installation
2023 in Pictures
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
MARCH
APRIL
MAY
JUNE
JULY
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
RDH: OCTOBER 2023
01/10/23
Three white rabbits.
Studio: ‘Passive Study’ going well - bouncing between the brush and the drawing mark. It’s always interesting to see which of the two (if any at all) comes to the fore.
“A Brush With… Sarah Lucas”
‘A Séance in London’ - slowly building layers but, more importantly, working through structure and composition. Very early days.
03/10/23
Anxiety overload!
05/10/23
WOW! Can’t remember a late night art quite like this one in a very long time. Belfast was buzzing!
09/10/23
Put the bloody phone DOWN!
11/10/23
12/10/23
Easy to say, but difficult to implement.
15/10/23
Studio - A.H. portrait study: A good start. There was one point where the charcoal became a little too much but thankfully it wasn’t difficult to rectify. Just before adding the last layer of charcoal, all the previous drawing marks were pushed back with just the paint taking the stage. Some nice areas of tonal quality but overall the image was flat. You would think that adding a charcoal line would make it even more flat in appearance but the opposite is the case! The crux of it - that interplay between the drawing line and the painting mark.
17/10/23
Second straight day of jury service but on the flip side, a good chance to see Kwok Tsui’s new exhibition in the CCA.
18/10/23
QSS - ‘Messy Business’. Great group painting show.
21/10/23
…worth sticking foot in the door.
22/10/23
Studio time. A long session but very little to show for it. Slow progress on all fronts. Perhaps working on multiple pieces (four canvases) is biting a little more off than I can chew?
Setting a couple of pieces off to the side for a while should make it more manageable. It probably hasn’t helped that the palette is in a poor state and needs cleaned badly. Not a complete loss of a day but it could’ve been a lot more fruitful. Several factors at play but, lesson learned.
Palette given a good scrub before finishing up.
25/10/23
Dublin - too dark to write on the bus down - too dark to write on the bus home. The Autumn evenings are here.
Atoosa Pour Hosseini’s ‘The Magic Circle’ in Temple Bar Gallery + Studios is excellent. Remnants of vintage horror films in the video piece.
RDH: SEPTEMBER 2023
05/09/23
06/09/23
Crow in flight. Morrigán. Could see the stabbed brush marks of the wings when watching it in flight. Weird. Aren’t we all?
Time needs to be set aside for practice. Shia LaBeouf.
Sounds like an excuse but a certain letter has thrown a real spanner in the works.
NB: Forgot to jot down that ‘Red Lines’ has been accepted into this years’ Royale Arcade Academy show at Arcade Studios.
07/09/23
LATE NIGHT ART - Belfast
Some very late-night sketching.
09/09/23
Setting your stall.
10/09/23
Art Wank Podcast with Array - listening during studio time.
“Painting is a place to hide thoughts, hide feelings, hide emotions.”
- Stephen Millar
The Arts are not singular. Arts as a united force for good. Collaboration.
You can’t eat prestige (or a flag).
‘Ready to Go’ blocked out. Not sure if it’s a damp squib but I think it’s worth another shot.
‘Marina’ - content with background. Loose is good. So bloody close.
13/09/23
H.B.S.
After a bit of mulling - the ‘Ready to Go’ canvas is anything but. I have forgotten the first rule:
IF IT DOESN’T EXCITE YOU THEN THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG
It is not and it is also an image that, if it’s going to work, will need another image merged to elevate it.
It is a solid image, and it has a resonance with me personally but it’s just not doing it for me, for the want of a better phrase.
Handed in ‘Red Lines’ to Arcade. Stopped by the MAC to see ‘No History in a Room filled with People wih Funny Names 5’ by Korakrit Arunanondchai and Alex Gvojic with Tosh Basco. An extremely immersive experience.
Abhartach - the Irish Vampire.
Black / Peaty Soil. Roots become negative space. Possible triptych?
14/09/23
Abhartach - source material…
This will be for down the line. Even the little portrait alongside ‘Ready to Go’ on acetate has more promise and, more importantly, has my head spinning!
Back of the bus, it’s been a long time.
Can see where… might have an advantage. More time. Been reading “The World New Made - Figurative Painting in the 20th Century” by Timothy Hyman.
“I was alone in my studio in front of my oil lamp. Two or three in the morning… Dawn is breaking… I used to sit up like that all night long. My lamp burned, and I with it.”
- Marc Chagall c.1920
Henri Rousseau = recovered a primal truth in painting.
17/09/23
Short Sunday Sessions.
“Marina” finished! But only just. A little over indulgent with the fixative meant some emergency fixing (irony) was needed.
If I had my wits about me I should’ve drawn up a new canvas in the 45 minutes spare. Hindsight.
“Look to Henri Rousseau as examplar for a renewal of figural language reborn in the image of childhood.”
- Timothy Hyman
18/09/23
20 week scan. All well! Surreal.
Also, on the way to Causeway - a lovely note, Warm, fuzzy feeling.
21/09/23
22/09/23
Breaking the Cultural Code - Tenth Anniversary of Derry’s UK City of Culture.
“Culture is everyday lived experience.”
- Sir Phil Redmond
Culture Night Derry
24/09/23
Studio time. There was a temptation to rework ‘Ready to Go’ for a minute. Had to remind myself that structurally it’s interesting but it doesn’t excite me to see where it can go.
“A Brush with… Claudette Johnson”
A really promising start to three canvases today.
