All Creatures Great and Small - exhibition at Rathfarnham Castle

I was at Rathfarnham Castle last week for some discussions about my own upcoming exhibition, Memory Is My Homeland, but I also had the opportunity to view the current exhibition, All Creatures Great and Small.

This is a group exhibition, curated by Jacquie Moore (Art Adviser for the OPW), from both the Office of Public Works (OPW) and the Northern Ireland Dept. of Finance collections.

There is a huge variety of work and media within the show. Each piece features an animal or insect though each artist has treated this subject matter in a unique way. For instance, one piece by John Kindness (he has two prints in the show) is a humorous double portrait etching of a rubber duck, suggesting both its outward and inward - skeletal - appearance.

I enjoyed seeing Kindness's other print (etching & aquatint), Big Fish, because it reminds me of visiting Belfast and seeing his huge public sculpture, Salmon of Knowledge (The Big Fish).

I love that the print has the same "feel" as the big sculpture, a colourful, huge, three-dimensional mosaic. While obviously the print is not "huge" there are details of print that it shares with the large sculpture, which are only recognisable on both artworks with close examination.

The Pistol Loop room is an intimate space where each work can be viewed closely on its own or within the group of neighbouring work

There are three false walls in the Pistol Loop room, which nicely converse with each other.

Last but not least, there was one lone surprise print (etching) in the grand Dining Room. Colin Martin's Dog (Motion Capture) beckons to the viewer on entering the room. There is plenty of humour here: I was wondering what on earth the dog could be wearing, then realised (by the title) what it was and indeed this dog - normally in constant motion - has been "captured" in stillness, on the wall, in a moment in time. It stands on the verge of motion.

This show continues until the end of January and there is a free full-colour catalogue accompanying the exhibition.