Raw War
Raw War


12 September to 6 October 2019
Solo Show
Artist: Claire Halpin
Official opening: Thursday 12 September 2019, 7 pm, at the Olivier Cornet Gallery, 3 Great Denmark Street, Dublin 1
Guest speaker: Aoife Ruane, Director, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda

“My work explores themes and concepts around contested territories and histories through painting, video and installation. This new body of work attempts to navigate the complexity of the contemporary theatre of war as battlefield expands to battlespace in the information age. 
 
The covert machinations of the perpetual war that is arms deals, mercenaries, remote surveillance programmes and drone warfare away from the lens of the media.
 
The paintings employ imagery from the media, surveillance, military history, maps, archaeology, early civilization, bible stories and from the canon of art history of Byzantine and Early Renaissance to weave together a narrative through painting. I am influenced by the complex compositions of space and time in Renaissance paintings allowing multiple narratives to co-exist in the same picture plane and use these compositional devices in my work with reference to the aesthetic of gaming and virtual reality. In the Citadel Series the images are isolated from source and context like props suspended in time without context as to their significance as elements in a complex narrative of a contested territory.
 
The themes in the work concern the perception and interpretation of images, how the reading of images and their resonance is influenced by how they are created, depicted and the context in which they are viewed. I strive to create work that raises questions about how we choose to record history and the veracity of painting, photography, and the media in documenting future history.”
 
Claire Halpin
August 2019

Coverage: 

'This week’s best art exhibits' by Aidan Dunne (The Irish Times's The Ticket, 7 September 2019). 
Under 'Critic's Choice (page 33) in printed version.


Watch a special collision for the finissage of the exhibition (turn on the sound for an optimized viewing)


"...Nothing escapes Claire’s notice...There is so much that I enjoy in both Claire’s work and in this exhibition – Raw War: Her interest in word play, her seriousness, but a great humour and dry wit, her juxtaposition of ideas. There are so many artists that are referred to directly or indirectly from Piero de la Francesca, Breughel, Monet, Goya – The Third of May (1808), Van De Velde and Bakhuyzen, the painters of icons… and possibly many many more.

Claire’s ability to: Transform, Create something new, new imagery, new ideas. This is what Great Artists do – Create Something from Nothing – and something that we as audience and viewers often just accept rather than appreciate. The work in Raw War (another great title) is compelling, it draws you in by its materiality; its composition and where you want to try and unlock and work out the story. There is great rigour, both conceptually and in their manifestation. This work speaks volumes and on so many levels..."
Dr Aoife Ruane, extract from her speech at the opening. Read the full text



Share by: