WaterLand exhibition opening night photographs

Minister Jimmy Deenihan presided over the official opening of WaterLand.

It was a special night on the Dublin art calendar as the crowds poured into Waterways Ireland Visitor Centre for the opening of WaterLand exhibition on 5 November 2013.

Waterways Ireland hosted a fantastic evening with delicious food served by nearby Il Valentino.

The beautiful venue was packed with artists, designers, and collectors alike.

A great night was had by all.


Roll up! Roll up!   The exhibition closes this Saturday 30 November at 6pm.

Minister Jimmy Deenihan officially opens the exhibition.

Sarah Ross, curator of WaterLand

Dawn Livingstone, Chief Executive, Waterways Ireland

Karen Hennessy, Chief Executive, Crafts Council of Ireland

Ayelet Lalor, Chairperson, The Design Tower Artists

Paper conservator Pat McBride, Minister Deenihan and Dawn Livingstone.

Artist Ayelet Lalor, Minister Deenihan, and Sarah Ross, curator.

Dawn Livingstone and John McKeown of Waterways Ireland, 

artist Emmet Kane, and Minister Jimmy Deenihan.

Filter, ceramic sculptures

Sarah Ross with Alison Lowry glass sculpture Killaloe workers.

The Liffey Swim, wooden bowl.

Elizabeth O'Kane with her stone carving FLOW

Sarah Ross with The Diver bronze by Alan Ardiff 

and 

Grand Canal Quay watercolour by Elizabeth O'Kane

'Reflections', leather, Róisín Gartland 

Róisín Gartland with Jobst Graeve

Dawn Livingstone CEO of Waterways Ireland, Minister Deenihan, Sarah Ross and Karen Hennessy, Chief Executive, Crafts Council of Ireland discussing The Diver bronze sculpture by Alan Ardiff.

Dawn Livingstone of Waterways Ireland, Karen Hennessy, Chief Executive of Crafts 

Council of Ireland, Minister Jimmy Deenihan and curator Sarah Ross.

For more information contact the following:
www.waterwaysirelandvisitorcentre.org
www.thedesigntower.com

Review of WaterLand Exhibition

Roger Bennett reviews WaterLand

Themed exhibitions are often contrived affairs, with the artists straining to make their work fit the brief, and trying awkwardly to justify tenuous connections. This most definitely is not the case with 'Water Land', an exhibition of sculpture and craft curated by Sarah Ross in Waterways Ireland's visitor centre on Grand Canal Quay.

Most of the exhibitors are residents of the neighbouring Design Tower, and therefore in daily communion with the waters of the canal; they are joined by a number of invited guests. Water is utterly essential in and for our lives, so it is not surprising that all the exhibitors have responded imaginatively to the theme.

For some, the inspiration is local, as in Elizabeth O'Kane's watercolour snapshot of the dock and its buildings, and Alan Ardiff's spiky youth diving confidently into the blue canal water, the splash cleverly created by three concentric bowl rims.  ​

Grand Canal Quay III, Watercolour, Elizabeth O'Kane

An invitation to take part in an exhibition such as this can free an artist to depart from their usual practice. Michiel De Hoog forsakes his precise violin-making, and comes up with an exuberant frieze-like painting which sets canal-bank warehouses dancing to the rhythms of the waves. Or, signature pieces can be given a fresh twist: an Ayelet Lalor head is topped by a wild swell of hair, a play-place for tiny figures to sunbathe and dive. Flowing curves are a recurring shape in Seamus Gill's jewellery and sculpture; here, he has hammered them into a gorgeously voluptuous waterlily.  

Water Lily, Bronze, Seamus Gill

For some exhibitors, the challenge was to capture the shape and texture of water – exquisitely realised in Da Capo's waterdrop pendant, and in the undulating tactility of Elizabeth O'Kane's limestone 'Flow'.

Flow, Kilkenny limestone, Elizabeth O'Kane

Emmet Kane, Zelouf and Bell, and Joe Hogan have investigated our historical relationship with water. Kane's 'Grinding Water' is turned and carved from ekki wood, an extremely hard timber used in lock gates: it is a very assured piece, and demonstrates his growing confidence as a sculptor. Zelouf and Bell's haunting famine larder references Rowan Gillespie's Liffey-side starving figures, and Hogan's Heaney-inspired bog boat is a robust example of his basket-as-sculpture series.

