Anchorage - Work by Limerick Printmakers' bursary award winner Orlagh Spain ­ listings ­ Irish Printmakers

Anchorage - Work by Limerick Printmakers' bursary award winner Orlagh Spain

Venue: Limerick Printmakers' Studio and Gallery, 5a Sarsfield St

Date: 27 October – 17 November 2011

Opening hours: Tues-Fri 11am-5.30pm, Sat 10am-4pm
Tel: 061-311806

‘Anchorage’
27 October – 17 November 2011
Opening by LSAD lecturer Des Mac Mahon: Thursday 27 October 2011, 8pm.

Each year Limerick Printmakers Studio and Gallery award a BA Graduate from the Printmaking Department at Limerick School of Art and Design a Bursary Award in the form of a year’s membership and a solo exhibition at the end of that year. The aim of the award is to promote printmaking as a viable career choice and to support graduates through provision of specialist facilities and to build a community of innovative printmakers in Limerick City. Our 2010/2011 award winner is Orlagh Spain.

Anchorage is the bursary show for 2011 and Orlagh’s first solo show since graduating with first class honours from LSAD in June 2010. This exhibition is made up of traditional prints and drawings on paper, which Orlagh has then mounted and framed herself within reclaimed wood. Much of the imagery for the work is pulled from the world around us, both natural and man-made. Works include a holy elephant, A sainted Hyena, a V-2 Rocket and origami animals. One of the pieces featured in this show is a beautifully intricate silkscreen of a rook. Extremely intelligent and resourceful, crows and rooks have traditionally been portrayed (perhaps undeservedly) as harbingers of death and guides to the afterlife. This delicate work is contradicted by the handmade chunky wooden backings and frames. This contrast between the textures and materials used, creates a balance of beautifully presented work.

By incorporating religious imagery into her work, the artist seeks to create a new ideal of the sacred and profane. The inspiration for ‘Anchorage’ come from many sources including pre-historic, religious and mythological iconography, the novels of Philip K. Dick and the raw materials she works with.

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