Exhibited as part of 'L'Imaginaire Irlandais' at Villesalem Abbey, France, coordinated by Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France, 1996

Early paintings from the 1990s consisted of large oil paintings aimed at capturing a sense of indefinable presence, with epic implications, focused on depicting representations of space and light on a flat surface in layers of dark oil paint, using walls, windows and doorways to create the illusion of space within the picture plane. These works explored the illusion of space created on and beyond a flat surface through layers of luminous dark oil colours on canvas.

"'First there is nothing, then there is a deep nothingness, then a beep blue'. These words by Gaston Bachelard became a work by Yves Klein, enunciated in Antwerp in April 1959. This pictorial sensibility, inaugurated by Suprematism, infuses Sarah Iremonger's works, which must be viewed, as stated by Mark Rothko regarding his works, 'in a light which is not too strong, be it natural or artificial'. The Abbey at Villesalem would fulfil these conditions perfectly."

(Dominique Truco, Artistic Director and Coordinator, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France, September 1995 as part of the project development proposal for 'L'Imaginaire Irlandais', 1996)