Exhibited at MTU Munster Technological University (formerly, CIT Cork Institute of Technology), Cork, 2000, and includes MA work from Winchester School of Art, 1997-98
This work represented a conceptualisation of my ideas concerning painting, particularly around issues of representation and abstraction. Through the use of different materials and a recognition of the importance of titles, for example, in the work sky blue, the use of premixed and named household paint exposes and makes use of a situation where the aspiration for a representation, the idea of the sky, was already set up as a marketing strategy.
Documentation of the exhibition an investigation into the act of interpretation in relation to the area of representation exhibited at the Vizivarosi Gallery, Budapest, Hungary in 1998, is also documented here.
from effect to ideology and back again was exhibited at CIT Cork Institution of Technology Exhibition Centre in 2000.
This exhibition explored the conceptual path my work took over three years between 1998 and 2000. My early work was inspired by the way early Italian painters represented space on a flat plane and the problem of representation in painting. This work culminated in the production of a series of monochromes, though the minimal associations with this work presented a dilemma and led to the production of a different type of work, where instead of pushing out representation and association, I let it come pouring in. Through the use of different materials and a recognition of the importance of titles, for example, in the work sky blue premixed and named household paint was used, and the paint was applied with a roller to mimic how the paint would appear in a domestic situation. By using this type of paint, I was exploring a situation where the aspiration for a representation, the idea of the sky, was already set up as a marketing strategy. This situation lent itself very happily to a play on the meaning of the words used for the naming of the colour, and the use, the materials were originally intended for.
The possibilities of narrative and association about representational and abstract issues in painting continued to inform my work, in White Landscape after 'Flatford Mill' by John Constable and Bark, Shell and Sea Swirl super fresco embossed wallpapers, which is a monochrome representational painting. The image was created by tracing designs from embossed fresco wallpapers and superimposing them onto a drawing of 'Flatford Mill' by John Constable. The surface of the painting was then painted with white enamel paint, which is viscous and glossy and builds up a texture when painted in layers. The white paint was a reference to abstract painting and abstraction's denial of representational issues. The inclusion of the image of 'Flatford Mill' by Constable references paintings' representational history, while the designs from the embossed fresco wallpapers are abstract but aspire to a representation of nature, this complicates the aspiration for a recognisable representational image. The textured surface further complicates this aspiration and confounds the desire for a figure/ground reading of the painting.
In bearable rules for making a painting 1998, all representational references have been eliminated from the work; the title reveals it as a play on the issues of representation in the context of modernist painting. In another work dating from the same time any time any place a range of painted panels, squares and rectangles, have been painted or sprayed with different types of paint while resisting the inclination to associate certain shades with certain sizes or shapes, to undermine an engaged authorship. This resistance is continued throughout the installation to confound attempts at an aesthetic reading. Inevitably the work acquires balance and aesthetic associations, which are unavoidable. The title suggests a wealth of possible associations, attributed to the colours and textures opening the doors for multiple representational readings.
Sarah Iremonger 2000
Exhibited as part of from effect to ideology and back again MTU Munster Technological University (formerly, CIT Cork Institute of Technology), Cork, 2000
Exhibited as part of from effect to ideology and back again MTU Munster Technological University (formerly, CIT Cork Institute of Technology), Cork, 2000
Exhibited as part of from effect to ideology and back again MTU Munster Technological University (formerly, CIT Cork Institute of Technology), Cork, 2000
Left, after 'Snow Storm' by J.M.W. Turner, 'The Annunciation' by Rene Magritte, 'Pottery' by Patrick Caulfield, 'Trivaux Pond' by Heneri Matisse, 'Leaves and Shell' by Fernand Leger, ' Man with Newspaper' by Rene Magritte, 'Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper' by Pablo Picasso, 'Flatford Mill' by John Constable, 'The Great Day of His Wrath' by John Martin, 'Interior with Water Lilies' by Roy Lichtenstein, 'The Artist's Daughter, Mary' by Thomas Gainsborough and 'The Death of Major Peirson' by John Singleton Copley. Exhibited as part of from effect to ideology and back again MTU Munster Technological University (formerly, CIT Cork Institute of Technology), Cork, 2000
After 'Snow Storm' by J.M.W. Turner, 'The Annunciation' by Rene Magritte, 'Pottery' by Patrick Caulfield, 'Trivaux Pond' by Heneri Matisse, 'Leaves and Shell' by Fernand Leger, ' Man with Newspaper' by Rene Magritte, 'Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper' by Pablo Picasso, 'Flatford Mill' by John Constable, 'The Great Day of His Wrath' by John Martin, 'Interior with Water Lilies' by Roy Lichtenstein, 'The Artist's Daughter, Mary' by Thomas Gainsborough and 'The Death of Major Peirson' by John Singleton Copley. Exhibited as part of from effect to ideology and back again MTU Munster Technological University (formerly, CIT Cork Institute of Technology), Cork, 2000
Exhibited as part of from effect to ideology and back again MTU Munster Technological University (formerly, CIT Cork Institute of Technology), Cork, 2000
After 'Flatford Mill' by John Constable and 'Bark, Shell and Sea Swirl', super fresco embossed wallpapers. Exhibited as part of from effect to ideology and back again MTU Munster Technological University (formerly, CIT Cork Institute of Technology), Cork, 2000 and 'Crawford Open', Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, 2001
After 'Flatford Mill' by John Constable and 'Bark, Shell and Sea Swirl' super fresco embossed wallpapers. Exhibited as part of from effect to ideology and back again MTU Munster Technological University (formerly, CIT Cork Institute of Technology), Cork, 2000 and 'Crawford Open', Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, 2001
Exhibited as part of an investigation into the act of interpretation in relation to the area of representation Vizivarosi Gallery, Budapest, Hungary, 1998
Exhibited as part of an investigation into the act of interpretation in relation to the area of representation Vizivarosi Gallery, Budapest, Hungary, 1998