Limerick's Life

Clare based artist Derval Freeman will be showing his latest Solo Show in Frame, Upper Denmark St. Limerick from July 9th till September 30th. 

His fan page on facebook is regularly updated with upcoming exhibitions and information.

He has held previous solo exhibition such as "Urban Trail" opening night on at 7pm on the 8th November 2007 and running until 30th November 2007 at the "Frame" (Contemporary Art Space) Gallery, Upper Denmark Street, Limerick.

Based on urban city architecture in Limerick where I lived for several years, I began to focus my attentions on the contrast of buildings old and new together with the many surrounding cranes that seem to be taking over our cities more and more each day. I became interested in the influence that artificial light, sourcing from the city street lights, the windows of office blocks, apartments and town houses, had on the cityscape and its atmospheric surroundings.

 To capture this I feel it essential for me to work from the evening dusk time where the urban colours created by man-made artificial lighting is at it’s strongest.  For me, the evening time is when the cityscape comes alive and takes on a whole different character than that of the daytime. The atmosphere illuminates against the various vibrant blues of the background skies sometimes changing them to various reds and oranges and sometimes even greens. With changing lighting, comes changing atmosphere and it is continuous.

 Rather than involving the actual human figure, I want to give a slight sense of human presence in the lit windows or in some cases unlit windows. The new high-rise buildings such as the Clarion hotel building and the River Point office and apartment building have become new landmark statements. They tower over many old buildings such as the Georgian houses on O’Connell Avenue, the clock tower on the docks, the Franciscan and the Jesuit churches and even the little bungalow and two-story redbrick town houses on Curry Street, Rosbrien, Athlunkard Street and many more. 

 The many new buildings currently being built create a sense of nostalgia for me. It recalls a sense of mortality in the way that we are all replaceable, that the circle will continue to rotate and that life is chance. Being adopted sense I was two weeks old has always reminded me of chance and it has made me more aware of my own mortality as I grew from child to adult. The birth of my son, the first of my own flesh and blood, has extended my vein in this world so that when I am gone from here, I will, through him survive and the cycle continues.

 

  I work mostly from memory and experience of the landscape. I also reference from photographs of the city or from quick sketches from when I’m in traffic or I might use both. Sketching in traffic begins the process of memory and sense of place- I will either note-take in written description or I will do quick gestural drawings. Other times the memory recalls walking around the city or from my apartment window, just looking for hours, absorbing details and sensing inner feelings and moods I may be in at the time. With constant use of layering, scraping, scratching and wiping off of paint to reveal different coloured and textured surfaces underneath, I want to take the viewer beyond the surface of the canvas and experience an inner sense of the cityscape. I want them to look into them rather than to look at them and to possibly get a sense of nostalgia and memory too.

 Most of the time I try to decline from painting out to the edge of the canvas, to give a deeper sense of space but also because I believe there is no beginning and no end to landscape. It is continuous and all around us. Again like the cycle of life, the tilting and turning of the earth, the landscape is infinite and it continues in full circle, no beginning and no end just like us.

 

Derval Freeman, 2007