Noli Me Tangere
Etching, aquatint and screen print on paper
50cm x 30cm
2015
This print is part of a series of prints entitled Moon Phase, a theme that I periodically add to as the theme evolves. It includes Moonlit Roof (2010), Hirsute (2011), and The Somnambulist (2014).
Things connected to the moon include, moods, tides, lunacy, eclipse, sleep walking and werewolves. I use these ideas to illustrate the complex issues surrounding adolescence and having to grow up. They are also hugely inspired by writers such as Angela Carter (Company of Wolves), Karen Russell (St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves) and fairy tales.
Monkey Boots
Etching and aquatint on paper
50cm x 40cm
Edition of 20
This print is connected to Hirsute, Wilgefortis and Self Perspectives. It involves a common theme of the animal instinct in human nature. Initially I had intended to add lots of hair to the legs but instead started to experiment by off-set printing it onto gesso-ed panels which I then abraded and scratched to expose hair underneath.
The Somnambulist
Etching, aquatint and drypoint on paper
50cm x 30cm
2014
This print is part of a series of prints entitled Moon Phase, a theme that I periodically add to as the theme evolves. It includes Moonlit Roof (2010), Hirsute (2011) and Noli Me Tangere (2015).
Things connected to the moon include, moods, tides, lunacy, eclipse, sleep walking and werewolves. I use these ideas to illustrate the complex issues surrounding adolescence and having to grow up. They are also hugely inspired by writers such as Angela Carter (Company of Wolves), Karen Russell (St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves) and fairy tales.
Dimensions: 16cm x 13cm Thermal transfer stencil on polyester Unique
Repetition features in a current project; a group of prints with the working title ‘Seeing things’. Here the repetition of a window as motif opens the viewer to the realm of the imagination through the suggestion of presence/absence of everyday objects and hallucinatory like shadows. The intent is to blur the lines between apparent reality and created fantasy, to provoke questions, doubts and intimations of meaning and to look further into what appears straightforward at first glance.
This project stemmed from my interest in windows; through which we both look in and out as a metaphor for our perception of ourselves and surroundings. Using the stylised widow template, I repeated motifs to give both figurative and abstract images of shadows and weather. My intention is to echo an effect of passing car headlights projecting light into a dark room, inviting the imagination to interpret their distorted forms.
Ribs and Boughs
Dimensions: 32cm x 28cm
Plate size: 13cm x 12cm
Etching and aquatint on BFK Rives
Working in a beautiful old studio surrounded by a variety of old and disused windows, obsolete vitrines and historic picture glass, I am particularly drawn to how the inherent distortions formed in glass during manufacture and the subsequent creep of ageing can influence how and what we see. Such idiosyncratic textures together with additional visual patterns of rain, dust and oil provide a unique impression; a distorted reality.
The wonderful Palm House at the Botanic Gardens was an obvious draw for me. I love the way it mirrors the tall palms stretching in so many intricate patterns. The historic glass still has its patina; the accumulated dust, moss and algae perhaps though marking the glass also symbolise where the process of natural selection stems from…
A Natural Selection:
National Botanic Gardens, Dublin: 15 Nov. – 5 Dec. 2013
The Lavit Gallery, Cork: 18 March – 8 April 2014
Galleri Astley, Uttersberg, Sweden: 27April – 18 May 2014
Royal Dublin Society, Ballsbridge: 11 June- 4 July 2014
The Hamilton Gallery, Sligo: 13 June- 30 August 2014
An Exhibition of Fine Art Prints inspired by The National Botanic Gardens Dublin. The National Botanic Gardens were founded in 1795 in a golden age of exploration and scientific discovery. During those extraordinary times, expeditions set out from Europe to every corner of the globe, exploring, opening trade routes and seeking knowledge about the natural world.
This was a romantic era of botanist plant-hunters who journeyed, often in difficult conditions, in search of botanical specimens to carry home for study and cultivation. The naturalist Charles Darwin was one such explorer whose famous voyage around the world on the HMS Beagle and whose subsequent studies led to the publication of his seminal work On the Origin of Species, a work which radically changed our perception of the natural world. The term ‘Natural Selection’ was coined by Darwin to describe how natural forms evolve differently in different locations, to suit their specific environments.
