Throughout the month of April, Ballina Arts Centre will be hosting A Mythical Army, an exhibition by Dublin-based artist Sheila Gorman. The exhibition takes as its theme military uniforms and features a suite of drawing-based works exploring the theme.
Gorman explains: “Military uniforms were designed to make an army appear ordered, disciplined, powerful, and vigorous and so dispirit and intimidate their enemy. Uniforms were often more decorative than protective. As weapons progressed from bows and arrows to guns and missiles, soldiers became increasingly vulnerable. The uniform itself has often placed its wearer in needless danger. Sun glint from highly polished brass buttons informed the sniper. Cavalrymen’s tight and narrow uniform sleeves hampered effective swordplay. But even the most utilitarian uniform cannot preserve life in the chaos of battle.”
Gorman has a long interest in military uniforms, and for the past 15 years she has been studying and researching them and the soldiers who wear them. For her MA in the history of art at the National College of Art and Design, she wrote a thesis on the subject. It examined aspects of the psychology and sociology of the uniforms of the British military, with particular emphasis on the Royal Irish Fusiliers in the Great War. In 2004, while on a three-month residency at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Gorman continued her examination of this theme, exploring the connections between the images she was making and the texts she was writing.
Sheila Gorman is a visual artist and writer based in Dublin. She has exhibited widely around the country, and her writing has been published in many anthologies, journals, and publications. A Mythical Army will be officially opened by arts consultant Sarah Finlay on Wednesday April 8 at 8pm, and will run until May 2. Admission is free and all are welcome.
