Inside The Circle - Exploring Cold Spaces by Heidi Wickham | Reopening Hamilton Gallery to the public

Saturday June 3rd 2021.

A long way back in the summer of 2019, Artist Heidi Wickham won the Hamilton Gallery / Cairde Visual prize. The opportunity of a solo exhibition that flowed from that award was initially scheduled to take place in 2020, but as we all understand, global events intervened in that arrangement.

It is with the greatest of pleasure that Hamilton Gallery re-opens to the public today, Saturday June 5th, with Inside The Circle - Exploring Cold Spaces by Heidi Wickham. We are delighted to have such a wonderful exhibition in place to welcome everyone back into our public gallery space that has been quiet for so long. The same reopening’s - reawakening’s even - of public art spaces will be taking place in galleries across the country this weekend and in the coming weeks.

There’s possibly no more ideally themed an exhibition than Heidi’s, to gradually re-introduce people to our public art space. As the CAIRDE Sligo Arts Festival Director Tara McGowan, writes in her introduction to the exhibition below “…for an exhibition that is so multi-faceted; the feeling here is very much one of quiet meditation.”

We hope visitors to the gallery will enjoy this opportunity to step anew into that world of quiet meditation and engagement with art, via the inspirational art works Heidi has created for this exhibition. - Martina Hamilton

Covid19 restrictions do not permit indoor public gatherings. Accordingly what follows is the address by Tara McGowan, Director, Cairde Sligo Arts Festival written for the launch of Heidi Wickham’s exhibition

L-R Tara McGowan Director of CAIRDE Sligo Arts Festival, artist Heidi Wickham and Martina Hamilton

Introduction to Heidi Wickham’s Exhibition Inside The Circle - Exploring Cold Spaces by CAIRDE Sligo Arts Festival Director Tara McGowan

In walking around Heidi’s exhibition, Into the Circle – Exploring Cold Spaces, I feel like I have been transported - literally moved into a completely different world than the one I had been inhabiting just moments before. It feels like an invitation to play, to explore, to take time out, to come on an adventure. I feel in equal measures giddy euphoria and restorative calm.

I first lay my eyes on ‘Bears & Dogs’ and beside it ‘Seal Pup’. I love the imaginative use of found objects in art – the possibilities of something new or a new idea which can emerge from something that someone else has deemed to throw away or discard. The bears and dogs are crossing a rusty old bridge. What journey are they on? What brings them together? The wood which seems to be holding the decrepit bridge together itself looks like an ancient seal or maybe a whale or perhaps some pre-historic sea creature whose job it has been to keep this bridge aloft. The journey seems at once to be an important odyssey, a crossing from one world to another and at the same time a simple afternoon jaunt between unusual friends.

The seal pup, a mass of blubber; clumsy and awkward-looking on land. Its’ simple and naive form hiding its primitive features. Heidi tells me that it’s made from rubbish collected on beach walks; a bundle of plastic bottles formed and held together with scrim.

Next up is the series of ‘Inuit Face’ portraits, charcoal on wood; close up expressive portraits, somewhat intense. This Inuit tribe have been invited to witness the representation of their part of the world here in our little corner of the world. It really does feel like they are in the room.

Heidi says for this exhibition she has cherry picked some of her favourite pieces from the extreme north of the world; the people, the animals, the artefacts, the sounds. In so doing she is also sharing with us the multidisciplinary nature of her work. Known perhaps largely for her incredibly intuitive, deeply empathic and beautifully drawn charcoal & pastel representations of animals – also featured here with her Snow Bunnies and Bears; Heidi was first and foremost after graduating a sculptor. Following this she spent some time on life drawing. Many people will also be familiar with Heidi’s Toxic Dogs, Wasteland Group – a performance troop who have travelled to Body and Soul, Electric Picnic and more where costumes, head pieces, props and even vehicles are made from recycled materials.

All of these aspects and more come into play in this exhibition - and yet for an exhibition that is so multi-faceted; the feeling here is very much one of quiet meditation.

The Shaman’s Garland, made completely from found and natural materials and Moon over Fish both look like an invitation to a tribal ritual; something which might form an integral part of a collective gathering.

In amongst playful caribou pieces reminiscent of ancient cave drawings, or a primitive whale etching, we have the polar phone - an invitation to listen to a group of polar bears using an old fashioned black telephone on Icelandic fleece and archival recordings of ice bears. It can remind us of how connected we actually are – out of sight, needn’t be out of mind.

It seems playful but it’s also unusual for the bears to be crying out in this way – a cry for help perhaps? This exhibition certainly touches on environmental concerns but is far from didactic or preachy; it’s a natural, thoughtful consideration and musing; an homage to a world which obviously holds much fascination for the artist. An invitation to step out of your own world and glimpse another.

Heidi Wickham was the recipient of the Hamilton Gallery Award at Cairde Visual in 2019 and Into the Circle – Exploring Cold Spaces is the result of this award. I asked Heidi what receiving the award has meant to her. She spoke of being both delighted and gobsmacked; the importance as you spend years building and developing your career as an artist to feel this sense of validation and how much more meaningful it was that the award was for a solo exhibition in her home town. She spoke of the sense of pride she feels to be part of the creative tribe which makes Sligo what it is today and to be in The Hamilton Gallery which has over time developed an exquisite space for artists to share their work with the public.

