Rothe House Recce

My next exhibition is another group show, again with Blackstack Studio at Rothe House in Kilkenny.  Rothe House is a medieval merchant's town house, right across the road from Blackstack and our exhibition will be a response to the building, history, gardens and artefacts there.

I took my camera and had a slow wander around.  It is a fantastic place but what inspired me the most were the some of the artefacts there and the recreated medieval garden, which even in early Spring, bare and without much growth was like an oasis in the middle of the city.  Inside the walls there wasn't another soul to be seen but you could hear traffic, someone playing music, the voices and footsteps of people walking past.  I collected lots of dead leaves and plant material as potential collagraphs and I will possibly layer these with drypoints of some of the artefacts, all topped off with a bit of monoprinting for good measure!

Blackstack Group Exhibition, The Source Arts Centre, Thurles

Bit long-winded for a post title but the show itself didn't have a name!  Here are some images from the group exhibition which is currently ongoing at The Source Arts Centre in Thurles.  The show featured works from ten of Blackstack Studio's artists and was a diverse collection of print styles, subject and mediums.  I was hoping to have time to make new prints but that didn't happen so I put some in from the Limerick Printmaker's Show. 

The show was opened by Brendan Maher, the Director of The Source and individual artists also talked about their works to the audience which I thought was a great idea.  Usually the artist is anonymous to a lot of people at openings but it is the one time they are there, and possibly dying to talk about their work to a collection of visitors.  For the visitor it makes the work more intimate and real, allows them to ask questions and possibly connect with the work which might not be possible without that background being provided.

The ten artists taking part are:  John Busher, Maeve Coulter,  Sylvia Hemingway, Andrew Kelly, Ale Mercado, Stephen Morton, Aiseling Noone, Jacqueline O'Neill, Helen Robbins and yours truly.

Aiseling Noone

Aiseling Noone

Andrew Kelly (detail)

Andrew Kelly

John Busher talking about his work

Helen Robbins talking about her work

Jacqueline O'Neill

John Busher

Stephen Morton

Stephen Morton (detail)

Stephen Morton

Sylvia Hemingway

A Fox In A Copse

I found a fox skeleton in a small copse near the old farm.  The bones were almost completely clean and a little scattered around the area.  There was still a patch of browny-red fur on a branch on the ground.  The skull was incomplete, being partly missing on one side.  I don't know if this is what killed him or if he was eaten or disturbed after he died.  The shoulder and hip bones are beautiful.  The individual spinal vertebrae have little faces etched into them.

I collected all the bones I could and arranged them into a square and then photographed some of them against a background of black card.  I'm putting these through Photoshop and adding colour to some. I brought the bones home to draw around as well but after this is finished I'm going to put them back in the copse where I found them. I would like to make the images into a reliquary type book commemorating this unknown fox who died under trees on a windy hillside.

As I Walked Out One Winter Morning II

It stopped raining last weekend for a few hours so I took the dogs and the camera for a walk.

Innumerable Subtle Creations

I did it.  My first solo print show.  (Note the 'first' in that sentence expresses the hope that there will be more to come).

It was very stressful.  For months I thought about little else, yet actually going into the studio was hard.  It made it real and opened up the possibility for disappointments, for maybe realising I am not as a good a printer in real life as I am in my head.  I struggled with visualising the concepts and ideas I had in mind for the show, but funnily enough, never doubted that the concepts were wrong.  I still think they were right and I think the prints I made expressed them well and left the ideas and the visuals open enough for future work to develop.

Statements and images from the opening night are below.  I would like to thank again Limerick Printmakers for the opportunity, Isabella Walsh and Tom for helping me put up and take down the show, Blackstack Studio in Kilkenny for tolerating rice everywhere as I worked on these prints, Ormston House for the loan of the video screen, Des McMahon for opening the show and everyone who braved the stormy Limerick night to be there.

“ ... wandering above and below, the Spirit makes for himself innumerable subtle creations¹”

(Mascaro, 1965, p. 135)

Shortly after moving to Waterford, I was in a charity shop in the small town of Kilmacthomas.  On the changing room floor I found a translation of the Upanishads; ancient Sanskrit texts, written between 800 BCE and 1400 CE, which form the basis of Hinduism and some aspects of Buddhism.  The incongruity of finding this book in so unlikely a place seemed like a contemporary version of something that might have happened in one of the stories in the book and so I bought it.

One of the key philosophies of the Upanishads is Oneness;  the deepest level of our being is the same as that of Brahman, the Absolute who creates and maintains the entire universe.   This connects us not only with the divine but also with everything else in existence from molecular to cosmic.  Separateness is an illusion which causes suffering.  The successive breaking down of the interconnectedness between ourselves and the universe we live in is having catastrophic effects upon individuals, societies, nations and the planet; reducing our humanity and estranging us from the wonder and variety of life that nourishes our spirits.  We become facsimiles of ourselves, driven this way and that, yet tethered. 

Rather than prescriptive instructions, the Upanishads present a universal message, which pertains directly to global society, that only when we are reconnected with the universe through joy, love, meditation and contemplation do we achieve liberation. 

 The works in this show consider these ideas primarily through the mediums of intaglio and monoprinting.   Referencing Indian mudras (hand gestures performed as part of Hindu and Buddhist spiritual practice) and the ornate decoration found in Indian textiles and temples, there is a meditative aspect to these works both in their creation and contemplation.  Our spirits need a slow and quiet wandering to be able to form for ourselves the subtle, simple creations that will reconnect us to each other and the world in which we live.