Sunday, August 23, 2015
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Vanessa Donoso Lopez at LCGA - Eye Before E Except After See
I have seen Vanessa Donoso Lopez's work previously in several Ormston House shows (Dogs, The Founding Phant and Thick, Turgid and Lacking in Soothing Oil) and for me, it has always stood out from anything else in the gallery. To be included in such diverse exhibitions suggests that this is versatile work; to stand out in these shows suggests that Vanessa Donoso Lopez is a woman with her own voice.
The title of the show gives you a clue. It is playful and seems to poke a non-native speaker's fun at the strange conventions of the English language. The work too is playful and provides a visual language that is clearly personal but universally understandable due to it's tactility, exuberance and approachability - the use of simple, familiar and often nostalgic materials invite the viewer in through familiarity and recognition. The exhibition fills four spaces in the upstairs gallery and every space is given to different works. All feel connected either through the use of colour, materials or the sequence of repetition that is found throughout Donoso Lopez's work. There are accompanying texts to the work in each of these different spaces by Helen Carey, Ross Birrell and Beatriz Escudera Garcia and they are all heavily stuffed with ideas ranging from a contextual history of homesickness to the unheimlich. You do not need to know any of this to enjoy this exhibition. In some way in fact, the dry, academic tone of all three texts takes away the joy at seeing tiny ceramic nests, paper rainbows, feathers dancing on a breeze, white strings of beads like necklaces, or a snail with a speaker horn for a shell moving over an old 78 record. It is better to go in unawares and enter the strange world of Donoso Lopez and let yourself be delighted with each new room and object.
Personally, I found ceramic works in The Carnegie Gallery and The Dark Room to be Lopez's most beguiling works of the show. There is a purity and simplicity to the ceramic pieces; strings of hand-made beads, extruded coils of clay hung simply over nails, plaited clay coils, and simple nest forms. The room is almost like a visual detox - the forms are simple and off-white on white walls. They are soothing to look at but their evolution carries you around the gallery, nose almost against the wall as shapes and ideas develop. It is like watching the artist play and the delight that often accompanies play seems fired into these pieces.
The Dark Room has been described by Garcia as ".. a dismal room ... a room of infantile terror" and certainly there is something childlike to it. But The Dark Room, despite it's title, has light and movement as motion activated motors bring it to life when you enter. One noisy, whirring motor drives a stick with a home-made feather fan on the end that rises and falls back against a table with a clack. At first it is startling but then comes relief and laughter at this crazy object, rhythmically rising and falling. At the back of the room are old-fashioned table lamps that have each circle fans revolving above them in the heat like circles of moths. A pink feather tied to a piece of sewing thread dances in a breeze from a fan below it whilst another feather, revolves around and around a tea pot lid. All these kinetic works and more are housed on nests of tables, as if in a junk shop or attic. It is as if these objects, shut away together for years decided to build a mechanical world for themselves and so they did, delicately and playfully, and we are privileged to move through it and the whole show itself, slowly and shyly, giving it time and quiet awe.
The show runs until August 28, 2015.
http://www.vanessadonosolopez.com/
The title of the show gives you a clue. It is playful and seems to poke a non-native speaker's fun at the strange conventions of the English language. The work too is playful and provides a visual language that is clearly personal but universally understandable due to it's tactility, exuberance and approachability - the use of simple, familiar and often nostalgic materials invite the viewer in through familiarity and recognition. The exhibition fills four spaces in the upstairs gallery and every space is given to different works. All feel connected either through the use of colour, materials or the sequence of repetition that is found throughout Donoso Lopez's work. There are accompanying texts to the work in each of these different spaces by Helen Carey, Ross Birrell and Beatriz Escudera Garcia and they are all heavily stuffed with ideas ranging from a contextual history of homesickness to the unheimlich. You do not need to know any of this to enjoy this exhibition. In some way in fact, the dry, academic tone of all three texts takes away the joy at seeing tiny ceramic nests, paper rainbows, feathers dancing on a breeze, white strings of beads like necklaces, or a snail with a speaker horn for a shell moving over an old 78 record. It is better to go in unawares and enter the strange world of Donoso Lopez and let yourself be delighted with each new room and object.