Last week when I stepped inside a gallery for the first time in 15 months it was a truly joyous occasion and a privilege to wander around this richly textured, diverse exhibition – so expertly hung and displayed by the gallery. The exhibition will run until July 31st and I really recommend that people take the time out of their daily lives to visit the far north right here in the centre of Sligo town.

Cairde Sligo Arts Festival is grateful to Martina Hamilton and her wonderful team at Hamilton Gallery for their ever collaborative spirit and for creating and sharing this wonderful space with us. And to Heidi, sincere congratulations on winning the Hamilton Gallery Award and thank you for your incredibly tireless, inquisitive creative mind and for this invitation to take time out, to lose oneself. - Tara McGowan

“That’s no ordinary rabbit….” Heidi and Martina confront a deadly foe.

Bram Stoker: A Celebration. Dr Marion McGarry

Historian Dr Marion McGarry discusses the links between the Sligo’s Cholera epidemic of 1832 and the authors novels.

In October 2020 Hamilton Gallery in Sligo hosted an exhibition of paintings and sculpture themed around the writings of Bram Stoker. It featured works by artists Mike Bunn, Patrick Colhoun, Graham Gingles, Lisa Gingles, Cara Gordon, Paula Pohli, Gerard Scott and Eleanor Swan.

Sligo town was the childhood home of Bram Stokers mother Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley. Charlottes written account of the horrors of a Cholera pandemic that took hold in Sligo in 1832 inspired the writings of Bram Stoker, including his most famous novel Dracula.

In this short video produced by Joseph Hunt, historian Dr McGarry of Sligo Stoker Society outlines the places where his mothers account of the pandemic emerges in Bram Stokers writings. Dr McGarry's talk is interspersed with images of the artworks in the exhibition.

View The Exhibition

View the short video of the virtual opening by Dr McGarry and Dr Gallagher

Visit Sligo Stoker Society Website

Virtual Opening of Bram Stoker: A Celebration by Dr Marion McGarry and Dr Fiona Gallagher of Sligo Stoker Society

In October 2020 Hamilton Gallery in Sligo hosted an exhibition of paintings and sculpture themed around the writings of Bram Stoker. It featured works by artists Mike Bunn, Patrick Colhoun, Grahamm Gingles, Lisa Gingles, Cara Gordon, Paula Pohli, Gerard Scott and Eleanor Swan.

The exhibition was opened by Dr Marion McGarry and Dr Fiona Gallagher of the Sligo Stoker Society. Sligo town was the childhood home of Bram Stokers mother Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley. Charlottes written account of yer horrors of a Cholera pandemic that took hold in Sligo in 1832 inspired the writings of Bram Stoker, including how most famous novel Dracula. In this short video produced by Joseph Hunt, Drs McGarry and Gallagher officially open the exhibition and their introduction is interspersed with images of the works contained in the exhibition.

View The Exhibition

View the short video of the virtual opening by Dr McGarry and Dr Gallagher

Visit Sligo Stoker Society Website

Cormac O'Leary on Blurred Visions and Fractured Edges

It was a real privilege to have artist Cormac O’Leary open our two September solo exhibitions, Fractured Edge by Breda Burns and Blurred Visions by Ian Wieczoreck.

Cormac very kindly agreed to send us a copy of his address from the opening and we are delighted to publish it here.

Its something we should be doing more often, so hopefully this will be a regular blog feature.

Martina Hamilton, Breda Burns, Cormac O’Leary and Ian Wieczoreck on the opening night of Blurred Visions and Fractured Edge.

It takes a special set of survival skills to negotiate the art world from the periphery, far from the perceived centres of cultural innovation and influence, not only are there geographical divides to cross, there are also cultural maps to navigate, languages to learn, phrases to recite. For the rural Irish artist the gulf between getting your work seen and appreciated and having it languish in obscurity can be difficult to bridge. The internet has shrunk our world to a virtual village, exposing all artists to the same deluge of visual imagery whether your operating in Ballina, Beijing or Berlin. So how do artists survive and process this new world order?

Ian and Breda are both Mayo based artists who have managed to absorb much contemporary influences while also engaging in traditional methods, they have both worked from rural outposts but engage in the cultural life of their locality and the wider art world. They are both committed activists and contributors to the creative community of Mayo and the west. Breda researches, produces and broadcasts an arts-show on Westport radio and Ian has written extensively on the arts as well as curating many exhibitions. They both combine the individualism of the serious artist with the generous outlook of those engaged in advancing and aiding art in the country. They have both exhibited internationally and both have been awarded residencies in Ireland and Europe, both have growing reputations and their work is exhibited widely. Both artists engage in figurative and landscape motifs but bring them to different and original conclusions.

