Rachel Kearns at the Linenhall

INTRODUCTION

I am a firm believer that an artist’s work should really speak for itself but in many cases,
and especially as is the case at present, work by certain younger artists is rarely shown unless they have a curatorial or a critical history behind them. A catch-22, of course, particularly for an artist such as Rachel and others like herself.

It is quite apparent that we have swallowed whole the self-promoting lad and laddette art babes and their guru of camp avant-gardism 'Saatchi and Sell'. His and the market’s raw manipulation of youthful self-regarding 'cleverness' is fed to a jaded and entertainment- addicted world in a cynical display of spin. If you think art is this, then you will get you a show, maybe you will become a star and a few years later have the rest of your life to reflect on how, why or where it 'all' went wrong.

For all that they are 'old sayings' and belong to the past, the wisdom of words like these is the wisdom of forever - 'Style is the enemy of all art', 'All great painting is still' are as true to-day as ever they were. Art is not for two or three years of ism. Style is.



So why am I rattling on about this? Because it is so difficult for young artists like Rachel to showcase their work. Because few of the open exhibitions will touch Her and others’ paintings with a 40-foot pole. A clone of a presumed international style yes. Anything with F stops and theory. Any video, bad and indifferent yes. Photo with words on yes. Reels of it. It is a world of sensation and seduction and very, very hard to resist. To risk now and then showing work that insists quietly on the encounter with other-ness in us all and in a way that pleads for time and patience as it reveals itself again and again has to be a tough decision these days. I must congratulate the Director and Staff of The Linenhall Arts Centre for showing Rachel's work and lament the loss of open shows like The Independents Artists and The Living Art.

Rachel has made a long and significant journey to this point in time. I have watched, listened and felt the lost-ness and the hurt in her as she reached for her own voice and giftedness. That she can sing out now is witness to her courage, forbearance and sheer will to make art from the clamour and muddle of a crowded contemporary art world. Her willingness to weigh and evaluate the this and that of isms and chasms and to emerge more confident, more of an artist technically, intellectually and absolutely convinced in her delivery. The voice is not a literal one, about this or that; it has though a lyrical power and a redemptive resolve about it that is the hallmark of a formidable artist in the making.

Take time with Rachel's work; if you do, you will be well-rewarded many, many times over.

Patrick Graham

The Fire Station Artists Studio.

Dublin, October 1999


ARTIST’S STATEMENT

This work explores the relationship between person, spirit and landscape. It suggests that the landscape has a separate and distinctive presence, one that is palpable among the mountains and bogs, seas and landscapes. To be aware of this "other-ness" that Nature suggests is to be aware of its sensuousness, its beauty and magic and its power to make sense of the process of living and dying.

This work alludes to - rather than describes - this sense, by evoking the quiet but powerful connection between person and land, land and spirit and between the landscape and a world beyond, that, by its very presence, Nature subtly reveals.




Born: Dublin, 1970

Rachel Kierans: Biographical

Born: Dublin, 1970
Education: College of Marketing & Design, Dublin

Awards/commissions:

1998 Arts Council materials award
1998 Cultural Relations Committee award, Dept of Foreign Affairs
1998 Heritage Trust & West Connaught Leader commission
1998 Dublin Corporation panel of artists
1997 Studio bursary - Sunlight Studios, Balbriggan
1997 Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council
artist-in-residence-in-school award
1996 Arts Council commission
1995 Arts Council studio rental assistance award
1995 Arts Council artist-in-residence-in-school award


Recent Selected Exhibitions:


1999 Linenhall Arts Centre, Co. Mayo - solo show,
1997 Comhdháil Náisúinta na Gaeilge, Dublin - solo show

2000 Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda - group show
2000 Gateway to Art 2000 - Aer Rianta annual show
1999 Vangard Gallery, Co.Cork - group show
1999 Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin - group show
1999 'Gateway to Art', Aer Rianta annual exhibition
1998 'IndustriaArt', Dublin - group show
1998 Conradh na Gaeilge, Dublin - group show
1998 'Art & Community Conflicts', Brussels, Belgium - 14 Irish artists
1998 'Emerging Artists', Dyehouse Gallery, Waterford - group show
1998 Yellow Gallery, Co.Cork - group show
1998 RHA, annual exhibition, Dublin



Collections:

Fingal County Council Contemporary Art Collection; Euro-Event 2000 Ltd; McQuillan-DFK Accountants; private collections in Dublin, Cork and Clare
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