FÁILTE | WELCOME

Fáilte and welcome to the Carrickahowley Gallery’s St. Brigid's Day exhibition. We are proud to feature the work of Olivia Henchy and Síle Walsh. We hope you enjoy the work of these fine artists.

Savage | Curator's Notes

Carrickahowley Gallery is proud to present two remarkable Irish artists for our 4th annual St. Brigid’s Day Exhibit: Olivia Henchy and Síle Walsh. Both artists share work that generates out of a preoccupation with themes of place, land, bodies (both geographical and physical), time and evolution, ancestry and community, and yet both are remarkably divergent in their approaches. Síle Walsh presents work that is intensely personal and figurative, a kind of ecological mapping of Self, whereas Olivia contributes work that is abstract and process-based, and yet equally personal and experiential. Perhaps embodied best in these two quotes, both artists create work that is in constant conversation with their respective relations with Irish landscape, and are therefore reworking the very genre of landscape art and its relation to subjectivity, particularly feminist in its centering on ideas of buried or erased histories and geographies.

Olivia comments:
Through coastal walks and hikes in the Burren [I am] energised by the visual interplay of the fragility and yet resilience of the landscape and this energy makes its way back to [my] studio where the physicality of the art process aims to mirror nature itself. Burying, unearthing, building up, scraping back with the intent to somehow echo the constant evolution of the landscape.

And Síle remarks:
My work is an expression, through drawing and painting, of our connection with the Irish coastline and culture intertwined with the transcendence of this connection through the generations to present day. I encompass elements of women’s place in society, the Irish language, a tribal force, environment and working from the land and sea. I want to promote and celebrate our coastline, culture and our gift to tell a story through my own passion for the ocean and the heritage that surrounds our beautiful Island.

What both highlight here is the intimate relationship with the land, but also with history and community. And what is perhaps most interesting is that both artists “see” that relation as a kind of archaeology, an unearthing, a digging up of things perhaps forgotten or suppressed, and the line between Self and Other, between “I” and “We”, and between land and sea: a record of the changes and the constancies of being. Whether abstracted and reworked, or figured with human insistence, both of these artists create a kind of ritual communion in their work, a searching for not what has been lost as much as what has remained and becomes resurgent like the very waves themselves. Both are artists of the frontiers of memory and re-membering, of the ancient human connection to space, environment, stories and telling, and the perhaps particular Irish tendencies to a landscape art that attempts to speak a “language” of solidarity with nature, with women, with histories retold, and with mythic connection. Like much of contemporary art, their work is rooted and “rootless” at the same time, energized with the constant interaction of sight and insight.

We at Carrickahowley Gallery proudly present these two wonderful artists as perfect representatives of St. Brigid’s Day and its insistence upon the first signs of spring. Swim in their work, walk its trails, contemplate your own place as you sit on the Strand with them and reflect on the contours of your own worlds.

Robin Savage
Carrickahowley Gallery

Olivia Henchy

Henchy | Artist Statement

Olivia Henchy is a visual artist based in County Clare. Her work is at the intersection between landscape and abstraction. She takes inspiration from the nature around her and her curiosity lies in expressing a sensory experience of the landscape through the exploration of shape, line and colour.

Having graduated from Limerick School of Art & Design with a BA honours degree in graphic design and a postgraduate diploma in art and design education, her early career and training comes through in her work today as a painter. After teaching for several years and taking time out to raise her family she has returned to her own art practice. Olivia is inspired by the rugged landscapes of West Clare, where she divides her time throughout the year.

Through coastal walks and hikes in the Burren she is energised by the visual interplay of the fragility and yet resilience of the landscape and this energy makes it’s way back to her studio where the physicality of the art process aims to mirror nature itself.  Burying, unearthing, building up, scraping back with the intent to somehow echo the constant evolution of the landscape.

