Hunt for the Inner Gyre 1 & 2 – Wexford County Council Buildings, Wexford.
And Creatures Dream ……….A New Language – this two-venue show at Wexford County Council and Wexford Arts Centre (3rd July – 25th August 2017) is my first major group exhibition. I am a newcomer to the art world. I am also a relative latecomer to it. Our lives are shaped by the time, situation and community into which we are born. I see my progress through the world in phases. I am buy one tiny speck of humanity in the vastness of the universe. We are all specks of matter which make up the whole. Each speck exists and therefore presents a purpose.
I make a context for my existence in the universe.
Phase 1 0-20 years – Getting a grip on the world.
Phase 2 20-40 years – Tightening the grip.
Phase 3 40 – 60 years – Clutching at straws.
Phase 4 60 – 90 years – Letting go.
Of course this must be the most condensed version of a life ever written but it situates me in a context in the world. Phase 4 – Letting Go – begins now and it is a true phase of freedom. Freedom of the mind through continuous learning. Freedom of the heart through understanding about how we are constructed in society to live in particular ways. Freedom of the spirit to dream big, regardless of age, situation or the bias of the unfree.
Jacques Derrida, the French Philosopher questioned the dominant philosophical thinking and traditions underpinning our Western culture. In simple terms, Derrida attempted to undermine our understanding of language and experience and the accumulation of meaning through history. My Phase 4 – Letting Go must be concerned with mining and undermining my own life experiences in the context of deconstructing my programming and training. A quality third level education in art has provided many keys to unlocking my psychological prisons of conditioning and control. Through continued enquiry and the creative process of my art practice I am now free to question again all the answers I have ever been given to anything, in any context.
‘There is a future which is predictable, programmed, scheduled, foreseeable. But there is a future, l’avenir (to come) which refers to someone who comes whose arrival is totally unexpected. For me, that is the real future. That which is totally unpredictable. The Other who comes without my being able to anticipate their arrival. So if there is a real future, beyond the other known future, it is l’avenir in that it is the coming of the Other when I am completely unable to foresee their arrival’. – Jacques Derrida.
On Second Thoughts 