Exploring the meaning of objects

Opening this evening at the Solstice Art Gallery is 'Duality of Form', an exhibition of the work of three artists, Caoimhe Kilfeather, Barbara Knezevic,  and Eleanor Duffin.

Duality of form is a philosophical inquiry into the nature of objects and how their meaning comes into being. The world of objects and artifacts are a trove of hidden meanings that evolve and change over time. As artworks, objects demonstrate their capacity to elude definition. In contemporary society we are defined by what we consume and collect, within these parameters we tend to define our environment. The invited artists explore and elucidate the idea of an object having multiple meanings through sculpture, photography, drawing and text.

Caoimhe Kilfeather’s photographic series titled Skep, looks at the properties of a defunct object that reflects outmoded practices as well as form and aperture. A Skep was used for collecting bees and has now become an ornament. Kilfeather’s oval line of bronze shown in conjunction with thephotographs delineates the base of the skep as it rotates and outlines a boundary that alludes to drawing and perhaps a space that objects are contained. Her second photographic series in the exhibition of facades relate directly to the hanging ceramic tile works. They point to real world environments and reflect on the subjective nature of memory when recalling details of places. Memories tend to be a construct of objects, which retain significance only when recalled.

Through her sculptural pieces Barbara Knezevic traces possible meanings that are trapped in everyday objects. Pine broomhandles are scorched and burnt in coded patterns, a floor piece of a knotted rope the center of which burnt is out, a clear cast glass object is placed in the center. Fire is a signifier of civilization, it destroys, illuminates, purifies. Knezevic edits and rearranges objects into unstable and often temporary arrangements creating new relationships between objects.

Eleanor Duffin creates a fictive space through her publication Phantom of Form; using text and graphics she creates a narrative around a fictional ‘other’ woman. The female protagonist is a device to create distance between the artist and her work. Duffin through this work explores how language can inform sculpture. She invites the audience to read an extract of the text, the physical objects you encounter in the text will also be present in the space.

In a time when objects tend to define us through our reliance on them for validation, to communicate, socialise, we perhaps need to re-assess our relationship with what surrounds us.