Olivia’s work is regularly selected for exhibitions throughout Ireland. She is represented by Russell Gallery Co. Clare and has sold throughout Ireland and the US.

oliviahenchy.com

Síle Walsh

Walsh | Artist Statement

As an avid surfer, swimmer and environmentalist living in an active coastal community I am consumed with the ocean and the people that gravitate towards it. My work is an expression, through drawing and painting, of our connection with the Irish coastline and culture intertwined with the transcendence of this connection through the generations to present day. I encompass elements of women’s place in society, the Irish language, a tribal force, environment and working from the land and sea. I want to promote and celebrate our coastline, culture and our gift to tell a story through my own passion for the ocean and the heritage that surrounds our beautiful Island.

I have recently begun to delve into the historical context of our ancestral relationship with the sea and then deeper still into folklore and the legends instilled in our culture through storytelling and literature. Some of my encounters have included the Irish mermaid saint Lí Ban, Sionnan and Boann the goddesses of the Shannon and Boyne Rivers and the tales recounted by the Seanchaí from our coastal communities that were our traditional Irish storytellers and custodians of history. I am thoroughly enjoying marrying our contemporary relationship with the ocean alongside stories and beliefs from the past which I feel make it relatable rather than a surreal or fantastical mythology. Most of my work centres on the embodiment of these stories through portraiture using contemporary women that inspire me with the subsequent pieces being the next generation of their bloodline that carry the compulsion to return to the sea. On reflection I see that this has been an infinite thread that had been subconsciously running through my work naturally for many years and one which I want to continue to develop and celebrate.

I am interested in introducing new forms of creative expression to my practice which will directly converse with the paintings. I am currently developing small tapestry pieces formed on recovered oyster bags that wash up as waste materials on our shore. Using primarily found objects for example raw wool and ghost rope and a crochet technique I am breaking the tension of the paintings and describing the landscape that these characters in the narrative are immersed in.

There is never a preconceived decision behind the theme or composition of the pieces I create. I am compelled to capture a moment, an emotion, a connection, a narrative. I keep my preliminary work to a minimum as I like to save my energy and intuition for the making. Working intuitively, I exaggerate forms or hues that appeal to me or help me express my vision or the emotional narrative attached to the piece. I am in a constant practice to develop my skill level and expand my approach on how to deliver my vision through the visual arts.

@silewalshartist

Featurette | Eileen Gray

Eileen Gray was an Irish interior designer, furniture designer, and architect prominent from the 1920s and 1930s, rediscovered in the late 1960s, and now heralded in a 2016 biopic by Mary McGuckian, The Price of Desire. Though not canonized during her adult life, she became a sought-after designer and worked on some of the more significant projects of European modernism, creating dynamic and lasting furniture designs, lacquer work, and the famous house E-1027 in Monaco with her husband at the time, Romanian architect and writer Jean Badovici. The house became famous for its implementation of Le Corbusier’s “Five Principles of Architecture” and would later be the site of one of the more sordid occurrences in the history of 20th century architecture and art. Entering the house while Gray was away, Le Corbusier painted three murals unbeknownst to Gray, having photographs taken of himself painting the murals in the nude. This rather colonizing act was dubbed by critic Rowan Moore an “act of naked phallocracy” and many critics still view the invasion as a paramount example of the snubbing of female architects and designers by a patriarchal male hegemony. Despite the obvious violation involved, Gray went on to design other structures, numerous interior design innovations, and perfected her lacquer work with renowned master Seizo Sugawara. For the most part, Gray would train herself in many of these fields and techniques, overcoming the barriers to women designers and architects as she pioneered many designs and created a remarkable body of work. Heralded by retrospectives that claimed as much, she became an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland in 1972 at the age of ninety-five. Though never living in Ireland during her adult life, she famously stated, “I am without roots, but if I have any, they are in Ireland.”

Carrckahowley Gallery invites you to check out Eileen Gray’s work at the following links as we celebrate the tenacity and talents of this inspiring designer/artist for St. Brigid’s Day.

www.eileengray.co.uk
www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/eileen-gray-architect-designer
www.bgc.bard.edu/exhibitions/exhibitions/99/eileen-gray