Pearse Museum at St Enda's Park

Early June seems a long time ago now, especially as the promise of summer then has been superseded by the chilly, rainy days of July. When I visited The Pearse Museum and St Enda's Park in early June the timing was perfect. The day was glorious!

After walking around the park and spending some time in the musem, I walked over to the central fountain again to view the encircling walkway. This path, conceived by sculptor, Stephen Burke, consist of the words to  Patrick Pearse’s poem,  The Wayfarer, carved into stones surrounding the fountain.

From an upstairs window of the museum I had viewed this sculpture and wanted to take a closer look while I was in the park. I was amazed to find the two pieces that I had thought were ceramic, were in fact entirely carved from wood!

 Two Brothers  ia a sculpture by Liam O’Neill and is a wonderful reflection of Patrick Pearse and his brother William, who founded the Gaelic League school at St Enda's in the early twentieth century.

 

Martin McCann at Rathfarnham Castle

I had really wanted to see Wabi Sabi: the Beauty of Insignificance, an exhibition of paintings and prints by Martin McCann, but couldn't seem to fit it in to my schedule, so I was so glad that the exhibition was extended and I made it to Rathfarnham Castle on the very final day! I love seeing the very different ways that artists respond to the castle and how their work is set up in the gallery spaces of The Dining Room, The Saloon and The Pistol Loop Room. I discuss my own exhibition there last year in numerous posts, just search this blog for Memory Is My Homeland for virtual tours and the work as it progressed.

I think the work is fabulous but recognise that my pictures don’t do justice to the layering and textures. The largest paintings were in The Dining Room. 

 It was lovely to meet Martin at the Castle too, as he was on hand to talk about the work and answer questions. 

Infirmary Road, mixed media on cradled wood panel, 100 cm square

Martin set up all his midsize/smaller works in The Saloon, which allowed for more intimate looking.

A Not So Distant Shore, mixed media on cradled wood panel, 40 cm square 

Aerial #4, mixed media on cradled wood panel, 28 cm square

As I had done for my exhibition, Martin used the much smaller Pistol Loop Room to display all his prints. Gelli monoprint collages were the ideal medium to complement the layering and textures in McCann's paintings.

Moon jars at Rathfarnham Castle

While I was at Rathfarnham Castle a couple of weekends ago I decided to have another look at the basement gallery that has been exhibiting work from the International Academy of Ceramics pieces in the State collection. Entering the first room of this gallery, I was delighted to see a collection of moon jars by Geoffrey Healy. 

The jars are large and with a beautiful form.

Geoffrey Healy is a ceramic artist based in County Wicklow. I have seen a lot of his work over the years and recently heard wonderful things about his abilities from other potters who are doing some technical training with him.

The next gallery contained work that I had previously seen - and blogged about here - but it I enjoyed having another gander.

Mark St John Ellis of nagOffsite has recently redesigned/recurated the work and I noticed some new pieces that hadn't been included before, keeping the exhibition fresh for repeat visitors like me. I particularly like the way these pieces are embedded in the architecture of the former basement kitchen.

I am sure this porcelain piece, which resembles a carved rock, was a new addition to the exhibition as I have no memory of seeing it before!

Eamon Colman at Butler Gallery

The Place of the Hooded Crow, Dreams of Coal provided a wonderful backdrop for a brilliant artist talk/discussion between artist Eamon Colman and the director of Butler Gallery, Anna O'Sullivan. The event took place in the midst of Eamon's latest exhibition, Twenty Eight Acres, at Butler Gallery till the end of the month (July 2023).

Since I wanted to see the show and couldn't get to Eamon's launch a couple of weeks ago, the talk was the perfect excuse to make the road trip to Kilkenny a reality. The conversation was great – frank discussions of the autobiography of abstract art, the gestures of mark making, colour, the importance of feeling, seeing vs looking, and everything else that interests artists and non-artists alike! Afterwards I was able to look around the gallery at the work.

Echo from Time was the largest piece in the exhibition at approximately 3m x 3m ; this piece was begun in 2017 and completed in 2023. While I have been familiar with Eamon's work for over 30 years, it is always a joy to see he and his work can still surprise me. 

