affordable up-cycled pieces. Venture in to browse one of a kind dresses; from the pastel and flouncy to the fitted and lacy. This is also a great place to pick up the most important accessory of all: a warm jacket! Trust me on this one. Lucy’s Lounge has tons of glamorous animal print coats to help create that perfect old school Hollywood vibe.

Nine Crows | 22 Temple Lane South, Dublin 2

Our go-to for bohemian chill, we also recommend heading to Nine Crows if you’re searching for the perfect Little Black Dress. Particular standouts include their black velvet slips and their black silk dress dusted with multi-coloured sequins. Looking for more colour? They also offer exquisitely sequined dresses in baby pink, deep purple and vivid red. Sparkle under the lights as you dance the night away!

Siopaella | Various Locations, City Centre

This luxurious consignment store also stocks striking and affordable accessories. We love their Art-Deco style pink triangle earrings and funky cartoon Moschino pins. Dress-wise, we were particularly taken with a sleeveless blue silk Carven number and a strappy pink velvet Love & Other Things dress with a plunge neckline and bold embroidered roses. If you’re looking to splash out, designer shoes from Chanel to Louboutins are also on offer. Don’t forget though, at Trinity Ball comfort is key!

Dublin Vintage Factory | 57 Smithfield Square, Dublin 7

You’re always on to a winner when you can nab a kilo of clothes for only €20. You can find some fab sequined looks at the Vintage Factory. We loved their black beaded bralet, which would look perfect with a long full skirt. They also have an impressive vintage furs section to help you brave the night’s chill. Their faux fur gilet would be a great snuggly accompaniment to a fitted gown.

Folkster | 9 Eustace Street, Dublin 2

Folkster has an entire room dedicated to beautiful evening wear. Think floor length gowns in soft charcoal grey or curve-hugging magenta lace. A particular stand out is their “Gigi” line: these are shimmering floor length gowns in a simple straight cut, with a cut-out detail on the back. These dresses come in dark silver, forest green, vintage bronze, or black, and are the epitome of understated elegance. Folkster also have a fantastic collection of shoes. We especially love their strappy sandals in burgundy velvet or sequined gold. And for high heels, they’re actually pretty comfortable! They also offer delicate accessories including pretty hairbands, which would perfectly compliment an intricate up-do.

ILLUSTRATION BY JERIE MACAPAGAL WORDS BY FIONNUALA EGAN 12

HOME GROWN Landless sing traditional songs in four-part harmony. Lily Power, Meabh Meir, Ruth Clinton and Sinead Lynch met in NCAD and released their eponymous EP in 2014. After an active few years performing around Ireland, they are currently recording their debut album, Bleaching Bones. Look out for it later in 2017. Tell us about your rehearsal process? Ruth: Often we will have arranged and learned our harmonies remotely before meeting up to sing something together. Because we all have such different schedules - and Meabh lives in Belfast - this is the easiest way to make the most of our practice time. Sinéad: Then we each learn our separate parts and try out the songs when we meet - it’s very exciting to hear it come together.

How do you find your songs? Are there particular themes you’re attracted to? Ruth: Songs can come from archival research, from our own music collections or from hearing something sung at a singing session. There’s nothing like hearing a great live rendition of a song to make you fall in love with it. A lot of our songs have darker themes, frequently death or loss of some kind. I think most singers of traditional songs would say the same!

What draws you to unaccompanied singing as a performance style? Ruth: Around ten years ago, I heard the singing of Francy Devine and also Meabh Meir – who I met at NCAD. I was struck by the power of the unadorned songs, and set about secretly learning one. I then drunkenly cornered Meabh at a party to sing to her, and convinced her to sing songs in harmony with me in order to make it less terrifying! Sinéad: I have been singing since I was a child but started traditional singing just over seven years ago after becoming interested in traditional music and attending sessions. I got obsessed with folk music when I found Anne Briggs, and it exploded from there.

Can we expect any major differences between the EP and the album? Ruth: Even more minutes of unaccompanied singing!

Do you think it’s true to say traditional music is gaining popularity among young people in Ireland?

Sinéad: I think we have tighter and more intricate harmonies – we’ve had almost three years more practice since the EP.

Ruth: The last few years in Dublin have been a really productive time for traditional singing in particular. I think it’s sustained by the mutually supportive atmosphere, as well as the excitement of being surrounded by so many talented and inspirational musicians. Traditional music, more generally, has always been around – just look at the popularity of The Fleadh.

Apart from the album, is there anything else you are looking forward to in the near future?

WORDS BY RACHEL GRAHAM PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN FLANAGAN

Ruth: We’re guests at the Inishowen International Folk Song and Ballad Seminar at the end of March. That’s always a lovely weekend and a great chance to pick up some new songs. Sinéad: We’re hoping to head to Slovakia in September for a festival of traditional music, they have they most amazing singing tradition, lots of harmonies!

POLITICAL PARODY AT THE PICTURES

(Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator, 1940)

In an era where politicians are funnier than the comedians in charge of making fun of them, what role does satire have to play in today’s media? Oisin McElhinney takes a look at the highlights of film’s rich history of political satire, arguably more relevant now than ever before. 14

atching Alec Baldwin don a wig and pitch-perfect pout while spurting out post-truths with post-conventional phrases, you could be forgiven for wondering if this superlative lampoon is a better Donald Trump than the real Donald himself (or 46th President of the United States as he is now better known). The same goes for Tina Fey’s dead-on skewering of Sarah Palin. In an era of “alternative facts” where the politicians are funnier and more outrageous than the comedians in charge of making fun of them, what role does satire have to play in today’s entertainment and political spheres? After all, what’s the use in parodying when the objects of it are already busy being self-parodies? And what impact does satire really have when the combined efforts of Saturday Night Live, Jon Stewart, John Oliver and Stephen Colbert (to name but a few high-profile examples) couldn’t stop sixty million Americans from (unironically) voting Donald J. Trump into the White House? While there has been an abundance of satire on our television screens in recent times – a trend that is both welcome and unlikely to change any time soon – there is no shortage of satirical works on the silver screen either. Movies have always been an effective vehicle for conveying critiques of politics, society, and in many self-reflexive cases, the movie industry itself. In many ways, the number of satirical films released is surprising, given the frequently cynical and self-conscious nature of them. And the movie industry, Hollywood in particular, is not known for its love of cynicism – at least on onscreen.

“The jury is still out as to whether satire can change minds.”

(Dr. Strangelove, 1964) As it happens, SNL wasn’t the first to audaciously deride a megalomaniacal pseudo-politician. The great silent-era clown, Charlie Chaplin, did that back in 1940 with his hilarious and moving depiction of a certain Adolf Hitler in The Great Dictator. Chaplin, an open Communist who would later be hounded during the McCarthyite witch-hunts in 1950s Hollywood, directed and starred in his first ‘talkie’ to deliver an impassioned performance culminating in his now-famous speech at the finale (its video has racked up nearly 20 million views on YouTube). Chaplin later said that if he’d known the horrors that would follow in the years to come he could never have made it. But he was able to, and he did. Contrast this to today’s quasi-fascist figure of ridicule President Trump, a man so preposterous that even the masters of all things profane and sacrilegious, South Park, have openly given up on poking fun at him. Coming from a show so fond of controversy that has depicted the Prophet Mohammad and infamously shown Tom Cruise stuck in a closet, this is quite a statement. In 1992, another famous Hollywood liberal wrote, directed and starred in his own comedic assault on a right-wing reactionary. Tim Robbins’ deeply cynical and cutthroat mockumentary Bob Roberts (1992) is an audaciously accurate depiction of an ultraconservative Christian folk singer who campaigns through hate speech ballads in front of adoring (and suspiciously Trump-like) audiences, making it possibly even more relevant in 2017 than on its release over two decades ago. His victory against the elderly and overqualified Democrat (played superbly by Gore Vidal) is eerily reminiscent of the most recent American election and is proof that a progressive actor in the 90s was able to realise what the pollsters apparently could not: that a folksy anti-establishment image and bigotry masked as ‘values’ is enough to beat competency. It is somewhat disappointing, in fact, that there is a shortage of this type of movie from the past few years. James Franco and Seth Rogan’s irreverent The Interview (2014) is a highly enjoyable spoof of Kim Jong-un, but ultimately lacks any real underlying point. That said, Paolo Sorrentino’s slickly beautiful Il Divo (2008) is an impressive takedown of one Italy’s most infamous Prime Ministers, Giulio Andreotti. Sorrentino’s new series The Young Pope starring Jude Law is another fine specimen of ironic blasphemy and satirical Vatican-bashing. Along with the obvious objective of critiquing and parodying prominent figures and current affairs, satirical movies also allow audiences an insight into historical eras in a way that traditional dramatic films cannot. While ‘serious’ films often focus exclusively on their self-contained subject matter, comedies and satires may utilise humour in order to transcend the actual events shown on screen. After all, isn’t the whole point of satire to use humour and absurdity to convey a subtler political message or moral

