Open Art at Killenure Castle, Co. Tipperary,

Exhibtion runs until the end of June

 



Artist-in-Residence at Killenure Castle, April-May 2012
Above: The Lost Boys, (work in progress) insatllation



Killenure Castle™ will open its gates to the public for the first time, on May 1st 2012. Only a 'stone's throw' from Co Tipperary's Rock of Cashel, visit this castle and Georgian courtyard and discover an eclectic mix of architecture. The spaces within have had many different uses over the years - a fortified home with sturdy towers, a 'hunting box', a country house for a large family, a busy productive farm with stables and coach house, a boarding school and even a meditation centre.

 In May and June it is hosting a contemporary art exhibition in the Georgian outbuildings and sculpture garden around the grounds.  Over thirty artists have been invited to make and site work in the castle grounds. The work is sensitively placed in areas chosen by the artists who visited the castle in advance of submitting their proposals.

Admission to OAK €5 (concession €3), children €2.00 Family ticket is available for €12 (2 adults, 3 children).

The outdoor trail will take approx one hour. Please bring wellies with you.

Open 10.30am – 2.30pm. Last entry for trail Walk 1.30pm


 OAK Participating Artists
Saturio Alonzo, Steven Aylin, Jackie Ball, Aoife Barrett who will be working on site during the following dates in May. Tues 1, Wed 2, Mon 7, Tues 8, Tues 15, Mon 21, Tues 22, Sat 26, Sun 27, Mon 28 and Tues 29. Cormac Boydell, Mary Butler, Lian Callaghan, John Cash, Andrea Cleary, Eamon Colman, Mona Croom Carroll, Remco de Fouw, Aisling Ely, Abdul Ghofur/Epona Artwork, Inga Hamilton, Richard Healy, Sonja Landweer, Andrew Ludick, Padraig McGoran, Liz Nilsson, Niall O Neill, Pauline O’Connell, Geraldine O’Neill, Tony O’Malley, David Quinn, Philip Quinn, Paul Roche, Caroline Schofield, Una Sealy, Beatice Stewart, Gwen Wilkinson.



http://killenure.com/oak-open-art-killenure/

HOUSES IN THE WOODS (The Lost Boys) 

For this exhibition I created an architectural installation of more than 10 distinct raised houses; 3D wooden structures combining to form a Favela or shantytown.  Each “house” varies in size with the larger ones measuring up to 8ft tall. This is a large representation of my degree show piece Favela. With the help of carpenter, Sean Lowe, these structures were built on site during the month of April.  I will further develop the installation on site over the course of the exhibition allowing interaction and communication with the public.

The piece investigates abstract concepts of the mysterious place of sanctuary and survival, and a person’s need for shelter and protection.  It also looks at the notion of the “pilgrim” or “traveller”, exploring the concept and ethos of those who went into unexplored territory in search of a new life. 

This is a socially engaged project, encouraging public participation in order to break down barriers between artist and audience.  It is built on a large scale to create something with a real presence above being purely functional as a venue or shelter.  The viewer must move through the installation and view it from every angle to really experience it. 

I'd like to thank Dundrum Sawmills for their generous sponsorship of materials for this project. 

Artist-in-Residence at Killenure Castle (April-May)

 The work in progress on site! 

 

The work station!!

The first frames

Waiting to be moved!

Placing the structures around the wooded area

Placing the structures around the wooded area

LSAD, Degree Show, June 2010

“Everyone has a public world, a private world and a secret world”.  Paula Rego

My studio practice has involved researching different dwellings and architectural domestic spaces as well as concepts of public and private boundaries.  My work combines and layers 3-D architectural installations, photography and prints, exploring, reflecting the home as container and symbol for our actions, experience and memories.



The motif of the house has a strong symbolic resonance with many contradictory meanings.  Homes are thought of as spaces of comfort and privacy- “safe as houses”- but what goes on behind walls, in contradiction to the exterior, can often be dark and ‘unhomely’.  In the same way that the exterior of the house can contradict the interior, we mask our feelings by putting up a facade to keep what is going on inside us out of public view.

The various forms of architectural representation shown in my work reflect concepts of oppositions such as containment and openness, interiority and exteriority, transparency and opacity, order and disorder.  Images of houses that cannot be reached or got into, stairs that go to nowhere, houses with no doors, houses piled on top of each other;  all these things reflect the constraints and conventions of society as well as representing the obstacles one meets in life.

Favela, 3D Installation, Mixed Media, Dimensions to suit site 

PRINTS

The layering of prints in layout and technique reflects the chaotic urban society

 

City of Prints, etching and monoprints, various dimensions



Close up of Prints



                    

                         Shanty Town 2, 25x15cm



Township

 

Shanty town





Shanty House, 15x15cm





Township House 



Through the medium of photography I have captured the light and shadows in domestic spaces, suggesting the secrets held within walls and showing the house as an animate object, living and breathing with the lives of former occupants.

“Through its light alone, the house becomes human.  It sees like a man. 

             It is an eye open to night.” Gaston Bachelard 

The main focus of my work is the marginal society: the  shantytowns, favelas or townships. All materials worked by human hands recount something about themselves and about us, to where connected ideas emerge. My work uses the cast-offs of society to construct the unregulated yet vibrant expressiveness of the human being to personalise space and to create a visible inner world.