THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK

The humpbacked road undulates and twists between eye watering  sunshine and ghostly mists. Sheep stroll nonchalantly along the verges. A hawk soars on eddying currents of summer air. The smell of the sea rides on the breeze. For a moment this is heaven.

Then it appears. A fortification of some kind, a mast angular and steely, at odds with the stony hills. An early warning, heralding an invasion of this wondrous landscape in the name of progress.

It seems the Martians have come to Connemara, colonised minds and corrupted scenery.  The great western wilderness is breaking into pieces, vistas sundered, the eyeline slashed to shreds by lines of cable and grids of steel, tomorrow’s planners oblivious to today’s bigger picture.

THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS

I always preferred hotels when travelling with standards expected, anonymity assured.  The privacy cocooned me, the comfort of strangers never beckoned. All changed when I found Gallan Mor.

A four roomed boutique refuge, elevated beyond a mere bed & breakfast by its distinguishing owners Noel & Lorna.  Gallan Mor sits on the edge of Dunmanus Bay in West Cork. Their very first welcome feels like returning to meet old friends.

The bay dresses itself in various adornments – a cooling wrap of blue grey mist, the golden dazzle of summer sunlight. In parts its field have the patina of old tweed coats, in others it is rich and verdant. Jewelled water, the colour of lapus lazuli, washes over olive coloured seaweed and silver grey stone. The ever changing vista adds to the enchantment of the house.

A standing stone, or Gallan Mor, sits easily in the garden. Its soft edges testify to a history stretching over 3500 years.

In the bedrooms morning light barely seeps through the blinds.  Draw them up to expose flora and fauna that lift the spirit. A young hare scampers under the rhubarb, summer flowers and native gorse burst with colour and beckon you out.

The food is hearty, wholesome, lipsmackingly tasty and rightly served with pride and joy. It might be offered quietly on a winter’s night or as the centrepiece for an impromptu spring gathering that drifts into the late hours and a lavender twilight.
Go out from Bandon or Bantry. Take the Sheep’s Head drive beyond Durrus towards Akahista and discover the true meaning of an Irish welcome.

On April 9th, 2015 – my friend Agata Stoinska and I will open an exhibition of our photographic art project WILDERNESS at the Zozimus Gallery in Dublin, as part of Irish Design 2105. Where did the idea come from ?. Was the seed of the idea planted way back when, as a small child, I was taken by my parents into the Knockmealdown mountains on one of the many picnics or other adventures we enjoyed through what seemed like the endless summers of growing ?

Did the idea come during a pause for thought remembering the solitude of the Cistercian monks who worked and prayed up there in the eerie vastness ?. Was it sparked by the coltish look of the model Grace Connell ….with her wild eyes ?

Was it the other projects we had enjoyed so much that sent us, on a Spring Sunday, to test my memory of the awesome landscape in those very same hills ? There at the edge of the clouds high in the Knockmealdown mountains – where ribbons of green velvety moss drip from wind tortured trees, where silver streams cascade violently through karst cut loose as far back as the ice age, where the black mirror surfaces of corries and lakes reflect the ever changing sky….. we sketched out our narrative. The ideas came fast. Wilderness explores and celebrates captivating landscapes, indigenous textures and contemporary craftsmanship.

WILDERNESS is a photographic art exhibition comprising 10 images printed, as limited editions, on high quality art paper and framed in lime washed frames. The images are innovative, edgy, raw and beautiful.

WILDERNESS

ZOZIMUS GALLERY
FROM APRIL 9TH 2015
56 FRANCIS ST.
DUBLIN 8

I remember being asked in a television interview, some 8 years ago, about the fashion trends – colours, textures, shapes – for a forthcoming Autumn Winter season. My assertion that I no longer believed in them probably caused some raised eyebrows at the time.

The power has long been taken away from the fashion police to dictate that red is ‘in’ or tweed is ‘out’. The consumer is now ‘king’ and demanding fulfilment. He or she is also the ‘artist’ or ‘alchemist’ who assembles a solutions based seasonal or trans seasonal wardrobe in line with his or her lifestyle needs.

Look at the collections coming out of Paris, London, Milan or New York. Consider the options and the variety – are any two even remotely the same anymore. Compare Fendi for AW 2015 with McQueen, compare Hermes with Miu Miu or Dries Van Noten with Dior – there are different aesthetics, colours, textures and ultimately lifestyles on offer here. The point is repeated throughout the expanse of collections from Comme Des Garcons to Valentino.

