THE COMPLEX PRESENTS AN EXHIBITION OF NEWLY COMMISSIONED WORKS BY
LUCY ANDREWS, ANDY FITZ, & KATIE WATCHORN.
Exhibition Run: 19 August - 02 September
Preview: 18 August 6pm - 8pm
Gallery Opening Hours: Monday - Friday 10am - 5pm, Saturday 12pm - 5pm
The months leading into this exhibition differed slightly from most as we zoomed to chat a lot, as opposed to a continual dialogue over text. I wasn’t sure why at the beginning, but it seemed valuable for three artists whose work has a heightened interest in material to discuss their sculptural processes in great detail. The discussions were usually of a decent length and consistently informative.
We talked about materials mostly, and how they can perform in certain ways, being Pinocchio-like and trying to be “real” – a sculpture of a mirror attempting to be a real mirror for example. We talked about materials that have been manipulated, trying to turn back into their original state – plastics back to fluids. We spoke about a picture of a hand which foregrounds the skin as a material surface, we touched on material gestures such as curls (curly smoke, curly leg stands, curly fishing line) and ways of unifying objects. One of the artists mentioned the splicing of manmade and natural material, and the horror depicted within certain material combinations – an abnormal tree trunk being fed hydrochloric health fluid. We discussed instability, the wonkiness of making things by hand, the oddities and intimate failures that come with that process and how it can inject the artness into a material.
All three artists have chosen glass as a material to collaboratively consider when making work for this exhibition.
After a few meetings, we became aware that there was a cyclical triangular rhythm occurring in regard to the commonalities that arose between each artist's work: Andy to Lucy – Lucy to Katie – Katie to Andy. This formation would change according to the conversation and hilariously became dubbed a sort of love triangle. This rhythm between artists is something that I hope for and try to tap into when entering a gallery space, like a current spreading from one work to another, a guided tour.
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Lucy Andrews makes sculptures and site-specific installations. Her work aims to embody points of tension and collapse between natural and human-made systems. It proposes a dynamic materiality which appears to fluctuate between organic and inorganic, liquid and solid, grown and made.
Exhibitions include Recess at Artlink, Donegal, (2021) Outgrowths at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre (2019); Lowlife at Le Plafond Amsterdam (2016); Magnetism at Hazelwood House, Sligo (2015) and Futures at the RHA (2012). She was resident at the Bemis Center, USA (2018) and Est-Nord-Est, Canada (2020).
Andy Fitz makes inexact versions of recognisable things, chairs, tables, and human figures. The sculptures play upon the shared meaning implied by their familiarity, resulting in works that are at once alienating and intimate.
Andy Fitz was born in Dublin and now lives and works in Berlin. Recent solo exhibitions include Stumped! Again! at Kunstverein Göttingen and Lookieloo at Kerlin Gallery Dublin both 2023 and How I Finally Lost My Heart in L21 Gallery Mallorca 2020. They studied in Hochschule für Bildende Künste-Städelschule in Frankfurt from 2017 - 2019 and were awarded an Artist Studio Residency at ISCP in New York in 2019.
Katie Watchorn’s practice is primarily sculptural. She considers the navigation of matter and bodies across sites, often referencing fluctuations from rural to urban landscapes.
Katie was a resident at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2019 as part of their 1000 programming and an artist-in-residence at Fire Station Artists Studios, Dublin until mid 2022. She is a 2023 - 2024 participant of De Ateliers, Amsterdam. Recent exhibitions include Get Away From It All (2022) at Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Zero Grazing at Studio Pavilion as part of Glasgow International 2021 and From Here to There (2021), The Douglas Hyde Gallery.
Statement by Mark O’Gorman, Visual Arts Manager.
Image courtesy Lucy Andrews.
Proudly supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Dublin City Council.