From July 4th - July 8th I was privileged to have five pieces on display at the Evening Student's Union Exhibition at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin.
These pieces were extracts from work I completed over the past year on the first year of the Higher Diploma course at NCAD. As such they featured a diverse range of work - a print, three paintings, and one sculpture - all exploring themes of the body as landscape and intimacy.
I was absolutely thrilled to have all my paintings (three out of five pieces overall), as well as my print sell! Thanks to all those who bought them - I hope that you are enjoying your new artworks. If you'd like to reach out to me and send me a photo of the pieces in their new homes I would adore that, always nice to know where they ended up. Each one is a piece of me, after all, and I pour my heart and soul into everything I do.
As the exhibition has just closed I thought I'd share a peak into the works on display and the meaning behind them, especially as four of them are now out there in the world and I may not get to see them again myself.
Piece 1: 'Sunrise'
'Sunrise' is an acrylic painting on canvas which explores the theme of body as landscape and intimacy. What we see is the crest of a hilltop, and grassy plains illuminated by a brilliant sunrise. The colours are deep, rich and bright, and remind me of the old saying 'red night in the morning, shepherd's warning'. What we are actually looking at here is an arm, held up against the sky, cast in brilliant shadow and light by its form.
Piece 2: 'Lover's Kiss'
My favourite painting of the group, this piece is another vision of body as landscape, and about as intimate as it gets. In this piece twilight is breaking, and colours are deep and moody, while still being vibrant, as our eyes pick up on reds, greens, blues and yellows among the fleshy tone of skin. What we see is a grassy outcrop, a mound of earth, deep crevaces, against a dark, blue and black sky. However the inspiration for this piece was a kiss - the beard and lips of a partner as they lay down and you glimpse their silhouette in the darkness.
Piece 3: 'Breath from behind'
The last of my paintings on display at this show, and another piece exploring intimacy and the body as landscape, this piece is a self-portrait. As a society nowadays we are obsessed crafting and considering self-image. But we often forget that there are so many parts of us that we are entirely unfamiliar with, that we cannot see well or that go unnoticed on a daily basis. These parts of us, like our back, our neck, the soles of our feet, are often places that those closest to us see frequently, and know much better than we do. The colours I used here in this piece are unlike my usual palette, muted and more realistic, to get across this gap in our knowledge of ourselves.
Piece 4: 'What you leave behind'
I love this print, and the amount of time and effort that went into crafting it cannot be understated. This is a five plate piece that again explores the themes of body as landscape and intimacy. Based off a multiple layered semi-blind line contour drawing I did of my partner in 2023, I etched each line on a different acetate plate in order to compose the print. I then had to ink up each plate, set them aside, and carefully pass them through the printing press to print them one after the other on top of each other in order to get the layered effect. Any small mistake, mislining or smudge would have ruined the piece. What you see at the end is a sketch brought to life through movement, lines of a map tracing the contours of a body that once was here - just like we know the contours of our loved ones, and notice the traces they leave behind in their wake.
Piece 5: 'Hills'
My only sculpture on display, I love this piece for its raw energy. Taking the theme of the body as landscape to the next level, this piece presents as hills or outcrops - even reminding me of a fairy fort. However, underneath the facade is the truth that these hills are made from flesh and hair - they are infact the chin of my partner, directed into position on clay, and cast with plaster.
The Exhibition
The exhibition itself was excellently curated with pieces grouped according to theme rather than year or module, so I really enjoyed seeing how my pieces sat with others. For instance, having 'Sunrise' and 'Lover's Kiss' situated alongside paintings depicting portraits, hands and arms really created a narrative of snapshots from memory that I found beautiful.
Thanks to everyone who came to support me, to the Evening Students Union for putting on the exhibition, and especially to those who bought my artworks. You put this big smile on my face:
Love, Shannon x
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