Social media has changed the way we respond to fashion and the way fashion houses promote it – bringing an immediacy to new ideas that heretofore awaited their perceived ‘season’. While for many impulse has replaced trend, other savvy consumers see no value in either.

Maybe that is why the luxury collections are putting more emphasis on craftsmanship, heritage, quality and evolution while the ‘highstreet’ places more on immediacy, disposability and revolution. It is easier to copy a colour, shape or a texture than it is to stitch a shoe with the dexterity of the Maestri Calziturieri Riviera del Brenta.

It is Wednesday 4th. March, mid afternoon in Paris. In a salon on the first floor of 51 Avenue D’Iena a group of models gather. They are about to commence rehearsal for Sharon Wauchob’s AW 2015 collection show. There is such expectation in the air that even this simple gathering brings forward waves of camera crews and photographers to almost drown the coltish girls in a sea of cables, lenses and electronic flashes.

Within the hour media guests and buyers race in and race out, taking in all 11 minutes of a show that is mesmeric in its use of fabric, cutting and creativity. Models aren’t stupid – some will go on to be economists, writers, politicians – and during those breath taking minutes the girls find their feet and glide.

Some clever retailing in a little bookshop in Istanbul Turkey.

I love the city of Istanbul. I love its location on the Bosphorous – part Europe, part Asia. I love its Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, its wonderful gallery Istanbul Modern and the coffee shop at the heart of the Grand Bazaar.

There is so much added value that designers, craftspeople and retailers can use to create a point of difference, not to mention engagement, simply by telling their story.

Who would think of producing a bag like the Robinson Crusoe bookshop in Istanbul ?. The sides are printed in English and the vernacular language of the city. Laid out like an entry in a dictionary they read…

Robinson Crusoe – 1. The hero of Daniel Defoe’s novel ‘The Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York’. Mariner. Published in 1719. 2. A bookstore with a distinctive style of its own, in Pera, Istanbul, located on Istiklal Street, No. 389. A warehouse established in 1994 containing choice books. An archive where books are displayed & accessible to all. A town square, the gathering point not only of those who look & listen but of those who see & hear as well. A library where one goes not only for buying books but also to search for them & ask about them & browse around, sniffing the pages of & encountering, discovering & even writing books.

The words paint a thousand pictures. As the experience of my visit is recalled, its value increases with every syllable.

Rudolf Heltzel Jeweller

Rudolf Heltzel first came to Ireland in 1966 at the invitation of Coras Trachtala to establish a gold and silver studio at the government sponsored Kilkenny Design Workshops. If you believe that when a country loses its craft it loses its soul and when it loses its creativity it loses its future – Rudolf was an important import, a catalyst at a time when Ireland still struggled to elevate our international competitiveness after the stagnant years of trade protection.

His is an evolving narrative of timeless elegance and beauty. It is informed by a technical virtuosity and an expertise in those crafts of ages, ancient skills, that have been passed across decades, even centuries, from master to apprentice, even master to master.

In 1968, he set up his own atelier where he, his son Christopher, their staff and apprentices still work today. Down all the decades since, many designer names have made headlines, wrapped in transitory celebrity or momentary sensation. In those 50 years or so, Rudolf Heltzel’s star has continues to shine unabated – illuminated not by the size of his PR budget, illuminated only by the enormity of his talent.

Mention him to his peers and invariably they speak of a gentle, modest man, a gifted designer blessed with an ability to find the voices of his materials and make them sing.

This ability is self evident in his Tourmaline Butterfly and Fire Opal collections. One of a kind couture jewellery, the designs of the pendants are dictated by the aesthetics of the unique stones used. Their realisation is honed through an equally unique personal skill, a craftsmanship that is the very essence of luxury.

The cut of the stones makes the pieces look alive !.

They are further appreciated when we see a woman wearing a Rudolf Heltzel piece insofar as we look at them both at once and as one ….that is the magic of this master designer, this master goldsmith.

As we refocus our understanding of luxury… as we come to know the difference between considered and conspicuous consumption … as connoisseurship is properly informed by innovation, imagination, quality and craftsmanship we are lucky to have such an artist in our midst who, not for the first time, shows us how to use design to infuse our culture with a sense of beauty and our economy with a sense of hope.