Helen Comerford's 7x7 creation series , a set of 49 paintings, was exhibited as a 7x7 painting grid. The bowl, a 'spiritual receptacle', is the starting point of a visual enquiry into appearance and spirituality. Beginning close to the ceiling a celestial white, the tones of the paintings darken as they descend toward the floor, the last two rows evoking the lunar cycle of a waxing and waning moon. Certain elements of colour advance and recede across the rows - hints of yellow, glints of gold. Each painting of a row is initially similar, but is worked to different stages: Comerford's "fascinated mistrust of surface"1 is worked through their waxy, thick, impasto textures. The act of painting itself is revealed as a complex, meditative process, concerned with the spiritual. The presentation of this work as a calculated modernist grid seemed a little awkward and at odds with the subject matter- it did, however, call to mind the more esoteric applications of mathematics and numerical theory.

Bridget Flannery: Glimpse , (detail) , 2003, mixed media on board, 20 x 20cm; courtesy Butler Gallery.

In Stephen Vaughan's large-scale intaglio screenprints, elements of pattern played against rich, deeply etched colour, as formal compositions of burnt umber, dark forest green and rich red iron oxide sat stickily on the paper. Bridget Fannery's 'installation', Glimpse 1-25 , a set of 'randomly hung' paintings, were actually presented in a line running around the room at eye-level: the description of this work (possibly hung in random order, but certainly not without careful attention) as 'installation' seemed a bit unreasonable, having little to do with or obvious impact on the space it was situated in. The paintings themselves are attractively worked studies in colour and line, delicate layers of texture and tone on an intimate scale. The artist intends to "reflect something about the impulse of painting" and "refer to the act of making a painting."

The exhibition finishes with Sonja Landweer's beautiful bronze pieces cast from ceramic moulds: this work is immediately impressive simply due to the obviously accomplished skill and craftsmanship involved - the patination on such pieces as Mottled 'gold' lichen horned vessel is remarkable. Smooth organic forms, most indented with small hollows, evoke water-weathered stone and the effects of time and the elements on surface - perhaps this is embedded in both theme and method of the work. Hopeful gesture called to mind cupped hands, holy water fonts, and other reliquaries for precious fluids. Such spiritual associations were perhaps prompted by Comerford's work seen earlier, and neatly ended the thematic journey of the exhibition.

Sonja Landweer: Relationships , 2003, bronze; courtesy Butler Gallery.

Clearly ordered and (somewhat rigidly) linear, this exhibition did seem a bit dated, the themes a bit hackneyed, especially in comparison to recently shown work by Katie Holten in the gallery and the excellent Paul McCarthy exhibition last year. All in all it was easy on the eye but not particularly engaging - perfect Sunday viewing for those tripping over from Kilkenny Design, whose comments such as 'nice' and 'beautiful' lined the visitor's book.

14 Artists Kilkenny , Kilkenny Art Gallery Society, 1983, p. 8.

Sarah Browne is an artist and writer based in Dublin.

Helen Comerford, Stephen Vaughan, Bridget Flannery and Sonja Landweer at the Butler Gallery, December 2003 / January 2004

Article reproduced from CIRCA 107, Spring 2004, pp. 102-103.

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