Opening 6-9pm Thursday 22 July 2010. 

Catalyst Arts will host a 4 week project, “Danse Macabre,” celebrating the collaborative nature of visual arts and music. The gallery exhibition features Heather Gabel, Martha Colburn, Helen McDonnell and Hornby, whose distinctive dark aesthetics each draw influence from punk rock genres through a diversity of mediums from sculpture and film to collage and tattoo illustration.

The project will also stage off-site collaborative performances between Irish musicians Logikparty and US based artist Martha Colburn, and workshops led by Heather Gabel offering participants the opportunity to create their own music and sleeve artwork.

Through these events Catalyst hopes to offer the public a more interactive experience within a gallery context, and to encourage multidisciplinary engagement between various art forms.

Events:Thursday 22 July, 10pm
Waterfront Hall Penthouse Bar

Martha Colburn (16mm film visuals) performing with Logikparty (Dublin based No-Wave band)

Heather Gabel DIY record workshop
Saturday 24 July, 1pm – 5pm
Catalyst Arts Gallery

Martha Colburn 

Through a collage of live action (paint-on-glass) animations, found footage and documentary filmmaking techniques, her stop motion animation films are a disturbing and at times humorous take on popular and political culture. She created pieces to accompany the San Francisco-based band Deerhoof’s song “Wrong Time Capsule” in 2005 and Serj Tankien’s “Lie, Lie, Lie” in 2007, as well as an animation for the 2005 documentary about the musician Daniel Johnston entitled ‘The Devil and Daniel Johnston’. Most recently she appeared at All Tomorrow’s Parties curated by the Flaming Lips in NY alongside Deerhoof. 

www.marthacolburn.com 

Heather Gabel 

Heather has been active in the San Francisco art community for years, exhibiting her photographs, paintings and collages in shows around the bay area as well as across the country. She is moved to create visually fantastic situations that are not based in reality but, rather, that she has stumbled upon in her head. Inspired by fancy grandmas, mossy trees, jaunty caps, prosthetic limbs, flowers, old movies and the overall grandeur of the past, Heather cleverly juxtaposes classic imagery with clean, stark lines and cutting irony. Having lived in Chicago, Detroit, and Oakland, Heather has also done extensive design work for plenty of bands. Her day job is touring with friends, Alkaline Trio, designing and selling their merch. For them alone she has designed over 100 shirts. Some other repeat offenders include AFI, Rancid, My Chemical Romance, Green Day, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts.  

www.heathergabel.com 

Helen McDonnell 

Since training as a tattooist in Dublin, Helen has travelled extensively, spending time in Mexico, Polynesia, Southeast Asia and Japan among other places. Researching the skills and artistry of tattooing and related artwork has helped inform and inspire her both in her daily work as a tattooist and as an artist. The opening of Skullduggery Custom Tattoo Studio ten years ago in Belfast brought together the craft of tattooing and its broader cultural context as the studio co-exists with a contemporary art exhibition space. Helen’s had exhibited in New Zealand, Italy and collaborated in shows in Belfast. She is also a co-founder of the successful arts and craft fair The Black Market, Belfast.

Hornby
Hornby was bought his first guitar for Christmas 1993. It was a £129 package deal which included a Guitar. a 15 watt Practice amp, a strap and a cable. It was possibly the best Guitar he has ever owned. Not the actual Guitar it was awful but that Guitar was the beginning. He stood in his dining room on that Christmas day doing one simple thing over and over again… plucking the E string and listening to it strike and reverberate and decay. Endlessly, all day. There was something in that sound that has fascinated him ever since.

www.catalystarts.org.uk
catalystarts@gmail.com

F-L-A-M-M-A-R-I-O-N (2009) - Susan MacWilliam (Golden Thread Gallery One)
F-L-A-M-M-A-R-I-O-N (2009) draws on the TG Hamilton Spirit Photograph Archive in Winnipeg and features Belfast poet and writer Ciaran Carson and Atlanta-based poltergeist investigator Dr William Roll.