25/09/23 & 26/09/23
BP high. Ordered to Antrim A&E. Arrived at 7pm - didn’t get seen until 10am on Tuesday. Tests to be done and rest needed. Poor timing.
28/09/23
…day in court.
29/09/23
VAI Get Together 2023 - Online day.
Imogen Stidworthy - How We Work.
30/09/23
Be better at channeling time and effort into productive means.
We’re all a work in progress.
RDH: JUNE 2023
03/06/23
Late night transferring… some drawings that have slipped through the net over the years.
04/06/23
06/06/23
08/06/23
09/06/23
10/06/23
Studio cleaned, layered on two new smaller pieces, and cleaned palette.
11/06/23
…no more diddly-dallyin’, let’s get right on into this Sunday studio session. (IYKYK)
Substantial progress on “Put it Away”. Little prayer piece, not so much.
12/06/23
So “Put it Away” moving along nicely and a little surprisingly. The new paints are making a difference, I think.
13/06/23
Visit to the Belfast School of Art Degree Show.
14/06/23
Didn’t get to sketch tonight as intended but there will be time set aside.
Mythology / Semiotics
…venturing onwards…
It’s just dawned on me that Saturdays will alter. Well, they’ll change a good few times in the coming years. But - as always, adapt, re-organise, create, repeat.
15/06/23
After all that graft … to be left at home.
Lovely comment today. Left painting over to Catalyst for showcase and auction coming up.
18/06/23
Studio time now. Let’s see where these go.
Quick notes for Prey/Pray:
charcoal first
contrast facial tones
less marks in hair - blurred or subdued
Quick notes for “In a Corner/ Huff”
Scrape paint on walls - flatter
T-Shirt work
NB: Didn’t get as much done as I would like to.
19/06/23
PRINTS HAVE DROPPED!!!
20/06/23
FB Memories - use to dust cobwebs off? Also just having the small sketchbook close by - for out and about.
Is it too fuzzy? Probably do no harm to have the mini sketchbook around with me - as was the original idea for it.
One thing I have noticed, and it’s a good thing. With the two journeys on the bus three times a week and the time at lunch, I’ve noticed some considerably more writing / thinking time / ideas coming into RD.
I’ve even started bringing a book with me on the bus. Although The Iliad was probably a poor first choice. I am eager to delve into mythology / symbolism again.
The legend of “Bisclavret” has been crawling through my head the past few days.
IIW = IMAGES IN WAITING
21/06/23
Quick stop to see the work in Catalyst’s Showcase.
22/06/23
23/06/23
Our beautiful Bonnie, my studio assistant and my dad’s blonde shadow passed away in her sleep last night. Everyone is hurting. 12 and a half wonderful years. The best girl.
24/06/23
…called in to say hello… folds around eye went in such a way that it looked like he didn’t have a socket let alone an eye. Hard to explain.
Quick Question = Very Quick Yes
25/06/23
“A Brush With… Jacqueline Humphries”.
Finished “Let Us Pray”. Areas successful, others not.
28/06/23
Dublin Bound.
Culchie boy, I love you / Grá mo chroí thú, mo chábóigín féin – Kian Benson Bailes at the Project Arts Centre.
“an atom bomb in each morsel of life” by Katherine Sankey in the LAB Gallery. Beautiful aroma in that first box space.
RDH: MAY 2023
02/05/23
First day…
Make time for practice.
03/05/23
04/05/23
…the drive to help.
Late Night Art Belfast. The first in a long time.
07/05/23
“Boy Soldier” - finished.
Two new little pieces started this afternoon too!
09/05/23
13/05/23
Sent feelers out…
14/05/23
Need to tread carefully with this one.
19/05/23
Supplies!
20/05/23
A good tidy up of the studio.
21/05/23
Studio time.
Going somewhere and then damn near destroyed ‘Mugshot’ piece. Taking some time and stepping back helped save the day.
Looking is still working.
Brought it back. Relying too heavily on the charcoal mark can sometimes lead to images turning into a caricature of itself. Pared back the drawing line - focussed on the tones and limited palette that don’t stray too far from each other. Much more successful as a whole now. Bit more to go but good otherwise.
25/05/23
Luc Tuymans - surgical precision. All working out is done beforehand - composition, colours, size, materials all planned in advance so that intelligence goes from the brain (in the preparation stages) to the hand (in the making). I don’t know if that would work for me. That split second spontaneity - yes it can go wrong and often does - is needed for play with materials. Having a regimented script when painting would not work for me.
Need to catch a grip. Too easily distracted by shiny things.
27/05/23
“Egon Schiele: Dangerous Desires” on Iplayer.
28/05/23
Studio.
“What fascinates you about that bastard?”
Definitely evokes a response. Is it worth it to get response based on the sources for the work rather than the work itself? A pickle. It’s not a glorification of a person’s actions. It is a study, an investigation of a portrait of evil. Aesthetic response to traumatic event.
Ethics vs Aesthetics.
In the end, I’m never speaking or working for anyone but myself.
Wee bit of progress on little prayer canvas. Could the two be companion pieces?
31/05/23
Dublin bound.
RHA show - an art overload but in the best way!
Quick stop in Temple Bar and glad I saw performance for Fanny Gicquel’s show “breathing with heels, walking with eyes”. Also popped into Project Art Centre to catch “Got Damp / Púscadh Anuas” by Avril Corroon.
RDH: OCTOBER 2022
02/10/22
#Mousegate
Strange events
08/10/22
…notes complete. Need refined for easy consumption.
