Michelle Considine
Hiroto Hakamada
Claire Halpin
Jacinta Hughes
Maggie Madden
Kevin Mooney
Emma Roche
Roisin Russell
Lourdes Viso
Works by Michelle Considine, Hiroto Hakamada, Claire Halpin, Jacinta Hughes, Maggie Madden, Kevin Mooney and Emma Roche.
Curated by Roisin Russell and Lourdes Viso
The Talbot
Gallery is pleased to invite you to the summer group exhibition of
2009, featuring works by Michelle Considine, Hiroto Hakamada, Claire
Halpin, Jacinta Hughes, Maggie Madden, Kevin Mooney and Emma Roche.
A select group of exciting contemporary
artists, who have exhibited both nationally and internationally, have been
invited to explore the climate of change currently
affecting the world.The concept
behind the show is the fact that we live in an ever-changing world and that
change is unavoidable; this leads us to question how the different sectors,
organisations and individuals must respond to this rapidly and unpredictably
changing climate to survive. Now above all there is a need for creative
thinking and for the search for the ‘third alternative’ to succeed.
This
exhibition explores how both the artists and the gallery as an entity must
respond to this notion. Topics such as ‘the death of the painting’ were
considered by Joseph Beuys and nowadays Roche’s
work demystifies this idea as a mixing of various art practices is at the
foreground of her work. Using a combination of photography and painting Hakamada
explores his relationship with
society; in each yearning brushstroke he draws on past experiences from his
childhood hometown in Japan
and the various places he has been since.
The
sublime has been a consistent inspiration for the arts, from the Greek Longinus
who wrote ‘Περὶ ὕψους’ (‘On the Sublime’) in the first century to Caspar David
Friedrich who painted Wanderer above the
Sea of Fog in 1818. Mooney’s
interest lies in contrasting the transcendent promise of romanticism with the more
mundane realities of human activity on the landscape. At the same time,
deconstructing fairytales or addressing themes of
abandonment, Hughes transforms
everyday objects and situations into something which has a dream-like surreal
quality.
Madden’s installations grow
from a cycle where a combination of discarded objects and humble materials
found in the urban environment are transformed to portray space engulfing
structures; urban growth is represented by the very materials it has abandoned.
Expanding on her interest in the
figurative, Considine’s recent work
introduces a new investigation of the places inhabited by her subjects. Around
us we can see buildings, people and landscapes which are in a constant state of
flux and metamorphosis. For this exhibition, Halpin fixes her gaze on the museums.
Her paintings raise questions
about how we remember the past and document the future.
In conclusion, this exhibition draws together seven realities
based on personal experiences. Visitors
will confirm the concept ‘Nothing stays the same, everything must change’ when
each contemplates the work on display and thus further develops for themselves the
themes portrayed by the artists.
Talbot Gallery & Studios
51 Talbot Street - Dublin
Free admission