allegory? Few films – serious or otherwise - have captured the irony and insanity of warfare and the arms race like Stanley Kubrick’s outrageously funny Dr Strangelove: Or How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). Curiously enough, the short novel it was based upon was not a comedy at all, but the comic genius of Peter Sellers’ acting makes the Armageddon-like events all the more potent thanks to the cuttingly ironic dialogue (“Gentlemen you can’t fight in here, this is the War Room!”). Compared to the infinitely more sanctimonious conventional war dramas of recent years such as Spielberg’s self-important Saving Private Ryan (1998) or this year’s insufferably Oscar-thirsty Hacksaw Ridge, Kubrick’s mischievously black comedy still shines brighter. In more recent years, Chris Morris’ disgracefully underrated British terrorism satire Four Lions (2010) has used the same technique of discussing a dark and controversial issue - jihadism, in this case - with equally dark humour. Revolving around a group of spectacularly incompetent English Muslims trying to plot a terrorist attack, it is both a brave and intelligent examination of a topic that is often very difficult to analyse through comedy. Even the media and comedy itself have been the target of satirical movies. Sidney Lumet’s scathing 1976 feature Network remains one of the finest excoriations of the manipulative nature of television and the brainwashed generation raised on it. Its protagonist, the crazy yet enlightened Howard Beale (Peter Finch) is one of cinema’s enduring icons of the disillusioned everyman (“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”). Just as incisive but all too frequently overlooked is Martin Scorsese’s disconcerting psychological study, The King of Comedy (1983). Robert De Niro’s portrayal of unstable aspiring talk show host Rupert Pupkin was later regarded by Scorsese as his finest performance in their collaboration. A more contemporary look at the deceptive nature of the media is Jason Reitman’s acerbic and politically incorrect Thank You for Smoking (2005), starring Aaron Eckhart as an unscrupulous Big Tobacco lobbyist and spin doctor. Morally inverted and hilariously self-aware, it stands among the most engaging and thought provoking satires released this century so far. The jury is still out as to whether satire can change minds. Recent world events would suggest that its political impact is definitely limited; perhaps its reactionary nature means the impact often simply comes too late. However, as filmmakers have long realised, it has the capacity to challenge viewers and force them to think beyond the superficial exterior that most movies offer. And by making them laugh (or squirm) the subverted message may just resonate. WORDS BY OISIN MCELHINNEY 15

WHAT THE HELL IS

LAND?

WORDS BY SORCHA NI CHEALLAIGH, CONOR FALLON & SASKIA WHEELER 16

Drug culture, Balls Deep, and Ellen Page; life according to the VICE venture into cable television

t was Monday February 29th, 2016. Vice Media teamed up with shareholders A&E Network and Roger’s Media to launch not one but two Viceland-branded cable channels, in America and Canada respectively. The move seemed surprising – nonsensical, even – for a media outlet targeting millennials. The launch took place in the context of a projected five year growth of 12.42% in the Video On Demand [V.O.D] market. But they played their cards right. Spike Jonze – the Academy Award nominated director, screenwriter and overall visionary behind many of the iconic music videos of Bjork, Daft Punk and Kanye West – was brought in for creative direction. Vice Media CEO Shane Smith spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how, even in the rise of V.O.D, 75% of the world’s advertising budget was still being spent on television advertising. The move was clever and calculated; a solid creative vision teamed with a marketing strategy that dared to be different. Working with A&E and Roger’s Media was a foolproof way of bringing the famously polarising Vice to the mainstream; the partnerships ensured Viceland was brought straight into wide circulation – beamed into 70+ million homes – and was part of a package that could be marketed online (with Viceland and A&E set to begin streaming on Hulu’s new live TV lineup).

What’s wrong with being hungover and wanting to watch a group of friends build Ikea furniture while on LSD? Viceland’s speciality is what I like to call ‘hangover’ TV; realitydocumentary programing mindless enough to watch through bouts of nausea, yet interesting enough to keep your mind distracted from dwelling on that nausea all day. Viceland’s reality-documentary programming is definitely more accomplished, relevant and well formed than MTV shows like Geordie Shore and Teen Mom; but if you’re expecting a Netflix polish, look somewhere else. This isn’t reality TV like we’re used to. Guerilla camerawork and character driven narratives make a viewer feel like they’re on the inside track, and

ultimately involved. The emphasis is on following interesting personalities as they explore the aspects of the world pertinent to the millennial generation. A perfect example of this is Gaycation, a documentary series hosted by Academy Award-nominated actress Ellen Page and her best friend, Ian Daniel. The choice of Page to helm the documentary series is perfect, especially after the world bore witness to the media furor, and subsequent Hollywood neglect, she was subjected to during her process of publicly coming out. Viceland’s choice of personally involved narrators elevates shows which might otherwise be considered millennial fodder to something fascinating. Spike Jonze put it best when he said, “if it doesn’t have a strong point of view, then it shouldn’t be on this channel.” Viceland, true to its name, pulls some punches. Viceland won’t be to everyone’s taste. But in a time when the amount of cable television available is decreasing and becoming increasingly hegemonic as a result of the online revolution, Viceland isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Having Weediquette, Traveling the Stars: Action Bronson and Friends Watch ‘Ancient Aliens’ and many other new marijuana-centred reality programming is perhaps exactly the kind of postmodern vagary we require in 2017. What’s wrong with being hungover and wanting to watch a group of friends build Ikea furniture while on LSD? Viceland has a strong brand identity and unapologetic sense of self. They may just pull off launching a new cable television for the millennial generation during the online revolution. Seeing far beyond our time into a hipster future, Viceland is predicting the new vinyl player to be our DVD playing TVs and getting in before the renaissance. In order to test this hypothesis, we got two writers to preview their biggest shows: Bong Appetit and the puzzlingly titled Nirvanna the Band the Show. They were surprised, but impressed. All I can say is, if they continue to reveal shining diamonds of personal experience in the weed smoke; Viceland will be a commercial success.

Now available in seven countries, Viceland is on Sky TV UK and Ireland channel 153. WORDS BY SORCHA NI CHEALLAIGH

N I R VA N N A T H E B A N D T H E S H O W

iceland have launched Canadian duo Jay McCarroll and Matt Johnson onto their channel in the mockumentary Nirvanna the Band the Show. The show is not typical of Viceland’s style. The show is semi-scripted and relies on the characters’ energy and silliness to carry it through. But what’s the show about?

its charms, but the show does have its merits. Shot in cinema verite style, it’s fast-paced with moments of direct camera address. Matt and Jay hold the screen and involve the audience in their wild antics. With references to Jurassic Park, Star Wars and Seinfeld the show brings all kinds of pop culture nostalgia into the mix.

This show is not about the 90s grunge band. It’s about two Toronto goofs with one aim: to get a show at the Rivoli – an amateur concert venue, but to Matt and Jay it’s the ultimate dream. The fact that they’ve never performed or written a song is no matter of importance. Jay is boisterous, loud and always the first to bring his ridiculous ideas to the table. Matt is naïve and a dreamer. What can be said about this incongruous pair is that their bashfulness is infectious and their naivety endearing. One thing is for sure though, both are utterly delusional. Their ploys to get the Rivoli’s attention are bold, ambitious and will make you say ‘wow, I actually can’t believe they are doing that’.

Described by Indiewire as ‘so stupid, it’s smart’, Viceland have put these two Canadian clowns on the map to bring you a show that is ironic and unashamedly absurd. This show might suffice for late night watching during a bout of insomnia, though I wouldn’t say it’s worth staying up past your bedtime for. Viceland is known for its irreverence, innovation and readiness to cut below the surface of undocumented contemporary issues. ‘Nirvanna the band the show’ lacks this purpose.

This show doesn’t have quite the same finesse as Spike Jonze’s previous productions; comedic subtlety and conscientious direction aren’t among

Tune into Viceland at midnight on Thursdays to see what these ‘musicians’ get up to - let’s be honest though, who goes out of their way to watch TV at midnight? Will they get to fulfil their aspirations by performing at the Rivoli? For the sake of the audience, I hope not. But one thing is not in doubt: they’ll keep trying. WORDS BY SASKIA WHEELER

