The Meeting. Essay by Paula Clarke, August 2017
Text from Paula Clarke's essay "The Meeting". Read full essay here
Aileen Hamilton is a decidedly different artist to the aforementioned artists. In many ways, Hamilton offers relief from the intensity of the work of Smith, Meagher and Fox and the anxiety that their work evokes in the viewer. An Irish artist and graduate of the National College of Art and Design, Hamilton has been based primarily between Barcelona and Ireland since being awarded her degree in 2001. Hamilton has extensively exhibited her work in Ireland, Spain, Japan, Sweden and Thailand. Hamilton is highly skilled in the area of 3D painting and she moves between this form and also works on canvas and paper. Hamilton's work is deeply rooted in Nature and to Nature's organic processes and ecological cycles and more especially upon the delicate balances that are essential to these cycles being realised time and time again. Chosen from her original collection Folding Pathways the following pieces have been selected for exhibition in this show; 'When the Source of the wave is approaching. Dusk'; 'Ground Substance'; 'Folding Landscapes'; 'Folding Pathways. Relief painting'. There is a magical, otherworldliness to Hamilton's work. Like the underworld/upside-down world from the Netflicks' Stranger Things series or the silvery, aqueous portholes from the cult classic Donnie Darko, Hamilton's imagined world of in-betweenness evokes something similar visually but bears none of the dark elements. In works such as 'Ground Substance' and Folding Landscapes' Hamilton's landscapes appear to bend as if they were in, what the artist coins, a 'space time continuum'. At other times, her landscapes appear to float mid-air. Her images are delicate, fragile, sublime and utterly beautiful depictions of the mysteries of Nature's in-between spaces. Hamilton's work is an exploration of the binary elements of Nature; life/death; dark/light; balance/harmony; chaos/order; fragility/solidity; the outer world/the inner world; depth/flatness; movement/stillness. Her delicate, intricate brush strokes, ranging from vibrant colours to muted tones, create a sense of connectedness and elasticity between supposed opposing elements. One stand-out piece is 'When the source of the wave is approaching. Dusk.' The upper part of the image contains sweeping strokes of muted greens and blues and swirling pinks all suggestive of air, sea water and sea foam. The lower section of the images suggests a type of oceanic underworld offering condensed darker colours of murky greens, dulled blacks and blues. There is a symphonic movement to this piece. Exuberant, energetic circular movements, suggestive of a large powerful wave combining both the upper and the under worlds, creating a ying/yang effect and a harmony and balance between the two. At the centre of this typhoon imagery lies what appears to be an eye, suggesting a consciousness to this process.The sea is often evoked in Hamilton's work. In constant flux, the sea represents the impermanent nature of things and given its vast expanse, it is also a space of infinite potential, a rich source of inspiration for the artist.
Paula Clarke, August 2017
Aileen Hamilton is a decidedly different artist to the aforementioned artists. In many ways, Hamilton offers relief from the intensity of the work of Smith, Meagher and Fox and the anxiety that their work evokes in the viewer. An Irish artist and graduate of the National College of Art and Design, Hamilton has been based primarily between Barcelona and Ireland since being awarded her degree in 2001. Hamilton has extensively exhibited her work in Ireland, Spain, Japan, Sweden and Thailand. Hamilton is highly skilled in the area of 3D painting and she moves between this form and also works on canvas and paper. Hamilton's work is deeply rooted in Nature and to Nature's organic processes and ecological cycles and more especially upon the delicate balances that are essential to these cycles being realised time and time again. Chosen from her original collection Folding Pathways the following pieces have been selected for exhibition in this show; 'When the Source of the wave is approaching. Dusk'; 'Ground Substance'; 'Folding Landscapes'; 'Folding Pathways. Relief painting'. There is a magical, otherworldliness to Hamilton's work. Like the underworld/upside-down world from the Netflicks' Stranger Things series or the silvery, aqueous portholes from the cult classic Donnie Darko, Hamilton's imagined world of in-betweenness evokes something similar visually but bears none of the dark elements. In works such as 'Ground Substance' and Folding Landscapes' Hamilton's landscapes appear to bend as if they were in, what the artist coins, a 'space time continuum'. At other times, her landscapes appear to float mid-air. Her images are delicate, fragile, sublime and utterly beautiful depictions of the mysteries of Nature's in-between spaces. Hamilton's work is an exploration of the binary elements of Nature; life/death; dark/light; balance/harmony; chaos/order; fragility/solidity; the outer world/the inner world; depth/flatness; movement/stillness. Her delicate, intricate brush strokes, ranging from vibrant colours to muted tones, create a sense of connectedness and elasticity between supposed opposing elements. One stand-out piece is 'When the source of the wave is approaching. Dusk.' The upper part of the image contains sweeping strokes of muted greens and blues and swirling pinks all suggestive of air, sea water and sea foam. The lower section of the images suggests a type of oceanic underworld offering condensed darker colours of murky greens, dulled blacks and blues. There is a symphonic movement to this piece. Exuberant, energetic circular movements, suggestive of a large powerful wave combining both the upper and the under worlds, creating a ying/yang effect and a harmony and balance between the two. At the centre of this typhoon imagery lies what appears to be an eye, suggesting a consciousness to this process.The sea is often evoked in Hamilton's work. In constant flux, the sea represents the impermanent nature of things and given its vast expanse, it is also a space of infinite potential, a rich source of inspiration for the artist.
Paula Clarke, August 2017
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