13/10/22
Royal Ulster Academy opening. Craig Donald won an award for best portrait! A great night all round and chuffed to see my little painting up on the wall with some wonderful artists.
14/10/22
Early start. Perhaps the X in X4 stands for extra-long.
Talk in the Hugh Lane couldn’t have gone any better. Pleased with the reaction and feedback from everyone and profoundly grateful to Basic Space for the opportunity to speak.
15/10/22
‘A Brush With… William Kentridge’.
charcoal - the indeterminacy of the point.
… at the edge of meaning.
“Give an image the benefit of the doubt… there is a danger in certainty.”
William Kentridge.
21/10/22
NB: Melancholic apostle image interesting.
22/10/22
World of proximities.
23/10/22
26/10/22
David Lynch “The Art Life” - documentary
27/10/22
“The Art Spirit” by Robert Henri
30/10/22
“Cherish your own emotions and never under value them”
Robert Henri
RDH: JULY 2022
02/07/22
Studio - moth wings getting there. .. dusty. Struggling with top colour. Tried green and purple. White is too close to the magpie moth tones.
03/07/22
In my own head yet again. This time it feels vastly different. Other concerns are taking precedent and pushing issues into the background. This is never a final solution I know but it is positive that mindset has altered accordingly.
More progress to ‘Mothman’ this evening.
08/07/22
“The artist has to put before the eyes of the public forms and poses which has existed previously in the darkness and confusion of an irrational mind, or one which is beset by uncontrolled passion.”
Goya
10/07/22
13/07/22
Sad to be missing the opening of the Boyle Arts festival tonight.
Sketchbook work instead.
14/07/22
Asked to give a talk. Delighted.
16/07/22
Nearly fell asleep. Not a good start.
Studio - at a bit of a crossroads. This along with paints needing freshening up is why I’ll focus on drawing up new canvas / boards.
17/07/22
Studio again.
It’s so strange. Things are so good at the moment. Just… negative voices. Popping in and wearing down. Keep active mentally. Support system. Breathe.
18/07/22
When a lead weight is released, you float and rise. Getting there.
‘Mothman’ finished. Trying to stick to the less is more philosophy.
19/07/22
D.T.M.
20/07/22
Sketchbook work.
21/07/22
Short but very sweet stint in the studio. A good start on three pieces.
22/07/22
Ulster Museum trip with my girls!
Stuart Calvin’s show in Atypical is excellent and heartfelt. The Alexandra Lethbridge exhibition in the GoldenThread is worth seeing.
23/07/22
Small progress in the studio. Hair in little portrait piece turned out way better than I thought it would. Best off leaving it alone!
30/07/22
‘Who Threw That?’ finished.
I think sometimes taking a risk can be as simple as not putting a mark down at all.
31/07/22
Compliments can’t be the ‘be all and end all’.
RDH: JUNE 2022
04/06/22
Studio. ‘Mothman’ finally being looked at after several years of hibernation.
Also, a surprise grasp on a 2020 sketch, ‘Peek-A-Boo’. Tall thin canvas has gone muddy.
05/06/22
Small magpie moth - colours?
One for sorrow. Fitting for a self-reflective piece about anxiety relief measures.
07/06/22
Postcard. visual feedback or [illegible].
08/06/22
The Odd inclination vs the Even inclination.
‘From the Creek Billy thought gleefully of the Ten-Foot Lady and the time her only decent leg fell and ended up on the wrong side of Belfast.’
PAULA REGO: 1935-2022
An absolute powerhouse, unashamedly honest artist whose work will resonate for generations to come.
11/06/22
Can you distill the feeling of an image with another or via another form of communication?
C.C.
12/06/22
Fast studio session. Some tonal values layered.
14/06/22
Went to sketch. Didn’t happen.
18/06/22
Darker red/brown in shadow? Little finger slightly bulbous under the nail and looks too long but it checks out in the source material and subsequent sketch from it.
Is it finished? The age-old question. The risk of overpainting is high. Should rest on it for a while.
21/06/22
Sketchbook work on the longest day of the year.
25/06/22
Whistle stop visit to Belfast today. Dropping ‘Saint and Sinner’ into RUA for delivery to the Boyle Arts Festival 2022. Also took a quick peek into the MAC to see Claire Barclay: Thrum. Interesting scaling of otherwise ordinary day objects/materials - allowing the viewer to reassess their relationship to them and their place(s of origin).
26/06/22
Less really is more. ‘Peek-A-Boo’ finished. The hand finally belongs to the face and the origin of the disc’s hue stems from a background colour within the hair. Tying up loose ends.
RDH: NOVEMBER 2021
03/11/21
Some good sketchbook work today.
04/11/21
National Common Sense Day. “Portrait of NI: Neither an elegy nor a manifesto” in the Golden Thread Gallery. Interesting layout, gathering work of a similar ilk throughout the decades together.
Anne Tallentire’s “But this material…” in the MAC; great use of spatial interaction with the work and the gallery space. Some really strong work in “The presence of Absence” exhibition from the MFA 2019 cohort group show in QSS.
Really enjoyed the opening of the “Salonathon Show 2021” in Platform - seeing my work alongside some great artists and meeting up with familiar faces!
05/11/21
Wincing the odd time.
06/11/21
“Portraiture exposes the gap between the interior and exterior selves.”
-unknown-
08/11/21
Didn’t realise the gravity…
11/11/21
What was thought to be a dud - must have turned out alright!
12/11/21
13/11/21
Really good day in the studio. “The Doctor will see you Now” finished! This new philosophy of keeping it loose, not striving for a realistic perfection, which is ultimately unattainable anyway, seems to be working.