BONG APPETIT! A FRESH LOOK AT WEED CULTURE

ong Appetit is a show which, as the name suggests, is about the budding (heh) concept of cannabis-infused cuisine. It is soon to air its second season on Viceland. Hosted by the highly (heh) likeable Vice personality Abdullah Saeed, the show is an entertaining watch in itself, but it also manages to provide an insight into cannabis culture, without trading on any of the the lazy stereotypes usually associated with it. The first season features food and cannabis being merged together in wildly creative (and hilarious) ways. One episode features three dips being offered at the dinner table: mild, medium, and hot which will result in one getting a little, moderately, or extremely high, respectively. In another episode they prepare a smoked tuna, which is quite literally (to use what I believe to be the correct street-lingo) hotboxed in a container of cannabis smoke. Seeing that piece of tuna enveloped in a haze of dank A.F. smoke has to be one of the most wondrous things I’ve seen on television. The episodes end with a dinner party, where the invitees eat the food that we have seen prepared throughout the show while also taking part in a variety of cannabis themed activities. Highlights include a stony meringue which, when dipped in liquid nitrogen, allows the eater to exhale vapour which – and I’m just hazarding a guess here – may be a visual allusion to the exhalation of cannabis smoke? There is also the glorious destruction of an edible-stuffed piñata by stoned revellers, who – fuelled by savage munchies – pounce upon its spilled delights. The chefs who guest star on Bong Appetit have usually never cooked with cannabis in any serious culinary way, with previous flirtations (such as when one chef miscalculated dosage in a weed omelette, leading to him “being like a zombie for hours”) causing them to be cautious with regard to how strong each dose is. Thankfully there are weed experts on hand to handle dosages, ensuring everyone remains on terra firma. As impressive as the exhibition of culinary explorations is, what is perhaps even more impressive is how the show manages to normalise those who use cannabis. The people in the show are all constructive members of society. They are shop owners, chefs, artists, businesspeople, even retirees; all of whom are shown to be responsible in their smoking, often refusing to “blaze it” when having something to do. As the resident culinary artist

puts it, “I bake and then get baked”. The show makes an effort to give a scientific explanation of how cannabis works. We are told that CDB is the compound which produces the “body high”, and has little psychoactive effect, and that THC is the compound with the more cerebral effect. In what is a happy coincidence, we learn that CDB curtails the effects of THC, preventing one from getting - as they put it - “too high”. Viceland: providing science lessons to millennials since 2016. Amidst the obvious fun of all this, Bong Appetit also alludes to the more serious medical applications of the drug. In the first episode of the series, we meet a young woman who has been using cannabis as treatment for her Motor Neurone Disease, a fatal degenerative disease which eventually leads to total paralysis. At the dinner party later on, she reveals that she went to Abdullah to help her explore cannabis as a method of treatment. She tells us that the CBD loosens the tightness in her muscles, and that the THC alleviates her pain. She ends her segment by saying, “I feel like I’m doing really well compared to other people who started at the same point”. In spite of the widespread legalisation of cannabis in many US states, the vast majority of jurisdictions worldwide still criminalise people with illnesses who could experience improved quality of life with the help of the drug.

As the resident culinary artist puts it, “I bake and then get baked” Abdullah ends one episode by saying that we are lucky to live in a time where cannabis is being legalised, and that he hopes that the work done by the people on his show can be seen as broadening the scope with which cannabis can be used. What the show manages to do is showcase that there is no shortage of ways in which cannabis can be used creatively and constructively, and that the people who do so do no harm, apart from being occasionally dozy and often quite hungry.

(Nirvanna the Band the Show)

5 Minutes with an Author: Sally Rooney Literature editors, Sarah Upton and Michael Mullooly recently sat down with writer Sally Rooney, a graduate of English Studies at Trinity College. Her eagerly awaited debut novel, Conversations with Friends, was bought by Faber and is set for publication in June. Rooney discusses her influences, her methods and her next project. W.B. Yeats said that ‘There is no great literature without nationality, and no great nationality without literature.’ Do you think that the term “Irish writer” is a useful category when describing your identity as a writer? I was born in Ireland and I still live here, so it would be hard to argue that I’m not an “Irish writer,” but I don’t think that’s what Yeats meant. Big fan of Mussolini, W.B. Yeats. I just feel like we don’t talk about that enough. In conclusion, if there really is no great literature without nationality, I can safely say I’m not interested in writing great literature.

To what extent do social issues at home and abroad inspire your writing? I rarely find much room in my work for the direct discussion of politics, in part because I tend to write pretty low-stakes, observational prose about friendship and love. At the same time, I think it’s impossible to be a good observer of reality without being open to observing the workings of ideology. Even a single conversation between two people can reveal a lot about the world we live in. So the broader question of power and how it’s distributed is everywhere in my writing; it couldn’t not be.

How important is research to your writing process?

What is your next project? I’m working on a second novel right now, told from the alternating perspectives of two characters as they finish school and go to college. In a way it’s a coming of age novel, but not so much about an individual as about a relationship. I think.

“Even a single conversation between two people can reveal a lot about the world we live in.”

I rarely need to do any difficult research, but I do end up researching a lot of unbelievably boring things. Was the summer of 2012 warm? How long does the average cold last? Things like that. I wouldn’t want any of my characters to spend an implausibly long time recovering from a cold.

Who, would you say, is the most influential writer working in Ireland today? I think a case could be made for Kevin Barry, in part because his work has influenced so many writers who are now influential in their own right-the original influencer. A case could also be made for Thomas Morris, who is neither Irish nor technically in Ireland, but who did so much to shape the current Irish literary scene during his time as editor of the Stinging Fly. His superb collection, We Don’t Know What We’re Doing definitely had an influence on the development of my book.

Conversations with Friends will be available in all good bookshops from June 1st. 19

Irish Bodies: the Rise of Dance Theatre Claudia Kinahan argues that within the Irish context, dance has been offering theatre makers a universal language through which to reinterpret difficult stories, about our past and the troubled political status of our bodies.

he Irish Body is a constantly changing entity; it is a product of its history, and a site of ongoing cultural and societal change. The repression of the body is ingrained in our society, resulting largely from its deep-rooted Catholic ideology. Irish bodies have often occupied uncertain, liminal territory, in regards to attitudes, healthcare and the law. Certain public events crystallise this notion of the body as a site of conflict in the national psyche - the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993, and the many individual milestones in the ongoing fight for abortion rights.

Brokentalkers are one of Ireland’s leading theatre companies. Formed by Gary Keegan and Feidhlim Cannon in 2001, the company have enjoyed national and international success with productions such as The Blue Boy and The Circus Animals Desertion (2016). They frequently collaborate with Irish dance theatre company Junk Ensemble, founded by identical twins Megan and Jessica Kennedy, to create live work which examines stories that resonate on a macro scale, through the micro lens of Irish society.

It could be argued that in the past, efforts have been made by leading social and political institutions like the Catholic Church to enforce their ideology by de-sexualising and repressing the Irish Body. The term ‘Irish Dance’ has connotations of Céilí gatherings; ‘The Siege of Ennis’ brings to mind reserved images of tightly closed legs, arms clinging to the body, and limited freedom within a set of repeated movements.

Brokentalkers’ The Blue Boy is one such production that has toured nationally and internationally for several years. The Blue Boy interrogates the effects of the clerical abuse of children in Ireland. The piece centres

However, like music, the language of the body is universal. It travels with us through time and space, and we rely on it to communicate no matter where we are or what time we find ourselves in. In this way, many contemporary Irish theatre companies are turning to the body, to dance, and physical theatre as a way to interrogate the stories of our past and pave the way for those of our future. 20

“Irish bodies have often occupied uncertain, liminal territory”

around the Artane Industrial School, where impoverished young boys were fostered under the care of the Christian Brothers. The piece is performed by an ensemble of physical performers, and the company use movement motifs, and physical sequences to interrogate the trauma suffered by the inhabitants of the institution. Through movement, sound and documentary material the audience are given a glimpse into the patterns of abuse suffered by the victims who inspired the piece. There is a haunting quality to the work, as we see the fragile bodies of the performers undergo strenuous physical tasks and punishments; a distilled offering of the real historical abuse in question. Brokentalkers is not the only company who uses physical theatre as a way to interrogate the stories of our past. Last year’s Dublin Theatre Festival (DTF) saw highly acclaimed Anú Productions partner with CoisCéim dance company for These Rooms. The production explored the lives of civilians whose homes on North King Street were upturned by the 1916 Rising. The piece focused primarily on the experience of women, an often marginalised community in Irish theatre. This focus was particularly resonant in the wake of the 1916 Commemorations, which inspired the Waking The Feminists movement (WTF). WTF was a reaction to the lack of female representation in the Irish theatre industry, epitomised by The Abbey Theatre’s 2016 programme, which included only one play with a female author. Through female representation in These Rooms, Anú Productions gave those on the periphery not only voice, but physical presence. These Rooms was an immersive live performance, where audience members were invited to dance with the ensemble, their bodies implicated in the ongoing negotiation of our history. In this way Irish dance theatre has been an effective tool for enlightening audiences about our nation’s past, the untold stories of our history, and the experiences of our ancestors.

“reserved images of tightly closed legs, arms clinging to the body, and limited freedom within a set of repeated movements”

Michael Keegan-Dolan, a key presence in Irish dance theatre, also participated in last year’s theatre festival, bringing the critically acclaimed Swan Lake / Loch na hEala to the O’Reilly theatre. Not unlike The Blue Boy, Keegan-Dolan’s Swan Lake also touched on themes of clerical abuse in Ireland, alongside those of mental health. This is a worthy theme that has been undergoing increased representation on Irish stages, with thanks in no small part to the highly successful and illuminating First Fortnight festival, which aims to “challenge mental health stigma through the creative arts.” The production was highly visceral, representing the deep complexities of the mind through fluctuating choreography which ranged from simple and fragile movements, to celebratory ecstasy capturing the joy of release from societal constraints. Perhaps what is most exciting about the dance theatre scene in Ireland is that it is sweeping the country. Rural theatres are often the victims of what is arguably conservative programming; popular comedy acts, pantomimes and school productions. However, there seems to have been a shift in these patterns, and more theatres outside of Dublin are offering programmes which include dance theatre. Liz Roche Company’s Bastard Amber recently transferred to Limerick’s The Lime Tree Theatre, while Brokentalkers’ The Circus Animal’s Desertion showcased at The Everyman in Cork, after its run at DTF. Irish dance theatre is definitely on the rise, and for good reason. Dance offers theatre makers a universal language to renegotiate and interrogate the stories of our past, stories which are often difficult or impossible to tell through words alone. This May will see the Dublin Dance Festival return and take place across numerous stages, in close partnership with The Abbey. This recognition of the art by Ireland’s National Theatre is an excellent indication of the ascent of Irish dance theatre, and of the emerging conception of the Irish Body as an agent of its own fate.

