CIRCA 111 review

Sligo: Birds at Sligo Art Gallery

Birds is an exhibition by invited artists whose brief was to submit one work on the subject of birds in any medium and size. An impressive cross-section of thirty-nine artists from Ireland and England are represented. It is defined by the gallery as a “multimedia exhibition” but this description is misleading as it is largely traditional, with just two conceptual / new media pieces: a ‘textual sculpture’ - The Elliot Condensed Bible by Neva Elliot, and a video work - Low by Eamon O’Kane. Both these works appear inappropriate in an otherwise conventional context.

The director has chosen an engaging theme for portrayal. Ornithology and bird symbolism have been an extensive preoccupation throughout art history. With such a strong, varied tradition of practice, the problematic subject of birds is open to the multivalent interpretation it receives here. Paintings from forty years ago are displayed alongside recent work and denizens appear in manifold forms.

The thirty-nine works are distributed throughout the gallery in three separate rooms and in the corridor linking the spaces. There are some remarkable gems in the exhibition, including a Crow study by Hughie O’Donoghue from his renowned series of the early nineties. Jane O’Malley’s dark Crowflight over Burntfield St. Martins in gouache has intense strength complemented by striking use of colour, texture and tone. Fiona Wallace is represented by a small work entitled Winter song. Conceived in acrylic and chalk pastel, this piece has an intimacy and finish akin to that of a religious icon. There are Interesting works by Nick Miller, Cormac O’Leary, Fiona Lewis and a superb piece by Tony O’Malley, Crows in winter in storm. Room I is the most successful curatorially, where unexpected juxtapositions and parallel placement of works signal originality. There is, however, a lack of continuity in the remainder of the exhibition, further reinforced by the need for patience with the accompanying exhibition list - numbers are not placed chronologically beside works and thus do not aid logical progression.

Throughout Birds, it is the placement of highly traditional paintings alongside those of more contemporary practitioners that forces the viewer to react to a disparate miscellany rather than a coherent display. This can only be due to the absence of restrictions on theme, size and media. The gallery is highly accomplished in established group exhibitions with a tighter brief, such as Iontas. Consequently Birds should have been open-submission or by invitation on a smaller scale.

Marianne O’Kane is Curator of Cavanacor Gallery, a writer and critic, and regular contributor to the Irish Arts Review, CIRCA and Perspective.

Birds, Sligo Art Gallery, Sligo, December 2004

Article reproduced from CIRCA 111, Spring 2005, p.102

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