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C103
Review
Sinéad Aldridge at Model
Arts and Niland Gallery
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Sinéad Aldridge: Fast-time,
2002, oil on linen, 42 x 52 cm; photo Alan Reevel
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I drove from Galway to Sligo for the opening
of Sinéad Aldridge's exhibition at the Model Arts Centre while Fallon
and the Stones were jiggin' it up on The Last Word. It was
loud. But as I entered the first large gallery of small paintings
the rock-'n-roll fell respectfully silent. Discernible was the dollop,
the felt swish, the measured scratch of this painter's private goings-on.
Things pertinent to the abstract painter and aesthetic intent.
In each painting creatures - civilised
- comingle. Some of these creatures: daubs, strokes and globs of
paint, huddle in deep philosophical discourse, some in critical
argument, others in party fervour, a few alone, some entwined, crushed,
separated, hiding, reappearing, gone or going. Orgies in a private
space, exposed.
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Sinéad Aldridge:
Floor plan, 2002, oil on linen,
52 x 42 cm; photo Alan Reevel
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These small grey containers are unapologetic,
assertive, yet vulnerable all the same to the critique of historical
abstraction. They looked at me and made me think of my intrusion
and their vulnerability became my burden. This is not great painting
but good. It takes guts to paint these pictures in a zeitgeist of
the photographed urban wasteland. Aldridge has filled these vacant,
abused spaces with humanity, love and hope. She is able to make
grey colourful and reminded us that oil on canvas is infinite and
inviting; historical and present. This reviewer looks forward to
what her confidence promises.
Denis Farrell is a Fulbright Scholar
and a graduate of Yale University MFA, 1993.
Sinéad Aldridge, Model Arts and
Niland Gallery, Sligo, November 2002
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