wit's end

WITSEND

VISUAL ARTDEGREE SHOW2013

Open to PublicFriday 31st May,Friday 7th June 2013

Lisa Byrne / Martin Croke / Cian Dalton / Sarah Dillon / Aishling Rose Durnin / Linda Egan / Seán Gallagher / Kay Higgins / Denise McAuliffe / Christine Moore /Sorcha Reilly / Frances Stynes / Michaela Troy / Rosemarie Walsh /

BA (Hons) Visual Arts students 2009 - 2013Photo Taken 25th April 2013

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Contents

IntroductionMaps

Lisa ByrneMartin CrokeCian DaltonSarah DillonAishling Rose DurninLinda EganSeán GallagherKay HigginsDenise McAuliffeChristine MooreSorcha ReillyFrances StynesMichaela TroyRosemarie Walsh

Acknowledgements

Introduction 4

As Head of the Department of the Creative & Performing Arts Department within the Humanities School here at Waterford Institute of Technology it is an honour and privilege for me to present this catalogue which sets out the work of the BA (Hons) Visual Art 2013 final year students as exhibited in the end of year Degree Show. I am extremely proud to recognise the many wonderfully beautiful and striking pieces of work created by the class of 2013 art students. The catalogue entries are evident of the many and varied creative skills and talents that our students’ develop and hone while studying art here. This catalogue, long after the Show is over will act as both a souvenir and a reminder of the many happy times and pride felt in producing unique pieces of work while studying at the Institute. To the students I wish to say thank you and I extend my very best wishes and I wish you all great success in all your artistic endeavours in the challenging years that lie ahead.

Marian O’Neill, LLB, LLM, DipLP, FCIB.

May 31, 2013

Log onto: www.wit.ie/cpa for further information.

Studios5

Lisa Byrne 6

Lisa at work in her studio..

I have been working with images and headlines found in the media, looking at how they are portrayed and how we interpret the information we see. I have concentrated specifically on images and headlines in newspapers that seem to make a mockery of legitimate news. During the course of my research I became interested in the juxtaposition of these absurd headlines placed next to legitimate news stories and found that the amount of unnecessary information included in the newspapers intriguing. I developed a research method for finding the stories in the newspapers that seemed ridiculous next to genuine news and in the process, combined the way we glance over and filter through information to obtain a collection of images to work with. Through emphasising the ridiculousness of some of the images and headlines I attempt to create ways of engaging the viewer into taking notice of the images they are seeing on a daily basis.

Lisa ByrneTel: 085 8409875Facebook: www.facebook.com/VersatileArts2k13Web: http://lisaj-b.wix.com/versatile-arts Twitter: twitter.com/versatileArts

Martin Croke7

Martin CrokeTel: 087 2514875Email: [email protected]

Image from sketchbook.

“The rain nailed down crucifying Patrick to the small field in which he toiled.” Such tropes and metonymies have helped to form the collective memory of what it means to be Irish. It's through familiar binaries such as politics/ideology; culture/nature; physical poverty/spiritual poverty that the popular narrative of Ireland is perceived, a narrative epitomized by chronic pathetic fallacies.

This historical continuum skewered by privation and austerity forced many to seek restitutive escape abroad and the comparisons with today are palpable.

By appropriating the symbolism and motifs of a Kavanagh-esque Ireland I seek in this work to delve beneath the veneer of religion and nationalism to consider the recursive effect of austerity on contemporary Ireland shaped by its unique historical narrative.

Cian Dalton 8

Still from video.

Cian DaltonTel: 087 6482259Email: [email protected]

My work explores and experiments with the idea of colour theory and how it can affect a piece of art. For this series I have been mainly using new media processes such as film, photography, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premier pro.

Working with just pure colour I have been examining how it can affect the properties of other colours. I have employed certain elements of Op-art and how the human eye views and perceives colour. The work challenges the viewer to experience colour through the interaction and emersion of their being in the ‘zone’ of these experiements.

Sarah Dillon9

Sarah DillonTel: 087 9390511Email: [email protected]: http://sarah20042041.wix.com/sarahdillon

Art and reality – A persistent paradox

My work explores the ambiguity which exists between real objects, images, and the art-object. The confusion between what is reality and what is not can be sourced back to learned knowledge raising questions about the ability of images to represent and misrepresent, making us think about how we interpret representation. We interpret a representation of an object as that object. Representation no matter how close to reality it is, still remains a falsehood (Mansfield, 2007).

