Statement

We are our stories, we are marked by the stories we believe, the stories we reject. Story telling is connected to the idea of truth, but also untruths, connected too with the idea of invention, fiction and imagination. The German philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt wrote ‘Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it’. It’s a truism to say that I’ll know what I want to say when I say it! The ‘saying’ is articulated through a playful engagement with materials and subject matter. The work cannot easily be defined because it always seeks to belong to something outside itself and changes accordingly. A statement is therefore always after the fact and not a recipe it becomes a catalogue of fascinations often made clear only after the work is completed. Once an artwork is made available to the public the right of interpretation belongs to the viewer.

The one constant in my work since the beginning is the use of multiples of identical objects, wooden shelves, mass produced plaster figures, model chairs etc. With this work, content rather than being seen as something inherent in the constituent objects emerges from the context and the subjective response of the viewer thus allowing for individual elements to be repeated and repeated but always to different effect.

Context and space are the catalyst for meaning, prosaic materials in negotiation with an imposed formal requirement which might be rendered invisible during that negotiation.

The choice of materials is deliberate, everyday, matter-of-fact, collage, found objects, the importance of the unimportant chiming with the mutability of relationships, the fragility and transience of the moment, The forms turned in on themselves through which the meaning of the sculpture is not so much in the external object but the internal relationships of the constituent parts, a stage set where stories may evolve…..

There also exists the possibility that tomorrow one could rearrange all the elements within the sculptures and the day after and the day after …….! To depict rather than state things, each piece is a depiction of what it is to be in time.

Table of Contents

CV

1987 – 1995 Co-founder and Director – Wexford Sculpture Workshops Ltd.

1987 – 1995 National Executive – Association of Artists in Ireland.

1987 – 1992 Board of Directors – Wexford Arts Centre

1985 – 1987 Visual Art Committee – Wexford Arts Centre

1975 – 1979 National College of Art and Design.

1974 – 1975 Welding and Metal Fabrication Course – ANCO

Attended Night Classes NCAD

1970 – 1973 University College Dublin and The Incorporated Law Society of Ireland

 

Awards

1997  Arts Council Studio Grant Award

1988  Arts Council Bursary

Garter Lane Art Centre Open Exhibition Award

1987 Central Bank Award – Sculpture Competition

Arts Council Bursary

Purchase Award, Irish Gas – ‘Drawing the Line’ Exhibition,

Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford

1982 Arts Council Bursary

Bibliography

The Arts Show – RTE Radio, 7th Feb 1996

The Sunday Times – Medb Ruane, Culture Ireland, 28th Jan 1996

Cursai – RTE, ‘Journeywork’ Exhibition feature, 9th Mar 1989

‘Journeywork’ – Dublin Event Guide, 25th Feb 1989

Best of the Week – Critics Choice, Sunday Tribune, 12th Feb 1989

Best of the Week – Critics Choice, Sunday Tribune, 12th Feb 1989

Wexford Sculpture Workshops at Cork – Irish Times, 27th Jan 1989

Wexford Exhibitions – Irish Times, 8th Nov 1988

Iris 88 – RTE, Wexford Sculpture Workshops feature, 1st May 1988

Countrywide – RTE, Wexford Sculpture Workshops feature, 15th Oct 1987

Renaissance under Wraps – Sean McCrum, Sunday Tribune, 12th Apr 1987

Art to Art – Dorothy Walker, Irish Independent, 11th Apr 1987

Collections

  • Irish Gas

  • Aer Rianta

  • Rehab Group

  • Work in Private Collections

Solo Exhibitions

2024 These Fragments and the Ambiguity of Stories – Gallery X, Hume St. Dublin

1996 The Ante Room – Solomon Gallery, Powerscourt Centre, Dublin

The Ante Room – The Ballast Office, Wexford Festival Opera.

1994 Other Voices – Exhibition of Drawings, Garterlane Arts Centre, Waterford

1991 In a Dark Wood – Exhibition of Drawings, Wexford Arts Centre

1987 Sculpture – Project Arts Centre, Dublin

Selected Exhibitions

2017 7 Artists, Wexford Festival Opera

2016 Stranger than Fact, Wexford Festival Opera,

2015 HourXhour, Wexford Festival Opera.

2009 Inside Out – Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford

2007 5 at the Byre – Johnstown Castle, Wexford Festival Opera

2005 Nesting Box Project, Borgloon, Belgium

1997 Gateway to Art – Aer Rianta Arts Festival, Dublin Airport

1996 Portable Art – Ferry Terminal, Rosslare Harbour

Jiva – Court House, Waterford

1995 The Hermiones – Alexandra College, Dublin

1994 Portable Art – Ferry Terminal, Rosslare Harbour

Gateway to Art, Aer Rianta Arts Festival [also ’92 and ‘91]

1993 Garter Lane Open Selection Exhibition, Waterford

Public Art 

Commissions

2009 Wexford Co. Council, Bunclody – installed May 2010

Nass Library, Courtyard sculpture – completed April 2010

2008 Leixlip Library, Courtyard sculpture installed Feb 09

Kildare Co. Council. Kilmeade Housing Estate installed Nov 08

Mayo Co. Council, Charlestown Bypass installed Jan 09

2007 St Laserian’s School, Carlow installed Oct 07

2006 Colloghknock Glebe, Kildare Co. Council installed Oct 08

Crystal Court Housing Estate, Waterford City Council,

2005 Gaol Wall Memorial, Waterford City Council

Knockthomas Estate, Castlebar, Mayo Co. Council

Doughiske Estate, Galway City Council installed Aug 07

2004 Rossinver, Leitrim Co. Council installed Dec 06

Cluid Housing Association, Longford Aug 04

2003 Ardnaculla Estate, Ennistymon, Clare Co. Council Jul 04

Millhaven Estate, Castlebridge, Wexford Co. Council

2001 Waterford Regional Hospital – Millenium Sculpture Commission

1999 Clifden Millenium Sculpture Commission – Galway Co. Council

1998 Belgooly, Kinsale Rd. Project, Cork Co. Council

1991 Central Bank, Dublin. Award competition for rear site [not proceeded

          with].

Lives and works in Co. Wexford, Ireland.