Profile °3 – EILÍS O’CONNELL

essay by Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith; interview by Medb Ruane

ISBN 978 0946641 871     48pp (pb)    22.5 x 22.5 cm    35 illus (incl 27 col)

This book focuses on the dual nature of this highly accomplished artist’s work – her domestic sculpture and her public art commissions. In his introductory essay, Caoimhín MacGiolla Léith vividly describes the powerful presence of Eilís O’Connell’s work in whatever context it is shown – work that is punctuated by a series of challenges and negotiations: between materials, forms, skills and techniques, and the physical space the work occupies. He describes her affinity with archaeology and anthropology, and touches on the numerous debates which arise from differing readings and interpretations of her work. Without doubt, Eilís O’Connell is one of Ireland’s most successful and respected sculptors.

EXTRACTS

"Despite the demands on her time made by ambitiously large-scale public commissions, O’Connell has not forsaken work on a more domestic scale. In all of her work, both great and small, she continues, unabashed, to welcome the embrace of the lyrical. At a time when the art of many of her contemporaries submits eagerly to the differing dictates of criticality or irony, O’Connell has sustained her interest in the exquisite. The polished perfection of her recent work in woven and stainless steel testifies to her ongoing commitment to a hard-won formal excellence. In the past, many of her sculptures employing stitched and painted canvas, which was stretched over metal frames, echoed the shape and fabrication of a currach, the small boat whose covering was traditionally handsewn by the fishermen of the west of Ireland. Some of her most recent pieces in woven steel similarly recall a tradition of handcraft associated with the making of baskets or creels. This indirect honouring of a craft heritage, this acknowledgement of the enduring value of received and respected skills, is characteristic of an artist whose approach to even the most daunting large-scale projects is defiantly ‘hands-on’. It is part and parcel of an inclusive vision and an inventive practice that continues to develop and expand."

— from the essay by Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith

"Different readings of my work notice different things, but I do not want to operate within one-dimensional perspectives. I do not want to polarise things. Certain issues enter in, but I bring them in sideways, I let them in in a very natural way. If I set out to talk about one in particular, it would be destructive, counter-productive really. One reading of my work reduced it exclusively to ideas about gender, which may play a part sometimes, but is not what I am trying to do overall. I am not driven by any one idea...
          I like to experiment with different materials, and I like to leave materials round me for a long time. I pick a material because it has some kind of resonance, it triggers off some kind of thought or memory. What really interests me is that materials somehow work to bring memories up to the surface. These are real memories – they’re very specific and they’re very private. I do not know what happens, and that spark is what fascinates me. That is what keeps me going actually – finding out about myself through collecting them, letting them hang around and play on my mind – not consciously, totally subconsciously."

— Eilís O’Connell in conversation with Medb Ruane

Eilís O’Connell is one of the finest sculptors of her generation. She combines a knowledge of material with an intricate awareness of craft. This is linked to a large repertoire of ideas. In her hands, sculpture has the strength of monument and the delicacy of lace.   — Sam Walsh, Circa