Robert Longyear - A Dubliner Affect
As artists, we act as another layer on top of the dynamics we encounter daily. The line of questioning that we develop manifests itself as concentric circles of developing theories, studio work, and newfound avenues of understanding.
Our time in Ireland demanded that we act as quick absorbers of landscape in order to formulate a visual response to our international exchange.
French sociologist Michel Maffesoli was perhaps the first to use the term neotribalism in a scholarly context. He predicted that as the culture and institutions of modernism declined, societies would embrace nostalgia and look to the organizational principles of the distant past for guidance, and that therefore the post-modern era would be the era of neotribalism. The underpinnings of our work were anchored in this notion.
The landscape we navigated in Dublin proved to be intrinsically fractured by financial and political unrest – its center had weakened. This was most dramatically demonstrated by a working class that was not only in decline, but undergoing a transformation into a way of life built from the bottom up – one that was tempered with reflection and inventiveness, curiosity and risk.
Our installation presented a congruence between our cultural curiosities, our experiences, and our making. It was meant to communicate the surmounting of challenging themes including static, immobility, and genera- tional inheritance through quiet moments of ascension.
The visual language we employed throughout the installation was mindfully built from the patina of a city, the sincerity of its people, and the importance they placed on the conservation of their histories, traditions, and cultural identities.
A DUBLINER AFFECT
Based on a hunch, and hungry for people just being people
Based on a hunch, yeah but what happens when you give people a suspended moment based on a hunch
Based on a hunch
Based on the hunch you carry on your back like it’s that one spot that will make you forget yourself so much that you’ll hug your neighbor
A clash of the ash, and savor it the 1st time cause I envy ya!
A suspended moment in which we could pull on that Donegal tweed
And if we could all be a Joyce
And if we could all be a trader
Trading up
Son(s) of a Joyce
Sun(s) over Joyce
Son(s) for sun(s)
Like ladder up now
And rung over rung now Rope ladders dangle lovely
And if we could all be a Joyce
And if all the knife makers are blind now
An ordinary figure-head
Hands over head and rung over rung
Stop looking at your white house and start looking at your neighborhood
This is bravery beating propaganda
Like ladder up now
And rung over rung now
She sold 250 American flags to the embassy just today – how about it, the knife makers are all blind now
And this is the greediest generation waking up to roll over on the neediest generation
Like what side of bed is the right one to wake up on
And what side of the fence are you standing on
And on which side is Ireland greener
And it’s not always going to be the other
Like ladder up now
And rung over rung now
Please excuse the airmail stamp here
We’ve put it on upside down to explain the difference between panic and reaction
90MPH in a thirty, windows down, James Brown, a red lollie in your hand like microphones amplifying anthems of forward Lights flash and eventually you need to ring home
Yes we’ve got a bit of a problem here because I’ve been following you for seventeen miles and you’re earning points
Lights flash and eventually you need to ring home
Like ladder up now
And rung over rung now
Time to ring home now
Hello Mom? I’ve just got off the speeding rap!!!
Safe and understood
It’s okay to stumble
A middle in the middle of tribalism, urbanity, science, and nature
Lights flash and eventually you’re glad you rang home
Look up now
Like ladder up now
And rung over rung now
Two Magpies on a weathervane
Like our fingers to the wind
Like Heckle and Jeckle on a Dubliner Affect chasing the shine
And if we could all be a trader, trading up over burnt caravans trading up son(s) for sun(s)
Fingers to the wind pointing toward unemployment checks deployed like kites
The Weather’s vain
Painting a landscape perfect
White washing the drinking on site
Like paper turned bottles tipped
Tip, tip up to wet the tongue
Seems there’s a major rift in the system
Like paper turned bottles tipped – tip, tip up to wet a finger to the wind
A finger to the wind
A download buffering
And a mechanism made un-shapeable
State and commerce meets traveling and nomadism
A two-sided coin education
Flip, heads over tails, and heads over heels
And maybe it’s time to sit still and build
And maybe it’s time to sit still and buffer
And maybe its time to ring home because the lights are flashing
Channel change by channel swimmer
Ha”Penny and fifty paces to make it south
Have you got a penny cause I’m caught sitting in the middle
A two-sided coin education
Flip, heads over tails, and heads over heels
A half penny to cross a channel
W/ the endgame so near, it seems they feel it best to not give up all of their secrets
And w/ the endgame so near, if you live like that, it’s like you’re tricking people – it’s a distortion
But
Have you ever heard of Irish Alzheimer’s?
Seems they’ve forgot everything but the grudge
But
Maybe it’s time to call B.S.
And if you want to get to know a man, it’s best to talk w/ his children
Because eventually they’re the ones that will ring home
But
Maybe it’s time to call B.S.
Because we’re wondering which side of Ireland is greener, and who’s trying to gain the one-ups on sorrow?
Like paper turned bottles tipped – tip, tip up to wet a finger to the wind
Sometimes you have got to see into the madness
Show us something really, because human is a different thing And otherwise, you’ve got a hunch on your back
Like we’ve got a hunch, move back
Like you’re walking around, but you’re backed into a corner
Back, back, buffer, back up a bit so we can fit you in the frame Show us something really
Ringing a bell, wetting a tongue, wetting a finger
We’re all pretty iffy
Learned over a two-sided coin education
Flipping, heads over tails, and head over heels
Tossing a half penny to cross a channel for something greener
Iffy Liffey
And maybe there’s something to this
A last name Garland
A last name to be tossed around the necks of the quickest who’ve not been caught
2 knocks at the wall and two pints settled for time to knock off before knocking over
Look, Tango #1 put one down
Like an ordinary, decent criminal
Ascent beat descent, ODC an’ he’s not been caught
Our time in Ireland demanded that we act as quick absorbers of landscape in order to formulate a visual response to our international exchange.
