■ In The Making

Exhibition opens 25th September 2009 at 6pm
Venue: James Barry Exhibition Centre,
CIT Bishopstown Campus.  
All are welcome

■ CIT Crawford College of Art & Design > 5pm to 11pm

Sharman Crawford Street, Cork.
T: 021 4966777 

The partnership between Aoife O’Brien and Elizabeth O’Callaghan for their contribution to Culture Night is fruitful one for a number of reasons. Firstly the opportunity to view their accomplishments in CCAD offers the chance to experience their work within the environment in which it was created. Furthermore, it is poignant that they return tonight as emerging artists embarking upon careers rather than simply as graduates.

The connection between the two is tangible for artistic reasons also. Initially there appears to be discordance between their styles - especially in the treatment of colour - as a battle rages between heightened lively hues and more somber muted tones. But if you take time with the work, it is possible to appreciate how both artists treat surface textures with equal reverence; as layers and expressive mark-making help unite the shared direction within their creative endeavours.

So for these two young artists, there is a clear joy in working with the textural properties of paint itself. Surface is perhaps just as important to these paintings as the imagery and the themes that underpin them. The layering and re-working of the paint tells a story of artists’ who are acutely aware of their medium and the sensations and reactions that are potentially provoked within the viewer.

Of the two, Elizabeth is driven most strongly by this impetus to elicit evocative sensation through the tactility of the painted surface. Her canvases become a conduit for intense explosions of colour, as paint is driven, dripped and splashed in the greatest traditions of Pollock and the Action Painters.

Her inspiration comes from an emotional reaction to the “energy and vitality of the sea”, and even though the colour is removed from the naturalism of the source, its seems as if the artist has disconnected from corporeality, and has focused instead on the essence and sprit of her subject.

Aoife’s acrylic paintings are strongly connected with the exploration of spatial environments – but these locations are notional and borne more from the subconscious mind. Austere objects such as doorways, windows and couches populate these spaces and take on a sinister note through the low key atmospherics of the colour and the veils of paint which obscure them.
The artist is interested in placing ‘the viewer at a distance from reality”. This sentiment is reminiscent of the theory of remote viewing, where autosuggestion, hypnosis or buried memories emerge through a catalogue of transient objects that float in and out of view. This work on some level may help us to confront and address the lexicon of symbols and events that constitute our own personal history.

Mark Ewart 

■ CIT Cork School of Music > 6pm to 12pm

Union Quay, Cork.
T: 021 4807307