Orientation Catalogue - droichead arts centre

OR IENTATION Curated by Dorothy Smith 30 Nov 2017 – 3 Mar 2018 droichead arts centre www.droichead.com

O R I E N TAT I O N

Els Borghart My changing world view and portrayal of mankind as a result of many travels and moving countries, which I mix with personal perspectives and reveries, is where I find my inspiration. Through Baudelaire’s ideas of the detached observer, I explore the significance of wandering and how this influences my perception of the world. The acts of walking, observing and travelling are the habitual preludes to the creative process, one that depends on inquisitiveness as an inherent facet of creation.

Vivienne Byrne

Allegory, Oil on Board

The starting point for this work is inspired by the wishbone of the Archaeopteryx, the oldest known fossil bird of the late Jurassic period and has to date been considered the first 'missing link' from dinosaur to bird. This little V shaped bone enabled flight by supporting the chest area from the rigours of beating wings. The work acts as a mediation of sorts on the notion of transitional forms; evolution, energy, nature, time.

Anthony Collins

A Bird Never Flew on One Wing, Video Still

As an artist I find constant inspiration in the ever changing passing landscape, man-made marks and structures. These colours / structures, stay with me and reoccur in my artwork. My prints contain a kind of anxious beauty, which touch’s on a void, on a temporality.

Leo de Freyne

Premier Sky, Photo Etching

My work is an attempt to communicate feeling.

Nuala Early

Picture 1772, Acrylics on Paper

The two stone sculptures in this exhibition are part of a body of work exploring the themes of motherhood, loss, birth and separation. I'm using the body of the avocado pear in its various forms and textures as a means to express these themes. ‘Empty Nest’ 1 & 11 are about the emptiness I felt when my children grew up and left home, they can also relate to any loss or experience that gives us that ‘empty feeling’ inside.

Empty Nest 1, Kilkenny Limestone

30 Nov 2017 – 3 Mar 2018

Laura Gramzow I produce images that are often described as playful and mischievous, combining contemporary and traditional techniques. The printmaking process is characterised by compromise, quirkiness and unpredictability, qualities that as far as I am concerned, add personality and texture to a print.

Brian Hegarty

Mint Balls, Photo Etching

My current work appropriates used vinyl record sleeves to create new visual and contextual possibilities derived from their original design intent.

I see my work as a response to our cut and paste culture. We are bombarded daily with a constant mish mash of information and visual stimuli which we must wade through, decipher and process. With visual juxtapositions and chance connections my work opens out disjointed narratives, where snippets of the recognisable are beside un-coded texts, signs and symbols.

Raphael Hynes

Double Jones, Reappropriated record sleeve

I paint still-life objects from life and with each picture I try to understand something more about the feel of light, space and form.

The pictures are built up with small measured marks and the objects are placed within the space according to simple mathematical ratios.

This method and these ratios are used in an attempt to create something beautiful.

Kieran McNulty

Gourd, Oil on Canvas laid on Board

Fragments is a large-scale composite work of which the panels presented are a part. The panels have resulted from the processes of print making and it is these plates with the residue of inks and textures that capture the qualities that best reflect my visual exploration of motion, mergers and formations in nature. With support from Meath County Arts Office & Anglo Printers.

John Moloney

Fragments (Detail), Aluminium, Polymer Resin, Silicon Carbide, Etching Ink.

For me everything is material, everything in the sensuous and nonsensuous world, and in that sense it is open to the play of meaning. Play plays an important part in my practice as an artist and offers what I would describe as a revealing of the thingness of things. Tall Tale Thistles is part of this play.

Tall Tale Thistles, Mixed Media

OR IENTATI O N Early in 2017 I was delighted to be asked by Collette Farrell, the Director of Droichead, to curate an exhibition of work by artists living and working in Drogheda and surrounding areas. Meeting with and talking to many artists and selecting work for this show was a privilege and most interesting, but also difficult due to the huge quantity, variety and quality of work being made in this area.

Orientation celebrates and desires to bring attention to the range and wealth of artistic work being produced in this compact area. Orientation is a celebration and showcase of that work and suggests a shift in focus and an acknowledgement of the importance of locality and place.

A number of workshops, demonstrations and discussions will take place during the exhibition. We hope that this will enable further interaction with and conversation about the work, in addition to strengthening connections between the artists, audience and the centre Space constraints limited the number of artists that it was possible to include to ten.

It is hoped that Orientation marks the start of a new and closer relationship between Droichead and artists based locally that will build to provide artists with supportive infrastructure, and audiences with access to the creative works that are being made in their community.

Dorothy Smith Artist/Curator www.dorothysmith.ie

Information on Orientation workshops/talks is available on our website www.droichead.com We would like to thank Anglo Printers for their support in the printing of this catalogue.