I have a tendency of focussing on niggles to the point when the paintings get tight and the imagery too self aware. Learning to let go and step back a stage or two sooner seems to work for me.
16/11/21
Didn’t get accepted but that’s OK. Sketchbook work tonight to get brain working.
17/11/21
Very quick trip up to Derry to see “Tilt [At Windmills]” with work by Jarkko Räsänen, Fionnuala Doran, Paul Moore and Robin Price in CCA and “The Shrinking Universe” by Eva Rothschild in VOID.
20/11/21
Blocking in and working out logistics on three pieces today.
29/11/21
Nervous but that’s pretty much down to the unknown factor.
RDH: JUNE 2021
03/06/21
Canvas stripping, stretching and some sewing experimentation.
04/06/21
Priming canvas is such a messy business!
05/06/21
Once the work is made, build bridges to your audience.
Artists need to band together!
Anne Imhof - finding refuge in the blur.
06/06/21
Easily worked up - relax.
09/06/21
Finally getting round to cleaning garage and setting paint out. Asked if I’d like to be featured in a takeover. Chuffed!
Bit of a mixed bag in studio today. On wooden piece, that image just sucks you in and spits you out! With the large canvas started (‘Man Digging’ - working title) it’s quite a forgiving composition and palette working well so far.
10/06/21
“An archive of emotions”
Dr. Kate McLean
Didn’t get shortlisted.
11/06/21
12/06/21
Reading group outside this morning.
13/06/21
Some good, solid progress today.
16/06/21
So grateful to be included in Paint-Tube Dublin by Louise Wallace.
18/06/21
First vaccine received today!
19/06/21
Work on small portrait today - title undecided as yet.
‘The Eternal Bride’ myth.
22/06/21
Memory is forgetting.
A little mid-week push.
23/06/21
“A Brush with … Julian Opie”
So so close to finishing “Moon Boy”.
24/06/21
Some good sketchbook work this afternoon. Looking forward to getting to Belfast tomorrow.
25/06/21
Great to get into the MAC shows today, sadly didn’t have time to get round anywhere else.
Will have to wait another little while for rings.
26/06/21
Studio time!
“Moon Boy” finished!
30/06/21
Surviving or THRIVING? - Panel Two Podcast!
On Thursday 18th March, I took part in a panel exchange regarding support and wellbeing in the visual art sector in Ireland. This was the second panel talk of which there will be a total of six - each one focussing on different areas of the creative sector in Ireland. Host by Dr Maureen Gaffney the other artists on the panel were Miriam O’Connor and Austin Ivers. Click below to listen to the podcast!
Surviving or Thriving? was created by the Waterford Healing Arts Trust with the Arts Council of Ireland and I would like to thank them for inviting me to speak and to Visual Artists Ireland for providing support for this panel.
It was great to get to know Miriam and Austin in the lead up and wonderful to hear their thoughts on being an artist during what’s been a rough twelve months.
The other Surviving or Thriving? events run up until the 1st April 2020 and more information about upcoming talks and workshops can be found here.
RDH: JANUARY 2020
01/01/20
New Decade. A quiet start to the year but with a feeling of resolve and drive to get things done.
02/01/20
“For the dead travel fast.” - Jonathan Harker’s Journal
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
03/01/20
mem: Sickert’s approach to “Portrait of Hugh Walpole” - one of my favourites - could work. Drastic yes but by simplifying the colours… more painterly…. ambiguous.
04/01/20
The Optimism Gap: Locally good. Nationally bad.
Finished commission. Looked at Sickert and Dumas. Previously it was haggard and stale.
05/01/20
…relieved!
A lot of scanned drawings tonight.
06/01/20
Renewal
07/01/20
Five posts in five weeks.
09/01/20
“Confessional”
Potential title?
11/01/20
“No Remorse” painting is moving very very slowly.
Overthinking personal issues.
12/01/20
Belfast today.
Issues of “crown” install is mind boggling.
DIONYSUS
13/01/20
Office updating and uploading.
14/01/20
Jade Riley wrote a little piece about my practice. Chuffed!
16/01/20
Ideas with Dad for install concepts.
Hodge-Podge.
17/01/20
Bit of breathing issues but otherwise OK.
19/01/20
“Shoah” - 1985 A film by Claude Lanzmann
Eventually got out of a rut (well even a foot out of the door is good) and got sketching.
22/01/20
“To remove unwanted threads of your past (regrets or mistakes) is to undo the tapestry of your life.” - JLP
24/01/20
25/01/20
Last night I had the pleasure of attending the opening of “The Dark” in the CCA. Agnes Meyer-Brandis’ work has made me look at geese in a slightly more positive light.
Started two new canvases and pleased with the progress of “Crown of Dionysus”.
27/01/20
“Crown” finished - including wall fixing designed by Dad.
C.E.’s shouldn’t be halted until the weekend.
Finally getting around to reading the collection of art essays by Julian Barnes. I think since I got it the day I visited John in the Royal I’ve been avoiding it.
28/01/20
Late night sketching is better than no sketching at all!
30/01/20
“Time dissolves the story into form, colour, emotion. Modern and ignorant, we re-imagine the story: do we vote for the optimistic yellowing sky, or the grieving greybeard? Or do we end up believing both versions? The eye can flick from one road or one interpretation, to the other: is this what was intended?
Julian Barnes - “Géricault: Catastrophe into Art”
31/01/20
All in all a horrible day.
