Tidal Erotics: Soundings
Artist
Vivienne Roche
(b. 1953)
Date1999
MediumBronze
Dimensions19 pieces, dimensions variable
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery.
Purchased, 1999.
© Vivienne Roche.
Object number1960
DescriptionVivienne Roche is renowned for her architectonic public sculptures and the finesse with which she manages a variety of materials ranging from her early loyalty to steel to the variety of textures and sensibilities offered by bronze, brass, glass and sailcloth. While the nautical world has always been an influence, her heightened awareness of the sea since moving to Garrettstown near Kinsale in the mid-1990s, reawakened an awareness of its imaginative potential and evoked memories of earlier experiences of the Scandinavian landscape during extended travels there.The sounds of the ocean, the ebb and flow of the tides, the water-ridged sand, and most literally the embracing forms of the seaweeds cast up on the shore were the inspiration for Soundings. It is one of four suites of work in bronze collectively titled Tidal Erotics and created in collaboration with a specially commissioned musical score by composer John Buckley. The artist coated the seaweed forms directly in wax, which were then cast. The resulting bronzes were sensitively patinated to evoke the myriad hues of the shore. The nineteen pieces are on an intimate scale, some lone, others paired and insinuate areas of human experience. Wall-mounted, their arrangement flows like musical notation around the gallery walls, intended to reiterate the orchestral, cyclical flow of nature.
On View
Not on view
![No. 62 "Maintaining Export Trade: The ship is being shelled by a U-boat" [From 'The Great War: Britain's Efforts And Ideals shown in a series of lithographic prints: 'Transport by Sea' series]](/internal/media/dispatcher/1361/thumbnail)
![No. 63 "Supplying the Navy: A battleship coaling at sea" [From 'The Great War: Britain's Efforts And Ideals shown in a series of lithographic prints: 'Transport by Sea' series]](/internal/media/dispatcher/1362/thumbnail)
![No. 64 "Transporting Troops: Convoy of Transports with attendant Destroyers" [From 'The Great War: Britain's Efforts And Ideals shown in a series of lithographic prints: 'Transport by Sea' series]](/internal/media/dispatcher/1363/thumbnail)
![No. 65 "Maintaining Forces Overseas: Transport loading at night" [From 'The Great War: Britain's Efforts And Ideals shown in a series of lithographic prints: 'Transport by Sea' series]](/internal/media/dispatcher/1364/thumbnail)
![No. 66 "The Place of Safety" [From 'The Great War: Britain's Efforts And Ideals shown in a series of lithographic prints: 'Transport by Sea' series]](/internal/media/dispatcher/1365/thumbnail)
