Lightness
Group Exhibition: 13 September - 11 October 2014
Alison Lowry
Paul Moore
Anne Marie Taggart
Damian Magee
Jiann Hughes
light·ness [lahyt-nis]
noun
1.
the state or quality of being light in weight: the amazing lightness of the new metal.
2.
the quality of being agile, nimble, or graceful.
3.
lack of pressure or burdensomeness.
4.
lack of seriousness; levity in actions, thoughts, or speech: That kind of lightness seemed out of place.
5.
gaiety of manner, speech, style, etc.; cheerfulness: His lightness was just what the party needed.
This exhibition features five artists from Northern Ireland responding to the theme of 'Lightness'. The exhibition looks at the artists' different approaches to the materials they choose to work with, the methods of production and process they use to make the work and the messages and meaning they wish to convey using those materials.
The exhibition features exquisite, delicate glass sculpture from Alison Lowry; ethereal uplifting photography from Damian Magee; playful and thought provoking sculpture made from everyday objects from Anne Marie Taggart and interactive multimedia installations from Paul Moore and Jiann Hughes.
About the artists
Alison Lowry graduated from the University of Ulster in 2009. Since then she has exhibited widely and her work is held in many public and private collections. Previous works regularly referenced how objects can embody our memories and during a recent residency to the Corning museum of glass she has started to take a more scientific approach to the subject.
Anne Marie Taggart graduated in 2011 with First Class Honours in Sculpture from the University of Ulster. She is a former Flax Art Studios Graduate Resident. Recent exhibitions include “Presently” at Millennium Court Arts Centre, Portadown. Playful in her approach, Taggart is drawn to found objects that convey gesture and emotion. Through sculpture she attempts to balance fragility and melancholy with the visceral and anarchic. Mostly, the found object's history is irrelevant - what is important is the relationship Taggart builds with the object and how other materials interact and converse – refashioning a new form that wants to talk back.
Jiann Hughes is an artist and researcher exploring the relationship between human and non-human bodies, society and technology. A graduate of the Sydney Film School, she is completing a PhD about her biosensing art. Her work has been exhibited in Australia, Hungary, Ireland, New Zealand and the UK. 'Feeling Into' is a site-specific, outdoor interactive video projection. Taking the human body as the central site of the exploration, this biosensing artwork makes explicit our fleshy entanglements and affecting material constellations. The work implores us to feel how our bodily responses control the levity of the sounds and visuals that envelop us.
Paul Moore’s work encapsulates Photography, Interactive technology and Video Installation. His work has been published nationally including, the Cultural Olympiad, London, 2012 and Super Massive Black Hole magazine, issue 16, Dublin, 2014. Moore’s work has been exhibited Intentionally, in Texas, U.S.A as well as across Britain and Ireland. Moore has exhibited regularly at the Royal Ulster Academy in Belfast N. Ireland and was a selected Artist in 2009. Moore’s practice focuses on the transient nature of time and place with a sense of the real and unreal. Through the use of digital media he explores themes of absence, reflection and emotion. Moore explores the relationships we have with our surroundings both in the physical and virtual.
Damian Magee graduated with a Fine Art degree from York St, Belfast in 1998. In his work he attempts to grasp transient, mutable and ineffable relationships with the physical world in exploration of notions of identity. His photographic works have been developed from an extended period spent studying island formations. Their reflections in still waters transform the familiar into something 'other' that when re-orientated created double images reminiscent of Rorschachs ink blot tests. This metamorphosis of the landscape forges a visual connection between physical geography and the inner psyche.