There were several diptychs and Eamon revealed how they evolved. Certainly both the fragility and the resilience of the handmade paper mirrors that of the human body. On close inspection the viewer can see how each half of the diptych yearns to get closer to the other half; there is both a gentleness and a strength in the materials. Colman's vibrant marks and gorgeous colour are simply teeming with life; energy abounds!

The Wind Had a Skin on It, mixed media on paper, diptych, framed size 101 x 251 x 5.5 cm. 2019-2023

For this exhibition, filmmaker Kevin Hughes followed Eamon working in his studio and on his walks of the 28 acres (an old mining site that has been wildly rejunevated by nature). The film A man - A place was showing in The Digital Gallery upstairs, so I saw part before and part after the talk. Even though I have known Eamon since 1988 the film offered insights into his process that were never articulated to me before.

Apple Howling, mixed media on paper, framed size 76 x 96 x 5.5 cm, 2020-2023

At one point during the artist talk, Eamon spoke about how titling a work offered the viewer a path into the abstract work and yet each work was also open to the viewer's own interpretive response. I agree wholeheartedly with the use of a title and how it can also be an integral part of the visual work's storytelling.

The Miners Nest Sits Precariously Above the Imagination, mixed media on paper, framed size 76 x 96 x 5.5 cm.2019-2023

Pow Wow in Winnipeg!

Definitely one of the highlights of my short trip to Winnipeg was having the honour of attending the fantastic opening ceremony for Manito Ahbee 2023 – an annual Indigenous cultural extravaganza that is province-wide. 

The regalia, dancing, drumming and singing was amazing. Unfortunately I have not mastered the video function on my phone and didn’t take any still photos, so these are low quality screen grabs. Luckily the Manito Ahbee Festival has it's own website with plenty of videos, pictures and information here.

My previous blog posts about my time in Winnipeg, including Indigenous Feminism, public art, The Forks and Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq can be accessed here, here, here and here.

Winnipeg Art Gallery

Though it seems ages ago that I was in Winnipeg, it was just over a month and I am still thinking of that wonderful visit! As well as Inuit Sanaugangit: Art Across Time, which I posted about here, I also saw other exhibitions at The Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq. 

There was an exhibition of the 2023 Kenojuak Ashevak Memorial Award Shortlist Artists. All the shortlisted artists were female and all were Indigenous.  I particularly liked the work of Ningiukulu Teevee, though since they were behind glass it was very difficult to photograph them.

This is a detail of one, which gives a better idea of the texture in the drawing.

In a lobby area on the second floor, several large works by Ivan Eyre were displayed on the walls flanking the stairwell. Although Eyre was born and grew up in Saskatchewan, he moved to Winnipeg in the early 1950s and taught painting and drawing at the University of Manitoba for 33 years until he retired in 1992. Eyre died in 2022,

This is a detail of the previous large panoramic landscape.

In another gallery room were several installations by Faye Heavyshield. It is difficult to get a sense of her work in a small photograph but each of the floating pieces are human-size. Another wall installation, my favourite actually, was unphotographable in that each part of the whole needed to be examined and an overall picture would not give any sense of the work at all!

Other posts I made about my time in Winnipeg can be found here and here.

The Forks, Winnipeg

Walking around The Forks area in Winnipeg (oh so many weeks ago now!) in search of Indigenous feminist public sculptures (which I posted about here), I had to cross the pedestrian bridge over the Assiniboine River. Looking up I noticed a brightly painted bicycle; I figured it was a piece of public sculpture, but could find no information or artist credit anywhere. I wondered about the large area behind it too, but when I continued walking ...

the mural, by Mike Valcourt was revealed.

The heritage marker for the Red River was a fascinating sculpture that required close inspection .I should have taken some more detailed pictures at the time, because I could find no information, artist credit or pictures when I googled it later (I thought I would). 

The pedestrian bridge was a perfect spot to view the smaller Assiniboine River meeting up with the larger Red River. Across the water is St Boniface, a predominantly French-speaking area of Winnipeg, where Canadian author Gabrielle Roy grew up.