Two new exhibitions of work by sculptor Katherine Sullivan and painter Anastasia O'Donoghue Healy are now on display at Westport Custom House.
'Building Works' by Katherine Sullivan, a sculptor based in the UK, marks a celebration of a 20 year investigation into the links between clothing and architecture. Both are seen as metaphors for the human body and for human experience, O'Sullivan explained, adding: "To my mind a building is ‘worn’ and not occupied. My experience as a costume-maker and my subsequent translation of textile processes into sculptural elements within my work, place me in an excellent position to investigate this relationship. I was an artist in residence at Custom House Studios during 2007/8 and my time there had a profound influence upon the way I worked. I developed a sculptural shoe fetish and a tendency to work in multiples; shoes and collars being very visible in this show. The work has a humorous touch and is also referenced through a feminist lens. I am very grateful to Custom House Gallery for giving me this opportunity."
In the 'Turas' painting exhibition by Anastasia O’Donoghue Healy, the landscape is central to her painting practice. Since she was a young child it has played an ever-present part in her life. She said: “Perhaps as a young child I didn't realise its role in my formation as a person and as a painter."
Being a self taught painter, she has come to realise it has taught her so much about the art of living and "being". As an avid walker, O'Donoghue Healy says she witnesses an unravelling of herself into the presence of now and a heightened fourfold experience of nature. This experience informs the essence of why and how she paints. It is “being” within this space of presence while painting en plein air that plays a defining part in her process. Her paintings reflect a meeting of her interior journeying with her experience of "now" as she journeys in the West Cork landscape while painting. She captures this meeting by her intuitive use of colour and mark making. As she paints en plein air a triangular dynamic develops between the artist, the landscape and the work as it reveals itself to her. Her paintings capture the “isness” of the landscape at a given time.
Both exhibitions run at Westport Custom House until April 7, 2019.