French sociologist Michel Maffesoli was perhaps the first to use the term neotribalism in a scholarly context. He predicted that as the culture and institutions of modernism declined, societies would embrace nostalgia and look to the organizational principles of the distant past for guidance, and that therefore the post-modern era would be the era of neotribalism. The underpinnings of our work were anchored in this notion.
The landscape we navigated in Dublin proved to be intrinsically fractured by financial and political unrest – its center had weakened. This was most dramatically demonstrated by a working class that was not only in decline, but undergoing a transformation into a way of life built from the bottom up – one that was tempered with reflection and inventiveness, curiosity and risk.
Our installation presented a congruence between our cultural curiosities, our experiences, and our making. It was meant to communicate the surmounting of challenging themes including static, immobility, and genera- tional inheritance through quiet moments of ascension.
The visual language we employed throughout the installation was mindfully built from the patina of a city, the sincerity of its people, and the importance they placed on the conservation of their histories, traditions, and cultural identities.
A DUBLINER AFFECT
Based on a hunch, and hungry for people just being people
Based on a hunch, yeah but what happens when you give people a suspended moment based on a hunch
Based on a hunch
Based on the hunch you carry on your back like it’s that one spot that will make you forget yourself so much that you’ll hug your neighbor
A clash of the ash, and savor it the 1st time cause I envy ya!
A suspended moment in which we could pull on that Donegal tweed
And if we could all be a Joyce
And if we could all be a trader
Trading up
Son(s) of a Joyce
Sun(s) over Joyce
Son(s) for sun(s)
Like ladder up now
And rung over rung now Rope ladders dangle lovely
And if we could all be a Joyce
And if all the knife makers are blind now
An ordinary figure-head
Hands over head and rung over rung
Stop looking at your white house and start looking at your neighborhood
This is bravery beating propaganda
Like ladder up now
And rung over rung now
She sold 250 American flags to the embassy just today – how about it, the knife makers are all blind now
And this is the greediest generation waking up to roll over on the neediest generation
Like what side of bed is the right one to wake up on
And what side of the fence are you standing on
And on which side is Ireland greener
And it’s not always going to be the other
Like ladder up now
And rung over rung now
Please excuse the airmail stamp here
We’ve put it on upside down to explain the difference between panic and reaction
90MPH in a thirty, windows down, James Brown, a red lollie in your hand like microphones amplifying anthems of forward Lights flash and eventually you need to ring home
Yes we’ve got a bit of a problem here because I’ve been following you for seventeen miles and you’re earning points
Lights flash and eventually you need to ring home
Like ladder up now
And rung over rung now
Time to ring home now
Hello Mom? I’ve just got off the speeding rap!!!
Safe and understood
It’s okay to stumble
A middle in the middle of tribalism, urbanity, science, and nature
Lights flash and eventually you’re glad you rang home
Look up now
Like ladder up now
And rung over rung now
Two Magpies on a weathervane
Like our fingers to the wind
Like Heckle and Jeckle on a Dubliner Affect chasing the shine
And if we could all be a trader, trading up over burnt caravans trading up son(s) for sun(s)
Fingers to the wind pointing toward unemployment checks deployed like kites
The Weather’s vain
Painting a landscape perfect
White washing the drinking on site
Like paper turned bottles tipped
Tip, tip up to wet the tongue
Seems there’s a major rift in the system
Like paper turned bottles tipped – tip, tip up to wet a finger to the wind
A finger to the wind
A download buffering
And a mechanism made un-shapeable
State and commerce meets traveling and nomadism
A two-sided coin education
Flip, heads over tails, and heads over heels
And maybe it’s time to sit still and build
And maybe it’s time to sit still and buffer
And maybe its time to ring home because the lights are flashing
Channel change by channel swimmer
Ha”Penny and fifty paces to make it south
Have you got a penny cause I’m caught sitting in the middle
A two-sided coin education
Flip, heads over tails, and heads over heels
A half penny to cross a channel
W/ the endgame so near, it seems they feel it best to not give up all of their secrets
And w/ the endgame so near, if you live like that, it’s like you’re tricking people – it’s a distortion
But
Have you ever heard of Irish Alzheimer’s?
Seems they’ve forgot everything but the grudge
But
Maybe it’s time to call B.S.
And if you want to get to know a man, it’s best to talk w/ his children
Because eventually they’re the ones that will ring home
But
Maybe it’s time to call B.S.
Because we’re wondering which side of Ireland is greener, and who’s trying to gain the one-ups on sorrow?
Like paper turned bottles tipped – tip, tip up to wet a finger to the wind
Sometimes you have got to see into the madness
Show us something really, because human is a different thing And otherwise, you’ve got a hunch on your back
Like we’ve got a hunch, move back
Like you’re walking around, but you’re backed into a corner
Back, back, buffer, back up a bit so we can fit you in the frame Show us something really
Ringing a bell, wetting a tongue, wetting a finger
We’re all pretty iffy
Learned over a two-sided coin education
Flipping, heads over tails, and head over heels
Tossing a half penny to cross a channel for something greener
Iffy Liffey
And maybe there’s something to this
A last name Garland
A last name to be tossed around the necks of the quickest who’ve not been caught
2 knocks at the wall and two pints settled for time to knock off before knocking over
Look, Tango #1 put one down
Like an ordinary, decent criminal
Ascent beat descent, ODC an’ he’s not been caught