Beyond Violet
A solo exhibition of installation and video works by Sibyl Montague
Winner of the Emerging Visual Artist Award 2012
In association with Wexford County Council and the Arts Council
Monday 27th June – Saturday 13th August 2016
Opening Reception
You are invited to an opening reception on Saturday 25th June at 3pm.
Wexford County Council and Wexford Arts Centre are pleased to present Beyond Violet, a new exhibition of installation and video work by Sibyl Montague, winner of the Emerging Visual Artist Award 2012. The exhibition will run from 27th June to 13th August at Wexford Arts Centre.
The Emerging Visual Artist Award is a joint initiative between the Arts Council, Wexford County Council and Wexford Arts Centre which acknowledges and supports the development of committed visual artists in Ireland, providing funding to produce and exhibit a body of work.
Beyond Violet refers to the light situated beyond the visible spectrum – violet being the colour of the highest frequency of visible light. Realised through the mediums of sculpture, video and installation, this exhibition represents a formal and conceptual shift in Montague’s practice.
Referencing consumer goods, marketing, branding and product design, Montague’s work explores the materiality and inner workings of images and objects that we commonly consume. Her work subtly relates to the body; from the bottles of liquid we ingest, the sun-beds which we use for tanning to car mats where we place our feet. Relatable and commonplace, these objects are generally considered invaluable, however Montague explores the value we invest into them and the layers of marketing and design that create their implied worth and desirability. While the focus purposefully remains on the object, Montague subtly questions how these items place or infer value on the ‘individual’.
In the upper gallery, the artist has placed a re-purposed sun bed which emits benign light. It functions as a projection screen and a support structure for sculptural works. While the sun bed relates to cultures around body image and health, the projection activates the work, anthropomorphizing the objects to create a jubilant, immersive piece.
Combining digital and sculptural processes, Beyond Violet falls between minimalism, characterised by extreme simplicity, and conceptualism, in which the concepts and ideas involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Placing the objects in a gallery seeks to uncover the underlying economies ingrained within this source material while they assume a presence of greater significance than such common materials would naturally suggest. Nevertheless these objects are presented in a rough state, with the plaster and bamboo polished smooth while the edges of each piece are crumbling and delicate. Each object harbours the real potential to fall apart, comparable to the interventions we make to our own bodies and our intrinsic need to perfect and/or project ourselves. Beyond Violet, as the title suggest, seeks to go beyond these valuations.
Montague is currently based in Dublin. In 2012 she completed a MFA at Chelsea College of Art London and was the recipient of the Wexford Emerging Artist Award. Recent solo projects include Woman Flew Home (2013), The Black Mariah, Cork; Arm Around You (2012), Oriel Davies Gallery, Wales; TWO (2008), George Polke Gallery, London. Recent group exhibitions include This is Public and Sexy (2016), Studio 468, Dublin; (2016); What Does Nothing Do (2014), CCA, Glasgow; Bringing the Art Home (2014), Deptford X, London. Montague is co-founder and co-curator of PLASTIK, a Festival of Artists’ Moving Image and recent awards include TBG+S Project Studio Award (2014), Fire Station Sculpture Award (2014), The Red Mansion Shortlist (2012), and the Oriel Davies Open (2010).
Beyond Violet will run in the upper and lower galleries of Wexford Arts Centre from Monday 27th June to Saturday 13th August 2016 and gallery hours are Monday to Saturday, from 10am-5pm. For further information on the artist or exhibition please contact Catherine Bowe, Visual Arts Manager on +353 (0)53 9123764 or email catherine@wexfordartscentre.ie.
To read a text on Beyond Violet by RGKSKSRG please download file below:
almosttribal_sibyl_montague_beyondviolet_text-rgksksrg.pdf
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Image (top): Sibyl Montague, Beyond Violet (2016), installation view, mixed media
Image (lower): Sibyl Montague, Beyond Violet (2016), video still
