A “neglected” studio window in the Liberties becomes a galaxy of artists’ eyes

There was a picture of a large silhouetted cat in the window above the front entrance to La Catedral Studios on St. Augustine Street, just off Thomas Street in Dublin 8.

Her figure was cast almost entirely in darkness, with the only detail not obscured being her big green eyes, which stared out at passers-by.

Surrounding the head of this cat were disembodied human irises that spiraled out into the starry night sky, forming a colour spectrum of brown, green and blue eyes.

The actual cat from the picture lives in the studios, said Fabio Grassi, the artist behind the photograph collage, as he opened the front door on Monday afternoon. “That’s Ophelia.”

Ophelia is probably one of most famous residents in the studio, which also accommodates more than 40 artists, he said, laughing. “She’s got her own Instagram.”

A grey and white cat, Ophelia was resting upstairs as Grassi passed her while strolling down one of the studios’ labyrinthine hallways.

She was nestled in a woolen blanket that was scrunched up on a sofa.

And throughout the studio were reminders of her presence. In the smoking area, somebody had painted a mural of her next to a few pots that were growing cherry tomatoes and peppers.

There were signs fixed to the doors, reminding the other residents to make sure she wasn’t outside when they closed them.

Unlike the mural however, Grassi’s collage wasn’t merely a celebration of her, but of everybody in the large studio, which consisted of lofts, stalls and snug corridors lined with photographs, posters and plants.

Grassi gave it the title “The Artists Eye Galaxy”, he said. “The irises, they almost looked like planets.”

The installation was made for the “neglected” window on the facade of the Victorian building – a protected structure – that is home to La Catedral Studios, says studios co-founder Antonella Scanu. “We wanted to give more value to the aesthetics of our unique building.”

Being a way of representing each member of the studio, Grassi’s work is also intended as a way of making the studio more public-facing, giving their neighbours in the community an impression of the talent inside, she says. “It is a need to communicate more widely with more features.”

D-Eye-Y

The shelves in Grassi’s studio were stacked with books, boxes of film for his camera, and old VHS tapes of films like Blade Runner, The Doors and The Iron Giant.

“Some of the classics,” he said.

His wildlife photography lined the walls. In one corner of the room, he had a lap steel guitar, and in the other, a homemade bass guitar.

“It’s a bit of an interesting set up,” Grassi said as he took a seat next to his computer.

Quite a few of the items he had made by hand. He had screwed a worktop into the sliding door of a large closet, which he opened to pick up an orange plastic bucket that was originally used to hold Duplo, the oversized Lego bricks for toddlers.

Grassi had fastened a wooden frame to the bucket, so that a person could rest their head against it while he took a photograph of their iris.

He replaced that with a sturdier device, he said, pulling out a black wooden storage box that was fitted with a small curtain, a round brown plastic chin rest and two small adjustable lights to be shone into the subjects’ eyes. “From Ikea.”

Each subject would place their head inside the repurposed storage boxes, and resting on a table next to the window was a grid showing the 48 different eyes snapped with their name written underneath.

The cosmic gaze

Grassi first landed on the idea of the collage while he was travelling through Peccioli, a village in Pisa, he says. “We came across this interesting open-air museum.”

A local artist had photographed the eyes of the villagers, he said. “And basically, on the facade of a church, it was interesting, it had the eyes of every single villager.”

It became like a community project, he said. “You get everyone involved. But you don’t see the faces. Just the eyes.”

Grassi and the studios’ co-founder, Scanu, then decided to bring this to Dublin 8 when, in January, Dublin City Council started taking applications for its Shopfront Improvement Scheme, which funds businesses to refurbish or renew commercial building fronts, he said.

This particular window right above their front door was the ideal spot, he said. “It was just quite bare, and it looked a little out of place.”

He started to take the photos in June, he says. “I think the last one we took was some time in October. Very recently.”

Each of the irises was photographed using a macro lens, he said. “And under that, you get to see all of this detail. They are all very individuals. It’s not just colour. It’s texture. It’s patterns. There’s such an individuality. And then Ophelia had to be a part of it.”

The real challenge was trying to figure out the final design, he said. “I tried a couple of things that looked like Murano glass. But when I noticed that they looked like planets, it made sense to turn this into a galaxy.”

“It’s a galaxy of artists, all of whom see very different things in very different ways,” he says. “So that became the idea, if you want.”

Eye on Dublin 8

In recent years, artists’ studios have been encouraged to be more public-facing in their set-ups.

During November 2023, Dublin City Council, when it was selecting an organisation to manage its studio spaces in Chatham Row, favoured those with a business plan that enabled local communities to make use of the space as a cultural resource.

It’s perhaps unusual as studios, unlike exhibition spaces, by their nature, aren’t intended for the public to visit, says Scanu, the La Catedral co-founder. “The reality of an artist studio can be quite isolated.”

Typically, this is a place where artists become immersed in their projects, she says. “When I step into the studio, it’s about tidying, organisation, maintenance. We forget about the external reality.”

For various reasons, including practical security ones, the studio can become like a fortress, almost, she says.

But through a project like “The Artists Eye Galaxy” was intended to change that by making the building a place that engages with passers-by, she says. “From now on, we want to use this medium as a way of developing community projects.”

The next step is to widen the scope once again through a project called “Eye Love D8”, which is being spearheaded by artist Frederica Paletta.

This idea will involve photographing the irises of different people around the neighbourhood, Paletta said over the phone on Monday evening. “Different shop owners, bartenders, people in restaurants, people who work in Guinness.”

Before they can hit the ground with that next phase, they are waiting to hear if they have received grant funding from the council’s arts office, she says. “Then hopefully, we’ll be able to take photos of the irises, and video interviews.”

Eventually, they hope that, through this project, they can show the diversity of the Liberties, she says. “We want to show the multitude of people in Dublin 8, the complex soul of Dublin 8.”