“I grew up in a Dublin suburb and now I live in another one. This isn’t the world of the bustling city – the urban centre. And it isn’t the romanticism of the Irish countryside.”
I grew up in a Dublin suburb and now I live in another one. This isn’t the world of the bustling city – the urban centre. And it isn’t the romanticism of the Irish countryside. It’s a place that doesn’t really have a place in Irish stories about ourselves.
But it is a real place – and lots and lots of people live their lives in the suburbs. Streetlights a bit bent over, estates where kids play out in cul-de-sacs. It can be limiting. But also, it gives a stability and a sense of familiarity.
The sun sets on this Ireland too.
Mel Keane took the stage Saturday as part of Dublin Digital Radio’s annual festival, Alternating Current, at The Complex.
Sculpting through assemblies of objects is the main aspect of his practice, he says. A scarecrow-like figure wearing a Mickey Mouse t-shirt, with cigarette butts, and a Madonna cassette, for example.
“Pitched as ‘avante hyperpop’, her music can sound like what Mariah Carey might cook up if she spent more hours hanging out in video arcades and reading radical literature.”
Filmmaker Sarah Share’s “The Graceless Age: The Ballad of John Murry” tells the story of the Mississippi-born musician, who is now living in Ireland.