WORDS BY CLAUDIA KINAHAN ILLUSTRATION BY CHOY-PING-CLARKE-NG PHOTOGRAPH BY KEITH DIXON COURTESY OF BROKENTALKERS 21

In Conversation with the Creators of Lady Macbeth William Oldroyd and Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly are respectively the director and lead producer of Lady Macbeth. Based on a Russian novella of the same name, the film premiered at the London Film Festival in 2016 and was nominated for Best First Feature. This 19th century period drama details Katherine’s struggle for freedom against her repressive husband and father-in-law. It will be released in Irish cinemas on the 28th April 2017. Did the original play Macbeth have any sort of influence on the making of the film? Several elements seem to have been inspired by it, for instance, the sleeplessness and guilt scenes towards the end. William Oldroyd: Not for us. Our film is based on a novella by Nikolai Leskow, the Russian novelist. In the book, he gave Katherine the nickname Lady Macbeth because he couldn’t understand how a woman would do such despicable things without being like her.S o perhaps he put those elements in, and through the translation and adaptation we inherited them. It’s great you pick up on the sleeplessness, because that is something we consciously thought about. If someone wants to pick up on it, it’s there. They did ‘kill sleep’ in Macbeth - and that does happen in our film. Sebastian, who I suppose is like Macbeth, is unable to sleep when he’s seduced by Katherine. His guilty conscience doesn’t allow him to.

What was it like adapting the novella? Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly: The screenwriter actually spent a huge amount of time fleshing out characters. William Oldroyd: And actually inventing characters. She invented Adla, the cook, to serve as a vehicle for Katherine’s jealousy. She became a really important character because she is like another Katherine in a way. Katherine is a servant to the bed and Adla is a servant to the house, and ironically she is the servant who has far more freedom. So there was a really nice contrast there. 22

I interpreted Katherine’s story as being two separate rebellions. One against societal norms, like in her affair with Sebastian, and the other against gender norms. WO: Well, that was what drew us to the material in the first place. People have commented that even though this is a period drama, it feels quite modern. Well, it is modern due to the way she acts, for the period. In 1865, that’s just not how women were expected to behave.

If you were selling the film, would you pitch it as a period drama or an anti-period drama? FCR: Someone had a great line about the film; it’s a radical drama that happens to be set in the past. I think that’s very much our positioning. Yeah, it’s a period film and we want people who love period films to go see it. We don’t have grand sets or lots of period costumes. WO: So it’s anti-period drama in that sense. We felt that the things you expect to see in a period drama weren’t important to us. We did talk about contemporising it, we were like ‘this would work today.’ However, the stakes are immediately lower. You don’t have the sense of isolation in 2017. You also don’t have the most important theme, that Katherine is owned. She’s shackled. It wasn’t until 1870 that women could own property or stop being owned by their husbands. So that’s why we wanted to keep it in the past. FCR: So we set out to make a British period drama but hopefully with an original twist. Hopefully that will entice people to go see it.

“If you don’t like period dramas, you’re going to love this film. And if you do love period dramas, you’re going to love this film.” Katherine’s husband says directly in one harrowing scene that ‘he bought her along with the land.’ Was it to you to address this so directly in the film?

imagine going back to her previous situation, but not necessarily for the love of this man.

WO: There’s some places we’ve been to where gender politics are still stuck in the past. So we might say this is outrageous, the idea that someone would be owned by somebody else - that you could almost take it for granted. But we feel it needs to be addressed. I was asked this question before, about what progress has been made since 1865. On the one hand, a lot of progress has been made. On the other hand, a man has been elected to the highest office in America, and possibly in the West, who has openly humiliated a woman in a TV interview and privately bragged about sexually humiliating women. So you could ask ‘what progress has really been made?’

The film is full of moral ambiguity - it is debatable whether Katherine is any more moral than the forces she’s fighting against. How do people react to her?

Sexual liberation is a major theme of the film, and is the main contrast between Katherine’s relationships with Alexander and Sebastian. How was it filmi ng the sex scenes? WO: When those scenes were happening, we would try to keep the room empty of anybody who didn’t need to be there. It was a closed set. We had a female director of photography, a female camera assistant, and a female sound operator. Having so many women on set was fantastic and did actually create a different sort of environment. A safer one, I think, for Florence [Pugh]. I’ve talked to her since and she’s been on other jobs where she’s had to do some quite explicit nudity and sex scenes. She remarked that it quite repressive on the set because it was all men. Without trust though, you couldn’t do those scenes. We had seven to ten days of rehearsal beforehand and they were able to get to know each other, so it didn’t feel as weird when they were doing it. Ultimately I would never ask an actor to do anything they weren’t comfortable doing. Does Katherine love Sebastian, or is her affair with him mainly a ‘fuck you’ to her husband? WO: It’s passion. It’s not him per se, it’s what he represents. Very strong emotion and means towards independence. So it’s a rebellion. She can’t

WO: We found that people will go along with her up to a point, and then there’s a line that is crossed. People are really split. Some people say that this is the logical conclusion for the film, and others are like ‘God, this is too far.’ There isn’t really an answer. It’s what you feel. But it’s interesting that it does get you to question your morality, and you find the point to which it is “justified”, for you. FCR: That was one of the biggest challenges during development - trying to work out a way to make people empathise with Katherine when she does some God awful things. Do you think Katherine ultimately loses the rebellion against society? WO: Well, she uses class to get her own way. She’s not from that background, she marries into it, but then she uses it to her advantage. She knows that the upper class in Victorian England is going to take her word. She totally uses that tactically. At the end, I do think it’s a victory for her, but it’s a hollow victory. The irony being that she is now alone. She’s free of everything which she hated at the beginning, but she ends up more trapped than ever. Why should people go and see the film? WO: If you don’t like period dramas, you’re going to love this film. And if you do love period dramas, you’re going to love this film. FRC: If you want to see a British period drama with a twist… go see our film!

WORDS BY CAHAL SWEENEY

music

REVIEWS COMMON AS LIGHT AND LOVE ARE RED VALLEYS OF BLOOD Sun Kil Moon Caldo Verde ●●●○○

Opening with “God Bless Ohio”, a ten-minute ramble about place, childhood and mortality, Sun Kil Moon’s latest album offers no great surprises. For listeners familiar with the morbid, grumpy output of frontman Mark Kozelek, this record will play as a ramping-up of his more idiosyncratic, obsessive tendencies and a near total abandonment of his sweet, melodic side. This is a double album, with track length averaging seven minutes - an intimidating prospect for anyone who isn’t already a die-hard fan, especially considering that violent death (murder, terrorist attacks) is the dominating lyrical theme [“Bastille Day”; “Bergen to Trondheim”]. Musically, this album is fairly unengaging. Kozelek’s deft, Spanish-flavoured folk guitar is notably absent from most tracks, replaced by repetitive percussion and very little melodic variation. There are some interesting elements the instrumentation is a lot more varied than on past albums, with growling basslines, electronic breaks and even some recurring jazz-based harmonic material here and there. The sketchy, impressionistic feel of the music, especially

when paired with Kozelek’s speaking voice, is reminiscent of Eels in their less pop-y moments [Sarah Lawrence College Song]. Despite these tidbits of intrigue, the music isn’t particularly appealing. It feels like Kozelek wanted to break away from the pretty, melodic guitar hooks of previous albums but did so without really committing to anything else. However, most of the listener’s attention is consumed by Kozelek’s vocals, which take the form of a tired, rough-edged drawl, occasionally insistent but more often lacking conviction, despite the vehement tone of his lyrics. The sweetness of his singing voice peeks through every now and then on choruses but for most

of the album, he sounds like he is too fatigued by the weight of his morose subject matter to really sing. His extensive use of slant rhyme is somewhat awkward but strangely trancelike, carrying the listener easily through each meandering song [“Window Sash Weights”; “God Bless Ohio”]. His storytelling is the main appeal here and the primary lyrical narratives are supplemented with skits and spoken parts, which definitely add something to his formula. His offbeat (some would say offensive) humour is given free reign, with one notable skit on “Philadelphia Cop”, where he sends up music journalists, providing welcome comic relief. Much like in his live act, the laughter elicited by his gags is in equal parts at him, with him and at ourselves. There’s an alarmingly straightforward spoken interval on “Chili Lemon Peanuts” where he addresses his girlfriend. In a voice that sounds like a scared child talking to his mother, he asks: “where will our final goodbye be? [...] Are we even sure we’ll be in the same place when one of us has to go? I don’t like goodbyes.” While this vulnerability is not new for Kozelek, the lack of musical accompaniment and the fact it that seems to disrupt the flow of the song heightens its effect. The slightly experimental feel of this album results in some misses as well as hits and the sheer length of it means that the listener will have to work hard to extract the moments of value. One senses that Kozelek is well aware of this, with a track near the end of the album titled “Vague Rock Song”. However, it serves as a worthwhile addition to Sun Kil Moon’s collection of albums, and will doubtlessly reward repeated listening from those who invest their time in it.