Personally, I found ceramic works in The Carnegie Gallery and The Dark Room to be Lopez's most beguiling works of the show. There is a purity and simplicity to the ceramic pieces; strings of hand-made beads, extruded coils of clay hung simply over nails, plaited clay coils, and simple nest forms. The room is almost like a visual detox - the forms are simple and off-white on white walls. They are soothing to look at but their evolution carries you around the gallery, nose almost against the wall as shapes and ideas develop. It is like watching the artist play and the delight that often accompanies play seems fired into these pieces.
The Dark Room has been described by Garcia as ".. a dismal room ... a room of infantile terror" and certainly there is something childlike to it. But The Dark Room, despite it's title, has light and movement as motion activated motors bring it to life when you enter. One noisy, whirring motor drives a stick with a home-made feather fan on the end that rises and falls back against a table with a clack. At first it is startling but then comes relief and laughter at this crazy object, rhythmically rising and falling. At the back of the room are old-fashioned table lamps that have each circle fans revolving above them in the heat like circles of moths. A pink feather tied to a piece of sewing thread dances in a breeze from a fan below it whilst another feather, revolves around and around a tea pot lid. All these kinetic works and more are housed on nests of tables, as if in a junk shop or attic. It is as if these objects, shut away together for years decided to build a mechanical world for themselves and so they did, delicately and playfully, and we are privileged to move through it and the whole show itself, slowly and shyly, giving it time and quiet awe.
The show runs until August 28, 2015.
http://www.vanessadonosolopez.com/
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Rural Irish Aesthetic
There is a definite rural Irish aesthetic and I think it is captured in these photographs which were all taken on the same day as I cycled in a 14 mile radius around my house.
It exists in the way that farmers close the entrances to fields, the hand painted signs on gates, the way that someone's presence in the countryside is marked intentionally or unintentionally in things left behind.
It exists in the way that farmers close the entrances to fields, the hand painted signs on gates, the way that someone's presence in the countryside is marked intentionally or unintentionally in things left behind.
Making Books for the Dublin Zine Fair
I am drinking tea and writing this post. And after I have finished writing this post, I will go and put together some more books for the Dublin Zine Fair, where I have a half table next Sunday.
Monday, July 13, 2015
One thing leads to ...
another.
I am making books for the Dublin Zine Fair which will be held in the middle of August in the Chocolate Factory (oh yeah!). So anyway, I made some books of monoprints and before sewing them up I scanned in some of the prints. I was going through them today on the computer and started messing and these collages resulted - so that's print - book - scan - collage - ... ?
I am making books for the Dublin Zine Fair which will be held in the middle of August in the Chocolate Factory (oh yeah!). So anyway, I made some books of monoprints and before sewing them up I scanned in some of the prints. I was going through them today on the computer and started messing and these collages resulted - so that's print - book - scan - collage - ... ?
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Dynamic Monochrome
I have a new camera that offers creative settings for photos, in order, I suppose, so that you don't have to go all Photoshop on them. Some of the settings are quite nasty - 'retro' and 'expressive' in particular do terrible things to your photos but the dynamic monochrome is quite something if you get the right set up. All of a sudden the kitchen counter is transformed from beige to seedy.
Friday, July 3, 2015
Vivienne Westwood
I am reading Vivienne Westwood's autobiography. She is a wonderful woman. Here is an interview with her from 2014 talking about climate change, fashion, art and the world system.
She said that going to art galleries helps climate change by getting you off the treadmill. It's true.
The link to the video is here
She said that going to art galleries helps climate change by getting you off the treadmill. It's true.
The link to the video is here
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