There has always been an important link between botany and the visual arts. The desire to capture botanic images is rooted in antiquity. We find it in the Minoan palaces at Knossos, in the frescoes of Pompeii and in Egyptian tomb painting. In the 16th century, Albrecht Durer’s work displayed a new naturalism in the depiction of plants. In France, in the early 1800s, the Belgian artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté was appointed official artist by the Empress Josephine. The sumptuous images from his almost fifty publications based on the Empress’s gardens at the Chateau de Malmaison remain in reproduction to this day. For over three hundred years printmaking has been an integral part of botanical research and discovery, and vice versa.
This exhibition, organized by a group of artists who are members of Graphic Studio Dublin, unveils 100 fine art prints by 100 artists from Ireland and overseas. This ambitious project has brought together artists from Ireland, North and South, alongside artists from Finland, Germany, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden and United Kingdom. In approaching their work, the participating artists were asked to consider all aspects of the National Botanic Gardens: the 170,000 different species of cultivated forms within the collection, the natural beauty of the gardens at Glasnevin in Dublin and the arboretum at Kilmacurragh Co. Wicklow, their renowned architectural features like the spectacular Curvilinear Range of Glasshouses and the Palm House, and their continuing scientific and botanical research work.
The result is an exceptional exhibition of fine art prints ranging from the figurative – beautiful botanical records, to the conceptual – exploring the shared space between the artist and the natural world. In their different and individual ways the artists have been inspired by and have paid tribute to the richness and diversity of the natural world and to the work of a great institution, an institution which is filled with treasure, and which is itself one of Ireland’s national treasures, the National Botanic Gardens.
Plant collecting and printmaking share a similar characteristic insofar as the propagation of plants mirrors the multiplicity of an edition of prints. In its turn, this shared characteristic facilitates access to people for their enjoyment and inspiration. In this spirit, all the participating artists have agreed to allow their respective works to be purchased at the unusually affordable price of €100 each. This is an opportunity for all those who appreciate art and botany to acquire an original work of art at a modest price, in the knowledge that the proceeds will go to support Graphic Studio Dublin and the participating artists.
Vestige Dimensions: 38cm x 48cm Plate size: 25cm x 30cm Etching over heat transfer on Zerkall Edition of 10
Strumpet City: Graphic Studio Gallery 11th July – 24th August 2013
In association with James Plunkett’s novel ‘Strumpet City’ being the UNESCO City of Literature 2013 Dublin: One City, One Book, Graphic Studio Gallery will be hosting an exhibition of 46 artists in connection with this epic book. The exhibition, also entitled ‘Strumpet City’, will run from the 11th of July to the 24th of August, and will feature a collection of contemporary fine art prints of various aspects of Dublin city and its history.
This year’s choice of ‘Strumpet City’ as Dublin’s One City One Book is especially appropriate as 2013 is the centenary of the Dublin Lockout around which much of the novel is centered. 2013 is also the year that Graphic Studio Gallery celebrates its 25th anniversary. To commemorate this, Graphic Studio Dublin members and gallery artists have created fine art prints that deal with many of the themes explored in Plunkett’s novel: poverty, a generation’s survival and pre-independence Dublin itself. This is a fundraiser for the studio, and the money raised in the exhibition will go towards providing more printmaking facilities for artists and graduates.
Using traditional printmaking techniques to explore Plunkett’s novel is highly apt as print would have been the method employed to communicate in the Dublin of Larkin’s time. Graphic Studio Gallery’s fine art print exhibition will offer a unique opportunity to interact with the novel in the form of visual art.
Artists: Yoko Akino, Anne Anderson, Paul Bailey, Margaret Becker, Carmel Benson, Gerard Cox, Aisling Dolan, Susan Early, Camilla Fanning, Paula Fitzpatrick, Niamh Flanagan, Gerard Greene, Mary Grey, Alice Hanratty, Marianne Heemskeek, Gavin Hogg, Siobhan Hyde, Brian Lalor, Jennifer Lane, Sharon Lee, Louise Leonard, Daniel Lipstein, Tom Macken, Brett Mac Entagart, Niamh Mac Gowan, James McCreary, Niamh McGuinne, Bernadette Madden, Susan Mannion, Fieda Meaney, Liam Ó Broin, Suzannah O’Reilly, Ruth O’Donnell, Ciara O’Hara, Gay O’Neill, Mary Plunkett, Sarah Rogers, Dermot Ryan, Joe Ryan, Deirdre Shanley, Constance Short, Adrienne Symes, Michael Timmins, Elke Thönnes, Marja Van Kampen & Marta Wakula-Mac
Surreal Estate installation Graphic Studio Gallery: May 2013 Thermal transfer screen print on constructed aluminium boxes containing interiors with etchings/screen prints/monoprints. 11 Digital Archival pigment prints 3 minute animated film.