Craft is perennially under-exhibited in Irish galleries. This is an uplifting exhibition: playful, thoughtful, full of beautifully-made pieces. Quite simply, a must-see. 

Water Land runs at Waterways Ireland's visitor centre on Grand Canal Quay from 6th - 30th November.

Opening times for visitors are from Wednesday to Sunday, 10am – 6pm.

Roger Bennett is a woodturner and writer about craft; he has been published in Irish Arts Review, Ceramics Ireland, Sunday Miscellany.​

For more information contact the following:

www.waterwaysirelandvisitorcentre.org

www.thedesigntower.com

www.elizabethokane.com

www.seamusgill.com

Sculpture in Context 2013

Sculptors Elizabeth O'Kane and Seamus Gill are among the artists exhibiting this autumn in the Sculpture in Context exhibition at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin 9.

Elizabeth O'Kane with her bronze deer on open night

Elizabeth is exhibiting her bronze Giant Irish Deer and Seamus is showing three beautiful Orchids made of sheet bronze and silver.

The show runs from 5th September to 18th October 2013.

Sculpture in Context 2013 returns once again to the National Botanic Gardens, showcasing the work of Irish and international artists, it is the largest and most prestigious outdoor sculpture exhibition in Ireland.  Visitors can explore this 50 acre botanical paradise and discover sculptures in the most unexpected places throughout the garden. This quiet oasis is just 3.5 km from the centre of Dublin City and provides a wonderful venue for the artists to create work in response to specific surroundings.  This year over 150 sculptures are displayed in the gardens, ponds, Great Palm House, and Curvilinear Range of glasshouses; smaller pieces are exhibited in the gallery above the visitors’ centre.

Sculpture in Context offers an unparalleled opportunity to view Ireland’s well established and most promising artists.

The National Botanic Gardens are located 3 Kilometres North of Dublin city centre, 10 minutes by bus from O’Connell Street (Nos. 4, 9 and 83)

Opening Hours: 
Monday - Friday 9am to 5pm
Saturday & Sunday 10am - 6pm

Admission Free

For more information visit:

www.elizabethokane.com
www.seamusgill.com

Irish Sculpture Awards at The Mill Cove Gallery

Two of our top sculptors from the Tower, Elizabeth O'Kane and Seamus Gill, are among the artists invited to exhibit at the Irish Sculpture Awards with the Mill Cove Galleries,  The Beara Peninsula, West Cork.  The exhibition opens at 2pm on Sunday 5th May and runs until 26th May.   The opening is in aid of RAWR, Rural Animal Welfare Resources Ltd.  Elizabeth will be showing her bronze pig, Porcellino, and Seamus will be exhibiting Flowering Podforms.

"I am thrilled for my bronze pig to be showing alongside the other entries in the Irish Sculpture Awards." Liz O'Kane

Porcellino, Elizabeth O'Kane

Flowering Podforms, Seamus Gill

For more information on these two artists visit their websites:

www.elizabethokane.com
www.seamusgill.com
www.millcovegallery.com

Studio Visit - Seamus Gill, Silversmith and Jeweller

The 'Studio Visits' will be a monthly blog instalment. We're opening our doors to introduce you to the artists and designers in The Design Tower! Each interview will give you an insight into the individual designer or business.

This month we're chatting to Seamus Gill -  Silversmith and Jeweller

Can you tell us how long you have been here in the Design Tower and what you do?

I have had a studio in The Design Tower for nearly 20 years and I am a silversmith.

What does that entail?

As a silversmith, I normally buy silver from a bullion dealer that has been rolled out into flat sheets, similar to a flat sheet of paper, but with a thickness from 1 to 1.5mm. With a hand saw I can cut the shape I want out of the flat sheet , then I move the flat sheet of silver by hammering it into a three dimensional shape.

Is silver easy to shape?

Silver is extremely malleable and a great metal to work with. The sheet silver can be moved by stretching or compressing the metal.

Do you model it with your hands?

Oh no! It’s much too hard for that. All the stretching and compressing is done by using hammers to move the metal and a selection of anvils, which we call stakes, to support the metal.

Do you hammer the metal hot like a blacksmith?