WORDS BY RACHEL GRAHAM

RIVERDALE Netflix ●●○○○

Since the huge success of the suspenseful and sexy Vampire Diaries and Twilight saga, new series Riverdale purposefully uses similar tropes that are guaranteed to be a win among teens. It’s a quick fix. However – with its lack of witty, political, social and erotic subtleties – Riverdale will most likely only capture the attention of gullible young American kids, or your typical Irish secondary school student. After a mysterious narrator explains how this town (like many other towns on TV) is not what it seems, viewers meet the red-headed Blossom twins – Cheryl and Jason. Incestual tension can be felt between the wealthy, yet overly close siblings. But disaster strikes - Jason goes missing in mysterious circumstances. The focus shifts towards Archie. Between football, music, and helping out at his dad’s construction company, the poor protagonist is torn between the three most stereotypical desires of a high school boy. His love life is also in chaos. His attention span for his best friend Betty Cooper is that of a goldfish, as the poor girl does all she can to tell him how deeply she loves him. Then in comes Veronica Lodge – beautiful,

KEVIN MCGAHERN’S AMERICA RTE 2 ●●●●○

Kevin McGahern's America is yet another documentary commissioned by RTE about the States. The menagerie of oddness residing there seems to fascinate us Irish. Perhaps it scopes the landscape out safely for the émigré? Maybe the scale of America appears attractive in its antithesis to Ireland? Maybe they are objectively just a strange bunch of lads?

rich, attractive, seductive – and Archie’s eyes pop out of his head. The deeply American attitudes in this drama are past comfort. The archetypes portrayed are so predictive that one can easily take a guess at what each character is bound to say next. As well, some of the scenes which depict Archie’s past love life are just downright odd. In one flashback, Archie walks through his dad’s construction site, taking his shirt off seductively while his young music teacher gives an exaggerated wink on her drive through the site. The scene juts out awkwardly; clumsily hinting at a hidden secret between them. Another tired, and overused archetype.

pulpit bleed. They encourage a live stream of comments where members of a page can chat to the performer and each other. This intimacy and connection juxtaposes the pornography found elsewhere on the internet, often filled with anonymity and aggression. But it begs the question:what is the role of the porn star and viewer in this new format, and what comes next? Where can porn go when the border between fantasy and reality has broken down? McGahern finishes the program by exploring virtual reality, strapped into a VR set while a model in another room begins masturbating on her show. McGahern’s hands are placed – almost

The genius of Riverdale, however, is the narration. The narrator (Cole Sprouse) is not the beautiful and seductive Archie, but the average jughead. It seems he is the creator, writing the story that unfolds before our eyes, while also taking a part in it. The teen drama serves its purpose but, ultimately, Riverdale restricts itself from reaching a more ample audience due to meager content, boring script and lack of character novelty.

WORDS BY CAROLINA CIOARA

in apology, or apprehension – between his legs. When asked how VR will affect us in the future, the model suggests that it will ‘supplement and enhance the experiences we have in real life – not replace them'. Kevin McGahern presents his show with an unthreatening Irish passivity. He doesn't probe intensely to uncover some unknowable truth, and his openness to others does add a personal touch that can be lost in the sharp glare of Louis Theroux's spectacles. WORDS BY CONNOR FOLEY

The online sex industry is the focus of this episode; cam girls and boys who have found an alternative to the bellicose and often debauched adult sex industry that has swelled into every crevice of the internet. When one of these 'cam boys' speaks of the emotional support and gratification he receives from his 'fans', he points to several objects in the room. His laptop, PS4, and clothes were all bought by them. The intimacy of 'camming' is the real draw of the artthe ability to talk and interact with the people behind the computer screens. Fans are buying their way into these people's lives. These new age porn stars- the webcam modelshave begun to let the line between the stage and 25

fashion

TOMMY X GIGI SS 2017 Tommy Hilfiger ●●●○○

Tommy Hilfiger's second capsule collection with Gigi Hadid made its debut last month in Venice Beach, California and has since landed in Tommy Hilfiger stores throughout Ireland. The sophomore collaboration, like their previous effort, employed a See Now, Buy Now runway model which deviates from the typical sixmonth seasonal turnover. Instead, the Spring/ Summer 2017 collection was immediately available to purchase online and in store in more than seventy countries worldwide. While only a fraction of this season’s output arrived in Dublin’s Grafton Street branch, the offering is succinct in summarising the collections principal ideas. To put it simply, there is nothing unfamiliar about this collection. That being said, there is strength in Tommy Hilfiger's predictability or rather, his consistency. Since 1985, the brand has remained deeply entrenched in its founding aesthetic influences; preppy Americana and popular culture. Over the course of 32 years the only changes to the brand - aside from it's gargantuan growth - are its seasonal variations of preppiness and the celebrity name that inspires it. From Mick Jagger in the nineties to David Bowie in the noughties, it is now, some ten years later, Gigi Hadid, whose rockstar level of celebrity has earned her the dual role of brand ambassador and celebrity designer. It's 26

hard to gauge how much creative input celebrity designers have in capsule collections, though it is safe to assume that this season's distinctly Californian rendering of Americana is an ode to Hadid's own experience of America, having been born and raised in Los Angeles. This fusion of surf-inspired style and seventies hippy chic with the signature principles of Tommy Hilfiger's preppy typology produces an energetic mixand-match of colour blocking, bomber jackets, oversized polo t-shirts, wispy floral dresses and regular insertions of the American flag print. As previously mentioned, nothing new, but still consumable, practical and fun. The See Now, Buy Now channel, which typically exploits the feverish desire of consumers postshow, continues to be a fruitful marketing tool for the brand. Within twenty-four hours, the collection almost entirely sold out online. Its offerings in Dublin still remain widely available though with only a handful of the collection’s hits in store. The show’s overarching gradation from Californian cool to Californian hippy is signified by a geometric bodycon two piece, an embroidered varsity jacket and a chiffon maxi dress. Interspersed throughout are a number of pieces that weren’t shown on the runway, including cartoon graphic t-shirts and hoodies, baseball caps, tote bags and purses, all retailing at various price points. While the collection’s

price diversity is welcomed from a consumer standpoint, the clothes just aren't as convincing hanging on a rail in Dublin as they might have been on Gigi and Co in Southern California. If anything, the varsity jacket with its embroidered emblems of Americana feels kitschy and somewhat disconnected on a display in the Grafton Street store. The collection’s highlights can be found in the bodycon co-ord worn by Hadid in the international advertisements and in the print maxi dress, a style derived from the dress she closed the show in. Their allure lies not just in the quality of their fabric or their interesting design, but largely in their association with Gigi Hadid. Her powerhouse personal brand salvages this collection from fumbling into what might have been a cartoonish ode to America. It seems that while the concept of Americana is a hard sell in 2017, Hadid's appeal remains universally in-demand.

WORDS BY LOUISE HYNES

SHACKLETON

theatre

Blue Raincoat Project Arts Centre ●●●●●

It was a rainy, stormy Dublin evening on the opening night of Shackleton - fitting weather for this show. Blue Raincoat, hailing from Sligo, are Ireland’s oldest theatre company and their patron is the President himself, Michael D Higgins. I expected big things from this show, but the sheer beauty and brilliance of it still took me by surprise. A tumultuous experience of lights, sound, and flawless puppetry unfolded over the eighty minutes. The show follows the story of Ernest Shackleton, famed Antarctic explorer, and his crew of twenty four men and women who journeyed through the hazardous terrain with “small wages, bitter cold…safe return doubtful.” The narrative is played out through puppetry so cleverly and perfectly choreographed that you can hardly bear to blink. The absolute harmony of sound design, light design and movement is something totally wondrous to behold, with the actors capturing every ounce of your attention with even their tiniest movements. Photographs and text were projected on a white sheet hanging as if from a mast in the upstage right, which caused some incredible reactions. Twenty years on, The Weir continues to delight and scare audiences, and it’s easy to see why. One of Conor McPherson’s earlier plays, it centres around the tradition of storytelling in the rural Irish pub. Several regular locals drop in for a drink, and a casual chat eventually turns into an exchange of ghost stories that deliver a cold thrill. The play starts off slow with some idle exchanges; it is as though the characters congregate merely to drink and to ward off the loneliness and isolation that they exist in. However, intrigue builds when the characters boast and show off

The impact of seeing the actors convey the historical struggle on stage, only to then be confronted by images of the people they are portraying, who did in fact struggle through these conditions, had a real emotional impact on the audience. Though this production brought no political message to the theatre, it brought an escapism which the theatre has been lacking of late. The creation of convincing and consuming environments has often been disregarded in contemporary productions, but the magic of this piece was totally awe-inspiring.