My work is based upon this notion of art and reality and how this may become a persistent paradox. We are presented with art interventions that no longer are so clear: what is art and what is not. For example, one might wonder whether the pile of clothes in the corner of the room is part of the exhibition or just some workman’s clothes put to one side for a moment.

These series of works, some of which are subtle and may seem to be about nothing, opens up a range of questions and investigations into our interpretation or misinterpretation of ‘reality’.

Work in progress 2013

10Aishling Rose Durnin

Aishling Rose DurninTel: 087 9291764Email: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/aishling.durnin?ref=tn_tnmn

Studio image

Within my work I change the obvious through manipulation and distortion of the known, rendering the photographic image uncanny and surreal. The subject within becomes compelling and bizarrely appealing, sometimes leaving the viewer in a state of confusion. By investigating my genealogy and family roots I attempt to search and find hints of where parts of my personality and mannerisms have generated from. In this series of work my eighty-year-old Grandmother has become my main source of exploration, her forgetfulness, her dislike of change, her carelessness and her often humorous behavior, providing me with a reflection of my own often surreal behaviors, linking the past, the present and a possible future.

Linda Egan11

My work takes the old tradition of taxidermy and gives it a politically correct and artful spin.

I use crochet to create life-sized sculptures and installations that blend craft, realism and collecting. The readymade is a well known tradition in art practice and with my use of the real animal skulls with crochet I create sculptures which I term "Crochetdermy Skulltures".

For this installation I am investigating and deconstructing forms of childhood entertainment ; from fairy tales, and nursery rhymes, which are part of our childhood and adult culture as a form of presentation.  Some of my "skulltures" are incorporated onto children's toys, bringing Grimm's Fairy tales to life with a macabre wit. My crocheted "skulltures" are tongue-in-cheek and are humorous takes on history and myth, transforming subject’s into  surreal  images. The collection of real animal skulls is also about paying homage to the animals that feed and clothe us.

I usually work on several bodies of work concurrently using a variety of textiles, particularly wool. My intent is to cosy up the unforgiving urban landscape, while giving a sly wink both to the history of crochet, knitting and graffiti. My wool “Kinetic Cube” sculpture features all of these along with sweaters that are stretched and attached in interesting ways. I explore the link between traditional craft, gender and environmental issues. With my kinetic cube I have enrolled the help of several women collaborators who have aided me by knitting squares for my knitted side (as I personally do not knit) and would like to take this opportunity to thank them.

Linda EganTel: 083 3582312Email: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/linda.egan.7777?fref=ts

Duck and goose. Wool, skull and mixed material 2013

12Seán Gallagher

My continued fascination with the discarded and the relationship of perspective between the thought and the observed, continues to evolve. (IN)BALANCE is a progression of these thoughts made physical, in a playful creation of forms.

Seán GallagherTel: 087 9624589Email: [email protected]

(IN)BALANCE Used laminate flooring, 10 x 3 x 3 metres.

Kay Higgins13

Water is an environmental life source which we drink and immerse ourselves in everyday. This liquid sustains us without any reflection on our part of the implications of our relationship to its sources. Through time water has played its part in our mythology, at times transparent and inviting in its sense of depth while at other times opaque and distancing. The Reservoir at Muckalee, Co Kilkenny is the environment chosen as the location for a series of interpretive photographic images reflecting on these themes. Within these ideas of past, present and future the photographic images develop a sense of otherness, a re-representing of the continuing reflections on our connection to place and time. Visually drinking in the image as a responsive means to absorb and express the subconscious surface of these thoughts, we begin to see the phenomenological trace of the continuum of the real.

By framing the scene in an intuitive response to both location and imaginative reflection, I use the camera to act as an “open door” thus enabling the viewer to contemplate a different world.

Untitled from “Potable Elixir Series” 84 x 56 cm.

Kay HigginsTel: 085 1029042Email: [email protected]

14Denise McAuliffe

Still from video, “The way it falls”

Denise McAuliffeTel: 086 4545289Email: [email protected]

The Way it Falls.

