First the boom, then the bust. It's a story with which we are all too familiar, but not one we might expect to inspire contemporary visual artists. The annual summer exhibition at the Royal Hibernian Academy Gallery on Ely Place in Dublin tells a different tale. One of many themes in the exhibition is a strong interest in how recent experiences have changed our attitude to the place we call 'home'. It seemswe don't look at our home places in quite the way we used to. ARMINTA WALLACEasks five artists how this theme has informed their work
Niall McCormack
'Exhumation'. Oil on linen.
'DURING THE Celtic Tiger peak years, I came back from London to live in Ireland. I lived in an apartment on an incompletely constructed housing estate on the outskirts of Westport for almost three years. It was constructed without careful planning and became soulless, a semi-ghost estate. The Houses Inside painting symbolises the silent suffering of people who are marginalised from mainstream society, whether in residential institutions in the 19th and 20th centuries - as was made clear in the Ryan report - or in the scattered parts of rural Ireland, as shown in my painting Exhumation. The dwellings in my paintings could be considered places of contemplation. I am a spiritual, solitary person by nature, and often withdraw to the places where I can meditate and contemplate mystically and spiritually."
Julianna Szabo
'Home'. Paper, wood.
'AS I'M from a small town in northeastern Hungary, it is always going to be home for me. I wanted to show with this work that there are many places that we call home. I call Ireland, my chosen home, just as much 'home' as Hungary, where I grew up. The roads in the piece represent the journey, transition between the stages. The letters H and M depict Hungary: the four seasons, the fields of crops, the inside of a home, scenes from Budapest and Lake Balaton. The letters O and E on the other hand show Ireland: the Georgian houses, the double-decker Dublin Bus, the M50 surrounding the city, with the Spire in the middle."
David Farrell
From BaNAMAland: 'Westmeath, 2011' Lambda print on crystal archive paper (edition of 7)
'I'VE MADE a number of what I call 'inside-outside' pictures - looking in but also catching the reflection of what's outside. I felt that was something that was emotionally prevalent during the boom - wanting to get on the inside and yet being on the outside in other ways. I've actually visited each of the 26 counties. In 2006 I worked on a project with the Central Bank where I made a number of reflective images of the interior of the bank, looking out over the city of Dublin - the role of the bank sitting on top of the city, as it were. These studies are the flip side of that. I photographed a metaphorical or a literal cul de sac in every county, and a number of self-regulating roundabouts - so there's a little joke in there about self-regulation, as well."
Maeve McCarthy
'Rural Garda Station'. Tempera, oil on gesso panel.
'I DEFINITELY have a thing about houses. I kind of give personalities to them. The funny thing is, I don't own a house. I used to feel bad about that in the boom but now I actually have a sense of freedom because I don't owe anything, either. I divide my time between Dublin and Kerry, where I rent a house. It's often quite late by the time I get down there, so I'm driving through the lanes looking at which houses have lights on and which are dark. It's like my refuge. That comes across in the paintings. In fact the local Garda station did close, and as soon as it did, the blue light went. That was a big deal for everybody in the village. Where I live, only about 50 per cent of the houses are occupied. Some are holiday homes. Some are abandoned. Then there are wars over houses, over inheritances. Who 'got the house'. It's a whole story. It's Ireland - isn't it?"
Martin Gale
'Sundown'. Oil on canvas.
'SUNDOWN DEPICTS a building site that never happened. It's actually quite close to where I live - one of these stories where the guy had over-reached himself with the bank, and by the time the planning permission came along the whole thing had collapsed. It was only a small little incident but it's like a metaphor for the situation. The idea of sunset as depicting the end of something actually came from a Bob Dylan song, Sundown on the Union, which is about the decline of manufacturing industry in the US. It seemed to rhyme with what happened in Ireland with the building industry. Another painting of mine in the exhibition, Linger, shows a slanted tree, a skinny-looking birch - and there are three or four cranes in the distance, like an afterthought, or the leftovers of the boom."
The 182nd RHA Annual Exhibition runs until August 18th. The gallery is open Monday and Tuesday 11am – 5pm, Wednesday – Saturday 11am – 7pm and Sunday 2 – 5pm. Admission is free. rhagallery.ie
