Although the themes running through Cormac Boydell’s exhibition at the Irish College, Paris in 2011 had their origins in the past, the finished objects are shaped by his distinctive contemporary style writes Frances Ruane
Although Cormac Boydell’s exhibition of new ceramics at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, revisits themes that have preoccupied him over the years, there are new twists and turns as the artist connects these ideas with the place where the show is taking place. Many of the wall-pieces refer to Irish and French mythology as well as to older art and artefacts from both countries. The image of a bull has often appeared in his work but here the myth of Cuchulainn and the Brown Bull of Ulster collides with images inspired by the ancient cave paintings of Lascaux. Boydell expands the animal theme in another piece that depicts King Cormac MacAirt who, according to medieval Irish legend, was carried off and raised by she-wolves (Fig 1). This motif is echoed in La B√™te du Gévaudan, the man-eating wolf that was an object of terror in 18th-century France.
Ahead of Dragana Jurisic’s solo show at the RHA in September we republish Stephanie McBride’s examination of the photographer’s 2011 show at the Droichead Arts Centre, studies of urban survival taken during the Celtic Tiger years, revealing Ireland’s struggling society.
Paul Larmour visits the new theatre, which he describes as a boon for the dramatic arts and the most exciting building in Belfast