Surreal Estate Surreal Estate has grown out of my interest in shadows, reflections and windows. Working in a beautiful old studio surrounded by a variety of old and disused windows, obsolete vitrines and historic picture glass, I was particularly drawn to how the inherent distortions formed in glass during manufacture and the subsequent creep of ageing can influence how and what we see. Such idiosyncratic textures together with additional visual patterns of rain, dust and oil provide a unique impression; a distorted reality. This in turn led me to look closer at patterned and decorative glass, nets, curtains and blinds, all of which control or alter what we allow of our private life to be seen and how we view our surroundings. The installation comprises three elements Surrealight, 35 print and sculptural constructions, Surrealshadow, a set of digital prints and Shadowlight, a 3min animated film.
Surrealight represents an uninhabited urban area akin to the many historic, deserted Irish villages and current ghost estates albeit with an independent imaginary life of its own; one that we are not invited to share. Nevertheless, we are pulled in by our curiosity and by the desire to make sense of what we can see. A dirty window obscured by torn curtains suggests neglect or eccentricity but this is entirely presumed. We do not know what is behind the glass; whether or not there is an occupant. We live with so much around us that we consider important yet often an abandoned room will contain vestiges of their inhabitants who have since moved on. This becomes part of the history or life of the rooms. A new occupant may change it all but time will ensure that the cycle of dereliction and regeneration continues. These questions have morphed into a fascination with how perception can be distorted. How do we perceive these spaces – do they remind us of our past or do they make us think about where we are and of our own place in time?
The digital prints which make up Surrealshadow represent views of the fabricated interiors and exteriors of Surrealight. The patterns of curtains and glass, the interplay of light and shadow and the image of windows all are shown in stasis and as such appear stage-like and inanimate in comparison. It interests me how differently these spaces are perceived and how our emotional response is altered.
In Shadowlight themes of watching and being watched are presented to the spectator through a non-narrative sequence which hints at the private ethereal existence of spaces independent of us. How does the feeling or knowledge of being watched distort how we behave? Light and shadow play, pattern and effects on glass create an additional visual plane for the viewer sometimes at harmony with the images in the shots and at other times in conflict. The intent is to blur the lines between apparent reality and created fantasy, to look further into what appears straightforward at first glance. Shadowlight will elicit curiosity and contemplation in the spectator and will in turn affect how Surrealight and Surrealshadow can be perceived.
Surrealshadow
11 Digital Archival pigment prints Surreal Estate: Graphic Studio Gallery: May 2013
The digital prints which make up Surrealshadow represent views of the fabricated interiors and exteriors of Surrealight. The patterns of curtains and glass, the interplay of light and shadow and the image of windows all are shown in stasis and as such appear stage-like and inanimate in comparison. It interests me how differently these spaces are perceived and how our emotional response is altered.
Animation by Svetlana Sobchenko Music by Lisa O’Neill Production by George Brennan
In Shadowlight themes of watching and being watched are presented to the spectator through a non-narrative sequence which hints at the private ethereal existence of spaces independent of us. How does the feeling or knowledge of being watched distort how we behave? Light and shadow play, pattern and effects on glass create an additional visual plane for the viewer sometimes at harmony with the images in the shots and at other times in conflict. The intent is to blur the lines between apparent reality and created fantasy, to look further into what appears straightforward at first glance.
Niamh McGuinne’s multi-layered Surreal Estate presents a world of shadows and reflections, real and imagined. It challenges one to look, to be curious and to enter a world of make believe, but a place that is put together from real objects and commonplace material.
A cluster of suspended metal boxes with richly patterned facades dominates the space. Differing in size and proportion, these constructions appear like little domestic structures. Their open windows and doors are an invitation to peek inside and discover empty ambiguous spaces, embellished with delicate motifs. Magnified and distorted, these details of glass surfaces, frames and fixtures are at first hard to decipher. Their shapes echo those found in the intricate embellishment of their exteriors. Some of the constructions are lit from within, like lanterns, subtly revealing their centres. Others make use of the ambient lighting of the gallery allowing it to cast real outlines into the complex patterning of the interior. The ornamentation appears strangely exotic like the rhythmic calligraphic decoration of Islamic architecture or the wings of a gigantic moth or some flying insect. In reality it comes from the oil, dust and rain soaked surfaces of dilapidated windows.