Exhibition Highlights 2019
Here are five of my favourite exhibitions I’ve attended this year. I’ve struggled to omit some exceptional shows for this list, namely Christopher James Burns’ ‘Limbo Land’ and the Golden Thread Gallery’s ‘Noise of Silence: Japanese Art Now’.
The list below is in chronological order.
Porous Plane
Lennon
Golden Thread Gallery - 02/02/19 - 23/03/19
Lennon’s first solo exhibition in Belfast in twenty years saw the Golden Thread Gallery’s two spaces and connecting passage utilised to the full. The following is from the exhibition text:
Come and stand in front of artworks that are larger than you. Make time to fill your field of vision with Lennon’s innovation of ‘non image’ art, an art form he has dedicated his life to developing through rigorous research and experimentation since the 1970’s.
….
While the work has complex origins, no knowledge is required to enjoy the beauty of these paintings. Lennon’s paintings invites each of us to find ourselves and arrive at our own conclusions, from our individual viewpoints. For Lennon the “subject is always: how does it feel to be alive now knowing what we know”.
While painting on aluminium isn’t new, the layout and interconnection of the works was a first for me and truly breathtaking. Like Rothko’s notion of taking up the complete field of vision, it was a joy to get up close to these works and just be there as the artist intended. The paint looked as if it was almost scratched on and the colours shimmered on the metal and beside each other. There were also smaller monochrome works which helped you not to overload on colour and gave the eyes a breather between the larger installations.
In a former 19th Century Georgian Church beside the Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin in Derry’s Great James Street - is the Glassworks - the stage for Aimee Melaugh’s first solo exhibition. This was the first time I had seen her work outside of the degree show in the Belfast School of Art. I’m an admirer of Melaugh’s use of painterly technique to conjure a sense of mood in her work and the stunning venue seemed to heighten this tenfold.
The work is a collective exploration of traumatic events which have taken place throughout history but there are also personal elements thrown into the mix with references of the her grandfather’s experience in the Second World War. This method of working is in line to where my own practice lies (why I may have a soft spot for it) but where we differ is in Melaugh’s beautifully rendered elements of realism mixed with stencilled numbers / dates that fire the imagination of the viewer - a kaleidoscopic narrative emerging from the coloured haze.
To get to see one Bonnard would have been great enough but to get thirteen rooms filled with works was almost a sensory overload! While navigating the exhibition it occurred to me how blessed we are in NI to have time and space with the work we go to interact with. I went in the midway point of the show’s run and it was next to impossible to not say ‘sorry’ while bumping into other viewers who were also bumbling their way through the crowd.
Hung in more or less in chronological order, Bonnard’s subject was continuously shifted among topics of everyday life but what remained was the stunning innovational use of colour, forcing colours together that would not normally be seen in proximity to create beautiful iridescence on canvas.
Working a lot from memory gives the work a non realistic and dreamlike quality to the compositions. Even the self portrait titled “The Boxer”, which would normally be a study from a mirror has links to being worked from memory. Fighting the throng across this exhibition was definitely worth it.
“The presence of the object … is a hindrance for the painter when he is painting.”
Pierre Bonnard
Acts of Mourning
Doris Salcedo
IMMA - 24/04/19 - 21/07/19
Going to see this show, I was ill prepared. The first work that greets you is “Plegaria Muda” - an installation focussed on the loss of innocent life during civil war and it didn’t take long before I broke into tears. A few days prior the journalist Lyra McKee was shot and killed during unrest in Derry. I had met Lyra a few times and she was destined to be a voice of tolerance and reason in a divided part of the world. Blades of grass find ways to penetrate each upended table; life inevitably goes on and hope is still present.
“Plegaria Muda” is the first of six bodies of work by Salcedo strewn across the wing of IMMA. “Atrabiliarios” contains female shoes encased in the walls behind preserved animal fibre. You can see the remains of the human but it is blurred and out of reach. This work reflected on the cruel treatment of female victims in Columbia where shoes were relied upon to identify remains. I was struck by the personal connection with Salcedo’s work throughout all the projects included here. The empathy with victims of trauma and violence is universal and made for an emotional reflection on loss and remembrance.
On Refusal: Representation and Resistance in Contemporary American Art
The MAC - 25/10/19 - 19/01/20
From the exhibition text:
On Refusal brings together the works of Paul Stephen Benjamin, Elliot Jerome Brown Jr., Aria Dean, Troy Michie, Arcmanoro Niles and Sable Elyse Smith to explore a notable (re)turn to figuration in the practices of a generation of artists currently working out of the United States, and to investigate the political impetus for this (re)investment in the body and notions of embodiment as a subject of art in the context of contemporary America; an increasingly nationalistic and conservative terrain, in which certain bodies are privileged and protected, while others (those of black, brown, queer and other minority peoples) have been made more vulnerable than ever.
This is a thought provoking exhibition bringing together exciting artists form America to the MAC for the first time. There is a huge political pulse in this show and for good reason. With governance in NI at a three year standstill, Brexit looming ever closer and the choice to ignore or abuse human rights as political collateral . The UK government has thankfully now brought marriage equality and abortion rights into line with the rest of these islands since the exhibition’s opening but the reality of the topics covered in the works of these artists still remain.
What if?
