Artist Helen MacMahon is currently undertaking a residency at Ormond Studios as part of our 2017 Project Residency Award.
This award entails a fully subsidised short-term studio space, technical support and PR to enable the development of a piece of work, leading to a specific exhibition or commission.
This residency offers time, space and equipment in order to bring a specific piece of work to fruition. It specifically targets artists who are several years out of their formal art training, who are engaged in their practice, but do not have the means/opportunities to hold a full-time studio.
Statement of Work:
I hope to explore and develop a number of interlinked projects during the six week period of the Ormond Studio Project Award. Firstly, I hope to develop work for an upcoming exhibition in which I am creating a piece that will use the spoken word in combination with its cymatic imagery (Cymatics – the visualisation of sound).
Secondly, I intend to research and create a number of drawings inspired by a quote from the sculptor Anthony Gormley. While discussing his drawing practice, Gormley mentioned his love of the word drawing because of its connection to the idea of ‘drawing’ out… of being a way of connecting inner and outer worlds. I began to see certain drawings in a new light, in particular diagrams, drawings created for functional rather than aesthetic reasons, often scribbled in the sided of texts, never intended for viewing outside of that particular field that had led to significant leaps in the evolution of human knowledge.
I also began to view them in a more ‘energetic’ sense, dynamic rather than fixed drawings. The internal energy of the idea manifested in the physical drawing as the energy of the idea grows, propagates and spreads. I am seeking a way to express this element of the drawings and I intend to experiment with mandala type drawings created by the continuous repetitive creation of the diagrams extending from a central point.
The sample research drawing provided is based on a diagram of human vision by Roger Bacon (1212-92), a medieval philosopher and friar who based his learning on the empirical study of nature.
Ormond Art Studios 