On Seeing Only Totally New Things
Gavin Murphy & Atelier Projects
164 pages, hardback, colour
Published by Royal Hibernian Academy
Designed by Atelier David Smith
ISBN 1-903875-68-4
On Seeing Only Totally New Things brings together a number of exhibitions and research material by the artist Gavin Murphy, alongside new texts by James Merrigan, Chris Fite-Wassilak and Dr. Ellen Rowley, with contributions from Catherine Croft (Director, Twentieth Century Society) and Patrick T. Murphy (Director, RHA). It publishes for the first time, research and surviving documentation of the IMCO building (a demolished Modernist factory and the subject of his 2012 film Something New Under the Sun), and contains a first of its kind, comprehensive and illustrated monograph-section on that building’s designer Oliver Percy Bernard, with extensive appendices and bibliographic material.
The IMCO building was, during its brief existence, a major landmark on Dublin’s south coast, yet is all but forgotten today. Similarly, the industrial processes that the company carried out, once part of the fabric of everyday life, are entirely undocumented. IMCO were a large firm of dry cleaners who ran a central cleaning and dying plant in Dublin, alongside approximately 50 branches taking delivery of items of clothing from all over the country. A weekly sponsored radio programme, featuring owner Louis Spiro and presented by Eamonn Andrews, made IMCO a household name. The second phase of the building, dating from 1939, incorporated a modernist concrete and glass tower, designed by Oliver P. Bernard. A noted architect, scenic and industrial designer, and a champion of modern engineering techniques and materials, Bernard is credited with being instrumental in developing conservative Victorian British taste in a modernist European direction. His remarkable life included his first–hand experience of the sinking of the liner Luisitania off the coast of Cork in 1915 (for which his published sketches are the only contemporary illustrative account).
The publication was produced in collaboration with design studio Atelier David Smith, and is published by the Royal Hibernian Academy, in association with the Irish Architecture Foundation. It was made possible through the support of The Arts Council.
Available to reference:
Dublin (available on loan): UCD Library (James Joyce Library & Richview Library); NCAD Library; IADT library
Dublin (reference only): Trinity College Dublin Library; NIVAL (National Visual Art Library); Irish Architectural Archive
London (check at source): RIBA Library, Portland Place; Architectural Association, School of Architecture library; British Library
Previously available from RHA, RIAI Bookshop Dublin, RIBA Bookshop London, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane.
Links
On Seeing Only Totally New Things
The 100 Archive
Link
See reproductions on MM Artbook printing & repro website
ICAD Awards 2014 (Commended)
Link
On Seeing Only Totally New Things
Winner: AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers
Link
Chris Fite-Wassilak’s essay for On Seeing Only Totally New Things reproduced in The Serving Library
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More
Book launch, September 2013
in association with C20 Society
Brasserie Zédel, London
Book launch, September 2013
Royal Hibernian Academy in association with the Irish Architecture Foundation