Angel Row
Gallery, Nottingham
Saturday
21st May – Saturday 9th July 2005
Ireland
asks you to consider what signifiers seduce you into buying his illusion.
Can we really find the sea in a synthetic bag…These elements ground
us in the here and now, leaving us with just one foot into his other
offered world. (Alicia Miller)
Angel Row
Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by James Ireland.
Ireland has received international acclaim for his work, which uses
mass produced objects and found images to conjure up sublime illusions
of idyllic landscapes.
The show will feature two new commissions for Angel Row Gallery . The
first commission is a film produced from hundreds of images of the sun,
with each image providing one individual frame, the second is a site
specific sculptural installation.
The exhibition also features sculptures from a new series of work created
over the past year. This new work has evolved from Ireland’s previous
use of mass produced objects such as buckets and shelves which can be
found in standardised sizes the world over. Taking these measurements
as the basis of his sculptures, Ireland has generated ten separate standard
sized elements made in steel which can be recombined in thousands of
different ways. These works explore the myriad possibilities of these
combinations,and engage with mathematical ideas of universal truth.
All of the work in the show develops Ireland’s interest in the
deconstruction of nature, questioning conceptions of the ‘natural’
and the representation of landscape defined by mass-culture. By arranging
simple, easily recognizable domestic and mass produced objects, such
as lights, plastic bags, book pages and concrete blocks, Ireland creates
the epic out of the mundane, providing us with brief glimpses of exotic
locations and perfect vistas. Refusing a coherent representational concept
of landscape he plays with our desire for the far away, the beautiful
and the sublime through our interactions with the everyday, man-made
world, and unpicks the seams that bind our idea of ‘natural’
beauty together.
This exhibition is Ireland’s first solo show since the completion
of his residency at Spike Island, Bristol in 2003.
James
Ireland is currently represented by FA projects, London.
