All In This Together ­ listings ­ Irish Printmakers

All In This Together

Venue: The Mad Fish Restaurant at Cronin’s Pub, Crosshaven, Co. Cork

Date: Wednesday 16 February to Sunday 27 March 2011

Opening hrs: Monday – Thursday: 10.30am – 11pm;
Friday – Saturday 10.30am – 12.30am; Sunday 12.30pm – 11pm.
Admission free.

Ciara Wall, Nora (2010), screenprint.

This exhibition brings together the work of eleven artists, and members, of Cork Printmakers: Lorraine Cooke, Sue Cunliffe, Wendy Dison, Mags Geaney, Debbie Godsell, Marcelle Hanselaar, Heike Heilig, Jo Kelley, Eimearjean McCormack, Antonia O’ Mahony and Ciara Wall.

From Wednesday 16 February, the walls of the Mad Fish Restaurant will be peopled by an eclectic mix of characters who convey the human condition in all its myriad forms. Lorraine Cooke’s delicately rendered drypoints, depict women who are indifferent, if not a little bored, by our gaze. By contrast there is an element of menace about Sue Cunliffe’s figures, whose direct stares are both teasing and sinister. In Marcelle Hanselaar’s etching The Couple, we are voyeurs in an intimate scene between two people, a couple lie naked in bed, their backs touching. The woman is aware of our presence which makes it unsettling to watch. We are drawn into a world of the carnivalesque and fairy tale in the work of Eimearjean McCormack, Heike Heilig, Jo Kelley and Mags Geaney. Here we have horse-headed twins; a princess in a darkened castle looking expectantly for someone or something; dancing doll-like figures and a lone juggler, floating in an unknown space, forever caught in the act of juggling a semi-circle of balls in the air. Debbie Godsell presents us with an arresting portrait of a tribeswoman, while both Ciara Wall and Wendy Dison take their inspiration from family photographs, creating work very different in approach and realization. Antonia O’Mahony’s work, Running at 1/35 sec, depicts a character who could have rode straight out of the film Easy Rider, too cool to care.

Although the exhibition presents us with a host of characters who are, as the title implies, All in This Together, each character is very much caught in its own story. The title, taken from a Lily Tomlin quote, ‘We are all in this together, by ourselves’ conveys the true nature of human existence.

Cork Printmakers is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2011. Cork Printmakers intends to hold a series of exhibitions and events to celebrate this milestone and is delighted to begin with this intimate exhibition of work at the Mad Fish Restaurant.

[Source: www.corkprintmakers.ie/]

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