One of Ireland’s most celebrated public sculptors, Rachel Joynt’s new work is more intimate in scale …
Where and how to do work?
I have a studio barn space next to my home in the Blackstairs Mountain on the border of Co Carlow and Wexford. I initially experiment in sketch in my notebook, then for sculpture pieces I work up forms in carving foam blocks, oil clay and wax. It’s intense if I’m on a deadline.
What inspired your new exhibition?
The works in “Fathom: Outstretched Arms” are the result of my exploration of the marine reserve of Lough Hyne in West Cork. I actually live away from the sea in Carlow, but I’ve spent time watching and observing this extraordinary place. This deep saltwater lake is habitat to many unique species due to its geology and unusual asymmetrical tidal cycle. On observing the lake’s activity and the stillness that occurs in the moments before the turning of the tide at the narrow passage where the lake opens to the sea, I was reminded of a respiratory system, so a connection was made. I recognised our similarities with this living, breathing entity in constant flux, and our need to breathe and accept the inevitability of change. It inspired my new artworks of sea urchins, dancing starfish and a mollusc the size of a human lung, which have been cast in bronze.
What inspired the title?
It’s an open title that has many threads. I like that we associate the word fathom with thought, questions and solutions, while the origin of the word is a unit of measurement for the depth of water.
What does the collaboration with poet and novelist Kerry Hardie involve?
I was delighted that Kerry was interested in a collaborative element to the show that would complement the work. She came up with the idea of revisiting a Creation Myth sequence she was working on, which involves two ancient gods who forget how they began and now wander the world, observing. She wanted to reorder the couplets without a clear beginning or end. The idea is that this reflects the world, its constant dissolution and recreation, full of anomalies, oddities, lost civilisations. It is also three-dimensional in form, echoing the three dimensional nature of the sculptures. As author Martin MacInnes explains; “In order to create itself, life already has to exist. Marine chemicals build a membrane that’s a prerequisite for synthesising the chemicals needed to build a membrane.”
How has your work evolved?
I’ve always had certain preoccupations that I feel follow through in this exhibition. A desire to make the invisible more visible, especially within our fragile, fluctuating world. While this exhibition feels like a new path, it’s also rooted in a personal journey of change. This turning somehow creates an urge to seek deeper connections within our natural world where nothing is static or regular, of which we’re intrinsically linked.
Need to know: Running until June 21 at Solomon Fine Art in Co Dublin; www.solomonfineart.ie.
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