Irish artist Mary A Kelly’s latest exhibition offers an introspective journey where chairs serve as metaphors for human experience …
‘Forgive Me,’ by Mary Kelly
Who or what kickstarted your artistic journey?
As a child, I had a compulsion to draw on any blank piece of paper. At 14, I started life drawing classes with an artist called Yan Goulet in the local technical college in Bray at night. These were the best life drawing classes available in Ireland at the time. Art college was not an option for me, but I continued painting and drawing through an Arts degree in UCD.
After the death of my first child, at birth, I felt an overwhelming need to explore art in the fullest way possible. Three children later, I joined the only place possible at the time, Dun Laoghaire College of Art, ACCS mode, to study at night. Making my mark in art has always felt like a necessity. As a form of expression, it is as fundamental as a fish swimming in water. My artistic journey started and remains a free space to explore life and everything therein.
‘Sometimes Pausing in the Slipstream,’ by Mary Kelly
How and where do you work?
I work in my attic studio at home, where I have always worked. The work grows from an area of interest that gnaws away until I begin to explore and believe in the process. For example, while teaching for two years in Portlaoise prison under the Artist in Prison Scheme, funded by the Arts Council, the work titled “The Landing” evolved and, on completion, was shown in the RHA and UdoBudgahn Gallery in Dusseldorf, Germany. Following that, I was invited by psychiatrist Patricia Noone to make work in St Mary’s Hospital, Castlebar, Mayo, as the hospital was closing over a two-year period. The eventual result was an exhibition titled “Asylum” in the Linen Hall, Castlebar, and the John David Mooney Foundation, Chicago. This work went on to win The Irish American Arts Award in New York. In both cases, I worked with photography, video and sound.
‘Prayer,’ by Mary Kelly
When and why did your fascination with chairs begin?
My interest in this project started many years ago, while taking part in a group psychotherapy process. The depth of life explored and experienced in that room led me to explore many similar rooms. Eventually, my focus became the chair as an entity and a witness to life. The intimate space of the psychotherapeutic experience opens out into a broader public space and into life itself. The paintbrush then took the place of the camera and I returned to my first love.
‘The Page Turner,’ by Mary Kelly
Tell us about your latest exhibition, “Unlimited”
Jack Kornfield in A Path with Heart describes taking the one seat in the centre of the room, opening the doors and windows, and seeing who comes to visit.
When we take the one seat in Buddhist meditation, it is said we become our own monastery. We create a compassionate space that allows for all emotions. No matter where the chair sits for me, it is a place of wonder and questioning. This brings me to the titles of the work. They are a trace of something that the chair-scape bears witness to. They are fragments alluding to thoughts, ideas and experiences beyond the picture plane. Increasingly, I feel I may lose the chair altogether and go directly to the space, and I am curious to see how that evolves.
‘Ich and Du,’ by Mary Kelly
How has your work and themes evolved over the years?
As an artist, there is constant doubt about how I can express the complexity of the subject I am tackling. When I look back at a body of work, I am content if I have captured some part of that struggle as honestly as I can. It is a scary occupation on so many levels and yet it is as necessary as breathing.
‘Hope Is The Thing With Feathers,’ by Mary Kelly
Need to Know: Mary Kelly’s “Unlimited” exhibition is showing at Claremorris Gallery, Mount Street, Claremorris, Co Mayo from October 26 to November 15. www.claremorrisgallery.ie
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