Isabel Nolan
The weakened eye of day
7 June–21 September 2014
Irish Museum of Modern Art
Military Road
Kilmainham
Dublin 8
Ireland
Hours: Tuesday–Friday 11:30am–5:30pm,
Saturday 10am–5:30pm,
Sunday and Bank holidays noon–5:30pm
Admission is free
T +353 1 612 9900
info [at] imma.ie
www.imma.ie
Facebook / Twitter
The Irish Museum of Modern Art presents The weakened eye of day, a new project by Isabel Nolan. The exhibition explores how light manifests as a metaphor in thoughts, obsessions and pursuits and includes text, sculpture, drawings and textiles. Nolan’s works evolve out of consciously erratic investigations into the aesthetics of diverse fields such as cosmology, humoral theory and illuminated manuscripts.
The title is taken from Thomas Hardy’s poem “The Darkling Thrush” (1899), in which the sun, described as “the weakening eye of day,” is a dismal star drained of its force by a gloomy pre-centennial winter afternoon. This show is a material account of the strangeness of the world from the formation of the planet’s crust to the death of the sun and enduring preoccupation with light as a metaphor for truth.
Nolan’s works both seduce and disarm us. Her work is underpinned by a desire to examine and capture in material form the moments of intensity that can define our encounters with the objects around us; inexplicable and unsettling moments that leave us with a heightened awareness of what is means to be alive. For Nolan this exploration happens through making things—whether monumental or intimate in scale, they are presented to us as tentative and precarious markers of the experience of our place beneath the sun. Isabel Nolan’s recent solo exhibitions include Unmade, the Return Gallery, Goethe Institut, Dublin (2012) and A hole into the future, The Model, Sligo (2011–12), which travelled to the Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint-Etienne, France (2012). Nolan was one of seven artists who represented Ireland at the 2005 Venice Biennale in a group exhibition, Ireland at Venice 2005. Recent group shows include Nouvelle Vague, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2013); Sculptrices, Villa Datris, Fondation pour la Sculpture Contemporain, France (2013); and Modern Families, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork (2013). As part of the exhibition there is a series of talks by guests, invited by Nolan, on subjects ranging from cosmology, philosophy and aesthetics. Please visit www.imma.ie for further details.
Isabel Nolan, The weakened eye of day is curated by Sarah Glennie, Director, IMMA.
Thanks to the Donkey Sanctuary irl. Liscarroll, Mallow. Co. Cork. for their assistance.