BREDA - FRACTURED EDGE

Breda Burns describes herself as an audio visual artist, using a variety of media both contemporary and traditional , investigating her surroundings, questioning, exploring and observing. Ongoing themes are returned to over time, and often across multi disciplinary projects. She lives in Clew Bay, a coastal area with a tidal topography that seeps into her work, which often portrays a lone figure dissolving into the environment - or reflected in the mirrored sea. These are images from her 'back door' where the individual artist confronts the vastness of sea and shore and relates the turbulent outer world to a more intimate inner world. There is a centered calm in the eye of the storm. The Mayo coast is the furthest westerly fringe of old Europe, politics and culture matter here, but must also be subject to the vagaries of the weather and the sea. as Seamus Heaney told us. We are not outside nature but made of it

To quote Breda ; 'Seeing, understanding, listening, speaking, engaging, challenging, playing, destroying, reconstructing, standing back, letting go and starting over are all part of the artistic endeavour, both as a solitary and collaborative process. The artist stands in these rapidly changing times inside and outside the tribe, both states mirroring the other.'

Cormac O’Leary opening Fractured Edge and Blurred Visions

Breda has a varied and energetic creative output, ranging over sculpture, performance, installation, photography and film. as well as exploring various mixed media and painting techniques. There is a sense of physical immersion in her work, like the swimmer diving headlong into a deep stormy sea, she seems to fearlessly take on the big spaces of her homeland and internalise that journey, expressing its unsettling motion and stillness in images that are both focused and warped by movement. The self, both physical and spiritual is somehow weighted between the extremes of this place -it is an ongoing narrative the artist returns to again and again over the years. In the 'Fractured Edge' painting the canvas extends into a sculpted block of shoreline. Skies boil and darken in storm fronts, opening out to panoramic spaces, the sea is omnipresent. Light shifts from photograph to painting surface and back again, reflecting the shifting atmospherics of an elemental terrain, a country exposed to the full force of nature, surviving against the odds.

The fractured edge of Mayo, Ireland and Europe all share a long history, just as the human body accumulates its own physical history of scars and indentations. The artist also experienced a painful injury and a fall from that same fraught edge while exploring the Mayo coast. Her hand was injured and that hand is the fractured shadow we see here in these works. This of course is a distressing injury for anyone but particularly an artist, but it is a testimony to Breda's strength and courage that she is back fighting fit and creating imagery by hand again !

IAN - BLURRED IMAGES

Ian Wiezcorek has been exhibiting his paintings for several years now. Having been a committed art reviewer and cultural commentator for some time, he turned to a maker and producer of his own paintings with intensity and commitment. In the last few years He has built up a solid career exhibiting nationally and internationally , recently included in the Lanzarote Art Festival. These recent works explore often obscure and 'low resolution 'imagery taken from the internet. To quote Ian ;

'Stripped of specific context, the images transcend their original documentary intentions and assume a more malleable subjective significance.'

There is something recognisable yet oddly unsettling about such images. We have already grown familiar with the blindfolded hostages about to be executed live in front of a world audience - how strange that such a horrific medieval nightmare should become familiar as celebrities and commercials , it is a stark anomaly in the world of google, which aspired to shared knowledge and positive experiences. But despite technological advances, humans in all their erratic unpredictable natures, with their capacities for violence and mayhem, cant be controlled. War and terrorism in all its forms, state sanctioned or subversive rage on , the only difference now is that it has more media outlets. There's no editor anymore, no-ones in control and no-ones responsible. Maybe the artist is the 'last editor', able to sift and decipher the telling image from all the flood of imagery out there. To quote Leonard Cohen 'The blizzard of the world has crossed the threshold and its overturned the order of the soul.'

Cormac and Martina … with the work all done.

There is an ominous precedence here - we are gradually becoming unshockable as these images degrade our humanity, becoming just another jaded image to flick over. In an era of wall building and caged families images that seem bland and benign may in fact be subversive and startling. Are the fraught figures caught on camera scaling boundaries escaping or breaking in, or they desperate refugees or threatening intruders? They hang suspended between freedom and imprisonment, captured in motion by the all seeing eye of privatised security that now polices the borders of our exclusive world. They hang like questions in the grey static air, asking us how desperate do you have to be to climb that fence and drop into the unknown on the other side.

The faces of the missing also strike an ambiguous note. They could be on the run or kidnapped, in hiding or victims of tragedy, either way they are a ghostly presence, haunting our shared sense of community. Their very normality is somehow made transcendent by the mystery of their fate. (Somebodies daughter, somebodies son.)

The series of burning cars are immediately familiar from daily news reports, yet without explanation we are left wondering are these accidents or results of deliberate damage. Cars are usually targeted in riots, or bombed by subversives. New cars are icons of commerce, status symbols for a 'healthy' economy. Their burning is a signal of social distress, a breakdown in the reliable order, a disruption.

Ian's paintings are rendered with great skill and sensitivity with echoes of classical and modernist compositions- we are drawn to the familiar narrative, only to have our certainties and preconceptions challenged and undermined, like all the best art more questions are being asked than answered.

I highly recommend this show by two original and formidable talents, return and view it again, you'll keep finding something new to question and wonder about.

Cormac O'Leary Sept 19