THE WEIR

Decadent The Gaiety Theatre ●●●●○

to impress Valerie, the newcomer from Dublin. The stories become increasingly more intense, concerning death and the supernatural. The Weir is largely centred on words and conversation; you will often be staring at one character for minutes on end as they recount their eerie tale. Apart from the occasional

Shackleton was emotional, evocative and affirming. The production could hardly be faulted, save for a few slow light cues. To say I loved it would be an understatement. The show created some of the most beautiful moments I have ever seen on a theatre stage, and from a student perspective, it proved that there is something worth pursuing in a theatre career. If I could create one production as magnificent as Shackleton, I would consider it a job very well done. WORDS BY ALICE BELLAMY

shuffling of characters on stage there is little action, but the dialogue entrances and grips you. It has a comfortably colloquial, rural feel, the characters sipping from pints of Harp between tales. The acting is strong and keeps you in the moment; gripping portrayals of terror and self doubt from Frankie McCafferty and the cantankerous Gary Lydon are of particular note. You being to wonder whether their stories are honest or complete fabrications - the characters don’t seem sure themselves, and alcohol blurs the line between reality and fiction. The sound effects, such as wind blowing against the window, are over the top at the times, but the simple set maintains a firmly realist atmosphere. There’s a fireplace, framed black and white photographs hanging on the walls, simple pub lighting, and a bar with taps. It convincingly recalls the average pub, and adds to the authentic and intrinsically Irish feel of the play. The Weir draws the breath from you as you intently listen to the shocking tales. The tension builds with each successive story and keeps you on the edge of your seat until it suddenly dissipates, and regular life heaves a breath again. The Weir returns to the regular old pub it was at the start of the play, and you leave startled but thoroughly entertained. WORDS BY COLM O’HALLORAN PHOTOGRAPH DARRAGH KANE

PHILLIP ALLEN, DEEPDRIPPINGS Kerlin Gallery Until 25th March ●●●●○

The paintings are teeming with colour and rhythmic texture, giving the impression of an optical illusion you could almost sink into. The impasto paint is applied not only in wormshaped lines throughout the central space of the painting but also gathered around the edges, forming a kind of frame. This framing draws the viewer in. The rhythmic, patterned textures evoke natural surfaces such as coral, or bacteria seen through a microscope. The multitude of

Although seemingly random and carefree, Allen’s process is rigorous. He will plan his paintings in detail with felt tip before committing them to paint. A running theme throughout his work has been an interest in the sculptural effect of paint. In this exhibition, the chromatic use of colour against a backdrop of flatter, more subdued hues exaggerates the

Deepdrippings (we can’t make coffee like the continentals)

WORDS BY NELL THOMAS

Chin music (soft octopus)

Michelle Davis & Matt Holloway For people searching for ways to eat healthier and slow climate change, veganism has become a popular route. This has prompted a new generation of bloggers, writers and chefs to attract new converts by distancing veganism from both the overtones of ascetic extremism and of anhedonic drabness. Thug Kitchen 101: Fast as F*ck combines these approaches; the third book from the franchise, it focuses on quick dishes from a distinctly Californian and largely gluten-free menu, punctuated with so much profanity that “sh*t” is literally the thirdmost used word in the book.

But the tone is troubling. Eating is an essentially political act, and vegans acknowledge that more explicitly than most -- either by embracing it, or by attempting to distance themselves from it. Thug Kitchen has chosen to label itself with a slur used almost exclusively against young black men as justification for oppressing and murdering them; the founders, a young white couple from East Hollywood with a Gwyneth Paltrow GOOP endorsement, are in no danger of that. While the authors claim that “thug”, the authorial persona, and the liberal cursing is an empowering, anti-elitist gesture, it seems especially trivial to blow a racist dog-whistle to flog brussels sprouts and nacho cheese.

●○○○○

After a long-standing relationship with the Kerlin, it seems fitting that this exhibition which marks a further development in Allen’s ongoing fascination with paint as a sculptural device is shown here in Dublin.

like chocolate creamsicles and “Wine Cake” (a variation on rum cake); salads that might make you friends, like the jalapeno-and- cilantrodressed “Firecracker Salad”; and entry-level Asian food like dan dan noodles and japchae.

THUG KITCHEN 101: FAST AS F*CK

three-dimensional effect of the material. Allen’s work could also be understood as a visualisation of sound. This is alluded to in two of the pieces’ titles: “Chin Music (soft octopus version)” and “Deepdrippings (Earfood version)”.

art

Phillip Allen returns to the Kerlin gallery with his newest exhibition Deepdrippings. Eleven abstract paintings line the walls. The large open space of the Kerlin allows the viewer to comprehend the paintings all at once. This significantly enhances the viewing experience, as it is important to see these works as a collection. The neutral backgrounds of greys, browns and cool blues are punctuated with intense yellow, reds and pinks. A whimsical experimentation with texture and colour is the focus of this exhibition, complemented by Allen’s tongueand-cheek titles - “Deepdrippings (we can’t make coffee like the continentals)” is a personal favourite.

colours applied with small, controlled brush strokes on top of flatter curving shapes creates no recognisable forms; any associations are suggested by the paintings’ texture alone.

To address the food first: it’s tasty. It might be hard to find some ingredients outside of southern California, but almost everything should be achievable for those willing to venture into Asia Market or a health-food shop. It’s in the sweet spot between “innovative” and “I know what that is”, with recipes you might not expect from a vegan book: a handful of cocktails named for friends and pets; desserts

Thug Kitchen 101 represents the marriage between modern vegan food and young white hipster ironic racism in which Black, Latino and Asian people are invoked but notably absent. WORDS BY ALDEN MATHIEU

IMMA Until 5th June ●●●●○

from hardware stores) rather than collecting used or free items (luggage tags, business cards) as she has done in earlier work. My favourites from this selection are the wall-based sculptures made from rulers. The three simple sculptures are made from blue plastic, clear plastic and wooden/metal rulers respectively, nailed directly onto the wall in wave-like patterns. “Raw King Size Slim” and “Rizla Liquorice” (both 2013)

regulation objects to create undulating patterns of light and shadow - in this case, by gumming hundreds of delicate rolling papers onto the wall. More recent work includes selections from Leirner’s Junkie show (2016, White Cube Gallery); photographs of tiny cocaine sculptures and a vast array of rolling paper packaging mounted on lengths of plywood are a nod to her experiences of addiction.

from the Skins series are similarly appealing, also using a precise arrangement of

Institutional Ghost is an inviting exhibition, easy to engage with even without background knowledge of Leirner’s work and the legacy of Brazilian constructivism it emerges from. Despite the utilitarian, practical nature of the material used, the work shares none of this feeling - it is precise and pristine, unusually delightful in its deceptively simple execution. These constructions strike a delicate balance, simultaneously abstracting from and emphasising the conventional uses of their componenets. The bright colours (packaging, luggage tags, tape) and the mass-produced units of each sculpture recall children’s construction materials like Lego, as does the palpable sense of satisfaction in arrangement and symmetry. In her artist’s talk (available on imma.ie) Leirner makes reference to how her work explores collective experience through shared, public, objects. This is where it is strongest - despite their privileged position in the first room, the cocaine photographs compromise the least interesting element in a show which otherwise feels like an expertly distilled retrospective of recent work.

Institutional Ghost is Jac Leirner’s first solo show in Ireland, comprised mainly of recent work which has been modified in response to IMMA’s East Courtyard Galleries. The rooms are separated by chimney breasts with short corridors on either side; these have been used to connect the rooms by extending installations through them. “Hip Hop” (2017), a meticulously constructed drawing in gaffer tape of various widths, textures and colours, snakes around one chimney and across two fireplaces. A long steel cable, adorned, jewellery like, with metal construction tools is less successful; the possibility of travelling along it’s length between rooms has been blocked by an ugly barrier when I visit. Each of the four rooms contains a small number of formally similar works. A lot of the work uses materials and forms from Leirner’s “Hardware Silk” exhibitions, which came out of a residency at the Yale School of Art in 2012. This was when she began to buy materials (rulers, spirit levels, and other items

Miguel Barclay Headline Home ●●●●○

Hardcore foodies might balk initially at the thesis statement of Miguel Barclay’s slim, appealing cookbook “One Pound Meals.” The Instagram star, who went viral for posting short, cut-together videos preparing one-pound, one-person meals, contends that most recipes require too many ingredients. Barclay insists that eliminating the unnecessary stuff is the trick to fixing food for less money. What his recipes sacrifice in complexity, they make up for in flavour and feasibility. Thrifty and clever, the simplicity of these dishes makes it seem entirely possible to throw them together on a weeknight, between class and that last-minute club event. Cookbooks tend to capture some kind of joy - a respect for flavour, a deep love of craft or presentation, a sense of fun. Barclay finds his

joy in innovation, in tricks and hacks to turn a recipe that might daunt an amateur into a manageable meal. It’s clearly designed for an on-the-go person, who otherwise wouldn’t cook at all. However, foodies who would rather turn their noses up will miss out; the book is full of cooking hints and tips, just as a tired chef might cook for herself at the end of a shift. The book’s design is user-friendly, with an index by ingredient in the back. If you want to use every penny of your one pound (or Euro), it’s easy to buy a pack of chicken and use it in different dishes throughout the week.

food

ONE POUND MEALS

WORDS BY RACHEL GRAHAM

JAC LEIRNER, INSTITUTIONAL GHOST

Barclay’s book is notable for the sheer variety of flavours and cultures he evokes with one cabinet of spices. From curry to Chinese food to pizza, “One Pound Meals” proves home cooking doesn’t have to be difficult, time consuming, or expensive. Good food for all, regardless of budget!