What if there was another way to see ourselves? Troy Michie’s photographic collages are powerful works in this context. In “Ojitos” (‘little eyes’ in Spanish) we are looked upon but theres a hint at a duality in the figure that is concealed in the figure’s identity - the same arm and eye repeated twice as to not give anything away. There is a real power in the use of ambiguity in Michie’s work. In the larger and more complex “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” multiple images interconnect and dissect each other, figures of varying scales push forward for dominance in the composition. Colour is used well to highlight areas of the picture but you get the feeling that the need to be seen clearly is falling on blind eyes. Michie’s figures hide in plain sight and are isolated in the open. The ‘resistance’ here could be that they will not go away.
The large paintings of Arcmanoro Niles are colourful and heartfelt testaments to his childhood growing up in Washington DC. Faces are beautifully rendered in the surreal surroundings but there is always a hint of violence in the form of a little gremlin-like figure either hiding just around a corner or at the bottom of the canvas wielding a knife. The notion of the national image is not always far away but is far from the truth.
In a corner of the Tall Gallery is Paul Stephen Benjamin’s video piece “God Bless America”. Multiple screens with alternating red and blue lights surround a looped and edited recording of Aretha Franklin singing “God Bless America, My Home Sweet Home” for Jimmy Carter’s inauguration in 1977. Notions of black patriotism, American political ideology and the ongoing black lives matter movement ring loud and are beautifully tense when positioned close in Benjamin’s work. The space almost became like a place of worship in the rhythmic repetitions of Franklin’s audio.
Where all the work in this group show didn’t strike a chord with me, it was the works of Benjamin, Michie and Niles that made me come back twice more and I hope to visit again before the show comes down in January 2020.
RDH: JUNE 2019
01/06/19
Almost a disaster. Too hung up on certain elements and it is holding the piece back. So the notion of blurring the background and having the foreground sharply in focus works. Execution at the moment is lacking sadly. Need to figure out how to fix the mesh fence but will need to redo all the good work from today. Lesson Learnt.
02/06/19
Essentially yesterday was a pure slug fest in the studio.
THE MAC VISIT:
Engine Room Gallery visit:
Belfast School of Art Degree Shows were great. Some outstanding work. Nina Johnston’s tree installation on level 6 is amazing. Regardless of levels/grades that many of the graduates are embarking on that’s the really exciting part.
Looking back, I adored my time in university but detested my degree show. All but one piece has been destroyed and it was the start of a huge, and still ongoing learning curve that’s led my practice to where it is.
Meeting in the evening went really well. Some good feedback and ideas for an upcoming project.
08/06/19
Little break from the studio today to recharge from the overload of art from yesterday.
11/06/19
“Frank Bowling - What do Artists Do All Day?”
12/06/19
“Allowing yourself to be vulnerable is a strength”
“Dana Shutz: How Do You Depict A Feeling?”
15/06/19
Bit of start and stop in the studio but fixative giveth and fixative taketh away!
Just spied Grace McMurray’s piece in the Royal Academy documentary.
16/06/19
“Paula Rego: Secrets and Stories” - Great way to start the day!
“Depression is like a crown of thorns”
Dander down to the river with the dogs.
More pushing back on “Sack Race” although I could have easily got sucked into working on tiny details and not looked at the whole picture.
Treat every painting as a study.
17/06/19
Glazing, Hatching, Cross Hatching, Direct, Sfumato, Painterly, Impasto, Staining, Dripping, Gestural, Broken Strokes, Dotting, A La Prima, Patches, Feathers, Scumbling, Washes, Bravara, Directional.
19/06/19
Knowledge / Creativity / Inspiration
Beginnings / Liberation
21/06/19
Summer Solstice. Pleased with how mesh fence is coming.
22/06/19
Need to let go of aiming to get the little things perfect in the work. Ultimately its holding up the process. Obviously not saying to go full ‘Sloppy Joe’ on it but recognising when things get knit picky - take a step back and reassess time spent on something inconsequential.
Perfection is an illusion.
23/06/19
Little break day. Sophia Campbell on “Sky’s PAOTY 2019”.
24/06/19
There’s no sugar coating it. Intrusive thoughts bombarding for practically 8 straight hours.
Embarrassing, frustrating but mainly just terrifying. I don’t want them anymore.
25/06/19
It will take time to get to grips with what is going on.
27/06/19
Currently going through potential imagery. I think its good to scan through images from time to time to build up ideas.
30/06/19
Getting to grips with terms and conditions and sorting out a plan of action together.
Exhibition Highlights 2018
These five exhibitions are in chronological order and are only my favourites of the shows I was able to attend in person. There were many that I was dying to see but in the end, couldn’t make.
WHITE
Curated by Colin Darke
QSS Gallery, Belfast
02/02/18 - 22/02/18
This was the fourth group show curated by Colin Darke that was based upon the four titles of Barnett Newman paintings (“Whose Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue”). According to the text accompanying the exhibition, linking works in accordance with colour “allows for a level of visual cohesion, while retaining the conceptual and aesthetic diversity that defines Queen Street Studios”. Ordinarily white, in a gallery context, inhabits the space between works. In this show however you become strangely aware of the normally silent walls. In Craig Donald’s installation “Ozymandias” sections of the gallery wall are set centre stage; framed by colours that correlate in other drawings and paintings within the installation. You become aware of the void.
Nightfall - amplissium terrarum tractum
David Godbold
Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast
03/02/18 - 10/03/18
This group exhibition by David Godbold in the Golden Thread Gallery really was a stunner. In gallery one, the works that give the name of the show, “Nightfall - Amplissium terrarum tractum” takes up an entire wall. Consisting of 116 framed drawings and a wall drawing in neon, I found myself getting drawn into the gorgeous and witty drawings usually accompanied with text loaded with humour and a certain political sting. Then all of a sudden I would walk backwards, trying to take in the sheer audacious scale of the work as a whole. I was especially taken by the drawing with the text "Infamy, infamy, everybody’s got it in for me” - a one liner from “Carry on Cleo” which my dad regularly cries aloud. Gallery two sees landscapes, beautifully painted and paired off with one in daylight and the other at night. Showing these romantic locations at different times of the day means you can never fully see the region in its entirety.
