A swell in the ocean from a dream – 2008 – 2018

 


Dimensions - ( H x W x D ) - 140 x 140 x 56 cm \ approx\

Medium – matches, fibreglass, cement, wood, paint, shellac.

The ocean to me is as close as I can think to something universal and infinite and connected somehow to what has passed. The waves mapping the rhythm of exterior space, the sea stretches and pulls and crashes like past material moments in time. I wanted to give the impression of a wave in wood but not use a block of wood but rather a sheet and I used matches to 'animated' the surface. I wanted also to contain this wave by framing it with another repeated pattern which are the rows of concrete houses.


The use of matches was a way of being able to work constantly on a piece from beginning to end and not having to externally fabricate some part of the sculpture. These sculptures for me in a sense seem like paintings or drawings, I returned to the surface of this piece many times before reaching a finish I am truly content with. I wanted the sculpture to have a strong initial impact but not superficial, there is profundity in this work. 



 Illustration – A swell in the ocean - detail 2016
 Dimensions - ( H x W ) - 25 x 60 cm \ approx 
Medium – pencil, goauch, vellum paper


I made these drawings to accompany the sculptures and sort of  DIY in sculpture. For myself principally as a journal \ although I do also keep sketch books\ and secondly it's something I enjoy doing. As I said before the sculptures take many years to complete and sometimes it felt there was no end to them. The drawings are for me so much more gratifying, over a few days a drawing could be finished. When I started these sculptures I had no idea what they would entail or demand of me and a lot of the time I worked in a type of chaotic FOG both with pieces and often the place where they were made. For example this piece began in Offaly in Ireland, then to different studios in  Dublin and finally transported to Madrid and completed in Tabacalera. 


The frames of the sculpture were cast from a model of my family home  at a scale 1 \  50. The facade was cast in silicone to make the mould and from this casts were made in concrete. 



                                              Dimensions - ( H x W x D ) - 140 x 140 x 56 cm \ Detail \ 

                                                                      www.talkingculture.es

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