C106
review
Sligo:
Vivienne Roche at Model Arts and Niland Gallery
Vivienne
Roche's exhibition, Current Sculpture in the Making,
is a compendium of work completed by the artist over the
last four years. Through photography, drawings and research,
the viewer is invited to trace the development of two
of the artist's large- scale commissions, Flow
(2000-02) and Wave Shadow (1998-9) from initial
inspiration, through the planning, installation and completion
of the works. The exhibition also contains some smaller
studio-based sculptures. Two of these, Countercurrent
(2000) and Ever Drifting (1999) are exhibited
alongside drawings and photographs as examples of process.
The series of photographs, Sea Change (2003) appears
to point us in the general direction of future developments
in the artist's work.
The works are all related in theme, materials and treatment.
Tidal movements of water directly inspire five of the
works. The forms, shapes and the undulations left by the
water on the sand form the basis for these pieces. The
sixth piece, Soundings (1999) is inspired by seaweed,
washed up on the shoreline. All the sculptural pieces
are made using cast bronze, glass and plaster, in differing
proportions and combinations.
The most ambitious project on show is undoubtedly Flow,
commissioned by Fingal county Council for their council
chamber. The work is a large, twenty-metre-long curving
insertion into the chamber wall. It is predominately glass
and plaster, but includes some bronze. The patterns and
shapes of the sand are skilfully recreated to form what
looks like a giant fossilized sea creature. The medium
of glass is extremely effective at capturing the movement
of water and light over sand. The exhibition includes
some impressive scale drawings printed on cloth, and one
gets some sense of the dimension and scale of the work.
Since her public commissions are not physically present,
we must look to Roche's smaller studio-based work to fully
appreciate the use of materials. We also begin to understand
that a simple study in marine life can contain deeper
levels of meaning. Roche uses elements from the marine
landscape to explore themes of tension, balance, light
and dark, male and female and the meeting of opposing
forces.
If we consider Countercurrent, we are confronted
by a work constructed in two parts. This use of pairs
is pertinent to all of the studio work on show. One half
of the work is in bronze, while the other is in glass.
The shapes and textures of the sand are captured and transformed.
It is no longer merely a study in sand formations. It
has become the opposition of light and dark; the dark,
male part, birdlike, penetrates the light, female part.
They move together in opposite directions, yet in a strange
state of flowing union.
As an exhibition, it is very interesting to observe the
development in the artist's oeuvre in general. From the
study of seaweed, the work shifts its focus to the forms
created by tidal movement, and the reflections of light
on water. In the use of material we can trace a similar
development. Initially the works were cast entirely in
bronze, but gradually we see the introduction of glass
and lastly plaster. In the end it is glass that dominates
the work.
Barbara
Dunne is an artist and a writer.
Vivienne Roche: Current Sculpture in the Making,
Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Sligo, October 2003