Future Perfect - Contemporary Art from Germany
Curated by Angelika Stepken and Philipp Ziegler
The Model, Sligo
06/05/18 - 01/07/18
During a summer break down to Sligo it would have been rude not to visit some of the galleries. This travelling group show did not disappoint. Sixteen artists envision and speculate about the future and reflect on the promises it could bring. The installation of Nora Schultz called “Discovery of the Primitive” reminded me of a transportable monolith like the one in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”. Schultz gathers found objects from around her Berlin studio to assemble these delicate structures that also double as printmaking stations. It dominated the room and sticks in the memory. Antje Majewski’s paintings were impressive in scale and in detail. The lengthy title “Decorative element that once adorned a passage leading to a shrine” was a large circular painting consisting of smaller overlapped orbs of differing gold and green. The same ‘decorative element’ makes a cameo in the even larger painting - more akin to history painting of old. “The Donation” sees a large group of people witnessing an exchange in what looks like a gallery with warped dimensions and off kilter paintings on the wall.
At the gates of the Music Palace
Alex Cecchetti
Curated by Mary Cremin
VOID Gallery, Derry-Londonderry
04/08/18 - 22/09/18
I was lucky enough to see this show on the opening night where the artist Alex Cecchetti was giving a guided tour of the works. A serial collaborator almost all of the works came to fruition as a result of Cecchetti working with musicians, dancers and singers. The first gallery was bathed in a pink light with two large copper cones suspended at the far end. If you move across the sensors musical notes are played and according to different gestures you can actually play music. Cecchetti and a dancer then played a piece of music they composed by dancing in front of the “Music Hall” installation. Gallery 2 held a sound installation entitled “Cetaceans” where a human choir sang like whales. This room was in darkness and you were encouraged to lay down and let the sounds wash over you. The third room had my favourite piece of collaborative work by Cecchetti. Oil paintings on crystal and rise paper hangs from a structure surrounding a piano meaning when people from the tour poured in and no matter where they stood they could see the works on the paper - even from the back where I stood. A synesthetic musician then sat at the piano and read the works like a sheet of music. Even by just watching the paintings you could follow the musician as they played and I found it totally engrossing. Probably the best show featuring audience participation I’ve seen.
Not Half Right
Jane McCormick
Atypical Gallery, Belfast
12/11/18 - 21/12/18
I stumbled into the Atypical gallery on my way to see the MAC international exhibition (which had incredible works by Ali Cherri, Aisling O’Beirn and the winner Nikolaus Gansterer) and hadn’t any preconceived notions what “Not Half Right” by Jane McCormick contained. What I came across was an incredibly strong practice that explores deeply personal and intimate issues in a scarily wide range of media. Medicine bottles with text and images of children replaced the label. A heart shaped box with tablets instead of chocolates resonated with me. It was humorous and darkly menacing at the same time. Is it a comment on today’s ‘there’s a pill for that’ culture, a love note to how medication has helped the artist or something else? You can’t help but bring your own experience to the work here. The self portrait drawings on what McCormick calls “useless articles and medically-related tat” are visceral, bold and expresses the frustrating and tiring nature of the “never ending search for ‘the cure’”.
RDH: 01/07/18 - 31/07/18
01/07/18
Crunching numbers.
02/07/18
... feels unfinished ... sections fall apart ... a denying of illusionism ...
03/07/18
TRAUMA PARADOX - CONCEPT
04/07/18
Shocked. Head spirals backwards. Sketchbook work today.
05/07/18
'Bardo' - (tibetan) a state between life and death
...instead of saying "What's wrong with you?" it should be "What happened to you?"
1: Emotional brain basically becomes a 'survival brain' and can hijack the conscious brain.
2: Alarm system in brain becomes distorted and a person may become hyper vigilant.
3: Ability to appraise the present and to learn from experience (an imbalance and a resistance to heal).
Developmental trauma takes time to heal and there are no quick fixes.
BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!!!!
07/07/18
08/07/18
09/07/18
Refined some charcoal marks on the large landscape today.
10/07/18
"Traumatic Memory"
trauma - from the greek meaning 'to wound' or 'to pierce'.
11/07/18
NOTES from Psychology texts:
"...the story of trauma is one of enlightenment and forgetfulness.Knowledge gained and lost over and over. A history categorised by criticism and denial."
A tragic paradox of trauma is that one of it's primary casualties is that of truth itself.
Trauma is considered as - "an event outside the range of usual experience." (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders -III - R - 1980)
Trauma shatters the assumptive world - invincibility has gone and the world is seen as darker, chaotic, evil and dangerous.
12/07/18
Sketchbook work today. Little steps are better than no steps at all.
13/07/18
Stretched a few canvases today.
14/07/18
Colours laid out and tightened back of landscape canvas.
15/07/18
;
16/07/18
Finished "The Mountain of the Heights" today. Could have done more but I'm learning to let go before work is destroyed.
17/07/18
"Second hand images can create first hand emotion" - Marlene Dumas
18/07/18
19/07/18
20/07/18
A pretty good start to my week off; I have been offered a solo show!
