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From a Place No Longer Imagined
From a Place No Longer Imagined

From a Place No Longer Imagined

Artist (b. 1953)
Datec. 1995
MediumStainless steel and steel cable
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Purchased from Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, 1997. © Eilis O'Connell.
Object number1902
DescriptionFrom an early stage Eilís O'Connell has been fascinated by the archaeological remains scattered across the Irish landscape. She studied at the Crawford College of Art in Cork. Primarily, O'Connell has produced outdoor public sculptures and this led her to use steel. She is conscious of the fact that if she is to emulate the durability of the ancient sites, her sculptures need to stand up to the tests of time, even if they remain indoors. By employing steel, the artist also makes the point that her works, though inspired by the past, are modern. She has proclaimed a desire to marry the organic with the inorganic. This can be seen clearly in her choice of placing polished steel which has a definite industrial quality, while the cable has the appearance of rope. The shape of the horizontal piece harks back to ancient utensils and the upright calls to memory the image of standing stones. There is simplicity of form, a tall structure with a section missing, across between a carved stone and the trunk of a tree struck by lightening planted beside the complexity of thousands of steels wires twisted around each other to create an organic texture.
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