about the art
The work is concerned with the folding and flattening of memory and history over time and space. It is influenced by the language of the ruin, the examination of aged objects, desolate landscapes and ruined architecture. In the work I use printmaking, sculpture and installation. Objects may be transformed into new objects through the process of folding, layering and compressing, physically or through the process of print making.
A primary concern in the work is the notion of the bog landscape as a repository for cultural memory and histories, within its deep strata. Seamus Heaney's (1939-2013) bog poems deal with the compression of time in our minds. The landscape exemplifies vast expanses of time, almost outside linear chronologies and the limits of imagination. A tension exists when imagining the bog as both expansive void and restricting vault. The perpetual duality, ambiguities and complexities inherent in the bog landscape dwell more easily in a Third Space (as theorised by Homi K Bhabha and Edward Soja), both real and imagined at once. Opposing elements unite: The known and the unknown; the real and unreal; the living and the dead; the past and the present. Examining this space gives us an opportunity to see through time, recognising the continuous dialogue that exists between the past and the present. |
about the artist
Anna O’Riordan is an emerging artist from Glenbeigh, Co. Kerry. Anna is based in Cork since 2002 when she moved there to study General Nursing in University College Cork. In 2013 she returned to education to study Fine Art, graduating from Crawford College of Art and Design in 2018. Anna was awarded a Cork Printmakers Emerging Artist Bursary Award for 2018/2019. She was also awarded Crawford College of Art and Design Graduate Residency award in Printmaking for 2018/2019. She is undertaking a Graduate studio residency awarded by Sample Studios commencing in October 2018, which will culminate in a solo show in 2019. Anna was selected for both solo and group exhibitions in 2018/2019 in response to her graduate work. Her work is held in both public and private collections including Cork City Council and Eli Lilly.
EXHIBITIONS: 2018 Origins 2018 - Lismore Castle Arts: St Carthage Hall, Lismore, Co. Waterford - selected group exhibition Fledglings - selected group exhibition, Fledgling Award Exhibition, Lavit Gallery, Cork See/Saw - Degree Show Graduate Exhibition, Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork 2017 The Present Past - CIT Wandesford Quay Gallery, Cork Habituation - Elizabeth Fort, Barrack Street, Cork Fragma - Galeria Kotlownia, Poznan, Poland 2016 Print in Space - Blackrock Observatory, Cork K- Fest, Music and Arts Festival – Killorglin, Co. Kerry EDUCATION 2015 - 2018: BA Fine Art, Crawford College of Art and Design, Ireland 2017: Erasmus (Fine Art), University of Art (UAP), Poznan, Poland 2013 - 2015: Advanced Certificate in Art, Colaiste Stiofan Naofa, Tramore Road Cork, ireland 2002-2006: BSc Nursing (General), University College Cork, Ireland |