No. Silver and non ferrous metals are generally worked cold. But you can only move the metal so far until it work hardens. I then heat it up with a gas torch until it is red hot to anneal the metal. That relives the stress in the metal and brings it back to a soft state so it can be worked further. In every piece I make it’s a continual process of working the metal then annealing and then further working.

What do you make?

I work at two scales, the small scale of jewellery and the larger scale of silversmithing work.

My jewellery is like a small version of my silversmithing work, it is all formed and shaped flat sheet. Most of my jewellery balances a highly polished section against a textured finish. In my latest collection “Flowing Curves” I have added 22 carat gold plating to the textured surface as you can see in the photograph of the bangle.

Do you like making bangles?

It’s a great scale to work in. It’s just that bit too big for someone trained in jewellery but it’s nice and small for someone trained in silversmithing.

What are you doing next in jewellery?

I’m working on developing a new collection of jewellery which I hope to have ready to launch in DesignYard this autumn.

And you work on a larger scale?

Yes, most of what I do would be on a larger scale. I make a lot of tabletop silversmithing work. That’s like candlesticks, vases, water pitchers and larger pieces like that.

Where would you show that work?

I normally make it for exhibition. I’ve just taken part in an exhibition in London where I showed a body of work in the exhibition “the Ten Masters” of British Silversmithing as the launch of British Silver Week. And I am represented by DesignYard on Nassau Street, just a few doors down from Grafton Street. I regularly have work exhibited there.

Is all your silversmithing work for galleries?

No, I do a lot of silversmithing work to commission. Throughout the history of silversmithing most work is made to commission.

What exactly is commissioning?

Basically it’s where I can design and make a piece that you can’t get anywhere else. I suppose it’s a bespoke service.

What kind of commissions are you working on now?

I am making the trophies for the Darley Irish Oaks races at the Curragh and the awards for the Rugby player and Club of the year which is presented by the Rugby writers of Ireland and on some private presentation piece.

Do you only work in silver?

Over the last number of years I have made sculptural pieces in sheet bronze. It has very similar working qualities to silver, but without the high cost of silver. I have also introduced colour to my work through patination on the bronze.

At the moment I have some pieces in the “Portfolio” exhibition in the Farmleigh Gallery in the Phoenix Park and I’m working on some pieces for the “Sculpture in Context” exhibition that will be on in the Botanic Gardens in September.

Séamus, thank you for sharing your work with us! Next month we will be featuring another designer from The Design Tower. You can also read the other interviews in the series.

Adornment

Photographer Agata Stoinska and producer/art director Eddie Shanahan have collaborated on a project to celebrate and promote Irish jewellery design. The photographic collection is called Adornment and marks 2011 as being the Year of Craft. The exhibition and travelling exhibition will promote and raise awareness of Irish jewellery design.

Agata approached Eddie to come up with a new idea for an art photo collaboration. Originally it was intended to photograph the work of just six jewellery designers but the interest in the project was so immense that eventually three submissions days were held at D–Light Studios in Dublin with jewellers from all over Ireland submitting work for consideration.

Both Agata and Eddie were astonished at the treasure trove of innovation, imagination and design talent uncovered, so much so that the original single day’s shoot became three days – each with its own theme. Below is a quote from Eddie -

"I have worked with jewellery designers over the years and felt it was time to shine some light on them. When you see the ideas these artists have: the skills, the imagination. When you look at, say, Tuula harrington, who works with reindeer antlers embedded with diamonds. It has become a very exciting venture. I can now understand why people collect it; it can be an inspiration. It makes you so very proud to be Irish and I feel so grateful to all those who created"

Details of the two photographs shown -

Top image - Agate, onyx and mother-of-pearl necklaces by MoMuse. Model: Amber Jean Rowan from Morgan The Agency.
Bottom image - Silver necklace and bangle by Seamus Gill. Model: Jayne Wilde from Morgan The Agency.

The Adornment exhibition is open to the public from 1-14th June at the European Union House, 18 Dawson Street, Dublin 2. Time:  Weekdays 9am – 5pm. It will feature a selection of images from the Adornment project.

For more information, visit the Designer Dublin website.

Credits -
Photography by Agata Stoinska
Concept and art direction by Eddie Shanahan

Images and quote from Eddie Shanahan taken from the Sunday Independant Life magazine 15th May 2011.