Sharp use is made of play and humour. Parts of the exhibition even taunt the spectator. A motion detector triggers a light to come on in one of the boxes. In another a tiny curtain shoots across the open window, violently cutting out the prying eyes of the intruder. The toy-like boxes fashioned into imaginary dwellings, hang from the ceiling as if in a child’s bedroom. One of the inspirations for these constructions was Rachel Whiteread’s installation of her collection of dolls’ houses at the Psycho Buildings exhibition in the Hayward in 2008. McGuinne’s inventive sculptures differ not only in the way that they are installed, but in the way that they have been constructed. The boxes in Surreal Estate remain 3 dimensional prints as much as literal houses.
Along with the sculptures, the exhibition also features a series of digital prints, Surrealshadow and a 3 minute animated film, Shadowlight. This presents a night-time environment, with close-up shots of net curtains and rain-covered windows that switch from real objects to their reflections and shadows. The camera peers through openings giving glimpses of vacant interiors– an old fashioned fireplace and an abandoned sofa. All is veiled in the moving contours of changing light that fall through the window pane, distorted by the shapes of the net curtains or by the pattern of rain drops on the surface of the glass. The cascading rivulets of water reflected on the walls and floorboards of the fabricated spaces are reminiscent of sleepless nights spent staring at such reflections or of a child’s fascination with tracing the structure and forms of such phenomena and delighting in their apparent random nature.
Switching to views of the box sculptures, suspended in a darkened space, it becomes apparent that the film depicts a constructed space. The details of the interiors are made using etching, screen print and thermal heat-transfer on paper, polyester and polycarbonate. Ambiguity is central here, as it is to the rest of the show. This quality of uncertainty, as Ernst Gombrich has noted in the seminal Art and Illusion, forces a deliberate effort to arrive at an intelligible interpretation of the act of seeing. The camera takes the role of voyeur, peering into a veiled world of private spaces and moving silhouettes, but it also evokes more fundamental questions about the act of looking. One has to make sense of what ones sees and the film prompts an awareness of the subjective nature of looking. The artist wants ‘to blur the lines between apparent reality and created fantasy’. All is not what it seems in this imaginative exhibition.
The title of the show Surreal Estate brings together both the catastrophe of the recent property collapse in Ireland, the mass nature of suburban housing and one of the most challenging art movements of the 20th century. The rich legacy of the latter is a major source of McGuinne’s strategies in her creation of the work. The found object recurs in the materials and methods she uses, most notably in the recycled aluminium signage from which the boxes are made and in the various inadvertent items whose surfaces provide their ornamentation. For example windowpanes are used directly through screen printing to supply this patterning. They come from the artist’s home, from buildings she passes on her way to work, from skips, junk shops and public buildings.
The reliance on chance, another Surrealist trope, re-emerges throughout the exhibition. The giant net curtains that screen off the back wall of the gallery transform the sanitised gallery space. Their large scale contradicts that normally associated with domestic and private aspects of the home and is dramatically out of scale with the delicate constructions hanging in front of them. While the elegant patterning on the material appears to be the result of a refined textile printing process it was in fact spray painted on using a stencil.
The monochrome colour of the materials, the recycling of discarded objects and the emptiness of the spaces counteract the decorative aspects of the work. The openings in the boxes are cut crudely into the metal surface in a rudimentary fashion. The motifs come from streaks of rain, dirt and the textured surfaces of obsolete, often mottled glass, which was never intended to be seen through. References to such deliberately obscure material, like that of the once ubiquitous net curtain, suggest the murky secretive aspects of the home. By focusing on these details the work highlights the vulnerability of abandoned habitations, with their secret spaces now left exposed to prying eyes. The imagination is brought to a furtive domain of forsaken dwellings. Ultimately the changing patterns of light and shade, the delicate ornamentation and the refined tones of brown, blue and grey transform the detritus into a graceful elegy. This inventive exhibition speaks of the aesthetic power of derelict buildings and their overlooked fixtures and their continuing ability to fascinate the curious passerby.
