“That’s no way to treat an expensive musical instrument!”
(To quote Meat Loaf)
I had to go to Dublin for a couple of days on business this week. Now, Dublin’s a pretty music-heavy place, although most of my contact with it during the trip was in the form of winning a trivia prize for knowing what Bono’s real name is, and being in the same bar as a fairly traditional band for half an hour or so.
But I did run across one unusual and interesting musical item on my trip — or, rather, a set of items. There’s an exhibition on until 24th June 2012 on the top floor of the Stephen’s Green shopping centre — which I confess I’d only gone into to get out of the rain! — featuring art created from a variety of old, broken or otherwise unloved musical instruments. Mostly these are guitars or violins, plus a few drums and other instruments; there are more than a hundred of them altogether, and the overall effect is pretty stunning. The decorated instruments are available for purchase or, if you can’t quite stretch to that or if you’re just not sure they’ll fit in your hand luggage, there are books of postcards available for sale as well. All profits go to the Musical Youth Foundation in Ireland (… and if you’re singing “Pass The Dutchie” in your head at this point, you’re very nearly as sad as I am — stop it at once…) and there are some more details about the exhibition at the Dublin City Soul Festival website.
Definitely worth a visit if you happen to be in the area.