Immersing the audience in the haunting anecdote and imagery of these extraordinary histories, MacWilliam creates a bridge between worlds, between past and present and between the worlds of art and psychical research.

‘167’ - Sarah Browne and Gareth Kennedy (Golden Thread Gallery Two)
Aspects of contemporary Ireland feature strongly in their works, which address issues of identity, labour, globalization, economics, language, materiality and the construction of social space.

This photographic exhibition challenges how young people are perceived and represented in society. As young people themselves, youth@clc are not content with the media and other sections of society portraying them as ‘hoodies’ and ‘yobs’ with nothing to contribute to the community.

The exhibition portrays the stereotypes with which young people are currently labelled and addresses how they should be portrayed: as articulate, intelligent, hard working and caring.

Youth@clc is the youth advisory panel of the Children’s Law Centre: a vibrant and dynamic group of young people committed to children’s rights and having fun!

The new archive gallery of Belfast Exposed will be hosting events and exhibitions, please check the website www.belfastexposed.org for more details

Out of PLACE is a PLACE project that seeks to generate activity in vacant shop units in Belfast City Centre. PLACE will focus on animating one vacant unit at a
time by programming a rich content of cultural activity within these spaces.

By using these vacant units, PLACE intends to increase public safety by having the space active and bright and offering an alternative way to use the city centre.

Paint By Numbers. Trans (Castle Lane / July)

From 5 – 25 July 2010, the trans festival will bring together an artist, a designer and an architect to design three large-scale paint-by-numbers pieces at out of PLACE. The lines will be blurred between artist and voyeur as the public watch the artists at work before being invited to take over and complete the work themselves.

Next up, from Monday 12 July, Ryan O’Reilly:

In an ongoing project called ‘Day or Night’, Ryan has been documenting and creating work inspired by remnants of signage and typography found amongst the redevelopment of the city. For ‘Paint by Numbers’, Ryan will invite visitors to explore the variety of lettering and geometric patterns to be found in our urban environment and create a collaborative collage based on these forms and fragments.

Ryan O’Reilly is a designer and illustrator based in Belfast. Interested in combinations of music and visual art, Ryan has curated audio visual exhibitions ‘Oh No! Ulster’s Hidden Reverse’ at the Black Box and ‘Warm Moving Bodies’ at Ormeau Baths Gallery. Ryan has also initiated a broad range of events including the monthly Black Market art and craft fair, Bop Yestrum club night and many live music performances as a member of the Ordinary Days collective. Ryan is founder and curator of Oscillations, a festival of new international music, art and film.

LAUNCH EVENT
Thurs 15th July, 5-7pm

Last week’s piece was by Miguel Martin:

Belfast based visual artist Miguel Martin (born 1985) currently works from his studio at “Platform Arts” on Queen Street. His playful versatility in scale often range from sketchbook drawings to wall sized panoramic multi perspective viewpoints. Often permeating his subject matter with chaotic overtones of horror and violence, a grotesque humour and wit evolve. He indulges in the process of drawing and attempts to seduce the viewer with variety. Offering a multitude of textures and actions with simple thin line, each drawing is intended to imply a fictional sound or movement.

Balance, Escape Act (Castle Lane / 17–18 July)
Escape Act will move beyond the standard performance scenario to engage the public in the presentation and development of music within the public realm. Today’s culture promotes fast, easy consumption. Escape Act attempt to alter the listener’s perception by slowing things down and enabling interaction. Escape Act will use Out of PLACE as a centre for performance in the city centre over two afternoons. The wider public is invited to engage in performances taking place throughout the surrounding streets and within Out of PLACE. The audience will also be encouraged to capture audio and video for contribution to a film to document the making of their second album Balance which will be released on 18 July in McHugh’s Bar.
www.escapeact.com

Place’s Garden (Belfast City Centre / July)
Focusing on public space, streetscape, sustainability and ecology and how people engage with the city, PLACE will create a series of events and interventions around the city centre, in unexpected places.