outsiders

I went to that exhibition of Outsider Art in the IMMA. Outsider Art is an umbrella concept for people making art who come from outside the art establishment, with such people often lacking any art training or sense of art history. Definitional issues abound, but the typical Outsider Artist seems to be either mentally ill or extremely eccentric. Anyway, the exhibition is great fun, with the work of these Outsider Johnnies having a wonderfully mad for it sensibility. Here is a picture by Henry Darger, some of whose striking work features in the exhibition (though not this one):


In other developments, yesterday I went to that concert I have been hyping. I have also been watching lots of Star Trek. Neither of these are very outsidery experiences.