When we engage with others there is generally a lot going on below the surface that we do not see. The persona shown in public can be very different from the reality of the private home life. Therefore, a dichotomy exists creating a battle between what we accept we are and what we want to be. My work addresses that dichotomy, exploring the struggle of a life embracing art as a catalyst for metamorphosis and giving substance to my sense of self.

15 Christine Moore

My work explores aspects of the female identity and the imperfections and manipulations of “beauty”. Themes of frustration, distress, and repetition are evident in this piece shown by the manipulation of daily ritualistic tasks and the false promises of beauty that consume us. Using my body as a primary tool in my work, I examine these themes through live performance and video installation. This method of work also allows me to test my own physical and psychological strengths and limits as an artist.

A performance by its nature is ephemeral and an authentic experience for both the artist and audience. It is an event that cannot be repeated, and this energy and spontaneous nature is crucial to the success of this work.

Image from performance “False Promises”

Christine MooreTel: 085 7037983Email: [email protected]

16Sorcha Reilly

Dreams have always fascinated me because of their creative possibilities. The outside of a sleeping person is calm and still, while inside their head, a whole world of emotions, experiences and imagination is created. Things we never thought possible become real. We can travel to the furthest reaches of our understanding in dreams and do things we’ve always wanted to do. The possibilities are endless.

While all this is happening, the dreamer stays still remaining calm on the outside, only letting out the smallest hint of what’s going on inside from time to time. Unfortunately, when most of us wake up all these experiences fade and disappear.

My artwork engages with the moment of waking. When you try and remember all those wonderous things but they are fleeting and fading out of memory as quickly as they came, leaving us with an impression, an echo of what happened, but never the full picture.

The video inside the 7 foot by 5 foot wire frame tornado, attempts to capture dreams that I’ve personally had, recreating them in film. The swirling movement and colours simulate the jumbled thought process of a just awoken person. The moving image plays inside while the outside remains stationary.

Sorcha ReillyTel: 086 0380721Email: [email protected]: http://the-hangman-project.devantART.com

Early cloud installation

17 Frances Stynes

“A dictionary begins when it no longer gives meaning of words , but their tasks thus , formless is not only an adjective having a given meaning , but a term that bring things down in the world , generally requiring that each thing have its form.” Georges Bataille.

Formless

Taking an abstract concept and working intuitively are my main concerns .The act of fabrication is the most interesting part, the process of making .The choice of materials is what interests me ,including plastic, latex , black and white paint and human hair , all chosen for their textures .They were used to create forms which resemble nothing and yet resemble everything .The viewer can take their own meaning , metaphor or language from it .

Large white bust = 5ft x 2 ft , plastic , latex, white paint , rope , human hair .

Frances StynesTel: 087 1500779Email: [email protected]

18Michaela Troy

Habitat 1.1 - 1.7

“Space: The limitless, three – dimensional expanse within which all objects exist.” – Geddes & Grubbes English dictionary, 2001.

The concept of this exhibit is to give an insight into a fragment of this vast understanding/knowledge of space. As humans, we have created our own personal havens within the environment, a space within a space. The seven habitats exhibited are designed from an individual point-of-view, mine. Influenced by Constructivism and the Bauhaus movement, the miniscule sculptures can be viewed as architecturally designed maquettes that contain this potential to be a functional, protective and personal habitat within a working environment.

Isometric drawing of Habitat 1.2.

Michaela TroyTel: 085 1962874Email: [email protected]: http://www.facebook.com/MichaelaTroyVisu-alArtist

19 Rosemarie Walsh

Made on the First of May (Again)

‘There is this story of a Saxony duke. He closed in an alchemist in his cellar, gave him materials and said ‘Now I want gold’. But what the alchemist found in the ground of the cellar was porcelain in Messian, Jardeniere, and the porcelain Is gold making today.’

‘There is a special border, the border between art and life that often shifts deceptively. Yet, without this border, there is no art. In the process of being produced, art borrows material from life, and the traces of life still shine through the completed work of art. But, at the same time, the distance from life is the essence, the substance of art. And, yet, life has still left its traces. The more scarred the work of art is by the battles waged on the borders between art and life, the more interesting it becomes.’

Anselm Kiefer: Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen

In conversation with Tim Marlow

March 2011

Rosmarie WalshTel: 086 2611016Email: [email protected]

Porcelien and copper. 10 x 4 inches

Porcelian and lead 10” x 14”