Rematch
New work by Aoife Collins
27.02.2014 - 16.03.2014
Curated by Tom Keogh
Aoife Collins’s new exhibition at Maquis Projects plays with the particular conditions of artworks and their formal presentation. The pieces have a disparate quality, but each seemingly sits comfortably within a certain gallery mode.
Underlying this there is a sense of an oxygen-less world where all that glitters could be gold - or some other precious material. This could be within the jewel box white cube of 20th century art institutions, in the wet crystal clear sea surf or within the coral branches hiding the tiny camouflaged seahorse.
Embedded, trapped, netted, camouflaged, destined. These are the terms that are conjured up when we experience her work.
Glistening, beautiful, precious, sweet - are also words that come to mind. Aoife’s work is the fluffy rabbit trapped in the conjurer’s hat.
We can consider how the formal aspects of our encounters with the artwork are mitigated by the conditions within which the works themselves are trapped. The trajectory of culture and serial zeitgeists creates an excitement – a buzz – perhaps even a sense of freedom. Beyond this we need to consider the drive towards an accountability based on webs of pre-existing aesthetic and social zones within which we can only exist by either extravagant showing or furtive hiding. Collins’s piece ‘Longest Suicide in Hollywood History’ a keyed section of painted metal gently referencing destroyed Hollywood stars, shows the sometimes fatal consequences of lives lived within such zones.
New work by Aoife Collins
27.02.2014 - 16.03.2014
Curated by Tom Keogh
Aoife Collins’s new exhibition at Maquis Projects plays with the particular conditions of artworks and their formal presentation. The pieces have a disparate quality, but each seemingly sits comfortably within a certain gallery mode.
Underlying this there is a sense of an oxygen-less world where all that glitters could be gold - or some other precious material. This could be within the jewel box white cube of 20th century art institutions, in the wet crystal clear sea surf or within the coral branches hiding the tiny camouflaged seahorse.
Embedded, trapped, netted, camouflaged, destined. These are the terms that are conjured up when we experience her work.
Glistening, beautiful, precious, sweet - are also words that come to mind. Aoife’s work is the fluffy rabbit trapped in the conjurer’s hat.
We can consider how the formal aspects of our encounters with the artwork are mitigated by the conditions within which the works themselves are trapped. The trajectory of culture and serial zeitgeists creates an excitement – a buzz – perhaps even a sense of freedom. Beyond this we need to consider the drive towards an accountability based on webs of pre-existing aesthetic and social zones within which we can only exist by either extravagant showing or furtive hiding. Collins’s piece ‘Longest Suicide in Hollywood History’ a keyed section of painted metal gently referencing destroyed Hollywood stars, shows the sometimes fatal consequences of lives lived within such zones.
