James Hanley is drawn into Cristina Bunello’s feminine environment where the gazed upon gazes back, at the Cross Gallery, Dublin
There was an air show in Dublin recently, where commercial and military aircraft flew low over the city, following the Liffey before arching skyward and home. Post 9/11 it is difficult to look at a passenger plane in the same light when it is away from its normal flight path and in such proximity to tall buildings, even if the context is innocent.
So too when we look at images, painted or otherwise, of children, especially young girls, we bring, whether wittingly or subconsciously, a whole raft of associations, thoughts and emotions, created in an ever-increasingly complex world. The saturation of images and information that comes with the digital age means that things are even more difficult to see simply, as before. Thoughts of innocence, experience, drama, danger and desire all play into our initial response to those images, as does the gender and, perhaps, motive of the author of such work.
Eleanor Flegg visits ceramicist Mark Campden’s Kilkenny studio to witness the process behind his gleaming table-ware
Paula Murphy examines the background to Oisín Kelly’s immortalization of Big Jim Larkin commissioned by the workers of Ireland
Technical developments enable artistic development’: John Behan reflects on the circumstances which spurred his move to sculpture, in conversation here with Brian McAvera