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!

Ceramics at Rathfarnham Castle

I was at Rathfarnham Castle a few weeks ago to see the ceramic exhbition, which was being held in the former old kitchens area of this historic house. 

Curated by Mark St John Ellis for nag gallery offsite exhibitons. the work is from the State Collection 

and beautifully placed in the new exhibition areas of the former kitchens.

Each piece had it's own well-lit space from which to examine it in all its glory.

Some pieces were placed in the individual storage areas. Though obviously one could not walk around these works, they seemed to belong where they were placed. The ceramic pieces inhabited their individual cubby holes - they were not simply "shelved".

The apparent roughness of specific pieces worked well in the raw environment of this part of the castle, The ceramics both evoke and echo the nature of a kitchen as a place of warmth, nourishment and activity.

Farmleigh House - nagOffsite installation, Gallery 2

Since Farmleigh House Gallery consists of two separate rooms, I decided to blog about each room individually. Just as the nagOffsite exhibition was related to the nagOffsite exhibition in Rathfarnham Castle, so too was gallery one related to gallery two. Both galleries were warmly and dimly lit with spotlights highlighting the work; this warmth and lighting conducive to observation and contemplation.

Impossible to photograph, the elegant "weaving" paintings on wood panels by Kohei Nakata were precise and calming, the woodgrain providing a natural foil to the symmetry of the paintings and

the pearl paint lines having a fragile, gossamer feel.

I had seen some of Masashi Suzuki's gorgeous cha wan (tea bowl) ceramics in the Rathfarnham Castle exhibition, where they were primarily displayed in a cabinet, sitting atop their kiri bako boxes.

Here, Mark St John Ellis, exhibition curator, presented them to greater effect in specialised individual displays, with their boxes, of equal interest and beauty, integral to their display but at a greater distance from the bowls.

There is something about gold that I find attractive, and this piece was my favourite -- the bowl so obviously celebrating itself as hand-crafted in its asymetry and texture.

Farmleigh House Gallery - nagOffsite installation, Gallery 1

Although it was a hike to get there, a visit to Farmleigh House Gallery last week was a worthwhile delight. The Gallery is divided into two separate spaces, both of which were curated by Mark St John Ellis as a sister exhibition to the one I had seen a few weeks ago at Rathfarnham Castle, and blogged about here. As such I viewed the exhibitions as related, and thought of the similarities and differences between the two installations. While Farmleigh House is a historical building (also worth a visit), the gallery is contained in a completely renovated outbuilding, so it is a modern space. The intimacy of the two gallery spaces is pronounced by the dim ambient lighting (this photo has compensated for the dimness) and spotlighting of individual artworks.

Unfortunately there was no catalogue available for Gallery 1 on the day I went, but I was able to get some information, with a quick google search, from nag gallery's website here.

I was most interested in seeing the State Collection ceramics and recognised the work of Katharine West.

I specifically loved this ceramic vessel sculpture, which seemed like it had a gashed tire around its rim (this is, however, totally ceramic).

The interior glazing and spiral movement definitely made me think of a dizzying fall into the void.

As each work had its own spotlight in the dim room, it was easy to focus on the individual pieces, yet a work could always be viewed in relation to at least one other piece.

Noting the expanded clay technique of texturing this work, I knew there was a lightweightness to it despite its size. Another friend referred to this piece as a "hornet's nest" and its organic quality is a tactile pleasure for the eyes.