WORDS BY MADELEINE SAIDENBERG 29

NINTENDO SWITCH CONSOLE Nintendo ●●●●○

Nintendo has finally launched their muchawaited Switch console, the successor to the underwhelming Wii U and a first attempt to enter the next generation. Nintendo are taking a new approach with the Switch – instead of releasing another reworked Wii, the Switch is a unique home console with the ability to go portable. The Switch is essentially a 6.2” tablet with controllers called Joy-Cons on the sides. Place it in the supplied TV dock and it’s a normal home console – lift it out and it’s something more akin to a PS Vita. The new JoyCon controllers can be slotted into the sides of the Switch, used together like a gamepad with the included Grip accessory or simply used with one in each hand. Switching from TV mode to portable mode is absolutely seamless and your game picks up right where you left it off. You can also play in tabletop mode by popping out the Switch’s kickstand and detaching the remotes. Tabletop mode seems perfect for an impromptu multiplayer session but the details on-screen can appear a bit small from a couple of feet away and the kickstand seems to be quite flimsy. However, the graphics are generally crisp and clear in either TV or portable mode. Thankfully, Nintendo has finally adopted a capacitive touch screen for the Switch, meaning no more unwieldy stylus gaming. There’s also no need to worry about battery life

in portable mode, as it seems to be more than sufficient from my usage – expect to get around three hours of heavy gameplay or possibly more with less graphically-intensive games. I’m extremely impressed with the premium feel of this device, especially given the affordable €330 price tag. Even though it’s plastic, the Switch feels far more like a Sony or Microsoft product than the typical toy-like feel of Nintendo’s other consoles. I was initially concerned about the small size of the Joy-Con controllers but they actually feel good in the hand and I haven’t seen any of the connection issues experienced by some other early buyers. When placed in the Grip accessory, the controllers are comfortable but the buttons can feel quite small. That said, Nintendo have a Pro controller with larger buttons available for an additional €70. It’s worth noting that the Joy-Cons have additional features such as an NFC chip for amiibo support, infrared and improved HD Rumble. The Switch has moved away from optical discs in favour of 3DS-like cartridges, which seem small and easy to lose, though with a large micro SD

card you may opt to download all your games from the Switch eShop. The only game I picked up on launch day was The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which is not only the flagship game of the new console but also an essential purchase for any new Switch owner. Despite the sparse launch line-up, I’m excited for upcoming games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2 and Super Mario Odyssey. So should you buy the Switch? If you’re a hardcore Nintendo fan, then you should definitely consider it. If you’re more of a casual gamer, it could be worth waiting for more games to be released and there’s always the possibility of a price cut down the line for the console. I lost faith in Nintendo after the Wii U but the Switch has shown me that they’re back on track and have a vision for the future. The potential for the Switch is enormous and I’m eager to see what Nintendo has planned for the console in the years to come.

WORDS BY RORY CODD

games

Halo Wars 2 Bungie ●●●○○

I’ve always been a big fan of the Halo franchise. It was the first shooter I owned and in many ways, it’s the game I subconsciously compare others to when gauging my enjoyment. So back in 2009 when they released the first iteration of their strategy game, Halo Wars, I was excited to see my favourite franchise take a leap into a new genre. The game itself was an enjoyable experience but fairly mediocre overall. Within a year of its release, Halo Wars was mostly forgotten and relegated as a footnote in Bungie’s history. Following this, last year many of us were surprised to hear that the Xbox One’s flagship ‘exclusive’ for 2017 was Halo Wars 2, a sequel no one asked for nor expected. Many of us, perhaps fairly, assumed this was a stop gate measure to tide us over for the next iteration of the main first person shooter IP. Halo Wars 2 has pleasantly surprised me on this count. The issue with console RTS’s is a simple one; video game controllers are not built around intricate operation management but rather fast-paced twitch action. Thus, any RTS produced for the console need to allow for quick and accurate unit management without oversimplifying the game. You can select units in three different ways, those inside the radius of a small circle, or all those on screen or all units currently on the map. Halo Wars 2 manages guiding united

through Byzantine maneuvers by locking the speed of a selected group to the slowest member of said group, allowing your formation to keep its formation. These options, while perhaps restrictive to PC players, blend perfectly with the console’s controller scheme. The campaign is an impressive part of the game. For the retail price, you get twelve solid campaign missions, interspersed with a compelling narrative. It is clear that both the story line and the game play were developed synonymously as neither is sacrificed at the behest of the other. However, the problem of the attention span of the console gamer is solved rather neatly with their new card based mode called ‘Blitz’. In this game type, the action is to the point and brutal. It revolves around summoning units to the field using cards in a pre-built deck. Your average Xbox One or PS4 player is used to packaged five to ten minute matches. Repetition and quick turn over are the order of the day which leaves strategy games at a loss. This game mode should placate the die hard console gamers.

then ported to the secondary platform. While a mouse and keyboard allow for greater fine control, it is still annoying to be shackled to the limitations of a console. The layout is also badly ported. Options are hidden on unlabelled tabs in sections with no coherent order, but hopefully this is something which can easily be patched. All in all, I found the game to be enjoyable with more than enough content to justify the price tag. Although if you have the option, it certainly performs better on one platform than the other.

WORDS BY DERMOT DAVERN

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the game’s one major drawback. Although I reviewed this game on the Xbox One, I did take the time to play a demo on the PC. Unfortunately, it’s clear this was made with the console in mind and

film

GET OUT

Dir. Jordan Peele ●●●●● Get Out opens with a black man (Atlanta’s Keith Stanfield) getting abducted in a white suburban neighbourhood. The following scene features Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), also black, asking his white girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) whether her parents know he is black. She mocks his insecurity: “Mom and dad, my black boyfriend will be coming up this weekend. I just don’t want you to be shocked that he’s a blackman.” In these scenes, Get Out sets up the awkward balance of race relations in America as its subject, while silently sharpening its satirical scalpel. Chris reluctantly agrees to visit his girlfriend’s “bougie” family at their isolated country mansion, staffed by a black gardener and maid, and host to pretentious parties ripe for ridicule. Although his friend is paranoid and sceptical about the affair, Chris displays a remarkable capacity for tolerance, from an encounter with a subtly bigoted cop, to hanging out with the obnoxious, virtue-signalling father, played by Bradley Whitford in a marvelously detestable turn. Chris affably shrugs off the increasingly inappropriate and unpleasant behaviour of the

KONG: SKULL ISLAND Dir. Jordan Vogte-Roberts ●●●●○

We’ve all seen those remakes where one staggers out of the cinema wondering why in the world any film company worth its salt approved it. I felt that Peter Jackson’s 2006 monster beat-down King Kong was doomed to be one of these; I was wrong. Kong: Skull Island manages to again breathe fresh life into a story that has been retold countless times, while also paying homage to previous depictions. This time, the story deviates from the questionable premise of a failed director coincidentally finding a map to a prehistoric island. The year is 1973. Tricky Dick (Richard Nixon) is in the White House, the US is withdrawing from Vietnam, and those damn Commies are pulling ahead in the geopolitical standing. Enter Bill Randa (John Goodman) stage left. The head of a geographic, cartographic, something-or-other interest group. Randa produces satellite images of Skull Island, a small landmass undisturbed for millennia. In order to beat the sneaky Russians to the discovery, a powerful senator approves a military consort in short order. Preston Packard, (Samuel L. Jackson) a Major tired of kicking around Saigon 3232

suburban whites he is forced to interact with, making it clear that this is something he has grown very used to. As he ignores or fails to notice the increasingly sinister signs that haunt the area, his fatal flaw proves to be his cautious trust of white society. By the time he raises his guard, it’s far too late. Get Out is a hilarious send-up of polite racism in American society. This is to be expected from writer/director Jordan Peele, half of sketch comedy group Key and Peele. Peele surprises by matching this comedic edge with a strong horror sensibility that is tense, unnerving, and at times unapologetically gruesome. The film seamlessly shifts between these two modes and