21/07/18
22/07/18
23/07/18
Too many ideas floating around.
NB: To loosen up before working from chosen imagery, I want to try and do some work from life beforehand. Can't do any harm.
24/07/18
A trip to Derry for meetings and gallery visits.
I first saw Colin Davidson's 'Silent Testimony' three years ago in the Ulster Museum. Today it was in the Nerve Visual Gallery in Derry. Still so powerful. The 'us and them' mentality is nonexistent and removing divisive language and politics reveals the human suffering on all sides. It is so important. So glad to have seen it again.
Have multiple little eggs going on at the moment.
Imagine... Rose Wylie on BBC iPlayer
...where presence is evident...
"I think you're a lot happier if you don't mind a bit of imperfection." - Rose Wyllie
25/07/18
The two sons of Oedipus, Polynices and Eteocles translates to "Manifold Strife" and "Truly Glorious" respectively. Might just be the title of a new painting that's been started.
Good news: I have two works pre-selected for the Royal Ulster Academy 2018. Fingers crossed!
26/07/18
"What's for you won't go past you."
"It's strange, but you can't make a painting without content. Content is not like solving a problem in school or university. Content much more means that you've built up enough reason to do it. And content is also shitty because if you begin to identify too much with the content then you can't move. There are too many people shouting out in the chorus. Content starts you up and you leave it behind. It doesn't mean that you remove yourself from the content but it's too cumbersome to carry along. So when I'm working, it's not mechanical at all but it's cool headed because I'm not questioning the content. I've left it behind. It's interesting to say that content is crap, but you can't live without it." - TAL R
27/07/18
Really pleased with how "A Manifold and Truly Glorious Strife" is shaping up.
"You have to create something that lives in a kind of mystery." - TAL R
28/07/18
Worked on "Rehearsal Study" today. Played with skin tone and facial features using an air compressor to manipulate the paint. A slightly less controlled appearance.
31/07/18
So pleased to have been able to attend the iDA reception event at the Atypical Gallery in Belfast. This website is only possible through the iDA grant from atypical and the Arts Council fo Northern Ireland so I'm extremely grateful for their continued support and guidance. Congratulations to all the award recipients this year!
RDH: 27/05/18 - 30/06/18
27/25/18
NB:- "Imprint": washes over selected charcoal marks makes for a more painterly and softer outcome whilst still retaining the drawing element - it's just not as overwhelming. Marrying the two worlds. Artistically I'm in a good place. It's utilising time more effectively.
28/05/18
On Hodler's "Night": covered figure personifies death as an intensification of sleep. On the back of the canvas Hodler wrote: "There is many a people who lies down to rest in the evening but who does not wake up in the morning."
"Riot" and "Chidren of the Stage" started.
Haven't painted on board in two years. Keep forgetting how forgiving the surface is.
29/05/18
Started small canvas of "Cult" drawing I did five years ago. Been a long time but its always good to keep everything - just in case.
30/05/18
Let's see what happens.
02/06/18
Playing about with "The Mountain of the Heights" - particularly the sky. Intangible so the marks should be also.
03/06/18
"I want to be a painter of modern life, and modern bodies." - Jenny Saville.
A.F. born today.
04/06/18
05/06/18
Notes from a previous workshop:
Turn off distractions
Centred space
Give yourself permission to move your practice forward.
Elevator pitch - needs work.
Find focus and priorities.
Studio days - regimented routine.
Be persistent and consistent.
Find unproductive habits + break them.
Defend creative time.
Slow down and hear your own ideas.
"Creativity is not a talent - it's a way of operating." - John Cleese
When you value serendipity, you start noticing it at work right away.
07/06/18
Awarded iDA from Atypical Gallery and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland!
09/06/18
Saw a lot of art. A LOT OF ART.
Belfast School of Art degree show was fantastic but there were four stand out artists:
Ryan Hamilton in photography.
Stephanie Tanney in sculpture.
Karl Hagan in painting
Aimee Melaugh in painting.
The Golden Thread Gallery group exhibition "After an Act" was great.
David Moore's show in Belfast Exposed was really interesting.
10/06/18
11/06/18
Zero energy. There are not enough hours in the day. Structure. Guilty of putting off work because of convenience.
13/06/18
Is yellow is the colour of hope?
16/06/18
Bacon was fascinated by butcher shops as a child. The figure in the painting said to be pre-war Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain - known for carrying an umbrella. This work is raw power, beauty and horror rolled in one.
18/06/18
Paint/draw with purpose. Reasons - just because I can't pin them down doesn't mean they aren't there.
20/06/18
Lubaina Himid - take a "given history" from found objects and then "paint a history on them that isn;t as much talked about." Daytime can't be squandered - every hour counts.
23/06/18
Painted pretty much up to 10pm tonight,. Stuck in the zone.
24/06/18
Trip to Rosses Point. So hot too and great to bump into Rob and Sally. Small world.
25/06/18
Great to see familiar names (Lisa Ballard, Alison Pilkington and Clement McAleer) in the Hamilton Gallery's group exhibition 'An Irish Airman Foresees His Death'.
26/06/18
Trip to The Model in Sligo town before home. A wonderful space.
28/06/18
Slowly getting back into the rhythm of working again. Finished "Cult". The small child is considerably creepier than expected. More work to "Mountain of the Heights" - been looking at Cezanne's multiple treatments of Mont Sainte-Victoire for some sort of guidance.
Extremely hot in the studio - close to 30°C.
30/06/18
I have Sickert's "Ennui" on my mind.