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STORIES OF EARTH: ECHOES IN ARCHITECTURE

AUGUST 2024

Stories of Earth: Echoes in Architecture

On the 14th September Níall will be speaking at Stories of Earth: Echoes in Architecture at the University of Technology in Sydney. Níall's talk is titled About Time.

'A place is somewhere we return to. This is what sets it apart from the continuous flow of topography. Our connection to a place is renewed with each visit. Therefore, it has a special connection with time. We might say that the concept of place has as much to do with time as with area. Archaeologists researching the earliest permanent houses look for a telltale sign: one hearth built above another as an act of conscious representation. It tells us that some little band, family, or community saw their bonds lasting over a longer duration. This was something that could be given material presence. The first houses gave us a history. They encouraged us to believe that we could jointly invest in more ambitious activities whose returns were not immediately available. This expanded horizon transformed human culture. It also gave us our present conception of architecture, which is, above all, a representation of temporal depth. Níall will speak about architecture as a material embodiment of time.'

Níall will be joined by Rick Joy, Marina Tabassum Marusa Zorec and Peter Stuchbury.

The event page can be accessed here.

NIALL ELECTED AS NEW AOSDÁNA MEMBER

APRIL 2019

Niall has been elected as one of six new members of Aosdána.

Founded in 1981, Aosdána was established by the Arts Council to honour artists for their contributions to Irish society and to support them in their artistic endeavours. Membership is capped at 250 living artists from a range of creative disciplines. All members are elected by their peers.

Visual artist Aideen Barry; film and video artist Clare Langan; Man Booker prize winner Anna Burns; writer Doireann Ní Gríofa; and painter and printmaker Margaret Irwin West were also elected.