with no action in sight, eagerly agrees to lead it. Randa hires James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston), an “expert tracker” (in other words, a soulless mercenary) to “assist with the expedition” and a war photographer (Brie Larson) to record the mission. Aaaaaand we’re off- cue giant monsters. While the characters are fairly generic, with Packard’s character in particular directly lifted from Moby Dick, the performances are stunning and the dynamic between the leads is wholly convincing. The central conflict between Packard and Conrad is particularly strong, and is reminiscent of Vietnam greats such as Platoon (1986) and Apocalypse Now (1979). The giant CGI monsters all look epic, with this version of Kong the size of a twenty-storey building. The

the tone is kept in check by regular lighthearted gags (Chris extends a fist-bump to one of the only black people in this neighbourhood, who awkwardly clasps and shakes it). Still, a sense of palpable dread builds as he is slowly coaxed deeper into the WASP factory. Sharply edited and held together by a subtle, riveting performance by Kaluuya, Get Out manages to startle, entertain, and convey a militant message about race in America in one concise package. It is a potent parable for our times, and indicates that Jordan Peele is one to watch out for. WORDS BY EOIN MOORE

humbling sense of complete human ineptitude carries over from Godzilla (2014), for which this is ostensibly a prequel, and leads to even more exciting monster pugilism than the latter. The action scenes are a stand out, with IMAX really at its best. And there’s enough satisfying dialogue and character development in the medial scenes to carry the film along. In conclusion, Kong: Skull Island is a surprisingly excellent revamp of a classic monster film. Great action coupled with a reasonable story and well acted characters make this Skull Island well worth discovering. WORDS BY CAHAL SWEENEY

sex. UNDER THE SKIN

himosis is a condition in which a person’s foreskin sticks to the glans (or head) of the penis, preventing it from peeling back the way it’s supposed to. The issue is very common among young children and doesn’t cause any trouble if they grow out of it. Phimosis that continues past the age of 16, socalled “pathological” phimosis, can be a serious problem. While it is a common ailment - affecting 1 in 100 men - surprisingly few people know that it exists. I had never heard of phimosis, or that it caused so many problems until I realised that I had it. Genitals are a mysterious part of the human body. As we grow up, they transform from a perfectly normal bit of us to a taboo that must be kept out of sight. We are slowly trained to cover ourselves up, to not let anyone - even close family members - see our “private parts”. We learn to be ashamed of our bodies for the first time, to keep that part of ourselves hidden away. Questions are a vital way of figuring out how the world works and how we work but we naturally stop asking the kinds of questions that make people uncomfortable. In those cases, we have to work it out for ourselves. My general education on this part of my body began in private examinations, with research excursions in the few places where the privacy rules don’t apply: public urinals and communal changing rooms. In the locker room of Westwood swimming pool, men would inexplicably stand around with their penises proudly hanging out, each one scraggly and ugly in its own unique way. The standout piece of information I gathered from the first of these trips was the visual difference between circumcised and uncircumcised penises. I hadn’t realised that the foreskin was optional. Pornography was another great educator. Although it was a starkly unrealistic introduction to human anatomy and sexuality, it was my first major hint that my penis might be especially different. While figuring out how it all worked, in that terrifying stage of pubescent sexual discovery and uncertainty, I noticed that all the men in these videos appeared circumcised while they were erect. After extensive analysis, I worked out that the foreskin was supposed to slide back really far and that the head was supposed to pop out entirely. My penis was having none of this, as some (regrettable) experimental tugs went on to prove. Like most questions I had about my genitalia in this confusing time, I kept the subject of my mysterious foreskin to myself. It didn’t seem to really be an issue, and I wasn’t prepared to approach this graphic topic with anybody, especially not my parents. Again, the internet was my best resource. It was during a spur of the moment Google session that I first came across the term “phimosis”, as well as some advice and common remedies. I found some calming facts most people grow out of it, sometimes it can be solved with simple stretching exercises - as well as some disconcerting ones. When left untreated, phimosis can lead to hygiene problems, difficulty urinating and during sex, and can even lead to tearing (yikes!). Scariest of all was the last resort solution, suggested at the bottom of every article I could find on the subject: full circumcision. Here’s where I closed the window. My father first explained that term to me during a suddenly awkward drive home from the aforementioned swimming pool. I flinched with sympathetic pain and horror when he explained that it meant “cutting off the foreskin” and then explained which bit the “foreskin” was. To my tightly-wound, highly-private self, the concept seemed barbaric, sadistic and most of all unbearably humiliating. My conceptions hadn’t changed between that childhood drive home and this teenage google search. In my mind, at least if you got it done as a baby you’d have the luxury of forgetting the experience, of never knowing what life before it was like. The closest thing to surgery I’d ever experienced at this point was some minor stitches I got after cracking my head open on a skirting board. Actually having a part of my body

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removed, having to get mutilated, didn’t bear thinking about. And besides, there wasn’t anything to worry about. At least, not until freshman year of college, when the prospect of sex went from a distant abstract to a very real possibility. (It was an optimistic time.) I recognised that, while masturbation was easy enough to accomplish without aggravating my tiny foreskin hole, sex was a great unknown. Phimosis forums, on which I had become a regular at this point, specified that sex could be an extremely difficult and painful ordeal, requiring patience and sensitivity from both participants. Images of what that strain might do to my dysfunctional penis haunted me. I got stressed out imagining how badly it might go, especially at this point in my life when opportunities for random, casual sexual encounters constantly seemed to lie just around the corner. Fortunately, I was incorrect and my first experience that was anything close to full intercourse didn’t happen for several years. It was an out-and-out disaster. I had phimosis and the girl I was with had vaginismus, a similar condition that makes the entrance to the vagina tight and sensitive. Vaginismus affects 10% of women and 2% of cases are extreme. At the time, neither of us realised this was a condition. She had a friend with the same problem and naturally assumed that that was just the way it was. I had no luck until my final year of college, with one of my closest friends. Both of us were virgins and both of us had our own private reservations and trepidations. We were very open to communicating these things, which is probably the best situation I could have hoped for, especially following my painful and embarrassing earlier attempt. It didn’t happen on the first try, or the second and the first time we actually managed something close to “sex”, I did not enjoy myself a bit. Thankfully, I was in a strong and supportive relationship and we were able to take our time and work through my problem, to an extent: different positions, new approaches to foreplay, figuring out whether condoms helped or exacerbated the problem (the latter) and whether lubricant might improve things (hell yes). The central issue was still there, though. My penis wasn’t functioning properly and in time the problem might even get worse. I realised that I had to bite the bullet and see a specialist. After gently tugging at my foreskin a couple of t imes, the urologist concluded that the problem was severe and that full circumcision was the only solution. I felt validated. After years of wondering whether I really had a condition, or if I had just 3434

been self-diagnosing and overreacting to a perfectly normal situation, I had medical confirmation that my dick was faulty. I realised that this was partly why I was so scared of going through the process: the chance that it was all in my head and I’d just be exposing my most vulnerable self for no reason. The circumcision part was still really scary, though. As the date of the operation grew closer, nightmare situations of what might go wrong on the table ran through my head. All were basic doctor’s appointment fears, magnified through the lens of genital awkwardness. Mercifully, I was knocked out for the whole thing, emerging into a state of morphineinduced bliss to realise that the worst was already over. The drugs probably helped when I finally decided to take a peek downstairs and found myself laughing instead of crying at the bandaged, ridiculously swollen mess that was hanging from my crotch. It was bloody, it was unsightly, it was marred by a ring of large, pokey stitches. However, it was recognisably my own. The next couple of weeks sucked, lining my underpants with vaseline and taking each step with a great deal of care. Things gradually improved. It feels good to finally be out of the woods. I don’t know how much longer I might have gone without saying anything or consulting a doctor if I hadn’t found someone understanding to help me through it. I might still be keeping this issue to myself, silently worrying that it would develop into something worse. I had a physical problem that was made much worse by how we talk - or don’t talk - about bodies and sex. Although Irish sex education has grown more progressive in recent years, our culture still places discussion of these sensitive matters behind a wall of shame and silence. As a result, children are forced to work out the complicated nature of sex organs for themselves, self-diagnosing their problems and telling no one. Once I began telling other people about my phimosis, I was stunned to find out how many of them could relate. Two of my friends had siblings who went through the same thing and one of them had gone through it himself when he was a teenager. (Except he had the kind that’s easily cured with a topical cream, the prick.) One of my friends had vaginismus and had to apply pain-killing lubricant every time she wanted to have sex. Each of these mini-revelations was a weight off my chest, a recognition that behind the silence that shrouds genital issues and other unsavoury topics, there were people I knew who’d been in exactly the same position as me, who also didn’t feel comfortable discussing it openly. It was opening up to others that gave me the strength to face my problem and finally sort it out. In order to take that first step, I had to pass through a socially constructed wall of silence. I had to defy the loud, anxious voice in my head that demanded I keep these things to myself. This is what happens when we suppress conversation about the body. We amplify personal miseries through shame and isolation. It took discovering that I had a problem and feeling like I couldn’t talk to anyone about it to realise how damaging and restrictive our discourse on sex and sexual health can be.

WORDS BY NEAL IONA ILLUSTRATION BY AMY REGAN